Getting remembered: Martin, Rodriguez propel their senior season to final success
- Sam Hutchens, Assistant Sports Editor, @Sam_Hutchens_
- Jan 1, 2022 Updated 9 hrs ago
GLENDALE, Arizona — Tay Martin twisted into end zone, ducking down and pressing into the safe expanse of luscious orange-painted grass.
The Notre Dame defender who couldn’t stop OSU’s senior receiver from catching the slant route in the end zone mustered just a glancing blow.
Martin made a good decision by getting down. He protected himself, and his piece of a Fiesta Bowl record.
Martin caught that touchdown with 2:47 left in the third quarter. It was his third score of the game, tying a record previously held by three players.
There was a blow delivered on that play — a blow to the hopes the Irish held for holding onto a lead. Martin, playing his final college game, expanded some personal records as well. The three touchdowns were a career-high, and with his 104-yard performance he became the tenth OSU receiver to reach 1,000 yards in a season.
Every defender catching their breath in the Oklahoma State locker room at halftime had to make a choice. Should they even retake the field?
Sure, it may have not been much of a choice. Quitting at halftime of the Fiesta Bowl would mar the credibility of anyone amongst their teammates and coaches, a highly undesirable outcome. But the coaches’ message was clear.
You better emerge from that locker room doing something different.
“We challenged the team at halftime, that anybody that didn't want to come back out and fight play by play, he can stay in the locker room,” Gundy said. “And they came out and they fought, competed, and couldn't be any more proud of them.”
The vaunted OSU defense had surrendered 28 points in the first half and 358 yards, mostly through Fighting Irish quarterback Jack Coan unraveling the defense through short, quick passes.
Rodriguez and Brock Martin, who have years of memories together, took the decree of their coach to heart. One memory they don’t have from this season was being dominated, and the team came out of the locker room determined not to make one.
“As leaders, we went in there, ‘Guys, we're not ending our season like this,’” senior linebacker Devin Harper said. “And we did what we had to do to come back to get a dub.”
After halftime, the game was a different story. The type of story Martin and Rodriguez wanted as the final chapter in their OSU careers.
No. 9 OSU beat No. 5 Notre Dame 37-35. The Cowboy defense gave up only seven points in the second half, and the offense marched down the field time and time again to build a lead.
There are plenty of plays to point to for the OSU rally— the largest comeback in OSU and Fiesta Bowl history. But in what Gundy described as the biggest game in program history he pointed to the players who were also playing in their last game.
“You always want your players that are competing their last season and their last game to have success,” Gundy said. “These guys are warriors. This is a violent, physical game. Their bodies are beat up. They can feel everything at night when they go to sleep, and they feel it again when they wake up in the morning.”
Martin bested Notre Dame defenders on the slant route all day and iced away the game late with a leaping back shoulder grab down the right sideline. Martin is grateful for how it ended.
“It means the most for me because, just for my family and for my little girl and for my siblings, we've been through a lot,” Martin said. “And to have this end in this way, it's a dream come true. And I know my family and everybody else at home, proud of me.”
Rodriguez recorded 11 tackles and two pass breakups.
“Malcolm has always showed up in big-time games and makes big-time plays in big-time games because he's a big-time player,” defensive end Brock Martin said.
Rodriguez also picked off a pass from Coan with 6:35 remaining that ended the sixth of seven straight fruitless Notre Dame drives.
The two seniors playing their final game allayed a fear of the No. 9 Cowboys — that their season could be forgotten.
“We kind of felt like if we didn't win this game, this would be kind of a season of just forgotten greatness,” Tay Martin said. “We lost the Big 12 championship, and then you lose the Fiesta Bowl, all that greatness and the great things you did as a unit, the D-line and linebackers and DBs, we kind of felt like it would be forgotten over time.”
The lasting image of Rodriguez and Martin’s Cowboys will be the team wearing matching shirts that bear the word ‘Champs’, and while crowding around the Fiesta Bowl trophy. Hard to forget.
sports.ed@ocolly.com
