It’s Football Night in Iowa, starring the Hawkeyes’ Kaleb Johnson and the Cyclones’ defense

The football teams of Iowa and Iowa State both play at night in mid-October, but 6-0 Army and 6-0 Indiana play in 11 a.m. games and college football, I don’t even know you anymore.

Also, Navy is 5-0. Wouldn’t you like to see either Army or Navy go unbeaten all the way through the College Football Playoff? No? Well, then you’re not allowed to use the word “patriot” to describe yourself. Go root for Cal-Berkeley, you hippies.

That said, let’s discuss Iowa and Iowa State.

For reasons mere mortals will never understand, there are midseason All-America college football teams floating around. Iowa’s Kaleb Johnson was a fixture on those, as you would expect, teamed with Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty as the first-team running backs.

Johnson would be the midseason favorite for the Doak Walker Award were it not for Jeanty, and he might have gotten a little of the Heisman Trophy chatter that has come Jeanty’s way.

Johnson has 937 rushing yards through six games, averaging 156.2 rushing yards per game and 7.9 yards per carry on 118 rushes. Iowa’s season records are Shonn Greene’s 142.3 yards per game in 2008 and Tavian Banks’ 6.5 yards per carry in 1997.

But barring injury to Jeanty, Boise’s guy will win the Doak Walker and maybe the Heisman. He has 126 carries for 1,248 yards, 9.9 yards per attempt. He has done it against the big boys, too. He rushed for 192 yards in a 37-34 loss at Oregon, and 259 in a win over Washington State.

Johnson has a nation-best 16 rushes of 20-plus yards. He has 660 yards after contact. He is averaging 5.6 yards after contact! He has forced 43 missed tackles. He hasn’t lost a fumble. He’s great.

Jeanty has a nation-best nine rushes of 50-plus yards. He leads the nation in yards after contact with 914. He is averaging 7.2 yards after contact! He has forced 57 missed tackles. He hasn’t lost a fumble. He’s great.

No one in the last three years has equaled Johnson’s 156.2 rushing yards per game. Last year, Missouri’s Cody Schrader was the leader at 125.2.

Johnson’s average would have led the Big Ten in each of the last five seasons, and no one in the last four full seasons was within 13 yards of his average.

Jeanty is on a pace to eclipse Barry Sanders’ single-season major-college record of 2,628 rushing yards.

Man, they’re both fun to watch.

Iowa State, meanwhile, is pursuing a school-record of its own that would be pretty satisfying. The Cyclones can equal their best start in program history if they beat UCF Saturday night to get to 7-0.

The other time ISU was 7-0 was in 1938. Included were wins over Nebraska and Missouri. The Cyclones then tied Kansas State and lost, 10-0. to Oklahoma for a 7-1-1 season.

Oklahoma won the Big Six Conference that year at 5-0, while Iowa State was 3-1-1. It was long ago.

How long? National champion TCU beat Carnegie Tech, 15-7, in the Sugar Bowl. Carnegie Tech’s team consisted of 42 engineering students and one musician.

USC nipped Duke, 7-3, in the Rose Bowl. Duke had shut out its other nine opponents.

There were only three other bowls that year. Unlike now, none were sponsored by Pop-Tarts, which were 26 years from being produced.

I’m not going to tell you which song was No. 1 in 1938. Everyone knows music barely existed until Beatlemania started 25 years later.

What we do know is defense travels, through decades and centuries. The 1938 Cyclones held their first seven opponents to a total of 41 points, and averaged 7.1 points allowed per game overall.

The 2014 Cyclones are allowing 11.0 points per game, fifth-best in the nation. They lead their conference — which has 10 more teams than it did it 1938 — in total defense. They are one of the four teams in the nation that had yet to lose a fumble entering this week’s games.

Navy is among the other three, and Navy has run the ball on 234 of its 302 plays. Army has lost just one fumble, and that’s with a nation-leading 324 rushing attempts out of its 370 plays.

Yep, Navy or Army going unbeaten and winning the national title would be a heck of a thing.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com