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https://floridagators.com/news/2016...out-gators-offensive-lineman-martez-ivey.aspx
Three and Out: Gators Offensive Lineman Martez Ivey
He started eight games and garnered 2015 SEC All-Freshman honors.
By Chris Harry, Senior Writer | Tuesday, August 2, 2016
Martez Ivey (73) started the season's last eight games during his true freshman year.
The sixth of our Three and Out Q&A series with Gators to preview each position group heading into the start of preseason camp.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Been playing any Pokemon Go this summer? Martez Ivey has. The sophomore offensive lineman claims to have captured about 100 of the Pokemon, including one he snagged while in the Utah mountains on vacation.
Considering, starting this week, he's going to spend the next five months bashing heads with defensive linemen and linebackers, a little non-contact activity is a good thing for the Florida sophomore offensive lineman.
Martez Ivey
Ivey started the last eight games of his 2015 true freshman season at left guard and was named to the Southeastern Conference's All-Freshman Team. He garnered the acclaim despite undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery during preseason camp and missing the first two games before working his way into the starting unit for Game 6 at Missouri. Ivey, the 6-foot-5, 312-pounder from Apopka, Fla., then missed the entire spring season with a shoulder injury that also required surgery.
"But I'm feeling pretty good now," he said.
So you can bet the UF coaches are anxious to see what a healthy and far more seasoned version of arguably the most decorated player of the Jim McElwain era is capable of.
Here is our Three and Out with Ivey:
Q: This time last year, the expectations for you were through the roof as a freshman. You got hurt early and really weren't ready to play for a few weeks. What's the biggest difference between Martez, the freshman, and Martez, the sophomore?
A: Definitely experience. When I first came in, the game was so fast and I had to get adjusted to it. The knowledge of the game, the speed of game, you can't prepare yourself for that until you go through it, no matter what you do during the offseason before going to college. There's just a lot more to college football once you get there. I got a taste of it going through practice. We had some pretty good players on defense, you know, and they prepared us. They didn't show any mercy on us freshmen. But the games? It's just a different level.
Q: As if that transition wasn't difficult enough, were you ever 100 percent healthy while getting accustomed to the college level?
A: Definitely not. Coming off surgery, I had to come back and get my conditioning back, my strength back, but also had to rehab my knee, which was never 100 percent. It was healed, but it wasn't what it could have been if I wasn't coming off surgery. But you know what? That comes with the game of football. Injuries happen. It's just adversity. You either deal with it or you crumble from it. I dealt with it. I don't know how much it affected me or the way I played. I still gave it my all.
Q: Going into last year, the Gators had one offensive lineman — Trip Thurman — who had started a FBS game. Then a trio of true freshmen (Tyler Jordan, Fred Johnson and you) started or played a bunch. David Sharpe started all but one game at left tackle. You mentioned how key getting experience was. This unit has worlds more than a year ago, so what are its expectations?
A: We're expected to do great things. We've got chemistry. We've got knowledge. We've got that bond you need to have. Now, we just have to get better. We're going to be a more efficient O-line because of all those things.
SCOUTING THE OFFENSIVE LINE
Player to Watch: As impactful as Ivey's arrival was last season, Sharpe may have been the unit's most valuable player. Sharpe appeared in six games as a true freshman in 2014, then stepped up his performance in '15 as a second-year sophomore and manned the blindside left tackle spot for 13 of the 14 games (sitting out against Vanderbilt due to an injury). The Gators think so much of the 6-foot-6, 347-pound junior out of Jacksonville Providence — where he was a starter on the basketball team and won a state championship alongside Duke's Grayson Allen — McElwain took Sharpe to SEC Media Days as a face of the squad. He's expected to be a leader and stalwart of the unit for the rest of his UF career.
Newcomer to watch: Unlike a year ago, the Gators aren't banking on freshmen coming in and taking starting jobs — not that they don't want the competition, mind you. One candidate who could make some noise in the O-line pits is Stone Forsythe, a 6-7, 314-pound freshman from Winter Garden (Fla.) West Orange who was an early enrollee and already has a spring season under his belt. He was a third-team Class 8A all-state selection and has decent blood lines. His father, Ray Forsythe, played with the Cincinnati Bengals, as well in NFL Europe and the Arena League.
Overview: If the Gators were lining up today, it would be Sharpe at left tackle, Ivey at left guard, junior Cam Dillard at center, Jordan at right guard and Johnson at right tackle. That quintet combined for 37 starts last season, though never together in the same unit. Last year, the overall performance of the O-line was a mixed bag — especially late in the season when UF suffered lopsided losses in its last three games — but that performance also was difficult to grade because the productivity at the quarterback position spiraled under diminutive Treon Harris, who took over six games in after Will Grier's suspension. UF finished '15 ranked 111th in total offense nationally. This season, no matter who's playing quarterback, the Gators figure to be more suited for the pro-style, multiple-formation offense of McElwain and coordinator Doug Nussmeier for the simple reason they'll have a quarterback that can stay in the pocket and actually see receivers downfield. That should give the offensive line a better feel for providing a pocket and also lead to more production in the running game, where the Gators were just 112th at 126.9 yards per game. The passing game wasn't much better (207.1 yards per game, good for 87th nationally).
Three and Out: Gators Offensive Lineman Martez Ivey
He started eight games and garnered 2015 SEC All-Freshman honors.
By Chris Harry, Senior Writer | Tuesday, August 2, 2016
Martez Ivey (73) started the season's last eight games during his true freshman year.
The sixth of our Three and Out Q&A series with Gators to preview each position group heading into the start of preseason camp.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Been playing any Pokemon Go this summer? Martez Ivey has. The sophomore offensive lineman claims to have captured about 100 of the Pokemon, including one he snagged while in the Utah mountains on vacation.
Considering, starting this week, he's going to spend the next five months bashing heads with defensive linemen and linebackers, a little non-contact activity is a good thing for the Florida sophomore offensive lineman.
Martez Ivey
Ivey started the last eight games of his 2015 true freshman season at left guard and was named to the Southeastern Conference's All-Freshman Team. He garnered the acclaim despite undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery during preseason camp and missing the first two games before working his way into the starting unit for Game 6 at Missouri. Ivey, the 6-foot-5, 312-pounder from Apopka, Fla., then missed the entire spring season with a shoulder injury that also required surgery.
"But I'm feeling pretty good now," he said.
So you can bet the UF coaches are anxious to see what a healthy and far more seasoned version of arguably the most decorated player of the Jim McElwain era is capable of.
Here is our Three and Out with Ivey:
Q: This time last year, the expectations for you were through the roof as a freshman. You got hurt early and really weren't ready to play for a few weeks. What's the biggest difference between Martez, the freshman, and Martez, the sophomore?
A: Definitely experience. When I first came in, the game was so fast and I had to get adjusted to it. The knowledge of the game, the speed of game, you can't prepare yourself for that until you go through it, no matter what you do during the offseason before going to college. There's just a lot more to college football once you get there. I got a taste of it going through practice. We had some pretty good players on defense, you know, and they prepared us. They didn't show any mercy on us freshmen. But the games? It's just a different level.
Q: As if that transition wasn't difficult enough, were you ever 100 percent healthy while getting accustomed to the college level?
A: Definitely not. Coming off surgery, I had to come back and get my conditioning back, my strength back, but also had to rehab my knee, which was never 100 percent. It was healed, but it wasn't what it could have been if I wasn't coming off surgery. But you know what? That comes with the game of football. Injuries happen. It's just adversity. You either deal with it or you crumble from it. I dealt with it. I don't know how much it affected me or the way I played. I still gave it my all.
Q: Going into last year, the Gators had one offensive lineman — Trip Thurman — who had started a FBS game. Then a trio of true freshmen (Tyler Jordan, Fred Johnson and you) started or played a bunch. David Sharpe started all but one game at left tackle. You mentioned how key getting experience was. This unit has worlds more than a year ago, so what are its expectations?
A: We're expected to do great things. We've got chemistry. We've got knowledge. We've got that bond you need to have. Now, we just have to get better. We're going to be a more efficient O-line because of all those things.
SCOUTING THE OFFENSIVE LINE
Player to Watch: As impactful as Ivey's arrival was last season, Sharpe may have been the unit's most valuable player. Sharpe appeared in six games as a true freshman in 2014, then stepped up his performance in '15 as a second-year sophomore and manned the blindside left tackle spot for 13 of the 14 games (sitting out against Vanderbilt due to an injury). The Gators think so much of the 6-foot-6, 347-pound junior out of Jacksonville Providence — where he was a starter on the basketball team and won a state championship alongside Duke's Grayson Allen — McElwain took Sharpe to SEC Media Days as a face of the squad. He's expected to be a leader and stalwart of the unit for the rest of his UF career.
Newcomer to watch: Unlike a year ago, the Gators aren't banking on freshmen coming in and taking starting jobs — not that they don't want the competition, mind you. One candidate who could make some noise in the O-line pits is Stone Forsythe, a 6-7, 314-pound freshman from Winter Garden (Fla.) West Orange who was an early enrollee and already has a spring season under his belt. He was a third-team Class 8A all-state selection and has decent blood lines. His father, Ray Forsythe, played with the Cincinnati Bengals, as well in NFL Europe and the Arena League.
Overview: If the Gators were lining up today, it would be Sharpe at left tackle, Ivey at left guard, junior Cam Dillard at center, Jordan at right guard and Johnson at right tackle. That quintet combined for 37 starts last season, though never together in the same unit. Last year, the overall performance of the O-line was a mixed bag — especially late in the season when UF suffered lopsided losses in its last three games — but that performance also was difficult to grade because the productivity at the quarterback position spiraled under diminutive Treon Harris, who took over six games in after Will Grier's suspension. UF finished '15 ranked 111th in total offense nationally. This season, no matter who's playing quarterback, the Gators figure to be more suited for the pro-style, multiple-formation offense of McElwain and coordinator Doug Nussmeier for the simple reason they'll have a quarterback that can stay in the pocket and actually see receivers downfield. That should give the offensive line a better feel for providing a pocket and also lead to more production in the running game, where the Gators were just 112th at 126.9 yards per game. The passing game wasn't much better (207.1 yards per game, good for 87th nationally).
