At 6 years old, Chandler Martin was a standout tackler.

He can prove it, too — he recently found tapes from his peewee football days, when he played center and linebacker.

"I was making plays back then," he said. "Forcing fumbles, tackles for losses. I've been doing it."

From peewee to Arabia Mountain High School, near Atlanta, to East Tennessee State, and then the first seven games of Memphis football's 2023 season. Martin, who transferred to the Tigers in December 2022, is the leading tackler a little more than halfway through the season.

Like so many players in this day and age, his development wasn't exactly linear. He graduated high school when he was 16, thanks to a December birthday, and his parents had enrolled him in preschool when he was 4.

"My parents, they were tired of having me at the house," he said. " . . . And I was smart enough. And they asked me if I wanted to get held back to get back in my regular grade, but I was like, 'Nah.' I've always been the younger guy. I've always been kind of the underdog."

Both of Martin's parents went to Georgia, so he was a Bulldogs fan who tried to model his game after former Georgia linebacker Roquan Smith. He was always a speedy linebacker but weighed just 175 pounds as a high school sophomore and was still developing as he went through college recruitment.

That ultimately meant a commitment to FCS-level ETSU, where he ended up in one of the more unusual situations college sports had to offer.

The 16-year-old Martin redshirted his freshman year because he was behind an incumbent starter on the depth chart. That player? Jared Folks, college football's first eighth-year senior who was 24 when Martin was a freshman.

Folks took Martin under his wing and would talk to his parents, making sure Martin was adjusting to life in college and on the football team.

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"You saw the raw ability," Folks said. "He was very explosive. Especially in our workouts, that's when we really saw him jump off and kind of look different than everybody else. But yeah, he was definitely young. He was kind of like, unassuming. He didn't know what he didn't know."

Sometimes Folks would see Martin's parents at games.

"I would tell them, 'Chandler's right there. As soon as I get out of the way, he's gonna take over,' " he said.

He was right. Folks' collegiate playing career ended after the 2021 season, and he's now working in the athletic department at Nebraska. Martin took the starting role and became a freshman All-American.

He led the team in tackling, breaking ETSU's all-time record for a single game with 23 tackles against The Citadel. That led to FBS interest, and Martin joined the Memphis program before the 2023 season.

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He has been a starter from day one and leads the Tigers in tackles with 54. On a defense full of impact transfers — safety Simeon Blair and cornerback DeAgo Brumfield,, to name two — Martin still stands out for his athleticism and explosiveness across the field.

That doesn't mean this year hasn't been an adjustment for Martin. He realized after moving from one corner of Tennessee to the other that transferring didn't mean just wearing new colors on Saturdays — it meant uprooting your whole life and being farther from friends and family.

"I felt like it was the best decision for me to continue to just grow as a player and a person and continue to just learn about myself more," he said. "And not stay comfortable, because that's my thing, too. Always seek discomfort and always push yourself. Because I could have done the easy thing and stayed there and had the job. But I decided to challenge myself and better myself."

Reach sports writer Jonah Dylan at jonah.dylan@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @thejonahdylan.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis football's Chandler Martin got help from 8th year senior