Five burning questions heading into Minnesota week

Here are five of the biggest questions facing Nebraska as it returns home this week to take on Minnesota…

As recently as late last week, Nebraska still wasn’t 100-percent sure what was going to happen with its final scheduled matchup of the regular season vs. Minnesota.

A COVID-19 outbreak on the team forced the Gophers’ to cancel their past two games. It also put this week’s game in Lincoln in doubt, depending on what happens with UM’s situation over the next few days.

In all, the Gophers reported 49 positives (23 players and 26 staff members) since Nov. 19.

They paused team activities on Nov. 24, then began acclimatization workouts on Wednesday. On Thursday, the program announced that two more players had tested positive.

There’s cautious optimism that Minnesota will have things under control this week and be ready to play its first game in what will be 22 days. It also should be noted that no Big Ten team has had to cancel three straight games this season.

But until the ball is officially kicked off, fingers remain crossed.

Adrian Martinez hasn’t put up Heisman numbers or made highlight-reel plays since returning to his starting quarterback role two weeks ago.

What he has done is consistently and accurately get the football where it’s needed to be while taking much better care of the football.

Since reclaiming his starting job against Iowa, Martinez has now completed 41 of his past 50 passes for 416 yards with four total touchdowns (three rushing) and no interceptions.

He’s completed 70.8 percent of his passes on the year, putting him on pace to break Joe Ganz’s single-season school record (68.7%) set back in 2008.

Martinez has been poised, controlled, and unwavering during a rollercoaster season. Now his play on the field equals his established status as one of the most respected players in NU’s locker room.

Can he continue to play at this level? If so, Nebraska’s future looks bright for next season – and maybe 2022.

Nebraska has tried almost everything over the past two seasons to get the ball in Wan’Dale Robinson’s hands as much as possible.

At times, it almost felt as if the Huskers were forcing the issue in that regard and limiting Robinson’s role to a running back carries and bubble screens.

On Saturday, though, the game plan may have been the best usage yet of the standout sophomore receiver.

Rather than hand him the ball and hope he can make a play, Nebraska incorporated Robinson into its normal passing game and did so with impressive effectiveness and efficiency.

Robinson ran routes downfield and torched Purdue’s defense on underneath routes all game to the tune of nine catches for 114 yards, both season-highs. Just as notably, he averaged 12.3 yards per reception.

WIll the Huskers continue to utilize him the same way against a Minnesota defense giving up 240.6 yards per game and conference-worst 8.7 yards per catch?

You hardly heard Cam Jurgens’ name mentioned in the win over Purdue, and that was precisely what needed to happen for Nebraska.

Few players received as much criticism last week than the sophomore center, and reasonably so.

A center who has struggled with his snaps since the start of last season, Jurgens had multiple bad snaps in the loss to Iowa and was even temporarily pulled from the game at the end of the first half.

But head coach Scott Frost stuck with the former tight end he converted to center, and Jurgens responded by having zero noticeable issues with his snaps on 76 total plays.

If Jurgens figured out whatever was causing his snapping issues, he’d have a chance to take the next step toward becoming the caliber of center Frost predicted. It will also do wonders for the flow and chemistry of NU’s offense.

Nebraska lost a key member of its secondary 30 minutes before kicking off against Purdue, as redshirt freshman safety Myles Farmer suffered an ankle injury during pre-game warmups and was carted off the field.

Farmer had an air cast on his right leg and was taken to an ambulance. Frost said he didn’t see the injury happen and they would evaluate Farmer’s status further when the team returned to Lincoln.

After the game, Farmer tweeted: “Thank you for all the prayers, God already had my story written. You’ll see me when you see me.”

The Atlanta native leads the Huskers with two interceptions this season to go along with eight tackles and a forced fumble through six games.