Hunter Dekkers’ journey to starting Iowa State QB can be traced back to a ‘flawless’ summer camp

AMES — Iowa State football coach Matt Campbell locked his eyes on the intriguing prospect and found it hard to look away.

The Cyclones already had acquired a quarterback commitment for their 2020 recruiting class, but the young man he saw throwing impressive passes while showing playmaking ability with his feet couldn’t be ignored that summer night in 2019 at an ISU camp.

So Campbell offered former West Sioux multi-sport star Hunter Dekkers on the spot.

“He had the best camp that I’ve ever seen a quarterback have in my tenure of coaching,” Campbell said of Dekkers, who is poised to make his first career start in Saturday’s 1 p.m. season opener against Southeast Missouri State at Jack Trice Stadium. “He was flawless (that) night.”

Dekkers isn’t expected to be perfect in his starting debut against the FCS Redhawks, but he nonetheless plans to thrive in ISU’s offense from the first snap of 2022 and onward.

No pressure. No anxiety. Just pure drive and determination.

“To be honest, I just feel like pressure kind of comes with being unprepared,” said Dekkers, who threw for 311 yards and three touchdowns as Brock Purdy’s backup the past two seasons. “And I feel like I prepare myself for all sorts of situations so I don't really feel much pressure at all.”

Deep breaths — just like throwing the deep ball — come naturally for Dekkers. Adopting a single-minded approach to football all season long was a new development once he joined the Cyclones’ program.

The 6-foot-3, 206-pound redshirt sophomore achieved all-state honors in three high school sports: football, basketball and baseball.

He hit .509 one baseball season while compiling a 0.40 ERA. He drained 271 career 3-pointers while becoming the Falcons’ all-time leading scorer in basketball.

So Dekkers has the ability to do it all because that’s what he’s done his whole life.

“(In high school), I didn’t really pick up a football unless it was the first day of football practice (or) the last football game of the season,” Dekkers said. “So coming in here, I was more of a raw football player. I had a lot to improve on.”

Dekkers built muscle, then shed any excess fat. He mastered the playbook and prepared to be ready for any moment. Now he enters his first season as the No. 1 quarterback after already being lauded this spring for having “that superstar in him” by ISU’s two-time first team All-Big 12 receiver, Xavier Hutchinson.

“After I said it, I told him, ‘You know, I said that, but you’ve got to prove it now,’” Hutchinson said of his “superstar” reference. “He’s taken that up with open arms — I hope. But I’m really excited for Hunter. He’s waited two years for this. I’ve seen him grow in those two years and his maturity and confidence in himself has only grown since then.”

Will it show against the Redhawks, who are roughly five-touchdown underdogs against the Cyclones according to Las Vegas oddsmakers? It would be unwise to bet against it.

“He’s going to prove himself,” Campbell said. “He’s going to work really hard and he’s going to do everything in his power to, when the opportunity arises for him to be successful, he’ll be ready for his opportunity. So at least up to date, he’s done a phenomenal job of doing those things.”

And it all started as an under-the-radar guy at that fateful summer camp, where Dekkers proved himself to Campbell for the first — but likely not the last — time.

“I think it was more of just like a personal thing,” Dekkers said of that impeccable audition. “I mean, this is gonna sound, I don’t know how to explain this, but I wanted to show them what they were missing out on basically. … I can’t really say I went there to get offered and then commit right away. That really wasn’t what I was trying to do, but when I came on my visit here two weeks after, it felt like home.”

Comments: robgray18@iclould.com