Indiana’s backfield is suddenly up for grabs, and Khobie Martin is walking into the kind of opportunity that can change a season.
With Kaelon Black and Roman Hemby gone after the 2025 season, the Hoosiers have snaps to hand out at running back this fall. ESPN believes Martin is one of the players most likely to make the leap in 2026, naming him the first of Adam Rittenberg’s 51 “sleeper college football players who could break out in the 2026 season” after surveying coaches across the Power 4 and Group of 6.
That kind of attention fits the way Indiana coach Curt Cignetti has been talking about him.
“He’s a good, hard, downhill runner,” Cignetti told ESPN. “He really has improved every fall, every spring.
He’s taken advantage of all his opportunities when he’s gotten in the game. We’re really counting on him.
We love what he’s doing. He had some significant carries last year, and he’s got a bright future.”
ESPN’s sleeper list has already been a good signpost for Indiana once before. Omar Cooper, Jr. was included among the network’s 2025 sleepers and ended up going in the first round of April’s NFL Draft.
Martin gave Indiana a real jolt as a redshirt freshman in 2025, piling up 78 carries for 505 yards and six touchdowns. A lot of that damage came late, when the Hoosiers had already built big leads, but the production still showed what he could do with the ball in his hands.
Now the challenge is different. Fall camp points to a three-man rotation that includes Martin, Lee Beebe, Jr. and Turbo Richard, and Martin says he’s ready for more than cleanup duty.
“I feel like I improved in a lot of areas. Pass pro and receiving are some of them,” Martin said last week.
“Before last year, I was still trying to adjust, learn the plays, learn my position, do whatever I could on the field, just make sure the team could benefit in any way. I was still young. This year, I feel like I grew up a little bit, matured some more.”
Listed at 6-foot and 210 pounds, Martin is only two pounds heavier than he was last season, but the bigger change has been in how he carries it. He says his diet and meal prep have reshaped his body and his game.
“I feel like a different player,” he said. “My body feels lighter.
I can pick my legs up quicker. I feel faster.
Twitchier.
“I grew in a lot of areas just off my meal prep. My eating was one of the things, it wasn’t childish, but I matured. Eating was one of the ways I matured.
“Meal prep has really taken my weight and body composition to a different level. I’ve got more muscle in my arms.
I toned down a little bit. I had a little bit of baby fat.
I got rid of that. Now I’ve got more of a grown man body.”
Martin’s path also fits the kind of under-the-radar story Cignetti has tended to embrace. A former Miami (Ohio) commit, he picked up a late offer from Tom Allen in 2023 and landed at Indiana.
Martin says the next step is clear. He sees himself as more than just a bruiser between the tackles.
“I feel I’m more of an elusive back,” he says. “I can weave in and out of tackles.
I have some speed to me. I can catch passes.
I can do a lot of things.”
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