No Changing at Guard

By: Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - We're talking beards with Wes Martin.

He's a big guy with a big football game and the kind of fertile facial hair normally found in a Game of Thrones episode or a fear-the-beard contest.

Would you expect anything less from a guy whose mountain-man preference might one day – after a hoped-for shot at the NFL – produce a wildlife officer career?

Martin stands inside the Mellencamp Pavilion, hands clutching the chest area of his No.76 Indiana football jersey in investment banker mode, contemplating his shaving preference, which at this moment is basically, why bother.

"I probably started growing it in mid-February," he says. "It usually comes in pretty well. I'll probably let it grow until the summer months roll around, and it gets hot. The beard is not great in the heat. We'll see."

He pauses to consider his shaving options.

"I'm going to try to let it keep rolling. It could be a while.

"I usually never let it stay too short. I go on month-and-a-half rotations. During the season, I'll let it get pretty full. I might let this go. It's coming in pretty well. As I get older, I get better at lining it up. It looks cleaner."

Offensive coordinator Mike DeBord appreciates a good beard – he has one himself -- although he favors the senior guard's leadership and blocking skills more.

"Since I'm growing (a beard), I like it even more," DeBord says. "He got a little bit of a head start, but I'm catching up."

Martin is listed at 6-3 and 316 pounds, and puts it to very good use. Last year he didn't allow a sack in 569 pass-blocking snaps, and earned honorable mention All-Big Ten honors.

This season it's more of the season – just two sacks allowed in six games (450 snaps), four of them Hoosier victories.

How hard is it to allow just two sacks in 18 games?

"It's extremely challenging," Martin says. "There are a lot of different blitzes that come at you. A lot of moves and stunts and extremely skilled guys who are trying to get to the quarterback."

Martin has been up to the task -- with a little help.

"There were a couple of plays where my quarterback helped me by stepping up in the pocket and rolling out. I've got to give some love to him.

"It's not an easy task. A lot goes into it."

No matter how well pass protection goes, Martin adds, it can't match the be-more-man-than-the-other-guy thrill of going all smash-mouth against opposing teams.

"If you're an O-line guy, you love pounding the rock," Martin says. "That's what we take pride in the most. When you rush for a big game, there's nothing more exciting for an O-lineman.

"Yeah, we love seeing big throwing numbers because we (held) up the pocket well, but there's nothing better than seeing a big number of rushing yards."

No Hoosier takes more advantage of IU's state-of-the-art strength-training opportunities than Martin. And now that defensive lineman Nate Hoff has graduated, he holds the unofficial title of strongest Hoosier.

For the record, he bench presses 525 pounds and hang cleans 425 pounds.

"Since Nate is gone, I'd say I am (the strongest)," Martin says. "I take a lot of pride in it.
"It's something I've been good at through the years. In a lot of areas, you see it translate on the field. Obviously playing football is different than lifting weights, but a lot of things carry over.

"The weight room is an awesome place for me. It's somewhere I like to get after it and put up big numbers.

"I'm just a big weight-room guy."

He has been, he adds, "for quite a while."

"As soon as I got old enough to structurally handle a good amount of weight, I've been into it. I spend hours doing it."

Martin spends enough weight-lifting hours to consider a professional career in power lifting if football doesn't work out.

"I've thought about it. I'm not ruling it out. We'll see how long and how far football can go. That's a dream to keep playing football. Otherwise, I might try it."

For now the focus is on having the best possible final college season.

"I would say the key for me is to keep working on consistency," he says. "Getting that good pop off the ball every snap.

"I have certain plays I'm better at. That's pretty normal for most offensive linemen. Just bringing up my level on plays that I'm good at, but not great at, to where it becomes plays that I'm really good at."

Martin's drive for excellence includes the classroom. He's a three-time academic All-Big Ten selection as a criminal justice major and a recreation minor that reflects his Wes Milton, Ohio, upbringing and do-the-right-thing mentality.

"I grew up hunting and fishing," he says. "I thought it would be interesting to be a wildlife officer like a game warden."

He's also a semifinalist for the National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete Award, presented annually to honor scholar-athletes with postgraduate scholarships based on their athletic, academic and leadership abilities.

"It's been tough through the years staying consistent with it," Martin says about his academic success.

"When I was a freshman in high school, I didn't do well in grades, so I had to catch up my last three years.

"Coming into my college freshman year, I wanted to jump into a hot start in academics, which I did. Then it was about staying in consistent form there."

Mission accomplished.

"It's having to train myself to be mentally tough enough to stay on my studies," Martin adds.

Martin, who has played in 44 career games with 37 starts, arrived after an all-state career at Milton-Union High School in Ohio, a program that also produced former Hoosier Mitchell Evans, who played quarterback, receiver and safety from 2007 to 2010.

Martin is the latest in a recent run of Indiana offensive line standouts, including a pair of former All-Americans now in the NFL in Jason Spriggs (Green Bay Packers) and Dan Feeney (Los Angeles Chargers).

The next step for Martin, head coach Tom Allen says, is to provide even better leadership, a challenge given Martin earned team captain distinction last season.

"The leadership is a big part," Allen says. "I'm so proud of him for that.

"When as a coach you pull guys aside, they all comment about how great a leader he is. He knows when to speak. He's not a loud guy who takes over the team verbally, but it's the one-on-one talks he does, it's the pulling a guy aside and saying the right thing at the right time in the right tone.

"Because he's mature and has been around so long, he understands what needs to be done."

Beyond that, Allen says, "It's about his play -- he continues to perform at a high level; he continues to get stronger. Our strength staff has been super impressed with him. You look at all that combined, and at the end of the day, it's about him becoming a better leader, which we really need from him."

What does DeBord want from Martin the rest of the way?

"Just to be Wes Martin. He's a great leader. He brings it every day. He's a very disciplined player. A strong player. Just to be Wes Martin. Nothing more."

The ultimate goal is to help deliver IU's first winning record since 2007. With a 4-2 record, the Hoosiers need two more victories to become bowl eligible for the third time in four seasons, three more wins to clinch their first winning record since 2007.

That tops Martin's wish list, and it won't happen without a lot of work from a lot of people.

"We have to get young guys to develop in the weight room, with film study and on the field," he says. "It's the fundamentals. That's pretty much always the key. You have to get young guys elevated to the level they have to be at to handle the highest level of college football."

Is he confident the Hoosiers will do what needs to be done?

"Absolutely. I strongly believe our young guys will rise to that challenge and our old guys will set the standard extremely high."

If they do, Martin might even celebrate with a shave.

Players Mentioned

Nate Hoff

Wes Martin

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