Iowa’s preseason watch list season is already rolling, and a handful of Hawkeyes are getting early national attention ahead of the 2026 college football season.
The latest update, as of August 5, features four Iowa players across some of the sport’s biggest individual honors: defensive back Zach Lutmer, offensive linemen Trevor Lauck and Kade Pieper, and tight end DJ Vonnahme.
Lutmer is drawing the heaviest spotlight. He landed on the Bronko Nagurski Trophy watch list, was named a preseason first-team All-American by Athlon, and also made the 2026 Lott IMPACT Trophy list. In 2025, Lutmer started all 13 games at the CASH position and put together a strong stat line: 71 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, one sack, three interceptions, one touchdown and seven pass breakups.
He was a key piece of an Iowa defense that ranked eighth nationally in scoring defense at 15.6 points per game and ninth in total defense at 280.4 yards per game. The Rock Rapids, Iowa, native earned second-team All-Big Ten honors from the coaches and third-team recognition from the media. He also took home Iowa’s Roy Carver Most Valuable Player award on defense and is a two-time Team Hustle Award winner.
Iowa has had its share of Nagurski finalists before. Former cornerback Cooper DeJean made the cut in 2023, while linebackers Josey Jewell in 2017 and Pat Angerer in 2009 also reached finalist status.
The FWAA All-America Committee helps determine the Nagurski finalists after voting input from the association’s full membership. The committee selects a 26-man All-America Team and eventually the finalists, with the five names for the trophy coming in November. Committee members then vote individually for the player they believe is the best defensive player in college football.
On the offensive line, Lauck is on the 2026 Outland Trophy watch list. Athlon already pegged him as a preseason second-team All-American, and he is one of six juniors named to the 2026 Player Council. The Indianapolis, Indiana, native started all 13 games at left tackle in 2025 and earned third-team All-Big Ten honors while anchoring the left side of Iowa’s Joe Moore Award-winning line.
The Outland Trophy has been around since 1946 and is named for Dr. John H.
Outland, one of the rare players in college football history to earn All-American honors at two positions. The 2026 winner will be announced in December.
Iowa’s track record with the award is loaded. The Hawkeyes have produced four Outland winners, which ranks fifth among all college programs behind Nebraska, Alabama, Oklahoma and Texas.
Brandon Scherff won it in 2014, Robert Gallery in 2003, Alex Karras in 1957 and Calvin Jones in 1955. Logan Jones was Iowa’s most recent finalist in 2025.
Pieper also made the 2026 Outland Trophy watch list and was included on the Big Ten preseason honor list. He comes in as a preseason first-team All-American from both Walter Camp and Athlon after a breakout 2025 season that brought him Pro Football Focus first-team All-America honors and third-team All-Big Ten recognition. Pieper started all 13 games at guard and helped power an Iowa offensive line that won the Joe Moore Award in 2025.
That front five did more than protect the quarterback. Iowa outrushed its opponents in nine of 13 games last season, and the protection unit allowed an average time-to-pressure of just 2.8 seconds, good for fifth nationally.
Vonnahme is the Hawkeye on the tight end list, landing on the 2026 John Mackey Award watch list after a standout freshman season. In 2025, he became the first FBS freshman tight end to lead his team in both receptions and receiving yards in a season since Georgia’s Brock Bowers in 2021. The Breda, Iowa, native finished with team highs in receptions (29), receiving yards (434) and receiving touchdowns (3).
His best game came in Iowa’s ReliaQuest Bowl win over No. 14 Vanderbilt, when he caught a career-high seven passes for 146 yards and a touchdown. That performance earned him a spot on The Associated Press All-Bowl Team, and his 146 receiving yards were the second-highest single-game total by a tight end in program history behind Marv Cook’s 159 in 1987.
Iowa has won the Mackey Award twice, with Dallas Clark in 2002 and T.J. Hockenson in 2018. Sam LaPorta was a finalist in 2022, while Tony Moeaki in 2009, Allen Reisner in 2010 and Noah Fant in 2018 were semifinalists.
In Other News...
Iowa Opens Camp With A Top 25 Hype And Big Questions
Iowa football opens preseason camp on Aug. 5 with a little more national buzz than usual, arriving at No. 22 in the USA Today Coaches Poll and carrying the kind of early August optimism that comes with a Top 25 number next to its name. Kirk Ferentz said he expects the Hawkeyes to be healthy when camp begins, including tight end Addison Ostrenga as he comes back from an Achilles injury, giving Iowa at least a cleaner starting point than many teams get this time of year.
Even so, the real work is just beginning. With the season opener against Northern Illinois set for Sept. 5, Iowa still has position battles to sort through and development to squeeze out of a roster that will be judged less by preseason rankings than by how quickly it settles in over the next month. The Hawkeyes have earned the right to feel good about where they start, but camp will show how much of that optimism survives once the pads come on. [Read more 🡒]
Iowa May Have Its Next Tight End Fans Need To Watch
Iowas tight end pipeline has kept humming for years, and the next name to know may already be in the building. DJ Vonnahme led the Hawkeyes in receiving last season and earned a 68.0 grade from Pro Football Focus, a strong sign that his role was more than just a product of the system.
With a new quarterback stepping in, Vonnahme is expected to be a key playmaker again, which only adds to the intrigue around his next step. For a program that has turned tight ends into NFL fixtures, from George Kittle to T.J. Hockenson, the question now is how quickly Vonnahme can turn promise into the kind of production that makes Hawkeye fans start paying close attention. [Read more 🡒]
Iowas Transfer Haul Is Reshaping The Hawkeyes Two-Deep Fast
Iowas offseason transfer work has been wide-ranging, and it has already started to change the shape of the depth chart. The Hawkeyes brought in seven defensive transfers, four on offense and two special teamers as they tried to patch roster holes and give themselves more options across the board. With so many newcomers arriving at once, this is not just about adding bodies. It is about reworking the two-deep and setting the tone for what could be a very different look on both sides of the ball.
The real question now is how many of those additions become immediate parts of the rotation and how many end up competing for backup snaps. The way the roster is being sorted makes clear that expected playing time matters just as much as a formal starting label, which is why some transfers are already being viewed as two-deep contenders before the first meaningful games arrive. For Iowa, the bigger story may be less about who transferred in and more about how quickly the Hawkeyes can turn that influx into a new statistical identity. [Read more 🡒]