In order to find out more about Texas Tech offensive line signee Seth Martin, we reached out to his high school coach Dale Matlock.
Coach Matlock has been at Everman for over 20 years, several of those as an assistant coach before becoming the head coach prior to the 2018 season.
Matlock has been the head coach at Everman for the past four seasons, but will now transition into a full time role as Director of Athletics as Michael Boone takes over the program.
Coach Matlock takes us through Martin as a person, on the field and more.
How is Seth Martin off the field? How are his leadership skills and what have you seen from him throughout the years?
"Definitely Seth is a leader, he was our captain this year. He also was the co-recipient of our leadership award the past two years, which is really unusual that a junior wins it, typically it's a senior. But anyways, he and our center Adrian Anderson won it the last two years because they were our best two leaders. So he's definitely a leader both in how he acts, what he does and what he says.
He does a good job leading both by example and with getting kids up, keeping them motivated and doing different things. We talked about how a good team is led by coaches and a great team is led by players and so he really bought into that and does a good job with that."
Martin can play center, guard or tackle and he appears to be a pretty versatile prospect. What are some of his strengths on the field?
"Two things really. His God-given talent, his frame and his body type. He's a very athletic lineman. He's not soft at all, he's real strong and well put together. That lends itself to some versatility for him to play different positions.
The other thing is that he's become, for lack of a better word, a pretty nasty player. In other words he gets after it when he blocks people. That's what you're looking for.
I've been here 24 years and we're had a lot of good kids, but typically our bigger kids are nice, real nice kids on the field. Seth's a real nice kid off the field but he's a pretty tough player on the field and so just that motor that runs. We haven't always had that in our offensive lineman but he likes to finish plays."
Texas Tech has a new coaching staff with Joey McGuire taking over the program. What do you know about coach McGuire and what are your thoughts about him getting the job at Tech?
"I know coach McGuire pretty well. The worst thing I can say about him is that he should have been born across the highway here in Everman instead of over in Crowley. *laughs*
But no, I think he's a fantastic coach, fantastic man, I think it's a great opportunity for Texas Tech because I think he's the right guy for that job. Obviously guys like Kenny Perry who I've known for a long time, used to coach over here in Arlington and some of the other guys that he's bringing back in. I know the offensive line coach (Stephen Hamby) played there with one of our former players back in the mid 2000's. I think that's a great addition because I'm from that part of the world, in fact I went to Tech but I think it's a great opportunity for Texas Tech to move forward with the right kind of people in place."
In your program, who are some younger guys you think have a chance to make it to this level in the future?
"Definitely Kevin Allen is a defensive tackle for us, defensive lineman, maybe even a defensive end in college. He's a good looking young man who had a really great season so he's somebody to look at.
Another guy to watch is Errick Mills, he's a linebacker/running back for us. Both of them are juniors and I look forward to seeing what they do in the future."
