You won’t find WVU defensive lineman Sean Martin hooting and hollering on the sidelines but as a senior on West Virginia’s relatively young defense, Martin will need to be a leader.
Martin is a part of just a handful of players returning on West Virginia’s defense, with multiple transfers coming in and players from last year filtering out in the transfer portal or due to graduation. He notes that he’s never been a loud and vocal guy, but strives to lead by example.
“I don’t really have to take on a vocal role, I just got to lead by example. Coach (Andrew) Jackson tells me I don’t ‘need to be the bad guy’ let him be the ‘bad guy’, just help out with the younger guys make sure they’re doing the right things,” Martin said.
Martin is known by people around the program to not be the most outspoken and says he never really was.
“I’m just not a talkative person, I don’t really need to tell anybody what they need to do. I just want to lead by example, let the younger guys follow me. I don’t really speak up if I’m going to be honest,” Martin said.
However, Martin has worked on talking a bit more and says that press conferences as well as his family members and coach Jackson have helped him.
“I feel like the interviews have helped me out a lot, just being able to talk. I feel like my mom, my girlfriend, my sisters, coach Jack helped me out a little bit,” Martin said.
Martin also said that the coaches don’t pressure him to talk and know of his quiet nature, which he claims that he’s always been that way.
“I’ve always been quiet. When I was younger my sisters would always talk up for me, speak up for me,” Martin said.
Martin will talk to the younger guys and coach them up when he feels the need, but he won’t go out of his way to get on them while just attempting to let his play speak for itself. Last season, Martin played in all 13 games, totaling 27 tackles (15 solo), including five tackles-for-loss and one sack. In his career he has 76 total tackles (37 solo), 13.5 tackles-for-loss, five sacks and a forced fumble, with 34 tackles (17 solo), eight tackles-for-loss, four sacks and the forced fumble coming during his breakout junior season in 2022.
