Hogan Comes To Iowa As 'A Winner'

True freshman quarterback is already setting a tone as a leader.

Set up a ping pong tournament anywhere in the country, and Deuce Hogan will win.

At least that’s what his father and high school football coach at Grapevine Faith, Kris Hogan, says.

That’s just Deuce Hogan. It’s what the quarterback says his biggest strength is and what he plans to bring to the Iowa football team when he arrives in Iowa City to begin his college career on June 12.

“I think in one word, I’m a winner,” Hogan said. “In my high school career, I think I maximized my career in terms of games that had a chance of being won… I think that’s what I bring to the table. You’re going to have a lot of speed around me, a lot of strength around me.”

Hogan threw for more than 8,000 yards and 100 touchdowns in his high school career, but he proved he’s much more than a signal-caller who can win games.

He’s a leader. He hasn’t set foot on Iowa’s campus for good yet, but if his actions on social media show any indication, he’s the kind of person fans want to lead a program.

Shortly after George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis, Hogan sent a message to the Hawkeyes’ 2020 recruiting class via Snapchat.

“I can’t open Twitter, Instagram or Snapchat without seeing all of the craziness that is going on in our country right now,” Hogan wrote. “Everyday we live in a world where people of color feel threatened and it is 100% unacceptable. I can’t tell ya’ll that I can relate in any type of way, but I can promise y’all that I love and support y’all above everything else.”

Kris Hogan said he believes leadership is the most important quality a quarterback can have. His son possesses it.

The Snapchat message proves the point. Now, Hogan enters his college career hoping to bring that aspect of his personality to the Hawkeyes’ locker room and to the Kinnick Stadium turf.

“You can tell he’s got a moral compass that is very dependable,” Kris Hogan said. “Coach Ferentz and any of his coaches and future teammates, they will be able to trust him with anything and never even give it a second thought. If you’re around him for any length of time, you sense that morality.”

It helps when the Hawkeye recruiting class has come together as it has in the past couple of years.

Hogan tweeted his class is the tightest 2020 recruiting class in the nation, and they intend to keep it that way.

Ever since Hogan committed to Ferentz and the Hawkeye program in June 2018, he’s been working to build the class both in numbers and in their relationship.

The group finished with 21 members. The unit built their relationship through group chats and campus visits. When they arrive on campus to start their journey together, they hope the impact of their togetherness extends to the field.

“That type of relationship doesn’t form right away, but it’s been intentionally cultivated from the time that we all went on a recruiting trip together,” Hogan said. “Something that jumped out to me is that there was never a guy who was too cool to be there.

“A lot of recruits around the country have a persona that they always want to keep up, and everyone kind of wants to be big dog. When we went to our recruiting trip, it was just a bunch of good guys who were pumped to be there and love the game of football.”

Whether it’s because he committed so early or the fact he’s a quarterback, Hogan has been entrusted to lead the group.

He had experience doing so as a four-year starter at Grapevine Faith. His coach saw it.

Kris Hogan said Deuce would be disappointed if he were to receive an incomplete scouting report because he wants to see things through to make sure they are done correctly.

“I think Deuce is wired to be the guy that doesn’t want to follow, but rather wants to forge, wants to kind of create the path,” Kris Hogan said. “What is maybe at the root of that, he really cares how things are going. He wants to make sure things are done right.”

Hogan is also set to play a key leadership role for the following incoming classes. The Hawkeyes have picked up a head of steam in the recruiting game as of late.

Iowa has recently landed commitments from four-star offensive tackle David Davidkov and three-star athletes Arland Bruce and Keagan Johnson, as well as in-state targets Brody Brecht and Max Llewellyn.

When the recruitment ends and the new Hawkeyes arrive in Iowa City, they will be teammates with the 2020 class.

Hogan knows that. That’s why he’s excited about what the future has to bring.

“Those are my future teammates, that’s the future of our program,” Hogan said. “It’s not a one player thing, it’s not a one class thing. The next three or four classes behind us, we’re all going to be teammates, so it’s very special. It can create a sense of optimism about what’s going to come.”