Logan Lee hasn’t had a sip of soda since Feb. 3, 2012.
After reading Tim Tebow’s book, “Through My Eyes,” Lee, 11 years old at the time, couldn’t help but make a $100 bet with his father, Mitch, that he could stop drinking soda for a year.
A year-long bet turned into over a decade of dedication and a deal that the Orion, Illinois, native plans on sticking to for the rest of his life.
“I just remember as a kid being the most competitive in every area of life, almost a little excessive,” Lee said. “Whether that be in a board game, whether that be in a card game, whether that be playing soccer or playing football, I was just always trying to compete in every aspect.”
Lee’s competitive nature is just one reason why the fifth-year defensive end has started the last 34 games for the Hawkeyes.
Treating this season like his last, the team captain says he is focused on having fun and making a positive impact on every single one of his teammates, whether that’s by helping a rookie improve their game, being a good friend, or sharing his Christian faith. Kirk Ferentz said having Lee’s leadership on the team makes the longest-tenured head coach in FBS feel like he’s “coaching a 40-year-old man.”
As the only married player on the Hawkeyes, Lee’s priorities stretch much further than winning on the field.
“There’s so much more to this than just football … So being available, being able to help the younger guys, help the older guys just navigate life, it’s a great opportunity as an elder,” Lee joked.
Path to Iowa
Lee said he didn’t watch much college football when he was a boy, or follow a team, but always had a dream of playing in the NFL.
When he started playing flag football in elementary school, he showed natural talent and a desire to win.
Mitch recalled his son challenging an opposing team member to a race after one of Lee’s games in third or fourth grade. The father jokingly told his son that a kid on the other team looked faster than him — and Lee wasn’t going home without testing it out.
“I’m talking to the dads and look over, and Logan’s walking over towards that huddle. Next thing you know, he and the blonde kid were lined up because they were gonna race,” Mitch said. “It was funny to see him walk over there. He wasn’t mean, it was just like, ‘Hey, my dad says you’re faster than me. What do you wanna do?’”
Lee won the race, but Mitch was quick to admit that someone walked in front of his son’s opponent and “blocked him for a second.”
Lee said he started taking football more seriously in eighth grade when he realized he needed to play in college to reach the NFL.
Lee played tight end and defensive end on Orion High School’s varsity team for four years. He holds the career sack record at the school with 35 and earned unanimous all-conference honors on offense and defense for three straight seasons.
As a sophomore, Lee totaled 11 receptions for 120 yards and three touchdowns, along with 28 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, and eight sacks. The two-way player also excelled in wrestling. He won a state title at 220 pounds as a sophomore in February 2017. The next month, Lee went on an unofficial visit to Iowa, and newly-appointed offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz offered him his first scholarship.
Kirk Ferentz said he and the coaching staff knew about Lee and his family early on and liked “everything about him” in the recruiting process.
“So that was just shocking because usually, you build up with non-Power Five teams,” Lee said of getting offered by Iowa. “You build those up, and then the Power Five teams start coming in, but that was my first actual college recognition.”
Michigan offered Lee three days later, and over the course of the next year, he received interest from Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Michigan State, Northwestern, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
Lee’s last visit before choosing Iowa was Wisconsin, which offered him a scholarship on May 24, 2017. Mitch said the visit to Madison went great, but he and his wife were “pretty confident” that their son would end up choosing the Hawkeyes.
Lee planned to go on another visit to Iowa on Saturday, June 24, 2017 — his third visit to Iowa City that month. The Friday before, Lee’s mind was made up.
He told his family he was going to verbally commit to the Hawkeyes during the visit.
Lee’s sister, Ashton, was home at the time from Mankato St. University, where she played volleyball. So, the whole family sat down at the dining table and talked about Lee’s decision to commit to the Hawkeyes, and everyone was in full support.
Lee and his parents drove the hour and 15 minutes to Iowa City and walked into Kirk Ferentz’s office. The athlete was rubbing his sweaty hands nervously on his legs, causing the Iowa coach to ask if everything was OK.
“I’m gonna be a Hawkeye,” Lee responded.
Mitch said Ferentz was surprised and asked him and his wife, Susan, if they were OK with their son committing — the answer was an immediate yes.
Not only did Mitch respect the physicality that Ferentz instilled in his players, but he was also impressed by the coach as a person.
“He is a class act. He always starts with Ash, and to this day, he knows my daughter’s name,” Mitch said. “He will say, ‘How’s Ashton doing?’ It’s like, oh my gosh, how do you remember that?”
A three-star recruit coming out of high school, according to ESPN, Lee felt Iowa was the best place for him to develop as a player and person.
“I really respected the developmental staff and the way they took no-star recruits and small-town kids and developed them into starter-quality individuals,” Lee said.
Lee had great success in his final two years at prep school, combining for 54 receptions, 937 yards, and 18 touchdowns, as well as 120 total tackles, 42.5 tackles for loss, and 27 sacks over that span.
He won another state wrestling title at 285 pounds as a senior, becoming just the third two-time state champion in school history.
Family-oriented
Beside Lee through his high school career was his girlfriend and now-wife, Tori.
Tori lived in Geneseo, Illinois, about 30 minutes from Lee’s hometown, when the pair met in seventh grade at a state track meet through mutual friends. Lee instantly thought Tori was cute, but it took some time before he mustered up the courage to talk to her.
“I’m like, ‘Come on, say something, Logan,’” Lee said. “But we’re in seventh grade, so nobody’s saying a word. We’re just walking in silence.”
When Lee finally said something, he proved that first impressions don’t always mean everything.
“I finally muster up the courage to say, ‘Did you see the girl eat it yesterday in the hurdles?’” Lee recalled. “[Tori] stands up, looks at me, and says, ‘That was me’ and then walks away. And I didn’t see her again for another two years.”
The pair reconnected during their freshman year and started dating as sophomores. Tori said she didn’t even know Lee was the same guy from seventh grade until he brought it up three years into the relationship.
Since Lee lived in a different town, Tori’s mother asked around to see if anyone had heard of the guy her daughter wanted to hang out with. The only response she got was when she was checking out at Walmart, and a random person butted in and said, “Oh my gosh, the Lees are such a good family. Logan is such a good guy.”
Tori’s mother questioned her initial good impression of Lee when he came to pick up Tori for the first time in a topless Jeep without doors.
“She was like, ‘You did not tell me it was a Jeep,’” Tori said of her mother’s reaction. “And then my mom actually sent the picture to my dad because he wasn’t home at the time of us driving away, and I will forever keep the screenshot of what he sent back.”
Mitch said he warned his son about picking Tori up in the Jeep for the first date, but Lee’s only other option was a van, so it was an easy choice for the 16-year-old.
“They’re going on the interstate at like 60 miles an hour, and they’re passing semis, and they can’t talk because there’s so much wind,” Mitch said. “So the first stage didn’t go so well. They’ve done pretty well since.”
Tori attended the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater to run track, while Lee started his college football journey in Iowa City. The couple said being three hours away from each other was difficult, but it helped them develop a deeper appreciation for spending time together.
Lee was hurt for much of his redshirt season in 2019, and a shoulder injury kept him out of spring practices in 2021.
Tori knew how to comfort Lee through his injuries because she tore both her ACLs in high school and had several major surgeries. Along with track, she played volleyball, soccer, and basketball but spent 22 months of her high school career in physical therapy.
“Once you lose your brace, or you’re a couple of months into your long therapy, all that support kind of goes away from people because you don’t have that physical thing to show,” Tori said. “So just knowing that I was going to be there with him through it all, I think was my biggest thing. And just like checking in on him mentally because I feel like a lot of guys don’t talk about their feelings in that aspect.”
Lee asked Tori to marry him on Dec. 30, 2021, during Iowa’s Citrus Bowl trip to Orlando. Lee bought the ring just a day before leaving and proposed at Universal Studios with his teammates watching from afar.
On July 3, 2022, the couple got married at a small chapel in Tori’s hometown with just family in attendance. The reception was held at Lee’s parents’ house.
For their one-year anniversary, Tori and Lee did vow renewals in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. Tori said about 120 people attended, including some of Lee’s Iowa teammates – linebackers Jack Campbell and Kyler Fisher, tight ends Sam LaPorta and Jackson Frericks, and defensive back Sebastian Castro. Campbell was Lee’s best man at the wedding.
“It was a party all week,” Tori said of the trip. “It was so much fun but very exhausting.”
Tori moved in with Lee and his four roommates — Fisher, Campbell, LaPorta, and Frericks — ahead of the 2022 season. At the time, Tori was a student-teacher in North Liberty, so she had an opposite schedule from the players, who had the middle of the day off.
Tori said she loved seeing how Lee and his teammates interacted and joked with one another. She also appreciated how they all treated her like family.
“I learned my biggest pet peeve is when people put their dirty dishes in the sink when the dishwasher is empty,” Tori said of living with the five athletes. “But overall, it was super fun.”
Lee said some of his favorite memories with his roommates came during the COVID-19 pandemic when Iowa’s strength and conditioning staff dropped off equipment so the group could work out from home.
“We loved our garage workouts together,” Lee said. “It was just so much fun because you had to improvise with a lot of the exercises they were having us do. So we loved bonding through that.”
Tori said she fell in love with the North Liberty community while student teaching, so she and Lee moved there over the summer and now live about 20 minutes from the football facility. Lee may be farther from Kinnick Stadium, but he still cannot escape the elder title.
“He goes to bed at 9:15 or tries to,” Tori said. “I call him ‘old man’ at home too because if we’re not in bed by 9:15, he turns into a crab and stresses out about sleep.”
Fisher lived with the couple in their North Liberty apartment over the summer.
Tori considers Fisher one of her close friends and said she tried to “pull him out of his shell.” Fisher still comes over to Lee’s place for dinner every once in a while. Otherwise, Fisher and other Hawkeye student-athletes typically use Black Card, which gives them access to weekly and daily allowances for food and groceries at local locations in Iowa City.
“It’s kind of sad. I forget that these guys never make home-cooked meals, and they just use Black Card and eat out all the time,” Tori said. “So I always tell Kyler he’s got to come over for a home-cooked meal.”
Faith-driven
Something that’s special to Lee and his wife is their Christian faith. Mitch said his son has been a firm believer in his faith since he was young and teaches him new things all the time, like how to read and interpret scripture.
The defensive end went on missionary trips to Detroit in eighth grade and Houston in his junior year of high school.
“Football is secondary to what his faith is right now, in my opinion, and that’s not a gimmick,” Mitch said.
Since Lee arrived in Iowa City, he has been involved with Athletes in Action (AIA), a college athlete ministry that seeks Christian followers in every sport at the university. He was on the introductory leadership staff as a first-year and has led the group since. Lee says he is thankful for the people in his life that he wouldn’t have met without AIA.
Some of his favorite memories with the group have come from the ministry’s annual Ultimate Training Camp and his two mission trips to Ecuador.
Lee said that any college athlete can attend the Ultimate Training Camp.
“It’s really just trying to break you down physically, mentally, and spiritually so that you have nothing else to rely on other than the strength that you have in Christ,” Lee said of the camp’s purpose.
During AIA’s trips to Ecuador over spring break in 2022 and 2023, Lee and other Hawkeye athletes passed out water filters and shared the gospel with those in need. AIA partnered with Filter of Hope, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to providing clean drinking water to families in poverty.
Tori and several Iowa football players — Fisher, Aaron Graves, Steven Stillianos, and Cooper DeJean, to name a few — joined Lee on AIA’s mission trip to Ecuador in March.
Over four days, 88 filters were delivered, 159 people heard the gospel, and 72 people prayed to receive Christ, according to the AIA website.
“So I kind of spearheaded the recruiting aspect. We ended up getting 10 football guys down,” Lee said of this year’s trip. “[The locals we visited] drink water that’s just like black, and it was so eye-opening the first time I went. We don’t have much to complain about in comparison.”
Lee said he tries to encourage anyone who will listen to grow in their faith. Tori said she’s loved watching Lee’s spirituality grow in their relationship and added that his “love for Jesus” is one of her favorite things about him.
“I don’t think he knows yet just how big of an impact he’s had on the football team and a lot of people around him,” Tori said.
Lee credits his faith for the success he’s experienced in his college career. So far this season, the defensive end has amassed 30 total tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, two pass deflections, and two sacks, including a career-best 10-tackle game in Iowa’s 20-14 win over Purdue.
Lee said early on in his career he struggled because he tried too hard to be perfect. Now, he’s not focused as much on filling the stat sheet but instead cares about having fun and learning from his mistakes.
“You’d see him getting better with each game out there because he’s more comfortable and more instinctive,” Ferentz said. “Now, he’s playing really well for us and is a great leader on top of it.