Ben Kueter 'intending' to play football for Iowa while wrestling for Hawkeyes

Ben Kueter came to Iowa as a two-sport star in football and wrestling. The projected Hawkeyes’ heavyweight just won the U20 World Team Trials and is set to compete for a World Championship this summer.

But, Kueter also plays linebacker for the Iowa football team, so how does he balance his on the mat success with his gridiron aspirations? He did not see action last football season and saw some action on the mat as a freshman heavyweight.

But there’s a lot of hype around him on the wrestling mat, which led to questions about his football aspirations.

“So yeah, I’m intending to play,” Kueter said after U20s. “We have all three of our linebackers coming back from last year that are pretty damn good. So I’m gonna do what I can, play special teams if I can but I don’t know. There’s a lot of options I can do and I got a lot of thinking I can do and so yeah, I’m just gonna take it a day at a time.”

Kueter later said Monday that he would focus solely on wrestling for the 2024-25 season, changing his mind from the weekend.

Kueter wrestled four matches in 2023-24, going 3-1. His only loss was to eventual national champion Greg Kerkvliet (Penn State), losing 9-1.

Otherwise, Kueter beat Minnesota’s Bennet Tabor 503, pinned Northwestern’s Jack Jessen and beat Oklahoma State’s Konner Doucet 5-1.

He’s used to this though, having balanced the two sports in high school. But Kueter knows college is a different animal.

“High school it worked out,” Keuter said. “Left a week before football camp in high school and won a world title. So I don’t know, maybe a little different this year. Maybe I can’t go. Just gonna talk to the coaches. But the football coaches are all for wrestling and wrestling coaches are all for football. You know, at the end of the day, they’re gonna make it work and I’m there (to represent) the University of Iowa.”

An elite wrestler and a great football prospect. It’ll be interesting to see if Kueter can do both the entire time.

As a member of the Class of 2023, Kueter was a four-star recruit out of Iowa City (Iowa) High, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He was the No. 4 overall prospect in the state, the No. 30 linebacker in the class and the No. 294 overall prospect in the class.