After three weeks of practice and plenty of conversations with players and coaches this month, Indiana’s running back room looks like one of the steadier parts of the roster heading into the 2026 season.
The Hoosiers once again appear set to roll with a three-man rotation, and there’s no real mystery about who will carry the load. Khobie Martin, Turbo Richard and Lee Beebe, Jr. are expected to split the work, with the order at the top still fluid.
Martin, a 6-foot, 210-pound back from Fishers, Ind., is entering his third season in the program and looks ready for a much larger stage. He flashed as a redshirt freshman, piling up 505 yards on only 78 carries, though much of that damage came in late-game blowouts. This year should bring the chance to do it when the outcome is still hanging in the balance.
Richard brings a different kind of profile. The 5-foot-9, 207-pound back arrives after rushing for 749 yards on 145 carries at Boston College in 2025.
He ran with force, with 547 of those yards coming after contact, and he forced 26 missed tackles. He finished as BC’s leading rusher last season.
Beebe adds another layer to the group. At 5-foot-10 and 215 pounds, he has fully recovered from knee surgery after an injury last September.
Over four college seasons, he has totaled 1,486 rushing yards and averaged 6.0 yards per carry. Because he played some wide receiver in high school, he also gives Indiana a reliable pass-catching option out of the backfield.
The battle at the top sounds close, with Martin and Richard appearing to be the leading candidates for the No. 1 job. But the reality is that all three are expected to get their chances early.
The first series on Saturday and the second should matter less than the overall distribution of touches in the first half. Throughout the season, the order figures to shift depending on how things go, with ball security and pass protection part of the evaluation.
There’s also a quieter competition behind the top group. That spot has belonged to different backs in recent seasons - Martin to open 2025, Elijah Green in 2024 - and it’s usually where a player can stack late-game production against tired defenses and make a case for bigger things down the line.
This season, the fight is between sophomore Sean Cuono, who is 5-foot-10 and 193 pounds, and freshman Jayreon Campbell, listed at 5-foot-8 and 205. They’re the only other running backs on the roster.
If there’s a natural name to circle for the season, Martin is the easy call. He hasn’t had the kind of role that comes with the game on the line yet, but that looks like it’s coming in 2026. Curt Cignetti has been unusually open with his praise for him, and Carter Smith sounded just as bullish.
“Man, I love Khobie. He’s really grown as a leader,” All-American left tackle Carter Smith said this week.
“When he first got here in ’24, a young cat, he definitely had a lot of potential, and he’s really lived up to it nowadays. I can’t wait to see what he does on Saturdays.”
Indiana does lose 2025 rushing leaders Kaelon Black and Roman Hemby, who each topped 1,000 yards and are now with NFL teams. Even so, there doesn’t seem to be much worry about the position. The Hoosiers have three backs they trust.
The only real concern would be injuries to the top trio, which would leave IU thinner than it wants to be. Martin and Beebe also don’t bring a ton of Power 4 experience to the table.
Still, the ceiling here is obvious. Martin is the bold prediction pick to break 1,200 rushing yards, which would make him the first Hoosier to clear that number since Jordan Howard’s 1,213 in 2015. That’s a tough mark to hit in a system that spreads carries around, but the talent is there.
Indiana enters the season with a stable and productive running back group, and it looks capable of matching the level the Hoosiers have gotten at the position over the last two years.
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