Iowa Hawkeyes ‘stubbed’ in CBS Sports Big Ten tiers for 2024

The Big Ten is going to look quite a bit different in 2024. No longer do the Big Ten West and Big Ten East exist. Four newcomers from the PAC-12 are joining. The defending national champion, the Michigan Wolverines, resides in the conference.

The landscape of the Big Ten has flipped on its head and will make things very interesting moving forward. How the Iowa Hawkeyes fit into this new era is intriguing as they remain an old-school program.

CBS Sports tiered all of the schools in the Big Ten for the 2024 season and the Hawkeyes are all by themselves in the tier of “The end table on which you stub your toe.”

The Hawkeyes sit in a bit of a gray zone. There’s no reason to think they’ll win the Big Ten next year, but there’s never any reason to believe Iowa will win the Big Ten, yet it routinely shows up and wins 10 games while scoring only 13 points per game. So, I’m putting them here between Michigan State, Nebraska and Wisconsin, but not with the next tier. – Tom Fornelli, CBS Sports

Iowa just wins games. No one really knows how Kirk Ferentz does it, but he continues to get to double-digit wins essentially with only a defense and special teams unit. Since 2019, Ferentz’s Hawkeyes have hit 10 wins five times.

You may not like how Iowa goes about its business, but you have to respect it, and there’s plenty of reason to believe this team will be better in 2024. Yes, the offense stinks, but nearly everybody of importance is back. The entire offensive line returns and has depth. Cade McNamara returns at QB after missing most of the season with an injury, as does tight end Luke Lachey. There will also be a new offensive coordinator and perhaps a slightly more optimistic approach on that side of the ball. Sure, the defense loses some big names, but this defense always loses players and it’s one of the…


Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/iowa-hawkeyes-stubbed-cbs-sports-210009723.html

Author : Hawkeyes Wire

Publish date : 2024-01-29 21:00:09

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