From Hawkeye Football to Podcasting and Comedy w/ Louie Stec | WUW 596 - Washed Up Walkons

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fun one Today a walk On story through and through.
Louis Steck joins the show. Joined in the twenty nineteen class,
went through the COVID stuff, battled injury, fought his way
up the leaderboard, played special teams, a true special teamer
we got today. You're gonna enjoy this one. He's also
now doing his own show, his own podcast. He's into comedy.
This is one of those low key episodes that I

(00:20):
think will surprise a lot of people. Please enjoy. Sit back, relac,
let's have a.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Day, let's go, Welcome back to the Watcher walk Ons podcast.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Got a good one today. Our man Louis Steck is
in the house. I am going to sell you something
right off the bat walk On store up in the corner. Okay, yeah, stuff,
there's Grant. Well, it's gonna be real casual tonight. I
just started Grant early. Start. What are we doing here, Louis,
Louis been in here for this man was ready, he
was uh, he's been in here for four or five
minutes already. I was like, I don't want to waste it,

(01:16):
waste his time. You're good, you're good.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
But you're all good.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Well, all right, Louis nice to meet you, though.

Speaker 4 (01:21):
Man, it was Grant meet you as usually we do
this before the recording, but I was not. I guess
we're doing things differently today.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Hey he was. He was eight minutes early, seven minutes early.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
Yeah, you're all good. If you're not early, you're late.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
You know what I mean. I am early, which is crazy.
Grant Fields disrespected, but I but I was late wearing
the uh wearing the BMW hat uh still waiting on
the sponsorship. Grant need you to hook us up if
you can get us the Uh yeah, we'll see if
you can get us that connection Colorado on the side there.
Uh saw that? Did the Did the Stars come back

(01:57):
on the Avalanche? Last night?

Speaker 2 (01:59):
I was there?

Speaker 1 (02:00):
You went again? No, that's the only one I've been
to so far. I didn't go Saturday.

Speaker 4 (02:04):
I went yesterday, Stars having lunch and I went. Tickets
dropped like three hundred dollars during the day. I checked
at lunch. I was like, it's way too expensive, and
then my buddy sent me the DM music. You can
get in the building for thirty dollars.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
It looked so lit last night. It was crazy at
times and it was I mean, if you were rooting
for the stars.

Speaker 4 (02:21):
It was probably a different experience, but I was like,
I mean, I.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Was sitting there.

Speaker 4 (02:25):
The game lasted till like twelve forty five with overtime,
went crazy late and you know they scored. It's just
people celebrating, dancing in my face. There's streamers, like confetti
just falling in my face. I was just sitting there
all sad, and it was like, you know, like the Forst. Gump,
where like Lieutenant Dance just sitting there like the confetti's
just falling in his face.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
I'm moping around. That's what I felt like. I'm sorry
about that. This is about Louis, not about me. Yeah, yeah,
I just I just wanted to welcome you in and
give you your time. Everybody loves Grant around here. Grant's
our producer. Really, he's really coming the second host, Louis
as as you know, we'll get to it. Louis has
his own podcast, and consistency in the podcasting game can

(03:09):
be difficult at times. It's hard to show up week
after week after week. Grant is reliable. If anything, he
is just he's he's stone cold. He does his own
podcast as well. So anyway, Louis Stack's in the building,
maybe a name that many of you listening who clicked
on this podcast like, who the fuck is Louis Stack?

(03:33):
Who's this guy?

Speaker 3 (03:34):
For sure?

Speaker 1 (03:35):
And that's that is the reaction or first thought that
I had when I first saw your name pop up
on I believe it was just a clip on Instagram
of one of your shows that you've done or something.
And then I kind of thought back and I was like,
Louis Stack, that does ring a bell. I feel like

(03:57):
I saw that name in a jersey he was, he
was out there. I think I think he's one of
the Brethren. Oh yeah. And I did a little researching
and I'm like, okay, yeah. I texted my brother like
what about this Louis guy? Like, who's this Louis kid?
He's putting out podcasts And so here you are. I'm
really intrigued at what you're doing now. But I do

(04:21):
want to go back and give you the full, the
full treatment here of telling your story how you got
to Iowa City, maybe even further back than that. You
growing up. You're entering into your entry into sports. So
tell me tell me about where are you from.

Speaker 3 (04:39):
I'm so I'm from Chicago from Chicagoland area.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
Are you actually from Chicago or you're from Homer, Glenn
like Kevin Ward.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
I'm twenty minutes outside the city. So I'm like, yeah,
I'm not one of those. I've met those people that
are like, yeah, I'm from Chicago and they're from like Bloomington, Indiana,
Like they're so full of shit. But yeah, I've met
those people and uh but no, Yeah, I grew up
playing football. Started when I was like in the I
think it was like in the second grade when I
started playing football. I was a chunky boy. Uh fifth grade,

(05:10):
I was like, dude, I was like two hundred pounds.
I was like soberweight, but I was Yeah, I was
a heavy boy. Yeah it was tough. It was tough,
but yeah, so I just they put me on the
offensive line. They stacked there. I was playing d tackle.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
No fucking chance they're giving this kid the ball, probably
rules against it.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
They did.

Speaker 4 (05:27):
What do you guys got the patches in Illinois?

Speaker 1 (05:30):
Did you guys have those growing up? Uh?

Speaker 3 (05:33):
No, no, we did it. So they gave it the
ball once and I followed the fucking ball. Ah. Yeah,
so it was tough. I blew my one chance.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
In uh, in Iowa Grant, at least in Marshalltown, they
put the red tape on your helmet. I remember specifically
third grade cut off to run the ball was like
one one hundred and twenty pounds or something like that.

Speaker 4 (05:58):
Yeah, that's what the carra so is that the patches
were like if you had a certain number, it was
like it's like you were in general, but like if
you had a certain number of patches on your on
your jersey and then no, go don't give it.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
You can't give them the ball. It's not this guy
does not have any any war awards that he that
he won. He's just too fat to carry the ball
because no one can tackle him. Yeah, so okay, cool,
second grade. I feel like that's uh. I actually had
this conversation with my father in law the other day
about how a lot of the great athletes out there

(06:29):
are just naturally they're just naturally good at the sport.
And a lot of my teammates at Iowa like would
have this story where they started playing football in like
seventh grade or like or like freshman year. So I also,
I think I started in first grade. First second was flag,
and then third grade and then third grade was tackled.

(06:51):
So you're the first person in a while that I've
heard started in second grade. You were made for it.

Speaker 3 (06:56):
I guess so.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
But yeah, so I started the second grade and and
just kept going through it and then uh yeah, and
then basically so I you know, I was back here,
uh in Chicago. I'm obviously from the Burbs. So I
went to my high school, uh Nazareth Academy. It's a
good football school in Illinois's it's one of the best

(07:20):
I've you know, I've been around.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
One of these private schools, one of these.

Speaker 3 (07:25):
For sure.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
Yeah, shout out, shout out to the Pope RP recording.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
Winning But yeah, I was one of those private school boys. Uh.
But yeah I did. I got some you know, I
got some uh beat some great guys, got to play
on some great teams. I was a defensive lineman obviously
off of the lineman, won some state championships there, got
to play with some great teammate like Jajon McCarthy was
my quarterback in high school. Yeah, guys like that.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (07:57):
And then I got to play against like Tyler Nuban
who played in Minnesota. And then he's playing I think
he's playing for the Giants, so playing with against a
lot of great players. But like, so basically my store
how I got to Iowa, Like you said, I'm not
well known, I'll you know whatever. But basically how it
went for me, how I got recruited to Iowa is

(08:20):
I was a smaller kid, obviously very undersized. People say
I'm five to eleven. Goddamn it, I'm six foot, you know.
I tell people.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
Roster said six foot two forty six last updated.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
Yeah that's fair. I mean they always say, they're always like, well,
if you say they say that whatever your height is,
they say, subtracted by two and that's your actual height.
That's what all the coaches say.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
That was correct. That was correct for me when I.

Speaker 3 (08:44):
Was yeah, what'd you list your height as well?

Speaker 1 (08:46):
For some reason, they listed as six foot two twenty
on the roster. I was never six foot and I
was at one time two twenty but never really played
at two twenty. So yeah, I so you're a legit
six foot Yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
I'm like, I'm like, yeah, well they always, well the
coaches when they ever take when you go through those
camps and they check your height, they always like smush
your head down, like knock down the inches. So they're like, yeah,
you're five ten, and it's like, come on, man, like
what do you do? But no, they they but yeah,
So basically I went, I was going through camps, I

(09:21):
was undersize, I was not very heavily recruited. Yeah, and
I just you know, I wasn't get recruited at all.
So my dad's like, all right, well, we're gonna basically
just we got to get to recruited somewhere. We got
to get you to a school. So essentially he was like,
all right, you know this, you're not gonna win in
these like camp because a lot of those camps are
like combines where they want you to run your forty

(09:41):
yard dash, they want you to run, they want you
to jump and all that shit. And I was like,
he's like, you're not meant for that.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
You don't have the height. No, you're not that guy.

Speaker 3 (09:51):
Pal right. So he's like, we got to sign you
up in like hitting camps where you got to be
padded up helmets, shoulder pads and we just got to
go do board rails and do like one on one
pass rush like that's where you'll make your mark. So
he signed me up for like fifteen camps in the summertime. Yeah,
it was brutal. It was a lot. He's a psycho,

(10:12):
but he's like, we're gonna sign you up for fifteen camps.
We got to get you recruited. He's like, so we
got to go everywhere. So we went to South Kota State,
We went to North Kota State, South Cota, North Dkota.
We went to Minnesota. We went to the Northwestern Camp Indiana,
and then we went to Iowa and that was a
full hitting camp. That was one day and I had
a really good camp. I had a really good day.

(10:35):
You know. It was we went through the board rails
and basically just getting introduced to Iowa as well was
really really cool. But yeah, that camp was super sick.
And that was when Coach Morgan was still there as
a defensive line coach. He's the man. And yeah, it
was really really cool. And I knew they took it
really seriously as well too, because the first thing they

(10:58):
did was when we got into this camp, they basically
Coach Morgan said all right, we're gonna separate the D
line from group A and group B. And then I
was in Group A and he was like, Okay, everybody
in Group A follow me. And then he just kind
of like just said we took a knee, and he's like, listen,
we watched all your guys' tape. You guys are the
best players that we have in this group. Group B

(11:21):
is just gonna go do their own thing, you know,
and then you guys. Yeah, He's like yeah, and he's
like Group A, you guys are gonna go against ours.
Our top recruits are like once, you guys are gonna
get to show what you can do. So I'm like, oh, fuck,
that's cool. I was like they took the time out
of their day to watch or he took the time
out of his day to watch the film from these

(11:42):
high school athletes to you know, give us a shot
and see what we can do. And yeah, so first
thing we did was we went on the board rail uh,
and I went against I don't know who it was,
but he was being recruited at Iowa. He hit a scholarship.
I don't think he ended up going to Iowa, but
did really well at flapacked him. Uh did good on

(12:03):
the Boardrill. I'm a shorter guy obviously, so I have leverage.
So I just utilized that and then just doing well
on the boards, and then you know, I was doing
well and then coach Morgan pulled me aside and he's like, hey, man,
what do you what are you guys going on? Who's
recruiting you right now? I'm like, I got nobody. I
don't know where to go.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
I love the question, the questions always, hey, who's recruiting you? Yeah,
so they immediately want to know who they're in competition with.
It sets up their entire strategy for sure.

Speaker 3 (12:30):
And I should have just lied. I should you should?

Speaker 1 (12:32):
You should? You should have told him. I can't even
I can't even tell you that the names I forgot
all the off.

Speaker 3 (12:38):
Yeah, yeah, probably yeah, I had none at that point.
But yeah, so he pulls me side of what you
got going you know, who's recruiting you? I'm like nobody.
Just you know, I'm hit up camps and trying to
get recruited. Obviously I'm on your size. And he's like,
yeah you are, and uh, He's like, just keep doing
your thing. So then I just kept doing the board drills.
I beat the shit out of two more guys. And

(13:00):
then this is also when Polosek was there at the time,
uh coaching the old line and he was obviously screaming
he's a maniac, but uh, you know, he said something
cool to me after I like, I flat backed another
one of the kids I was going against. He was like,
I don't know who you are and what your name is,
but I want your name on my desk today. And
I was like, oh, that's pretty cool, so let let's go.

Speaker 1 (13:21):
And then I love to hear that.

Speaker 3 (13:23):
Yeah, I'm fired up. So then we go through board rails.
That's over. Did good on that, and then I get
the pass rush from doing well there. I was a
three technique, so it was just you know, just pass
rushing and beating some guys and then they had a
good camp. Man. I got recognized, and you know, I
there was also also a familiarity there because my dad

(13:44):
and I we talked to Kirk coach parents KFF. We
all call him Kiff after uh, after the camp and
uh he was actually I don't so the head coach,
So Joe Moore if you're familiar, so Joe Moore, he
was the KF was a gad notre dame I believe
when Joe Moore was coaching notre name I believe or

(14:05):
maybe it was a pitt. I don't remember what I
want to say it was Pitt. Okay, it was probably Pitt.
But my dad. So my dad played football Notre Dame
and his coach was Joe Moore. My dad was an
office alignment.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
So your dad and KF had like a ninety minute conversation.
Oh yeah, and you're sitting there like, guys, I'm is
this about.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
Me or what?

Speaker 3 (14:27):
Yeah, let's discuss my future here. Let's get out of there.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
Can I go here? Or like you gonna keep talking
about nineteen eighty one right exactly? But yeah, So they
were shooting the shit about Joe Moore.

Speaker 3 (14:39):
They were talking about that, and then basically had a
conversation with coach Morgan after the camp and he was like, listen, man,
we really like you. But he's like, look, man, this
is my last year. I couldn't even recruit you if
I wanted to. It's like, I can't even I couldn't
do it. And he's like, also, you're short of shit,
So I'm like, yeah, that's a good point. So he's like, look,
the best we could do is prefer walk and then

(15:01):
you know, maybe we'll get you in and then we
could go from there. So that was kind of like
the first introduction to like Bryce Morgan and all those coaches,
and then yeah, and then yeah, and then how how
did I get to or commit to Iowa? Basically?

Speaker 1 (15:18):
Who is it?

Speaker 3 (15:18):
Oh, Brian Farence came into my high school. I was
taking a test one day, so I didn't get to
meet with him. I had a final. It's kind of funny,
So my dad met with my dad and my head
coach from my high school met with Brian Farens. He
came in, they sat down, they did a meeting. I
couldn't meet with him. I had a test and basically
my dad sent me a text message in the middle

(15:40):
of it. He's like, talking with Brian Ferance now just
you know, we're shooting the ship. And then I get
a text by the end of that class, after the final,
he's like, You're going to Iowa. Just no, no decision
for me. I was like, all right, fine, but but yeah,
so he was like and then I just I didn't
get to have to talk to Brian. But then I

(16:01):
talk to my dad, I talk to my coach. We
discussed what they talked about, and I was like, Okay,
that's my best bet. It's my best shot to go
play Big ten football. So it's like script I'll go
so yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
Wow, that's why. Okay, that's that's hilarious. Yeah, there's a
lot there that I want to Yeah, go ahead. You
are you are what I call one of the like
you're like a golden goose, Louie Is. And you know
this because you're fifty episodes into your podcast, so you
know how to answer a question. Yes, and it's not

(16:34):
a good or a bad thing, but.

Speaker 4 (16:35):
For me, it is sounds like can you actually just
tast like just some of our previous guests.

Speaker 1 (16:40):
Well, I just want to go back. I just want
to go back to two episodes pull an answer. Oh
you're just gonna name names with them? Yeah, well I
said it in the intro of the podcast, like pulling
answers out of Connor Colby is like it's like dental work, dude.

Speaker 3 (16:53):
It's like it's like pulling teeth.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
Man. This guy, this guy wants to play football. He
just wants to hit somebody doesn't give a fuck what
the question is that you're asking. Doesn't care, Louis. I
asked one question. We're seventeen minutes into the podcast, so
this is good. So there's a lot here that I
want to take take apart. First of all, coach Morgan
told you it was his last year.

Speaker 3 (17:15):
Yeah, he was like, this is it man. He's like
I couldn't. He's like, I can't give out scholarships because
I'm not going to be coaching next year. So he's like,
I'm done.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
So yeah, wow, man, so upfront, Like usually usually coaches
aren't that upfront. I feel like even the good ones,
like even guys at Iowa, they like try to keep
stuff close to the chest. I know Reese wasn't, like
he's not KF right, Like KF is never going to
go to a recruit's house right now, even if next
year is his last year and be like, hey, I'm

(17:43):
done next year.

Speaker 3 (17:43):
You know.

Speaker 1 (17:45):
But it's just funny to hear that. It's also funny
to hear how open they were at the beginning of
that camp where they split you guys into two groups. Yeah,
And I never got to experience that because as a
long snapper, there wasn't enough guys at the camp to
really like And they also weren't watching tape of the
long snappers if they had tape at all. Right, and

(18:05):
half of you know a A. At the special Teams camp,
you might get like you might get twenty five or
thirty guys to come in. Half of them aren't even
yet to be crude, like yet to be recruited. They're
like freshmen and sophomores that are trying to learn. They're
just like, hey, yeah, it's an instructional camp. The other
fifteen think they're going to play college football as a
junior and senior, and then like there's five that might

(18:28):
be worth looking at it all. So there was no
like groups. So it's funny that they went through and
watched the tape of all of you guys. It doesn't
surprise me. Those camps are really serious, like the way
you described it, they do take those seriously. I'm pretty
sure that several of my teammates and guys I lived
with in college actually were on the radar. People had

(18:51):
seen tape and then they came to camp in the summer.
I know Ike Butcker was one for sure.

Speaker 3 (18:56):
He was like a.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
Quarterback athlete listed position, and he came to camp and
was just killing kids basically at everything. I think they
put him at like three different positions. He played quarterback.
He went and caught passes as like a tight end
and then he like, I think he took some sets too,
and he's just like, you know, athletes are athletes. So
that had to feel good when they put you in

(19:16):
the On the good side, you're like.

Speaker 3 (19:18):
Oh yeah, I was like, oh I don't suck.

Speaker 1 (19:20):
Yeah, I didn't waste my time coming here today. Yeah,
your dad committed.

Speaker 3 (19:26):
For you, basically. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
And earlier in the conversation he said, you said he
signed you up for fifteen camps. We have to get recruited.
He's a psychopath. Can you elaborate on that a little
bit more.

Speaker 3 (19:37):
Yeah, Well, he's just like, listen, dude, he knows the
game because he went through college football himself.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
So he played for Notre Dame offensive lineman.

Speaker 3 (19:45):
So he started out as a defensive line. He got
their recruit as a d tackle and then they're like,
all right, we're gonna beef you up. We're gonna make
you a center. So then they put him on the
offensive line and that's when Joe Moore became his coach. Yes,
and like, did he start and uh, he was a backup.
I mean he didn't get he wasn't a starter. They
he played under it's actually funny. So he played under

(20:07):
Lou Holtz as well, So Lou Holtz was his head coach.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
Legends.

Speaker 3 (20:10):
Yeah, and uh, I guess I don't know. There was
some tension back then with Chicago Boys and Lou Holtz.
I guess Lou Holtz wasn't a big fan of Chicago Boys,
so I don't know. Uh, so there was like some
tension there, but I don't know. It's just but it's
also he's playing again, like going behind some like guys
that I think the guy that was playing in front
of him at centers now he was like a Hall

(20:31):
of Famer that played for like twelve years and I
mean a d tackle too. I think it was a god.
He played in her name. He's a detect. Jerome Bettis,
I might have that wrong.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (20:40):
Somebody, I have no clue, but an NFL Hall of Famer.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
You're about you're I could be wrong on my history,
but you're about to get absolutely shredded for that. Jerome
Bettis comment.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
I know I I.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
You're young too, so I'll let it slide. Jerome Betts
played running back.

Speaker 3 (20:58):
Yeah, I'm so dumb.

Speaker 1 (20:59):
I've for the Steelers. He was built like a defensive tackle.
So I'm not going to put it out of the
question that he played the tackle, but I have no
idea where he played for college or what positions. I
trust you, though, did you? Yeah, that's okay, so you're
not gonna get treaded too bad.

Speaker 3 (21:15):
Okay, that's where I confused.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
He could have played d line. I don't know. All
I know is he played running back.

Speaker 3 (21:20):
Maybe when he was in high school he played.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
You know, he had the red line on his helmet too,
so he was definitely on the line. So wow, Uh,
of those fifteen camps, did you end up going to
all of them? Or did you get through so many?
And then like cause when you I'm I'm imagining this
is before your senior year.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
Yes, so this is the summer of my junior year
going into my senior year.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
So you know, the timeline for football really hasn't changed. Months.
You ball out your junior year, that's where you get
noticed on tape whatever. Then you go in camp, spring days,
junior days in this in the spring camps in the summer,
and then basically you know, that's how guys find a home.
It's the same way that I did it. I also
had the similar camping circuit. I went and camped at

(22:08):
North Texas, Northern Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Iowa State. There
was a couple more in there. And when you line
up a camp schedule like that, it is it's like
your entire summer. Yeah, you're basically just driving. There's some
that are like back to back days. You're like, Okay,
I gotta be in Iowa City on Friday, Nebraska on Saturday,

(22:32):
and then potentially like back at Iowa State on like
I did like a three camps And is that basically
what it was like that that summer.

Speaker 3 (22:39):
Yeah, it was grueling. It was literally just all of
my summer. My June and July just were hitting like
fifteen like because some of those camps are they can
be like two days, three days, and you know those
are those are long fricking days man. I mean spent
like North Dakota State. I remember that camp that was
a three day camp and you're just like dude, and

(23:00):
it's hitting every day. You got board drills every day
and then you got past and you're just like, god, dude,
I could be playing like PS four right now, what
do we doing? But no, But yeah, I was trying
to get it.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
Was like probably that was probably that was peak fortnit years.
You could have been grinding fort I know what was
I doing? I don't know, trying to get a scholarship.

Speaker 3 (23:19):
I guess I know end up going to Iowa anyway,
But yeah, yeah, those camps are brutal though, those are
like every day, long hours, just eats up your summer,
you know, of high school. But it was fine though.
It was you know, worth it made better player for
the season.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
So yeah, sure, at the end of that run, you
get into August, you're like, okay, time for senior year football.
What was your Where did you come out of that summer?
Like how did you feel Did you feel like you
had a chance at a couple of schools You said
you had a good day at Iowa. Did you have
good days elsewhere? Were you leaning one way or another
on this whole journey? Like up through middle school you're like, okay,

(23:55):
I want to play football in college. Maybe there's a
little your dad just like my my dad played at
Iowa backup center. Yeah, for a couple of years. So
there was always like there wasn't a pressure, but there
was always like if you want to play football in college.
You better go fucking get some repsent like all you know,
all this different stuff. So there's a little a little
nudging from from dad. Was the goal, like I want

(24:18):
to be a big ten football player or like I'll
go play wherever? Like what was what was your thoughts?

Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (24:24):
Since I was like a young kid, I mean, it's
been instilled in me to like want to go like
to that next level and be d one football player.
And I always knew I wasn't going to grow up
to be a six foot five, gigantic behemoth. I knew
that wasn't gona happen. So I was like, all right, well,
I gotta work hard and I gotta like work my
ass off to to have a chance if I want
to even make it to the level, even to earn

(24:45):
a scholarship. I mean, that's that's the goal, right. You
know it's hard, but yeah, I mean I was glad
I went through all those camps because it taught me. Okay,
it made me a better football player. Number one, number two,
it made me mentally tougher. That cliche that sounds, it's true,
And I was confident going into my senior year. But
I only had in terms of like schools and like recruiting.

(25:08):
I only had it was like Sue Fall South Dakota. Yeah,
they gave me a full scholarship that was D two football.
But I was like, dude, I don't want to go
live in South Dkota. It just looks brutal to me.
I was like, I don't want to do that. It
just it was far.

Speaker 1 (25:23):
So you had that offer going into your senior year.

Speaker 3 (25:26):
Going into my senior yes, I had that to play
D line and they were sending me, you know, all
their merch and all their stuff, and they're like, dude,
come on, and I was like, no, I don't want
to What are they South Dakota Cougars?

Speaker 1 (25:39):
Cougars?

Speaker 3 (25:40):
I think the Cougars. Yeah, it's like their colors are
like purple and white. I think they're Yeah, no, no,
the Sue Falls South. So like, yeah, it's like D two.
It's not the Coyotes or coyotes or whatever.

Speaker 1 (25:54):
Okay, okay, but yeah it could have been a purple cougar.

Speaker 3 (25:59):
I know. But but I was like, yeah, you feel good.

Speaker 1 (26:03):
You feel good at Iowa. Did you did you go?
You said you went to Minnesota? Like what were the
d other D one opportunities. What was really going to
compete with Iowa as a possibility coming out of that summer?

Speaker 3 (26:15):
So really I had nothing, man, I had like just
that one D two school and then I had like
no other D one interests really like nothing. I mean
I actually had a really good camp in South Dakota
or South Dakota State, South Dakota State Jack Rabbits. I
had a really good camp. I really performed well there.
I did good on the board drills, did good on
pass rush, and the D line coach did something that

(26:37):
pissed me off where he was hyping me up the
whole camp. He's like, dude, you're doing You're crushing it,
and older like D linemen were like dude, what's your name,
what's your contact info? Like what's going like you know
what's happening? Were recruiting all that, And then at the
end of the camp I went to go talk to
the D line coach and he's like, yeah, we'll get
back to you, and I was like, thanks, I appreciate that,
which means go fuck yourself, We're not going to recruit

(26:59):
you talk to you at all. So like I got
that and I was like at Iowa. They were so
honest and upfront. They were like, listen, man, you're short.
Like Coach Morgan was straight up honest. He's like, you're short.
We can't recruit you because you're a height. You know,
you're light. You know what can we do? You know?

Speaker 1 (27:14):
So, by the way, you're not the first to hear
from Coach Morgan that you're too short. He told me
that I was a thirty year starter, and he still
used to walk down the hall and say, man, I
wish he had a couple extra inches. Really, like, coach,
I've been playing here for two years. What I'm already

(27:34):
You don't have to say that, right right, Yeah, we could.
I wish we could stretch you out a little bit
more in the corner over there on the inversion table.
All right, well, I'm twenty one years old and I'm
on scholarship here, so I don't know what else more
you want. Coach. He was always just fucking with me.
But yeah, they are always really upfront. That's actually a
you echo the exact same thing from we had Max

(27:55):
White on Yeah, and he was like he said the
same thing, like BF just told it, told him straight up, like, hey,
here's here's the deal. You can come play special teams
like you might have a shot. It's gonna be tough.
And he just that just the honesty and yeah, just
sincerity just resonated with him and that's why he ended

(28:16):
up And I was citty too.

Speaker 3 (28:17):
Yeah, that's that's why there. I think they're one of
the best programs because they're so upfront and honest. I mean,
I I cannot stand that ship when coaches are just
blowing smoke up your ass. It's just I don't like personally,
I don't like being lied to. It just drives me crazy.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
Could you imagine now with the nil stuff for guys
that are really really good and they're like and they're
actually like they're they have to go back and forth
between all it do I take one point two million
here versus eight hundred thousand here, and how much smoke
they're getting blown up their ass?

Speaker 3 (28:44):
Yeah? Dude, did you see that the kid from was
it Tennessee? That quarterback?

Speaker 2 (28:48):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (28:49):
Yeah, dude, that kid literally got offered. I think he
I think he like held out. He was wanting like
two million something like that, one point a or two million,
and then Tennessee is like, dude, fucking kick rocks. Do
you need to get out of here?

Speaker 1 (29:02):
Him and them in UCLA now traded quarterbacks. It's like
the greatest thing. Yeah, because Ucla this off season, just
in December got a transfer from app State I believe,
is that right, Granton? That's true? And so he went
through three months at UCLA and now is going to Tennessee.
And Tennessee's quarterback is going to UCLA.

Speaker 3 (29:21):
It's unbelievable, so crazy, that's so wild.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
So okay, so when did this happen? Where you where
your dad commits die before you. It's just like winter
after your senior year.

Speaker 3 (29:37):
This is so this is heading into the spring. This
is like towards the end of like that last signing day.

Speaker 1 (29:42):
Okay, so you're getting down to it a little bit.

Speaker 3 (29:45):
Yeah, the clock's winding down. I had nothing, and you know,
Brian was in town that week that weekend. Uh, you're
just going to all the different types of recruit schools,
and basically I think he just went in when he
went into that meeting, basically he said, all right, we
have a spot for Louis if he wants to walk on.
And he you know, Brian probably just he just sold

(30:08):
my dad and my coach on it. It's a great school.
I mean, it's I was a great school. It's a
great campus, it's a great tradition. It's three hours from Chicago,
which was nice. It's not far. You know, I could
travel back and forth if I want to a lot
of great people. I had a lot of friends from
high school going to Iowa. So I was like, screw man. Yeah,
and he in his mind, he was like, you're going here,
you know. And he knew that too because I was,

(30:29):
like I told him before, I was like, I don't
want to go to South Kota to go live there
for the next four or five years. I was like,
I would rather go to Iowa if I had that opportunity.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
So yeah, So you walk Intoto, Iowa in the fall
of twenty nineteen. Yes, What are Louis Steck's expectations for
the next four years at that point?

Speaker 3 (30:49):
Well, I mean the goal is, honestly or obviously is
to win a scholarship, right, so you know, I'm trying
to I was a dtackle, you know that first week.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
I was.

Speaker 3 (30:59):
So when we got there, you basically had to go
through uh. I was with Doyle. I was with Doyle
when he was there still.

Speaker 1 (31:06):
Yeah, you had about ten months of him yeah.

Speaker 3 (31:10):
Before they you know, kicked him out, which was wild.
Oh my god, that was a crazy as time. But
uh yeah, So basically go through like there's like prepping
for Miami. It might have been the last week of
like fall camp, and we were going through like conditioning
and training with Doyle, and Doyle said something cool on

(31:33):
the first day when we got in. It was pretty sweet.
He was like, nobody gives a ship where you come from.
Nobody gives a shit who you are. We're just here
to win and we're gonna be bad motherfuckers. And I
was like, oh, okay, that's cool, and uh yeah. It
was nerve wracking though to that first week because I
didn't understand nobody taught me that you have to wear
like the socks they give you, or the spe like
the under it goes down into detail man like they

(31:55):
are with the shirt you wear, like you have to
wear everything. I wo was issued. If you don't, you're
gonna get You're gonna get bitch that. But yeah, I
was learning all of that and I was just getting
getting into it. But then obviously my freshman year, I'm
just thrown on scout team and I'm going against I'm
going against Like, it's so wild to think about it,
because I was going against like Linderbaum starting at center.

(32:17):
I'm going against Tristan pass rushing Tristed Worfs. Like, holy shit, dude,
I'm like, this is fucking wild. I was like, dude,
it was crazy. I was he was jiking, dude. He
had like bear miss He's so big, He's so big,
so big, And that's when he like had that famous
This is when he was going like viral on social

(32:38):
media where he was like jumping out of the pool.
And then he also was hand cliff hand cleaning like
five hundred pounds. You're like, holy shit, dude. But yeah,
he was just he was insanely talented. And then you
got Kyler Shott, who's very talented, very good player, you know,
a Larrence Jackson. He was a tackle, so dude, offensive

(33:00):
line I was going against. Uh, but I was just
stuck on the scout team. And then and then COVID happened.
Yeah at the end of my freshman year, which sucked
set everything back. And yeah, man, it was just that sucked.
That was brutal. I mean, we were home for like
two months, I think three months.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
Yeah, it was. That's so funny that you walk into
Linderbaum and Teat and were Patty.

Speaker 3 (33:23):
That's tough to crazy.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
Yeah, the like the semantic, like the little nuanced details
of like you describe it, like you got to wear
the socks and you got to be there at that,
like you need to be there ten minutes early, but
like everybody kind of shows up fifteen minutes early, and
if you're not part of the group that shows up
fifteen minutes early and you're ten minutes early, you're still
looked down upon because you weren't part of the group

(33:47):
that was. Like all these little like unwritten rule things
bring back like immediate anxiety to me. It's like, oh my,
And when you're learning all that stuff in the beginning,
it's it's like a like a water fall into like
you're trying to suck a waterfall through a straw.

Speaker 3 (34:04):
Yeah, it's just crazy.

Speaker 1 (34:06):
It's impossible. So I totally relate with that COVID happens.
My brother comes in, Uh, this is the only reason
I bring him up is because it coincides exactly what
that COVID year. So he comes in at the in
the spring of twenty twenty, basically rolls through the eight
weeks of winter and then COVID shuts everything down, and

(34:26):
everyone who has you know, who we've interviewed over the
past few years has basically been like, yeah, it was
just ass yeah. So yeah, you basically have one fall
COVID hits and now like, now what are you thinking?

Speaker 3 (34:41):
Like what is that? Like, yeah, it was. So it's like,
so we obviously we don't get a spring ball. We
were we were all like stressing out for spring ball.
We're like, oh fuck, because it's nice in the winter workouts,
you're going through it. You're like, all right, we're lifting,
we're competing. It's like the stats aren't I mean, obviously
everything is important, but it's not like you're not hitting,

(35:01):
you're not practicing, you're not doing anything any of that.
So in the springtime when that got canceled, we're like,
holy shit, dude, Like obviously it was just wild and
every you know, everybody has their own opinions on it.
Everyone has their own beliefs on COVID.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (35:15):
But we get you're an anti vaxer, aren't you.

Speaker 3 (35:18):
I am. I am one anti vaxer. Let your viewers
know that for Shore.

Speaker 1 (35:25):
Washton, Walking On is brought to you by Pfizer. Jab
it in your butt if you have to and get yours. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (35:35):
So but yeah, anyway, so COVID happens, We're all sentt home.
You know. Obviously it was weird because we were doing like, uh,
team meetings on zoom. You're doing position meetings on zoom.
And I was stressing out because like my I was
with my grandfather. I was at his house and he
didn't believe in Wi fi. You know, that was He's
old school like that. So he's like, uh so I'm

(35:58):
struggling just using if I sell your cellular phone to
basically connect it to my laptop. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So
obviously I'm stressed because like I actually I like, uh
basically like lost connection like twice in like a position
meeting and I had to like explain it to KB
and be like Lisa math, I'm so sorry. It's I

(36:22):
had no Wi Fi here. It's tough, but you know whatever.
So but yeah, so that happens. It was so strange,
it was so weird. And then yeah, we just we
get back and then it's like that condensed short season,
you know, it's only like eight games. Yeah, and going
through I'm obviously put on uh scout team again. But

(36:42):
it was I actually tore my hamstring that season too,
the day before, so it's actually funny. So they canceled
the season. It was a huge thing. We were already
back at this point, we were training, but we didn't
know if we're gonna have a season yet. And then
the Big Ten announces, all right, the season's canceled. We're
not playing football this year. So everybody's freaking out about that.
Everybody's pissed off. And then literally like two to three

(37:04):
weeks later, they announce they announced that the season's back on.
And before they made that announcement, I was running sprints
during lift lifts or conditioning or whatever, and then I
tear my hamstring. I like pulled my hamster really bad,
just ripped in ah so and base.

Speaker 1 (37:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:24):
Yeah, it was brutal and I had to sit out
for like all of fall camp. So I missed out
on all of fall camp during that like COVID season,
which was tough. But yeah, so you're two.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
Years in, you already know that you're as a walk
on short guy. You're behind the eight ball, like trying
to like get to this ultimate goal of scholarship and
playing time. Then you get hit with the COVID year
and a torn hamstring, like and I wish you knew.
There's a couple guys in my class that almost like

(37:58):
they have almost a identical story to you. One of
them's name is Jake Cwlett. We still don't think we've
had him on the show. We've had him, did we
have Jacon God? I can't remember at this point. That's bad.
He similar guy like d Lineman, Iowa guy, probably a
little short. He dealt with multiple injuries in his career,

(38:21):
just like could never find this, you know, the momentum.
So you go through that twenty twenty year, the calendar
changes to twenty twenty one, Like where are you at now?
Like in the like mental state wise? Yeah, so I
spent eighteen months in the program and you're like, okay,
where am I?

Speaker 3 (38:42):
Right?

Speaker 2 (38:42):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (38:42):
So that second year, so after COVID, Dallas Chakobz was
playing the mic, I was all backing up at the
mic and then we get into the springtime spring ball
and I'm number one on the depth chart for the
mic position. So I'm like, okay, that's good. That's a
slipper of hope. You know. I was like, Okay, I
can finally start getting on the field, start making some

(39:03):
reps or getting reps, and then start making my way.
So that yeah, that third season, Yeah I'm punt Yeah
the mic in the shield protecting the punter for people
that don't know, and yeah, I was getting reps on that.
And I was just trying to prove myself obviously through
special teams like most guys do. So it was the
mic in the shield, and then I started getting some

(39:25):
punt rush or I was on punt return. I was
getting some reps there rushing the punter. I was playing
kickoff return more, I was getting reps there. So I
was basically getting a lot of reps on special teams
that third year. And it was cool, man. I got
to playing some cool games, like we got when we
beat Penn State at home where we became second in
the nation for a week and then we lost. Sweet

(39:48):
we were dude, we were like, dude, we're ahead of Alabama.
Let's go. So I was.

Speaker 1 (39:54):
I was at that game as a lot of people
were and very sick, so sick to play in that game.

Speaker 3 (40:01):
Yeah, it was so sick. It was so cool. That
was That's when I'm like, okay, this was like things
are starting to happen, like things are starting to like
a my it's actually funny. So my head coach he
told me before I ever went to Iowa, He's like, listen,
because my my head coach in my high school was
a walk on as well. He walked on at Southern Illinois.

(40:21):
He was a defensive back. He went through the whole
fucking he went through the thing, you know, he went
through the whole schmiel. So he told me, he's like, listen, man,
you're gonna have to eat shit for like two years
before you see anything at all. He's like two years
of just eating shit and then you'll get to you'll
get somewhere. You'll you'll make it because he's like, I
know you work hard and you do what's right, which
he was right. I started playing more on special teams

(40:42):
and I just started getting those reps and then I
just started playing and then like I they call it
garbage time, but as a d tackle, I started playing
more as like we were up by like thirty to
nothing and forty to nothing, and just getting those reps
and yeah, man, it was cool. I was like, all right,
we're getting somewhere. So yeah, So that junior year, I
just played a lot more and got to play. I

(41:03):
got to travel with the team, which was cool, which
was a change up from being at home, because that's
that's the worst, dude, when you're at home and the
whole team's traveling and it just sucks. You're just like, God,
damn it, dude, this sucks.

Speaker 1 (41:15):
So yeah, So that's twenty twenty one, and then twenty
twenty two you get you're basically in the same spot,
still the mic on on punt, still rotating in for
some d line reps. Did you get more action though
in twenty twenty two it seems like you did.

Speaker 3 (41:32):
Yeah. So that that last year, like my senior year,
my fourth year, we're playing against South Dakota State. They
put me in as I was second on the depth chart,
so they put me in as the in the too deep.
So I was getting some good reps. I was getting
substantial reps. And then we played who was it? We
played at Iowa State. I was getting reps there, backing up,

(41:56):
rotating in, getting some reps, playing a little bit more,
and then we get to Rutgers and then basically I
don't know. I wasn't in the two deep anymore. So
they put Aaron Graves back there. Uh they didn't say
anything to me, but they put Aaron Graves. And Aaron
Graves is a hell of a football player. But I wasn't.
I wasn't. We got the big, big ten playing those

(42:16):
guys at Rutgers. They were like averaging three fifty and
I think they were like, yeah, this guy, we don't
know about this.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
So so there was a quiet shuffling of and Aaron
suddenly started taking Louise reps.

Speaker 3 (42:31):
Yeah, but and that's okay, I guess. But I mean,
Aaron's a hell of a football player. Aaron, Yeah, he's
He's a hell of football player. Hell of a dude too.
He's one of the best dudes ever. When I got
to know him in my last year when he came in,
I mean, he's just such a good dude. And I
he's he's crushing it. He's crushing it right now. So

(42:51):
you know, if it's anybody to do it, I'm glad
it's him because he's a hell of a football player.
So essentially I lost those reps. And then once that
happened where they kind of like put air in and
I wasn't getting as many reps anymore. I was like,
all right, I think it's like I think it's time
to close up shop. I was like, all right, I've
taken enough hits.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (43:09):
I was like, yeah, it's time to close up shop.

Speaker 1 (43:12):
So I was gonna say, if you if you search
Louis Stack and you pull up the Iowa profile, the
the bio stops after twenty twenty two. Everybody knows that
you get that COVID year you also had. You also
red shirted it in twenty nineteen, so theoretically you had
two years left of EID. Totally makes sense this young stud.

(43:34):
I mean, I don't know if people understand this, but
like Aaron committed so early to Iowa that he could
have maybe been a five star like out of high school.
But those recruiting services they kind of stop, like really
putting a lot of effort into like upgrading your your
ranking or your score after you commit somewhere that early.

(43:55):
At least that's what I've heard about. Aaron obviously still
a stud and he's gonna have one more big year
for the Hawks upcoming. So you're like, I don't know
if I just want to be the guy who gets
semi semi trucks run through my face on punt team
for another two years. No consideration, especially nowadays with it
like with a transfer, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (44:17):
Dude, I was like, well I had I was having
a lot of concussions took and I wasn't. I wasn't
telling that to the trainers. I only had like one
diagnosed concussion, but I probably had like fifty, dude, Like
when you're playing, Oh my god, I had so many.
Like I we were playing Illinois at Illinois and I

(44:37):
was on kickoff return and I went to this was bad,
but it was I went to go hit this guy
who was running down from Illinois, and I hit him
so fucking hard that I hit him and I knocked
him out, but also knocking him out, I knocked myself
out as well. So like when I hit him, I

(44:57):
literally saw like the color green for like thirty seconds,
and I was like, whoa dude, it was bad. And
also and when I hit him, everybody on our sideline
got fired up. They're like, well, this fucking guess and
they were, you know, all fired up. And then coach
Woods gets he obviously gets so fired up. Oh and
he was, and he was hitting me on my head though.
He was like and Jesus Christ, it was just it

(45:19):
was terrible. But yeah, like I had so many of those,
and I was like, dude, I can't do this for
two more years. It's just I'm taking so much brain damage.
It's just not worth it at this point.

Speaker 1 (45:30):
So that's it's a smart play man. You did the
Luke Keikley. Uh you got out when got out when
it wasn't right, So that god, that's crazy. You knocked
yourself out too.

Speaker 5 (45:42):
Oh, Like I was just I was out with like
my concussion after I like when you said you knocked
yourself out, Yeah, so I was out, but I was
like it was weird.

Speaker 3 (45:53):
So like I when I hit him, I like know
myself out and it was like one of those where
you're just like you stick your arms up a little bit,
but I was still standing. I wasn't like lacked out
on field, but I was just like I was out
of it, man, and like it was scary. I knew
something was off when I just saw the colored green.
I was like, this isn't good. This is bad.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
You're TV looking for a signal all of a sudden, Seriously,
it doesn't go back white Man.

Speaker 4 (46:16):
Because Antennas is out.

Speaker 1 (46:17):
What's happening? Oh crazy academic all big ten. Yeah for
the third year in a row in twenty two, Big
ten Distinguished Scholar. Yeah yes, Jesus man. All these head
hits and you're still finding a way to get it
done in the classroom. Coaches Appreciation Award on defense, Coaches

(46:37):
Appreciation Award on special teams. So you were like, you're
you're truly washed up. Walk ons being the best platform
for it. You were truly like you were the guy.
You were the walk on guy who you did it
all man like you other than getting the scholarship and
being one of like the starting twenty two, you got
the whole experience.

Speaker 3 (46:57):
Oh I got my scholarship, you did, I did get
my scholarship.

Speaker 5 (47:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:01):
When were you put on? Skolie So heading into that
final year, uh oh yeah, so KF.

Speaker 3 (47:10):
Basically there were some guys coming back because they had
a COVID year, so it was really weird with the scholarships.
He wanted to originally put me on for my junior year.
So my junior year he wanted me to put me on.
He told me after that COVID year because I was
performing well on like Scout and all that shit. So
he's like, we really want to put you on, but
there's just guys coming back because they got a COVID year,

(47:31):
so we can't put you on. So it's like, thanks,
that's awesome, but but no. So he basically told me,
he was like, for your senior year, we'll get you on,
and yeah, he just put me on, and it was
it was strange. So basically how actually how it went
down was he's like, all right, this is how we're
gonna do it. We're gonna put you on for the

(47:53):
springtime of your junior year, which is my fourth year.
And he's like, we'll put you on for that and
then we'll have you on scholarship for that fifth year. Well,
I wasn't. Once I stopped getting reps, I was like, dude,
I'm done, Like I can't. I'm not going to continue
to play, like I'm I'm getting head injuries. Like it's
really bad, Like I can't continue playing football. So I

(48:14):
went into his office. Actually I was like, listen, coach, parents,
I appreciate you know, the offer. I appreciate the scholarship,
and I was like, I'm not going to be here
for springball, you know, this year, Like I'm not going
to finish out for because the season was over for
that fourth year and then spring ball obviously. So he's like, Okay,
I completely understand. He's like, I get it. You gotta
do what's right for you. But he's like, we're still

(48:35):
going to honor that. We're going to keep you on
for that springtime. And I was like that's very cool.
I was like, thank you so much. I was like,
thank you so much, coach. I appreciate that. And so
this was this was before. This was right before we
were going into what was it called god Bullprep, So

(48:58):
we're going into Bullprep. So so yeah, so he tells
me that and then I get a phone call two
weeks later from him and he's like, Hey, Louie, I'm
getting on a flight right now. I'm about to go
do some recruiting, but I just want to let you
know you're on a full scholarship for your whole year.
He's like, we covered it. It's taken care of. We're
going to cover your fall in your spring for this year.

(49:20):
So you're on scholarship. You earned it. Congratulations, and I
was like, I was like, well, okay, that's awesome. And
I was like, that's sick and really just so fired up,
so awesome. And then I call my dad and my
dad's like freaking out and he's fired up about it
that I earned a full scholarship for my full you know,
my last year at Iowa. Yeah, and then yeah, it's

(49:41):
just it was so cool so far, and it just
shows how good of a dude he is. Man, Like,
he didn't have to do that. And when I went
in to go meet with like the lady who handles
the scholarship, she was like, hey, man, you know, I
just want to let you know, like he doesn't ever
do this. You're like, this is a very rare thing,
you know, so be happy that this happened. And I
was like, yes, I'm very grateful. I'm very happy that
this happened.

Speaker 1 (50:01):
So yeah, I'm I'm stoked for you that you got
to experience the the Scollie check hit to the account. Yeah,
those are nice. Those are big when they'll start coming in.

Speaker 3 (50:12):
Yeah, dude, definitely takes out a huge chunk of that
soon loan debt, that's for sure. Oh.

Speaker 1 (50:16):
Man, was there any part of that conversation that was
tough when you went in and you're like, dude, I can't.
I'm not going to be here.

Speaker 3 (50:23):
I felt bad. Yeah, I was like because I mean
even Coach Woods even told me I went back, like
a couple of years ago I had or a year ago,
I had a cousin who was at a camp at
Iowa and I saw Coach Woods and he's like, listen, man,
I wish I could have had you for another two years,
which was awesome. It's a good feeling that you wanted,
but you know, I just felt bad. I felt like
I was kind of letting him down because he just
did a huge thing for me. You know, they're putting

(50:45):
me on and I'm like I'm done, but I was
just like, dude, i cannot. It's also a lot, man,
I mean those those two years is a long time
at Iowa. I mean you go through, dude, It's like
you go through fall camp, you got winter, and then
you got spring ball and then it's just a constant
cycle that doesn't stop.

Speaker 1 (51:02):
Especially as a especially as a like the stuff you
were doing is great, right, Like, I'm sure if you
could have just signed up for punt team and some
kickoff or kick return and some punt return. You're like, Okay,
the problem is is if you sign up for that,
that means louis on the scout team getting his face
buried by Mason Richmond and Connor Colby. Like or you're

(51:27):
doing there, or you're burying them regardless, You're just no
one wins those, you know, Like, yeah, yeah, it's a lot.
That's a lot on your body to take. It's tough.
Clearly you made I mean, there's not many guys who
make the make the healthy decision and and get out
at the right time. And now you're in the podcast game,

(51:47):
which is that's fully need. Bro. I'm gonna get there
in a second, but I'm gonna do my podcasting duties here.
We're gonna shout out a couple of our sponsors. You
can see him on the bottom of the screen there. Oh,
I can't even point to them because I'm on the side.
Grant point to them. Hey, eagle point solar. How about
a little read for them? Huh. Energy independence is a

(52:10):
great theme as we get into the summer here, fourth
of July less than three months away, almost two months away. Additionally,
with everything getting more expensive due to tariffs, inflation, et cetera.
It's a great reminder to folks to control what you
can control. We can control your energy costs at Eagle
Points Solar by switching over to solar energy. No tariff

(52:34):
on sunshine. How about that, Louis, How about that tagline?

Speaker 3 (52:38):
It's pretty good.

Speaker 1 (52:39):
Sun doesn't send you a monthly in voice. So if
you can generate electricity from the sun, now is a
great time to act. They still have tax credits, energy grants,
and plenty of equipment in the US on shore to
take full advantage of going solar and gaining your energy
independence once and for all. No one can predict the
next eight to ten months, but what will be in place,

(53:01):
or what for what will be in place? But uh,
but they can get you solar today and you can
take take advantage of that. Shout out to Eagle Points Solar.
Our other sponsor is the IEWA Egg Council. Sure, I'm
sure that Louis had plenty of eggs during his time
at the University of Iowa. Might still eat eggs today.
I don't know what your diet looks like today, Louis.
If you're an egg guy.

Speaker 3 (53:20):
I didn't have like five eggs today, So yeah, I
just is what it is.

Speaker 1 (53:24):
There's a theme here. I have five every day. Carry
gold butter, delicious take, you know. I just take a
nice slab of butter, and then I like to pour.
I like to pour the scramble right on the little
bit of butter that hasn't melted yet, and then it
just spreads out from the middle and just every bite
is just buttery. Little salt yeah, oh yeah, a little

(53:44):
pink sea salt on there after they're done. Grant's got
up his egg intake, trying to get Grant bulky every day.
We got it up it though, more eggs, Highway Council,
this economy, bro, eggs are back down. I do this
for free. Well you find palettes of eggs. Yeah, actually

(54:08):
I bought a five dozen eggs from Costco on Sunday.
We do numbies. We do egg numbies around here. Podcasting
the back half, not back half. The backside of this
podcast is going to be about Louis Steck's simple podcast. Yeah,
tell me about it, man. You so again this is
how I found you. This is like, all of a sudden,

(54:28):
I see Louie's face in some very well edited cut
like not that we do a lot of like unbelievable
content editing like output around here. I mean, well, I
would love to have like ten clips of her podcast
put out. I just got a lot going on. But

(54:49):
I see clips of your podcast, and then I start
to see clips of like, oh shit, like he's interviewing Deontay.
He got to Deontay before we did Grant and then
he's got but like he just recently had on Luke Lache.
He's got all these guys. I mean, you know all
these guys, you played with them several years. You've been
out for a couple of years, but you know these guys.
Podcast is good. Maybe one of the most impressive things

(55:12):
is you're on like episode fifty coming up. Maybe I
think we record this on a Tuesday night. Yours comes
out every Wednesday.

Speaker 3 (55:19):
Every Wednesday, yep, every Wednesday at seven am, and tomorrow
be number one, number forty nine. There you going, forty
nine comes out?

Speaker 1 (55:26):
So that is I mean, you know, over the course
of six hundred shows almost on here, we've had multiple
people be like, yeah, you know, like the average podcast
only last seven episodes, right, I think it's the least
I don't even believe that, probably even less. And so
the fact that you were You've consistently pumped out almost
one a week for a year, it's impressive. Man, tell
me about it.

Speaker 3 (55:47):
Yeah, man, well I always everybody always wants to start one.
You know, everybody wants I was one in their mind.
They have a good idea of what they want to do.
And I was just like, screwman. I was like, I
know a lot of great dudes that have great stories
that don't get to you know, share them, and you know,
I think it would be really, really fun. And you

(56:07):
know that's obviously everybody. It's I think why a lot
of people they start them, but then they get asked
why are they doing them? Like they're like, you know,
everybody has podcasts, right, Like everybody and their grandmother has
a fucking podcast.

Speaker 4 (56:19):
And I was like, yeah, I was like I don't.

Speaker 3 (56:22):
I get asked that all the time, and I'm like, well,
it's just fun. You know, it's fun to just sit
down and just shoot the ship like we're doing right now.
We're just shooting the ship. We're having fun, we're laughing.
It's like anything else you do in life. But yeah,
I was just enjoying it, and then I was like, okay, well,
I was like, this is really cool. I'm enjoying this.
You know, I want to get better at this. So

(56:44):
I was like, yeah, let's you know, let's go let's
let's get better and let's go all in. So I
was like, all right, well, you know, I'll start getting
some cameras, start getting some lighting, get some good microphones,
and just slowly built up to that because most people
they make mistake when they start a podcast. They're like,
all right, I'm gonna blow six grand and then I'm

(57:04):
gonna get all the microphones, the cameras, the editing, all
this shit. I'm gonna hire like they do all this
and then they do six episodes and then it's over
and then you're like, I just blew six grand on
equipment that I'm never gonna touch again. So like, that's
that's the that's what a lot of people do, and
it's I didn't want to be that guy. I was like,
all right, I'll start off with no video. I'll just

(57:26):
do audio, just shoot the shit and talk. But yeah, man,
I was just like, I get to talk to people
i'm interested in. But you're right, though, it's like that consistency.
It's like, all right, I gotta like hold myself accountable
to like I gotta get one a week out. If
I don't, I feel weird. So yeah, the.

Speaker 1 (57:43):
Did you have any grand idea or plan for it
when you started it? Like, hey, I want this to
become a thing, Like I want this to become my thing.
I want to do this full time or it really
truly is like I'm gonna invest in it, I'm gonna
try and get better, but it's simply for my own
personal enjoyment and I don't care if it becomes a
money thing or anything like that, because I've done I've

(58:07):
done a little digging. I watched a couple of episodes today.
I skimmed through your current up to date setup. I'm
not going to drop the numbers on here, but I
know all of the numbers of what you're set up
probably costs, and how much you've you've dumped into it.
And it's not a small amount sure, So like what's

(58:27):
the goal? Like what's the goal? You said you feel
the pressure like, and I know all about that pressure.
We do two a week around here. Last season we
switched to doing four a week, five, five, a week
if you counted our our Patreon only podcast, So you're base.
I mean, I'm basically spent out one a day. And

(58:48):
that you start to put it out and people start
to listen, You're like, fuck, now they're gonna expect it.

Speaker 3 (58:53):
Yeah, and so what has that been?

Speaker 1 (58:55):
Like? What what are your thoughts on all that?

Speaker 3 (58:58):
Yeah, it's I guess it's like when you're on the
internet now and you're doing an episode a week, and
it's like, I don't like being the guy that says, oh,
I'm going to do all this. I'm gonna get all
this once. Wait till I do that, like and then
I just never do it because I just feel like
phony and fake. I just I got it. If I
say I'm gonna do it, I gotta do it. And yeah, man,

(59:19):
it's just And I also just look at it. It's
just a great for me. It's personal enjoyment, and it's
just a great way to connect with former players. But
also it's like with my show Man, it doesn't just
have to be football. It could be whoever I want,
Like it could be if hockey, dude, I could get
a high school coach. If I want, I could go
get I don't know a business owner down the street.
If I want anybody who I find interesting, I could

(59:39):
have on my show and I could talk to them.
Like that's the fun thing about it, and that's what
makes me want to continue to grow. And in my
football we're very well connected the football world, and we
know so many guys. You know, being in Chicago, it's
a very there's a lot of people here, you know,
so there's a lot of interesting people to go around.

Speaker 1 (59:58):
So yeah, I think what I find partial, well, there's
several things I find impressive about it from the the
podcaster side of things. One is like, again, what you've
put into it as far as equipment and quality wise.
But the fact that you're doing, like now the majority
of your episodes or if not like every episode since

(01:00:20):
for a while now is in person like you are
You're getting these guests to come to you or you're
going to them. That's something that you know, we're almost
six hundred episodes deep. We have a couple it's like
four maybe maybe maybe maybe a couple handfuls. I'm definitely
not more than ten that have been recorded in person
with like we just hop on. I mean, it's basically

(01:00:41):
zoom it's it's restream, but it's zoom and that's I mean,
we're almost a completely remote podcast. So for someone like
you to early on be so invested in having guests,
which is such it's a better conversation. I know you
have a couple where you've had guests like online or
through a zoom, but uh, it's it's that. I mean,
it's impressive that you've been able to get that many people.

(01:01:02):
I know we were in our conversation leading up to
setting this up, You're like, yeah, I'm going, I'm come
going to Iowa City trying to record a couple episodes.
Like this guy's putting in the work. Everybody needs to
go and check this thing out.

Speaker 3 (01:01:14):
Appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah, it's uh yeah, man, it's
just so cool. It's just like it's it's so easy too. Man,
you really think about it, like an hour or two
hour conversation, I feel it's like not crazy, and it's
just it's good. I agree that it's much I like
conversations in person because it's a lot more fun that way.
And you know, it's just the conversation is different in

(01:01:36):
a way, like I'm still having fun right now, don't.

Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
Get like this is no, I fully understand what you're saying.

Speaker 3 (01:01:39):
Yeah, yeah, it's just different. But you know, it's just
it's more of like I don't know, like I could
travel also and go to different places if I want
to in the future.

Speaker 2 (01:01:50):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:01:50):
It's you know, certain guys can't come out to Chicago
or Iowa, but I'm more than willing to travel out
to them and go shoot the shit with them. That's
no problem for me.

Speaker 1 (01:01:59):
So you're I mean, you're a couple of years out now,
do you have an enterprise leadership degree?

Speaker 3 (01:02:05):
Yeah, that's mye Whatever means passing.

Speaker 4 (01:02:11):
A proud bunch over over there, right, that's is that?

Speaker 1 (01:02:14):
Is that YouTube grant?

Speaker 2 (01:02:15):
Is that what it is?

Speaker 1 (01:02:16):
No?

Speaker 4 (01:02:16):
I saw I No, I was not, but I did
the entrepreneurship program Relapse a lot with it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:23):
It was a good group, got some good classes. That's
what I'm saying. I'm saying, we love but we love
them over there. Uh what do you do now as
a job that allows you to be able to have
that time to put into the podcasting.

Speaker 3 (01:02:37):
Yeah, so it's actually cool. So I actually had gotten
noticed through my podcast for like a media job.

Speaker 1 (01:02:46):
So check one for you. I'm o for on that
after six hundred episodes, so I must no.

Speaker 3 (01:02:53):
Yeah, but uh no we uh. I got noticed from
this this guy who owns this company who does social media.
He does like newspapers and stuff like that, and you know,
he loved the fact that I'm like interviewing athletes former athletes,
and he's like, hey, man, there, I got a job
for you. I'm trying to trying to like expand my

(01:03:14):
sports division with like my papers and all my stuff
and like my business. So he's like, do you have
any interest in like interviewing high school coaches athletes around
Chicagoland area doing all that stuff and like helping grow
this thing. And I'm like, yeah, dude, let's go sure.
And basically I'm just helping grow that business right now.
And basically I've what I've been doing is just interviews

(01:03:34):
with coaches and getting like media pushed out to all
these publications. So that's yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:03:41):
I mean it literally allows you to do basically what
you're doing. Oh yeah, that's incredible. Well, Grant, I'm not
gonna I'm not gonna keep you. I don't I muzzle you.
I was looking for the word muzzle. I'm not going
to mussle you this whole time. You got any questions
for that? Yeah, loois. So I was listening to also
some of the loustch podcasts. You you said you're doing

(01:04:04):
stand up right now or on the side a little bit.

Speaker 4 (01:04:06):
Sometimes, what's what's going on there?

Speaker 2 (01:04:08):
How's that?

Speaker 1 (01:04:08):
How's the experience?

Speaker 3 (01:04:09):
Like? It's fun, man, it's fun out in Chicago.

Speaker 1 (01:04:12):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:04:13):
It's like like just me and good people, man, just
hanging around the city. And like I've had buddies in
high school that we're doing it and they asked me
if I ever wanted to try, and I was like, yeah,
fuck it, let's suit.

Speaker 1 (01:04:22):
And give off Shane Gillis vibes.

Speaker 3 (01:04:24):
By the way, I've been told that. Yeah, so many
times you have no clue. Yeah I hear. We look
exactly alike and sound alike. So yeah, it's I get
it all.

Speaker 1 (01:04:36):
How how long have you been?

Speaker 4 (01:04:37):
How long you been doing this?

Speaker 3 (01:04:39):
Two years now?

Speaker 1 (01:04:41):
Shoot, dude, that's pretty good man.

Speaker 6 (01:04:43):
That's another thing where you you said, like, oh, average
podcasts like one uh one or two episodes, the average
stand up career has to be like one set max,
like one set, got super Scared left, So.

Speaker 3 (01:04:56):
Yeah, what does one set bombs? It's just like, oh
fuck this, I'm we're doing this again. It's like a
mob hit. Like you never tell anybody ever again.

Speaker 1 (01:05:04):
Very shameful. I tried stand up once.

Speaker 3 (01:05:07):
Yeah that's what most yeah, but most guys, but uh yeah, man.
It's like I looked at it like most people when
they get done playing college football or doing I don't know,
any anything, they're like, they pick up a hobby or
something where they're whether that's like rugby or they get
onto a like a softball team and all that shit.
And I was like, I was so tired of like
doing physical ship. I was like, dude, i gotta do

(01:05:28):
something different. And I've always loved stand up and I
was like, it's super fun and it's it's really cool,
and I've met a lot of great dudes doing it,
and so I do it. There's a club in Batavia
called Comedy Vault Batavia, and I go out there with
some friends and we hang out and it's really fun. Man.
Comedy clubs are cool. The coolest ship people are cool.
So no good.

Speaker 1 (01:05:48):
So you got like you got like a crew that
you're open to the club with. You're like Hey, look,
oh here's Louise.

Speaker 3 (01:05:53):
Guys rolling top tier is here?

Speaker 1 (01:05:58):
How many?

Speaker 4 (01:05:58):
How many does a week do you do this? Or
is like how frequently? Even if it's not weekly?

Speaker 3 (01:06:03):
Uh? Weekly, two to three times a week to go up?
Get up? Two or three times a week?

Speaker 1 (01:06:08):
Yeah, you got some like so are you even? Is
it just that you've got like you've got like you've
got a legit like probably what fifteen twenty minutes?

Speaker 3 (01:06:19):
Yeah about fifteen? Yeah, that's same, dude.

Speaker 4 (01:06:22):
It's just fun, man, it's fifteen's forever up there, I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:06:26):
Yeah, dude, fucking three minutes can be up there. When
you're first start, it's forever. You're shit, Oh god, it's
just it's awful. But it's when you're doing it. It's fun.
You're hanging out with good buddies and you're doing well.
Yeah it's going well, but it's uh no, man, it's
just fun to do. It's just awesome. I enjoy it.
And I don't know, I don't mean to be like

(01:06:47):
a I don't like I'm a creative or anything like that.

Speaker 1 (01:06:51):
I just I like having fun And just dude, you're
so artsy, bro.

Speaker 3 (01:06:54):
I'm such an art artist.

Speaker 4 (01:06:55):
Dude, a young van go sitting across from us right now.

Speaker 3 (01:07:02):
But yeah, no, it's just it's fun. That's like the
core foundation of it. I just like, I just like doing.
Like obviously, I have my job right now, I'm doing
what I'm doing. Obviously brings in the income, that's what
you need obviously, But then I try to just find
things that I like to do, and doing my podcast
I enjoy doing stand up is fun. I get called

(01:07:23):
Shane Gillis Joe Rogan all the time. It's so annoying,
but it happens all the time. But it's just fun.

Speaker 2 (01:07:28):
Man.

Speaker 3 (01:07:28):
I just like doing these things, and I'm just gonna
continue to do things that I enjoy. Yeah, and that's
that's about that. So nice.

Speaker 1 (01:07:36):
No, I think it's good.

Speaker 6 (01:07:37):
Like I think a lot of people too, like want
like you mentioned earlier, they want to try things, but they're.

Speaker 1 (01:07:42):
Kind of scared times, like, oh, they're gonna make fun
of because of most people are pussy. Like never most
people are pussy and they never do what they Oh,
I'd like to do this some day. I'd like to
try that, all right, cool see in thirty years. Yeahs,
I'm the average guy who just wishes he would have
done this twenty years ago. It's like it is what
it is.

Speaker 4 (01:08:00):
So then like, outside of like Shane obviously, it seems
like you're a fan of his.

Speaker 1 (01:08:05):
What is like?

Speaker 4 (01:08:06):
Who are some guys you like in the comedy world?

Speaker 3 (01:08:08):
I like obviously, Shane's awesome. I'm a big fan of
Louis c K like Louis. I'm a big fan of
Daniel Tosh. I don't think is underrated. Dude, Daniel Toss
is hilarious. Yeah, he's I'm gonna go see him in
June at the Chicago Theater. Yeah, he's a top tier.

(01:08:29):
He's top tier. And then who else? I loved Chappelle.
Chappelle kicks ass. And then I like bil Bert Bilburr
is awesome too. So those guys are pretty good. I
like him.

Speaker 4 (01:08:41):
No, I respect you, Saint Tosh because everyone I mean
to Pointo is hilarious obviously, but.

Speaker 1 (01:08:45):
His stand up's really good, stand ups pretty I'm a
jessel Nick guy. I like Jessel Nick.

Speaker 3 (01:08:52):
Just Nick's good too.

Speaker 1 (01:08:53):
I like his style really fits me. That's like, if
I was going to get up and do it, I
would be I would do it that way, slow, dark humor.

Speaker 4 (01:09:02):
It's very his is like demented.

Speaker 1 (01:09:04):
It's like, yeah, Jess murders cool, that's a good fine grant.
I wouldn't have I wouldn't have found that that that
louis a real comedian.

Speaker 3 (01:09:16):
I wouldn't say real, but I'm all right if.

Speaker 4 (01:09:18):
You if you're going on a weekly base or multiple
times a week for two years, like.

Speaker 1 (01:09:22):
That's just I would say, I would say you're a
novice comedian.

Speaker 3 (01:09:27):
Yeah, I guess so, I guess you could say that. Yeah.
It's it's fun, it's uh, it's wild. You run in
some wild people. I'll tell you that. I mean these
do it and open mics some people.

Speaker 4 (01:09:39):
Some examples are or something. Do you want to share.

Speaker 1 (01:09:45):
Math heads?

Speaker 3 (01:09:46):
Yeah, dude, like people who were just out of their minds,
like just homeless people, like genuinely homeless people will walk
into a bar and just like I'm gonna kill tonight,
I'm gonna try.

Speaker 1 (01:09:57):
I'm gonna give you the best five minutes you ever.

Speaker 3 (01:09:59):
Heard, Yeah, dude, And they can't speak, they just they're
just mumbling into the mic and you're just like, oh
my god. Yeah, so yeah, that that happens quite often
those in the city. It's wild, Like sometimes they could get.
It's just weird down there. Yeah, you just gotta be careful,
especially when you're down there. I like staying in the

(01:10:20):
burbs where I'm safe. Yeah, I don't like going down
there at night. I try to be uh, you know,
I try to be safe. So but yeah, man, there's
some there's just gonna be some odd people you run into,
just some psychos, but you just gotta avoid them, just
got to block them out and just keep doing new things.
So yeah, I feel like that's a lot of things too.
You're running some cycles at work, you know. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:10:43):
No, there's a ton people out there now.

Speaker 1 (01:10:44):
They're not just all at the comedy club in the
in your neighborhood.

Speaker 3 (01:10:49):
Around the street in Chicago. They're everywhere. Yeah, but yeah,
so yeah, it's.

Speaker 6 (01:10:55):
Been fun, nice anything else, correct, No, I mean I
was was excused, but we got a ton of stuff covered.

Speaker 1 (01:11:01):
Louis tried to try to get as much as we could.
Always welcome back, man, We appreciate you coming on.

Speaker 3 (01:11:06):
Yeah, boys, thank you, Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (01:11:09):
Everybody. Hope you enjoyed listening to Louie Steck. Go check
out his podcast. He's got a ton of episodes. Like
he just said, he's almost at fifty. Doesn't sound like
he's stopping anytime soon. We are coming up Grant and
I and Kevin supposedly sorry, Kevin could be here tonight.
By the way, this guy all he does is work
a real job. Just total bullshit. We'll be recording episode

(01:11:30):
six hundred tomorrow night. We're excited for that one to
come out in a couple weeks, with a legend several
more in between. There a couple more guests lined up.
We're excited to bring all of that to you. We'll
see you then until next time. Peace. Hey, thanks for
listening to the show. If you want more, you can
check us out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube by

(01:11:51):
searching Washed Up walk Ons. And if you're interested in
supporting the show, head over to patreon dot com slash
washed Up walk Ons, where you can find bonus podcasts, merchandise,
and other cool perks. Best part, half of your subscription
benefits the kids at UI Children's Hospital. We'll see you
next time. Hawks. Buy a million

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From Hawkeye Football to Podcasting and Comedy w/ Louie Stec | WUW 596

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}From Hawkeye Football to Podcasting and Comedy w/ Louie Stec | WUW 596