Iowa football: 30 greatest players in Hawkeyes history
By Andrew Wade
Jared DeVries, unfortunately, had to endure one of the worst seasons in Iowa football history when the Hawks went 3-8 in Hayden Fry’s final season. Despite the shortcomings of the team, DeVries was a bright spot, as he terrorized opposing team’s quarterbacks.
The Aplington-Parkersburg native started all four years for the Hawkeyes. DeVries put on quite an impressive pass rushing display, which earned him First-Team All-Big Ten three times, Second-Team All-American (1997) and Consensus All-American (1998) once.
He left the Hawkeyes with the career record for sacks with 43, the career record for tackles for a loss with 79 and the career record for tackles for loss yardage with 409. Given his tenure as a four-year starter, those are records that may never be broken. Few guys start four years in the Iowa football program and the ones that do start out as a freshman are more likely to leave after their junior season for the NFL Draft.
DeVries didn’t have the same level of success from a pass-rushing perspective at the next level, only managing to get 16.5 sacks. Yet, he still carved out a nice 10-year NFL career with the Detroit Lions after being their third-round selection in the 1999 NFL Draft.