No stressing for Hesse

IOWA CITY — Maybe if you shot Parker Hesse out of a cannon or made him sky-dive, he'd show some nervousness. This week, he'll step in the shoes of Iowa's cannon-shooting sky diver and, nope, no sweat, no nerves.

In fact, you might want to check his heart rate.

'I mean,' the redshirt defensive end said, 'stressing out about it isn't going to help you at all. You have to focus on what you can control and that's playing the game and preparing for the game.'

You've already seen Hesse on the field this season for the No. 17 Hawkeyes (6-0, 2-0 Big Ten). With senior defensive end Drew Ott's season-ending ACL tear, you'll be seeing a lot more of the 6-3, 240-pounder.

Hesse will make his second career start this weekend at No. 21 Northwestern (5-1, 1-1). When Ott suffered a dislocated elbow against Iowa State on Sept. 12, Hesse started the next week against Pitt. So far this season, Hesse has a sack, a QB hurry and, last week against Illinois, he was credited with a forced fumble in the fourth quarter that pretty much shut the door on the Illini.

He was credited with the forced fumble. He didn't take credit for it.

'I don't know if it was me or (middle linebacker) Josey (Jewell),' Hesse said. 'I think we were both tackling the guy. I don't know which hit brought it out, but it came out and that's the point. That's the main thing.'

Hesse is taking this understated approach into his job. You certainly can pin the cliche 'you're not replacing [fill in the blank], you can't replace [fill in the blank].'

Ott will leave a hole in the disruption numbers Iowa's defense has put up so far this season. Before he suffered the knee injury early in the third quarter last week, Ott was sixth in the Big Ten with 5.0 sacks and 7.5 tackles for loss. Iowa is fourth in the B1G with 19 sacks and 12th in tackles for loss with 35.0.

'There were a couple of (NFL) scouts at practice today who are veteran guys,' Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said. 'The one thing I've told them about Drew, all year long, is he's better than you think he is. . . . The thing that's unfortunate is it's the senior year, that's what amplifies it from my vantage point. It's not going to derail him. He'll get an opportunity and he'll do very well. I'll be shocked if he's not on somebody's roster a year from now.'

Hesse is a redshirt freshman, and so his days as a quarterback at Waukon High School aren't that far removed.

Iowa was his only FBS offer (North Dakota, South Dakota State and Northern Iowa did offer), but here's part of the reason why Iowa acted: Hesse finished his senior season with 59 tackles, 10 tackles for loss and two interceptions. Offensively, he quarterbacked Waukon to a runner-up finish in Class 2A for 1,439 yards and 16 touchdowns and rushed for 1,273 yards with 23 rushing TDs.

Iowa got a look at Hesse during the camp before his senior season. It offered during his senior year.

'I read that [Seattle Seahawks QB] Russell Wilson was a two-star recruit,' Ferentz said on signing day 2014. 'I know [Iowa linebacker coach] Jim Reid was trying to get him at Richmond and thought he had a chance. So, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I think you have to trust what you see and what you believe.'

The bottom line, Hesse showed he was good at sports and made things happen at Waukon, where he jumped into the lineup and played some quarterback as a sophomore. He said there was no dramatic, breakthrough moment. Instead, his progress came with simply being out there and seeing the game.

Kind of like right now. Before Ott's elbow injury, Hesse already was seeing time in Iowa's third-down pass rush package, in which he's been a fixture all season.

'It's gradual,' he said. 'It's the gradual effect of seeing things and seeing them at a different speed. The more you do something, the more you become comfortable with it. It's more gradual than one breakthrough moment like, 'Now I've got this.''

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com