UW Roster Review, No. 2-99: Against Long Odds, Martineau Competes for Minutes

Chances are Jesse Martineau has never met Taylor Bean, never heard of him.

We'll make the introduction right here.

Bean should have a statue of him at Husky Stadium, at the very least a plaque.

He's the only walk-on quarterback in the past 34 seasons to throw a pass or run the football in a regulation University of Washington game.

In 2008, the 6-foot-1, 199-pound redshirt freshman from Vancouver, Washington, lofted 19 passes and completed 8, and rushed 5 times for 12 yards and a touchdown.

Bean did all of this without a scholarship at arguably the most important position on the field.

The caveat, of course, is those Huskies finished 0-12 — the worst record in school history — and a lot of people played who shouldn't have.

Before that, you have to go back to 1987 to find another UW walk-on quarterback who talked his way into a live huddle, Tarn Sublett.

Playing behind Chris Chandler and Cary Conklin, Sublett was a 5-foot-11, 167-pound senior from Lake Forest, Illinois, who completed 2 of 3 passes and ran 6 times for 26 yards.

Again, no one paid Sublett to take a snap, let it fly or tuck it under his arm and go.

Bean and Sublett have been immortalized for their perseverance, for their unlikely journey into the real thing on Saturdays, with thousands of Husky fans checking their programs to see who these guys were.

Which brings us to Martineau.

When spring football recently concluded, the 6-foot-1, 205-pound junior from Mountlake Terrace, Washington, was the Huskies' fifth-string quarterback.

He has three scholarship players in sophomore Dylan Morris, sixth-year senior Patrick O'Brien and freshman Sam Huard, plus a freshman walk-on, Cam Sirmon, ahead of him on the depth chart.

Often times this past month, Martineau didn't receive scrimmage reps, didn't even hang with the other QBs. Instead, he often summoned across the field to help another position group run a drill.

He grey-shirted in 2019 before reporting to the UW and getting in line behind Jacob Sirmon, Kevin Thomson, Ethan Garbers and Morris.

Martineau is a competitive guy, having started for three seasons at quarterback for Mountlake Terrace High in Seattle's northern suburbs and as a basketball and baseball player, too.

He wears No. 13, a jersey not heavily requested by prospective Husky quarterbacks. The last guy to start behind center wearing that number was Chris Rowland in 1975. The last quarterback to get on the field in that digit was Jake Haener in 2018 and he, of course, now plays for Fresno State.

Otherwise, walk-on quarterbacks over the past 50 years who have pulled on No. 13 include the unused Mike King, Wil Smith, Joe Deis, Ryan Porter and Kevin Kearney, each practicing but never receiving game time.

As for Taylor Bean, he wore No. 7 when he took his turns running the 2008 team on Saturdays and put his name in the record book for unlikely participation. Yet the following season, Bean switched to No. 13 for some unknown reason — and he never got on the field again and transferred.

Martineau's 2021 Outlook: Walk-on quarterback

UW Service Time: None

Stats: None

Individual Honors: None

Pro prospects: None

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