Iowa football: Ranking the top five tight ends in Kirk Ferentz’s tenure

Iowa tight end Scott Chandler rushes upfield with a pass against Florida in the 2006 Outback Bowl January 2 in Tampa. Florida defeated Iowa 31 - 24. (Photo by A. Messerschmidt/Getty Images)
Iowa tight end Scott Chandler rushes upfield with a pass against Florida in the 2006 Outback Bowl January 2 in Tampa. Florida defeated Iowa 31 - 24. (Photo by A. Messerschmidt/Getty Images) /
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Iowa tight end Scott Chandler rushes upfield with a pass against Florida in the 2006 Outback Bowl January 2 in Tampa. Florida defeated Iowa 31 – 24. (Photo by A. Messerschmidt/Getty Images)
Iowa tight end Scott Chandler rushes upfield with a pass against Florida in the 2006 Outback Bowl January 2 in Tampa. Florida defeated Iowa 31 – 24. (Photo by A. Messerschmidt/Getty Images) /

It’s no question the Iowa football team has had some great tight ends during Kirk’s tenure so we did the impossible and ranked the top five.

It seems fitting that after a year where the Iowa football team made history by having not one but two tight ends named AP All-Americans, we took a look at each and every great tight end in the Kirk Ferentz’s twenty years at the helm and ranked our top five. It certainly wasn’t easy, and it’s likely going to cause some disagreement, but it had to be done.

The criterion was simply looking at the body of work within the Iowa football program and what it meant to the university at the time, but we didn’t take into account what each player did at the next level. So that means that George Kittle, who is tearing it up this year, will likely not be found anywhere on our top five and for good reason, his Iowa career was just not as good as some of the guys on the list. It’s by no means a knock on him, if anything it’s just a further indication of why the University of Iowa football program is the new tight end university.

That being said, here is our top five tight ends in the history of the Iowa football program.