Q&A: Derek Hoodjer on Iowa State football recruiting, National Signing Day, Will McDonald

National Signing Day is one of the biggest days of the year for football recruits across the country who finally get to put pen to paper and sign their letters of intent to play in college.

Behind the scenes, it’s an important day for those who spend years recruiting those players, like Iowa State’s Derek Hoodjer.

Hoodjer has had a major hand in the Cyclones’ recruiting since his time as an assistant director of scouting, a position he held during the 2016 and 2017 seasons. In six seasons as the director of player personnel, Iowa State has produced six straight classes ranked in the nation’s top 50, according to 247Sports.

The Register spoke with Hoodjer ahead of Wednesday's National Signing Day to understand more about his position, what the day looks like from his perspective, and which recruiting wins he remembers the best.

How did you get into your current position as Iowa State’s director of player personnel?

Derek Hoodjer: I started as a student assistant, helping with the defensive staff under (former head coach) Paul Rhoads and (former defensive coordinator) Wally Burnham. Then I became a graduate assistant and remained a graduate assistant when coach (Matt) Campbell got here. He was building out a recruiting department and gave me the opportunity to do that in a full-time capacity.

I wanted to remain at Iowa State and, getting to know coach Campbell, he was somebody that I wanted to be around, and I wanted to be a part of the program he was creating. That kind of led me to this position and I’ve loved it ever since.

Was there something about recruiting that made you realize that was what you wanted to do on Matt Campbell’s staff?

Hoodjer: I’ve always loved the idea of building a team and putting the pieces together. Especially in college football, it happens in so many different ways, whether it’s high school, transfer portal, junior college, scholarship, walk-on, senior evaluation. There’s just so many different ways that a guy ends up on your roster. I’ve always really enjoyed the thought of building a team and I’ve always wanted to be a part of building a program.

And I’ve never had any interest in hopping from job to job, climbing the ladder as an individual. I always wanted to be part of something. I’m just really fortunate and thankful that I’ve gotten to be a part of it at Iowa State, and part of what I think is the best era we’ve ever had.

The 2023 recruiting class was the highest-ranked class that Iowa State has had. What was the 'behind the scenes' of putting that together like for the coaching staff?

Hoodjer: We don’t really focus on rankings. But what we were most excited about a year ago was that our goal has always been to start as near to Ames as we could and build out from there. And we felt like we got a lot of really good players from central Iowa and from the state of Iowa and then from neighboring states.

And then you have to close some other spots, and we did that with Jaden Higgins out of the transfer portal or Zach Lovett out of the transfer portal or a walk-on like Chase Contreraz, who’s from Iowa and was able to come in and compete right away.

I think we were really proud of the pieces coming together the way they had, because that’s how we had always envisioned building a recruiting class. Just because that one was ranked highly, it doesn’t necessarily mean it was a whole lot different than the classes before it. It was built with the same idea and same mindset.

Is there one recruit who really sticks out to you, that you’re proud of either just their recruitment or what they became at Iowa State?

Hoodjer: There’s a lot of them, but the one recruitment that is always fun to look back on is Will McDonald. It was his junior film we looked at. He was 190 pounds, kind of playing all over the place. And it appeared like the film was at a different speed because he was just so much faster, so much more explosive than everybody else on film.

We talked to his high school coach, who is so deeply involved in his life and has become really close with our program, and we find out that Will was new to football. Really for our staff and coach Campbell to have the courage to recruit a 195-pound defensive end that was new to football because we knew he had enormous ability to continue to develop.

And then to have him leave as the Big 12 sack leader, to leave with a college degree and become a first-round draft pick, that one always sticks with me. That is one recruitment I vividly remember every single part of. Will really showed his character, committing really after his first visit. Then he went on to have an unbelievable senior year and could have gone a lot of places, and he turned down every phone call to stay at Iowa State and never wavered when he was here.

What does the lead-up to National Signing Day look like for you?

Hoodjer: Fortunately for us, it’s typically pretty quiet and there’s not a lot of stress. It’s just really exciting, and it’s the point that it becomes real and becomes official. It’s a moment to press pause and celebrate each individual kid and celebrate that they are trusting in us and choosing to attend Iowa State.

You can send in the paperwork at 7 a.m., so the guys on the East Coast, they’ll start sending it in about 6 (Central time). Then we’ve got an entire plan behind the scenes about how we will announce all of those things and introduce them. Everybody pretty much knows who’s going where, but it’s the first time we as a program can publicly comment on it, and we try to do a good job with that.

Then we quickly turn the page and help them get oriented into the program, getting into school, signing up for classes, getting on a weight-lifting program, etc.

Have you ever had any surprises — good or bad — on signing day?

Hoodjer: JaQuan Bailey. Josh and JaQuan decided to come to Iowa State on signing day. We’ve had a couple scares here and there. Obviously, everybody knows that T.J. Tampa got offered by Georgia the night before signing day, and so that put a scare into us. But for the most part, we’re hoping for a drama-free signing day.

What has been the most rewarding or the best part of your time at Iowa State?

Hoodjer: I think it’s being able to help build the program. I’m really, really proud of the program that coach Campbell has created. I feel really fortunate to be a part of it.

And it’s really rewarding to see kids come in and be a part of a program where team truly matters, where the kids in the locker room genuinely care about one another, where our players are getting degrees.

Then you see the guys go to the NFL and you still talk to Breece (Hall) and Brock (Purdy) and Will (McDonald) and the amount of pride that they still have for Iowa State football. It’s really cool to be a small part of something that means so much to so many people.

Alyssa Hertel is the college sports recruiting reporter for the Des Moines Register. Contact Alyssa at ahertel@dmreg.com or on Twitter @AlyssaHertel.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa State football's Derek Hoodjer on recruiting, Will McDonald