By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Kade Pieper and Trevor Lauck are all that’s left from the Iowa football team’s starting offensive line from last season.

The other three starters – center Logan Jones, right tackle Gennings Dunker and left guard Beau Stephens – have all moved on to the NFL after being picked in the second, fourth and fifth rounds, respectively, in the 2026 NFL Draft.

Jones was the recipient of the 2025 Rimington Trophy, which goes to the nation’s top collegiate center, while Dunker and Stephens both made first-team All-Big Ten last season.

Jones and Stephens also made multiple All-America teams, and as a group, Iowa’s 2025 Iowa offensive line was named the winner of the Joe Moore Award, which goes to the nation’s top collegiate offensive line.

So you’d think with having to replace three-fifths of what was a rock-solid offensive line that Iowa’s 2026 unit might be considered a little suspect.

However, that doesn’t seem to be case, considering Athlon Sports has Iowa’s 2026 offensive line ranked eighth nationally, while Phil Steele has it ranked 15th nationally.

That says a lot about the respect that Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz has for developing offensive linemen, which is his area of expertise, and also says a lot about Iowa offensive line coach George Barnett’s influence, and about the respect that Pieper and Lauck have both earned.

Pieper, 6-foot-4, 290-pound junior from Norfolk, Nebraska, is widely regarded as one of the top offensive linemen in the nation as he has been named to multiple preseason All-America teams. He started all 13 games at right guard last season, making third-team All-Big, but has since switched to center for the 2026 season.

Lauck, a 6-5, 310-pound junior from Indianapolis, has garnered similar attention this offseason after starting all 13 games at left tackle last season and making third-team All-Big Ten.

And while they share much in common as offensive linemen, Pieper and Lauck couldn’t be much different from a personality standpoint.

Pieper doesn’t have much to say around the media, while Lauck has a gift for gab, a conversation waiting to happen.

They both met with the media on Wednesday, along with eight of their teammates, putting their contrasting styles on full display.

“I’m trying to work on his energy,” Lauck said of Pieper. “He’s got to smile more when he’s doing interviews.”

Pieper isn’t comfortable talking about himself or about his rise to stardom.

But his teammate are trying to help change that, though with little success so far.

“We kind of watch his interviews and kind of critique him and say you need to smile a little bit more and have a little bit more energy,” Lauck said. “He’s kind of just flat-toned a little bit.”

Pieper in fairness was one of the first players to show up on Wednesday and he stayed until every member of the media had a chance to interview him.

It was hard to get much out of Pieper because he just doesn’t seem to enjoy the spotlight. But he wasn’t rude or dismissive in any way.

He was just being himself; quiet and humble.

When asked if the preseason hype means anything to him, Pieper said:

“Not really. I don’t really look at that at all. And I tell my inner circle that I don’t want to hear about it at all. Just kind of worry about having fun with my guys and just having fun this year.

“I don’t really care about it to be honest.”

That inner circle includes his family.

“I really don’t talk about football a lot with my family,” Pieper said. “Just wondering about my family, my nieces, my nephews and stuff like that…cows.”

Pieper did open up a little but when asked to comment on Kirk Ferentz’s hands-on approach with his offensive linemen.

“I think it’s really beneficial, especially with him investing so much time in the offensive line and we’re taking everything to heart,” Pieper said. “He’s a big offensive line guru and he knows a lot, so we’re just listening and taking everything he says to heart.”

Pieper said he picked Iowa mostly because he wanted to play for both Kirk Ferentz and George Barnett.

“Coach Ferentz reminds me a lot of my high school coach, too, kind of older school,” Pieper said.

The fact that Nebraska didn’t offer Pieper a scholarship also probably helped Iowa’s cause, though now the Nebraska coaches have to be kicking themselves for such a blatant oversight.

Pieper has used the home-state snub as motivation, and he always looks forward to facing the Cornhuskers, especially Lincoln where Iowa cruised to a 40-16 win last season.

“It’s kind of cool coming here, coming to the other side, and working so much harder to go play there,” Pieper said.

Pieper isn’t exactly sure why Nebraska passed on him. But he also doesn’t seem to care anymore because his decision to be a Hawkeye has paid huge dividends.

His choice of Iowa also led Pieper to competing in the hay bale toss at Solon’s Beef Days, an event he has now won two straight times.

Iowa football players, especially offensive linemen, have a history of winning the hay bale toss.

And though it’s mostly just for fun, winning the hay bale toss requires many of the same physical skills that help to make a quality offensive lineman, most notably power and strength.

Pieper turned down a chance to be selected in the 2026 NFL Draft as just a third-year sophomore.

He and Lauck also almost certainly turned down opportunities to play elsewhere in college as they both could have demanded top NIL money after how they played last season.

Lauck used his gift for gab on Wednesday to explain why staying the course as a Hawkeye means so much to him, and to his fellow offensive linemen.

“The reason that I came here as a high school recruit is the same reason why I’m here now,” Lauck said. “I didn’t want to leave one bit. Like I said; the same reason I picked here is the same reason why I stayed; the coaches, the teammates, the culture; there’s no reason to leave this place.”