POCATELLO −The crowd at the ICCU Dome goes quiet.

The punt comes off the foot of Virginia Military Institute senior Ben Shrewsbury, and back to field it is fifth-year running back Robert Freeman IV — a play he waited a year for.

Freeman IV, a native of Richmond, California, came to Idaho State before the 2025 season looking for a restart after seeing little of the field at Utah State. The Bengals were where he wanted to shine.

Two games in, that was cut short.

After an impressive opener against UNLV, in which he had a career-long 30-yard rush, Freeman IV came into the Southern Utah game looking to build on it. He returned a kick 41 yards to set up Idaho State’s offense. A few plays later, he was blocking, and then he was on the ground with a torn ACL.

His journey had hit a setback.

“It was a pretty tough transition for me,” Freeman IV said. “I’ve never really been hurt like that, so getting surgery for the first time was a little scary.”

Without football, he had a hard time managing it.

“I was pretty down, depressed when you’re going through something like that,” he said. “I was trying to work my way out of the darkness.”

From that moment, one thing was on his mind: getting back on the field.

“It’s been like a grind, every day just trying to get right, trying to get better, trying to get back to the old Robert Freeman.”

That Robert Freeman IV is a highlight waiting to happen. At 5-foot-7, he is not the biggest, but his speed makes up for it, and in the open field, he is dangerous in more ways than one.

For Idaho State head coach Cody Hawkins, the job is simply getting him the ball.

“He’s electric with the ball in his hands,” Hawkins said. “The thing that he probably does better than anybody on our football team is when the ball is in his hands, he is a hard sucker to tackle.”

Hawkins also sees a side of him that surprises people.

“What Robert has brought to that room from a physicality standpoint, I think, surprised a lot of people,” Hawkins said. “That guy’s not scared of anything.”

But he was scared − of not getting back to the old Robert Freeman.

After that day in Cedar City, Utah, the work got harder. Six or seven days a week, Freeman IV was in physical therapy while keeping up with class and staying locked into the football side of things.

He could not do it by himself, and he credits the training staff members who were in his corner.

“I really appreciate my team, Justine, Dustin, and Max, and the people in the training staff,” Freeman IV said. “Helping me get in there, trying to keep my mental right, telling me like, ‘Hey Rob, like we care about you and we want to help you.’”

Stuck on the sideline, he missed the game. But the time away gave him room to take stock of himself, not just as a football player.

“Being away from the game, it made me think back on life,” he said. “Like tendencies, what kind of man do I want to be? It just made me miss football like a lot, and then it just kind of made me sit back and think about, ‘Hey man, like I feel like I could be better as a person.’”

It also made him appreciate the game more.

“Just cherishing football, thinking of all the opportunities that I had,” Freeman IV said. “How could I go out there next year and make the best of my opportunities the next time I get them.”

By fall camp, Freeman IV was back on the practice field.

Then came Aug. 29. At 4 p.m., the Bengals made the walk to the tunnel and waited inside their giant helmet. The crowd at the ICCU Dome rose, smoke filled the helmet, the music played and the team ran onto the field.

For the first time as a Bengal, Freeman IV was suited up at home — a feeling he had waited for since he stepped on campus.

“It felt really good,” Freeman IV said. “That was my first game at the dome, so it felt like I’m at home. It was an unreal experience for me because I never got to play in the dome yet.”

He carried the ball four times for 10 yards, but made his impact as a punt returner, with eight returns for 101 yards in Idaho State’s win over VMI.

This weekend he steps onto another field, this one a former home. In 2024, Freeman IV was on the roster at Utah State, appearing in the first four games to preserve his redshirt and finishing with 142 all-purpose yards — 99 on five kick returns and 43 on four punt returns.

“I still wasn’t where I wanted to be, as in like playing time wise and stuff like that,” Freeman IV said. “They said a better fit for me would to be somewhere else, so I end up on Idaho State.”

Now he returns to Maverik Stadium as a visitor.

“You don’t ever want to go into a game thinking, ‘oh, it’s a revenge game,”‘ he said. “Then you start playing crazy and you start making bad decisions and mistakes. I’m going in like, ‘It’s another game, another day, another dollar.’”

For him, the focus is being back on the field. When Shrewsbury’s punt came down and Freeman IV backpedaled to the 11-yard line, caught it and sped 26 yards upfield with the crowd rising behind him, that was the reason he came back.

The player who went down in Cedar City and the one who played this past Saturday are the same on the field. Off it, he has grown in ways his old self would not have believed.

Asked what he would tell himself in the days after the injury, he did not hesitate.

“I would tell him, ‘Hey man, you know, it’s all right. It’s not the end of the world,’” Freeman IV said. ‘“You got to keep pushing, and people love and care about you, and you know they don’t just care about what you can do for them in a team. You don’t have to be all prideful and stuff like that, thinking you can get through it by yourself.’”