There was some head scratching when former Ohio State quarterback Tate Martell's name appeared in the NCAA transfer portal on Jan. 10. Less than two weeks before, Martell told reporters at the Rose Bowl's media day that he was "100 percent" confident he would be the Buckeyes' starting quarterback in 2019. Then Justin Fields, a former five-star prospect and the country's No. 2 recruit in the 2018 class, transferred to the Scarlet and Gray. On Jan. 14, Martell announced he was transferring to Miami.

The assumption by many was that Martell went back on his word that he didn't fear competition and believed he would win the job and instead essentially conceded the competition to Fields. But what if that isn't the case?

Like Fields, and many college football players in recent years who elect to transfer before they graduate, Martell hired a lawyer to assist in his appeal to the NCAA to make him eligible immediately for the Hurricanes. That attorney, Travis Leach, recently spoke with The Toledo Blade about his upcoming attempt to get Martell the NCAA waiver and his quotes give some insight into the quarterback's thoughts through the transfer process.

Here is what Leach said to The Blade:

“That definitely is part of it,” Leach told The Blade when asked about the coaching staff. “You try to throw as much against the wall as you can. I think the fact that there were some circumstances that happened, some personality clashes at the school — we want to be fair to everyone involved. That’s the approach we’re going to go down.” “You try and align the facts as best you can,” Leach said. “Each one of these cases is a little bit different. You look at what are the reasons for the transfer, what happened, why didn’t it work, and then can you take those reasons and does it meet the NCAA’s requirements for a waiver? I think we have a couple opportunities. “There were some things that happened at Ohio State that we can potentially get some relief from the NCAA, and we’re going to try it that way. The coaching staff turnover is an issue. There are a few things. There’s no real bright-line test that tells you 100 percent how you can get a waiver. This is a tough one, but there are some good facts on his side.” “If the NCAA is really looking to do what’s in the best interest of the kids, I feel pretty comfortable with a waiver — if you look at it purely through that lens,” Leach said. “We have good facts, but we want to do it the right way. We want it to be fair to everybody. It’s just a situation that didn’t work out. We don’t want to be negative.”

What is clear from these quotes is that the change from Urban Meyer as head coach to Ryan Day played a factor in Martell's decision. While Day was Martell's offensive coordinator and quarterback coach for each of his two years at Ohio State, Meyer was the boss. The offense was always going to be Meyer's, which meant a mobile quarterback, as Martell is, was always preferred.

Day prefers a different type of quarterback, it seems. Dwayne Haskins just rewrote the Big Ten and Buckeye single-season passing record books as a player that preferred to stay in the pocket and throw the ball down the field. Fields, while mobile, has the arm and ability to do similar things as Haskins. Redshirt freshman Matthew Baldwin has talked about preferring to stay in the pocket and find his weapons. Jack Miller, Ohio State's 2020 quarterback commit, is in the pro-style mold as well. Mike Yurcich, who Day hired to be his new passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach, has historically developed pass-first quarterbacks.

So the style of the offense, and what will be asked of the quarterback, will be different under Day and Martell did not feel he fit with that system.

Leach also said that "there were some things that happened at Ohio State" and that it was "a situation that didn't work out" but they "don't want to be negative." This is intentionally vague, meaning there were things that happened toward the end of Martell's time with the Buckeyes that didn't sit well. Could it be that Martell did not like what he was told about the upcoming quarterback competition? It's tough to say for certain.

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Given how Martell's transfer occurred, there will always be speculation of what went down at Ohio State. Unless Martell or one of the Buckeye offensive coaches decides to address the issue, which is unlikely, we can speculate, using what Leach said, as to why the former four-star quarterback will be hoping to compete at Miami in 2019 instead of battling with Fields for the Scarlet and Gray's quarterback job.