Kansas State football quarterback Adrian Martinez takes glass-half-full approach to season

NEW ORLEANS — Adrian Martinez has waited his whole college career for this.

Here he is in New Orleans with his Kansas State teammates, his first-ever bowl game, getting ready to face No. 5 Alabama on New Year's Eve.

At the same time, the 2022 season has been nothing like Martinez envisioned when he arrived in Manhattan just over a year ago after four seasons at Nebraska, the presumptive starter at quarterback for the Wildcats.

Martinez's year began just fine as he started the first seven games and had K-State off to a 5-1 start, only to go down after just one series on Oct. 22 at TCU. Even then, he was back in the lineup after missing one game, only to go down again with a more serious leg injury at Baylor on Nov. 11.

During that time, backup Will Howard took over at quarterback and has enjoyed a breakout season, leading the Wildcats to a 10-3 record that included a 31-28 overtime victory over TCU on Dec. 3 in the Big 12 championship game.

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Martinez, for his part, has worked diligently to get ready for the one thing missing from his resume at Nebraska: a chance to play in the postseason.

"When we kind of had an idea of what I was dealing with, that was pretty much the goal from the beginning there," Martinez said after K-State's practice at Caesars Superdome on Tuesday. "It was like, let's just do everything we can to get back for the bowl game and help this team win."

Sure enough, Martinez returned to practice a few days before Christmas and should be available for Saturday's 11 a.m. Sugar Bowl matchup with the Crimson Tide. And yet with Howard now firmly entrenched as the starter, there are no guarantees that he will see the field.

"I'd love to see him play," said K-State coach Chris Klieman. "Will's going to start. Will's the guy in the bowl game.

"But I'd love to have Adrian get an opportunity to play in this bowl game, and if he's healthy, that's the plan, to try to get him some snaps in there."

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Martinez seems to be at peace with the idea that he's no longer QB1, and that it's Howard's show now.

"I think both of us really just want to win," Martinez said. "And so whatever that looks like, and for me whatever that looks like, I'm willing to do it. I think we're both on board with that and an all-hands-on-deck type of approach."

Martinez could have gone into a shell and withdrawn after his latest injury, but instead remained engaged with the team in hopes of keeping his bowl dream alive.

"It's been tough coming back, but thankfully we have a really good training staff and I've just been really rehabbing it," he said. "It's never easy going through injury, but you find a way to battle back, and it's part of the sport.

"I've dealt with a lot of different injuries in my career for sure, so I hate to say you become accustomed to getting hurt, but I'm definitely familiar with the process of coming back from an injury."

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What he's not familiar with is the idea of coming off the bench. In 39 games over four years at Nebraska, he made 38 starts and left Lincoln as the school's career record-holder in total offense with 10,792 yards.

"Shoot, this year has been very up and down," Martinez said. "It's probably not how anyone envisioned it, but we wouldn't change a thing. We're Big 12 champs, Sugar Bowl. It's where we want to be right now."

No one has appreciated Martinez's glass-half-full attitude more than Howard, who has emerged as the quarterback of the present and future after struggling the previous two years when filling in for injured starter Skylar Thompson.

"He's been awesome," Howard said of Martinez. "I've been saying all year, he could have gone to the side and done his own thing and felt sorry for himself, but he was always right there, right in front, helping me.

"And he's been such a good friend of mine. Obviously we can kind of just chop it up outside of football. He's been awesome, and I couldn't ask for a better guy to go through this with."

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Martinez, in turn, has been complimentary of both Howard and offensive coordinator Collin Klein, the last K-State quarterback to lead the Wildcats to a Big 12 championship in 2012.

"We constantly have each other's back, in the game, practice, everything," Martinez said. "I think Will and I have a really good friendship and understand what it's like to play quarterback. CK (Klein) does as well.

"And so that's really been a healthy relationship all around for all of us, just to continue communicating and make sure we're all on the same page."

Martinez said he is getting closer to full strength by the day and should be ready to go Saturday. In the meantime, he's coming to terms with the fact that his college career is down to one more game.

"I had one of the coaches today be like, 'Hey, this is your last Tuesday in college (football) ever,' and that's a good perspective on it," Martinez said. "I might as well enjoy it.

"So it's a little bit surreal and probably hasn't hit me fully yet, but what a place. Sugar Bowl, why not have that be your last game? It's a pretty good way to go out."

Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas State football quarterback remains positive in difficult season