Iowa DL features three 8-man football stars

By foxsports
Published

Nathan Bazata, Drew Ott, and Nate Meier are all starting defensive lineman for the Iowa Hawkeyes but they also have something else even more unique in common.

They all came from small town eight-man football schools. Ott is from Trumbull, Nebraska while Bazata hails from Howells, Nebraska and Meier is from Tabor, Iowa. Each player came to Iowa to prove as coming from 8-man ball creates a certain stigma. 

Head coach Kirk Ferentz knows how unique this situation is:

"I think that's probably pretty rare, especially at one position," Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. "You couldn't do that on purpose, quite frankly. I don't know how it happened, but we're certainly glad that it did. All three guys have done a really good job."

Having players with a chip on their shoulder is never a bad thing and the Hawkeyes have struck gold here as they are off to a 3-0 start.

(h/t ESPN)