Kaleb Johnson’s return to Ohio, homecoming mentality discussed by Iowa football

The catalyst of the Iowa Hawkeyes this year has been junior running back Kaleb Johnson. The Iowa offense has gone as he has gone and that has been a recipe for success.

The nation’s second-leading rusher, who is embracing the challenge to lead the nation in rushing yards, is headed home to the state of Ohio, where he played high school football.

The product out of Hamilton High School in Hamilton, Ohio is leading the Hawkeyes into a Big Ten matchup against the Ohio State Buckeyes that is providing him the chance to play spoiler to the team that didn’t recruit him.

Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz talked about how Johnson’s mentality is going into the matchup.

“Yeah, I hope all of our guys have that attitude because that’s what it’s going to take. We’re playing a really outstanding football team.”

“I don’t know how big a factor that’s going to be, but he’s been running well this year, as all of us know. He’s been focused and motivated. I’m not saying he wasn’t motivated before, but I think he’s really focused on the right things now, and it’s showing up in his performance, and we just talked about Drew Stevens going into year 3. I think that’s a factor here, too, just better understanding the challenges of college football. It’ll be one this week; nobody has run through these guys very effectively. It’s going to be a real tough challenge. The holes are going to close quick.”

“I’m just standing here thinking about a particular play in ’08 where we were playing Penn State, where I’m standing there watching, I think we’ve got about an eight to ten-yard gain and ended up being a four-yard gain because Navarro Bowman closed the gap. That’s when you play a team like this, those gaps that look pretty good all of a sudden shrink fast. So it’s going to take everybody’s best performance and certainly Kaleb can help us out. But he’s doing a really nice job,” Ferentz said about Johnson.

On the season, Kaleb Johnson has run the ball 82 times for 685 yards and nine touchdowns. The Hawkeyes’ lead back is averaging 8.4 yards per carry and 171.3 yards per game.

This Saturday, Kaleb Johnson will have the chance to put on his best performance yet in front of a crowd in his home state.