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IOWA CITY, Iowa — When senior day approaches each campus, two immediate thoughts come to mind.

One, the college football season goes so fast. Wasn’t Labor Day weekend a few blinks ago? The second revolves around the current seniors and marveling at their growth during their careers, from Hudl highlights in high school to physical development in college.

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Iowa will honor 20 seniors before Saturday’s game with several players weighing the option to return because of the COVID-19 year. Among those taking their final walk at Kinnick Stadium are six-year players Joe Evans, Noah Shannon, Steve Stilianos and Nico Ragaini and transfers Erick All, Nick Jackson and Rusty Feth. Key players with the option to return include defensive backs Jermari Harris, Quinn Schulte and Sebastian Castro, linebackers Jay Higgins and Kyler Fisher, defensive lineman Logan Lee, offensive lineman Nick DeJong and punter Tory Taylor.

Neither Lee, who has 37 consecutive starts nor Taylor will return after this season. Taylor, who was named a first-team All-American last year and could earn similar honors this fall, is 26 years old and wants to give the NFL a shot. Many of the others have yet to make up their minds.

“I really just have been trying to focus on this year and close it out and trying to focus on Illinois and get a win on Saturday,” said Schulte, a pre-dental student.

“I’m not rushing into anything,” Castro said.

The two most impactful sixth-year returnees are Evans and Ragaini. Evans, a team captain, has 23 career sacks with 23 starts at defensive end. Ragaini is ninth in career catches at Iowa with 144, just two shy of tying Ronnie Harman and Danan Hughes for seventh. Ragaini has played in 59 career games.

“I feel like I had like the best college career of all time, just taking everything and putting it together,” said Ragaini, who arrived from Connecticut in 2018. “Coach (Kirk) Ferentz, tradition, playing winning football every year, and like all the friendships I’ve made, I couldn’t have asked for a better six years of college.”

When it comes to extra-year returnees, Ferentz said he and his staff will talk with some of his players about returning but added, “Ultimately, it’s got to be their decision.”

‘Welcome to Iowa’ moments

Seniors have the benefit of hindsight, and most are self-aware enough to remember when they didn’t know anything. Often, that includes a stint on the scout team when they faced off against Iowa’s first-teamers, which led to humiliating moments.

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For two defenders, their “Welcome to Iowa” moments start with perennial NFL Pro Bowl tackle Tristan Wirfs.

“We’re doing like a team third-down period, and I go out there, and I hit just a clean wipe,” Evans said of facing Wirfs. “I wipe his arms down, and like usually if you hit a wipe that clean, usually you get around the guy. He is mid-past that, and he is talking to me, ‘That’s a great move’ and resets me. I’ve never had that happen to me ever to this day. I’m like, ‘Oh, maybe it’s time to hang the cleats up.’”

“I remember I went against Tristan Wirfs one time,” Castro said. “I was a little kid, like 18-, 19-year-old. I had to take him on the block, and he just threw me out the way like a little rag doll. That’s something I will never forget. Because I was like, ‘Wow, he just really did that to me?’

“That never happened to me before. I couldn’t believe the strength that he had. That was a real humbling experience I would say.”

Offensive players had to deal with similar situations. During summer workouts, Ragaini noticed that bulked-up linebacker Barrington Wade had kept up with him running 55-yard sprints. At one point, Ragaini figured he needed to fight to earn respect.

“I kind of got bullied when I was a freshman here,” Ragaini said. “I felt like everybody was tackling me all the time at practice. I had to stand up for myself, and then everyone kind of lays off you.”

Perhaps no player in Iowa annals has faced a more decorated collection of defensive backs in practice than Ragaini. Four were named first-team All-Big Ten selections — with Amani Hooker and Riley Moss earning DB of the Year honors — and two others became second-team All-Americans. That number could increase this year with Castro and/or Cooper DeJean.

“Obviously, I played in the slot, so I go against the cash position a lot,” Ragaini said. “The guys that I’ve got to go against in the past six years have been like really good, like Hook and then Geno Stone and then Dane Belton. And now it’s Castro. It’s pretty cool that I turn on the TV on Sunday, and one of them (Stone) is leading the league in interceptions, and then Hook is obviously very good. And Dane is just getting started. But it’s awesome to see.”

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Schulte was a quarterback-turned-safety when he arrived as a walk-on in 2019. That provided his moment of clarity against a physical running back.

“I remember trying to tackle Mekhi Sargent one of those times out there on the field,” Schulte said. “You realize you have to really focus on the weight room and get stronger and start eating more.”

Like Ragaini, Evans dealt with some serious challenges on the scout team. In 2018, he was a walk-on linebacker facing tight ends T.J. Hockenson and Noah Fant. Later that year, Evans played defensive end and battled Wirfs and tackle Alaric Jackson. All four are NFL starters.

“They had me in like man coverage on T.J. Hockenson,” Evans said. “I’m like, ‘All right, I’ll give it a go.’ And I’m getting my stance, and I just held him for like 20 yards. And I’m like, ‘Dude, I’m sorry.’ I don’t know what else you want me to do because if I didn’t hold him up, I mean, 15 yards of separation, right? Then I remember him just like looking at me laughing, and he’s like, ‘Hey, just like don’t do that again.’ All right, I won’t.”

Joe Evans came to Iowa as a walk-on.

He'll leave as one of the cornerstones of one of the great defensive eras in program history.

But when @ScottDochterman asked him for "Welcome to Iowa" moments, Joe brought stories.@TheeHOCK8 and @TristanWirfs78 are really good, you guys. pic.twitter.com/KJlP2dx1kZ

— Mitch Fick (@MCFick) November 14, 2023

Orange Cone rivalry

The Iowa-Illinois series doesn’t have an official symbol of victory, although considering the number of orange traffic cones connecting the states on interstates 80, 88 and 74, perhaps a dented one might make for a legitimate traveling trophy.

The schools have had a disjointed, somewhat combustible series through the years, although not quite as vitriolic as the men’s basketball rivalry. In 1952, an issue with Iowa fans throwing apples and other objects at Illinois players led to the cessation of their series until 1967. When the league formed the Legends and Leaders divisions in 2011, the Iowa-Illinois series was cycled off for five straight seasons (counting two before expansion) before resuming in 2014 in the West Division.

With divisional play ending after this year, the Hawkeyes and Fighting Illini won’t meet again until 2026 in Champaign and 2028 in Iowa City.

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The Hawkeyes recruit Illinois like it’s part of their home state. The western Chicago suburbs are two hours closer to Iowa City than northwest Iowa, and many alums live in the Chicagoland. Iowa’s roster includes 21 players who grew up in Illinois.

The Mississippi River creates a dividing line based on team loyalty as much as a border. Lee grew up in Orion, Ill., a tad southeast of the Quad Cities. Except for the Chicagoland, that’s about the limit of how far Iowa fandom extends into the state of Illinois.

“Everybody in my town — I’m only an hour away, two hours away from Champaign — but everybody in my town is either an Iowa fan or an Illinois fan,” Lee said. “So it’s pretty neat because I’ve got about 120 folks coming to my parents’ tailgate (Saturday). So a pretty great support system.”

Facing the best

There’s no destructive force in college football quite like Illinois defensive tackle Jer’Zhan “Johnny” Newton (6 feet 2 and 295 pounds). Among interior defenders, Newton leads the nation in quarterback pressures with 39, according to Pro Football Focus. In the Big Ten, the No. 2 interior defender has 23.

Newton has played 611 snaps to lead all Power 5 defensive tackles. Officially, Newton has 5.5 sacks, 42 tackles and eight quarterback hurries. He has blocked three kicks.

“Our guys are going to have to be at their best,” Ferentz said. “He’s really got an unusual combination. He’s extremely physical — big physical guy — but he’s also really athletic. It’s tough to block him, tough to get in on him. And if you do, you’re not going to stay in there long. He’s a rare talent.

“I’m not saying he’s (Mississippi State’s Jeffrey) Simmons in the (Outback) bowl game that year, but there probably can be some comparisons. He’s a guy that’s just a really unusual combination of size, strength, speed and agility. It’s going to be tough.”

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Newton and cohort Keith Randolph form perhaps the nation’s top combination at defensive tackle. The challenge for Iowa comes just as the running game has ascended. The Hawkeyes have rushed for more than 100 yards in four of the past five games. In addition, an ankle injury kept center Logan Jones on the sideline for all but nine plays last week. Ferentz lumped Jones in with other players, saying he has “got a chance” to play.

(Top photo of Joe Evans: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

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