In the most recent top 25 rankings from 247Sports, the Iowa Hawkeyes find themselves making the cut and coming in at No. 23 in the country. In the previous rankings, the Hawkeyes found themselves at No. 16.
Rankings after spring practices should always be taken with a grain of salt and this case is no different. Iowa chose to rest some of their key players due to injuries and preserving them for the fall. As you can see below, the list of inactive players was littered with key contributors.
Injured list as far as we can tell:
DeJong
Myslinski
Britt
Liddle
Dunker
Vines
K Johnson
Lachey (left foot)
Hilson (right knee)
Bowie
Hurkett
Sullivan
Evans
Benson
Campbell
Jacobs
Harris
Merriweather
Roberts
AmayaAll 3 QBs are practicing.
Logan Jones wearing 65. đź‘€
— Chad Leistikow (@ChadLeistikow) April 23, 2022
That said, the Hawkeyes’ slide in the rankings is explainable. Their spring practices saw a quarterback competition heat up that looks like it will continue into the summer and training camp. The voters may look at that as uncertainty at the most important position and knock Iowa a bit for that.
While it is a quarterback competition, it could lead to improved play across the board at the position. In what appears to be a three-man race between [autotag]Spencer Petras[/autotag], [autotag]Alex Padilla[/autotag], and [autotag]Joe Labas[/autotag], it could spark each of them to perform at the next level giving Iowa a boost at the quarterback position voters may not be accounting for.
The Hawkeyes find themselves in the top 25 in large part to their defensive and special teams units. Each of these units have consistently been solid for Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz.
Defensively, Iowa will have experience returning and quite a bit of it. At linebacker they get [autotag]Jack Campbell[/autotag]Â and [autotag]Jestin Jacobs[/autotag]Â back leading the charge. [autotag]Riley Moss[/autotag]Â plugs in at defensive back coming off of a 2021 where he was named Big Ten Defensive Back of the Year.
The defense will be its usual self under defensive coordinator Phil Parker and can be expected to keep the Hawkeyes in games.
On special teams, Iowa has one of the best weapons in the entire country. Punter [autotag]Tory Taylor[/autotag]Â is a special asset that can change a game in one play. At the open spring practice, Taylor had multiple punts that exceeded 65 yards. His ability to flip the field will give the Hawkeyes the field position advantage more often than not.
Rankings now are always a little bit suspect, but nonetheless it is nice to see the Hawkeyes getting national respect as a top 25 team. Should the quarterback competition enhance that group’s play, Iowa’s ranking may climb much higher than No. 23.
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