Tate Martell to walk on UNLV football team

Former Bishop Gorman star quarterback Tate Martell will play football at UNLV this season.

Martell announced his decision commitment through an interview with Franchise Sports Media. A person with knowledge of the situation said that he’s walking on to the team as an “athlete,” though the 23-year-old told Franchise Sports Media that he had other opportunities to play elsewhere on scholarship.

“Honestly, this is where I want to be and who I want to play for,” Martell told Franchise Sports Media. “UNLV checked off all the boxes for me on and off of the field. But I just want to come in, grind and compete. Just put my head down and work and be a leader and a person Coach (Marcus) Arroyo, the coaching staff, and my teammates can trust and count on.”

Martell guided the Gaels to three consecutive mythical national championships and concluded his high school career in 2016 with one of the most impressive resumes in prep football history. He committed verbally to Washington and Texas A&M before signing with Ohio State as one of the top quarterback recruits in the class of 2017.

He redshirted in 2017 and backed up future NFL quarterback Dwayne Haskins the following season. He transferred to Miami in 2019 and played sparingly behind quaterbacks Jarren Williams and N’Kosi Perry.

He did not play in 2020.

Martell comes to UNLV having thrown 29 passes in his collegiate career. The Rebels have quarterbacks Doug Brumfield, Justin Rogers and Cameron Friel on their roster.

“They’ve done a really nice job of owning the fact that they’ve got to go out and do some dark-hour stuff. That’s what the quarterback position demands,” Arroyo said last week at Mountain West media days. “I think we’ll be closer to where we want to be fitting the offense that we do instead of just trying to tailor it around whoever we had. … Now we get to get back to kind of being our philosophical self on offense.”

Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.