Hawkeyes Chasing Patton

Quarterback Chase Patton was one of the many high school prospects in attendance for Iowa’s junior day this past weekend.

Patton is a 6-foot-4, 205-pound junior from Rock Bridge High School in Columbia, Missouri and made the trip to Iowa City with his teammate, linebacker Van Alexander, who has verbally committed to the Missouri Tigers and remains a “solid commit” in his own words.

Patton has been timed at 4.7 in the forty and also carries an impressive 3.8 GPA, along with an ACT score of 27.

Patton led the Rock Bridge Bruins to a record of 8-4 last season in Class 6, the largest class in Missouri. The team was able to advance all the way to the state semifinals before losing to the eventual champion, undefeated Rockhurst.

Following the season, Patton was named the 1st team All State quarterback in Class 6 and compiled stats of 186 completions on 355 pass attempts and 23 touchdown passes in Rock Bridge’s wide-open offense.

The Missouri Tiger roots run deep in Rock Bridge’s football program, as Patton’s former coach, Barry Odom, was a standout LB for the Tigers in the late 1990’s. Odom left the school following this past season for a graduate assistant job with Coach Gary Pinkel at Missouri.

Replacing him as head coach at Rock Bridge in 2003 will be his former offense coordinator A.J. Ofodile, also a former Missouri Tiger football player. Ofodile is also a former NFL tight end and played with the Baltimore Ravens for three years, including two seasons under the coaching staff that included Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz and assistant coach Lester Erb.

Patton said that he currently has offers from “Tennessee, Missouri, Iowa, and Kansas State” with serious interest from “Notre Dame, Michigan, Virginia, Arizona State, LSU, Kansas, and Oklahoma State.”

Patton indicated that his recruiting is pretty open right now, but he would like to narrow it down to five schools by late this summer.