‘BYU’s personality is his personality’: Why LJ Martin has fit in so seamlessly at BYU

When he was a little boy growing up on the western edge of Texas, LJ Martin didn’t watch cartoons or Disney movies like most kids his age.

As the first child born to Genevieve and John Martin — who met at Western New Mexico University across the state border in Silver City — John Martin II was glued to ESPN, day after day after day.

During one of those days, “Little John,” as everyone called him before that nickname morphed into “LJ,” turned to his parents and told them he was going to be a professional athlete when he got older. That was “music to our ears,” they said, as Genevieve had played softball and John basketball in college at the NCAA Division II school.

About 20 years later, LJ’s bold proclamation is coming to fruition. The 2025 Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year and Associated Press preseason second-team All-American begins his final season at BYU on Saturday against Utah Tech at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo. LJ is one of the best players in college football, according to national outlets such as The Athletic and ESPN, and has a chance to go down as one of the top running backs in Big 12 history.

“I’ve never been into personal accolades that much. My biggest goals are to stay healthy and get as many wins for the team as possible.”

—  BYU running back LJ Martin

The senior has his eye on leading the Cougars into the Big 12 championship game and the College Football Playoff, and getting himself into next April’s NFL draft as an early-round pick.

“I have always had that dream of playing professionally,” LJ told the Deseret News in an exclusive interview last week. “Early on, I didn’t know what it was going to be in — football or basketball or baseball or track, but I just knew that’s what I wanted to do.”

He credits the “incredible sacrifices” made by his parents to get him where he is, along with memories of watching his uncle Will Martin’s football games at New Mexico State in Las Cruces.

“I always remember being around (NMSU) players,” LJ said. “I just thought it was the coolest thing ever.”

LJ says his father went to great lengths to prepare him for competitions outside of El Paso by purchasing all kinds of training aids, workout programs and computer software and by striving to “get my name out there” in the football recruiting world.

“Any article about me growing up should include all that my dad has done for me,” he said.

As has been well documented, BYU’s career rushing record is within LJ’s grasp in 2026. He needs 1,361 yards to pass former BYU and NFL star Jamaal Williams, who had 3,901 between 2012 and 2016 for the Cougars before being drafted by the Green Bay Packers and playing for three NFL teams.

However, LJ said the record “is not a main focus of mine” and notes that getting BYU into the CFP after two close misses is the goal of every player on the team.

“I’ve never been into personal accolades that much,” he said. “My biggest goals are to stay healthy and get as many wins for the team as possible.”

LJ Martin, his parents, teammate Treyson Bourguet and a longtime El Paso sports writer recently discussed the college football star’s journey as a self-described “nondenominational Christian” from West Texas phenom to starring at a private university supported by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and, probably, in the NFL.

LJ Martin’s early years were full of sports, obedience

John Martin says it didn’t take long before he realized his son had the ability, and the drive and ambition, to make his dreams a reality.

Soccer was the only sport available to LJ in their tiny town of Anthony, Texas, about 15 minutes away from El Paso, where LJ would later shine as a four-year starter for Canutillo High. So that’s where LJ got his start athletically.

“He was 2 going on 3, but he was already a bigger kid out there, so I put him in the 3- to 4-year-old league and he just (dominated),” John said. “He picked up everything quickly, and he was just so diligent and intentional about everything he did.”

The family lived on one of the busier streets in town, and John tells the story of only having to tell LJ once to not chase a ball into the street.

“Ever since he was born, if you told him to do something, he would do it. He can follow rules. He can follow directions. That was never a problem with him,” John said.

The family of four — daughter Bobbie came along a few years after LJ and is now a freshman at UTSA — eventually moved to El Paso. LJ went to school in Anthony from kindergarten to the eighth grade and says growing up in a small, tight-knit community, along with his faith in God, helped make him the person he is today.

“Not one,” Genevieve says when asked if her son ever gave her problems growing up. “Not one.”

Faith in God a pillar of LJ’s upbringing

That desire to be obedient in all aspects of his life has carried with him through his 3½ years at BYU, his mother said. A straight-A student throughout middle school and high school, who was ranked No. 8 academically in his graduating class at Canutillo, LJ will graduate this December with a degree in business management from BYU’s prestigious Marriott School of Business.

“It is his obedience to God that keeps LJ in line with who he needs to be. He will listen to the word of God, and he goes with it. He’s just a good person, a good human being.”

—  Genevieve Martin of her son LJ

“He’s a nerd, yeah, he’s a nerd,” Genevieve said, laughing. “But in a good way. … I say this all the time: ‘If you give a personality to a university, BYU is LJ’s personality.’ That’s just who he is. It fits him to a T.”

In Provo, Martin is known for “taking his (non-Latter-day Saint) teammates with him to church,” said backup QB Treyson Bourguet, one of his best friends on the team. They mostly attend the CenterPoint Church in Orem, but have tried other Christian congregations in Utah County.

“Every Sunday, we get up, we get ready, and we head to church,” Bourguet said. “I really do appreciate it. … CenterPoint is a pretty popular (church) for people on the team who are nondenominational.”

Genevieve said LJ was raised in the Catholic faith, and with a strong belief in God.

“It is his obedience to God that keeps LJ in line with who he needs to be,” she said. “He will listen to the word of God, and he goes with it. He’s just a good person, a good human being.”

Martin said because of his upbringing he’s never had a problem adhering to BYU’s strict honor code, and spends his free time playing video games, hanging out with teammates, or putting together Legos as he binge-watches television shows.

“I don’t (even) have a girlfriend,” he said. “I stay away from that. I am just focused on football and school, pretty much.”

Running for touchdowns and $20 dollar bills

Before he got to high school, LJ was dominating his Pop Warner games to the point where it almost bankrupted his father, he said, laughing.

After LJ expressed some fear about playing against older kids, John Martin said he would pay $20 for every touchdown LJ scored. Good move.

“I ended up scoring a bunch of touchdowns, so he had to pay me a lot,” LJ said. “It kind of got me motivated to play because I was kind of scared of tackle football at first, just like any kid would be.”

It was at about that time the Martins realized they had a special athlete on their hands. Genevieve still has a video on her phone of LJ playing flag football when he was 5 or 6 and making the other kids who tried to catch him look silly with a double-step move he perfected.

“He just always had a knack for running with the football. Nobody taught him,” Genevieve said. “He just understood that when he got the ball, he had to get into that end zone. … From then on, we kind of knew he had a talent for sports and was just really athletic.”

Once, during a youth basketball game, an opposing team’s player was getting away with double-dribbling and scoring a lot of points that way. A coach told LJ to start doing the same thing, but he refused, saying it was against the rules.

“That’s him in a nutshell,” John said. “People try to give us credit and stuff like that, but it is really not us. It is all God. He blessed us with this kid, and LJ has always done the right thing. Always.”

LJ was so obedient that he never had a curfew growing up.

“We never felt like we had to wait up for him,” John said. “He’d come home from a game or hanging out with friends and we would already be asleep. We never had to worry about him.”

A record-setting high school football career

As a ninth grader, LJ was put on the junior varsity squad at Canutillo, but after a couple of games, the varsity coaches were asking who he was and the phenom was moved to varsity.

“I was late for one game. They were playing El Dorado JV, and by the time I got there, LJ was on the bench and another guy was scoring touchdowns,” John said. “I asked LJ, ‘What’s going on?’ He said, ‘Oh, I already had five touchdowns before you got here.’ The next game, he was moved up to varsity, and it was all varsity after that.”

LJ ran for 2,737 yards and 29 touchdowns as a junior and committed to Texas Tech sometime during that season. But in May 2022, before his senior season, he withdrew his commitment to coach Joey McGuire and committed to Stanford and then-coach David Shaw.

The Martins still have nothing but good things to say about McGuire.

As a Stanford commit, LJ ran for 2,137 yards and 23 touchdowns his senior season. He finished with school records for total rushing yards (6,090) and total touchdowns (72).

The story of how LJ got to BYU has been told often. What the family wants everybody to know is that even after Stanford’s Shaw resigned — moments after a 35-26 loss to BYU at Stanford Stadium, ironically — LJ kept his commitment because he was fond of Cardinal running backs coach Ron Gould.

But when Gould was not retained on The Farm, LJ started listening to BYU.

“He loved coach Gould,” John said. “He loved that man. But they didn’t keep him and when BYU came in about a week later, we were in Provo. LJ had the time of his life with the guys, just enjoyed it a lot, and after we got home, we asked, ‘What do you think?’ And he says, ‘I want to go to BYU.’ And he did it.”

LJ Martin will always be an El Paso legend

Sports writer Felix Chavez, who covered LJ’s high school exploits in basketball and football for the El Paso Times, echoed the running back’s parents’ sentiments about what the reluctant superstar was like in high school as one of the “top five” athletes the town has ever produced, in his estimation.

“What stands out about LJ is what a good person he is, and his good nature. I remember what a fun, respectful, helpful guy he was to be around. When he signed to go to BYU, most of El Paso’s media was there, and he went out of his way to thank every single one of us for helping him get to that point.”

—  El Paso sports writer Felix Chavez on LJ Martin during his high school career

At the top of the list is Minnesota Vikings RB Aaron Jones, but LJ says Saquon Barkley of the Philadelphia Eagles is his favorite NFL running back.

“What stands out about LJ is what a good person he is, and his good nature,” Chavez said. “I remember what a fun, respectful, helpful guy he was to be around. When he signed to go to BYU, most of El Paso’s media was there, and he went out of his way to thank every single one of us for helping him get to that point.

“You don’t see that every day,” Chavez continued. “That kind of speaks to who LJ is. He’s just thoughtful and kind.”

Chavez said he’s not surprised that LJ has remained loyal to BYU in this day and age of the transfer portal and NIL enticements to seek more money elsewhere, because he was loyal to his high school in El Paso. The city of roughly 680,000 people on the Mexico border isn’t exactly a hotbed for recruiting in the West Texas area.

College recruiters don’t flock to the area like they do other areas in the Lone Star State.

An El Paso high school hasn’t been to the “Final Four” of the Texas high school football playoffs since 2014, but LJ almost got the Eagles there twice in his career.

“They were super close,” said Chavez, who has covered El Paso sports since 2010. “LJ was just one of those guys who knew how to lead, and how to win. Just a one-of-a-kind athlete to pass through here, really.”

Reluctant superstar is an ‘old soul’ at heart

Genevieve Martin admits to being a bit disappointed when her son turned down a free Stanford education and committed to BYU.

“But once we met coach Harvey (Unga), I had no problems with sending my son to coach Harvey, because that is who he was going to spend his most time with,” she said. “I knew right away after two meetings with coach Harvey that this was just the guy LJ needed.”

LJ’s parents agreed with this reporter’s assessment that he is an “old soul,” with maturity beyond his years and an even-keeled, steady nature that belies the violent nature with which he attacks opponents on the football field.

At a family vacation in San Diego last winter, LJ spent most of his time indoors playing video games and watching television shows.

“He is just a good human being. I don’t know how else to explain that,” Genevieve said. “I know he gets all these accolades for football, but there’s so much more to him as a person. … He does so many things that are extraordinary that he makes them look ordinary.”

LJ and the Latter-day Saints

LJ has said that BYU being supported by a faith to which he doesn’t belong has “never been an issue” with him because he grew up with a Latter-day Saint, Ricky Patterson, who was on his youth basketball team but would not play on Sundays. Patterson’s family has since moved to Alpine, Utah, and the two families still stay in touch.

Genevieve and John said their son is introverted and quiet, but not shy. He is religious, but doesn’t wear it on his sleeve. Again, he is as obedient as any person they’ve ever met, they said.

They also knew some Latter-day Saints in El Paso who assured them that BYU would be a safe, welcoming place for their son.

“There’s a lot of misconceptions, I think, for non-members,” Genevieve said, then shared a story about how they have been “getting a lot of missionaries knocking on our door” since LJ joined the BYU football program.

“It has been fun,” she said. “Years ago, we would ignore them, not open the door. But now, we do. We just had the sisters here recently and we talked to them for 30 minutes. It was a great experience. We invite all the (missionaries) into our home now. And we enjoy it.”

An inauspicious start at BYU

On the field, LJ made a big splash in his first game at BYU, carrying the ball 16 times for 91 yards in a 14-0 win over Sam Houston. He’s been a mainstay in the Cougars’ backfield ever since — when he hasn’t been injured.

However, ask him about his most memorable moment at BYU, and he brings up something that happened during his first workout in Provo, a story that illustrates his humble, unassuming nature.

“I threw up during warmups, just because I was so nervous,” he said. “It was out here, right on this field. I had to walk to the side and I just started throwing up.”

LJ said strength coach Ryan Phillis ripped into him pretty good at the time, but now they all look back on it and laugh.

“That’s funny, because LJ is so even-keeled,” said Bourguet, the backup quarterback. “You never see any expressions on LJ’s face. You can’t tell if he’s happy, sad or mad.”

Other memorable LJ Martin moments came when he ran for a career-high 222 yards at Cincinnati last November, and when he earned Offensive MVP honors at the Alamo Bowl in his home state of Texas.

Bourguet said he’s never seen LJ say no to an autograph or photo request, although he never seeks the limelight and is at times embarrassed at all the attention he gets around town.

“You can tell he was raised the right way, for sure,” the quarterback said.