The offense has C.J., the defense has Desmond. What more do you need to know?
Looking at just about every metric, one could determine that Iowa’s defense had a good year in 2015. You could look at specific measurables, like rushing defense, and surmise that Iowa had an elite year, where the Hawkeyes gave up just 121 yards/game on the ground. And that includes the Rose Bowl, where Stanford sort of just had its way and ran for 206 yards against the Hawks.
All things considered, Phil Parker and co. are tasked with building upon a defense that ranked 19th in the nation in points allowed a year ago, when the Hawkeyes gave up just under 3 touchdowns a game.