Iowa football: Hawks miss out on tight end transfer to B1G foe

The decision came later than expected, but it ultimately didn’t go the Iowa football team’s way when TE transfer Travis Vokolek laid out his future plans.

With not much tight end depth once seniors Drew Cook and Nate Wieting graduate after the 2019 season, the Iowa football team needed some guys who would certainly be ready to play in 2020.

Logically, it made sense to pursue tight end transfer Travis Vokolek, a former Rutgers who left the program for undisclosed reasons, but if we’re being honest, wouldn’t you leave Rutgers too?

A little over a week ago, the Missouri native narrowed his three schools down to the Iowa football team, Kansas State, and Nebraska and when looking at the situation analytically, the Hawks made the most sense. From a developmental perspective, how does any school other than the Iowa football program make sense given their penchant for producing NFL tight end talent?

From a distance perspective, Kansas State made the most sense. It was the closest.

Yet, when it came down to it, Vokolek spurned the Iowa football team and the Kansas State Wildcats for Scott Frost and the Nebraska Cornhuskers. A week after giving my top three recruits the Hawks have stolen from Nebraska, Nebraska takes one from the Hawks.

Apparently, the allure of playing with freshman sensation Adrian Martinez in his then-third year of the program in addition to hopefully restoring a winning culture for the Cornhuskers won over the transfer tight end.

Now, instead of being the next in line of great tight ends to come from the Iowa football program, Vokolek will be in the next line to suffer the wrath of a typically strong defensive unit.

What is slightly confusing, and for what its worth, I’m sure Vokolek put a lot of thought into this and is making the best decision for him, is that Scott Frost offenses don’t feature the tight end nearly as much as the Iowa football team. Last year, tight end Jack Stoll (the team’s leading receiving tight end) was 5th on the team in receptions. The year prior at UCF, tight end was the third leading receiver. Moreover, Nebraska has three guys at the tight end position that are former three-star recruits and have multiple years of eligibility left meaning Vokolek will certainly be in the middle of a position battle once he arrives on campus.

At the end of the day, it would have been nice to see Vokolek join the Iowa football team. I wish him the best of luck though in his future career with Nebraska. Let’s be honest, anything is better than Rutgers. That’s one of the few things Nebraska and Iowa fans can agree on.