How will Iowa football replace Kaleb Johnson this season?

IOWA CITY - How do you replace 1,537 rushing yards and 21 rushing touchdowns? Carefully, of course.

Hello.

And when it comes to the Iowa football team, with more than just one guy. Most likely.

Kaleb Johnson’s immense running back production last season earned him All-American status and got him drafted in the third round by the Pittsburgh Steelers, for whom eventually he could start.

It also has created an opportunity for someone to take over as the Hawkeyes’ main dude. Or multiple someones.

“We’re just going to go out there and do what we normally do,” said Jaziun Patterson earlier this week during a media availability for some Iowa offensive players. “Kaleb moved on to bigger and better things, and I know he’s going to be working hard. We’re going to be working hard, too, all lean on each other in the running back room ...”

“I’d say it’s a chip on our shoulder because we want to do that, plus more,” said Kamari Moulton. “We want to be the ones to break more records, so I feel like it has given us more of a drive, just to show that it’s not just Kaleb Johnson. There are other people in the room, and now it’s our time to show.”

Iowa concluded spring practice with sophomore Moulton listed as RB1 and Patterson, a junior, his backup. Both guys are from Florida.

Sophomore Terrell Washington Jr. began his career as a running back, played some wide receiver last season but is back to being listed as a back to begin 2025. Xavier Williams redshirted last season and could factor in at some point, as theoretically could true freshman Nathan McNeil.

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Redshirt freshman Brevin Doll also is on the roster.

“I feel like everybody’s got their own skills and abilities, things that they can do,” Moulton said. “Which really makes everyone want to learn from each other and build as a whole group. I feel like as this summer goes, working out with each other, it’s really bonding, gelling us all together and making us all better.”

To Moulton’s point, the running backs seem to have different strengths. Moulton is quick, Patterson physical and Washington Jr. a receiving threat out of the backfield.

Williams is the biggest back at 225 pounds.

First-year running backs coach Omar Young told The Gazette in a podcast recently that he’d like to have everyone’s specific roles solidified by the first game in late August against Albany. Preseason camp will help him determine those roles.

“You would like ideally to have one guy, two guys, at the most three, where you’re kind of supplementing each one of them,” he said. “And they each have got to have a role ... a specific role, so they know when they get in there exactly what to expect.

“It makes it really easier to know and accept what it is that you’re being asked to do. You don’t have to be like, ‘Well, is Coach going to put me in right now?’ Or, ‘When am I getting in?’ You know specifically ‘Oh shoot, I’m the third-down guy. All right, third down, boom, I’m running in there.’”

They players say they will accept whenever they are “running in there.”

“The main objective is winning, so it’s whatever is best for us to win,” Washington Jr. said. “Whoever is the best in that situation, that’s how I feel it should be out there.”

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