How Xavier Hutchinson went from a minor high school recruit to a college star
AMES – Xavier Hutchinson lives in the spotlight now.
As a two-time first-team all-Big 12 selection and one of the best wide receivers in the country, the Iowa State wide receiver’s talent and production are undeniable. It’s clear for anyone who cares to look.
That was not always the case.
Hutchinson’s football fate was not recognized early or by many. It went unnoticed in high school in football-rich Jacksonville, Fla. Then again in his first season at junior college.
“I had raw talent,” Hutchinson said. “Sometimes people want the finished product or somewhere close to the finished product. I wasn’t quite there yet.
“I was still trying to learn the game of receiver. I was still trying to sharpen up on the things I knew I had to do to become a great receiver.”
Why Hutchinson wasn’t yet the recruit he would become (with Oklahoma swooping in with an offer late) or the player he’d prove to be at Iowa State (a potential All-American) was a mixture of forces, both in and out of his control.
“He was a little bit of a late bloomer,” Iowa State coach Matt Campbell said.
Now, though, as Iowa State heads into a critical early-season game at Kansas (2:30 p.m.; ESPN2), Hutchinson is at the center of attention.
Hutchinson takes a different path
Perhaps the biggest factor keeping Hutchinson from becoming a big-time football recruit was the fact he didn’t want to be one.
“In high school, I wanted to be a basketball player,” Hutchinson said. “I had the confidence to say I could maybe be Power 5 (in basketball).”
Hutchinson was a varsity contributor as a sophomore and averaged 16 points per game as a junior as he eyed a collegiate future in the sport.
“He was a great player,” Bartram Trail High school basketball coach Jeremiah Teuscher said. "They played in the state championship his senior year in football, and in Florida there’s a pretty big overlap between football and basketball season. He came in mid-December.
“We were already eight, 10 games into our season and once he got there, it clicked for us and he led us to one of the best seasons we’ve had.”
That talent did not translate much into recruiting momentum on the hardwood, though. It made Hutchinson confront the limitations he might have in there.
“I didn’t have the 47-, 48-inch vertical like most basketball players nor was I 6-foot-6,” he said, “so my senior year in high school, I geared toward football more.”
Bartram Trail also had an elite quarterback, Joey Gatewood, who would eventually commit to Auburn.
“Our football team was pretty talented,” Teuscher said, “and I think he saw the success he could have with football.
“He could see that football could be the path for him."
There was some interest and momentum for Hutchinson after his decision to focus more on football – including a direct message from then-Iowa State secondary coach D.K. McDonald – but there was another hurdle that Hutchinson couldn’t clear.
“I didn’t take care of the academic side,” Hutchinson said. “I had a lot of schools come in and talk to me. Once they saw the grade sheet, though, it kind of fizzled out.”
That led Hutchinson to the town of Brenham, Texas, population 17,000 and home of Blinn College – and it’s juco powerhouse football program.
The move to Blinn
“His recruiting coordinator reached out to us,” Blinn coach Ryan Mahon said of his first introduction to Hutchinson. “He was a good athlete coming out, and we saw that and saw his potential. From the very beginning, he started developing.”
Even then, Hutchinson remained a work in progress.
In his first season at Blinn, Hutchinson caught just 15 passes in 11 games for an unremarkable freshman season that left his recruitment again quiet.
About 1,000 miles away, though, a football program was launching a search to find its next star wide receiver – before their latest had even taken a snap for them.
Not long after Arkansas transfer La’Michael Pettway got to Iowa State, the Cyclones were already dreading losing the one-season star.
“As soon as we got Pett, we were like, shoot, we’ve got to go find another elite X receiver,” Campbell said. “We put out an all-out search for who are those guys?”
That led them to spring practice at Blinn in 2019 where a rarely used wideout was about to turn some heads.
“We were able to go down and watch him practice and confirm who he was and what he could do for our football program,” Campbell said. ”Once everybody left, it was, ‘That’s our guy.’”
That led to Iowa State giving Hutchinson a scholarship offer, which he accepted that June.
“They were the first one to pull the trigger on him,” Mahon said. “They fell in love together with each other.”
That fall, Hutchinson’s progression finally shined through. He had 47 catches for 652 yards and five touchdowns.
“He just started making plays,” Mahon said. “It’s when potential meets talent.”
The Iowa State offer combined with the huge sophomore season made Hutchinson’s talent impossible to ignore – for even the most prestigious programs.
“It was pretty quiet until Iowa State believed in me and gave me an offer,” Hutchinson said. “Than after that, that’s when I saw things get bigger and bigger.”
Hutchinson, though, remained committed, even after an offer from Oklahoma in November. For someone who had been overlooked for so long and worked so hard, sticking with those who saw him for what he was resonated.
“I was just trying to do what I can do and always believing in myself throughout the process,” Hutchinson said. “Maybe some colleges didn’t like where I was at at the time. That’s OK. That's fair.
“Not everybody is going to like where you’re at but Iowa State did, and I ran with it ever since.”
Travis Hines covers Iowa State University sports for the Des Moines Register and Ames Tribune. Contact him at thines@amestrib.com or (515) 284-8000. Follow him at @TravisHines21.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Inside Iowa State wide receiver Xavier Hutchinson's rise to stardom
