Photos by Scott Bruhn/Nebraska Communications
Jeremy Pernell: A Transformed Quarterback Room for Huskers
Less than a week after the 2021 season ended, record-setting Nebraska quarterback Adrian Martinez announced he would enter the transfer portal and finish his career elsewhere. The three-time captain and 38-game starter ended up at Kansas State.
Whether that decision was Martinez's, coach Scott Frost's or a mutual one, we may never know. But it was the right decision for both parties.
SECOND IN A SERIES Part 1: Introduction |
Frost needed to allow his new coordinator to have a clean slate and a big say in who would be running his offense. That wasn't happening with Adrian still around. Instead, Martinez will play his final season in a new Wildcat offense that fits his skillset. He'll play behind the best O-line he's ever had and with his most talented running back too. As an added bonus, Martinez gets to spend his final year of college with his girlfriend, Marisa Weichel, who plays soccer at Kansas State.
For their part, the Huskers added two guys who are much better fits for new coordinator Mark Whipple's anticipated pro-style attack. Little has been revealed about the offense being put together, but if Whipple's history is any indication, you can expect a pass-first system that is adept at getting playmakers the ball.
Nebraska was aggressive looking for its next signal caller. The Huskers' early top-of-the-board targets were Jake Haener (Fresno State) and Spencer Rattler (Oklahoma). Haener decided to stay at Fresno State due to the unknowns about getting a "two-time transfer" waiver from the NCAA to play right away. He was expected to follow his coach, Kalen DeBoer, to Washington, ironically where Haener started his career. Rattler chose to play at South Carolina.
Another early target was LSU's Myles Brennan. Like Haener, Brennan eventually removed his name from the portal. New LSU head coach Brian Kelly lured Brennan into staying with the suggestion he would be his starter in 2022. Well, three months later in March, Kelly accepted the transfer of former Arizona State starter Jayden Daniels. That should make for an interesting competition this summer.
The next priority target was former USC Trojan Kedon Slovis, but he decided to transfer to Pittsburgh, where his longtime girlfriend Kate McKay plays soccer for the Panthers.
Additional portal quarterbacks Nebraska vetted were Zach Gibson (Akron -> Georgia Tech) and Cameron Ward (Incarnate Word -> Washington State).
Casey Thompson
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As Whipple and Frost continued with the process, however, they began to zero in on Texas Longhorn Casey Thompson, who entered the transfer portal on Dec. 17. His decision to transfer came after Steve Sarkisian landed prized Ohio State transfer Quinn Ewers, the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2021 class.
Thompson was a four-star recruit out of Newcastle (Okla.) High School in the 2018 class. He was ranked as the No. 221 overall recruit by ESPN. Casey chose the Longhorns over North Carolina, Tennessee, Oklahoma State, West Virginia and Arizona State. He also received notable offers from Arkansas, Miami, Ole Miss, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oregon, Penn State and Virginia Tech, among others.
After enrolling early, Thompson redshirted his first season on the Forty Acres after coming out of fall camp as the fourth-string quarterback behind Sam Ehlinger, Shane Buechele and Cameron Rising. Thompson actually flirted with the idea of transferring back then as well, putting his name in the transfer portal following the Sugar Bowl in January of 2019.
He elected to return to Texas and spent the next two seasons as Ehlinger's backup. He received limited snaps during that time but had a bit of a coming-out party in the second half of the 2020 Alamo Bowl against Colorado. Replacing an injured Ehlinger during a one-possession game, Thompson led Texas on five consecutive scoring drives en route to a 55-23 win. He completed 8-of-10 passes for 170 yards and four touchdowns against the Buffaloes.
Most assumed that performance would springboard him into the starting role in 2021. But Tom Herman was fired and Steve Sarkisian held an open competition. Thompson lost a closely analyzed race with Hudson Card, who was named the starter prior to the season opener. When Card struggled against Arkansas in Week 2, however, Thompson made his first career start the following week against Rice.
Thompson played at a high level over the next three games, leading Texas to wins over Rice, Texas Tech and TCU, before injuring the thumb on his throwing hand against Oklahoma. Thompson would end up battling through that injury and aggravating it multiple times throughout the rest of the season.
Thompson showed flashes of stardom last season, but there were also some instances of poor throws and questionable decisions along the way, even before the injury. For the most part, though, his play declined after the injury against the Sooners. He was unable to properly grip the ball and as a result lost significant velocity and accuracy.
In all, Thompson started 10 games for the Longhorns in 2021, leading the Big 12 in touchdown passes with 24, while throwing nine interceptions - six of those coming after he injured his thumb.
Thompson became the first quarterback in school history to throw for five touchdowns three times in a season (against Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Kansas). He also became the first quarterback in the Big 12 to throw for five touchdowns with a running touchdown in a game (against Kansas) since Kyler Murray in 2018. Thompson finished the season completing 165-of-261 passes (63.2 percent), for 2,113 yards and also had 55 carries for 157 yards and four rushing TDs.
Frost had recruited the 6-foot, 195-pound Thompson heavily when he was coming out of high school during the 2018 cycle, but that was when he was still at Central Florida. Thompson liked Frost and his offense but ultimately wasn't going to sign with a Group of Five school.
As luck would have it, the two sides would have another chance four years later. Thompson admits he did his due diligence even before putting his name in the portal. For two weeks, he looked at the landscape to gauge where he would be needed and have an opportunity.
When he saw Adrian Martinez was leaving Nebraska, the Huskers immediately peaked his interest. When the feeling was mutual, Nebraska vaulted toward the top of his list. Casey's history with Frost, as well as Mickey Joseph's longtime friendship with his father - former Sooner quarterback Charles Thompson - went a long way initially. Casey even called Adrian to get the story behind his decision to leave. According to Thompson, Martinez had nothing but good things to say about the program.
Thompson's research included a lot of film study of programs he was considering. He began watching Mark Whipple's offense at Pitt and came away impressed by his system. He liked how aggressive and diverse it was and the NFL-based pass concepts. Thompson also took notice of the development of Kenny Pickett.
The Huskers got Casey and his father to visit campus for a self-guided tour on Jan. 5, but the staff couldn't have any in-person contact with Casey because of the NCAA recruiting dead period, which also applies toward transfer portal targets.
Thompson had narrowed his choices to a final five of Nebraska, Oklahoma, Auburn, Missouri and Indiana. Following his visit to Lincoln, Thompson conducted a final round of Zoom calls with his finalists. The decision came down to a Husker-Sooner battle. Nebraska had been forthright with Thompson from the beginning that they intended to take two guys in the portal. Casey had become Nebraska's top option at that point, while Oklahoma had already added former UCF star Dillon Gabriel.
The path toward being the starter was much clearer in Lincoln, and that likely put the Huskers over the top in the end. On Jan. 7, Thompson publicly announced his decision to transfer to Nebraska. He took part in spring ball and predictably came out as QB1, a position he will resume when fall camp opens. Thompson is a fifth-year junior who will have two years of eligibility remaining.
True to their word, Frost and Whipple weren't done adding to the room. After securing the upperclassman Thompson, the two coaches decided to target a younger prospect whom they could groom in the new system to potentially take over in a year or two.
Preston "Chubba" Purdy was a consensus four-star recruit out of Perry (Ariz.) High School in the 2020 class. He was ranked as the No. 126 overall recruit by ESPN. Purdy had originally been committed to Louisville but flipped to Florida State following the hiring of Mike Norvell. After taking over the Seminoles, Norvell quickly targeted Purdy to be his hand-picked quarterback of the future.
Chubba Purdy
Alicia Devine/Tallahassee Democrat/USA TODAY NETWORK
In doing so, he moved on from Jeff Sims, FSU's class quarterback at the time. That was no small feat. Just to give that decision some context, Sims, who is entering his third year as starter at Georgia Tech, was also a four-star recruit. He participated in the Elite 11 Finals, The Opening Finals and played in the prestigious Under Armour All-America Game. But Norvell saw something in Purdy.
Unfortunately, Chubba seemed to be snakebitten from the moment he stepped foot on campus. He suffered a broken collarbone during the first scrimmage in his first fall camp in Tallahassee. The injury required surgery, but Purdy was still able to return to the field that year and play in three games with one start, becoming just the fifth true freshman in FSU history to start at quarterback. On the year, he completed 27-of-53 passes for 219 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. He also carried the ball 19 times for 57 yards.
His bad-luck streak continued, however. In his start against NC State, he further aggravated his preseason injury and had to shut down his season and have another surgery. It was about a six-month rehab for Purdy after that surgery in November 2020, which was a follow-up procedure to remove plate and screws from the first surgery in August. The rehab resulted in him missing spring ball for Florida State in 2021.
Purdy entered fall camp last summer at a significant disadvantage. He'd barely practiced since arriving in Tallahassee and was competing against the incumbent 2020 starter, Jordan Travis, as well as new transfer addition McKenzie Milton. He saw only 17 snaps of game action last season, playing against UMass. He did impress, however, going 5-for-5 for 98 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He seemed poised for more snaps in FSU's final five games, but he surprised coaches by entering the transfer portal less than two weeks after the UMass game on Nov. 4.
Chubba had spent his first two years buried on the depth chart and battling injuries at Florida State. He didn't see a future in Tallahassee and didn't want to languish on the bench. With four years of eligibility remaining, Purdy decided to look for an opportunity elsewhere to fulfill his untapped potential.
The first coach who contacted Purdy after he entered the transfer portal was Mark Whipple, who was still the offensive coordinator at Pitt at the time. Whipple had been a fan of Purdy's for a long time, having also recruited him coming out of high school.
Whipple conducted an in-home visit with Chubba and his family on Dec. 7, two days after he interviewed with Frost for the Huskers offensive coordinator job. While Whipple was announced as NU's offensive coordinator the following day, Purdy insists everything was above board about the conversation that night. He claims nothing about Nebraska was talked about during the visit. Whipple called the Purdy family the following day to tell them he was no longer at Pitt. A few days after that, he notified them he was now at Nebraska and began to recruit Chubba for the Huskers.
Purdy still took an official visit to Pitt the weekend of Dec. 11, but Pat Narduzzi and the Panthers eventually took a commitment from USC's Kedon Slovis on Dec. 21.
Meanwhile, Whipple stayed in consistent contact with Purdy, coming through with a Husker offer on Dec. 27. The Huskers' primary focus and energy was being spent on Thompson, but after Casey was on board, they quickly pivoted toward Chubba.
Several schools were pushing for a visit in January as they worked to finalize their spring rosters. Purdy decided on visits to Oklahoma and Nebraska. Along with his parents and sister, Chubba took a midweek visit to Norman and followed that up a few days later with a weekend visit to Lincoln Jan. 14-16. Not surprisingly, he spent the majority of his first day with Whipple going over the offense.
It wasn't Chubba's first time in Lincoln. He actually visited campus back in June of 2018. He and his family drove from their home in Phoenix to help his older brother Brock move into his dorm at Iowa State. The Huskers happened to be hosting their first round of summer camps under Scott Frost the same weekend. So Chubba - a rising recruit entering his junior year - drove the 3½ hours from Ames to Memorial Stadium to participate.
With transfers needing to be enrolled in classes in order to compete in spring practices, Purdy knew he needed to make a quick decision following his visit. Nebraska's academic semester began Jan. 18, and Chubba announced his decision for the Huskers in a social media post on the 17th.
The 6-foot-2, 210-pound Purdy missed the first half of spring ball because of a foot injury but will head into fall camp completely healthy - perhaps for the first time in his career. Chubba's collarbone injury at Florida State resulted in four separate surgeries. He wasn't an early enrollee for the Seminoles in 2020, so this will be the first full camp he will participate in - health permitting.
Unfortunately, that's the worry moving forward with Purdy. Can he stay healthy? Physical setbacks have been an unwelcome trend so far for him. He still has a high ceiling, but can he put the injuries behind him and truly begin his development? If so, he will challenge for the No. 2 job this season and put himself in position to take over after Thompson leaves.
