Taylor Martinez

Taylor Todd Martinez (born September 15, 1990) is a former American football quarterback.

He played college football at Nebraska.

Centennial High School finished the 2007 season with a 13–2 record and ranked 24 by USA Today.

The undefeated 2008 Huskies team won a California Interscholastic Federation state championship and finished the season ranked No. 2 in the nation by USA Today.

Martinez committed to the University of Nebraska on August 22, 2008.

Martinez wasn't heavily recruited by Football Bowl Subdivision schools as the only football scholarship offer he received to play quarterback was from Nebraska.

Martinez was redshirted for the entire year.

After a three-way position battle, Martinez emerged over sophomore Cody Green and senior Zac Lee for the majority of the 2010 season as the University of Nebraska's starting quarterback.

In October, Martinez was named as a semi-finalist for the Davey O'Brien Award.

Three impressive performances by Martinez came on the road with games against Washington, Kansas State, and Oklahoma State.

At the University of Washington on September 18, Martinez ran an 80-yard touchdown run on the Husky defense in a 56–21 Husker win.

Martinez finished with three touchdowns while rushing 19 times for 137 yards and completing 7-of-11 passes for 150 yards.

Against Kansas State on October 7 Martinez ran 15 times for 241 yards and completed 5-of-7 passes for 128 yards which included a 79-yard touchdown pass to Kyler Reed in the third quarter.

Martinez had touchdown runs of 14, 35, 80, and 41 yards during the contest.

Nebraska beat Kansas State, 48–13.

His 241 yards rushing set a school record for most rushing yards in a game by a quarterback and most rushing yards in a game by a freshman.

On October 23, in a 51–41 victory against the Oklahoma State Cowboys, he completed 23-of-35 passes for 323 yards that included five touchdown passes with three of those going to wide receiver Brandon Kinnie for 45, nine, and eight yards.

Martinez ran 19 times for 112 yards in the contest at Stillwater, Oklahoma.

He set a freshman all-time record for most passing yards and passing touchdowns in a single game for the Huskers.

In November Martinez received the 2010 All-Big 12 Offensive Freshman of the Year award.

The Cornhuskers reached the Big 12 Championship Game to face Oklahoma (12–2, ranked No. 6 nationally in the AP College Football Poll by season's end) on December 4 as they finished 6–2 in conference play and first place in the Big 12 North Division under the direction of head coach Bo Pelini.

Unfortunately, a twisted ankle Martinez suffered back on October 30 in a 31–17 home win over Missouri wound up being a lingering injury.

Oklahoma edged Nebraska, 23–20, as Martinez struggled to get on track while completing 12-of-24 passes for 143 yards.

The Sooners defense kept the Husker ground game in check as Nebraska managed just 145 yards off 43 rushes.

Martinez finished the season completing 116-of-196 passing attempts for 1,631 yards with 10 touchdowns and seven interceptions in 13 games.

The 6–1, 205-pound redshirt freshman ran 162 times for 965 yards while running forward and scoring 12 touchdowns.

Nebraska went 10–4 and was ranked No. 19 and No. 20 by the Coaches and AP Polls respectively.

With a preseason No. 10 ranking for the redshirt sophomore starting quarterback, Martinez responded with early season successes and a 7–1 start as the University of Nebraska joined the Big Ten for the first time in the school's history after the realignment of many conferences had changed the college football landscape—which began to take place during the summer of 2010.

On October 1, Martinez and Nebraska traveled to Madison, Wis. to face AP No. 7 nationally ranked Wisconsin and quarterback, N.C. State transfer Russell Wilson.

With 12:45 left to play in the 2nd quarter, Nebraska led 14–7 off 1-yard touchdown runs by Martinez and Rex Burkhead.

After that, Wisconsin continued to pull away and won by the score of 48–17.

Wilson finished 14-of-20 passing for 255 yards with two touchdowns.

Martinez had 20 rushes for 61 yards and completed 11-of-22 passes for 176 yards against the Badgers.

Martinez and his teammates rebounded from the Wisconsin loss, however, by recording the biggest comeback win in Nebraska history as the Cornhuskers overcame a 27–6 deficit versus Ohio State.

Following the 2014 NFL Draft he signed with the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL) as undrafted free agent.

His contract was voided prior to the season due to a failed physical.

Martinez played his senior year of high school football at Centennial High School in Corona, California, where he was a teammate of Vontaze Burfict and Will Sutton.

At Centennial he passed for over 3,000 yards, including 28 touchdowns with a 61 percent pass completion.

Taylor also rushed for 750 yards with 12 touchdowns.

Martinez received multiple awards for his performance and led Centennial to a state championship win and a perfect season (15–0).