Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Pt 2 - Former Iowa QB Drew Tate joins the show to share a few funny stories about playing for the Hawks, his transition to B1G football, and why he asked Kirk to do RPOs

Episode Date: May 23, 2019

We are back with part two of our two episode series with Drew Tate. On today's episode we talk a lot about quarterbacking at the University of Iowa and what the transition was like from high school to college football and just how stupidly big Robert Gallery looked. Drew also shares a few funny stories about his Hawkeyes career on today's episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are listening to the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering the Iowa Hawkeyes for the Locked On Sports Network, hosted by Andrew Andrew Wade. Editor at DearOldGold.com It is Thursday morning on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast and I hope wherever you are, your weather doesn't suck as much as it does in Denver, Colorado today. I am your host Andrew Wade, editor over at

DearOldGold.com and just a quick reminder that today's show is brought to you in part by Hotels.com. Do not have a love-hate relationship with your friend's trip that you see on Facebook and Instagram. Book your own with Hotels.com and get rewarded basically everywhere. Hotels.com. Be there.

Do that. Get rewarded. All right, on today's episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast, we are giving you part two of our interview with Drew Tate. Yesterday, we had part one where we talked a lot about football, the transition from college football to the CFL, talking to him about getting injured and what that meant during his senior year and kind of how that impacted his performance.

On today's show, it's a little bit more lighthearted. We're talking about some of the funny stories that he has from his Iowa Hawkeye playing career. We do talk about the run-pass-option type of plays that he wishes Iowa his Iowa Hawkeye playing career. We do talk about the run-pass option type of plays that he wishes Iowa would have implemented. We talk about Iowa and how that whole team is just built to be a team and not individual players. The difference between pro and college football. And again, how big Robert Gallery was when Drew Tate first met him.

So some funny stories we have on today's show and also just some funny memories about the Iowa Hawkeyes and Drew Tate's experience with that. As a quick housekeeping item, make sure to tune into our other episodes that we've aired in the past. We've had some great interviews on, including Matt Tybee, Nicholas Bayer, two recruits, Deuce Hogan and Elijah Yelverton, Marcus Fizer, and Nick McGlynn, who showed up on Tuesday's episode. We have some other interviews coming up as well with Ricky Stanzi, with Reed Timmer and Josh Young, both of Drake. So lots of fun stuff coming up on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.

Make sure to also go follow the Iowa United on thetournament.com. Help them get into the basketball tournament. If you do that, you can actually win money when they win the tournament. And finally, on social media, if you are on Twitter or Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Facebook, follow us on Twitter at LockedOnIowa. Follow us on Facebook at LockedOnHawkeyes. And make sure to like, subscribe, and review this podcast wherever you downloaded this at.

You can get this podcast on the brand new podcasting app, Himalaya, as well as Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. And when you get in your car each morning, you can actually just tell your smart device to play the podcast Locked on Hawkeyes and you'll get the most recent episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. And then finally, we do have our 100th episode

coming up very quickly. We have a great giveaway, a Kevonte Martin Manley autographed picture that we're gonna be giving away to anyone who goes and retweets our pinned tweet on our Twitter profile at Locked on Iowa. So that being said, let's jump right into our interview with Drew Tate, where we pick up right where we left off from yesterday's episode,

talking about the impact that not having a running game in Iowa Hawkeye football was on Drew Tate, putting that pressure on him to go out there and make even more plays. So we're going to tune into that right now. And that put pressure on me, on myself. I'm like, look, I've got to make plays. No one else is going to tune into that right now and that I put pressure on me like on myself I'm like look I've got to make plays no one else is going to make plays right and so that that was you know probably a bad way to look at it or think about it how I felt because like you said I mean we weren't explosive in the run game so how else are you going to be explosive well in the past game well you know and sometimes that would lead to you know trying to force throws in and stuff

like that which was just you know it was just bad football, bad quarterback play. Definitely. And real quick, so I'm kind of interested about this because in your college career, you rushed for, I want to say, let me see, I'm checking right now. You rushed for three touchdowns. All right. And in the one year, you actually had negative amount of rushing yards. I mean, obviously some of that is sacks and whatnot.

But in the CFL, you had 24 rushing touchdowns. How did that all play out how did that all all of a sudden you transitioned to uh kind of a Tim Tebow-esque quarterback in in the CFL based off stats obviously I can't say I watched a lot of your games but but it was like like I could always like I was always more quicker I wasn't always overly fast but I was just kind of quick, you know. But it was scheme. I mean, they were able to scheme up things from, you know, from my abilities as a ball carrier, as a quarterback that could either run or throw, right?

We just didn't do that at Iowa. Like I said, like, you know, I mean, there's plenty of times where I thought, man, I'm playing in the wrong offense, or I thought now, man, I played in the wrong, I picked the wrong offense. But I really didn't. Like, I played in a great offense. I was able to play in a run-heavy, run-oriented offense

and play at a high level in that offense. Coming from the spread, played at a high level there. And then coming up to Canada in a pro offense, played at a high level there. So it was able to mold me and make me a better player, all-around better player, and then subsequently make me a better coach, being able to be in these schemes. Now I've learned, you know, okay, what can my players do? Okay, well, I want to give my players, I've got to scheme up stuff

to give my best players their best opportunity, you know what I mean? Not that we didn't scheme up stuff at Iowa, but, I mean, Iowa's Iowa. I mean, this is just what they do, and, you know, they're going to run the ball play, they're going to run the stretch, you know, like that's what they're going to run power. You And, you know, they're going to run the ball play. They're going to run the stretch. You know, they're, you know, like that's what they're going to run power. You know, that's what they're going to do. And they're going to do it against anyone. And it's just, you know, when you get to pro football, you got to be, you got to do,

you just can't do the same thing over and over in pro football. It's pro football. And, you know, it's just a little different. Right. And so you have to come up with schemes a little differently. You have to use every one that you have the best way that you can. But yeah, that's the thing. I remember I went in one time to talk to Coach Ferentz,

and I was like, Coach, I want to be involved in the run game. I just wanted to do the zone read. That's all I wanted to do. I did it in high school. We did a lot of the stuff, like the down pitch and the triple option out of split back gun. We did a lot of stuff like like a lot of the stuff like the down pitch and the and the triple option out of split back gun you know we did a lot of stuff like that uh i really liked it and that was that was me because i'm i was more of a point guard playing quarterback than an actual quarterback playing quarterback like yeah i was an ability to dish it out and then do a lot of things you know

in between the tackles too from a running standpoint but i went in there and talked to coach parents i was like coach i want to be involved in the run game because i think if i can at least hold that backside end with a threat you know i mean man then you know could open up the cut back if i give or something like that and man he goes you know just being the way he is being like just shut the fuck up and just go hand up oh you know he's like you know we look at we look at you know we did we did a statistical thing last year on drew stanton at michigan state and you know when they were running him and doing a lot of things you know he was getting banged up and they were getting

beat and he goes you know we don't want you getting hit and uh that's just the way it is and you know if you don't get hit then you know you'll stay more healthy and and see i was always like but man coach like i feel more vulnerable throwing in the pocket than i do running because at least i can protect myself or get down as a runner you know a little bit more control like man come and hit me guys like like i said again being young and all that stuff like it was just that that was how i felt but you know again i was i will i'll tell you what, though, like, I think what Brian has done and brought his little style of barbecue to the table of the offense, I think, man, I love watching them.

And not that I didn't before. I really enjoyed watching when Coach Greg Davis was there. I thought they did a lot of good things with their backs in the past game. And watching Brian, man, it's really cool. I really like what they do. They really do a good job. Everyone kind of compliments each other. And Stanley, every time I watch Stanley, he just gets a little better every time.

And I think he's got an opportunity to do good things this year. They've got to stay healthy and just hope the best for them. Yeah, actually, I'm glad you brought up the Bryan Farrington because I was thinking as you were talking about that, Iowa in the last probably two or three years has actually, I mean, because historically you're right. I mean, I feel like they're like, we're going to do this one thing and we're going to do it and we're not changing.

And it doesn't matter who we have. We're going to keep doing it. And I think lately they've been starting to adapt. I mean, hell, they're experimenting with a 3-4 right now. Iowa is playing a 4-2-5 defense as one of their base packages that is unheard of for them so um you know they're kind of experimenting with some new things now which i think is i i think kirk is starting to realize that there's some you know advantages to adapting every once in a while and you kind of need to adapt and you know this day and age especially with the big 10

you know there's only a few teams now that really play power football you got wisconsin you got michigan but outside of that i mean the other teams are really converting to that spread attack And there's only a few teams now that really play power football. You've got Wisconsin. You've got Michigan. But outside of that, I mean, the other teams are really converting to that spread attack, which forces Iowa to spread out a little bit more on defense, which they kind of have to do. So I thought that was really interesting. And the other piece, you talked about Nate Stanley. I'm curious for you, from your perspective, if you had to kind of rank, and you don't have to do this if you don't want to, but kind of the context behind this is I'm actually writing a piece um for daryl gold about the top

quarterbacks in iowa history kind of ranking them out where do you think you would kind of place yourself in that and where do you think stanley would ultimately fall in that you know if he puts together a even better season i mean he he's right on the cusp i feel like he has the skills he has the ability but just needs to put it all together for 12, 13 games. I want to get your thoughts on where you rank in that and where Stanley does. I really don't know where I rank. I really don't care. I don't know where Stanley ranks.

I don't care. I don't even think we can really talk about him. He still has another year to play. He could win the Heisman or he could just piss down his leg. I don't want to sit here and talk about, you know, predict any of that. And then again, like, man, like, look, it's really hard to rank quarterbacks, I think, because, you know, quarterback, it's all about the team. And especially at Iowa, like, it's all about the team. Like, it's all about the team.

And, you know, there's really not one position at Iowa that really – that the program kind of puts its shoulders on other than, I would say, the line of scrimmage play, the defensive line and offensive line. I'd say, you know, that's really kind of their thing. So, like, you know, and that's the way they're built, offensively and defensively, I'm assuming. So, you know, it would be hard to be like, you know, you know, I mean, I'd want to say Jovan Johnson's probably one of the best cornerbacks to ever play at the University of Iowa. You know, he also benefited from playing on some of the best defenses and having some

of the best defensive lines to get pressure on the quarterback to get the ball out. You know, so, I mean, you know, say you put him on a different defense, you know, with not as good as guys up front that aren't putting pressure on the quarterback. You know, how many picks does he get now? You know what I mean? Yeah. Just stuff like that. You know, it's really – I can't say, you know, who was better here,

who was better there. You know, I mean, you know, I thought Stanze had a great career. I thought Vandenberg was good. You know, he had a really good couple years there. I think Stanley's had a great career. I thought Vandenberg was good. He had a really good couple years there. I think Stanley's doing a great job. Rudolph was really doing good. Matt and CJ had a great career. These guys, they do a good job.

It's just really hard to say because I really can't tell you that there was a quarterback that just stepped on campus that really put the team in that bowl game and then that bowl game and that bowl game you know what i mean that makes sense yeah yeah or or any really one position i mean it's just or one particular guy i mean like every year there's multiple guys that you know that that have great years and that help the program help the team it's the beauty of Iowa football, man. I mean, it's truly a team game. You're exactly right. That's what makes it special.

A lot of people don't really understand that, but it's a neat little deal. Absolutely. So real quick, I want to give you a quick time check. We are at 30 minutes. I have probably about three or four more questions left. Are you good on time or do you need to drop off? Yep. No, I'm doing laundry, so we're all good.

Perfect, man. Yeah, I love it, man. I just got back. I need to do some laundry today as well. So I'll be doing that after this. So a couple, couple things. I don't want to touch on this too much, but what would you say would you prefer as far as your career? So you had the Outback Bowl victory, obviously won that in a pretty exciting fashion. you also won a gray cup which one was more important or exciting to you i think i know the answer is but want to get your thoughts on it oh yeah no the the college games way more um pro football is just totally different man it's uh you know and i hate to say this but i mean like, I feel like I wouldn't be doing my due diligence, like, as a professional football player. You know, with all due respect, you know, it is about the team.

But, man, I feel like it kind of turns you selfish in a way because it's all about money. I mean, you can't tell me that any one of these guys would go out there and play professional football for free so to me it's like all right that's a that's a no-brainer okay so let's put that at the top it's all about the money and then let's start filling in the bottoms you know when people say it's this and this and this look it really is but with all due respect if they ain't gonna pay you are you gonna show up hell no yeah i just you know that's just how i feel about it's pro football it's just yeah it's just different it's just it. It's pro football. It's just different. It's a different game.

Everything you've learned as a player, you know, growing up, you could literally just kind of, not everything, but the majority you can really put in a little bag and throw the bag away because that doesn't matter anymore because it's all results-based. You know what I mean? You could be the best guy in the world, nicest guy, but you ain't going to make a team because you're not good. You could be the biggest piece of shit in the world,

but you're a great player, you're going to play. Makes sense. Where's the line drawn, right? So that's why I say, man, let's just put the money at the top and then we'll fill in the blanks underneath it. And then college, right? I mean, you get recruited. I wanted to be a Division I quarterback at a major college

more than I wanted to get paid to play football. And I ultimately wanted to get paid to play football and I ultimately wanted to get paid to play football but I really wanted to go to like an Iowa you know I committed to A&M and stuff like that so I really wanted to go to a place like that and what I loved about most about Iowa man is just the Hawks like it's just such a cool thing in the state and love the colors love the logo love the stadium like i said the town it was an easy sell for me i think when i came on my visit and saw you know just the town and and like stayed in the downtown there at the sheraton i was just like man this is it just doesn't get any better than this yeah i mean i i think iowa hawkeye fans are a huge deal i mean people they live and breathe iowa hawkeye football it's kind of like I feel like what Texas would be like

in terms of the different towns and whatnot. You know, they live and breathe that high school football. So I don't disagree with you at all. Actually, it's funny that you talk about kind of the selling points of Iowa because I actually talked to Deuce Hogan. I don't know if you are familiar with Deuce at all. Name sounds familiar. Yeah, so he's currently a four-star quarterback down in Texas.

He has committed to the Hawks in the class of 2020. So I actually had a nice little conversation with him, but same thing. He basically said it was a no-brainer for me to commit to Iowa. Why wouldn't I want to go there? The tradition, the Hawks themselves, Kirk Ferentz, all these things. The fans are fantastic. Why would I not want to play Iowa Hawkeye football? So pretty exciting stuff.

If you get an opportunity, make sure to check out some of his tape. I'm pretty excited to see what he can do when he gets on campus, but he kind of has that charisma and character, I think, that goes really well and fits pretty well with the Iowa Hawkeye football program. Absolutely. Well, that's good, yeah. Yeah. Quick, so out of all the players you play with out of Iowa,

are there any favorite players, any guys that you love to play with that you would you know kind of die on a hill for? I Really I mean I got the linemen, and Lee Gray, all those guys up front, Marshall Yonda, of course those guys. But man, there was – see, I always – my biological father played football at North Alabama. So he was a DN, and my brother, who's five years older than me, he played linebacker. So I had more of a defensive-minded kind of attitude and varado, I guess. So I really always wanted to play defense.

I could just throw footballs pretty good, basically. So that's how I ended up playing quarterback. But, man, like, yeah. I remember when I got on campus my freshman year, my very first shower in the locker room was right next to Robert Gallery. i was showering right next to robert gallery i was like dude what the fuck is going on with these people people this big before and i was like jesus like i mean it was like i had never seen anyone i was like dude like like shouldn't you be like professional wrestler or something like football like you know and then i saw bob sanders and i was like she i saw bob sanders and fred russell in the locker room and i was like dude i'm never going

to play here i was only about 165 maybe 170 pounds like as a freshman like and i saw these guys and then i saw mo brown um and i'm like this is a receiver like he I thought he was a d-end at least a linebacker you know they're like no that's a receiver and I was like whoa just blown away of the size of these guys and like I said like I really didn't think I was gonna play or I didn't think I was gonna make it like I thought like man I'm killed out there so but I I found out really quickly. I bought into Coach Doyle and really the weight room and the self. And, man, I ended up, like, by the time I was done,

I had, like, the power clean record for the quarterbacks. That was my best lift. And that was about it. Squat and bench wasn't that. I mean, it was all right. But my clean, like, because I was an explosive guy and I could get under the weight pretty quick. That was, I think it was, like, 330 pounds, I think, was my record. Yeah i could get under the weight pretty quick that was i think it was like 330 pounds i think was my record yeah so i could you know that was

my thing and so i felt pretty good about that but yeah i bet like i said like yeah you know grant steen and then when i saw those guys i was just like god these dudes are just monsters and then if they weren't big like that you know greenway gallery then you know like i said they were fred russell or or bob sanders and like but just very very thick thick men you know what i mean like just you know and i'm just like just long and skinny kind of you know but only like 60 foot right so it was that was that was cool though it was that that was like that was like that was like my first like, like, wow, okay. I got to get my body right because this is crazy.

These guys are nuts. So I was pretty much laughing that entire time. That's pretty funny. I just looked up Robert Gallery, 6'7", 325 pounds. I can only imagine standing next to him and being like, I'm going to die. But at the same time great i'm glad he's blocking for me and then yeah you know and i'd always heard you know oh man you know corn fed you know it's a thing oh man it is a thing like i was like god oh man i mean they

these are monsters these guys are just monsters yeah Yeah, Bob Sanders, 5'8", 206 pounds. I mean, that's a lot of weight on a tiny little frame. And there's a reason why he could pretty much destroy anyone going over the middle. I thought that was hilarious. So real quick, you talked about Matt Roth. I've heard that he is a crazy son of a bitch. Any thoughts on that? You want to maybe clear up some thoughts

on him or give me a good story you don't have to but well man so i guess you know he and his brother pretty big dudes and you know they like to get after it was brother came to campus you know one weekend or whatever and i guess they were out or something like that and you know they ended up getting into a fight and i guess they, they literally beat up everyone that was around them. Like, even people that they weren't fighting them, they were just standing there. They got beat up, too. And then they just started fighting each other. And I was like, dude, y'all, this, I'm going.

Y'all are not. No, I got you. Freaking insane. Yep. Yep. That's about as good as I could have hoped for. Alright, man. So I have just five quick get-to-know-you questions,

then we'll wrap this thing up. I don't know if you're a big Avengers fan, are you? No, not really. I won't ask you the favorite superhero question, but favorite memory at Iowa? Graduating. I love it, man. What did you graduate with what was your degree underwater basket weaving all right um favorite place to be called uh baldies

and it was and it was right across from the capitol building i don't know what it's called now i think it's called shorts now or something oh yeah yeah at the time it was baldies and man now i can't remember the guy's name who owned it but it was a it was a wrap and instead of a instead of bread you know burgers or burgers or sandwiches, they were wraps. And, man, I'd go there as much as I could. I think I spent all my money there all the time. That was my favorite place to eat, and my favorite place to drink was the Sports Column. I love New York.

Sports Column's the best. They have one in Denver. We always go there for Iowa games, and it's a great time. It makes you feel like you're at home. When you watch Iowa football games, literally the entire bar is completely packed in iowa fans it's kind of the the haven in denver as well yeah that's right awesome man what is your favorite non-football activity right now yeah um man partaking in british columbia so we have like you know right I mean there's it's snow-capped mountains and then the beaches like right next to each other so you know you can only imagine that

right yeah I mean it's the prettiest place I've ever lived and and you know just a just a lot of pretty people and really anytime I have free time because now I'm coaching man and now that we're about to get going like I don't have any free time but anytime I can free time, because now I'm coaching, man, and now that we're about to get going, like, I don't have any free time. But anytime I can go into the ocean or the lakes and the trees and the mountains, man, that's pretty dope. Yeah, man. How far away are you from Banff? A couple hours?

Well, no, Banff was in Alberta. That was outside of Calgary. Okay. What was that? That was about an hour, I think, from Banff. But now we have Whistler. I think Whistler is like an hour and a half. So Whistler is just north, just going into the mountains.

Makes sense. Yeah, I'm not super great on the Canadian geography. I think that's my American ignorance. So my apologies on that. Good, yeah. But no, we don't ever get taught anything about Canada. We really don't. Like, literally nothing.

Yeah, and the kids here, they get taught everything about the states. You know, so, like, it's just crazy. Like, just like that. And then, to be honest with you, when I grew up, I mean, I learned about the states, but it was mostly, like, Texas and Texas history. Like, we had to take Texas history in junior high, elementary, high school, I think, and stuff. Texas loves themselves some Texas, man. One of my best friends taught in Austin, and she said the same thing. They literally don't focus as much on the United States history as they do just Texas.

Yeah, it's an interesting dynamic down there, for sure. Yeah, I love it, man. Well, hey, Drew, I appreciate you jumping on the call today. I think the fans are obviously going to love this interview. I've enjoyed my time talking to you. Thank you so much, and good luck with your CFL season. 21 games, right? We got 18 regular season, we got two preseason, and then playoffs.

All right, perfect. Well, good luck with that. Hopefully you guys do well. I'll keep tracking you and whatnot. Any last words, though, for the show? Go Hawks. I love it, man. Well, thank you, Drew.

Have a great day, buddy. Thank you. Take care. You too. All right, and that concludes our two-part series with Drew Tate. Again, a big shout-out to him. I know he's busy getting prepared for the CFL season, but he took time out of his day to talk to me for an hour,

and that meant the world to me. Obviously, one of my favorite players growing up from the Iowa Hawkeyes. Really enjoyed having him on the show, and I hope you all enjoyed that as well. If you did enjoy that, we do have some other great episodes coming up on the podcast, and make sure to get all those podcasts downloaded directly to your phone, and you can do that by just subscribing to this show, wherever you downloaded this podcast at, whether that is the new Himalaya podcast app, Apple podcast, Google podcast, or Spotify. It's that easy.

Just go like, subscribe and review. That'll also help other Iowa Hawkeye fans find this fantastic podcast of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Also go find us on Twitter at Locked on Iowa. Follow us on Facebook at Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Also, go find us on Twitter at Locked on Iowa. Follow us on Facebook at Locked on Hawkeyes. That's where we're going to give you, you know, kind of information about when to expect certain shows, what special guests we have going on. And if we are doing any giveaways like our 100th episode giveaway, you'll find all that

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Book your own with hotels.com and get rewarded basically everywhere. Hotels.com. Be there. Do that. Get rewarded. All right. Thank you again, Hawkeye Nation. Have a great Thursday, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Go Hawks! We'll see you next time. you