Iowa defensive tackle Yahya Black towers over his Hawkeye teammates, but the 6-foot-5, 317-pound senior didn’t always stand out early in his college career.
A quiet kid from Marshall, Minn., Black was a four-star recruit coming out of high school but didn’t have immediate success once he arrived in Iowa City. Black said he got “whooped” nearly every day in practice by former Iowa center and current Baltimore Raven Tyler Linderbaum. For Black, the game he grew up dominating became difficult, and such drastic change caused him to retract.
For Hawkeye head coach Kirk Ferentz, Black’s demeanor early on made him wonder if the defensive lineman made the right choice committing to Iowa.
“He was kind of quiet and reserved and almost held back a little bit,” Ferentz said. “And for three years I wasn’t quite sure if he liked it here.”
As Black heads into his fifth season with the Hawkeyes, the lineman is more social than ever, becoming a vocal leader on the defense who won’t hesitate to lend advice or poke fun at a teammate.
“[Former Hawkeye defensive lineman] Chauncey Golston came back and was at a game and he was, like, ‘You talk? You actually talk to people?’” Black said. “It’s just part of being here. You’re going to grow as a person.”
While Black may be unrecognizable now, his evolution was inevitable.
Growing up in Marshall, a town of fewer than 14,000 people and a three-hour drive from Minneapolis, Black wasn’t tuned in to college football. His father, Richard, hails from Alabama, so Black never paid attention to the Golden Gophers. He went to his first college football game on his recruitment visit to Iowa in 2019.
Despite not knowing much about the collegiate game, Black’s passion for the sport was hard to ignore. Terry Bahlmann, Black’s head coach back at Marshall High School, didn’t put the lineman on varsity until his sophomore year but knew Black’s potential was about to burst.
“Yahya would go 100 miles an hour all the time,” Bahlmann said. “He didn’t use his technique all the time that he needed to and just use his raw power and things. He was still a good player, but the potential, once he used some technique and leverage and stuff, he just exploded onto the scene.”
Black’s maturation on the gridiron was evident his senior season with the Tigers. Playing as a defensive end and left tackle, Black’s impact could be felt on both ends of the ball. In Marshall’s first game of the year against Fairmont, Black was a heat-seeking missile on defense.
On one play, Black, lined up on the edge, shrugged off a blocker as if he were a paperweight. The opposing quarterback rolled out of the pocket, but Black was there to meet him with a ferocious hit, sending the quarterback flat on his back and forcing an incompletion.
“Then he came back on offense and basically drove the defensive lineman through the end zone,” Bahlmann remembered. “He dominated the game. We said, ‘Yep, that’s the guy were looking for.’”
A team captain that year, Black earned all-state honors and was his district’s defensive player of the year. He left Marshall with a program-record 17.5 sacks, but more importantly for Bahlmann, etched a model of leadership that commanded respect.
“He likes to call people out, but he has a lot of fun,” Bahlmann said. “He always backs it up. So he wasn’t afraid to give somebody a hard time if they weren’t doing their job, but he was always willing to do the so-called dirty work too.”
Minnesota and Kansas State would be Black’s first two Power Four offers. The Wildcats projected him as a left tackle, but Bahlmann said Black always had a love for defense. So when Iowa and defensive line coach Kelvin Bell flashed interest in Black as a defensive tackle, one visit to Iowa was all it took for Black to commit to the Hawkeyes.
Black was one of eight true freshmen to see action during his first season in 2020, recording two tackles against Minnesota. Since then, his playing time has steadily improved, earning an All-Big Ten honorable mention from league coaches and media in 2023. Despite all the double teams he absorbs during games, Black’s appreciation for defense has become more than the thrill of hitting someone.
“I love the process, loving to learn the playbook,” Black said. “Asking questions, being curious.”
Learning behind former Hawkeye defensive linemen Noah Shannon, Logan Lee, and Joe Evans, Black said the trio pulled him out of his comfort zone. As Black heads into his second season as a routine starter, the practice field has become the showcase of his personality.
Black wore a mic during an August practice as part of an Iowa football social media post, and in the more than six minutes of footage, fans get a glimpse of Black’s constant motor and enthusiasm, sprinting down the field during warmups and screaming at the top of his lungs throughout practice.
“That’s exactly who he is every single day, just screaming,” center Logan Jones said. “He’s such a fun guy. What people see on the outside of the football facility may not be that — he’s a very quiet guy for the most part — but the second he’s on the football field, he’s yelling. It’s awesome. I love him.”
Jones says Black doesn’t just bring energy, but also focuses on how to improve himself and his teammates. When Black beats Jones on a rep, he’ll explain to the center how he did so and vice versa. In the video, Black can be seen instructing Hawkeye redshirt freshman defensive lineman Maddux Borcherding-Johnson on how to gain leverage.
While Black doesn’t shy away from helping teammates, he also doesn’t shy away from a little bit of razzing. Talking with reporters, Black joked about how Devan Kennedy dresses like an uncle.
“His name is Unc,” Black said with a smile. “He comes in in a polo and khakis to meetings, and we love it … All these guys, they really have their own character, and it’ll always show up.”
For Black, his character has been slowly unfurling and now flies high for all to see. A lineman who wears size 17 shoes and loves to listen to Adele before games. A defensive tackle who doesn’t mind recording only a few tackles if that’s what it takes to win. This balance between fitting in and standing out is what teammates appreciate.
“He may not show up on the stat chart, and he doesn’t even care about that, which is one of the coolest things about Yahya,” Jones said. “He’s going to show up, and he’s going to make the ball go the other way. He’s going to drive somebody back three or four yards … You’re not going to find a guy who’s, one, as smart as him, or as big and physical and athletic as he is.”
Black doesn’t forget his Minnesota roots. Although he said there wouldn’t be any added importance to Iowa’s upcoming game against Minnesota, the contest with the Gophers still requires some extra dedication from the lineman in the form of 17-plus tickets for friends and families.
“Man, they didn’t even text me,” Black said with a laugh. “They all asked my stepmom, like, ‘Hey can we get out for the game?’ And now I got a list to put in. It’s a lot of work.”
The lineman still ventures back to Marshall to talk with Bahlmann and help instruct the Tigers during the offseason. While Black’s journey brought him away from his home state, he doesn’t regret the path he chose.
“I always give him a hard time about [not] playing left tackle, because that’s where people get paid,” Bahlmann said. “But he just gives me that big smile and says he loves what he’s doing.”
How to watch Iowa vs Minnesota:
- When: Saturday, September 21
- Where: Huntington Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN
- Time: 7:30 PM ET
- TV Channel: NBC
- Live Stream: Peacock
About the Author
Matt McGowan is a junior at the University of Iowa and has been on the staff of The Daily Iowan, the university’s student newspaper, since his freshman year. With The Daily Iowan, Matt has covered women’s tennis, men’s wrestling, and other sports. He has been on the football beat since the spring of 2022 and is the editor of The Daily Iowan’s Pregame edition, a weekly print solely devoted to football. Check out his story on Caitlin Clark’s legacy as she wrapped up her storied career in Iowa City.