ISU's Branderhorst just wants to contribute

Iowa State football coach Paul Rhoads spoke, but Reid Branderhorst's ears had gone deaf amid the chaos.

"He looked right at me, then everything was a blur," the walk-on tight end said. "I couldn't hear it because my teammates were all on top of me and everything was going crazy."

Rhoads' momentous message delivered at the end of fall camp became clear - audible or not.

Branderhorst was finally on scholarship, partially fulfilling a once-lofty dream that guided the Fort Dodge native from Division III hoops to a dead heat with Kurt Hammerschmidt atop the ISU depth chart entering Saturday's 6 p.m. season opener against Northern Iowa at Jack Trice Stadium.

But just how much life had changed for the better didn't sink in until he went textbook shopping the next day.

"For once I didn't have to pay, like, $600," said Branderhorst, a 6-4, 242-pound senior who averaged 4.5 points and four rebounds in his two seasons with the Simpson Storm.

Instead of taking hits to his wallet, Branderhorst has taken to absorbing and delivering them on the field.

And that's a surface he'll likely contribute on against the Panthers.

"(He's) a big athlete," Rhoads said. "Certainly the athleticism was something that showed right away. He had to become a football player again."

Branderhorst always was one. Even at Simpson.

He just didn't fully know it until the conclusion of his sophomore season with the Storm, when he sensed something was missing.

"I couldn't put a finger on it because it took a couple years," Branderhorst said. "That first (basketball) season I just thought it was the freshman blues. The second season I just knew it wasn't what I wanted to do."

So Branderhorst briefly shelved his sports dreams and became a pragmatist. He wanted to study Kinesiology, and felt ISU had the best program.

Then he decided to try out for the football team, after making a phone call to good friend and fellow former Dodger and Cyclone walk-on Drew Mitchell.

"He really pushed me to try it and he thought I could be a contributor here," Branderhorst said. "He was a driving force in this."

Simpson also helped prepare him for the rigors of football again.

"They have a great strength program there that really helped me get explosive and move laterally - a lot of what a tight end does," Branderhorst said. "Simpson really did help me out a lot."

So did former Cyclone tight end Collin Franklin, who led the team in catches last season with 54 and until recently was a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

"Even with me being new and him being the starting tight end, he took the time out to stay after workouts," Branderhorst said. "He knew I was a basketball player and he knew I was a couple years behind the curve."

Now, with one season remaining, Branderhorst's on a straight-line path toward success.

He didn't join the team to earn a scholarship.

He came to contribute - starting Saturday.

"The nerves? I don't know what the nerves will be," Branderhorst said. "Hopefully I can zone them out. But the Cyclone Nation, (it's) so supportive and so amped up for the games. It's hard to explain a feeling if you haven't really felt it - running out of the tunnel into Jack Trice Stadium with 50,000 fans cheering and loving the Cyclones as much as they do."