Reece Vander Zee returns to the field determined to make immediate impact in Big Ten play

IOWA CITY — The injury bug had already bit receiver Reece Vander Zee before, but when it came crawling back in August, it hit hard.

Vander Zee spent a lot of time on the sideline last season, battling a foot injury that kept him away from football for weeks. He still finished the season with 176 receiving yards and three touchdowns in nine games.

Knowing the role he’d take on his season, being the Hawkeyes’ only returning receiver with over 100 yards, Vander Zee had a new role to fill. The wide receivers hadn’t met the standard they wanted and Vander Zee wanted to help change that.

Then three days before the first game of the season, he’s out.

“Obviously, you work for it for a while,” he said. “And have it taken away like that is tough.”

It wasn’t an injury Vander Zee could simply nurse to health through extra hours in a training room. This one required patience. He watched film, did what he could to keep himself surrounded by football. He just couldn’t play it.

A simple task, but torturous, knowing how close it was to football season.

“It was rough at the beginning,” Vander Zee said. “I definitely was disappointed, just right before the first game to have an injury like that was tough, but there was a reason for it. There's a plan for it.”

Vander Zee spent all summer fall camp working with quarterback Mark Gronowski. Gronowski, who was rehabbing a shoulder injury himself at the time, started getting out-of-practice reps with Vander Zee and the pair grew close very quickly.

Then, it all went away. Vander Zee spent weeks watching the team play, trying not to let the frustration of his injury bleed through. Instead, he tried to talk with the receiver room, tell them what he was seeing on the field.

“Anybody that's ever played sports and has been hurt knows this,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said. “If you miss one practice, you know, you're standing there with your team, but you feel like you're miles away from them. There's a psychology to it that I think is really challenging.”

He was at practices, getting treatment, leaning on his closest friends on the team, Zach Lutmer and Hank Brown, and focusing on his faith to stay positive throughout the waiting period.

Finally when the bye week came and went, the sophomore got involved on the field a little bit more.

“Leaning on my faith, leaning on having that to ground me,” Vander Zee said, “it really helped me to see it as an opportunity to grow, see it as an opportunity to glorify, glorify Christ in it. So that's probably the biggest thing.”

Vander Zee took over 20 snaps against Wisconsin in his season debut, recording three catches for 29 yards.

Ferentz said he’ll continue getting Vander Zee incorporated into the lineup throughout the next few weeks, not wanting to overload the sophomore after a strenuous injury. The Hawkeyes face Penn State on Saturday, a game Vander Zee’s studied up on as he’s practiced with the team as normal.

“They're really athletic,” he said. “They're talented, so we're gonna have to bring our ‘A’ game, and it's just like every week. We focus on us on what we do, and we'll go out there and compete at the highest level.”

It might already be six games into the 2025 football season, but Vander Zee’s sophomore campaign is just beginning. His work while waiting on the sidelines will catch up with him, Ferentz is sure of it, and as the season continues to progress Vander Zee’s role will once again evolve.

Just this time, with the ball in his hands a lot more.

“It's just I think a matter of him being on the field and getting work,” Ferentz said. “As he does that, it's just going to keep — he'll keep climbing the ladder, because he still is a really young player.”

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