ok, is this our next Larry Allen OG of the future? Matt Martin?

[cowboyjoe]

Wagner still smarting after opening-weekend loss
by Jim Waggoner
Wednesday September 09, 2009, 9:42 AM

Matt Martin was a pre-season All-Northeast Conference first team selection. (Photo by David Saffran)Wagner College's season-opening 45-42 loss to Stonehill last weekend was like a punch to the stomach.

Or so it seemed to fifth-year senior Matt Martin, the team's 6-foot-4, 315-pound right offensive guard.

"Nobody likes to lose ... nobody wants to walk off the field feeling like that," said Martin. "It was real disheartening, real disappointing.

"But we have no choice but to fight back and play even harder. We did some good things and I think we played with heart, but we made too many mistakes, myself included.

"We'll stick together and I believe we can get a winning streak going."

The 0-1 Seahawks get that chance tomorrow night at 1-0 SUNY-Maritime, a NCAA Division III opponent, in a 7 p.m. non-conference game.

By the way, it wouldn't be advisable to punch Martin in the stomach any time soon.

The massive lineman has built a reputation as a player with "a rare blend of size, strength and agility," as the school's publicity department describes it.

Martin's strength and weight-lifting numbers have even caught the attention of NFL scouts, who have been sniffing around the Grymes Hill campus for game film.

"He's a big, strong kid with quick feet," said 29th-year head coach Walt Hameline. "He has good size and he's experienced, and probably his best asset is that he's a great athlete."

Martin can dunk a basketball, a sport he played at Pennsauken (N.J.) High School. He also excelled on the track and field team in the shot put and discus.

But Martin has also been injury-prone.

Knee and ankle problems put him on the shelf early last season, and he decided to redshirt and return for a final year of eligibility while beginning work on a master's degree in finance.

The Seahawks are glad he's healthy and playing again.

"We're so much better with him on the field," offensive coordinator Jim Gibbons told the Advance last month. "He's so physical he can engulf a defensive lineman."

Martin and Hameline have cultivated a close relationship over the years.

"(Hameline) gave me a chance when a lot of people wouldn't coming out of high school," said Martin. "He took the time to get to know me and my family and that means a lot.

"Wagner College has been a very good experience. If the purpose of college is to help you grow up and discover the person you'll be in the real world, then I'd say I made a good choice. I think Wagner has been a good place for me in that regard."

Said Hameline: "At the end of the day, my job is to win football games. Winning football games is what it's all about. I think we can get better. We have to get better.

"It's easy when you win. Losing is a real test. But I've been around long enough to be able to take a half-step back and realize that we're developing young people and that their lives are still ahead of them."

Martin said he doesn't put much stock in individual honors. He was named an All-Northeast Conference preseason first-team selection by Phil Steele's College Football Preview.

"I want a conference championship ring," he said. "If you win, everybody's happy. I just want to win."

 

[cowboyjoe]

Seahawk Gridders Matt Martin and Stefen Gage Named to Phil Steele's 2009 Preseason All-NEC Team

Stefen GageEmail to a Friend | Print
7/20/2009 1:43:05 PM
Staten Island, NY – Senior offensive lineman Matthew Martin (Pennsauken, NJ/Pennsauken) and junior safety Stefen Gage (Syracuse, NY/Henninger) have been named to Phil Steele’s 2009 Preseason All-NEC Team.

Phil Steele’s College Football Preview is one of the nation’s most informativ

Matt Martine preseason football magazines and annually selects preseason FCS All-Conference and preseason FCS All-American teams.

The 6-4, 315-pound Martin, who was named to Phil Steele’s Preseason All-NEC First-Team, has been a mainstay on the Seahawk offensive line since his arrival on Grymes Hill in 2005. He has seen action in 30 games during his time at Wagner, playing both the offensive tackle and guard positions. Martin possesses excellent feet with a rare blend of size, strength and agility. An early season leg injury in 2008 sidelined him for the remainder of the season and he will be competing in 2009 as a fifth-year senior.

Gage was named to Phil Steele’s Preseason All-NEC Second-Team. He is coming off a breakout season in 2008 where he finishing second on the team in tackles with 95, with a team-best 42 solo stops and 53 assisted tackles. The 6-0, 185-pound Gage also recorded 4.5 tackles for loss for minus 14 yards, three pass breakups, three forced fumbles, one sack and one interception. Gage was also a mainstay on special teams where he was a gunner on the punt coverage team.

The Seahawks will open the 2009 campaign with a home game vs. Stonehill College on Sat, Sept. 5 in a 1:00 pm kickoff.

Wagner College veterans ready to rebound in '09
by Jack Minogue
Saturday August 22, 2009, 10:48 AM

Wagner College defensive back Tavares Lee has been making tackles for the Seahawks for several seasons. (Staten Island Advance file photo by Hilton Flores)To say that Matt Martin, Tavares Lee and Joe Harkins have turned a negative into a positive is an understatement. Negative doesn't do justice to Lee's and Martin's mental state last fall when injuries apparently wiped out their senior seasons at Wagner College.

For Harkins, it was only slightly less trying. He had worked his butt off after his freshman year -- he could squat 600-plus pounds -- and was set to start at defensive tackle when a fractured ankle wiped out his sophomore season.

"It was tough coping," the 6-foot-1, 275-pound redshirt senior tackle said as the team put finishing touches on preparations for tomorrow's annual Green and White intrasquad scrimmage.

"Mentally, I was so devastated. All I could do was work out in the weight room and watch film. I couldn't even travel with the team," Martin echoed Harkins.

"It was very tough," said the 6-4, 315-pounder who was considered the Seahawks' best offensive lineman going into the 2008 season -- until he suffered knee (meniscus) and ankle injuries. "Injuries do happen, but watching so many talented people go down."

"One of the hardest things I ever had to go through," added Lee. The 5-10, 190-pounder was a starter in the Seahawk secondary until he suffered a torn labrum. "Watching the guys I came into Wagner with -- the greatest bunch I ever played with -- watching them struggle was really tough."

Martin and Lee were referring to the 2008 team's rash of injuries which, at times, seemed to have more starters on the sidelines than on the field and which was a major factor in the Seahawks' 3-8 record, the worst in coach Walt Hameline's 28 seasons.

All three are being counted upon to play major roles as the Seahawks seek to turn things around.

"(Martin) is a staple," offensive coordinator Jim Gibbons said. "We're so much better with him on the field. He's big, physical and athletic. He can engulf a defensive lineman and with his quick feet, he can get to the second level."

"Harkins is one of the best defensive linemen in the league," defensive coordinator Mark Collins said. "I still don't know why Joe wasn't all-NEC after last season. He's an impact player and will give us something we desperately need: A steady anchor in the middle."

"(Lee) works, works, works," Collins said. "We missed his presence last season. We're counting on him for his leadership and his smarts.

"Testimony to his value -- and Matt's and Joe's -- is that we brought them back," Collins said.

The positive, though, is not simply Wagner's having them for the upcoming season, but how all three have put an emphasis in the right place of the term student-athlete.

The missed football season was never confused with the academic year.

All three have their bachelor's degrees, Harkins and Lee in business management and Martin in information systems.

And, the missed season has given them an opportunity which they likely would not have had without football's financial aid.

"Probably not," Lee said. "I would have had a very hard time staying here for my masters."

"Probably not," Martin said. "At least I'm getting some good out of missing last season."

"No way," Harkins said. "The injury turned out to be a blessing in disguise."

A negative has become a positive only because all three realized that student comes before athlete.

 

[BAT]

Joe, Martin is big for a NEC player but he is only average for his position (OG) in the NFL (about the same size as our center, Gurode). He looks like a good sleeper pick albeit w/some knee issues but calling him the next Larry Allen (a future HOF w/freakish strength, speed & agility for his size) is slightly premature.

 

[cowboyjoe]

Joe, Martin is big for a NEC player but he is only average for his position (OG) in the NFL (about the same size as our center, Gurode). He looks like a good sleeper pick albeit w/some knee issues but calling him the next Larry Allen (a future HOF w/freakish strength, speed & agility for his size) is slightly premature.

didnt mean to say i was actually saying this is the next larrry allen,
i was trying to ask if anyone from that area knows him or seen him play if he is any good

i did see this about him though; kinda reminds me of when i read about leon lett his rookie year and his draft report;

The massive lineman has built a reputation as a player with "a rare blend of size, strength and agility," as the school's publicity department describes it.

Martin's strength and weight-lifting numbers have even caught the attention of NFL scouts, who have been sniffing around the Grymes Hill campus for game film.

"He's a big, strong kid with quick feet," said 29th-year head coach Walt Hameline. "He has good size and he's experienced, and probably his best asset is that he's a great athlete."

Martin can dunk a basketball, a sport he played at Pennsauken (N.J.) High School. He also excelled on the track and field team in the shot put and discus.

But Martin has also been injury-prone.

Knee and ankle problems put him on the shelf early last season, and he decided to redshirt and return for a final year of eligibility while beginning work on a master's degree in finance.

The 6-4, 315-pound Martin, who was named to Phil Steele’s Preseason All-NEC First-Team, has been a mainstay on the Seahawk offensive line since his arrival on Grymes Hill in 2005. He has seen action in 30 games during his time at Wagner, playing both the offensive tackle and guard positions. Martin possesses excellent feet with a rare blend of size, strength and agility. An early season leg injury in 2008 sidelined him for the remainder of the season and he will be competing in 2009 as a fifth-year senior.

Martin) is a staple," offensive coordinator Jim Gibbons said. "We're so much better with him on the field. He's big, physical and athletic. He can engulf a defensive lineman and with his quick feet, he can get to the second level."

 

[Big Dakota]

I can't find the dude on any of the draft sites i go to with eary 2010 prospects.

 

[silverbear]

ROTFLMAO... joe, joe, joe...

With you EVERY college guard is "our next Larry Allen"...

Get back to me when you find an OG who goes 325 pounds, bench presses 700 pounds, runs the 40 in under 5.0 seconds and can play OT at a Pro Bowl level too, and then I MIGHT be willing to ponder if he's the next Larry Allen...

Until then, all these comparisons do a great disservice to arguably the best offensive lineman who ever played the game...

 

[Future]

The massive lineman has built a reputation as a player with "a rare blend of size, strength and agility," as the school's publicity department describes it.

Every school's publicity department says that. What else would they put...this fatty can move?

 

[Sarge]

There will most likely never be another Larry Allen. Anything close is a bonus. He was the best of all time at his position.