With Bryce George on board, Iowa’s offensive line again has enviable level of experience in 2025

IOWA CITY — Beau Stephens believes Iowa football’s spring competition at left tackle between Jack Dotzler and Trevor Lauck is a “really close battle.”

“Everyone says that with position battles, but I’m not joking,” Stephens said last week. “I’m being 100 percent dead-honest. This is a pretty close battle. Both of them from winter, like bowl prep, to now — it’s like there’s a huge improvement.”

The level of competition in that battle — and the overall experience level of the offensive line — is about to get higher, though, after Iowa’s recent addition of former Ferris State offensive lineman Bryce George via the transfer portal.

He appeared in 41 games and started 38 games for Ferris State, where he helped the Bulldogs claim three Division II national titles. He was a Division II Conference Commissioners Association first-team All-American and an Associated Press second-team All-American last year.

With one year of eligibility remaining, George has the resume of a player who could make an immediate impact for the Hawkeyes at left tackle as they replace four-year starter Mason Richman.

Any projections for George may be better suited in pencil rather than the permanence of ink on newsprint as he transitions from Division II to Big Ten football and competes with two existing Hawkeye offensive linemen. But he certainly has an advantage in experience over Dotzler and Lauck, who have combined to appear in nine games without any starts.

However the left tackle competition shakes out, Iowa’s 2025 offensive linemen now have a combined 122 career starts at the college level. That includes center Logan Jones’ 38 starts, right tackle Gennings Dunker’s 25 and left guard Beau Stephens’ 21.

The 2025 reality for Iowa’s offensive line did not always seem so rosy.

Jones, Richman and Connor Colby — all multiyear starters — were seniors in 2024. There was no guarantee Iowa was going to retain Dunker either, as the starting right tackle’s rising stock was surely catching NFL teams’ attention.

A scenario in which Stephens would be the offensive line’s only returning starter in 2025 was not unfathomable. But Jones came back for his extra COVID-19 year of eligibility, and Dunker held off on pursuing his professional career for another year.

“It’s great just having the experience, and having that for the younger guys that are coming in,” Stephens said. “It’s nice not having four new guys having to come in and play for the first — maybe not the first time, but like the first time starting. … I think Coach sleeps a little better knowing we have a couple guys who played before.”

If George wins the starting job at left tackle, that could leave Kade Pieper as the only projected first-teamer on the offensive line without extensive starting experience. Pieper appeared in 11 games as a reserve in 2024 after redshirting in 2023.

Pieper, the 2024 Solon Beef Days hay bale toss champion, has received rave reviews from teammates and coaches.

“He’s got a really good attitude, good work ethic,” Iowa Coach KIrk Ferentz said last summer, not long after Pieper’s hay bale toss championship. “And I don’t know how many bad players we’ve had win the hay-baling contest so far, but it’s a good sign.”

Dunker said during bowl prep Pieper is “really athletically gifted” and “almost outjumps LoJo (Logan Jones).” Stephens similarly said last week that Pieper is “super athletic.”

“He’s going to give me some crap about this, saying how this is all I talk about,” Stephens said. “But he’s got a great attitude. He’s a good kid. … When you’re young, you just need more experience.”

That appears likely to change soon, too, as he works with three — or now four — veteran offensive linemen around him.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com

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