By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – As long as Kirk Ferentz is the Iowa football coach, there will always be a direct link to the late, great Hayden Fry, who rebuilt the Iowa program over 40 years ago with help from Ferentz as his offensive line coach from 1981 to 1989.

Fry also recruited the father of current Iowa starting linebacker Jayden Montgomery, who is the son of former Iowa defensive lineman Jerry Montgomery.

Jerry Montgomery played his first season at Iowa under Fry in 1998 and his last three seasons under Ferentz in 1999, 2000 and 2001.

Jerry Montgomery helped lay the foundation under Kirk Ferentz, and now a quarter century later, that foundation still is sturdy and strong, thanks to players like Montgomery’s son, Jayden.

Listed at just 5-foot-11 and 227 pounds, Jayden Montgomery is under-sized for a Big Ten linebacker, but he compensates with toughness, anticipation, rock-solid fundamentals, instincts and grit.

He leads by example, and with his words.

Jayden Montgomery is the latest in a long and distinguished list of what Kirk Ferentz likes to call stories about players who have defied the odds while developing within the Iowa culture.

If his father hadn’t played for Iowa, who knows where Jayden Montgomery would be right now.

He probably wouldn’t be part of what has turned into a dynamic duo with fellow linebacker Cam Buffington, who leads the team with 82 tackles heading into Saturday’s 6:30 p.m. game against Purdue at Kinnick Stadium, followed by Montgomery with 55 tackles.

Buffington also leads Iowa with nine tackles for loss, followed by Montgomery and defensive lineman Bryce Hawthorne with eight.

Montgomery also ranks second on the team with 3.5 sacks.

He and the 6-3, 239-pound Buffington are playing as well as any linebackers in the Big Ten.

And while it’s easy to fixate on Buffington’s immense physical skills and NFL potential, Montgomery’s impact can’t be overstated as Kirk Ferentz pointed out when asked this past Tuesday what is allowing for Buffington and Montgomery to perform at such a high level.

“With all due respect to Cam, it starts with Jayden,” Kirk Ferentz said. “I just can’t say enough about him. I say it every year. For us to have a good team, we have to have great stories, and his story began well before this year, but he has a good story.

“His high school coach was here last Friday at practice. Full disclosure, he said he wasn’t sure Jayden would be a good enough player to play in the Big Ten level, and size is part of that.

“You look at everything he does. It is such top-quality. Everything about him, it’s just really impressive, and he plays that way. That’s just how he plays. Luckily, you don’t have to be 6’3″ to be great linebacker, I don’t think, and he’s really played at a high level going back to last year, and all he’s done is build on that certainly.”

Former Iowa offensive coordinator Don Patterson said this past Monday on the Hawk Fanatic radio show and podcast that Montgomery reminds him in some ways of former Iowa All-America linebacker Larry Station, who led the team in tackles for four straight seasons from 1982 to 1985.

“He really studies the opponent, he absolutely does,” Patterson said of Jayden Montgomery. “He knows where he has to be at all times and he just makes plays.

“Larry Station was the same way, always prepared and in the right place.”

Station was also short at 5-11, but he had knack for sniffing out plays and could tackle with the best of them.

“Does everything as a player — I really hate that word instinctive, but he plays fast because he studies so hard,” Kirk Ferentz said of Jayden  Montgomery. “In fact, I was talking to somebody that coached here back in the ’80s this morning. We were talking about Larry Station. Some of the parallels there just as far as the way they play, and a lot of that’s just the preparation that they go through. He’s really done great.”

Ferentz didn’t identify who he had spoken to about Montgomery, though it could have been Patterson since he coached at Iowa throughout Hayden Fry’s 20-year reign from 1979 to 1998.

Montgomery is in his fifth year as a Hawkeye and he became a starter about midway through last season after former Hawkeye linebacker Jaden Harrell was injured.

Buffington is in his third year at Iowa, recruited out of Winfield where he played eight-man football in high school.

“Then Cam is a different story in that it’s his first year playing,” Kirk Ferentz said. “He’s playing really fast too. I think it’s a credit to the players. There’s some natural part to playing football I think, but also the hard work and the study that they put in has really, really been impressive. They really are playing off each other really well, so it’s been a good tandem certainly. Fun to see.

“Seems like whoever steps into that middle linebacker position has done pretty well the last five, six years, so pretty good deal.”

The chemistry that exists between Montgomery and Buffington on the field also stretches to off the field where there is a tight bond with all the Iowa linebackers, which also includes fifth-year starter Landyn Van Kekerix.

“Our friendship off the field and our connection, I think just everybody in the linebacker group as a whole, we’re just all so close, it’s just easy to go out and play with each other,” said Buffington, who is a Butkus Award semifinalist. “We’re confident in what each other’s doing. The off-field experience just helps with the on-field experience, just like the connection and the confidence in each other, knowing what we’re going to do each play.”

Montgomery, who is from Suamico, Wisconsin, grew up not only as a Hawkeye fan, but also as the son of a coach.

Jerry Montgomery is currently the defensive line coach for the Cincinnati Bengals; the latest stop in a career that started in 2003 as an Iowa graduate assistant. Jerry Montgomery was also an assistant coach at Iowa City West High School in 2003 and 2004 before moving on to college and then ultimately to the NFL.

His decision to play for Hayden Fry at Iowa nearly three decades ago has changed the course of his life, while also helping to carve a path for his son, who is clearly getting the most out of being a Hawkeye, on and off the field.

In addition to starting 15 career games, Jayden Montgomery is also semifinalist for the William V. Campbell Trophy, which is awarded on an annual basis to the top college football player in the nation who best combines academic success, on-field performance and exemplary leadership.

Jayden Montgomery has made the Dean’s List, been a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar and has been named academic All-Big Ten throughout his career.

He wasn’t heavily recruited in high school, probably because he was considered too short.

But so many of the players who have thrived at Iowa were lightly recruited because there is no way to measure heart and desire.

Kirk Ferentz might have given Jayden Montgomery the benefit of the doubt during the recruiting process, partly due to Montgomery’s Hawkeye connection.

And if so, Ferentz has certainly been rewarded by Montgomery’s performance on and off the field.

Jayden Montgomery takes tremendous pride in being an Iowa football player, and with having a connection to both Hayden Fry and Kirk Ferentz.

Fry passed away in 2019 at the age of 90.

“They both have done so much for my family,” Montgomery said of Fry and Kirk Ferentz. “Iowa football has been so good to me, and was good to my father.

“This is where we both became men, where we met friends for life and where we have played a sport that we love.

“It’s a privilege and an honor to be a Hawkeye football player, as well as the son of a former Hawkeye football player.”

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