Meticulous Martinez has got it planned down to last detail

“I’m going to bed.”

If you want to know what Blake Martinez is all about — what some NFL team will be getting when it selects the Tucsonan and Stanford grad in this week’s draft — start right there.

Stanford had dominated overmatched Iowa in the Rose Bowl. Martinez’s teammates wanted to celebrate afterward. The senior linebacker did so in his own way: He had dinner with his family, then went to his room to go to sleep. He had a flight from L.A. to Phoenix the next morning to begin training for the scouting combine — which, it should be noted, was still seven weeks away.

“Football’s been my dream since I was 6 years old,” Martinez told the Star during a recent lunch interview near his parents’ home in Oro Valley. “I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve got a chance to make that dream a reality.

“My goal is to be the best at anything I do. I want to be the best linebacker ever. I don’t want any regrets going through that process. So when I get done with football I can say, ‘Hey, I put everything out there. And this is where I ended up.’”

Martinez will end up in an NFL minicamp sometime next month. The Canyon del Oro High School product is expected to be taken in the middle rounds of the draft, which begins Thursday in Chicago.

Aside from quarterbacks Jared Goff and Carson Wentz, the projected top two selections, no one knows when they’ll be picked until they get that once-in-a-lifetime phone call. But this much is certain: Martinez will be prepared for whatever comes next.

Martinez is meticulous and self-motivated for a 22-year-old. Even if he had decided to go out with his teammates after the Rose Bowl, he wouldn’t have had any alcohol. That’s because Martinez doesn’t drink alcohol. Or soda. Or eat sweets.

Martinez is borderline obsessed with his diet. He has been that way since he was a teenager. He began working with former Arizona tight end Glenn Howell, who’s now a sport-conditioning specialist, while in eighth grade. Howell immediately saw that Martinez had great athletic ability. He also had a great waistline.

“My mom called me ‘thick,’” Martinez said. “Which means, yes, I was fat.”

“He was a little chunky,” said Howell, who instructed Martinez to write down everything he ate and when he ate it.

Martinez listened. More important, he followed through. He stopped eating pizza and donuts. He stopped chugging gallons of milk. He stopped making late-night trips to fast-food drive-throughs. At Beyond Bread for the lunch interview, he ordered a chicken sandwich — without the cheese or bacon.

“He just was dedicated,” Howell said. “For an eighth-grader to do that, that’s amazing. That showed me a lot. A strength coach is only as good as the effort the guy he’s working with wants to give.”

Martinez was determined to get in better shape because he was determined to play linebacker. He wanted to become the next Ray Lewis. At 6-1 and 265 pounds — his height and weight as a freshman at Mountain View, where he began his high school career — that wasn’t going to happen. He was on track to play defensive line. So Martinez completely changed his habits and his body.

“Blake is just one of those kids,” said his mother, Carrisa. “I never, ever had to get on him to do his homework. He would be at the table, no questions asked. He would get it done.

“He holds himself to such a high standard. That was just another thing he committed to. When Blake commits to something, he’s all-in.”

Howell, who still trains Martinez, traces his work ethic to his parents. Father Marc is a general contractor. Carrisa is a real estate agent. Sleeping past 7:30 a.m., even on weekends, meant chores for Blake and his three siblings.

Marc often would take Blake, the second-oldest child, to construction sites. Blake’s job, which could take several hours, was to walk around with a magnet picking up loose nails. Each nail was worth a penny. But there was a catch: If Marc found any nails, Blake wouldn’t get paid. So he learned at any early age to pay close attention, literally, to the little things.

When Blake was about 13, Marc agreed to build him a basketball court. But Blake had to dig the hole for the hoop. And he had to dig a trench to form the borders of the court.

“They really gave him some good values,” Howell said. “He was a professional before he became a professional.”

Martinez transferred that responsible approach to the weight room and the football field. He lost about 40 pounds. He became a two-way football standout, and also lettered in basketball and volleyball.

Martinez impressed Stanford coach David Shaw at a camp, rocking would-be blockers with powerful, heavy hands. Not long after, Shaw called to offer Martinez a scholarship. Martinez happened to be on a boat at Lake Havasu, vacationing with his family. He knew the cell reception was poor near the lake, and he couldn’t have that. So Martinez sprinted about 800 yards up a hot, sandy hill to higher ground.

“We were all watching him pace back and forth,” Carrisa recalled. “He came back with the biggest smile on his face. It was probably one of the best days of my life. I’m sure it was for him too.”

Martinez primarily played on special teams his first two seasons at Stanford before becoming a starting inside linebacker. He earned first-team All-Pac-12 and third-team All-America honors as a senior, accumulating 141 tackles and six pass breakups. He majored in management science and engineering — he wants to revolutionize the fast-food industry someday — and graduated in 3½ years.

Along the way, Martinez picked up useful traits from every successful person he encountered. He compiled 12 pages of notes on every offense Stanford faced. When it came time to pick an agent, Martinez and his family interviewed about 15 candidates over four exhausting days. He chose Jared Fox of New York-based Sportstars, but only after calling Fox at 3 a.m. to make sure he’d keep his promise of being available at any hour.

“Yes, this is true,” Fox said. “Kind of silly considering he goes to sleep at like 10 p.m. every night.”

But typically thorough. Now a sturdy 6-2, 240 pounds, Martinez is in the process of setting up his offseason support team in Houston. Physical therapy. Massage. Yoga.

“I want to make sure everything is right,” he said.

Martinez finishes up lunch. The draft is about a week away. He thinks back to what awaited him after landing in Phoenix the day after the Rose Bowl: weeks and weeks of grueling training at EXOS.

“Every single day I woke up I was like, ‘This day is going to get me one step closer to receiving that phone call,’ ” Martinez said. “It’s been my ultimate goal. At the top of my list. It’s an unreal feeling.”