Hawkeyes offer legacy recruit

Twenty-three years ago, team captain Parker Wildeman led the Iowa Hawkeyes with 10 sacks and 17 tackles for loss, earning second team All-Big Ten honors in 1994. Now, his son, Tate Wildeman, is doing similar damage at the high school level and is a Division I recruit at Legend High School in Colorado in the Class of 2018.

A 6-foot-6, 245-pound defensive end, the younger Wildeman already had nine scholarship offers going into the weekend and picked up a big one today. That came from his father’s alma mater, the University of Iowa, with recruiting coordinator Kelvin Bell making the call this evening.

“First, we kind of talked about having me come out to visit and he asked when I could and what my plans were for the spring and summer,” said Wildeman. “But then he just gave me the news, which was great. I’m sitting here with my dad and one of my buddies and we’re all pretty excited.”

Wildeman’s other offers include Arizona State, Oklahoma State, Nevada, Hawaii, Air Force, Colorado State, Wyoming, Princeton, and Yale, but the one from Iowa clearly holds a special place his heart.

“It means the world to me,” Wildeman said. “Following in my father’s footsteps, it’s a lot to take in, but I’m just very excited. I’m speechless at this point.”

Currently, Wildeman is planning to visit Iowa City sometime in June, which will actually be his first chance to see the football side of things at the University of Iowa.

“You know, I haven’t really done a football visit and I’ve never been in Kinnick,” said Wildeman. “I’ve walked around the campus a little bit, probably about five years ago, but I’ve only been there once.”

Wildeman is also planning an April visit to Nebraska, which could be the next Power 5 program to join his list of scholarship offers.

“I’m mainly looking at the Power 5 offers,” Wildeman said. “It’s been a dream of mine to play at that level since I was a little kid. Right now, that’s Arizona State, Oklahoma State, and Iowa. Those are the three. Then Nebraska is probably going to offer when I go out there.”

If all goes according to plan, Wildeman is eyeing a summer decision so he can focus on his senior year at Legend High School. Otherwise, he may wait until after the season if he is not ready to decide by then.

“I want to take visits to a lot of the schools before I ultimately make a decision,” said Wildeman. “If that’s mid summer, then that’s great because I know I don’t want to make a decision during the football season. I have goals of winning state this year, so I really want to focus on that. I feel like it will either be mid to late summer or after football season.”

With hopes of coaching college football someday, Wildeman will be paying close attention to the coaching staffs at each school that he visits as well as the academics.

“Probably number one is having a good education program,” Wildeman said. “I want to be a college football coach when I’m older, so that kind of ties into being around good coaches and good positive mentors in my life. I still have aspirations of playing professional football, but I really do want to coach college football, so a good education program and just being around good coaches would really be a benefit.”