After playing just two years of football in high school at Iowa Falls, Joe Forgy headed to nearby Ellsworth Community College to see if he could take his game a little further. At Ellsworth, Forgy grew from a linebacker into a defensive end, now 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds, and earned honorable mention JUCO All American honors after racking up 44 tackles and 13 sacks this past season.

That kind of production led to varied degrees of college interest, including a few scholarship offers, but it was not quite what Forgy was looking for. This week, he found that with an opportunity to join the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Forgy wrapped up his decision this week after a visit to Iowa's campus on Tuesday. There, he had a chance to meet with the Iowa coaching staff and talk about his future in the program, which includes a possible redshirt this upcoming season and then two years to play after that.

Forgy's journey to playing at Iowa is a pretty unusual one. He went out for football for the first time as a sophomore in high school, but broke his foot and ended up not suiting up until his junior year. He was a pretty good player at Iowa Falls, earning second team all-district honors, but not a guy picking up a lot of recruiting interest.

At Ellsworth, Forgy built himself up from a 210-pound linebacker into a defensive end, playing at 247 pounds this past season. Along the way, he put up some impressive numbers pressuring the quarterback with 9 sacks his first year and 13 this past season.

Forgy's play earned him a scholarship offer from Western Michigan, which is something he was interested in pursuing, but they ended up taking a junior college player that could enroll at semester instead. He also had an offer from Norfolk State and some other smaller schools, but wanted to play football at the highest level if possible. Now he has that chance at Iowa.


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