Iowa

Iowa Hawkeyes 2023 Snapshot Profile: No. 34 Jay Higgins

Published

2 years ago

June 21, 2023

Finally! A new storyline to talk about!

Throughout this entire snapshot profile series on defense, the talk has been the same. While there are some new, young faces looking to make their marks in 2023, the defensive line brings back many key players from the season prior. Besides a few changes, it is still largely the same unit as last year. There are few questions about how the boys up front will play.

Move back to the next layer of the Iowa defense at linebacker and you will find one of the biggest changes in recent years for the program. Jack Campbell was the model of consistency during his two years as the starter for the Hawkeyes, winning the Butkus Award as the nation’s top linebacker last year.

A year after having all of the confidence in the world about a known commodity at middle linebacker, now comes the change. Campbell is now a member of the Detroit Lions, going 18th overall in the most recent NFL draft. Up next is senior Jay Higgins, a player who has patiently waited for his chance.

In the new age of college sports, Higgins easily could have left Iowa. After Campbell decided to come back for one last year, the former three-star linebacker out of Indianapolis, Ind., could have easily taken his talents somewhere else and played. He decided not to, opting instead to wait his turn and learning and growing as an understudy.

When he did play last year, the results showed, a team leading 12 total tackles against Northwestern. Now, Higgins isn’t just expected to come in and play. He steps in as the all-important middle linebacker, the centerpiece of the defense.

A lot of faith is being placed on the young linebacker. Can he deliver? Here is a look at new starting middle linebacker Jay Higgins.

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Jay Higgins’ Preseason Player Profile

Hometown: Indianapolis, Ind.

Ht: 6-2

Wt: 229

Class in 2023: Sr.

Recruiting Ranking

	Stars	Overall	State	Position
247	3	N/A	17	63
Rivals	3	N/A	11	N/A
ESPN	3	N/A	26	52
On3 Recruiting	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
247 Composite	3	1660	16	69

Before Iowa

Robert Scheer/IndyStar via Imagn Content Services, LLC

Named to All-State Top 50 as a junior and senior
First-team all-state, all-conference, and all-county as a junior and senior
Earned all-state and all-conference honors as a sophomore

Career Stats

Defense & Fumbles Table
						Tackles					Def Int					Fumbles
Year	School	Conf	Class	Pos	G	Solo	Ast	Tot	Loss	Sk	Int	Yds	Avg	TD	PD	FR	Yds	TD	FF
2020	Iowa	Big Ten	FR	LB	1	2	0	2	0.0	0.0	0	0		0	0	0			0
*2021	Iowa	Big Ten	SO	LB	4	3	2	5	0.0	0.0	0	0		0	0	1			0
*2022	Iowa	Big Ten	SR	LB	12	21	19	40	1.5	0.5	0	0		0	0	0	0	0	0
Career	Iowa					26	21	47	1.5	0.5	0	0		0	0	1	0	0	0

Depth Chart Overview

Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK

Finally, after years of steady play from Jack Campbell, the Hawkeyes are handing the keys of the defense to Jay Higgins. Higgins has waited patiently for his moment to shine. Now, as a senior, he is officially Iowa’s starting middle linebacker. With his athleticism, it will be interesting to see how Phil Parker plans on using Higgins versus Jack Campbell’s role in the defense.

Contact/Follow us @HawkeyesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Iowa news, notes, and opinions.

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Iowa

Where to watch Iowa State vs Northwestern basketball today, time, TV for exhibition game

Published

4 hours ago

October 26, 2025

Press Room

Where to watch Iowa State vs Northwestern basketball today, time, TV for exhibition game

Iowa State basketball returns home on Sunday, Oct. 26 to play Northwestern in an exhibition game.

The game is scheduled to tip off at 12 p.m. from Hilton Coliseum in Ames.

Iowa State was 25-10 overall and 13-7 in the Big 12 last season but lost its first exhibition to Creighton, 71-58. Northwestern, meanwhile, went 17-16 in 2024-25 and was 2-9 on the road.

Watch Iowa State vs. Northwestern on ESPN+

What channel is Iowa State vs. Northwestern on today?

Iowa State vs. Northwestern time today

Date: Sunday, Oct. 26
Start time: 12 p.m. CT
Location: Hilton Coliseum in Ames

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Iowa

2025-26 Iowa State Wrestle-Offs: Brackets & Info – Iowa State Athletics

Published

2 days ago

October 24, 2025

Press Room

2025-26 Iowa State Wrestle-Offs: Brackets & Info – Iowa State Athletics

AMES, Iowa – Iowa State head wrestling coach Kevin Dresser released the brackets for ISU’s 2025-26 wrestle-offs, which will take place this weekend. Semifinals will be wrestled Saturday, Oct. 25 at 11 a.m. on the Lied Rec Center main floor. Finals will take place the following day at Ames High School at 2 p.m.

Seven matches will be wrestled Saturday with nine on Sunday. A full bout order can be viewed at the end of this story.

Stevo Poulin, Evan Frost and Rocky Elam will be held out of competition this weekend and will wrestle off in the coming weeks. Daniel Herrera will also miss this weekend’s wrestle-offs due to his participation in the U23 World Championships in Novi Sad, Serbia Saturday and Sunday.

Additionally, Dresser also announced that Nando Villaescusa, Sawyer Bartelt, Carson Floyd and Carter Fousek will miss the 2025-26 season due to injury and will pursue a medical redshirt.

Results from the inaugural Cyclone Invitational Presented by Daily’s Premium Meats, in which two wrestlers per team can enter, will also factor in to setting the ISU lineup.

To see the full wrestle-off brackets, CLICK HERE.

Wrestle-off results will be posted to Cyclones.com following each round.

Fans attending Saturday’s wrestle-offs are encouraged to park in Lot 68 and walk to the Lied Rec Center. Plan for increased traffic in the area due to the football gameday.

IOWA STATE WRESTLE-OFF SCHEDULE

Semifinals

Date: Saturday, Oct. 25

Time: 11 a.m.

Location: Lied Rec Center

Finals

Date: Sunday, Oct. 26

Time: 2 p.m.

Location: Ames High School

Watch: IAWrestle

SATURDAY MATCH ORDER

125: Adrian Meza vs. Ethan Perryman

141: Anthony Echemendia vs. Osmany Diversent*

149: Paniro Johnson vs. Logan Stotts

165: Connor Euton vs. Manny Rojas

165: Aiden Riggins vs. Owen Helgeson

174: Melton Powe vs. Jacob Helgeson

285: McCrae Hagarty vs. Xavier Bruening

SUNDAY MATCH ORDER

125: Christian Castillo vs. Meza/Perryman*

133: Garrett Grice vs. Carter Pearson

149: Jacob Frost vs. Johnson/Stotts

157: Vinny Zerban vs. Kane Naaktgeboren

165: Euton/Rojas vs. Riggins/O. Helgeson

174: MJ Gaitan vs. Powe/J. Helgeson

184: Isaac Dean vs. Tate Naaktgeboren

197: CJ Carter vs. Rowan Udell

285: Yonger Bastida vs. Hagarty/Bruening

*Denotes exhibition

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Iowa

Iowa ‘illegal reentry’ law remains blocked, but 8th Circuit questions injunction’s breadth

Published

3 days ago

October 23, 2025

Press Room

Iowa ‘illegal reentry’ law remains blocked, but 8th Circuit questions injunction’s breadth

A federal judge did not err when finding an Iowa immigration enforcement law likely unconstitutional, a federal appellate court ruled.

But it is sending the case back to determine whether the state should nonetheless be allowed to enforce the law in some cases.

The Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ Oct. 23 decision upholds an injunction blocking Iowa from enforcing Senate File 2340, which Gov. Kim Reynolds signed in April 2024 to make “illegal reentry” a crime under state law.

In a lawsuit bought by the Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice, Judge Stephen Locher ruled last year that immigration enforcement is explicitly a federal responsibility and Iowa’s law is invalid under the U.S. Constitution.

“As a matter of politics, the new legislation might be defensible,” Locher wrote in June 2024. “As a matter of constitutional law, it is not.”

Thursday’s decision is technically the second time the 8th Circuit has ruled against the law.

Originally, Iowa was sued twice: by Migrant Movement for Justice and the Biden Administration. Locher granted injunctions in both cases, and in January, the 8th Circuit affirmed his ruling in the DOJ lawsuit and dismissed the second injunction as duplicative.

Shortly after, though, the Trump administration dismissed the federal government’s challenge, and the court agreed to rehear and rule on the injunction in the Migrant Movement for Justice case.

What did Iowa’s immigration law do?

Under the 2024 law, entering or residing in Iowa after being deported from or denied entry to the U.S. or failing to depart when ordered became a state offense. It followed a similar law Texas adopted, both of which have since been blocked by courts.

The Iowa law also required judges to order anyone convicted under the law to return to their country of origin.

In his order blocking the law, Locher identified several problems: Most glaringly, a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision found that state-level immigration laws interfere with and are preempted by federal immigration enforcement.

In the case of Iowa, Locher noted, having state judges order people to leave the country bypasses the extensive and often case- and country-specific federal system to decide when, how, and to where a person can be deported.

“This creates an untenable dichotomy between federal and state law in an area where the Supreme Court has recognized that the United States must speak with a single, harmonious voice,” Locher wrote.

The law also does not make any exceptions for people with current legal resident status. That’s a problem for several of the plaintiffs in the Migrant Movement case, who at one time were deported or denied entry but later were able to obtain legal residency.

While Attorney General Brenna Bird said she did not intend to enforce the law against legal residents, Locher noted county prosecutors would not be bound by her statement.

8th Circuit finds law likely unconstitutional

In it’s ruling Thursday, the 8th Circuit once again upheld Locher’s reasoning.

Judge Duane Benton wrote for the court that Iowa’s law intrudes into federal immigration authority even further than the Arizona law struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012.

Allowing state officials not only to detain people for suspected immigration violations, but to order them removed from the country, with a potential prison sentence of 10 years, greatly exceeds the state’s powers under the U.S. Constitution, the court found.

The court rejected Iowa’s arguments in defense of the law, finding that many ran contrary to the plain text of the statute.

For example, where Bird argued the law only required the state to deliver aliens to a “port of entry” — namely, the Des Moines airport — and would have no effect outside the state’s borders, the appeals court noted the law requires migrants to leave the entire country, not just the state, under penalty of prison.

“Any enforcement of the act would likely conflict with federal law by interfering with the enforcement discretion that federal law gives to federal officers,” Benton wrote. “(Plaintiffs) have clearly shown that their facial challenge is likely to succeed on the merits because every application of the Act stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress.”

Yes, but: to whom does the injunction apply?

Locher’s injunction blocked any state agent, including county prosecutors, from enforcing the law against anyone. That may be too broad, the appellate court says.

In a June 2025 case against Donald Trump, the U.S. Supreme Court significantly limited the use of “universal injunctions” that apply beyond the parties in a particular case.

In light of that ruling, the 8th Circuit is directing Locher to consider whether he has authority to block enforcement by all state officers, as opposed to just those named in the lawsuit, and whether the law can be enforced against individuals who are not members of Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice.

Regardless of how the injunction may be modified, the lawsuit is likely to continue.

Locher’s June 2024 order put in place a preliminary injunction, blocking the state from enforcing the law while the case progressed. Barring further appeals, Thursday’s appellate decision means the case will continue before Locher for further proceedings before the court could potentially make its injunction permanent.

William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com or 715-573-8166.

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