Retention of key players sets up Iowa’s defense for potentially more success in 2024

IOWA CITY — During a month of December where each day carries value in the transfer portal, Iowa football could have told its players with extra eligibility that “we need a decision by X date.”

That way, Iowa “can go to the portal,” recruiting director Tyler Barnes explained hypothetically last month.

But instead, Iowa invested its resources closer to home on the several Hawkeye players who faced stay-or-go decisions.

“We want all these kids back,” Barnes said at the time. “They’re fourth, fifth, sixth-year guys on our team. It’s well worth investing the time to recruit these guys back before we even think about going to the portal.”

Iowa’s investment in re-recruiting its own roster — intangibly with time and literally with NIL resources — has yielded some impressive results, particularly on the defensive side of the ball.

Iowa’s defense, which led the country for the second consecutive season with only 4.08 yards allowed per play and thrived in many other metrics as well, is expected to return a rare amount of experience in 2024.

It started with linebacker Jay Higgins, the leading tackler among Power Five conferences, when he announced his plans to come back for his extra COVID-19 year of eligibility. Fellow linebacker Nick Jackson and defensive backs Sebastian Castro, Jermari Harris and Quinn Schulte later made similar decisions to stay in Iowa City for 2024.

(That’s in addition to, on the other side of the ball, tight end Luke Lachey’s decision to not pursue the NFL Draft and offensive lineman Nick DeJong’s decision to use his extra COVID-19 year.)

As a result, eight of Iowa’s 11 starters from last year’s defense are expected to return.

Deshaun Lee, while not a starter for most of Iowa’s games, adds to that number after starting six times at cornerback as a replacement for either Harris or Cooper DeJean.

Linebacker Kyler Fisher has not made an official announcement about his 2024 plans, but he is expected to return, likely giving the Hawkeyes a 10th defensive player with at least some starting experience.

That adds up to 192 career starts by Iowa defensive players who are expected to wear black and gold again in 2024. Five defensive players will begin the 2024 season with at least 15 career starts, compared to only two at the beginning of the 2023 season.

The current numbers come with the caveat that circumstances in January are not always the same as circumstances in August. The spring transfer portal window will be from April 16-30, and some attrition is likely.

"I have a whole spreadsheet based on the attrition we've had from fall all the way through the next fall, and history would tell you we typically lose four to five guys in the spring,“ Barnes said last month.

The first transfer portal window closed earlier this month, limiting new portal entries to those who already graduated or are at a program that changed head coaches.

The portal windows do not preclude Iowa (or any other school) from adding players who already are in the portal. Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said last month the Hawkeyes will “keep an eye out” in the portal.

While the defense appears to already be in great shape for 2024, lingering positional needs for Iowa include wide receiver and backup quarterback.

Tracking portal activity can be an inexact science because it is not publicly visible, but the recruiting site On3’s database suggests more than half of the 2,102 portal entries this year have not chosen a new home yet. Top-level talent is less likely to be among the 1,100-plus available players, but Iowa has previously shown the ability to find quality additions later in the offseason.

Key commitments last year such as Jackson and offensive lineman Rusty Feth both were after the first 2022-23 portal window closed. Ex-Ohio State wide receiver Kaleb Brown did not commit until the spring portal window.

Iowa’s crowded scholarship situation could serve as an obstacle to the Hawkeyes’ portal involvement.

Iowa’s impressive self-recruitment leaves the Hawkeyes with 90 scholarship players on the roster. Iowa must whittle that number down to 85 by the fall, which could happen via departing transfers during the second portal window or medical scholarships.

It is not entirely unusual for teams to be above the scholarship limit at this point in the year. Take last year’s Nebraska’s team as an example; the Huskers unofficially had 98 scholarship players as of last April, according to an Omaha World-Herald article.

Slimming the scholarship count by five in the next seven-plus months — Iowa’s upcoming task — is easier than Nebraska’s task last year of dropping 13 in about four months.

“We're going to continue to monitor things, and it will be fluid,” Barnes said regarding the scholarship situation last month. “We'll kind of see where the chips fall.”

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com