Having been a star running back for a few years at St. Patrick-St. Vincent High before graduating, Marshel Martin has always been known to score touchdowns. This season at Sacramento State, however, Martin has gone about getting to the end zone in a different way.

While Martin used to bowl over would-be tacklers on the ground from the running back position, this year the Hornet is doing the same thing but often after catching passes as a tight end. The redshirt freshman has adapted to the new position well, as he has scored seven touchdowns this year, the most ever in a season for a tight end at Sacramento State while the program has been Division I. The previous record-holder was by Chris Kelly, who had six in 1999.

Martin scored his seventh touchdown of the year last week in a win over UC Davis. The scoring play came on a 51-yard pass from Kevin Thomson that gave the Hornets a 20-17 lead in an eventual 27-17 victory.

“It felt really good to get the record, because I worked hard and I know a lot of other people worked hard and weren’t able to get it,” Martin said. “I don’t know who had the record but they were telling me it was someone who did it about 20 years ago.”

Martin said he found out about the record two weeks earlier, when he scored two touchdowns against Northern Arizona. That may have been his best game of the season as he caught four passes for 92 yards while scoring twice. His second touchdown of the game came on a 63-yard pass from Jake Dunniway that found Martin more open than a Denny’s.

“On that play I just went right past the defense,” Martin said, with a laugh. “They were playing cover two and their safety took the running back. When I saw that I knew I was going to be wide open.”

After that game Martin was informed he was tied with Kelly for the most touchdowns by a Hornet tight end in a season. Two games later, the record was his.

But while the 19-year-old is excelling at the position, it was a transition for him during his first year in the program in 2018. Martin had starred in high school as a running back, especially during his senior year in 2017 when he ran for 1,600 yards and 25 touchdowns as the Bruins repeated as North Coast Section Division V champions. He was awarded the Times-Herald Male Athlete of the Year later in the school year.

Martin was recruited as a running back due to this success, but former head coach Jody Sears saw something else on day in practice last season.

“It was the beginning of the year and there was this one drill where I kept blocking my defender and sending him to the ground,” Martin said. “So he told me that day, let’s have me play tight end where I would end up blocking more. I just looked at the situation as ‘let’s just adapt to this.'”

Martin said the easiest parts about making the transition was creating room to catch the ball.

“In the past I had to get through the line, but now I was running routes and once I got open I found I had more room to create big plays,” Martin said. “This year I feel I’ve become an even better tight end because I understand the plays more and I have a better feel for the offense.”

Although Martin likes scoring touchdowns, he also is thrilled to block for the other running backs on the Hornets.

“I love making blocks and having our backs make great cuts off me,” Martin said. “Being a running back before I know how it feels to have a good run because of a good blocker.”

Sacramento State is having a lot of success this season as well as the Hornets are 9-3 overall and won a share of the Big Sky championship. They have earned a home game as the No. 4 seed in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) Playoffs against either Austin Peay or Furman. The game will be showed on Saturday, Dec. 7 on ESPN3.

Martin, a communications major, is looking forward to the playoffs.

“From the very start this year we felt we had something special,” Martin said. “It feels good to be in the playoffs and to have contributed to it. I love the community here at Sac State. I love all the fans, the school’s campus, everything. It’s all great.”