Iowa City Today

Brandon Scherff, a former standout for the Iowa Hawkeyes football team, will be inducted into the 2025 Iowa Athletics Hall of Fame. Scherff, who played at Denison-Schleswig High School, was initially noticed by Iowa assistant coach Reese Morgan during a state track and field meet. At the time, Scherff was competing in shot put and told Morgan he played quarterback.

“He asked me if I played football,” Scherff recalls. “I said, ‘You bet.’ He says, ‘What position?’ I said, ‘Quarterback.’ He says, ‘Oh, no.’”

Despite his experience as a high school quarterback, Iowa coaches saw potential in Scherff as an offensive lineman. “I got an offer from Iowa, and I said, ‘For quarterback?’ and Coach (Kirk) Ferentz said, ‘Absolutely not,’” Scherff says. “They saw something in me that I never, never imagined.”

Scherff went on to become one of the most accomplished offensive linemen in Iowa football history. He won the Outland Trophy in 2014 as the nation’s best interior lineman and was named a consensus first-team All-American that year. He also earned Big Ten Offensive Lineman of the Year honors.

“I think it was sophomore year, I remember sitting down with them, and they said that if you keep playing well and doing this, you’ve got a shot at playing in the NFL,” Scherff says. “As a little kid, that was a dream for me. And it kind of put it in perspective for me that, you know, it could happen.

“I mean, I went against Adrian Clayborn (10BA) and Mike Daniels (11BA) and Christian Ballard and Broderick Binns (12BA, 18MA) and Karl Klug (10BA) in practice. They kicked my butt day-in and day-out. And if it wasn’t for that, I don’t know if I’d be where I was. So I’m truly thankful for that.”

Scherff noted that Iowa’s reputation for developing offensive linemen helped him during his transition to professional football. “Any time you walked into a room at the (NFL Draft) combine and you said, ‘University of Iowa,’ they would say, ‘Oh, you know what you’re doing,’” Scherff says.

He was selected fifth overall by Washington in the 2015 NFL Draft. During his professional career with Washington from 2015-2021 and Jacksonville from 2022 through last season, he became an All-Pro selection in 2020 and appeared in five Pro Bowls.

“It’s been something I could never dream of,” says Scherff, who retired from playing this summer. “Sometimes I would tell my wife that she has to pinch me because I’m playing a kid’s game, and being able to do it as a job is pretty amazing. Now having kids and being able to see them after games is absolutely wonderful. So I would say it’s a dream come true. And I will be forever grateful to have had that chance.”

Other inductees spotlighted alongside Scherff include Justin Austin (men's track and field), Lisa Birocci Banse (softball), Bob Bowlsby (administration), Lisa Cellucci (field hockey), Elena Callas King (women's golf), Brad Smith (men's wrestling), and Tom Williams (men's swimming and diving).

Scherff’s college career included starting all 26 games as a junior and senior at Iowa; he was twice named first-team All-Big Ten selection and served as permanent team captain as a senior.