‘Right Mindset’ -- Beebe Jr. on Track to Make Big Rushing Return
Pete DiPrimio | IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - If you’re Lee Beebe Jr., sometimes you have to cheer when you’d rather play, when it’s all your body -- and college football rules – allow, and if it seems unfair, you adjust, move on and make the best of it.
And so, this veteran running back has.
While the Indiana Hoosiers rolled to a 16-0 record and the program’s first football national championship last season, a knee injury forced the 5-foot-10, 218-pound Beebe Jr. to spend the final 13 games either watching from stadium stands or on television.
“On game days, I couldn’t be on the sidelines,” Beebe Jr. says. “Mostly, I was in the stands cheering the loudest in my section. If I wasn’t able to get to the game, I watched it on television.”
Beebe Jr. speaks from the Merchants Bank Field at Memorial Stadium Don Croftcheck Team Room. Standing behind a podium in a white t-shirt looking sturdy enough to power past any would-be tackler, he reflects on the struggles of spectating rather than playing.
“In the beginning,” he says, “it was challenging, but I had to get the right mindset. I talked to my dad. I talked to my mom. They gave me words of encouragement. Once I got the right mindset, got in the right headspace, it wasn’t bad.”
Beebe Jr. suffered a season-ending, non-contact knee injury last September against Indiana State. He had to watch as the Hoosiers reached historic program heights, making the most of what he could do.
“It made me see the game differently,” he says. “I encouraged my teammates. I lifted them up when they were doing good, lifted them up when they weren’t.”
Beebe Jr. has spent the last six-plus months working to return to running-back form. He won’t participate in spring practice but expects to be full go for fall camp.
“It’s all about hard work and grinding,” he says. “I was out there today on the practice field. I was feeling great. I feel like myself again. I have to continue that.
“I’ll be full go in fall camp. It’s about building more upon my detail cutting and explosiveness. Those types of things.”
The injury held Beebe Jr. to just three games last year in his Hoosier debut, but they were impressive -- he averaged 7.7 yards a carry and rushed for 209 yards and a touchdown while rotating with Roman Hemby and Kaelon Black.
That was after Beebe Jr. had totaled 1,485 rushing yards in three seasons at UAB.
What did he learn during his recovery?
“It’s how I apply myself in the film room and seeing the game from the eyes in the sky. Seeing everything at once and breaking it down step by step.”
That could translate to a big final season.
“Beebe loves ball,” head coach Curt Cignetti says. “He loves the process. He’s a guy you have to slow him down in terms of training. Make sure he doesn’t do too much in the summer on his own. He ran into a little problem last summer with over training, but he really performed well until he got injured.”
Beebe Jr.’s loss was Khobie Martin’s gain last year. Martin capitalized on his expanded backup role behind Hemby and Black to total 505 yards and six touchdowns. He averaged 6.5 yards a carry.
“He stepped up a lot in terms of his mindset and how he views the game,” Beebe Jr. says. “His speed of the game has increased. He’s done an incredible job in the offseason and spring ball.”
For the upcoming season, which begins with a Sept. 5 home game against North Texas, Martin will join Beebe Jr. and others in another rotating running back display, a hallmark of an offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan-directed attack.
Last season, Hemby ran for 1,120 yards and seven touchdowns. Black had 1,040 yards and 10 TDs.
In 2024, Cignetti’s first in Bloomington, Justice Ellison rushed for 848 yards and 10 touchdowns. Ty Son Lawton had 668 and 12.
Beebe Jr. says he learned a lot from watching Hemby and Black.
“It’s how you read the whole defense and when you find daylight, you hit it. They did a great job of that. It’s explosiveness, and when you see a hole, hit it.”
In his fifth college season, Beebe Jr. looms as the running back room’s elder statesman. It is, he says with a smile, an unfamiliar role. IU brought in a grad transfer in Turbo Richard out of Boston College (1,027 rushing yards, 11 touchdowns, plus 32 catches for 275 yards, in two seasons). Other running back options include Sean Cuono, Jayreon Campbell, and Kyler Kropp.
“It’s a blessing to be in college football that long,” Beebe Jr. says, “but I’m not used to that. It’s been good. We have a couple of new guys who are adapting well. They’re learning. If they need me on the field, off the field, playbook, recovery. All that. I’m available.”
It all could lead to another dominating rushing attack.
IU led the Big Ten in rushing last season, averaging 212.9 yards over 16 games. In 2024, it ranked sixth at 165.1 yards in 13 games.
“I like what I’m seeing from our running backs,” Cignetti says. “I like what I’ve seen from Turbo and Khobie. The freshmen have come in and gotten better. Add Beebe to them and I feel real good about that group. There’s good depth and good competition.”