IOWA CITY -- Redshirt-freshman defensive back Zach Lutmer played the first meaningful defensive snaps of his young career at Iowa in the Hawkeyes 40-16 win over Washington on Saturday. The Central Lyon/George-Little Rock product owes his new role in Iowa's dime package defense to some creativity by Seth Wallace and Phil Parker.
"It came about the Ohio State week, because we knew they go in 10 personnel sometimes," Lutmer said at Iowa's Tuesday media availability. "We repped it quite a bit during the bye week, trying to get some new things installed. ... Coach Wallace just kind of mentioned it the first practice of bye week, that we're going to put this in. And then he wanted me to rep it."
Though the Hawkeye D didn't show the new personnel look in Columbus, the right opportunity came against Washington.
"It worked out versus [the Huskies]," Lutmer said. "They got into some looks that were tough on some of our backers. So, dime personnel is just something that we can throw in there and throw out at the offense."
Lutmer capitalized against the Huskies, making a big fourth-down tackle behind the sticks to force a turnover on downs and give the Iowa offense the ball back in Washington territory.
As the sixth defensive back on the field, Lutmer is essentially tasked to play the Will linebacker's role.
"We can go base defense out of it. We can play man, zone, pretty much whatever," Lutmer said. "So I kind of watch [the linebackers] throughout the game and see what they're getting on pass concepts and stuff like that."
In his second year playing college ball and playing linebacker for the first time, Lutmer has relied on Nick Jackson and Kyler Fisher to mentor him through the process of learning the position.
"They're telling me what route concepts they're getting and stuff like that," Lutmer said, "how to play off of those guys."
The reps on the field he's getting now will only help him in the future, whatever position he plays in the coming years. Right now, he's preparing for anything and everything.
"I'm kind of going all over the place," Lutmer said. "Cash, strong safety, free safety -- just kind of wherever Coach puts me."
In that respect, he's taking to some of the other veterans and learning as much as he can about playing on the back end of the Iowa defense.
"I'm learning from (Sebastian) Castro a lot," Lutmer said. "He's always teaching me things. Quinn (Schulte), Xavier (Nwankpa), Koen (Entringer). All these guys are very helpful in what they're teaching me."
He's leaning on the experience of a former Hawkeye that's currently in the NFL, as well.
"Obviously, seeing Cooper (DeJean) play a few years ago, he came from a 1A school," Lutmer said. "Seeing him do it, I knew I could do it as well. He played early as a freshman. I don't think he redshirted. It was helpful seeing him do it."
Like DeJean, who also came from a small community in northwest Iowa, Lutmer led his high school team to a state championship as a quarterback. He's the latest iteration of a former high school QB to excel at DB for the Hawkeyes, a proud lineage that includes DeJean, Castro and Schulte.
"[Playing quarterback] definitely helped learning how to play defense here. Seeing where the quarterback really wants to throw, kind of knowing what he wants to do," he said. "I kind of just know what the quarterback's thinking because, playing quarterback, you know what you want to do."
Prior to the game against Ohio State where he registered a tackle, he had actually run some reps at quarterback more recently than he had registered any stats in a college football game.
"I played scout quarterback one week last year. I think it was for Tennessee. We had some injuries, so I had to go in there. It was fun, a fun week," he smiled. "I had a few runs here and there. I was definitely trash talking all those guys the whole week."
Though he likely won't be playing QB again any time soon, Lutmer has a bright future ahead as part of Iowa's defense.
"Zach has really done well," Kirk Ferentz said Tuesday. "Defensively he's done a good job, and on special teams. You get into such situations where you can maybe plug this player in, it can be helpful for us. ... I think it's just good to be open-minded, be creative with guys that seem to be ascending, and Zach is certainly doing that."
