Iowa’s hodgepodge offensive line led the way all afternoon in the Hawkeyes’ route of Northwestern.
By Ian Murphy
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EVANSTON, Illinois — The No. 17 Iowa football team put in its backup quarterback with 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, on the road, against a top-25 team, because it was winning.
By that point, who the Hawkeye quarterback was a moot point.
After an early injury to senior running back Jordan Canzeri, true sophomore running backs Akrum Wadley and Derrick Mitchell Jr. posted career days a story all its own in Iowa’s 40-10 romp 20th-ranked Northwestern.
But the offensive linemen opened holes in the Wildcat defense so wide the two-headed running-back monster of Wadley and Mitchell could have driven combines all the way back to Iowa City.
“It’s the offensive linemen,” Wadley said. “They’re some dogs; they’re some bulls. They open up the hole for you. You just got to hit it.”
The holes opened for 294 yards on the ground among five ball carriers, 283 coming from Wadley and Mitchell.
The offensive line was a question mark coming into the game, however; the Hawkeyes were without starting tackles Boone Myers and Ike Boettger. Further complicating things was a change among those who were slated to start.
Sophomore Sean Welsh, a guard by trade, moved to right tackle, and true freshman James Daniels played right guard.
Welsh said, and the running backs’ numbers agree, both he and Daniels had little trouble adjusting to their new spots, and the unfamiliar position came with a minimal learning curve.
“It’s quick, and it has to be,” Welsh said. “We do a lot of the same things at a lot of the positions on the line.
“It’s working a little more space than being an interior guy.”
Welsh only learned midweek where he would play. But he filled his role well in what’s become a season of “next man in” for the Hawkeyes.
Amid the injuries, which on Oct. 17 included a banged-up quarterback in C.J. Beathard, the Hawkeyes’ consistency has come in the running game despite the ever-changing offensive line.
The dogs were rewarded Oct. 17/span> when, for the first time in school history, two different running backs ran for more than 200 yards in a game two weeks in a row.
And for the hogs on the offensive line, the success has come from one factor, said senior Jordan Walsh, who, along with senior Austin Blythe at center, helps maintain some consistency on the offensive line.
“Just execute basically,” Walsh said. “We know we don’t have a lot of depth in running backs now; we need to try to keep them clean, keep the quarterback clean.”
The running backs were kept relatively clean, Wadley only had 3 negative yards, although Beathard was sacked twice by the Northwestern defense.
However, the line should be more than happy about its performance, highlighted by a 12-play, 80-yard drive in the middle of the third quarter that gave Wadley his third touchdown of the day, especially against a run defense that had allowed only 131.3 rush yards per game before Oct. 17.
As good as the running backs were, the hogs in the trenches, not normally prone to name recognition, deserve a significant amount of credit for the Hawkeyes’ win on Oct. 17 and the Hawkeyes’ 7-0 start.
“It’s fun for an offensive line,” Blythe said. “At this point, we’re the best we can be, that’s all we can hope for at this point, to be 7-0.”
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