There are times when Charleena Hemby wonders if she was the one who set her son up for one of the biggest heartbreaks of his life.

When her son Roman, a three-star running back out of John Carroll, was visiting colleges, she did a lot of Maryland’s recruiting. After they watched a sizzle reel of the program’s offerings on the College Park campus visit, Charleena told Roman, “I’ve got goose bumps.”

“I kinda was the force behind that a little bit,” she said of Roman’s decision to play football for the Terps. “I thought, ‘How awesome would that be? For us and for him. Sleep in his own bed when he wants. Eat a homecooked meal when he wants. And jet back to school in the morning.’”

Charleena sometimes replays her nudging of her son to stay home in her mind and wonders if he might have made a different choice. “He had like 26 offers,” she said. But, once he had eyes for the Terps, his decision was made.

Much has changed for the Hemby family in the last year, and not all of it was easy. But it has been, almost universally, for the better.

After four seasons, 2,347 rushing yards and 22 touchdowns for the Terps, Roman was shown the door by the program he had stayed loyal to. He moved to Bloomington, Indiana, and he and his family set down their Maryland gear for a different shade of red.

It’s not a quick drive for Roman to come home for dinner anymore, but the trade-off has been more than worth it. On Monday night, Roman and the Indiana Hoosiers will play for a national championship — a dream once beyond imagining for the Harford County native.

The undefeated Hoosiers have achieved with gusto the goals that were out of reach for him with Maryland. The Indiana program, powered by transfers, could be on its way to a reputation as one of the greatest college teams ever.

When the Hoosiers beat top-ranked Ohio State to clinch the Big Ten title and the No. 1 overall seed in the playoffs, Roman found himself gobsmacked by seeing his football prayers answered.

“I’m so used to being close to this feeling and falling short, or maybe not being able to get it done — not regretting things, but always looking back and saying, ‘What could I have done better?’” Hemby said just prior to the start of the College Football Playoff. “And this was one of the first times where it was like, not only myself but everybody that’s on the same side with me, we did what we needed to do to kind of get it done.”

Hemby has been a big part of the run. Forming a two-back tandem with Kaelon Black, Hemby has gone over 1,000 rushing yards for the first time in his career. He leads the Hoosiers in rushing behind one of the best offensive lines in the country.

After beating Oregon by 34 points, Indiana is the overwhelming favorite to top Miami in the national title game Monday night.

Leaving the Terps for the Hoosiers is like getting his van repossessed — and getting a Ferrari in return.

His fans in Harford County are excited to see Roman’s success. Charleena owns her own beauty parlor, and customers have been coming in for weeks to recap his games. John Carroll AD Seth Goldberg said the school has been giddy.

“It’s amazing seeing the buzz around here for someone who has always been a high-character young man,” Goldberg said. “Sometimes it’s hard to take chances. To me, it’s not by accident that good things are happening for Roman.

“To see him take that jump is pretty cool.”

Hitting a wall

Like many parents, Charleena always believed these achievements were attainable for her son. Had his senior season of high school not been disrupted by COVID-19 — if Roman had been able to attend the camps that lead to the all-important star ratings — she believes he would have been viewed as favorably as any running back in the country.

Thus, it was frustrating for the Hemby family to see Roman’s peaks and valleys at Maryland. It seemed he was becoming the featured back they had imagined as a sophomore, when he ran for 989 yards and averaged 5.3 yards per carry. He was the workhorse behind wins against SMU, Northwestern and (of course) Indiana, a kind of North Star promising big things for a program historically mired in mediocrity.

But that turned out to be his high point as a Terp. Roman never quite broke out as the No. 1 rusher, and Maryland’s offense finished No. 116 nationally in rushing offense in back-to-back seasons.

Charleena said she had several offseason conversations with Maryland’s coaches, including head coach Mike Locksley, asking what the plan was for getting more production out of her son and fixing an offensive line that never seemed suited to run blocking. A few years after feeling “goose bumps” for the Terps, Charleena was frustrated. “I really honestly can say I don’t think Maryland valued him as we valued him,” she said.

But the biggest shock was yet to come — after the 2024 season, Locksley met with Roman to tell him his time with the Terps had ended. He advised Roman to declare for the NFL draft or transfer. According to the Hemby family, name, image and likeness money was not discussed — the Terps were simply going younger.

“They told me that the road was done,” Roman recalled. “I did all I could for the program, and it was time for me to do something for myself.”

In the summer of 2025, Locksley implied that he had problems in his locker room in 2024 because of income disparity for his players.

“You come to Maryland and you look outside of our locker room, there’s a sign, and that sign reads, ‘You can leave your Louis [Vuitton] belts, your car keys and your financial statements outside of this locker room,’” he said, “‘because when you enter those doors, we’ll all pay the same price for success or failure.’ And that’s really important for me.”

Reportedly, Roman received a six-figure NIL deal with Indiana. But the Hemby family wasn’t talking about money when Roman FaceTimed his mom in tears, shaken that the only program he had ever known had essentially discarded him.

“When it first happened, I was upset,” Roman said. “Like ‘Man, I did so much for this program,’ and I felt like I had so much more to give. I wanted to be a leader for the younger guys, because I was a captain as well.”

Charleena felt her son’s pain in a different way, thinking about how she had pushed him to stay close to home for college even though his siblings wanted to see him take his career further afield.

“I think he was a little insulted,” Charleena said. “He was feeling like they were saying he wasn’t good enough. … He was very upset. As a parent, I didn’t know what to do. We were on FaceTime. I just began praying. I said, ‘We’ll figure it out.’”

The next stop

Charleena talked her son once more into her way of thinking. Although he felt he was done with school, she wanted him to see if there was a place where he could end his college career on a better note before going pro.

It turned out that other programs had been coveting what Maryland was willing to give up. With his degree in hand, Roman started recruitment over — and he needed just one visit to figure out where he wanted to go.

Indiana coach Curt Cignetti had taken note of Roman when he ran for 117 yards and a touchdown in the previous season’s meeting. When Roman visited, he was talking to Texas Tech, Georgia and Georgia Tech, among others — but he quickly assessed that the culture Cignetti was building in Bloomington was what he wanted out of his next school.

“I fell in love with it, and I ultimately committed right on the spot,” Roman said. “I said, ‘I’m not even interested in looking at any other schools. I want to kind of stay here and figure it out,’ and, you know, it was the best decision I made.”

Charleena said she was shocked when Roman cut off his recruitment early and didn’t soak in the experience. But she, too, was drawn in by Indiana and its enigmatic coach who has taken college football by storm.

“It’s Cignetti — if I’m analyzing why they’re doing what they’re doing, it’s because of him,” she said. “The culture is different. Even the coaches, the academic advisers, they’re all the same. I was impressed across the board. They’re only gonna get kids that are gonna lock in and do the right things.”

Immediately, Roman was a great on-field fit with the Hoosiers, running for 111 yards in his first game. While Maryland dipped to 124th nationally in rushing, Indiana has been 12th in rush yards per game, averaging more than double the Terps (218.3 ypg vs. 104.3).

The difference between the programs was hammered home in a homecoming loss in College Park in which the Hoosiers rolled up 55 points. Roman had 88 rushing yards and a touchdown, a performance he relished but tried not to rub in.

Roman was initially hurt by folks who messaged him after he entered the transfer portal, thinking he had abandoned the Terps. His parents urged him to correct the record, but he largely avoided doing that until recently.

Even today, he rationalizes that Locksley may have been looking out for him when he let him walk away — and he feels those who know him would understand he would not leave behind a commitment he made unless his hand was forced.

“I really just wanted to do what’s best for me,” he said. “I felt that the truth would come out sooner or later and people would understand.”

Still a son of Maryland

If anyone needed confirmation that Roman’s heart is still in the state, consider that he ran a football summer camp last year out of John Carroll, reconnecting with his alma mater even though the coaching staff has since turned over.

That’s one of the reasons Goldberg and other folks at John Carroll have become short-term fans of Indiana football — Goldberg listened to the semifinals on the radio in his car as he traveled to a road basketball game at Calvert Hall. Goldberg coached Roman as a sophomore and feels the essential parts of his personality are still intact.

“It didn’t matter what was going on around him, he never changed,” Goldberg said. “It never changed his personality, who he was. That has always been who he is — just raised the right way.”

He’s no longer a short drive away, and it has been harder for his siblings to see all of his games. The Hemby family takes crabs to Bloomington when Roman feels the craving.

But being on the Hoosiers bandwagon has been a fun ride for them, especially his parents, who feel their son is appreciated more than ever in his new school.

“Each time, it’s like sitting there looking around, it’s packed and the vibes are crazy,” Charleena said. “We’re very thankful, blessed and honored to be in the situation. Roman is deserving of it.”

The NFL is next on Roman’s radar. Although he likely has an uphill climb to find a foothold in the pro ranks, he considers his one-year stop in Indiana as prep for what he’ll face next.

He keeps his Terps experience with him through it all, not the least of which is his tattoo that reminds him of the four years he played for his home state school and how it helped bring him to where he is today — on the cusp of a championship that he could have only dreamed about before.

“It’s near and dear in my heart, and I always find good in every situation,” he said. “So, every place that I’ve been, I pocket little details and little things that I feel like help me to be a better person, a better man, a better son — anything. So I definitely love Maryland, and I wouldn’t be the man I am today without those four years that I spent there. So it’ll live with me for the rest of my life as well.”

But the good thing — as Roman has learned firsthand — is that after his time at Maryland, life goes on as well.