A former Nebraska quarterback has announced he is continuing his football career at the professional level. Adrian Martinez signed with the Birmingham Stallions of the United States Football League.
Martinez played at Nebraska from 2018-21 before transferring to Kansas State last season. In his Husker career, he went 14-24 as a starter in Lincoln.
For his career, he would throw for 9,391 yards and 49 touchdowns with 30 interceptions. He also ran for 2,847 yards and 44 touchdowns.
He would go undrafted after finishing college but would be invited to the Detroit Lions training camp before being waived. Martinez will join a Birmingham Stallions squad that has won the last two USFL championships.
After earning his degree at Nebraska where he became the first three-year captain in Husker football history, Adrian Martinez continues to lead as a captain at Kansas State while pursuing his MBA. The Fresno, California, native becomes the Wildcats’ eighth NFF National Scholar-Athlete overall, and their third since 2018.
A grad transfer, Martinez graduated from Nebraska in May 2021 with a bachelor’s in management and a minor in economics. While with the Huskers, he was a 2020 First Team Academic All-District selection and three-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree. In 2021, Martinez was selected as an Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar and was one of 10 finalists for the Arthur Ashe Jr. Male Sports Scholar of the Year.
Martinez is the only active player in the nation with 9,000 career passing yards and 2,000 career rushing yards. This season at K-State, he leads all quarterbacks in the FBS with 565 rushing yards. His total rushing yards and rushing yards per game (80.7) rank sixth in the Big 12 across all positions while his nine rushing touchdowns are tied for third in the conference. Martinez has also added 907 yards and four touchdowns passing while leading the No. 22 Wildcats to a 5-2 record and a tie for second in the conference standings with a 3-1 record in Big 12 play. Over the team’s first two Big 12 games at then-No. 6 Oklahoma and against Texas Tech, Martinez totaled 319 rushing yards and seven touchdowns as he earned Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week and Big 12 Newcomer of the Week honors, respectively. After the Oklahoma game, he was also named the Davey O’Brien Award National Quarterback of the Week.
At Nebraska, Martinez was the program’s first player with four 1,000-yard passing seasons, and he was the first Husker quarterback and just the fourth player in Big Ten history with four 500-yard rushing seasons. He set Nebraska career records for total offense (10,792 yards), completions (670), 300-yard total offense games (19), 400-yard total offense games (5) and 250-yard passing games (16). Martinez’s 8,491 passing yards are the second-most in Husker history. The 2018 FWAA Freshman All-American twice earned Honorable Mention All-Big Ten honors (2018, 2021).
Off the field, Martinez was active in the Huskers’ Life Skills program and helped coordinate the Nebraska Football Road Race, which raised money for pediatric brain cancer research. He has also volunteered with Make-a-Wish and has taken part in local hospital visits throughout his career.