Three-star linebacker out of Williamsburg, Iowa, Derek Weisskopf has signed with Iowa. He chose the Hawkeyes in April of 2022, following his sophomore season.
Though he committed early, he did earn offers from a few notable Power 5 programs, including Nebraska, Iowa State and Wisconsin. Chances are strong that his recruitment would have continued to pick up steam had he not picked the Hawkeyes so early in the recruitment process.
Weisskopf will play linebacker in Iowa City, but he did a little bit of everything for the Raiders during his senior campaign, including playing safety, tight end, quarterback and holding down punting duties.
During his senior season, he racked up 58.5 tackles, grabbed four interceptions including a pick six and recovered a fumble on defense.
On offense, he caught 14 passes for 212 yards and four touchdowns, ran the ball 57 times for 317 yards and two scores and completed 64 of 110 passes for 1,123 yards and 20 touchdowns after taking over for the starting QB who went down with an injury.
He also punted the ball 31 times for 1,169 yards -- an average of 37.7 yards per punt.
He did all of this en route to earning All-American honors this season. He will play in the Army All-American Game on January 6, 2024 in Dallas, TX.
As well as being productive on the field, Weisskopf is also a great teammate, as his high school coach Curt Ritchie told me this fall.
"He's a great culture fit," he said. "And he's going to get better wherever they put him. Wherever we put him we get better -- whether it's linebacker, H-Back, tight end, or safety, we get better. They'll find the right fit for him."
"Truthfully, his best attribute is that he's a competitor. The bigger the competition, the more he rises to the occasion. It just doesn't phase him, he's been like that since he was young. He'll be a great fit for Iowa, because he'll just rise up and keep getting better."
Weisskopf proved that by leading the Raiders to the school's first-ever state football championship in 3A this season -- and he showed it on the stat sheet in Cedar Falls:
