hello, I think that people are a little too concerned w/ the amount of stars that a prospect gets which is too bad, because I have heard only great things today about martin's prospects at UN from those that know him or have seen him play on the line at lin sw
if you compare martin to two 3 star lineman - one of a yr ago, & the other is a prospect this yr - you can see there is not a lot of difference in their size:
martin 6'4", 250 (present lbs - 232 was camp lbs), 4.8 **
hickman 6'4", 244, 5 ***
okung 6'5", 250 ***
the only real difference is the additional star, & people's attitudes in accepting a *** instead of a ** - then again, hickman & okung are from ca & tx, which can give a prospect a little more exposure, & interest draw because of the amount of schools, universities, football camps, newspapers, ect...you name it, in those states
maybe people are upset w/ the verbal of martin, because they want immediate help on the oline, but that help is not going to come from this yrs hs ol recruits - it will be coming from last yrs rs olinemen (jones may play, but the rest of the hs ol's will rs - & martin may gs - so what is the big deal w/ martin verballing? - the same thing happened w/ hickman last yr & it did not seem to bother people this much - plus, if he gs then he would not count against this yrs class anyway)
p.s. as for west & young UN needs s & they fill that need (& UN will probably get verbals from 2 more s - hopefully palmer & davis)