ISU running back Jirehl Brock working his way back

AMES — Iowa State’s top tailback, Jirehl Brock, accomplished something recently rare last season against Iowa on the football field.

The talented junior rushed for 100 yards against the Hawkeyes — the first Cyclone to do so since David Montgomery totaled 112 yards in a 44-41 overtime loss five years earlier.

But injuries hit Brock hard after that impressive performance in last season’s Cy-Hawk game. The 6-foot, 220-pounder from Quincy, Ill., is working his way back to full health this spring and he appears to be ahead of schedule.

“I can learn lessons from it,” said Brock, who sustained a significant ankle injury in the 41-11 Week 5 loss at Kansas, then broke his foot in the 20-14 loss at Oklahoma State five games later. “It’ll help me later on in life just knowing how to overcome something like that and come back better.”

Brock — who bided his time behind then-fellow four-star recruit and current New York Jet Breece Hall his first two seasons — was averaging 5.6 yards per carry before the initial ankle injury. He continued to play, mostly to help shore up pass protection, in the weeks leading up to the broken foot. So he’s obviously vitally important to the Cyclones’ offense in a variety of ways — as is backup Cartevious Norton, who also fought through an array of injuries last season.

“We’ll be smart about how we manage those guys (in the spring) and the amount of live reps they get,” said first-year ISU offensive coordinator Nate Scheelhaase, whose No. 3 back, Eli Sanders, also worked through some less serious injury issues. “With that being said, number one, I would say those guys really dialed in in the offseason to the weight room.

“You’ve seen those guys transform their bodies. You’ve seen them really amp up the nutrition and just get themselves ready to go. I think sometimes, you know, it’s one thing to think, ‘Man, I want to be the guy. I want to go have this incredible breakout season’ and there’s another thing when you get a ton of those reps and what that really feels like.

“They’ve all felt that in some moments — Cartevious, Jirehl, Eli — and I think they have more urgency to get their bodies ready for the season.”

None more than Brock, who had been deployed primarily as a third-down and pass-blocking back while Hall was rewriting several of the Cyclones’ rushing-based records in 2020 and 2021.

He said he’s already “about 90 percent” in terms of his recovery and its showing on the practice field.

“He made a ton of plays for us (last season),” Scheelhaase said. “And not to be out there, not to be able to make plays in some of those tough moments and critical moments — shoot, he goes out making a huge play for us, crossing the goal line and scoring a touchdown against Oklahoma State. I think that’s tough for anybody, but I’ve seen some great results from him.”

Now Brock’s determined to help his team achieve much better overall results after its first losing season since 2016, but is patient in his approach toward regaining a clean bill of health.

“It’s just getting my body acclimated with running and cutting and all of that again,” Brock said.

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