BYU football coaches have been relatively successful plumbing the transfer portal three of the past five years for a workhorse running back to complement the stable of backs they have recruited out of the high school ranks.
They brought in Ty’Son Williams in 2019, Chris Brooks in 2022 and Aidan Robbins in 2023, while getting the most out of current Atlanta Falcons running back Tyler Allgeier in 2020 and 2021. Williams and Robbins were hampered by injuries, but still productive when given the chance, while Brooks was probably underused a bit because he’s now with the Miami Dolphins.
Well, coaches didn’t bring in an experienced running back this year, and that decision is already looking shaky, after just one practice of 2024 preseason training camp.
Although coach Kalani Sitake said sophomore LJ Martin, expected to be RB1 in 2024, practiced on Wednesday, multiple sources have told the Deseret News that Martin is not participating in contact drills and quite likely will not be available to play in BYU’s first three or four games.
Martin is recovering from a shoulder injury suffered in spring camp. He was not made available for interviews following practice Wednesday despite having been requested, a usual sign that there’s an injury issue.
Martin led BYU with 109 carries for 518 yards and four touchdowns as a true freshman out of Texas’ Canutillo High last season, filling in admirably when preseason RB1 Robbins sustained a rib injury early in the season.
“LJ was out there. Yeah, he was practicing,” Sitake said when asked why Martin wasn’t in the 11-on-11 drills when media members were allowed to watch. “We are rotating quite a bit with him and Miles (Davis). We want to see what Pokaiaua (Haunga) and Sione (Moa) and Jovesa (Damuni) can do.”
Hinckley Ropati, the 5-foot-9, 220-pound senior who missed the entire 2023 season with a knee injury, was the primary ball-carrier in the team session taking place on the east side of the practice field, and was able to break off a couple long runs in the nonpadded drill.
Ropati said he got a lot of work because “LJ is recovering right now, and so we would love to have those guys back, but we got to make sure those guys are fully back. There is no need to put pounding on those guys and taxing their bodies and stuff like that. As long as we get them back healthy for the season, that is the important thing.”
Seven running backs are on the current roster — the aforementioned six and Utah State transfer Enoch Nawahine, a redshirt junior.
Ropati, who has 204 career rushing yards and 97 career receiving yards at BYU, said he’s willing and able to take on the RB1 role if it comes to that.
“I think anybody in our room can be ready to do that, so yeah. I most definitely am,” he said.
Ropati said he is “close to 100%” after sustaining a major knee injury the second scrimmage of 2023 preseason training camp. It was his second season-ending knee injury.
“I actually had my ACL (surgery) on my right knee and then it was a completely torn detachment of my meniscus on my left, and my MCL (was torn) on my left,” he said. “That was the most recent.”
The other probable candidate to be RB1, if Martin can’t play early, is Davis, a redshirt junior from Las Vegas who has 72 carries for 392 yards and two touchdowns in his BYU career, after having started his college career as a receiver.
Damuni is a freshman returned missionary from Ridgeline High in Providence, while Moa and Haunga both prepped at nearby Timpview High.
“Everybody is just out here competing, man. So that’s good. I think that is the thing. Coaches do a good job mixing it up. There are no ones or anything of that sort right now,” Ropati said. “It is just a matter of everybody getting reps with everybody else and getting that chemistry going.”
Ropati showed flashes of brilliance toward the end of the 2022 season, particularly in the 31-28 win over Boise State. He’s got a good feel on screen passes, just as Allgeier did.
“I feel very comfortable in the open field. I played receiver in high school. It translated when it comes to catching the ball out of the backfield,” Ropati said. “But mostly I have been focusing a lot more on running between the tackles and making sure that is my most comfortable thing to do. I feel like with the increased amount of reps, I can get there.”
