By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Closing in on three decades as the Iowa football coach, Kirk Ferentz has a team, his 28th at Iowa, that is surging at the right time and still very much in the playoff hunt.

Phil Parker’s defense is living up to its high standard, the latest example being Saturday’s 28-7 victory over Purdue at Kinnick Stadium.

But perhaps the most encouraging sign that this Iowa team is poised to do something special is the growing consistency from the running game.

Iowa rushed for 246 yards against Purdue after having rushed for 170 yards in the 24-10 win at Northwestern a week earlier, and for 140 yards in the 30-0 win over Wisconsin on Oct. 31 at Kinnick Stadium.

“I think we’re maturing as a team in some ways, and it’s the backs seeing well, and obviously, the guys up front have to do it,” Kirk Ferentz said in his post-game press conference on Saturday. “The front five guys get it started. Tight ends are big in run blocking, and then our receivers are doing a good job too getting involved.

“And all that being said, we missed a few today. I think we’re going to see that on film tomorrow. They’ve already seen them on the iPads that, if we’d hit a little bit better, we might have had a few more yards, and those are the things we have to get better at. We didn’t close this game well. So, we still got some things to work on, certainly.”

The running game was unreliable earlier in the season, gaining fewer than 100 yards against Iowa State (93), Michigan (58), Ohio State (39) and Minnesota (90). Iowa split those four games, losing to Ohio State and Minnesota by scores of 31-14 and 13-10, respectively.

If you’re familiar at all with Iowa football under Kirk Ferentz, you should know that the offense is impacted significantly by its running game.

When Iowa stays ahead of the chains with its ground attack, everything else becomes so much easier on offense, including the play calling and the viewing experience for fans.

Of course, you can say that about virtually every team, but Iowa takes it to the extreme.

When the running game sputters, the ability to throw downfield becomes virtually impossible, and without a dual-threat quarterback, that often makes the offense ineffective, though, Hank Brown is proving to be somewhat effective as a runner.

Iowa’s fourth-year quarterback isn’t a dual-threat as he said in his post-game interview on Saturday.

But he is a threat to run as he showed with 32 rushing yards on 10 carries against Purdue.

Brown doesn’t run with the same power and force that Mark Gronowski displayed on a regular basis last season as Iowa’s 235-pound starting quarterback.

But Brown is far from being a statue in the pocket.

He is also 6-foot-4 and weighs 218 pounds, so he’s built to take a hit.

Brown injured his shoulder in the loss to Ohio State on Oct. 3, but was available in an emergency just six days later against Washington.

He wasn’t needed as Jeremy Hecklinski went the distance at quarterback against, throwing three touchdown passes in the 41-24 victory in Seattle.

But with less than a week to heal, Brown was available just in case, which says something about his durability and toughness.

He took some hits against Purdue, but he bounced right back up.

And then afterwards, Brown talked about the benefits from having a quarterback that can run, saying that it creates an extra blocker, and about how the running schemes and his running style are different than the schemes that were used with Gronowski.

“It’s a little bit different than maybe how Mark ran it,” Brown said. “Maybe one or two are similar plays, but a little bit different run scheme. He was very down hill. I’m not as much down hill as he is, but I can get there.”

Iowa finished 9-4 last season as Gronowski set a program record for a quarterback with 16 rushing touchdowns.

He missed the most of the fourth quarter against Indiana last season due to an knee injury, but Gronowski still would go on to start every game last season.

Brown replaced Gronowski in the fourth quarter against Indiana last season at Kinnick Stadium, but he was mostly ineffective, throwing an interception and missing a wide open receiver on a screen pass as Iowa fell 20-15 to the eventual national champion.

Brown has since come a long way, and he also has more weapons at running back and wide receiver than Gronowski had last season, even with starting running back Kamari Moulton out for the season of the season with a shoulder injury.

The additions of wide receiver Tony Diaz and running back L.J. Phillips Jr. from the transfer portal, and the emergence of second-year do-everything running back and kicker returner Braeden Jackson, has provided a major boost on offense.

Iowa strives for balance on offense, but to achieve that balance takes a combination of sound blocking, creative play calling and skill players that can makes plays.

Putting all that together, sometimes, has been a struggle under Kirk Ferentz, including at times this season.

But right now, the offense is starting to click and showing balance.

A cynic might say that Iowa’s last three opponents – Wisconsin, Northwestern and Purdue – are far from elite, but you can only play the teams on your schedule, and Iowa also outscored those three opponents, 82-17.

Running back was considered one, if not the deepest position on the team heading into the season, and that has certainly proven to be true.

Five different Iowa running backs have rushed for more than 100 yards in a game this season, including Phillips in the last two games.

The South Dakota transfer rushed for 123 yards against Purdue and for 128 yards against Northwestern a week earlier.

“I felt pretty good,” said Phillips, who has been hampered by an ankle injury this season. “I just want to thank God, blessing me to be in this spot and the offensive line for doing an incredible job of opening up those holes. It’s pretty easy when I have those guys blocking for me.”

Backup running Xavier Williams also scored on a 48-yard run in the third quarter against Purdue, while Jackson thrilled the fans by turning a screen pass into a 44-yard touchdown with five seconds left in the second quarter, helping to give Iowa a 21-7 lead at halftime.

Jackson, who is the son of former NFL running back Fred Jackson, cut back and reversed field after making the catch and then eluded multiple Purdue defenders before crossing the end zone.

And while it might just be a coincidence that the running backs have flourished in Jay Norvell’s first season as running backs coach, maybe it isn’t.

The former Iowa All-Big Ten defensive back, who has nearly four decades of coaching experience in college and in the NFL, including as a head coach at Nevada and Colorado State, is apparently doing something to inspire his running backs.

“He’s a great coach and he has a lot of experience,” Phillips said. “He was a head coach back in the day and he’s just helped us’ one of the mottos is every-day tough and so I think that’s what he’s installed.

“And he’s just a great person and I think that’s what make it easy to play for him. He’s getting us ready each and every week and I have nothing but great things to say about coach Norvell.”