IOWA FOOTBALL RELEASES DEPTH CHART FOR SEASON-OPENER

In case you haven’t heard, it’s GAME WEEK, which means lots of news nuggets are slipping through the cracks as we chug towards Saturday.

The most delectable nuggets, of course, are usually depth chart-related. As in, who we’re gonna see on the field Saturday.

In order to satiate such a hunger, Iowa football released its two-deeps for the game. Here they are!

• First, the offense: we have Mark Kallenberger and Dalton Ferguson replacing Alaric Jackson and Tristan Wirfs as those two serve out their suspensions. The Paulsen Project is still in waiting, as three out of five (it’s probably more like four out of five) backup positions belong to a Paulsen.
• Next, Ivory Kelly-Martin is RB1, after spending the entire offseason as RB2, he was able to move past Toren Young there.
• Peyton Mansell is the backup QB. For now.
• Kyle Groeneweg is in fact a real person and not a hologram.
• We think.
• Groeneweg’s name is actually spelled two different ways on the depth chart, so the football team knows him about as well as we do.
• Some guy I’ve never heard of is the backup kicker.

And defense!

• Matt Nelson is presumably fully recovered, which means Sam Brincks will line up next to him while Brady Reiff and Cedric Lattimore pays their penance. True freshman Tyler Linderbaum is backing up Brincks, which is intriguing.
• I kind of knew Amani Jones and Nick Niemann were already spoken for two linebacker spots, and it appears Kristian Welch has edged out Djimon Colbert at OLB. Welch has the most playing experience of any other linebacker on the roster, so it’s not terribly surprising.
• With Julius Brents, we once again have a true freshman on the two-deeps at corner.
• Gersonde over Rastetter at punter ... for now.
• And ISM is our return guy!

12-0 starts with this group.