The Q&A below is from Iowa City West head football coach Garrett Hartwig.
What type of player has he been for you overall?
“Cole as a sophomore last year was making all the calls on defense. He is a player that just has a toughness about him. He comes from a ranch background. During the summer, he’ll be gone for two weeks in Oklahoma to work on a ranch and he enjoys it. He is nitty gritty tough. He is athletic. Having over 100-tackles and setting school records as a sophomore is getting the job done. He has a lot of potential.”
What will his role be this fall?
“We don’t want to change a whole lot for him. He will get a lot better being the big dog on the field as far as age is concerned. We’ll use him more offensively. We used him in a wildcat package and we would like to use him in that more depending on the situation and how things are going.”
What is he trying to improve on?
“Probably just basic man coverage stuff. He is a little raw in that because he just hasn’t played a ton of man. There are some options we can look at if he can lock down. It frees up for a lot of other things we can do. We haven’t asked him to do that yet but that is something we can think about.”
Has he had early college attention?
“Yeah, there have been quite a few schools asking about him. Nothing I can say formally because of his age but he has had as much intrigue as anyone who is a sophomore.”
What level do you project him for in college?
“I think he is a Division I player. He has good size as a sophomore at 6-2, 185 pounds without an ounce of fat. He is tough too. He competed at the 4A level in the 400-meter hurdles as a freshman. That is tough.”
What type of player has he been for you overall?
“Cole as a sophomore last year was making all the calls on defense. He is a player that just has a toughness about him. He comes from a ranch background. During the summer, he’ll be gone for two weeks in Oklahoma to work on a ranch and he enjoys it. He is nitty gritty tough. He is athletic. Having over 100-tackles and setting school records as a sophomore is getting the job done. He has a lot of potential.”
What will his role be this fall?
“We don’t want to change a whole lot for him. He will get a lot better being the big dog on the field as far as age is concerned. We’ll use him more offensively. We used him in a wildcat package and we would like to use him in that more depending on the situation and how things are going.”
What is he trying to improve on?
“Probably just basic man coverage stuff. He is a little raw in that because he just hasn’t played a ton of man. There are some options we can look at if he can lock down. It frees up for a lot of other things we can do. We haven’t asked him to do that yet but that is something we can think about.”
Has he had early college attention?
“Yeah, there have been quite a few schools asking about him. Nothing I can say formally because of his age but he has had as much intrigue as anyone who is a sophomore.”
What level do you project him for in college?
“I think he is a Division I player. He has good size as a sophomore at 6-2, 185 pounds without an ounce of fat. He is tough too. He competed at the 4A level in the 400-meter hurdles as a freshman. That is tough.”
