In late August, St. John’s running back Caden Wheeler was recovering from surgery to repair a broken foot suffered soon after the Johnnies opened preseason practice.

Wheeler missed the Johnnies’ first two games before returning to the Johnnies’ lineup on Sept. 29 against Bethel. Wheeler rushed 20 times for 86 yards in the Johnnies’ 45-20 victory.

Last week, the junior from Andover rushed 15 times for 136 yards and a touchdown to lead the Johnnies to a 45-20 victory over Augsburg.

“I’m pretty happy to be where I’m at now,” Wheeler told the Johnnies’ web site. “Especially considering where I was at a few weeks ago. I had just had surgery, I was in a boot and I wasn’t sure when I was going to play again. If you had told me I was going to be back doing this so soon, I’d have probably thought you were crazy. But I’d have hoped it was possible, and now that it’s happened, I’m really thankful.”

The Johnnies (4-0), ranked No. 3 in the d3football.com poll, play at Concordia (Moorhead) on Saturday.

Here are four other Minnesota college football story lines this week:

St. Thomas (2-3, 1-0 Pioneer League) will travel to Poughkeepsie, N.Y. to take on Marist on Saturday in its second road game of the season.