Hlas: There’s Iowa DNA in Stanford’s O-line

LOS ANGELES — Stanford has a starting offensive lineman who once stormed the Kinnick Stadium field in glee after an Iowa football victory.

Yes, this is your basic small-world story. The Hawkeyes' Rose Bowl opponent has a right guard named Johnny Caspers whose parents both lived in Cedar Rapids as kids, met while students at the University of Iowa, and got married.

Work took Scott Caspers and Cindy McCool Caspers to Glen Ellyn, Ill., close enough to Iowa City for them to return there frequently.

'Our boys grew up on Hawkeye football,' Cindy said. 'Before they started playing sports and had Saturdays free, we'd take (older son) Will and Johnny and a car-full of boys to Iowa games.'

When Iowa closed the home portion of its 2002 schedule with a 62-10 clobbering of Northwestern, 8-year-old Johnny joined family members and a throng of other fans in rushing the field to celebrate the team improving to 10-1.

'That's something I've always remembered,' Caspers said Tuesday at a Rose Bowl media event.

'We went to most of the games at Kinnick in the glory years, '02 to '06. Brad Banks, Dallas Clark, Ed Hinkel, Matt Roth … a lot of fun.'

Caspers and his brother, who played football at Division III Elmhurst College, attended Glenbard West High School. That's a Chicagoland prep football power. It's also the alma mater of Iowa starting guard Jordan Walsh, who was in the class between the two Caspers boys.

'When I first started getting recruited by Iowa,' Walsh said, 'Mr. Caspers slipped me a media guide of the Hawkeyes. He said 'Hey, you'd look good in black and gold.'

'In Johnny's house there was a lot of Iowa stuff in the basement, a lot of memorabilia.'

That basement still has some black and gold, but Caspers said 'it's kind of transformed into a little more cardinal and white.'

While Caspers attended football camps at Iowa, the Hawkeyes never recruited him. He had offers from Arizona, Colorado State, and others.

'Stanford was always my stretch,' he said. 'I sent them some tape, but I never envisioned an offer.'

A 2011 Glenbard West game was televised by ESPNU, and Stanford liked what they saw from Caspers. Now here he is starting in a Rose Bowl for Iowa's opponent.

'It's really a dream come true,' he said.

Calling Cardinal players student-athletes isn't a misnomer in any way. Like the rest of his teammates, Caspers has a brain to go with his brawn, the latter being considerable at 6-foot-4 and 300 pounds. He was a Pac-12 second-team All-Academic honoree last year.

His major is earth sciences. Last summer, he studied worm composting.

'So many times traveling between Illinois and Iowa and all those cornfields, it peaked his interest in agriculture,' his mother said.

But worm composting? Well, that's using worms to recycle food scraps into a valuable soil nutrients.

'I'm just a guy from the Midwest,' Caspers said. 'Agriculture is something I got interested in from spending time in Iowa and (at an aunt's hobby farm) in Wisconsin. I played with John Deere toys as a little kid.'

Coincidentally, he was back at Glenbard West a couple weeks ago to see his high school coach, Chad Hetlet. Caspers bumped into Iowa offensive line coach Brian Ferentz, who was there on a recruiting trip. They spoke for about a half-hour.

'It was cool to sit down with him,' Caspers said. 'He's a great guy to talk to.'

While Ferentz won't be pulling for Caspers to prosper Friday, one group of Iowans will.

'I've got aunts, an uncle, cousins and a grandfather living in Cedar Rapids,' Caspers said. 'I have an uncle and a grandmother in Iowa City.'

Jonathan McCool Caspers won't be underrepresented in the Rose Bowl stands. They are Hawkeye fans who won't be Hawkeye fans for a few hours.

'A group of 13 of us are going to the game,' Cindy said. 'We have the ultimate respect for Coach (Kirk) Ferentz and what he's done. We're so excited for Iowa.

'But there's no question who we're cheering for.'

Comments: mike.hlas@thegazette.com