By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Iowa football team is finally living up to its reputation under Kirk Ferentz.

Throughout Ferentz’s 26-year reign as the head Hawk, Iowa has consistently been praised for being a power running team that stays ahead of the chains by controlling the line of scrimmage.

But that hasn’t really been the case.

Until now.

The same Iowa program that finished 10^th or lower in the Big Ten in rushing 11 times from 2004 to 2023 now leads the conference in rushing with an average of 222.3 yards per game.

Junior Kaleb Johnson rushed for 135 yards and scored three touchdowns in the 42-10 victory over Wisconsin on Saturday at Kinnick Stadium.

Johnson already has tied Shonn Greene’s single season record for touchdowns with 20, including 19 rushing touchdowns. Johnson is also closing in on Greene’s single-season rushing record of 1,850 yards.

Johnson has rushed for 1,279 yards in 8 ½ games, because remember, he missed the first half of the season opener against Illinois State.

These numbers would be incredible under any circumstance.

But when you factor in Iowa’s history of underachieving on the ground, and the lack of a productive passing attack, the numbers look even more impressive.

Iowa only averaged 98.9 rushing yards per game last season, and only 123.6 yards the year before.

Hardly any of the names on offense have changed from a player standpoint.

But there has been one significant change, which is the hiring of Tim Lester as the new offensive coordinator.

It can’t just be a coincidence that the running game has gone from being a festering weakness to a strength in Lester’s first season.

That isn’t to suggest that previous offensive coordinator Brain Ferentz was solely to blame for the rushing woes, because in fairness to him, Iowa had failed to live up to its reputation as a running team long before he became his father’s offensive coordinator in 2017.

But the addition of Lester, and the subtle changes that he has made with the running game, and with the blocking schemes, have certainly provided a spark, and have made Kaleb Johnson a rising star.

The Iowa offense performed at historically low levels in each of the past two seasons, and one theory as to why was the absence of former strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle, who was dismissed in the summer of 2020 after multiple former black Iowa players had accused the program of racism.

Doyle was considered one of the best strength and conditioning coaches in college football.

He had helped to lead the resurgence under Kirk Ferentz, and did so with a no-nonsense, attention to detail and work-your-butt-off approach.

Doyle helped to build multiple Iowa players into college stars and future NFL players, and in some cases, future NFL stars.

So, as the Iowa offensive line struggled in each of the past two seasons, some believed it was because Doyle wasn’t around to provide that mental toughness and competitive edge.

But if that were the case, how would you explain this dramatic turnaround?

Not since way back in 2002 has an Iowa offensive line performed as well as the current offensive line.

It seems likely that many of the training techniques are the same as when Doyle was in charge since his former understudy, Raimond Braithwaite, is the current strength and conditioning coach.

Perhaps the best way to answer why the Iowa offensive line has improved significantly is to consider what Kirk Ferentz says about experience in that you can’t microwave it.

Some things just take time, sort of like walking before running.

Iowa has seven offensive linemen that are either seniors or juniors that have started multiple games over multiple seasons.

Senior Mason Richman made his 49^th career start at left tackle on Saturday against Wisconsin and his 39^th consecutive start.

He has certainly endured his share of disappointment and frustration, as has everyone on the offensive line.

But they have stuck together, and they have stayed the course.

Another factor to consider is that George Barnett is now in his fourth season as the offensive line coach.

Barnett has been there almost from the beginning for many of the current offensive linemen. They have suffered and celebrated together.

It would’ve been easy to give up on this veteran group of offensive linemen because they hadn’t performed at an acceptable level prior to this season.

Kirk Ferentz didn’t give up, though.

He kept believing in his offensive linemen and with how they were being coached.

Kirk Ferentz’s area of expertise is the offensive line, and we’re finally seeing his expertise on full display.

It was sort of strange watching Iowa have its way against Wisconsin in the trenches because that just hasn’t happened very often recently.

It was also strange, and sort of refreshing, to watch a mobile quarterback lead the Iowa offense as Brendan Sullivan did against Wisconsin in his first start as a Hawkeye.

Sullivan had 58 of Iowa’s season-high 329 rushing yards.

He seems to have played well enough to deserve another start against UCLA next Friday, even if Cade McNamara is healthy enough to play after having missed the Wisconsin game due to a concussion.

The run blocking almost seems contagious this season.

Of course, it starts with the offensive line, but the tight ends and wide receivers are also doing their part to fuel the running game.

Iowa played against Wisconsin without its top two tight ends, Luke Lachey and Addison Ostrenga, because of injuries, but the running game still didn’t miss a beat.

“The tight ends were a little nicked up there, but the guys jumped in,” Kirk Ferentz said. “John Pascuzzi, Zach Ortwerth, Hayden Large. Perimeter blocking, too, to get the run game going. Makes a big difference.”

As does time.