Tuesday talk -- Michigan

Renaissance man

An ESPN crew set up an pile of lights prior to Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz's press conference Tuesday.

It was a College GameDay crew in to interview senior guard Julian Vandervelde. The hook, as far as I understand, is Vandervelde's worldly ways.

The worldly likely include:

-- Singing the national anthem prior to President Obama's visit to the UI campus in April.

-- His appearance as a member of the Davenport Little League baseball team that competed in the 2000 World Series in Williamsport, Pa.

-- His three appearances on the Big Ten all-academic team.

-- His double major of English and religious studies with a minor in Japanese.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz flashed back to the 2006 Alamo Bowl, when Vandervelde, then a true freshman, sang the theme to the "Phantom of the Opera" at a group setting.

"He sucked everybody in and just belted out the theme song from the 'Phantom of the Opera,'" Ferentz said. "That was good. That was kind of my first exposure to some of the diverse talents that he has. He's a delightful young guy, has been a very good football player for us, too, but a delightful young guy, and I'd venture to say probably has as diverse interests as anybody we've ever had come through the program."

Vandervelde has an active mind. He has an NFL body and NFL strength. So, what's he going to be when he grows up?

"That is a good question," Vandervelde said. "When am I going to grow up, I don't know?"

His first thought is teaching. Here, Japan or somewhere.

"It could be college, it could be high school, I want to teach something," he said. "I want to pass something on."

Probably college, though. The Renaissance man has picked up some salty language after five years in a Division I football program.

"I feel like my vocabulary would be more suited for a college classroom," he said. "I don't think you can swear at high school kids. Either way, it'd be a lot of fun."

I put him on the spot and asked if he knew any Japanese. He declined to speak the language. Camera shy, perhaps?

"I haven't spoken it in like six months," Vandervelde said. A Japanese minor is two or three years of Japanese, a lower-level Japanese history class and an upper-level Japanese literature class.

Is it harder to write Japanese than it is to speak it?

"It's amazingly hard to write it," Vandervelde said. "It's nearly impossible. It's crazy. Even for kids over there. With computers nowadays, they're starting to lose the ability to physically write it out because everyone just types it. It's crazy."

Yes, ESPN was in town Tuesday to interview Vandervelde, but he was quick to point out that he's not the only player on the team with interests that reach beyond the football field.

If Iowa does something interesting this season -- BCS-interesting -- maybe you'll see the art of defensive tackle Christian Ballard, who's an art major.

Hyde brothers

In last week's victory at Michigan, Michigan State safety Marcus Hyde led the Spartans with seven tackles to go along with a pass breakup in a 34-17 win.

This week, Iowa cornerback Micah Hyde will try his luck against Michigan and quarterback Denard Robinson.

Yes, Micah and Marcus, Fostoria, Ohio, natives, are brothers.

Marcus is a senior strong safety for the Spartans. Micah is a sophomore corner for the Hawkeyes.

Big week last week for Marcus Hyde and the Spartans. Their mom, Pam Hampton, got caught up in it at Michigan Stadium.

"My mom was excited," Micah Hyde said. "She texted me every single play he made. Marcus did this, Marcus did that. But she was excited. She's real high on Michigan State right now."

This weekend, Hampton will be in Iowa City for the first time, but not the last this year, Micah said.

Hampton is following the undefeated Spartans pretty closely this season because it is Marcus' senior year. This is the farewell tour. Micah is OK with that.

"We're both No. 1 to her," Micah said.

Marcus Hyde already has 20 tickets lined up for when the Spartans travel to Kinnick Stadium on Oct. 30. Micah is working on his teammates and hopes to do better than the allotted four each player gets. One thing that might skew the deals for Marcus is if both teams are undefeated in the Big Ten.

Last season, Hampton wore a Michigan State jersey when the Hawkeyes toppled the Spartans on the final play of the game in East Lansing. The plan has changed to a more neutral piece of clothing for this year's rematch in Iowa City.

She'll wear a sweatshirt -- "A sweatshirt with little Hawkeye and Spartan stuff on it," Micah said -- that represents both schools. Family members will be wearing T-shirts.

"When it comes down to it, we're brothers," Micah said. "We'd like to see each other do well, but then again, we want to knock each other's head off when we get the opportunity."

Last season in East Lansing, Micah ran into Marcus after a play was over.

"He just turned around and smiled," Micah said. "It was pretty funny. It's just fun."

Football IQ

Quarterback Ricky Stanzi is off to a monster start this season.

Stanzi leads the Big Ten with a 176.8 pass efficiency rating. He's third in the league with 245.2 passing yards a game. He's sixth in total offense at 243.2 yards. His 10 TD passes are tied for fourth in the Big Ten, whose top 10 QBs, collectively, have thrown 92 TD passes to just 35 interceptions.

These are career numbers for Stanzi.

You heard offensive coordinator Ken O'Keefe speak last week about Stanzi's work ethic. ("Certainly, he prepares probably better than any guy we've had, spends an enormous amount of time on that," O'Keefe said.) Ferentz brought it up again Tuesday.

Stanzi was asked how his football IQ has grown from 2009 to now. Stanzi has always been a winner, his 22 wins are No. 8 among active FBS QBs, but there were rough moments in '09, a season in which he threw 15 interceptions.

Now, Stanzi is third in the nation in pass efficiency and one of only two QBs in the country who average more than 10 yards per pass attempt.

"I guess at times [his football IQ last season] might've been in the single digits, right? You could put it wherever you want it," he said.

Stanzi doesn't think his knowledge of the game has changed as much as it's been grown and refined and is now fully powered by five seasons in video study.

"When you get here, so much information is thrown your way as a football player that you don't have presented to you in high school because you don't need to be presented with it," said Stanzi, whose record as a starter is 22-5 (13-2 at Kinnick and 11-4 in the Big Ten). "I remember coach O'Keefe telling me on my high school visit, when you leave here, you'll know football.

"He wasn't lying. I've learned so much about the game of football, the checks, the fronts and little things that people don't even think about. You're football IQ jumps a little bit each year. I think that's natural if you're doing the right things as a program and watching film in the offseason and paying attention during the week.

"You're going to continually get better at that. It's kind of natural and goes with anything in life. The more you do it, the better you're going to get at it. We would hope that our seniors would have the best football IQ you could have on this team. From there, you can teach the younger guys and they'll kind of get it. And when they get older, they can pass it down."

Stanzi doesn't get too deeply into the amount of time he's spent in Iowa's video bays ("We're here everyday and we're probably watching about three to four hours of film," he said). He even said the offensive linemen, as a group, are the last ones out, with their mopeds piled close to the doors of the Hayden Fry Complex.

"There are a lot of nights here where we'll stay until 10 or 11," Stanzi said. "You never want to leave without being sure about something, so you stay as long as you need to.

" . . . The main thing is you want to be confident and you want to be comfortable. That's how you play your best. The only way to do that is to watch as much film as possible and to watch everything and to know you've seen it all. Now, you can just go out and play."

That's why your quarterback is 22-5.

Coach Ferentz - 10 12 10