Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Matt VandeBerg joins to recap the Hawkeyes football season, discuss Kirk's future retirement, and shed some light on draft training

Episode Date: January 6, 2021

We are joined by former Hawkeye WR Matt VandeBerg to break down and recap the 2020 Iowa football season. We discuss Kirk's announcement that he isn't retiring, the decision for some Hawkeyes to stay or go, and how these guys are preparing for the upcoming NFL Draft.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.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back, Hawkeye Nation, to a Wednesday morning episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, and I'm very excited to be joined by our special recurring guest, Matt Vandenberg. Matt is back on the show today to talk to us all about this Iowa Hawkeye season and what to expect going into next season. So without further ado, let's hop into that conversation right now. All right, I am joined here by former Iowa Hawkeye wide receiver and the host of every Monday Morning Recap with Matt, Matt Vandenberg. Matt, it is a

pleasure having you on the show. I thought we were going to have two more shows, but that did not happen. Michigan unable to play. Missouri, we'll just say unable to play. We'll just call it like that, although I have a lot of thoughts on that. But either way, it's great to have you back on the show again

to do a little bit of a recap of this past season, man. Yeah, thanks for having me. Like you said, I mean i i would have liked to have had two more uh wins to talk about because i do believe that's where we would have been but uh at least we get an opportunity to kind of talk about the season yeah i mean i try to i try to be positive in the fact that iowa went six and two um coming into the season i didn't expect them to go six and two mostly because i thought other teams were going to be a little bit stronger but you go six and two you win your last thought other teams were going to be a little bit stronger, but you go six and two, you win your last six games.

It's hard to be negative about that kind of a season, right? I mean, there's so many things coming into this season that could have went poorly and Iowa rebounded well. And I think it's just frustrating to see that they could add two more games. And this could have been one of those seasons to talk about for years to come in Iowa Hawkeye history, like that 2015 team, like that 2009 team, the 2004. I mean, that's that's to me is what this team could have been this year.

Do you disagree with that or you're kind of on the same page? No, no, I'm right there with you. I mean, you think about the beginning of the year and talk about beating or just narrowly losing in Northwestern. But the Northwestern goes on and wins by, I think, 20 in their bowl game against a good opponent. But they went out there and showed what Big Ten football does. They played well in the Big Ten championship against Ohio State until late. So, I mean, there's a lot of different things there that we were close.

But, you know, as we talk about a lot, I mean, close doesn't necessarily lead to wins. But it tells you – it gives you a good barometer on where you're at, and then you can work from from there couldn't agree more and then obviously how indiana played gives me the feeling that i think iowa could have handled indiana pretty well not saying everything is you know you can't just it's not transit property one team struggles so you're going to do well against them every team is going to be different but i really feel like iowa could be indiana um the way ind Indiana played and how they looked, I feel like I was absolutely right there. So yeah, I mean, real quick,

before we get into Iowa stuff though, did you get a chance to watch the Ohio state Clemson game? I did. Yeah. I watched it until, so we were on the East coast and it was 1130 and there was still seven minutes left to go. And we had to get up early in the next day. I was like, Ohio state had it in hand. So I, I went to bed at that point. Yeah. What are your thoughts on that? Cause I was like Ohio State had it in hand so I went to bed at that point yeah what are your thoughts on that because I was personally a bit shocked I watched Ohio State play every single game this year and I bet on them almost every time and lost a decent chunk of money so I decided I

wasn't going to do it against Clemson because I just didn't I didn't trust their their defensive pass you know you know the defensive pass game and then obviously I didn't trust Justin Fields to play like he did because in his two biggest games, he kind of struggled a bit. So anything you learned from there? I mean, Justin Fields, obviously very tough competitor. I'm not sure what happened when he got, I mean, speared, I think is probably the best. That was insane. And I mean, it's tough for the defender in that situation. So I'm not going to act like that. That was intended. He actually situation so i'm not going to act like that that was intended um he actually came out and spoke on twitter or something like that and saying

how he was sorry and whatnot but it's it's one of those things it's a bang bang kind of play and you just can't put your head down yeah um but in terms of like how he bounced back from that and i think they all were like all right we deserve to be here they felt like it's not often that ohio state can walk in and be the underdog. I mean, people love that underdog mentality and they never get it. So for Dabo to have them ranked as 11th going into this and that getting released, which I don't know how often that stuff is publicized, but I thought it was interesting that you never hear about any other,

any other ones until this one. But I'm sure Ohio state was like, okay, we need to prove to them that we belong and we're going to prove to Bama that we belong. And right now that I think the line is at like seven and a half. So it's not even that, you know, it's a one score game. Yeah. I think it's interesting that motivation can be such a big factor,

especially during bowl season. But yeah, I mean, I, I still on paper, I just don't feel like Ohio state's a better team than Clemson, but they came out and they wanted it more. And that was clear and evident. And Justin Fields gained my respect so much because I'm pretty he had to play in the Broken Rivers. Dude, he did not look good at all whenever he wasn't throwing the ball. I mean, he's getting on the bike. He could barely get his leg over the chair. It's just very impressive nonetheless. But let's get into some Iowa football talk again great season but let's go through some superlative type of thing so we're looking at this offense

there were some ups and there are some downs but um given the ups who would be your MVP for the season who would be the main guy the top guy from the offensive side of the ball this season I mean it's if you want to go stats and accolades, then you probably got to go with Tyler Goodson, what he was able to do for the offense, whether it be with the I'm going to call it the wild hawk or the wildcat, whatever. You know, from that situation where he was able to catch the ball in the backfield, they lined up a receiver and he really was really was utilized. Well, I felt like and again, we talked about on a previous podcast. It wasn't that they were forcing him the ball it just naturally was like okay yeah we should probably give it to him here yeah um and then uh but as far as i got from i mean i don't know how you don't go with tyler linderbaum the way that you know he conducts the line and especially helping

spencer out with different um different protections and understanding where the buck is and who he's hot off of and things like that making sure that the whole offensive line knows because there was a lot of rotating parts on that offensive line and obviously Linderbaum was one of those that was stable and was able to get guys for the most part where they needed to be I mean there are times where you know Spencer's going to get hit that's football but in terms of being able to really show up every day and we know he shows up and goes to work and does what he does. So second team All-American, second team All-Big Ten, which is mind-boggling. Ridiculous.

Which I listened to that podcast where you were just reaming everybody on that. I was so pissed. It was a bad – dude, like there was a week where just I was really pissed off about everything that was happening in Iowa football. Right. But I'd say probably those two guys. If you want to go with stats and, you know, the skill guy, Tyler Goodson. But as far as conducting the offense, I'd go with Tyler.

I love it. I think you bring up a good point that we probably need to do maybe the top two because we're going to go defensive. And I would agree with you both on the Goodson and the Linderbaum stance. But defensively, I think it's going to be tough to not say Davia Nixon. So maybe we just give him the pass as you were clearly the defensive MVP. You were the spark plug of this team. Who would be your number two on the defensive side of the ball? I kind of felt like Jack Kerner made a

lot of really good plays. I mean, we talk a lot about Nick Neiman and how he's always around the football. So I think that's worthy as well. But as far as, I mean, Jack Kerner came up with a lot of big interceptions or he was flying down making tackles, you know, and, and it was, you know, catch and go down kind of thing. But I think both of those guys, I'm probably going to give the edge actually, as I'm talking about, I'm probably going to give the edge to Nick Neiman in that, but I thought that both guys played really well. Yeah.

The defense side of the ball is a little bit tougher to figure out who is number two, in my opinion, because I was trying to think about it as well. Because I only put down one person as well when I was running through my notes. But I think you could honestly go Chauncey Olsen. You can go Nick Neiman. You can go Jack Kerner. I think depending on how you look at playing time-wise, you can honestly go maybe a duo of Jack Campbell and Seth Benson in the middle.

So I'm going to opt out of predicting my number two and just say I think all those guys played really well sure let's go with that yeah uh easy easy way out there special teams this one's good I think could be a little difficult actually but who are your thoughts on special teams MVP so both uh well two of our special specialists that I think I mean obviously Tori Taylor was a semi-finalist I, for the Ray Guy Award as a freshman playing four games or whatever in his entire career. So I think it's it's good to give the edge to him. Charlie Jones, obviously a spark plug on on part return. I think Keith was automatic from inside of 50. So I think all of our all of our specialists really played well. So I'm going to encompass it. You took it easy way out. I'll do it on this one. Everybody I felt like well, I love it. Yeah, I mean mean i really can't disagree with that either because i

really i think it's um again i've never really paid so much attention to the the gunners and ever since you talked about it like i'm just so fascinated by terry roberts on every maybe that's how i give it to his terry roberts yeah the unsung hero here right it's you can't give it to one of the keith duncan or tori taylor or or charlie jones let's go to terry roberts let's go terry is Terry Roberts. Yeah, the unsung hero here, right? You can't give it to one of the Keith Duncan or Torrey Taylor or Charlie Jones. Let's go with Terry Roberts. Let's go Terry Roberts. I'm with you on that.

I love it. I do think real quick on the Keith Duncan note, I thought he kind of got screwed a little bit. I think kicker awards are a bit interesting because a lot of it is very stat-based. But even statistically speaking, a lot of his misses were from beyond, like 50 and beyond. And so when you factor those out, I was a little bit shocked.

He didn't at least get second team all big 10 and possibly looked at his first team all big 10. Connor Cope, I thought did well for Nebraska, but I thought that was a little bit interesting to see the reaction to Keith Duncan this year after missing a couple of 50 yard field goals. Yeah, I mean, as you said, kicker stuff is always different and it kind of comes down to statistics versus, uh, you know, really anything else, which, you know, we talk about stats, don't tell the full story. I mean, if it's post 50, we know that his leg is right around that range. Um, but yeah, I, I agree. I think he deserves a little bit more. All right. Let's quickly pause the conversation with Matt, because I do have a very important message for you. If you're anything like me, you're working out,

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They are picking college basketball, football, and NBA locks all winter long. Subscribe to the Locked On Bets podcast wherever you get your podcast app. Let's get back into that conversation with Matt Vandenberg, though, right now. Absolutely. So let's move on to the opt-outs because we're in an interesting situation. The only time I ever remember it being like this, where every senior has to actually declare for the NFL draft because we don't know if they're coming back or staying.

Obviously, most people are leaving. That was expected, especially given a lot of these guys are going to be redshirt seniors, ready to kind of move on to their next job, next stop of their football career. But we have a couple people staying as well. So Zach Van Valkenburg has decided to stay, which I think is a huge pickup for that defensive line.

I think we can maybe see Caleb Shudock stay as well. Finally getting a chance to actually kick field goals and not just kick the ball off. What are your thoughts on, on the situation we're going through and what are kind of the thoughts that maybe people are going through as a redshirt senior, you've kind of gone through this a little bit. Cause you got a medical redshirt, I believe after your redshirt senior season, correct?

No, I didn't redshirt. So my only redshirt was the medical redshirt. Oh, I thought you, okay. So yeah, so you get the medical redshirt, I believe after your redshirt senior season, correct? No, I didn't redshirt. So my only redshirt was the medical redshirt. Oh, I thought you, okay. So yeah, so you get the medical redshirt, but what were you, you know, you kind of been in a situation a little bit where you could, you had the opportunity to return if you wanted to. What are the thoughts going through their mind at this point? If you kind of take a step into what they're thinking of. So different positions call for different things.

Like Shunak isn't getting bumped around every single play. So his shelf life can be a lot longer if he goes on and, you know, does phenomenal next year. If he chooses to come back, does phenomenal next year and gets an opportunity in the NFL, you can play until you're 45. But as far as like every other position, the way I see it is, I mean, it's a very finite time you have to play football and it's a very finite time you have in different situations. So if you're, if you're a highly touted guy, you're taking a year off of

the opportunity to make money. You can always come back and get your degree. If you're going to be a highly touted guy, like a top three round guy, uh, I'd say, I say go and then come back and get your degree later because you can only play this game for so long. So that's kind of my feeling there. It's just tough on the body. I mean, it really is. And to act like it isn't, I mean, no, don't get wrong. These are phenomenal athletes and they try to take care of their body the best they can. But at the same time, I mean, receivers just don't play until they're 40 unless you're

Jerry Rice. Outside of that, I mean, the average NFL career, and we're talking spanning everything, is three years. The average thing is three years. And then you see all these guys like Peyton Manning played for a long time, Tom Brady's still playing. But the average, like those are way above it. So to think about that, you only have that much time. And that's carrying that average too. Absolutely. So that's kind of my thought is you only have so much time to play this game that if you have an opportunity to go and potentially make money, I think that that's the way you should go. Couldn't agree more, which brings us to an interesting thing. You said, if you can go top

three, you got to go. And Davian Nixon, I think everyone saw that coming a fantastic performance this year. He was undoubtedly going to leave, especially when you think about draft stock and the fact that as a defensive tackle, his draft stock really can't get much higher than it is I don't think you can get higher than top 15 especially again at a position like defensive tackle but Tyler Linderbaum decided to stay and what's interesting enough is that I actually didn't feel like that was um as cut and drive a decision to leave and obviously it clearly wasn't because he decided to stay, but it sounds like he's really good friends with Spencer Petras.

He really enjoys just being an Iowa Hawkeye, a guy who's a red shirt sophomore. So he still has technically, I guess, three years of eligibility if you don't count this year, undoubtedly going to be gone next year, but it seems like he feels like he has some unfulfilled business. What are your thoughts on Tyler Linderbaum staying and how big of a, an impact is that for an offensive line?

That's going to be losing in a Larrick Jackson and a Cole Bamwert. For Iowa. I think it's phenomenal. Not having to try and break in a new center with your only one year starter quarterback. So that obviously is a very good thing for, for Iowa for Tyler Linderbaum. I kind of just made my case. You only get so much time, but if now that's my thoughts. So everybody is different. So what he feels is best for Tyler Linderbaum is what he should do for Tyler Linderbaum. And you know, he and his family believe that that's coming back and be an Iowa Hawkeye, which Iowa fans are going to love that. And as far as, you know,

trying to keep the offensive line, we talked about rotating pieces. You talk about two guys already leaving. It'll be a real help to that offensive line to have a veteran there yeah i think it's a really good point to make as well as when people are leaving the team for whatever reason hawkeye fans should be supportive of that whether it's transferring whether it's medically retiring whether it's going to the nfl um being upset the player is never appropriate which is a whole nother topic but i think in general people should be very supportive of any decision that these athletes decide to make because ultimately it's in their best interest and whatever they feel like is best for them.

So couldn't agree more. As far as the NFL draft prep process looks like, you've been through this. We have a lot of guys here. They're going to be going through this. What are you doing now to get your body ready? a lot of guys here they're going to be going through this um what are you doing now to get your body ready so after well after a long grueling season this one was a little bit weird excuse me in that aspect um so they had eight eight consecutive games and then they've been you know game ready uh you know obviously getting ready for whatever it is so now they're going to

go back uh it depends on if they want to train with Iowa. Iowa does have, you know, they offer training to guys that are getting ready for pro day or getting ready for the combine. But then there are also a lot of different other things, depending upon if you, who you sign with as an agent, you can go out and I think Exos does something. I know George went down there. And there's a few different places that you can go to train versus training at Iowa. So it's really how you and your agent feel are going to get you the best prepared. But this is the part that I think, like, I'm not as big of a fan of. Like, I love testing because you get to see how athletic people are.

But testing doesn't equate to, like, let's talk about DK Metcalf. DK Metcalf had a very poor three-cone drill. And everybody was talking about it. Everybody was saying, oh, he can't cut, he can't do this. He's about to set records for Seattle in his second year, and this is a guy that runs more than just the deep ball. He's really good

at running the deep ball, but he does a lot of really good things. But his three-cone, and they're like, oh, whatever, and he fell into the second round because of it. And so, like, testing, now you look at Tristan Wirfsfs goes out there and does phenomenal in the combine phenomenal to the point where he didn't even have to do anything on pro day if he didn't want to yeah and you know and it showed his athleticism and now it's showing

on the field because he is able to do those things so i don't think everything always correlates and that's kind of annoying that you're more worried about how you drill versus how you play football. Yeah, it's tough. I think too often we buy so much into those metrics. When in all actuality, it should just be one piece of the process. It shouldn't just – I mean, I think A.J. Epinesa is a fantastic example of this where he runs a poor 40-yard dash. And people are like, where is he going to play?

Can he play defensive end? Like defensive ends are not running 40 yards at a straight line and if they are the play was already screwed already they shouldn't be doing that and also aj pinesa is not a speed rusher like there's so many things that i mean aj pinesa is a power guy he's a very strong guy and he uses his hands well he doesn't need to be able to run a 40 yard dash at four or or five seconds. He's not Chase Young. So I completely agree with that. I think that makes it very interesting. Moving over to some other fantastic news.

Obviously, I'm wishing the best for all these players that are going to be ultimately training. I did always think it was interesting to know who would stay at Iowa versus who doesn't. It sounds like it's really up to kind of the agent and what they ultimately decide and if they have a connection elsewhere. I know Michael Ogimudia last year

was working out down in Florida as well. Looks looks like emir sith marcette might also be in florida this year um just based off his instagram stories is my assumption um kirk though let's get into some good news kirk is back all right is the last pause of this talk with matt i hope you all are enjoying it as i have been. But, as you know, there are so many sports going on. We have the College Bowl Playoff Championship game going on between Alabama and Ohio State. We have college basketball every single day. We got the NHL starting up. NBA is back in full force.

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Clark to win Big Ten Player of the Year, let me know. We'll get some custom lines in there for you Iowa Hawkeye fans as well. So make sure to tweet that at me as well. And we'll get those Bet bet online odds on your way. Bet online.ag, your online sports book experts. Wednesdays on Locked On NFL. Take a dive into the future of your favorite NFL franchises. Tony Wiggins and James Rapian are joined every week by a Locked On draft expert to talk prospects

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our Wednesday morning recap with Matt of the 2020 college football season right now. I don't think, I think it's tough people. I mean, I didn't think he was going to be leaving. I, and I know Kirk is probably not, and you know him way better, obviously actually playing for him and whatnot, but I feel like Kirk is not the guy who's going to tell people he's leaving in the middle of a season, right? He doesn't want any attention to be about him. He wants it to be about the team. And he'll do it in the most Kirk way, which will be a press conference,

be like, oh, I'm gone, by the way, retired, FYI, or something like that, I feel like. But anyways, he did give a good comment saying he's only, you know, he's probably going to be back for the next five years almost. Like, he's not ready to retire. He doesn't know what he wants to do. What are your thoughts on that? When do you think Kirk's actually going to leave?

I mean, at some point he's got to got to step away, right? Well, I got two things. One, I was mad when he said that because the reason I'm mad, everybody else had like these cool graphics and it was like, Hey, I'm leaving or Hey, I'm staying. Why didn't KF come out with one that he had where he's like coaching on the sideline, like in a nice pose. And then it's like, I'm coming back. You're like, you know, something like that. But so that,

that was the only thing I will football to post something like that, you know, KF's back. But no, so obviously I love the fact that he's coming back. He's done so much for the program and continues to do a lot for the program, especially with the tumultuous off season that we had and still able to kind of push forward through that and not kind of, but push forward we had and still able to kind of push forward through that. Not kind of, but push forward through that and be able to make what seems to be a better situation, especially with no spring and no summer

and to have a first-year quarterback and to go six and, you know, rattle off the last six with an opportunity to win eight games in a 10-game season is pretty good. Yep. But I remember during – they asked him something during quarantine and, or when they were off, you know, and he was spending more time with Mary and he was like, yeah, I think I'm ready to come back. I'm not ready for retirement yet. So I know he loves Mary, but I know he loves football a little as well.

Yeah. It's a quarantine makes people realize sometimes heart or distance does make the heart grow fonder. Sometimes you need people to be gone a little bit to be able to appreciate them when they're around. I think my wife feels that way about me because I haven't traveled for work in about a year. But nevertheless, I digress there. Every single episode of the show that we've done together, we always talk about Spencer Petras and he's the quarterback. He's the face of this offense. It's just it's natural. And then obviously the struggles we talked about

after Wisconsin, I felt like he made a lot of really great improvements and gave me some excitement going into this off season. However, we do have an off season. Hopefully it sounds like we're going to have an off season or at least a more legitimate off season than we did last time. That also gives the opportunity for a guy

like Alex Padilla to step up. It gives an opportunity for Deuce Hogan to step up Joey LaBosse. I mean, I think what I'm getting at this is there's always a chance. Someone could take someone's job, right? If someone outperforms someone, they're going to have the opportunity. And I don't think Spencer Petras closed the door going into 2021. I don't think he cemented himself like Nate Stanley did in my opinion of saying,

I am the guy next year, at least to the media. So with that being said, what are your thoughts heading into the 2021 or 2021 season with Spencer Petras? And what do you feel like is your idea of what's going to happen next year with him or the quarterback position? Well, that's one of the best things about football. And that's one of the best things about Iowa.'s one of the best things about iowa i don't um i'll kind of share a little bit of my story um but one of the best parts is that you fight every day for your opportunity to be on the field now wide receiver is different because there's um you know i mean there's a what three four well we saw even 10 personnel so four receivers on the field at a time so it's obviously different from quarterback where you have one and that guy stays on the field all of the time. So, I mean, like it's a little bit different there. But so I was a gray shirt and,

and I wasn't supposed to start until the spring after 2013. So the spring of 14 is when I was supposed to get there. But about four days before camp started, a receiver left the team and KF called me. It was like, Hey, we need you for camp. You know, like you start in four days. I was like, okay. Uh, so I get the call, get all my bags packed, get down there. And I, when I went down there, I didn't have any of the summer training that anybody else had. I didn't have anything. Um, so I knew nothing. I was supposed to be a DB, whatever. So when I showed up,

I was number 14 out of 14 wide receivers. Um, and then by, I mean, like I was last to be a DB whatever so when I showed up I was number 14 out of 14 wide receivers um and then by I mean like I was last in every drill I was trying to get you know obviously ahead and whatever but they knew everybody already nobody knew me in terms of like uh you know it was a new receivers coach new offensive coordinator that kind of stuff uh from when I've been getting recruited so um thankfully I started to play a little bit better started doing better in practice or whatever and found myself playing on the second week after being 14 out of 14 i rose up to about six or seven yeah on the depth chart and that was with you know good seniors on the team talk about cabante and 14 and and uh you know tavon and blake koleska those guys were playing um don shumpert as well who's actually with the Cardinals now but like a lot of different opportunities there um and so just showing up to work every day and knowing that you have an opportunity to work with the guys around you but that also creates a competitive environment

if I'm trying to make you better well if I'm trying to make myself better so I can beat you you're going to try and make yourself better so you can beat me and then in turn that competition continues to make both people better and I think we saw that with Wiggers and Stanley during camp as well and with Rudak and CJ and, like, that kind of stuff where you're pushing each other, like, okay, I got to make this throw because if he makes that throw, then I need to make a better throw. Well, I made a better throw. Now he's going to make a better – like, that's just how competition works.

And I think that's such a great thing when it comes to football, especially at Iowa. That was the most amazing non-answer answer you could have given. I absolutely love it because you didn't say anything about Spencer at all, which I really, I appreciate. That was exactly what I was looking for. Real quick, two things with that. I know you got to get going, but I guess I didn't realize the gray shirt piece. I know we've talked before.

I just don't remember you saying that maybe I didn't ask her. Maybe I'm just not remembering, but you and Kevin Casper have like the exact same story then of uh oh hey you know you're gonna walk onto this team or you're gonna you know your preferred walk on you know that kind of thing or you know the gray shirt status and then a couple days before camp get called down and you're going there and then you got to work your butt off and you're gonna get into that rotation so I didn't even realize that you two have that in common obviously you know Kevin Kevin's my favorite player growing up and whatnot.

I think that's really cool. Grayshirt, just a quick thing there. Grayshirt actually is a full scholarship. It just doesn't start until spring. Okay. So I was planning on taking like a few online courses or whatever that first semester just around South Dakota and then just transferring it into Iowa at spring. But I've changed that.

Yeah. Is the purpose of that because of scholarships then like they want you there, they're going to give you a scholarship. You just got to pay your way for one semester. Yeah. It's more or less like how many scholarships have already given out. So if they've already met there, I don't want to say quota. Cause I hate that word, but like, if they've met their amount of scholarships they can have for that summer or

for that fall, then when those seniors graduate and there's semester and there's scholarships available then that's when that then that's basically what i would take over that makes sense yeah because i think like adam robinson was a gray shirt as well and playing like tommy domitello was as well okay yeah so i mean like definitely a riley moss was a gray shirt i wasn't expected to really i don't think he was expected. Yeah. Anyways, I go on for, we can figure out that later, but cool. So, yeah, I mean, that makes sense about the Spencer Petras.

I have some interesting stats. I'm going to bring it up on another show, just talking about him in comparison to some of the other quarterbacks and the fact that Iowa has had a history of switching quarterbacks between off seasons. We've seen it happen with Nathan Chandler going to Drew Tate. We saw it happen with Jake Christensen going to Ricky Sanzy and then you experienced the most recent one Jake Rudolph to CJ Beathard which was less out of season kind of we saw the writing on the wall throughout that last season with Jake Rudolph but nevertheless going to be a very fun off season

real quick before we let you go kind of you got to get going what is your prediction for next year's football team that's in terms of like a record yeah if you can go wins losses yeah Iowa will be good we're good yeah I mean I think Iowa will be good they'll be over 500 I mean that's obvious I mean I can make that prediction all day I don't know what the schedule is going to look like um I think it'll be a very big off season for guys like laporta guys like tracy guys like reganey guys like goodson like those guys i mean they're goodson obviously you know we talked about him as the offensive mvp he you know take it up a notch

now you become a breeze hall of this team you know and as well as like the other guys like they've played but they haven't made the impact maybe that they could potentially make. Yeah. They haven't been the guy yet. Right. And there hasn't been that, you know, that workhorse. And really that since Brian's taken over, I've seen that they really divvy up the ball. Well, I know like when I was there, you know, the offense kind of catered toward a few different people in the progression versus really trying to spread around.

I know Coach O'Keefe, like Marvin, had like 70 catches. Kavante was up there in catches. Myself, I was up there in catches. Easley was up there in catches. Like that kind of stuff happens. So it'll be interesting to see if one guy steps forward and he goes, no, no, no, I'm the guy. Like on third and four, I'm getting you five. if one guy steps forward and he goes, no, no, no, I'm the guy.

Like on third and four, I'm getting you five. And that's kind of the big step that they have to take, at least offensively, I think, to get a guy where they feel comfortable. I know he's going to win. I'm going to get in the ball. Yeah, I mean, I felt like that was the way with TJ Hawkinson, right? Like he just – he made it known that, I mean, he was getting the ball in crunch time. If you wanted a big catch, you went to TJ every single time. Same thing, you got the ball.

Or Nick would get the ball when he was the guy was the guy there I mean that's what we've seen it was weird that Amir Smith-Marset and Brandon Smith didn't seemingly either of them were neither neither of those guys like we're gonna get them the ball Brian was still down to spread it out across and again I mean there was big times where Amir stepped up hugely there's times where Brandon stepped up big time but he also was willing to give it to Tracy or Nico or any of those guys. Yeah. We'll be interested to see that. Matt, I took up a little bit of your time. I know it's Sunday morning. Any last thoughts before we hop off the show today?

I think it's, I think it's going to be an exciting off season. The fact that we have hopefully have an off season. I think that that's going to be huge for this Iowa Hawkeye team. And, and it, it got a lot more exciting as the year went on. I'm not saying it wasn't exciting at the beginning because it's still exciting. But the fact that now they've had eight games, Spencer's had game reps now. I think that'll help him go into the offseason. But like we talked about, I mean, now he knows it.

I mean, every player's on the chopping block. Every player. I don't care who you are. Tyler Venderbom has to be better than the next best center. He has to continue to do that day in and day out. And so I think that this is going to be a really exciting thing for Spencer to really show us what he can do, especially given the opportunity to get more reps and understand the offense maybe a little bit better than he had before. Absolutely. It's going to be a lot of fun going into next season.

Definitely Hawkeye fans everywhere are very excited for next season of football, getting an opportunity to play a full season, getting an opportunity to take on some big tech. We're taking on Indiana the first week of the season in Iowa state. So I was going to be, I was going to be ready, need to be ready to go immediately out of the gate. It's going to be a lot like this past year where there was no warmup games with a ball state or a Kent State or whatever.

So it's going to be a lot of fun. Matt, I really enjoyed having you on the show. Have a fantastic day, and we'll talk to you later, man. Thanks, Andrew. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me. All right, and that concludes our show today with Matt. Again, a big shout-out to him.

He's joined us so many times throughout the season to give us all this great insight on the Iowa Hawkeye football team. And make sure to follow him in the community doing some really great stuff. Obviously at Urban Acres as a real estate agent, make sure to check Matt out, check out his wife, what she's doing for all the Iowa Hawkeye athletic community, hosting pregame shows and all that really great stuff. And make sure to follow them both on Twitter and Instagram. Matt is a fantastic person. And definitely if you are in the Iowa community, the Iowa city community, make sure to go to him. If you need anything from a real estate perspective, if you couldn't tell the guy is just a really great guy. We've had him on the show a lot and really appreciated his time. I'm joining the show again.

If you love the show, if you love all of our episodes, if you haven't done this already, please make sure to give us that five-star review and subscribe wherever you download this podcast at, and make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Hawkeye nation.

I appreciate your love and support as we head into the year 2021. Have a fantastic Wednesday and let's go Hawks.