Three Takeaways From the Iowa Hawkeyes Week 1 Depth Chart

The first week of the regular season is finally here. On Saturday at 11 AM CT, Iowa's 2023 regular season will kick off against Utah State. Iowa has released a new depth chart for this week's game.

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As expected after seeing confirmation of Cade McNamara taking part in Iowa practices over the weekend, the Michigan transfer is indeed listed at QB1 on Iowa's first depth chart of the season.

At this point, all signs look pretty positive for McNamara (and Iowa) heading into the season opener -- we're just going to have to wait until the game gets underway on Saturday to see if there's any lingering effects from the non-contact leg injury that he sustained back at the Kids Day practice two weeks ago.

As excited as Iowa fans are to see McNamara lead the Iowa offense, the most important factor for the Iowa offense this fall is likely to be the play of the offensive line. Poor offensive line play has been a key factor in the substantially-below average offenses that Iowa has fielded in recent seasons; if that offensive output is going to improve, it's going to start with the big guys up front.

At least according to the depth chart, Iowa will take the field against Utah State with a lot of familiar faces from those last few seasons: Mason Richman at LT, Nick DeJong at LG, Logan Jones at C, Connor Colby at RG, and Gennings Dunker at RT. Iowa's two notable OL transfer additions -- Rusty Feth and Daijon Parker -- are listed as second-string options at LG and RT, respectively.

Of course, depth charts are one thing, snap counts are sometimes another -- and the snap counts after the Utah State game will give us a much clearer indication of who the top OL are on this team. But for now, it looks like the players with greater experience in Iowa's system have the edge; we'll see what another year of experience (and significantly better health) is able to do for them.

There are several new starters on the Iowa defense heading into 2023, as you can see on the depth chart. The most notable new faces are probably in the front seven. Deontae Craig is taking over as the starter at LDE, while Yahya Black gets the nod as the starter at LDT over the suspended Noah Shannon.

As we've said often, though, rotation is going to be critical on the defensive line and we can certainly expect to see 6-8 guys getting rotated through the d-line positions. To that end, there are three sophomores listed on the second string of the d-line depth chart -- Max Llewellyn at LDE, Aaron Graves at LDT, and Jeremiah Pittman at RDT. Junior Ethan Hurkett rounds out the less-experienced faces in the second string at RDE.

Iowa also has an extreme makeover at the linebacker position, where Jay Higgins is indeed in line to replace former star Jack Campbell at MLB and Virginia transfer Nick Jackson is slotted in as the starter at WLB. Kyler Fisher is your starter at the LEO position, when Iowa has three linebackers on the field.

The WR depth chart features the two guys in the WR room with the most experience: Nico Ragaini and Diante Vines. Charleston Southern transfer Seth Anderson is listed as the backup for Ragaini, while Ohio State transfer Kaleb Brown is listed as the backup for Vines.

As with many other positions, the actual snap counts from the game are going to be far more telling than what the depth chart suggests at the WR position. Target counts also figure to be a key indicator of which receiving options rank highest in McNamara's circle of trust. We'll have a better sense of the actual pecking order at WR after Saturday's game.