Quarterback Adrian Martinez is preparing for the Birmingham Stallions’ 2024 home opener on Saturday. It’s not what he thought he’d be doing when he envisioned his football career.

“The journey has been up and down,” Martinez said. “That’s been the story of my football career. Shoot, it’s been the story of my life so far, and, honestly, I’m thankful for it.

“I would be lying to you if I said this is where I expected to be right now in my life. But I’m thankful I’m here. I’m thankful I’m playing for (coach) Skip (Holtz). I’m thankful I’m on this really, really good team with a lot of talent.

“It’s definitely a learning experience. At the end of the day, I love ball. I love football, and it’s an opportunity – an opportunity to get back to the NFL.”

Last year at this time, Martinez was awaiting the NFL Draft. After four seasons at Nebraska, where his career numbers placed him second in passing yards, fourth in touchdown passes and seventh in rushing TDs in Cornhuskers’ history, Martinez had completed his college career at Kansas State in 2022.

Passed over in the draft, Martinez signed with the Detroit Lions. He played in two preseason games, but the Lions kept veteran Teddy Bridgewater as Jared Goff’s backup and had invested the 68th pick in Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker.

Since joining the Stallions for the United Football League’s first season, Martinez has shared QB duties with Matt Corral, the former Ole Miss standout, starting both games. The quarterbacks have alternated every two series, although Martinez got hurt during his second series in the season opener and missed the rest of the game.

“What I’m doing right now is we have talked about trying to get both quarterbacks ready,” Holtz said. “The last thing I want to do is put one guy on the bench or just sit him over there until somebody gets injured, and then you go, ‘Hey, we need you to go win a game. I know you haven’t taken a snap all year. I know you haven’t played.’ I think my goal having two quarterbacks that have never played in this offense that right now are my No. 1 and No. 2, I feel like I’ve got an obligation to get them both ready.

“They both came here because they want to get film. They both came here because they want to win. And I think, as they both have shown on the field, they are both playing at a very high level of football and a very high quality where we can win with both of them. I need to get both of them some experience in this offense, get both of them comfortable.”

Even though he’s played only six series this season, Martinez ranks second in the UFL in rushing with 117 yards on 11 carries. Birmingham running back C.J. Marable leads the league with 121 yards on 32 rushing attempts. Two weeks into the season, the Stallions already have 160 more rushing yards than any other UFL team.

“I don’t think that you can look at our rushing offense right now without also adding what the legs of the quarterback and what those two guys have brought in Adrian Martinez and Matt Corral,” Holtz said. “… It’s hard to talk about your rushing offense without talking about your O-line, without talking about your running backs, without talking about the legs of your quarterbacks and the way that all those guys are jelling together.”

Corral has run for 41 yards on eight carries.

Through the air, Corral has completed 17-of-33 passes for 254 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions and Martinez has completed 10-of-21 passes for 114 yards with no touchdowns and one interception.

In winning the USFL championship in each of the past two seasons, the Stallions used quarterbacks J’Mar Smith and Alex McGough in both campaigns, although not strictly in the alternating manner that Holtz is employing for Martinez and Corral. The Birmingham coach said the current system might not be used for the entire 10-game regular-season schedule.

“Certainly, I could see where as we get into this that maybe, you know what, ‘Matt, it’s your game this week’ and ‘Adrian, it’s your game this week,’” Holtz said. “But I also think it’s working right now because of the type of young men they are. I know there’s a lot of people that talk about two-quarterback systems don’t work: It never has. You can’t play two. Nobody knows who your starter is. The cadence is all messed up. You can’t do this, you can’t do that. …

“I think they both deserve to play, and they’re both good enough to win with, and so we’ll just kind of take things as they come to us as we’re moving forward, and we’re going to let it all play out. But I’m never going to say never because if somebody is playing significantly better than the other, this isn’t a medal sport, this isn’t a participation sport, this is a production sport, and when one stops being productive and other one is productive, then he’s going to have the opportunity to be the starter and to be the guy.

“But right now I have two quarterbacks that both need some work and both are being productive, so I kind of like the system we have working right now because it certainly gives me the ability to sleep a little bit better at night knowing we have two quarterbacks who have game experience that are ready to play that have a talent level that’s good enough to win with.”

The Stallions square off against the Memphis Showboats at 6 p.m. CDT Saturday at Protective Stadium in Birmingham. FOX will televise the game.

Birmingham started its season by defeating the Arlington Renegades 27-14 on March 30, then topped the Michigan Panthers 20-13 on Sunday.

Memphis downed the Houston Roughnecks 18-12 on March 31, then lost to San Antonio 20-19 on Saturday when the Brahmas scored two touchdowns in the final 48 seconds.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.