Tate Martell created a lot of discussion on Saturday night for getting 15 snaps in the Miami Hurricanes 24-20 loss to Florida. Martell will be a part of the Miami offense the remainder of the season, like it or not.
Tate Martell is one of the most polarizing players in college football and for the Miami Hurricanes in a few years. Martell’s talk on social media and his abrupt exit from Ohio State in January made him a controversial figure.
The redshirt sophomore is a talented player. Martell went to Miami head coach Manny Diaz and offensive coordinator Dan Enos to suggest a position change from quarterback to wide receiver. Martell asking to change positions was selfless.
While Martell has gotten criticism for leaving Ohio State, he has received little credit for sticking it out at Miami and trying to help the team in any way he can. There is no question that because of his accuracy Jarren Williams was the right choice to be the Miami Hurricanes starting QB.
Martell and N’Kosi Perry were too inconsistent throwing the football throughout the spring and during training camp. Martell played more snaps during the 24-20 loss to Florida Saturday than all of the WRs except starters K.J. Osborn and Jeff Thomas and Mike Harley who will start when Miami uses three WR sets to start the game.
Diaz stated on Monday that you cannot compare Martell’s snaps to the other WRs because the Hurricanes will use him in different spots this season. Martell can be used as a QB, line up in the slot or potentially at QB in the Wildcat.
Diaz also stated that the wide receiver positions are variant enough that they are tough to compare. Diaz spoke about how Martell will be used going forward on Monday during his weekly appearance on the Joe Rose Show on WQAM and during his weekly press conference later in the day.
"“I don’t know. That’s a good question. You should classify him as Tate…He’s a threat…There’s a lot of creative things that we can do with him when he is on the field that didn’t get called in the game, so there will be more to that.I think he’s a guy that if you are playing defense, you will want to know where he is aligned because that can change your game plan.”"
Williams will and should be the Miami QB the remainder of the 2019 season and beyond barring very poor play or an injury. Many fans complained that Martell being in the game is unfair to back up wide receivers Mark Pope, Brian Hightower, Dee Wiggins and Jeremiah Payton.
On their podcast Through the Smoke, Inside the U’s David Lake accurately posed the question of how Martell’s playing time will affect the wide receiver room.
Lake stated that Diaz, Enos and wide receiver coach Taylor Stubblefield will have to deal with the fallout of Martell just getting switched to WR and getting playing time immediately over Pope, Hightower, Wiggins and Payton.
Payton is a true freshman still adjusting to being in college so his learning curve and lack of playing time is understandable. Hightower and Wiggins showed promise as Freshmen in 2018. Pope is probably the most talented WR for Miami. Pope was a consensus four-star signee in 2018 but received a five-star rating from Rivals.
Using a QB or former QB all over the field has been done in FB occasionally in college and the NFL. Kordell Stewart and Antwan Randle-El in the late 1990s and 2000s with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Taysom Hill with the New Orleans Saints currently are QBs being used all over the field.
Hill ran for 259 yards and three TDs against Texas while at BYU in 2013. The Longhorns defensive coordinator Manny Diaz was fired after the 40-21 shellacking the Longhorns took.