No. 8 — OT Ike Boettger

No. 8 . . .

The part of the Ike Boettger story that you have to like is that first day Iowa asked him to block and he got his head handed to him.

This happened way before the sophomore became the 6-6, 300-pound right offensive tackle who stands before you today. This was going into his senior year at Cedar Falls High School. As a junior, Boettger played quarterback for the Tigers and completed 58 of 95 for 750 yards, nine touchdowns and one interception.

With a successful junior season on the resume, Boettger started taking the camp tour that so many high school seniors-to-be take. He stopped in Iowa City, where the Hawkeyes staff took a look at Boettger as a tight end.

'He was just a big, good-looking guy, and you looked at him and you said, 'I don't know what he does, but he looks like he could do something,'' Iowa offensive line coach Brian Ferentz said. 'So, when he came to camp, we asked him to catch passes.'

In shorts and T-shirts, Boettger used his basketball skills to post-up in the end zone and reel in TDs off fade routes. Things looked OK, and Iowa coaches wanted to get a closer look at the other thing tight ends do. You know, blocking.

The staff asked Boettger, who weighed in at about 220 at the time, to grab his gear (shoulder pads and helmet and stuff) and come back the next day. And, no, it wasn't pretty.

'The first real positive sign was that he came back the next day with his pads, and then he went out there,' Brian Ferentz said, 'and I've got to tell you he was not impressive blocking people because he'd never done it before in his life, but he was very willing.

'He was very competitive, and he never became discouraged or embarrassed or anything like that.'

Iowa eventually offered a scholarship to the tight end who had never blocked. And then within Boettger's first few months on campus, Iowa ran low on bodies for developmental work along the offensive line. At that point, he had already gained 25 pounds and was in the 240s.

'Why don't we just make the transition if he's open to it?' Brian Ferentz said on the position change discussion. 'He was very open to it. I don't think it hurts to have some of the guys (Iowa coaches) that were recruiting him to come into the room with us, and he stepped in, and since the first day he joined the group, he's been very eager to be a good offensive lineman.'

The dude has gained 85 pounds since day 1 in Iowa City . . .

That's a lot of tacos.

No, no, it's not that easy, of course. On this level with these athletes, everything is calculated and the Iowa strength and conditioning staff has protocol (weigh-ins, nutrition plans) to engage a project of this magnitude.

For Boettger, the goal was 305 pounds and that's where he sat as 2015 camp started last the first week of August.

'It honestly was pretty easy for me [to put the weight on],' Boettger said. 'I just did what the coaches told me to do for food. I worked out hard and always stayed full, really. I'm starting to get used to the weight, so it's not really bothering me that much anymore.'

Outlook . . .

Boettger has gone from the former high school QB who came back to a skills camp in pads and took a wallop in his first day as a blocker to Iowa's No. 1 right tackle for the 2015 season.

The story has had a fun start so far. What comes next is the hard part, obviously.

Brian Ferentz acknowledged this spring that, yes, Boettger has been a willing combatant the whole way, but he's far from complete. After all, the only meaningful time he's seen is a handful of plays against Ball State last season after Brandon Scherff suffered a knee injury.

'He's got some physical tools, more importantly I feel strongly about the way he approaches every day,' Ferentz said. 'I think that he's going to have success. There's no guarantees in life, and right now he's learning daily, and it's kind of like both tackles, it's the school of hard knocks, and they're really getting a crash course.

'I think for them every day coming back to work and trying again, that's quite an accomplishment, and so if we can just build on that, we should be OK. But he wants to be a good player, and that's a good place to start. But at some point you have to become one, too, so that will be the next step for him.'

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