Adrian Martinez had done just about everything in his first four years of college football except play on a winning team.
Those wins are finally coming for him at Kansas State.
The 17th-ranked Wildcats (5-1, 3-0) sit atop the Big 12 standings in large part because of their dual-threat quarterback. He rushed for a combined 319 yards and acounted for nine touchdowns in breakout performances against Oklahoma and Texas Tech before he led the Wildcats to a grind-it-out victory at Iowa State last week.
Martinez has won three straight games for the first time after never winning more than two in a row at Nebraska. He was picked as the Big 12’s top first-year transfer at midseason in a vote of Associated Press writers covering the conference.
Martinez set more than a dozen records in his time at Nebraska, but the Cornhuskers were just 15-29 while he often played hurt.
His 48 turnovers (30 interceptions, 18 fumbles) were most in the Bowl Subdivision from 2018-21, according to Sportradar. So far at K-State he has not thrown an interception or lost a fumble.
Martinez averages 241 yards of total offense per game to rank sixth in the Big 12, and he’s fourth in rushing at 91 yards per game.
A key point of the early season was a 17-10 home loss to Tulane on Sept. 17. Martinez acknowledged he had played tentatively, and coach Chris Klieman and offensive coordinator Collin Klein sat him down and told him to forget about the possibility of making mistakes and let his natural ability take over.
“”That really speaks to the culture of this team and program, the leadership of coach Klieman and some of the older guys on this squad,” Martinez said. “We were determined not to let it ruin our season. All our goals are still on the horizon. The Big 12, that’s all it’s about.”
OFFENSIVE PLAYER
QB Max Duggan, TCU (5-0, 2-0). He started 29 games for the Horned Frogs pre-Sonny Dykes and then lost the job to Chandler Morris in preseason practices. Morris sprained a knee in the opener against Colorado and hasn’t been seen since. Duggan, meanwhile, has thrown for 261 yards per game with 14 touchdowns against one interception. He’s second to Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud in passer rating (194.36) and yards per attempt (10.3).
DEFENSIVE PLAYER
DE Felix Anudike-Uzomah, Kansas State. One of the most disruptive forces in the Big 12, he’s building on a 2021 season that saw him earn all-conference first-team honors. He’s tied for second nationally with 6.5 sacks. His two forced fumbles give him eight in 24 games, with his 0.33 career average best among active FBS players.
COACH
Kansas second-year coach Lance Leipold is known as a program builder, and his work with the No. 19 Jayhawks (5-1, 2-1) could be his best yet. The Jayhawks are ranked this season for the first time since 2009 and are one win from bowl eligibility for the first time since 2008. Leipold has done it with a big-play offense that has 19 plays of at least 30 yards and a defense fortified by a couple of key transfers.
MOST SURPRISING TEAM
Kansas.was the easy choice, and last week’s narrow home loss to TCU didn’t do much to diminish the magnitude of what’s happening in Lawrence. This is a program that hasn’t won a conference championship in football since 1968, and it lost 91 of 97 Big 12 games under five coaches before Leipold took over last year.
