Iowa Football: Three players that stood out against NIU
By Andrew Wade
Toren Young
Toren Young came into the game number two on the depth chart after spending almost the entire offseason as the lead back in waiting after the departure of Akrum Wadley. After an intense battle against Ivory Kelly-Martin, however, Young fell to number two.
In his limited time in the game on Saturday, however, you couldn’t tell who was the lead back. Despite receiving half of the carries as Kelly-Martin, Young rumbled his way to 22 yards more than the current lead back.
In eight rushing attempts, Young gained 84 yards and scored one touchdown including a 40 yard run early in the third with the Hawks only up 10-0.
Similar to Hesse, though, it wasn’t just the stats the were impressive, it was how he accumulated the stats. The redshirt sophomore out of Madison, Wisconsin showed patience, vision, and power in collecting his yards. Furthermore, his runs were a huge spark to the life of the offense.
It will be interesting to see how the workload is distributed going forward. Ivory Kelly-Martin couldn’t get much going on the ground, but has big play potential that warrants snaps. Young, meanwhile, isn’t typically the home run threat, but is a bruiser who is going to fall forward consistently.