Oregon State running back Damien Martinez intends to enter the college football transfer portal when it opens next week, 247Sports reports. Martinez ranked among the top 25 rushers in the nation in 2023 and posted 6.1 yards per carry. In the transfer portal, Martinez will be rated as the No. 2 running back, behind only Quinshon Judkins (from Ole Miss to Ohio State).
The two-year starter from Lewisville, Texas, rushed for more than 2,000 yards and 16 touchdowns in two seasons with the Beavers. He earned All-Pac-12 First Team honors as a sophomore while pacing an underrated Oregon State offense. With Martinez gone, Oregon State is down to three scholarship running backs for the spring.
Martinez was one of the few star players to stick around after coach Jonathan Smith was poached by Michigan State over the offseason. Three All-Pac-12 teammates — quarterback Aidan Chiles, TE Jack Velling and OL Tanner Miller — joined Smith in East Lansing. Multiple other players landed at Florida State and USC.
Fifteen different Oregon State players earned a spot on the All-Pac-12 team after the 2023 season. With Martinez set to leave, only one — offensive lineman Joshua Gray — will return.
Devastating loss for Beavers
Martinez had been vocal about returning to Corvallis, even after Smith left. He seemed to embrace the role of cornerstone.
“I’m not one foot in, one foot out,” Martinez told 247Sports in November. “I’m here. I’m stuck on being here. This is where I want to be, and like I said, I’m comfortable here. I haven’t had talks about leaving at all even with all of the coaching stuff happening. I think I’ve said it before, but the coach here told me he wasn’t leaving and he ended up leaving. Loyalty is another big thing and I just wanted to…
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