Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Recap of Hawkeyes first win vs Wisconsin since 2015 with Matt VandeBerg

Episode Date: December 13, 2020

Iowa gets its first win over Wisconsin since 2015 and we are joined by former Hawkeye WR Matt VandeBerg to break it all down on today's episode. We talk through special teams issues, Spencer Petras' play, Tyler Linderbaum running like The Flash, and everything in between.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order.BuiltGoVisit BuiltGO.com and use promo code “LOCKED,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back Hawkeye Nation to another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, and today's episode is brought to you by Built Bar. Go to BuiltBar.com and use promo code LOCKEDON and you'll get 20% off your next order. And as always, folks, we are joined here by Matt Vandenberg, and it is the first time

also on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast that we actually are talking about an Iowa win over Wisconsin. We've been doing the show for three years, and we finally get to talk about a football win over Wisconsin. And I couldn't not think of a better person to have on the show than Matt Vandenberg. Matt, how are you doing today, man? I'm doing well. All the trophies are in the building. It's a, it's a great day, obviously beaten Wisconsin first time since 2015. So it's a, it's a good, it's a good start to the day. A hundred percent. I, my wife came downstairs and the, you know, halfway through the fourth quarter and she's trying to talk to me about some stuff and I was like Ang I just can't talk right now I just I literally cannot focus on you I'm watching this game it's like they're up

21-7 I was like I cannot focus I just something something might go wrong so I constantly was in a state of nervousness it's been that way the last couple years Iowa versus Wisconsin I want to get your thoughts though how nervous were you watching this game? And nervous is an interesting word to use because you've obviously played in that game. What were your emotions going through that game? Because personally, you know, the botched punt, the fumbled punt return. Those are things that gave me PTSD from previous games in this series. So I want to get your thoughts on that real quick.

For whatever reason, I kind of felt like our defense had it in hand the whole time. Like there wasn't, there were a few plays that they made here and there, but there wasn't really anything that I felt like our defense was like giving them, if that makes sense. So as long as our offense was going to be able to go down and score at least a couple of times, I felt like our defense was going to be able to hold them to 10 points or less just based on. I mean, they had a lot of misuse and our defense took advantage of every single one of them.

So I think that's kind of that's kind of where I was. I mean, nervous. I mean, yeah, it's a football game. It's a Big Ten team. It's obviously a team that we haven't beaten for a while. But at the same time, I kind of felt like our defense had it. it's obviously a team that we haven't beaten for a while, but at the same time, I kind of felt like our defense had it. Absolutely. And we're going to obviously try to get a little more structure in here, but I did want to jump around real quick, because one thing that kind of struck out when you said nervous and the defense being fantastic, that fourth down conversion, the first one they had where they did the, you know, the pitch,

Phil Parker's face afterwards was hilarious. They showed the camera on him and he looked like he just said, ah, I actually got fooled on this one I'm usually better than this I thought that was pretty interesting to see uh it was interesting to see his emotions after that that play of like wow I actually got out schemed here I really thought I had this one well I think it's it kind of goes back to like showing them as people too like they have fun doing this kind of stuff and to be like you kidding me like they that's what they ran I mean like just things like that and obviously our defense bounce back later but yeah I mean I thought that was a very well very well uh constructed play call and obviously so

did coach Parker yeah I mean it was perfect they just they had literally the perfect I mean that's why that's why you play the game of football Phil Parker had probably the second best play call out there for anything that could have happened and they called the one play that was going to supersede our defensive play so right anyways lots lots of fun stuff in this game a lot of stuff to unpack we're going to try to get it all done in the 30 to 45 minutes that we typically do let's start with the hot topic of every single show because let's just get it out of the way Spencer Petras struggled in the first half I would argue that it wasn't necessarily him struggling so much initially, just the play calling was definitely conservative and rightfully

so. The expectation was this game was going to be low scoring. But then that last drive of the first half, I think had people on their seats, probably yelling at their TV. And I say that because I was one of those people on my seat yelling at the TV because the first two throws are terrible. We missed multiple deep throws. It was a really struggle of a possession. We talked about this before the show. But what are your thoughts on Spencer in that first half? And then we'll get into how we rebound in the second half. more about the way that he bounced back against Illinois and showing you that he he's capable he's definitely capable and he's definitely uh valuable to the team especially how we talked about how they rallied around him they respect him and uh so for that you know I mean you gotta stick you gotta stick with him because he's gonna figure it out and thankfully in the second half he did uh we just as fans as a former player you'd like him to kind of get there earlier but I mean as long as he's able to get there and make the throws later on, I think that that's a that's a big key.

There were some plays where I wasn't as. Like I knew what the scheme was, but I was a little bit confused about where he was going with the ball, what he was seeing, because, again, the top, you're not seeing everything the quarterback seen. I really wish that they could put some type of camera on the helmet of the quarterback so fans could see how difficult it is to actually read a defense. Because up top, TV, you can be like, oh yeah, he's open.

Why isn't he looking there? And I mean, we talked about before how you can have different concepts on either side. But to look over linemen, to look over linebackers, to be like, okay, I need to put touch on this pass, or I need to lead him here. I need to do that. I think that would be an incredible innovation. If,

if people were able to see exactly how the quarterback sees the field. A hundred percent agree. Actually, I don't know if you got a chance to watch the LSU Florida game last night, but I actually, because of the fog, they actually had a sky cam. And so you actually saw the entire field and you could see which direction the quarterback was looking at. And I thought that was really interesting to watch too.

It wasn't to the level of what you're saying, but it's the step in between. And that was actually a really cool way to watch a football game. It was basically kind of the Madden view of watching a football game. And I thought that was really awesome, but you're absolutely right.

There was a couple of times where he would make throws and honestly, it was so off target. you're absolutely right. There was a couple of times where he would make throws and honestly, it was so off target. I couldn't tell if it was off target or him and his receiver were not on the same page of what the route was being ran. So you never like to see those. And then naturally just given the way the last seven games have played out and how Spencer has played,

the blame is going to automatically be placed on Spencer, regardless of who the fault actually was in that play. So that happens. Um, mystical part of the burden of playing quarterback too. Yeah, absolutely. And again, you talk about, you put pick, you know, put coins in your piggy bank. You want to be able to do good things and it, you know, gets you a little bit of leeway when you struggle.

Well, Spencer doesn't have any coins in his piggy bank. So immediately there's any struggles. You just automatically blaming him automatically pull spencer he also missed a couple deep throws which has been one of the biggest frustrations for me at least this year is there have been multiple times where we could have hit a deep throw touchdown and that is a not only a touchdown that's not only six points that is a momentum changing type of play that we have missed repeatedly throughout the game we get in the second half he has a mirror set Seth-Marset wide open, and he underthrows it.

We talked about this, I think, before with the Sean Byer throw a couple weeks ago. It's almost like he was like, I'm so scared of overthrowing this, I'm going to underthrow it. Thankfully, Amir came down with it, and then he got hot, and he started hitting Amir for those next two touchdown passes. The second half, for me, was impressive by Spencer. I thought he did a really good job all around. There was a couple of misthrows,

but overall I thought he did fantastic in that second half and showed that he has the capabilities of leading this Iowa team in the way we expect from Iowa quarterback. Absolutely. I mean, the route for Amir, I thought, was really well done. And so the DB on Amir was playing a little bit outside shade, and it kind of looked like they were in quarters coverage, which means that the safeties are going to come up.

Anytime you're in quarters coverage, your safeties are going to be your force player, meaning on a run play, the safeties are crashing down, and your corners are going to stay back. So it looked like they were in some type of that coverage. And so Amir pushed his outside because he's from a tighter alignment. He pushed the DBs outside

so the DB had to widen with him. And Amir gave a little head nod, like, okay, I'm running out. DB took one wrong step. And because Amir knows where he's going, took one jab, his right foot stuck in the ground, and then he went vertical, which gave him an opportunity

to obviously run by everybody. So I thought that was a really well done route. It's just unfortunate that we didn't lead him out there a little bit more, but again, poor conditions, California kid playing in the snow. I mean, there are a lot of different things there, but I'm glad that we were obviously able to connect. Absolutely. It can't be understated the fact that the conditions were bad. We've talked about this before, but in that cold weather, it's tough to catch a football. It's tough to grip a football. Spencer was wearing a glove on his left hand so he could hold on to the football a little bit better. The snow, the wind. I mean, there was so many elements in that game that made it difficult to throw the ball. Mertz on the other side started off really hot against Illinois at the beginning of the season, which feels like a lifetime ago. He was struggling quite a bit with accuracy. I don't know how much that was Graham versus how much that with the weather as well. But again, you saw two young quarterbacks who could be the leaders of these teams to the better teams in the big time struggle

a little bit. And maybe that was part of the elements who knows, but definitely something to be cognizant of as well. All y'all, I need to quickly pause the conversation with Matt, because I have a very important message for you. If you're anything like me, yesterday, you were struggling. It was a tough game initially, and you probably had some other things to do as well. You just need to take a second and relax, because Phil

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We have a show dropping tomorrow. We're going to be covering the metrics that mattered from this Iowa-Wisconsin football game. We're also going to be reviewing the two basketball games that Iowa men's basketball took on this week, Iowa State and Northern Illinois. We're going to be covering all of that on tomorrow morning show. So make sure to tune into that and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast at. But with that being said, let's hop back into our conversation with Matt. Absolutely.

And like I just said, I mean, that's, I think, uh, oh, Spencer talked to, I think Dolph after the game and said something about Tom Brady doesn't complain about throwing in snow or something. So, so I think that's kind of his mentality is like I gotta go out there and do my job which I never questioned uh that wasn't something that I was like well does Spencer really want to throw the ball I mean like that's not obviously that's not what we're thinking so but it's good that he's got a positive attitude regardless of what the situation is yeah if your quarterback says I don't want to throw the ball out here because it's cold and windy you

don't want the guys your quarterback well not in Iowa's cold and windy, you don't want the guy as your quarterback. Well, not in Iowa, that's for sure. A hundred percent. So let's just, let's finish up a little bit more offensive stuff. I didn't know if we were going to get into it, but I think it is probably right. And I liked your response to it, but Amir did score two touchdowns. He had a fantastic game, a fantastic exit to his Kinnick career, at least. But he did, you know, he got a little excited, got a little enthusiastic.

It was a big touchdown. I mean, when I saw him catch that ball, I yelled so freaking loud. I scared my dogs. I might've scared my neighbors. I don't know who else I scared, but I was freaking out. And obviously he was pretty happy too. He doesn't jump into the end zone, hurts his ankle.

Who knows if he'll be out going forward? I'm curious, how upset do you think Kirk probably was? Well, based off Amir's comment, he said, I didn't think KF would be mad about being up 21-7. So I thought that was a very interesting response by Amir. I understand being happy and being excited and whatnot, but I think that if you're going to try and help your team and help your team any way you can, and in Amir's case, obviously, he came to play against Wisconsin. He had a really good game. And if he wants to continue to try and help this football team, then you have to be on the field to help your football team. I mean, I know that as well as anybody. When I broke my foot.

I mean, then you just become a coach and you can't physically do anything to help your team. When I was out, you know, the last eight games of the 2016 season um as well as like other guys that have gotten injured I mean Drew Ott uh obviously had some season-ending injuries and he couldn't help the team that he wanted to the way that he wanted to and so anybody that's not on the field it's just not the same and so um you know that that's unfortunate that that he got hurt I understand being excited and being uh I mean you work really hard. I bring it up all the time. You only get so many opportunities, and you've got to take advantage of those.

But in order to help your team the best way you can is going to be playing. So we'll see what happens here, and hopefully he can play next week. Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, not having Amir is a detriment to the team. He is probably one of the fastest, if not the fastest guys on the field at any time. And you saw what he was able to do against the Wisconsin defense. He was, he was the catalyst for some of that offensive explosion, getting back to the first half.

There was a couple of times where there was a fourth and one or a third and one, and let's, let's start the fourth and ones first. And then we'll get to the third and ones. I think those are a little bit more controversial, the third ones, at least, but the fourth and ones, we decided to punt the ball. I, my ask my, you know, it was kind of tough to watch because I was like, man, it would be great to get this first down. What a, what a momentum, you know, you know, drive for, for Iowa. But I feel like when Iowa, Wisconsin play, both of these teams know that it's going to come down to who makes one more mistake than the other team. And it's a very

big field position game. And I talked about this on Friday, but we were going to see that. We were going to see Iowa get into the opponent's territory and not be willing to risk giving Wisconsin the ball at the 40. And so they decided to punt the ball. That first punt, unfortunately, Torrey Taylor punted it too far. It's easy to play, you know, look at it from, you know, after the play happened and say, oh, we only netted 20 yards there. But I think the decision makes sense.

If you do not get that fourth down, you give Wisconsin 60 yards to get a, you know, get a touchdown or 30 yards to get a field goal. What were your thoughts on that? Is that typically how Iowa likes to play Wisconsin? Is that something you guys talk about in advance of the game as well, knowing that it's really a focus on the field position more so than normal for an Iowa game? I don't know if it's necessarily brought up to us. I think we just go out there and do, as far as players, we just go out there and do exactly what it is that, you know,

we're trying to do in order to be successful based on the game plan. But I don't know if necessarily we discuss like, okay, we're going to be humming this game. We're going to be aggressive. We're going to do this, that, and the other thing when it comes to fourth down. I think that's kind of a decision that the coaches make behind the scenes. And then they talk about it a little bit on game day. If you know, what potentially might happen is if we're, we're rolling here, then, you know, I remember my times with BK and coach Davis, BK would be like, all right, this next drive, if we get in this time, we're going to go forward on fourth, just so you know, like when on this upcoming drive, based on what we're seeing, if we get into this position, we're probably going to go.

So like knowing those little things, but as far as like, I mean, against Wisconsin, you're going to play the field position game. But like I said, I think our defense played phenomenally and I don't, I don't see any reason why not to give them an opportunity to, to try and make a play at the 20 yard line. Like when they run a jet sweep and Nick Neiman comes up with it because he's everywhere. You know, just those types of opportunities to make plays. And a lot of times with Torrey Taylor, you're able to get it at the four or five-yard line.

So I don't see any wrongdoing there. As an offensive guy, go for it. I mean, I love it. You know, I mean, I always want to be on the field. But that's just my normal biases. As far as, like as like playing the game I understand the field position game and trying to pin them inside the 10. Absolutely man and I want to get to the third and one but you just brought up something that I thought was really interesting the linebackers I thought for Iowa did a fantastic job of working their way down the line of scrimmage to get to the running back especially

on some of those stretch plays anything anything outside of the linebackers at a phenomenal job. Cause it's not that easy. It's not like just, you see the running a stretch play. You run as hard as you can to the point where you think they're going to be at. It's about being patient. It's about working through blocks and trying to find the gap where you can explode into to take down the running back. And I thought Iowa, I mean, I am so excited to watch Jack Campbell and Seth Benson for another year.

It's unfortunate we're not going to see Nick Neiman as well, who is the unsung hero of this defense, especially the linebacker position. What he does all over the field is fantastic. I mean, he is a mirror image of his brother. He does a fantastic job in pass coverage. It is a great job of being in the right place at the right time. But those linebackers and how they work through the busyness of that line of scrimmage to get the running backs, I thought was just amazing. It's something that people need to go watch, especially, I mean, gosh, I could talk about it for days, but it was, it was fantastic to watch.

Yeah. Seth Benson has been really good about scraping over the top. They call it scrape because you're going to scrape paint because you want to be as close to those linemen as possible until you find that gap. And, uh, he, so he was able to scrape paint on a lot of different a lot of different plays where I'm thinking of one in particular where they, Wisconsin was going right to left. They ran a stretch play to their left and Seth Benson just waited and then

pow made a great play. Jack Campbell on the fourth down, they were going to try a little trickeration or whatever. And he sees the gap. There he is he is excuse me so i mean we had a lot of good plays that um i mean those guys those guys gonna make plays for a while yeah that that fourth down was just amazing i love the fact he's like oh trickery screw it i'm going right for him and i'm assuming that was probably his guy i don't know if that was you know the guy he was supposed to be either defending or you know i think it was garrett groshek but and garrett groshek was actually a quarterback in high school

uh so there was a little bit of trickery they could possibly do with that throwing the ball looks like they were I couldn't tell that I was actually designed for him to throw the ball or if he just like Jack Campbell got in there so quickly he didn't know what to do it was like I'm gonna chuck this up and hopefully do it but again the linebackers were fantastic um not not trying to jump all over the place I just had top of the linebackers were fantastic. Not trying to jump all over the place. I just had to hop at the linebackers quick. Getting back to the third and one, though, Iowa didn't use the QB sneak at all. And I know Spencer is not Nate Stanley.

Nate Stanley is arguably the best quarterback sneaker that I've ever seen in my lifetime. But Spencer Petras is a big kid. And Tyler Linderbaum is an absolute beast at that center position. I feel like that is a win 90% of the time. If you have a play that wins that play or wins that series 90% of the time, you got to go for it. Um, Iowa decided to get a little bit cute, uh, some play action. I thought the flip to Tyler Goodson was a well, you know, well-designed play again, anytime a play works, no one's going to be questioning it.

Anytime a play doesn't work, you're going to be questioning it and possibly questioning why you didn't go to the quarterback sneak, but I wanted to get your thoughts on the play calls, especially in third and short situations where we've seen BF say, Hey, you know, Nate, just run this down their throat four times in a row. Like we saw against USC. I mean, that's something that we've been able to do. And I know Wisconsin's line is fantastic, but it's been pretty successful. So I want to get your thoughts on that. All right, y'all last pause of the show, because I do have another important announcement for you. Built bar built bar is the best tasting protein bar ever. And believe me when I tell you it is fantastic. I've been searching for a protein bar over the last eight to nine years, and I finally found the best one ever. It is a built

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With that being said, let's get back into our conversation with Matt Vandenberg, recapping Iowa's big old win over Wisconsin. Yeah, I mean, sometimes, you know, we talk about coaches are always thinking, trying to think one step ahead. And, you know, potentially he didn't like the look of what Wisconsin was giving him to do the QB sneak. And so he's going to try and think of other ways to go.

And sometimes you get a little bit too far away from what it is that you're great at. Now, don't get me wrong. I mean, I thought, like I said that the the pitch the dive the express whatever you want to call it to uh to goodson was really really well done goodson gave a little and then went back around so i thought that was really good um there were a few plays where you know i think i don't know if spencer had the formation wrong when he threw it and got that uh he got the intentional grounding when he threw it and got that, he got the intentional grounding when he threw it to the right and all of his players were to the left. Nico killed his guy on the route

and he had an opportunity there to make a play. And I think, I don't know if Spencer just got the formation messed up or something, but so, I mean, there were opportunities, but like you said, I mean, it all comes down to the execution and whether or not the play is good, it's going to be judged based upon the execution of that play yeah and the play action I thought I mean like I didn't like the call I'd rather just get the first down and you know get one yard at a time but the play action did seemingly work against Wisconsin's linebacker

I mean it froze that entire linebacker group and that that is what you want to do with the play action you want to get your your you know second-day linebackers up and frozen so you can get your wide receivers around them. And I thought that worked pretty well. So in theory, the play call made sense, as you said. Looks like there was some miscommunication or misunderstanding about where the play was actually going there. Wanted to talk a little bit about pass interferences,

especially early on in the game. I felt like the referees were kind of letting it go. And from a DB perspective, that is fantastic. The Brandon Smith non-catch, I thought that was pass interference. I mean, he was draped all over him. And that being said, I don't want to be biased. I also thought the Riley Moss pass defended probably could have been pass interference.

I thought it was almost textbook playing a defensive back, jumping over him to dock it down, but his left hand was all over the guy's shoulder. Wanted to get your thoughts on that. Would that have been pass interference in your mind on both of those plays? Yes and no. I mean, again, DBs are going to hold. They're going to hold no matter what.

They're scared they're going to get beat, and that's just the nature of the game is if they can get away with it, they're going to get away with it. And on Brandon Smith's stop route, he pushed hard. I thought it was good. He did an outside release. He tried to club him by. But I felt like Brandon's a strong kid.

I feel like he probably could have gotten into him a little bit more to make it look more. Because the thing is, if you can get db's arms outstretched grabbing you it's probably going to be a lot more uh noticeable obviously for the for a um for the ref but like in other times if they're running right alongside you they can grab your jersey and nobody's seeing it you know we saw one on a it was actually on a mirror uh it was a seam ball we were on like our 10 yard line. We were going right to left on the TV and Amir does a little release wins outside and the DB is running with him, but he's holding his Jersey and Amir only got one hand on the ball. There was a bunch of John after the game,

after the play and things like that. Spencer, I thought gave him an opportunity to make, I thought Amir could have made that catch. But the DB's draped on him pulling him, but again, he's running with him. So it's not going to gonna get called um one thing as long as refs are consistent and i know what we're gonna play then i can be a little more aggressive on offense then if we're gonna get away with that now tyrone absolutely pushed off on his uh so that was a that was a good call um but yeah and then on riley's um how it was coming across the middle i'm assuming you mean the drag route that was going on. He like levitated in the air as he was going across. So I thought for sure, cause he jumped way before the ball.

A hundred percent. So I thought for sure that was going to get called. But again, they let it go on the other side. So, I mean, as long, again, as long as you're consistent and if you're not going to call it there I thought for sure it was going to get called, but again, I'll, call yeah I mean I sat there I was like no flag no flag no flag please no flag um you answered about three things I wanted to cover there which was absolutely awesome I did actually have in my notes that Amir Smith-Marset on that play uh the first half 445 in the second quarter um I thought he probably could have come down with it and that was the play where he was kind of getting pulled.

He got one hand on it, but I wanted to get your thoughts on that as well as a wide receiver. Cause we've talked about that of, you know, what is a drop versus what is a muff versus, you know, what is just a difficult catch? So it sounds like you agree that he probably could have came down with it, but he didn't. Yeah, there's a lot of different opportunities.

I think when you get guys in the seam, I mean, I love that route. I love when they're going cover one, it's press man, and you're in the slot because you can win in or out. You're going vertical. If you win in, the quarterback's going to paint you inside. If you win out, you have an opportunity for the deep ball or you have an opportunity for the back shoulder,

depending upon how the DB's playing you. And like we talked about against, I think it was against Illinois, where Amir's all the way to the field, and that's like a 55-yard throw if you're going to try and paint him in the back and that's not going to happen. But when you're in the scene, I mean, that's a lot shorter of a throw. You're probably looking at maybe 35, 40 yards. Cause you're probably 30 yards because the ball should come out at 22. If you're going to back shoulder or 18 to 22. So, I mean,

like that's a good opportunity, but yeah, Amir, he only put up one hand. I thought he could have put up to, I think if there's an opportunity for him to, to kind of lay out, I don't think he catches it and runs, but I think he'd absolutely catching that ball. Yep. Absolutely. Yeah. And the one thing I noticed, Wisconsin was playing a lot of cover one. They were putting a lot of guys in the box, stop our run.

What I actually really appreciated. And I don't, I don't think Iowa fans appreciate this as much, but I did appreciate the fact that Brian was trying to stay consistent with the running attack. He wasn't getting into a Northwestern situation of they're stopping our run. Let's throw a 50 times. He's like, we're going to keep pounding this because it'll, we might only get one yard. We might only get two yards, but it forces them to respect our running game, which puts us in those cover one situations. And we're going to trust our wide receivers to beat our, their DBS.

And we're going to trust Spencer to make these throws. So I thought that was really interesting on the Brian continued to run the ball, despite the fact that we weren't having a lot of success running the ball. I mean, Wisconsin's defense, one of the best rushing defenses in the league for a, or in the NCAA for a reason,

but they're also putting even more guys in the box against Iowa I really liked um you know Brian's commitment to the run game despite the results so yeah we talked about that with uh with what Northwestern did against us and that's that they didn't get away from it they don't care that they're getting a yard or two they just want to prove like hey we will do this just so you understand and when we pop one we're gonna pop one and even if it's going to be five or six yards, that's popping one, quote unquote. But as far as the way Wisconsin played,

I mean, Wisconsin's always had very physical DBs. I mean, that's something that they really pride themselves on. They always have a good offhand jam. They're always right in your grill. So for them to go cover one isn't anything. Again, we talked about it last week with Illinois. It's not out of their wheelhouse.

This is what they do. So I didn't think that was anything new to see that from Wisconsin defense, but it was good to see our receivers winning a lot more than losing. Absolutely. So let's focus a little bit on the defensive side of the ball because that is where Iowa absolutely shined. As you said, you weren't really nervous because you felt like the defense was playing so strong.

I was nervous just because I've watched these Iowa-Wisconsin games and I started getting flashbacks of all the times where it looked like Iowa was going to win the game and then something bad happened and you can't expect the defense to be perfect forever. But you were right. I was wrong. That's kind of what we've realized a lot on a lot on this show, but the defensive line,

I thought did a fantastic job and Chauncey Golsan. He really showed out in his final game at Kinnick nine tackles, one sack. I thought he did a great job. One of the plays I wanted to call out, I think it was a read option and he had the backside. And I think Garrett Groshek was the guy who got the ball and he kind of waited a little bit to make sure the handoff happened. So we didn't have to cover the backside and I think Garrett Groshek was the guy who got the ball and he kind of waited a little bit to make sure the handoff happened so we didn't have to you know cover the backside and then just absolutely attacked and I thought Iowa maybe it's just Wisconsin's running backs I think if Jalen Berger's in the game it's a different story for Wisconsin but Iowa was not

getting pushed around the Wisconsin running backs were not falling forward they were getting hit by Iowa and dragged back a yard or two yards. And I don't think I've seen that happen so consistently in a game this entire year, but especially on plays like that Chauncey Golsan, he's running at him, grabs him and manages to throw a guy with all the momentum going towards the line of scrimmage backwards. I really thought that was a fantastic play by Chauncey. And also just overall, the defensive line did a superb job of, of handling Wisconsin's running game, not allowing really any holes and whatever hole there was the linebackers filled those gaps. Yeah.

I mean, you pretty much took everything, took everything on that one. Yeah. It was a, it was a really well, I think I'm talking, I think we're talking about the same play. Chauncey just kind of squeezed it because we talked about before you don't want to run up the field. And so he, um, he was able to squeeze because the tackle let him be. They were going to try and read him.

And so he just squeezed a little bit and then made a great play. So, I mean, that's disciplined, fundamental, sound football. And that's what Iowa prides itself on. And the entire defensive line seemed to do that. One thing I noticed we did is we were bringing a little more pressure than normal up the middle. So we were bringing a little more pressure than normal up the middle. So we were bringing like Seth and Jack Campbell and on Seth Benson sack where Jack Heflin rubbed his belly after he, after the sack Seth Benson comes up running back, tries to,

you know, tries to block him and Seth Benson goes down. Cause I think it was a cup block. Seth Benson goes down, gets back up and then makes a play with Jack Hein. And that kind of effort, I mean, you don't teach that. That's just something that the kid really wants to make a play and wants to be an impact player. And he was on that particular play. So, I mean, it's a lot of different factors that go into a very competitive defense, but they were flying around.

Yeah, and what's crazy to me is we have Jack Campbell and Seth Benson, they're younger linebackers. And behind them, we have Justin Jacobs. He's a four-star recruit, supposed to be an athletic freak. Ohio State wanted him on their team. Not saying that's a huge deal, but Ohio State has a little bit. They get some of those higher-rated recruits. We got Jay Higgins, who was a tackling machine in Indianapolis.

I mean, this linebacker group went from being arguably the biggest weakness or a question mark of the year to being – Well, by the media, not by the coaches. Correct. Yeah. I mean, we talked about that too. Phil Parker, I think we talked about it on the last show, actually. Phil Parker said, no, that's our biggest strength. And I said, never questioned Phil Parker. So went from being what appeared to be, I should say, a question mark to being what clearly is the biggest strength in my opinion going into next season even the secondary I think is going to be real strong next season we're losing Matt Hankins

which is unfortunate he's a fantastic player but you return everyone else in the secondary I'm going off on a tangent here my whole point I'm going to bring it back to the linebackers at a point but this defense is going to be rock solid next year too I mean they have a lot of guys returning more so than they've had in the past. And I'm, I'm pretty excited to see what Phil Parker does with this defense next year. Yeah. There's a lot of different opportunities he can do. It kind of depends on Dane Belton's off season. You know, are they gonna, is he going to try and bulk up a whole lot?

I don't know how much he weighs right now, but there were a few plays where he went in and he tried to rock somebody. Well, Wisconsin's not going to get rocked. You got to wrap up and go. So, I mean, again, that's a learning curve you know things like that uh so i'm kind of curious as to how big he's gonna be able to get in that kind of cash position obviously you don't want to make him too big because he still needs to be able to move and run so kind of see what that offseason looks like uh cave on mary weather came up with a big pick jack kerner made picks all season long and just happened to seem seem to be in the right position. You talked about Matt Hankins, kind of surprised we didn't see a whole lot of Julius Brents this year.

He played really well against Minnesota his freshman year. So, I mean, there's definitely depth on the outside as well. It'll be interesting to kind of see how they continue to grow. But like you said, I mean, since most of these guys are young, it's going to, it's going to be a pretty exciting few, few couple of years. Yeah. It's always impressive to me also how Iowa continually finds these walk on free safeties. I don't know what it is about that position in particular. It's not, I don't know why, I don't know why, but it seems to work. Julius Brent's is interesting case. He, you know,

he did enter the transfer portal list this week and that's unfortunate. Oh, okay. So he entered the transfer portal this week and that was I didn't know that yeah so that was one of the things I felt was really interesting as well because I thought he played really well his freshman year his true freshman year last year battled injuries this year um got on the field early in the season and Iowa kind of found the rhythm with a Dane Belton being that fifth defensive back um and Kayvon Merriweather sliding into the strong safety spot but I felt like when you look at the playing time, it was definitely Julius Brent's job to, to,

to lose going into next off season. So that, that is unfortunate that Julius is not gonna be around, but even then, I feel like the secondary has a lot of strengths in the way Iowa plays defense will, will mirror any potential or mask any potential, you know, issues or concerns with some young players there. But transitioning over to the linebackers, one of my friends actually texted me during the game and said, is Jack Campbell, the next Josie jewel. And there's never going to be a next Josie jewel. You can't replace the outlaw, but you played with Josie. You've watched Jack. This game was

a incredible game. I thought that interception and the goal line. Now, granted, I had a lot of Wisconsin friends. I lived in Madison for a couple years, and they were pretty pissed off that Graham made that throw. The way I read it was it looked like his first read was the fullback going into the flat, and then his second read was the guy coming over top. And then he just didn't see Jack Campbell, and he also threw a somewhat inaccurate ball. But Jack Campbell was there he knew what I mean he didn't even see the guy behind him was covering that route um finished the game with four tackles one tackle for a loss three passes

defended and one interception I guess let's just go into Jack Campbell real quick let's answer that question is he the next Josie Jewell and can you ever be the next Josie Jewell but I'm assuming you're gonna say no and then what do you expect from Jack Campbell going forward? I don't know Jack as a person, like personally, but I know the outlaw is he's got some swag to him. He's got a little aggressive, you know, kind of gruff as you can expect. I mean, that's just kind of the way he is, except he cares way too much about his hair to be that gruff.

But as far as like anything else, like, I don't think he replaced Jos josie i mean i i thought he was i mean he was obviously obviously sensational for us you living in uh colorado you see him all the time with the broncos continually uh making plays you know he didn't see the field a whole lot his rookie year and now he's really kind of fallen into a great role for him out there um but as far as Jack Campbell, I mean, Duke can move. I think he's a little bit taller than Josie is. Jack is really instinctual. I don't think he's instinctual to the point of Josie. Let's not confuse that. Josie had a way of finding where the ball was.

It was impressive. He was just there. I mean, that's just something that always seemed to click for him. So although Jack's really good, let's pump the brakes a little bit on the outlaw. All right. I definitely understand that. Let's get into punting real quick,

and then we'll wrap up the show with just talking a little bit about that trophy and how heavy it is. I just wanted to know. Charlie Jones, this whole year has been a revelation, a walk on from Buffalo. No one really knew who he was, got lost. A loss is a relative term, but lost in the transition of Oliver Martin coming into the program.

No one really heard about Charlie Jones. But if you talk to anyone within the program and I say anyone, I've talked to like three people and they're, you know, they, they absolutely love Charlie Jones. Michael sleep Dalton thought Charlie Jones was going to be fantastic, fantastic this year. And he really has been, his aggressiveness has been amazing last year. I feel like we've ever caught a lot of, fantastic this year. And he really has been, his aggressiveness has been amazing. Uh, last year, I feel like we fair caught a lot of punts this year. I'm pretty sure we fair

caught like two and that was last game against, you know, yesterday against Wisconsin. Um, but with that comes some issues. He got a little aggressive. The ball started bouncing. He was going to grab it. Um, looks like it was just a perfectly timed situation where he was about to grab the ball and had the defender been a half a second later he would have secured it but the defender got his arm right in there at the wrong time um caused the fumble gives wisconsin perfect field position they scored touchdown three plays later um as a punt returner i feel like you live and you die with that uh you you live and you die with the the good and the bad and that was the one time we saw the bad i felt like i and i'm going on a tangent here, but I felt like Iowa fans maybe were quick to judge and say, what the hell

was that? While also being, you know, really easy to be like, oh my gosh, we love Charlie Jones. I thought that was a little bit, a little bit ridiculous in my personal opinions. What are your thoughts though? So everybody outside always has something to say, right? That's why we call it the noise. But as far as like you talk about with aggressiveness, it's good and it's bad. And his thought there is – so that was a pretty high bounce that he grabbed it on, I think. So he's trying to save, you know, 15 yards. I mean, the whole point is to try and save yards for the offense. He's like, if I can get it here, we don't start at the 15 yard line.

We started the 30 or whatever it was. I don't know the actual yard mark off the top of my head, but that's like the thought. And, you know, we're coached that if you have a clear path, do it so we can save the yards on the back end. It's not so much about returning it as it is just not losing those extra yards, but being aggressive he probably didn't have the clearest path to it and that's just something you do that's something

that's the same guy that's not going to fair catch with the guy in his face because he he has confidence within himself to make a miss and make a play and usually the primary turner has one or two guys to make miss before he's able to go and then he had a great play later on that got called back uh i think where he came up the sideline yep uh well he was moving a make miss before he's able to go. And then he had a great play later on that got called back. Uh, I think where he came up the sideline. Uh, well, he was moving a lot before, before he finally came on the sideline, but I mean, that's, that's what he's capable of too. And so, um, I don't think it was anything too crazy. It's, it's unfortunate, but, uh, in that particular situation, I guess you have to kind of assess how clear of a path do you have in order to do it. And he felt he had a, he felt he had a clear path. Absolutely.

The last person I want to call out, Joe Evans, another walk-on from Ames who was a quarterback at Ames, moved over to defensive end. Again, I don't know how Iowa knows where to put these guys at, but it just seems to work. I noticed at the end of the game, he actually had a pass defended because they dropped him back in coverage. And I think, just again, the versatility of Iowa's defense to be able to move these guys around and drop back a defensive end

and expect him to play in pass coverage. Now, granted, Joe Evans is probably more of a 3-4 outside linebacker playing defensive end for Iowa. But still, I thought that was really impressive. Anything you want to call out about the offense or the defense or special teams before we get into my final questions about the trophy and how heavy that thing is? So we call that a fire, like a fire blitz.

I'm not going to get into like the actual term, but essentially we're bringing heat from the front side. And so we're going to drop him off the backside, Joe Evans. And he was actually, he made a really athletic play of being able to jump in, bat it down. And for the first time ever, I think he wore gloves. I didn't see him wear gloves the entire season up until this point. And so I found somewhere that was something that like I always looked at and was like,

this dude never wears gloves. But a little cold today, a little cold, little dumb things that I noticed like that. One thing I want to call out is our offense utilized motion a lot. Almost it seemed like every third or every other play had some type of moving component. And that can do a few things. It can either tell you whether they're in man or zone. You know, we talked about before, are they bumping? Are they just, are they running with things like that? You can kind of get corners over in that different look. You can kind of see what they're thinking defensively. But what they used it a lot for was to bring somebody in motion,

like Tyrone Tracy or Amir or something, and get the linebackers one step flowing before they snap it, and then they would come back the other way. And so they were trying to displace the Wisconsin linebackers just enough to where they could come back. And they ended up having, you know, six, seven, eight yards on those types of plays. So it was just enough to move Wisconsin out of where they felt they were in their gaps. So that way we could, you know, take advantage of it.

And I thought that was very interesting. Yeah, I mean, it's what a lot of those concepts are stuff we we see like the Los Angeles Rams run consistently just to create mismatches you identify a little bit more about the defense and you have an opportunity with you know those guys moving around to create some opportunity for you in space so I absolutely agree the Heartland Trophy is I suppose about 100 pounds right I mean yeah have you tried lifting that before I mean not by myself I think I think we did it uh as a wide receiver group in 15 but I didn't lift that I didn't lift that by myself I was gonna say because uh Chauncey Golsan or something yeah Chauncey Golsan was literally doing curls with it okay that's a lot stronger guy let's don't compare me to Chauncey um I thought

it was pretty crazy I wanted to talk about the celebration afterwards. And he honestly, even at the end of the game, when you looking at Kirk Ference's face and he had the mask on over his, his actual mouth, but even in his eyes, like you could tell he was so thrilled him and Phil. I mean, they looked like how it looked like two old men having coffee, just shooting the crap. Like they were just so ecstatic to win that game. It looks like were about i mean it um it gave me all the feels basically it has been

such a crazy season the off season was um was unlike anything we've ever experienced before the pandemic is something they've never experienced before uh and then to to lose two straight games win six straight and put yourself in this position beat wisconsin for the first time since you were playing um which i made that that made it seem like you were really old I mean in like four or five years right um I just had had to throw you under the bus there a little bit uh but I what their emotion was just incredible uh and I don't know I don't know if you have any thoughts to say about that but I just I wanted to call it out as um it was a really cool moment to see Kirk not be stoic and to show a little bit of emotion.

And then in the locker room, obviously cry. He tried giving a speech, got like four words in and started crying, which I thought was also just, I love it. That's that kind of speaks to how KF feels about the program. You know, we talk about all the time, how KF is more concerned about the character of the people that walk in the building and walk out of the building than he does the wins, cares about the wins, but he wants people to be better people better men better brothers better husbands better dads better sons when they walk out and that's the

goal every time and um it goes to show how much he cares about the amount of work that we put in the amount of joy that we can have when we're out there playing a game flips excluded but being able to do those kinds of things um and having coach parker i mean coach parker's been there since the beginning and like you said they're talking about like two old guys sitting on a porch i mean that that's what that's what i thought of when i saw them and being able to enjoy the moment and i think that's something that shows just how much KF cares. I mean, obviously he doesn't do it just to do it. Like he really genuinely enjoys what he does.

And in order to see all of our hard work and all the coaches' hard work, all the players' hard work get paid off at the end of the year against a team that prides itself basically on what we do. I mean, we're almost – I'm not going to say we're the exact same because obviously defensive schemes and offensive keys are different, but essentially the same type of, same type of how they're going to go about their business.

And to get a win like that, I mean, obviously it's big and KF's emotions. That's when you know it meant a lot to him. Yeah. I saw the, I mean, he literally said

that was a great game, guys. Everyone started yelling his name, and then he just – it just stopped. He just couldn't actually finish. It was epic. Loved seeing that, and that's why I think Iowa Hawkeye Nation should really love having Kirk Behrens as their coach. Oh, absolutely. For sure.

The results are fantastic, but the amount he cares about his players and the people there in the program and anyone you talk to, the first thing they mention about Kirk players and the people there in the program and anyone you talk to the first thing they mentioned about Kirk is not not the football but what he you know he actually cares about you as a person and making you a better man which I think is amazing uh Matt any last words before we wrap up our final regular season Monday morning recap with you man it's kind of crazy that it flew by like it went by so quick but I I guess I do got one more thing. I don't know who has the opportunity to go back and rewatch the Iowa game, but we need to get a clock on Linderbaum's 40 on Tyler Goodson's run.

Kallenberger hung a little bit, but Linderbaum was humming. So somebody out there needs to stop watch because I think we're looking at a 4-4-40 from a center at Iowa. That was so impressive. Also, I kind of got lost in the shuffle. Nico Reganey was hauling butt and actually gave that last key block just to push the guy off a little bit to give Goodson the room. But that whole play was amazing.

Linderbaum running down the field. Actually, it's kind of funny you brought that up. I looked at a mock draft last night. There was mock drafts where they get put out, and they're always wrong, which is not my issue with that. But it was a seven-round mock draft. All right, I'm going to see where all the Iowa Hawkeyes are. There's going to be three or four, at least. I know, you know, especially some of the later-round guys,

they might be UDFAs, they might be six, seven-round picks. But you're guaranteed to see Tyler Linderbaum, Davian Nixon, Alaric Jackson, maybe Chauncey golson maybe uh you know the you know brandon smith amir smith-marset maybe right none of them not a single freaking player in the seven round mock draft and i was like this guy's a joke i can't like you don't have tyler linderbaum anywhere in the top three rounds or i mean where'd you find this guy pro football network it's supposed to be a reputable site and he didn't even have tyler linderbaum in. And I was like, dude, I'm sorry, but that's a big miss. That's like, you can't put a mock draft out there

without those guys in there. Maybe, I mean, just to help the guy out, maybe he's like, oh, he's definitely coming back for next year. So I don't want to put him in. That's the only thing I can think of. Cause this dude is the highest PFF ranked pass blocker. I think he's second in run blocking or first.

It's one or the other. Dude's been incredible all season long. And then he runs a 4-4-40 on the last Kinnick game. And to not have that guy there, I think is, well, I think it's asinine. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And I've seen him mocked in the back half of the first round, early part of the second round by a lot of more reputable mock drafters, I would say.

But yeah, no, I thought that was absolutely ridiculous. I got to get caught out on the show. Matt, it has been an absolute pleasure having you on. I have learned so much over the last eight weeks. Obviously, when we figure out what Iowa is doing from a football perspective next week, we'd love to have you back on if you're interested. But either way, man, it has been a pleasure.

Any last words, man? Yeah, I've really appreciated being part of the show. I feel like hopefully, you know, make the average fan a little bit more knowledgeable about the game, you know, talking about different schemes and things, which unfortunately you can't always get from watching the game because they, they center in on the offensive line. So you can't always see the full play, which I wish that they would just do it like film and you can see the whole thing.

But I understand. Yeah, I understand. They're trying to get closer to the guy's faces, you know, whatever. I don't know if the cameraman, you know, get a little excited. There was one time there where Spencer threw the ball

and I'm pretty sure the camera stayed on Spencer and I didn't even see what happened. So, I mean, that's unfortunate. But I mean, yeah, I really appreciate you having me on and I've, I've had a lot of fun. Anytime talking football is good. Absolutely, man. It has been a blast. Well, that'll do it for our Monday morning recap. Our last one of the regular season. Have a fantastic day out there. Hawkeye nation, as always folks, let's go Hawks.