Julian Vandervelde is still waiting to hear from President Obama.

During the 44th president’s visit to Iowa City on March 25, Vandervelde had the opportunity to sing the national anthem prior to Obama’s speech in the Field House.

The offensive lineman joked about singing at Tuesday’s Iowa football “mini” media day, saying Obama “hasn’t called me or sent a postcard” regarding his rendition of the anthem.

Singing is a passion for the senior offensive lineman, who said he loves partaking in karaoke — his favorite song being Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Pride and Joy” — although he refused to show off his singing voice.

Vandervelde said having the opportunity to sing at Obama’s speech was a tremendous experience that represented the Hawkeye football program well.

“It was able to paint a really great picture of Iowa football players, more so that we are very multitalented, multifaceted people,” he said. “We don’t just hit people, we can also sing, some of us can dance.”

Winning an Orange Bowl and singing in front of the president has made it a good year for Vandervelde so far, but the Davenport native said winning the BCS bowl game was the bigger thrill.

“While the Obama thing was really cool and singing is a passion, football is what I’m here to do,” he said.

U-S-A, U-S-A

Quarterback Ricky Stanzi quickly became America’s quarterback after his postgame interview with Fox Sports’ Chris Meyers following the team’s Orange Bowl win.

“If you don’t love it, leave it. USA No. 1,” Stanzi told Meyers after the 24-14 victory against Georgia Tech.

Hawkeye fullback Brett Morse, one of Stanzi’s roommates, said they’ve joked about the quotation around their house long before Meyers posed the question to Stanzi, but Morse thought it was great that his roommate had the opportunity to say it on national television.

The Hawkeye signal-caller fielded numerous questions regarding his patriotic quotation on Tuesday, and he said he doesn’t think much about it but is glad that people admire and appreciate his red, white, and blue soundbite.

“It’s good to get conversations going about America and about being patriotic,” Stanzi said. “I like that people enjoy the quote. That’s a good thing that people enjoy it. If people weren’t happy about it, then we’d probably have to start questioning what’s going on around here.”

Stanzi also said he was also a frequent follower of the USA soccer team during its run in the World Cup. Despite being eliminated by Ghana on June 26, he thought the team played very well.

“I don’t know anything about soccer, but it looked good from my perspective,” Stanzi said. “It’s kind of fun to be a fan every once in a while and watch a game, especially when it’s the USA.”

Expansion

While most of the players who attended Tuesday’s festivities will be seniors this season, many talked about their excitement regarding the addition of Nebraska to the Big Ten in 2011.

Punter Ryan Donahue and defensive lineman Adrian Clayborn both said they thought the addition was great for the conference, especially with the possibility of having a Big Ten championship game.

The Cornhuskers were one of Clayborn’s top three choices for college.

“I’ve got a couple buddies at Nebraska, and I tease them about how the Big Ten’s better,” Clayborn said. “I think it’s going to be fun to have a new team in there to change up things and finally get a championship, hopefully.”