This week in Indianapolis, Gennings Dunker turned heads for his flowing, red-haired mullet. As the 6’5, 319-pound OT from Iowa performed inside Lucas Oil Stadium, the cameras were locked onto the hair bouncing behind him during drills. But there’s actually an interesting story behind that viral mullet and it comes from a teammate superstition.
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During an appearance on The Jim Rome Show, Gennings Dunker revealed he modeled the haircut after former Iowa guard and teammate Connor Colby.
“So his freshman year, he rocked this haircut,” he said. “He was a freshman All-American, and then he cut it, and he had a good season, but not as great, and then we rocked it together at Iowa, and then he got drafted by the Niners, so I kind of think that that’s part of the reason he got drafted and played so well, so I kind of just been rocking it with him.”
Connor Colby eventually kept the look, played well enough to be drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in 2025, and Genning Dunker decided the superstition was worth sticking with. But even before that explanation dropped, the mullet story took on a life of its own at the NFL combine. During the broadcast, Rich Eisen didn’t even try to hide his appreciation for the look as the OT’s 5.18-second 40-yard dash rolled in slow motion.
“Talk about the greatest mullet in the history of the Combine,” he said.
NFL Combine star Gennings Dunker gives the backstory of his LEGENDARY mullet. @HawkeyeFootball pic.twitter.com/Gsi6uTwEI0
— Jim Rome (@jimrome) March 5, 2026
Rich Eisen’s not the only one in awe of Genning Dunker’s majestic mullet. When the NFL posted a slow-motion clip captioned “Gennings Dunker in all of his mullet glory,” fans piled into the comments. One viewer summed up the mood perfectly writing, “That mullet is carrying the whole Combine vibe right now.”
There’s proof of it going viral. Across the league’s Instagram and Facebook accounts, Gennings Dunker clips were posted eight times, racking up more than 430,000 likes combined. On TikTok, four videos from the NFL’s account generated over 2.8 million views. Even players and analysts joined the fun. Former QB Kurt Benkert saw the clip and chimed in.
“Hang it in the Louvre,” he wrote on social media.
Meanwhile, Ian Rapoport called the hair “perfect” while analyst Charles Davis added a wrestling comparison.
“He has hair like The Undertaker at his prime,” he said.
Gennings Dunker handled the noise like a veteran while putting together a solid combine performance. His 5.18-second 40-yard dash ranks 20th among 39 OLs. He posted a 32.5-inch vertical jump, tied for fifth among the group, and his 4.63-second shuttle ranked third among participants. Now that he’s a projected NFL player, it shines the spotlight on Iowa’s OL pipeline.
Gennings Dunker keeps Iowa in the spotlight
Beyond the viral haircut, Gennings Dunker is another product of Iowa’s long-running OL pipeline. He started 38 straight games for the Hawkeyes from 2023 through 2025 and earned first-team All-Big Ten honors in his final season. He was also part of the O-line that captured the Joe Moore Award in 2025, given annually to the best O-line unit in the country.
The funny part is that football wasn’t always the plan. Gennings Dunker arrived in Iowa City in 2021 planning to study human physiology and eventually become a doctor. But Iowa OL coach George Barnett convinced him that an NFL future was realistic. Now, Pro Football Focus ranks him third among OTs in the 2026 class, while USA TODAY lists him eighth among all OL prospects. His draft projection has him landing with the Las Vegas Raiders at No. 67 overall, per analyst Chad Reuter.
And yes, the mullet is still very much part of the package. And Gennings Dunker will tell you it’s tried and tested. Connor Colby wore it and got drafted. So for now, the case study remains open and you can bet he isn’t cutting a single strand before the NFL Draft.