Leistikow: Logan Jones, Daijon Parker critical to solving Iowa football's offensive-line woes

IOWA CITY − Just days before the unofficial kickoff of Big Ten football – the league’s media days, which start Wednesday in Indianapolis – Iowa still has offensive-line concerns that have been paralyzing for years.
Subpar performances in 2021 and especially 2022 dim some hopes for what’s possible this fall.
But there’s at least some realistic optimism at three of the five starting spots up front.
Left tackle Mason Richman and left guard Connor Colby will be in their third years as starters, and the 6-foot-6 juniors are expected to lock down Iowa's left side.
Miami of Ohio transfer Rusty Feth, though new on campus, arrives as a fifth-year senior and is projected at right guard. He was a four-year, 34-game starter and cut his O-line teeth at Miami under third-year Iowa offensive line coach George Barnett. If he isn’t Iowa’s right-guard starter Sept. 2 at sold-out Kinnick Stadium vs. Utah State, it would be a surprise.
Five sellouts:Kinnick Stadium will be full for Iowa's first five games of 2023
When you’ve ranked 108th (2021) and 127th (2022) out of 131 FBS teams in yards-per-carry while allowing 70 sacks over the last two years, you take positives wherever they can be found.
Let’s suppose those three spots are decent or even above average for Iowa in 2023. That still leaves two starting jobs with big questions but intriguing possibilities: Center and right tackle.
Starting at center makes sense because Iowa had the Rimington Trophy winner in 2021 (and not much else) in first-round NFL Draft pick Tyler Linderbaum.
Logan Jones is the Hawkeyes’ primary hope at center. He’ll be the first to tell you he had some rough moments there last fall, both with snapping and identifying blitzes, in his first year at that position after converting from the defensive line.
“First game, I had no idea what I was doing,” Jones said last week. “I was like, ‘Holy crap.’ As the season went on, I started learning a little bit more, understanding what I was doing and why I was doing it versus just going out there and memorizing what I had to do.”
Jones is not afraid to say where he’s failed, but he also recognizes the growth he’s made in the last six-plus months – since Iowa’s 21-0 Music City Bowl win vs. Kentucky. After one full season of starts (13) and two spring balls at center, Jones feels way more comfortable at reading defenses and making the calls for the line. He meets every Tuesday and Thursday with fellow linemen and quarterback Cade McNamara to study film. They go over any possible defensive front they'll collectively encounter.
“The hardest part about playing the line is the fundamentals and the fronts you see,” Jones said. “You have to understand what the defense is doing because it’ll help you with what you’re doing.”
Having McNamara helps. Just like Jones was able to observe from a Rimington winner in Linderbaum (and wears the same jersey, No. 65), McNamara played with 2022 Rimington winner Olu Oluwatimi at Michigan last fall. The center and new quarterback have come a long way together at Iowa since Jones’ very first shotgun snap to the transfer.
“I threw it back here and jammed his thumb,” Jones said. “I’d say we’re better at controlling our snaps right now. We’re in a good spot. We shouldn’t have any problems.
“We sit right next to each other in meetings. I look over at his notebook, and everything is highlighted. His notebook is ridiculous. It’s the nicest set of notes I’ve ever seen. He knows football. … That’s going to help me, too.”
Physically, Jones is capable. He regularly is the fastest offensive lineman in conditioning drills, and he broke the program’s all-time squat press record – a one-rep max of 695 pounds, set this past winter, to break Amani Jones’ mark of 680. Logan Jones is relishing that mark for now but believes fellow offensive lineman Gennings Dunker will break it someday.
That leads us to the other position in question for Iowa: Right tackle.
The Hawkeyes really haven’t been good there since Tristan Wirfs’ junior year of 2019. Right tackle has been a glaring weakness the past two seasons. That’s why they brought in Daijon Parker, a transfer from Division II Saginaw Valley State. He has one year of eligibility remaining.
And as bad luck would have it, Parker was injured in his very first practice at Iowa and missed the entire spring.
He did finish that practice, but when he went to class later in the day, his knee began to lock up. Scans revealed a lateral meniscus tear, and he had to have minor surgery.
Parker, thankfully, said he felt 100% with the knee by about the second week of June. But he missed all that practice time, leaving coaches uncertain about how effective he’ll be at the Big Ten level. Fall camp will be a critical stretch for Parker to prove himself.
“It was really frustrating, I’d say. But the rehab process was good, and I feel ready to go now,” Parker said.
Parker spent most of the spring standing on the sidelines next to Richman, who also missed the spring with a knee injury.
“He was just telling me the things I needed to do,” Parker said. “I was able to learn the whole playbook.”
Pella native Nick DeJong was listed as the first-team right tackle on Iowa's spring depth chart and is vying to be a good fifth-year senior story. Dunker, the physical freak as Jones put it, could factor in there as well. But Parker is the most logical choice to fix a problem position of the last three years.
“We’ve got a lot of good players in our room,” Parker said. “They’re young, but I feel like I can help this room a lot. I’ve played a lot of games in my college career.”
If Parker can shine and Jones can put it all together, maybe this Iowa offensive line can be decent or (gasp) even above-average in 2023. That would be quite helpful.