Oct. 17—Should you cross paths with Mike Martinez, a thought leaps immediately to mind.
“That dude is a football player.”
For a while, though, he wasn’t, which makes being able to resurrect his career as a senior for one last go-round with the Idaho Vandals a special time for him.
Martinez is listed on Idaho’s roster as a 6-6, 265-pound tight end. But the mere numbers don’t convey his imposing size.
Every inch, every pound is useful. He looks like he jumped off the screen of a superhero movie. Like he was forged in a steel mill.
Martinez points to the Northwest’s rugged scenery as one of Idaho’s unanticipated charms when he ventured here from his native Long Beach, CA. and the wreckage of his career at UCLA. Well, picture this. There are trees here, and then there is old growth.
Martinez is old growth.
“He is the best-looking player on our team,” says Idaho coach Jason Eck.
But in Moscow, with the Vandals, Martinez hardly acts entitled. He takes none of his current good fortune for granted.
To even get Eck to offer him a role at Idaho, Martinez had to do videotaped drills in a park.
“He had not played football for two years. You could gain or lose 100 pounds in that time,” Eck says.
Last Fourth of July, Eck got a text from a coaching colleague, Derek Sage, now the tight ends coach at Toledo University, who had been Martinez’s position coach at UCLA.
“He said ‘I have a kid I had at UCLA. We were trying to get him into Nevada or Toledo, but he did not quite have all his requirements,'” Eck said.
Martinez acknowledged of his tryout in the park “it felt pretty crazy. But it reminded me how badly I wanted to play, the lengths I would go to.”
Martinez was a three and four star recruit from the California football factory Mater Dei High School when he signed with the Bruins. From his freshman year in 2019 until being lost for the…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/something-football-called-tight-end-020300433.html
Author : The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
Publish date : 2024-10-18 02:03:00
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