#29 Days Until Pitt Football: Curtis Martin

If you spend any time on Twitter, you no doubt have seen people posting certain Pitt players wearing uniform numbers that correspond with the number of days left until the football season kicks off. Jim did it last year and this year, Pat Narduzzi has been doing it.

I know we have a lot of younger readers here and also some folks that may not have spent their entire lives following Pitt sports. For that reason, I thought it would be cool to not only do the countdown here, but also give a brief writeup on the player to potentially help fans connect a little more with some of the all-time greats.

Quick disclaimer - this isn't necessarily about picking the best player for each number. Not only is that disputable in many instances, but it's not really the point of the exercise. So don't be offended if your favorite player doesn't make the list here. I'll probably mirror Narduzzi's list for the most part but may go off the board in a few instances.

These will also be brief, folks. It's the offseason and we all use this time to wind down a bit. These won't be theses or anything, but we'll cobble together a few facts for each guy.

Finally, feel free to add on to a player's accomplishments in the comments section. Some I'll leave out due to space/time and some I may not even know about. But this will be a good learning exercise for all of us.

Continuing our countdown today is Hall of Famer Curtis Martin.

Martin had a bigger career in the NFL than he did at Pitt, but he still starred for the Panthers. He had nearly 1,300 yards combined as an underclassman and broke out in his junior year with a 1,075-yard, eight-touchdown season. His senior year looked promising but he suffered a sprained ankle in only his second game of the year and missed the rest of the season.

Despite the injury, Martin was taken in the third round of the NFL Draft by the New England Patriots. He was an instant star with the team, winning the NFL's Rookie of the Year Award with nearly 1,500 yards rushing. He would go on to rush for over 1,000 yards in every season of his 12-year NFL career except his final one. More than 14,000-yards later, he found himself in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

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