Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Former Hawkeye RB Jordan Canzeri joins the show to talk about life, football, and the magical 2015 season

Episode Date: September 3, 2019

Former Hawkeye RB Jordan Canzeri joins the show to talk about life, football, and the magical 2015 season Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I thank God I was born on the good arms of the Midwest, and not on the battlefields of the U.S. It's a time of panic, and it's intercepted! It's picked off right away! Intercepted by Marty Hooker! Pick six! Eight seconds into the game! Buffen sets up deep in the pocket, goes down the field for Smith!

Oh! He's got it! Smith! Touchdown. 85 yards. High on. Touchdown, 10. Taking a shot in the end zone.

It is caught. No offense. Touchdown. That's either one or you have it. Go ahead and three. Yes. Two-point lead for the Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network.

I am your co-host, Andrew Wade, and I am joined here by my co-host, Zach Cohen, and we have a great episode coming at you today. We have Jordan Canzeri, former Iowa Hawkeye running back, on the show today. We're going to be interviewing him, and that's basically going to be our entire episode. Whatever's left from the interview is going to go over into some of our future episodes as well, just like we did with the Jordan Bohannon interview. If you are tuning in for the first time today, though, and you do like this interview, make sure to check out our other interviews.

We also had an episode dropped yesterday as well, giving our reactions to the game against Miami of Ohio. You can do that, though, by like, reviewing, and subscribing wherever you download this podcast at, whether that is Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or the brand new Himalaya Podcast app. By downloading and subscribing,

you're going to get our podcast every single day that it comes out, delivered directly to your phone. We're going to be doing this podcast Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday almost every single week, so make sure to tune in there. We'll be right back. Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Again, it is a great Tuesday and we're going to hop into the interview with Jordan Kanzari right now. We are joined here by Jordan Kanzari today. We are really appreciative of you joining in the show. Obviously talk about Iowa football.

You are a big part of some really huge years in the Iowa football program. So Jordan, how are you doing today, man? I'm doing good. Can't complain. Just living back here in New York, but still making sure to stay in touch with Iowa football and actually try to visit a few times a year now. But, yeah, things have been good. What are you doing these days to keep busy, Jordan?

Well, right now, a couple things. So I am an all-subject tutor and an alternative learning program school. I'm an all subject. So kids that were kicked out of their original high schools and from lower income neighborhoods with behavioral issues, I help them with all of their schoolwork. And then I also opened a gym, just doing speed and agility training as well. And then also on the side, I have also been doing like a startup business that's kind of geared towards educating and consulting student athletes on all like the essential ins and outs and pointers they should know when wanting

to play on for the next level so been keeping myself busy but you know definitely still miss the playing days absolutely are you so have you talked at all to jordan bernstein about you know he's obviously starting a the speed and agility type stuff down in colorado springs weren't sure if you were in touch with him at all about kind of what his format was like. Oh, well, I mean, I haven't talked to him as of late, but I mean, we follow each other and we'll like, and you know, support each other on social media and everything like that. So I've been seeing what he's been doing and it's, it's been really good.

I mean, he's definitely had a lot of people coming in, a lot of business, and he definitely knows what he's talking about. looks good absolutely how did you get started in that then is that just something that you've been passionate about and obviously the the education stuff too is that something you were always passionate about uh well really it was funny that at Iowa I came in with uh I came in decently ahead, and then I also stayed every summer while we already had workouts and everything. I just stayed and did some classes.

So when I first graduated in 2014 with my sociology degree with a criminology track, as soon as I finished it I was like yeah I don't think I want to really do any more and um but while being in Iowa doing all the children's hospital visits and school visits and talking to kids I really started to feel that that was what my passion was so i actually got to double major and finish um my fifth year at the in uh december 2015 with psychology with the focus of mental illness rehabilitation counseling and um human relations minor so yeah just like I said kind of going and seeing a bunch of kids and being around them just from the Iowa program just really gave me a passion for kind of wanting to you know help the next generation that's awesome man um and so growing up you were you're from New York you're

still in New York right now what was that transition like just coming to Iowa in general? Oh, well, at first I did have a lot of people at my high school saying that I was going to come back to a farmer and talk to him. But the one thing that kind of didn't really make it too, like, of a culture shock to me was my father. He's from a small town called Cambridge and I think his graduation class was like 70 something so um just their small town being up there all the time growing up when I like came out to Iowa and saw the small towns and then it was just corn corn corn city corn corn corn it wasn't like such a shock to me but i will say that all of my friends back home when i would come back from iowa early on like

my freshman sophomore year they're like why do you talk slow now i was like i don't know i really feel like the midwest is a little slowed down everything on the east coast is real fast paced so i started talking a little slower and everything i don't know why i definitely got burned for it yeah i was gonna i was gonna say i'm originally from chicago so going to iowa i went to school in iowa and kind of the culture like you said i'm so used to being so fast trying to get where you need to be and you know life there is definitely a lot slower but uh kind of touching on that what kind of sold you on going to Iowa um I know you're from Troy New York so then what what kind of what about Iowa made you want to take that trip well really what it was was I had um my father mother and then I had a

really good family friend that at first I actually didn't meet him personally, but he watched one of my games on our road to our state title. And he started like sending out film and like recruiting for me without even like telling me because he saw that I wasn't getting as many offers as he believed I should have. So we became really close from that and was definitely blessed to have somebody like that to want to help me and um and it was funny that when coach Ferens called me I was with my girlfriend at the time and I was having I at that point I was already verbally committed to Villanova and when he called me um I honestly didn't even hear what school he said so

oh actually I'm good he's like what really and I was like yeah I'm committed to Villanova sorry though but thank you for calling and he's like oh all right you sure I was like yeah no I'm good but thank you again and he's like all right you have a good one hangs up calls my dad luckily because he probably realized that i didn't even really know and wow it didn't even take two minutes later for my dad to call me back and be like do you know who you were just talking to so obviously i called back and apologized and everything but um but yeah once i got there i I mean, the stadium was obviously stood out to me. Just was so cool and not like much of what I've seen before.

And then just being around the area, just talking to a bunch of fans before even I got out there. Just it was all just really good, positive vibes that I felt coming out there. So even though I had to just tell everybody who asked me that I was from New York city, even though I wasn't just because nobody knew anything else other than that, it wasn't too bad transitioning to Iowa. Before we had to break. I just want to remind you that the NFL season begins this week, which means crossover Wednesday.

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they obviously teach us about the states and history class. I'm from Iowa, but when you think of New York, you don't think of the fact that there's a lot of part of that state that's not New York City and it's a lot different outside of the city so I do apologize for my home state man as far as oh yeah it was it was funny I'm sure you're just like you really don't understand like it's kind of like Chicago people too I feel like oh yeah maybe you get this but people will tell tell people from Iowa that they're from Chicago and they could literally be four hours away and saying Chicago, because people just don't know anything outside of Chicago and Illinois. Yeah. It's not worth explaining.

Oh yeah. I learned that. I learned that quick on the like orientation day as a freshman. Yeah. I'm from a suburb. I'm from here. I'm from there. And then like my teammates, like, yo, they ain't from Chicago. I'm from there. And then, like, my teammates are like, yo, they ain't from Chicago. Can you – speaking of your teammates, you've been a part of some pretty good seasons and things like that.

But who did you kind of come away with after graduating as kind of your closest friends relationship-wise that you made while on the team? I don't know. It's hard. There's so many guys that, that you know we still keep in touch and still have great relationships like we can go months without talking but when we see each other it's like you know everything's the same but guys that I actually lived with for a little Quentin Alston Jr. He we came in together but he graduated in 14. I had a teammate named Raymond Hammond he actually was on the team but had an injury that kind of he had to actually stop school and football and he decided to focus on school so

but we stayed close throughout and lived together and everything and he decided to focus on school so but we stay close throughout and live together and everything and then Jake Rudolph even with you know everyone was like oh well what about him uh going to Michigan I was like well I mean we're still friends I mean that's not really going to change much um but yeah I mean a ton of guys jacob hillier nicholas law that i lived with and um even uh one of my buddies that we were really close already but when we were training for our pro day we literally would work out come back to my apartment eat and play left for dead for like hours before we had to do any other football stuff again Andrew Stone so I mean oh yeah like I said there's a ton of guys that um definitely became close to and still keep

in touch I love man and one of the things you talked about walking to Kinnick and seeing Kinnick as you know kind of recruit what was your favorite thing about Kinnick as a player? I would say it's, I mean, just the atmosphere with how loud it was, especially, you know, being blessed to be able to play and travel to all these different amazing stadiums that you grew up watching on TV. I was really surprised on how loud we were comparing to some of the larger ones. And just realizing that right from the start. And obviously, you know, I'm biased, but I do think we have the best fans in the country, especially in the Big Ten Conference.

So, again, it was just like the atmosphere, how loud it got after every touchdown in the Iowa W.A. And now, especially with the wave i mean our stadium's a an amazing place i couldn't personally agree more um personally love kinnick and i've been to a couple of the big 10 you know places i've been to camp randall and whatnot and i think kinnick without a doubt is number one so i can i can agree with that man yeah speaking of stadiums jordan uh what do you think was the toughest stadium to play in on the road um i would say i mean wisconsin they were loud but it wasn't so much like when we would go against Iowa State, how violent they were.

I mean, I tell people I will never forget freshman year traveling. Yeah, we were at Jack Trice. And walking out of the tunnel, walking out to the field. Again, I'm from New York, so I have no clue what this rivalry really is. But, you know, you obviously can guess a little bit, but not until I see this kid that looked like he was eight or nine years old, run up and go hawk suck. And he hawked a loogie on my shoulders and i was like i was like wait what like this is what this is it now okay i've learned fast and then obviously the student section being as loud

and as terrible as they are and then it was our i think the 2014 season they guys broke into our locker room and stole some of our guys stuff so i mean that was definitely the most violent wow so is iowa state your least favorite team that you guys have played no i would say my least favorite is Maryland. Really? Why? Just because both – it's almost like a bitterness really with myself because I had at least like 15 to 20 people come drive out. I think it was 2014 when we played Maryland at Maryland. And I had like a couple carries already off the back and i felt good i had really good runs and then sprained my ankle and eventually at the end of the season i had to get i had to do like scope surgery off of it. But that really got me mad that it happened with them.

And then senior season, when I rolled my ankle, had the high ankle sprain against Northwestern, Maryland was the very next team, and I really wanted to get revenge and missed out on it. So, and they, I mean, and when we did play them, they did play a little dirty, too. So, I mean, that was just like I wanted revenge on Maryland, but didn't really get to have it.

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That's code LOCKEDON, L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N, to receive two free tokens when you purchase two. Certain state limitations may affect your ability to participate in paid contests, but if you are able to, make sure to do that right now. It is an absolute blast I know you probably get asked this a lot but can you just walk us through kind of your perspective of that magical journey that was that 2015 season and kind of the memories you have from it and just kind of how it was in the moment well season and kind of the memories you have from it and just kind of how it was in the moment? Well, you could kind of feel already in the beginning, you know, you don't want to jump the gun and say anything, but it's like,

oh, we're going to have a really good year this year. But you could just tell by how we were so close as a unit from older guys, fifth-year players, down to incoming freshmen, that we made sure that everybody realized that this was a full family, one unit, holding each other accountable, having responsibility to, you know, be the best you for each other. And there wasn't so much like drama or as much clicks as I kind of saw in previous years but I mean it wasn't even against anything of

previous years because we were we had amazing guys amazing leaders amazing players that came before us and that 14 year we had a great group of guys so there was a lot of us who were like really mad that we kind of didn't allow those seniors to go out on a better note or help you know do more than what we could have and going into that 15 year we're just like all in and everything all little details again everybody holding each other accountable. It didn't matter if you were a senior. But it was just really good community. Everybody was just, you know, giving it their all.

And it was really fun to be able to see. And then each game that we won, we never harped on it, didn't care too much about the national standings. But Coach Ferentz and coach Doyle always just you know kept us with our head straight saying all right we won that game put it in the box we're on to the next one and you know it spoke for itself yeah speaking of the national attention like how did you deal with that um I know that you're from New York and you know a bigger city and things like that or even just being in the state of New York. But, you know, how did,

how did you kind of deal with that? Because, you know, Iowa, I mean, we had a run in 2009 around that time, but for a couple of years, it kind of wasn't any national attention on us. So how did that kind of, how did that affect you? And like, how did you deal with like literally college football playoffs? Should I will be in it like all these talks and like being, you know, a top four team in the country, like, how did you deal with that? How did you stay Like all these talks and like being, you know, a top four team in the country, like how did you deal with that? How did you stay humble throughout that whole process?

And, you know, was that kind of surreal? Oh, yeah. I mean, it was surreal. I mean, we're young. We're playing, you know, the best sport in the world on top, you know, national television, getting that, you know, the national attention of being undefeated. And it is something that could get your head.

But again, we had just great leadership with Coach Ferens, who, I mean, he himself is just very humble. And he would just keep us down and just make sure that we were humbling ourselves, that we didn't want what we felt the previous year that we should have ended things way differently. And it didn't matter what spot we were. We were just focusing on the next game, putting everything into that so we could continue our stride.

Because if you dwell and just focus too much on the fame, you know, you lose kind of like you lose some of your focus. So, again, we just had really good leadership directing us and guiding us, and we just focused on one game at a time. But, you know, I definitely can't deny that seeing us at one point being third in the country was definitely cool coming from where I was from. All right, and that concludes our episode for today. Again, a big shout-out to Jordan Canzeri for joining the show today.

We absolutely appreciate him taking the time out of his busy day to talk to us about Iowa football. Just as you probably already have noticed, we did prerecord this prior to the Iowa versus Miami of Ohio game, which is why some of the stuff we may have talked about might seem slightly outdated, but wanted to make sure we were breaking that out and giving you the up-to-date coverage we need to do last week

as we prepare for that Miami of Ohio game. We hope you enjoyed the interview. And if you did enjoy the interview, make sure to subscribe wherever you got this podcast at. Also make sure to like, and give us a review. We want to know what you love and what you don't love about the show. Obviously very open to suggestions and feedback about how we can improve

your experience. Listening to the lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. If you are on social media, make sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, Twitter at locked on Iowa, Facebook at locked on Hawkeyes podcast. If you are on social media, make sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Twitter at LockedOnIowa, Facebook at LockedOnHawkeyes, and Instagram at LockedOnHawkeyes. We're going to be doing some kind of interesting stuff going forward. We have some giveaways.

We're also going to be doing some kind of live video type of stuff if we can't get a podcast out in time. So that's where you're going to get some of those up-to-date information of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast and what we are up to now. We are not going to have a show tomorrow morning. We will have a show coming out Thursday. We're going to start previewing this upcoming week's slate of games in the Big Ten and Iowa versus Rutgers. So stay tuned on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.

Hope you all have a fantastic Tuesday. I know it's rough coming back from a holiday weekend, but we appreciate you tuning in on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Have a great day, Hawkeye Nation, and go Hawks.