LJ Martin

#4 · RB · Sr. · BYU6′2″ · 225 lb · El Paso, TX · Canutillo

Rushing yards344151st of 278 running backsLast gameW 27–20vs Arizona State · Oct 31
Nextat UtahSat Nov 7 · 12 pm ET
344 rushing yards in 4 games; their best was 176 at Colorado State.
Game 1: against Utah Tech, win 63-7, 54 rushing yards, FCS opponent54WUTUFCSGame 2: against Arizona, win 28-17, 98 rushing yards98WARIZGame 3: at Colorado State, win 41-23, 176 rushing yards, 3 touchdowns176WCSU@Game 4: at TCU, win 17-10, 16 rushing yards16WTCU@Game 5: against Iowa State, win 24-10, no carries in this gameWISUGame 6: against Notre Dame, win 28-24, no carries in this gameWNDGame 7: at UCF, loss 31-39, no carries in this gameLUCF@Game 8: against Arizona State, win 27-20, no carries in this gameWASUSeason high
Game 1: against Utah Tech, win 63-7, 54 rushing yards, FCS opponentWUTUFCSGame 2: against Arizona, win 28-17, 98 rushing yardsWARIZGame 3: at Colorado State, win 41-23, 176 rushing yards, 3 touchdowns176WCSU@Game 4: at TCU, win 17-10, 16 rushing yardsWTCU@Game 5: against Iowa State, win 24-10, no carries in this gameWISUGame 6: against Notre Dame, win 28-24, no carries in this gameWNDGame 7: at UCF, loss 31-39, no carries in this gameLUCF@Game 8: against Arizona State, win 27-20, no carries in this gameWASUSeason high
  • touchdown

Arizona State · W 27-20

No carries.

Martin has carries in 4 of BYU’s 8 games: none in the other 4.

Dashed line: 100 yards.

This week

What’s being said

9 stories this week, from 5 outlets.

Oct 29: 4Nov 2: 2Nov 3: 3W 27-20 vs Arizona StateWOct 29Nov 4Most in a day: 4
Oct 29: 4Nov 2: 2Nov 3: 3W 27-20 vs Arizona StateWOct 29Nov 4Most in a day: 4
Stories per day. W and L: the team’s results.

BYU’s LJ Martin Injury Update Doesn’t Sound Like Good News

Heavy +1 Nov 3

All 100 stories this season

Worth knowing

  • LJ Martin is rated 92 overall in EA College Football 27, tied for 4th among the game's running backs.
  • LJ Martin was first-team All-Big 12 in 2025.

The story

As of

He led the Big 12 in rushing with 1,305 yards on a conference-high 236 carries, scored 12 times, added 36 catches, and walked off with Offensive Player of the Year — the workhorse engine of a BYU team with rising ambitions. He returns for his senior season with two prizes in sight: the school's career rushing record (within about 1,347 yards) and a CFP berth, paired with quarterback Bear Bachmeier in a backfield built to contend. The forward stakes are legacy and a ceiling: the most-used back in his conference, chasing a number that would etch him into BYU history and a season that could put the Cougars in the Playoff for the first time. For Martin, 2026 is the year the productive grinder goes for something permanent.

Read the rest of the story

Update (Oct. 28, 2026): BYU lost 39-31 at UCF on Oct. 24 as a 7.5-point favorite. The Cougars are 6-1 and No. 8 in the AP poll. Martin has 344 rushing yards in the four games in which he carried, with a high of 176 at Colorado State.

Sources

Style of play

Style of play

Play style

Martin is a high-volume, reliable lead back rather than a flashy one. Our play-by-play has him solidly above-average — a 67th-percentile yards-per-carry on the heaviest workload in his conference — with the efficiency profile of a grinder (mid-pack success rate and EPA per carry) who wins by accumulation and durability more than explosion. He's a dependable receiver too (36 catches), the every-down sort a Playoff hopeful can lean on for 25 touches without blinking. The game is steadiness: he doesn't come off the field, he doesn't fumble away games, and over four quarters the yards pile up. For a team chasing its first Playoff, that kind of bell-cow reliability is its own form of star power.

Short-yardage / goal-line · enumeration

Who gets the tough yard

1/21Inside-5 share

1 of the team's 21 inside-the-5 carries (4.8%).

Similar players

Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.

16% of the carries, 24% of the yards, 15% of the touchdowns

  • Carries16%44 of 267
  • Yards24%344 of 1,427
  • Touchdowns15%3 of 20
  • Yards a carry: 7.8. Everyone else on the team: 4.9.

Share of the team's rushing yards, game by game

Who carried it

Share of the team's total this season.

Most of his carries go up the middle

1020304050564923
leftmiddlerightno spot
a carry, up for a gain and down for a lossa touchdown

Each line is one carry: taller means more yards, and a line pointing down lost yards. Black lines are touchdowns. The play text only says left, middle or right, so inside each lane the carries are lined up shortest to longest, not placed. Of his carries with a spot in the play text: left 10, middle 24, right 10. His longest went for 56 yards.