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Ready to report: Koen Entringer

Koen Entringer makes the move to Iowa City on June 12th.
Koen Entringer makes the move to Iowa City on June 12th.

As Koen Entringer gets ready to report to Iowa City for his freshman year with the Hawkeyes, he says that he feels prepared and is excited get started. We caught up with the 6-foot-3, 200-pound Entringer this week to talk about making the move, what position he will be playing, and much more.

Q: What's the feeling like this spring as you wrap up high school and get ready for college?

ENTRINGER: Wrapping up high school has been kind of bittersweet. I'm excited to go play college football because it's definitely been a dream of mine, but I didn't really expect the time to come so fast to be honest. It's been good though.

Q: Did you play other sports after football during your senior year?

ENTRINGER: I ran track.

Q: How did track season go for you?

ENTRINGER: Track went pretty well. I got first at a few meets so it went pretty well.

Q: What do you run?

ENTRINGER: I run the 100, the 4x100, the 4x200, and I long jumped.

Q: What was your best 100 on the season?

ENTRINGER: My best 100 time this year was 11.1 I think.

Q: Have you already graduated at this point or have a little bit of school left to go?

ENTRINGER: I'm done with school and my graduation is June 5.

Q: When do you make the move out to Iowa?

ENTRINGER: I'm going to start driving out there June 9.

Q: When you get there, what are you looking forward to in getting started this summer?

ENTRINGER: I'm just looking forward to starting up football again. I miss it, so I'm excited to start back up. I'm excited to start bonding with my teammates and obviously to start learning the playbook more and just prepare for my first year of college football.

Q: You got to know Xavier Nwankpa and TJ Hall pretty well during recruiting. What have you heard from them about their time there already since they enrolled early?

ENTRINGER: Xavier said it's been a lot of fun. He said with the playbook, learning the coverages isn't too bad, but getting the signals down is definitely the challenging part. I'm pretty blessed to have someone like him and TJ that are there early and can help me learn things once I get there.

Q: Coming in, what position are you going to start out at?

ENTRINGER: I'm pretty sure I'm playing safety.

Q: And then you have the versatility to play corner too if needed?

ENTRINGER: Yeah, definitely. I'm just there to do whatever helps the team. If they need me on offense, I'm more than happy to help them there too, but I was recruited to play safety so we'll start out there I think.

Q: During your recruiting, how many different positions did you hear from the schools that offered you?

ENTRINGER: Just about every school was going to let me play receiver or safety I think. Some schools said corner, one school said linebacker, but for the most part it was receiver, safety, and corner.

Q: What are you coming in at height and weight wise right now?

ENTRINGER: I've grown a little so now I'm a true 6-3 and 200 pounds.

Q: Have you found out what number you are wearing in college?

ENTRINGER: Yeah, at least from what I've heard, I'm going to be wearing #4 next year.

Q: Does that suit you well?

ENTRINGER: Yeah, I'm just blessed to be playing college football. I would be fine wearing #98 or something like that. It's just a blessing to play football in college. I feel like it's the player that makes the number anyway, so anything is good with me.

Q: Can you take me back to your recruiting journey a bit with how it all kind of blew up your senior year? What did you remember about it all when you reflect on it?

ENTRINGER: At least for me, the recruiting process went by really fast. I think for a lot of kids, it's a longer process and they're not really in a rush, but for me the whole four years happened in like one or two months so it was definitely fast. It was different coming home and having to talk to college coaches the moment you get done with school until 11 PM and at the same time having to juggle school and still playing high school football. It was definitely different, but I'm just blessed because only a smaller percentage of athletes get to play Division I football. But looking back at it, it's pretty surreal.

Q: Was it another sport started out playing and then came into football relatively late in your athletic career?

ENTRINGER: Yeah. I played soccer my whole life and then my freshman year one of my friends told me that football is the hardest sport, so I decided to give it a try. I played my freshman and sophomore year, kind of just messing around, but I had some coaches that really believed in me and told me I had a chance to be really good. Then I kind of started seeing it as an opportunity I couldn't pass up and started to lock in more my junior year.

Q: Coming in this fall, do you have any goals in mind? Are you hoping to play or thinking about a redshirt?

ENTRINGER: I mean if I redshirt, that's God's plan. I'm just going to give it 200% every time I'm on the field and every time I have an opportunity and compete. If I can play, then I'll play and if I don't, I don't, but I can at least go to bed knowing that I gave it my all. I'm going to prepare like I'm a starter every day so when my name is called I'll be ready.

Q: Have you ever been to a game out there?

ENTRINGER: No, I haven't.

Q: What's that feeling going to be like for you in your first college game coming out of the tunnel at the stadium?

ENTRINGER: I feel like I'm always going to get pre-game jitters. I get that every game, but once the whistle blows everything is all right. It's just football at the end of the day. You see the ball, tackle the person, and stick with your coverage.

Q: Going back to recruiting, when you look back at your decision now, what was it about Iowa that stood out that made you comfortable with it being the choice for you?

ENTRINGER: What stood out the most about Iowa was the official visit. I was able to meet Xavier and TJ and the other recruits and got to see the people I'm going into college with and they are amazing and great players in their own right who are going to push me. Then also on top of that I think Phil Parker is one of the best defensive coaches in the country. He's had a pedigree of developing players and sending them to the NFL, so that was really important to me. Then just the family aspect of Iowa too. Obviously, not everybody is going to make it to the NFL, but the program is a family that really supports you and takes care of you.

A three-star prospect, Entringer committed to Iowa on December 15, 2021, choosing the Hawkeyes over scholarship offers from Wisconsin, Michigan, Boston College, Notre Dame, Utah, Colorado, Maryland, Syracuse, and Vanderbilt, among others.

As a senior, Entringer finished the season with 88 tackles, three tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, and one interception on defense and 26 catches for 444 yards and six touchdowns on offense for Walled Lake Western High School.

See highlights from Entringer in the video below.

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