well crap.

Um. This really sucks.

he was in this year’s incoming class?

WTF???

Transferring before playing a snap?

What the hell kind of distractions are there?! Too much good food? Too many friendly people? Weather is too pleasant?

Have fun trying study in sub-zero weather in Indiana, while having to try to live up to the ridiculous expectations of ND fans who expect a title every single year and having no civilization nearby.

well i i wish him well. let’s see where he ends up.

He was very instrumental in convincing several players in this year’s class to come to Cal, if I remember correctly. I wonder if any of those players will also transfer.

Also, was this the news that Cali49 was hinting at the other week?

He was the guy I was most excited about joining Cal. He was such a great spokesman for the university and helped bring other great recruits. This is very disappointing.

Well Chris did help recruit Keenan Allen so at least he made a solid contribution even without ever playing.

It sucks that he’s leaving but we are still recruiting many top linebackers for this class.

Anyone remembered why Chris Martin transferred from Bishop O’Dowd to Grandview in Colorado? I’m thinking there may be some unresolved issues.

~ You Will Be Missed ~

Unbelievalbe.

When I first saw this, my first reaction was “There has to be some mistake”. Then it sunk in that this was real. Then I felt as though I had been punched in the stomach and started feeling sick. I remembered the joy I had felt when he committed to Cal. The happiness I felt when I saw the pride he had in Cal, how he recruited his friends to come to Berkeley. I began looking forward to seeing a new Cal legend in action, to seeing him grow before my eyes. To one day being able to tell my kids: “I went to school when Chris Martin was playing!”. This is absolutely awful news. I’ve come to really love Chris and what he represented, and I wish him the best of luck, but….this really hurts….

Disappointing development.

I am bummed in a way, but wholly believe that we will perform better with players who want to be Bears. My only gripe with Chris is that he should get more of his act together before committing to a school. Otherwise, I wish him well and believe we are better off with players who want to be at Cal. If a player leaves Cal because our academics are too hard, then so be it. If he leaves because his friends and family are a PIA, then so be it. How many “elite” players have we seen who under performed because their heads were scrambled with confusion?

Good for him, hopefully, and definitely good for Cal if he is that confused. When I got to Cal I was so damn excited I would walk around in a daze of joy for weeks on end thinking “My god I am a lucky bastard!” You can’t buy that type of devotion to a place.

This is… unfortunate (to put it mildly). I do wish him the best going forward. Same as James Montgomery and many of the other program transfers. He’ll always have some Golden Bear inside of him, no? Even just a smidgen.

Didn’t they have a bunch of their players get in trouble for alcohol. Distractions everywhere.

I love how people here can’t figure out what “distractions” means. Are we really all that white-bread and suburban (recognizing that many if not most of us are a lovely shade of olive)?

While knowing f-all first hand about the situation, I immediately read the announcement to mean he’s got a group of people here at home who are only more than happy to lead him down the garden path, and he finds that temptation hard to resist. He’s a kid. Sometimes it’s best to just remove yourself from that situation while one grows up.

That being said, I’d be disappointed if he were allowed to play somewhere else this year. He’s already enrolled in school, so how could he? Once you’re a student (and summer bridge always used to count for this), don’t you have to sit out a year when transferring within D1?

Two more scholarship spots just opened up for 2011. Depth-wise we should be ok for 2010. Ryan Davis will probably play more LB to provide depth. August camp is gonna tell us more about Steve Fanua’s development and Mychal Kendricks’ recovery from his injuries.

This situation illustrates exactly why I try very hard to pay as little attention to recruiting as possible. And I don’t mean to argue that recruiting isn’t important because it’s shown to be pretty predictive of success. Nor do I want to diminish the work and attention of those who do care and do follow recruiting. To each there own.

The nature of recruiting is such that it places immediate expectations upon a recruit. We have a 5 star guy? He’s immediately being compared to the best at his position in school history. ‘The next Follett,’ etc. etc. That’s unfair to the kid and it’s unfair to a fanbase. Sure, recruits often live up to expectations, and even exceed expectations (and in this case I’m only really talking about heralded recruits). But it’s just as often that they, for various reasons they can or cannot control, fail to deliver.

My only conclusion is that for my own personal benefit I’m better off knowing as little as possible. Therefore, anything recruits do end up achieving is a pleasant surprise, and I won’t find myself strangely disappointed when an 18 year old makes a surprise decision that I can only hope turns out to be the right one for his life.

I hope this isn’t the beginning of the end of any hopes of winning more than 8 games this year.

The seven stages of grieving:
shock – WTF BBQ
denial – NO FUCKING WAY FUCKING STANFURD FAKE REPORTS
anger – FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCKING FUCK
bargaining – maybe if i can clean up oakland within the week, chris will stay! i’ll give him money! please please please pleeeeeeeease stay…..
guilt – this is our fault for getting our hopes up! why oh why did i not wear my lucky recruiting underwear every day until the davis game?
depression – we’re going to lose every game. teams will score 70 points on us with no linebacker. i think i’ll trade my season tickets to twist for some hand-painted hand-woven suspenders.
acceptance – you know what? martin probably sucks! he’s going to go to some other school, and totally suck! i’m glad he’s gone! good riddance! he probably didn’t have the grades to get in anyways!

From the NCAA’s web site:

Q: If I transfer to another four-year institution, will I immediately be eligible?

The general rule for all student-athletes transferring from one four-year institution to another four-year institution is that they must spend one academic year in residence at the school to which they transfer before they may be eligible for competition. However, you may be eligible immediately upon transfer if you meet one of several transfer exceptions. {…]

The most common transfer exception is the One-Time Transfer Exception. To be eligible to use this exception: (a) a student-athlete must be transferring to another four-year institution to participate in a sport other than Division I baseball, Division I basketball, Division I men’s ice hockey and Division I bowl subdivision football (A participant in championship subdivision football at the institution to which the student is transferring may use this exception only if the participant transferred to the certifying institution from an institution that sponsors bowl subdivision football and has two or more seasons of competition remaining in football or the participant transfers from a football championship subdivision institution that offers athletically related financial aid in football to a football championship subdivision institution that does not offer athletically related financial aid in football); (b) the student-athlete’s first transfer from one four-year college to another four-year college; © the student-athlete must have been eligible academically had he or she remained at their previous institution; and (d) the student-athlete must obtain a written release from the current institution stating that they have no objection to the student-athlete’s use of the exception.

The way I read this, it appears there is no way to avoid sitting out a year if he is considered to be already enrolled at Cal, since it’s D1 football. All Cal’s release buys him is the ability to transfer (different rules apply to releases from LOIs).

I blame Martin Lawrence.

this sucks ass tho, really.

kendricks can do it, hopefully. follett Williams was really high on him when he graduated

I’m done with Cal football until the games begin

Disappointing for sure, but I don’t think it’s going to have too negative of an effect on the team. Like someone said above, Martin wasn’t really in the mix for this season, but for down the road. He really wasn’t around much at all during the past few weeks for off-season work outs. Honestly, I don’t think guys on the team had much of a chance to get to know him at all. I don’t think anybody else is going to jump ship over this, so it sucks, but the sky isn’t falling.

As far as Martin’s decision, I find it kind of puzzling. Certainly, he should do what’s best for him, but I think he should have given things more time at Cal. Cal Football is a really strong family atmosphere, especially within position groups. I feel like that structure, along with living at Cal and going to school, could have helped eliminate those distractions if he really wanted to get away from them. Again, I don’t know what was going on, but I feel like he didn’t give things enough of a chance.

What a cock-tease.

I am quite disappointed, and wish the best towards Mr. Martin as long as his best doesn’t come against Cal in a bowl game.

I thought this recruiting class (the first with the new facilities) was going to be the foundation for propelling Cal from an above average 7-9 win team to a second-tier national power winning 9-11 games a year. Martin had the skills and size to fit extremely well with what we needed in the rush linebacker position, now we have a giant hole for that position.

For ‘distractions’ I can’t help but immediately help but think of Even Money, Boyz n the Hood, The Blind Side, but that is my imagination going to work.

I hope Inception lives up to some of the hype, or this is going to be a highly forgettable day.

(fingers crossed I can get a medical marijuana ’script)

somehow, someway this is Johannes Mehserle’s fault.

too soon?

He sounds like a talented young man and it would have been interesting to see what he would have done with his time at Cal.

This may help put it in perspective – an author at some site called ESPN reviews the Pac-10 recruiting classes from 2007. Recruiting ratings do not equal rocket science. (Note Cal’s class seems to have over-performed.)

http://espn.go.com/blog/pac10/post?id=11082

jh