SOLON, Iowa — Countless repetitions on the practice field have cemented Tyler Linderbaum’s reputation as one of college football’s most prolific centers. It’s equally fair to credit Linderbaum’s early failures on the wrestling mat in developing his competitiveness and perseverance.
One year into his high school experience, Linderbaum was a basketball player. Solon wrestling coach Blake Williams saw the situation differently. Williams knew Linderbaum and his family well and wanted the thick-muscled youngster to become his heavyweight. Williams coaxed Linderbaum to a few summer workouts, and he traded his high-tops for a singlet. The sport helped Linderbaum grow exponentially as an athlete but in the process, he also endured some of the most humbling moments of his career.
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“It was definitely tough getting my butt whupped,” Linderbaum said. “I don’t remember what my record was, but I know it wasn’t good. I probably had 20-plus losses. But that’s just like with any new sport you try. There’s going to be learning curves, and it just all depends how you attack it and how good you want to be. I ended up enjoying it and liking the sport, and I wanted to be good at it.”
Linderbaum gradually improved. He ended his career with a third-place finish in 2018 and won 122 matches over three years. Williams, a recent inductee into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame after more than 400 dual-meet victories, channeled Linderbaum’s toughness and persistence. Linderbaum’s determination overcame his lack of technique in several matches.
“Probably in all the years that I coached wrestling, I don’t think I coached a wrestler that had probably a will to win more than Tyler,” Williams said. “I mean, he refused to lose. He wasn’t the best wrestler by any means. But boy, he made up for it with his will to win. He won a lot of matches against guys that had wrestled their whole lives and knew a lot more about wrestling. But he made up for it because he didn’t want to lose. He didn’t lose very often. When he did, he didn’t like it.”
That humility turned into character and fueled Linderbaum’s work ethic. The fundamentals he acquired in hand fighting, leverage and footwork apply to this very day. It stretched his mental fortitude. It made him tougher.
“Wrestling is probably the hardest sport I’ve ever done,” Linderbaum said. “It’s one-on-one; nobody’s there to help you.”
Linderbaum’s competitiveness shined through his state track and field accomplishments. His loyalty was on display by sticking with baseball as a high school senior while working out with Iowa football. Wrestling gave him more mental and physical skills than he could ever describe. All of them collectively formed the mosaic of an elite Iowa football player.
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‘A bright future’
With four games remaining and five months before his 21st birthday, Linderbaum has developed into perhaps the best center in college football.
Pro Football Focus has graded Linderbaum as the nation’s top center and the best pass blocker in the Big Ten who hasn’t allowed a pressure in his last 252 pass-blocking snaps. Dane Brugler, NFL Draft analyst for The Athletic, said, “he’s trending towards becoming a top-50 prospect.” Next month, Linderbaum will be a strong candidate for All-American teams and the Rimington Award, which goes to the nation’s best center.
But Linderbaum is just a redshirt sophomore, barely two calendar years removed from playing high school baseball. Like most potential pro athletes, Linderbaum publicly has shrugged off any discussion about his future, especially with a month left in the regular season. His tune doesn’t change much privately, either.
“He’s got a bright future ahead of him,” said Kevin Miller, former Solon football coach and a lifelong friend of Tyler’s father, Todd. “It’s going be hard if you are a first-round, early second-round guy to pass up the opportunity. I mean, because you’re one play away from — you know what I mean — not having that opportunity. But he’s a loyal guy, too. He loves the University of Iowa.
“This summer, we talked a little bit about it. We went golfing, and he doesn’t even want to talk about that. He’s one of those guys, what’s in front of him.”
Linderbaum (6-foot-3, 290 pounds) played both offensive and defensive line at Solon High School and was an early commit to Iowa. During high school workouts, former Iowa and NFL linebacker James Morris told Miller that Linderbaum is “special” and should play center in college. “Because if he does,” Morris told Miller, “he has the ability to play at the next level. Those were his exact words.”
When Miller and then-Iowa assistant coach Reese Morgan discussed Linderbaum during the recruiting process, the Solon coach shared his conversation with Morris. Linderbaum committed as a defensive tackle and that was his course when he signed in December 2017. He then played defensive tackle in two games as a true freshman in 2018.
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As Iowa prepared for the Outback Bowl after the 2018 season, coach Kirk Ferentz became concerned about the team’s future at center. The program was graduating a one-year starter in Keegan Render and Ferentz was unsure if any lineman on the roster could command that spot. Then he spotted Linderbaum working on the defensive side.
For an old offensive line coach like Ferentz, centers are more than just a third guard. “Quarterbacks think they are big shots, but if they don’t get the ball, they are going nowhere,” Ferentz said. Going back two decades, he once considered shifting Aaron Kampman to that position. Instead, Ferentz moved Bruce Nelson, and he became a second-team All-American. Kampman became a Pro Bowl defensive linemen with the Green Bay Packers.
From 2010 onward, Iowa had three multi-year starting centers, and all three opened NFL games in 2020. Ferentz eyed Linderbaum but he knew the position change would draw blood from his defensive coaches. So the move was considered a temporary experiment.
“I had a brainstorm on that one, we all were in agreement this guy is just a really good football player, both sides of the ball,” Ferentz said. “Good athlete in other sports as well. Wrestling, baseball. He’s a football player that’s got a great love for the game and great love for his teammates and (was a) great leader in high school and certainly has been a good leader here.
“The point there is the leadership qualities that he possessed and just his motor, just his desire that he played with on play-in and play-out, those are good desirable traits for a guy who is in the middle on the offensive line.”
As expected, the defensive staff howled. Defensive coordinator Phil Parker scoffed, “just stay in my lane. It’s not worth fighting about.” Offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz said, “I kind of felt like Jimmy Johnson on that. I don’t know what they got back, but we got Linderbaum and that was pretty good.”
Despite playing the position for only a couple of weeks, Linderbaum became Iowa’s second-team center for the Outback Bowl. The experiment was permanent. The staff was reluctant to name him an official starter in early 2019 but by the end of spring practice, Linderbaum was as solidified as the program’s first starting freshman center since 2006. By the end of the year, Linderbaum was named a freshman All-American by The Athletic.
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‘Flip the switch’
Many players can match physical attributes and intangible characteristics to compete at a high level. Linderbaum has both, from high-level athletic ability to landing on the University of Iowa Dean’s List and becoming a team captain. Then there are other aspects that allow his skill set to rise above his peers.
“He’s quick, he’s athletic. He’s just an exceptional athlete that has great balance and coordination,” Miller said. “It’s the other things that really separate him. Just his work ethic, the way he prepares. I’ve coached a lot of great players, but the thing that really stands out about Tyler is his ability to play so hard all the time, whether it’s practice or a game. He just gives maximum effort on a consistent basis.”
“It’s amazing how he can flip that switch,” Williams said. “He’s a great kid. Nice young man, very polite, all of that. But I tell you, when he can flip that switch, man, he is mean. I wouldn’t want to be in the way, and I think a lot a lot of defensive linemen are finding that out.”
This year, Linderbaum repeatedly has displayed the qualities that make him an elite center. On an outside zone to his left against Michigan State, Linderbaum not only executed a reach block on three-technique defensive tackle Jacob Slade, the center drove the defender five yards off the line of scrimmage and into a linebacker. Both defenders hit the turf, and Iowa scored a touchdown.
At Minnesota two weeks ago, Linderbaum took out two downfield defenders more than 20 yards past the line of scrimmage on a 45-yard run from Tyler Goodson. It was nearly as impressive as a 2019 quarterback sneak when he buried a Minnesota defender six yards off the snap.
“He’s gotten better,” Iowa offensive line coach Tim Polasek said. “Athletically, he’s better, physically stronger, he’s bigger. He’s tough as nails, and he really cares.”
Brian Ferentz said he doesn’t recall his analogy of Jimmy Johnson trading Herschel Walker to the Minnesota Vikings for a massive haul of draft picks. But he will claim it.
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“I look smart now so I’ll let you give me credit for it,” Brian Ferentz said. “Tyler is playing at a really high level.
“When you’re talking about Tyler, yes, athletic, strong, has all those measurables that you’re looking for. But the level he’s competing at, his desire to compete and to line up and beat the person across from him, it’s as high as I’ve been around. He’s a pleasure to coach. He’s a pleasure to be around. If we can steal some more guys like that from the defense, we’d certainly love to do it. Guys like him are few and far between.”
Linderbaum has built close relationships with several players, perhaps none more than quarterback Spencer Petras. It started when Petras was living with receiver Nico Ragaini, and Linderbaum walked into their dorm room.
“He went on Call of Duty and had like a 50-kill game with only one death, which is like crazy good,” Petras said. “So we’re at that point like, ‘Whoa, this guy’s pretty good.’”
They since palled around, and live together in the same Iowa City house. Linderbaum has brought Petras up to his family home countless times the last few years. They talk football constantly but Linderbaum frowns upon recognition and refrains from watching his own highlights.
“Any kind of praise I give him he tries to beat me up after,” Petras said. “He’ll make me like one of those D-lineman whenever I try to give him any kind of props or anything. Obviously, he’s like a nasty physical player, extremely gifted athletically and he prepares really well.”
Linderbaum engaged in a friendly rivalry with former Iowa teammate Tristan Wirfs, now the starting right tackle with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Wirfs hails from Mount Vernon, which is located about eight miles north of Solon. They squared off against one another in every sport for several years, and it came to a head in 2017.
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Although they had faced off multiple times at different levels, Linderbaum and Wirfs wrestled against one another three times on varsity. Twice in 2016, Wirfs pinned Linderbaum. Their final match was in a regional dual. As Wirfs tried to throw him, Linderbaum instead caught his rival and drove him to his back. Linderbaum recorded the pin for the win. Later that month, Solon won the Class 2A team state title while Wirfs was crowned the heavyweight state champion.
“That’s the one everybody remembers,” Wirfs said previously. “It got harder every time. I don’t think I could throw him or anything, and I knew it was always going to be close. But I was always nervous because he’s like a bulldog. He’d come out all fighting and stuff. I’m like, ‘All right. I’ve got to slow things down. This is too fast.’”
“We joked around a little bit when Tristan was here,” Linderbaum said. “His comeback to me was always how he got me the seven other times. But most recent, I think that’s what we all look at. That’s what really matters.”
It’s that tenacity that defines Linderbaum, even more than his success. In Iowa, high school baseball and softball are played during the summer. That’s also when Iowa football began its training. Linderbaum wanted one more season with his high school friends and to represent Solon. He elected to do both. He attended 6 a.m. workout sessions at Iowa and attended classes during the day. Then he would make the 12-mile journey to Solon for baseball practice or a game. Including road trips, Linderbaum sometimes returned to his Iowa City dorm room around midnight.
Linderbaum never skipped a football workout, and he missed only one baseball game that summer. Solon ended up in the state tournament.
“One of the things I think most impressive about Tyler is he’s so humble,” Miller said. “He’s not an ego-minded, arrogant individual. He’s the same small-town guy with the same value system. He doesn’t play football because it defines who he is. I think that’s important. You never forget where you came from. And I don’t think he’ll be one of those guys.”
(Top photo: Stephen Mally / hawkeyesports.com)