Q&A: Former Iowa QB Ricky Stanzi on competing, kinetics and learning to lead

IOWA CITY, Iowa — As a three-year starting quarterback during an era commonly referred to as Kirk Ferentz 2.0, Ricky Stanzi became the face of the Heart Attack Hawkeyes that gave Iowa fans more coronary damage than pregame bratwursts.

Stanzi was the first Iowa quarterback to win three bowl games (since equaled by Nate Stanley) and captained the Hawkeyes to an Orange Bowl victory, an 11-2 overall record and a No. 7 finish in 2009. That year, he engineered the Hawkeyes to four fourth-quarter comeback victories but also threw five pick-sixes. Among Iowa quarterbacks, Stanzi ranks fourth in career passing yards (7,377) and touchdown passes (56). He also generated a 24-9 record as a starter.

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In 2011, the Kansas City Chiefs drafted Stanzi in the fifth round. He then became a journeyman with stops with Jacksonville, Houston, the New York Giants and Detroit. He also played in other non-NFL ventures. A Mentor, Ohio native, Stanzi, 33, lives in the Cleveland area with his wife and three children and works as a master coach with GOATA (Greatest of All-Time Athletes) dealing with slow-motion movements.

Stanzi remains a beloved figure at Iowa. Last year in a night game against Penn State, Stanzi was the honorary team captain and received the loudest ovation during a reunion of the 2009 team. In this interview, Stanzi discusses his new career, his current dealings with Iowa’s coaching staff and the rough-and-tumble 2010 football season.

The Athletic: Ricky, you’re all over Instagram and other platforms with movement videos and memes. What is it you exactly do these days?

STANZI: I work for a movement system called GOATA. I’m one of the professor coaches in the system. We’re a slow-motion evidence-based system. A lot of what we do is learning how to watch tape, learning how to assess good movement and bad movement and then really go about fixing people’s errors. So, I’ve been doing that for about a full year now.

Could you explain more about how you do that?

The cool thing about GOATA is that what we’re doing here with slow-motion evidence is we’re showing human beings that there is a blueprint to how they move forward through space. The question that we aim to answer is how does a body travel through space for a lifetime and never get hurt for no apparent reason? Because we live in a world now with non-contact injuries. Basically, I throw my back out. I’ve got knee tendinitis. I’ve got foot tendinitis. I’ve got hip pain, back pain. None of its explained, right? It just it’s a random pain that comes from nowhere. What’s the issue here? So, using slow motion, we’re able to find the blueprint, and the blueprint really applies to all humans.

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A lot of athletes come to us because obviously, we’re trying to take the non-contact ACL and Achilles shred off the table. And since that’s so prevalent in sports, the athletes find us. But, to be honest, we’ve got a lot of coaches that deal with the general population, people that are just working a regular 9-to-5 (job), and they’re trying to get out of pain.

I know there are plenty of issues with young women who play basketball just based on body structure.

It’s terrible, man. It’s really bad and it’s something that we aim to fix because we know that we can fix it. We’ve had no non-contact (injuries) for going on five years now. We feel very strongly about what we’re doing, and you’re absolutely right. The ladies are unfortunately at a higher risk, just because of structural differences in their makeup, but we do have people that are working with the women’s basketball demographic and the women’s volleyball demographic, and they’re seeing it, which is good. We’re starting to make a change in that arena.

How did you get interested in this?

When I got out of Iowa, I first started working with Tom Martinez, and he was Tom Brady’s throwing coach since he was 12. Tom Martinez was using slow motion. He was using Tom Brady. We were watching tape, we were watching mechanics, he was talking planes of movement and different concepts that I just hadn’t really dove into yet. So, he kind of started it and piqued my interest.

It just started to kind of snowball from there. One thing led to the next, and I started trying to fix my own throwing motion. I just couldn’t figure it out. My movement started to regress and my skill set was diminishing and I wasn’t productive in the NFL. So, I kept trying to search for answers because I was trying to stay on a roster. I was a third-string, second-string-at-best guy who was trying to stay on a roster, so any edge I could get, I was going after. I couldn’t figure out why my own body wasn’t doing what I wanted. I just kept searching and searching and searching. It was really a full circle comeback to the slow-motion evidence.

I always pictured you as a college coach, especially working with quarterbacks. You had everything it seemed to take on that type of role. Is that an aspiration for you?

People always ask the same thing that you’re kind of hinting at. “Don’t you want to coach?” To be honest, being in the system and going through college, going through the NFL and seeing how much demand is on a coach from a time standpoint, I never really wanted it. I felt like I would be away from the family always. I love the X’s and O’s, I do. I think the game is beautiful, and it’s fun to watch.

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But for me, my true passion was the deep dive, the X’s and O’s, of the biomechanics. The actual movement that’s taking place. I was so fascinated with the movement that I just kept going back to it. The X’s and O’s were great, and they’re fun to talk about, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the movement. So that was really where my true passion was going. The best thing is that I still get to teach. I still get to coach. I just get to do it with a different lens or a more focused lens on the movement, and it allows me to really span out and kind of coach many different athletes.

Stanzi has remained tight with the Iowa coaching staff, especially when former offensive coordinator Ken O’Keefe returned as quarterback coach in 2017. Last spring, Stanzi joined O’Keefe in Zoom chats with Iowa’s current group of quarterbacks.

I understand you have spoken recently with (Iowa QB coach) Ken O’Keefe and some current Iowa quarterbacks. What have those interactions been like?

It’s been awesome to get back in touch with Coach O’Keefe and to talk with him. For me, just growing up and maturing and in looking back, I really have to tip my hat and thank him personally for what he meant to my career. Not only from a recruiting standpoint or just giving me a chance, but then all that he did for me at Iowa to keep me focused and understanding the detail that is needed to operate that offense and to be the guy that everybody looked to. He was a great leader. He was like a father figure. He kept you in line and kept you moving.

I think your immaturity as a young college kid, you don’t realize what the coaches with the tough love are trying to do for you. Kind of looking back now and having kids and getting to talk with Coach O’Keefe at length, I really appreciate everything he did for me. So, it was pretty cool to sit there and 10 years removed from it, to go back and talk to this next wave, the next crew of QBs that are coming in and there’s been a lot of great play at that position lately. The way Nate Stanley handled his business, he did a tremendous job.

What did you think of Iowa’s quarterbacks from your conversations?

I think Spencer (Petras), it’s really a shame that this season has played out the way it has. He was fired up. Spencer was just super curious. He asked a lot of great questions, really detailed, very focused on how can he get better, how can he understand the game better? How can he understand his own movement better? So, it was really a pleasure to kind of talk with him and talk with some of the younger guys. Then Spencer and I were able to kind of chit chat about movement a little bit past that, which was cool, too. So, it was fun to be able to talk to those guys and revisit some old memories and try to give them some things that may help them in their journey in Iowa.

You had some discussions with 2021 quarterback commit Joe Labas of Broadview Heights, Ohio, which is south of Cleveland. How did you get involved?

Coach O’Keefe was kind of like, “What do you think of this guy?” I took a look at him, and he’s from our area. He’s a good athlete. He moves well. He’s got a quick release. He’s got good feet. He makes plays on the run. He can improvise out there. So, it’s exciting to see another guy from the area go to Iowa and get to go out there and show his stuff and get to learn under Coach O’Keefe and Coach Ferentz.

Stanzi participated in The Athletic’s oral history of the 2010 Iowa-Wisconsin game, which not only highlighted one of college football’s greatest games of the 2010s, but also brought context to how the game impacted the season and the era for Iowa football. It was a 31-30 loss that stands out as the woulda-coulda-shoulda game of the 2010 season.

Iowa entered that year as defending Orange Bowl champions after an 11-2 record. With Stanzi and 14 players with Big Ten recognition returning, the Hawkeyes began the season ranked eighth nationally and had league and national title aspirations. Instead, it was the most disappointing season of the Ferentz era.

Unlike in 2009, when every close game seemingly went in Iowa’s favor, the outcomes flipped in 2010. In the Hawkeyes’ four Big Ten defeats (Wisconsin, Northwestern, Ohio State and Minnesota), they led inside of five minutes remaining in each one. All of them were excruciating in their own way, as was a 34-27 early loss at Arizona. The Hawkeyes were tied with 4:10 left in that game before Nick Foles led a game-winning drive.

Iowa was in a position to win all five games it lost in 2010. What do you think kept that 2010 team from breaking through in those close losses?

We never got the footing that we needed at any point in the season. It was kind of like the same momentum kept repeating itself. We got into a close game, and the waning moment or the last moments of the game escaped us.

I’m a guy who looks in the mirror. So when I look back on that, I didn’t have the killer instinct that I should have had in the Arizona game, in the Wisconsin game, in the Ohio State game. Those are games where if you want to make an impact, if you want to have your name out there, if you want to be in the discussion with the elite quarterbacks, you got to have them. You’ve got to at least have the three games, maybe not all three, but you’ve got to (come through in) at least two of those moments. So for me, looking back, that’s a situation where, man, I kind of shake my head and I tip my cap to the game because it’s always a teacher. The game demands your respect. The game demands your attention. The second that you let off the gas pedal in any way, shape or form, it starts to show itself.

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Statistically, you were much better in 2010 than 2009. You had 25 touchdowns and six interceptions in 2010 and 17 touchdowns and 15 interceptions in 2009.

In 2010, I was balancing being a gunslinger and trying to not make mistakes. Because in 2009, I was throwing that thing wherever the hell I wanted. I was going to put it there. I didn’t care.

In 2010, I learned a lot from watching tape, but I never quite found that balance of, “Dude, still throw that, take that chance and then play safe.” I think in 2010, I didn’t have or I was maybe a little bit more tentative at times rather than really putting the foot on the gas pedal. I think that didn’t work in my favor in some of those moments. In 2009, I was like, “Dude, F it, gunslinger time, let’s let this thing rip.”

Finding that balance is crucial for a quarterback, and I know from this experience that when I work with quarterbacks now, I try to convey that message to them. It’s tough. It’s a delicate balance, and it takes experience. If I point back to 2010 and if I wonder why things didn’t go the way we wanted, I always just go back to my own play.

You guys were so close. That team had so much talent. But you were a stand-up guy back then and you are now.

When I look back on the season, man, I put it on my own shoulders. Because you’re looking at moments in games that are supposed to be for the quarterback. So if I don’t deliver, then that’s fine. I’ll take the L.

For me, there were W’s that were attributed to me that I didn’t feel like I went out and won it but on the flip side of that, there are L’s and I’m like, “Yeah, that one’s mine. I’ll take that one.” I feel like it’s part of that quarterback mentality that you’ve just got to have, and I can’t shake myself of it. I never have and I don’t want to, because it keeps me in a mindset of improvement. Just keep finding things to improve and not shy away from them. Shit, if I wanted too, Scott, I could deflect and I could find 100 different plays that I could point to and say, “Well, it was, it’s like …” That doesn’t help anybody. It was in your hands, make the play. The ball’s in your hands every play. You’ve got to go out and do something with it.

When I look back on the season, I can’t get past my own mistakes because it’s unfair, and it’s unjust to my teammates. And in the reality of it, you’re the senior, you’re the quarterback, you’re the lead dog. You’re the one that’s supposed to lead us. So those are the moments to lead. If I do a better job in those moments, then the win-loss record looks different and we’re having a different conversation at this moment in time.

(Top photo: Matthew Holst / Getty Images)

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