Small world story lands QB in Ames

Todd Reesing once attended high school at Lake Travis High School in Austin, Texas. Iowa State’s lone quarterback commitment in the class of 2015, Dominic DeLira, currently attends Lake Travis High School in Austin, Texas.

The man who once paired with Reesing to lead Kansas (yes, that Kansas) to a BCS bowl game, Mark Mangino, is now Iowa State’s offensive coordinator. Mangino’s son, Iowa State wide receivers coach Tommy Mangino, was DeLira’s primary recruiter.  

Just sayin’.

This story is loaded with coincidence. Or, perhaps there is something more to it?

“He had heard about me in the past and then he saw some film,” DeLira said of Tommy Mangino’s job of recruiting him. “He really liked me a lot and that was a big reason why things worked out the way that they did. He stayed in touch with me.” 

DeLira said that four of his high school coaches also coached Reesing back in the day. Because of that, his mentors at Lake Travis gave the Mangino family rave reviews. Reesing was once named the Texas 4A Player of the Year as a junior at Lake Travis. He would go on to throw for over 11,000 yards and 90 touchdowns in his career at Kansas. 

DeLira, a 6-foot-1, 175-pound signal caller had a 26-to-6 touchdown-to-interception ratio as a junior and threw for just over 2,300 yards.

So why was Iowa State the first and only offer to the quarterback of a Texas high school football power?

Hopefully the Cyclones got in early on a sleeper. DeLira claims that Houston, Rice, North Texas, Oklahoma State and others had recently been showing interest but he chose to not wait around. A week after camping in Ames, DeLira accepted a scholarship offer to become a Cyclone the very night that he received it.

“I just felt like it was a good fit for me,” DeLira said. 

He called it

Growing up in Austin, it is easy to assume that DeLira is a Longhorn fan. Right? Go Big 12!

Wrong.

“I was an A&M fan growing up,” DeLira said. “I like the Big 12. I will always love the Big 12 but yeah, I watch the Aggies in the SEC.”

And his favorite player is…You guessed it.

“I am a pretty big Johnny (Manziel) guy because he played at our high school a couple of years ago. I was like, ‘He is going to win the Heisman someday.’ I said that when he was a junior in high school.”

After that prediction, DeLira has a proven eye for talent. Perhaps after his career at Iowa State, ESPN will have found its replacement for Kirk Herbstreit.