Jackson Subbert | WUW 301

and welcome in to the watchup walk-ons podcast i don't know what episode this is because as i just informed my guest it's probably going to be recorded a little bit in advance but this is going to be a special one for me obviously if you're clicking on the episode you know who the guest is for this episode it's jackson subert the successor to myself in the most illustrious position really in inside of hawkeye football and i would say any team uh and long snapper but uh i'm gonna call him jimmy because that's what i call him uh he's in my phone as jimmy subbe jimmy welcome to the pod hey i appreciate you having me come on i'm looking forward to it i this is a kevin and drake are not here for those listening this is going to be [Music] potentially who knows i think you'll enjoy jackson's story i think everybody's story that we have on this podcast is good but this is a long snapper on long snapper conversation and this might turn into which we've had of many right uh this is this is i mean this is elite air right here so i mean i wish anybody can be a part i would say so as well jackson and i spent a lot of time standing on the sidelines watching elite athletes play football just you know letting the low back recover between reps we got we got great seats i mean and it's a great place to breed good conversation so i feel like skills that you had on the sideline probably transferred over into the the podcast world if i if i had to make a guess that's that's probably a good assumption i think that you and the rest of the crew who used to call me dad uh indeed yep i think everyone would probably probably agree that i like to talk and uh i'm no i was no stranger to running my mouth uh especially because when you were there i was sort of the except for the the uh errant year that we had well ron kaluzi in the house as well um i was the old man of the crew i was i was um for those that don't know uh and i'll give a little bit of background then i'll let you fill in the details jackson subert came in in the what we like to call the golden year of iowa football 2015 had it nice and sweet didn't know what yeah no idea what was going on but you had no idea that whole class you brady ross everybody in that class you thought you had it real good it's really easy to win 12 games you know go to bed football stuff is like this is this is what it like people complain about like all you have to do is show up and and they do yeah in the west the wins go in the in the in the dub column um obviously at the time i was in my third season as a starter going into my third season as a starter out of four um i had started in no no no no no i was in i was going in your second year second year yeah i was going into my second year jackson comes in um so my third year in the program second year starting jackson you're from good old hometown williamsburg iowa tell me about that's a long road trip oh yeah that's about that's a that's a bus ride you can fall asleep on no that's right down the road everybody knows where williamsburg is at and uh until until you came into the program really the only connection we had to williamsburg was obviously the bliss blood runs strong through those parts and not only austin but corbin came through in our class and then by the time you got there he had already moved on um tell me about the years in williamsburg and and how did jackson subert because i read here you know on your on your hawkeye profile selected to compete in the shrine bowl which is which i was as well but you were a snapper tight end and defense event so tell me how tell me you know young jackson what the dream was and then how did the dream slip into what it did for many of us in in the profession it was like i guess i'll just longs how'd we get there yeah no um so going back you know um i was lucky i hit puberty nice and early so uh the younger years i was you know thinking that i was going to be you know the next best thing since sliced bread you're going to be aj at peninsula yo for sure um unfortunately other people catch up at some point so um sports get a little bit more challenging so um i have my my dad actually to thank from a young age i just remember him telling me we just do it you know not knowing that it would really turn into much but um at least for like a high school team or whatever he just said um you know it's something that every team needs and basically nobody practices which um i think you and i can both attest to you go to uh different camps around the country and um there's a lot of kickers and punters there's there's a handful of long snappers so you know the pool you're competing against is a little bit smaller which is nice it sure is you know when this when the athletic ability starts to run up run dry a little bit so um so he was really the main reason that um it was kind of even on my radar um kind of as i went through high school it was probably becoming a little bit more evident that um while i was a decent athlete it wasn't going to be d1 level so um i think my sophomore year maybe was the first time i started going to kind of like taking it a little bit more seriously um i went to some kohl's camps and stuff trying to get you know get out there get on the radar and stuff um so it's a different it's definitely a different gig trying to get recruited as a specialist the parallels run deep by the way because this is this is similar to my story about sophomore year yep is when that is when that athletic advantage ran out yes yes i was five you know i didn't hit puberty early but you know i hit it in middle school i i got up to 510 by freshman year 510 and i was a solid 200 pounds um and i was i was playing running back similar to you playing tight end and d really what i should have done was played the end uh i didn't know how fun dn was at the time i'd always been a linebacker and i had a lot of fun there as well but yeah man i was running over kids freshman year and then sophomore year things started to change it was a little bit different so your dad early on had you snapping the ball yeah i remember um basically so he his back like he um played college and football uh played football in college um he's been a high school coach so he's you know been around it and i remember first day of he was my jay high seventh grade coach in williamsburg at the time that was like first time putting on pads and stuff yep um so we had you know like the old school tryouts for for uh punter everybody step right up yep and we just had a big big old line and he just told me like because i'd kind of done it before he's like yeah like i don't know what to tell you but like you're gonna be the long snapper and then you're just going to snap to off he's going to feed all these guys oh my god like and it was a uh the the sample set was one you had one good punt you go to the one line one bad one that's incredible we got 30 pins to get through we're not we're not giving any do-overs right and it's seventh grade right so like yeah we don't we're not going to spend once we determine who this punter is we're not going to practice anyway so it's like you know can you imagine if we would have done that at iowa with like you know we had the luxury of that many punters or kickers and it was just like all right you get one shot one shot and first rep in period i mean and that's and that's gonna be it so you better make it count with everybody watching but i mean at one point how many how many uh specialists did we have in the room it would have been like your junior year going it like we had double digits oh yeah it was deep it was deep oh oh gosh let me see it would have been um you me spiwak and marshall kalouzi remember that and then uh miguel so we had four snappers we had oh we had miguel keith shudak and i think sh i think there was just three kickers josh pearl would have been in there troll troll and ben camby oh can be people don't know about the two legends man they really don't so like quick sidebar i want to tell the people yeah these are names and that unless you are from solon iowa or where was canby from mount pleasant mount pleasant so we're just hitting every small town around the area to find our specialists um josh proll and ben canby are two names that you guys in the iowa hawkeye community have never heard of you've never heard of them unless again you're from one of those two towns um but the the those two dudes first of all pro's a legend pro oh like and at this point he was like four years at least older than me yeah a paramedic and firefighter at this point and then just like kind of decided to try his hand at kicking like yeah and wasn't too shabby at it man no like guy could kick the ball he had some power um you know what it was good enough both of these guys were good enough that if we had to send them out there their one rep might have gotten it done you know like ben camby's a ball i am if i have too many better than like in person naughty dude the first time i saw him kick i thought we had our next punter i was like for sure i was like holy [ __ ] this guy's putting him into the ceiling of the indoor he's he's turning he's turning these things over into space i mean he's sending these things to mars and then you realize like it's funny because the so it's god i love that it's just us too because kevin and kevin and drake would interrupt us i was gonna say they wouldn't appreciate this no no and for the listeners at home you're getting a real real condensed this is like a real deluded not deluded a real condensed episode of like this is the nitty-gritty so i've i've talked about the a ball before right a snapper's a ball or a or a kicker ball it's more it's more rel relevant with a kicker punter but a snapper has an a ball too right oh for sure um and i talk about cornbreath a lot which he was before your time but i have more even bigger than can be i mean significantly better than canby i'm telling you jackson i've never seen and i and you know me i snapped at those camps too i went to the under armour game out of the coal system i i even snapped to um it's it's so funny i don't know if you listen to pat mcafee at all um if you for anybody listening or for you jackson if you're interested go to the the bus and with the boys episode with taylor okay you know who they are right um yeah so search the bus bus and podcast pat was on there about a month ago or so um and he tells the story about how just a few years ago he thought about coming back out of retirement because jamie cole was working with the bears as their kicking coach and when they had the whole double doink situation going on they were like hey do you know of anyone who could come in and be solid and and jamie reached out to mcafee and so not a lot of people know this dude so so get this i'm sitting in i'm [ __ ] sitting right here in this in this office i mean probably downstairs and i get a text from my brother who at the time was on his way into the program um trying to snap at iowa and jamie knew that and had been in contact with levar and everything and my brother goes hey do you want to snap to mcafee and i said i said what do you mean i responded like what what the hell are you talking there's confusion complete confusion dude and it just so happened that he goes jamie just texted me he's got mcafee with him and matt hawk who is from dowling homegrown iowa boy who now punts for the bills and and started with the dolphins he was my age um so mcafee and this is the middle of the summer kind of when the nfl players had a break i've got mcafee jamie's basically like hey i've got mcafee and matt hawk and we need to get some reps and we need somebody to snap to us and oh by the way not only that but daniel carlson as well uh oh okay so some low level you know right yeah you know some guys some guys that are getting paid all the money yeah so daniel carlson pat mcafee and matt hawk are in the building and who do they call but the clover brothers to snap for these guys so i speed my ass up through ankeny pick up my brother drive straight up to ames we do it in the iowa state indoor and the outdoors it was a nice day and all of a sudden we're just snapping to mcafee i was like holy [ __ ] what did he ask let me ask when was the last time you touched a ball before that it's a great question um so this would have been the summer of 2019 and the last time that i had legitimately snapped you know i'd probably done like a few um so so spring of 18 is when i you know i hung it up and i can't wait to talk about the you hanging it up as well in like the nfl and how hard it is to get there um because i've actually we've never even had we're going to talk about a lot of things where i've never even had the conversation with you because it was always just about like what was happening in the building um i probably had snapped 20 balls you know 20 legit like let me get down to my stance and fire one back at 14. um yeah and then i i got myself straight into a session where we i probably sent back 60 or 70. you know to to to nfl to nfl guys so i'm trying to rip it and make it look good and and and it was to it was to service them as you know the snapper is there to service right and so you know they need reps and so i'm just firing it back i mean we're ripping at it at a rate that is not advised you know and we've all been there we you and i have been there where it's like okay what are we doing like we're just we're just hitting reps at this point are we even are these quality you know like what's going on quantity over quality so i don't even know where that story came about um i have no idea how that came up but yeah that's kind of lost this too but it was a good story yeah i have no idea anyway uh you're back you're back to high school um you you decide you're gonna snap and or or how did that go in your head because obviously you still played tight end defensive end through senior year but when did the recruiting slash uh this is the the route i'm gonna go when did that change sophomore year so um it was it kind of started in sophomore year um and it didn't really take hold until my senior year um so senior year late like season ended this is um wow really and probably and i had no idea where i was going to go um at this point hadn't even talked to iowa um and it was like december this is a close to um the uh hawk slayer bowl like right before so this is december of 2014 correct um so i got an email from my coach and that said coach morgan was going to be in the building and didn't even say like coach morgan from iowa like um i had some like lower level people kind of stopping through so i didn't even know like it was iowa um so i was completely lost so i went to walk in and my dad's like that night's like yeah so you know reece morgan's gonna be in the building to talk to you tomorrow and i was like holy crap oh oh it's like that there's different levels to this yeah um so talked with him um and then i think there was a little bit of a dead period or whatever it is uh didn't hear anything for i mean tell me tell me tell me and the people what that talk even was like how deep was it oh like almost nothing like i don't even think he even like said that you could walk on it was like kind of like a general meet and greet um basically to see if i was like probably a complete idiot or not yeah to be honest like it was i i don't even know if he said like offered me an invitation to walk on yet um he might have i could be exaggerating but it was it was just a general like hey we're just you know slight interest we're checking out um so then the bowl game happened didn't hear anything um for a long time still had no idea um really the only other interest i had was um western illinois the leathernecks um wanted me to like maybe play some tight end and i was gonna long snap was gonna be my deal okay um so and i didn't hear anything from iowa so i was kind of thinking like man i might be uh might be a leatherneck like that's kind of like it was my only option at that point really and you're coming down to brass tacks like you gotta i mean you gotta make a position on what your future holds right like it's getting late yeah so and this is it would have been about this time in 2015 2015 it was like right around signing day like iowa kind of reached back out again um and i was like hey can i like come on like a like a visit or something to like just like quick um so went on a visit i mean at this point so you you asked to come on a visit basically oh yeah so like yeah so i was like i'm like i don't know like can i at least come and see like so i at this point like i think hold on hold on i want to stop you this is the three this is the three three-year [ __ ] starter people for listening to your starter this this guy handled the ball on all fourth downs unless we went for it because we did have nate stanley but this guy handled the ball the ball was in his hands for some big kicks and he asked to visit that is how the long snapper game works that is that is the fragility of special teams i just want to just hammer that home for people so anyway but so um at this point when i asked to come um like they had said that i could walk on so i'm like all right i'd like to at least see the place that i would possibly be coming to um but really that was probably more for almost show and like for my own i i don't even know because like once they kind of came out and said that you can walk on i'm like you know what other stuff is great but like being an iowa fan i grew up 25 minutes away from iowa city it's like yeah i'm gonna i'm gonna go like that's the dream that's the dream yeah and you just somebody just opened the door for you to literally you now have access someone told you hey jackson suber we're gonna give you a key that works to the iowa football facility and that's i cannot i mean i think everyone out there understands like holy [ __ ] people would pay for that right yeah literally literally we did pay for it basically oh yeah for for a long time right yeah i'm still paying for it right yeah exactly yep um wow so late in the process and so it was very similar with me um coach morgan actually he came by marshalltown high school as well i don't know if there's a high school in the state that he hasn't been to man oh i don't think so either god he's a we talk to a lot of people i don't know if you've ever listened to the to the show or any episodes but we've talked to a lot of guys i mean we're talking greenway brought up rhys morgan every single person on this place um i think anybody from the state of iowa yeah he somehow found a way to get to the i swear to god he was he was driving a spaceship around to make it to all those places but i have no idea it's unbelievable um and it was the same for me uh lester erb who was the running back special teams coach at the time was basically like i i actually did go and snap in front of them the summer before my senior year it's like whoa we're now we're really getting deep into the recruiting process right like i not only that dude but um you know like how we would have the special teams camp in the summer and coach woods would like hey do any of you guys want to help with the special teams camp we're having this this weekend right for sure so the week the year that i was coming out of high school they were building or they were re-turfing the fields from or or resurfacing or there was construction so the special teams camp for that summer was cancelled perfect timing and i was like are you kidding me are you kidding and i and i actually remember going back on the website and searching like uh this would have been 2012 that it was canceled so like 2011 special teams camp iowa 2010 special every year for like the last 10 years you could pull up like their registration form um and of course the one year that i need to go and show what i've gotten and tried to become a hawk it was canceled so what i did was again along the same lines of recruiting yourself i emailed they were still having like you know the the position camps right the important kids yep of course so i emailed him and said yo i'm a snapper there's no special teams camp i'd like to come at the beginning or the end of one of those those team camps or uh or one of those you know let's call them athlete camps whatever it is yeah elite camps or whatever and i just want to snap give me give me 15 minutes right give me 10 minutes to snap to you i mean i'll do it in a hallway if i have to and uh and i ran i i showed up we're in kinnick stadium for the camp i'm uh i'm an hour early um lester herb and eric soup campbell who used to be the wide receiver coach before i got in there uh were both down in the field waiting for me they made me lace up my pads and my helmet and run crossfields and then do my snaps on so they were like conditioning me out trying to just like you know figure out if i was worth any kind of a [ __ ] right yeah um and not only that but it was like a 20 mile per hour wind windy day i mean it was i mean i fought through i fought through the [ __ ] the desert in hell that is snapping conditions yeah oh my god so i'm you know and i'm a fat high schooler at this point i'm fat i'm using one of my uh one of their balls which i've never touched before um and that sounds weird but but in specialist terms like you want to have familiarity with the football that you're snapping i'm running crossfield i'm out of breath i can't even see like i'm looking back and i'm i'm like blind because i'm dying from the from the conditioning they're making me do and then i'm also snapping with like a 20 mile per hour um kinnick crosswind i did good enough to wear very similarly they're like yeah we'll uh we'd love to have you like on a game day visit and so i actually right so i actually got to go on the game day visit it's just so funny how here it like to type i identify so hard with like hey could i come and like could you could i maybe walk on like you know like is it a possibility would you be opposed right yeah and then when they finally opened the door it's like well yeah i'll do anything like if you're going to let me do it it's a done deal um also from my perspective during that time right like you're trying to make a decision i have a feeling that the reason they reach back out to you was for one you were obviously you panned out so there was something that they saw right you had good size what are you six three just about just under six two six three um good size out of high school um could snap the ball and what we had going on in the complex at that point was me and zach johnson um i remember the name and so you never met zach no no we never overlapped but i did uh we did talk about him enough that you know yeah okay so uh putting it lightly without going too too hard on the guy um because he just wasn't he just wasn't meant to be as a division one football player um kid from was uh from minnesota i think he was from minneapolis um pudgy pudgy non-athlete but could snap right like his a-ball was good the problem was it didn't show up very often and he was mentally soft as [ __ ] um and i think he made it through spring ball and then did not come back for summer conditioning so that summer i was the only long snapper on the roster going into my my third year um and we needed we needed a guy so apparently just needed anybody in no no no in walks jackson subert and uh and your college career begins tell me a little bit about that i want to hear um about your first impressions maybe the first time you walked into the complex or got to lace him up with the specialist group do you remember any of that stuff oh for sure um were you in camp your freshman year i was not okay um came to summer didn't go to camp um but i remember like some of the big things that like struck me was um you know we have our lifting cards um all broken up by last names and so one of the first days i'm going through looking for my lift card um and i like flip by to von smith and i'm like holy like just like just like that little thing it's like yup man this card is in the same little like um like i remember the same [ __ ] like something like that or um i think this might have been my first day working out um going um dropping my stuff off um in the laundry turned around and cj was there so um you know being an iowa fan like i've seen him on tv and stuff yep um you just like literally nothing he just said like hey what's up and like kept walking and was just i was just like holy christ like you realize that like oh [ __ ] like we're we're peers now yeah like like i don't know if we're on the same level but like yeah we're actually on the same team like yeah i it was um it was just like astonishing like it took me a little while to get over it's like wow these dudes like i've been watching on tv are just like right over there working out like yeah yeah and it it doesn't even feel like you are on the same team for a while it's like oh for sure it almost feels like um it almost feels like you're in the farm system or something right yeah like i'm i'm you know i'm a freshman and i'm like i'm on triple a and oh no doubt this is the big like like i was not i was not trusted to do scout team uh punt yup for my freshman year um i do one of the uh those two were burned in my memory um the other thing that i can remember to this day um so went to summerlifting didn't go to camp like i'm a walk-on long snapper understandable freshman year um and then i get back um with the first day of class guys and we had a punt meeting and so walk in and you know um they have it up on the on the screen um basically the seating chart is the depth chart yep um so you're in the first row first second and it goes back and they had i want to say probably five or six long snappers including hurt drew ah at the time like there's acl or something something happened to him and he was still on there and my name was not on that depth chart and i came to be a long snapper i was like oh man we are you didn't even make the first death charge i didn't even have i was not on it holy [ __ ] i'll tell you who was on it at the time it was probably reid silby because he kind of washed out slash failed a little bit as a as an offensive lineman you know what was buried on the depth chart so coach doyle wanted was on there who matt nelson ah was uh yeah on there for a decent while it was probably maybe loaded would have been on there yep it was it was probably seal be vivoda nelson ott and then you would have been next but there they ran out of room they didn't have anybody yep that's unbelievable man that's so unbelievable what's going through your mind are you are you like just like okay oh yes sir like okay that's how it works or was a little bit of it like oh [ __ ] like am i am i on the team like did someone mess up and like forget to tell the coaches that i'm on the team or oh no there was like plenty of those of like do they know that like i'm around like am i still welcome like i know i was here for like a little bit like so oh [ __ ] but no i was like you know what that's kind of the way it goes i haven't been around for three weeks at that point and you know what it was you know what it was is because um they didn't print a depth chart until we got to camp and you weren't there and so the depth chart that was out was like okay we've got one legit snapper clover's in the front and then we just got to fill this spot with as many potential people who might not [ __ ] up as we can they had just forgotten because i'm pretty sure pretty quickly then you you were i i was on there yeah so it was it was definitely like a clerical air whatever but to the dude that's been there you know for a couple weeks and just getting back i'm like oh wow that could be [ __ ] they forgot about me yeah i'm like literally not on the team anymore and it's it's it sort of speaks to how they are very phase oriented the staff is and it has to be right like for like um what i'm trying to say is when we would go to camp if you weren't someone in camp like if you were one of the few guys that didn't make camp or anything else right during camp nothing mattered except for the guys that were in camp and what the camp schedule was and what was going on in camp practices nothing mattered the president united states could have walked into the room and we would have been like um who at that time uh would have been obama hey mr obama um yeah it's great that you're here but we got [ __ ] to do like that's that's how serious [ __ ] was for sure um like wow that's awesome any um you came in with uh [ __ ] who'd you come in with so it was my class was like uh brady ross was there any other specialists uh colton it was you and rastetter how could i forget you and raster we've we've [ __ ] on rastetter a couple times on the podcast um we don't i don't need to uh you know don't need to pile on by anything oh i know i know and we won't we won't uh colton knows that i love him um but obviously you know he threw it a little short on my one claim to fame you shot at glory it's still glorious but it could have been just like that next step up right there was one more level right yeah um so you and colton came in and you know what and it's it you know you're for those listening it's it's a it's a miracle we've gotten this many words out of jackson he was kind of a quiet guy um i think you've come into yourself a little bit like you can you know oh for sure like i i think honestly i was like petrified in my mind i was like there's 120 dudes on the team i was 120 like i'm the backup walk on long snapper like so i think i did let that like creep into other things like sure and you know what you're probably you were probably right you probably were like 120. i i don't doubt that for a second yeah um but eventually you know colton was a little bit different he was a little bit more like me when he came in and at the time for that single season we still had dylan and marshall um and the the elders of the group chose chose one of the two of you to basically [ __ ] on and um modernly haze if you want to call it that um and it did not happen to be you it was not you thank god it was colton um and he did it a little bit to himself but um yeah you yeah it was it was brought upon he didn't help himself a lot um but i mean who's gonna pick on like you know like kind of the the quiet awkward kids so right no that wouldn't be fun like exactly exactly so when did you so they graduate 2015 goes by like okay we joked about it you're like oh [ __ ] this stuff's easy like we'll just go to indianapolis every year big 10 championship we get into our first off season um i now have two years left 16 and 17. um what was your mindset like when we went you know once you got through the the chaos of year one and you finally had time to sort of settle in what was your mindset like were you pretty confident in even being you know let's call it this time of the year in your first off season true off season in 2016 so you're six months into the program legit at that point had you already established like a confidence and sort of a path in your mind of like okay if i do all the right things here this long snapper gig is kind of set up to where one guy leaves the other guy steps in was that were you confident in that already or what was that like in your mind um i don't think i probably really would have been that confident until i don't know it was a little while maybe after that spring ball okay um because at this point i really hadn't done like i sure wasn't doing the twos um i really wasn't doing um much scout stuff i did that a little bit later on um i really hadn't done almost anything for reps or anything like that to build some confidence um the weight room was i was like kind of starting to build but i came in you know really gangly and weak so it was it wasn't real hard to get stronger when you start with nothing so um but that would it would have taken a little while but that was definitely kind of my mindset of it's not going to be given to you but after three years like there's gonna be an open spot and by that time you need to be ready to rock and roll basically because because you had the best claim to it right like barring some outside like we're gonna go and get a transfer long snapper you could kind of see the writing on the wall because it's not like they bring in three or four offensive linemen a year like they do on on other positions that you know they bring it or it is like that for the other positions for a long snapper it might be one every year probably a couple years spaced in between and if you're the guy who can sort of fill that okay this is the next in line like they'll ride with you until you mess that up so that's for me i had to adapt to that quick because when i stepped in casey was gone you know at that point and so that was a little bit of why um i i sort of assumed the role without earning it a little bit yeah by the time so when did you start feeling uh let's call it functionally competent like when i think like for sure um when i traveled so it would have been your senior year my uh redshirt sophomore year third so it would have been like three years into the program at this point um traveling and stuff kind of seeing how um everybody like all the starters have operated for a little while yeah um it's like all right and by this time i had i was also getting some more reps and you know gaining a little bit more confidence um i think by the time that season rolled around i was like all right like i still got a year to wait but if something did happen i think i can do this i can go do it yeah yeah yeah and and i would say from from my memory i want to say like maybe even the end of your second season like that 2016 season i felt comfortable i think somebody it might have even been like coach woods or coach wallace at the end of the 2016 season in one of the games was like hey should we get should we throw super didn't get a few reps and i was like i mean i think he'll do just fine i don't know i don't think you got in in any games in 16. in 17 you did though you took a couple reps in that year i didn't i was supposed to that was the year um we killed killed nebraska at nebraska um and i happened to be like just standing next to coach woods and we had like uh a late touchdown or something right for the point and out of nowhere he just goes like super snap yeah and hadn't touched the ball and oh not not that this matters but to me who's never snapped in a game like this is the super bowl oh yeah but i think you you were already out there and so it didn't end up happening but i tell you what the heart rate went from laps to holy lord your chest exploded oh my god that's unbelievable i think i remember that because i remember coming off the field and you said something like coach wanted me to snap that and i was like oh he did and i and you were like yeah and your eyes your eyes were wide oh i can only imagine my face when he said that like you serious and like that's the other thing that coaches don't get is like okay second string jackson didn't know that this was gonna be a possibility so second string jackson hasn't done anything in a cold ass game for three hours like and just not even pretending to try and stay loose at the same time no not even close so that's that's hilarious um you mentioned the way like we operate on a road game and sort of in the specialists even have their own little um standards of operation because they have to toe the line a little bit um or better better explained by not stepping on toes right stay out of the way there is a way to do things and one of the key principles of that is very quietly um don't don't make a lot of noise don't don't let people know you're there um never have too much fun in front of people while they're in meetings or other stuff like that when you got the when you got the lay of the land and started to see how um and i don't want to make it sound like i was better but in in that year i happened to be the one leading the group what did you think about all that and were you were did you feel prepared did you ever cross your mind like okay next year i'm gonna be a fourth year junior it's kind of my turn along with miguel to sort of step into a role where i have to like how did you approach leadership as it got closer to you being the guy um i really didn't put a ton of thought into it to be honest like i had just kind of seen um like the mental side of it um practice side of what you guys had done in years prior um also at this point keith has played a year um so we for being young had been around kind of a long time i suppose that's true um so i didn't really feel like you know it wasn't gonna be like a rally the troops type of thing sure um we were our room i think you could attest to this uh when i got there the specialist room was not in great standing um with the coaching staff and just i mean the the uh like the talent in the room probably wasn't as high as has been in years since um it was the lowest talented room that we you know it's probably since that point so so i mean um so to kind of be there from there and then um have other people or different people maybe a little more skilled um i didn't really feel like it we needed you know some direct leadership like you know i'm going to kind of try and do my thing we were very self-led too at that point so i think uh a lot of people kind of responded to like hey you know what we're going to kind of almost do all our own thing but you watch other people and see what works for them yeah um so it's kind of just silent leadership i don't even know how to put it but i didn't really put a whole lot of thought into it and for you miguel also was like he was dad at that point right so um that makes sense um i'm curious what your you know in in the iowa program the whole thing is you know look to the guy ahead of you or the guy that has your job or the guy who's doing it well right now and take from him learn as much as you can because they're essentially laying out the blueprint right um that's very much so how the iowa program works at all positions i feel bad for you because that guy happened to be me and while i knew for myself and i i'm very curious on your opinion of this because you're a smart guy while i knew that i was doing things the way that i thrived doing them i you know and i'm get what i'm getting towards is like i maybe didn't take the most reps right i wasn't the guy who was you know i was actually that's just thinking this as you were going but yeah yep i wasn't i wasn't maybe like uh let's call it the um you know i wasn't jake hewlett right i didn't keep my mouth shut i wasn't like uh um i don't know you know what i'm saying right i understand what you like like what did i learn from you yes i'm curious what your opinion was of me and how much you actually bought into do i really have to like take the lead from clover here or can i maybe pick like a good few things and then maybe do some things better in my opinion or stuff that works better for me yeah yeah um one of the first things like i tried to adopt a little bit from you later in my career was um was the number of snaps like when i was younger i snapped oh probably fall a ton because again not a ton of confidence like i gotta snap a ton and brand build that up a little bit um so that was one thing um tried to snap less which sounds kind of crazy but that's that's actually i'm curious about that because up through basically when i was there you snapped a [ __ ] load i mean a lot and that's i did and then i think um jason baker kept coming around um and old bake um and he he kind of harped on me for it too like um like you just got to be a little more intentional you can't just snap a hundred times so um doing some stuff coming off the sideline i tried to incorporate a little bit more some some quote-unquote game reps um some different things like that um and then just kind of like your mentality of it like i had never played just a game as a specialist so i was kind of trying to learn without playing but i learned really quickly from you and then once i did play that you cannot be locked in for the entire game maybe it's just me but like i would sit on my little cooler uh when we're on defense and pretty much zone out like yep and then all right we got the ball i'll find wherever i drop my helmet and you know start to get moving a little bit but um just some of that stuff how you throughout the game i guess would be stuff that no idea so that was something that i kind of pick up just from watching throughout your career good saturday i'm glad i left something i left some some sort of cracker trail for you um i think i was really good on game day and the the people listening at home are like wow clover's really making this podcast all about him i mean what did you expect uh yeah um i took a lot from casey in the way that he interacted with other people off of the field i did not implement that as good as i could have because he is such a good person like a perfect yeah tough tough to emulate casey kreider i was just a little bit more hard-headed figure it out on my own clear my own path and what i do think i had down pat was exactly sort of what you alluded to like when it came to game day i knew exactly what worked for me i was very good at sort of being being keyed in when i had to be or not um i do think that as a specialist like you said like you maybe weren't the most vocal leader didn't feel like you needed to be um i think miguel at times tried to be a vocal leader but he was so miguel that it was a little nerdy right little off-putting sometimes right yeah i thought that i led well vocally in a specialist role um to the rest of you guys um and yeah it it really isn't about like your person your own personal flair that you add to it but more so like okay here's how it's been done before me how do i uphold this and make this system work for me and and keep the other guys in the whole group in rhythm right so that was really interesting um so then it 2016 rolls around or no no no no 2018 rolls around we're in your fourth season and it's go time right and it is go time and you had to wait three years for this moment and hey nothing nothing went wrong like was there what were the emotions and the thoughts as you kind of led into that season and i know when you're in it you don't think about it like this but like did you stop and smell the roses did you have any like come to jesus moments of like oh this is it i had a uh i kind of had a feeling that if i could you know have a good spring ball um because i was the one going in the spring ball so i'm like you know what this is gonna be kind of my opportunity to either slam the door or just have a little bit of a conversation about it at this point speedwalk was behind you one year one year uh behind you yep he and so it was he nathavoda and i um all snapping so i had a good spring ball so i still ended up being the one um had a pretty good camp and um i i kind of knew going into it but about a week or so before i think coach woods came out and said it officially right um but no i i think it didn't really it didn't really hit me until i started to get like a little bit nervous i remember i had like a thursday afternoon class and i was like yeah i'm gonna skip that like i was like yeah no i'm i can't go like i'm it's one of those things where you're like dude i can't i can't i can't think about school right now yeah no i was like i'm i'm not going to that um but i didn't get terribly nervous yeah until um i remember there was a drop this is the opening drive of this game a drop on like third and long first possession and you know like they've already called like pun alert yes they just holler punt and you start trotting out and it's like oh so this is it's finally it's finally for real yeah and um the first punt snap i ever had got blocked so no it did yep wait it was um who was it miami of ohio maybe yeah first one of the year yeah no oh yeah we did yeah did that help you with trauma like go out there i was absolutely shocked because like you know snap and it's noisy and first snap ever snap and get cooking down the field and like just all alone and the return was like starting to come up yeah what happened oh dude i turn around and they're like celebrating they got the ball in their hands now and now immediately your mind goes to oh [ __ ] did i throw it over his head did i like what yep yeah what did i do wrong right yup oh my god i don't remember that i do remember that because in 2018 like obviously my first year out so in a different way emotional for anybody watching to watch you know i had been i had suited so some for some reason they they strung me along my true freshman year with casey as his backup even though i was redshirting so i traveled to every game like i dressed every game of ever all five years um so so i dressed 65 straight games in a row and uh and um and and that miami or whatever that opening game was was the first game in six years that i was not you know that's an identity crisis a little bit right like and i'm sure i was there in the stadium um i mean i cried during the swarm like teared up during the swarm because it felt like we were passing it on to like the next group like i felt like i was like passing it on to you right i mean dude i was talking to you under my breath while you guys went out there for that first snap and that happened and i remember going oh [ __ ] that's not a great way to start not ideal far from yeah my goodness i mean luckily it wasn't you know the michigan game where it's tight like you guys were able to it ended up not being a huge deal right yeah wow wow but you did well i mean like you felt good like that you know you got two solid years and i don't remember there ever being um i don't i i know for a fact that you and your mind like have the two or three snaps that are that you always are gonna cause i do too oh yeah i can immediately think back to 2014 um northwestern 2014 indiana and 2014 minnesota um along with the michigan snap to kaluzi where he decided to try and run it um and a couple others like the you know a specialist always has his um his ptsd reps but you never threw it square over anybody's head um i don't think you threw any too bad of pat snaps so you know tell me about your two years like how would you grade yourself like it was was it everything you thought it was gonna be um yeah i mean it was it was pretty great like i on paper i had a pretty good idea that like i was gonna sit behind you for three years um to be expected um and then hopefully start for two years and then you know kind of see how the cookie crumbles after that so i think you go through um after starting for a year i was able to get on scholarship like i kind of checked checked all the boxes of yeah what i had planned so um i i couldn't really ask for anything more after looking back on it that's awesome um 20 20 rolls around and uncle covet hits and you're believable and you're right in the middle of your nfl prep right it was uh this this is something i'm intrigued in because i'll tell you dude when i realized sort of the gravity of the position i was in right i was going to have four years of starting experience under my belt sure i'm 5 10 but four years at a at a power 5 d1 college take a look at the other guys who do that kind of thing and like they're making camps like they're going to get to at least you know they're going to get that that walk-on key to a to a nfl facility yeah be it not for two weeks maybe in some right they're going to have a cup of coffee and they're going to get a practice jersey with their name on it um i was convinced i was i was positive that that was going to be my experience that i and i didn't expect or even think i was going any further but i knew that i was going to get to say that for a week i got to play for an nfl team and that was my goal too and it did not happen for me and you know what i don't know if it's true or not maybe people just didn't like the ball that i threw back but i blame it on my height still to this day but then i look at my guy jimmy sub he has five inches on me and and [ __ ] you weighed probably 240 235 240. yep i mean you were the prototype man i know i i uh i don't want to bring up i don't want to bring up sad sad memories or stories here or broken dreams but like um i want to hear like how that spring went training wise obviously got it got torn apart and then kind of the end of uh of your pursuit as far as football goes as a career yeah um like you said 2020 spring um oh pro day prep was in full swing and i think it was like whatever pro day is it's like on a monday i think it was like the day or the week before exactly like seven days um because that day we came in trained and that's when coach doyle was like you know kovitz going on uh we're gonna have a virtual a virtual um pro day like whoa we'll just send out tape to everybody like all right whatever still can perform so i think it was tuesday the next day we came in train um and that was they locked down the facility that was the last day i trained at iowa um but before that i had gone to like a specialist camp um down in arizona trying to get my name out there thought it went well nicole showcase um it was honor or was it zonor you went his honor yeah wow and i always i always thought to myself man should i have gone his honor like did i [ __ ] up man no i uh i went well what can i say i win again the next year um did you really so that's what so i didn't do anything like i just kind of went i came back to williamsburg um because everything was shut down it's like okay well this is so that that was the deal i was trying to try kind of trying to get into the nfl and find a job yeah going on so um worked around here for basically the summer um and then when new year's kind of came around it's like i was kind of on the fence on whether i was going to do pro day uh just in 2021 yeah so i decided to do it so just trained here at the wreck um did it i went to another zoner camp um did pro day thought it went pretty well um but you know like you're just waiting for the phone to ring and the sun again just doesn't want to so just never wrong huh and it just didn't like it just i mean i don't know um so [Music] at some point you can see the writing on the wall like i'm i'm now a an entire year removed and well as well yeah now further but at the time over a year removed um i felt like i had put some decent things out and performed about as well as i could hope in front of scout um all scouts so it's like hey you know if it just doesn't if it doesn't do it then out of luck yeah i felt this i felt the same way man i because there's not a lot of for a long snapper or a kicker or a punter there isn't a lot of boxes to check in that process it's like okay did i perform well when the scouts watched me and hey did i go to a camp and at least put my name out there on the circuit and like did you have an agent yep i didn't i didn't even have an agent so that's another thing that i thought was like [ __ ] man should i have gotten an agent who would have like lobbied for me and like trying to call everyone he knew to try and get me into a camp maybe maybe not um and you just sit there and you're like i don't know what else there could be and yeah i think for you and i would even say for like the other people in your draft class like you guys i mean covet [ __ ] you guys like hard um you so that draft in 2020 still happened right yeah i mean i'm pretty sure the last couple drafts there's been a long snapper in the draft late do you remember do you remember that day or that weekend like roll by and think like because that's maybe the weekend like hey that you get a call and they'll bring i can't remember so i had again i had my agent and he said because i think a couple of them went or like got drafted yep and he's like i i wasn't 100 on this logic but he's like great one less off the board and i'm like i'm like well true but that's one less team that needs a long snapper so i'm like i don't know if it's like a great thing did you have any idea because i still don't really know where i was at but did you have any idea of like what ranked guy or where you were in the in the bucket of apples that the nfl thought they were choosing from i had i had an idea that i was top five like i was fourth or fifth um coming out of my class and i was thinking like for sure you were you had to have been top three like two years of experience at iowa i i don't know what else more they want but you know i felt well the only thing i guess going back um i was the manly like semi-finalist or whatever yeah um so that was top 12 okay i think um but then i looked at so then the finalists that year um and i looked at them i'm like you know what like i feel like i'm right in that you know in that air maybe i'm not top three but maybe i'm four or five so i have no idea what number i would have been but just going off of that i would have been top 12 i guess you're long snappers so um but yeah just fingers crossed and it just so that so that draft weekend goes by in 2020 it's like okay the whole time that year then you're thinking like okay but it's coved so i i still kind of got to see this through even through next year and so you're still snapping as you're like hanging out in williamsburg man yeah i was you know trying to i probably wasn't doing near as much as i like should have been if i like actually believed that i was going to get a call because i'm like you know i i'm not 100 sold on it right um but i would snap from time to time working out um and then just you know it was always like well it's the off season so be ready because people are like you know slots are moving and then it was like it's training camp be ready slots are moving uh then the season starts be ready people get hurt during the season and it just like it was always like you know here it comes and that got old quick oh yeah it's like no one's no one's calling yeah and then you still did it would have been a year ago from right now you went to honor again and after that did you walk away from that camp going like what was your intention like i'm gonna see this through the 2021 draft and if i don't get a call then that's it i'm hanging it up so my idea was basically i just wanted to do pro day like i wanted to make sure i can go out in front of i know people are going to come to the university of iowa pro day i would go out and you know one not just snap like kind of try and pretend that i'm a little bit of an athlete right um so just you know some things that i can market myself on how are you how are the numbers how'd you do i you know what i i kind of i was surprised you balled out for your own self my my goal was a uh i didn't care what it was going to be on the 40 that was my one that i really had no idea sure because i would just like run on the wingsburg football field and just run as fast as i can so i'm like if it can just start with a four yeah i don't care and you got it and it was a 487 i was like holy [ __ ] yeah yeah oh you got me on it too man i ran four nine two oh man oh they they told me i was like oh yeah so you thought you were in the league man you're like oh i'm like i'm like that's i sealed it i'm like i can i'm like i can move i benched pretty well i mean how many bench reps you put up um 19 i think okay all right yeah you're throwing up some numbers i mean i was like i'm kind of and then i snap pretty well too so i'm like so the the i guess the idea was i wanted to get in front of some people and you know give it a shot and at least then i'll know that was it like i didn't have to wonder if oh if i would have done this you saw it through and you felt good about it yeah so now it's just like yep didn't happen so that was that yeah so that would have been you know nine months ago 10 months ago nobody called through that draft and afterwards you just kind of you just kind of make that uh you make your peace with it i've been i've been there i've been there it's how this podcast yeah yeah how the podcast started man um haven't touched a ball since that day so really really yeah oh man we might have to get the band back together and uh get some reps in some time get let uh let somebody that's in there right now let it get torrey taylor to open up the field for us because he's going to be there for another 10 years and yeah i suppose yeah that's true which that would be insane and he could do it um [ __ ] amen that's incredible i i so much specialist specific stuff i guess we'll bring it about and i've kept you way too long already no i again i got i got nothing but time i know and this is like the last time you're gonna fully relive this moment too probably um some of the you know you played it oh you played football you know you get that when you go and you meet somebody new or you know a significant other or a family member introduces you to somebody and they're like oh yeah you're the one that played for iowa and it's like yeah you got gotta go through that whole thing every time right um and then they ask the question what are some of your favorite memories you know like is there any snaps or games that specifically stick out to you it probably in your two years starting but could have been before that as well i mean yeah um i would say i mean it's tough to beat uh when i was younger when we beat michigan um that was nuts um just because it was like kind of at the end and you almost didn't see it coming until it happened um beating ohio state completely different still great but it completely like just a no doubter um but for me like having both um beating nebraska and snapping two back-to-back season-ending field goals and uh to keith and miguel that's and two different like those two are tough to beat like um hey talk to me about the one in uh in 2018 the miguel one of all he told me that he pissed his pants right yeah did you know that that happened i didn't at the time no i was um okay i was fully more concerned about it was kind of starting to it was wet dude a little bit it was wet and i was like i was just standing over there like and you could see it coming like right this is gonna be it so you have a little mental time and i was like you're kidding me this is going to be my first like game winning field goal and it can't be dry like oh man and dude no i was there for that game i was there for that game i was in the away on the away side the east side um towards the north end zone and so i was basically lined up with the line of scrimmage and it wasn't it wasn't a long field goal per se um but it was it was mid-range and i remember turning to my wife and going oh it's a little it's a little more moist than i'd like it to be like i i the boys the bull i hope the boys have it under control right here and when you snap that ball and it was clean and he put it down and miguel kicked it through i thought god damn it i'm proud of these men oh come on it was like a real dad moment man it was [ __ ] awesome i remember like kind of going nuts and whoever was next to me in the line like you know doing doing whatever and then turning around and miguel is on like the clear other south end zone with just people like swarming after him yeah but that was great um keith's too um like i remember going out there and his was like a 48 yard or something like that yeah so we were maybe 49 because i think it was like we were just a yard beyond the 30. yeah and i just like i don't really ever pay attention to the yard line that we're on sure um but we they called a couple timeouts and wandering out there for like the third time like huh we are a long ways away yeah um no his was his was great too just because the conditions like for him to make that was a great kick in the wind a little chilly and he did it like three times yeah so basically don't screw it up and yeah yeah um so the last game i want to ask you about is those are great obviously the the storm delay in 2019 yeah would have been your senior season the iowa state rivalry it was a [ __ ] thriller it was a [ __ ] month i mean it was you could see it the field was trashed those conditions are not ideal for special teams and you and the boys went out there and went four for four on field goals credit to keith right or yeah those through but i mean you're part of that operation like you had to feel pretty good about that day as well yeah um i think i you can probably attest to it too my mentality was always just get it back there and they will make you look good so snap it a little inside because at least then they can catch it in their body and it won't be out in front of me um i know right before half um i threw a terrible like rotating like it might have been end over end um but colton got it down made it like don't care you don't care you know and you know that you know that the next day you're going into film and you're going to see it on film and it's going to be like you're going to be like oh [ __ ] like that was i'm so sorry but like in the moment you're like hey it went through the post man it like yep we got it done i think it counts for me yeah but no that was uh and then being out there um there we uh i think it was my fault to be honest i just didn't like snap it um for a false start uh at the end right before yeah um right before they fumbled it and it was a delay a game and then like a false start so we just spotted them to 10 yards and i remember like hopefully we uh we don't need those 10. and and being on that play where it hits that guy's back and devonte falls on it i mean what what are you thinking then you're like oh my god like what that's such a relief feeling it's gotta be because i think oh for sure because i think everybody knew like they catch that they're they're going to i mean they're gonna there's a chance there's a chance yeah um yeah to see that i think i was just in such shock i had oh dude you just lose some body control like absolutely absolutely the entire game i had been quiet um watching with some friends and my wife here at the house and it hit the back and devonte fell on it and i i finally like allowed myself to let the walls down and i was just like almost insidiously like laughing giggling yeah like they [ __ ] it up they [ __ ] it up we got him again [ __ ] those guys you know like i'm just just going nuts oh yeah yeah it's amazing yeah i had a buddy on their sideline for iowa state um dressed at that time and we just talked about it like maybe this summer but he's like yeah we've like never talked about that play um because he was like if you look he's right there and i go just like screaming jumping past him i was like like i had no idea you were like right there but oh man but it was it was probably one of the most shocking things that you know oh yeah how was the locker room after that game oh on the like rowdy after being there for eight hours or whatever it was god and then um for my class obviously like we didn't play a lot of us as freshmen but that was five wins um yep that's that's that's that's pretty emotional to yeah to be your rival every time that you played them so yeah that's oh god that's great um one last question i [Music] i see you as a cerebral guy uh probably more than me you fall into this experience of like division one football like a lot of us walk-ons did and like then you look back and you're like holy [ __ ] like i really was one of the lucky ones you know like it's incred you look back at yourself and like when you were that eighth or ninth grade kid and you're like oh my god how did i out of all the kids get that opportunity right um aside from the football what do you think um what do you think iowa left with you or you took away from from that elite experience of a division one eventual scholarship and being able to be a part of an organization like that that that now you as an adult unfortunately adulting sucks but you know you're what are you 25 now i am yeah as a 25 year old young man like what do you take into the real world that iowa provided you um i think just the generic answer that i mean is true because it's just a testament to the coaching staff and what they put through you is just work ethic um like i sat behind you for three years and you have to again a cliche like act like you're going to be the starter so and if you're not there's enough dudes around in the weight room and at practice even for a long snapper they're going to catch on and notice that you're just kind of loafing um weak dog in the pack they're going to no they're going to cut go off um that and then um just oh it's it did change a lot of like i thought i was such a hard worker going in um and then you get around that um and it's just not just not even close to the case so i think that definitely has to be in just doing man i i'm not very articulate um but like just the day i think is however you want to say it um you know at iowa it's easy you have a goal um they have a plan you show up on monday chase that goal um i think the tricky part is when it gets a little more abstract in the real world um so that's kind of something that um been kind of trying to find but yeah i think that is that is one thing that iowa teaches you that you're not gonna make huge like the uh the slight edge no no huge gains in one day but what are you gonna do so it's that grindstone mentality for sure yeah well this was uh and the listeners can probably hear it we just went for oh an hour and 20 plus minutes and it was a [ __ ] pleasure for me uh we we really haven't uh connected or talked at length not even close to something like this since uh since i left man so to be able to catch up and and uh and talk to you has been an incredible one and i learned i learned you know there were some sincere questions that i had never asked or spoken with you about so um we need to uh we need to sometimes get like a specialist reunion going on like uh call it the call it like the 2015 or 2016 season when we had that huge group uh invite pro invite can everybody's coming back yeah kane train dylan kidd [ __ ] it get ron kaluzi in there like let's let's have a party and we're gonna have to work on it we'll probably have to bust out the football and work on him throwing throwing it around a little bit but um and it was fun to catch up and i'm so happy uh that you gave me the time man no i appreciate it i had fun uh like i said wash up walk on fans i don't know what episode this is but thank you guys for listening hope you enjoyed to get to know a little bit more about jax and super at the man and uh and we'll talk to you next time peace

Channel: Washed Up Walkons

Views: 834

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Id: bfiM2fH4OyQ

Length: 81min 19sec (4879 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 22 2022