IOWA CITY — In maybe the least surprising all-conference news ever, Iowa football wideout Kaden Wetjen was named the Big Ten’s Return Specialist of the Year for 2025 on Dec. 3.

The former walk-on from Williamsburg by way of Iowa Western Community College is an incredible Hawkeye football story. An undersized player from small-town Iowa who went to Tim Dwight camps as a youth has now eclipsed what Dwight, who finished seventh in the 1997 Heisman Trophy voting, accomplished as a return man for Iowa.

Wetjen also won the 2024 “Rodgers-Dwight” return-specialist award, named by the Big Ten for Nebraska’s Johnny Rodgers and Dwight — two iconic return men in their times.

Yet Wetjen’s return numbers eclipsed them all, especially in the punt-return game. Wetjen’s 19 punt returns for 538 yards

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