Martinez-Brown has taken the torch from Collins and hit the ground running

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) - The College Station football team is headed back to the state championship game for the second straight season. With a lot of new faces on this year’s squad, one of the keys to the Cougars’ success offensively is sophomore running back Aydan Martinez-Brown.

Martinez-Brown moved from A&M Consolidated last year and came into the season third on the depth chart, but once he was given the opportunity, he hit the ground running.

In 2021, the Cougars had one of the most electric offenses in the state led by the 5A Offensive Player of the Year, Marquise Collins. The future Duke Blue Devil had high expectations coming into his senior year, but unfortunately, he never got to see the field.

“Certainly coming into it, obviously we were expecting Marquise to be in that position. His tragic injury at the beginning of the year changed things in our mindset and his,” explained College Station head football coach Stoney Pryor.

“It was my last chance to play with the guys that I’ve been playing with for so long, so at the beginning, it was pretty hard just coming around,” Collins reminisced. “But I knew I had to be here to keep the energy up and keep the spirits up and keep going so we can still maintain goals of what we wanted to do,” Collins added.

“Obviously that’s a very difficult thing to go through for anybody,” Pryor said. “But as the season’s progressed he’s said I can be valuable to this team in a way that I didn’t really imagine,” Pryor added.

Replacing Collins’ production of over 2800 yards and 39 touchdowns is no small task, but the Cougars did just that with the emergence of sophomore running back Aydan Martinez-Brown.

“At the beginning of the year, I didn’t know if I was going to play or not because of Marquise and Anthony Trevino,” Martinez-Brown said. “Marquise got hurt so I just had to step up to the plate and this is an amazing feeling just playing with my teammates,” Martinez-Brown added.

“Aydan has stepped into that role and has earned that time and has proven himself better and better each week, and we’ve certainly needed that,” Pryor said.

“He’s been a huge help to the team,” exclaimed junior quarterback Arrington Maiden. “He’s an incredible runner and he’s an incredible athlete in space. Just getting the ball to him in space is really good. He’s been picking up a lot of things from Marquise and I think Marquise has helped him out a lot,” Maiden added.

“I’m more than proud of him ‘cause he works hard and he listens to anything I tell him,” said Collins. “He always wants to know what he can do to get better. He’s very smart. He’s a smart kid and he loves the game. He’s been doing good and he’s been growing up in the program,” Collins added.

Martinez-Brown’s playing time and role on this team have increased as the season progresses. Now, he has one goal. It’s the same goal Collins came so close to attaining last year.

“We have a 1-0 mentality,” Martinez-Brown stated. “Like we say every week. But we’re just going to execute play by play and drive by drive,” Martinez-Brown added.

The Cougars will try to capture their program’s second state championship against Aledo this Saturday at 11:00 a.m. at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

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