BLOOMINGTON — Indiana football opens fall camp on July 30 as Curt Cignetti and crew look to build on the foundation they laid with an historic run to the College Football Playoffs.
The Hoosiers were once again active participants in the transfer portal, but they also retained many of the key faces behind last year’s success. We’re taking a position-by-position look at their roster this week that continues with a breakdown of the running back room.
Meet Indiana football’s running backs
Let Maryland transfer Roman Hemby cook
Indiana coach Curt Cignetti likes to distribute carries among multiple running backs as he did last season with Justice Ellison and Ty Son Lawton. They had a near-identical workload with Ellison averaging 12.2 carries per game and Lawton getting 10.8 per game.
It was the sixth time in the last eight years Cignetti’s teams had multiple running backs with 100-plus carries.
The most likely scenario coming out of fall camp is Maryland transfer Roman Hemby and UAB transfer Lee Beebe Jr. continuing that trend and sliding right into the roles Ellison and Lawton had last year, but there’s evidence to suggest Hemby might thrive as more of a workhorse-type back.
While Maryland coach Mike Locksley had the same aversion to overworking his running backs as Cignetti, he averaged 5.6 yards per carry in the 11 games he carried the ball 15 or more times (all but two were against Power Four opponents) and topped 100 yards in five of those.
Hemby showed how he can wear down opposing defenses back in 2022 against Northwestern. He ran the ball 24 times for 179 yards and three touchdowns in the 31-24 win, with much of that production coming in the second half. He had 18 carries after halftime, including a 75-yard touchdown where he outran just about every single defender to the end zone.
He’s still probably a long shot to hit 200 carries — Cignetti has only produced one running back to reach the milestone going back to his time at Elon — but it would be a surprise if he doesn’t add a few more 20-carry performances to his resume before the end of the year.
Why Indiana football will likely have a super-sized screen game this fall
Hemby and Beebe give IU the weapons to install a more robust screen-game package for its running backs as proven targets out of the backfield with the ability to break tackles and move around the line of scrimmage.
They put up big receiving numbers last year — Hemby tied for the eighth most receptions (40) among FBS backs, and Beebe wasn’t far behind (30.) Their yards after catch also ranked among the top 25 backs in the country.
It’s a changeup from last year when IU relied mostly on its slot receivers on screen attempts with Ke’Shawn Williams and Myles Price combining for 30 of the 50 passes the Hoosiers completed behind the line of scrimmage.
Former Fishers standout running back Khobie Martin is a wildcard
Martin, a three-star recruit out of IU’s 2024 signing class, is probably the biggest unknown in the running back room. Cignetti told reporters during camp Martin has a bright future ahead of him but didn’t offer any clues about his role for the fall.
It’s easier to project where Kaelon Black, a trusted veteran who provides IU’s backfield added depth, and Solomon Vanhorse, a longtime special teams fixture for Cignetti, fit into the team’s plans.
Will Martin show enough in fall camp to be a part of the Hoosiers’ rotation? Or will the focus be on his continued development? He’s got good size at 6-foot-0, 207-pounds and showed some explosiveness in a cameo appearance against Western Illinois last season.
It would make sense for Indiana to try and get him work in a mop-up role similar to the one Elijah Green had last year considering the team only has three backs on the roster with eligibility left.
Predicted depth chart for Indiana’s running backs
Indiana football position preview roundup
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Indiana football position preview: Will Maryland transfer take Hoosiers’ ground game to new heights?
Reporting by Michael Niziolek, The Herald-Times / The Herald-Times
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