Tate Martell is a Hurricane

Submitted by HelloHeisman91 on January 16th, 2019 at 12:31 AM

It’s official, he’s announced that he’s off to Miami and Fields’ eligibility is suddenly that much more interesting.  

 

https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-state-football/2019/01/101638/tate-martell-transferring-to-miami-fl?amp

East German Judge

January 16th, 2019 at 6:28 AM ^

No, that would be complete chaos as every kid who wasn't starting would be transferring the very next year. It would not only screw up the schools' managing and recruiting of players, but the kids would also suffer due to the fact that their education would suffer and also them learning a new system every year.  18 & 19 year olds don't always make the most levelheaded decisions.

BlockM

January 16th, 2019 at 6:53 AM ^

Everybody always uses this as a reason. Wtf. 18 year olds can go to war, but we can't trust them to make decisions about where to play football? Is it not chaos when coaches can switch schools twice in the same off-season? What's it to you if a kid wants to transfer, except one more but if gossip you can impulsively check MGoBlog about?

MCalibur

January 16th, 2019 at 12:06 PM ^

I agree that it probably wouldn't be insurmountably chaotic but there are many issues that arise from open transfer. Coaches can get fired, college players can't. Should the school be able to cut a player because he isn't as good as they thought when they recruited him?

How about this one: "Hey Tate, Justin just took your spot. We don't need you anymore, pack your bags."

I see *reasonable* transfer restrictions as the opposite side of the coin to not being able to pull a player's scholarship for performance/medical reasons.

OwenGoBlue

January 16th, 2019 at 7:27 AM ^

Empowering the players always draws the "complete chaos" counterargument. Sure there would be a lot of change but I'm not so sure this is a status quo worth defending.

If you go somewhere and it sucks or is a bad fit or the coaches lied to you or your coach is fired/leaves, you should be able to go somewhere else without punishment provided you are in good academic standing and are on track with credits to graduate. 

I'd imagine 18-20 year olds are more equipped to make a good decision than when they were 17 or 18 and committed to the school in the first place.

WestQuad

January 16th, 2019 at 10:58 AM ^

I don't think there is anything wrong with a forced redshirt year.  I'd even be open to letting the kids play in the [4] games that redshirts get to play in as opposed to sitting out a year.    It's a benefit to the student.  They get another year of free education.   Everyone gets discouraged at some point in college.  Making it frictionless to transfer encourages whimsical decisions.

If Justin Fields gets immediate eligibility, shouldn't Tate Martell?  

OwenGoBlue

January 16th, 2019 at 11:43 AM ^

What is the benefit of the added friction? 

I can see an argument for academics but you can solve that with requirements for credits (on track to graduate), GPA, and transfer windows (ending a semester at your current school or getting those credits elsewhere could be an added requirement). To me the main benefit is mostly roster continuity, which doesn't have much to do with the well being of a given student athlete.

I'd argue the existing friction mostly benefits coaches and most benefits coaches who lie to get kids on campus. 

BTB grad

January 16th, 2019 at 7:52 AM ^

And what about coaches who immediately jump to other schools because they're not head coaches yet, or not OCs or DCs yet, or who want to be head coaches at bigger schools? We're totally fine with these coaches leaving, sometimes a day or two after signing day after recruiting kids and looking in the recruits' families' eyes selling them on the program, just to screw them over and jump to another school. The coaching carousel is complete chaos but we don't restrict their movement? How can you then use that argument to limit player movement? Complete hypocrisy  

Ballislife

January 16th, 2019 at 8:40 AM ^

I honestly think it has to do with the fact that coaches are paid. If they move it’s because of “career advancement”, which is acceptable because everyone in the world is trying to advance their career and make more money. But since players are “paid” in scholarships, they’re expected by the fans to fulfill that scholarship just like any other normal college student. People freak out because we don’t hear about normal college kids jumping ship and not finishing their degree at the school they started at. 

wolverineRXblue

January 16th, 2019 at 12:43 AM ^

This makes no sense to me at all. He has never seen fields in action. He won’t even try to to compete with him? How strange. Is it possible the coaching staff promised fields the starting job? That would explain why fields is transferring to osu and Tate wants out

AZBlue

January 16th, 2019 at 1:30 AM ^

Day’s offense appears to be predicated on having a pass-first QB like Haskins.  Martell is a run-first QB and being well under 6’ doesn’t bode well for his growth as a pocket-passer.  He was a great prospect for the Meyer/OSU offense pre-2018 not so much now.

Tathan could very well be an entitled, me-first prick but on the surface (to me) this transfer has a lot more to do with fit than fear of competition or favoritism.

Double-D

January 16th, 2019 at 12:45 AM ^

Tate seems like a guy I would not want on my team.  The limited snaps I saw him in this year did not impress me. The Bucks however are now awfully thin.  

I don’t see how the NCAA can approve Fields unless they are just frightened of the race card.  The guilty party is off campus.   Don’t see how the campus would be considered unsafe or any different than any other campus.  I’m sure racists can be found on every campus.

 If they do approve it will just be a free for all on making up reasons to transfer. 

grantlandR

January 16th, 2019 at 1:18 AM ^

Reportedly, Fields is a talented baseball player, and wanted to play at the collegiate level. While it seems that Georgia's officials handled this individual incident appropriately by dismissing the offending student from the baseball team, perhaps a hostile environment either already exists on Georgia's baseball team, or has resulted from the actions taken. I find it interesting that there is not a single African American on Georgia's baseball roster (40 players).

Bambi

January 16th, 2019 at 12:54 AM ^

OSU's scholarship QBs next year are now Fields, RS Fr Matthew Baldwin and RS Sr Chris Chugunov.

Chugunov started his career at WVU and played in 10 games where he was pretty mediocre/bad. He grad transferred to OSU last year with 2 years left and didn't play.

Baldwin was a borderline 3/4 star QB out of Texas. His best offers out of HS besides OSU were Iowa or Kentucky. Baldwin redshirted last year after tearing his ACL his senior year of HS.

If Fields doesn't get his waiver, gets hurt, or just isn't good OSU is in a real bad spot QB depth wise.

Frank Chuck

January 16th, 2019 at 4:10 AM ^

I think Matthew Baldwin is (much) better than his ranking. He was a late riser and hand-picked by Ryan Day for his Big 12-esque spread passing offense.

Baldwin is from Lake Travis which has churned out a number of quality college QBs including Baker Mayfield (Oklahoma), Todd Reesing (Kansas), and Charlie Brewer (currently at Baylor). ESPN published an article in December 2018 about all the (good) QBs to come from Lake Travis.

Bodogblog

January 16th, 2019 at 12:14 PM ^

Sure, he could be.  Any player could be.  The larger point the OP is making is based on the recruiting profile (which is all we have on any of the guys in this discussion), he's nowhere near the near 5*, #39 overall, #2 dual threat, higher-ranked-than-TuaTagovailoa prospect that Martell was.  They'd have Fields, this guy, and another guy.  That's pretty thin. 

Sopwith

January 16th, 2019 at 1:00 AM ^

If anyone watched QB1 on Netflix (which I recommend), you know that Martell has many prima donna aspects, but on the field, the dude can flat out ball. Don't think of Miami as the right system, though.

The Baughz

January 16th, 2019 at 9:55 AM ^

Martell will be a good fit in Miami now that Enos is the OC. He will use Martell like he did with Hurts. It will be a run first-pass second offense. I think he will be fine there. He’s a damn good athlete; albeit undersized. I actually think he would have been worse off in Day’s system, imo.

Wolverine0007

January 16th, 2019 at 2:54 AM ^

About a week ago, i actually messaged Tate Martell about the story of Tom Brady and how he faced a similar situation to his when he had to fend off fierce competition from uber-hotshot QB, Drew Henson.

I told Tate about how close Brady was set on transferring to California, but instead of backing out, he went directly to Coach Carr, looked him in the eye and said: I'm going to win the starting job.  Even after that declaration, the starting qb wasn't given to him as he still had to earn it. He had to maximize every practice rep and every opportunity he got.

Eventually we know how the rest of the story turned out: not only did Brady end up having a successful career at Michigan, he even credits the tremendous competition he faced against Drew Henson for building that razor sharp mental toughness that has allowed him to become arguably the G.O.A.T.

I conveyed all of that to Tate as a genuine attempt to encourage a QB from our most hated rival school to not quit. "Hey man, if you act like Tom did, maybe you'll end up experience the same level of success."

What happened the next day?

Tate then announces that he is transferring.

 

LOL.

 

Kids these days.

 

So soft and just want to have things handed to them vs working their asses off for it.

 

 

 

ppToilet

January 16th, 2019 at 6:20 AM ^

That's painting with a broad brush. You really have no idea about the specifics behind the scenes. Martell committed to Meyer, not Day. Kids transfer all the time, and have for decades, when there are coaching changes. Heck, Ryan Mallett transfered even when he was going to be the starter.

It doesn't make him soft, as you assert. To me, if there is a head coaching change, players should be allowed to transfer with no questions asked and no need to sit out a year.