By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The past, present and the future of Hawkeye football will all be on display this week, and this weekend.

The fun starts with the 2026 NFL Draft, which will be held Thursday through Saturday in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Iowa isn’t expected to have a player selected in Thursday’s first round, but there will almost certainly be three former Hawkeye offensive linemen taken in the draft, including tackle Gennings Dunker, who is projected as a Day 2 pick late in the second round or early in the third round.

Former Iowa center Logan Jones projects anywhere from the second round to the fourth round, while former Iowa guard Beau Stephens is considered a late-round pick, perhaps the fifth or sixth round.

Former Iowa defensive end Max Llewellyn and former Hawkeye cornerback TJ Hall also project as late-round picks, as does star return specialist Kaden Wetjen.

The challenge for Wetjen will be to show that he can also produce as a receiver because it’s virtually impossible to make an NFL roster as just a return specialist.

Wetjen didn’t have big numbers as an Iowa receiver, but that was partly due to the Iowa passing game struggling during much of his time as a Hawkeye.

NFL draft week almost always shines a positive light on the Iowa football program under Kirk Ferentz, and this draft will be no exception with as many as five or six former Hawkeyes expected to be selected.

There will also be free agent opportunities for those that don’t get picked, and sometimes, that works out better because the players can choose which teams they want to join.

Former Iowa quarterback Mark Gronowski will certainly get his chance to play at the next level, whether he gets drafted or not.

It only takes one team to create an opportunity.

Moving on to the present, and to the future, the Iowa football team will hold its final spring practice on Saturday at Kinnick Stadium.

The practice is open to the public and there is no cost for admission.

For the most part, it’s been a quiet spring from a rumor, speculation and hype standpoint.

The player probably talked about the most is new wide receiver Tony Diaz, who apparently has made quite an impression this spring.

Diaz hasn’t been made available to media since becoming a Hawkeye, but some of his teammates have spoken on his behalf, and they all describe the San Marcos, Texas native as a big play waiting to happen; great at making the catch, great at gaining yards after the catch, and great at stretching the field.

Iowa offensive coordinator Tim Lester met with the media on Wednesday and the first question he was asked wasn’t about the competition at quarterback, but rather about Tony Diaz and the depth at receiver.

“Tony, he can come down with the ball,” Lester said. “I wish he was more protective of his body. He goes for it now. He might land on his head, but he’ll end up with the ball at the end.

“It’s been fun watching him in his first eight or nine. He wants to practice. We’re trying to hold him out just because there’s no need to at this point. He’s just getting healthy. I think if there was a game, he might be able to go these last two because he’s a super competitive kid and aggressive.”

Diaz, who is listed at 5-foot-11 and 176 pounds, has been slowed by some minor injuries this spring, but Lester obviously has seen enough of Diaz to be encouraged.

Diaz transferred to Iowa from Texas Rio Grand Valley where he had a breakout season as a redshirt freshman, finishing with 875 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns last season.

Iowa also has added former Furman receiver Evan James from the transfer portal, and Lester spoke highly of him, too.

“The one thing I think with Evan and Tony that they’ve done that’s really helped the whole group is they’re running routes at a certain speed,” Lester said. “I mean, they roll. That’s something that we’ve been looking for, and we were looking for when we hit the portal is speed. I really think it’s kind of elevated the room a little bit.”

It’s no secret that Iowa could use help at the receiver positions. That seems to be the case heading into almost any season under Kirk Ferentz.

Building and sustaining quality depth at wide receiver has been an ongoing battle for Kirk Ferentz, and now he’s using the transfer portal to address that problem.

Spring is always the time for hope and optimism; a fresh start and a new beginning where there is no threat of losing to an opponent.

So it’s easy to get carried away with the hype and superlatives.

As for the quarterback competition, junior Hank Brown and redshirt sophomore Jeremy Hecklinski apparently are too close to call either the starter right now. They both said last week that they expect the competition to stretch into preseason practice.

“It is hard,” Lester said. “Trying to figure out which plays each of them like and they’re more comfortable with. We have an unbelievable room of coaches that are helping us with the amount of data I get after every practice.

“I’ve been really proud of both of them. They’re both playing really well right now. They both improved in the areas that I asked them to improve on. I always try to make very clear goals of what I want each one of them to do in the spring, and their numbers are really close.”

And while the competition won’t be decided by who practices better on Saturday, if one were to clearly outperform the other, that would certainly create some momentum heading into the summer workouts.

Saturday’s open practice will give fans, and the media, their first real glimpse of Iowa’s new-look defense that will have nine new starters, including all four starters on the defensive line.

Iowa hit the portal hard for defensive players, and now it’s up to Parker and his assistant coaches to make it work as they so often do.

Fans will also get their first look on Saturday at Iowa’s next wave of kicking specialists with kicker Drew Stevens having exhausted his eligibility last season, and with punter Rhys Dakin having transferred to Michigan State.

Iowa added one kicker (Eli Ozick) and two punters from the portal.

What you won’t see on Saturday is LeVar Woods coaching the special teams as he has moved on to Michigan State where he is now the assistant head coach and special teams coordinator under new head coach Pat Fitzgerald.

Chris Polizzi was named Iowa’s new special teams coordinator in January.

He certainly faces a challenge in having to replace the starting kicker, starting punter and one of the greatest return specialists in Big Ten history.

Polizzi will also be challenged by trying to uphold the high standard that Woods built and then sustained on special teams.

“I’m sure you guys are eager to know some of what the differences are going to be, but I want to highlight some of the things that are the same as far as special teams go,” Polizzi said this past Wednesday. “The structure has been very productive over a number of years. The techniques that produce the results are the same, and the expectations, frankly, from within the building and outside the building are the same.

“The things that will be different from a special teams standpoint, and I shared this with the team in our first meeting, was the communication style. I love LeVar. He’s a friend of mine. We’re different people, different coaches. And the standard, the standard of what was special teams when Coach Woods took over is completely different now than what the standard is of today.

“Kaden Wetjen is a two-time Jet Award winner. Drew Stevens was a record-breaking kicker. I go back to the last punter (Tory Taylor) we had graduate from the program was the highest drafted punter in recent years.”