Dennis Leblanc has crunched the numbers like any good veteran academic director would, and he’s determined that if Adrian Martinez sticks on his current path, the Nebraska quarterback could become a nominee for Academic All-America honors this fall as a sophomore.
If that holds true, and Martinez is honored, he would be the first Nebraska quarterback in more than 20 years to become an Academic All-American.
The last one?
That would be Scott Frost, now the Nebraska head coach.
Frost earned second-team honors in 1997, so Leblanc, the Nebraska Senior Associate Athletic Director of Academics, likes to kid Martinez that he could top his coach by making first team.
Either way, it’s of no coincidence to Leblanc that the Nebraska football team’s latest academic achievement has come with Frost at the helm.
Entering the spring semester, the Huskers’ 3.001 team cumulative GPA is the highest Nebraska football team GPA since the school began tracking it in 1992-93. In addition, the 3.008 team GPA from the fall is the football program’s highest in a fall semester since 1989-90.
“I was ecstatic to see our team GPA come out where it was,” said Frost, beginning his second season as Nebraska’s head coach. “It shows we have a lot of people doing things the right way. I’m obviously grateful to Dennis and Keith Zimmer in Life Skills and all the academic support people that are helping our team.”
Leblanc deflected that praise directly back to Frost.
“In tracking these grade point averages for 30 years, it’s pretty remarkable when you look at it,” Leblanc said. “When people talk about coach Frost and how he’s changed the culture, it’s just amazing when you look at what he’s done. I knew it was going to improve a lot (with academics), but I didn’t know it would be that significant.”
For example, 60 percent of football student-athletes had a 3.0 or better GPA in the fall 2018 semester. That was an increase of 14 percent compared to the fall 2017 semester.
