Hawkeyes Working to Find Consistent Rushing Attack

Iowa's Running Game Has Been Up and Down in '21

Sam LaPorta understands the necessity of the running game to Iowa’s offense.

“If you can’t run the ball, you’re probably not going to be able to throw the ball,” LaPorta, the Hawkeyes’ starting tight end, said on Tuesday. “Being one-dimensional is never a good thing for an offense. Running the ball is a huge thing for us. One-dimensional offenses don’t always work out great.”

Iowa is 13th in the Big Ten and 120th in the nation in total offense at 310.9 yards per game. The Hawkeyes are 103rd nationally in rushing offense at 116.6 yards per game.

That could be a problem in Saturday’s game at Wisconsin — the Badgers lead the nation in rushing defense at 53.3 yards per game.

“Hopefully we can take a step forward this week,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. “It won't be easy. These guys are really good on defense — the run game especially where they average 55 yards a game. Two hundred (yards) is probably not realistic, but we have to run the ball to have a chance to win.”

Iowa’s offense has had its issues with consistency this season, and it showed up in the 24-7 loss to Purdue.

The Hawkeyes had just 271 yards on 62 plays. The only touchdown came on Ivory Kelly-Martin’s 3-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.

Iowa is 6-1 overall, 3-1 in the Big Ten, but the Hawkeyes have been successful when they’ve been able to overcome the inconsistency of the offense.

It starts up front, Ferentz said, and for Iowa’s offense to work, it has to work everywhere.

“I think it's pretty much where I left it a week ago Saturday,” Ferentz said. “We're doing some good things. Had some clean runs the last couple weeks that were very well-executed, what we hoped for. Some really positive gains. Too many inconsistencies. That's always a challenge offensively because it does take all 11 to have good execution.”

“I’d say it’s definitely execution,” guard Kyler Schott said. “I wouldn’t say it’s one person. It’s maybe one guy screwing up on this play, but on the next play he has a terrific block, but it’s another guy. We have to be playing together on every play.”

Iowa had just 76 rushing yards on 30 carries against Purdue.

“The last game, we got away from our run game,” said running back Tyler Goodson, who has had just one 100-yard rushing game this season. “But I understand why — we were down and we were hurrying up to get points.”

“We just have to keep improving on the fundamentals, hoping that progresses as the year goes along,” fullback Monte Pottebaum said.

That’s especially true inside the red zone, where the Hawkeyes have struggled to get touchdowns this season. They are 118th nationally in red-zone offense at 71.4 percent, with just 12 touchdowns in 28 possessions inside the 20.

“It’s all about finishing, right?” Pottebaum said. “We can get down there — I think we’ve done a pretty good job of getting down there pretty effectively. Finishing off drives is what it comes down to. It’s nothing special. Continuing to do what we did to get down there.”

Ferentz noted Iowa’s inexperience on the offensive line. Schott is a senior and All-American center Tyler Linderbaum is a junior, but the rest of the starting line consists of redshirt freshman Mason Richman at left tackle, true freshman Connor Colby at right guard and sophomore Nick DeJong at right tackle.

“That's probably our biggest challenge,” Ferentz said. “You look at it coming into the season, we have as good a center as there is in college football. Two other guys that are pretty veteran (Schott and junior Cody Ince), but both those guys are limited by injury. The good news is they're working their way back — hopefully this (last) five weeks they'll be full speed and that will help us. 

"But we still got a lot of young guys working. Those guys have a chance to improve more dramatically than a veteran player typically. That's the race we're running.”