Tight end factory lives on for Hawkeyes

IOWA CITY - Now the college football awards lists really matter.

In August, they are a nice honor. Better to be on than not, but there is the little matter of actually playing the season and putting up the numbers.

Now it's November and the final wave of lists are coming out. Semifinalists and finalists for every award from Ray Guy (punter) to Bronko Nagurski (defensive player) to Biletnikoff (wide receiver) are starting to pop up.

This week, Iowa tight end Allen Reisner jumped into the mix with his selection as a semifinalist for the John Mackey Award that goes to the nation's top tight end. There are eight semifinalists. The finalists will be announced Monday.

Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz joked that in 2007, when Iowa was forced to shove Reisner out there as a freshman, he could have been arrested for child abuse.

“The alarming part, again you look at his helmet, he looked like he was 14,” Ferentz said. “He really looked young in the face. That doesn't mean anything, but it added emphasis to where he was at.”

Reisner was a 218-pound freshman who had run track at Marion High School the previous spring. In 2007, then-Iowa tight end Tony Moeaki got hurt and Iowa needed a No. 3. Reisner was shoved into action, along with 10 other freshman in 2007.

This season, Moeaki is in Kansas City playing well for the Chiefs. Reisner is in Iowa City enjoying a breakthrough season with the No. 21 Hawkeyes.

“It's great,” said Reisner, who's third on the team with 35 receptions for 350 yards and two TDs. “Who wouldn't want to touch the ball more.”

During a 21-17 loss last week at Northwestern, Reisner snared a career-high six catches and tied a career-high with 66 yards. This is a far cry from the freshman who looked 14 and caught two passes in 2007.

Iowa tight ends have formed a conga line to the NFL. Since 2000, seven have been selected in the NFL draft. Reisner has risen to that level this season.

With three games left, he's caught more passes (35) than he did in his previous three seasons (23). He needs 24 yards to equal the yardage he put out in his first three years.

Reisner's “NFL-ness” is coming out.

Wes Bunting, the director of college scouting for the website the National Football Post, wrote in an Oct. 25 post that Reisner could “quietly end up on an NFL roster in 2011.”

“He lacks the speed to consistently run by NFL linebackers, but knows how to go up, extend his arms and pluck the football over the middle of the field,” Bunting wrote.

Bunting sees this ending in the NFL for Reisner.

“The Hawkeyes have had a lot of success in recent years sending tight end prospects into the NFL and although he isn't as gifted as some over the past couple seasons,” Bunting wrote, “he still looks to me like a guy who could make a roster and see some playing time on special teams and as a jack-off-all trades type FB/TE/H-back option.”

This is good, because Reisner wants to keep up the whole Iowa-tight end NFL thing.

“I definitely don't want to lose the streak that the tight ends have,” Reisner said. “It's a recruiting thing. I don't want to mess that up.”