[EMSP]

Great article today on this kid and what his family has overcome....

Glenn star under the radar no more

Swinehart sent the highlight tape to a recruiting service Oct. 23. Officials from the service responded, saying Martin was a Big Ten player.

Two day's later, Swinehart saw former Michigan quarterback Rick Leach, and happened to have his laptop with him.

"I put my laptop down and asked him if he would take a look at a kid and tell me what he thought," Swinehart said. "He said that he thought he was a great athlete and had great feet and would help get the tape to the University of Michigan."

Then, the week of Oct. 29, Swinehart updated the tape and sent it to Michigan and Illinois.

"(Illinois assistant) Reggie (Mitchell) and I became friends at Central when he was playing football and I was playing basketball," Anderson said. "We have always kept in touch over the years and I sent him the tape really just asking Reggie for his opinion.

"I thought that maybe he was a MAC guy, but definitely not a Big Ten guy because no one has been calling him.

"That night, (Mitchell) called me back and said that he hadn't even been halfway through the tape yet, but he had to call and ask me if the tape was real or if we had hyped-up or doctored the tape at all. He told me not to give the tape to anyone else, but I told him that we had already sent it out all over."

The next day, Michigan called and wanted another tape.
Illinois already wanted to offer.

Martin attended the Michigan State-Michigan game Nov. 3. The next day, Michigan State offered him a scholarship.

Two days later, Martin was in East Lansing attending a practice, still mulling his decision.

Michigan State man

According to Swinehart, when Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio saw the tape, he was amazed.

Said Swinehart: "I was told that when (secondary coach) Harlan Barnett handed the DVD to Coach Dantonio, he hadn't even gotten back to his office when Dantonio sent a text message that read something along the lines of have we offered this kid yet and if not, why?"