Miami Football: Meet Hurricanes’ newest receiver Tate Martell

It seems as if Tate Martell is staying put, for now. Is this a permanent transition to receiver with Miami football? If not, what’s next for the sophomore?

Optics are the way in which an event or course of action is perceived by the public. Tate Martell should be very familiar with this term.

Whether it be his old “Twitter beef” with Nick Starkel when a friend of the former Texas A&M quarterback tried to flip Martell to Oregon over Texas A&M, or the highly ironic tweets he sent to Justin Fields when it became public he was considering Ohio State as a possible destination after transferring from Georgia. The first made Martell look arrogant, insecure and immature and the second made him look as if he was ready to compete and ultimately beat out Fields for the starting job in Columbus.

According to an ESPN article, he was told by the coaching staff to look for another school at the end of the 2018 season. If that was the case, why the tweets to Fields?

Those tweets made Martell look like a trash talking gas-bag without the guts to prove the staff wrong. He didn’t walk into the coaches office like Baker Mayfield and declare that he would be the next starting quarterback.

Optics — expect heat when something goes wrong

So Martell decides to take his talents to South Beach, and play for the Hurricanes. It was a good choice. New head coach Manny Diaz wasn’t sure who would start at quarterback since Malik Rosier was done. N’Kosi Perry has talent, but his maturity is in question, and Jarren Williams was highly touted, but unproven.

So Martell could come in and start, except he didn’t.

When Williams was named the starting quarterback for the Hurricanes it broke college Twitter and he became the target of many jokes including the clap-back he received for the tweet he sent Fields. He created the heat and deserved every bit of it for his behavior.

Martell doesn’t show up for practice after losing QB1 job and that means?

Martell decides to stay. In the first article I wrote about this situation staying was the best option, but I didn’t think he would. Not only does it seem as if he’s staying, but he’s even going to try a new position: wide receiver.

Is the move permanent? Probably not since both Perry and Williams have question marks and receiver is probably their deepest position on offense. He’s still competing with Perry for the backup job behind Williams as well.

Here’s what experimenting with receiver does for Martell: It makes him look like a team player willing to do anything to help his team win and support Williams. Maybe, just maybe, he’s gotten the gist of the word optics after all.