Brody Brecht To Focus Exclusively on Baseball

Brody Brecht's attempt to play two sports -- football and baseball -- at Iowa has been one of the most intriguing aspects of his time as Hawkeye. Brecht was a standout receiver for Ankeny, as well as an elite baseball prospect with a very potent arm. But balancing two sports is not easy at an elite college level, especially when sports now increasingly demand year-round commitment.

The actual competitive schedules for football and baseball don't overlap at the college level -- baseball is played from February to May, while football is a September to December sport -- but those schedules do conflict with off-season practices. Brecht couldn't attend Iowa baseball's fall practice sessions while he was with the football team, and he missed Iowa football's spring practice sessions while he hit the mound for the baseball team.

Friday, Brecht made it official: he's just a one-sport athlete now, devoting his full attention to baseball.

It felt like a decision to focus on baseball was coming soon, given Brecht's strong start to the 2023 season. Brecht is 2-1 through six games this year, with a 2.20 ERA and a 1.24 WHIP. He leads Iowa pitchers in innings pitched (28.2) and strikeouts (46) and opposing batters are hitting just .146 against him this season. He announced his decision shortly after picking up the win for Iowa against Western Michigan, in a game where he tied his career-high with 10 strikeouts.

Control is still an issue for Brecht -- he also leads Iowa in walks issued (21) and wild pitches (5), but those are skills that will improve with practice. What's much harder to teach is stuff, and Brecht has electric stuff as a pitcher. The right-hander regularly tops 100 mph on the radar gun and has had MLB scouts drooling over his potential for a while.

Brecht is the 18th best overall prospect on Prospects Live's top prospects list for the 2024 MLB Draft. He's also the 17th overall prospect on D1Baseball's Top 150 prospects list for the 2024 MLB Draft. (College baseball players are not eligible for the MLB Draft until they are three years removed from high school, which is why Brecht is not eligible for the 2023 MLB Draft this summer.)

Brecht has sky-high potential in baseball, which makes it easy to understand why he would choose to focus on that sport moving forward. It's doubtful that he would have played football as long as he did if not for his love of the sport. But love of football probably no longer merits the risk involved when you have plausible MLB aspirations -- and a very realistic chance of being a first-round pick in the MLB Draft.

Brecht had 9 catches for 87 yards as a redshirt freshman last season. His most notable performances were against Michigan (2 catches, 38 yards), Northwestern (3 catches, 18 yards), and Minnesota (2 catches, 21 yards). He was one of Iowa's top-four receivers by the end of the season, but Iowa's wide receiver depth was also at one of its lowest points ever last season.

Brecht possessed good size (6'4", 205), above-average athleticism, and strong hands and seemed to have the potential to develop into a solid wide receiver -- though it likely would have taken a lot of time and focus to do so. The time and focus simply weren't there with his baseball career also demanding plenty of attention.

As Kirk Ferentz noted during his spring football press conference earlier this week, Iowa's depth at wide receiver is already very thin for spring -- but they were already going to be without Brecht in the spring anyway, given the ongoing baseball season. Brecht's decision means that Iowa will have one less option at receiver next fall, and should increase the likelihood that the staff will try and locate another receiver in the transfer portal.

Best of luck to Brecht as he moves forward with his baseball career. He has a bright future in that sport and we look forward to seeing what he can achieve -- especially while he's still in black and gold for a while longer.