Dalles Jacobus, the inspirational leader of the Kennedy football "family" that won 13 straight games last season, has found a new football family to call his own next year.

Jacobus said Monday he has accepted an offer to join the Iowa Hawkeyes as a preferred walk-on, joining a program that won 12 straight games this season and rocketed to national attention.

Iowa assistant coach Reese Morgan began talking to Jacobus about the possibility of joining the Hawkeyes last summer, but everything happened quickly Monday morning after Morgan contacted Kennedy Coach Brian White.

"Coach White came up to me and said, 'Come see me during lunch,'" Jacobus related. "So I went up and talked to Coach Morgan during lunch and that's when I committed.

"We've been talking on and off since the summer," he said. "I went to a camp there and Coach Morgan said he liked my fight, but he wanted to watch me throughout the year and see what I can do and evaluate me from there."

Jacobus helped Kennedy reach the championship game of the Class 4A playoffs for the first time in school history.

Jacobus was named first team all-state by the Iowa Newspaper Association and the Des Moines Register as a defensive lineman. He also excelled as an offensive lineman  and saw spot duty at fullback, where he carried the ball 12 times for 57 yards and five touchdowns.

Jacobus is not sure what position he'll play at Iowa.

"Coach Morgan said they don't have anything in mind," he remarked. "He said he just likes the way I play football. We'll decide that when they evaluate me on campus. I'm assuming either defensive line or fullback."

Jacobus, who stands 6-foot-2, weighed 260 pounds when the 2015 football season began, but he lost weight during the season and cut to 220 pounds for the high school wrestling season. He said he'll have no trouble getting bigger again for college.

"I can put on weight like it's nothing," he said. "Putting on weight is no problem for me."

Kennedy football star Shaun Beyer has accepted a scholarship offer from the Hawkeyes. Beyer and Jacobus are best friends and now they'll be teammates in college.

"We're roommates," said Jacobus. "Coach White texted Shaun and he came up to me and said, 'Let's room!' We've already got it planned out."

In addition to his exploits on the football field, Jacobus is one of the top track and field athletes in Iowa in the shot put and discus. He had offers from Iowa, Northern Iowa, South Dakota, South Dakota State and North Dakota State for track and had a scholarship offer from Grand View for football.

Football and the Iowa Hawkeyes are his first love, and he jumped at the offer to wear black and gold.

"I've been going to Iowa football games ... My grandpa told me since I was about 8 months old," he said. "I grew up watching them and it's a pretty good feeling to be able to say I'll be one."

Jacobus comes from an athletic family. His brother Devon is a senior on the baseball team at Grand View and his other brother Derek is a sophomore on the track team at Arkansas.