Luke Fickell says Ben Kueter might stick with wrestling, not return to Iowa football

Wisconsin football coach Luke Fickell can’t wait to watch Ben Kueter wrestle for Iowa this season but isn’t so sure the heavyweight will return to the gridiron.

Kueter announced he’d take a 10 month break from football to focus on U23 Worlds and winning an NCAA title for Iowa wrestling. The linebacker was working his way in this spring, but opted to focus solely on wrestling as a sophomore.

But once he’s in full wrestling mode, the former four-star linebacker might not suit up again.

“My guess is he’s going wrestling,” Fickell said on Baschamania. “I think it’d be hard to turn back. If he has success in wrestling, and I don’t know his career. He’s a great high school guy, great international and stuff like that made the U23 team. I think it’d be really hard to throw it all in and think you’re gonna go back into football, just because recruiting wise, I mean, there’s going to be more and more guys. 

“To go all in at one I think is probably the route I would guess he would go. If he has success in wrestling, which I would imagine he will, I think it’ll be even harder for him to think he should go back and try the football thing until maybe too late.”

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.

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

“Everybody’s journey is different and I’ll be really encouraged to watch his journey and see how it goes,” Fickell said. “I think it’s 10 times more difficult to do both of them today than even was when I was in college … The guys were just so good now. I mean, we saw we saw Nash (Hutcmacher) try it this year and have some success and probably enjoyed the wrestling side of things but they str so much better today …

“Year round wrestling, as opposed to somebody that’s trying to do it for a couple months a year, you’re going to have to be so much better than everybody else. I’m really curious. I know how difficult it was … lt is going to be extremely difficult to do things at the level of what you’re used to.”

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.