Urban Meyer speaks to former Ohio State quarterback Tate Martell (18) in the fourth quarter of the game against Michigan State on Nov. 10. Ohio State won 26-6. Credit: Casey Cascaldo | Photo Editor
“Why would I leave for someone who hasn’t put in a single second into this program?”
These were the words Ohio State redshirt freshman quarterback Tate Martell said on Dec. 30 when news surfaced that Georgia freshman quarterback Justin Fields was thinking of transferring to the Buckeyes.
Now, not even a month later, Martell has left.
On Wednesday, Martell announced he will be transferring from Ohio State to play for the University of Miami.
The announcement came as only Martell could do it: out of the blue and in dramatic fashion, with a photoshopped Twitter picture of him and his two former high school teammates in Hurricanes uniforms, 14 minutes past midnight.
“To just run away from somebody who hasn’t put a single second into workouts anything like that and doesn’t know what the program is all about, there’s not a chance.”
In 17 days, Martell went from extreme confidence in his position to someone ready to jump ship.
On Jan. 10, he put his name in the transfer portal, allowing other teams to contact him about joining their programs.
The next day, Martell took “The Ohio State University” out of his Twitter bio, leaving “Quarterback at…” in its place.
As he has done since high school, when he decommitted from two schools before choosing the Buckeyes, Martell made much ado about his future, posting Instagram stories in his stops at West Virginia and Miami, retweeting an old Rutgers highlight video and liking team-specific tweets before ultimately selecting the Hurricanes.
“I just don’t want [Fields] to make a bad decision, because he’s trying to go somewhere he’s about to play, when you transfer, you’re going to play, and by all means, I’ll be cool … It’s gonna be a lot more difficult than it seems like just walking in, and there’s the job.”
The man responsible for Martell’s departure is Fields, who announced his transfer to Ohio State on Jan. 4.
Martell entered his name into the transfer portal six days later, and left six days after that.
Fields was a five-star dual-threat quarterback prospect out of high school, and one of the highest rated in history.
The former Georgia quarterback is still waiting to see if he will be allowed to play in 2019, and, if he gains eligibility, he would take the reins as the runaway favorite to win the starting job.
Martell is not waiting. He is gone.
“I will [be the starting quarterback]. I am 100 percent sure on that.”
Something between Dec. 30 and Jan. 10 clearly changed in Martell’s outlook on his future.
Maybe it was during the men’s basketball game between the Buckeyes and Michigan State on Jan. 5, where Fields sat by Haskins and former head coach Urban Meyer.
During that game, Martell posted an Instagram story sitting somewhere in the upper deck. Haskins, Fields and Meyer sat courtside.
Martell deleted that story before the game ended. Fields took to Instagram to follow not his then-teammate, but instead Martell’s sister, Rylee, the same day.
In 2018, Martell was confident he had done enough to prove himself as the guy who can “go out there and put on a show” if redshirt sophomore quarterback Dwayne Haskins officially decided to leave the program.
Fields joined the team on Jan. 4, but Martell was ready to fight for the position he thought was rightfully his.
Haskins left, as expected, on Jan. 7. But three days later, Martell got ready to do the same.
“I wanted to win a game for you, that’s all I wanted to do.”
Meyer and Martell have always had a strong relationship, with the former head coach calling him an “elite competitor” throughout the season, constantly looking for ways to get him into the game.
Martell, a four-star prospect out of Las Vegas who went undefeated in his high-school career, switched from Washington to Texas A&M to Ohio State, thanks to Meyer and former wide receivers coach Zach Smith.
Now, with Meyer’s retirement from head coaching, there was no longer going to be anybody left on the sidelines who made Martell join the Buckeyes in the first place.
Martell said following the Rose Bowl win he was very emotional when he found out Meyer was leaving, saying he was “the only guy that was really on the offensive side that was still here” from when he was recruited.
With Day at the helm, who arrived after Martell had committed, maybe the offense was moving in a direction that left Martell out of the big picture, recruiting pro-style quarterback Matthew Baldwin in 2018.
“I feel like it’s my turn to go out there and do my thing. I feel like I’ve earned that. I’ve worked extremely hard to get to the point where I am and each year, I keep climbing and getting better. At this point, I know I am very comfortable with where I am at and what I can go out and do.”
At that time, it was clear Martell was confident in his abilities to take over a playbook he thought was far too difficult for someone to learn in a single offseason.
Martell said it would have been “an absolute s**t show” if he started as soon as he came to Ohio State due to the complexities of Ohio State’s playbook.
But between his boastings about his talents and his entry in the transfer portal 11 days later, what Martell said on Dec. 30 can explain his reason for leaving.
It is Martell’s turn, and that turn was not a likely option if he chose to stay another year at Ohio State.
Fields and Martell could have duked it out in the spring game and over the summer, but Martell didn’t want to take the chances of losing the job.
Just like in 2018, when Haskins all but sealed the race and Joe Burrow transferred to LSU.
Martell knows his time is now, like Burrow knew when he left for the Tigers. Martell’s time to prove his potential is at Miami.
But with his departure, he leaves a dream.
A dream of strong promises of what he would have done in 2019 when he got his chance.
Martell leaves with unfinished goals and unfulfilled aspirations not just from his comments on Dec. 30, but from his childhood.
“I want to play for Ohio State. It’s been my dream since I was born to play for Ohio State. I am not just going to walk away from something that I have put so much time into and there is not a chance that I won’t go out there and compete for that.”
