Iowa’s secondary has voids to fill in spring after having veteran-laden group in 2024

IOWA CITY — As Sebastian Castro prepared for last month’s Music City Bowl, the reality had set in that the sixth-year defensive back’s Iowa football career was nearing an end.

“Last year, I wasn’t sure,” Castro said in Nashville during bowl prep ahead of his 53rd career game and 32nd career start as a Hawkeye. “I hadn’t made my decision (to come back). Knowing this year, I can appreciate it more.”

That feeling was not unique to Castro. The end of the 2024 season and beginning of the 2025 offseason have marked somewhat of a changing of the guard in the Hawkeyes’ secondary.

Cedar Rapids native and fellow safety Quinn Schulte finished his career in Nashville with 54 career games and 40 career starts. The last time that the Hawkeyes took the field without Schulte starting in the secondary was the Citrus Bowl loss to Kentucky on Jan. 1, 2022.

Fellow sixth-year defensive back Jermari Harris’s college career ended in November with 42 career games and 28 career starts. His Hawkeye debut was in 2019, about a month before current cornerback Jaylen Watson’s 14th birthday.

That leaves the Hawkeyes with a substantially younger secondary in 2025. Iowa’s five Week 1 starting defensive backs in 2024 began the season with a combined 78 career starts.

Depending on which five defensive backs win starting roles in 2025 — T.J. Hall, Deshaun Lee, Xavier Nwankpa, Koen Entringer and Zach Lutmer appear to be the most likely starting five — that number could be down to 46 career starts.

The void left by Castro, Schulte and Harris go beyond just career starts. Harris was especially effective in 2024, allowing only 17 receptions on 38 targets — a reception rate of 44.7 percent — according to Pro Football Focus. That ranked fourth among Big Ten players with at least 150 coverage snaps.

Schulte was tied with Harris for second on the team with three interceptions. (Unanimous All-American linebacker Jay Higgins was the only player ahead of him with four picks.) While Castro analytically did not have his best season in 2024, he limited opposing quarterbacks in 2023 to an NFL passer rating of 43.7, according to PFF.

Iowa’s returning defensive backs, meanwhile, have experienced mixed results during their tenures on Evashevski Drive.

Nwankpa, a former five-star recruit, allowed receptions on 72.3 percent of targets and had one interception versus five touchdowns allowed in 2024, per PFF.

Hall had bright spots in 2024, such as not giving up any receptions out of five targets in the Hawkeyes’ season-opening win against Illinois State, again per PFF. But he also got burned for 63- and 62-yard touchdown receptions a couple weeks later against Troy.

Lee, likewise, had bright spots like his performance against Maryland — only one reception allowed for eight yards on four targets — but he allowed receptions on 70.2 percent of targets throughout the season.

How many strides the aforementioned players can make will be an obvious key for the Hawkeyes in 2025. Much of Iowa’s defensive shortcomings can be tied to its abnormal-by-Iowa-standards 6.29 passing yards per attempt.

Defensive coordinator Phil Parker’s unit gets some benefit of the doubt, though, considering the past success of his secondaries. Iowa ranks third in the country with 244 interceptions since 2009, trailing only Alabama (247) and Clemson (245). The Hawkeyes led the country in passing yards allowed per attempt in 2022 and finished in a close second in 2023.

Eight Parker-coached defensive backs have been drafted since 2017, with Super Bowl-bound rookie Cooper DeJean being the most recent of them.

He might have a ninth defensive back earning that distinction in April, too.

“(Parker) has his own way of seeing the game,” said Castro, who is the 120th-best prospect in CBS Sports’ predraft rankings, ahead of his Hawkeye finale. “For the rest of my career, I have things that he said that I’m going to remember forever.”

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com

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