Bob Sanders is short. And slow.

Coming out of Erie Cathedral Prep H.S., the 5-foot-8 Sanders was overlooked by just about every Div. I football program. Sure, the scouts came to his senior year games, but they were looking for the standouts that made up Prep's junior class.

"I was calling anybody that would listen but he had a couple things going against him," Erie Prep coach Mike Mischer said. "His size and his grades, which were good but weren't great."

Fortunately for Sanders, he had friends.

Joe Moore, Notre Dame's offensive line coach and a former headman at Erie, was talking the safety up to his former colleague, Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz. And Ferentz liked what he was hearing.

"His former high school coach in Erie tipped me off saying Bob would make your team better and he'd make your special teams better," Ferentz said.

The Hawkeyes took a wait-and-see approach as far as how good Sanders would make the team, but the lure of a special teams standout was enough to hook Ferentz.

After viewing some tape of Sanders dishing out a few brutal hits, he dropped a scholarship offer in the mail.

After a successful camp, Sanders played as a true freshman on special teams from the beginning of the season. Sanders was impressive enough in practice to force himself into the starting lineup for the Hawkeyes' last three games of the season. He finished the season with 42 tackles and three forced fumbles.

Last season, Sanders was a mainstay in the Iowa secondary and earned first-team All-Big Ten honors for his efforts.

"Bob's a football player, a guy that loves the game," Ferentz said. "He's not real tall, but he's improved his speed and he's done a lot to make himself better and he's got a lot of heart."

That effort to improve himself is starting to pay off for the little man who hits with the force of someone much larger. Already this season, Sanders has 19 tackles and a pair of forced fumbles.

Ferentz also thinks the junior serves as a model for his teammates.

"He's showed us the way, as far as how the game is played and he's an example for us," Ferentz said.

Sanders is not the only Erie export working in Ames.

Redshirt freshman Ed Hinkel, a starting wideout for the Hawkeyes, would have wound up at a big-time program on his own thanks to ability that got him featured in Sports Illustrated's Faces in the Crowd in 1999.

But without Sanders' positive experience, it's doubtful Hinkel would be suiting up in Beaver Stadium tomorrow.

"He's not the biggest kid in the world and he doesn't look the part," Mischer said, "but of all the guys that came through here, Ed was the best football player to come out of Erie."