Top reserves – Troy Johnson (6-2, 235, sr.), Bruce Davis (6-0, 232, jr.), Ross Petersen (6-3, 236, sr.), Lance Tillison (6-2, 215, jr.)

Futures – James Morris (6-2, 215, fr.), Shane DiBona (6-2, 230, fr.), Austin Gray (6-2, 210, fr.), Terrance Pryor (6-1, 215, so.), Jim Poggi (6-2, 212, fr.), Christian Kirksey (6-2, 195, fr.)

There is no question that the graduation of Pat Angerer and A.J. Edds represented a huge loss, perhaps more in terms of leadership than talent. But the Hawkeye coaches don’t seem all that con-cerned, probably because they have experienced players ready to step into the breach.

Tarpinian has been on the verge of seeing significant playing time for a couple of years but keeps getting set back by injuries. He seems primed now to fill Angerer’s spot in the middle of the defense and by all accounts, is thriving in that role. Nielsen, who has much less on-field experience, seems equally ready to fill Edds’ shoes. Hunter has quietly made 169 tackles over the past two years and made one of the biggest plays of Iowa’s 2009 season when he swatted down Northern Iowa’s second field goal attempt in the final seconds of the opener. He’s ready to emerge from the shadow cast by Angerer and Edds.

Johnson and Davis also are very experienced and could still break into the starting lineup if Tar-pinian and Nielsen don’t produce. When Hunter and Tarpinian were unexpectedly determined to be unfit to play in last fall’s regular-season finale, Johnson was thrust into the starting lineup and ended up being the Big Ten’s defensive player of the week. Davis was a special teams standout last season. Another player to watch is Morris, an athletic true freshman who figures to at least see action on special teams this season.

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.