By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Iowa football team will be represented at Big Ten Media Day in Chicago by tight end Addison Ostrenga, linebacker Jayden Montgomery and defensive back Zach Lutmer.

And how fitting those three were picked because they truly represent what Iowa football is all about as a developmental program where recruiting stars and scholarship offers mean very little under veteran head coach Kirk Ferentz.

Iowa was the only Power Four program to offer Ostrenga, Montgomery and Lutmer a scholarship.

Ostrenga was actually set to play baseball for Iowa until Kirk Ferentz made the Wisconsin native a late offer that he couldn’t refuse.

Montgomery, who is the son of former Iowa defensive lineman Jerry Montgomery, picked Iowa over scholarship offers from North Dakota State, Troy, Indiana State, Northern Iowa, Pennsylvania and Southern Illinois, while Lutmer picked Iowa over offers from South Dakota and South Dakota State.

These three are among the latest in a long and distinguished list of Iowa players that have defied the odds and exceeded expectations based on where they were ranked as recruits.

Ferentz has been defying the odds throughout his historic run at Iowa; turning hundreds of unheralded recruits into college stars, and in some cases, NFL stars.

Veteran recruiting analyst Tom Lemming has long considered Iowa as one of the best, if not the best program for identifying talent and potential where others don’t see it, and then developing it over time.

“I’ve often said he’s the best in the country at developing three stars into high draft picks,” Lemming said. “The staff’s been with him for a while and I believe overall they do the best job.

“You rarely see them get four and five-star (recruits), but they do turn them into four and five stars who get drafted.

“Kirk’s number one in my book.”

Iowa has had 101 players selected in the NFL Draft since Ferentz started coaching the Hawkeyes in 1999, including a record seven players this past April.

Four of the seven players were ranked no higher than a three-star recruit; the exceptions being offensive linemen Logan Jones and Beau Stephens and defensive end Max Llewellyn, all of whom were ranked as four-star recruits.

But even as a four-star recruit, Jones only had four Power Four scholarship offers from Iowa, Minnesota, Iowa State and Nebraska, whose offer came late in the recruiting cycle.

Kaden Wetjen came to Iowa in 2022 as a walk-on receiver from Williamsburg and he left as one of the greatest return specialists in Big Ten history and would go on to be selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the fourth round of the 2026 NFL Draft.

Wetjen drew very little recruiting attention in high school, so he spent a year in junior college before coming to Iowa as a walk-on with something to prove and with a chip on his shoulder.

Iowa players often talk about having a chip on their shoulder, which comes from being under-valued and overlooked as a recruit.

Former star safety Bob Sanders had two scholarship offers coming out of high school in Erie, Pennsylvania from Iowa and Ohio.

Ferentz trusted his friend and long-time mentor Joe Moore, who encouraged Ferentz to offer Sanders a scholarship.

Sanders signed with Iowa in 2000 and would go on to make first-team All-Big Ten three times. He was also named the NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2007 while playing for the Indianapolis Colts.

Ferentz credits Sanders for changing the culture and the tempo at a time when the Iowa program was rebuilding. Sanders was among the first unheralded recruits to thrive under Ferentz at Iowa.

Sanders was undersized from a physical standpoint, barely standing 5-foot-8, but he compensated with speed, quickness, toughness and grit. He was a ferocious tackler who made one bone-jarring hit after another.

One of the keys to Ferentz’s success are the people working under him, most notably veteran defensive coordinator Phil Parker, who has been with Ferentz since the beginning in 1999. Parker is now considered one of the best defensive coordinators in college football, and he also excels as a recruiter in seeing talent and potential where others coaches don’t see it.

Kirk Ferentz certainly isn’t against recruiting four- and five-star prospects. But he also takes a realistic approach in that he doesn’t waste much time pursuing what would be considered long shots.

It’s hard to argue with Ferentz’s approach, given that he is the Big Ten’s all-time winningest head coach with 209 victories.

Ferentz’s approach has withstood the test of time and shows no signs of letting up based on the three players Iowa will send to Big Ten Media Day on July 28.

Ostrenga only played in two games last season as he suffered a season-ending Achilles injury in the second game against Iowa State. But he is now healthy and ready to represent the school, the program and the head coach that believed in him when hardly anyone else did.