Nebraska’s Adrian Martinez Earns Manning Award Quarterback of the Week

NEW ORLEANS (October 25, 2018) – Adrian Martinez, a freshman from the University of Nebraska, has been selected as the Manning Award Quarterback of the Week. He earns the win over seven other Manning Award Stars of the Week in the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Facebook contest.

Facebook Voting

Martinez completed 25-of-29 passes for 276 yards and three touchdowns, while also running for a career-high 125 yards and a score, leading the Cornhuskers to their first win of the season, 53-28, over Big Ten rival Minnesota. He was named the co-Big Ten Freshman of the Week for his efforts.

Martinez, a true freshman, marked his third 400-yard total offense effort in the past four weeks and he has already tied the Nebraska career record for 400-yard games.

“It feels good; the hard work paid off there,” Martinez said after the win against Minnesota. “But, we just need to stay level-headed here, put things in perspective. We haven’t arrived yet. As good as this feels, we need to feel more of this going forward.”

Nebraska will welcome Bethune-Cookman to Memorial Stadium this Saturday at 11 a.m. CT on the Big Ten Network.

Martinez’ top competitors were David Blough of Purdue and Washington State’s Gardner Minshew. Blough notched his fourth 300-yard game of the year as he led the Boilermakers to a shocking 49-20 blowout upset of No. 2 Ohio State in Big Ten action. Minshew had his seventh straight 300-yard game as he led the Cougars’ to a key Pac-12 North victory over No. 12 Oregon, 34-20.

Manning Award

In its first 14 years, the Manning Award has recognized the top names in college football. It has honored quarterbacks from 12 different schools and from four different conferences. The Big 12 Conference (Baker Mayfield, Vince Young, Colt McCoy and Robert Griffin III) joins the Southeastern Conference (Johnny Manziel, Cam Newton, JaMarcus Russell and Tim Tebow) and the Atlantic Coast Conference (Deshaun Watson twice, Matt Ryan and Jameis Winston) with four Manning Award winners each, while Texas is the only school with two different winners (McCoy and Young).

All the Manning Award winners follow in the footsteps of the Mannings themselves. In college, Archie, Peyton and Eli Manning combined for over 25,000 passing yards and 201 touchdowns while playing in 10 bowl games and earning four bowl MVP awards. Archie was the No. 2 pick in the NFL Draft, while both Peyton and Eli were selected No. 1 overall.

-www.AllstateSugarBowl.org-