Why the Iowa Running Game Will Be Revitalized With Brandon Wegher

The Iowa Hawkeyes have lost more at the running back position in a year's time than any other team I have ever seen.

Doak Walker Award recipient Shonn Greene bolted after his stellar, record-setting junior season for the NFL where he was selected in the third round by the New York Jets.

Jewel Hampton—the true freshman from 2008 who set an Iowa football freshman record with seven touchdown carries—hurt his knee in offseason activities and opted to end his season by taking a medical redshirt for the Hawkeyes.

Paki O'Meara, a junior tailback who has been a solid special teamer for the Hawkeyes, stepped in as the starter for the Northern Iowa game. Long story short, he didn't cut it.

Then came Adam Robinson, a redshirt freshman whose game is similar to that of Maurice Jones-Drew, in that he uses his low center of gravity and power to run between the tackles. Robinson led the team in rushing with an impressive 629 yards and five touchdowns, while averaging 4.7 yards per attempt.

But his success would also be short lived. 

Robinson went down with what appears to be a potential season-ending ankle injury against the Michigan State Spartans, leaving the Hawkeyes with nobody to tote the "rock", right?

Wrong.

Though Iowa is not known for its ability to recruit All-American caliber high school athletes, they were gifted with a local kid by the name of Brandon Wegher this offseason.

Wegher, a 5-foot-11 206-pound freshman out of Bishop Heelan High School in Sioux City, IA, was a four-star prospect that the Hawkeyes and their fans were extremely excited about.

As a senior at Bishop Heelan, Wegher rushed for an unbelievable 3,238 yards and 51 touchdowns.  If that weren't exciting enough, the Hawkeyes were getting an athletic marvel with track star speed, recording a 4.42 40-yard dash time.

Many expected this kid to return kicks as a freshman for Iowa, but he has done much more than that.

After not recording any statistics in Iowa's first game against UNI, Wegher burst onto the scene against cross-state rival Iowa State, rushing for 101 yards on 15 carries with a touchdown.

The Hawkeyes gave a good bulk of the carries to Adam Robinson until he got hurt in the Michigan State game, and Wegher's numbers suffered a bit because of it. Still, he ranks second on the team with 439 yards and first on the team with six rushing touchdowns.

When Robinson hurt his ankle, many thought it was over for the Hawkeyes' running game, especially because guard Dace Richardson, a player many thought to be having an All-America caliber season, also went down for the season with an injury.

It wasn't looking good for the bread and butter of Iowa's offense.

In Iowa's most recent game against Indiana, quarterback Ricky Stanzi helped the Hoosiers get out to an early 21-7 lead with his foolish interceptions and errant passing.

In fact, the only score came on a Brandon Wegher touchdown run from one-yard out to cut the Indiana deficit to seven at that point in the game.

Despite questions as to whether the true freshman could become the featured back and carry a full workload, Wegher had arguably his best game as a collegiate player. He helped Iowa to a stunning comeback victory over Indiana to the tune of 25 carries for 118 yards and three touchdowns.

Wegher's emergence in the Indiana game should encourage Iowa fans greatly.

Never once did it cross the mind of Iowa or its fans that they would have to go four deep in their running back rotation at any point this season, yet here we are.

Brandon Wegher proved that he is more than capable of becoming Iowa's featured back, and not only is Iowa's running game going to be revitalized by his presence, the passing game will flourish as well.

This young tailback is truly a star in the making, and he has been a key part of Iowa's best start in school history. If he continues running like he did against Indiana, this Iowa team will find itself in Pasadena in early January.