To some, scoring a touchdown in your primary position takes a handful of games. To others, it’s a process that takes years of honing certain sets of skills and your craft.

The latter speaks to Kene Nwangwu, a blistering running back who has been through the highest of highs and lowest of lows during his five years at Iowa State.

He was able to get his first career rushing touchdown in the 2020 season opener at home against Louisiana, pounding it in from a single yard. There weren’t any fans for him to leap into at Jack Trice Stadium.

There wasn’t even a big time celebration. So what did Nwangwu do after he finally found the end zone out of the backfield?

Go back to the sideline and have a conversation with Breece Hall.

“Mainly, I was just worried about helping out my other teammates like Breece,” Nwangwu said. “He came out because he extended the ball. He didn’t fumble it, but in that situation, he didn’t need to do that.”

That’s who Nwangwu is. A leader first and a football player second.

He’s the elder statesman in a running back room with standout Breece Hall and a host of other impactful and skillful backs. Having been through the ringer, he’s devoted time to give lessons to not only Hall, but everyone.

“Yeah, it was a good feeling to get a touchdown, but moving forward talking to Breece, I was just telling him to play his game,” Nwangwu said. “I told him, ‘I know your game is good enough.’ I just want to help out the team any way I can. Getting a touchdown was just an added bonus on top.”

For a long time — and even still to this day — Nwangwu is considered the fastest player on the Cyclones. He admits it would be a close race between him and wide receivers Joe Scates and Darien Porter.

That wasn’t the case in 2017.

Nwangwu took a medical redshirt after suffering a torn Achilles tendon in the winter in what would’ve been his true sophomore campaign.

“I knew that it was a process,” Nwangwu told Cyclone Report in the fall of 2018. “My injury wasn’t something that was going to be a three-month or six-month thing. I knew that if I followed the process that my training staff and coaching staff has laid out for me, I’d be able to play again when the time comes.”

It cost him a whole calendar year of football, just as he was poised to be a key cog in a backfield that featured former Iowa State current Chicago Bears running back David Montgomery.

Used primarily as a kick returner in his true freshman year, Nwangwu excelled in that role.

He averaged 26.4 yards per return that put him second in the Big 12 and 15th in the nation to go along with a 97-yard kickoff return touchdown against West Virginia, the fourth longest in Cyclone history.

Sitting out allowed Nwangwu to get close to 100 percent as possible, more so ready for that 2018 season opener than anything else.

“We’re getting him back on the field, (but) we want to take it slow,” Head Coach Matt Campbell told a scrum of reporters two years ago. “Kene got a lot of meaningful reps this winter, during bowl practice, and we were really cautious at that time of how much we gave him.”

Any indications the Texas native and former three-star recruit was still mending the injury were slowly put to rest.

Nwangwu increased his yardage per return to 26.8 that led the conference and placed him 12th nationally as well as marked the second-best season average in Iowa State history.

“Before my injury, it was like, ‘All right, we’re playing football,'” Nwangwu said at Iowa State’s media day in 2018. “I loved the game of football. But after you get injured and come back, it’s like, ‘Wow — you actually get to be out here running, cutting.’ Every practice I go to, I try to make sure I’m going 100 percent.”

While his carries and overall stats dipped in his junior year, it was setting up for what has now been a memorable senior year.

Nwangwu ripped a 49-yard scamper in the Cyclones’ week two win over TCU, his only carry of the game.

After years and years of fighting for touches in what always seems to be a crowded backfield, Nwangwu has found his way to score twice in two games.

His explosive play ability is a trait Campbell has always enjoyed when it comes to Nwangwu, but his leadership toward everyone is what the fourth-year leader will stick out like a sore thumb.

“He’s one of the great leaders of Iowa State football and I really appreciate who is,” Campbell said. “He’s unselfish, wants what’s best for the team and is willing to stand up for what’s right, both on and off the field. That part of it is what I really appreciate about Kene.

“What he’s done for our football program since March, to be honest with you, has been nothing short of exceptional.”