{"id":49095,"date":"2023-07-21T09:00:06","date_gmt":"2023-07-21T13:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=49095"},"modified":"2023-07-21T09:01:40","modified_gmt":"2023-07-21T13:01:40","slug":"iowa-depth-chart-dive-tight-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2023\/07\/21\/iowa-depth-chart-dive-tight-ends\/","title":{"rendered":"Iowa Depth Chart Dive: Tight Ends"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2018, tight ends\u00a0<\/span>TJ Hockenson<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Noah Fant<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0led the Iowa receiving corps with a combined 1279 yards and 13 touchdowns. The two averaged a combined 100 yards per game and totaled 88 catches on the season. In 2023, Iowa is shaping up to have a tight end room of similar stature. It starts with\u00a0<\/span>Luke Lachey<\/span><\/a>\u00a0who is returning for his redshirt junior season in black and gold. Next to him, Iowa took in transfer\u00a0<\/span>Erick All<\/span><\/a>\u00a0from Michigan who is entering his fifth season in college football. It\u2019s not a stretch to say that these two might be as productive as Hockenson and Fant. With an upgrade at quarterback in\u00a0<\/span>Cade McNamara<\/span><\/a>, this tight ends room is looking like it could have a special season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Luke Lachey<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Despite losing second-round draft pick\u00a0<\/span>Sam LaPorta<\/span><\/strong>, there might not be a drop off at the position this season. Lachey was Iowa\u2019s second-leading receiver in 2022 with 400 yards and a team-high four reception touchdowns. With all the struggles of last year\u2019s passing offense, those numbers accounted for 38% of the entire passing game\u2019s production. For comparison, LaPorta\u2019s 657 yards and one touchdown was 23% of the passing production last year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Iowa is returning 915 reception yards from last season, and Lachey\u2019s 400 is nearly 50% of that number. The Iowa receiving corps added a lot of value this offseason through the transfer portal. But at tight end, Lachey\u2019s experience will be highly valuable in this offense and he\u2019s likely to be one of McNamara\u2019s top targets. Lachey was listed as the starting tight end following spring practice. He was also named to the Preseason Second-Team All-Big Ten team for this year by Phil Steele, and to the Third-Team by Athlon Sports.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Erick All<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

After sitting out for most of the 2022 season due to injury, All transferred to Iowa. He will rejoin his former quarterback and roommate from Michigan in McNamara. In Michigan\u2019s 2021 Big Ten Championship season, All was the Wolverines’ second-leading receiver with 38 catches, 437 yards, and two touchdowns. Not only was he productive, but he also showed great physicality in the position. All forced five missed tackles after the reception that season, the second-most on the team. He also came down with four contested catches on the year, also good for second-most on the team. Of his 437 total yards, 224 came after the catch.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All already have built-in chemistry with McNamara from their years in Ann Arbor. He has a great instinct for the position and really played well during spring practice. The former Wolverine moved with ease coming off of a back injury last season. As a graduate transfer this spring, All will have up to two years of remaining eligibility at Iowa.<\/span><\/p>\n

Depth at Iowa Tight End<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Addison Ostrenga<\/span><\/a>\u00a0was listed as the team\u2019s third-string tight end following the spring practice season. He was a three-star recruit in the class of 2022 out of Wisconsin. Ostrenga saw action in all 13 games last season for the Hawkeyes, one of just eight true freshmen to get on the field. He caught a pass for six yards at Minnesota last November and still has a redshirt available to use if necessary. Ostrenga is a unique tight-end player because he can play the position of a receiver. He has great hands and route-running ability and can make things happen after the catch. Playing behind Lachey and All will allow him to develop under the best, and he\u2019ll be a valuable depth piece this season.<\/span><\/p>\n

Behind Ostrenga, Iowa has a load of true freshmen including\u00a0<\/span>Jalyn Thompson<\/span><\/strong>,\u00a0<\/span>Grant Leeper<\/span><\/a>, and\u00a0<\/span>Zach Ortwerth<\/span><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/span>Johnny Pascuzzi<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Andrew Lentsch<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0walked on in 2021, both redshirting that season. Pascuzzi got in against South Dakota State last year, but Lentsch has yet to see the field.\u00a0<\/span>Cael Vanderbush<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0was a highly-rated recruit in 2022, and at 6\u2019-6\u201d he has a lot of upside potential in this position room.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally,\u00a0<\/span>Steven Stilianos<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0entered the program as a transfer from Lehigh before the 2022 season. He saw action in eight games last season with no statistics. This season will be his sixth year of college ball in his final year of eligibility.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
photo credit: \u00a9 Joseph Cress\/Iowa City Press-Citizen \/ USA TODAY NETWORK<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2018, tight ends\u00a0TJ Hockenson\u00a0and\u00a0Noah Fant\u00a0led the Iowa receiving corps with a combined 1279 yards and 13 touchdowns. The two averaged a combined 100 yards per game and totaled 88 catches on the season. In 2023, Iowa is shaping up to have a tight end room of similar stature. It starts with\u00a0Luke Lachey\u00a0who is returning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3944,"featured_media":49105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2],"tags":[8548,7983,9569,319,9533],"class_list":["post-49095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigten","category-featured","tag-addison-ostrenga","tag-big-ten-football","tag-erick-all","tag-iowa-hawkeyes","tag-luke-lachey"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3944"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}