How should Ohio State football fans feel about Tate Martell’s decision to transfer again? Buckeye Talk

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Two years after transferring from Ohio State football, Tate Martell is in the transfer portal again.

The four-star recruit whose personalities often outshined his on-field performance spent two years with the Buckeyes in a reserve role before heading to Miami (Fl.), but he didn’t leave quietly. He left a series of subtweets and declarations that Justin Fields’ arrival didn’t faze him in his fight to succeed to Dwayne Haskins on his way out the door.

His time in South Beach didn’t bring much success either. In two seasons, he saw action in three games throwing a seven-yard pass while running for another seven yards in as many rushing attempts. The idea of him switching to wide receiver was thrown out there but never sufficed into playing time.

Now he’s on the move again, looking for an opportunity to once again play the game that afforded him three high school national titles at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas and potentially rehabbing his image.

There’s a love-hate relationship between Martell and the public. His name is still a search engine gold mine, even if his production doesn’t warrant that level of notoriety.

As a player, his style of quarterback play meshed with the offense he signed up to play for at Ohio State. But that possible went out the door the moment the Buckeyes lost to Clemson 31-0 in the Fiesta Bowl in 2016. Within weeks Martell’s position coach Tim Beck was fired and replaced with Ryan Day setting up the OSU offense and program we’ve come to know today. He became a relic as a run-first quarterback.

As a person, his antics were only entertaining as long as the production matched that.

In less than 12 months, Ohio State watched two players from its 2017 four-man quarterback room leave for schools south of the Mason–Dixon line. Joe Burrow turned that decision into a Heisman Trophy and a No. 1 NFL Draft pick, all while having the love from two college football fanbases behind him. Martell is the other extreme of that.

Stephen Means, Nathan Baird and Doug Lesmerises discuss college football’s most interesting man, Tate Martell on this Saturday episode of Buckeye Talk.

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