In-state TE nets Jr. Day offer
Iowa State hosted its first Junior Day for next year's Class of 2016 last weekend and extended one verbal offer to an in-state tight end following the day's events.
Chariton junior T.J. Hockenson picked up his first offer of any kind, and said he felt as if he was already a part of the I-State program.
"All of the Cyclone coaches are awesome," said Hockenson. "I wouldn't have rather had my first offer come from anywhere else. Iowa State is an amazing school. I respect all the coaches and they do a great job making me feel like I'm family when I'm not quite part of the program yet."
The 6-foot-5, 218-pound Hockenson forced his way onto the radars of college recruiters with a prolific junior season in which he caught 73 passes for 1,116 yards and 18 touchdowns for the Chargers.
After taking in a Junior Day at Iowa last month, Hockenson was anxious to see what the Cyclones had to offer.
"Right when I walked in, the coaches were lined up and happy I was there," he said. "Coach (Paul) Rhoads came over to me and asked me to follow him into his office. He asked what I liked about Iowa State University, and I told him I loved the atmosphere, facilities and coaches. I liked how it felt like family around there. He said it's a unique situation we have here and we're doing some unique things, so I'm going to offer you a scholarship to Iowa State University. There were smiles all around; it was awesome."
While the coaching staff was well aware of Hockenson from his junior year, it might have been offensive line coach Brandon Blaney's trip to a Chariton basketball game that sealed the deal.
"They were impressed with my film and Coach Blaney came down to our basketball game at Albia in December," Hockenson said. "He really enjoyed watching me play, and at that moment he knew they were going to offer me. I can't really pinpoint it down to one thing they saw, but I'm glad they saw what they did."
Although Hockenson is averaging 21 points and 11 rebounds this season for the Chargers, his future will be on the gridiron where the Cyclones hope to plug him into a tight end spot that will be in need of reinforcements.
"They told me they only have two tight ends and one of them is graduating this year," Hockenson said. "Coach (Mark) Mangino went through the plays and wanted to talk to me about myself and make me feel comfortable."
Hockenson hopes to return to Ames in the near future to share the ISU experience with his parents, who were out of town last weekend.
"My parents were in Arizona, so they weren't there to experience what I did," Hockenson said. "I'm going to be talking to the coaches and over the next couple months I'm going to try to get my parents up there to experience what I did with the coaching staff and atmosphere of the family situation."
The only other Junior Day visit Hockenson has scheduled is to Kansas State on February 28th. He also has early interest from Kansas, Michigan State, Minnesota, Missouri and Nebraska.