If there’s one Rutgers football player looking forward to a break from spring camp, it’s probably Joe Martinek. Though the redshirt sophomore refused to admit he was tired after capping a grueling spring camp with a three-touchdown performance in the Scarlet-White game, his coach told a different story.

“”I think Joe is really, really sore,” Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said. “”He had a lot of carries this spring, but he didn’t open his mouth and just kept playing.”

One by one this spring Rutgers’ running back corps entered the trainer’s room, from co-starter Jourdan Brooks suffering a knee injury midway through camp to third-stringer Tyrone Putman breaking his forearm a week later. The Scarlet Knights already were thin at the position, with Kordell Young sidelined while rehabilitating another knee injury and Mason Robinson moving to wideout.

It all added up to Martinek receiving the bulkload of work this spring, an opportunity the Hopatcong High product relished.

“”The more carries you get, the more you learn the offense and the more confidence you get in your abilities,” Martinek said. “”It was a long, hard-fought spring. I definitely gained confidence coming in and practicing with the first team.”

While the wide-open quarterback and wideout competitions took up much of the spotlight this spring, a running back position that is still auditioning players for the No. 1 ballcarrier role flew under the radar. After employing a backfield-by-committee approach with three tailbacks rushing for 430 yards or more last season, Schiano said early in camp that he hoped for a featured back to emerge.

Martinek may have done just that, as he made the most of the lion’s share of carries throughout the spring. In the three scrimmages, he rushed for 281 yards and five touchdowns on 52 carries. The 5.5 yards-per-carry average was on par with the 5.3 clip he ran for as a freshman last season, when he tallied 404 yards and four touchdowns in a limited role.

“”I think Joe did a great job,” Schiano said. “”It would’ve been easy for him to moan and groan when all the other guys got injured. It wasn’t easy for him and at times I could see him letting up (but) we can’t do that with him. We have to keep driving him forward because he has the makeup to be a great running back if we can just keep pushing him to that point.”

While Martinek dismissed a question of whether he felt he did enough to stake claim to the featured back role, saying “”There’s always more you can do,” Schiano made it clear that the running back competition remains open.

“”There’s going to be great competition at the tailback spot come August with Jourdan, Kordell, Putman and some other guys that are coming in,” Schiano said. “”It should be interesting.”