There was no shortage of ink spilled on Iowa's chaotic QB situation this week, with walk-on transfer Jackson Stratton making his first career start at Maryland as announced by head coach Kirk Ferentz on Tuesday.

If Iowa's offense was supposed to struggle Saturday, though, nobody got that memo to the running backs room.

Johnson logged a career-high 35 rushes en route to 164 yards and one notable touchdown as the Hawkeyes ground out a 29-13 win in College Park, rushing for 268 yards as a team. Iowa rushed 58 times, compared to Stratton's 10-for-14 day passing for 76 yards.

Ferentz said his team's goals were, well, backfield-forward. "You know, try to minimize throwing, but also maximize clock if we could," said Ferentz.

Johnson's two-yard score in the second quarter set the Iowa single-season record for rushing touchdowns with 21, topping Shonn Greene's legendary 2008 campaign and cementing the junior tailback's place in the Hawkeye record books.

"I just don't even know what to say," said Johnson after the game. "I'm just happy we got the win. Team win. Now we can focus on Nebraska [next Friday]."

The game also marked Iowa's eighth game rushing for over 200 yards this season, for what is believed to be the first time in program history.

With Iowa nursing a snakebitten depth chart at quarterback — starting with sixth-year senior Cade McNamara unable to travel — everyone in the building knew Iowa had to lean on its ground game to move the ball Saturday.

"Doesn't take Knute Rockne to figure this one out," Ferentz said wryly. "Coming in, we wanted to run the football, that's what we do best."

Making matters worse, right tackle Gennings Dunker — consistently one of Iowa's best blockers, especially in the run game — was a surprise scratch on the day's availability report.

"'Dunk' couldn't go up front, so Nick DeJong, an older guy, a veteran guy played," said Ferentz. "Really looked like he played a good game. He practiced well in the week, so I'm happy about that. The entire line played a good game."

Johnson rushed seven times for 45 yards on the opening drive, with four of the rushes garnering first downs. A Kamari Moulton fumble deep in Maryland territory doomed the drive the scoreless scrap heap, but the Hawkeyes had established the ability to move the ball with their Plan A, and the Terps were in trouble.

"We're on our eighteenth quarterback right now," said left tackle Mason Richman, "but the thing is, we came in, had a really good game plan, stayed ahead of the chains, and that was the biggest thing."

Johnson's 22 rushes for 109 yards in the first half would pace Iowa to a 13-0 halftime lead, and Maryland never had the ball with a chance to take the lead in the second half.

"I thought the first half played out as well as we could, outside of the turnover," said Ferentz. "Controlling the ball, keeping it on the ground, and trying to keep their quarterback off the field was paramount in our thinking."

All told, Johnson's number was called on exactly half of Iowa's 72 plays from scrimmage — 35 rushes and one target for a six-yard catch — and he dutifully provided half the team's 20 first downs, while his 170 yards from scrimmage were nearly exactly half of Iowa's 344 on the day.

"Just keep moving forward, just keep going hard," Johnson said. "That's what I did."

Moulton didn't let the early turbulence keep him from all the fun in the rushing game Saturday, cruising for a 68-yard fourth-quarter score that effectively slammed the door shut.

"Happy that he came back and overcame that fumble," said Johnson of his redshirt-freshman second-in-command, who broke 100 yards for the first time in his young Hawkeye career. "That's between him having confidence and backing up what he's saying. He's going to get the next play."

Johnson's jumbo workload Saturday also moves him closer to another mark of Hawkeye immortality.

With 1,492 yards on the season, Johnson's 2024 campaign is now the third-best rushing season in Hawkeye history; only Greene in 2008 (1,850) and Tavian Banks in 1997 (1,691) are higher on the list.

At 199 yards away, assuming his health stays intact, Johnson is on pace to catch Banks by the bowl game. Greene's record, meanwhile, would require 179 yards a pop in the Hawkeyes' last two games to catch — plausible, but difficult.

There's two more bowl-caliber foes to be played first, though, all while the turbulence of offseason personnel volatility begins bleeding into the season.

"We just stay focused on the main thing right now," said Johnson. "To me that's running the football. Nothing else matters to me."

And as Johnson said, that focus begins on Nebraska, waiting Friday night under the lights at Kinnick Stadium. Kickoff is at 6:30 CT.