SLIPPERY ROCK — Talk about a quiet force.

Marcus Martin has been all of that and then some for the Slippery Rock University football team of late.

The 6-foot-3, 235-pound red-shirt freshman defensive end is making a personal assault on the SRU and Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference record book.

“I’m not sure what drives him because he never says anything,” SRU coach Gerorge Mihalik said. “Marcus just lets his performance do the talking.

“He’s fun to watch. I’m just glad he’s wearing the Green and White.”

Martin enters this Saturday’s PSAC title game against undefeated Bloomsburg needing two quarterback sacks to tie the PSAC single-season record of 18. He has 16 sacks and 22.5 tackles for loss on the year.

Martin has at least 6.5 more sacks and four more tackles for loss than any other player in the conference. In fact, he has more sacks in the past three games — 10.5 — than any other defender in the PSAC has all season.

“I run over by him sometimes when we’re lining up, trying to hype him up, get him fired up,” SRU linebacker Austin Miele said. “He always seems to be so calm.’

“All I know is, that guy is the best defensive player I’ve ever played with. He just dominates up front.”

Martin has been doing that for a while. He registered more than 20 sacks in his high school career at West Mifflin and was named Big 9 Defensive Player of the Year in 2012. He was a first team all-conference selection three years in a row.

Mihalik said Martin would have seen action as a true freshman with The Rock last year, but he was ruled ineligible.

“There was something going on with the transfer of my high school transcripts, I’m not even sure what it was,” Martin recalled. “But I didn’t waste the year. Last year actually helped me. I spent the season getting acclimated and adjusted to things.”

He’s adjusted well. Martin had 3.5 sacks in a 31-21 win at Indiana three weeks ago. He followed that up with 3.5 sacks in a 29-7 triumph over Edinboro and three more sacks in Saturday’s 45-8 win at Clarion.

“Marcus symbolizes what our defense is all about,” defensive coordinator Shawn Lutz said. “He really is relentless.

“He knows how to just power through blocks. He’s disruptive. It’s scary to think of what he may be able to accomplish here before he’s through.”

Martin has already shattered The Rock’s previous single-season sack record of 12, set by Matt Kinsinger in 1007 and matched by Tyler Boudreau a decade later. His 22.5 tackles for loss are closing in on Corey Lacek’s school mark of 28, set in 2006.

Kinsinger, a 1998 graduate and an inductee into the SRU Athletic Hall of Fame earlier this year, owns the SRU career records of 32 sacks and 60 tackles for loss. If Martin stays healthy, both of those marks will be in jeopardy.

“I do get hyped up, though it may not show,” Martin said, smiling. “I keep it inside. I let it fuel me.

“I love making splash plays, getting to the quarterback. I’ve always played with an edge that way and our defense welcomes it.”

Miele says Martin has earned everything he’s getting.

“He’s a product of hard work,” the linebacker said. “He goes hard in the weight room, works hard and stays intense on the practice field.

“The guy just wants it.”

Whether he chose to or not, Martin has become a leader by example.

“He sets the tone for our entire defense,” Mihalik said. “It seems strange to say that about a freshman, but that’s who he is.

“He’s a cut above, simple as that.”