Andrew Bunch is your starting quarterback.
The sophomore walk-on was the first to take the field Saturday against Troy. True freshman quarterback Adrian Martinez, who injured his right knee last Saturday against Colorado, dressed and participated in pregame warm-ups, but it appears the staff will go with Bunch, at least for the start of the game.
Andrew Bunch. On time and on the money. #Huskers pic.twitter.com/xXGpZjiYkA
— Derek Peterson (@DrPeteyHV) September 15, 2018
Bunch received the lion's share of first-team reps over the last week of practice with Martinez missing the first three days.
On Thursday, head coach Scott Frost said Bunch has looked better the more work he's been given.
“When he was getting equal reps to the other guys in camp, he was right in the mix with those guys,” Frost said. “With added reps this week he was reminding me why he was at least in the conversation at the beginning of camp and through spring ball.
“He’s looked great. He looked really good when he came in. That was a tough situation he came into the other day and he operated well. He got us down, threw a pass that probably should have won us the game and then got us down in striking distance to win the game again a second time.”
Bunch replaced Martinez in the fourth quarter against Colorado and got in for the last four minutes. He went 4-of-9 passing for 49 yards against Colorado, with all of his yardage coming on the team’s final possession of the game, trailing 33-28 with no timeouts and just a minute left on the game clock.
Bunch got the Huskers down into scoring position but three straight incompletions ended the game.
“I don’t look at Andrew as a walk-on and Andrew doesn’t look at himself like a walk-on,” quarterback coach Mario Verduzco said this week. “He certainly doesn’t behave like one or prepare like one.”
Both Frost and offensive coordinator Troy Walters have said on multiple occasions this week the offense won't change too drastically with Bunch at quarterback. He can run everything they ask of him, Frost said.
During team warm-ups, Bunch took snaps from starting center while Martinez slid over to backup center Tanner Farmer. Verduzco walked over for a brief moment to ask Bunch how he was doing, Bunch simply replied, "I'm good, coach."
Time to find out.
Derek is a newbie on the Hail Varsity staff covering Husker athletics. In college, he was best known as ‘that guy from Twitter.’ He has covered a Sugar Bowl, a tennis national championship and almost everything in between (except an NCAA men’s basketball tournament game… *tears*). In his spare time, he can be found arguing with literally anyone about sports.
