Tristan Wirfs

Early life

Wirfs played high school football at Mount Vernon High School, where he also excelled in wrestling and track and field. He won the state discus throw as a sophomore, and Iowa State and Iowa Hawkeyes both offered Wirfs scholarships within the next month. He committed to Iowa in winter of his junior year in December 2015, and was a four-star recruit. During his senior year of high school, Wirfs helped Mount Vernon to a state semifinal appearance in football, was named an Army All-American for football, won a state wrestling title in winter after cutting 30 pounds, and won the discus for the third straight year and shot put for the second straight year in spring at the Iowa state track-and-field championship meet. He was honored by the Des Moines Register as the best boys prep athlete in the state.

College career

As a true freshman, Wirfs started seven games at right tackle, becoming the first true freshman to start at offensive tackle in the Kirk Ferentz era. Through the season, he worked on being more aggressive against defenders.

Before his sophomore season, Wirfs was suspended for the season-opening game against Northern Illinois for an OWI arrest in late July.

After his sophomore season, Wirfs broke the Hawkeyes hang clean record held by Brandon Scherff, setting the new mark at 450 pounds. He also said a focus of his junior season would be to translate his weight room exploits to the field. An injury during spring practice caused Wirfs to miss a few weeks of practice. Following his junior season where he was selected to the First Team All-Big Ten Conference and named the conference lineman of the year, Wirfs announced that he would forgo his final season and enter the 2020 NFL draft.