Inside The Huskies

Jeremiah Martin Receives Pac-12 Defensive Lineman of the Week Honors

The edge rusher becomes the fifth UW player lauded by the conference.
Dan Raley|
Jeremiah Martin Receives Pac-12 Defensive Lineman of the Week Honors
Jeremiah Martin Receives Pac-12 Defensive Lineman of the Week Honors

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Washington Huskies

Football insiders like to say the difference between the powerful SEC and the rest of college football is the monsters up front on the defensive line. They disrupt things like no one else does.

Well, the University of Washington has a former SEC defender in one-time Texas A&M edge rusher Jeremiah Martin who is showing himself more and more to fit those game-changing dimensions.

On Monday, the 6-foot-4, 267-pound Martin was named Pac-12 Defensive Lineman of the Week for his fearsome play against Arizona that included a team-leading 9 tackles and 2 sacks in the 49-39 victory.

"The best thing about Jeremiah is seeing him continue to work day in and day out," UW co-defensive coordinator William Inge said. "The one thing we tell our guys is just continue to stay on course because you don't know exactly when your play is going to come to you. ... This was a game where Jeremiah was rewarded."

Not only did he prove to be a defensive mainstay for the Huskies, he shifted to the other side of the line and provided blocking for running back Cam Davis' second-quarter 1-yard touchdown run against the Wildcats. He also pulled his normal shifts on special teams.

Add to that, Martin became a father for the second time, just two days before the UW-Arizona game, with him and his girlfriend welcoming a boy into the world.

Martin becomes the fifth UW player to win some sort of Pac-12 weekly honor, joining quarterback Michael Penix Jr., then offensive guard Troy Fautanu and wide receiver Ja'Lynn Polk, who were selected Offensive, Offensive Lineman and Freshman Player of the Week, respectively, after the Huskies beat Michigan State; and kicker Peyton Henry, who was named Special-Teams Player of the Week after the win over Stanford.

Martin, a fifth-year player, has piled up 26 tackles for the Huskies this season, plus 5.5 tackles for loss, 5 sacks, 2 quarterback hurries and a forced fumble. 

He pulled snaps on the offensive side for the first time against Arizona after manhandling the Husky offensive linemen so many times in practice, becoming that rare two-way player.

"I said, 'I want him,' " UW offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb said. "I've seen him push our guys the wrong way too many times. I said, 'Why don't you go do that to one of [the opponents].' "

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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