Even three different weather delays couldn’t keep the Iowa Hawkeyes from collecting a nice bounce-back victory over the Nevada Wolf Pack. The Hawkeyes racked up a season-best 337 yards of total offense and found the end zone on three occasions.
Defensively, Iowa was stout once more. It was easily Iowa’s pound for pound most complete performance of the season through the Hawkeyes’ first three games. Let’s take a look at five stars for Iowa.
Kaleb Johnson
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The true freshman from Hamilton, Ohio, became the first Iowa frosh to top 100 rushing yards since Tyler Goodson did so at Nebraska in 2019. According to Matt Benson, Johnson is the first Hawkeye freshman with 100-plus rushing yards and a pair of rushing touchdowns since Marcus Coker did so in the 2010 Insight Bowl against Missouri. Incredibly, he’s also the first Iowa player with multiple 40-plus yard touchdown runs in the same game in at least the past 20 seasons.
Johnson finished with 103 rushing yards on seven carries and a pair of touchdowns to lead Iowa in the rushing department. Gavin Williams still got the bulk of the carries, toting the football 16 times for 57 yards. If Johnson keeps running like he ran against Nevada, then Williams and everybody else in the Hawkeyes’ backfield should be on high alert for the Ohio product taking over as the No. 1 running back.
Arland Bruce IV, Nico Ragaini
AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall
Combining these two because both merit discussion. Obviously, Arland Bruce IV caught the first touchdown pass of the season from quarterback Spencer Petras. It was a 21-yard scoring strike for the duo and constitutes the second receiving touchdown of Bruce’s career. The Olathe, Kan., native finished with a team-high three grabs for 50 yards.
Meanwhile, Ragaini reminded everyone of what the Iowa offense has been missing with both he and Keagan Johnson out of the equation…
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