For Austin Vier, the thrill of the recruiting chase lasted one day. Maybe it was closer to a day and half.

“It did happen really fast, just one day,” the Ballard High School senior said. “I wasn’t expecting it.”

Vier’s recruiting hadn’t reached the offer stage. The 6-foot-7, 220-pounder played quarterback for Ballard last fall. Ballard was mostly a running team and Vier’s numbers reflected that — 57 of 117 for 690 yards, six TDs and 10 interceptions.

He went into this summer as sort of an unknown. On the radar, but not quite in range of an offer.

Then he showed up at Iowa’s football camp in mid-June.

He arrived on a Tuesday. He was called into a room for a meeting with offensive coordinator Ken O’Keefe sometime during the week. After spending camp bouncing between QB and tight end, recruiting coordinator Eric Johnson offered a scholarship by the end.

“Iowa was always my first choice,” Vier said. “That was my dream school. I talked to the coaches a little bit when I accepted the offer and went down there. I talked to them a little bit about their faith program, their education and then, obviously, their football is really good. I knew I’d fit in the program.”

He received the official written offer in the mail on Friday. He returned to Iowa City on Saturday and accepted.

“They said my film was a little bit above average, but what put me over the top was how well I performed at camp,” said Vier, who also had interest from Nebraska, Missouri, Purdue, Minnesota and Iowa State.

Iowa State and Nebraska recruited Vier as a tight end. The others talked QB.

These camps contain an air of desperation. A certain percentage of the players go in hoping for an offer and some might even expect one. Obviously, the offer doesn’t come every time.

So, it must’ve been pretty cool to be called into a room for a one-on-one meeting with the offensive coordinator. That had to be a good sign.

“We started talking offense and we went over the offense,” Vier said with a laugh. “It was just me and coach O’Keefe. It was awesome.”

He started camp at QB but switched in and out at tight end, too. His offer is as an “athlete,” meaning nothing is set in stone as far as his position at Iowa.

“It’s either going to be quarterback or tight end,” Vier said. “I think being able to play both those positions will help.”

There’s no timetable for how long a look at QB would last. Before he transferred to Ballard, Vier played varsity wide receiver as a sophomore at Nevada.

“I don’t know if it’s necessarily going to be a year or more than a year,” he said. “They (coaches) just said I’m going to get a shot at it. I don’t know how long that will be. I’m going to give it my best shot. I could end up at quarterback or I could end up at tight end. Either one, I’d be fine with.”

Last year, Ballard, which is 8 miles south of Ames, was mostly a running team. This season, Vier said Ballard will try some ”pistol” — a version of the spread that Ohio State uses to feature Terrelle Pryor — and some shotgun snaps to go with its standard I formation.

He’s eight miles from Ames and Iowa State was interested. But Vier doesn’t expect any splashback. In fact, he ran into ISU coach Paul Rhoads at a 7-on-7 tournament after he committed. “He was pretty nice,” Vier said. 

“Everyone knows it’s my dream school, so it was a pretty quick decision,” Vier said. “It’s always been my dream to be a Hawkeye. I really like the Hawkeyes and have since I was younger and going to games. It’s my dream school.”

It was a quick ride, but Vier is glad is over. Now, he can pour himself into Ballard.

“I can concentrate more on my team,” he said. “They’ve given me the support that I needed all the way through high school. I want to give them something back, too. It’s fun just to concentrate on Ballard now.”

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This link contains a small picture of Vier guarding Carroll’s Blake Haluska in a basketball game. It’s from The Tri-County Times.