Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Former Hawkeye P Michael Sleep-Dalton joins the show to break down the success of Iowa's special teams unit

Episode Date: December 1, 2020

We are honored to have former Iowa Hawkeye punter Michael Sleep-Dalton on the show today to talk about the emergence of Tory Taylor and their relationship as well as how he knew Charlie Jones could be a special player. He also provides insight in to what is making Tory so successful early on in his young career and how fantastic of a coach Levar Woods is.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 Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back Hawkeye Nation to a Tuesday morning episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade. I'm excited to be bringing you today's episode. I got on a call and talked to Michael Sleep-Dalton, last year's punter for the Iowa Hawkeyes, and we talked a lot about coming from Australia and adapting to the game here.

We talked about Torrey Taylor. We talked about the special teams in general for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Did a fantastic job talking through a lot of things that I feel like we haven't talked about so far in the last couple weeks as we've seen Tori Taylor be dominant, as we've seen Terry Roberts be dominant, as we've seen even our longstaffer be dominant. Michael Sleepdall did a fantastic job of covering those points and those principles, and that's what we're going to be breaking down on today's show,

our conversation with Michael Sleepdall. It was about 30 minutes long, so stay tuned for that. So with that being said, if you love the show, please make sure to subscribe, give us that five-star review, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. But with all that out of the way, let's hop into that conversation with Michael Sleep Dalton right now. All right, I am joined here by former Iowa Hawkeye punter Michael Sleep Dalton. Michael, how are you doing today, man? Doing well, thanks, Matt.

Well, dude, I'm happy to have you on the show. We've talked before, had you on prior to the NFL draft time. This past year was crazy with COVID. I know you're still training, though. Sounds like you're looking to make an attempt to get to the NFL in a more normal time this upcoming offseason, correct? Yeah, that's the plan. That's the goal. And it sounds like Iowa's going to let you come back for the pro day?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, as long as everything goes to plan and there's no more, I don't know, craziness in the works from COVID. But, yeah, that's the plan. That's the goal. That's what I'm working to. So, yeah. I love it, man.

How are you staying in shape right now? You're down in Florida. What are you doing though i mean are you kind of out there every day trying to kick the ball do you have people returning for you what uh what's the plan right now i'm actually i'm actually working um i'm a superintendent for a uh construction company so i'm also i'm working and then uh we've got a i've got a really good gym set up here in the house in the garage uh i've got a kicking net so i so i've been i swing the leg through quite a bit um but i actually just just took some time off just to you know rest rest up my leg and the body and um i went for a kick yesterday and

yeah just just like riding a bike yeah i love it so you're feeling good and feeling healthy yeah i feel good yeah yeah i mean the hardest thing about you know about what you know my position is um you know you can it can the the career path can sort of go as long as it can depending on how well you look after your body so that's sort of been like you know my biggest um i don't know it's it's it's sort of been like, you know, my biggest, um, I don't know. It's, it's, it's sort of something that I've had really focused on is making sure that my body's, you know, in good shape and, um, you know, just not to get hurt. Good body management. Um, so not kicking as much and there's,

you know, especially when you can do this so much downtime. Um, yeah. So it Makes sense. I mean, you could, in theory, I feel like people think, oh, if you do more of something, it's going to be better results. But more often than not, the more something you do, the more you're kind of opening yourself up for injury or something that's going to actually set you back quite a bit. Yeah, I learned that the hard way at ASU.

You know, I'd kick a lot because I'd never, you know, I'd never played American football. Always played Aussie football, so we kicked'd kick a lot because I'd never, you know, I'd never played American football. Always played Aussie football, so we'd kick the ball a lot. But it's a different type of kicking where punting, it's pretty much kicking the ball as hard as you can, as high as you can every rep. So the more reps you do, it really takes a toll on your body, on your leg.

And a lot of people don't really understand that like like my last year at iowa um it was a real focus on less reps and monitoring how many reps i take and coach woods and i sometimes will just sit on the sideline and watch the other punter just hit ball after ball after ball after ball, and then you wonder why they have a bad game because it's, you know, they've gotten rid of all their good reps in the warm-up. So it's all about management and, you know, looking after yourself. Something also told Torrey, and I've actually been speaking to him quite a bit, and leading up to his first game, I was like, you know,

just make sure you don't hit too many balls pre-practice. And, you know, Coach Woods looks after everyone. So, you know, he's a real man of the game and does so much research and looks into – because he knows nothing about punting and kicking. So, like, the amount of research that man does is actually you know it's really impressive that you know he can he can analyze like when we used to um you know practice he'd go through with him and i'd go through my film after practice

and he'd ask me some really you know basic questions and i'm just like what's he talking about but then it you break it down you're like okay because he knows nothing about well he didn't really know anything about much about kicking or punning that he asks questions you kind of don't think about and yeah he's he's his research you know he tries to make himself as aware of everything as possible so he can you know be the best coach you can. Yeah. It's pretty crazy. Which makes him the best coach. Yeah. I mean, I, not a lot of teams have a dedicated special teams coach.

Then you think about a lot of these coaches and their background typically isn't going to be special teams, right? You don't, LeVar wasn't to make his name being on special teams per se. He wasn't a punter. He wasn't a kicker. So he does have to develop those skills and learn how to you know build a fantastic special teams last year iowa had one of the best special teams units in the nation uh all-american keith duncan they had you at punter uh they had amir swift marcette returning kicks um that's fantastic uh this year somehow the return – I mean, we managed to keep a special teams unit just as good.

Charlie Jones. Charlie Jones is a freaking beast, man. He is phenomenal to watch. I knew this. Like, he would – because I lived with him. He was my housemate. And he's a great person to, like, watch and, like, be around because he's he's he's a he's a great person to like watch and like be around because he's so professional um he he would he would work out more than anyone in the building like when he especially was going

through his rehab um you know he had a he had his shoulder and him and i played ping pong so we'd work out his shoulder and get it better but like he like even when he wasn't allowed to do any sort of physical activity he was catching punts one-handed with his opposite hand like he would just catch punts and just work on it and work on it and work on it every time i went and punted he'd catch punts when i was training for pro day you know it didn't happen but he just catch my pants. Like he was doing everything. And then, yeah, it's good to see him, you know, excelling. And I mean, I knew he was going to be special. You can just tell by the way he works and his dedication to his body and his

treatment. And he's, he's a great fellow. And I hope they put him on scholarship. Yeah. I feel like he's a, he's definitely earned a scholarship at this point with his, if nothing else, with his punt return play. We have Matt Vandenberg on the show every Monday, and he's talked a lot about the difficulty of being a punt returner. And then you see a guy like Charlie Jones comes out,

and he has done just phenomenal. And also he's very ballsy too. I mean, there's a couple times where he's not fair catching a ball. I'm like, dude, you are about to get lit up. But the wherewithal to catch it and make a move within half a second and get out of the you know get out of a pencil tackle has been really really impressive so i didn't even realize you had that connection with charlie which is awesome to hear so it seems like you kind of you saw this coming almost for charlie i knew this was coming i was i was hoping he was going to get cleared to play last year but he never did um but yeah like he he's just he's he's just got it like when you know when people have a gift

and they're just really good at it and i mean you know not comparing him to sequin barkley but you know someone is so good at something and you can't stop i mean it's going to be a thing where punters are going to attempt to pull away i mean are going to attempt to punt the ball away. I mean, they tried to do that on the weekend after he had that, you know, 32-yard punt return. Then they tried kicking it out of bounds, and they were kicking the ball 30 yards. Like, it's pointless.

I mean, if you're a good punter, you can hit, you know, if you hit a 4'7", 45-yard ball, your gunners are going to get down there in time where he's not going to do anything. But they can't do that so yeah it's uh nebraska special teams was they had a very interesting dynamic on their special teams because they clearly were scared of literally everyone in iowa they're like oh you know what we're just never going to give the ball to amir smith marseille we're going to give you the ball to 35 so he doesn't burn us oh wait charlie jones can also return we're going to kick the ball like you said 30 yards out of bounds and give you fantastic field position just so he doesn't burn us and then on the other side we have Torrey Taylor who is doing a phenomenal job in his sixth

game of ever playing football so I want to quickly backtrack because we've talked a lot about special teams because obviously that's where you're kind of your head's at and that's obviously what I care about right now when we're talking about this but is it just me or does iowa care a lot more about special teams iowa fans not just the the program but iowa fans care a lot more about special teams and than any other ncaa program you've kind of heard of or been around and i'm obviously speaking more about asu but is it just me or does iowa fans really care about special teams all right i need to quickly pause the conversation because I do have a very important message for you. If you're anything like me,

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one of our bread and butters and one of the things that Iowa fans are known for enjoying more than a lot of other fans. But before we get into it, just a reminder that tomorrow we do have the Metrics That Matter segment heading into the game versus Illinois. A lot of interesting things I noticed when analyzing some of the advanced analytics heading into that game. We also have Western Illinois taking on the Iowa basketball team. We also have women's basketball versus Drake. We're breaking all of that down on tomorrow's show.

Now let's drop into that conversation with Michael Sleep Dalton again right now. Yeah, I mean, I would say Iowa in general really is focused on special teams. But I mean, you know, like you need to focus on all aspects of a game because special teams can win or lose you a game. Like you have a bad punting day. Like you can give them really good field position. You miss four field goals. Like, you know, that's, that's what, that's 12 points on the board.

Like that, you take that off. Like, you know, you have, you have a punt returner. They can get you 15 yards. Like that's a first down. You have a kickoff returner who can get you 40, you know, that puts you in such good position where like when I was at ASU, 15 yards like that's a first down you have a kickoff returner who can get you 40 you know that puts you in such good position where like when i was at asu like internally the building like we we focused a lot on special teams probably probably too much um that's because coach

slocum i mean he spent nine years at at green Bay Packers as the special teams coach there. And, like, we had a really good special teams unit. We had – but the thing is, is, like, we did pro style. So, you know, it didn't always work because it's, you know, the guys have to block first and then get in coverage. And, like, we didn't use any Aussie rule stuff. Like, we didn't roll out. We didn't do any of that.

And it, it kind of hurt us because like I was hitting really good balls, but we were still getting return yards because no one's down there. Yep. So, you know, unless you're hitting a five, three ball, then they actually can get down there. But then I only did that once or twice. But it's, you know i only did that once or twice um but it's you know yeah i mean asu's fan base is they love you and they hate you it's i mean i feel like that's the difference between you know the pac-12 where you know a majority of the the schools are in major cities that are surrounded by a bunch of pro teams um the focus is less on

on the college um and in iowa there's nothing there so like everyone lives and breathes all right like the hawkeyes you know no one cares about cycle um and then you know like when my like my cousin was playing at high state like when I went there and visited him, like that was insane. Like, you know, even just like walking around off, like everybody knew who he was, which is a good and a bad thing because you've got to be careful about what you do on your free time. But I think that's the difference between, you know, Pac-12, except for schools like Oregon.

Yeah. You know, that's separate. Washington State, they're all by themselves. And Utah. Like, those three schools, I mean, Utah is in a pretty big area. Like, they still pack out their stadium. But Oregon was just packed, and they got 50,000 people, and it sounds like there's 110.

It's crazy. I actually never really made that connection of Pac-12 to Big Ten and the fact that a lot of the Big Ten schools are all in cities or towns they don't have pro teams in those states or it's maybe not as important which also can explain why people take Big Ten football so seriously and especially Iowa I mean you look at Twitter feed and there's obviously going to be some negative from Iowa fans. But man, do Iowa fans freaking love their punters. And I do want to take a quick second to say that prior to you coming to the program, we knew what bad punting was. And that's not a diss on the people that were there previously.

Some of the guys there, they obviously did their best job. Right. But we were all very excited. I've never seen a program be so excited over a grad transfer punter joining the team. And you were a very popular person on Twitter when you came into the Iowa Hawkeye atmosphere. And then now we transition from you to Torrey Taylor. It's been a fantastic two years for the Iowa football punting group. And so I want to talk a little bit about Torrey Taylor's journey over to America. But using some of your experiences, when you punted at ASU for the first time, was that your first American football game?

No, I played junior college. Oh, that's right. I forgot. San Francisco, right? Yeah, I played a year at JUCO. And, yeah, I mean, honestly, I was kind of blur. But, you know, I mean, I was nervous as shit the first – my first punt, and that was in front of 15 people.

But, I mean, much – I mean, yeah, so, like, my first punt at ASU was the week I tore my quad. So I was punting my first game – college football game on my left foot. So, like, I don't know if you can get any more fucking terrifying than that. Like, you know, you train your whole life or, like, you know you train you train your whole life or like you know the last few years punting your technique and like i'd muck around and kick on my left foot because you know i can do it and not you know get away with it but then i have to do it in three games and it was just you know you have to be creative and especially from like in a pro format, like you're giving them the ball in pretty good position.

And yeah, so that was hard for me. Yeah, I can only imagine. So you're basically saying, I mean, like you were nervous in front of 15 fans, Torrey Taylor's and again, we have COVID. So we're not in as many in front of as many fans, but there are a lot of people watching and he's out there punting and doing pretty darn well. You talked about the fact that you've chatted with Torrey Taylor. How often are you communicating with him? And is out there punting and doing pretty darn well you talked about the fact that you've chatted with tory taylor how often are you communicating with him and um is it is it about

punting is it about just how to handle uh being in uh iowa is i mean what are some of the things you're kind of talking about if you're willing to kind of divulge into some of that um yeah so like just before him getting to iowa um, I guess when he first got there, I had a good old chat to him, just sort of a rundown on, you know, just sort of, you know, basic things he needs to get done just to help him get, you know, acclimatized better because I found that, you know, I mean,

I did a lot of things for like that i did for the first time and i'm like i kind of wish i did that better so like you know i'm just giving him my advice on how i would do things differently utilize you know he's lucky he's got four to five years in iowa but i had one year i had six months playing football so like you know i didn't get i didn't get the full experience i mean i got the full experience but like i didn't i didn't get to you know play at wisconsin and go okay next time i play here this is how i'm gonna play the field yeah nebraska okay next time i play at nebraska this is how i'm gonna play the field or like a kinnick it's like yeah okay i kick there a few more times but like you don't get to know how

the winds play the different different fields have you know the way their wind the wind rolls um he's got that advantage he's got four years four to five years to play in the big 10 and get used to playing in snow heavy wind wind, good weather, rain. Like, I think he's had pretty good weather so far, which he's been lucky because what are we, like, in December and they haven't snowed? You know, I got told I got good weather last year and he's got even better.

So, but, you know, I mean, you know, I text him quite a bit, you know, see how he's going and, you know, congratulate him on, you know, having text him quite a bit, you know, see how he's going and, you know, congratulate him on, you know, having good games, this and that. And, you know, I told him, I mean, Coach Woods would tell him as well, but, you know, just to not kick the ball so much and, you know, just be careful about that and just to utilise everything that you have in the facility.

Because, I mean, I don't personally know any other school that or football team that gets looked after the way that i would does from the food to the treatment to the uh the facilities the coaching staff uh equipment managers like yeah you generally get looked after so damn well um and like taught so tory lives in the house I lived in with you know Henry, Charlie and Max so you know he's in a great location can walk to the facilities

cross the road from you know the learning centre and I think he's in a really good place and he's he's punting well I think he's only had a couple

of bad punts and even some of his bad punts that had good rolls. So, you know, yeah, he's been doing really well. All right, y'all, I need to pause the conversation again because I have another important announcement for you all. If you haven't tried Built Go, you need to do it right now. If you ever feel like you're tired throughout the day

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Subscribe to Locked On NFL wherever you get your podcasts. It's where I go for a lot of my fantasy information, and I would say I'm doing pretty darn well, so I highly recommend you check that out. But let's hop back into that final segment of our conversation with Michael Sleep Dalton right now. Especially for his first few games, you know, he's got a big leg. There's no doubt that there's going to be times throughout the season,

whether it's this season, next season, the season after that, that he's going to have a fall. And it's about how he returns from that. And I'll be there every step of the way with him. And I've told him that. If he's got any concerns, any issues, just give me a call. I'm always here. Yeah, so, you know, I spoke to him not not last game the game before I mean they who they

play at Penn State he had a couple of punts that yeah it really low line drives and they got returns on it I was like you know we really can't do that because especially in the Big Ten the majority of punt returners are potential nfl punt returners yep um so he's you know you've got to be careful about that it takes time and but then it's his first it's his first season so he's you know he's gonna learn these things and sure coach woods told him so you know he'd be on top of it i mean he's older as well so like you know he's got a more mature head on your shoulders and, you know, more than, you know, I think that's an advantage that us Australians have coming over and playing college is that we're generally older.

So, like, if we have a shit game, we can bounce back because, like, all right, that's fine. But 18-year-old kids, you know, they see the shit on social media and they're like, oh, my God, like, everyone hates me. What happens if I have another bad game? Which, you know, unfortunately, that's the world we live in, that everybody is trigger happy behind a screen. But they're not going to tell you that and hit you in the face.

It's like when Spencer, you know, he had two not amazing games, but we only lost by, like, one and three. But we're now 4-0 and second in the conference. So it's like, okay, we're the haters now. Yeah, it's tough. I will say, I mean, even myself, right, I try to be as positive as I possibly can, but when you're in the middle of watching a game, you can get frustrated by what you're seeing,

and just it's so easy to tweet something out. That's why literally if I'm like getting – if I find myself getting pissed off, I just get off Twitter. I'm like, you know know what anything I'm going to say is it's not going to be worthwhile I could talk about on the podcast after I've actually watched the tape again and uh you make a really good point about Spencer I mean um I talked about with Matt on the show after the Nebraska game on the surface his game didn't look that great he missed some really makeable throws fine but then you look at it and there was five wide receiver drops as well there's a lot of other things that

went into it and that's why i've been actually trying to teach myself to if i'm not happy about something either learn how to phrase it in a appropriate way or get the hell off of twitter because otherwise like i i'll the only person i'm hurting is is myself I look like a dick when I do it and it's not appropriate I I do care a lot about the program and that's where all the the tweets are coming from but it's it's about making sure you're doing it doing right by the players and right by the program so I completely agree Vince is still a kid like even though he's been in the system this is still his first year of college football. It doesn't matter that he's played a few junk reps in games

where we were blowing teams out last year. Having to have a complete game and a complete season, of course he's going to make mistakes. But he's doing pretty well. Yes, he's overthrown balls. But as you mentioned, we've had a lot of drop catches. And, you know, we've also had some great catches being made. You know, like Sean Byer's catch the other day.

That was absurd. I mean, and like we joke about that in football. Like he would, you know, sometimes he would drop an easy catch, but then he would just take – he would just create something out of nothing. It's like, God damn. That catch really put Sean Byer on the map for people who aren't familiar with Iowa's tight end program or Iowa in general. One last question I have for you about Torrey, though,

is is there anything special he's doing when he's putting some of the spin on the ball? And then I guess part two, so it sounds like nothing really. He's just punting it pretty well. Then I have a second part that I actually just forgot about. Well, I guess there's, you know, he's hit a couple of bananas. Are you seeing Johnny Hecker punt sometimes? How he hits the ball, you know, balls flat like that,

and he'll hit the left side of the ball so it spins like that, does like a banana flips around. And then, you know, nine times out of ten, that ball is going to roll forward. He hit one of those on the weekend. That's beautiful. Yeah, yeah. And it works well when he gets good bounce and, you know, when the punt returner leaves it because, you know, they get scared of it.

Like I used to do that at practice last year. We only did it once in a game against Michigan, and it just got – it bounced right over Devontae's head, which is unfortunate because the one kick, like nine times out of ten at practice, it worked perfect. And then in that game, it bounced, and some reason it just hit flat, like flush on the ball and bounce over his head into the end zone. I was like,

I wouldn't read about it. I mean, you couldn't have really kicked it much better. And then you have had that result. So that is fun to see. And then as far as punt returners, they seemingly can't catch the initial punt from Tori Taylor at all this year. I mean, outside of Penn state, almost every punt returner who's tried making that first catch has struggled or dropped the ball. Why is that? Is there anything special to that? Is just not understanding,

not having caught a punt for a story, Taylor, yet? What is that? So, I mean, I haven't really seen his ball flight, but I can kind of tell by the way he drops the ball that, so like when you do a kickoff, right, it'll have that, you know, easy rotation, easy for guys to catch. When the way he drops it, sometimes he drops it at kind of an angle and the way he hits it, it'll go in depending on the wind as well, but it'll hit in the air and then it'll just – because of the spin of the ball, it'll hit in the air and then it'll just it'll because of the the spin of the ball it'll change directions and um and especially if it's sort of going um you know like at a 45 degree

angle um it'll it'll change how the balls would shape like i hit like when i i did it a few times and you know it comes off quite well like against Iowa State last year oh that was beautiful that was the ball that he screwed up um and it's because it's going that way and then it changed this way and it moves that way so you know it's a credit to Torrey to be able to do that um and yeah they can't return it's it's hard it's impressive and the other the last question I have for you I know I've taken up a lot more time than I anticipated so I apologize apologize that Michael always appreciate your time uh Tori Taylor and we obviously have Terry Roberts as the gunner who's been getting a lot of attention last year he had Devante Young

um what is that connection like with a gunner is there a connection because you do have to be in sync you know Terry needs to know kind of what Tori's anticipating on doing and then obviously Terry needs to get down there and do his job. But is there any sort of connection with that? Was there a connection with you and Devontae? Or am I thinking way too much into this? But it just seems like, oddly enough, they're very in sync. Terry's always around the ball wherever Torrey's kicking it at.

Well, Terry's fast as hell. And that really helps. Because, like, I mean, he – it was, yeah, mainly Devontae last year, but Terry was really good last year as well. I think he's really perfected his craft more this year, and he's the main guy, which is great to see. But, yeah, I mean, to a degree, it's a connection, and I'm sure their connection will grow as, you know, the more games they play. And it really shows off when you're doing the inside,

you know, sort of inside the 20 punts. And we practice that a lot at practice. But, I mean, he's just so fast that he gets down there and he just, he's learnt more on how to, you know, corral the returner to get in the best position because he did a really good job last year, except his technique wasn't as good and kind of lost the way. And we had a couple of returns.

But he was down there in their face. So now he knows that if they haven't caught a fair catch, tackle their ass. He's done that. So he's perfected his craft more, which makes the, you know, the coverage so much better and which helps a, you know, a less than good punt because if the punt is a perfect, which it's not going to be perfect, you know,

every couple of kicks you're not going to hit a ball with you on. And it's always good having a gunner down there to save your ass because that happened to me a couple of times last year i didn't hit the best ball but my guns are down there and save my ass so yes it's definitely it's a team thing and i feel like only in big 10 country can we talk about special teams for a half hour and have an absolute blast doing it man uh michael we also gotta you also gotta mention spewak he's been snapping the ball really well give that man some credit too. Yeah, I guess so.

I don't – typically folks in the long snapper a ton, ironically enough, despite the fact that I actually do know the last like 10 long snappers for Iowa. But what is that like? I guess is there a specific position that you would typically want to catch the ball in? Is it different for each punter? What is that like from that connection? Yeah, well, I guess if you're hitting a spiral and you're not like rolling out,

you sort of want it for me personally on my right hip so I can catch it and not have to move. But if you're rolling out, you know, sort of putting the ball a yard to your right so you can catch it and roll with it. And then the same if you're going left and Spivak has done a great job because like he was you know he was still working out things last year and um and you know he'd snap a lot of balls on the money but then you know he'd do a couple

wayward balls but he's really honed it in this year and and sorted his stuff out he's doing a really good job yeah i interviewed casey creeterighton a couple, about two years ago, three years ago. And I just didn't realize how much actually went into long snapping and how, how specifically they need to get the ball to a certain point, right? Like you look at it and you're like, Oh, that looks like a good snap. And Casey was saying, yeah, I mean, to the outside person, all these snaps look good,

but only two of them out of the the last 20 were actually good snaps i just didn't realize how um intense and how very specific you want that ball to be on point which is a very interesting thing that you brought up you know what's interesting is like um i didn't know this about i before i got there is that they don't put they don't like scholarship their specialists or their kicker, punter, longstop, but, like, you've got to walk on and earn the job. I think that's kind of, like, a deterrent in a sense because, like, unless you're from Iowa or your parents went to Iowa or something, like, you're not – you're generally not going to want to walk on,

even though the school is so good and it's, you know, you'll earn a scholarship if you're good enough, which is why sometimes you're not going to get the best kickers, punters or snappers. And some other positions, but which is also a credit to Iowa that they develop players so well. I mean, Keith, he's on scholarship now. Same with Shudak, I'm pretty sure. They're great kickers,

and they would have got scholarships to, you know, a lot of other schools. And looking at it, I mean, Keith should have won the bloody Lou Groza last year. I feel bad for Rodrigo Blankenship, but every time I hear his name, I'm just pissed. I mean, I play Madden. I see him kicking, I'm mad. I see him kicking an actual game, I'm mad. There's probably nothing wrong with him as an individual or person.

He's probably a great guy, but I will forever hate him. I just can't, I just can't help it. I remember I'm just something funny. I was with Keith and I in the hotel room and he was just, it was just about before, before he was about to head off to the, the awards and he's like, yeah, he unfollowed me on Twitter. I was like, what a bastard. Wait, he unfollowed me on Twitter. I was like, what a bastard.

Wait, he unfollowed him on Twitter? Yeah. Yeah, Keith was a little butthurt about that. And he goes, ah. And then he found out. He goes, yes, because I should have won. He won the people's vote. That's all that matters.

Yeah, I mean, in Iowa's heart, Keith Duncan was an All-American and a Lou Groza Award winner. I will forever say he's a Lou Groza Award winner, man. If I had it up to them, he'd be an Osmond winner too. Yeah, again, Iowa loves their special teams, man. Keith Duncan is always going to be a GOAT. You were also much revered in Iowa community after, again, struggling with some of the punting issues the years before. Having you there was amazing.

Now we have Tori Taylor and Terry Roberts having that connection. So the special teams greatness continues, Michael. I really appreciate your time and obviously providing some of the insight and expertise into, to what we're doing from a special teams unit perspective with Iowa and obviously giving, giving lots of kudos to other people as well that I probably didn't even think about. Like, you know, like Austin, for example, any last words though,

before we hop off the show for today, man? Nah, just appreciate you having me on and, you know, I'm always down for a chat whenever you want. Absolutely, man. Alright, and that concludes our conversation today with Michael Sleepdahl, and I hope you enjoyed the knowledge he dropped on us about special teams, about working with

LeVar Woods, Torrey Taylor, and their relationship. What he saw out of Charlie Jones and Terry Roberts. All great stuff he dropped on us. Remember that we are going to be back tomorrow with our daily show. As I said, we're here every single Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Tomorrow we have the metrics that matter in our breakdown of the Western Illinois vs. Iowa game. Along with some Kirk Ferens press conference takeaways.

Don't forget to join us there. If you haven't subscribed already, please make sure you do so. So you can actually get your episodes downloaded directly to your smart device. So you don't even need to worry about waking up and downloading it. It just does it for you. And as always, folks, I appreciate you tuning in so, so, so, so much. We set a record for November and listenership. Let's continue it going through December, have a safe and awesome Tuesday out there. And as always, let's go Hawks.