Ismail Mahdi Led the Nation in All-Purpose Yards. At 22, He Just Became Co-Owner of a Dickey's Barbecue Pit.

Ismail Mahdi ran for more all-purpose yards than anyone in major-college football in 2023. Less than a year after his final college game, he spends his mornings answering emails, training a kitchen crew, and learning the rhythm of a smoker. At 22, the former Arizona running back is co-owner of the Dickey's Barbecue Pit on Thornydale Road in Tucson, one of three locations in the city.

The move looks like a swerve. It reads more like a plan. Mahdi went undrafted this spring, then caught an injury that closed the door on an NFL camp. He turned instead to a goal he had carried long before the yards and the highlights. He wanted to own a business. Barbecue, the food he grew up on in Texas, handed him the door.

The Deal Came Together Through Networking, Not Luck

Mahdi did not inherit the restaurant or stumble into it. He heard through conversations that the Thornydale Road location was for sale, then worked the franchise process end to end. He met the current owners and the Dickey's franchise team, reviewed the books, cleared the approvals, and finished the required training before his name went on the door.

"I have always wanted to be an entrepreneur, so owning a business was something I had been working toward for a long time," Mahdi said. "It was a process, but I knew this was an opportunity I did not want to pass up. I am excited to be building something for the community."

He is not doing it alone. Mahdi partnered with Manny Gomez, a Tucson business owner who first met him as the operator of Integrity Auto Repair. Gomez invited Mahdi onto a podcast, the two became friends, and they went on to build a youth football training program together called Next Level Performance Lab. Gomez, who also coaches at Cholla High School, now mentors Mahdi through the parts of ownership that no backfield prepares you for.

"He jumped right in and hit the ground running," Gomez said of his partner. "It means a lot to have an opportunity to help Ismail grow as a business leader in Tucson." Mahdi frames the carryover from football in one word. "It is communication," he said. "Leading the team, keeping everybody going, motivating them. That is what it is."

The daily reality is less glamorous than a Saturday backfield and more familiar to any small-business owner. Mahdi describes mornings buried in email, staffing questions, and the operational grind of keeping a kitchen running. The grand reopening date will be announced on the Tucson store's Instagram page, and Mahdi wants it to land as a neighborhood event rather than a quiet ownership change. He has spent the last year and a half in Tucson, long enough to call it home before he owned a piece of it.

From a Refugee Camp to the Nation's All-Purpose Leader

To understand why a barbecue counter feels like a finish line rather than a detour, start where Mahdi started. He was born in 2003 in a Somali refugee camp in Kenya, after his parents fled a war zone in Somalia. The family emigrated to the United States when he was nearly one year old, one of eight children raised on a single hope: a better life than the one their parents left behind.

"My parents made a sacrifice for me and my brothers to have a great opportunity in the U.S.," Mahdi said. "They left everything behind so we could come here and have a better life." He grew up in Murphy, Texas, starred at Plano East High School, and began his college career at Houston Christian in 2022 before the move that made his name.

At Texas State, Mahdi turned into one of the most productive players in the country. He led the FBS in all-purpose yards with 2,169 in 2023, earned two first-team All-Sun Belt selections, and took first-team All-American honors from CBS Sports and 247Sports that season. He closed his Texas State career with 406 carries for 2,322 yards and 14 touchdowns, plus a kick-return touchdown for good measure.

Arizona recruited him to Tucson for a final season, and he delivered. Mahdi led the Wildcats in rushing with 134 carries for 859 yards, and was named Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week after a 189-yard game in a 23-17 win over Kansas State. He posted a career-high 216 yards against Nevada. The Kansas State performance was the kind of afternoon that reorders a season, a 60-yard burst setting up points and a broken-play catch on third and long keeping a drive alive. He bought into coach Brent Brennan's redline motto, mentored the younger backs behind him, and left Tucson as a leader as much as a producer.

At 5-foot-9 and 184 pounds, Mahdi always carried more production than prototype. He went undrafted in April, drew some NFL interest, then got hurt in workouts and never landed a training-camp invitation. Rather than wait on a phone that might not ring, he leaned into the entrepreneur plan he had been shaping for years. The timing, he says, was the point.

The Brand He Bought Into Is Older Than the Interstate

Mahdi did not buy a blank sign. Dickey's Barbecue Pit was founded in 1941 by World War I veteran Travis Dickey in Dallas, and has grown to nearly 400 locations across the country. The Tucson store he is taking over, at 7077 N. Thornydale Road, first opened in 2015. For a Texan, that lineage was the whole appeal.

"It has been around for more than 80 years, so a lot of people in Texas grew up eating there," Mahdi said. "There is a Dickey's in Dallas Love Field Airport, and airports do not just put any restaurant in there. That says it is a well-known part of Dallas and Texas culture. Now I get to bring that same tradition and quality to our community." His order, for the record, is the rib plate, with a brisket sandwich and a loaded potato baker close behind.

A Second Act Built to Give Back

Mahdi is part of a wave of players leaving college with a brand, a network, and a plan for what comes after the last snap. He credits Arizona's Beyond Football program, led by player-development director Tobruk Blaine, for pushing his off-field career during his one season on campus. He is still leaning on that staff as he gets the restaurant running.

The football door has not fully closed, either. A pending change to eligibility rules could let a small group of 2025 seniors return, and Arizona's coaches have said they would take Mahdi back in a heartbeat. For now, the ownership work has swallowed his calendar. He says he has not had time to think about it.

What he has thought about is the arc. A boy born in a refugee camp, carried across an ocean by parents chasing a better life, spent two decades being handed opportunities by coaches, teammates, and a city that adopted him. A barbecue counter is where he starts handing them back. "The community gave so much to me," Mahdi said. "So now it is time to give back."

Sources

• Arizona Daily Star / Tucson.com, Justin Spears: "Bear Down BBQ: Arizona RB Ismail Mahdi becomes co-owner of Dickey's Barbecue Pit in Tucson"
• Sports Illustrated: "Reviewing Ismail Mahdi's Standout Season for Wildcats"
• Wikipedia: Ismail Mahdi (career statistics)
• Featured image: Ismail Mahdi outside Dickey's Barbecue Pit, Tucson, courtesy Arizona Daily Star / Kelly Presnell