Martin decommits for the final time

It looks like Charlie Weis’ ouster was the final straw for Chris Martin. The five-star defensive end recruit that had committed to Weis, wavered a bit, then held strong to the former coach, before officially walking away this weekend from the Fighting Irish and committing to play football for Jeff Tedford at Cal.

Martin’s mother confirmed the decision when speaking to IrishSportsDaily’s Steve Wiltfong.

“One of the things, when Chris committed to Notre Dame, the quote I said to him was Chris, if you do not go to Notre Dame, you need to come back home,” Martin’s mother Cheryl said. “Well, he’s coming back home and this is solid. We’re not going to do anymore visits or entertain anyone coming by.”

Every coaching transition will likely bring attrition, and we’ll never know if Weis would’ve been able to keep Martin in the fold, as he’d been wavering on his commitment for a few months.

If there’s any silver lining in this, it’s that Martin chose to play at Cal, close to his Oakland roots and not at USC or Florida, where he had taken official recruiting visits.

No recruiting commitment is official until National Signing Day, but from the sound of the different reports out there, the Martin family is closing down shop.

(I highly doubt that’ll keep Brian Kelly from calling the Martin family, though...)