Provo • LJ Martin is a Madden connoisseur of sorts.
Give him the runway to talk about the video game’s different iterations, and he’ll do the rest.
He’ll go in depth about how Madden ‘21 featured a souped-up version of Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson. He’d play as Baltimore all the time. But as the game evolved in ‘22, Jackson’s video game avatar became just like every other quarterback.
“I’m trying to find a new team to play with,” Martin laments, truly upset by the turn of events. “It was the Vikings when they had Justin Jefferson and Dalvin Cook. And they had Eric Kendricks and Danielle Hunter on defense, Harrison Smith.”
You only get this level of detail by doing what Martin did as a high schooler. Rather than go out with friends, his definition of a good time was staying at home and grinding on Madden until he crashed.
It fits his personality, as a keep-to-himself, hard worker who loves everything football.
It’s that same trait that’s led him right into the limelight as BYU’s freshman starting running back and one of the Big 12′s youngest playmakers.
In just his first month in college, Martin accounted for four touchdowns and nearly 300 yards, becoming one of the Cougars’ best players. When he broke loose on the road in SEC country against Arkansas for a 45-yard touchdown, he instantly became a household name in Provo.
But let it be clear. This isn’t the case of an uber-talented player who wants to loudly announce himself on the scene. (Although it can certainly appear that way when you look at Martin’s 6-foot-2, 205-pound frame these days. Tight end Isaac Rex jokes Martin’s quads already resemble Giants running back Saquon Barkley’s.)
Instead this is the story of a quiet man, a silent worker, who just happened into the spotlight. Believe him when he says it, Martin would much rather be under the radar playing Madden than get all the attention he is now.
“He’s quiet,” his roommate Keelan Marion said. “But LJ is on the rise, just starting to cook up.”
Quiet personality but a fast rise
Scott Brooks was one of the first to see this side of Martin.
Brooks often rolled into the Canutillo High School football offices around 6:30 every morning, about 30 minutes before summer workouts would start.
As he made the drive, he passed by El Paso Community College across the street. And every day, with the sun barely coming over the West Texas topography, he saw a young freshman running back — no more than 160 pounds soaking wet — sprinting up the long hill in the back.
Martin was often alone, willing his small frame to catch up with his ability.
“LJ is one of those kids that just out works most people,” said Brooks, Martin’s high school football coach. “Hard work with his ability …”
... It was the combination that would help Martin rush for over 2,000 yards twice as a four-year varsity starter. He’d win player of year honors and become one of the more decorated players to come out of El Paso.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Running back LJ Martin (27) runs for the Cougars, in football a between the Southern Utah Thunderbirds and the Brigham Young Cougars, at LaVell Edwards Stadium, on Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023.
As a freshman in 2019, he was good but skinny. The coaching staff knew he was too talented on the freshman team, but hesitated to put him on varsity.
After the third week — when he ran for six touchdowns in a single game — Brooks had to call his parents asking them if they could bring him up to varsity.
“We’ve never done it before,” Brooks said. “I mean, literally just didn’t think to do it. But he was very mature beyond his years.”
They used him in the slot, at quarterback and running back. He wasn’t physically ready to play to be a featured back yet, but the talent jumped off the page as he racked up over 350 yards and five touchdowns that season.
After that things took off. He hit the weight room hard and filled out, ready to take on a bigger workload.
“Weight room, running, you know, you name it,” Brooks said. “He just never stopped.”
By his sophomore season, Martin neared 1,000 yards in a year cut short by COVID. By his junior year, he was physically dominating.
He rushed for 2,735 yards and 29 touchdowns. Brooks pulled him by halftime because El Paso was ahead by so much.
During the playoffs, Brooks got sick with COVID, meaning he had to miss a game where Martin ran for 200 yards, three touchdowns and threw one more.
“Basically took over the game himself and got us to the third round,” Brooks said.
As a senior, it was the same thing. Martin famously ripped off a 99-yard run from the one-yard line. Another time, against El Paso Coronado (a 6A school at the highest division of Texas football) he broke 10 tackles on one carry and went for a 70-yard score to break open the lead.
“A lot of teams out east thought, ‘Oh El Paso team, we are going to put it on them,’” Martin said. “The last two years they couldn’t.”
Finding BYU and Tyler Allgeier
A running back in Texas with those types of numbers gets noticed quickly, and Martin was no exception.
At first it was local schools, with UTEP and UTSA taking notice. But then the Power Five schools flew in on Friday nights to watch him play: Baylor, Texas Tech, Kansas State, Kansas.
For a time, Martin committed to Tech. But Stanford offered and he flipped his commitment to the Cardinal.
Ron Gould was the running backs coach who had helped put Marshawn Lynch, CJ Anderson and Shane Vereen into the NFL — and Martin was convinced.
But in November, Stanford’s head coach David Shaw resigned and Gould left. His final game was against BYU — with Martin watching — and the Cougars ran the ball 50 times for 358 yards.
“During the game I had a good feeling, like I couldn’t ask for anything better right now,” BYU’s running backs coach Harvey Unga said.
(Michael Woods | AP) BYU running back LJ Martin (27) tries to get past Arkansas defensive back Jaylon Braxton (11) during the second half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023, in Fayetteville, Ark.
A few days later, BYU offensive analyst Tyson McDaniel called Brooks to see Martin’s recruiting status. McDaniel was from El Paso and had the connection. The running back was on a plane to Provo that next week to visit.
“My dad was like, ‘Hey, they texted you. Whatever you do just say yes because they have some big dudes that block up front and run the ball,’’ Martin remembered.
Martin hadn’t considered BYU before. But during the COVID year, he and his father watched plenty of BYU games at the request of a local friend who was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
He saw Tyler Allgeier play, another quiet kid who had a similar playing style to him. Allgeier gave him a call and they talked about the university.
“He came from a similar situation,” Martin said. “Not LDS, just how it would be coming in. Just from the football standpoint and I took his word for it. He is a true dude.”
When it came to the December signing period, Martin knew he’d sign with BYU but it was so last-second that his family didn’t have any BYU gear for photos. He called and asked if he could sign in February instead.
It led to a more dramatic waiting period, where he flipped his commitment from Stanford to BYU on the final day in front of his high school.
Bursting into the Big 12
For the first month that Martin was on campus, his roommates Darius Lassiter and Keelan Marion worried about their freshman running mate.
They’d had to drag him out to Top Golf because he preferred to stay in. They only saw his true emotion come out when the three of them would play Madden together. (Marion insists he is 9-6 against Martin and wants people to know it.)
It wasn’t until the season began that Martin started coming out of his shell and the two receivers realized the freshman was just reserved.
But it has been that formula that brought Martin to BYU, so why not stick to it?
And thus far, while his personality has stayed the same, his start to his college career has begun eerily similar to his high school career, too.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Running back LJ Martin (27) runs for the Cougars, in football a between the Southern Utah Thunderbirds and the Brigham Young Cougars, at LaVell Edwards Stadium, on Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023.
Originally, BYU had Aidan Robbins as its starter. But Martin shot up the depth chart and landed on the two-deep. Offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick called him one of his best players before he played a snap.
Then in his first game, when nothing was going right for the offense, Martin burst out for 91 yards and 16 carries. One of his first runs was a counter play, the same call that he broke 10 tackles on in high school.
The next week, Martin broke three tackles for a 17-yard run.
“He was always very elusive,” Brooks said. “If you watch him‚ he’s a long strider and doesn’t look fast but he never got caught by anybody.”
Three weeks in, he got his first start against Arkansas on the road. He took his third carry 45 yards to the house and settled the Cougars in for a 38-31 win.
And all of a sudden, Martin is BYU’s starting running back now in the Big 12.
“He’s starting to cook,” Marion said, who noted he is now beginning to see Martin get more comfortable and talk more around the house. After mostly hanging in his room at first, recently he started coming into Marion’s room and just trying on his shoes.
“Soon he’ll just come in and crash on my bed,” Marion said laughing. You guys haven’t seen anything yet.”
With a season ahead, the quiet worker is just getting started.
