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Colts 2022 Draft Interviews: Vederian Lowe, LT, Illinois

Meet Illinois left tackle Vederian Lowe. We talked about how he was thrown into the fire early in his career, his technique as a pass blocker, and what he brings to a NFL team.

Zach Hicks

Vederian Lowe is a former three star recruit out of Auburn High School in Rockford, Illinois. He committed to the University of Illinois out of high school, and immediately had a role on the team as a true freshman.

I asked him why he chose to attend Illinois:

Illinois was my first power five offer, actually my first and only power five offer. I committed to Illinois right before my senior season and I really felt like it was the right fit for me. They stuck with me throughout high school and they really made me feel like they wanted me.

It just felt like a no-brainer for me and it was only two and a half hours away from my hometown. Everything just made sense and it was the right fit for me.

Lowe was thrown into the fire fairly early with Illinois, starting seven games as a freshman. While he always had the size to play at the college level, he didn't have to bulk up or anything during the year, it is quite rare to see a true freshman thrown into the fire.

I asked Lowe if that was part of the plan when he arrived at Illinois or if injuries and other factors contributed to him seeing more playing time:

That was not the plan at all. I came to school as a freshman and I was not in correct football shape, as I would say. I just came in with the thought that I could use my first year to get in shape and maybe redshirt to get my feet under me. I was not ready at all when my number was called to go in the game.

I had to quickly get adjusted. Something happened between our offensive coordinator and our starting tackle at that moment and next thing you know, I was thrown out there. We were at Iowa my freshman year, and I was in front of 100,000 people, and it felt like my head was on fire. I had to get adjusted quickly because it was very different, and very new, but it taught me a lot of lessons.

Lowe went on to start over 50 games for the Fighting Illini, earning All Big Ten Honorable Mention honors in each of his last two seasons. He also had an outstanding track record off the field in college.

He graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Communication this past year and was seen as a spokesman and a leader in the conference. He was the Illinois representative at the Big Ten Media Days in 2021 and was a semifinalist for the Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year Award.

His most impressive feat is that he is also a husband and a father of two young boys. He also became his younger brother's legal guardian after his mother passed away this past year.

With all of these things going on off the field, I asked Lowe if he ever found it difficult to find that work-life balance with it all:

I would be lying if I ever said no. It is very difficult to have a wife and two kids, along with a teenager, to be working a regular job, you know? It was tough to have all that and go to school and play football. To be doing that in college, while not making a lot of money, and be dedicated to my studies and my football craft, it was definitely a lot.

I feel like I did a really great job of handling all of that, though. I had a lot of help from my wife with her taking care of things at home while I was at the facility to better my football abilities. She did a great job of just taking care of all the other things while I was focusing on my degree and football.

Whenever I got home from practice, I was a full-time dad. After I was a dad, I had to go back to practice or school. I was always doing something and I haven't really had down time in about three years. It was a challenge but I felt like I did a great job of managing (especially with help from my wife).

Adjustments as a Starter

Lowe mentioned above that he had to adjust to being a starter really early on in his collegiate career. I dug a little deeper and wanted to pry about how he went through those adjustments.

I asked Lowe how he was able to grow as a tackle after being thrown in the fire at such a young age:

I definitely had to learn how to adjust and learn to play Big Ten football. The playing style was totally different from what I was used to, and I had to learn it pretty quick. I was never an overly physical guy that was going to maul players to death, I relied much more on my athleticism, when I was younger.

It took some time and I was lucky to have some great coaches that taught me how to play oline the correct way. It was not an easy transition and it took me about two seasons to really understand my body and understand the way that I needed to play the game.

Since then, I've really learned what I was good at and what I can do, and I just enhanced that every year. By my fifth season, I was ready to go and ready to put out great tape every week.

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Film Study as an OT

I then transitioned to my favorite topic in these interviews; film. Offensive tackles have to study quite a bit of film on their match-ups each week to understand what opposing pass rushers like to do on a given down.

I asked Lowe what he likes to study on film throughout the week:

Throughout the week, you watch film as a unit with your offensive line. You watch film on the entire front seven, you are learning tendencies, you learn little things they do to communicate different calls, and you pick up on the defense's little nuances that they do throughout the game.

I learned throughout college that you have to put more time to watching film by yourself. The coaches aren't always going to be there, so you have to learn how to watch film on your own. I would study the guys that I would be going up against, check out their stance, see what foot they would have up, see how they would take on a run block, check what their favorite pass moves are...

I would take notes of literally everything and I would write everything down that I see and hear on film. I would continually study those notes throughout the week, so I wouldn't be thinking when I was playing. I would be reacting to what I already know about this team/player.

Early in my career, I had to think about everything, and that made me play slow. Getting into the film room and carrying those notes into Saturdays just helped me play faster and more confident.

Talking Technique

The Colts under Chris Strausser deploy what is known as the "Mudd Technique" of offensive line play. It is an aggressive play style that allows linemen to jump and angle set on virtually every snap. While this is the Colts' preferred way of teaching trench play, not every team subscribes to the same methodology.

I asked Lowe what his preferred set is when attacking a defensive end:

It depends on who I am going against. All guys are different and, unless you are a master of your craft, you have to mix it up. I remember when I was at the OL Masterminds Summit in Texas, I was listening to Terron Armstead. He was telling us how he just jump sets everybody. It doesn't matter what the protection is or who he is playing, he is going to jump set you.

It is impressive that he can do that, but with me, I'm not the master of that technique. I'm not as fast as he is, so I have to do things within my abilities. On my film, I'm always trying to vertical set.

It really depends on who I am going against, though. If they are a bigger guy, you want to jump set them. If they are a smaller guy, you have to get back and give yourself space to work to go off of what they are doing. ย  ย  ย  ย 

NFL Outlook

I finished off the interview with the same way I finish all of them. I asked Lowe how he would sell himself to a team this offseason. I asked him what my team would be getting, on and off the field, if they draft him:

Whichever team that chooses to draft me is getting a guy that is reliable and a guy that is going to work day in and day out. I've been playing college football for five years now and I have so many off the field lessons that I have learned that have helped me on the field.

They are getting a man that is going to come in and work everyday. They are getting a man who wants to be great, and a man who has a high ceiling and is willing to take coaching. They are getting a man that will do whatever that needs to be done to help his team's best interest.

Lowe is an interesting player in this deep offensive tackle class. He is a seasoned player with great size and feet for the position.

Whichever team takes a shot on him is getting a talented and mature person that the community is going to simply love from day one.

Follow Zach on Twitter @ZachHicks2.

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Zach Hicks
ZACH HICKS

Zach Hicks is the Lead Analyst for HorseshoeHuddle.com. Zach has been on the NFL beat since 2017. His works have appeared on SBNation.com, the Locked On Podcast Network, BleacherReport.com, MSN.com, & Yardbarker.com.ย 

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