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Bay Port’s Lorbeck transfers to Iowa

By Rich Palzewic
Sports Editor


SUAMICO – After three successful years playing college football at Northern Illinois University (NIU), Matt Lorbeck, a 2017 Bay Port High School graduate, is transferring to the University of Iowa to continue his career.

Lorbeck, the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association Defensive Player of the Year in 2017 with the Pirates, will have one year of eligibility remaining.

“Because I played at NIU as a freshman, I still have my redshirt year remaining,” said Lorbeck, who will graduate from NIU this summer with a degree in corporate communications. “I’ll use the 2020 season as my redshirt year. I was happy to play right away at NIU as a freshman, but it may have set me back a little in my long-term development.”

Per NCAA rules, even if a player redshirts, he’s allowed to play in four games in a season without burning a year of eligibility.

“There were lots of factors in me leaving NIU, but I have no hard feelings and have lots of good memories from there,” Lorbeck said. “One, I missed a lot of time with the COVID-19 virus. I went on spring break and the school never came back. Because of that, I missed spring ball and all that training. My ultimate goal is to play in the National Football League, so taking the 2020 year to redshirt at Iowa will help me work toward that goal.”

Lorbeck said he wanted to play in a Power 5 conference out of high school, so he feels this is a second chance to do so.

“Playing in the Big 10 will be a challenge,” said the 6-foot-4, 255-pound Lorbeck. “I’ll use the redshirt year to get tougher mentally, learn more, play smarter and get physically stronger. I think I can put on a little more weight, but it’s a feel thing. I don’t want to add too much and sacrifice my speed and quickness.”

Lorbeck played linebacker at Bay Port but moved to defensive end at NIU, where he’s also projected to play at Iowa.

He ended his junior season with 34 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, three forced fumbles and two sacks.

Pro Football Focus (PFF), a site that grades every player on every college team, had Lorbeck as the second-best player on NIU’s defense in 2019, with an overall grade of 85.

PFF had Lorbeck leading the team with 44 quarterback pressures, including 36 hurries on the year.

He’ll be a walk-on at Iowa, with the hopes of earning a scholarship his last year in Iowa City.

Jack Plumb, an offensive lineman and a 2018 Bay Port graduate, is also on the Hawkeyes’ roster.

“That’ll be interesting and super cool,” Lorbeck said. “I’ll be going against Jack in practice. It’ll be nice to have someone I know there. I also had a teammate (Jack Heflin) from NIU transfer there as well.”

Lorbeck was 220 pounds at Bay Port, where he played under head coach Gary Westerman.

“I have nothing but good memories of going to school and playing football at Bay Port,” said Lorbeck. “Westy does a great job with the program and in the community. You don’t see players like me playing Division I college football year after year in other places. He develops players.”

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