Brent Nelson didn’t think his football career at Iowa State was going anywhere.

He played in only a couple of games in 2001 as an offensive lineman after redshirting his initial freshman season.

His competitive nature started to kick in and he started grappling with a new idea: Give wrestling a try at Iowa State. After all, heavyweight Mark Knauer is graduating, and Nelson’s 6-foot, 3-inch, 278 pound frame would fill the void nicely.

Nelson contemplated talking with wrestling head coach Bobby Douglas.

He didn’t get past football head coach Dan McCarney, though.

“I just said `Nelly, what are your chances? That’s fine, I know you’re a good competitor, but what do you think your chances are of earning a scholarship for wrestling,’ ” McCarney explained. “[Nelson] said `Probably not very good.’ I said `I’ve never seen you wrestle, but I’ve got to believe that.’ “

McCarney went on to tell Nelson, a walk-on sophomore, that if he keeps improving, his chances of earning a scholarship as a football player looked pretty good.

Since that talk, Nelson, who played football and wrestled at Cedar Rapids Kennedy, has put his grappling dreams on hold and concentrated on a move from offensive to defensive line.

His move to nose guard may even land him in the Cyclones’ starting lineup come August.

“I think if he stays healthy, he’s going to be hard to beat out,” McCarney said. “He reminds me of [former defensive lineman Ryan] Harklau a lot. Very tough, relentless – he still needs some fundamental work, but he’s done a real good job this month.”

A torn meniscus in his left knee has kept him out of practice and likely out of Saturday’s spring game, scheduled for 1:30 p.m., but he says he is running now and hopes to be on the practice field soon.

As for his rise in the Cyclone ranks, Nelson is as surprised as anybody.

“During the winter . I was looking at one or two on offense,” he said. “Then all of the sudden within 20 minutes it was boom – I was in the mix with the d-linemen.”

It was defensive line coach Mike Nelson who came up with the idea of a move to the defensive line.

“They said `We’re going to try you at nose guard. If things don’t work out or if you don’t like it we can move you back,’ ” Brent Nelson said.

His thoughts of moving back to the offensive line were long gone after his first day as a defensive lineman.

“I was moved up to number one after the first day. I was really surprised about that.”

An even bigger and better surprise would be a scholarship. McCarney has yet to award Nelson with a scholarship, but said that issue would be taken up soon.

Nelson said that money isn’t an issue, but the benefit of a scholarship would relieve his parents, who help him pay for school now.

“It’s not really a hardship, but it’s always been in the back of my mind,” he said. “It would really help out my parents and stuff like that if I could get a scholarship.”

So would he ever consider a spot on the wrestling team?

“Since I’m in the position to be a starter, I don’t think so,” Nelson said.

“There’s too much riding on me getting injured and stuff like that would jeopardize my football career.”

He can only use his grappling mentality to help him in his new home – the trenches of Big 12 Conference football.

“You’ve got to take the mindset in there that no one’s going to beat you,” Nelson said. “The only one that’s going to beat you is yourself.”