Syracuse Football: Kirk Martin’s departure from Orange was justified

Following a double-edged, two-year stint as Syracuse football’s quarterback coach, Kirk Martin’s role diverted, and his justifiable departure followed.

Kirk Martin was hired as the quarterback’s coach for Syracuse football in 2018 and succeeded Sean Lewis, who assumed head coaching duties at Kent State.

In wake of the ugly 2019 season (5-7, 2-6 ACC) that succeeded an unprecedented 2018 campaign for the Syracuse Orange (10-3, 6-2 ACC), Dino Babers decided to completely re-engineer his coaching staff. This included replacing Martin with now offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Sterlin Gilbert earlier this month.

In turn, Martin was forced to fill a brand new role that made him the teams’ senior analyst for football strategy. 18 days later, Martin rightfully decided to leave Syracuse and is now set to assume head coaching duties in Texas at Colleyville Heritage High School.

In November, I eluded to how most people have rightfully pinned the Orange’s 2019 misfortunes on their offensive line and former defensive coordinator Brian Ward.

"I also eluded to how while head coach Dino Babers and Syracuse critics around the country weren’t targeting Martin, they also weren’t giving him “enough time to emulate his 2018 season with then-senior quarterback Eric Dungey, now with sophomore quarterback Tommy DeVito.”"

Following a lengthy stint as a high school coach in Texas, where he is lauded for the creation of a state powerhouse at Manvel (won108 of its first 133 games), Manvel is returning to the state where his coaching career began 28 years ago.

"“From 1992-2003, Martin held roles as an Assistant Coach, Offensive Coordinator, Assistant Head Coach, and Passing Game Coordinator split between five Texas High Schools (Cathedral, Riverside, Alvin, Odessa Permian, and Giddings) before doing the impossible at Houston’s Manvel High School.”"

Martin, who coached both D’Eriq King (recent transfer to Miami) and Kyle Trask (Florida) at the high-school level, deserved more than just an analytical role at the collegiate level.

After Babers made his decision to strip Martin of his job as quarterbacks coach, Martin found a more comfortable and deserving employment option less than three weeks later.

In addition to being Colleyville’s head coach, Martin will also assume athletic coordinator duties at the high school.

Had Martin stayed with SU, his role as an analyst would have been to assist both the offense and defense’ coaching staff when it came to game preparation, film preparation, internal and external scouting, and academic mentorship for the players.

Despite all of the responsibilities, Martin earned his stripes by developing quarterbacks, not analyzing them.