Iowa’s Addison Ostrenga has emerged as heavy hitter in talented tight end room

IOWA CITY — Addison Ostrenga was a home-run hitter for Iowa football, literally, this summer when he had three blasts in a charity softball game.

“That was a lot of fun,” Ostrenga said, looking back at the game between Iowa and Iowa State football players that ended in a 11-3 Hawkeye win.

Trade charity softball for actual college football, and Ostrenga is coming off a season where he was figuratively the equivalent of the pinch-hitter who finds a spot in the lineup and becomes the team’s go-to home run hitter.

Ostrenga started the 2023 season as the third-string tight end behind Luke Lachey and Erick All. (All now is in the NFL, and Lachey could be an early-round pick with a good season in 2024.)

By the end of the year, Ostrenga was tied for the team lead with 31 receptions and emerged as one of the Hawkeyes’ most consistent receivers in the second half of the season.

Ostrenga was the only Hawkeye to have at least two receptions in each of Iowa’s last six games.

When Iowa’s quarterbacks threw to Ostrenga in 2023, they competed 72.1 percent of their passes, according to Pro Football Focus. That was fifth-best among Big Ten tight ends with at least 40 targets despite Iowa ranking 129th out of 130 teams nationally with an overall completion percentage of 48.9.

“It’s just a testament to how he prepared and stayed ready all season,” fellow tight end Luke Lachey said of Ostrenga’s success last year. “Spring ball in 2023, practiced super well. Fall camp last year, did super well.”

Lachey is not the only one to take notice of Ostrenga’s behind-the-scenes efforts that preceded his on-field emergence. Tight ends coach Abdul Hodge especially praised Ostrenga and “the way he works” earlier this summer.

“When I'm on the recruiting trail, man, I'm looking for the next Addison Ostrenga,” Hodge said on The Gazette’s Hawk Off the Press podcast in June. “He'll do whatever you tell him to do, and he works extremely hard. And our guys love him.”

Ostrenga has especially grown in his physicality over this past offseason, Hodge said.

“His run-blocking fundamentals have really, really improved,” Hodge said. “And that’s the biggest thing I’ve seen from Addison, but Addison is a guy that’s going to continue to get better. He’s never going to be complacent. … He’s going to be a great leader for us.”

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The combination of a healthy Lachey and Ostrenga makes for a dangerous one-two punch when Iowa is in “12” personnel, whether it be the potential mismatches in the passing game or the extra push in the rushing attack.

“You get two tight ends that can really play within this system, this prostyle system — I think it helps because you get guys that can block in the perimeter,” Hodge said. “You get guys that can be a focal point in the gap scheme, the front side of that gap scheme as well.”

Any baseball analogies for Ostrenga are especially fitting considering his history in the sport. He initially committed to play baseball at Iowa in 2020 before accepting a scholarship offer across the street — well, more like across the parking lot — with the football program.

“This is a guy who’s a really good athlete, can play a corner outfield spot and maybe be a middle-of-the-order type of hitter,” Iowa baseball associate head coach Marty Sutherland remembers thinking when he recruited Ostrenga.

Ostrenga added that he was “pretty fast,” too.

“That was like 40 pounds ago,” said Ostrenga, who is officially listed at 251 pounds.

The 6-foot-4 prospect had some power in high school, too, albeit not at the level of his charity softball performance this summer.

“He didn’t lift the ball a ton yet,” Sutherland said. “I think that was something he was going to develop into. But the bat speed was present. The strength was present. You felt pretty strongly about where he was going to be as a baseball player by the time he got to college.”

Ostrenga enjoyed his year as an Iowa baseball commit and had a “really good relationship” with the Rick Heller’s staff. Sutherland, meanwhile, said “you can’t find a better kid, a better family.”

“I loved it here,” Ostrenga said fewer than 100 yards from the baseball stadium where he would have played. “All the coaches and everything, all the players.”

At the same time, Sutherland “always knew that football was definitely going to be in the mix.” Kirk Ferentz’s program eventually offered Ostrenga a scholarship in 2021, and Ostrenga made what he described as a “pretty hard” decision to pick football over baseball.

“When he made the call, it really wasn’t a surprise at all,” Sutherland said.

Sutherland still has kept an eye on what his former recruit has accomplished on the field as a Hawkeye. Now, it’s just figurative home runs for Iowa football rather than literal ones for Iowa baseball.

“Ultimately, obviously it’s been a great decision for him, and we’re all happy for him,” Sutherland said.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com

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