Iowa
’24 Iowa Football Preseason Awards
IOWA CITY, Iowa – The preseason is for the fans and media. We talk about what’s going to happen in college football this fall, while the student-athletes sweat through the August heat preparing for it.
That’s the setup. We have our marching orders before the 2024 campaign kicks off later this month. That means previews and predictions from yours truly.
Check out the site for previous installments and check back for more with media and kids days coming next week. Here’s a staple of the football preview rubber chicken circuit – Preseason Awards.
Defensive Player of the Year
Jay Higgins, SR, LB
Who else, right? Actually, Jay would be the first to tell you he couldn’t do what he does without the tremendous talent around him. In Iowa’s scheme, the middle linebacker racks up tackles when things are going well.That starts with the line keeping him clean.
Rank the guys during the last quarter century however you like. Fred Barr, Abdul Hodge, Pat Angerer, Josey Jewell and Jack Campbell are all memorable. Higgins is in that conversation now.
He’s considered one of the country’s best defenders heading into 2024 after 171-tackle season. A similar tackle total can be expected.
More importantly, as a second-year starter, Higgins will play faster and with a greater knowledge of the defense can better help guys around him.
Offensive Player of the Year
Luke Lachey, SR, TE
Picking middle linebacker and tight end for these awards at Iowa isn’t exactly going out on a limb. Be that as it may, like Higgins, Lachey could be the best player at his position in the Big Ten and beyond.
While Higgins’ case can be made through last year’s production, we’re projecting with Lachey. He’s returning from a season-ending knee injury that cost him all but nine quarters of football, during which he already had caught 10 passes for 131 yards.
The Ohio native showed breakout potential at the end of ‘22, too. He was honorable mention All-Big Ten after catching 28 passes for 398 yards and four touchdowns. He was the No. 2 tight end behind Sam LaPorta, who finished third in the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of The Year voting in ‘23.
Iowa is TE U. Lachey is the next one. And, like Higgins, he has an opportunity to strengthen his place in pantheon of great performers at his position.
Redshirt Freshman of The Year
John Nestor, CB, Chicago
Nestor delivered in a special teams’ role last season and took another step forward in the spring. That growth led to him entering training camp as a starting cornerback.
Deshaun Lee and TJ Hall certainly aren’t conceding anything in their pursuit of the spot vacated by Cooper DeJean, now with the Philadelphia Eagles. They have more game experience than Nestor at the position.
They also have to overtake him this month and keep pushing if they don’t. No matter what happens, Nestor will play. And he’ll probably blow up some folks on special teams as well.
Iowa returns a lot of starters, reducing candidates for this category. But Nestor is a good one as is the guy in the next category.
True Freshman of The Year
Rhys Dakin, P, Australia
Dakin takes over for countryman Tory Taylor, who is a Chicago Bears rookie after becoming a Hawkeye folk hero. Yeah, that’s a tough act to follow.
Thing is, Dakin doesn’t need to be Taylor. He just needs to be a consistently efficient punter. Be a contributor to, dare I say, successful complementary football.
The unknown is how he’ll perform in a game in front of large crowds. You can’t practice that. But he’s been vetted by the staff and sure looks the part.
Most Pivotal Player
Cade McNamara, SR, QB
Yeah, I’m just making up awards now. This is an important one, though, one with a clear and obvious choice.
McNamara entered camp saying he felt better now than he had since the fall of 2022 at Michigan. If the Hawkeyes can keep him healthy, there’s chance for this offense to click. He seems like a great fit for new coordinator Tim Lester’s system.
The Hawkeyes are better prepared than this time last year should McNamara suffer another unfortunate injury. Northwestern transfer Brendan Sullivan has led a team to victory in the Big Ten, and redshirt freshman Marco Lainez got his feet wet in the bowl game.
The backups haven’t led a team to the College Football Playoff like McNamara, however. The former Wolverine gives Iowa its best opportunity to make the new 12-team CFP this season.
Best Position Group
Running Back
During some years, this category would be easier to pick. That it’s not is a good thing for Iowa. Tight end and linebacker are top-notch, while the lines and secondary could be pretty good.
Running back has three guys that have produced in meaningful games in Leshon Williams, Kaleb Johnson and Jaziun Patterson. Redshirt freshman Kamari Moulton is listed with Williams and Johnson on the preseason two-deep.
Having four capable running backs with experience is a luxury in portal era. Hopefully Lester can find ways to get them all involved.
Top NFL Prospect
Luke Lachey, SR, TE
We talked about Lachey above. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him in the running for the Mackey Award.
Top NFL Prospect Part II
Sebastian Castro, SR, S
The Chicago-area thumper is an impressive combination of skills that play well at Cash and strong safety. He’s talented enough to follow in the footsteps of previous players at the position, Amani Hooker and Dane Belton, recent NFL Draft picks still in the league.
Castro is stronger against the run than those guys at this stage and is gaining ground in matching their coverage ability. He holds his own in that area already.
Iowa
Zach Lahn projected to win Iowa GOP governor primary, upsetting Trump’s pick in a state Democrats hope to flip
Zach Lahn will win the Republican primary for Iowa governor, CBS News projects, overcoming a Trump-backed congressman and setting up a November contest against Democrat Rob Sand that could be one of this year’s most competitive gubernatorial races.
Lahn — a farmer and businessman who has touted his ties to the “Make America Healthy Again” movement — prevailed over a crowded GOP field on Tuesday. Sand, who serves as state auditor, ran for the Democratic nomination unopposed.
His victory bucks the recent winning streak of Trump-backed candidates and marks an upset over Rep. Randy Feenstra, who didn’t attend any primary debates and was viewed by many observers as a frontrunner. President Trump endorsed Feenstra last week, calling him “MAGA all the way,” and several top Iowa GOP figures backed him.
Feenstra conceded late Tuesday night, saying in a speech surrounded by his family that the outcome “wasn’t what I wanted.”
Describing himself as a sixth-generation Iowan, Lahn owns a family farm and runs the agriculture, real estate and technology investment firm Homeplace Ventures. He previously worked for the conservative group Americans for Prosperity. He’s running on a populist-inflected platform that he branded “Iowa First” and has said he wants to boost local ownership of farmland, stem the flow of younger Iowans out of the state and address Iowa’s high cancer rate.
“I fear every day we are losing the Iowa we love,” Lahn said in his victory speech Tuesday, castigating out-of-state investors that he says “treat Iowa land like it’s a commodity instead of our inheritance.”
Lahn was endorsed last year by MAHA Action, a group founded by allies of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and he picked up support from the late Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point Action last week. He was also endorsed by former Rep. Steve King, who was known for incendiary comments about race before Feenstra ousted him in a 2020 primary.
Three other candidates also ran: former Iowa Department of Administrative Services Director Adam Steen, state Rep. Eddie Andrews and former state Rep. Brad Sherman.
Lahn will now face Sand, a two-term state auditor who defeated a GOP incumbent in 2018 after working in the state attorney general’s office.
Sand has focused his campaign on government accountability and faulted Republicans for the state’s economic issues, while pitching universal pre-K and criticizing a school voucher program introduced by GOP officials. He has also sought to cultivate a moderate image on social issues, as Republicans try to cast him as a liberal in centrist’s clothing.
In a campaign video late Tuesday, Sand said Republican voters are “welcome in this campaign,” adding that the state’s political system is “broken” and “all you would get with Zach Lahn it is more of the same.”
Once considered a swing state, Iowa has trended sharply red in recent years as Democrats increasingly struggle on rural Midwestern terrain. Mr. Trump won the state three times in a row, including by a 13-point margin in 2024, and GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds won reelection by 18 points four years ago. Iowa hasn’t elected a Democratic governor in two decades, and Sand is the only statewide elected Democrat, after he won reelection by fewer than 3,000 votes in 2022.
But Democrats are hopeful that a challenging political environment for Republicans, both nationally and in Iowa, could make them more competitive in the midwestern state. The Cook Political Report has rated the Iowa gubernatorial race a tossup, one of five states with that distinction this year, and the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics says the race leans red.
Reynolds — who has led the state since 2017 — has one of the lowest approval ratings of any governor nationwide. Iowa farmers also struggled last year after the trade war with China caused Beijing to cut American soybean imports, pushing down prices of one of Iowa’s most widely grown crops, and the war with Iran has caused a run-up in fuel and fertilizer prices.
Reynolds declined to run for reelection this year, setting up Iowa’s first gubernatorial election without an incumbent in the race since 2006.
Lahn lent his campaign $2 million last year, but is heading into the general election at a fundraising disadvantage. His campaign had just over $700,000 on hand as of mid-May, compared to nearly $18.3 million for the Sand campaign. Sand’s wife runs a sizable food and health products company founded by her family called the Lauridsen Group, and the Democrat’s campaign coffers have been bolstered by millions in contributions from his in-laws.
Sand raised about $9.7 million between the start of the year and mid-May, just over $3 million of which came from members of his wife’s family. Lahn raised just under $1 million.
Beyond the governor’s race, Iowa also has an open Senate contest after Ernst declined to seek reelection, drawing interest from Democrats, though Republicans likely have a sizable edge. Democrats are also heavily targeting two of Iowa’s four House seats, including the 1st District, where incumbent GOP Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks won by fewer than 1,000 votes in 2024.
Iowa
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