Does Brody Brecht have any free time these days?

“A little bit here and there,” says Brecht with a laugh. “Depends on the day…it’s been a lot at times. It’s stressful, but when you have two great coaches and staffs working together to try to make things run smoothly for you, it’s going pretty good.”

Brody Brecht has been a hot name among both baseball and football fans over the last year or so, as his dreams of playing football at Kinnick Stadium lured him away from taking a couple million dollars and being selected in the MLB Draft. Now the true freshman has to balance pitching for the Iowa Baseball team, while also taking part in Iowa Football spring workouts.

“He’s a mature kid. He handles his business off the field extremely well,” said Coach Rick Heller. “With him being in spring ball, we’re trying to give him as much slack as we can, so he can be there and compete as best as he can and still not take away from baseball.”

Iowa WR Coach Kelton Copeland spoke similarly about how Brody takes care of his loaded schedule without any hiccups.

“Him splitting time between the two (sports) is very tough as you can imagine, just being a one sport, college athlete is very time demanding for a lot of different levels. But to do two sports is literally double the load,” said Copeland. “He has been tremendous working with not only myself communicating with me, but communicating with Coach Ferentz and the rest of staff and where he can navigate some time with us and navigate time with baseball.”

On Tuesday’s and Thursday’s, Brody has football practice and then classes, followed by a quick lunch before heading over to Duane Banks for practice. On Wednesday’s Brody has football practice followed by classes, but today he will be headed with the baseball team to Peoria, where he is expected to pitch an inning or two against the Bradley Braves in a midweek contest.

Just last week, Brody was expected to be a part of Iowa’s midweek game at Illinois State, but a cancelation gave him a chance to participate in the football teams practice. He then traveled to Ann Arbor for the Hawkeyes weekend series and is back this week doing much of the same. Baseball, football and then the part that some forget, classes. He is taking a full course load on top of his athletic demands and staying organized is a must.

“I got to keep a calendar of what’s going on and where I’ve got to be at a certain time,” says Brecht. “You really have got to make a list of what’s important and what you’ve got to get done today and what can wait till the weekend.”

On the mound, Brody has been adjusting to the changes from high school baseball to college baseball. All of the tools are present for him to be a shutdown pitcher, as there is a reason, he was the #77 rated prospect in the last year’s draft. However, for Brody a big part of it comes on the mental side. In high school, Brody was able to get into trouble and not worry about being pulled from the game. He was left in and most of the time he got out of jams on his own. In college, out of the bullpen, a couple of walks or a couple of hits means you are getting pulled from the game.

“You’re on a short leash here in college. In high school, you could work out of a lot of stuff and there are times where I’ve been taken out where I think I could have worked through it,” said Brecht. “It’s part of the game. Don’t make a mess or someone’s going to have to clean it up for you…Can’t just throw the ball hard. Got to locate and hit with your off-speed.”

“It’s just trying to get him to buy in to our mental game system,” said Coach Heller. “Him buying into his 15 second funnel, where he gets five seconds to analyze what just happened. Then the next five seconds are designed to get your body back under control, get the sign and use a deep breath. The last two or three seconds is trusting the plan, trusting the pitch and letting his talent takeover.”

In seven games this season, Brecht has struck out 19 batters over 10.2 innings, which is good for an impressive 16.2 SO/9. However, walking 12 and allowing eight hits gives him a rough 1.88 WHIP. Brody struck out four over two innings, allowing just one hit in his last appearance against Central Michigan and Coach Heller feels that he could be taking the next step on the mound.

“I think he’s in the process of doing that. He’s really improved in the last couple weeks,” said Heller. “It’s basically just fastball command for him and being able to locate his fastball early in the count, so he can get guys to chase later in the count.”

It was unfair to expect Brody to step on to the mound and be a shutdown arm right out of the gate as a freshman. As he continues to adjust to the mental side of college baseball, while working with pitching coach Robin Lund on improving his pitches, we will see him continue to take steps towards being the pitcher that everyone knows he can be.

On the football field, Brecht is looking to get break into the wide receiver rotation and Coach Copeland says that he expects Brody to be a part of the X WR conversation going into the fall. Brody is putting himself in that position due to the work ethic that he is displaying.

“I'd say it'd be easy for him to be like, Coach, I can't make it this morning. You know we had a late trip last night. I can't make it. I'll see you know, the next day. That's not Brody,” said Copeland. “He is there at every meeting and Brody is at every practice that he's able to be. So, I don't see any situation where he doesn't put himself in a chance to at least earn the opportunity to compete for that job.”

Brody started a little behind the other freshman WRs, including Arland Bruce IV and Keagan Johnson, as he decided to play his senior season with the Ankeny baseball team. He talked about his progression as a football player since he has arrived on campus.

“I came in late; I was behind physically and mentally, with the playbook. I’ve been studying the playbook a lot. Trying to learn all of the routes, the concepts and everything just so when I go out there, I can play fast and know what I’m doing. Then physically I’ve put on a lot of weight.”

He also mentioned that there has been a lot of communication with football strength coach Raimond Braithwaite and baseball strength coach Zach Walrod to make sure that Brody isn’t doing too much in the weight room.

While the baseball season continues, the priority for Brecht will be his time on the mound and trying to help the Hawkeyes make the NCAA Tournament. He will proceed with participating in spring practice as much as he can and when the baseball season ends it will be on to preparing for the upcoming football season.

Brody knows that a day will come where he will have to choose between football and baseball, but right now he is just enjoying it all and he hopes that he can continue doing it for the foreseeable future.

“My goal is two sport, as long as I can. Eventually one day I’m going to have to pick, but hopefully that’s not for a couple more years.”