Jaydn Ott and Josiah Martin both decided to transfer to Oklahoma during the offseason after they both began their respective college football careers at Cal. They are living proof that the grass is not always greener.
It may not always be the right decision to leave your current situation for one that looks better on paper.
Neither Ott nor Martin played significant roles for the Sooners during the first three games of the 2025 college football season. Meanwhile, their team is cruising without them.
Jaydn Ott and Josiah Martin left Cal-Berkeley.
Ott, a former four-star recruit in the Class of 2022, had 18 scholarship offers from schools like BYU, USC, Wisconsin, Colorado, Georgia and Oregon. He chose Cal.
The 5-foot-11, 208-pound running back ran for 897 yards as a freshman and 1,305 yards as a sophomore. However, his production saw a pretty significant drop off as a junior. Ott ran for only 385 yards on 116 carries. He was not the leading rusher in 2024.
Even though Jaydn Ott initially announced that he was going to return to Berkeley in December, he changed his mind in April and hit the transfer portal. Oklahoma scooped him up.
Martin was already in Norman by the time his former teammate arrived. He transferred from Cal to Oklahoma in December.
“I entered the portal just looking for a bigger opportunity,” Martin said. “I wanted to show my skills on a higher level. Oklahoma, it’s the winningest program in college football history. It’s a no-brainer. I know the kind of things they can help me with.”
The former three-star prospect recorded 12 catches for 11 yards during his freshman season and ran for 44 yards and a touchdown on five carries. The Sooners likely offered him a bigger role.
Oklahoma is on fire.
Josiah Martin has yet to record a single statistic with the Sooners. He has zero catches for zero yards and zero touchdowns with zero carries for zero yards and zero touchdowns.
Ott is in a similar position. The fourth-year running back has only nine carries for 17 yards through three games.
“You wish he was a little further along in every way, but you get in there, whatever opportunities you have, you get in there, you’re ready,” head coach Brent Venables said about the transfer running back and his (lack of) role thus far. “You’ve got good juice, energy, aggressiveness. Having attack mindset, all those things, everything adds up, everything matters. So we’d love to get him going. If all things are good in that regard, that I just said, his instincts, his speed, all those things, can be a real weapon.”
Yikes. Meanwhile, Oklahoma and Cal both started at 3-0 without Martin or Ott.
Sooners running back Tory Blaylock has 31 touches thus far to Ott’s nine. 12 different players caught a pass from quarterback John Mateer and Martin is not one of them.
Golden Bears running back Kendrick Raphael has 201 yards on 39 carries. 14 different players caught a pass from true freshman quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele.
Jaydn Ott and Josiah Martin are living proof that the grass is not always greener…