I meant to say he essentially only played six games, but forgot to put that qualifier in. That’s my fault. He didn’t play that much the first half of the season because he was still learning the playbook, so he was used solely as a blocking TE. Iowa didn’t use that position much last year because they had good wide receivers - that doesn’t mean LaPorta wasn’t an effective blocker when he did play. As he gained familiarity with the playbook, he began to see his role in the offense expand. Not uncommon for a true freshman (one need look no further than his fellow true freshman teammate, Tyler Goodson). By the end of the season, he had a good enough season that he would have easily made HM All-Big XII as a TE. Not that difficult to understand.