Advertisement
football Edit

Luke Lachey is a hard working, versatile TE

Tight end Luke Lachey has 38 catches for 431 yards and 6 touchdowns so far this season.
Tight end Luke Lachey has 38 catches for 431 yards and 6 touchdowns so far this season.

The hard work of Grandview Heights (OH) tight end Luke Lachey paid off as he became a highly sought after recruit before committing to the Hawkeyes. We caught up with his head coach, Jason Peters, to learn more about Lachey and his future at Iowa.

Q: How would you describe him overall as a football player?

PETERS: He is just incredible and does everything for us on offense, defense, and special teams. He is just a great leader. He is one of the hardest working kids we have. More important than all of this athletic ability is that he is a better person.

Q: What do you feel are his main strengths at this point?

PETERS: Just his frame and athletic ability.

Q: What areas is he going to continue working on as he prepares for the rest of this season and beyond?

PETERS: The weight room would be the big thing. He has always been a three-sport kid who just hasn’t had the time to commit to the weight room. This off-season, he did, and he put on close to 20 pounds.

Q: What separates him from his peers overall to be as highly recruited as he was?

PETERS: It is his frame and athletic ability, but also his motivation. He has the desire not just to be the best he can be but do the most he can to help the team.

Q: How would you describe him as a leader?

PETERS: He is incredible. Like I said, he wants to be good not for himself but so he can be good for the team. He is hard on himself when he is not able to do what he can do. When your best player has that mentality, it filters down through the program and is a good thing for us.

Q: Where does he project out at the college level position wise?

PETERS: From what they want him at, he is going to be a hybrid tight end. He can put his hand on the ground, but he can also find other ways to utilize his athletic ability.

Q: How did the Iowa staff find out about him as a recruit?

PETERS: Honestly in this day and age, it was a weird process. Up until this past summer, he went to just one camp at Cincinnati two years ago. And this time last year, it absolutely blew up. I don’t know if some of it has to do with his dad, his family lineage, or having an older brother at Bowling Green. I don’t know if that helped him, but once the door opened, it was flood gates. Everyone started calling me and him as well as contacting him on social media. It was refreshing in a way where he was a kid that didn’t go to 65 camps to get seen. He got to be him and that was good enough.

Q: What other colleges were considered?

PETERS: I think it really came down to Iowa and Michigan State. Those were his big two. West Virginia was in there. Ohio State was in the fold. We talked a lot about that he would go to one of these campuses where he would walk around and feel that this is home. He called me at Iowa and said this was home. He felt really comfortable and good. He likes the way the program is run. He found his home.

Q: How was it working with the Iowa staff during the recruiting process?

PETERS: Brian Ferentz came in and won he over almost right out of the gate. They just had two tight ends drafted in the first round and a lot of coaches would beat that drum, especially with a kid like Luke. (Brian) says that is great for us and those kids, but no one talks about the last two or three that didn’t get drafted. I realized then that this dude is for real. It was about developing relationships and knowing Luke more than trying to sell him a car. What really stood out to me was how honest he was. I know Luke appreciated that.

Advertisement