Adrian Martinez (American football)

Adrian Martinez (born January 7, 2000) is an American football quarterback for the Birmingham Stallions of the United Football League (UFL). He played college football at Kansas State and Nebraska.

Early years
Martinez attended the Clovis West High School in Fresno, California. He played both football and basketball in high school. He missed his senior season of football due to a torn labrum he suffered while playing basketball. As a junior, he was the Fresno Bee football player of the year after he passed for 2,562 yards with 25 touchdowns and rushed for 1,462 yards and 14 touchdowns.

Martinez was regarded as a four-star prospect and was the seventh-highest-ranked dual-threat quarterback in the class of 2018 according to the 247Sports Composite. Martinez originally committed to play college football at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Tennessee before ultimately deciding on the University of Nebraska.

2018
First-year Nebraska head coach Scott Frost named Martinez the starting quarterback heading into the 2018 season opener, making him the first true freshman to ever begin a season as the starting quarterback at Nebraska. In the Cornhuskers' opening game against Colorado, Martinez threw for 187 yards, one touchdown, and an interception, and added 117 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns on the ground. Nebraska lost the game 33–28. Martinez went down with a knee injury in the final minutes of the Colorado game, an injury that also caused him to miss the following game against Troy, which also ended in a loss for Nebraska. Martinez returned from injury but could not help the Cornhuskers return to winning form, as the team lost its first six games of the year for the worst start to a season in program history. Martinez's first career win came against Minnesota, where he threw for 276 yards and three passing touchdowns, and ran for another touchdown on the ground in the 53–28 victory. He was named Big Ten Co-Freshman of the Week (with Rondale Moore) for the performance. Martinez earned two more Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors following a loss to Ohio State on November 3 and a victory over Illinois on November 10.

Martinez finished his freshman season with 2,617 passing yards, 17 passing touchdowns, and eight interceptions. He added 629 rushing yards and eight rushing touchdowns on the ground. He finished sixth in the Big Ten Conference in passing yards and total touchdowns, and was fourth in passer rating.

2019
Martinez received high expectations heading into his sophomore season in 2019, earning pre-season honors at Big Ten Media Days and even appearing in Heisman Trophy candidate discussions. However, he struggled mightily, leading Nebraska to a 5–7 record in a disappointing season.

2020
After a disappointing 2019 campaign and a Covid-19-impacted offseason, Martinez entered the 2020 season under pressure. In the opening game at Ohio State, Martinez went 12-15 for 105 yards passing, and 85 yards and a touchdown on the ground. After a lackluster performance in the week two loss at Northwestern, head coach Scott Frost decided to start redshirt freshman Luke McCaffery in the upcoming game vs. Penn State. Martinez would return to the field just one game later in the 4th quarter of the Illinois game, after McCaffery threw his third interception of the contest. Martinez would remain the starter for the rest of the season, where he showed improvement from his first two starts. The final game of the season at Rutgers was his best game, where he completed 24 of 28 passes for 255 yards, 1 touchdown, 2 interceptions. In that game he also had an additional 181 rushing yards, with 2 rushing touchdowns.

In seven games, Martinez finished his abbreviated junior season with 1,055 passing yards, 4 passing touchdowns, and three interceptions. He ran for 521 yards (5.7 AVG) and 7 rushing touchdowns.

2021
In 2021, Martinez played in 11 games for the Huskers, who went 3–9, becoming the first team in Division I college football history to lose 9 games by single digits. He completed 189 of 306 passes for 2,867 yards, 14 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

On December 2, 2021, Martinez entered the transfer portal with one year of eligibility remaining.

On December 16, 2021, Martinez announced he would be transferring to Kansas State for his final year.

Kansas State
In the 2022 season, Martinez split time at the quarterback position with Will Howard. Martinez had 148 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns against Oklahoma and 171 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns against Texas Tech during the season. Overall, in the 2022 season, Martinez had 1,261 passing yards, six passing touchdowns, and one interception to go with 111 carries for 627 rushing yards and ten rushing touchdowns. The quarterback duo helped lead the Wildcats to a 10–4 record and a Big 12 Championship.

Detroit Lions
Martinez was signed by the Detroit Lions as an undrafted free agent on May 12, 2023. He was waived on August 29, 2023.

Birmingham Stallions
On December 24, 2023, Martinez was signed by the Birmingham Stallions of the United Football League (UFL). He was named to the 2024 All-UFL team on June 5, 2024 and league MVP on June 10. He was named the 2024 UFL Championship MVP on June 16, 2024.