LJ Martin is a true BYU bell cow, the term for a running back who can sustain an intense number of carries — and the hits that come with them — week after week.
The biggest bell cow in Cougar football history is Atlanta Falcons running back Tyler Allgeier, who carried the football into danger an unthinkable, school-record 276 times in 2021.
It was a preposterous workload. Handoff after handoff, he compiled nearly 9% more carries than the previous school record.
Offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick leans so heavily on Martin, the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, that the junior is on pace to carry the ball more times in one season than everyone in school history but Allgeier.
Martin has already carried the ball 217 times heading into Saturday’s Big 12 championship game against Texas Tech. That’s good enough for a tie for the 10th-most carries in a BYU season, and he has at least two more games to play.
How heavily is Roderick leaning on Martin? Here’s three ways to look at the junior’s rugged load:
- BYU’s offense has run 812 plays, and Bear Bachmeier has handed the ball to Martin on 27% of them.
- Add in Martin’s catches, and he’s had the ball on 30% of BYU’s offensive snaps.
- BYU runners and receivers have 681 touches this season. Think of it as all offensive plays minus incomplete passes. Martin has 36% of all of BYU’s touches.
That is a bell cow. Martin has taken as much of a beating as any BYU rusher ever.
What’s more, Martin’s touches are a lot more bruising than the 210 carries Curtis Brown had for BYU in 2005.
Brown says so himself.
“Looking at the type of offense that I was a part of compared to the one LJ is in, his are very physical runs,” he said. “There’s no element of deception at all.”
Brown said BYU regularly used split backs when he was playing, and defenses didn’t know whether he or Fahu Tahi or Manase Tonga or Fui Vakapuna would get the handoff.
Martin lines up in single-back formations. Burly Big 12 defenders know what’s coming.
“It’s brawn on brawn,” Brown said.
The competition is also different, he said. Twenty years ago, BYU played in the Mountain West Conference. The Big 12 is a bruising, ground-and-pound Power Four conference, Brown said.
“I played at 205 pounds soaking wet,” he said, while Martin is a 6-foot-2, 220-pound bulldozer.
Brown marvels at that size and Martin’s ability to stay on the field despite all the hits he’s taking, including on those punishing plays when his offensive linemen slam into a pile and push him forward until everyone collapses on him.
“Durability is the name of the game,” Brown said. “LJ is a workhorse. It’s incredible.”
The biggest display of that came two weeks ago in Cincinnati, when Martin carried the ball 32 times for 222 yards.
“The game plan was not to give him 32 carries,” Roderick said. “I thought we’d give him 20 carries ... It was pretty obvious early on that he was hot, he was on one. Our O line was blocking for him and somewhere in the third quarter it just felt like the right thing to do was to keep feeding him until the final whistle.”
Roderick coached Allgeier and other great backs.
“It was one of the best games I’ve ever seen a running back play,” Roderick said on BYUtv’s "Coordinators Corner."
Martin said it was fun to get so many touches. He also had three catches.
“I was just a little bit sore from all the carries,” he told KSL Sports. He said he loves playing tough, physical football.
Martin now ranks 13th in the nation in carries this year. He is 12th in rushing yards with 1,238 (seventh best in BYU history).
He is already in rarified air on BYU’s list of single-season workload leaders, tied with Jamaal Williams for the 10th-most carries in one BYU season.
Two more games are guaranteed, so he will climb the list.
He averages 18 carries per game. If Roderick feeds him that many times again on Saturday and in the subsequent College Football Playoff game or bowl game, Martin will rack up 253 carries for the season.
That would surpass a bunch of Cougar legends — Brian McKenzie, Lakei Heimuli, Pete Van Valkenburg, Taysom Hill and Ronney Jenkins.
It would even pass his running backs coach, Harvey Unga.
Everyone but Allgeier.
Brown praises Martin’s hard work in conditioning and weight lifting, but he also said Unga, deserves a lot of credit.
Brown hosted Unga on his BYU recruiting visit. The assistant coach talks regularly with Brown, 41, a pharmaceutical sales rep in Clovis, California.
Brown said Unga saw something special in Martin.
“Harvey has a special eye,” Brown said.
It just so happens that Martin’s vision is another part of his ability to be a big workhorse in the Cougar offense.
He regularly approaches the line of scrimmage with the ball like he is picking out just the right hole. Brown said it is a sign of patience and of trust in his offensive linemen.
“NFL coaches always talked about, ‘slow to, fast through,’” said Brown, who played in four preseason games with the Cincinnati Bengals in 2007. “You’re slow as you find the hole, but when it’s there, you have to blast through it immediately.”
Martin’s strength, durability, vision and patience are a big part of the reason BYU ranks 22nd in the nation in scoring (34 points per game) and 23rd in the country in rushing offense (194.5 yards per game).
The ball-control offense enables BYU to keep the ball away from opponents. The Cougars are tied for ninth in the country in time of possession at 33:13.
“You don’t want to waste him,” Roderick said. “You want to squeeze every drop we can out of him.”
