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Iowa football 2024 winter position breakdown: Special teams
Farewell Tory Taylor, hello Rhys Dakin at punter
IOWA CITY — Iowa football has experienced plenty of special teams success (and consistency) in recent years.
ESPN’s Football Power Index has rated Iowa’s special teams as sixth or better nationally in four of the last five seasons, and the one exception was Iowa’s 16th-place finish in 2023.
Here is an early look at Iowa’s special teams unit ahead of the 2024 season:
Who’s gone
Tory Taylor leaves Iowa as one of the best punters in program history. Taylor broke an NCAA record with a career punt average of 46.3 yards, and he became Iowa’s first recipient of the Ray Guy Award after the 2023 season.
Other departing specialists include backup kicker Marshall Meeder and backup long snapper Liam Reardon.
Iowa also will be without defensive back and special teams star Cooper DeJean, who declared for the 2024 NFL Draft. DeJean made an impact on several facets of special teams, including his electrifying punt returns. He was named the 2023 Big Ten Return Specialist of the Year.
Who’s back
Drew Stevens will be in his third year as the Hawkeyes’ kicker. The North Augusta, S.C., native was 18-of-26 on field goals last year, with all but two of his misses coming from 40-plus yards out.
Long snapper Luke Elkin, a senior in 2024, has appeared in 40 of 41 possible games during his Hawkeye career. Backup punter Ty Nissen also is expected to return.
Kaden Wetjen handled the bulk of Iowa’s kick returns and took on punt returning duties as well after DeJean’s injury. Wetjen averaged 23.9 yards per kick return and 9 yards per punt return. The Williamsburg native will be a senior this season.
Who’s joining the mix
Rhys Dakin is the latest Australian punter to call Iowa City home. Dakin has worked with ProKick Australia, which is the same company that trained Taylor. Dakin is an early enrollee, giving him a head start as he prepares for the start of his college career.
Tripp Woody committed to Iowa as a preferred walk-on from Waxhaw, N.C. Woody, ranked 20th among kickers in his class by 247Sports, has learned from Dan Orner — the same private kicking coach as Stevens and former Hawkeye Keith Duncan.
Way-too-early two-deep projections
The “way-too-early” projections at kicker, punter and long snapper are closer to just “early” projections considering the relative lack of uncertainty at those positions.
Kicker
- Drew Stevens
- Tripp Woody
Punter
- Rhys Dakin
- Ty Nissen
Long snapper
- Luke Elkin
Punt returner
- Kaden Wetjen
- Xavier Nwankpa or Kaleb Brown
Kick returner
- Kaden Wetjen
- Kaleb Johnson
Outlook
Losing a generational punter like Taylor is never easy, but getting a player of Rhys Dakin’s caliber sure helps. It is probably not realistic to expect Dakin to be Taylor 2.0 right away, but the potential is there for the Hawkeyes’ latest Australian punter.
Stevens has room to grow with his accuracy from 40-plus yards, especially after slipping from 6-of-8 in 2022 to 6-of-10 in 2023, but he is nonetheless one of the better kickers in the Big Ten.
Iowa’s special teams units have been among the best in the country under LeVar Woods’ leadership. Even with some question marks ahead of 2024, there is little reason to expect that to change this fall.
Editor’s note: This is the third of a nine-part series breaking down where each Iowa football position group stands at this point in the offseason.
Iowa football offseason winter position breakdowns
Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com
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