Three Takeaways From Iowa's Regular Season Finale

With the year coming to a close, it's important to take a step back and look at what players will be returning for the Hawkeyes. One of those is redshirt sophomore running back Kamari Moulton who led the team with 156 carries for 783 yards this season. He had just four touchdowns, two of which came against the Cornhuskers.

Against Nebraska, he paced the team with 18 carries for 93 yards. It marked the second multi-touchdown game of his career, an astonishing mark to hit, having only played one other season. Last year, Moulton had 84 carries for 473 yards with three touchdowns.

2. DJ Vonnahme Has a Bright Future

While two of his three receptions came on the same drive, they were two massive catches that led to a touchdown. Vonnahme and fifth-year senior quarterback Mark Gronowski clearly developed a chemistry late in the season that is going to be hard to replicate, but thankfully Vonnahme is a freshman and has plenty of time.

After only surpassing 20 yards once in his first five games, Vonnahme finished the season with four straight games over 30 yards. He had 43, 59, 31, and 91 to close out the season. His 91 yards against Nebraska were by far the highest, and he himself had more receiving yards than the entire Cornhuskers team.

3. Bye, Bye, Seniors

Obviously, this wasn't Senior Day for Iowa; that was a nail-biter last week vs. Michigan State, but head coach Kirk Ferentz was extremely emotional in the final two minutes. It's easy to tell why as this is one of the most special teams he's coached in his tenure, but ultimately even with this team he wasn't able to take them to the promised land.

Gronowski will be missed, and it's going to be interesting to see how Iowa's offense looks with a new quarterback. They knew they were only getting one year out of him, but that doesn't make it any less hard to swallow.

Iowa would love nothing more than to bring Kaden Wetjen back, but they have to sit and wait on the trial to know if he'll have another year of eligibility or not. If he does, that could be enough for Iowa to start next season ranked.

Sam Phillips was the lone senior receiver with a reception, but Iowa's offensive line is going to have a few massive holes to fill. Their defense is also going to overgo a major overhaul with the likes of Max Llewellyn, Xavier Nwankpa, Karson Sharar, Ethan Hurkett and Jaden Harrell, among many others on their way out.