Hockenson won the John Mackey Award during his junior season and has carved out a successful NFL career.
Welcome back to our countdown to the 2026 Iowa football season!
Since May 28, we've been counting down the final 100 days until the Hawkeyes swarm out of the Kinnick Stadium tunnel for their season opener against Northern Illinois on Sept. 5.
Each day of the countdown has usually featured an article profiling one of the current members of the 2026 Hawkeyes based on their jersey number, but with only 38 days until kickoff, some of these lower numbers have begun to be infrequent, forcing us to look back at former players to wear these numbers.
Today is again one of those days. We're now 38 days away from the 2026 campaign, but there's no current Hawkeye that wears No. 38. That's not really a problem, though, because there's a pretty good former Iowa player that did - tight end T.J. Hockenson.
Remember his incredible career here.
Bio
Hometown: Chariton, Iowa
High School: Chariton High School
Years Played: 2016-2018
Height: 6-foot-5
Weight: 250 pounds
Career
Iowa has produced a ton of successful tight ends over the years, but Hockenson ranks right up there with the best of them. His success is even more impressive considering he only played two seasons (he redshirted in 2016).
Hockenson had a solid year in 2017, recording 24 catches for 320 yards and two scores. Both touchdowns came in the infamous 55-24 beatdown of then-No. 6 Ohio State at Kinnick Stadium, where he also finished with a team-best 71 receiving yards.
But Noah Fant, who has also had a lengthy NFL career so far, was the starting tight end throughout the 2017 season, meaning Hockenson would have to wait until 2018 to get a starting opportunity.
Once the chance to start came, Hockenson ran away with it. No tight end and maybe even every pass catcher in the nation had a better 2018 campaign than the Chariton native. When Iowa needed a big play in a key moment, the ball was usually going towards Hockenson.
And he delivered. Hockenson led the Hawkeyes with an impressive 760 receiving yards to go along with six touchdowns. Opposing teams would try and double-team Hockenson as a result of his strong playmaking ability, but the 6-foot-5 Hockenson still found a way to out-muscle the rest of the Big Ten.
A three-game losing streak midway through the season cost Iowa a shot at the Big Ten West division title, but Hockenson and Co. still won nine games and finished No. 25 in the final polls.
Not surprisingly, the postseason awards piled in for Hockenson. He earned first-team All-American honors from USA Today and the AFCA and first-team All-Big Ten honors from the league media, but most of all, he earned the John Mackey Award as the nation's best tight end.
Hockenson became the only sophomore to ever win the Mackey Award and just the second player in Iowa history to receive it, joining Dallas Clark, who coincidentally played two seasons for the Hawkeyes.
Hockenson declared for the 2019 NFL Draft shortly thereafter, where he was selected eighth overall by the Detroit Lions. After spending three and a half seasons in the Motor City, Hockenson was traded to the NFC North rival Minnesota Vikings, where he has remained since.
Injuries have slowed Hockenson down over the last two seasons, but he's still earned two Pro Bowl nods (2020, 2022), over 4,000 receiving yards, and 26 touchdowns during his seven-year career so far.
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HawkeyeRoundtable publisher Brad Schultz has covered the Iowa Hawkeyes since 2023. To send him story ideas, scoops, or criticize his writing, reach him at [email protected]
