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L.J. Phillips Jr. said it best during Iowa football's first weekly media availability of the 2026 season. 

"We will swarm with my brothers and go out there and have a ball." 

The Hawkeyes are back on the gridiron in just three days, and it's safe to say that Phillips will draw a lot of eyeballs on Saturday afternoon. The South Dakota transfer running back comes to Iowa City fresh off a nearly 2,000-yard season in 2025, and he'll likely be one of the lead backs in what figures to be an excellent running back room. 

But Phillips and the backs won't be the only position that gets a lot of attention on Saturday – far from it. Every season opener is a chance for Iowa and its fans to get an early glimpse of their team in a live game situation, so every position group will be carefully watched. 

You could list every position group in this article and explain why they should get more attention than the other, but for the sake of time, here are the top position groups to keep an eye on against Northern Illinois. 

Quarterback 

The obvious place to start is the quarterback position. Unless something drastic were to change over the final few days of practice, both Hank Brown and Jeremy Hecklinski will see snaps against the Huskies. 

Whether Brown or Hecklinski will take the first snap remains unclear, but Kirk Ferentz said they will likely alternate every 2-3 possessions. If a clear winner emerges on Saturday, then that will be the end of this intense competition, but if the Hawkeyes don't see enough evidence, the battle will extend to the Week 2 rivalry clash with Iowa State. 

Like most Power Four teams playing a lesser opponent in Week 1, Iowa is always careful about what it shows on film. That could again remain the case on Saturday, but considering Iowa wants to find a clear-cut winner sooner rather than later, it's very likely offensive coordinator Tim Lester will keep the playbook wide open. 

Defensive Line 

Outside of the quarterback position, the biggest mystery on this Hawkeye team just might be the defensive line. 

Defensive coordinator Phil Parker and defensive line coach Kelvin Bell had to replace three longtime starters (Ethan Hurkett, Max Llewellyn, Aaron Graves) from the 2025 squad, and they're relying on mostly in-house talent to do so. 

Bryce Hawthorne (15 tackles last year) and Kenny Merrieweather (14 tackles) have enough game experience to be the leaders of this room, but there's a whole lot of youth outside of that. Highly-anticipated second-year Iose Epenesa, Elon transfer Kahmari Brown, Holy Cross transfer Brice Stevenson, and walk-on Will Hubert should all play key roles early on, so Saturday should be a good test to see how this group performs against an NIU quarterback room that features plenty of mobile quarterbacks (Taron Dickens, Ean Hamric). 

Special Teams 

Special teams is also in an interesting spot right now. Longtime coordinator LeVar Woods is now at Michigan State, leaving new coordinator Chris Polizzi to fill every key position on this unit. 

Though things can definitely change, Polizzi is rolling with second-year Caden Buhr at kicker and Australian Boston Everitt at punter. Ferentz revealed that both won their jobs because of their consistency in practice, but will that consistency translate to a game? 

Neither Everitt or Buhr have any game experience, and Saturday will mark Everitt's first-ever American football game. The walk-on Buhr has a strong leg like his predecessor Drew Stevens, but will need to prove himself rather quickly with a string of tough opponents on the horizon. 

Offensive Line 

Three years ago, the offensive line would've topped this list. George Barnett's crew was struggling to contain any defensive lineman with a pulse, and the struggles were one of the primary reasons why the Hawkeyes couldn't get anything going on offense. 

But that was then. The offensive line broke through in 2024 to help Kaleb Johnson shatter some Iowa single-season records and won the Joe Moore Award for the nation's best offensive line in 2025. 

Several key starters graduated from that award-winning unit (Logan Jones, Gennings Dunker), but Iowa still has an experienced group led by left tackle Trevor Lauck and right guard Kade Pieper. 

So why is the offensive line on this list? Because of the other talented, but unproven players in the unit. Leighton Jones (left guard) and Jack Dotzler (right tackle) both competed for starting spots last year and should slide right in, but then you have walk-on Cael Winter at center, too. 

Few people are concerned about this group, with some (BTN analyst Jake Butt) even declaring the offensive line will be in contention for another Joe Moore Award. That's a testament to the foundation Barnett has built, but it will still be interesting to see how the pieces come together on Saturday. 

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HawkeyeRoundtable publisher Brad Schultz has covered the Iowa Hawkeyes since 2023. To send him story ideas, scoops, or criticize his writing, reach him at bradschultz@roundtable.io

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