By Geoff Crane
Stampeders.com

Drew Tate has had a few memorable moments in his football life, including comeback-sealing drives and CFL Western Final miracles.

While Stamps fans were busy working themselves into turkey comas, Tate – along with teammate and friend Rob Maver — was adding to his list of memorable moments when he visited his alma mater, the University of Iowa, as their honourary captain.

Considered one of the best quarterbacks in school history and still possessing some of the football team’s all-time records, Tate was thrilled to have the opportunity.

“As you can see, I’m still hoarse,” said Tate following Stamps practice earlier this week.

One of the opportunities an Iowa honorary captain has is to address the team prior to kickoff, a chance to rally the troops, a moment the fiery Texas quarterback dreamed of since his playing days for the Hawkeyes.

“I always said if I ever had that opportunity, that I was going to kill it,” said Tate. “So I killed it pretty good I think because everyone was excited about it.”

Prior to Tate’s visit, the Hawkeyes had lurched to a 4-1 record behind an offence that had yet to establish itself, only averaging 20 points per contest. Additionally, neither of the teams two quarterbacks had fully grabbed the reins.

Enter Drew Tate, motivational speaker. His pre-game talk was followed by the Hawkeyes’ 45-29 victory over Indiana.

When asked what he said to inspire the young men, Tate was humble, merely saying he was brief and hit hard on three bullet points.

To fill in the details, we go to Maver, who tagged along for the weekend.

“I don’t want to tell you how he said it,” said Maver. “It was kind of cool, but he basically told the guys to leave no wonder or doubt in the coaches’ minds as to what they have in you.

“Leave no doubt in their mind what you are and own your role every single day and if everybody does that and they bring it on game day, then you’re going to win.

“They went on to beat Indiana pretty good,” said Maver, “so I guess it must have worked.

It was super cool just to go back and see his football background, so to speak.

“How people look at him and what he meant to their football program. When they introduced him in front of the 70,000 people, they were all on their feet screaming.”

“It was a great day on Saturday and they won, they played real well,” said Tate who now is back to focusing on preparing for this week’s contest against Winnipeg, the next challenge along the road that he hopes will lead to adding a Grey Cup to his resume with his Stampeders squad.