Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - First Monday Morning Recap with Matt VandeBerg after an Iowa Hawkeye victory | What went right and who shined vs Michigan State

Episode Date: November 8, 2020

It's our first every post-game recap with Matt VandeBerg where we get to discuss an Iowa Hawkeye victory. We break down what went right and Matt continues to show me that the fade route is a valuable route in the red zone. And of course, this show wouldn't be complete without breaking down the fantastic special teams performance of the Hawks and some trench play stand outs in Tyler Linderbaum and Zach VanValkenburg.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order.BuiltGoVisit BuiltGO.com and use promo code “LOCKED,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are locked on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back to another episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Lockdown Sports Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, and today's episode is brought to you by Built Bar. Go to BuiltBar.com and use promo code LOCKEDON and you'll get 20% off your next order. And I'm very excited to be here today because this is the first time we're doing a Monday morning recap of Matt Vandenberg,

and we actually have a win to talk about. Matt, how are you doing today, man? I'm doing a lot better than the last two weeks. It's nice, man. I felt like when we talked about doing this, when you agreed to come on, I felt like we would have three wins at this point, but here we are, we're one and two. Nevertheless, it's exciting to get a win, especially in the fashion Iowa did.

There's just something about special teams touchdowns, something about defensive touchdowns. It just gets me going and gets me really excited about the game. It seems like Iowa Hawkeye Nation was fired up yesterday. Quick thoughts, you know, what are your quick thoughts on the game? What went well? What didn't go well? First off, I think we did a fantastic job with especially our first few drives, making the game simple for Spencer, you know, and I don't want to say simple because he couldn't handle the

other stuff, but simple in that he doesn't have to go through his progression super quick. You know, we talked about his decision making being being sped up in previous games and the first two drives, they're really just kind of let him settle in. He read one guy. If, if he goes left, he throws right. Or if the guy goes right, he throws left. It was just very simple. It was end around some Charlie Jones for 30 plus yards. It was running a lot of off tackle, not as much inside. But I mean, there's a lot of different things there, quick boot, you know, where he reads one guy and he can hit that throw. So, I mean, just, just that kind of stuff I thought was real positive in order to get them in

rhythm. Definitely, man. And I thought Spencer Petras played a lot better this game. Like you said, you know, made a little bit simple for him. Obviously it's easy when the easier, when the run game is going and you're getting a lot of help from the defensive and special team side. I do think there's still a little bit of improvement to be had with the touch and the accuracy at times.

But overall, I mean, it was a game where it didn't matter what we tried to do. Nothing was going to go wrong. I mean, I'm thinking about that pass to Tyrone Tracy. It looked like a drag route. Hits his hands and goes right in the brain of Smith's hands. I mean, that's just one of those games. It felt like it was Iowa's game yesterday. Michigan State couldn't bring anything to the table at all. It was a rough homecoming for the quarterback, Michigan State. But at the same time,

like you said, I mean, if you're getting those types of plays where obviously there are four or five DBs on the other side of Tyrone's tip pass, and yet we come down with it, that's when you know it's going to be a good day for the Hawks. 100%, man. And we talked about last week, Brandon Smith does a fantastic job of basically winning those 50-50 balls. I put it on Twitter yesterday, but it's more like 80-20 when it comes to Brandon Smith, with the 20 being no one catches it, right? And so yesterday we saw it again.

Spencer Petras did a solid job of putting it up there for Brandon Smith. Maybe not the most accurate pass. Definitely looked like it was going towards the DB more. But Brandon Smith made a play on it. What are your thoughts on that? From a wide receiver perspective, anything you noticed from Brandon Smith or just let's get in the ball more. I got two things. One, that's why you don't abandon the goal line fade. I knew it. You tried to call me out on Twitter. You tried to call me out in the podcast. It's not happening. There's a reason because now that you've've got you've got a guy out there that can run that goal line fade exceptionally well we saw the back shoulder

last time spencer throws it in kind of a rough spot this time and brandon makes a great play but it's what that sets up so now the goal line fades so now the db's got to be more concerned about taking an outside release or brandon taking an outside release so now he's playing a little bit more head up so now brand Brandon starts coming off like he's running the fade and he runs a quick slant there's nobody there now you've set up multiple ways and now if he's trying to cheat inside I mean you can run a slant retrace off that I've seen Julian Edelman running the Super Bowl when they were playing the Falcons and they came back a dirty route but it's one of those things where you've got if you become exceptionally good at one thing, now that opens up the toolbox for everything else for inside outside releases,

quick slants, fades. It's more than just what that fade represents. It's what that can turn into because you're so good at it. But like you said, 80, 20, there's a reason he's a stud. He's a dog. He's the guy that you got to get the ball to, I think, in multiple times during the game. And we saw that. 100%. Have you seen Cobra Kai or even just Karate Kid? Honestly, I've only seen like a tiny bit. I feel like I'm going to get some backlash for that. So you're familiar with like wax on, wax off, right? I know that phrase.

wax off right at least i know that phrase yeah okay so i feel like the first episode we did was the beginning of that where i was just waxing a car going wax on wax off and you're trying to explain to me the fade route and i feel like three weeks into the show now and you i mean now i'm finally actually starting to understand why the fade route is important outside of just we had brandon smith able to run it so it felt like you were kind of just slowly building me up and so um and then obviously i got a little cocky on twitter this this week and it called you out a few times on the fade route. So I appreciate that. Like your Mr. Miyagi moment to me, man. I appreciate that. Yeah. I mean, with anything, you know, we got, we got to warm you up to understand where we're at, just like everything it's progression, but that's, I mean, like I said, I mean, that's when you become really good at something and it opens

up what you're able to do. Absolutely, man. And one of the things that we also talked about is getting that running game going. So last week, we kind of abandoned the run. I thought they did a relatively good job of running out of the shotgun, but they just didn't do it a lot against Northwestern. This week, the run, I mean, outside of the really big run by Tyler Goodson,

he had a couple of breakaways, but that 71-yard run was fantastic. But overall, I mean, we weren't getting a ton of yards on each carry, but Iowa stuck to it, chipped away, and then was able to make a few big plays. And that really, I felt like opened up some of the play actions, gave Spencer Petras a lot more time. What are your thoughts on the running game? Did you see anything different from this week to last week? I know you talked a little bit about the outside zone runs. Anything else you saw?

That's kind of the main thing I saw is just being able to attack the tackles on either side. But I mean, there were there were a lot of instances where I saw Tyler Linderbaum and the backside guard or backside tackle, usually backside tackle pulling. And there aren't many teams that pull the center. But when you've got a guy like Tyler Linderbaum that can do that, I mean, it just adds so much to your game where you're able to get to the edge, have your guard crack down in the nose and then have your center out leading. It's just not very common. But when you open up that kind of stuff, and then we talked about, I mentioned it earlier, a quick boot. Now he missed one. But as far as like the quick boot, there's nobody on either side of the tight end. He could have hit the comeback on the

outside of the Brandon either time. I mean, that's what you try to set up when those linebackers are sniffing and sniffing because you've been running it. And again, you don't have to crank off, you know, 71 yards every time, but if you stay consistent with three or four yards, three or four yards, maybe two, but as long as you're consistent with that, then those linebackers have to respect it. Definitely. I mean, I think we saw that Northwestern does a fantastic job of that, of just chipping away, chipping away, chipping away, and kind of make keeping defenses honest. Before we, I do want to touch on Tyler Linderbaum a little bit because he is a fantastic center. You can see the growth from him. I don't believe you were in the program when he was there though, correct? Okay, I want to get some thoughts

on him though and the fact that Iowa was actually down two of their starting offensive linemen this past weekend and how that impacted the run game at all. Before we get into that, though, I want to quickly give you an opportunity. You're doing some awesome stuff around Iowa City. It sounds like your wife is hosting Game Day Live for Iowa Hawkeyes. So tell me a little bit about some of the stuff you're doing in Iowa City and where folks can find you at. Yeah, so I'm a real estate agent with the Bales team at Urban Anchors Real Estate. So anything selling, buying, home, lots, anything like that, I can, my team and myself can help you out. As far as what Laura's

doing, she's got, like you just mentioned, you know, pregame show for two hours before every game. So she was out there at 9am talking about the Hawks, figuring out different keys and they go in and out with the Hawkeye radio network. So you get Dolph and Pody and everybody. So it's a good conglomerate of minds that talk about Hawkeye football there for a solid two hours. I love it, man. So make sure everyone checks that out. Before we get into the Tyler Linderbaum stuff, though, if you were like me, I'm always on

the go. I'm constantly moving, moving, moving. Yesterday, I was a little riled up. Winning 49 to 7 gets you going a little bit. I was yelling at the TV in excitement. It was a good time. But sometimes I just need to take a second to chill. I need to take a second to relax and unwind. And when I do that, I grab an ice cold,

refreshing Coors Light. Coors Light is cold lager, cold filtered, and cold packaged. It's literally made to chill and it's as crisp and refreshing as the Colorado Rockies. Perfect for a moment to unwind. Coors Light is the one I choose and I need to unwind. So when you want to hit reset, reach for the beer that is made to chill. Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door at get.coorslight.com. That's right. When you run out of beer, just go to get.coorslight.com. You get Coors Light delivered directly to your door. And as always, folks, remember to celebrate responsibly. This message is brought to you by Coors Light, part of the Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado. All right, man. So before we took a quick break, gave us some messages from Coors Light and whatnot,

Tyler Linderbaum has been fantastic. So he came to Iowa as a defensive tackle, you know, relatively small school, but a ferocious guy. And then they moved him over to center and he has been phenomenal. I mean, there's definitely always some room for improvement. You can see that he's, you know, he's only been in that position for two years, but what are your thoughts on Tyler Linderbaum?

He's looked at as a potential first round pick maybe this year maybe next year um is there anything you specifically notice about him that separates him from other people well I think the the way that the guys talk about him the way that people uh gravitate toward him it's not often that a that a sophomore is elected as a team captain I mean that just doesn't happen um but the fact that he's been able to just commandeer that position. I mean, like you said, no guard and they're like, ah, try them out. Try them out at center and the true freshmen. Okay, go ahead. Or a retro freshman. I can't remember exactly,

but as far as like being young and going at a position where you've got to know everything. I mean, there was a time in the game where it got relatively quiet and you could hear Spencer and he's like, all right, the buck's 34. So he's telling the line, I don't care what you thought was the Mike linebacker. That's the Mike linebacker. And now every now the offensive line has to make a decision, you know, whether they're going to over this trio or any any of their calls based on our three of those three, this and that, who has who. And the center is responsible for telling everybody who they got.

Now, granted, everybody should know everything. But the guy that really verbalizes it, of course, is the center. So being able to have that kind of knowledge, because that's a lot up front. I mean, he's a quarterback of the line. And for him to come in young, never done it before, and being able to perform the way he has, I think really speaks volumes about him.

Yeah, I think people forget sometimes that offensive line does take a lot of thinking. People sometimes, oh, you're just blocking some guys, not a big deal, but there's so many different concepts you're doing. And also, you're not just coming up and saying, I'm blocking this guy. It depends on what they're actually,

the defense is showing you, determining who you're going to block. And that center, like you said, is the quarterback of the offensive line. One of the things I wanted to touch on, we talked about it a little bit, but Charlie Jones, fantastic story. Again, people think,

I think people forgot about him because he transferred in the midst of the Oliver Martin saga, which, you know, lasted, it seemed like forever trying to get him eligibility. But meanwhile, under the radar, Charlie, you know, Charlie Jones transfers from Buffalo, had a fantastic redshirt freshman season at Buffalo, a walk-on with some connections to some of the guys in the Iowa Hawkeye program, some of the coaches, and now we're seeing him shine.

And we saw him shine a little bit more. I think had Amir Smith-Marset been in the game, he's probably getting those ender rounds, but we see Charlie Jones. We see the speed from him. What are your thoughts on what you're seeing from Charlie Jones? And is it just me, or is it impressive how Iowa can find some of these unheralded wide receivers? And they are fantastic. I mean, I'm thinking Nicky's, I mean, even you were relatively under-recruited. I would say not relative.

You were under-recruited coming into college football and you guys just ball out. So is that a Testament to you guys? Is it part of the Iowa Hawkeye football program? I mean, what the hell is going on? What is in the water where Iowa finds these guys, man? I think there's a couple of things to that. I think Iowa, I know that I'm part of this group as well as like you said, easily and, and other guys being able to come in and just knowing that you're

going to try as hard as you can at whatever you do. You know, I've had an opportunity to talk to Charlie more than a few times. And when he was rehabbing a shoulder, he was in there catching off the jugs, even if it was just one hand, things like that, trying to get himself back. And as soon as I told him, okay, you can raise here. You can't quite go out, but you can raise here. So he was working on balls there. Just an opportunity to go out and try and get better at everything he does

and try and be as coachable as he can too. And those types of things, I think really excel in the Iowa program. I mean, you see Brandon Smith out there blocking and Amir and everybody trying to get involved. And I think that's why those receivers are able to find success. Definitely. And he also did a fantastic job of returning punts. But Michigan State's punt return or punt coverage team,

I would say, was subpar at best. Wanted to get your thoughts, though, on that punt return. Because, I mean, yes, he basically made one cut. He did the Michigan State coverage guy over-pursued. He made one cut, cut back, and then broke a few tackles. I thought that was pretty fantastic. What did you see though, as a former punt returner yourself, what was on tape that you kind of noticed from that? Well, the biggest thing on being a punt returner is you can't be scared and you have to trust the blocks in front of you. And I mean,

that comes and goes. Sometimes you don't trust the people in front of you. So you're going to fair catch everything and others, you trust everything. So you're going to be able to go. And Charlie's definitely very comfortable with, with what what he's got with what he's working with actually i want to point out i want to give a shout out to justin jacobs on the uh probably turn touchdown uh he was one of the guys that basically make sure it's punted so he's upfield by the punter uh by the personal protector and i mean he did his job he made sure it was funded, but then it's coming back and finding work and Charlie was able to cut off him and Justin got a pancake and everything like that. And that that's when you get excited. I mean,

when you got guys that are going to bust, bust their butt and trying to get, you know, turn it and find it work. Cause a lot of people like to turn and watch the play. Like, Oh, what is he doing? Yeah. Well, no, that's not your job. Go find somebody, go hit somebody. And Justin got a pancake on that. So I gotta give a shout out to him. But like you said, I mean, low punts, things like that. I mean, that obviously plays

into the punt returner's favor, but Charlie's been able to, I mean, even last week against Northwestern, being able to get yards. And anytime you're able to start with plus 10 than what you would have, I mean, that's a huge advantage. And we definitely won the field position battle

against Michigan State. Definitely. And two things I want to call out from that. Charlie Jones, five punt returns, 101 yards, one touchdown. Justin Jacobs, a four-star recruit that we plucked out of Ohio. Ohio State wanted him late in the recruiting cycle. We managed to keep him going to Iowa. And like you talked about, this is the Iowa way where he's a four-star recruit.

He got a little bit of playing time with the ones. and then obviously the twos came in and he definitely got some playing time there but the fact that he's performing on special teams and doing that you don't always see that sometimes from some of those and not at Iowa specifically but for some of those top level recruits you don't typically see all the time that the uh the hustle and the willingness to to put in the work on special teams and that's usually where guys find the field first is on special teams. And like I said, that, that pancake, I know is not going to go unnoticed there. And they're talking about it today. I'm like, look at this guy,

finding work and being able to take his guy to the ground. That's what we're talking about. And being able to have multiple guys like that, that's when your special teams flourishes. I think you, I think it's safe to say that punt and punt return are definite advantages for Iowa right now. A hundred percent.%. Love having Charlie Jones again. Fantastic story. And Iowa fans love seeing a guy like Charlie do pretty well. Another guy I thought did pretty well, another transfer, Zach Van Valkenburg. I thought he played defensive line fantastic. He did a good job on a couple

play actions. He was one of the reasons I believe we got one of our three picks. I thought he hit Rocky Lombardi pretty hard and Rocky threw up a pretty crappy pass, but that was Zach Van Valkenburg being in his face. Another guy who transferred in, did a really fantastic job as well, in my opinion. Yeah, and I'm actually going to bring up one play in particular because you could see how it was coached for Michigan State

and how it's coached for us. So they ran an end around it was I think it was first quarter early in the first quarter Zach plants the jet suite I mean absolutely plants him you're not back like four yards back right yeah I mean it was it was and it was like third and one or something and it was like it was in my mind that's a dumb play call to begin with a third one but either way Zach goes back and obviously makes a great play. So they don't block him. He's supposed to follow the line and follow movement, which if we now reverse to how Charlie Jones ran it,

we didn't block the end either. But their end filled down the line. And as soon as he takes two steps, Charlie's going to be out and around and that's it. Our guy went up the field, kept contained like he's supposed to, and then was able to knock him out. So, I mean, that's the difference in coaching there for this exact same play. And Charlie gets 30 plus and they go minus four. And it's the exact same play. It is crazy to think about that. I mean, I thought Charlie did a fantastic job of running that in

Zach Van Valkenburg. You could tell a couple of times where he did a great job of reacting to the play as opposed to reacting to, you know, happening like you said along that offensive line I do want to touch on special teams a little bit more because Charlie did a fantastic job but man Torrey Taylor is so much fun to watch I mean I don't usually enjoy going three and out but it is a lot of fun watching Torrey Taylor punt the ball I mean the guy can just boot it and what I've been you know I've been trying to do as much research on him as possible because there's almost nothing out there about him uh pretty unheralded uh we talked you know he he kind of got the the uh the okay from Michael Sleep Dalton the punter from last year did a fantastic job as well but man he doesn't even seem like he knows the game it sounds like

it sounds like he's still learning the rules of football uh he's only in his third third football game ever um it is just really impressive. As a former punt returner, what are you seeing from him that is allowing him to be so successful? Well, the spin on the ball has been really good. And not only that, but I think we've seen the first punt return out there, the first time they go out for punt return, they always misjudge it every single time. They're never on, they're reeling back, trying to go because they don't understand how strong his leg is. But multiple times you can stop him and i i want to say almost every drive they had started inside the 15 when he was in charge of punting and that is

absolutely incredible but you've got that as well as uh he had some savvy to him so he's picking up quick uh we did a little rugby style punt or but he held it because he was going to let his, let his gunners, let his guys get down there. Cause if you're not going to rush him, he'll take his time. You're not going to get a return out of it. And so, but to have a young player be able to do that right away, third game, like you mentioned, and he's able to hold on, let his punt coverage get down there and then punt it. I mean, that's, that's easy yards for Tori Taylor. Yeah. I noticed, I mean, he got the snap and then took a couple seconds and I was like, what is going on? Then I realized no one's coming at him. He just does a nice little punt and lands within the 10. I mean, bad field position for Michigan State every single

time. That definitely led to the performance we saw from Michigan State as well. And again, Rocky Lombardi not having the best homecoming back at Iowa, just how I would love to see it. Before we get into some more conversation about the game, I want to talk a little bit about the twos that came in. Also, Riley Moss. I think some people are being a little ridiculous on Twitter initially, and then all of a sudden everyone loved Riley Moss. I want to talk about the ebbs and flows of that

because it's just typical couch quarterbacking. I do the same thing. So I want to talk about that, though. Before we get into that, though, I do want to tell you about Built Bars because Built Bars are back and they're even more delicious. They're the protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. I don't know about you, but I used to get Snickers

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four grams of sugar, and four grams of net carbs. And my favorite flavor, which is cookies and cream. And right now you can go to builtbar.com, use promo code LOCKEDON, L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N, and you'll get 20% off your next order. Use promo code LOCKEDON for 20% off at BiltBar.com. All right, Matt. So let's actually get into the Riley Moss conversation

because there was two plays that stand out to me. The first one was the deep pass to Michigan State. Coming into the game, that's one of the keys I talked about was Michigan State. Their offensive attack actually has changed a little bit, whereas before it used to be very run-dominated. They like to go deep. They have some speedy guys at wide receiver. They want to go over the top. However, Iowa's defense is pretty good at keeping teams in front of them. It's a zone based scheme. They like to keep the guys in front of them. Their safeties don't let anyone over top of them. However,

we had an opportunity. One guy got a little bit past Riley Mosto was step for step with him the entire way. And then he comes out the catch. Now BC people on Twitter saying, why is Riley Moss in there? We've seen him get burnt before. I actually thought he had fantastic coverage on him. He had his head turned around looking for the ball and the, the wide receiver actually extended an arm, which created about three feet of separation where then he catches the ball.

Did you see anything else or am I just making stuff up? Cause I actually thought that was a pretty good play by Riley Moss and the wide receiver just made a better play. I think it was pretty solid. One of the tough things with running that style of corner where you're running the zone scheme is you're keeping your hips and everything inside. So you kind of lose them in your blind spot. So a lot of times when you lose him, you got a quick turnaround and find him and then run and then you got to locate the ball so I mean there's a lot going on in that particular time with the receiver absolutely knows where he's going DB doesn't know if he's going to snap it

off or anything like that and so being able to go from the zone turn go to the man turn find him try to find the ball get a hand in it's a lot now should he do it at a great level absolutely he's at a d1 college uh but he does do it really well and obviously he found himself in the right spot when rocky lombardi couldn't find his footing and obviously brought it back for a touchdown but let's not forget i mean matt hankins on the other side had one uh where the guy ran right by him as well and running that same kind of technique so i mean sometimes i mean it's football things are going to happen you're not going to be 100 every time you step out you step out there, you just try your best. A hundred percent, man. And I mean, I think Riley Moss,

his story is also fantastic. The fact that he was a gray shirt coming out of Ankeny, ended up seeing playing time in his true freshman year. He's a true junior coming in as a gray shirt, another fantastic, a very fast guy as well, playing that cornerback position. And I have been pretty impressed overall with, with what he's been able to do this season. We also saw the twos get in there, which I thought was fantastic. People have been clamoring for Alex Padilla to get in there. So it was good to see a little bit of playing time for him,

get those guys some snaps. What are your thoughts though on getting those twos in? Did you see anything from that second unit that made you excited about the future of Iowa football or just, it was good to get them some playing time? time I mean it's always good to get your guys in there I mean like you said everybody see the thing is everybody was after two losses is like hey fire this guy fire that guy bring this guy in there and then you put it in you're like all right yeah we probably have the best guy in there I mean that's just the way it is now don't be wrong Alex Padilla's slide

was incredible on the first bootleg I thought that was a picture-perfect slide uh that he did on the outside but as far as uh offense uh one thing that I noticed is we had a receiver wear number 29 and I was like that's a little different but uh but outside of that I mean I thought everything looked good we had a good rotation of running backs I think we kept it on the ground which obviously you're trying to run out the clock not trying to run up a score so I understand understand that where Padilla is not going to get as many opportunities to throw the ball, but defensively, I thought we played really well. Obviously it's Michigan state's ones versus our twos.

And we did pretty well there as well. So I think a lot of bright futures in the black and gold. Definitely. And two things I want to call out on that, the slide, people don't realize that sliding as a quarterback, isn't exactly as easy as people think. You just got to watch any game with Joe Burrow this year. And it is ugly to watch him try to slide. Now you watch Kyler Murray. He's a former baseball player. He understands the concept of sliding, but sliding as a quarterback, not easy. I also thought on that play action that Alex Padilla did a good job. He looked, he didn't see a read open. He just took off. He said, I'm going to get eight, nine yards. Fantastic. We saw some we saw some of that speed from him which I don't think you know Spencer Petras has the ability to run but more of a Nate Stanley type of runner whereas Aljamedia seemed to be a little bit more quicker a little bit more like I'm drawing a blank on Peyton Manziel seemed to be a little bit more Peyton Manziel like bold so I thought that was interesting also Seth Benson there was one play

I wanted to call out I believe it was in the second quarter. There's about three minutes and 30 seconds left. There's a third and one or third and two. Seth Benson showed blitz and then quickly dropped back and got the running back who was going out in the flat and tackled him for a loss. I thought that was fantastic. Seth Benson not able to play the first game, really showing out as that middle linebacker, an area where we were a little bit concerned coming into the season because we lost, you know, Colbert Christian Welch goes the NFL. So I thought that was also fantastic. Anything else you want to call out from a, these guys did well, or maybe we didn't touch on something that you want to touch on before we get into the next piece, which is what is going on next week. Well, I'm actually going to go back to quarterback sliding quick because CJ

was absolutely terrible. CJ was just, I'm pretty sure he broke like two or three knee braces trying to slide in practice. Like for whatever reason, he could not figure it out. I hope he listens to this and, and, and gets a glimpse, but I mean, that was, that was awful. But as far as like other things I saw, I mean, I thought, I mean, we already talked about Charlie Jones, Brandon, Brandon Smith I mean those guys I thought played really well defensively um I think I thought our linebackers were moving well like you said being able to show but it's come out and move and that's one of the things I mean our linebackers are built to kind of move and go uphill um being able to to

meet guys in the hole and um I don't think that's the best running back crew that we're going to face all season but at the same time I think think that I think that our guys played well and obviously led to a 42 point win. Yeah, I mean, it's good for confidence to Michigan State coming into this game. When I started doing my research, I mean, typically Michigan State is a very Iowa type of offense, right? It's very run oriented. They use the run to set the pass. But this year, again, they go deep. They want to they want to air the ball out. And the running game is not nearly as important to the game as they have as it has been in the past obviously a new coach with Mel Tucker you're going to change a little bit of your your offensive

scheme so that was definitely interesting now Iowa transitions to a rivalry game versus Minnesota and we're coming on a short week thankfully this year we have Minnesota on Friday but Minnesota also played on Saturday as well whereas this you, if we had the regular schedule coming into this year, no coronavirus, obviously that would have been fantastic. But Iowa would have had Penn State and then they would have had Minnesota, which would have been a tough turnaround. We get Minnesota though, and they are, they don't look so hot. I mean, they look good against Illinois, but a lot of teams can look good against Illinois.

My question to you though, is a short week. How, how does that impact your week? If you lose one extra day, what does that mean for Iowa? I mean, it's all about how you respond. So, I mean, obviously, you know, we played Nebraska on the black Friday for I think the entire time I was there. So it was one of those things where, I mean, you know, you have a quick turnaround, you know,

that you got to get back into it, which means that recovery is an absolute must. It's getting your sleep. It's getting the right nutrition and taking care of your body. And that's the biggest thing that can happen on a week coming up. I mean, practice is going to be scaled back a little bit. You're probably not going to be out there for 127 minutes, probably going to be more like 113, something like that, being able to get guys in and out as well as keeping them healthy for the short turnaround. But like I said, it's all about taking care of your body. Coach has been through this more than a few times.

So I'm curious as to how they're going to respond after Friday and then play on a Saturday and how that's going to go, because obviously then you get the extra day. But KF's been through this before, and obviously we run four out of the five Black Fridays I played on. So KF knows what he's doing when it comes to programming for this week. Absolutely. And I just want to make a quick note that that was all against Nebraska.

Love beating Nebraska, especially on Black Friday. And especially earlier on in Nebraska's tenure in the Big Ten, people used to think they were actually decent. Nebraska thought they were decent. And Iowa would always show up and beat them. And that was just, honestly, just like a nice icing on any type of season for us. You talked about the quick turnaround. Sundays, it's always the 24-hour rule. You watch the game film. You look at it. You talked about the quick turnaround Sundays. It's always

the 24 hour rule. You watch the game film, you look at it, you put it away and you move on to Minnesota. Does that speed that up at all on Sundays? Is there anything else extra you're doing on Sundays or you're just going through that same motions and then just shortening practices earlier in the week? Yeah, it's more of the, more of the latter. I mean, now they might change it up, but from the time that I've been there but from what I i understand you're still gonna have your 24-hour rule you're probably not gonna get on the field today outside of doing some quick stretching stuff uh but as far as um watching the film moving on correcting what you need to correct i mean little things like uh buyer across the middle and i don't know if spencer thought that he was gonna move back out to the right but he threw it

right like he thought he was gonna snap it back out and didn't so i mean like little things like that that are miscommunications um being able to get that corrected um you know and uh you know obviously we can't have drops i saw more than a few drops that happened too so getting those kinds of things corrected and understand where you're supposed to be so you don't put yourself in that type of situation um but i mean yeah as every sunday it's a 24- rule. You excited, you know, obviously you had your first one of the year. It's first one in the Spencer Petras era and being able to get that kind of under your belt, but now you got to go back to work and get ready for Minnesota. Definitely. And my last question to you, and I know we've kind of harped on a little bit,

but is there any concern about a letdown now? So we actually have two questions. I'm just thinking about the Minnesota game. I want to touch on for a second, but is there any letdown from a 49 to seven victory? Again, you talked about KF has been through this before, but from a, you know, Iowa has a pretty young team. This is a pretty big win, regardless of the state of the Michigan state program, but getting that first win of the season, is there any chance of a letdown going into the Minnesota game of we got our win? We relax a little bit. Anything concerning about that?

I wouldn't say concerning. I mean, by human nature, Minnesota game of we got our win. We relax a little bit. Anything concerning about that? I wouldn't say concerning. I mean, by human nature, there's always a chance of anything, but I think, I think the seniors are really going to kind of lead that way. And it's really how they, how they approach practice. So I mean, Brandon Smith has been playing phenomenally. Well, if I look back at the Purdue game, I don't know if it was after Makai fumbled or if it was after Goodson fumbled, but Brandon went over, picked him up. It was like, Hey, we're good. And then he walked over the

sideline and he showed a quick clip of it on, on whatever show, I think it was ESPN that we were watching it on, but little stuff like that. And if you're able to kind of carry that into the next week and your seniors and your starters go at it the right way, I think Spencer's got the right attitude in terms of going back and getting better. And I mean, you obviously you want to mitigate your chances, but I mean, that looked like a team that had fun and a team that has fun is a very scary team. I love it, man. And we, you know, we talked, the team is very young, but there's also a lot of very veteran guys with a lot of starts under the

belt of Larrick Jackson, Brandon Smith are two examples of that. My last question to you is we're playing Minnesota this week. And I know we usually do. We're talking about the recap of the previous week's game, but Minnesota is a rivalry game. What does that typically mean to Iowa within the program? How important is the Minnesota game versus other rivalries? I mean, Minnesota hasn't been that relevant for the last 10, 15 years. They've had a couple of years where they, you know, last year was a very good game. They were a very strong team, but what does that rivalry game mean in the program

I mean every game is a big game I'm going to give you the media answer here I mean every game is I mean like we talked about I don't know if it was last week the week before you only get so many opportunities so to think that any opportunity is more important than another just because of who you're playing I mean you only get eight times to go out there and compete now trophies on the line you're going to be, I remember in the weight room because we won it most of the time while I was there, we'd have an empty trophy case in the weight room, and you look at it, and it's like, oh, nothing's there because you've got to earn it.

Let's say in 2017, the 2016 team earned it. The 2015 team earned it. This team didn't earn it. This team has to go out there and earn it. And so being able to kind of see that, you get that little bit of fuel but and I know they do that we hate Iowa chant and they can do whatever they like but I mean we just show up and play I love man yeah they Minnesota fans are they're a lot yeah like they they are tough last year was a lot of fun for me after Iowa won because I was getting just a lot of hate from Minnesota fans but Matt I

appreciate you coming on the show obviously always appreciate your insight breaking down the game me after Iowa won because I was getting just a lot of hate from Minnesota fans but Matt I appreciate you coming on the show obviously always appreciate your insight breaking down the game getting me to eventually accept the fade route as an acceptable route we'll get there at the goal line yes someday I'll be like yes I love the fade but not right now I'm getting there I'm working on it but I appreciate you coming on for all of you out there make sure to check out all the stuff Matt is doing and his wife Laura as well also make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. If you liked the show, give us that five-star review and follow us wherever you download a podcast at.

Matt, any last words before we drop off? Hey, I got nothing outside of Go Hawks. I love that. Go Hawks, buddy.