Nebraska Football: Quarterback job up in the air after Illinois debacle

Nebraska football dropped to 1-3 this season with a very distasteful 41-23 loss to Illinois with the quarterback situation coming into question yet again.

After redshirt freshman, Luke McCaffrey appeared to have won the starting quarterback job for the Nebraska Cornhuskers with a good performance in their win over Penn State, his troubles in Saturday’s loss to Lovie Smith and the Illinois Fighting Illini brought the questions back again.

McCaffrey’s stats weren’t atrocious, that is until you look at his turnovers. He threw for 134 yards and completed 15 of 26 passes, but ended the day with three interceptions and no passing touchdowns. McCaffrey also had two rushing touchdowns and 122 yards from 26 carries, but again, he fumbled the ball twice and lost one.

All this happened against a team that was 1-3 and against a team that kept their opposition under 30 points just once in their first four games. Considering the Huskers defense gave up 41 points, the focus would normally be on a poor defensive performance. That is not the case this time around.

So, what’s next? It can’t get much worse than last week’s performance. With a Black Friday showdown against the Iowa Hawkeyes on the near horizon, the Huskers need to sharpen up and learn from their mistakes as they look to win their first game against the Hawkeyes since Tommy Armstrong led the Huskers in his sophomore year in 2014.

Turning the ball over five times against Illinois was a major issue. The first step toward staying competitive against the Hawkeyes is to take care of the ball. The Huskers aren’t going to pass for over 300 yards, in all likelihood, but they can be effective when they do pass. The greatest problem is that the Huskers didn’t even give themselves a chance because they were so careless with the ball.

The big question is whether or not Luke McCaffrey or Adrian Martinez will get the start for Nebraska football.

Whichever one it is, they will have a tight leash. Head coach Scott Frost can either go with the more experienced Martinez or a look at what the future of McCaffrey holds with the Huskers.

Head coach Scott Frost should give McCaffrey another shot on Friday. Adrian Martinez had plenty of opportunities to prove his worth, which didn’t go well. McCaffrey, who has three more years of eligibility after this season, should now have the opportunity and patience that has been afforded to Martinez.

Unless McCaffrey turns in another performance as bad as last week’s performance against Illinois, McCaffrey should be the quarterback for the remainder of the season.

When you look at Nebraska’s three remaining games (Iowa, Purdue, and Minnesota), they are all winnable with Iowa being the toughest opponent. McCaffrey must lead the way with a big bounce-back performance and end the season. If the Huskers don’t end the season well, then you may see some dramatic changes over the offseason.