Iowa defensive tackle Aaron Graves is a football standout, and a lot more

Aaron Graves cannot be real.

He is, though. The Iowa senior defensive tackle is real, and he’s spectacular.

Wednesday, it was announced Graves was one of 16 players from a nationwide pool of 177 semifinalists who became a finalist for the William V. Campbell Trophy honoring college football’s top-scholar athlete. It’s often called the “Academic Heisman.”

The award goes to the player who best exemplifies excellence in academics, leadership and on-field performance. It has been given since 1990. Among its previous winners are Peyton Manning and Tim Tebow.

In 2021, the award went to Iowa State tight end Charlie Kolar. The next year, the honoree was Iowa linebacker Jack Campbell, who made a video congratulating Graves that was shown to the Hawkeyes team this week.

Graves has twice been Academic All-Big Ten. His college GPA is 4.03. The fourth-year student already has graduated with a major in exercise science, and is in the UI’s sport and recreation management master’s program.

Football-wise, he’s on national midseason watchlists for various defensive awards. He has started Iowa’s last 20 games, and has been a consistent force as a pass-rusher and tackler.

Graves is from Dayton in north central Iowa’s Webster County. He attended Southeast Valley High in Gowrie. He helped the Jaguars win their first Class 2A state football championship. He played on both sides of the ball and averaged 38 yards as a punter, but that’s part of his athletic resume.

He was MaxPreps’ Male National Athlete of the Year for 2021-22, made all the more unlikely by being from an Iowa school with about 300 students that covers over a dozen rural communities not too far south of Fort Dodge. Graves is Iowa’s only winner of that award.

MaxPreps is a national website covering virtually all high school sports. Previous winners of that award include current NFL stars Derrick Henry, Patrick Mahomes and Kyler Murray, and NBA standouts Jalen Suggs and Lonzo Ball.

Never mind the football for a moment, though Graves had 37 career sacks. How could you not give that award to someone who competed with excellence in basketball and wrestling, which have their seasons at the same time? Graves started doing that as a junior.

In February 2022, Graves won by pin in a wrestling state heavyweight quarterfinal in Des Moines and scored 33 points in a basketball state district game 45 miles north in Story City ... on the same day!

He finished fourth in the state wrestling tournament that senior year. And, he averaged 22 points and 9 rebounds in hoops, capping his basketball career by being his school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,356 points.

“Not only that,” Southeast Valley head football coach Mike Swieter said. “He would lift weights four times a week with me, and he was lifting twice a week other places.”

There was still more to come. Graves placed fifth in the shot put at the state high school track meet, around the same time he earned an Associate of Arts degree from Iowa Central Community College before heading to Iowa City.

Football always has been Graves’ main game. His father, Mike, was Southeast Valley’s defensive coordinator (and still is) for Swieter when Aaron starred there. Aaron began playing varsity football as a ninth-grader.

“The very first practice I saw him,” Swieter said, recalling, “I said ‘You’ll be with me forever, varsity.’ I could tell right off the bat I had something special and I enjoyed all four years of it.”

Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz called Graves to offer a scholarship shortly after Graves’ ninth-grade school year ended. At the time of the call, Graves was giving a swimming lesson to kids at the Gowrie pool.

Asked to summarize Graves, Swieter said “Absoultely a top-quality kid. I mean to tell you, it does not matter when I text him, he responds. It’s still ‘coach,’ it’s still respect. When I’m at a game, it’s still a hug. I just love the kid. He’s just awesome.

“The one thing I told him when he left here, I said ‘Don’t let your fame get to you.’ And he goes ‘I won’t.’ And he just stayed down to earth from Day One.

“It was fun coaching him, and now it’s fun watching him.”

Next year, the NFL team that drafts Graves will be the new favorite of the people of Dayton and Gowrie. And Boxholm and Pilot Mound. And Callender, Farnhamville, Somers, Fraser, Harcourt, Moorland, Rinard and Lehigh.

“Whatever team he’s on becomes my favorite forever,” Swieter said. “I’ll jump on any bandwagon if he’s on it.”

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