Akrum Wadley still rewriting his storyline

IOWA CITY — Akrum Wadley opened eyes in 2015. The New Jersey running back did all the things everyone got a glimpse of in 2014.

Wadley ran away and around tacklers and did it often. And after an initial stumble in the fumble department, the junior more than shut down that doubt, which was a very real doubt. He kept his weight up and around the 185 mark, something that told the Iowa staff that he was serious about his business off the field.

There was one thing, however, that no one saw until late in 2015. Wadley went into the Big Ten championship game and the Rose Bowl with one career reception for minus-1 yard (in Iowa's blowout loss at Minnesota in 2014). Wadley caught three passes in each of Iowa's final two games, including a 31-yard TD reception in the Rose.

File those plays. You might see more of those in 2016.

'Akrum's gifted in space, and exactly right, as many ways as we can get him the ball in space, we're going to try and do that,' Iowa running backs coach Chris White said during a Wednesday news conference. 'You know, even out of the backfield, just doing some one-on-one isolation routes with him, he's tough to guard. He's so quick, he can cut on a dime and he's explosive. Yeah, to answer your question, absolutely.'

Last season, Wadley rewrote his storyline. After a fumble against Illinois State, he had four fumbles in 37 carries as a Hawkeye. That sent him to the bench for two games. He didn't log another carry until week 4 against North Texas and that was a 62-16 Iowa victory. Running backs can't fumble and Wadley knew that.

Then, the other part of his story was keeping his weight at or above 185. That was a season-long struggle. Of course, a bigger, stronger Wadley probably has less of a chance to fumble. But a bigger, stronger Wadley showing up to a scheduled weigh-in with coaches, football and strength and conditioning, paying close attention was just as important.

It remains a struggle. Wadley has hit 190 this season, but usually is plus or minus one pound.

'For us, as coaches, we just feel more comfortable with him,' White said. 'More importantly is for the buy-in factor that he's committed to doing what we're asking him to do, and for his future. I told him one day, because he went from like 188 to 184 over the weekend. I said, 'Go ahead and Google starting running backs in the NFL. Tell me how many running backs in the NFL are 185 pounds. Name me one.'

'And he said, 'Oh, OK, coach.' So I mean, he's starting to figure that out, you know.'

The buy-in part was this: Wadley thought the extra weight might slow him down. He's never been shy about running between the tackles, but Wadley's burst and elusiveness set him apart. You saw a ton of that in his breakout game, a 204-yard, four-touchdown and 26-carry effort in a victory at Northwestern last season.

White was ready for that question.

'I think mentally for him, it's big, because I think he feels more physical,' White said. 'His first concern was I'm not going to be as fast. I'm like, that's ridiculous, you're going to be faster. I think he broke the 10 record (10-yard sprint) or something with Coach (Chris) Doyle (Iowa's strength and conditioning head coach), and at 190 pounds. He's going to be faster, more explosive, those type of things.'

White started the Wadley discussion with 'the things that he can do on the football field can't be coached.' He was asked what exactly those things are.

'Well, speed, for one,' White said. 'His start to finish is just — I don't think I've seen that in college, how fast he can accelerate. And then the other thing is, his jump cutting, his lateral movement is as good and as rare as I've seen, as well.

'Now you couple that with a little bit more strength to pull through some inside runs, and you've got something now.'

Eventually, this discussion worked its way to Wadley and senior LeShun Daniels, who happens to be Iowa's No. 1 running back. Wadley rushed 83 times last season for 496 yards and seven TDs (5.98 yards per carry). Daniels had 145 carries for 646 yards and eight TDs (4.46 yards per carry).

One on hand, White said No. 1 running back doesn't matter, that last season it became who was healthy, who had the hot hand and just kind of a game-by-game kind of thing.

But White also said this: 'I would love to give LeShun the ball 25 times. I would love to see him for 12 games kind of like Shonn Greene (Doak Walker Award winner in 2008), just kind of wear people out. I mean, I'm sure LeShun would love that and the whole staff would, too. But unfortunately for him and for us, that hasn't been the case, but we'll keep trying.'

White also said Wadley deserves to play, because, you know, explosive plays.

The thought of 'running back controversy' wasn't mentioned. We are, after all, talking about Iowa running back. At times during the last half dozen or so seasons, that has been a game-by-game, carry-by-carry kind of thing. With departed senior Jordan Canzeri and junior third-down back Derrick Mitchell, Iowa did juggle four running backs during one of the most productive rushing seasons during Kirk Ferentz's 17 years at Iowa.

In other words, these things work themselves out.

'As we saw last year,' White said, 'you're going to need them all.'

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com