Tim Lester discusses Hecklinski, Brown, future of QB position at Iowa
The Hawkeyes’ second-year offensive coordinator spoke ahead of the ReliaQuest Bowl vs. Vanderbilt, and quarterbacks were a big topic.
- DJ Vonnahme earned a scholarship at Iowa after starting as a preferred walk-on.
- The redshirt freshman tight end led the Hawkeyes in receiving yards during the regular season.
- Vonnahme grew up on a family farm outside of Breda, Iowa, connecting him to the program’s “America Needs Farmers” tradition.
This was something out of the ordinary: Becky Vonnahme was getting a call from her son, DJ. Becky braced herself for bad news.
“Usually, boys that age, they don’t call a lot,” Becky said. “They usually just text. So when he called, right away, I was like ‘Hmmm, I wonder what’s going on?’ He just sounded real nervous. I could tell in his voice something was going on. He’s like, ‘Well, I’ve got something I have to tell you.’ So, I was getting prepared that something bad had happened.”
But that wasn’t the case. Far from it, actually.
DJ, who joined Iowa football as a preferred walk-on in the 2024 recruiting class, had been put on scholarship. It took the former Carroll Kuemper standout just roughly one year in the Hawkeyes program to be elevated from walk-on to scholarship tight end.
Funny enough, DJ had a similar thought to his mother right before he was alerted to the news.
“I thought I was in trouble at first,” he told reporters earlier this season.
That scholarship preceded a promising redshirt freshman season.
Iowa’s passing game is no juggernaut, but Vonnahme emerged as a bright spot. He finished the regular season as the team leader in receiving yards with 288. He was also tied for a team-high in receptions (22) and receiving touchdowns (two). As the Dec. 31 ReliaQuest Bowl marks the final chapter of Iowa’s 2025 season, Vonnahme is a reason to be hopeful about the future of the Hawkeyes’ passing game.
“We all kind of saw that coming in spring ball,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. “That 15-day window, just saw him progressing each and every day. So I’m not going to say we’re not surprised, but we kind of saw that one developing, maybe, and it’s really good to see what he’s doing. And it’s also exciting to know he’s going to just keep getting better because he’s got a great attitude.”
Said Iowa tight ends/fullbacks coach Abdul Hodge: “I think the longer he’s in the system, the better he’s going to become … If he continues to work, he’s got a chance to be really good.”
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For Vonnahme to jump-start his college career with a walk-on opportunity is fitting for an Iowa program with a blue-collar mentality. But Vonnahme embodies more than just that. He is the product of an agricultural backbone near and dear to his home state.
His father, Bill, grew up on a farm outside of Breda, Iowa. His mother, Becky, is from a farm south of Manning. Both were raised in families that expected them to assist on the farm. Bill and Becky held jobs on top of that, which helped them develop strong work ethics from a young age. Bill quit football in his senior year of high school so he could work more. Bill and Becky have a level of regret about not being able to take more advantage of athletic opportunities in high school.
As a kid, Becky experienced the harsh financial reality of farm life. Money was tight. She was one of the people touched by coach Hayden Fry’s gesture of adding “ANF” to Iowa’s helmets, which recognized the importance of farmers in light of the farm crisis of the 1980s. The acronym, which stands for “America Needs Farmers,” remains a part of Hawkeye branding to this day.
“I remember very clearly, my hometown, my goodness, Main Street, there weren’t but maybe three or four stores that were still open,” Becky said. “It just devastated small towns. And when you had Hayden Fry put that sticker on the helmets and when the national broadcasters talked about ANF means ‘American Needs Farmers,’ it just gave you so much pride and you just felt like people get it, you know?”
DJ, the second oldest of five kids, was raised on a farm outside of Breda, Iowa (“He literally grew up on a gravel road in kind of the middle of nowhere,” Becky said). Bill works as a grain and livestock farmer. The business is a joint venture with several family members, which spans about 1,800 acres of land. Bill feeds 2,000 head of cattle that are co-owned with his father, Dennis, who DJ is named after. The operation also includes custom feeding 2,200 hogs (which means feeding and taking care of the animals but not owning them).
When Iowa played at Rutgers this season, Becky traveled to the game but Bill stayed back for high school football and because he couldn’t be away from the farm for that long.
“That’s just what DJ was used to growing up,” Becky said. “Any of our trips or vacations, it always had to be kind of based around who could do chores and what time of year it was, just to make it more convenient because it is a big responsibility (being) livestock farmers.”
But while he was exposed to that lifestyle, DJ himself did not necessarily gravitate to the work on the farm.
“DJ would always help me a little bit,” Bill said, “but livestock was not his cup of tea.”
Becky added, “He’s a boy that grew up on a farm, he’s not a farm boy.”
But it was clear from a young age that DJ had a knack for sports. When DJ was two years old, he stood in front of the TV and pretended to swing a bat while watching a Chicago Cubs game.
“I turned to Bill and I was like, ‘Um, he’s timing his pitches,’” Becky said. “And he was. He was swinging based upon when the ball was crossing the plate as a 2-year-old. It was just crazy. So he just has always had a very natural athleticism and game IQ with whatever sport it was that he played.”
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Becky pushed back on the narrative that DJ was underrecruited out of high school. It wasn’t until after a scary fall on the basketball court during his junior year of high school that DJ decided he wanted to pursue football at the college level, putting him behind the curve in the fast-moving recruiting world.
DJ, who played quarterback, receiver and safety during his career at Kuemper, earned Division I scholarship offers from Northern Iowa, Colorado State, South Dakota and South Dakota State. Iowa extended a preferred walk-on opportunity.
Becky was a huge Hawkeye fan growing up. But Bill? Not so much.
“She transitioned me,” Bill said.
“That was an ultimatum for marriage,” Becky quipped, prompting a laugh from Bill.
When it came to DJ’s college recruitment, he would have to turn down free tuition elsewhere in order to take a chance at Iowa.
“In the beginning, I was one of those people that I always thought that was crazy that a kid would turn down a full-ride scholarship to take that chance to go walk-on somewhere,” Becky said. “But it really comes down to differentiating between goals and dreams. I think coach (LeVar) Woods said it best when he was like, ‘Getting a scholarship is a goal. Where’s your dream school?’ Well, obviously, playing at the University of Iowa was a dream school. When you put it into that perspective, it was an easy sell for me and Bill to just make that work. Financially, it wasn’t the greatest decision. But when you see your kids’ potential, and you see that potential to have one of your kids make a dream come true, as parents, you’re going to do whatever you can to help them reach that.”
That gamble paid off with the scholarship ahead of DJ’s redshirt freshman season, which was further validated toward the back end of the Hawkeyes’ 2025 campaign. Over the last four games of Iowa’s 2025 regular season, DJ accumulated 12 receptions for 224 yards and two touchdowns. That included a career 91-yard performance in Iowa’s blowout win over Nebraska.
DJ becomes another recent small-town Iowa story to burst onto the scene for the Hawkeyes, joining those such as Kaden Wetjen, Zach Lutmer, Reece Vander Zee and, most prominently, Cooper DeJean.
“It’s really hard to describe for anyone that has never lived or been raised in a small town, but it’s a big, big deal when people back home hear (longtime radio play-by-play man) Gary Dolphin saying, ‘DJ Vonnahme, from Breda, Iowa,’ you know?” Becky said. “They just take so much pride in that. Because you just feel so invisible to the outside world. So, it is cool. He’s got so many people rooting for him back home.”
DJ and his family serve as a direct connection point between the Hawkeyes and “ANF.” Farming is a part of Iowa football, and Iowa football is a part of farming.
“They put in a lot of long, hard hours, especially in the spring and the fall,” Becky said, referring to members of her immediate family who have a passion for farming. “And sometimes you wonder why, with the farming economy (being) so volatile. But it’s what they love to do. And I suppose that probably is why it was easy for us, turning back around, seeing why DJ would want to take that risk of going to Iowa without being on scholarship. Because Bill does that every day — does what he loves. Sometimes you cash in on it. A lot of days you don’t. But it’s in his blood. And we just knew that going to Iowa was going to be in DJ’s blood, too.”
Follow Tyler Tachman on X @Tyler_T15, contact via email at [email protected]
