Top reserves – Jordan Bernstine (5-11, 205, jr.), Greg Castillo (5-11, 180, so.), Willie Lowe (5-10, 172, jr.), Kyle Steinbrecher (6-2, 201, jr.), Tom Donatell (6-2, 205, jr.), Jack Swanson (5-11, 200, so.), Nick Nielsen (6-3, 210, so.)

Futures – Jason White (5-10, 205, so.), B.J. Lowery (5-11, 180, fr.), Anthony Hitchens (6-1, 200, fr.), Tanner Miller (6-2, 195, fr.)

Iowa has had its share of great safeties through the years, but it may not have had a tandem as good as Sashwood. Sash already holds the school record for interception return yardage in a career and he has two more years of eligibility. He figures to make a bid for All-American honors if he can simply duplicate what he did a year ago. Greenwood, a former walk-on, enters his fourth year as a starter and is the proverbial coach on the field. He’s the guy who helps everyone get to where they’re supposed to be.

Prater was thrust into an unexpected starting role last season and did a solid job at left corner-back but with Amari Spievey going off to the Detroit Lions, there is a vacancy on the other side. There are four possible contenders for that spot but the favorite is Hyde, who saw considerable action on special teams as a true freshman last season.

He’ll be pushed by Bernstine, who was pro-jected to start last season before breaking his ankle in preseason drills, and Castillo and Lowe, each of whom started games last season. Hyde and Castillo looked very good in a public scrimmage last Saturday and Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said Bernstine has looked more motivated this fall. Lowery made a big impression in his first week of workouts and is being compared by some to Spievey.

The depth behind Sash and Greenwood is somewhat questionable. Walk-ons Kyle Steinbrecher and Tom Donatell stepped into the backup positions in the spring, but Swanson and Nielsen are still in contention for those slots.

It looks as though they could get one more recruit this weekend when Lorain (Ohio) Clearview star Anthony Hitchens makes his official visit to the Iowa campus. Hitchens was regarded as a fall-back recruit – someone the Hawkeyes only would take if other recruiting pitches fell through — but they made him an offer earlier this week and in comments he made to Rivals.com, Hitchens sounded as though he was thinking he would give his commitment before leaving Iowa City.

Hitchens made an unofficial visit to Iowa to watch the Hawkeyes’ game with Indiana in October and felt then that this is where he’d like to go. He had offers on the table from Kansas, Indiana and other schools, but was holding off on a commitment, waiting to hear from Iowa.

While most of those other schools see the 6-foot-1, 195-pound speedster as a running back, the Hawkeyes probably will play him at safety. He rushed for 1,428 yards and 21 touchdowns last fall, but also made 76 tackles and had two interceptions on the defensive side. He’s only rated a two-star recruit and he’s not ranked among the top 75 players in Ohio, but he’s the kind of recruit the Hawk-eyes love to develop.

He won’t be the only recruit visiting campus this weekend. Nine players who already have made verbal commitments to Iowa – Marcus Coker, Andrew Donnal, Austin Gray, Matt Hardy, Christian Kirksey, James Morris, Brandon Scherff, Don Shumpert and Austin Vier – also will be making their official visits.

This is how backward recruiting has gotten. Many of those players have been committed for close to a year. Morris, whose father is Iowa’s equipment manager, has been committed for more than two years. But they’re just now making their visits.