Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Pt 2 - Former Iowa WR Matt VandeBerg joins the show to talk the Oliver Martin story, the XFL, and Kirk Ferentz

Episode Date: July 1, 2019

We are back with part two of our conversation with former Iowa Hawkeye wide receiver Matt VandeBerg. We discuss Oliver Martin, the XFL, Kirk Ferentz, and Matt's pup Touchdown!Also be on the lookout for Matt's wife Laura VandeBerg's new Hawkeye clothing line coming soon! 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 Wade, editor at dearoldgold.com. Welcome to a Monday morning edition of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. I appreciate you all tuning in. I am the host of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. My name is Andrew Wade, and I'm currently an editor over at dearoldgold.com, and I've been with you for now about 108 episodes, so if you haven't gotten familiar with this introduction, I try changing it up a little bit on you. Again, I appreciate you tuning in on the show today. Today's episode

is brought to you in part by Hotels.com. Don't hate like your friend strip. Book your own with Hotels.com and get rewarded basically everywhere. Hotels.com. Be there. Do that. Get rewarded. All right. And if you listened to Thursday's episode, you know we talked to Matt Vandenberg, the former Iowa Hawkeye wide receiver. Today's episode is a continuation of that. This is part two of our interview with Matt Vandenberg. We're going to start right in the middle of our interview. We cut it off about partway through. That way we're not giving you too much content at once.

Try to keep it around the 20 to 25-minute range if possible. So today's interview will be 20 minutes of talking to Matt Vandenberg. We have some great content that we covered with him, including the Oliver Martin saga, kind of talking through that whole ordeal that happened on Twitter. We're talking a little bit about the XFL and we get into some stuff about some dogs. So got a little personal towards the end,

but a lot of, a lot of fun conversations all around and a big thank you to Matt for joining us for two of our episodes of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. If you are tuning in for the first time, though, if you do like what you hear today, make sure to go follow us wherever you download this podcast at, whether that is Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and the Himalaya Podcast app. If you do like what you hear, make sure to also give us a fantastic review, a five-star review. It absolutely helps us, and we would love to see that feedback.

If you did not like what you hear, leave some constructive feedback. We'd love to hear what we can do to make the show even better for all of you Iowa Hawkeye fans out there. And if you are tuning in for the first time, you'd miss some great content that we've had over the past couple months. On Tuesday morning's episode, excuse me, Wednesday morning's episode of this week, we had Matt Crawford, the general manager of the Iowa United. He joined the show, I think for the third or fourth time to talk about TBT, the $2 million winner take all tournament and talk about some of the upcoming events they have with the team and also talk about their draw in the TBT tournament

as they play the Wichita State alumni team. We've also had almost every member of the Iowa United team on the podcast at one point or another. We've also had two every member of the Iowa United team on the podcast at one point or another. We've also had two Iowa quarterbacks, Ricky Stanzi, Drew Tate, and we had a future Iowa Hawkeye quarterback, Deuce Hogan, on the show. So lots of great guests we've had here. And today we're just continuing that conversation with Matt Vandenberg. And finally, if you are on Twitter or Facebook, make sure to follow us there. We have some special giveaways coming up and we're going to be announcing those on our Twitter and Facebook accounts. So if you're not there, you're not going to be in the know about it. And I'll try to let you know here on the show, but it's going to require you to do a few things on Twitter

and Facebook in order to be a part of that contest. So make sure to do that as well. Now though, I want to get into this interview. Again, a very fun conversation today, part two of our interview with Matt Vandenberg. So we're going to jump right in the middle of it right now. The Oliver Martin stuff on Twitter really made the Iowa fan base pretty divided. And I'll be up front. I was 100% for Oliver Martin going to Iowa. I don't understand why anyone would be upset at a 20-year-old kid who made a decision and decided that it was a mistake and he should go home. But I wanted to get your thoughts on that as well. I know you kind of clapped back at a few people as well on Twitter.

I just wanted to get your thoughts on here. As far as what I put out on Twitter, I just wanted to make sure. Now, those three guys, Drake, Kevin, and Tyler, I respect the hell out of them. I mean, we went to battle together. We played together. I just wanted to make sure that although they had their opinions, that that's not the way all of us feel. A lot of players, I mean, a lot of guys transfer out of programs.

I mean, we had a numerous amount of guys that transferred out of Iowa. And it's no shame on them. It's just Iowa wasn't for them. It's just one of those things that transferred out of Iowa and it's no shame on them it's just Iowa wasn't for them yep it's just one of those things that when you go somewhere and you're like this isn't for me then you know you got to do what's best for you and put yourself in a situation uh you know to be successful you think about a guy like uh Chad Chad Lystico I believe how you pronounce that um I mean he just put out a great article about Ryan Boyle you know I mean obviously he wasn't in the best situation for him while he was here

and now he got to go to a program where he's you know back to playing Ryan Boyle football and really all that matters is that you know it's a very finite time that you're able to play the game so I don't understand why you wouldn't want to put yourself in the best position to play I couldn't agree more and

you know to be fair I listen to the washed-up walk-ons. I love their podcast. They do a pretty great job. I think they can get pretty passionate about things. One of the things I always get concerned about when I see stuff like that, though, on Twitter or even from other Iowa fans is what do players think of it? What do players think of when fans are against them or bashing them? I want to get your thoughts on that.

I know Kirk doesn't allow Twitter, but I'm assuming you guys would see some of the comments and stuff. Do you take that stuff to heart? Does that make you feel differently towards a fan base? I don't know if it makes you feel differently towards a fan base. I mean, you're never going to please anybody. I'm going to put that out there right there. Let's say if I had eight catches for 400 yards and three touchdowns, I'm sure somebody would come up with something you know they didn't like that I did that

game um Twitter's ridiculous man yeah and I think I think the no Twitter rule is amazing I think Coach Ference does a great job at that um it's just one of those things that you know you don't want to get sucked into it we talk about it as it's noise um you know you want to ignore the noise ignore what people are saying and go about and do your business. The hard part about being a student athlete and having people talk about you like that is knowing that the athlete is, you know, can't stand up for himself. He can't say anything back. He just has to take it and move on. And that's the tough part about being a student athlete. You know, as much as you want to say that, you know, nothing gets to you and, you know,

you don't care what people think, there's a little part of you that might feel sensitive to, you know, something somebody says. I mean, that's just human nature. So the unfortunate part is when, you know, all students, all athletes are able, you know, to put under a microscope in that way. They can't say anything back. They can't defend themselves. You know, and I think that's the tough part about any sort of, you know to put under a microscope in that way they can't say anything back they can't defend themselves um you know and i think that's the tough part about any sort of you know covering sports is that you know unfortunately you know sometimes we don't see these guys as people

and i think that gets lost um you know a lot of times because you know they're idolized or you know they're way up here because they're sports they're sports guys but at the same time we're all still human or he's just trying to go out there to do the best thing he can do um you know or to talk bad about a guy it's just it's it's just unfortunate yeah i couldn't agree more one of the things i you know i write for dear old gold as well and obviously record this podcast and one of the things i try to do is be um aware but critical at the same time i mean if someone doesn't do something well, I want to make sure that I'm not just painting everything as rainbows and sunshine and roses and crap but also be aware that these are 21-year-old kids, 20-year-old kids.

So trying to be cognizant of that and I think just go about it in a very kind way if that makes sense. Be critical but kind and not rude or condescending or mean in their bowling even, which I think is a little bit ridiculous. Right. And there's – I mean, obviously, you know, guys are putting themselves out to be critical. I mean, they're playing in front of millions of people every Saturday. You know, they critique themselves.

But, you know, I mean, there's just so much more to a play than what meets the eye most of the time. You know, I mean, if let's say the tackle misses the block and Stanley gets hit some fumbles and, you know, something happens like that, you know, I mean, everybody's pointing fingers. And really it's just, I mean, there's 11 guys that didn't execute on that particular play. On the flip side, if something good happens, a lot of times the only one person gets glory when the other 10, you know, did their job to make that kind of stuff happen.

So, you know, on the other side of it, there's more than just the one or two guys that are in that play. You know, it takes all 11, and that's something that, unfortunately, gets swept under the rug sometimes. Absolutely. Well, that was – I didn't mean to go down such a – kind of a deep topic there. So let's get to some, you know, some exciting stuff. What was your favorite Iowa memory that's a great question you know when when you first asked me to be on the

podcast I started thinking about that to myself like what's my best what's my what's my favorite memory and honestly I think it's every Saturday and with the inclusion of a few Fridays on Black Friday just swarming out with with the guys swarming out with my teammates swarming out with guys that spend way too much time with uh you know I know way too well but knowing that you know we went through uh off-season workouts we went through the same kind of problems in terms of school or you know making sure you get your homework done on time like the same guys that you're doing that's the same guys you're going to battle with and just knowing that you know we're on the right we're on the same corner i mean that's that's an incredible feeling coming out and of course you got the hog fans that are that are

getting loud when you when you enter either your own stadium or an opposing stadium where you hear a few boos when you go to iowa state i mean that that kind of stuff is it's just so fun knowing they're knowing that you're there with your brothers. Yeah, man. Do you – I don't know about you, but do you get pumped about Back in Black? Have you ever heard it anywhere? Does this get you excited? I mean, it certainly brings a lot back. It certainly brings a lot back. I was listening to – I accidentally listened to Back in Black the other day

on the car, and I all of a sudden just like was elated, pumped, excited. I was like like where is football season I just uh it definitely sparked some good memories even for a football fan so I can only imagine being a former Iowa Hawkeye oh yeah just thinking about being in the tunnel and everything just crazy the kind of chills you're getting as you're leaving I mean I don't even know if I can burn in words but that yeah that kind of feeling comes back every time I hear it. I love it. So any good Kirk stories, man? I mean, he's been around Iowa for a long time.

If you listen to the Watch Up walk-ons, they give some pretty good impressions of Kirk. Wanted to get your thoughts. Any good Kirk stories? Just really maybe just shed some light on who he is as a coach and a person. I mean, you know, it's interesting when you've been around as long as he is and everybody says the same thing that he wants you to be a better person and then he wants you to be a better football player and I think that speaks volumes about the kind of person he is like I said I mean if everybody says it myself included I mean that's that just speaks volumes about his character and the way in which he runs his program I don't know if I have really any uh intentional

uh stories like like singular stories, but just know that like, so he roams around practice. And it's not like he just like stays with one position group, but like he'll kind of roam around practice. And no matter where he is or where you are, if you mess up, you're going to hear him, you know, say something from the other field. It really doesn't matter. He sees everything and they'll let you know say something from the other field it really doesn't matter he sees everything and uh and they'll let you know about it so i mean it's it's one of those it's incredible really i mean he'll be 200 yards away and he'll see it um but i mean that's the kind of attention to detail that he has you know not only with himself but then you know with all of us that's the kind of culture

that he brings makes you keep your head on a swivel making sure he's you know around there i was gonna say i mean obviously you want to head on a swivel, making sure he's around there. I was going to say, I mean, obviously you want to be on top of your game. You never want to do something poorly. Just know that he's watching. Man, big brother. I love it. As far as when you were trying out at your pro day and whatnot, you ran a 4-5-3-4-D-R-dash.

Wanted to get your thoughts. There were a lot of guys come into the Iowa football program, and they improved their times. They improved their vertical, all that kind of stuff. What was the progression for you coming out of high school, coming to college, and do you think Chris Doyle had a pretty big impact on that? Absolutely. I mean, I showed up to college. I was 162 when I first stepped on campus.

I was like 6'1", 6'1", I forget what they measure me at, and 162. So clearly I had a lot of room to get better in that aspect, as well as obviously on the field and things like that. But, yeah, I mean, it's definitely a program that will get you ready to go. It's just one of those things, I mean, you've got to put in the work, and Coach Dole is going to make sure that you do that um it's just going about it the right way making sure you take care of your body away from the facility i mean that kind of stuff people talk about it a lot but i don't know if people really understand how important not just training but the way in which you eat the way in which you gain weight the way in which you know you take

care of your body you know sleep all that kind of stuff recovery whether you're getting in tubs whether you're you know doing uh doing uh you know some extra stretching so much rolling out things like that all that kind of stuff plays into you know whether or not your development is great or just good absolutely and you know as you know with that you had a pretty good pro day the four three four five three forty you had a 37 inch vertical which is you know just pretty darn impressive all things considered are you still pursuing a pro career i mean i'll be honest i wrote an article on dear old gold i'm talking about there were some rumors that des moines could potentially get an american alliance of football team obviously that league folded pretty darn quickly and went up in just a giant pile of flames but you know the sfl is coming in a year have you given any thought about potentially

trying out for one of those teams yeah so actually um after last uh after last year i came back and i did a second protea this year um and all my numbers were better than they were last year what were your numbers this year uh vertical was 39 and a half broad was 10 to three cone was six, six, nine pro agility was a four Oh eight, I believe in 40 was a full five. Oh damn. I didn't,

I must've missed that. I don't know. I don't think those numbers were published. Okay. I think that that was just, just for my sake. Yeah. I love man. Well, I love it, man.

Well, I would love to see you in the XFL. It sounds like it's going to be a little bit better than the XFL that happened when we were probably 8, 9, or 10, or whatever that. Do you remember watching that when it first started? Very faintly. And I do know that this is going to be completely different. Actually, James Butler, who you know, playing running back he was out at the XFL Triad out in Seattle

this past weekend. Oh, nice. That'd be awesome. I know he was with the Raiders for a little bit last year, so it'd be fun to see him playing for an XFL team as well. Yeah, he's kind of, his story is pretty good. I think that'd be a good guy to get on the podcast. He's got a real good story.

I love him. Well, I appreciate the feedback on that. I think that'd be a good guy to get on the podcast. He's got a real good story. I love him. Well, I appreciate the feedback on that. I will reach out to him as well. Trying to get, you know, like I said, it's fun having some Iowa Hawkeyes on here, fun talking football with some guys who are pretty damn knowledgeable about the program. So I have a few other questions for you.

Don't want to keep you on the phone too long. I know it's a Tuesday night and we're getting a little late, but just a couple quick get-to-know-you questions. What is your favorite place to eat or drink at Iowa? You're talking like downtown Iowa City or you're talking like, does that include Tiffin? Does that include Coralville?

What are the parameters here? Yeah, let's do downtown Iowa City and then overall. Downtown Iowa City. Laura, well, when I was on the team, I had this thing called Black Card, which was, in essence, a per diem that we got

to eat when we weren't able to get food to the complex. And every time I had that, I would go to Formosa with Laura. And every time, it never failed. That was date night. I love it. We time. It never failed. That was date night. I love it. Formosa is probably tops downtown.

What about favorite place to drink downtown? Did you go out very often? Honestly, I didn't go out that often. Brothers might be... I might have been the two places I went the most. I didn't really go out in college um maybe maybe a little bit more uh toward the end of my career but still didn't go out a whole lot i love man we just we're just not kind of a going out guy or more

just focused on football a little bit of both um you know i mean i the way i viewed it is with how much i was putting into my body in terms of training and nutrition and that kind of stuff. I didn't really want to screw that up on the weekend. I wasn't one of those guys that wanted to try and fight that on Sunday or anything like that or fight that on Saturday and try and get ready for the week. I was more like, okay, well, I did what I needed to do this week, and then I'm ready to get after it to put myself in the best physical shape going into the next one. Definitely. I actually can relate to that 100%. I just did an Ironman back in November, and I basically just stopped drinking for four months because it's tough, man.

You go out one night, and you're dead for a day. You're struggling. Everything kind of sucks. You don't get nearly as good of nutrition, and you're dehydrated, it's just not worth it, especially when you have something that is that important to you. Right. I mean, if you're working towards something, you want to mitigate the things that are going to take you away from being great.

Absolutely. Now, some guys, some guys can, you know, turn right around and drink and do whatever they want to do and it doesn't affect them. I just don't want to put myself in that situation. Makes sense. Yeah, those guys are ridiculous. Those are the guys I look at and I'm just, how the hell do you do that? But I am not like that.

All right, so what about favorite place to eat or drink in the general Iowa City area, including Coralville and Tippin? Man, I mean, there's a lot of really good spots. Actually, you know what, I'm going to – it's kind of a toss-up now that I'm thinking about a chop house i get this uh they have a they call it the scottish i remember it because i get it every time i go it's a it's like a salmon and apple sandwich on spotter bread it is uh because i'm not a huge red meat guy like i eat it but i'm not a huge like steak kind of thing i'm more like fish and chicken. All right And there it's called the Scottish. Like I said, it's got like this Apple. It's got like this kind of

I don't know if it's a walnut or a pecan. It's a nut type of glaze and It's yeah that so I'm gonna have to switch to chop house overall chop house. All right Good to know next time I'm in Iowa City I'll have to check that place out Oh yeah Delicious So what is your favorite Non-football activity

When you weren't Playing football in Iowa Or even now When you're not training And what not What is your favorite Non-football activity Well right now

I love hanging out with my dog What kind of dog Her name is Tutty She's a ministry schnauzer. She's topped out at about 22 pounds. Kind of a gray-white color. Awesome. And her name is Tutty, full name Touchdown.

I love it, man. So her name is Touchdown Vandenberg. It's cheesy, it's terrible, but I really don't care. Dude, I named my dog after bacon. So, i'm not gonna judge you perfect well yeah i hang out we go to the dog park and you know take walks and things like that i mean i just love hanging out with your play around at the house um i also enjoy video games i enjoy playing uh really all kinds of video games it really doesn't matter i got lauren to start playing fortnite with me and that's fun dude nice work that's fun.

Dude, nice work. That's impressive. It's tough to get the sniffing other to play some of those games, but once you get them addicted to it, it's fantastic. I had my wife on Call of Duty for a hot second, so that was pretty fun. That's awesome. That's awesome. I'm not going to lie.

It took a while, but we got there. That's awesome. The dog thing, dude, I totally get it. I got two two pups at home are you planning on getting any additional dogs not at the moment laura jokingly brings it up but that's that's not on the cards for us right now man just uh i want to give you some maybe some advice but the joke becomes serious and all of a sudden you have a second dog that's you get inception very quickly man well it definitely happened with this one i was like no we're not getting a dog no we're not getting a dog all of a sudden uh this girl i believe her name was lexi out in argyle iowa which i never heard of i think it's like right

turns out that she was you know she had an extra dog in her litter and they were looking to sell her and you know it was the perfect thing and it's like all right well i guess we're getting a dog She had an extra dog in her litter, and they were looking to sell her. It was the perfect thing, and it's like, all right, well, I guess we're getting a dog. And now, you know, Tuddy's a staple. Yeah, you can't imagine not having them. That's right. That's awesome, man. Well, that's about all I have for questions.

Any last thing you want to bring up about the Iowa Hawkeyes, man, or anything in general? Yeah, so I'm going to do a shameless plug right here. Please do. My wife, Laura Vandenberg, follow her on Instagram, Twitter, whatever. She's coming out with announcements because she's coming out with a line of clothing this fall with Authentic Brand. She's designing everything. She'll be wearing it on game days, and it'll be available for sale after the game.

Everything that she wore last year, she designed, and it'll be in stores, I believe, in August is when that'll start. But she's creating her own line. She's spending a lot of time into this, so you know it's going to be great. It's inclusive sizing, extra small, the 3X. It does appear to only be women,

but it looks great and i know that she's you know doing everything she can to make it as as perfect as possible so that's my shameless plug right there man that was a hella good plug that was really that was pretty solid you have like the ins and outs of that where can uh what's the instagram handle do you know uh her instagram handle yeah it's just uh just laura underscore vandenberg i think or laura vandenberg under laura vandenberg underscore that's right laura vandenberg underscore all right man yeah she'll be posting about that kind of stuff i think she just uh finished up selecting uh she had uh open i don't want to call it tryouts but she had open submissions for different models

for the brand so that um you know i think she had 300 people that you know messaged her and said hey like i'd love to be modeled that kind of stuff so she sifted through over 300 to try and come up with i think six or seven um that are able to help model her gear so yeah we're really excited about it like i said august is when it'll hit the their last year we'll hit the store and then uh she'll have more coming out as the season goes on hell yeah man i'll make sure to try to follow her as well and plug some of that stuff on the show. That's pretty awesome and I'm excited to see the gear. Maybe my wife can shop at the place and get a few cool items.

Of course, of course. You've got to load up on the Hawkeye stuff. Dude, you can never have too many Hawkeye things. Believe me, I've learned that real quick. Awesome. Well, Matt, I really learned that real quick. Thank you. It was a privilege to be here.

I'm always excited to talk Hawkeye football. I appreciate you having me. Well, we have a daily show, so you're always welcome anytime, man. Thanks. Awesome. Have a good night, Matt. You too. Bye.

Bye. All right, and that is it with our interview for Matt Vandenberg. Again, thank you so much, Matt. Really appreciate you jumping on the show. If you are listening to this, thank you so much matt really appreciate you jumping on the show if you are listening to this um thank you so much really you know it was really awesome being able to talk to you over the last 45 minutes of this podcast i'm really enjoyed and i think the fans are going to absolutely love this as well if you did like it which i can only assume you did make sure to go follow us like subscribe and review wherever you download this podcast at whether that is apple podcast google podcast spotify or the brand new himalaya podcast app and make sure to check out subscribe and review wherever you download this podcast at, whether that is Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify,

or the brand new Himalaya Podcast app. And make sure to check out some of our previous episodes. We had Ricky Stanzi, Drew Tate, Nicholas Bayer, Deuce Hogan, Matthew Crawford from the Iowa United. So make sure to check out all those interviews. They were some fantastic conversations and not necessarily as time relevant, right? It was kind of just an overview of what their careers were and what they're kind of up to now and stuff like that. So it's not a time sensitive type of thing.

You can go back and listen to them and just have just as much fun as had you listened to them at the very beginning. Also make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook. That's how you're going to be in the know about what's going on on the lockdown Hawkeyes podcast, especially because we have some great giveaways coming up, but it is Monday. I hope you had a fantastic weekend. I hope you are enjoying the first Monday of this holiday week.

I hope you have some great plans for the 4th of July. We're going to be giving some content out this week. Not really sure on the days yet as of me recording this, but hopefully getting you at least two episodes on this beautiful holiday week. I hope you all have a great Monday and go Hawks. We'll see you next time.