Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa vs Nebraska post game recap with former Hawkeye WR Matt VandeBerg

Episode Date: November 28, 2020

It's another Monday Morning Recap with Matt VandeBerg as we break down yesterday's close win over Nebraska. We analyze what went well on offense and what needs to improve (the answer will surprise you), a bunch of praise for special teams, and the growth of the linebacker crew week over week plus the show wouldn't be complete without discussing clapgate 2020.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 another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast. I am your host, Andrew Wade, back for another show today. And we have Matt Vandenberg with us, as always, to recap the previous game. It wasn't a pretty game. In fact with us as always to recap the previous game it wasn't a pretty game in fact I was pretty pissed off the entire game Matt but it was at least a win and that's what I ultimately need to realize that a W is a W and as you've always talked about

in the Big Ten getting a win is tough regardless of the opponent especially a rivalry game especially when you can tell Nebraska came out with a significantly larger sum of energy than they have in their past couple games. I was talking to my buddy and had, if Nebraska can come out with the energy, they come out versus Iowa every game. I do believe they have enough talent to at least go 500 in the conference, but we don't typically see that. That being said, how are you doing today, man? I'm good. I'm good. There's, there's, there's ugly wins, but at the end of the day as long as you put win at the end of it that's really all that matters yeah I I got done with that game

and I thought man I am upset and I I shouldn't be I should be very happy that we got a win we pulled it out closing out games like that are not easy and especially seeing the defense make such an awesome play on that last play I mean that's that's huge and also on line, I felt like the defensive line is really coming into its own, especially when people consider the fact that over the last, and I'm going on random tangents here. I just had a lot of thoughts of this game, but the last two years we've lost seven starters on the defensive line, including two draft picks, AJ Paneza, Anthony Nelson, and the defensive line is still doing a pretty darn good job of making big time plays when it matters. Last year, that would have been AJ Epinesa this year.

It could have been any of those guys we've seen Zach do. We've seen Chauncey. We've seen Davian Jack do. I mean, these guys are making plays and stepping up when it matters. Yeah. And what's interesting is that, so I was talking to, I was talking to Laura about that final play. Cause I was like, Oh, now our street got snapped, you know, of 11 straight games with an interception or whatever it was, because that last one to Van Valkenburg is considered a fumble recovery, not an interception. So that part was a little upsetting. But yeah, I mean, you're right. I mean, guys coming off the edge and unheralded guys coming in, you know, like Zach Van Valkenburg and making a name for themselves. And anytime you're opposite of Chauncey, I mean, you give yourself an opportunity there. Chauncey

is a very unique build, talent, speed, all that good stuff. And to put that on the, on the field at the same time is pretty good. Yeah. I mean that pass rush move to get, I mean, he just blew by that lineman and Adrian Martinez had no idea he was coming. I also interception or fumble. I like to make sure there's no possibility of doubt. And the fact that Zach Van Valkenburg also thought, I'm going to secure this ball no matter what happens. I thought that was really impressive. Again, it probably could have been called a fumble.

I don't know. His arm might've been going a little bit forward. Who cares? At the end of the day, we got the ball and we won the game. Absolutely. Like you said, there's no gray area there. It's like the ball never hit the ground. So we don't have to worry.

Like, was it a pass? Wasn't it a pass? Either way, we got the ball and closed it out. Absolutely, man. So let's kind of kick it off at the beginning part of the game. I do want to talk a little bit about Spencer Petras. We talked about that pre-show. It's something that we're probably going to be talking about the rest of the season.

Let's just – let's call a spade a spade. Spencer Petras is a hot topic in Iowa Hawkeye Nation. But let's start with some of the stuff that happened on the first drive i felt like sean byer had probably the most ridiculous catch i've seen this year in college football one of the most ridiculous catches um in the ncaa i feel like he's putting people on notice now um when you're an iowa tight end no matter what you're always going to have a little bit of notoriety simply because of what the guys the nfl have been doing george kittle noah Fant, TJ Hawkinson.

When you're an Iowa tight end, you're starting, you're going to always have some looks. But now Sean Byer's showing he's not just a blocker. He's not just that guy behind Sam Laporta. He can make some big-time catches, and he's been one of our more clutch players this year and making some of those catches down the field. And I think, you know, like Iowa tight ends, like although some have been flashy, like the guys you just mentioned,

there are other guys that aren't as flashy that get opportunities, like Henry Krieger-Kobel spent time with the Chargers in Denver. And I think Nate Whitting just signed to the New York Giants practice squad. You could argue that he's not the flashiest guy, but he goes out and does exactly what he needs to do because that's what Iowa does. So it's – I don't know if it's necessarily new to see Sean Byer like this. I think the fact that he's getting more passes this, this year, I think is big, especially

with Sam Laporta. So being able to divvy up the touches between the two tight ends, I think is good. But Sean Byer showed a little bit of what he's capable of. I don't know if I see that every time he's out there, but being able to make a, I think they call them Odell Byer or something like that on Twitter. But at least he was able to make that kind of grab. And that was good. That was really good.

Yeah, I mean, huge catch nonetheless. Wasn't really impressed with our red zone offense, though, on that first drive. And along the lines of the game, we talked about play calling and the fact that Iowa does script out their plays. They have a set of plays they're having for each situation each time, that kind of stuff. But I felt like the play calling was a little bit unique throughout the game I think early on they couldn't get the run game going which is maybe why Brian Ferencz was moving more to a spread attack doing five wide but I was traditionally not a five wide offense and that was what we saw quite a bit and really especially with without having any sort of threat of a run game I felt like that kind of made Spencer Petras

even more vulnerable allowed Nebraska to maybe attack him a little bit more. What are your thoughts on that, though, and the use of going to five wide pretty consistently throughout the game? So I'm going to break it down. So you were saying five wide in that he has no running back. Correct, yeah, there was a running back on the field. Yeah. Right, so we actually went 10 personnel a lot,

and for those that are listening, 10 personnel, 10 means, so anytime you come down to skill positions, the first number is your running back. The second number is your tight ends. And then whatever's left to equal five is your receivers. So if I say 10 personnel, that's one running back and zero tight ends and four receivers, because four plus one is five. And for 12 personnel, you have one running back, two tight ends and two receivers. Cause it has to equal five. So just for those out there that aren't familiar with that. So we went 10 personnel. I saw us go Oh two personnel.

I saw us go 20 personnel. So, I mean, there were a lot of different ways to get a bunch of receivers on the field, which I don't think we've seen a whole lot of that yet. But again, when they've got four guys that they feel comfortable with and Nico Tyrone Amir and Brandon and they feel they can put them on the field you could argue that Tyler Goodson can also kind of fill that void we saw him take a little drag route and we've seen him catch the ball a lot lately so I mean being able to have those kind of guys that you feel comfortable with I think that's it is interesting to see that part of it but i also think most of it is is uh quicker stuff

for spencer they're not going five wide and expecting him to take a five-step drop a long developing place he's throwing i saw him uh audible a few different things to laporta and the boundary you know quick outs things of that nature um where he came up and made the decisions like okay cool the guy's playing inside leverage he knows he's got him now he's just got to get it out a little bit quicker i think think on some of those, but being able to have him really spread everybody out, understand what he wants to play. One of them that I really liked is we went, we went 10 personnel. So one in the backfield, we had a trio to the right, or we'd, we'd call it trio. You could call it Jack bunch, whatever.

I've got a bunch of terminology for it it but basically three receivers on the right and they were uh bunched up so tyrone was on the ball i think dico was off the ball inside and amir was off the ball inside or outside and they were all close and then brandon's went on one of the backside and um we ran a little drag route it didn't work we ran like a i'd call it a drive concept but essentially we had three guys moving from right to left but nebr Nebraska went into a box defense. So defense is all built on having more guys on that side than you do. So they wanted four guys over three and on Brandon, they had two guys over one. And so they played like this box defense,

which if you just picture a box, each defender has that zone of their box. So they're not going anywhere. If you can get into man to man on something like that, where you've got a bunch to the side or a cluster or a trio or whatever you want to call it. A lot of times that's where you can get people hitting and stuff like that. And you're able to get guys wide open a box. You got to be a little more cognizant of what your route is just because it's

zone versus man. And you've got different zone calls versus different man calls. But I really like to see that kind of that kind of ingenuity or that kind of innovation from Iowa showing that like, hey, we trust these guys on the field. We trust these guys that they're playmakers, and let's get them all on the field and give Spencer kind of a pick of where he wants to go. I love it.

So I have a couple things based off of that. Obviously, I appreciate the explanation there. From a man versus zone concept, you know, in bunch bunches or trios whatever you want to call it when would you typically want to run man in that situation because as i mean i feel like when you have your wide receiver so closely aligned like that they can create separation pretty easy when you get in man coverage and have a really as you said a good opportunity to maybe break a big one there um what would be any scenario where you'd want to play man in there? So a lot of times we get near the end zone, you want to play man,

but if they've proven that there's a lot of good zone schemes, like one of the things, one of the ways to beat a zone scheme is you put too many guys in that zone where you put a DB like, Oh, do I have to play the deep guy? Do I have to play the middle guy? There was one that I think Spencer might've. Was it? No, it was actually Adrian Martinez missed. He had a wide open guy on the outside. We were zone. And so our deep zone had to take the deep and our flat guy took the flat.

Well, there was nobody in the middle at like 18 to 15 to 18 yards. It's like, well, that's where zone is bad because you're able to hit that kind of stuff. Usually when things get compressed, you start playing a little bit more man to man. But if you can overload a zone and make a DB pick somebody versus playing in the middle, then that's usually when you're able to find somebody open. Absolutely. Was that in the fourth quarter? Cause there was a play in the fourth quarter where he, I think he took a sack or had a one yard loss,

but there was a guy wide open on the right side of the field. Just no one anywhere. I want to say it was number 11, I think on the right side. Yeah. It was right around the first down marker or something like that. Yep. I was like, Oh man, I was so glad he, he missed it. Honestly, I thought Adrian Martinez played a pretty good game, all things considered. I thought he was a big catalyst for keeping them in that game and getting the ball moving. So I would say then based off your response, you're, I look at the, you know, going the five wide or basically spreading the ball out as kind of a

concern you look at as there's a really a lot of opportunity there and Spencer Petras has more opportunity and flexibility with kind of figuring out what he wants what he wants to do with each one of his guys and you feel like he did a pretty good job there would that be an accurate way of kind of summing that up yeah I mean it's Iowa football still so I mean we need to be able to run the football and run it effectively in order for us to do exactly what we want to do now I just think it adds more things that defenses have to get ready for. You know, I mean, there are a lot of people that say, you know, sometimes it can be predictable. I've heard that all the time that people say, you know, it's predictable. But when you put things like that out there, then teams have to prepare for more than just

what the average fan thinks is predictable. Because now you've got three guys out there that can really start running and humming no no offense to sam laporta but i'm assuming amir and tyrone are faster than laporta so i mean just things like that um you know just preparing your dbs you have to look for one another another um you know sort of wrinkle that's added into the offense but i i do think that as an iowa football team you're going to run the football and you need to run it effectively and that opens up pass game. And then when you start passing and the linebackers go deep and then you start running it and then the linebackers come up and then you throw it. I mean, it's just like the team game. Everything comes in together. Yeah. All of it is is intertwined in having a good run game, having a good pass game. And that's why you need to be balanced at both. And usually I was really good at that.

Yeah. And I would say we struggled running the ball, which is coming into this game on paper. This should have been one of Iowa's most successful running games around. And we saw them pick it up later on in the game. But early on, I felt like Nebraska was doing a really great job of basically saying, you know what, we're going to let Spencer Petras beat us.

And they also did a great job. I felt like of hitting Iowa at the point of attack. Now there was a couple opportunities for cutbacks, Tyler Goodson. You know, I felt like Nebraska was almost over pursuing to an extent. So there's definitely some opportunities there. Tyler Goodson tried, but lost his footing and whatnot. Was there anything else that you saw that maybe stopped the run game from being as effective early on in the game? So this is this is a team that runs a 3-4, not all the time. They run a 4-3.

But for those that aren't familiar, running a 4-3 is four down linemen and three linebackers. If you run a 3-4, it's three down linemen, four linebackers. And a 3-4 a lot of times can look like a 5-2 because you're two, which would be five down linemen and two linebackers. But your outside linebackers pretty much come up to the line. Well, that changes what the line calls. That changes their their protection that changes how they run block because now you're scooping and going you're blading you're doubling to the wrong you know it's like well that's a

down lineman but it's not you're counting the linebackers as down linemen because they need to figure out what their call is to make it what they do every day and wisconsin usually gives us a little fit because that's the only time we play a 3-4 defense during the year. But Nebraska was in the 3-4 and then they go to a 4-3 and they kind of really, you know, messed around with what their front was doing. And that can be a little bit confusing when you haven't faced it yet, especially in new quarterback, trying to figure out who the buck is because the buck's not the down lineman, that's a down lineman. So now you need to figure out different things. So, I mean, all that just comes with time, and we were able to make the adjustment at half

and really were able to run the ball better in the second half. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Obviously, the second half, clearly, statistically speaking, you can see that the run game picked up a little bit more, took a little bit of pressure off of Spencer, although I felt like Spencer struggled more as the game progressed, which we'll get to in a second. I wanted to get your thoughts, though.

I started to notice a lot more motion within the running game. They would have fullback out, and then they'd have him come up and go into an eye, or they'd just move him around the formation. I felt like part of that was, obviously, you get other guys in the defense moving around, similar to you talk about changing from a 3-4 to a 4-3. I feel like when you start moving people around in the formation,

you start moving the defenders around. They might not be in position or not in the right spot. And it also doesn't give you as much of a tell as to where the run might be going based off your initial notion, based off of, you know, how the, how the formation looks, is that what you're seeing as well? Or do you feel like they're using the same amount of motion and then kind of what are your thoughts on utilizing motion to help the, the run game be going? So you can run a lot of different things. You just dress it up different. So the defense is always going to hold up like, okay, they're in 22 personnel, which as we talked about before is two linebacker, two tight ends, two running backs and one receiver

because that equals five or in their 13 personnel, one running back, three tight ends you know, one receiver. But the reason i bring that up is because defenses think they know what the formation is based on what kind of personnel would come out in so if we come out in 22 personnel you expect two tight ends you expect a fullback and a running back well if we come out in two if we come out in 22 personnel and our fullback is lined up as a tight end well defense is kind of like wait a minute minute. We haven't seen that on film. Like this guy, that's not where he's supposed to be playing. You get back into the backfield kind of thing.

So it's just a little bit to dress it up a little bit different. Obviously, they motioned it back in. Some of those things can help give him a head of steam. I mean, I don't know how fast Mate is. I think he's a pretty quick guy for a fullback. But his job is to find first color and go. So if you can kind of get him moving anyway, it helps out with that. There are some times where he went in motion and came back for a seal block.

We'd run to the left and he'd block on the right because we're leaving the DN. So everybody else goes to the ball and then he kind of secures the backside. So, I mean, there's a lot of different ways, but they've done it with Laporta where they moved him into the backfield and move him into the fullback again, because we're coming out into 12 personnel and they're thinking okay we know what they're doing 12 personnel you don't typically have a lead blocker because your tight ends are up on the line well now they're moving back and now it looks like they're in 21 personnel because they have a fullback and so i mean just different games like that you talked about earlier

playing chess i think that's kind of where that goes to definitely man um one of the things before we get into the talk about Spencer Petras because again we're going to be talking about him every single show I'm just you know call it is what it is uh but we're going to be talking about him every single show the time you know while I was playing football but I thought he did a really good job of actually running a lot of play action um maybe it might have been again I talked about Nebraska is seemingly over-pursuing to an extent, but I felt like Nebraska was selling out for the run. And Spencer Petras did a pretty good job of some of his play actions. There was one where the cameraman literally was following Tyler Goodson the

whole way. And I'm like, I think Spencer has the ball. And then it took another second room to go up and we didn't complete the pass, but I thought he did a really good job of play actions and completing those short passes on play actions while on the move, considering has a pocket passer is that something you notice as well and maybe speak to the fact that uh people always look at those short throws and say those should be easy throws but when you're on the run you're six foot five um those aren't exact and like you're trying to throw the ball only five yards and not gun it at him those are actually kind of

tough throws as well i mean anytime you're moving it's a it's not the norm right um we talk about i mean i mean madden has its own rating on uh you know madden whatever 21 has its own rating for throw on the run and it's significantly lower than you know normal short arm pack and short accuracy or whatever it is uh because it's tougher uh but i did see that we got him moving a little bit we call it we had a few naked boot legs there where he was coming out and the second one I think where he got the ball out he did the play fake turn boom got rid of it like that I think is great because a lot of times what happens is if you hold the ball then your flat becomes like almost to the sideline at two yards or you know, so you don't gain anything there.

Cause then you just have to step out of bounds cause he's moving too. So, I mean, that kind of stuff is tough, but when he got it out quick, and I think LaPorta got like six yards, like, that's great. You're not asking him to go 95 yards on that. You're asking to just get a more manageable down and distance from the time you complete it. So I think that kind of stuff was an improvement. And I think you're right. I think the play action, but again, we stayed consistent with the run game,

which made the play action game that much more effective. Yeah. Which is something we haven't seen in past games, especially at the Northwestern game where we kind of abandoned the run quite a bit, which obviously hurt us later on. And Spencer Petras was, he'll throw them all over also apologies for the, the feline that's back there trying to play with some medals. But on the third drive, Spencer Petras did do a play you know did a naked bootleg and I was kind I wanted to get your thoughts on it because it was very confusing for me he rolls out and Brandon Smith's down the field blocking he's not running a route it looked like

Tyrone Tracy might have held up on his route or maybe wasn't running a route and then Spencer Petras ultimately just kind of went down um I didn't understand what was going on there whether that was uh designed for him to take it was it designed for him to actually hand it off and he didn't did did you remember that play at all uh was he were we moving right to left on the screen and he rolled to his right is that what you're talking about yep it. It was his right. So, um, so on that particular one, um, I didn't see Brandon downfield. I did see Tyrone, but okay. So I'm going to talk about that too. So on the backside, if you're running the cross, uh, you're going to choke it down. If you're the receiver, you want to stay in the quarterback's

back hip, because if you over, if you overrun that typically you're going to run into the zone, that's playing either the flat or playing underneath the comeback. So if you over if you overrun that typically you're going to run into the zone that's playing either the flat or playing underneath the comeback so if you overrun your zone you're going to end up in somebody else's zone and then you're not going to get the ball it's also a lot tougher of a throw if you're way out in front of the quarterback and he has to try and you know whip his hip into it but if you stay on his back hip and you're almost even with him you're a little bit behind you give him a little bit of room if he wants to sling it there um my only guess of brandon blocking is he thought he already took off that's the only thing i can think of uh but spencer doesn't need to take off uh a whole

lot in my opinion yeah well i appreciate you uh actually remembering what play i'm talking about because like i'm gonna pull this random play but I was very, it was just such an interesting play design. Like we shouldn't really be designing runs for Spencer features, nothing against Spencer. That's just not the kind of quarterback he is. Nate Stanley, I felt like was very interesting at that too. He's almost so deceptively big that they actually did do a couple of runs with him. And when he gets moving, he can actually, the guy can get going. I mean, he ran a four, eight 40.

I thought that was actually pretty impressive. Not that this is a Nate Stanley show, but last year he did a pretty good job of doing some read options and actually barreling down on some of the teams. Well, that and his lead blocking on Amir's end around. That was amazing. In the bowl game, yeah. I think that should be his crowning –

if he doesn't have that framed somewhere where he's even with Amir, he's wrong and he needs to get that up but he needs a portrait of that in his living room i think that would be absolutely amazing yeah nate stanley also just a thought you because nate stanley and spencer petras are around the same height and weight but it's just me and this is not anything to do with the game but does nate stanley seem like a much bigger guy than spencer petras like he just seemed a lot bulkier. I think, I think Stanley might still have about 10 pounds on Spencer or I don't know if he carries his weight, but I think Stanley's got bigger arms a little bit and I think that that

makes a big difference. You know, they always joke when we go 22, the, the, the, the signal, geez, Louise, the signal for that is flexing. And so it's like, ah, he's got chicken arms. What is he doing? It's like, no, no, no. Like that's, he's got the formation, but I mean, they go to work every day. He works out.

I'm not worried about it. Yeah. I just thought it was very interesting because they similarly, so supposed to have a very similar type of building frame, but Nate Sandoz just looks, looks so different than Spencer. So let's actually get onto more of the conversation about Spencer because there were definitely a few good throws.

Again, I thought the short stuff was, for the most part, pretty good. But, again, the consistency has been an issue. The Sean Byer catch, that was a little bit overthrown on him. Granted, it was a tough window to get into. I think people don't realize with the safety coming over top, he had to get that in. But that also was almost a dangerous throw. He made one throw to Sam Laporta that shouldn't have made the intercept. Thankfully Sam Laporta nor the linebacker caught it. Um, the interception was just, he had a ridiculous amount of time in the pocket. Um,

and ultimately should have just thrown it away, but he made the decision to just chuck it up. That was a bad decision. And then you saw the missed touchdown to Amir Smith-Marset. I feel like this could probably take up a few minutes, but let's maybe start with the accuracy and then move into, we'll probably just naturally progress into the wide receiver issues as well. So what were your thoughts on Spencer Petras? Do you feel like he continued to grow? Did you see anything that was better from last week to this week? And what are some things that he continues to struggle with I think his pocket presence is really good like I think his ability to step up into the pocket and I think that's important because of his big body he's not he's not as concerned like obviously a quarterback is going to be concerned about getting smacked but being

able to step up into the pocket I thought he did that really well um and I think that's one of his main things that he's progressed there now uh as far as accuracy he was a little bit low on some throws which i mean he's aware uh i think tyrone had one go off his knee but again these are plays that yes could the ball have been put in a better position sure but the receiver's gotta make the catch i mean we're talking about uh lightning type players uh with all four of them. Three of them had drops yesterday. And so, I mean, that's, that's tough too. You know, I mean,

you can't expect your first year started to put it in the perfect spot every single time. Like after CJ and I had played together for over a year and a half, two years, we got the back shoulder seam ball and we would run that all the time. I mean, because we were able to, I knew exactly where it was going to go. We have repped it and repped it and repped it and repped it and repped it and repped it and repped it and repped it and repped it. I mean,

there's a reason I went that long because you need that many in order to really get good at something. So, I mean, that's just something that's going to come with time as far as the interception. Again, I think his pocket presence was really good. I think he kept his eyes down field. He just has to understand who's that running. And so he had Laporta who was trying to go deep, but they were in his own. So they already had a guy over there,

but he was going to throw it deep to Laporta. I'd rather have that be somebody faster. Who's going to, who you can just lay it up in that way. Either your guy makes a play. Like I talked about with Penn state, the ball that he threw to Laporta, Laporta only got one hand on it. The only guy that's going to make that play is your guy or nobody. Like those are the only two things there. So I, he, again, he kept his eyes downfield. He was able to evade the rush, which again,

I think that is all very positive things. Just a matter of making the right decision, making the right decision sometimes. And sometimes you get burned on it. Sometimes you make a great play. I mean, there were a number of times where CJ would roll to his left. I remember one play specifically Indiana 2015. You're never supposed to throw across your body and he's rolling left and throws it to me. He was breaking right on third and 10. We get the first down and like the third or fourth quarter.

So, I mean, is that technically we're supposed to do? No. But sometimes you find a way to make it happen. And unfortunately, on this particular one for Spencer, he didn't. So what do the coaches say when you're watching film about that, when they see a throw like that, where it works, but probably was against every principle that you have in terms of running an offense, what do they say in the film room? I hate that you did this and don't do it again, but good job. Okay.

That's usually what it is. Or, or I just say that, you know, I bailed CJ out or something like that. You know? know yeah gotta give yourself a little props every now and then absolutely so i i did you talked about the pocket presence now that i'm thinking back there were a lot of times where i felt like the right defensive end was getting a significant amount of pressure on our right tackle i think jack plum was making his first start of his career uh i thought he didn't you know he did a solid job all around, but Spencer Peters did a great job of stepping up when Jack Plum would maybe get burned. Then Jack Plum would, you know,

regroup and able to hold him off until Spencer can make a throw. So you're absolutely right. Pocket presence, something that probably goes unnoticed by a lot of casual fans, but something that's incredibly important. Again, thinking through, you know, looking down the field, that kind of stuff. Now he just needs to be able to make some of the throws. Kirk talked about it a little bit that he felt like spencer was trying to um place the ball as opposed to just throw the ball and and kirk has some different analogies but essentially

it's a pitcher growing up he's trying to grow up and mature in that offense so definitely something interesting to continue to watch out for you talk about the drops and before we go on the show you mentioned drops versus muffs i'm curious what the difference between the two is because i was trying to think through this i honestly can't so what is the difference between a mentioned drops versus muffs. I'm curious what the difference between the two is. Cause I was trying to think through this. I honestly can't. So what is the difference between a drop and a muff in your mind? So a muff is like 100%, you should have caught it a hundred percent. You should have caught it and you didn't catch it. That's a muff. That's a straight, that's the muffin man. That's what like, uh, we would talk about, you're like, oh, it's the muffin man. Anytime that you dropped, well muffed something that you absolutely should have caught a drop is like it's it would have been a phenomenal catch we probably

expect you to make it but it would have been a great catch um and then that kind of goes down as a drop because you didn't catch it it's like it would have been fantastic had you of but we understand that you kind of didn't so i'll count that as a drop but a hundred percent you should have had it that's the muffin man. Okay. So how many, so if I'm thinking back to the game, I can think of one muff in particular, I believe with Nico, but the rest I would probably consider drops. Would that be how you say as well? Are there any muffs that you're specifically thinking of?

Tyrone's off the knee. I don't know if he didn't get an opportunity to see it when he was coming across the field. I know again, again, these ball placements could be better, but like I was talking about, I mean, once you just kind of relax, when you're thinking about where you want to put the ball, it's a lot tougher, but again, that just comes with reps. I mean, that's when, you know, CJ and I would throw or CJ and really any of us would throw curls all the time. And he knows that when it's man to man, he's going to put it outside.

I know if it's man to man, it's going to go outside. And so he doesn't think about it. He just throws it out because that's what he's seeing. It's, it's man-to-man, he's going to put it outside. I know if it's man-to-man, it's going to go outside. And so he doesn't think about it. He just throws it out because that's what he's seeing. It's instinctual. And when you're thinking, you just end up playing slower and typically you don't play as well. And, again, that comes with confidence, and that comes with doing it and doing it and doing it.

And I'm going to say it a lot, getting reps is important, and that's just because they build up that kind of muscle memory. But the two to Brandon, I thought he probably could have brought those in. Nico's touchdown, absolutely. I thought he could have brought that in. And then there was another one for Nico. I can't remember what that one was, but I thought that one was another muff.

I didn't see too many drops. I saw a lot of, anytime the ball's on the ground, it's not good though. Let's kind of start there. So again, ball placement could be better, but at the same time, I mean, you've got to help them out. And I had my fair share of muffs. I had my fair share of drops.

So I'm not saying that I'm not in that conversation because I've done that too. It's just a matter of trying to make sure that your own quarterback is able to build up confidence and you guys keep the ball moving. Yeah, I feel like this is the first time we've done this show. This is our sixth show, and this is the first time I feel like I might have been more positive about something, and you were on the more – not negative, but I was going more drops. You were going more muffs.

So you're grading them a little bit more harshly there. Obviously, a former wide receiver, I totally understand that. As far as these wide receivers, though, with some of the ball placement we talked about – so drops can be mostly concentration to an extent. But how much of that can also be frustration sometimes with inaccurate ball placement? Is that something that even should be warranted as a discussion point? So the way I kind of thought about it when it comes to ball placement, if CJ was throwing it low, it's because somebody was going to smack me if he threw it normal. Like, that's how I always envisioned it.

So if I got to go down and get it, he's probably saving me from a hit. That's kind of how I thought about it. So it doesn't really change whether or not you're able to catch the ball. It just kind of changes what you're able to do with it. to catch the ball it just kind of changes what you're able to do with it and i mean if there's a low ball typically you're going to go down right there unless you're able to you know make a phenomenal grab and stay on your feet depending upon how you're moving and all those other different scenarios there but um because i was thinking about that too i mean it's i don't think it comes from not trusting your quarterback i don't think that's where it comes from i just think that based on where the ball is,

you're expecting your quarterback to kind of tell you what's happening in front of you. So if he lays it out in front of you, you know that you've got room and you can go. And if he puts it lower than you would expect that somebody's coming and is coming to hit you. So I wouldn't say that again, I wouldn't say that it's not trust and it's not confidence. It's none of those things. I think your quarterback is kind of your eyes forward once you turn to find the ball absolutely makes sense

and making a transition over to special teams because we've been on offense the in the entire show so far I do love talking about offense and it's a lot I mean the defense I thought played outstandingly we're going to get onto special teams though just a quick reminder to folks we are going to actually have Michael Sleep Dalton on as well to maybe cover a little bit more about punting. I obviously trust your expertise quite a bit, Matt, but having the relationship with Michael, I figured he'd be a good opportunity to come on and talk about some of the stuff Torrey Taylor's doing from the punters aspect. But I do think it's important to call out special teams because once again, they were phenomenal. Torrey Taylor, just a fantastic job. The spin to put on the ball to actually get it at the two-yard line.

Terry Roberts, I don't know if I would have noticed him without talking to you first, but that's all I can see now. When I watch any kickoff or punt, Terry Roberts is always around the ball making phenomenal plays. I think it's just important to give another shout-out to him because what an unsung hero. On the kickoff returns, even, I felt it's just important to give another shout out to him because what an unsung hero on the kickoff returns. Even I felt like Ivory Kelly Martin, a guy who is being slept on quite a bit, a former starter for Iowa is, you know, was returned a few kicks pretty well as well. And obviously what's in on a few tackles overall, just a special teams, especially

punt and kicks. I thought were just fantastic. The season, especially yesterday against Nebraska. Yeah, it's, I mean, it kind of goes back. We've talked about it, that first few punts, you don't know where it's going to go. You know, the wind was moving and we were the beneficiary of a Nebraska muff punt.

And then we were able to, obviously Terry Roberts comes up with the fumble. I mean, it's not unusual to see him flying down the field, making a play. It's just not. And it's not unusual for Torrey flying down the field making a play. It's just not. And it's not unusual for Torrey Taylor to make a great punt. Again, this is game six of his entire life, and we're talking about him like he's a nine-year vet.

So, I mean, like those kinds of things, I think, are very beneficial for Iowa moving forward. Ivo was able to make the most of his opportunities on kickoff. Sam Laporta, we got to work on that fair catch. But it was very clear that Nebraska didn't want to kick to Amir. Oh, not at all. Not after last year. No, no, no.

So then we're going to kick it to him. But, I mean, the guys that were called upon to make certain plays, I mean, those guys went out and did it, and that's always a good thing. And that's why it's always everybody's on the field for a reason. It's because we trust you and what we're going to have you do. You know, Ivory is usually the off returner, which means that he's going to lead the way in terms of when Amir's returning it, but also when they don't kick it to Amir, like that's your job. Now you're the returner. So, I mean, just putting guys on the field that are, that know what they're doing, do it well. And then they go out and execute.

Yeah. I mean, it makes sense why you don't want to kick to Amir. He's a phenomenal playmaker, and especially in a rivalry game like that, that can really swing momentum pretty quickly. But it also showed just how bad they were with kickoff coverage because even when they pooch kicked it to, you know, Ivory, he was getting 20 yards on a kick return while getting the ball at the 10, the 15, and had a couple opportunities to almost break when you break one leg tackle or arm tackle, I I mean and he could have maybe took it to the house

the Sam Laporta thing I thought was hilarious because we got the ball back but he doesn't fair catch he looks like he's excited to maybe run with the ball he sees some daylight and then the next kick that goes to him as soon as the ball goes in the air like waving his hands I love that he clearly got uh got in trouble on the sideline there, which I thought was quite hilarious. Any last things on special teams? I know Charlie Jones, I thought, did a great job. Nebraska's punter, zero hang time, giving Charlie a little bit of room to operate.

So, again, Charlie, another fantastic contributor that kind of came out of the blue. Anything you want to add on special teams before we hop into defense? And Scott Frost being a little pissy in his postgame press conference? During my time as a punt return at Iowa, Nebraska was always a team that you were able to kind of return the ball on. I will say my only fumble in my entire collegiate career was 2014 against Nebraska. It was a punt return and the punter put his helmet on the ball, knocked it out.

Granted, they missed the field goal on the ensuing drive. So our defense came out and helped me out. But so that, that's a little soft spot for me, but at the end of the, I mean, in 17 and all those other times, Nebraska usually gives you an opportunity to get a return and Charlie, I thought he was going to take it back to the house when I was watching it. He was, he was cruising. Absolutely.

Yeah. So it's just another, another week of a fantastic plan on special teams for Iowa. Yeah. Just fantastic all around defensively. I thought they did a good job. I mean, Nebraska made a few pretty solid plays. Some of their play calling what they've done in the past. I've watched a lot of Nebraska games. As we talked about one of my best friends is a Nebraska fan and I, by default get to watch all Nebraska games too, which is funny for me, painful for him,

but a lot of their play calling seemed to be working pretty well against Iowa. I thought they got Wanda Robinson out in space quite a bit. There was a lot of times where I felt like Iowa was in the right position. They just made the extra move, the extra, you know, little setter step here and there, and we're able to break a few yards. Adrian Martinez, I thought honestly played probably his best game of the last year and a half.

For the most part, mistake-free football. That fumble, that's not necessarily on him all around. He didn't see the guy coming and he wasn't making a dumb mistake. But overall, I thought Nebraska's offense actually played pretty well. Defensively, we held up, though. We made a play at the end of the game to seal the deal. What are your thoughts on defense? Anything that stood out to you in particular um so they ran a lot of bubble

screens they ran a lot side to side um and they were able to kind of get yards on there because our dbs uh on occasion would fall inside which is tough because you don't have any contain um so just being a little more sound on the outside i think be able to help those kind of long runs up the sideline, but we've got good DBs. They make those plays. It's sometimes you just kind of get caught in a position. And as, as I, uh, I feel like I've said it a lot on this program, that's football. I mean, things are going to happen. So just understanding that and, uh, being able to make that kind of stuff.

And the more you make people go laterally, obviously they're not going literally, they're not going toward the end zone. Um, so if you're able to make them go sideways a little bit more i thought that that would be a good thing moving forward but kind of going off of adrian martinez as well uh he did play pretty solid i think he only had like one or two incompletions there for the majority of the game um but when when our backs were up against the wall i guess you could say when they were driving to try and take the lead, I mean, our defensive line, as they did last week, come up, make a giant play, and close the game out.

Yeah, I mean, when you can get your defensive line to make a game-changing or game-sealing play like that, you can be a pretty darn good football team. I mean, we're one play away from winning Purdue. We're one play away from winning a game against Northwestern. The team is making those plays and you love to see it, despite some of the adversity they faced, whether it was missing, you know, touchdown passes or missing the, the, the Keith Duncan field goal,

which we, I don't want to, we don't need to harp back on special teams. I thought Keith Duncan did a pretty outstanding job again, right at his range, but the defense. I'm going to quick, I don't mean to interrupt, but he did make a, well, I saw it. I saw him warm up and he had a 53 yarder in that same spot. So it's, and he had clearly enough leg. Now Shudak, I think had a 56 or 57, but I mean, Keith was at 53 and nailed it.

So, I mean, those are, again, that's football. Sometimes things happen. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I wasn't upset you're gonna kick a 50 51 yarder to win the air to seal the game uh i i trust our all-american kicker keith duncan and he didn't come up with it and it's unfortunate but uh as you saw in his post game he doesn't seem to let that impact him very much mentally he's about as tough as you can get what you kind of have to be to be a kicker um Otherwise, there's a couple plays Nebraska got that I felt like was just –

there's nothing we can really do about it, right? Especially that third and 20. 29. Yeah, 29. Yeah, that – first of all, I don't think that was a completed pass. I feel like the ball was moving around, but the replay angles were garbage all around. You couldn't see hardly anything.

So I wanted to get your thoughts on that. And then also, in general, though though that was a pretty sick catch i mean he he did a he did a phenomenal job of trying to get his feet in and i think he did get his foot and i still think he had possession yeah i didn't really see a good angle of it either i was more concerned about the foot um based on what we saw so i was actually on the pregame show so i was in the stadium for uh the first half uh and then la Laura does the halftime show. But the angles that I was looking at, I mean, I couldn't, I couldn't see anything. I couldn't tell if he had the ball. I couldn't tell if it's foot touch. I couldn't see anything on that,

but they did a really good job. All three guys were kind of in a similar zone. And like I talked about, you got to pick one guy if you're in the zone. I mean, you can't pick nobody. I mean, you got to pick somebody that, and there was a guy that was deeper. So that's what our guy took and everybody else was kind of flowing. So we had two guys there as soon as the ball was thrown. But it was good ball placement by, by Martinez. And, you know, I mean, they, they were able to come down with it.

Absolutely. Yeah. Not, not much we can do there again. That was one of those plays you just tip your hats. That sucks. I think they call that an incomplete pass. There wouldn't have been bit well the the ref was kind of confirmed yeah they said confirmed so like the ref clearly but he also that you remember the touchdown they got he said the play stands so i feel like his verbiage was either off because like the the touchdown the goal line touchdown the nebraska had he said the play stands which again would be that uh they didn't have over enough evidence to overturn it or to validate it but they made the call so to me i feel like maybe his verbiage is like he wasn't talking clear i don't know that stands did not make sense in that that aspect of it but sure

sure whatever that's just something that happens yeah i thought jack campbell played a really good game as well i thought he's been doing a fantastic job job, him and Seth Benson at those linebacker spots, both younger guys. I thought I'd been playing really well. Nick Neiman is another guy. When you look at PFF, he's allowed a ton of catches, but when you look at it in the context of the game,

it's a running back coming out of the backfield. Nick Neiman is the one guy who has to get him and he's taking him down in space. I thought that has been a phenomenal aspect of defense that we haven't really talked about a lot. Anything about the linebackers for, of course, we always have to talk about the big man, Davian Nixon and Zach and, and obviously Chauncey.

Yeah. That's, that's one thing that I see a lot is that they try to outflank Nick and he just, I mean, every time, I mean, it's, it's like a two yard game. Yeah. And that's something that I, I mean, he's just everywhere. He's, he's a And that's something that, I mean, he's just everywhere. He's a guy that's always around the football. We talked about it before where he had 17 tackles.

I forget if that was last week or the week before. But he's always around the football. You know, you've got that. And Seth Benson, shout out, South Dakota kid. He got his first career sack. So, I mean, that's a big part of it. Jack Campbell looks long out there. I mean, he looks like a really tall linebacker.

He's able to do what he needs to do. And he made a couple of really good plays as well. So as far as the linebacking core, they're outside of Nick, they're relatively young and they're flourishing right now, I feel like. And upfront, we already talked about it. They make plays when they need to. And that kind of goes without saying.

Yeah, the Nick Neiman thing was really interesting to me because I've been looking more into some of the advanced analytics and then trying to correlate that to what's happening in the game. And especially PFF, I don't, I'm not sure your thoughts on PFF. I think it is a great tool to use as supplementary knowledge. It's not the end all be all it's not,

this is exactly how the player did, but it is a good tool to use as supplemental knowledge. You look at Nick Neiman and they said, I mean, I think he's allowing like 80% or 90% of something ridiculous for passes completed, but his coverage rating was like an 80. And I'm like, all right, something's, something's really weird here. And so that's why I started focusing a little more. And again, you talked about it. No one gets past him.

Also there's nothing he can do when you're doing a little swing route with the running back, the guy, I mean, the guy is literally 10 yards away from from him he's going to be able to catch the ball so technically he's going to allow that catch being there but yeah I thought that was really phenomenal the linebacker group they don't even have Justin Jacobs on the field yet or a Jay Higgins a yaha I mean yaha blacks getting some time that they don't even have some of these even younger guys in the field they have a lot of hype around them so the linebacker crew uh after a few years of I wouldn't say inconsistency a lot more just injuries and trying to find the right playmakers and getting people developed, I feel like they have a few guys

that are ready for the long haul at this linebacker group, which is exciting. Nick's got those Neiman arms that go from sideline to sideline. So that really helps him. He and Ben both got that kind of stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if I saw Nick join his brother in the NFL. Yeah, man, probably going to be either late round or UDFA type pick, but if he runs well, especially he could be, be a big time player. Yeah. Just got to get on the field. Got to get in the camps.

That's probably, I think that's pretty much it for what I wanted to cover from the game perspective. There one last thing kind of goes more into the press conference. Kirk Ferentz is he's getting a little older, seems to not care as much about throwing a little bit of uh passive aggressive shade I I really like seeing this Kirk I feel like he's uh basically people say maybe this is last year uh maybe he doesn't care I think he's like you know let's just let it go I'm sick of some of

these younger guys whatever it may be one to get your thoughts on Kirk Ferentz passive aggressive shade towards Scott and then also also talk about the clapping. Cause I think that is just the most ridiculous thing I've heard. So as far as the clapping, I mean, usually you got 70,000 in there that's clapping and it's not uncommon for our guys to be clapping and hooping and hollering on the sideline. Cause again, we care about the game and we're going to be invested. So yeah. Change your cadence. I mean, I don't, I mean, that's that we, you know,

anyways. Yeah. I mean, they're, they're, the fact that they had two messed up snaps and we're still able to go down there and score it. That was a bit unfortunate. But yeah, I mean, it's, it's a very odd thing now. Granted, if our players were like, or if our D lineman were right in front of him doing unfortunate. But yeah, I mean, it's, it's a very odd thing. Now, granted, if our players were like, or if our D linemen were right in front of him doing this, then yeah, that's an issue. But I don't think any, I don't think we're inciting the snap count or anything like that. This, this year is a very unique year in that, you know, the fans aren't, the fans aren't all there. So the, the, the, the sound is a lot different and things of that nature, but I,

I just can't see that one. That one, that one's a bit tough for me. Yeah. A little bit ridiculous. I want to get your thoughts on Scott Frost before I wrap up with the last question, which is just, what is it like being in a stadium right now? But Scott Frost has rubbed me the wrong way since he's joined the Nebraska program as a coach because you look at some of the press conferences and I also try to you know I look at what Kirk Barron says or KF as you call me now I look at what Kirk says and I look at how Scott

talks and Kirk would almost I've never seen Kirk throw a player under the bus or talk about players in a bad way it's always him it's always the coaches it's always we need to do things better he doesn't always hype people up but he's always always very consistent. And I feel like a very, he does things the right way. Meanwhile, Scott Frost is willing to throw almost anything and anyone under the bus. It seems like in his press conferences, the players weren't ready. The players that came here from the old coaching staff four years ago, don't have the toughness. They don't have the discipline uh it's i was clapping uh from a from a role player perspective what are your thoughts on scott frost do you feel like

that is something that's annoying to you no for sure if you got a problem with me let's let's talk about it if i did something you didn't like uh i mean you can go ahead and tell them what technically i did wrong you know or that i need to do better on this side of the other thing but just outright say like our players aren't disciplined. Okay. Well, where does culture begin with? Culture begins at the top, just like everything. I saw a quote.

I don't know who it was from, but it was concerning the Iowa State versus Texas. And the quote was like a five-star culture versus five-star players. And any time that your culture is that good, it's because it starts at the top. It's the, it's the guy. I mean, there's, there's a lot of things going on in the world right now where guys at the top don't abide by the same rules that the guys at the bottom do. And I think that that's, that's an issue when guys, you know, like KF, KF's the same way. He's like, Hey, you know, I gotta be better. If, if, if I'm better, then that means everybody else will get better because I'm showing the way on how to be better. I'm the one that's, you know, setting the tempo and then everybody else kind of feeds off that.

So for him to go out there and say, you know what? Yeah, we, we, we didn't do great today. Okay. Well then he's going to take that upon himself and like, okay, what do I need to do better? What practice things do I need to change? What, you know, what personnel stuff do I need to change in order to make sure that we get ourselves in the best position to be successful? And I think that that goes a long way when it comes to players and players respect. I mean, players work hard for coaches that they respect.

They work hard for coaches that show that like, hey, he's going to go to bat for me. Like I haven't seen KF blow up too often on the sidelines, but if it's a big call, I mean, KF will be in that guy's ear. But it's not like every ticker tack call. You know, it's the calls that mean something. And you know he's going to go to bat for you if something – if he felt you were wrong.

But it's – again, it's that kind of loyalty. It's that mutual – it's that mutual respect. I wouldn't go into a press conference and say, yeah coaches were trash like i would never say that because that's not true because you can only control what you can control which is you and if you conduct yourself the right way you conduct you the way in which you're supposed to then everybody else hopefully will follow and control what they can control and that's that's kind of the problem too is that too many people are worried about things they can't control like well that's not that's not your job your job is to control what you can control and then go based off that and sometimes that gets lost couldn't agree more man um we talked you you

mentioned it briefly but i thought matt campbell has done just a phenomenal job in aims i wish he would have never joined that program um but i also hope he leaves soon i think it's great for the rivalry that iowa state is is decent people are going to hate he leaves soon. I think it's great for the rivalry that Iowa State is, is decent. People are going to hate me for saying that. I think it's great though, when Iowa beats them, when Iowa State is a good team, it's great for Iowa, but I do want Matt Campbell to leave, get out of the, get out of the Midwest, leave the big 10. I don't care. I want Iowa State to maybe go back to not being nearly as good as they have been this year. Matt, I've taken up a lot of your time though. You are a very busy man. You got a lot of stuff going on this Saturday.

Before we hop off the show though, where can people find you? I know you're obviously doing some awesome stuff. You have a free case of Bush Light waiting for you as well. But what are you doing around the neighborhood, man? Yeah, I gotta talk to IACub here in a little bit. As far as everything else, real estate agent at the Bales team

at Urban Anchors Real Estate. So helping a few transactions right now. I actually got a few showings going on tomorrow where I got to help some people hopefully find the home of their dreams and moving forward, help some people get out of their situation so they can move on to the home of their dreams. So a lot of that kind of stuff coming up and Laura will be on the pregame show December 12th, I believe before the Wisconsin game. So I'll be on again before that, but she'll be on doing the pregame show for a solid two hours.

It gets pretty chilly. She needs a, I told her she needs to get a space heater because it was pretty windy when we were there yesterday. I can only imagine. But other than that, I mean, that's about what we got going on.

I love many. I definitely make sure to go check out that two hour pregame show. It is fantastic. Lots of great people on there covering everything you need to know before the Iowa game. Matt, it's always a pleasure having you on. Always enjoy talking Iowa football, even especially after a win. We'll be back next weekend though. Have a great day, buddy. Sounds good, Andrew. Thank you. All right. And that concludes our show today. Hope you enjoyed the Monday morning recap with Matt. We'll be back on Monday on actual actual Monday morning dropping a new episode. We're also going

to have Michael Sleep Dalton on to talk a little bit more about Torrey Taylor and what he's doing from a punting aspect and then obviously get into more of your Iowa Hawkeye news and notes breaking down the basketball games that happened over this weekend and talking about what's to come next week. So stay tuned for that. If you haven't already please make sure to subscribe wherever you downloaded

this podcast at so you can get all of your episodes or all of our episodes, I should say, downloaded directly to your smart device each and every weekday morning because we are a weekly show covering your Iowa Hawkeyes. Again, thank you all for tuning in. I hope you have a fantastic weekend. And as always, let's go Hawks.