Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Since his first day of high school football Bobby Bacon had always imagined his senior season.

The City High quarterback certainly isn’t alone in that mindset.

There is something special about the last prep season for every athlete across all sports.

For Bacon the focus on that final fall on the gridiron was seemingly out of necessity.

“My entire high school career I thought my senior year was going to be my only year,” Bacon said. “Honestly that’s just where I was at.”

It’s easy to see why Bacon felt that way.

After all, Bacon wasn’t supposed to be the starting quarterback at City High last season after ending his sophomore season third on the depth chart.

He wasn’t supposed to be the player leading the Little Hawks to six wins in seven weeks to end the regular season and a third consecutive Class 5A state playoff appearance.

And Bacon certainly wasn’t supposed to be one of the most productive passers and top rising quarterbacks in the entire state.

At least not last season.

Yet that’s exactly what Bacon did last fall after replacing injured senior starter Drew Larson three games into the season and somehow the seemingly incomprehensible level of success for the first year signal caller came as no surprise to anyone in the City High program.

“Last year Bobby wasn’t supposed to start but we knew that if Drew were to get hurt that Bobby would do a great job stepping up,” City High senior receiver Connor Cross said. “It wasn’t a surprise to us at all last year that he did as good as he did because he was always so prepared.”

Bacon has always been preparing.

As a freshman Bacon watched as sophomores Quinton Tran and Larson split the quarterback role while leading the Little Hawks to a 10-2 record and 5A semifinal berth.

With those two quarterbacks a year ahead of him excelling as sophomores Bacon quickly deduced his only opportunity to lead the City High offense would likely come as a senior.

Rather than waiting the starting opportunity that was seemingly years away Bacon went to work.

“It was definitely tough to stay motivated, that is a challenge if you don’t expect to be playing but I just looked at it as I wanted to get as good as I can, I wasn’t trying to beat Drew out I was just trying to be the best teammate I could be,” Bacon said. “I wanted to get as good as I could for that senior year.”

When Bacon was a freshman City High coach Mitch Moore wasn’t initially sold on the fact he young quarterback had the desire or the ‘want to’ as Moore called it to lead the Little Hawks.

That question was quickly answered in the summer following Bacon’s freshman season.

“When he was a freshman weren’t sure he was ever going to have the want to it would take and by the end of his freshman year we could see the want to was there,” Moore said. “His freshman year offseason he really cultivated the guys with seven-on-seven and got guys involved. That was a growth process that this program needed.”

Following his freshman season, even with varsity action still seemingly several seasons away Bacon took his work ethic to another level.

“Bobby is probably one of the hardest working guys on this team,” Cross said. “He was the quarterback on our freshman team and he wasn’t the greatest quarterback, he had some injuries and in that offseason he heard all that doubt and he just took it to another level.”

Bacon was the third string quarterback behind Tran and Larson as a sophomore in 2022.

The following offseason Tran transferred to Clear Creek Amana and Larson missed much of the summer with an injury leaving the first-team snaps to Bacon.

“I was getting a lot of the summer reps as if I was the starter and that was really beneficial,” Bacon said. “We practice so fast that it allowed me to get what felt like game looks.”

Bacon entered last season the backup to Larson.

He got his first extended varsity action just two games into the season when Larson injured his thumb in a 41-14 loss to Liberty High.

With City High off to an 0-2 Bacon made his first career start a week later at Ames.

Bacon completed 17-of-24 passes for 223 yards and two touchdowns with out an interception and ran for two more touchdowns in a 49-28 win over the Little Cyclones.

“He came in calm and collected and led the offense and that’s not easy,” City High senior tight end Parker Sutherland said. “Drew had been doing it for three years and Bobby took some time to watch him and learn from him and was able to come in and sling it and command the offense and it was awesome.”

The rest, as they say, is history.

Bacon led City High to wins in six of his first seven starts to help the Little Hawks reach the 5A playoffs where they lost to Bettendorf in the opening round.

The 6-foot-2, 180-pound Bacon averaged 257 yards passing and threw for more than 300 yards three times in his eight games as a starter.

City High averaged 38.4 points per game in Bacon’s eight starts, scoring 42 or more points four times in that span.

“He’s a great leader,” City High senior Dominic Salibi said. “He wasn’t supposed to play last year and he came in and did what we he had to do and he’s been working in the offseason like no other so we are expecting a big season out of him this year.”

Bacon ranked in the top-10 in Class 5A in nearly every major passing statistic after throwing for 2,193 yards and 18 touchdowns in a little over eight games last season.

He was seventh in touchdown passes, sixth in yards and seventh in completions (141).

Bacon led 5A with a passer rating of 155.6, second in completion percentage at 67.5 and fourth in yards per completion at 15.6

“I’ve always been confident,” Bacon said. “I’ve always thought I could step in and be the guy but at the same time once you do it, I didn’t know what to expect, I’d never played in a varsity game, that’s the last thing I needed was to see that success.”

After taking the starting spot and running with it last season Bacon continued to work.

Moore says Bacon has worked harder than ever before even after his success last season.

“You have to develop that standard of want to and working in the dark and you have to love it and then once you add that knowledge and you start to involve others and people around him are getting better it really builds a good program,” Moore said. “I think that Bobby has been the mastermind of that for the last four years because he has this infectious personality and now he’s added the physical traits and the skill set and it’s been fun to watch.”

Bacon has finally arrived at his much-anticipated senior season.

The journey to his final season was different than expect for Bacon but his goals remain the same.

“This is what we’ve waited for,” Bacon said. “Everyone has a feeling of confidence and we want to go out and finish what we started.”

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