Quinton Martin wasn’t happy.
He didn’t come to Penn State to sit on the bench.
It was one thing to sit behind Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton for two years.
Those are two of the best backs in Penn State history. So nobody was going to threaten them, and Martin understood that.
This year, Martin was supposed to have a bigger role. The combination of Singleton and Allen being gone and Martin being in his third year made it seem like a logical next step. But when Penn State played at Temple Week 2, Martin didn’t play a single snap.
So this left Martin with two choices.
He could have pouted and hurt his standing with the Penn State coaching staff.
Or he could have worked.
He worked.
That work got him on the field against Buffalo Saturday, and Martin made the most of his opportunities, going for 100 yards on 10 carries.
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Afterward, Martin reflected on Temple and broke down why Buffalo was different.
“It was definitely frustrating,” Martin said. “You know, I want to be out there helping my team win in the best way that I can. But at the end of the day, I trust my coach’s decision. You know, all I can control is how I practice, how I prep, and how I handle adversity.”
Martin’s improvement on the practice field post-Temple was evident to his head coach.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.“I think if you ask Q,” Matt Campbell said, “Q would tell you maybe one of his best weeks of practice, and I think he took that into the ability to execute at a really high rate on the football field. I think that would be my beginning piece of it.”
We did ask Q, and Q echoed the sentiment.
“Yes, I definitely did, (practice well),” he said. “I mean, I took last week as a bit of a motivation, so I definitely feel like I practiced well.”
So what specifically did Martin do differently after the Temple game?
“I feel like I definitely could be a lot more urgent,” Martin said, “because coaches seen what I could do throughout spring ball, throughout fall camp, and just they just thought that I wasn’t living up to the expectations of what I could be. So, I just feel like just hustling, giving everything I ever play, and you know. So Monday would change or Tuesday. Tuesday would change. Just extra meetings, getting on the judge’s machine, doing more. You know, because obsession is going to beat talent every time. You got to be obsessed with this to get somewhere.”
Martin also leaned on his support system, calling his parents during the week.
This helped him get in the right mindset to impress his quarterback on the practice field.
“I think his his ability to keep his head down, continue to go go the work, don’t listen to the outside noise, continue to be a great person in that running back room, a great leader, and a great teammate,” Rocco Becht said. “And he, you know, like you said, had a great week of practice and showed it today.”
Becht was running right along side Martin during the signature play of his day, a 61-yards run that was almost a touchdown.
Martin didn’t score a touchdown Saturday, but he made his mark.
For him, the big takeaway from all of this was to never “leave anything in the gray area.”
“If you want it enough,” Martin said, “you got to go out there and chase it, no matter what. No matter what you got to do.”
