After earning the 2022 Stats Perform Buck Buchanan Award as the top FCS (Football Championship Subdivision) defensive player January 7, Illinois State senior linebacker Zeke Vandenburgh ’20 is preparing to continue his football career at the next level.
Vandenburgh is training in Minnesota this spring while completing his master’s degree in sport management at Illinois State, and he has been invited to the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) Collegiate Bowl January 28, held at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California, and televised on the NFL Network.
The 2022 Missouri Valley Football Conference Defensive Player of the Year and MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Vandenburgh is a six-time first-team All-American and an Academic All-American. He is hoping to receive an invitation to the NFL combine in March and hear his name called during the NFL Draft in April. He is also preparing to get married in mid-March.
Ahead of a busy spring, Vandenburgh took a moment to reflect on his Redbird football experience.
What does winning the Buck Buchanan national defensive player of the year award mean to you?
It’s really a humbling experience—the whole thing. It doesn’t just mean a lot to me. It means a lot to the team as a whole. It gives Illinois State football a lot of good publicity. And it’s a team award in a lot of ways because a teammate has to do their job in order for you to make a play. Any time someone makes a great play, there’s usually someone else doing their job to open up that opportunity for them. So, it means the world to me—just to have a great last season and go out the right way and see a lot of hard work pay off. And it’s really cool to see for the program.
How did you learn that you were one of three finalists for the national defensive player of the year award, and what was your reaction?
(Redbird football legend) Boomer Grigsby ’07 Facetimed me on (Assistant Athletics Director for Communications) Mike Williams’ phone and gave me the news (from Grigsby’s College Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony). Boomer is just a real down-to-earth, very engaging, very humble guy. Considering how accomplished and successful he is, he’s really interested in what I have going on. So, it’s just really cool that he’s as supportive as he is and is as excited as anybody about me winning the award.
As a senior in 2022, you recorded 21 tackles for losses (120 yards lost) compared to 8 1/2 (32 yards lost) in 2021. And in 2022, you made 14 sacks (104 yards lost) compared to four (25 yards lost) in 2021. To what do you attribute your dramatically increased defensive productivity?
I think it was a combination of things. Every offseason I tried to focus on different things to improve. And I would say, the biggest thing that helped me was just being consistent week-to-week. I finally got over the threshold of being good enough athletically, understanding the game, understanding how offenses want to attack us and tendencies, and just a lot of physical and mental preparation. I finally reached the point where I was playing with a lot of confidence. And then I think the move to the outside linebacker, to the boundary side, helped me out a lot because it’s a lot harder to take that player out of the equation week-to-week because they’re always near the ball. And the year before when I was playing “sam” (strong side) linebacker to the field, you can kind of dictate how involved the “sam” would be in each play by formation and removing him to extend it to the field. So, I think it was harder to take me out of games this year. The position change really benefited me.
Along with being honored for your defensive prowess, you were also named an Academic All-American for graduating with a 4.0 in exercise science and maintaining a 4.0 GPA while pursuing your master’s degree in sport management. How have you balanced excellence on the field and in the classroom?
I think a lot of it is just time management. I tried to get a lot of my studying done at the beginning of the week on Sunday and Monday. Monday is our off day—so just trying to get everything out of the way then so I could focus on football the rest of the week preparing for the game. I just think anything that you do; anything that you’re going to put your name on or you’re going to be associated with, you should try to do it with excellence and try to be the best at it. It’s the way that I approach really anything—just like wanting to be the best on the field, I want to be the best in the classroom too.
As you reflect on your Redbird football career, what are some of the memories—and even life lessons—that you’ll carry with you?
I think some of the best memories are just goofing around in the locker room with the guys and just meeting a lot of great people year-to-year with new freshmen or transfers coming in or guys going out. I had the honor of having multiple guys that were right next to me on both sides of my locker, so I got pretty close with people that were a lot different from me and came from different backgrounds. And that’s just what I love about playing football is the relationships you build and the camaraderie you get in the locker room. And I think the biggest lesson I learned was—especially the past couple years—just that nothing is really going to satisfy you in life like the love of God will. And I got to a place before the season started where I was completely content if I never played another down of football again. I know that’s not my purpose on Earth, and I was created for a lot more important things than this game. And I think that really freed me up to just play, to have fun, and try to make an impact on guys in the locker room.
