Ben Brahmer and Gabe Burkle give ISU football double the star power at tight end

Editor’s note: Seventh in a 9-part series looking at the Iowa State football team ahead of the season opener on Aug. 23.

AMES — Ben Brahmer couldn’t shake the mysterious malady that trapped him in a malaise almost all of last season.

Nothing — outside of two big games against Arkansas State and Baylor when relatively healthy — went right for Iowa State’s 2023 freshman All-American tight end.

“I never felt 100 percent,” he said.

But he didn’t sulk or wallow in what-if, woe-is-me purgatory. Brahmer tracked down answers and eagerly delved into player-coach mode with fellow tight end Gabe Burkle, who experienced a breakthrough over the second half of ISU’s program-record 11-win 2024 season.

“I know we’ll be able to have two different people, or three different people in the tight ends room who can go out and make plays,” a once again healthy Brahmer said. “(Opponents) will have to game plan for that.”

Brahmer turned heads two seasons ago, totaling 352 receiving yards — the most by a Cyclone freshman tight end in school history. Then the perplexing injuries hit and Burkle, a former Cedar Rapids Prairie star, burst to the fore, recording 24 of his 26 receptions in the final half of the 2024 season.

So ISU should be able to deliver a robust one-two punch at tight end this season, but as Brahmer hinted at, there may be a handful of other combinations that could knock opposing defenses off-kilter.

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“We’re going to play a lot of guys,” said the Cyclones’ second-year offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Taylor Mouser.

One of those guys, redshirt freshman Cooper Alexander mirrored Brahmer in battling injuries all of last season, but he’s showcased top-end talent whenever he’s been able to be on the practice field. Senior Tyler Moore, who’s been bedeviled by injuries his entire ISU career, could be in line to replace the highly productive Stevo Klotz at the team’s hybrid tight end-fullback spot.

So that’s four tight ends instead of two or three potentially poised to make a big impact in both the passing game and the run game for the Cyclones as the season opener against Kansas State looms on Aug. 23 in Dublin, Ireland. And that list could grow, which would furnish Mouser with even more options to stymie defenses with an array of different looks and position groupings.

But there’s also a big “but” here. The Cyclones’ considerable talent at wide receiver will likely preclude the possibility of regularly deploying multiple tight ends on the field for extended periods of time.

“it's going to be hard for us to keep some of the speed and some of those guys off the field,” Mouser said. “So I'm biased as the tight ends guy, and I love those guys, and we'll definitely find a million wrinkles to get those guys the ball. But it's going to be interesting.”

Especially for Brahmer and Burkle, who both have earned the trust of veteran starting quarterback Rocco Becht by doing all the right things at the proper times.

“I was just kind of doing my job of being where I was supposed to be,” Burkle said of his late-season spike in production. “So when Rocco needed to throw it somewhere, he knew where I would be and he could make the play to me.”

That’s simple to say but tough to do, especially when there were two 1,000-yard receivers and Houston Texans NFL Draft picks like Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel doing the same at the receiver spot. But if Brahmer and Burkle can stay healthy, who’s to say they can’t team up to be a similarly potent tandem, but at the tight end position?

Therein lies another mystery — but an intriguing one instead of a confounding one.

“I always said about Noel and Higgins, they’re pros,” ISU Coach Matt Campbell said. “How they eat, how they train, how they practice every day, they were professionals way before they left Iowa State.

“And I would say that’s what Burkle and Brahmer bring. A maturity. They know how to practice. They know what it takes to be successful. They’re in it. They’re already professional football players. They’ll be that someday, but they’re already that in our football program.”

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