After making his decision to transfer in early December, former Florida quarterback Ingle Martin has decided to transfer to Furman University located in Greenville, S.C.
Penn, Richmond, Samford and Yale were on the redshirt sophomore's shortlist of possible schools after he decided to leave the Gators after losing the starting quarterback job to freshman Chris Leak.
"It came down to the University of Pennsylvania and Furman," Martin told The Tennessean. "Obviously, Pennsylvania had the great academic reputation and they've won three of the last four Ivy League championships. I felt like I couldn't go wrong with either of the opportunities."
Martin started the first four games for Florida this season, as the Gators beat San Jose State and Florida A&M; but lost to Miami (Fla.) and Tennessee.
Martin lost the starting job in favor of Leak after the Gators lost to the Volunteers, 24-10, on Sept. 20, and Leak went on to start the rest of the games for Florida.
"All along we thought it was going to be a long shot," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "There's been a couple of people from the University of Florida who have transferred, which were teammates of his at Florida who have transferred to Furman.
"And him being a southern kid, we thought it would be a long shot, but obviously based on his potential ability level we had to take him."
In recent history, Penn has attracted impact players from other Division I-A schools.
Quarterback Gavin Hoffman transferred to Penn from Northwestern in 1999 and went on to become the Red and Blue's all-time leader in passing yardage, completions and touchdowns during his three-year career.
Running back Sam Mathews transferred from the United States Naval Academy in 2003 and made an immediate impact, as he led the team in rushing with 1,266 yards.
"For a kid who wants a combination of athletics and academics and who's currently at a big time I-A program, we become a very logistical choice for them," Bagnoli said.
With the graduation of 2003 Ivy League Player of the Year Mike Mitchell, the quarterback position is one spot that the Quakers lack much game experience.
However, Bagnoli indicated that current sophomore Pat McDermott is the player he has in mind to take over for Mitchell at quarterback.
However, Bagnoli acknowledged that he and his recruiting staff did their best to attract the services of Martin after he contacted them to express interest.
"I thought we put up a pretty good fight to make things interesting, unfortunately in the end things didn't work out for us," he said. "But certainly we went in there knowing right from the get-go, it was going to be an uphill climb for us."
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