Tyler Linderbaum

Before he was standout center at Iowa, and long before a first-round pick, Ravens center Tyler Linderbaum was a dominant four-sport athlete.

“He does come back, and we’re excited to continue that relationship and watch his career develop, and hopefully bring him back to inspire some of the kids now to be a great role model for them.” The longtime coach, who replaced Linderbaum’s grandfather at Solon High, thinks Linderbaum was the easiest gamble to make during draft weekend because of his work ethic, skill set, and dedication to those around him. “He had the athletic ability to play a skill position,” Miller said. Miller coached former NFL linebacker James Morris at Solon High, and the coach asked Morris, a fellow Iowa alum, to work with Linderbaum during a practice session in his junior year. A throwback to the ironmen of old, Miller saw Linderbaum more as Chuck Bednarik than Brett Favre, despite his impressive athleticism and versatility. “He’d be the first to admit that he was probably never a great wrestler. “Obviously he has a lot of athletic ability but that alone hasn’t gotten him to where he is,” Williams said. Since he was a thrower for the track team, he would rest his arm early in the season; during that time, he would mainly play first base and occasionally fill in at third base. He came up for a couple of open practices and decided to go out.” But McSweeney trusted Linderbaum in the clutch, and he still stands by his decisions despite the results. “We were just lucky that he committed to Iowa, and he didn’t commit to Minnesota or one of the other programs that he had an offer to, because that would have made it almost impossible given the travel rate. “He certainly could have wrestled in college or thrown the shot,” McSweeney said.