With the college football season now just two weeks away for the Iowa Hawkeyes , hope springs eternal that the black and gold can author a memorable season in 2024.
There’s plenty of reasons to be optimistic about Iowa, too. The defense is one of the most experienced-laden in the country . Defensive coordinator Phil Parker is sure to squeeze excellence out of that group once more.
That’s to be expected after Iowa’s defense ranked fourth nationally in scoring defense (14.8 points per game) and seventh in total defense (282.5 yards per game) in 2023. The Hawkeyes return eight starters on defense and bring back a whopping 192 career starts defensively.
In the third phase of the game, Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz is confident that junior kicker Drew Stevens is prepared to return to elite form . Meanwhile, freshman Aussie punter Rhys Dakin has wowed with his leg ever since he arrived on campus.
Then, there’s the obvious elephant in the room. Just what exactly is Iowa going to look like offensively?
CBS Sports surveyed a number of Big Ten insiders to get their pulse on each team’s biggest concern. Hawkeye Insider ‘s Sean Bock shared what will surprise absolutely nobody.
What if the Tim Lester experiment doesn’t work out? Is Iowa just broken on offense?
The main concerns with Iowa’s offense this fall are quarterback play and wide receiver, two positions the Hawkeyes have struggled to recruit the last few seasons. Will Iowa ever be able to fix it? – Bock, Hawkeye Insider .
The first look at Iowa’s offense in the Kids’ Day at Kinnick scrimmage left observers with mixed feelings. Neither graduate quarterback Cade McNamara or junior transfer quarterback Brendan Sullivan were effective in the passing game.
There were positives from Iowa’s offensive line and its running game.
Ultimately, even with Iowa’s offensive history, observers can only take so much out of an open practice several weeks before the season actually kicks off.
This season feels like a tell-tale season of sorts for Iowa offensively, though. The Hawkeyes need to show some form of offensive improvement.
In its offensive line room, Iowa has a group that collectively has recorded 147 career starts. It’s time for that group to return to Iowa form up front.
With a new offensive coordinator in Tim Lester, if there isn’t tangible progress this season, that’s a sign that maybe Iowa is just destined to be one of the nation’s worst offenses for the remainder of Kirk Ferentz’s tenure.
On the glass half full end of the equation, if Lester makes legitimate progress with Iowa’s offense this season and moving forward, then maybe the pieces are in place where the Hawkeyes can morph into a routine College Football Playoff contender.
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