Iowa football tight ends coach Abdul Hodge is stepping into unfamiliar territory with his offensive assignment.

Hodge, after playing for the Hawkeyes from 2002-05, is returning to Iowa City as a coach for the Iowa football program. Hodge was a three-time All-Big Ten selection at Iowa as a linebacker and is third in the program with 453 tackles over his playing career.

Hodge played in the NFL from 2006-10 as a linebacker with the Green Bay Packers, Cincinnati Bengals, and Carolina Panthers.

He was hired as the Hawkeyes’ tight ends coach on March 2. Now Hodge will be coaching the position he used to guard against as a player.

“I’m having a great time with it,” Hodge said of his first few weeks on the job in a press conference on March 30. “Somewhat, it feels like I’ve never left. You know, I never really took my hand off the program in terms of building relationships with the guys … coming from Iowa, it was my dream to somehow get back to coach one day.”

Even though Hodge is returning to Iowa City after 17 years, he said his prior relationships with defensive line coach Kelvin Bell, special teams coordinator LeVar Woods, and offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz made him feel immediately welcome. Hodge, Ferentz, and Bell all played together in college.

Hodge attended Iowa football camps in the years between his playing and coaching years at Iowa, staying close with the program.

“I’ve known coach Hodge for a while,” Iowa wide receivers coach Kelton Copeland said. “Obviously, he came back and was around campus, coming to camps and stuff like that …he’s been here about a month and he’s exactly the guy that I knew before I was working with him. He’s the same guy.”

When former Iowa quarterbacks coach Ken O’Keefe stepped down in February, head coach Kirk Ferentz opted to move Brian Ferentz from tight ends to quarterbacks and bring Hodge into the fold.

“We believe this is the logical move for our football program,” Kirk Ferentz said in a release announcing Hodge’s hire on March 2. “The person in charge of calling the plays should work most closely with the players who are in control of the offense.”

RELATED: Iowa football believes Brian Ferentz coaching quarterbacks is the ‘ideal situation’

Hodge was an outside linebackers coach and NFL liaison at the University of South Dakota for three years before coming to Iowa.

“One of the biggest things that helped me and when I first went to University of South Dakota, where I was coaching the outside linebacker position, I think that’s a unique skill set very similar to tight ends,” Hodge said. “Those guys are rushing the passer, they played in a run game, but they also dropped it back in coverage. Obviously, we covered a lot of tight ends, so you kind of understand from an attacker perspective what that position group is trying to get accomplished.”

Senior Sam LaPorta and sophomore Luke Lachey were listed as first and second-team tight ends, respectively, on the Hawkeyes’ spring football depth chart.

LaPorta led the Hawkeyes in receiving in 2021, picking up 670 yards — an average of 47.9 per game. Lachey, a true freshman in 2021, had 133 receiving yards.

“It’s a great group of guys,” Hodge said. “Obviously, we’ve got a lot of experience on coming back, Sam Porta, Luke Lachey, obviously guys that have a ton of value, a ton of reps. So, they actually made my job easier.”

Iowa has a legacy of being “Tight End U” with former Hawkeye tight ends Dallas Clark, Noah Fant, T.J. Hockenson, and George Kittle becoming successful in the NFL.

As a former teammate of Clark, Hodge knows the importance of tight ends at Iowa. And Hodge said he watched Clark’s work ethic set the tone for future Hawkeye tight ends.

“There’s a high standard of coaching tight ends, and playing tight end at University of Iowa,” Hodge said. “But there’s also a spirit of excellence, not just in terms of the football perspective of it, but away from the game.”