Kaden Wetjen, Player | Iowa Hawkeyes Men's Football
Kaden Wetjen, Player | Iowa Hawkeyes Men's Football
University of Iowa senior Kaden Wetjen has been named to the 2025 Jet Award Watch List, according to an announcement by the Jet Award Foundation. The award is given annually to college football’s top return specialist.
Wetjen, who won the Jet Award in 2024, earned recognition as an All-American by both the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) and Sporting News. He was also voted the Big Ten’s Rodgers-Dwight Return Specialist of the Year and selected for first-team All-Big Ten honors last season.
During his junior year, Wetjen led all players nationally with 1,055 combined kick return yards. He ranked first in FBS for kickoff return yards with 727 and second in punt return yards at 328.
A native of Williamsburg, Iowa, Wetjen scored twice on returns in 2024. One highlight was a 100-yard kickoff return against No. 19 Missouri during the Music City Bowl. That play tied multiple records: it matched the longest kickoff return in program history, equaled Iowa’s longest bowl game kickoff return—originally set by C.J. Jones in the 2003 Orange Bowl—and matched LSU’s Leonard Fournette for the Music City Bowl record set in 2014. Against Missouri, Wetjen finished with three returns totaling 151 yards and averaged a record-setting 50.33 yards per return for an Iowa bowl game.
In regular season action, he returned a punt 85 yards for a touchdown versus Northwestern—the seventh-longest punt return ever at Iowa. Wetjen also became the first Hawkeye since at least 1978 to register more than 100 kickoff return yards in three consecutive games (against Washington, Michigan State, and Northwestern).
The preseason watch list includes sixteen players from across college football who have shown strong skills as return specialists. The winner will be chosen by voters including FWAA members, past Jet Award winners, and co-founders Johnny Rodgers and William Reed.
The Jet Award is named after Johnny "The Jet" Rodgers—a Heisman Trophy winner and College Football Hall of Famer—and will be presented at a gala on April 2, 2026, in Omaha.
Iowa begins its football season against UAlbany on August 30 at Kinnick Stadium with a scheduled start time of 5 p.m. CT.
Other Hawkeyes featured on major national watch lists include Rhys Dakin (Ray Guy Award), Gennings Dunker (Outland Trophy/Wuerffel Award), Aaron Graves (Nagurski Trophy), Mark Gronowski (Maxwell Award), Logan Jones (Outland Trophy), Drew Stevens (Lou Groza Award), along with Kaden Wetjen for the Jet Award.
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