But on this morning, the warmth of the desert still seemed far away. The floor to ceiling glass in front of him looked out on the north end zone of Yager Stadium, where the field was coated by a dusting of glistening snow.
Some 14 months earlier — Oct. 21, 2023 — the Homecoming crowd for Miami’s game with Toledo had suddenly found itself frozen in shock and growing dread as it watched the scene unfold on the goal line of that very same end zone.
That’s where Gabbert lay in pain and growing despair after suffering a horrific leg injury.
One of the two broken bones in his lower right leg was sticking out. His sock was drenched in his blood.
He was surrounded by over a dozen trainers and medical personnel. Many of his teammate were on their knees nearby — all numb, a couple in tears — and in the distance, some Toledo players reacted the same.
Martin, in his red sweater vest and khaki pants, knelt at Gabbert’s side and held his right hand as they waited for an Oxford Fire Department rescue vehicle — its lights flashing — back into the stadium and through the end zone as the crowd of 17,321 sat in uneasy silence.
“It was the most gruesome injury I’ve ever been a part of,” Martin said the other day.
Gabbert — who had led the RedHawks down the field late in the third quarter with hopes of erasing much of Toledo’s 11-point lead — had tried the plunge to a score from two yards out.
Instead, he’d been stonewalled by the Rockets’ 295-pound tackle Judge Culpepper and in the resulting scrum of pushing, tumbling players, a defender fell on his leg.
“The first thing I felt was both my bones just snap,” Gabbert said. “Anybody close to me probably heard it too.
“I remember telling people, ‘Just get off! Get off! Get off!’”
As soon as they saw the injury, players from both teams waved frantically to the sidelines for help to come immediately.
“I looked down and my leg was crooked and I was like ‘Oh no!’” Gabbert said. “After that I didn’t look. I went into shock, but I do remember them pinning me down to the ground as they set the two bones…That didn’t feel great.”
After an antiseptic powder was poured on the open wound to guard against infection and he was fitted with a black air cast, Gabbert was lifted onto a gurney and quickly surrounded by the entire Miami team and some Toledo players.
After a final fist bump with a teammate, he was put into the vehicle and quickly was on his way to a Cincinnati-area hospital for surgery
“In the ambulance and then the prep room, you’re on all sorts of heavy drugs to take the pain away,” he said. “I was getting morphine, but I was conscious.
“During the ride, I remember thinking that I’d heard of other people who had similar injuries — you always hear about the bad ones, the gruesome ones — and the majority of times when people get hurt like this, they just weren’t able to play again.
“In my head I was like ‘Dang, what if that’s me? After coming back from all the other stuff, what if this is how it turns out. What if I never play again? Is this how it ends?’”
Although it would take months until he could even walk again — and much longer until he could outstep the mental doubts and demons that tackled him in the quiet, all-alone moments at night — he eventually was able to give an emphatic answer to that ambulance question:
“No! It wasn’t the end!”
This season — the sixth of his college career that’s been plagued by numerous injuries and celebrated by even more magnificent accomplishment — was his most acclaimed. Gabbert led the RedHawks to the Mid-American Conference championship game, where they lost to Ohio University.
He won first team All-MAC honors after finishing the season second in the league in touchdown passes with 21 and fourth in passing yards with 2,737.
Credit: Michael Clubb
Credit: Michael Clubb
Saturday the RedHawks (8-5) and Colorado State (8-4) play in a game that carries Snoop Dogg’s name.
The famed rapper is an avid sports fan, and he’ll orchestrate the coin toss before the game, perform at halftime with the Miami band, join the TV broadcasters during the game and present the trophy afterward.
And yet, when you consider what Gabbert has done to be a part of this game, you realize Snoop is the warm-up act in this one.
But once again the Miami quarterback will face a challenge,
Four of Miami’s standout players — including two of its top receivers and the veteran left tackle who protected Gabbert’s blind side — entered the transfer portal before the game and won’t play.
And yet, in circumstances like that, Gabbert is often at his best
“The bigger the moment — where there’s the least chance of winning — that’s when Brett wants to go out on that field more than anyone,” Martin said.
He did it in the very first game of his college career — when he was a freshman — and started against Iowa on the road, at night with as hostile environment, against a big-time opponent, with a top draft pick (defensive end A.J. Epenesa) breathing down his neck on every play.
“He took his shots that game, but he wasn’t flustered,” Martin said. “He was confident and focused. He had this look that said: ‘I was made for this moment.’
“He’s shown that time and again.”
Martin said it was there a couple of years ago when they went to Cincinnati — where they hadn’t won in 18 years ― and he led them to victory in overtime.
He showed it coming back from that leg injury last year and again this season after he was sacked by Central Michigan and hurt his shoulder. He begged to get back in the game and did and soon threw a TD pass.
“I thought he was the toughest football player I’d ever coached before all his injuries and then came all this,” Martin said.
“His commitment to being a quarterback is unmatched. He is the most driven athlete at his craft that I’ve ever been around.”
A family of QBs
Both of Gabbert’s brothers were college quarterbacks, and Blaine was a first-round draft pick in 2011, played 13 NFL seasons for six teams and won Super Bowl rings as the backup quarterback for Tampa Bay and Kansas City.
Although Brett was a high school star in Missouri, he was lightly recruited — in part because he was just six feet tall — and ended up choosing Miami.
When he led the RedHawks against Iowa in 2019, he became the only true freshman in Miami’s long, storied football history to open the season as the team’s starting quarterback. He ended the season as the MAC’s Freshman of the Year.
After the 2020 season was shortened by COVID, he came back in 2021 and won third-team All-MAC honors and was the offensive MVP of the Frisco Bowl when Miami topped North Texas.
The following season he cracked the clavicle of his non-throwing arm in the opener against Kentucky and continued to play until an ankle injury in late October left him on crutches and headed for surgery.
Frustrated with his injuries on the field and fueled by his triumphs away from the game — he already had his degree and carried a 3.76 GPA — he decided he needed a fresh start and entered the transfer portal.
Soon after he said he realized he’d made a rash move and wanted to stay at Miami — “it was a horrible decision,” he said — and Martin went against his usual rule and took him back 18 days after he’d left.
Gabbert came back in 2023 and was leading the MAC in passing yards when he broke his leg against Toledo.
Rehab was a ‘mental grind’
“There were a lot of things I had to work through in the course of 10 and a half months to be able to play this year,” he said. “The toughest thing was the mental grind.
“Each and every day you work four hours in the training room and then with the physical therapist and along the way there are always obstacles and setbacks and some days the doubt crosses your mind: ‘What if I’m never able to play again?’
“There were definitely times late at night when I couldn’t sleep, and the negative thoughts crept in.
“You know how they say. ‘It takes a village?’ It’s true.
“I’d vent to my family; my physical therapist; my trainers and they’d kind of talk me off the ledge and calm me down. They’d remind me I was actually doing extremely well.”
He said that’s when he reminded himself not to give up: “I was the only one who could dig myself out of this hole I was in.
“I know a lot of people silently doubted that I’d ever be able to play again. I just wanted to prove to myself and the people who love me the most that I could come back. I wanted to show those who did believe in me that, ‘Hey, you were right.’”
Martin said that wasn’t easy for Gabbert: “As tough as the physical part was, the mental had to be 10 times worse. He’d be coming back to the same field where, the last time he was here, he was laying on it with the bone sticking out.”
Martin said Gabbert wasn’t himself in the first four games this season — which started with three losses to Northwestern, Cincinnati and Notre Dame — but hit stride soon after that.
After a loss to Toledo dropped Miami to 1-4, the RedHawks won seven straight games and made the MAC title game.
Coming into the bowl game, Gabbert is now second all-time among Miami quarterbacks with 80 touchdown passes and third in career passing yards with 10,503.
Now 24 — he’s the oldest player on the team — Gabbert said he’s “excited to put on the jersey for the university one more time and just go hard.”
Martin said this won’t be some kind of cameo appearance or “last hurrah: moment: “He’ll prepare harder than anyone on the team. When it comes to his craft, he’s the most driven athlete I’ve ever been around.”
As we talked, Gabbert finally admitted this has been a special season for him after going through what he did. And along the way he said he learned some valuable lessons about what’s important in his life and being grateful for what he has.
He said more than the stats and big wins, “I’d rather be remembered for the human being I am; the teammate I was; and the way I showed some grit and perseverance.”
That’s how Martin will remember him:
“This kid is different. God made someone who just can’t wait to go out and stand in that pocket at 6 feet and, though he might be undersized, he just competes his tail off and tries to drive his team to victory.
“He was just made to be in the arena.”
“And he wouldn’t let anything keep him from it.”
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