116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Iowa football benefits from wealth of experience ahead of 2024 season
Hawkeyes retained 17 of 22 starters from Week 1 of last year
IOWA CITY — When Iowa football swarms onto Duke Slater Field in 76 days for the beginning of the 2024 season — Kirk Ferentz’s 26th season as head coach — there will be a few notable differences.
Of course, there is the new offensive coordinator and new offensive scheme — Tim Lester, with a scheme that we hear is similar to the Green Bay Packers’ scheme. There is the new Iowa radio color commentator — former Hawkeye star linebacker Pat Angerer.
But as much as some aspects of Iowa football game day will be different, much will be the same. Namely, much of the personnel will be the same.
Seventeen of Iowa’s 22 starters from Week 1 last year are returning in 2024. Iowa has 13 players returning who started at least 12 games last season, and that does not include tight end Luke Lachey and quarterback Cade McNamara due to their season-ending injuries.
Iowa returns 79 percent of its production, as measured by ESPN’s Bill Connelly. That ranks ninth nationally and first in the 18-team Big Ten, as of mid-May. (The only 2024 opponent higher than Iowa’s 79 percent is Iowa State’s nation-leading 86 percent.)
It is a sharp contrast from 2023, when Connelly reported 59 percent returning production for the Hawkeyes. That ranked 72nd nationally and eighth in the then-14-team Big Ten.
National college football reporter Phil Steele’s NCAA experience chart — a different metric for measuring returning production — ranks Iowa fourth nationally and first in the Big Ten ahead of the 2024 season.
Returning production is not a perfect predictor of a team’s success, as the 2022 Hawkeyes showed. Iowa had 76 percent of returning production in February 2022, as measured by ESPN — 27th-best nationally and second-best in the Big Ten. The high marks preceded a 7-5 regular season record — the team’s worst finish since 2017.
But an abundance of experience often helps.
Last year’s most experienced team, as evaluated by ESPN’s Connelly, Kansas, improved from 6-7 in 2022 to 9-4 in 2023. The season ended with Kansas’ first bowl victory since 2008 — when the 2023 Guaranteed Rate Bowl MVP, Jason Bean, was 9 years old.
The second-most experienced team in 2023, Missouri, improved from 6-7 in 2022 to 11-2 in 2023. The Tigers’ season concluded with a 14-3 win over Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl.
Third-most experienced? Florida State, which went 13-1. (The one loss was to Georgia in the Orange Bowl while the Seminoles were without star quarterback Jordan Travis.) Fourth-most experienced? The national-champion Michigan Wolverines.
Iowa’s offensive players with at least 4 career starts at collegiate level
- OL Mason Richman (39 career starts)
- OL Connor Colby (36 career starts)
- OL Logan Jones (26 career starts)
- OL Nick DeJong (23 career starts)
- QB Cade McNamara (21 career starts)
- WR Seth Anderson (17 career starts)
- RB Leshon Williams (13 career starts)
- OL Gennings Dunker (13 career starts)
- TE Luke Lachey (13 career starts)
- RB Kaleb Johnson (11 career starts)
- OL Beau Stephens (10 career starts)
- QB Brendan Sullivan (8 career starts)
- TE Addison Ostrenga (6 career starts)
- WR Kaleb Brown (4 career starts)
Iowa’s defensive players with at least 4 career starts at collegiate level
- LB Nick Jackson (60 career starts)
- DB Quinn Schulte (27 career starts)
- DB Sebastian Castro (21 career starts)
- DB Jermari Harris (18 career starts)
- LB Jay Higgins (15 career starts)
- DL Deontae Craig (14 career starts)
- DL Yahya Black (14 career starts)
- DB Xavier Nwankpa (14 career starts)
- DB Deshaun Lee (6 career starts)
Others with substantial experience
- When Iowa chooses to operate in a 4-3 rather than its 4-2-5 defense, Phil Parker’s unit will again benefit from Kyler Fisher as the first-team Leo linebacker.
- Defensive linemen Ethan Hurkett and Aaron Graves, while not recording any official starts, both took 400-plus defensive snaps last year, according to Pro Football Focus. Also on the line, Max Llewellyn and Jeremiah Pittman both took 100-plus defensive snaps last year.
Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com
Sign up for our curated Iowa Hawkeyes athletics newsletter at thegazette.com/hawks.
Daily Newsletters