An arm in a sling says it all
That’s how the news broke. On Sunday, Khobie Martin posted a photo on social media with his right arm in a sling. Twenty-four hours earlier, he had left the field during Indiana’s 52-16 demolition of North Texas.
On Monday, Curt Cignetti confirmed it. His running back will be sidelined for a while. “Khobie Martin will be out for a little while. We expect him back around midseason,” the Hoosiers coach said. All signs point to an arm injury.
One worrying detail: Martin didn’t carry the ball once on Saturday. Zero rushing attempts. Yet he still exited the game. The kind of sequence that suggests the problem happened early, well away from the cameras.
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6.5 yards a carry, gone for a month
Martin isn’t a bit-part player. Last season, he piled up 505 rushing yards on 78 carries. Do the math: a healthy 6.5 yards per attempt. He also found the end zone six times in 14 games.
And this wasn’t just any season. Indiana finished unbeaten and claimed the national title. Losing that sort of player in the second game of the next campaign hurts.
Two players split the workload on Saturday. Turbo Richard handled 15 carries for 58 yards and two touchdowns. Lee Beebe Jr. got 14 touches and managed just 33 yards. That’ll do against North Texas. It’s a different story when Big Ten football rolls around in November.
Howard first, and a week to experiment
Indiana, ranked sixth nationally, host Howard on Saturday at Memorial Stadium. The visitors are 1-1. In other words, the staff has a week to test out its options without too much risk.
A midseason return means sometime in October. By then, the Hoosiers will already have chewed through a big chunk of their schedule. What they build without Martin before he comes back could shape the rest of the year.
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