Kaleb Johnson isn't being considered for the Heisman, but he has done enough to be

Kaleb Johnson is from Hamilton, Ohio, and when he was in high school, he dealt with a worldwide pandemic right in the middle of his recruitment. However, he was still a highly recruited running back out of high school with offers from numerous schools, many power conference schools such as Cal, Iowa State, Kentucky, Michigan State, Minnesota, Pitt, West Virginia, and of course Iowa.

The young Ohio native chose to take his talents to Iowa and play under the talents of head coach Kirk Ferentz. Johnson was a three-star recruit coming out of high school as a 6-foot-1, 215-pound running back just looking to get some playing time. Picking Iowa wasn't a tough decision for Johnson as he said he believed in the stability of the program and liked the running backs coach, Ladell Betts. Originally, Johnson was heading to Cal, but after de-committing, it didn't take him long to pick Iowa.

In his first two seasons at Iowa, Johnson saw the field quite a bit, but his numbers were pretty run-of-the-mill. In his freshman season, he put up 779 rushing yards of 151 carries with six touchdowns adn averaged 5.2 yards per carry. In his sophomore season, Johnson saw a dip in his numbers, getting on 117 carries for 463 yards and three touchdowns, averaging 4.0 yards per carry. However, he also suffered an ankle injury that sidelined him for a few games.

In fall camp before the 2024 season started, however, it looked like the running back position was one of the biggest position battles taking place between Johnson and Leshon Williams. It seems as though the decision was to have a split backfield to take the pressure off of both backs. However, an injury to Williams won Johnson the starting position, and boy did he take advantage of it.

So far this season, Johnson had 937 yards with 118 carries, one more than he had last season, and 12 rushing touchdowns while averaging 7.9 yards per carry. He also adds 12 receptions for 53 yards and one touchdown catch to his impressive stat sheet.

Iowa is out of College Football Playoff contention as of right now unless something crazy happens later in the season, and teams that are not in contention don't seem to have Heisman candidates. With the type of season that Johnson is having, it is not crazy to say he should be considered for the Heisman Trophy, however, Johnson has no odds of winning the award.

Johnson is the second-best running back in the country as of right now, behind Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty, who is leading in the Heisman Trophy odds. Jeanty is the majority of the Boise State offense, just like how Johnson is the majority of the Iowa offense. Jeanty has 1,248 rushing yards and 17 rushing touchdowns vs. Johnson's 937 rushing yards and 12 rushing touchdowns.

Jeanty has the better stats, but Johnson is not too far behind him, yet Johnson is not being talked about at all. Johnson had sometimes been the only one to score on for Iowa in a game. In the two games that Iowa has lost, Johnson has been the only one to score touchdowns. In the Hawkeyes' big win over Washington, Johnson scored three of the four touchdowns in the game.

Johnson has carried the weight of the Hawkeyes offense on his back all season long, especially when nothing else has been able to get going, like the passing game. The Heisman Trophy is meant to go to the best [layer in college football, and Johnson has certainly done enough to put himself in the conversation.