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SALT LAKE CITY — When opposing players line up against Utah’s defense, it’s hard to ignore the pair of red eyes peering out at them from behind the face mask of senior linebacker Matt Martinez.
The second-year starter, who wears red-tinted lenses to help with his vision, was certainly locked-in on the opposition last season. He finished second on the team with 91 stops and had 5.5 tackles for loss in 2010. As a result, he earned honorable mention all-Mountain West Conference recognition.
A one-time walk-on from Murray, Utah, Martinez’s path to being a Divi. I football player began with a simple question from his mom.
“I guess I was a little bit of a hell-raiser as a kid,” Martinez said. “My mom came home one day and said, ‘Hey, do you want to play football?’ Some guy she worked with was coaching a team, so I went over to where they played at Granite High School.”
- Position: Linebacker
- Height: 6'0"
- Weight: 225 lbs
- Birthplace: Murray, Utah
- School: Cottonwood HS
- Year: Senior
“When I started my helmet could turn all the way around,” Martinez laughed. “I didn’t really know what I was doing and we never won a game, but I just kept grinding through it. Scott Cate, the coach at Cottonwood High School, kind of raised me within football as a kid. He has been my mentor in football since I was little and it’s always been a great thing.”
When Martinez reached high school he was a standout not only in football, but wrestling as well, earning first-team all-state and all-region honors in both sports. His senior year, he had a 38-1 record on the mat to place second at the state championships.
Rather than wrestle for one of the smaller colleges that offered him a scholarship, Martinez, a lifelong Ute fan, decided to walk on to the football team at the U. He also wanted to stay near his mom with whom he is very close.
“In high school, I wrestled and I loved it and it was a big thing for me,” Martinez stated. “I had a really good senior year and talked to people at other colleges. I even took a couple recruiting trips, but decided that Utah was where I wanted to be. I love it here. I stayed home for my mom, too.
“The opportunity I’ve gotten here, with all these coaches and the things I’ve learned, is just unreal,” Martinez said. “Coach Whittingham’s hard-nosed mentality has been ingrained in me and I love it. If I’m a coach someday, I’d like to use the things I’ve learned from the coaches here — and it was a big learning curve from high school to college.
"Also, the community and fans here are always great. I mean, just winning game-in and game-out for all these years — I’ve been here six years — with all these great people I’ve met, and to see what they are doing now, is just amazing.”
After redshirting in 2006, Martinez experienced a setback after suffering a season-ending knee injury in the 2007 opener. The following year, he was dealt another blow when he tore his bicep after playing in only three games.
Martinez fully recovered from his injuries to play in 11 games in 2009, primarily being used on special teams. That year, in the season opener against Utah State, he blocked a punt out of the back of the end zone for a safety.
“Those injuries the first couple years hit me real hard,” Martinez said. “The ACL injury was definitely a major bump in the road. Then the Sugar Bowl year, when I tore my bicep off the tendon, I just didn’t know anymore. But it made me think a lot. It gave me a drive to stay healthy, allowing me to accomplish some of my goals.”
Martinez used a healthy 2009 season, which included five appearances at linebacker, to springboard himself into a starting job last season. In addition to being the team’s second-leading tackler, he experienced a couple of standout moments.
In Utah’s 56-14 win at New Mexico, Martinez picked off the Lobos’ quarterback and ran 36 yards for a touchdown. As Martinez recalls, the whole thing seemed surreal at the time.
“I honestly just ran to the bench afterward and didn’t even know what happened until about 10 minutes later,” he said. “It didn’t sink in at all. I just handed the ball to the ref, ran over to the bench and sat there. It just happened so fast, but it was fun.”
Then in the Utes’ final regular season game, a 17-16 victory over in-state rival BYU, Martinez had his second memorable moment from 2010.
“When we blocked BYU’s (last-second) field-goal attempt to win the game, it was really uplifting,” Martinez said. “I didn’t know what to think. That was really big.”
Martinez’s mother and stepfather have been regulars at his games, and all three of them are excited about Utah’s move to the Pac-12 Conference this season.
“To be honest, all of them," he said of the upcoming season. "Joining the Pac-12 is huge and it’s awesome. It’s going to be huge for our community, our school, and for everything that Utah represents in the years to come. I mean, it’s been a long time coming, and I think we deserve the attention we’re getting now. It’s just going to be great all-around.”
Andrea Wilson is a Utah athletics communications assistant.
