Hunter Clasen's Wartburg legend now includes a game-winning touchdown in a national quarterfinal game. Photo by Caleb Williams, d3photography.com

By Riley Zayas
Special to D3sports.com

When Hunter Clasen arrived at Wartburg College in the fall of 2019 as a freshman running back, a pair of blue and white cleats followed him to Waverly. They matched the colors of Bellevue High School, the program he starred for while growing up in eastern Iowa.

But wearing the black and orange of Wartburg, his cleats stuck out to everyone as he carried the ball at the running back position. And once the coaching staff saw Clasen take off with the ball in his hands, sprinting into the open field, offensive line coach Patrick Toohey soon took to calling him “Turbo”. The nickname stuck. So much so that it was referenced time and time again on last year’s ESPN broadcast of Wartburg’s national semifinal at Mount Union.

“I had these high-top cleats that were blue and white, and Coach Toohey was like, ‘You look like Turbo out there, running around with those blue cleats, making people miss!’ So they got that going. Since my freshman year, I’ve had the nickname, and now ESPN is saying it and I love it. I’m all for it.”

• Supercut of Turbo references, ATN Podcast 331 (44:15 mark)

Clasen has embraced the moniker, and while he chuckles a little bit when the subject is brought up, the meaning behind it is very much valid. As Clasen continues rewriting the Wartburg record books heading into the Knights’ highly anticipated national semifinal duel with North Central on Saturday, both his speed and physicality have been put on full display.

“Everyone knows the Turbo nickname now,” Wartburg head coach Chris Winter said. “And that’s what he brings. Every single day, the guy brings it. He just has it about him, and people feed off that. He brings an infectious energy.”

That was perhaps no more evident than in the closing minute of Wartburg’s dramatic 31-28 quarterfinal win over UW-Whitewater. With under a minute left, and Wartburg on the Warhawk 7-yard line, Wartburg quarterback Nile McLaughlin rolled to his right before turning and throwing to Clasen, who was positioned on the left side of the field. And then came turbo-mode for Clasen, who caught the pass, fielded a well-placed block, cut slightly to the inside and raced across the goal line for the go-ahead score.

“At the end of that drive, we were all just tired and exhausted,” Clasen said. “We were giving it everything we had. Coming up with two fourth-down plays that kept us alive was huge, and just showed how much we wanted to win.”

Clasen, as he has throughout this 2023 campaign, was instrumental in both Wartburg’s game-winning drive and the Knights’ offensive success leading up to it. He finished with 118 yards on the ground and 45 on the receiving end, scoring three times as Wartburg avenged Whitewater’s early 21-3 lead.

“We knew we could stick with these guys and end up beating them if we played the style of Wartburg football,” Clasen added. “The win was huge, having it at home. But it was more for the alums. Because [in the past], we had gone to Whitewater three times, and ended up losing those games. But for them to come to our hometown and play us at our place, it was a great victory for not just us in the program, but for the alums who came back and watched and supported us throughout.”

The style of Wartburg football has largely been built from the efforts of players like Clasen, who, above all else, possess a high motor. Owen Grover, whose accomplishments for Wartburg on the defensive end have been just as well-documented, is certainly another example of why the Knights find themselves one win away from Salem.

Interestingly, it was Clasen’s high motor that got him into football in the first place. Always a kid with plenty of energy, his first sport was soccer, though that changed when a concern arose about Clasen’s style of play. He was football-ready, apparently, while still playing on the soccer pitch.

“I wanted to run around and burn off all my energy,” Clasen remembers. “So my mom put me in soccer. I played for a few years in elementary school, and one day, the soccer coach told my mom that I was a little too rough when I played. So they found football for me.

“Ever since third grade, I took off with it and loved the sport. I liked how physical it was, you could hit someone without being yelled at. So coming from that age until now, here in college, doing what I love doing, it is awesome to look back on.”

Clasen is at a point in his career in which he has entered each playoff game knowing it could be his last. Such is life as a fifth-year senior. Regardless of how this season ends up concluding, his legacy on the program is certain to last. In Wartburg’s last three playoff victories–over Illinois College, Whitworth, and UW-Whitewater–Clasen’s contributions put him in contention for four different single-season records, all of which are well within reach in Saturday’s semifinal.

As it currently stands, he is just 62 rushing yards shy of surpassing his own record for single-season rushing yardage, one touchdown away from the single-season rushing touchdown high mark, one touchdown from breaking the single-season total touchdown record, and three points from the single-season record for points by one player.

Having come from a defensive background, Winter knows just how difficult it is for opposing defensive coordinators to slow Clasen’s impact. And Clasen has only gotten better as his stellar college career progresses.

“When you’re a young back, and it looks a little muddy, you tend to give up on [the play] quickly and get out and find space somewhere else,” Winter said. “But he’s a patient runner. That’s what I think is tough about being a defensive coach defending Hunter Clasen. He can find the smallest crease, and that’s all it really takes for him to get a positive play.”

Record-breaking feats are no stranger to Clasen. Just last season, he sprinted his way up and down the field to a new program single-season rushing record, breaking Bobby Beatty’s 28-year old mark in the process. And in a display of the special connection found between Wartburg football alums and the program’s current players, it was Beatty who sought out Clasen after the game to congratulate the new record holder. Little did Beatty know that it was also a full-circle moment for Clasen.

“When I got the DM on Instagram from him, the name looked so familiar,” Clasen recalls. “And I realized, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s Bobby Beatty, the guy I wanted to become my freshman year.’

“Because I was looking through the record book my freshman year, and thinking about my goals for my career here and I saw his name up top quite a few times. I told myself, ‘If I want to be where I want to go, I need to be like this guy.’”

Clasen is now “that guy” for the running backs who will follow him in Waverly. The accomplishments speak for themselves, but what says even more, perhaps, is the investment Clasen has in the future of the running backs unit in the here and now.

“It’s easy for a guy in his shoes to feel like, ‘I’ve earned my spot. I don’t need to spend the time worrying about these other guys. I’m here for my fifth year and then I’m out of here.’ But that’s not his approach. He has those younger guys under his wing.

“This year, we know with his energy level, he would go out there and take every rep if he could. But we have to keep some tread on his tires, so he’s not getting quite as many reps in practice, because we want him to have enough juice for the game. But when he’s not in there, he’s coaching the younger guys and helping them understand things. His unselfishness, passion, and all-around energy makes him a special guy in that way.”

Those up-and-coming running backs have a bright future, Clasen says. His enthusiasm radiates when asked about the running backs unit of which he is a part of.

“I tell them every day how much I appreciate them and truly love them and how I’m going to try to do everything to keep us together through these playoffs,” Clasen said. “I can see that they’re going to do great things after I’m gone, and I told them, ‘These records are meant to be broken.’ So hopefully they can shatter some of my records that I’ve set already. I’m setting the bar, and hopefully they can continue to achieve where I’m leaving off.”

 When it comes to the whole “records” conversation, Clasen notes that does not keep up with his pursuits of the next Wartburg high mark all too closely. But his family does. The youngest of eight siblings, his family is highly supportive and often in attendance, whether the Knights are on their home turf or out on the road. It means a great deal to Clasen, who has embraced the family-type atmosphere of Wartburg football.

“I cannot do anything without the love and support of my family. I truly do love every single one of my teammates as one of my family members. Growing up in a large household, I have a lot of love to give to everyone. I can be an older brother every once in a while to some of these freshmen, but that’s because I know what it takes for someone to be successful, because my brothers pushed me to become who I am today. If they saw that in me at a young age, I definitely see that in some of the younger guys on this team as well.”

In fact, family is to thank for bringing Clasen to Wartburg in the first place. His cousin, Nick Clasen, played defensive line for the Knights from 2012-2015, so as a high school standout, Hunter inquired about Nick’s college experience, and his thoughts on the college.

“He told me I should come up and take a visit,” Clasen said. “So my parents, I and a buddy of mine came up and took a visit. And my buddy and I, who is also from my hometown, came on an overnight [visit] here. We loved it. The atmosphere and the brotherhood with the teammates made us feel instantly like it was home. From that moment on, I knew this was the place for me.”

That buddy was Riley Konrardy, a current fifth-year senior on the Wartburg defensive line. A First Team All-ARC selection, Konrady has put together an accomplished career of his own for the Knights, and the bond Konrady and Clasen shared early in life as friends growing up in small-town Iowa has continued through their time on the field together at Wartburg.

“He and I have been best friends for a long time,” Clasen said recently. “His birthday is a day before mine, so we’ve been hanging out and celebrating our birthdays for as long as I can remember. He is by far one of my best friends, so getting to play alongside him and have all this success as a team will be a lifetime of memories to cherish.”

For the team itself, it will be one last “Family Reunion” for a tight-knit program that draws outstanding support from not just the student population or alumni base, but the community of Waverly as a whole. And that is something the Knights, and Clasen, take enormous pride in.

“Every time we get a chance to place at home, it’s special,” Winter noted. “You only get so many of those games. You want them to realize how special every one of those days are, and to me, special days are when you get together with your family and the people you care about. That’s the approach we’ve been taking.

“The community here has been amazing. It’s always been that way. It’s a small town, and the college is a big part of the town. Our college really works hard to be active in the community as well, so it’s a strong relationship in a small community, and I think that’s what you see on Saturdays. People want to come out and see these kids involved in their community perform and play.”

Two-and-half hours to the east sits Clasen’s hometown of Springbrook, Iowa. It checks in at a population of 143. And within the tiny midwest town sits Jeronimo’s Bar and Grill, which doubles as a common meeting spot for the area’s citizens. It is also where Clasen used to tell people as a kid that he was one day going to put their town on the map.

“I remember telling some of my dad’s friends, ‘I’m going to make a name for our town someday,’” Clasen said. “When I got to Wartburg, they asked me where I was from. They said, ‘You played at Bellevue, so do you want us to put that down?’

“I was like, ‘No, I want to put Springbrook down.’ I wanted to represent that small town vibe and show that anybody, no matter if you’re from a huge city or out in the country, if you truly have a passion for something and want to work for it, you can find success and it’ll find you as well.”

Looking back on the last five years of Clasen’s career, it is safe to say he has proven just that.