Formidable Freshman: Gators OL Ivey Ahead of Game
Thursday, October 29, 2015 | Football, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- From his place on the Apopka High sidelines, offensive line coach James Delgado saw his prized player go down and stay down. The kid always got up. This time, he didn't. Delgado, at least for a moment, feared the worst.
Martez Ivey was grabbing his knee.
Delgado ran onto the field with the training staff. But before anyone could even get a hand on Ivey's knee, the big tackle was brushing them off, pulling himself off the turf and hobbling to the sideline.
He stayed there one play and walked the soreness off by returning to the huddle.
“His first play back out there was a running play where he had to pull -- and he absolutely obliterated his guy,” Delgado said, recalling that night from the 2014 season. “This was one play after we thought 'Tez might be done for the night. Maybe more.”
When the coaches back in Apopka heard in August that Ivey, the Florida true freshman, had to have knee surgery, they took it in stride. A setback worthy of a shoulder shrug. No one wants to have surgery, even the simple arthroscopic versions these days, but their thinking had less to do with the procedure and more to do with the patient.
The Martez Ivey they know -- the one who's only been out of high school five months and already is one of the Gators' best offensive linemen -- was going to be there when it mattered.
Now, he's a fixture in the Florida offense. His new position coach, 36-year coaching veteran Mike Summers, put Ivey's rookie progress this way.
“I've never had a freshman be able to do what he's done,” Summers said.
On Saturday, the 6-foot-5, 302-pound Ivey will start at left guard when the No. 11 Gators (6-1, 4-1) face Southeastern Conference rival Georgia (5-2, 3-2) with serious East Division ramifications on the line. Ivey's collegiate debut came at left tackle last month, where he mostly alternated possessions with sophomore David Sharpe before UF settled on Ivey moving inside, trading the sexier tackle spot for the grueling guard position. He played there every snap at LSU, making him the 25th true freshman offensive lineman to start for the Gators since 2000.
“Here's what I like about him: 'Coach, what can I do to help this football team?' ” gushed UF head coach Jim McElwain. “Let's talk about giving of yourself for the benefit of others. It's not saying, 'I've got to be a tackle.' It's saying, 'Put me in, Coach, wherever you want me because I'm going to help this team get better.' And that's why I love him.”
That and the tape he's produced to date. The moment, so far, has not been too big for Ivey. Not even close.
“I'm glad he's a Gator because that guy is a big-time ballplayer,” McElwain said.
As a UF freshman, Ivey is not permitted to speak to the media, so how his transition from marquee prep prospect to not-so-wide-eyed rookie cannot be chronicled from his perspective.
Others can talk about him, though.
- Senior guard/center Trip Thurman: “You have to have a lot of maturity as a freshman just to get the playbook down, much less play -- and then start. He has the will and want-to to get on the field. Coming in as a linemen, as a freshman, it's pretty much set; you're going to redshirt. Especially in the SEC. But he has the tools, both mentally and physically, and we're seeing them.”
- Sophomore defensive end Jordan Sherit: “We saw him coming along big time during camp, but what impressed me more than anything was when he went down with an injury and was back so soon [three weeks after surgery] without missing a step. That's a testament to him and his work ethic and preparation. ... He comes every day looking forward to getting better. I go against him every practice. Some guys, sometimes you can sense that maybe they don't want to practice real hard that day. But THIS guy? I love working against him because I'm going to get his best -- 100 percent -- every day.”
- More from Summers: “He's not a loud kid at all, but he is passionate. He plays to the whistle. He'll ask questions and is always willing to do what is asked of him. If we asked him to go play wide out, he'd run out there, get in a stance and run a route.”
The Gators haven't done that yet.
More than likely, the focus with Ivey -- and the rest of the offensive line of late -- is finding ways to get more production from a rushing attack that has failed to hit 100 yards in two of the previous three games (just 55 yards on 31 attempts in the loss at LSU) and now ranks 12th in SEC play at just 99.4 yards per game.
Last year, Florida brutalized the Bulldogs on the ground, flattening them for 418 rushing yards on 60 carries (UF only attempted six passes) on the way to a 38-20 blowout win, the Gators' first in the series since 2010. Kelvin Taylor had 197 yards and two touchdowns. Matt Jones another 192 and two scores. That UF line, however, featured four players -- D.J. Humphries and Chaz Green at tackle, Max Garcia at center, Trenton Brown at guard -- who were taken in the NFL draft.
The current UF line, incredibly short on experience heading into the season, has been pretty steady, with the same core of six to seven players in the rotation, but Ivey's availability in Week 3 gave Summers some options. For now (and likely through the end of the season, barring an injury), Ivey is a guard because that's where they need him.
“A lot of highly recruited guys come in here thinking, 'Well, I'm a five-star player. I should be playing immediately.' That's not how it works. That's not reality,” Thurman said. “You have to put in the time, the effort and the work to get out there. Martez has done that, but he's also come to me and talked about how to react to things that happen on the field. In the meetings, he's paying attention and locking down his assignments. Not all guys do that -- especially freshmen.”
None of the UF praise surprises the folks back in Apopka, where Ivey was the lynchpin and mostly quiet leader for the Blue Darters program. He started on the freshman team in 2011, but once its season ended he was promoted to varsity and was made an instant starter.
Over Ivey's final three seasons, Apopka played in three state championship games and won two of them.
“When the best players on your team are the best people and the hardest workers, you're going to be successful,” Apopka coach Rick Darlington said. “That's what we had with 'Tez. Sometimes, he'd block guys like that scene from 'The Blind Side,' just taking 'em completely out of the play, out of the field.”
Apopka High has cranked out the likes of Sammie Smith, Warren Sapp, Aaron Jones and Brandon Meriweather over the years. Ivey's career as a Darter was every bit as decorated. He was a Parade, U.S. Army and Max Preps All-American, plus a two-time Class 8A all-state selection.
Ivey's impact on the program far exceeded his countless pancake blocks.
Just over a year ago, Apopka was in a crazy shootout with Edgewater. After the Darters took a two-point lead with 33 seconds to go, Delgado and Ivey were embracing and smiling on the sidelines only to watch as Edgewater hit a fluky 45-yard touchdown as time expired to win 46-42, dropping the Darters to 5-4 on the season.
Note: A year earlier, Apopka had defeated Edgewater 70-0.
“He was in complete shock,” Delgado said.
The two walked to the bus together when Ivey, tears in his eyes, stopped his line coach.
“I'm so tired of losing, Coach. There's no reason for it. We're not losing anymore.”
Ivey got on the bus and echoed those sentiments to his teammates.
“The emotion, the passion, the tears, it was all real -- and we didn't lose again,” Delgado said. “That's just the kind of cat he is. He is so special. For me to sit here and say I'll coach a bunch of guys like him again would be a lie. His demeanor, his talent, it just all came together. I wasn't always the nicest offensive line coach, and I was harder on him than most guys. But he never backed down.”
He won't back down now. The kid is just getting started.
In time, Martez Ivey will be allowed to add words and context to a story that is only just beginning. In the interim, we'll take everyone else's word for it.
And what he does on Saturdays.
“I never talk a lot about what I think our players are going to do or make predictions about which guys are going to the NFL. In high school, for me, it's just hard to envision a guy in the NFL,” Darlington said. “But it was always different with 'Tez. I'm quite sure he'll be an NFL player. Maybe even one of the first picks in the draft.”
For now, Darlington likes Ivey right where he is. So do the Gators.
