The Iowa Hawkeyes rode the ground game to a 24-3 dominant victory over Purdue to move to 5-4 on the season. The catalyst to that performance was freshman running back Kaleb Johnson.
Iowa gave Johnson his heaviest workload of the season to this point and he delivered when given the opportunity. Johnson ran for 200 yards on 22 carries, averaging 9.1 yards per touch. The standout run being the 75-yard touchdown to break the game wide open.
With his performance, Johnson has been named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week and the Big Ten Freshman Player of the week.
✌️ B1G recognitions for K2@Kj_Superman2 x #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/ONJypVdsHi
— Hawkeye Football (@HawkeyeFootball) November 7, 2022
Johnson’s aforementioned 75-yard gallop to open the second half built a 24-3 lead that gave Iowa complete control of this game and turned it into a submission by the Hawkeyes’ defense for the rest of the second half.
Kaleb Johnson: a freshman phenom the likes of which Iowa hasn’t seen in a while.
Offensive line issues seem to be getting cleaned up too in Iowa City. pic.twitter.com/z5uLUNgoai
— Mitch Fick (@MCFick) November 5, 2022
Johnson’s performance was a great showing by the young back, but the offensive line did their part as well. Johnson can improve and believes that the rest of the offense can, too.
“It feels so good, because I know that we’re making improvement every week. I know that we’re going to be a good team moving forward, a great team matter of fact moving forward, so I just thank the line, I thank everybody for giving me a shot, giving me a chance,” Johnson said postgame about the offense continuing to grow.
Johnson’s ability to break some big runs and turn on the next gear of breakaway speed really allowed him to turn this good outing into a great one. Head coach Kirk Ferentz recognized that extra burst.
“I mean, we’ll make things work for whoever’s back there if they’re a good back. He just seems to really have a good feel. Hits the hole hard and then finished some runs off today. It was great to see him finish that one today. I can’t remember the last time we had one like that, so it was really good to see,” Ferentz said about Johnson finishing runs.
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