Iowa football hasn’t had its entire running back room available the entire season. How it’s impacted the offense.

IOWA CITY — Tim Lester hasn’t had the same starting running back for a single game this season.

The Iowa football offensive coordinator and head coach Kirk Ferentz have worked with a different player for all five games. Not the ideal situation for the Hawkeye running back room, but Lester and Ferentz also know it’s helpful that Iowa’s room hasn’t shown many discrepancies between RB1 to RB4.

“The good thing about our running back room is I feel like they all can do everything,” Lester said.

Iowa (3-2, 1-1 Big Ten) heads to Wisconsin (2-3, 0-2 Big Ten) on Saturday following its first bye week of the season. Leading up to the Hawkeyes’ sixth game, sophomore Terrell Washington Jr. is the only running back with two starts this season.

He’s also the only one to play in all five games.

Having Kamari Moulton, Jaziun Patterson and Xavier Williams deal with injuries throughout the first five weeks meant Lester had to understand which running back to start and who to give the load to.

“It's difficult, right, because they each have their fast ball, right?” Lester said. “Like this is what he does best, because you always try to put guys in the position that they do best.”

What did help, espeically against Indiana, was that while Lester didn’t have Patterson or Williams at his disposal, Moulton was back healthy and he could use true freshman Nathan McNeil. McNeil’s played in four games this season, which means the Hawkeyes will burn his redshirt season.

The downside of not having Patterson. in particular, was that Patterson’s hard-nose, A-gap running style was perfect against the Hoosiers — and he wasn’t available.

“We really didn't have a grinder, A-gap runner, that's his bread and butter,” Lester said. “We were playing a team that we kind of needed that.”

Iowa’s top three rushers so far are Patterson, 198 net rushing yards, Williams, 186 net rushing yards, and Moulton, 165 net rushing yards. Then quarterback Mark Gronowski follows in fourth with 150 net rushing yards.

Those three running backs all have been available at the exact same time for one drive this season.

The flip side, however, is the Hawkeyes have proven they have a deep running back room. Since the preseason, Iowa has stated multiple times its RB group could all produce, rather than relying on one player like it did with Kaleb Johnson.

“The great part is you have a great group, right, that most teams if they got to their fourth and fifth, would be in huge trouble, and our guys are still able to execute,” Lester said. “That's the silver lining, but it is difficult, and it just takes a little bit more planning on the front end. Then a guy gets hurt in the middle of the game, and all that planning goes out the window quick. Those guys really have done a good job.”

Another positive of a bye week — the injured running backs got to rest. Along with Gronowski, too, who’s status still is unconfirmed by the program after he suffered a knee injury against Indiana.

Williams was deemed “week-to-week,” while Patterson didn’t have a specific timetable. He was listed on the team’s depth chart ahead of Week 5, but Ferentz later shared Patterson wouldn’t be available.

That led to McNeil’s appearance. Though Ferentz and Lester both know the true freshman has to polish his game more — a standard statement for a young collegiate player — they’ve liked the progress he’s made through preseason and in four appearances. McNeil has 89 net rushing yards this season.

“I've said before, just a young man we are really impressed with,” Ferentz said in September. “Everything he's done since he's been on campus is really impressive, so we're high on him, but we just want to bring him along at a pace that's best for him hopefully. He has real potential.”

Maybe a week off means Iowa’s running back room can finally click on the field, with all of them playing together. If not this week, maybe next.

“The inconsistency, to nobody's fault in the running back situation, has been interesting. They've all been working hard,“ Lester said. “Just getting the consistency with the O-line and running backs, I think that's going to help a ton.”

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