Path to the CFP, #9: Like Father, Like Son for Tuioti and Martin
Teitum Tuioti and Cole Martin arrived before spring ball ready to prove they’re more than just ‘coaches kids’; they might be instrumental to Oregon’s season.
It’s hard enough playing a sport a parent has a vested interest in; the potential to over-meddle, let alone strike fear of perfection, is right there. Now imagine not only playing the same sport your father coaches but doing so on the same team, with hundreds of thousands of eyes on you to live up to the name and do so quickly.
Thanks to their performances so far while in Eugene, that’s the situation facing Cole Martin and Teitum Tuioti.
Oregon’s concerns at the Edge position are well documented and won’t disappear until the results appear. And with a trio of players making noise in various ways this fall, there is yet one more youngster who might be too good to ignore. That’s the reality for Tuioti, who turned heads during the spring and has done nothing to dissuade those beliefs this fall.
For his father, Tony, Oregon’s defensive line coach, seeing his son blossom so early is neither surprising nor something he takes for granted.
“Just seeing him every day,” Tony said when asked about what stands out to him, “just as a dad in this profession, you miss a lot. Just being around your kids and not being able to see them. But to see him in the building, in meetings, and out at practice, it’s a really, really cool experience.”
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Martin, who stole the spring game with his tackling, instincts, and punt return, faces a more challenging path to early playing time with the abundance of talent in Oregon’s secondary. But by all accounts, a potential lack of playing time has nothing to do with him; Oregon brought in three transfers expected to start in the secondary, and Martin is part of a massive freshman class haul alongside Roderick Pleasent, Daylen Austin, and Collin Gill.
But Martin seems to have a leg up on his peers through his preparation.
“You know, I think what makes it special is he’s the guy who’s gonna be up here at 6 a.m., getting an ice bath, doing the extra,” Dan Lanning said during spring ball. “He knows what’s required. He’s a coach’s kid. So he does a little bit extra from that standpoint. He got some highlights today, but I’m sure there’s stuff that he wants to improve on.”
Oregon’s goal of updating the depth and talent through the transfer portal paid off for the second year in a row. But don’t discount the two young men who not only brought a lifetime of learning but, it turns out, a lot of skill, too.
