Iowa football WR Tony Diaz may be Hawkeyes' passing game answer

The running game for the Iowa Hawkeyes under head coach Tim Lester has been nothing short of dominant. In his first year, running back Kaleb Johnson was among the nation's top backs. Last year, Lester manufactured an elite rushing attack with a mixture of quarterback Mark Gronowski and a stable of backs behind the nation's top offensive line.

The 2026 rushing attack figures to be somewhat of a mix of the two, with elite backs returning and a strong depth chart across the offensive line. With as good as the ground game has been, Iowa is still missing an explosive component on offense.

Iowa has not had the downfield, homerun threat at wide receiver in a few years since they saw Brandon Smith and Ihmir Smith-Marsette on the outside with Nate Stanley under center. Entering 2026, there is a growing belief that Iowa, which took the Curt Cignetti approach in the transfer portal, may have landed just that type of talent.

Iowa brought in wide receiver Tony Diaz from UT Rio Grande Valley, who possesses the traits of a top-flight wide receiver and saw those traits show up already in limited spring ball action.

The murmurs of his talent have extended beyond Iowa City, too. David Pollack, a college football analyst, spoke about Diaz and believes he could be Iowa's missing piece to opening up the offense even more.

On his show, "See Ball Get Ball with David Pollack," he detailed the excitement around Diaz.

"I like when they say they're calling him the boogeyman. That's what I like from his teammates because he's torching the defense and getting behind them. Iowa hasn't had that guy who can do that in a long time. That would be extremely welcome to have some playmaking," Pollack said of Tony Diaz.