The Iowa Hawkeyes bounced back on Saturday with a 38-21 win over Troy. Or at least their record bounced back a bit. The feeling among Hawkeye fans is likely still quite mixed.

For half the game we again saw the offense struggle to close the door on the Trojans and again we saw the defense give up big plays. Making matters worse, we saw the special teams with their first major flub of the season as LeVar Woods’ group gave up a massive 77-yard punt return touchdown to send Iowa into halftime losing at home to a team from the Sun Belt.

Like their record, all three units bounced back a bit in the second half with the special teams holding solid and the defense getting a pick-6 to help the cause. The offense was efficient and put up 21 second half points to get the Hawkeyes over the hump.

But there are still major questions (aside from “how much NIL money would it take to get Devonte Ross from Troy to Iowa?”) in a few spots on this roster heading into Big Ten play.

The Hawkeyes released their updated depth chart ahead of Saturday’s trip to Minnesota and the coaching staff did little to answer those questions.

Noted Notables

• Perhaps the biggest one to note is on the defensive side of the ball for once. Corner TJ Hall has been targeted and beaten deep multiple times this season. And yet he is still listed as the starter at left corner. Deshaun Lee has starting experience and John Nestor was the talk of camp, but neither can break the starting lineup despite Hall’s struggles to-date. Perhaps we’ll get some sort of a rotation like we’ve seen at safety.
• Speaking of safety, Xavier Nwankpa is still listed as the starter there without an OR despite rotating with Koen Entringer for most of the last week. When Iowa is in their 4-3, CASH Sebastian Castro has been dropping to safety with Nwankpa stepping off, but he’s also been splitting the 4-2-5 reps with Entringer. Something to monitor as Parker tries to figure things out in the back end.
• On offense, the biggest one here is the emergence of Jaziun Patterson. Patterson was in the dog house week one and apparently on a very short leash against Iowa State. He burst onto the scene against Troy with 8 carries for 72 yards and a TD. He’s now listed third on the depth chart with Leshon Williams falling off. Williams has been battling an injury since the start of fall camp and is likely to continue seeing a very diminished workload given the depth at the position.
• Outside of that, there are a few new OR listing along the offensive line for backups. Nothing major to note at this point, but if we see a starter go down it will be interesting to see who truly steps in at C (with Elsbury not listed there but getting work) or left guard and tackle.

The Hawkeyes head to Minneapolis this week for a Saturday night showdown in Big Ten conference play. The game is set to kick off at 6:34pm CT and will be broadcast nationally on NBC.