Michigan Football: Addressing the Oliver Martin transfer rumors

Starting Thursday, there was chatter about Oliver Martin wanting to transfer from Michigan football but here’s a look at the situation.

Transfers have been a regular thing for Michigan football this spring, as players start to see the writing on the wall that they will never play for the Wolverines.

That’s not the case with every transfer of course. But, Brandon Peters knew he wasn’t going to start at quarterback for Michigan football, so why not move on? There are other kinds of transfers too, the kind that doesn’t really make sense and Aubrey Solomon probably falls into that category.

The former five-star recruit transferred to Tennessee and it’s not really clear why. Either way, a talented player left the program and last Thursday, rumors of another potential transfer started to take shape and those concerned Oliver Martin.

Of course, not all rumors are baseless and this one doesn’t seem to be either. While you shouldn’t follow James Yoder, who put this out on Twitter Saturday, it seems Martin was unhappy. It just didn’t come from Yoder because, among other reasons, the University of Michigan has called him a fraud and told players and parents not to speak with him for their own protection. This was done in a letter published by the communications department months ago.

With this particular rumor, there was some truth to it, it just wasn’t Yoder who had the scoop. On the message boards of the Michigan Insider, Sam Webb, a trusted source for Michigan fans, said the Martin did not return to Ann Arbor at the same time with other players. Webb claims that Martin could be worried about playing time. Those are the bullet points but you can read yourself here ($). 

And since Martin is from Iowa City, Iowa, there was rampant speculation that he would consider transferring to the Hawkeyes, who would certainly love to have the former four-star wideout that was ranked 29th among wide receivers coming out of high school.

It’s possible that Martin is concerned about playing time and behind guys like Donovan Peoples-Jones, Tarik Black and Nico Collins there aren’t a lot of receptions to go around. Then you add in guys like freshman Mike Sainristil, rising sophomore Ronnie Bell and other freshmen pass catchers such as Giles Jackson, Erick All and Cornelius Johnson and it’s a loaded depth chart.

After not playing in 2017, Martin caught 11 passes for 125 yards and caught a touchdown against Rutgers. The potential is there for increased production, especially in Gattis’ system which emphasizes speed in space, however, in spring, Sainristil had already pushed past Martin.

Yet, if Martin is patient, he could be in line for plenty of playing time down the road. Collins, Black and Peoples-Jones could all be gone to the NFL after this season or at least two of them. That would leave the door wide open for Martin if he can maintain himself among the top five or six wide receivers.

That won’t be easy to do. But after Gattis sent out a tweet of his wide receivers eating at a restaurant, with Martin seated among them, it dampened down the transfer talk.

At the very least, he is back with the team and while he may want to sit down with coaches and discuss his future, the idea that a transfer is imminent is just not true.