MADISON -- Deacon Hill spent a year-and-a-half at Wisconsin to start his college football career. With few reps and little time given to him during practice with the Badgers (and former Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst fired at mid-season), the former three-star recruit decided to enter the transfer portal half way through his second season in Madison.
Just over a year later, Hill returned to Madison as the starting quarterback for Iowa and led his team to a 15-6 victory.
"It feels pretty good," he said following the Hawkeyes' win on Saturday. "There were a lot dark days in the portal here. It feels good being part of a team again. That's the biggest thing -- I love my team right now, and I wouldn't rather be anywhere else."
"Clearly he was not part of the picture at Wisconsin," Kirk Ferentz added. "Coming back -- it's got to be a little bit special for him. I'm just happy for him and the happy about the way he has led our team the last couple weeks."
While Hill finished just 6/14 for 37 yards and wasn't thrilled with his overall performance, he stayed composed until the very end -- until he couldn't hold back the emotion of the moment.
"There were some tears of joy, I'm not going to hide it. There were 1,000 cameras, so someone got a photo of me crying," he smiled. "There were a lot of hard-working days to get to this point."
"I couldn't imagine this during those days in the portal. I didn't think I'd be playing FBS football again. Fortunately, I am. My gratitude for the coaches here is unmatched. Even when I came here, Cade (McNamara) was the guy. So I was like 'I'll probably wait another year or two.' But things happen."
He wasn't the only former Badger to return to Madison this weekend. Iowa special assistant Jon Budmayr was previously a quarterback for the Badgers before joining the staff. He was also pivotal in Hill's recruitment -- to Wisconsin and Iowa.
"I didn't expect him to be down from the box that fast, but I think he was the first one to give me a hug," Hill shared with a quiver in his voice. "That was probably one of my favorite memories of all time -- Bud being on the field for that moment."
"He was like 'We did it. Let's keep moving this thing forward. We've got a lot of season left, but I'm proud of you. Let's just keep going.'"
Though Hill did his best to let the moment sink in, he did speak to his plans to look at the film and get better heading into next week when the Hawkeyes take on Minnesota in Iowa City.
"Obviously I have a lot of room to grow," he said. "I'm not going to stand up here and say I didn't make any mistakes on the field today. But, we'll take a look at the tape tomorrow. I'll be excited to jump into film and see what I can do better."
