There are only four events in which it is acceptable for a man to cry: weddings, funerals, a trip to the Grand Canyon, and when news breaks that BYU senior running back LJ Martin will be out for a month while recovering from a lower-body injury.
Sources: No. 8 BYU’s star tailback, LJ Martin, will be out for at least a month with a lower body injury he suffered against TCU. He was the Big 12 offensive player of the year in 2025. He’ll miss four to six weeks, including the home against No. 3 Notre Dame on Oct. 17. pic.twitter.com/hsDEEUz9Ri
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) October 7, 2026
Take your time to address the news however you need -- this is the worst.
This news also comes shortly after a similar recovery timeline was revealed for linebacker Isaiah Glasker, who also suffered an injury against TCU and will miss significant time.
But football is a next-man-up game, and Martin's injury will open the door for several running backs to show what they're capable of while sharing a backfield with Bear Bachmeier. That means Preston Rex, a senior who has served as the primary backup since Sione Moa's Week One knee injury, will likely be the top dog when Iowa State comes into town this Friday.
It also means we may see more from freshman standouts Journee Tonga (who currently has the highest yards-per-carry average on the team) and Devaughn Eka in relief roles.
Against the Cyclones, the Cougars can likely afford to experiment a little here and there with the depth chart. ISU is in a rebuilding period themselves, since losing Matt Campbell to Penn State, and hasn't posed a particularly effective defensive front in Big 12 Competition, allowing 31 points to Utah in Ames and 42 points to West Virginia in Morgantown.
But for a team as run-dependent as BYU, their upcoming meeting with Notre Dame just got that much more challenging.
The Irish will be ragged on for a gentle schedule that primarily features the bottom-half of the ACC, but this is a team with the talent profile of a national championship contender. And teams like that take top-10 matchups seriously -- even when the opposition is a mostly-unproven BYU side.
Martin's four-to-six-week timetable for return implies that he will miss games against ISU, Notre Dame, UCF, and Arizona State. He may also miss BYU's contest with Utah (a critical game for conference championship contention) and against Baylor.
Here's hoping BYU can find answers digging through their depth chart, or can gracefully shift to a more pass-heavy attack with deadly freshman Legend Glasker on the outside. Whatever the next course of action, Martin's absence is a major blow for BYU football's chances of reaching the CFP, though they've won their last four games without him, historically.
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