Anyway you look at it, a four-finger day for Canzeri

IOWA CITY — Trotting off the field Saturday, senior running back Jordan Canzeri looked up into the student section and raised four fingers.

Uh oh.

This could've been read as a bit of 'hey, look at me.' Canzeri did, after all, run for four touchdowns in Iowa's 62-16 victory Saturday over North Texas. Of course, it wasn't. If you've followed Canzeri's story over his five years at Iowa, you know that he doesn't tie his cleats without a huge degree of humility.

So no, the four fingers weren't about the four TDs (16, 10, 3 and 1), they were about the Hawkeyes finishing the non-conference 4-0.

'I thought about that when I was going up the tunnel,' Canzeri said with a laugh. 'It was for the 4-0, but then I was like, 'Oh, that probably sounds a little cocky.''

If Canzeri feels good about himself right now, you'll surely excuse him. The senior's four TDs tied an Iowa record and were the most in a game since Shonn Greene scored four against Wisconsin in 2008.

The four TDs are a headline, but step back and check out Canzeri's bigger picture this season. He started as Iowa's No. 2 running back behind LeShun Daniels, who's been slowed with an ankle injury suffered week 2 at Iowa State. Canzeri came into the season with two career 100-yard rushing game. He now has two this season, going for 115 yards on 22 carries against North Texas.

Rushing yards

For a more detailed breakdown of this game, click here.

Canzeri also entered the season on a streak of 100 carries without a touchdown, the longest such streak in the nation. He's up to eight in four games, the most in that span since Tavian Banks scored 12 in the first four of 1997.

Canzeri also began the season with just two games of 20-plus carries in his career. With 22 Saturday, he's doubled that, including a career-high 24 at Iowa State.

'He's doing a great job,' quarterback C.J. Beathard said. 'He's a team player, whether he's going to get five carries or 20 carries a game. He'll take the workload and do what he has to do for us to win. Right now, that's him getting 20 carries with LeShun out.'

So, you can see Canzeri hasn't had a gilded career at Iowa. He suffered a torn ACL in spring 2012 and took a redshirt year. He might've had a few more TDs, but former running back Mark Weisman, at 240 pounds, was such a TD vulture/vacuum.

You just knew the four fingers had nothing to do with the four TDs. It just kind of worked out that way.

'I would bet on that,' Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. 'He's not a look-at-me-type guy. He's been a really good team player. . . . He's doing what we ask him to do and doing it well. Talk about guys giving us leadership, he's doing that for sure.'

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