Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Matt VandeBerg is back to help us break down Iowa's win over the Fighting Illini

Episode Date: December 6, 2020

We are joined by Matt VandeBerg for another Monday Morning Recaps with Matt as we break down the Iowa win over Illinois. What happened in the first quarter and what changed? Why Spencer Petras wasn't to blame for that horrendous start, and some the x's and o's behind multiple big Iowa plays.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, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I am your host Andrew Wade and today's episode is brought to you by Bilt Bar. Go to BiltBar.com and use promo code LOCKEDON and you'll get 20% off your next order. And as we do every single week, we got former Iowa wide receiver Matt Vandenberg on the show to break down the win over Illinois. Again, fantastic content all around. Always love having Matt on.

So without further ado, let's hop into the conversation with Matt as we break down the win over the Fighting Illini. All right, y'all, we are back with Matt Vandenberg for another Monday morning recap with Matt. Obviously, those are probably posting on Sunday evening, but either way, Matt, how you doing today, man? I'm doing good. Anytime Hawks win, it's a good day. Yeah, man, we are at five in a row. After the first two games this season, I was like, man, this could be a long season. But I think Iowa clearly has turned it around and now folks are no longer saying, oh man, those two games were terrible. It was more of like, what if we would have won those two games? It's now we're playing the,

what if game it was like, can we just win a game now? It's what if we had won those two games that we should have won regardless should have, could have, would have can't go back. There's still a lot on the table. You win the next game, you face up against maybe a ranked indiana not a maybe definitely a ranked indiana team and you have a shot of maybe being top 10 maybe going to a big time bowl regardless of how you started the season pretty terribly let's get into the game though iowa took care of business after a very terrible uh first quarter

to be fair i mean it was it was ugly um So let's maybe start there. We're going to get into Spencer Petras, which is definitely going to be the hot topic of today. I know you were busy, but Twitter was going absolutely wild. Everyone and their mother wanted to bench Spencer Petras. I saw a lot of prominent media people wanting to bench Spencer Petras. I felt like I was the only one, maybe not actually as upset as Spencer Petras, but let's maybe walk through the first couple of drives, especially on the defensive side for Iowa. I felt like they had a solid game plan. Illinois just got a few really nice chunk plays.

That first drive, that wheel route, Seth Benton had amazing coverage on that. He gets his head around and he stops that. Is that something you noticed as well? I mean, I felt like Illinois wasn't, it wasn't Illinois doing better than Iowa they were just making perfect plays Iowa was right in the right position and talk about those two catches against uh Riley Moss I mean not much we can do about that right yeah especially the touchdown uh Amortababy uh had because Riley

played through his hands he's swiping down he's doing everything he's coached to do um sometimes the guy just makes a play I mean like we always talk about that's football uh kf brings it up all the time that's football uh seth benson again playing through his hands trying to swipe down uh the guy just makes a play i mean at the end of the day those guys are scholarship players too those are division one athletes on the outside of the field and that's what makes every game so tough that's what makes every game uh one. That's what makes every game one that this is the most important game. Because again, these guys are athletes. They're not just going to put a bunch of scrubs on the field.

That's not what Big Ten does. Yeah. One of the things I thought was really interesting was that Seth Benson, that wheel route, he looked like he was going to blitz. He saw the running back come out. I think people aren't talking enough about the fact that he was even in position to make that play because the running back had a full, I mean, the running back did a little swing came out like a wheel.

He had basically a full head of steam going and Seth Benson's gets to him and then stays with him the entire time throughout the route. Maybe it was that was, I'm the only one that was impressed by what Seth Benson did there athletically to even get the running back and then also stay with him the whole time. So this is something that we can see i would do a lot of and you can pick it up from different uh things they do with their legs um and this is just with um really with anything that you see

from linebackers if they're blitzing then they're not going to have a wide stance because i mean then you got to really work to bring your back leg up in order to go. Right. Whereas if you have a narrow stance, you can explode and you're out. You have a wide stance. You're probably coming back. So the fact that he's in a wide stance means he's showing blitz. If the running back does pass pro and he can, the linebacker can confirm he's doing pass protection, then he can go. Otherwise, if he sees him leak, just like that, he pushes off, boom, runs with him. Unfortunately on that one, running back can go. Otherwise, if he sees him leak just like that, he pushes off,

boom, runs with him. Unfortunately on that one, running back made a great play, but I mean, obviously Seth Benson, young guy, being able to see that, play it correctly. Like I said, sometimes things just happen. Yeah. Two things I want to call on that. So first I think Denver called it a green dog blitz where I think it's called green dog blitz, where basically you blitz if your person stays in protection is that what you call it Iowa uh yeah I think offensively we called it something different but essentially that's what it is okay and then as a quarterback if you're looking at the linebacker and he does have that wide stance I didn't even notice that so I need to go back and watch that but if he does have that wide stance are you assuming he's dropping back or

are you accounting for him with your blocking uh so that's a great question so you can never right right because you can never assume you can never assume because who's to say that the next time seth benton lines up just to make me look like a jerk he has a wide stance and then he blitzes right i mean that absolutely can happen so if anybody goes out there and assumes that that's how they're going to play then that's how they mess with you just like when um you know receivers if we take an outside route or an outside release every time on an out route outside release every time well then you know when we take an outside release we're going to go out so next time we're going to go in so that way you can't game plan for the fact that when i go out i always go out so i mean you got to assume that that guy's coming but

as if they've done all the research and they know what's going on in the backfield and things like that, then they can try and figure out how their protection would slide. But you always have to assume they're coming and then get excited when they don't, I guess. Yeah, definitely. Definitely a little chess match there.

And then the only other play I wanted to call out was, at least in the two scoring drives for Illinois, was the Brandon Peters run. Coming into this game, that was one of the things I talked about. Brandon Peters burnt Iowa last year. Illinois was not a more talented team than Iowa. Iowa should have probably beat them by more,

but Illinois stayed in the game because they were able to convert key third downs. The pass coverage was fantastic. The defensive line got pressure, and Brandon Peters would escape, and he rushed for 70-something yards against Iowa last year. Then they did a design quarterback run, and I thought, oh, my gosh, not again. We're going to be dealing with this again. He gets 16 yards. It looked like Iowa might've been in cover to man, which would be a little bit difficult for there's not a spy there necessarily. Everyone's a little bit deep. So it's a little bit harder to get that. But after that,

I felt like they locked Brandon Peters up pretty darn well. He only finished with 17 yards rushing, which I'm pretty sure 90% of that came on that one run to extend the drive. What are your thoughts on that? Or did you see the same thing I was seeing? Yeah, I mean, anything with that kind of stuff with the running quarterback, it all comes down to being able to contain. And being able to know that your defensive ends don't want to scream all the way up the field because that allows for an area between your nose guard or your nose tackle, depending upon your verbiage and your end. And that leaves a hole where the quarterback can leak out.

So if everybody understands like, hey, we need to keep this guy in the pocket, or if we, you know, if we rush a certain way, we can mitigate these chances. And not only that, but a lot of times if there's a backer that's holding the, like you just talked about, the green dog blitz, well, maybe he green dog spies, you know, his guys blocking. So, okay, well, now I'm free to watch the quarterback and being able to know where he goes. about the green dog blitz well maybe he green dog spies you know his guys blocking so okay well now i'm free to watch the quarterback and being able to know where he goes so you can have a lot of different responsibilities for different guys but i i do agree with you because i remember watching

last year and thinking dang this guy's this guy's running pretty good uh so obviously in order to mitigate that uh was a big was a big plus for iowa yeah and so they i mean obviously the defense corrected some of the issues. And I, again, I think a lot of what I saw in those first two, the first two, the three, the wow, two of the first three drives was not to say Iowa, not playing good defense. It was Illinois making really special plays to extend those things. That wasn't always going to continue to happen.

Just like Iowa's offense wasn't going to continue to completely stall out. And that was a pretty bad opening sequence for Iowa. A lot of people have talked about Spencer Petras was getting a lot of heat. I saw fans all over. I don't think I saw a single fan on Twitter say, keep Spencer in. I even saw media members, you know, tweeting us out that he needs to be benched. Out of all games though, I felt like this really wasn't necessarily on him when I watched the first three drives yes he made two terrible throws they were not game impacting throws per se they're both the Tyler Goodson both five feet in front of Tyler Goodson bad throws no doubt about that

but on the other drop backs a Illinois was bringing a lot of pressure and getting pressure on him quickly so he wasn't able to go through all of his reads and B the wide receivers were getting blanketed pretty darn easily. They weren't getting a lot of separation there. I also have the running game. Illinois was bringing eight in the box, the first couple of drives and forcing Iowa to throw the ball. And again, if the wide receivers are not getting open and they're getting pressure, it makes

it tough to move the ball at all. Is there anything else you saw or anything else that you kind of noticed from those first couple of series that, and also what are your thoughts on spent? What are your thoughts on Spencer after those first three drives? Were you at the point of, we need to bench him or basically we're on the same lines of we need to make other plays. And this is a whole offensive issue,

not just a Spencer issue. Right. I'll need to quickly pause that conversation with Matt, because I do have an important announcement for you. If you're anything like me, you're always on the go. You're either working, working out, hanging out with family, doing odds and ends. You're just constantly on the go. But sometimes you just need to take a second and chill.

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for that. It's going to be some great stuff. You're going to really enjoy the preview that we do. Let's hop back into the show, though, with Matt right now. So I'll encompass a whole lot there. Yeah, that's a big question. So historically,inois plays a lot of man they'll play a lot of cover one and they play a lot of tampa too which is um the difference between cover two and tampa two is your middle linebacker falls in order to get like a middle third even though it's a cover two versus underneath in the zone um it's just a way to keep your – if you've got a really athletic linebacker, it works because a lot of ways to beat a cover two is in the middle of the field. And Illinois does.

Exactly. So, I mean, that helps with that. But as far as like – so, I mean, they're always going to have dudes that can play man because they do it a lot. It's not something that they have to go out of their wheelhouse in order to do. They were bringing a lot of pressure early. I did see that. I saw Spencer go down a few times. So, I mean, that's never good. But it's the bench a guy that quickly,

I think is a little bit too harsh in my opinion. I think if you roll through the half and he hasn't figured it out, I mean, I'm never a fan for benching people in the first place in terms of in game unless they absolutely deserve deserve it which I'm sure a lot of the Twitter people say that he did but the fact that he bounced back the second half and boom boom hits a great play to Laporta hits Byer on two well it's the same play but different we can talk about that later but like being able to make those types of throws after the kind of start goes to show that like number one he's capable I don't want anybody to say he's not capable and number two like he bounced back like

it was a it was a tough start he knew it was a tough start but for him to stay with it stay the course and then make some of those bigger throws down the down the you know down the course of the game I think speaks volumes about where he's at mentally uh compared to where he was maybe you know game one game two yeah I mean I honestly thought that might have been his best game I've seen. The throw to Sean Byer for that touchdown, when you look at that, there was one spot that ball could be where it was catchable by Iowa and not pickable by either of the two Illinois players. There was a linebacker underneath, a safety over top,

obviously the end zone as well, and the out-of-bounds area. And there was literally one spot that ball could be placed and it was placed absolutely perfectly. And I thought in general, he just played really phenomenal after that first quarter. I also agree. I just felt like there was a lot of other things kind of happening with Spencer and with the offense and not just Spencer. And again, to do that against Illinois, Lovey Smith is a defensive minded guy. You talk about the Tampa too.

That was a defense made famous by Tampa Bay in the early two thousands that, I mean, their defense was rock solid. Jake Hanson is a fantastic middle linebacker for Illinois. So not an easy defense necessarily put points on the board against, I know, I know Wisconsin did it early on in the season. I chalked that up to, we talk about not having a lot of playing time early on. So again, I thought Spencer did a pretty good job. I actually was pretty encouraged by the progress he made and the mental

fortitude to come back and make some really darn good throws. And I honestly can't remember a lot of bad throws in the last three quarters of the game. I don't know about you. There wasn't a lot that I was like, man, that was a terrible throw. I do want to get to the, the last three plays of this, the first half, but other than those three plays, were there any bad throws you noticed from Spencer in the last little bit of the game?

I did notice just because I know the playbook and I'd be like, I was like, okay, that's not your read on that particular one. He's, you know, there were certain plays that he made. Don't get me wrong where he gave us an opportunity and you can throw it there, but the read suggests that the ball should go elsewhere. So that's, but I mean, that's something that they'll watch them film and they'll be like, you know, this guy is probably where you're looking to get the ball, right?

And it's like, yeah. So, I mean, that's just normal stuff. Nothing too crazy. I mean, just being able to progress through your reads and make the right read. And that's not on a lot. That's only on a couple. I'm thinking of one off the top of my head.

But outside of that, I thought, like I said, after after the first quarter I thought he really settled down and you know showed us what he's capable of yeah so one I'm actually thinking about you I don't know this same one but the two-point conversion I thought was really interesting because Amir Smith-Marset that's one of them as well there was no one within five six yards of him and I was like all right maybe he's expecting someone to drop back real quick and you know pick it off whatever maybe the linebacker was kind of creeping in could jump back I was like he he looks pretty open to me though and the play develops and Amir Siddhar said there is just no one on him the entire play and he doesn't look at him a single second now all is

good because we got the two-point conversion but you should have I feel like and again I haven't played quarterback in college. I know that's why I have you here, right? When you're looking at that, is the read Amir Sifmarsat at that point? So he's going to read. Now, I don't know what scheme they had on either side. I mean, I know what they ran with Amir.

I didn't really see the full bottom of the screen, so I couldn't tell what the full play was. But essentially, he's going to look at the defense and be like, all right, they got three over two, and we got three on three. the full bottom of the screen so i couldn't tell what the full like play was um but essentially he's going to look at the defense and be like all right they got three over two and we got three on three so i'm probably gonna play three on three now there's more that goes into it versus what kind of coverage and all that kind of stuff zone man all that stuff um now he was playing off of me i think he was like halfway into the end zone so he's probably seven yards off when we need to um so that part's a little bit different especially when you know

the the guy on the inside isn't as wide and knowing the play and knowing the play that's going to develop the only thing that Spencer had to think about is whether or not the corner on Brandon or uh was it Brandon that was on the outside I think so yeah I think it was Brandon uh if the corner is going to crash that because if the corner crashes that then I mean that's probably two points the other way if he he catches that with a head of steam. So that's probably the one thing it looked like a cover to at the two yard line, which I don't think is very effective as shown on tape because the guy ran. So he wasn't man. So I think pre snap,

he determined he was going to play left based on the numbers based on where he saw it and then that's kind of what happened it's it's one of those things where if it's so with plays you can have a full field play like you can have a full field concept to where x is one z is two f is three y is four whatever it is depending upon the play but you can also have one play where you've got two separate schemes on either side so your right side is one scheme and your left side is another scheme or concept i'll call it a concept so left side concept works good against left side of the field right side concept i don't like it as

much against this side of the field so i'm going to play my left concept so the guys on the right aren't even in the play because he's playing the left side and so that happens quite frequently you know depending upon the numbers and who you've got running that you don't have a full field concept where you know they'll be like oh well he's not even looking backside he's not part of the concept if the quarterback didn't like it off the you know right now then he's probably not coming back to him because that's not his read now his read is on the right so that's i'm assuming he saw what he liked on the left side with the running back thankfully uh yeah it worked right which is this is the oh oh yeah yeah yeah um but and that's probably why you know that's why he wouldn't look right because he thinks the

scheme on the left is what he's coming is where he's gonna play that makes sense yeah I mean it was just again we got the two points that's all it matters but when the running when he caught the ball the linebacker was right on him he had to make a play That makes sense. Yeah, I mean, it was just – again, we got the two points. That's all that matters. But when the running – when he caught the ball, the linebacker was right on him. He had to make a play to get in the end zone. I was like, man, this would have worked a lot better if he'd just gone to Amir. But easy play and armchair quarterback. Yeah.

Another armchair quarterback thing, the last piece of the first half, Iowa drives down the field. They have that big play by Sean Beyer, I believe, caught the play to set up at the four-yard line don't they call a timeout there now we have three we're basically forced to do three passing plays unless you are gonna hope to god you get that run play in and you score the touchdown on that play they go three passing plays want to talk about that sequence um i want to talk a little about the timeout whether or not that made sense i i'm not too worried about the clock management but let's maybe start there then the timeout and whether or not that made sense. I'm not too worried about the clock management,

but let's maybe start there then the timeout. Did it make sense to call it out there? Cause in college football, just run down the field and spike it. You give yourself two plays to least. And then you have also a timeout to run with. If you want to run the ball, at least don't put yourself in a, I have to pass the ball situation. What are your thoughts on that? All right.

I'll one more pause before we finish off the conversation with Matt. We got a lot of content to continue to cover. I think Matt and I ended up talking for about 45 to 50 minutes. So a fantastic breakdown all around, but I do have a message for you because if you're anything like me, you want to find something that's delicious and healthy for you. And that's where built bar comes in as the best tasting protein bar on the market today comes in 18 fantastic flavors. And they're all the bars are covered in 100% chocolate and they're soft and easy to chew. They have nut and non-nut flavors as well. So if you have a nut allergy, you can still have yourself a Bilt Bar. Believe me when

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for 20% off at BiltBar.com. All right, y'all, before we get into our conversation with Matt and finish off our discussion about Iowa versus Illinois, I want to remind you that the wait is almost over for the NBA. The 2020-2021 NBA season is almost here, and the Locked On NBA podcast will get you ready with a special week of shows beginning December 14th. Get previews of every single team,

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Iowa Hawkeyes in the NBA. We also have a couple Iowa Hawkeyes on this current Iowa team that might be in the NBA in the future. So always great to get a feel for what is going on in the NBA before those players get there. Let's get back into the conversation with Matt as we wrap up our review of the Iowa win over Illinois.

I anticipated a clock because, I mean, for the reasons you just listed. Not only that, but you can come out on a funky look, see if they, for the reasons you just listed, not only that, but you can come on a funky look, see if they give you the look you want. And if they do, you let it ride. And if they don't, cause you were calling a funky play, like, let's say we call it the Philly special and like you come out and it's not the look. It's like, all right, call timeout. Now we'll run regular plays or plays that we think will work, you know,

in this area. So I, again, I anticipated a clock, but I think, uh, I don't think it's timeouts bad there. Um, but I do understand, you know, your thought of now you have to throw the ball, which again, I'm a receiver. I want to throw the ball anyway, but, uh, which I'm sure we'll get to here in a second. But yeah, I anticipated a clock versus a timeout in that situation. Makes sense. And then the passing plays, you've, you convinced me that fades are all right. I still struggle with them sometimes, but you convinced me that they're all right. And that appeared to be what we were trying to do on the first two plays. The first one to Amir was interesting for a couple reasons. A, he gets to play. He just drops back and chucks it. I mean, it, it, there was no one that can make a play on

that. Now, Illinois had pretty good coverage on Amir. So there's a chance that maybe he just saw that the coverage is too tight and he's just going to get the ball away so they can live to see another day. Was that what you noticed? Or was he actually trying to make a play to Amir and just overthrew it? Because I couldn't tell. I was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt there. So there could be a few things that are happening there.

I think it was a concept so i don't think it was meant to be a fade uh or meant to be like that's where the ball goes just based on the snap and i think he had somebody underneath um so i don't think that was the design play of like okay we're gonna throw it up to amir here but spencer liked the matchup so he took it the when you're going to the field that is a very long throw if you're going to put it on a rope and go back shoulder i mean you're talking i mean you're taking let's say you take off maybe 18 yards from the hash to the sideline because you're on the left hash and now you've got left hash over you're probably 36 37 yards plus you're downfield

a little bit that's like a 45 yard throw that you're trying to rope on the back side well against uh press man i mean that's tough so and with amir speed you would think if you give him an opportunity to go get it in the back pylon i mean he could have just missed the back pylon he could have just been throwing it away unfortunately as well as i know the game I don't know Spencer's absolute thought process yeah yeah but I'm assuming he was going to try and let Amir win over the top and give him a shot in the back of the end zone and just missed on that definitely and one other thing I noticed about that play we don't have to get into it but Amir's reaction after that play was a little bit heated he was pretty pissed I mean you could see the the emotion on his face um any thoughts on

that or do you want to move on to the Brandon Smith uh fade pass he is a um very emotional player for sure um and I think that there are certain ways that you can help your team in certain ways that don't advocate as much as good of a message to your team um but either way I mean he was able to bounce back and make plays later, which is good. But of course, I mean, we all make, we all make bad plays. I've had my fair share of drops and, you know, I called it on me and that's me. But it is what it is. Definitely. And then the Brandon Smith fade that just looked like a, I mean, you got to give Brandon Smith a chance to get that ball. And the only one that had a chance to get that ball was Illinois.

And that was a little bit easier of a throw. You know, I didn't even calculate the math of that throw to Amir Smith-Marset. It would have been about 45 yards. Makes it seem a little bit – makes it show a little bit more of a difficulty. A little bit further. Yeah. But the Brandon Smith phase is a little bit closer. And then it's Brandon Smith.

I mean, you've got to get the ball up, and he's going to high point that. You've got to give him a chance. But there was not even a chance for him to catch that ball. Thankfully, Illinois didn't catch that ball either. That could have been a huge swing of things as well. Any thoughts on that? So I kind of – this is kind of the reverse now because, like we said, now you're into the short part of the field,

which is normally where you see the goal line fade just because it's a lot easier of a throw for the quarterback, not only in terms of the back shoulder, but a little bit easier dropping in the bucket over the top a little bit easier for placement because again you don't have to put it on the line all the way on the other side of the field um so i was uh just because he and brandon have had some really good back shoulder throws uh up until now i was surprised that he elected not to go there but again he you know he read the coverage and threw it where he felt was best. You know, I was just interested.

I was surprised that he didn't try to go back shoulder and up with Brandon because with anybody, if you go up, I think Brandon is going to have a solid opportunity to make that catch. Absolutely. I don't really, we don't really need to talk about the third play. I felt like it was a solid design. We just couldn't get the ball into to buy her there. The field goal worked. I love you, Smith, calling three timeouts. The first one I understood, you know, they probably, it looked like Iowa was not trying

to maybe set up a fake or at least portray a potential fake, see what Illinois was doing. The second one, I can almost agree, but the third one just seemed a little bit ridiculous. Is there any, I mean, is there any strategic value in doing that besides kind of being a dick? I thought it was very funny uh so one i know from my time at big 10 media days kf and and coach smith uh they talk a lot like they're always talking and bs and then doing whatever so i mean i would assume that they're friends or i assume that they're cool just based on their camaraderie at least uh from what it sees at big 10 media days and from kf's comment about uh taking the trophy and leaving the timeouts

i'm thinking that and came back with loving he's like taking the trophy and leaving the timeouts I'm thinking that and came back with loving he's like all right I'll leave my timeouts here I'll do that to you guys too so that's kind of how I saw it I didn't see any harm in it I don't think you're gonna ice Keith so I wasn't too worried about I just thought it was funny from a from a person-to-person perspective that makes sense yeah because I feel like they I mean going into the game you could tell Kirk had a lot of respect for lovey. Lovey has a lot of respect for Kirk. I mean, honestly, any coach in the big 10 who doesn't have respect for Kirk doesn't have respect for, for legacy and big 10 football in general,

which doesn't need to get into now. Lovey is another quite like, you can tell the coaches that Kirk maybe doesn't like, or doesn't care for the coaches he does. And you could tell he spoke glowingly about lovey. So I thought that was just really interesting, but if it was all in good fun honestly that makes it even more hilarious like if they're you know buddies and uh you know bsing each other and that was like ha ha ha i'm gonna call three timeouts like that's actually hilarious that's kind of how i took it

is he's just kind of like i'm gonna poke some fun at your no timeout comment that you made against minnesota and i'll get you back here that That's hilarious. All right. Well, that's, I enjoy that. Um, let's get onto some punt stuff. So Charlie Jones got annihilated on a early hit. Um, maybe he should have fair caught the ball. Uh, do you think there are a few times, Charlie, I love his aggressiveness. I don't want to, I don't want to say that's not a good thing and I will take the good with the bad but I feel like he might be getting a little aggressive on the not calling fair catch I mean great thankfully the I mean not thankfully the guy hit him early he would have caught that had the guy not hit him early but the guy just rocked his world on that um any thoughts on that I mean would you call for would you have fair caught that so um number one yes but number

two um I've had two I think it was against Iowa State and then also against Indiana my sophomore year I called for a fair catch and got smacked anyway so I mean I've had that happen too where you think you're going to be protected they're like ah but at least you get a free 15 yards so it's worth it um but yeah I love his aggressiveness I do think there are times where I mean you got to take care of yourself a little bit uh in terms of making sure that you're available for the next time you go out there for punt return. But again, on the side of Illinois, I don't think that was a dirty hit. I think he was playing what he felt was right. You know, I mean, Charlie's in position where he's about to receive the ball. I think maybe a little bit, you know, slow it down just a little bit you know slow it down just a little bit that way you're you're you're ensuring he catches the ball if you're on illinois side um but yeah i mean charlie has also shown us what he's capable of in terms of making a guy miss and going for 15 and he did it later yeah i mean that

kind of stuff i mean he he's definitely special back there uh just a matter of watching out for himself every now and then yeah i mean i i wanted to tweet this but i thought that was an appropriate balls of steel man i mean that guy i mean to just sit there like I could get hit but I'm gonna need to catch this and make a move as soon as I touch the ball it is pretty impressive I was actually gonna ask you have you ever been clocked like that um I've been hit before I mean like playing you know flag football or tackle football or not flag football and someone gets a little bit aggressive and hits you when you're not expecting it it kind of takes you by surprise what were you I mean when you got hit by like in the Iowa State game what was your initial thought I was like screw these guys what are they

doing I definitely called for a fair catch but then I got up realizing it's 15 and got excited but I think that that right there like uh your uh willingness to understand that from Charlie's point of view that's how quarterbacks feel when they get blindsided all of the time so that's why i got such respect for quarterbacks that stand in the pocket and are willing because they see it like if spencer's going to release a ball and he's got somebody in his face he knows that as soon as he lets that ball go regardless i mean now you know nowadays it's not as bad as they used to be in terms of the hits that quarterbacks would take immediately throwing the ball. But there are some where you're just staring down the barrel and you've got to get rid of it.

And so I think that kind of goes along with the respect. I think that quarterbacks need for the ability. They get smacked. I know CJ got hit quite a bit. And I don't know if it's 15 or 16, but he would not like he would get hit a lot. But in the fact that when he knew he was going to get hit he was still going to deliver the ball the way he needed to cj was one of the toughest quarterbacks i've ever seen play quarterback at iowa i mean absolutely i think with this sometimes he holds on to the ball a bit i mean he takes some licks man he has more so i mean he just stands back there and just gets destroyed but he will follow through and throw

that ball knowing he's i mean we're like i watch a lot of Broncos games and I love Drew Locke I think he could be good but oftentimes he's falling backwards he's not willing to step into the ball but I've seen TJ Beathard do that and just get destroyed so it definitely is something to respect oh absolutely and especially as a player I mean I want to see my quarterback get rocked and I don't want to see my quarterback get rocked I want to see my quarterback get rocked. I don't want to see my quarterback get rocked. I want to see my quarterback getting over the ball, still get rocked and knowing that like he's, he's still going to be able to deliver in those types of situations. Definitely. So this has nothing to do with Iowa, but I know you're busy this weekend, but did you

get a chance to see the BYU coastal Carolina, a little scuffle that happened? I didn't, I did see that they stopped him at the one and whatever but i didn't see the uh the scuffle okay so i want to i want to get your thoughts on how you would have reacted if you were the uh quarterback's you know teammate so zach wilson throws the ball it's a hail mary gets picked off um then immediately the coastal carolina guy comes up and starts just destroying him like walks up in front of him and just takes him to the ground the defensive lineman gets on top of him zach wilson gets up the defensive lineman grabs him again and chucks him to the ground again and it caused an on-field scuffle between BYU and Coastal Carolina two uh you know

mid-major teams trying to make a name for themselves right um how would you have reacted I mean I feel like I feel like a couple guys would have gotten pretty pissed oh yeah don't touch our quarterback like that I mean we had scuffles and we had scuffles and you know at practice and the whole offensive squad is going to go over there and make sure that like hey you're not doing that again not at our quarterbacks but I mean we have we have you know little things you go up against the same guys every day for a month you're gonna you're gonna learn to love him and hate him on the other side um so i mean yeah i mean anytime it happens something happens to your quarterback that's the leader of your team really something happens to your to your teammates um i mean if some guy deserves it then it's like all right yeah you deserve that one but in terms of you

know being able to back your guy up if you got two guys headhunting you like we we need to stick up for you yeah all right so this again not to do anything with the game but um from your playing days who would be the one guy you'd want to be backing you up i'm just curious brandon sheriff that's a good brandon sheriff it's not it's not even a not even joke uh he's got a he's got a clean hook so if that thing connects it's over all right what about this this year's team you've got to pick one guy on iowa's team today who would you want to be on your side i know who i would say well go ahead i want to hear from you first i want to hear what you say i already got my thing but i don't want to i don't want to you know help you from this year's team i mean i feel like linderbaum isn't taking anybody he's not taking anything from anybody not only that but he'll get you to the ground and then take care of you there from

wrestling days so i'm probably taking Linderbaum. That was going to be my choice too. I did. But I think an underrated person might actually be Brandon Smith, maybe. Oh, I was thinking that too. I mean, he'll go in there and do what he needs to do. I mean, we see the way he blocks.

Yeah, we see the way he blocks people on the outside. He's not afraid to go in there and take care of his guys. Absolutely. So I just had to know. Another guy who I thought did a really great job had one time where he got just destroyed by a lead block. Dayton Belton has been an underrated guy and been a, been a guy who's been allowed Phil Parker to, to be pretty creative on defense, whether it's blitzing, whether it's playing zone coverage, man coverage. I, he did a pretty good job again, as he has done the entire season. One play I thought was really special was he was in zone coverage.

He was in the slot. He dropped back with his wide receiver and then turned his eyes and sprinted towards the guy on the outside, nearly came up with the interception. Is there anything else you're seeing from Dayton Belton that really impresses you? I mean, he's a true sophomore. And Phil Parker is historically to the outside tough on his defensive backs

and especially playing a role that is pretty new in the Iowa defense I mean he has just done a phenomenal job at that cash position well it's been kind of interesting so they still say that we're starting at a 4-3 but really we started at a 4-2-5 yep and Jack Campbell didn't start Seth Benson and Nick Neiman did and then you took Dane Belton he's your fifth so for So for those listening, 4-2-5, we talked about before, the four down linemen, three linebackers, it's a 4-3. A 4-2-5 is four down linemen, two linebackers, and five DBs. So they bring in Dane Belton for that particular situation. But I think what really makes defensive players great, and don't get me wrong, corner is by far, I think, the most physically demanding and most physically difficult position to play on

the football field, bar none. But I think the, what makes Iowa so good, don't get me wrong, coach is great and all that stuff. But I think that his ability to teach them how to play the game. I mean, it's, it's just understanding what your job is. If there's any phase of any phase of the game that it's, that is that is like do your job it's defense because if one guy doesn't do the job the other team can score if on offense if you got one guy that like slips and falls your quarterback can run out and try and make a play or you know your receiver falls down you throw it to somebody else like there are other opportunities there but if you're on defense and one guy just forgets to cover his guy i I mean, there's a pretty good opportunity or a pretty good chance that the offense

is going to take advantage of it. So his ability to understand that when he was in that cash position, so he's reading two to one, two goes vertical. So he knows he's not dealing with two anymore. So his eyes immediately go back to one. Once two goes vertical and goes past him at about eight, nine yards, which I mean, then if you're Illinois, then you have somebody hook around, you have somebody go vertical and then pop right underneath them and then there's the zone but

it's i mean that's one of the things of just playing zone in general but with two with two and one going vertical he sees two go vertical so his eyes go directly to one he sees one get ready for the ball snaps back almost makes a great play um but i mean that's just understanding his role understanding what his job is supposed to do when I give a play and that gives him opportunities to make plays like that. Absolutely. Yeah. No, I just, I've been really impressed with what he's doing. I'm going to quickly backtrack and I have one last thing I wanted to bring up before kind of giving you the table there or the floor, I should say the first touchdown pass to, for Illinois, I thought was interesting in the sense that Iowa brought pressure and honestly I

feel like Iowa had pretty good coverage on it Illinois just ran a perfect route combination where the guy ran the seam route our underneath guy let him go and our safety just couldn't get there quick enough is there anything else to talk about that and I meant to bring that up in our first conversation just to basically say like there were a lot of things that happened in those first six drives three between Iowa three between Illinois but a lot of it I mean you got to check it's football um was there anything else you saw that or was that exactly what you saw as well I mean it was just a perfect there's a great throw well-timed route right in the middle of the zone yeah I mean we were playing a cover three so Kerner's got to

come over from the middle of the field their seam was right in between and I talked about it earlier that's how you beat zone is you get in between two people so Riley Moss doesn't know if Kerner's got to come over from the middle of the field. Their seam was right in between. And I talked about it earlier. That's how you beat zone is you get in between two people. So Riley Moss doesn't know if Kerner's going to take it. Kerner doesn't know if Moss is going to take it. He had somebody on the flat. So they're both gaining depth. But if you go right in between it, that ball gets there a second later and Kerner's got it. There's no doubt in my mind.

I mean, that was it was the last possible second that Brandon Peters could throw that ball. But he was able, obviously, to connect and they scored. But yeah, I mean, that's, that's just one of the things about playing zone. But our safeties in our corner shown that they've got good range. I mean, they can get there. And, you know, one second later, we make that play. So it's nothing too crazy, but it's just the right play for the right defense.

Yeah. And I thought Matt Hankins on the other side did a pretty phenomenal job as well at cornerback, manning up on his guys. I thought he had a really great play. I can't remember what quarter it was, but he was manned up on his guy. And, I mean, it could have been maybe, Kassu, maybe a push-off. I'm sure if you were on offense, you would have asked for a flag there. But he did get his head around and made the play on the ball I thought that was awesome defensive line though the last thing

I wanted to call out I thought the defensive line did a great job of containing Illinois's rushing attack there were a couple plays they got off that's gonna happen but overall I mean the Illinois backs had pretty good vision because their initial where they were supposed to be running was almost never there they were either squeezing through the hole or using a burst of speed to just you know blow our guys back four yards or cutting back I thought our defensive line continued to do a great job though of stopping that run initially what are your thoughts the same and I think that that forced them to try and go wide with a lot of their stuff and uh for as big and brute that Iowa has kind of built up the reputation, they got speed too, in order to run down things on the side.

A lot of times now there are, don't get me wrong. There's always exceptions to the rule, but for the most part, when teams try to go side to side on us, it's two yards or less. I mean, we're able to really fly down and make a play, especially with Nick Neiman covering, you know, every field that's ever existed being able to go side to side. So, I mean, that kind of stuff, being able to fly up and make those kind of plays because you've stuffed the initial run.

I mean, that's that's just bonus. Yeah, I feel Parker sounded a bit crazy earlier in the season when he said that the linebacker position was his deepest unit and the one he was least concerned about. And I thought he was absolutely crazy thinking that, you know, Colbert had opted out. We lost Christian Welch. You know, we had, you know, Dylan Doyle transferred. But he was right. I'm going to stop questioning Phil Parker. Last thing, though, that's a good choice. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know more than Phil Parker. I don't know why I question that. Anything else you want to call out for the game, though?

I I've kind of ran through all the things I noticed. anything else that you wanted to bring up about the game though um i thought that the touchdown to amir smith-marcet was an incredibly effective play call i thought that was like the play design i thought all of it was just phenomenal um so uh props to what about his slow stepping what about his slow stepping into the end zone the The play call and the design was phenomenal. I would rather him just score, but so he deserved the shove at the end. So I'm not concerned about that. If you show about a little bit, that's just, what's going to happen to you. They're going to take some cheap shots on you. But as for the,

like the play design. So we talked about before, whether they're going to bump or they're going to run. Right. So they ran with Amir. Brandon comes in cracks the guy that's running with Amir. So now the corner that's manned up on Brandon has to run with Brandon inside because that's his guy. But now he has to respond to the ball on a moving Amir Smith, Marset over to the outside. And that's a tough thing.

Especially when Spencer hits him in the right spot. It was a pretty strong move. It's a moving Amir Smith, Marset over to the outside. And that's a tough thing. Yeah. Especially when Spencer hits him in the right spot. It was a pretty strong move. It's a beautiful, I mean, just the, the whole thing I thought was really nice. And Brandon knows that he's hitting a guy coming across at, you know,

18 miles an hour. And Brandon still goes in there, six, his nose in there. He got to put on his butt, but it didn't matter because it scored. Yeah. No,

he did his job as best as he needed to do. And they scored. So that was the one thing that I thought was really cool was that I just, I really liked the play design on that. Yeah. I'm at Brandon Smith is, is one of the guys that I'm going to miss. I think the most from the senior class, just because of all the things he's he does from a blocking perspective that doesn't really go, it doesn't get noticed.

And then all the insane catches he has made over the course of four years. I mean, there's just not a guy like him. He's, he's a difference maker on this team and he embodies everything that Iowa wants. And I think the fact that he almost didn't get recruited to Iowa. I mean, the fact that I can't, I can't remember the whole situation, but one of our recruiting guys was down in Mississippi. Yeah. It was down in Mississippi and just, what did he just stop at a high school to look at another guy and saw

Brandon Smith, or he just heard through the grapevine about Smith. I don't know what it was, but it was something ridiculous like that. Wasn't it? Yeah. When you go down to Lake Carmaran, I think is where he's from. I mean, but the fact that he was able to come here and like you said, I mean, the, the blocking on the outside, I, I, I, I challenged all of our fans and you know, whoever's listening, all of our fans and, you know, whoever's listening, all of our fans, meaning Iowa fans,

as well as those listening to this podcast, to watch Brandon Smith on any particular run play. Because that's a guy that goes out and does what he's asked to do. I talked about earlier how in the first game, it was either the first or second game, I can't remember. I think it was against Purdue. Makai fumbles and Brandon like hits him on the head like, all right, we're good. Like a quick tap, picked him up off the sideline. We good we're gonna get the ball back we're gonna do what we

need to do uh so that that's a that's a leader to me right there um and not blaming anybody he's all right yeah it happened let's move on yep he goes out blocks when he knows he's not gonna get the ball he's still gonna try and do everything he can to help the play in a help the play uh in a positive way and then uh he had i think i don't know i don't have the stats in a positive way. And then he had, I think, I don't know. I don't have the stats in front of me, but he had quite a few different catches. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He had a really nice out breaking route.

Brandon hit, Spencer hit him in a good spot. I mean, just those types of things, I think are really going, I don't know if you want to say unnoticed, but I think that he's done a phenomenal job this year. Absolutely. And I don't mean to keep asking questions. My last thing,

I promise you, I thought was really impressive was how the team responded and rebounded around Spencer Petras in that second half. I thought it was great to see him kind of, you know, hype. There's a couple, you know, camera shots of him kind of slapping guys, hitting guys in the helmet. A couple of guys went up and gave him a big hug after some big, some big passes and whatnot. I thought that was really cool to see the team rebound around Spencer Petras I think fully knowing kind of the the outside opinion and all the the pressure that's being placed on him I thought that was really cool to see it's just guys understanding what's at stake it's guys knowing that like hey the noise is not nice the noise 9.99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 AF always talks about, you know, we need to quiet the noise. We need to ignore the noise. Don't worry about it. Just go out there and do what you do. We got confidence in you.

Otherwise we wouldn't put you on the field. Yep. And our guys obviously like you, if they're going to do things like, Hey, try and pick you up and make sure we're on the right thing. And then the office of staff is going to do everything they can to try and put him in positions to be successful. One thing, I guess I will also talk about, because I thought it was another cool little play design that our office of staff came up with. So the touchdown to Sam Laporta.

Yeah. And the touchdown to Sean Byer are the exact same play, just different people ran it. So both times we had our, it was, it was a four vertical. So everybody, it was a two by two, it was four vertical. The guy on the outside, the first time we had two receivers on the outside, two tight ends on the inside. What happens we had two receivers on the outside two tight ends on the inside what happens is everybody released vertical and then the two receivers went out

toward the sideline while the tight end stayed vertical so when the receivers went out so did the corners and safeties have to try and figure out where they're going to fit but now they're in a zone so they're trying to figure out where they need to be and spencer puts it right on sam laporta on the inside on the seam scores second play same thing two receivers on the uh it's a two by two receivers on the outside tight ends on the inside but this time the roles reverse so first time they came out and the receivers ran to the fade well this time the receivers stayed and ran the seam and the two tight ends on the inside went vertical and then went back to the outside which is how sean byer caught it so it's the exact same play because they liked the way it looked

and they came back to it a different way and still got the same result and that's why we have you on the show because i would have never noticed that all i saw was wow those are great catches good yeah i mean that's like those little things trying to help spencer out run the same play dress it up differently do it with different guys and that's like those little things trying to help Spencer out, run the same play, dress it up differently, do it with different guys. And that's why it's so important to have depth. It's so important to have guys that can do it all. They can block, they can run, they can catch because then you can do these things. You know, you can put Sean Byer on the outside, you can put Sam Laporte on the outside and it doesn't matter. And I think Amir ran the seam and I forget who was on the left side.

But either way, I mean, you've got the same play just look different and you still got the same result as a touchdown. That's a pretty good day. I love men. Yeah. And I will win 35 21 with the garbage time touchdown by Illinois, Matt, you're doing some awesome stuff in the community. Where can folks find you at and find your wife, Laura. So Laura will be doing the pregame, I guess the last pregame show. It's kind of crazy.

That's the home pregame show for Wisconsin. She'll be there two hours before on Hawkeye sports.com slash game day live. And then as for myself, I'm a real estate agent. And I do really anywhere from Cedar Rapids down to Lone Tree and so on. I Solon Tiffin, Iowa city, Coralville, really anything in there. And so I'm part of urban Acres, the Bales team. So I'd love to help anybody with their home needs. I love it, man.

Where is Lone Tree at? Lone Tree is like 20, it's right next to Riverside. So if you go to the Riverside Casino and you stay going east about another 10 miles or so, Lone Tree's right there. I feel like I know Iowa pretty well, but then you take these random towns. I don't know what the hell you're talking about. Well, Matt, I appreciate having you on as always. The fans appreciate having you on as always.

We'll have a great day and we'll hopefully be talking after a, a win next week, Iowa over Wisconsin, man. Let's bring the bull home. Hell yeah. All right, y'all. And that can, that concludes our conversation with Matt. Hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. I know he has done a fantastic job of kind of walking through everything that happens in each of these games.

He was actually on a hunting trip this weekend and still watched the game. That's how dedicated he is to bringing you some awesome stuff and the inside perspective from a guy who played within the program. Always appreciate Matt's time. If you love the show, though, make sure to give us that five-star review and subscribe because we have daily episodes every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday dropping, covering all of your Iowa Hawkeye content that you need and need to listen to. So please do that.

Also, please follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Hawkeye Nation, I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to listen to this episode. Have a fantastic day. And as always, folks, let's go Hawks.