Black was a standout basketball and track athlete at Marshall. He was agile enough to set the school single-season sack record with 17.5 his junior season from his edge rushing spot.
"He was the guy when we came home, if there's any leftovers, he took the whole thing with him," Bahlmann said with a laugh. "We knew when track and basketball were done for him, he would put some good weight on."
Little did Bahlmann and Ferentz know that Black would turn himself into a 335-pound defensive tackle.
"I actually thought he might go as an offensive tackle to college," Bahlmann said. "That's where, like Kansas State, Minnesota, offered him as an offensive tackle, but he wanted to play defense. And obviously it turned out."
Turns out, Black likes to hit people. And Iowa offered him that chance.
"If you have ever been in the building with any of those guys from the offensive side of the ball, but especially the defensive side of the ball, it's just the consistency that's always there that never leaves," Black said of Iowa. "That whole culture has been built around KF (Ferentz) and he really upholds that to everybody's standards."
That's why when Bahlmann took Black to Iowa, his signing there was a done deal.
"He was going unnoticed, he didn't like a lot of the hype stuff," Bahlmann said. "So I had actually taken to Kansas State camp, and they had offered there right away on sight. He won hands down all the one-on-ones at that time. He weighed about 250 because he was a football, basketball, track kid, so obviously he lifted. But he was doing a lot of sports, and his weight was down.
"And then we went to Iowa and they offered on the spot. He came back and told me he fell in love with the University of Iowa, so he was done recruiting. And I said, 'You want to listen to anything else?' Nope, I'm done. 'OK.'"