Kaleb Johnson and his blockers take running game from poorhouse to powerhouse

MINNEAPOLIS — Exactly 11 months ago Saturday, Iowa rushed for 11 yards against Minnesota.

That, which happened in a 12-10 home loss to the Gophers, was preposterous. So was what occurred for them Saturday night at Huntington Bank Stadium, but in a good way.

The story of Iowa’s one-third of a regular-season isn’t that it has a Dr. Jekyll half and a Mr. Hyde half in every game. No, so far it’s bigger and way better than that.

It’s a team with a lead running back that keeps stacking up fantastic yardage totals with a consistent big-play flair entertaining enough to make you forget the team still is working on a passing game.

The offensive line is bearing little resemblance to last year’s unit that couldn’t adequately protect or pound. It is taking care of business.

That runner? Kaleb Johnson is hitting every hole, running to daylight and beyond it. He had five rushes for 20-plus yards Saturday, one for 40. After three straight two-touchdown games, he upped it by one against the Gophers in Iowa’s 31-14 win.

Johnson rushed for 206 yards on 21 carries, almost 10 yards per rush. Which was better than his season average coming into the game, but not by all that much.

Last year, the offensive line was a turnstile. So far this season, it’s helping spin a yards-o-meter. Johnson has rushed for 685 in four games. Iowa had 272 Saturday. Many was the game last season when the modest total of 272 total yards would have been embraced.

For instance, the 11 rushing yards and 127 total yards against Minnesota.

“I just really took (last year’s game) personal,” Johnson said in a postgame interview on the field with NBC. “I put my team on my back and I won.”

But Johnson isn’t an I-me-mine guy. “I love my O-line. I love them boys,” he said before that interview was over, and he heaped praise on his blockers once he got off the field and talked to Iowa reporters.

“They’re coming together, being big and strong, finishing blocks and everything,” Johnson said. “It opened up the holes for me and I did my thing today.”

They’re in sync, the linemen and the 6-foot, 225-pound back. They came out of the tunnel for the second half trailing 14-7 after having lost the upper hand of this game thanks to a brutal second quarter.

Johnson had a 17-yard run and a touchdown carry for 15 on the opening drive of the third quarter to tie the game. He went 40 yards to the end zone on Iowa’s next possession for a 21-14 lead. He went 33 yards on the first play of his team’s final scoring drive.

Iowa linebacker extraordinaire Jay Higgins, part of a defense that dominated in the second half, has watched Johnson run during games.

“Seeing gaps open up on the Jumbotron,” Higgins said. “We try to keep that to a minimum in practice when we’re playing him, but it’s good to see that on Saturdays.”

Johnson has made it look somewhat easy, somewhat commonplace. Again, give ample credit to the front five.

Left tackle Mason Richman has 43 career starts. He probably never smiled after any of the first 42 the way he did following Saturday’s game.

“I think we’re all getting in there and blocking our tails off,” Richman said.

“I think it’s a combination of the chemistry that they have and the work ethic that they’ve put in,” said Iowa quarterback Cade McNamara, who ran alongside Johnson while looking for someone to block himself on Johnson’s second TD run.

Considering the wretched offense Iowa put on display the previous two years, the results those blockers and their backs are getting feel like an exorcism.

College football never lacks for great running backs. But Johnson has been different, a bruiser who wears down defenses with punishing short gains, and has demoralized them with his routine rushes for distance.

“I’m not sure I remember anybody in four games doing what he’s done,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said. When Ferentz is talking up an individual player with such a declarative statement, something different really is happening here.

“I just want to keep doing more,” Johnson said. “I’m never satisfied.”

Eleven rushing yards last year against Minnesota. It was 272 Saturday. “It’s a lot better, right?” Richman said.

Yes, still like daylight again.

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