Iowa State spring football preview: Breaking down the running back position

In 2024, Iowa State was as balanced an offense as there was in college football behind quarterback Rocco Becht and running backs Carson Hansen and Abu Sama III.

Well, the 2025 version of the team returns all three of those players from an 11-win squad that captured the Pop-Tarts Bowl over Miami.

That means another season of high-octane offense mixed with accurate passes and big-play runs should be expected. Hansen rushed for 752 yards and scored 13 touchdowns while Sama added 587 and two scores.

What makes Hansen and Sama so special is that they bring skills to the passing game, recording a combined 21 receptions for over 130 yards and two scores last year, averaging seven yards per catch.

Redshirt sophomores Easton Miller and AJ Petersen are joined by redshirt freshmen Dylan Lee, Aiden Flora and Charlie Whelpley. Ryver Peppers is in for the spring as a true freshman.

Miller, Petersen and Flora are all Iowa preps like Sama. Flora, a standout athlete in high school, showed those skills last year with his 53 yards and a score on just 11 carries. Lee had 35 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries, as well.

Peppers, a multi-sport athlete out of Missouri, rushed for over 1,600 yards and 31 touchdowns as a junior. He was a Top 80 running back prospects according to 247Sports.

The ground game was one of the biggest differences in terms of success for Iowa State from 2023 to last year. In 2023, they rushed for just over 1,550 yards as a team with 16 TDs, pushing that number to 2,247 last year with 27 touchdowns.

Reaching the 2,000-yard mark was important, as the last time they hit that number was in 2021 behind current NFL standout Breece Hall, who had 1,472.