3 biggest Iowa football storylines to follow this spring

3. Needed improvement in the trenches

The Iowa defense should once again be superb in 2024 and has very few question marks, so the final storyline will also be centered around the offense. With the whole Kadyn Proctor debacle unwinding over the past few weeks, his departure back to Alabama leaves the Iowa offensive line with a fresh page to work with ahead of next season.

The unit will essentially remain the same in 2024 as veteran left tackle Mason Richman returns along with left guard Nick DeJong, center Logan Jones, right guard Connor Colby and right tackle Gennings Dunker. This group has amassed 147 career starts over the past three seasons, so experience is not the area of concern.

The area of concern is production. As previously mentioned, the Hawkeye offense averaged an FBS-worst 234.6 yards per game in 2023. The unit also accounted for the 109th-worst sack rate in the nation (8.66%). While a lot of Iowa’s offensive struggles was not because of the offensive line, it was still a part of the issue.

And it’s not like the Hawkeyes have failed to manufacture terrific offensive linemen in the recent past either considering that they have produced two first-round picks since the start of the decade in Tristan Wirfs (2020) and Tyler Linderbaum (2022).

How much progress the unit makes this offseason will be something to pinpoint.