One Potential Outcome of Iowa Football's Season We Seem to Be Ignoring

Success.

What defines success in college football? It's a moving target for every single team in the country. For Ohio State, it's a national championship. For Nebraska, it's a bowl game. For Purdue, it's a Big Ten conference win.

What about for the Iowa Hawkeyes? What if Iowa's success could be delayed to age like a fine wine?

I am talking about success as a rebuilding, experience-gaining year.

Is Iowa Football Rebuilding in 2026?

In today's NIL-driven world, rebuilding has become somewhat of a thing of the past. Teams simply go and poach talent from the lower FBS ranks and infuse those players into spots to replace top talent.

The Group of Five is becoming more or less a feeder system, but that's a conversation for another day.

So, to think of a season as a "rebuild" in college football requires some changing of thought processes, with everyone wanting instantaneous success (Thanks, Indiana and Cignetti).

Except that could be the case for Iowa, which has a younger roster than in many years before. With how young Iowa is, 2026 could be the building block that serves as a springboard for a monster 2027.

Let's look into the roster a bit and peel back the onion of what this "rebuild" that is really a "loading up" looks like.

Iowa Quarterbacks

Iowa is walking into 2026 with an unknown at quarterback. Jeremy Hecklinski or Hank Brown are getting the nod, but there's a good chance we see both at some point. Why not use this year to get them experience?

Or, if we want to truly look into Iowa leaning into the youth movement, have we considered Tradon Bessinger, the four-star, highly-touted recruit, possibly being the guy for three to four years?

Iowa Running Backs

There is a world in which Iowa's top four running backs return next year. It's asking a lot, but the Hawkeyes' depth at running back has the horses to handle it. Kamari Moulton could come back. L.J. Phillips Jr. could come back. Xavier Williams will be back. Nathan McNeil will be back.

Of course, that is if they keep them out of the portal. If Iowa can manage that, they have three starting-caliber backs ready to go with deep experience in Tim Lester's offense.

Iowa Wide Receivers and Tight Ends

Iowa could bring back Reece Vander Zee, Tony Diaz, Evan James, and DJ Vonnahme in 2027 as a legitimate pass-catching group that would have another entire offseason to work with the quarterbacks and develop.

Are you starting to catch my drift about Iowa's offense being young and how 2027 could see massive strides forward?

Iowa Defense

Now things get fun looking at 2027. At linebacker, Iowa could bring back Cam Buffington, Derek Weisskopf, Preston Ries, and a whole slew of others coming up the ranks.

In the secondary, Phil Parker could retain Anthony Hawkins and Tyler Brown, two safety additions that figure to start this year. You all know the trajectory of multi-year secondary starters at Iowa. It's quite good.

What defines success for Iowa in a rebuilding year?

Unlike the NFL, a rebuilding year does not mean Iowa has to go full-on tank and be content losing games. That isn't Iowa, and under Kirk Ferentz, that won't happen.

This year still matters. Even with the youth, not all experience is good experience. Losing a lot of games teaches bad habits, bad mentalities, and lowers the standard.

To find success, even if Iowa is building towards a gigantic run in 2027, you have to win games and produce and develop. The wins for this team will come due to a mixture of the schedule having built-in wins and Iowa simply being Iowa against lower-tier Big Ten teams.

The floor for success, even with Iowa's youth, if there are flashes from the youngsters, has to be 7-5 or 8-4. Dipping below that is well below Iowa's standard, and even with being young and growing, it could bring on more problems than solutions in 2027.

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