Vandervelde eyes leadership role on Iowa’s offensive line

Senior guard Julian Vandervelde is the elder statesman of Iowa's offensive line. He's entering his fourth year as a starter and is one of the team's most articulate leaders off the field.

Vandervelde injured a shoulder in summer workouts last year that required surgery. He regained his strength in time to start the second game but never became the force he hoped to become and lost his starting job midway through the season before regaining it after Dace Richardson got hurt.

A 6-foot-3, 300-pound Davenport native, Vandervelde said the injury bothered him more mentally during the season than any lingering physical effects.

“I had kind of a dip coming off that,” Vandervelde said. “I was a little hesitant, but it's something that I recognized and toward the end of the season I was able to get back on track with.”

Four offensive linemen left the squad after last year's Orange Bowl championship, including NFL first-round draft pick Bryan Bulaga and seventh-round pick Kyle Calloway. Longtime starters Richardson and Rafael Eubanks graduated.

Vandervelde relishes the chance to become the group's leader.

“We do have a couple of seniors, and Riley (Reiff) has some playing experience,” Vandervelde said. “But I do take it upon myself to kind of lead this unit together and try to be kind of a spark for everybody.

“I can't have a moment's letdown in any of my preparation because I want all the young guys looking at me and I want them to see the way I do things and I want it to be the right way.”

Iowa will have at least three new starters on the offensive line. Entering fall camp, Iowa lists senior Josh Koeppel as starting center, junior Adam Gettis as starting right guard and junior Markus Zusevics as starting right tackle.

“Markus Zusevics has come up, and he's really impressed everybody with his work ethic the entire way through spring ball and through the summer program,” Vandervelde said. “(Red-shirt freshman guard) Drew Clark has made a lot of strides. (Red-shirt freshman lineman) Conor Boffeli, when we looked at him we weren't really sure what kind of player he was going to be, but he's really stepped up and shown us that he's going to be a guy who can play in the future and have a really successful career.

“I really can't name everybody, but there really isn't a guy on the offensive line right now, young or old, who's not trying to improve, and especially our incoming freshmen and guys one class ahead of them have seemed really, really hungry to gain knowledge and information and an understanding of the system and the way we play offensive line, which is really encouraging.”

Vandervelde, three times academic all-Big Ten, sang The Star-Spangled Banner during President Barack Obama's visit to Iowa City. He said the experience was the second-most memorable moment this year behind winning the Orange Bowl.

“While the Obama thing was really cool and singing is a passion, football is what I'm here to do,” he said. “To have that sort of experience on my record is definitely something that I'll cherish for the rest of my life.”

Vandervelde has yet to hear from Obama about his performance, however.

“He hasn't called me or anything,” Vandervelde said with a laugh. “No postcards.”