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Iowa football 2025 season positional preview: Defensive Line
You'd be hard-pressed to find a position group on the Iowa football roster stronger than the defensive line room entering 2025.
Whether it's returning stars, talented transfers, or intriguing youngsters, this defensive line room has it all. And on a defense that lost stars like Jay Higgins, Nick Jackson, Jermari Harris, and Quinn Schulte, the Hawkeyes will rely heavily on their defensive line group to control the line of scrimmage and wreak havoc on opposing quarterbacks.
The Iowa football program is no stranger to great defensive linemen. They've seen greats like Adrian Clayborn, Mitch King, A.J. Epenesa, and Daviyon Nixon all come through the program during the Kirk Ferentz era. And there are at least two to three players on the line this season who could etch their names next to those all-time greats with a strong performance in 2025.
This is the next part of my Iowa football positional preview stories, and the first to focus on the defensive side of the ball. Without any further ado, let's take a deeper look at the deepest positional group for the Hawkeyes this season.
Projected DL starters
Projected starters: Ethan Hurkett, Aaron Graves, Jeremiah Pittman, Max Llewellyn
This starting group is one of the best and most experienced defensive lines in the Big Ten. All four projected starters are seniors or graduate seniors. Graves is the mainstream star of the group, being named to the preseason watch lists for the Lott, Nagurski, Bednarik, and Lombardi Awards. He was also named a preseason first-team All-Big Ten player by Phil Steele and second-team by Athlon Sports.
Hurkett and Llewellyn are great on the outside and don't nearly get the attention they deserve. Hurkett was named a preseason second-team All-Big Ten player by Athlon Sports and third-team by Phil Steele. Llewellyn was named a third-team All-Big Ten player by Athlon Sports. Pittman is the big wild card for this starting unit, as he's dealing with an injury in camp right now. But he's an experienced player, having appeared in all 13 games last season. Let's take a closer look at this line's performance in 2024.
Projected backup DL
Projected backup defensive line: Kenneth Merrieweather, Will Hubert, Jonah Pace, Brian Allen
Despite being a backup unit, all of these players will be asked to contribute to the Hawkeyes in 2025. These players are a big reason why the depth of this room is so good. Merrieweather played in five games last season, and the sophomore has great size (6-foot-3, 263 pounds) for his position. Expect a big step forward for him. Hubert has been praised by Kirk Ferentz on multiple occasions this offseason and looks primed for more playing time in 2025.
Pace is a transfer from Central Michigan, where he's coming off a great 2024 season in which he had 11 tackles for loss and four sacks. Allen is the most well-known player of this group, having already contributed to the success of the Iowa defense last season. Let's take a look at this group's stats from the 2024 season.
Kenneth Merrieweather: One tackle, 0.5 sacks in 2024.
Will Hubert: Four tackles, one fumble recovery in 2024.
Jonah Pace: 34 tackles, 11 tackles for loss, four sacks, one forced fumble for Central Michigan in 2024.
Brian Allen: 17 tackles, three sacks, one pass defended in 2024.
Other potential contributors on the defensive line in 2025
This defensive line unit is deep and stocked full of talent. They should be one of the best positional groups, not just in 2025, but going forward for the Hawkeyes.
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