THE PROLOGUE 2015: IOWA FOOTBALL SCHOLARSHIP DEPTH CHART

We did this last year and now it's (long past) time to provide an updated version.  Yesterday's Depth Chartin' postgives you a relatively micro view of the Iowa football program -- it's pretty much just the 25-30 players who figure to play the most in Saturday's game.  This chart is intended to give you a more macro view of the program so you can see what Iowa has in the pipeline at each position.  Where is Iowa relatively strong?  Were is Iowa relatively weak?  Look below.

All thanks to our friends at Good Bull Hunting, particularly @cuppycup, for the HTML help. All star ratings via Rivals.

A few notes:

• It's easy to figure out most of the scholarship players -- just see who was offered a scholarship out of high school and who's still here.  It's harder to figure out which walk-ons have received scholarships since they got to Iowa.  But we know Bo Bower has a scholarship now; ditto Boone Myers.  Indications are that Riley McCarron is also on scholarship and Marshall Koehn is as well.  Beyond that?  Unclear.  Iowa appears to be using just 84 of 85 possible scholarships, though, so it wouldn't be too much of a surprise if there was a senior walk-on that got a scholarship for this season (WR Andrew Stone, maybe?)
• Yes, that does mean that Iowa is apparently using four scholarships this year on kicking specialists.  NO YOUR AN INEFFICIENT USE OF SCHOLARSHIP RESOURCES.
• Occasionally the position of an incoming recruit is obvious (Nathan Stanely is definitely going to play QB at Iowa; Toks Akinribade was Iowa's top RB target this year), but most of the time it's not.  So we do some guesstimating, based on what the recruitniks say and also what the recruits themselves say (Manny Rugamba has been upfront about his desire to be a CB at Iowa).  But definitely don't take the position listings in the far right column as gospel, because they're anything but.
• Likewise, the position assignments in the second-to-last column on the right are also not exactly locked in stone, particularly in the secondary or along the offensive line.
• There are fullbacks on the Iowa roster other than Plewa and Cox (Lane Akre, Drake Kluick, and Steve Manders to be precise), but none of them are on scholarship so far as we know.  It's hard out there for a fullback, even at a school that still likes 'em.
• Iowa lacks experience at QB, but there are several bodies in the pipeline right now.  As always with QBs, it's unlikely that a) all of them will stay at Iowa or b) all of them will stay at QB.  People have been projecting Drew Cook for a position other than QB ever since he committed to Iowa.  So it will remain important for Iowa to add a QB every recruiting class.
• The RB depth chart is surprisingly robust at Iowa, although we don't really know how good any of them might be just yet.  But there sure are a lot of options, which is a nice (and uncommon) problem for Iowa to have.
• Iowa does have several offensive linemen who are in that freshman-junior range (15, to be precise), but they're also real short on sure things (even if we like the Paulsens an awful lot), so there's a lot of uncertainty regarding the future of that area of the field.  We're really hoping Sean Welsh takes a step forward this year and Boettger and Myers improve rapidly; otherwise next year's offensive line situation could be even messier than this year.  Also, it's damn weird that Iowa has just two OL recruits so far in a 23-person class.  They did bring in five OL recruits last year, but skimping on OL in a class is how we've managed to wind up in problematic situations in the past (and also in the present).
• The lack of DT recruits is also a little alarming, although there's a better-than-decent chance that a few of the guys listed at DE will end up sliding inside when they get to Iowa.
• Speaking of DE... Iowa has some nice options there this year, thanks to Ott and Meier, but beyond that we see nothing but question marks.  Matt Nelson, we hope you're as good as advertised.  There will definitely be opportunities aplenty for Iowa's bevy of young DE prospects next year; hopefully the rest of the defense can survive their growing pains.
• The LB depth chart is scary thin among upperclassmen, but the two most recent recruiting classes (2015 and the ongoing 2016 one) look like they've done a decent job of helping to restock the talent at the position.  Taylor, Jones, and Wade appear to have a lot of upside at LB.
• The short-term future looks good at CB, but everything after next season is full of mystery and confusion.  There's a reason Manny Rugamba thinks he can see the field ASAP at CB.
• Things are also looking a little thin at safety, overall -- it wouldn't be a bad thing to see Iowa add another safety or two in this class (or next year for sure).  The fallout of the recent transfers are definitely being felt in the secondary depth chart.
• And finally the kickers... well, look on the bright side: as it stands, Iowa will have just one specialist on scholarship next year.