Big Ten Media Days 2024 officially kick off in Indianapolis on Tuesday, extending through Thursday this week. Jay Higgins, Luke Lachey and Quinn Schulte will represent Iowa on Wednesday, along with Kirk Ferentz.
With a new-look offense and a host of veteran talent coming back to the Hawkeye defense this season, there are some questions that need to be answered in Indy.
Here's one B1G question for each ahead of their availability this week.
Kirk Ferentz
What's the offense going to look like?
There are many, many ways this question can be taken when talking about Iowa. Let's hit four of them.
What's Tim Lester's offense looking like?
Lester ran an RPO-heavy scheme during his tenure as head coach at Western Michigan, and he's seen up close what a Kyle Shanahan-style offense looked like in Green Bay as an analyst with the Packers last season.
Between his experience, the team's willingness to rave about him and his track record of success, hopes are high around what he can bring to Iowa City. The question is whether he's been able to fully take control of the offense, and what that will look like.
Is there a quarterback battle brewing?
The media was able to speak to Brendan Sullivan and Cade McNamara for the first time this year just last week. Though Sullivan appeared to be out of the loop regarding his expected role this season, McNamara made it clear he sees the addition of the former Northwestern signal caller as a move for depth purposes.
With McNamara as the presumed starter, it's unclear whether or not Sullivan will be given an opportunity to compete for the role after transferring in. Clarity on that situation from Ferentz will be important.
How's the offensive line looking?
At last year's media days, we heard from Ferentz about how the offensive line group was more "mature" going into last season. Though they made some improvement upfront from 2022 to 2023, the Hawkeyes are still not what they used to be on the OL.
With another year of maturity and an open left guard spot (presumably going to be taken by Beau Stephens or Tyler Elsbury), the question remains as to how much the new offense will help them, and if they've taken a step forward to being more consistent next season.
What about the receivers?
With the departures of Nico Ragaini, Diante Vines and Jacob Bostick, Iowa's wide receiver group is going to look significantly different this season. Some may say that's an immediate upgrade in itself.
The question is, how much will Lester's new offense put the group in a position to succeed?
With Kaleb Brown more than likely set to miss the first game of the season, the first look at the receivers in the new offense will be in the hands of two veteran receivers, Seth Anderson and Kaden Wetjen, as well as youngsters like Dayton Howard, Jarriett Buie, Alex Mota and freshmen KJ Parker and Reece Vander Zee.
With so much turnover and fresh blood in the room, a plethora of question marks surround the receiver group.
READ MORE: Jarriett Buie Talks Growth from Year One to Year Two
READ MORE: Transfer WR Jacob Gill Thankful for Opportunity at Iowa
Can he improve after last year's performance?
In his first year as Iowa's mike linebacker, Jay Higgins led the country in total tackles, racking up 171 total stops. Throw in five tackles for loss, two sacks, five pass breakups, a forced fumble and an interception in, and the Indianapolis native was one of the most productive players in the country last season. With an extra year of eligibility thanks to COVID, he decided to return for a sixth season.
Now, just how in the hell could he expect to not only get better, but improve his draft stock after such an outlandish first year in the middle of Phil Parker's defense?
He and Nick Jackson -- who will more than likely be NCAA's all-time Division I leader in tacklers by season's end -- will be back. There's not exactly any reason nor expectations put on them to get better from 2023 to 2024, but hearing Higgins' thoughts on the topic will be very interesting.
How does the tight end feature in Tim Lester's offense?
The tight end position has been a major fixture of the Iowa offense for a long time and success has come with it -- i.e., TEU.
Notably, in RPO systems, the tight end isn't quite the key feature as it has been with the Hawkeyes over the last 25 years.
With that said, Luke Lachey is unquestionably Iowa's best player on the offensive side of the ball. For the Iowa offense to be successful, he'll need to have the ball in his hands as much as possible.
In Lester's debut season, though he shouldn't necessarily deviate from what has made him successful in the past as a play-caller, a strong indicator of his competence as an OC will be how he finds ways to put the ball in the hands of his best player.
Who is TE3?
We saw just how important this was last season. After Lachey went down with a lower leg injury in week three and Erick All tore his ACL against Wisconsin, Addison Ostrenga became Iowa's number one target.
With the departure of All to the NFL and the return of a healthy Lachey, Ostrenga is now TE2. So, who is TE3?
Last season, freshman Zach Ortwerth saw some significant time on the field thanks to the aforementioned injuries. For now, it could be assumed he'll step in as Iowa's third-string tight end. On the other hand, walk-on Johnny Pascuzzi received quite a bit of time on the field last season as well, and the fan base is also rightly excited about fringe four-star freshman Gavin Hoffman. Grant Leeper is entering his redshirt freshman season with Iowa, too.
"It's hard, honestly," Ostrenga said this summer. "We've got so many guys in our room. There's a bunch of guys that could fill that role."
With all of that in mind, there's surely some strong competition going on for the third tight end spot. What we want to know is who is or has separated themselves from the pack to be TE3.
Can Iowa's secondary hold off offenses like Ohio State?
The Hawkeyes will be the presumptive favorites in all but one of their games in 2024. The one outlier? Playing Ohio State in The Shoe.
The last time Iowa made that 537 mile trip through the Midwest, the Hawkeyes left battered and beaten at the hands of the Buckeyes, 54-10. In that game, CJ Stroud completed 20-of-30 passes for 286 yards and threw four touchdown passes.
Kansas State transfer QB Will Howard, the new Buckeye quarterback, is certainly not Stroud, and OSU no longer has the likes of Marvin Harrison Jr. on their roster, but Ryan Day's program doesn't rebuild, it reloads (see Cleveland.com's preseason poll results). Stud wideout Emeka Egbuka returns and Jeremiah Smith, a five-star WR in the 2024 class, joined the Buckeye receiving corps this spring.
Sixth-year senior free safety Quinn Schulte was part of that trouncing the Hawkeyes took two years ago. This time around, the Iowa secondary will have Xavier Nwankpa, Jermari Harris and Deshaun Lee as Schulte's counterparts.
We know the back end of the Hawkeye defense will be able to hold off aerial attacks from opposing teams like Northwestern, Maryland, Michigan State and others, but will they be able to handle a team with the offensive firepower that the Buckeyes possess? Schulte should have an interesting answer to the question.
