Who Is Tate Martell? Former Five-star Recruit Swaps Ohio State for University of Miami

The University of Miami has landed one of college football's most-sought-after free agents after Tate Martell announced on Wednesday that he was transferring from Ohio State to the Hurricanes.

The 20-year-old enrolled at Ohio State in 2017 but redshirted his freshman season and was the Buckeyes second-choice quarterback behind Heisman Trophy finalist Dwayne Haskins last year.

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The California native played six games last season, completing 23 of 28 passes for 269 passing yards and a touchdown, to which he added 128 yards rushing over 22 carries and two rushing touchdowns.

Martell announced the move on Twitter just after midnight Wednesday, posting a picture of himself alongside former high school teammates Brevin Jordan and Bubba Bolden.

"Right back like we never left," the caption read.

"I'm a hurricane!"

Jordan is already enrolled at the University of Miami, while Bolden announced earlier this month he would be transferring to Florida from the University of Southern California.

Both attended Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas alongside Martell, who led the team to a 15-0 record in a stellar season, during which he threw for 2,362 yards and 41 touchdowns and rushed for 1,253 yards. Martell's exploits during his final season at Bishop Gorman were documented in Netflix's series QB1: Beyond the Lights.

Martell had transferred to Poway High School in California to Bishop Gorman for his sophomore, junior and senior seasons but when the latter ruled out allowing him to graduate early in order to attend the Spring semester at Ohio State, Martell opted to graduate from Desert Pines High School in Las Vegas instead.

The 2016 Gatorade Football Player of the Year, Martell was one of the hottest recruits of his class. Scout.com ranked him as a five-star recruit, the fifth-best quarterback and the second-best dual-threat quarterback of his class.

However, he found opportunities hard to come by at Ohio State. Last month, he told 247 Sports that he was "ready to go" and that he felt he had completed his learning curve.

"I've waited two years and I know everything I need to know," he was quoted as saying.

"I'm ready to go. I'm just going to tell you right now, if anybody comes in it's going to take them over a year to learn the offense in terms of to be where you need to be to go in and take over the offense and perform at a high level. "

The Miami Herald reported Martell visited the University of Miami on Monday, before also considering the Louisville Cardinals and West Virginia Mountaineers.

Unless he is granted a waiver, Martell will have to sit out the 2019 season as he has not yet graduated from Ohio State and will therefore only be available in 2020, when he will have just two seasons of eligibility left.

However, The Columbus Dispatch reported last week that the quarterback remained on track to graduate in May.

The Hurricanes went 7-6 last season, their worst record since the 2014 campaign.