Iowa Football: Who will replace Akrum Wadley in 2018?

With Akrum Wadley’s career with Iowa football coming to an end, who will replace the talented running back in 2018?

Akrum Wadley’s career took a meteoric rise in the 2015 season, when he ran for over 200 yards as the fourth-string running back in Iowa’s 40-10 win over Northwestern in the midst of their perfect regular season. The game proved to be a turning point in Wadley’s career, who had found himself in the doghouse due to fumbling issues. Since that game in 2015, Wadley has gone on to become one of the most prolific running backs in Hawkeye football history.

As Wadley prepares for the final game of his career, this raises the question, “Who will be the one to replace him in 2018?”. The answer is more than one running back.

Look no further than Ivory Kelly-Martin and Toren Young, Iowa’s third and fourth running back’s on their depth chart. Despite being low on the two deep, both backs have seen extended action throughout the 2017 season. Kelly-Martin has run for 184 yards on 20 carries with three touchdowns this season. Young came along towards the end of the season and ran for 183 yards on 45 carries with two touchdowns.

This duo should be comparable to the one of Wadley and LeShun Daniels Jr., in 2016, as both went over 1,000 yards rushing that year. Young is built more like a Daniels, a bruising back who is a great downhill runner. Kelly-Martin is more similar to Wadley as he is very elusive and is able to contribute to the passing game as well.

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While Iowa will miss Wadley a lot come next season, they’re deep and talented at running back. Coupled with a young and promising offensive line, Iowa’s offense will be very tough to stop the next couple seasons.