Hawkeyes' Deontae Craig Has Hot Takes

Iowa DE Enjoys Commenting on Sports

Dec 2, 2023; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Michigan Wolverines running back Blake Corum (2) is tackled by Iowa Hawkeyes defensive lineman Deontae Craig (45) during the second half of the Big Ten Championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports / Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

Deontae Craig’s mornings in the summer have been about getting in his work, and then listening to others speak. Oh, and he’ll offer his own opinions.

The Iowa senior defensive end will go through the summer workouts with the rest of the Hawkeyes, then he’ll head home to watch the various sports opinion shows that he misses being at the football facility.

“I watch a lot of ‘First Take,’ sports talk shows,” Craig said. “It kills a couple of hours. It’s fun.”

Craig knows that such hot takes usually are just a lot of wind, but then again, he says, “It’s normally good information.”

Craig was a two-sport athlete in high school at Culver Academies in Fort Wayne, Indiana — as good at basketball, he said, as well as the sport in which he is one of the Big Ten’s best at his position.

So a lot of times you’ll find him on social media, offering his opinions on basketball to anyone who wants to agree or disagree.

“I’ve been playing basketball since I started playing football,” Craig said. “Maybe 3, 4 years old, honestly. And basketball is my first love. You ask a lot of people, they’ll tell you the same thing. It’s still right up there with my favorite sports.

“I just like to talk about it. I’ll share my opinion, whether it’s right or wrong. It’s fun, it gets me interacting with the games. It allows people to see my personality.”

Craig was a four-year letterwinner in basketball in high school, and won a state championship.

“We turned it into a basketball powerhouse,” he said. “That school was known more for lacrosse, but I was fortunate to be with some good teammates. We were there a great four years, had a lot of great success. A lot of us on the team would say we underachieved. We would say we could have won a couple of more state titles in there. I think junior year and freshman year, we let it slip away.”

Football, though, is where Craig has had his success at the college level. He is coming off a 54-tackle season that includes five tackles for loss, three quarterback sacks, and seven quarterback pressures. Craig was an honorable mention All-Big Ten selection, and he starts this season as a preseason all-conference third-team pick by Phil Steele.

Another big season looms for an athlete who was good at two different sports.

“I’ve played both (football and basketball), and I’m fortunate enough to play both at a high level,” Craig said. “My dad never let me sit around when I was a kid. So whenever basketball was over with, I went straight into football. When football was over, I went straight into basketball. I was fortunate enough to play them at a high level, two things I enjoy that I can put my energy level into. Basketball didn’t work out, football did. It’s just natural.”

Craig wants to be a louder voice as a veteran in a position group that has seen some turnover with the losses of players like Logan Lee and Joe Evans. The leadership, he said, comes from all corners of an experienced line group.

“As a unit collectively, all of our guys do a good job,” he said. “When we see something, we speak up. It’s a collective effort. Overall, we need to keep working on that. It’s one of those things that you can never quite master.”

Craig isn’t afraid to offer an opinion, and he’s shown that.

Could it be, someone asked, a future occupation for him, like those on the shows he watches?

“I mean, it’s interesting, for sure,” he said. “I have a good background in basketball. I’m sure you guys have seen my Twitter, I like to talk about it a lot. We’ll see. We’ll see what happens when my ball days are over.”