Kaden Wetjen’s patience gets rewarded as he blossoms into Iowa special teams star

IOWA CITY — Kaden Wetjen is an avid deer hunter.

He has killed “a lot bigger deer than most people have in their lives,” his high school coach Curt Ritchie said. Wetjen estimated the biggest buck was “like 15, 16 points.”

“I hate to give him too much credit for anything, but yeah, he’s obviously pretty good at it,” Ritchie said.

He is a bow hunter, too, despite his father Lee telling him that “it’s going to take a lot longer to have success.”

Sometimes a teammate will express interest, but Wetjen tells them “I don’t think you want to go sit in a tree for two-and-a-half hours.”

“Like, ‘What? That’s not what I thought it was,’” Wetjen said.

The same patience Wetjen exercised while deer hunting also has rewarded him on the football field as the Williamsburg native has become a playmaker for the Hawkeyes, particularly on special teams, in his third season in Iowa City.

“Any time Kaden Wetjen has the ball in his hands, it’s good for the Hawks,” Iowa special teams coordinator LeVar Woods said earlier this season, “because the guy does have the ability to go the distance whenever he has it in his hands.”

Wetjen has 100-plus combined return yards in three consecutive games, becoming the first Hawkeye to do so since at least 1978. His 25.4 yards per kickoff return ranks fourth among power-conference players, and his 13.7 yards per punt return is fifth best.

He also was named the Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week after returning a punt 85 yards for a touchdown against Northwestern — his first return touchdown in a Hawkeye uniform.

“To have a good returner who's got an aggressive attitude like that, that's a big part of being successful,” Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said. “So I can't say enough about what he's playing right now, and I think he's having a lot of fun doing it, too, which is neat to see.”

He almost had a punt return for a touchdown earlier in the year against Illinois State, but what would have been a 65-yard touchdown was called back due to a holding penalty. After Wetjen ran into the end zone against Northwestern, the play went under video review.

“Again, man?” Wetjen remembered thinking. “Are you serious?”

When replay official upheld the touchdown call, Wetjen could breathe a “huge sigh of relief.“

“Everybody started patting me on the head,” Wetjen said. “They almost gave me a concussion, how many people were hitting me on the head. But it was a great time.”

The week before — after Iowa suffered a 32-20 loss to Michigan State — a humbled Ferentz said Wetjen’s kickoff returns were “probably the only positive thing I could say” (aside from the team’s attitude and work ethic) from the upset loss.

“Wetjen certainly gave us a little spark out there,” Ferentz said

Wetjen was going to ‘break one soon’

Wetjen knew he was going to “break one soon” as he spoke with reporters in the week leading up to the Northwestern game. That confidence is understandable given his natural speed.

“Five-foot-9, can’t do everything, so might as well be fast,” Wetjen said.

Fellow Iowa wide receiver Jacob Gill said Wetjen’s “speed is a crazy weapon.”

“He brings a different aspect to our offense where we can get some sweeps in,” Gill said earlier this month. “And you see him in the kick game — how explosive he is.”

Going back to high school, Wetjen even outran Kalen Walker — the Iowa track and field athlete who ran a 4.15-second 40-yard dash at halftime of the Iowa-Northwestern game — in the 200-meter dash at the state meet in 2019.

Ritchie, in particular, remembers a game against Clear Lake in the quarterfinals of Wetjen’s senior season where his speed stood out.

“At least two of them, if not three of them, were on pitches that were started to the left and ended up clear to the right, back and forth,” Ritchie said. “Just looked like a high school kid playing against junior high kids. He was by far faster than everybody else out there.”

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Under-the-radar recruit

For as impressive of an athlete as Wetjen was out of Williamsburg, the FBS-level offers did not come trickling in. Iowa linebackers coach Seth Wallace did visit Wetjen during his senior year, but he did not offer him a scholarship.

“He was hoping to get a scholarship offer somewhere and never did,” his father Lee said.

The Williamsburg staff was “dumbfounded” that Wetjen did not get more attention as a recruit, his father Lee said. (He is one of Ritchie’s assistant coaches.)

“If this kid was six-foot tall or six-foot-one or two, everybody in America would want him,” Ritchie said. “It’s just that he didn’t fit the prototype. He’s not long, he’s not tall, his arms aren’t long. … They had a hard time knowing what position he was exactly, I think.”

So Wetjen went to Iowa Western Community College with hopes of improving his options.

“I knew I could make it at the Division I level, and I just had to prove it,” Wetjen said.

Wetjen was quite productive in his two years at Iowa Western, where he helped the Reivers reach the NJCAA national championship game. He had two punt returns for touchdowns in each of his seasons — tying a program record from 2010 — and his 459 punt return yards in 2021 set a program record as well.

FBS schools still did not come flocking, with only UMass offering him. So Wetjen went the walk-on route at Iowa.

“Charlie was here when I got here, but I knew I’d eventually have a shot,” Wetjen said. “Watching him, all the tips and stuff that he’s given me, it’s obviously led us all to the success as a unit.”

Patience as a Hawkeye

Wetjen did not get his opportunity in the return game right away, as eventual All-American defensive back Cooper DeJean was Charlie Jones’ replacement as Iowa’s punt returner rather than Wetjen. Kaleb Johnson, then a freshman, handled the bulk of kick returns in 2022.

Wetjen then earned the bulk of kick returning duties in 2023 while DeJean retained punt returning duties until his season-ending injury. Wetjen took over on punt returns after the injury, but it required some patience to get to that point.

“Obviously there was some frustration — always, just like anybody else — but I think the big thing is he has such a love for the game and a passion for the game that I think he’s happy just practicing,” Ritchie said. “He loves to go have fun with it.”

Now with DeJean off to the NFL, Wetjen finally has his chance as Iowa’s primary punt and kick returner and has squashed any doubts about his return ability.

“I don't mind telling you going into the season I was a little worried about him, judgment, fielding balls,” Ferentz said. “I'll say that; I'll admit it now. But he's certainly earned my trust. He's doing a really good job back there.”

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Just like when he got the 15 or 16-point buck — “the deer’s name was Bullwinkle because he looked like a moose,” his father Lee said — Wetjen’s patience has again been rewarded.

“Everything happens for a reason,” his father Lee said. “So now he ended up 20 minutes from home and has earned a pretty big role.”

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com

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