By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The 2024 Iowa football team will have a new offensive coordinator in Tim Lester and what fans are hoping is a new and much-improved offense.

But even with all the attention focused on the offense, Iowa’s strengths are expected to be defense and special teams, as is usually the case, and it’s easy to see why when ranking each of the 10 positions/units on the team.

Iowa will face Illinois State in the 2024 season opener on Aug. 31 at Kinnick Stadium.

Here is how I see the positions stacking up right now:

10. Receiver: Junior Kaleb Brown is the only returning wide receiver to have more than 20 receptions last season as he finished with 22 catches for 215 yards and one touchdown, with most of his productivity coming down the stretch of the season.

However, Brown was also charged with drunken driving in late June so he will miss the season opener against Illinois State as part of his punishment.

Iowa desperately needs at least one or two other receivers to emerge as reliable options.

Seth Anderson caught a touchdown pass in the 2023 season opener, which was also his first game as a Hawkeye, but he didn’t score again, and he only had 11 catches for 150 yards.

No other current receiver on the team caught a pass last season.

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9. Offensive line: This unit would rank near the top if it were based solely on experience and not on performance.

Iowa’s four returning starters on the offensive line – Mason Richman (39), Connor Colby (36), Logan Jones (26) and Gennings Dunker (13) have combined for 114 career starts, while Nick DeJong and Beau Stephens have started 23 and 10 games, respectively. That adds up to 147 career starts, and yet this unit still leaves much to be desired from a performance standpoint.

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8. Quarterback: This ranking comes down to giving Cade McNamara the benefit of the doubt from a health standpoint.

Assuming he is fully recovered from a second straight season-ending knee injury, McNamara gives Iowa a quarterback that has performed at an extremely high level.

Now, of course, he did that as Michigan’s starting quarterback in 2021 when he had the luxury of playing behind one of the best offensive lines in the country and with a stable of speedy skill players.

McNamara won’t have that luxury as Iowa’s starting quarterback.

And just in case he suffers another physical setback or should struggle, Iowa has added Northwestern transfer Brendan Sullivan as an insurance policy.

Sullivan started eight games for Northwestern.

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7. Running back: Iowa’s top three running backs all return after having combined for 1,491 rushing yards last season.

Senior Leshon Williams led the team in rushing last season with 821 yards while averaging a respectable 4.8 yards per carry.

Junior Kaleb Williams rushed for 463 yards last season, while sophomore Jaziun Patterson had 206 yards on the ground despite missing three games with an injury.

All three running backs have shown they can carry the rushing load when called upon to do so.

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6. Punter: No disrespect to incoming freshman and Melbourne, Australia native Rhys Dakin, but until he performs in a real game, it would be hard to rank this position any higher.

Dakin could very well prove to be the second coming of 2023 Ray Guy Award winner and fellow Melbourne native Tory Taylor.

But at this point, we just don’t know how Dakin will respond under the glare of the spotlight.

He certainly has the potential or Iowa wouldn’t have recruited him.

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5. Kicker: Junior Drew Stevens is coming off a season in which he made 18-of-26 field-goal attempts, but he also struggled some down the stretch, especially in the regular-season finale at Nebraska.

In fact, Stevens struggled to where Kirk Ferentz actually benched him late in the Nebraska game and chose to use walk-on Marshall Meeder for a game-winning attempt.

Meeder would go on to convert the field goal, making Kirk Ferentz look like a genius.

But Meeder has since moved on, while Stevens is trying to learn from his adversity.

Stevens has made 34-of-44 field-goal attempts as a Hawkeye, so he has proven himself at this level. He just needs to be more consistent.

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4. Tight end: Senior Luke Lachey is now healthy again after having suffered a season-ending lower leg injury in the third game last season.

When healthy, the 6-foot-6, 253-pound Lachey is one of the best all-around college tight ends in the country. The Ohio native was well on his way to having a spectacular season a year ago as he had 10 catches for 131 yards despite only playing nine quarters.

Iowa likes to use multiple tight ends and this season will be no exception as Addison Ostrenga, Zack Ortwerth and Johnny Pascuzzi all have game experience.

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3. Defensive line: While it won’t be easy replacing defensive tackle Logan Lee and defensive end Joe Evans, Iowa seems to reload more than rebuild at these four positions.

And it isn’t as if the cupboard is empty.

Senior defensive end Deontae Craig and senior tackle Yahya Black both return after having started all 14 games last season, while junior tackle Aaron Graves and senior defensive end Ethan Hurkett are both now listed as starters after having played extensively last season.

Hurkett ranked third among the Iowa defensive linemen last season with 52 tackles, while Graves had 37 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks.

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2. Secondary: This unit still should rank among the best in the country even without All-America cornerback Cooper DeJean, who skipped his senior season to enter the 2024 NFL Draft where he was picked by the Philadelphia Eagles in the second round.

DeJean’s loss certainly leaves a void, but with Phil Parker coaching the secondary, help always seems to be on the way, as few, if any, college coaches develop defensive backs better than Parker does.

Iowa is loaded at the two safety positions where sixth-year graduate students Sebastian Castro and Quinn Schulte and junior Xavier Nwankpa all return.

Castro also excels at playing the Cash position in Iowa’s 4-2-5 defensive alignment.

Schulte (27), Castro (21) and Nwankpa (14) have combined for 62 career starts, while senior cornerback Jermari Harris has started 18 games.

Sophomore cornerback John Nestor showed flashes last season while appearing in 10 games and is now listed as a starter on the 2024 preseason depth chart.

Sophomore Deshaun Lee also will be in the mix at cornerback after having started six games last season.

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1. Linebacker: You would be hard-pressed to find a better one-two punch at linebacker than Iowa’s dynamic duo of fifth-year senior Jay Higgins and sixth-year graduate student Nick Jackson.

They combined for a whopping 281 tackles last season – the most by a Power Five tandem nationally.

Higgins finished last season with 171 tackles, the most by a Power Five player, while Jackson had 110 tackles, including 13 against Penn State.

Jackson played his first four seasons for Virginia where he started 33 games and compiled 354 tackles.

The Atlanta, Georgia native has 464 career tackles, and he has had at least 100 tackles in four straight seasons.

Iowa also has a reliable third option in graduate linebacker Kyler Fisher, who finished with 26 tackles last season. Fisher also has started three games.