Andy & Ari On3 - Coaching Carousel Update | Jeff Brohm, Kentucky DL Deone Walker Joins | Iowa Hawkeyes Check-In

Episode Date: October 4, 2023

Coaching Carousel Update | Jeff Brohm, Kentucky DL Deone Walker Joins | Iowa Hawkeyes Check-InThis show is sponsored by Birddogs. Live your most efficient life with a pair of shirts or pants from Birddogs with their incredible built-in liner. Visit birddogs.com/staples and use the promo code STAPLES to receive a free Hydro Flask-style bottle with your order.Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and don't forget to subscribe!https://youtu.be/HUwhBYzQWYUAs the mid-point of the season is almost upon us, Andy checks in on the coaching carousel update across the country with updates from Florida, Mississippi State, Oklahoma State, and West Virginia. (0:00-19:20)Next up, first year Louisville Head Coach Jeff Brohm joins before they face a big test at home against Sam Hartman and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Brohm talks about his return to his alma mater and his overall impressions of his team after the Cardinals quick 5-0 start in Louisville. (19:21-32:41)After that, we stick around in the Bluegrass state and head over to Lexington as the Wildcats are preparing for their biggest challenge yet: The Georgia Bulldogs. Kentucky Defensive Lineman Deone Walker joins to talk about going out in pass coverage against Florida and the challenges that await as the Wildcats travel down to Athens for a battle with the Bulldogs between the hedges. (32:42- 47:59)We travel over a few states to Iowa to check in on the Hawkeyes after their devastating injury to starting QB Cade McNamara, as he’s out for the year with a torn ACL. Can the Hawkeyes get things on track to contend for the Big Ten West? Hawkeye Report’s Tom Kakert joins us from the pressbox of Kinnick Stadium to give us an update. (48:00-1:07:51)For today’s Extra Point, Andy stays in Iowa to plead his case for Hawkeyes QB Deacon Hill to attain a new NIL deal. (1:07:52-1:09:45)

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. We're getting to that point of the year. It's week six. A lot of teams are gonna be halfway through their season after this week. And so it's time to start checking on the coaching carousel. Now we already know there's a couple openings Northwestern and Michigan State. These were not planned, not expected. Maybe Michigan State was because they found a way to fire Mel Tucker for free. I'm a cynical person. I'm of the belief that if they went 11-1 last season, they probably aren't trying to fire him. But there's a lot of other situations throughout college football where we see you on the message boards. We know you've moved on from, hey, we're going to give this guy a little more time to fire everyone. And I understand that sentiment. I realize it's a very emotional sport. And sometimes you feel like your team is not being led the right way.

What I'm here to do today, though, is to give you an idea of how realistic your hopes are of a change or if you want to give the person some time, how good of a chance there is that you will get that time and that person will have a chance to turn it around. So we're going to look at a few different programs. It's the hot seat status check, and we'll see how you feel. There's a couple in here that I know there's a lot of people that are clamoring for change. I don't think you're going to get it in some of these cases.

There's some other ones where just because of the way somebody's contract's written, they should be worried. So let's start with the fan base that seems to be grumbling the loudest. And that's the one that's closest to me. It's not the loudest because I'm in the closest proximity. If I was across the country, I'd hear you guys too. The Florida Gators fan base, not happy right now with Billy Napier. He's nine and nine in one plus seasons, basically one and a half seasons at the helm of the Florida Gators. And it just does not seem to be going the way that it was promised. Now,

Billy Napier will tell you, I'm going to recruit my way out of this. Look at the recruiting class I have committed for the class of 2024. DJ Lagway is coming. And I think there's something to that. I think the talent deficit that they inherited was real. I think they probably made a mistake not completely flipping the roster immediately and waiting a year to do that. And it may take another recruiting class fan base. It hasn't been. They turned on Ron Zook quick, turned on Will Muschamp quick, turned on Jim McElwain quick, turned on Dan Mullen quick. That's just how it goes. So what happens with Billy Napier? Right now, probably nothing. So Billy Napier's contract is sort of the opposite of Dan Mullen's contract. Dan Mullen got fired at Florida when he did in part because his contract incentivized firing him sooner. It's one of the weirder ones I've seen.

You don't see it very often. Basically, Dan Mullen had a $12 million flat rate buyout that if they fired him in 2021, 12 million bucks, 2022, 12 million bucks. 2023, 12 million bucks. It didn't change until there was less than 12 million bucks remaining on the contract, basically. And so when things started to go downhill in 2021, and they looked at how the recruiting had gone, and they looked at what their roster looked like versus Georgia's roster, all of a sudden, they're like, oh, we have to do this now. So Billy Napier's contract is very different. Billy Napier's contract has him paid 85%

of the remaining amount if he's fired without cause. Now, again, all bets are off with any of these people we're talking about if the school finds some way to fire them for free. So if there's a Mel Tucker situation, different situation. Right now we're talking about just results on the field and if they decide to make a change. So for Billy Napier, 85% of the amount remaining on his contract, no offset, no mitigation, which means he gets it all no matter what his next job is. That's $32 million after this season. Now, and here's the key component of that, because with all of these, the amount matters quite a bit. What also matters is how you pay it, because sometimes what looks like a big amount, if it can be spread over enough years,

is something that an administration might be willing to deal with. But here's where Jimmy Sexton, who was the agent for Dan Mullen dealing with Florida and who also was the agent dealing for Billy Napier, here's where Jimmy Sexton made his money this time around. If they decided to do this, 50% of the buyout would be due within 30 days of the termination. So that is $16 million cash that must be on hand if you decide you want to make a change. That alone leads me to believe that there is no chance Florida would fire Billy Napier without cause this year. No shot. He would get another year. They will have to be patient with him. This is not a school that has been fiscally impulsive in the past. This is not their history. This is not the way they operate typically.

And remember, if you do make a change, you've also got to buy out coordinators. You've also got to buy the next coach out of their contract. So you're talking about an initial outlay of $25 to $30 million. You got to have that cash on hand to do that. And then you would still owe Billy Napier another $16 million over a four-year period. So given that, I don't think anything happens to Billy Napier. Now, do I think something will happen in terms of Florida's coaching staff between 2023 and 2024? Yes, I do. There's a lot of pressure on Billy Napier to give up play calling. He couldn't do it right now. If you look at that staff, there's not enough experience play calling for him to hand over the reins to anybody else who's currently on that staff. But in the off season, could he go get an experienced

play caller? Yes. Who would that be? That really depends on how willing Billy Napier is to be flexible, schematically, philosophically. So if he wants it to look the way he likes it, it's a pretty narrow pool. If he's willing to open it up, it's a broader pool. The other thing that he's under a lot of pressure to do is have an on-field special teams coordinator. Cause right now that job is done by an analyst. And I think I know why I think when that, when that was hired, the thought was that the NCAA was going to change the rules and basically allow unlimited on-field coaches, however many you want to pay, you can have, because they were worried about a lawsuit,

basically from the coaches, an antitrust suit, which the NCAA has not done well in antitrust suits of late. So the thought was that rule was going to change. It never changed. There were a couple of periods where it looked like it was about to change. It didn't. So that's why you got an analyst running special teams. And that probably isn't the way you want to do it. You probably want to have an on-field assistant who's one of your 10 who handles special teams. So if Florida makes changes, that's probably the type of changes you're going to see. Staff overhaul more than a big change at the top. Let's move on to another SEC school where this is the exact opposite of the Dan Mullen situation. This guy, has he been given a fair chance yet? Absolutely not. He just started.

It's Zach Arnett at Mississippi State. Sitting there at two and three. They should beat Western Michigan this week. Then they've got a stretch of at Arkansas, at Auburn, Kentucky, and at Texas A&M. If they go over that stretch, there are going to be some pretty loud calls to make a change in Starkville. And remember, Zach Selman, the current athletic director, was not involved in elevating Zach Garnett. Remember, it was a terrible situation because Mike Leach passed away suddenly, unexpectedly, and they promoted Zach Arnett, which felt like a good move at the time, helped establish some continuity, kept the players engaged, kept them from just pouring into the transfer portal.

And he went out and hired Kevin Barbay, different offense than Mike Leach ran. Anytime you were changing away from the air raid to something else was going to be a difficult adjustment period. But here's where Zach Arnett needs to worry because he's got a new administration that did not hire him. And he's got a contract that works against him. Remember what we said about Dan Mullen's contract working against him at Florida, same thing in this situation. So Zach Arnett didn't have a ton of leverage when he got the job. This is understandable. So he gets a four-year because in the state of Mississippi, you're only allowed to do a four-year contract with a state institution. So four-year contract, $12 million, $3 million a year. The buyout is 50% of what's

left on the contract. So if you were to fire him with three years remaining on the contract, that's 1.5 million a year over three years, four and a half million dollars. But unlike the one we were talking about with Billy Napier, there is offset and a duty to mitigate. So basically your next job, they would subtract your new salary from the buyout amount. Well, Zach Arnett is an accomplished SEC defensive coordinator. If he were to get fired at Mississippi State, he could turn around and get an SEC DC job or perhaps a big 10 or ACC DC job that would pay him about what he made as the defensive coordinator at Mississippi State before he became the head

coach. He was making like 1.3 million. Well, they only owe him 1.5 per year. So if he gets one of those jobs, and especially if he gets a big one, let's say LSU were to change defensive coordinators and try to hire Zach Arnett if he gets fired, they're probably going to pay him more than 1.5. So then Mississippi State would essentially be firing him for free. That's where he's got to worry because that contract is working against Zach Arnett. That's a tough situation to be in. And he definitely hasn't gotten enough time. But it's a cutthroat business.

And the problem is they're not going to give him enough time if they feel like this is not going the direction we want it to go. And we can get out of this without really paying much. And we talked about what the initial outlay would be if Florida decided to do something with Billy Napier. And it is pretty prohibitive. It's a lot of money. With Zach Garnett, it's not prohibitive at all. And that works against it.

Let's go another direction. Mike Gundy. Mike Gundy at Oklahoma State, easily the best coach in school history. Changed the whole way we think about Oklahoma State as a football program. He's been doing this so long and has done it so well that I think there's a lot of people out there who love college football who don't realize that before Mike Gundy was Oklahoma State's head coach, they were not a team that went to a bowl game every year. Going to a bowl game was a big deal at Oklahoma State

before Mike Gundy was the head coach. It became something that you expect. And then everybody expected more and he's delivered more. He's won the Big 12. He's played in New Year's Six Bowls. But the problem is he's not adapting very well to the new world of college football, to the world of transfer portal and NIL, and it's showing up on the field. They just got creamed by South Alabama.

They lost to Iowa State. You look down the schedule, it's hard to find the wins going forward. They're about to play Kansas and Kansas State again. K-State first, then Kansas. Those are two teams that whipped them last year. So what happens if you're Oklahoma State? Well, this is a case where Mike Gundy did such a good job that he got such a good contract for him, that there is really nothing anyone can do. Mike Gundy can be Oklahoma State's coach for as long as he wants, unless somebody wants to write a really big check. So he has to decide, do I want to adapt or do I want to be

done with this? Or do I want to keep doing this no matter what, because I've got this contract. So here's the deal with him. His contract is a five-year deal that rolls over perpetually every year. It just adds another year and it adds $125,000 raise to it. So he is due 75% of the remainder of his deal. If he gets fired without cause. That number after this year is about $25 million. That number after next year, $25.1 million. After 2025, $25.2 million. You see where we're going with this? It goes up every single year, and it is a massive amount for a program that doesn't have a ton of cash lying around.

And remember, nobody's even paid a buyout that big yet. Gus Malzahn, when he got fired at Auburn at $21 million is the biggest one we've seen. We're going to see bigger ones here in the future, but for Gundy, unless Oklahoma state finds another Boone Pickens type donor who can write that check, he can do it as long as he wants. So it's really up to him at this point. But that is a king's contract. Basically, he sits on his throne and he will decide whether he will go or whether he will stay. And if you look at the history of it, he's earned that. But if you're an Oklahoma State fan right now, you're frustrated because you feel like

you could be better and you're not. We'll see what he does. We'll see what he decides. He clearly loves the school. So perhaps if he feels like it's not something he wants to do anymore, or it's not adaptation he wants to make, then maybe he'll just decide he's done, or maybe he'll decide he wants to adapt. There are different ways this can go, but he's the one who will dictate the terms unless, again, some real sugar daddy comes along.

One more, and this is one I kind of enjoy when coaches do this. I think it's fun because I don't like to see anybody get fired. We talk about it. It becomes a sport to us who gets hired, who gets fired. But the problem is when you fire a college football coach, it's not the head coach that's the issue because they're usually well taken care of. The coordinators are well taken care of. Position coaches usually are taken care of.

It's the other folks in the football office, and there's a lot of them. And they make normal salaries, but they have to go find new jobs. They have to go move their families. And it's a tough situation. So when a coach can play his way off the hot seat, it's nice. Neil Brown from West Virginia hasn't completely done that yet, but he is on the way. So Neil Brown's buyout kept him safe last year. Last year would have been 20 million bucks to buy out Neil Brown at the end of the year in West Virginia.

They were changing athletic directors. They didn't necessarily have that. So they said, let's let it ride another year. But it was made pretty clear if Neil Brown didn't have dramatic improvement, he was not going to stay as West Virginia's coach. So he decided, I'm going to make my stand. I call plays. I'm going back to calling plays.

Graham Harrell did it last year. This year, it's Neil Brown. They're 4 and one. Their only loss is to Penn State, which is currently undefeated. Their next few games at Houston, Oklahoma State, at UCF, BYU, all of those are winnable. They might be favored in all of them. West Virginia could be seven and two or eight and one going into the Oklahoma game on November 11th. That seems like the improvement they were looking for. Neil Brown is still do a $13 million buyout if he were to be fired after this year. But if he, let's say he wins these next four games and he's eight and one going into the Oklahoma

game. I'm sorry. I think you keep him. I think you say, you know what? You found a formula that works. Let's go. Let's just stick with this and see how it works. I think you do that, and that'd be great. Listen, I know coaches get frustrated because we harp on all this hot seat stuff, and I don't blame them. I know coaches get frustrated because we harp on all this hot seat stuff.

And I don't blame them. But I also enjoy it when a coach tells us where we can stick our hot seat. And I think Neil Brown is doing that right now. Got a few more of these in a column that I wrote on On3. If you want to read more about coaching situations, buyouts, what might happen. I go over Tom Allen in Indiana, go over Brent Pryor at Virginia Tech, go over Dana Holgerson at Houston as well. But there are going to be some very interesting situations as we go down the stretch here.

And a lot of it will have to do with how these contracts are written. Because again, it's not always the amount. Sometimes it's, do you have mitigation? Sometimes it's how much is due right now. Remember Kevin Sumlin got to stay at A&M a lot longer because he had a brilliant clause in his contract that said the entire buyout is due within 60 days. So good agents, they make their money with stuff like that. But you got to look into the little fine details of the contracts to make sure you understand, is this coach someone who can be fired right now? Or is this someone who should be given more time? Or someone who is going to get more time no matter what? Because their agent was really good and they made sure they're going to get more time. That's definitely Billy Napier at Florida right now. Zach Arnett, Mississippi

State, different situation. Mike Gundy, well, just sitting on that throne. But it will be a very interesting stretch run for a lot of these guys. Keep paying attention. We're going to keep watching you guys on the message boards. Like I said, we know when you flip that switch and it can be frustrating, but you will understand it better if you just read those fine details of the contract and you know exactly where your guy stands and why he's safe or why he's not. When we come back, the guy who's definitely safe, he just got the Louisville job and he's got the Cardinals 5-0 with Notre Dame coming to town. Jeff Brom, head coach, getting ready to play the Fighting Irish. We welcome Jeff Brom, head coach of the Louisville Cardinals. They got Notre Dame coming into the house fresh off a win at NC State.

Jeff, I'm curious. You guys have had two comeback wins this season. You talked in your press conference about how calm everybody was in the locker room down 10 at NC State. How do you do that with a new roster, new team? Is that something you instill offseason and camp, or is that something that the chemistry of the team, just that's how they are?

I think we've talked about how this game works to them quite a bit as far as just simple things like it's always going to be a one-game season, whether you win or lose. You've got to come back the next week and try to win again. You've got to just try to win every rep and give it everything you have, but realize that if you're going against good teams and good coaches, they're going to win some too, so you can't get down or lose your confidence when that happens. You've just got to hang in there and stick to it and hope that when the game's over, you've made one more play than they do. I just think our guys have that mentality.

They work really hard. They don't let things bother them. They play to the end. They've, for whatever reason, we're 5-0. We've believed in that, and it's worked to this point. So I just think, you know, that's how football is. You know, half the teams wins, half of them lose. So, you know, you can't get too up and down when things are going well or bad.

And our guys have really, you know, played hard and responded well to this point. How different is it to put together a roster now? You took over Purdue in 2017, old transfer rules, different scenario entirely. You take over Louisville this year, you get Jack Plummer, who had been a quarterback with you at Purdue, and then he'd gone to Cal. How different is it to put together a roster in terms of having maybe the personnel you want well I think that's kind of what you're going to get nowadays in college football every year is gonna is gonna be different and you know what I think we handle it pretty well you know one thing we try to do we try to treat all of our players right and do right by them that doesn't mean we're not going to work hard and motivate them and push them.

But, you know what, if guys aren't playing or getting playing time and they want to transfer, we want to help them transfer, help them get somewhere else and be honest with them. So I just think if you're honest with people, if you treat them right, if you bring the ones in and it's a wholly different roster, you know what, you've got plenty of time to work with them, spring practice, summer, fall camp. You should try to be able to get on the same page now are there certain nuances that you know take a little time yes but in general you just got to treat your guys right be honest with them and and go full

speed ahead and understand they have to understand that we hey we've got to be able to do all these things we want to have a chance to win how how quick could you hit the ground running with jack because he he'd been in your offense before? Well, Jack was easy. That's his strength. He's very smart, very intelligent. He picks things up fast. So getting him back here was an easy transition. He's been a great leader, plays really hard.

If he has any fault, he probably cares too much. So sometimes he presses a little bit and forces things. But you know what? He'll continue to play well for us and battle through a little adversity here and there, and he's battle-tested, so I just think he's a guy you can depend on that will give you everything he has. It's not always going to be perfect, but at the same time, he's going to play to the end, and he's done a good job. Pressing something, you got to be careful when you're playing a defense like you did last week, where's either either drop eight or bring eight seems like how did he handle that with you know they the looks don't change but who who comes changes quite

frequently well without question it affected him uh they did a good job they were able to bring the house and then drop eight into coverage uh you know looking back i needed to do a better job to help protect him a little bit and not get him hit as much so i was disappointed in myself uh because i think anytime a quarterback's getting pressure and guys in his face better job to help protect him a little bit and not get him hit as much. So I was disappointed in myself. Cause I think anytime a quarterback's getting pressure and guys in his face, it's going to affect anybody. And it definitely affected him and caused him to make some, a couple of bad decisions that hurt us. But you know, I should have done a better job.

We should have had a better plan together to counteract that. So I think moving forward, we got to make sure we're always, you know, have that in our pocket that if somebody is just going to really, really heat us up, you know, we've got to find ways to help our quarterback. We'll be right back Louisville coach, Jeff Brom. But first, let me tell you about bird dogs. These are the greatest shorts and pants that you could possibly own because they allow you to live your most efficient life. Behold, these are the fart Garfunkels right here. Beautiful shorts, great for the golf course, for the bar, for restaurant. But look at that. Oh, the liner

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in every room you walk in with bird dogs. One thing I found really interesting about the NC State game, in the first half you guys had two turnovers where your defense came out. The first one, they make them go three and out and punt. The second one is three and out and they kick a field goal. So they get three points out of a couple of balls that they got right at the 50 or in your territory. How critical is being able to stuff them on a quick change like that? Well, I thought it was our best game on defense of the year. I think every week

we've kind of adapted and changed some things and try to play a little bit more aggressive each and every week. And I think we affected their quarterback. We were able to blitz and get after him, get in his face, get in throwing lanes, not give up easy completions. So our defense really played well. They were stout. They came out in the second half and played even better. So it was good to see. I think in order to be a great football team,

playing great defense is very important. Running the football is very important. And then from there, if you can create some big plays in the passing game, that's a bonus. But great defense and running game is something you got to be really good at if you want to be an elite football team. You've got Notre Dame coming in. You're maybe the one ACC staff that's not like, hey, we've seen Sam Hartman three times already. What have you seen from them and what challenges did they present differently than what you've seen so far? Well, Notre Dame, you know, it's Monday.

So, right, you know, Notre Dame's really good on video. You know, they play hard. They've got great talent at every position. They can run and hit and strike. They're sturdy. They play great defense. They haven't hardly given up much at all, especially in the passing game. They've got a really good running attack, big lineman,

good tight end, experienced quarterback. So that's a great formula right there. And I just think in order to beat Notre Dame, you have to win in all the small things as far as turnover battle and penalties and getting off the field on third down and converting third downs. All those things are vital because this is an experienced team. They're well coached and they play hard and they're talented. So I just think, you know, we're going to have to find a way to play more efficient for 60 minutes, you know, make them do some things that they're not as comfortable with.

So if we can get a lead, it can be very beneficial, but getting the lead is going to be tough to do. So we're going to have our hands full, but we're looking forward to the challenge. So you actually got recruited by Notre Dame. When you're a good quarterback at a Catholic high school, is that just automatic that they're coming? What made you decide, OK, maybe not? Well, that is correct. Going to a Catholic high school in Notre Dame is always the school that everyone dreams about

and all the history, tradition, great players that have come through here. To be quite honest with you, yes, I was offered by Notre Dame that year. They had Rick Meyer committed, the number one recruit in the country. So I was at least smart enough to realize, you know what, it might not be good for me to go sit on the bench. I might need to go somewhere and play. So that kind of ruled that out because they had such great talent coming in, but always admired, you know, the football played up at South Bend and they just done a great job.

And I think this year they're off to a great start. Man, they're very talented and well coached. Yeah. Rick lived up to the recruiting hype. so I think you both made the right choice. So, Jeff, I got to ask, as a former Honda Accord owner who loved his 2001 Honda Accord that I put, I think I put 49,000 miles on in the first 11 months I had it. You had a 2000, do you still have the 2004 Accord? Yes. Does it make the trip? Yeah, no, I got it right out in my parking lot right now. And how's it running

well to be honest with you it runs really really good uh and as you know it gets great gas mileage um i'm not gonna lie just a couple weeks ago uh i've had it so long the radio went out so i have no radio in my car which is a little disappointing but you know what it's kind of caused me to say you know enjoy the scenery around me and um you I'm supposed to, but get on the speakerphone and talk maybe as I'm driving. But you know what? My son drives my truck and he's not about to switch me with the Honda, so I'm stuck with the Honda. You can big time him if you want to. Well, I can, but I don't know about you, but kids nowadays, they don't listen to their parents a whole lot. So he will fist fight me if I try to switch automobiles with him.

So I have a 14-year-old who gets his learner's permit next year. What am I in for? Oh, shoot. Well, trust me, they get very stubborn as they get to their teenage years and beyond. They want to get their way. So if you need to put your foot down, I would start to put it down now because it's going to be hard as they gain age. Well, I'm a little worried after talking to you because he's been eyeballing my truck for a couple of years right now. And he's like, you could just get a new one. I was like, I don't want a new one. I like this one.

I'm like you with the automobile. When I get one i was like i don't want a new one i like this one i'm like i'm like you with the with the automobile when i get one i like i don't want to give it up so well i gotta figure out how to keep it if you let him ride it once or twice you're not going to get it back so i would be firm and making sure he doesn't get the keys to that truck well we're gonna we're gonna give you some recommendations so this show comes out in podcast form so you know you just have it on your your the, you know, you just have it on your speaker of your phone. You just leave it on the passenger seat. You can listen to us even if your radio has gone out. I can't believe any part of that vehicle went out because I'm telling you, former Accord owner to current Accord owner, they're indestructible. I agree with you, man. Still going strong. So how much fun has this been being back in your hometown?

I know you're taking it one game at a time, but things are going very well. I imagine as well as you could imagine your first season. But is it what you thought it would be being back? Well, it's been enjoyable to be back and to be around all the people that, you know, or grew up with or went to school with that are really good people that just want to see the program do well. And of course, when you're winning, it's a lot more fun. But you know what? I think I've played and coached long enough now that, you know, I'm battle tested. We've experienced things. You like to have some answers in your back pockets when things come up to help your team win.

I think that's been beneficial for us. But I do think our schedule will continue to get tougher and tougher. We have some tough ball games ahead of us and that'll kind of really test exactly where we're at. So we've got to make improvement. We've still got a long ways to go. Our guys work hard, so they give us everything they have. As coaches, we've got to continue to push the envelope and make sure that we're ready to go. Our guys work hard, so they give us everything they have. As coaches, we got to continue to push the envelope and make sure that we're ready to go because, you know, we want to keep this thing going. And it's not easy to win every week. And like I said before, you know, unfortunately, half the teams win and lose. So you just got to figure out a way to be one of those teams that wins every week. And it's not easy. So it requires work and time and effort. And,

and you gotta be really just sharp as far as coaches and players in order to gain that little bit of an edge to find a way to win. Well, the one game schedule gets very tough this week. So good luck. Appreciate it, coach. Okay. Thank you. Have a good day. Jeff Brom is a lover of quarterbacks and reliable automobiles. Big, big game between Louisville and Notre Dame. Cannot wait to watch that. But let's stay in the state of Kentucky because the other Power 5 team in the state is also undefeated.

Kentucky having a great year, just beat Florida. They are headed to Athens, Georgia on Saturday to play against Georgia in the biggest game of the year for the Wildcats. They're going to try to knock off the defending national champs. Georgia has not been as dominant this year as it was the past two years. Are there weaknesses that Kentucky can exploit or is Kentucky too close to what Georgia is to be able to take advantage of that? Maybe Georgia is just accustomed to what they're seeing. One thing the Georgia offensive lineman, probably not accustomed to seeing, they play against some really good defensive linemen, but not many as

unique as Deion Walker. He is six foot six. He's in the three thirties. He can play anywhere on the line of scrimmage. He can play at nose. He can play at a shaded defensive tackle, shading on a guard. He can play on the edge. Well, this past weekend, defensive coordinator, Brad White added yet another thing to Dion Walker's toolbox. Here's Dion Walker talking about all of the things that he can do. We welcome one of the largest players in college football, Deion Walker. 6'6", 350, drops back and covers receivers. Yeah, that's what he does. You ate it in an interception against Florida.

For your first time covering a receiver. That's pretty good. Yes. So how do you how do they bring that up to you? Like when they say we're going to add this to your repertoire where, you know, you're good at rushing the passer, but maybe you cover somebody. You know, I always been athletic, good with my hips, you know. They say I'm the most least stiff offensive or defensive lineman in the building. He really added it on Wednesday, Tuesday or Wednesday, but he brought it to me like early in the morning. He's like, would you feel comfortable?

Of course I'm going to say yeah. Now, growing up, I assume you've always been one of the biggest people on the field. So they probably had you on the line the whole – like did you ever play any linebacker or anything growing up where you might have gotten to cover anybody? No, I played a little bit of QB when I was like seven or eight. And then you outgrew that too? Yeah. So what's going through your mind on that play?

Like when they signal it in, you're like, okay, this is it. I'm doing it. Like what are you thinking? It was just really – I just looked out to the boundary, see if there was two or three receivers because that dictated what I had to do. They really just told me draw for five, sit there and uh get beat well you don't have to get big you're already big but and and then he throws and and you are one of the triple coverage that that he threw into did you think you were going to be able to come away with it once it

started bouncing up in the air oh not really i was just looking to kill him you know uh like when i looked inside seeing that he threw the ball to him. I've seen the ball in the air when I started running to him. I'm like, should I go for the ball or him? And then I see, you know, Trevor Wallace can't start running with me. So I'm like, I'm just going to kill him. And then wherever the ball goes, it goes. So you can't take the lineman mentality out, even if you get a chance to cover somebody. Like, all the DBs are like, I got to get that pick. You're like, I got to make that tackle.

Yeah, you know, I want to kill somebody 24-7. So I imagine, you know, usually when you have a chance to make a tackle, you've got one, two, possibly three people trying to block you. Is that something else that goes through your mind like okay there's nobody here trying to block me all I get to do is tackle this guy yeah you know it was a good it felt good to finally you know be able to do some being untouched you know you're first you are very vocally anti-double team. You are not a fan of the double team. And I understand your coaches have tried to explain to you that it's a sign of respect. But how mad do you get when there's two dudes trying to block you?

I really matured out of it. You know, the first couple games, of course, you're going to get frustrated because you want to go show everybody what you can do. But the coaches really told me, like, hey, if there's two people on you, one quarterback got the ball, that's eight on 11 or eight on 10. So, hey. It's good numbers. That's right. It's exactly right. It's a big advantage. So you're playing against Georgia this week, obviously some of the best offensive linemen in the country. How exciting is that for you to get a chance to show what you can do against them? It's great to show what I can do, but really, I want to see what

our defense can do against their top 10 passing team in the country. They're going ground and foul. I just can't wait to see what our front eight do and how we stack up against them guys. You guys had a great game against Florida. Meanwhile, your offensive line was pushing them around. How much fun – because you guys go against each other every day in practice.

When you see them opening holes for Ray Davis, how excited does that make you? It doesn't make me excited at all you know because nine times out of ten they opening up the holes on me you know well I mean you yeah you've seen you've seen it in real time but you can you can speak to that like how good is is Kentucky's offensive line that you that you have to see all the time um they're they're pretty great you know we got a lot of vocal leaders on our offensive line, and I feel like that's a key that we were missing last year. No. We had a bunch of great guys last year, too.

Some went on to the league, but we had a lot of guys return. Eli Cox, he's the known leader for sure. But we got our left tackle, Marcus Cox. You know, he's been very vocal helping out Eli. Jagger Burden, you know, he got three years under his belt. He's playing as good as can be. You know, Jeremy Flax holding down that right tackle's position. And, you know, they're all just clicking right now.

So have you had to become one of those vocal leaders on defense as a sophomore? Yeah, I'll say that I did just because, you know, I'm the biggest person out there. You know, everybody is going to look at me no matter what we're doing. And just me trying to be the anchor of our defense, you know. So and you also do so much. And I know as a freshman, you, they had you on the edge. They'd play you at, you know, three. They'd kind of move you around the line.

Like, how much more did you have to add this year? Obviously dropping back, but I mean, do you feel like you can play pretty much every position on the defensive line now? Yeah, but I'm not going to lie. I'm confident in my ability with anything I do, you know. Even in high school, I knew I could play receiver if I wanted, you know. I want to see it.

But, no, you know, Coach White and Coach Stewart really did help me gain that confidence to think that I could play everything, to learn how to play everything, to learn how to position myself. Like, getting off in a two-point stance, I had to learn that. But, you know, it was just for me playing around, you know, after practice, going with outside backers, you know, just trying to be a sponge, so to speak. How comfortable are you when you play on the edge now? Because I remember seeing you out there as a freshman,

and I'm trying to imagine what that offensive tackle's face looks like the first time he sees you coming off the edge. You know, I like it, you know, not a lot of doubles. So it's a great time. But I'm getting more confident with it you know i'm learning how to actually get off and attack that line um you know a lot of uh defense line coaches talk about hitting that line if he oversteps go inside if he um undersets then stay out yeah i was gonna say that's not something you're thinking about when the guard and center both have their hands on you in pass throw.

I imagine you're just trying to find a way through. But it's, I mean, how exciting is it to know that you can affect the game in so many ways? And, you know, I imagine it's got to be a challenge for these offenses to try to figure out where you're going to be every play. Yeah, for sure. And that goes back into seeing what our team could do. You know, I can play the field in, I can play boundary in, I could play nose three tech. I can play really anywhere on the defensive line. So just doing whatever I can to make the quarterback and the office,

their office offensive line confused and more afraid of me, you know, because that's going to end up helping my DBs, my linebackers fit their gaps. So have you talked to Coach Stoops about putting something in on the other side of the ball for you? Because, like, Alabama used De'Ron Payne as kind of a leak him out as a fullback throw to him. There's always got that package where they bring you in as a fullback.

But with you, with your athleticism, it's got to be something where they throw it to you. Yeah, we had a play actually last year for our bowl game against Iowa. We just didn't get to use it. Oh, man, that would have been amazing. So you probably can't reveal too much of it, but it would have put you in the end zone with the ball, right? Yeah, for sure. I was coming down with it. It was 100% my ball.

You were a basketball player too, right? You're used to fighting for rebounds, jump balls, that whole scenario. Yes, sir. What did basketball teach you and help you with when it came to football? I say it just helped me a lot more with my quicker cuts, you know? Like, it probably doesn't look like it, but defensive linemen, they got to hurry up, cut almost as much as wide receivers do. Yeah. But I feel like it really just helped me with my quicker cuts, side-to-side movements, and my body control.

And so how did you grow? Were you always tall and then got bigger, or were you always big and then got taller? I'd say I was always tall and then got bigger. I was really, like, my freshman, sophomore year, I was only like 260, 270. Only? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, yeah. But, you know, I didn't really start really putting on the real weight until COVID happened.

And was it – because, I mean, you moved so well at that size. When you went to college, did you think they were going to try to make you lose weight or anything or did they just say hey look we love the way you move don't change anything um i mean they always kentucky uh coach stewart he always talked to me about losing that body fat putting back on muscle so i knew it was gonna be have to be some work done and and how was that what was that that period like as a freshman? It was good, I'd say. It was a lot of hard days. What did you have to give up, food-wise?

I'm a big sweets guy, so cupcakes, donuts, I had to give up all that. Ice cream, Ben & Jerry's, my favorite. Which Ben & Jerry's? What's your favorite flavor? It was like the cookie dough with Oreo pieces in there. Oh.

Yeah. That's ridiculous. Yeah, exactly right. Oh, man. I didn't even know that existed. That's awesome. So, yeah, it's hard when you're a sweets guy because, like, the guys who love the savory, who like to eat steak and all that, like you can keep eating that if you're as long as you're lifting and running.

But like there's no nutritionist you can talk into letting you eat donuts. Yeah, not at all. Like that is that is tough. So when did you start to feel like, OK, this body transformation is really taking place um i really didn't start feeling like it until i want to say this past spring like my first year it was just learning how to keep my wind up with my weight and this past spring i really worked on getting my weight down getting bigger faster stronger and um you know learning how to play at this new weight. So what do you weigh right now?

335. Okay, so 6'5", 335, and still feeling good. And I would imagine that you can probably, you feel like you can get more muscular, more slimmed down, probably keep that weight? For sure. Well, then you have to move you to linebacker then. This is –

Does Coach White just sit around imagining possibilities for you? Like, oh, I can have him do this. I can have him do this. Yeah, I think – I'm not going to lie. I think he has a period every day to where he's like what can we do like what can we do to fool you know do you bring him ideas too i try to yeah what's the one where you're like he's never gonna do this but i have um it's like a red zone like 20 yard line um where i drop into a curl frat curl flat and take the seam up you know yeah so like tight end coming up the seam or slot guy coming up the seam in the red zone, just run smack. I love it. Oh, listen, Dion, if, if the foot, if the playing thing doesn't work out or when you're done with the playing thing, you, you may

have a career as a defensive coordinator. Yeah. Hey, I'll make some great players for sure. Well, you, you got one now who lets you do all kinds of fun stuff. So what is it? Again, the ball went up in the air. You went after the player instead of the ball. But what happens when you get that first pick? Have you imagined that in your mind? I'm not going down for sure. I don't care if it's 99 yards.

I'll walk 30 of them if need be. But I'm not going down. I'll drag all 11 with me. I think you might be able to drag all 11. You might be the one guy who can do it. I cannot wait to see this. Dion, cannot wait to see you play against Georgia. Thank you so much. Yes, sir. No problem.

Cannot wait to see Dion Walker go up against that Georgia offensive line on Saturday. That's going to be one of the best matchups in the country this season. But now we move to a place where they're coming off a win. Fan base still not happy. They're favored again this week. Fan base still not happy. They might win their division.

Fan base still not happy. It might win their division. Fan base still not happy. It's Iowa. That's right. We're talking about the drive for 325. We're talking about new quarterback because Cade McNamara is going to be out for the rest of the season with a torn ACL. Deacon Hill takes over. No one better to talk about that than Tom Kakert, the publisher of Hawkeye Report. He talked to the Hawkeyes on Tuesday. He talked to Kirk Ferentz on Tuesday. And he will help us figure out what happens next with Iowa, with an offense that's still barely functional,

but a team that should be favored in most of the rest of its games. Here's Tom. Joined now by Tom Kakert, the publisher of Hawkeye Report. We're talking some Iowa football and bad news for Iowa this week. Cade McNamara, the starting quarterback, is going to be out for the rest of the season.

If you watched the game against Michigan State, you saw the injury. It did not look good, and it looks like that'll be out for the rest of the season. If you watched the game against Michigan State, you saw the injury. It did not look good, and it looks like that'll be it for him. So now on to Deacon Hill as the drive for 325 continues, Tom. And they're just not – they're behind the pace, and the schedule gets harder. It is – he's got to get to 26.75 per game the rest of the way to get to the 325 mark. But they got 26 last year, so

he got into it a little bit more than he was sitting a week ago after getting shut out. You're missing Cade McNamara now, so you're starting quarterback. You're missing Deacon Hill, or you're missing Cade McNamara now, so you're starting quarterback. You're also missing Luke Lachey, their number one tight end, and who was the leading receiver for the Iowa Hawkeyes before he went down with a broken ankle. So your two maybe most important offensive players are out, and Caleb Johnson and Jazzy and Patterson, their top two running backs, have been out.

It sounds like Caleb might be back this week. We'll see. He is back at practice, coming back from a high ankle. And at one point in the second half, after LeSean Williams fumbled, they were to their fourth string running back, who's a true freshman, Kamari Moulton. So Iowa doesn't have a lot of offense to begin with, and they were down to their second string quarterback minus their best tight end and their fourth string running back.

So I don't know what there is to do about that. The thing Jesse Simonson and I talked about on Saturday night after watching Cooper to Jean run that punt back to seal the win against Michigan state was could they pull a Travis Hunter with him? You guys asked Cooper to Jean about that on Tuesday. What'd he say? Yeah. I asked him specifically about Travis Hunter. I said, do you got any interest? Because you look back at that Penn State game where Penn State ran 93 plays and he's out there on the special teams plays too. So he was out there for

over 100 snaps. So it's kind of natural. Could you play 100 snaps in a game? And he already had done it. He didn't say no. He kind of smiled. I think he would love to try and do it, but it's got to be something that the coaches want to want to draw up. And, you know, it'd be interesting to throw him back there in the wildcat a little bit, let him see what he can do. Maybe put him at receiver. He was he was a high school quarterback, as you might imagine, playing 1A football in the state of Iowa where where your graduating class is probably about 50 kids, I think, in Ida Grove, Iowa, a small town in northwest Iowa. He played quarterback.

He had some phenomenal games in the state title games where he was the best player on defense. He made this miraculous play as an offensive player to win a game and a state title. I mean, he's just, he could do everything. So I'd love to see it. He did get in. He's been in for three snaps this year on offense and all of them have been victory formation. He's the back guy on victory formation. I love that so he his version of the offense is what like when they put the receiver at a deep safety for a Hail Mary play uh but yeah I mean he is the I'm not being dramatic I don't think when I say of all the people on Iowa's roster he's the most dynamic with the ball in his hands, which is weird because he plays on defense.

Yeah, he is. He's a really dynamic. He's one of those guys, and we saw it last year where he returned three interceptions for touchdowns. He's one of those ball-seems-to-find-that-guy-all-the-time players. He had an interception in the game, his first of the year against Michigan State, caught that at the back of the end zone and made a really nice play to get his foot in to retain possession of the ball. So he's just, he's dynamic with the ball in his hands. He's going to be potentially, possibly, maybe likely a first round draft pick after this year. If he wants to go pro, he'll he's a true junior. So he'll have a decision to make.

I think he's probably going to go. But he's just he's really good. I just don't see why he wouldn't, you know, kind of pull the trigger on this and see what what he can do in, you know, small settings on the offense. I don't think anybody's advocating for Travis Hunter kind of snaps where he's playing 127, 130 snaps, but you could throw him out there for a couple plays in a series every quarter, every half. I think that would be interesting because they need more guys on offense who can make plays because the offense is still continuing to struggle. I was number 130 out of 130 in total offense

in the country in D1 football right now. So tell us about Deacon Hill who takes over for Cade McNamara. He's bigger than your average quarterback. He's 6'3", 260. So he's built more like a linebacker. In fact, he told a story today. He's bigger than most linebackers. Goodness, 260. 260. He is, yeah, some of the Iowa fans want to call him Bacon.

Very much for an Iowa thing, they want to call him Bacon Hill. But he said when he was in third grade, he got kicked out of playing football because he was too big. And he had to play against like sixth or seventh graders. And he wasn't playing. So he just had to go play flag football because he was so big. But he's always had a big arm. We found out today his sister played on the 2016 U.S. Olympic water polo team that won a gold medal. And he's of Polynesian descent, so I've thrown some Owens things today.

The quarterback sneak is back for Iowa, so I had some sneaking with Deacon thoughts for some other things. Well, I mean, the brotherly shove feels like it's right up Iowa's alley. So this is perfect. And he's bigger maybe than some linemen. At Service Academy linemen, he might be bigger than some of those guys at least. Yeah, he's a big dude, but he's got a big arm too. And I think one of the things they'll probably try and do starting this week

is maybe stretch the field a little bit with his arm because he's, he's definitely got more powerful arm than, than Cade McNamara. And, you know, he had like three or four drops last week. And I, it's just because he was throwing some bullets at people from short range. He's got to work on the touch a little bit. It's maybe just a little amped up, probably, getting out there for the first time. The other interesting thing is he hadn't played since the COVID year. He's from Santa Barbara. Imagine the shock of a winter

in Wisconsin. he went to wisconsin he told the story about coming back from the vegas bowl his freshman year and then going to madison in january because he went right to santa barbara after the bowl game and he said it was minus 15 degrees and he wore three pairs of sweatpants and a heavy coat the whole day even when he was like sitting inside because he it was like, it was so cold. And he's very well insulated too. That's a, yes. I can say that as someone who used to be 6'3", 260.

I know how that feels. So it is, it's fascinating. But, and also I wonder, you know, those drops that he had, when he has more reps with the first team offense, I wonder if that sort of calms down. Everybody kind of gets used to one another. And he's relaxed and he's more reps with the first team offense. I wonder if that sort of calms down. Everybody kind of gets used to one another. And he's relaxed and he's more comfortable.

It was natural for him to have been just wired beyond belief. The adrenaline is pumping in the last game. And I think he'll be much more comfortable going out there against Purdue. So Purdue is a winnable game, obviously. It's funny because for people who haven't watched Iowa except for the Penn State game, you might think, oh, this is a terrible season. It's going horribly.

But they're 4-1. Yeah. Could very well be 5-1 coming out of this week, going into a game in Madison that might decide the Big Ten West ultimately. I mean, how do you kind of – I don't know, I don't even know what the word is, but rectify what Iowa is offensively with the opportunity they have in terms of what their record could be this season. They could, if they win the next two games, they're the odds-on favorite to go to Indianapolis

and face Ohio State, Michigan, or maybe they'd get Penn State again. And that's just wild. But that's the reality is if they win this week and then go to Madison, I mean, the schedule is not daunting. It's Minnesota and Illinois is not very good. They've got Rutgers coming to Iowa City. They go to Nebraska and there's nothing in that schedule that says, boy, they're in trouble here. They're going to drop another game. So, and, you know, Wisconsin has not been overwhelming

either. And you could see it. And every time Iowa and Wisconsin play, it's usually just, you know, a street fight, a rock fight with just 16, 13, although it might be different this year with Luke Fickle. We'll see. But the Paul Crist, Barry Alvarez, Brett Bielema, here is where more of those sloggy games, 10 to 6 or whatever. So we'll see. But it's conceivable that the team with the worst offense in all of college

football is going to be in the driver's seat to go to Indianapolis and play for a big 10 championship. Now I can see all the Iowa fans just putting their heads in their hands. And you say that because it's, it's strange. Everybody knows the offense is bad. Everybody knows it's a problem but if you keep winning nine ten games there's really no incentive to change it is there there is there is no

incentive to change it if you keep winning because you know the ultimate goal here is uh for every coach they will tell you what would you rather have a pretty you know a pretty offense that scores a lot of points and puts up a lot of yards or a team that wins you take the wins because wins get you contract extensions big contracts everything else so um for kirk ferentz it's you know just business as usual he's going to keep uh trudging along playing the the playing what he calls complementary offense or complementary football. And just the defense, good defense, good special teams and below average offense. There is nothing you can say, either definition of the word complement, either spelling of the word compliment yeah that you can use for that offense but but i will say you know how much does the the way the big 10 is changing

change that because it's not going to be the west anymore oregon washington usc show up that's the thing i've written about a lot is that a few weeks after the Penn State game, I wrote about it too, that you just can't keep playing this way because the Big Ten is going to change. You have this Big Ten West, which is like, you know, the island of misfit toys in a lot of ways with, you know, to go back to a Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer kind of reference. But it's just, it's these teams that all kind of play a similar style or they're just not all that good. There's no powerhouse in the Big Ten West.

And so you could get by playing this way. Next year, when there's no divisions in the Big Ten, you have to be able to do something different. You have to, you're gonna have, you're bringing in what Washington's doing. Look at what Oregon's doing. You know USC's going to have a good offense with Lincoln Riley. You know that Chip Kelly's going to have a good offense.

So you're bringing four more schools in that can put 30, 40 points on you, and you can't expect to play these rock fights every week and keep them in check. It's just not going to work. So I think it's an opportunity for Iowa to, to evolve offensively and for Kirk Ferentz to evolve offensively. We'll see if he does that. So this contract for Brian Ferentz, the drive for 325, we've, we've made our jokes all off season. We mentioned earlier,

there are 14 points behind the pace to match what he needs for his contract to continue. Otherwise, it terminates. But that was done by Gary Barta, the old AD. Beth Goetz is running the department right now. Do they even have to honor that? Is that even worth the paper it's written on at this point? Or if Iowa wins the Big Ten West, they go, eh, don't worry about it.

Yeah, they're going to honor whatever it is. But what they'll do, what the contract doesn't say is that he's fired. It's just they could conceivably just drop a new contract, a different contract. All that contract was really in place for is if they met those things then he gets a two-year deal and some money back and a bonus and and all the the other things but um they could conceivably come back and say hey we're going to bring you back on a one-year deal and here's the here's the uh here's the number you can take that or you can leave it and go from there. It's going to be interesting because it got

pretty ugly on Saturday. They were chanting Fire Brian in the student section during the game. It was audible and it was loud. Friends who were watching on TV could hear it clear as a bell. It's gotten so toxic with that. But my, the thing I've always said is I've been covering the Hawkeyes for, for over 20 years. They didn't like Ken O'Keefe. They didn't like Greg Davis. They don't like Brian Ferentz and they're all running Kirk Ferentz's offense. I was going to say, there's one, one thing in common with all of those people. Yes. They're all running the same offense. My contention is that college offenses have just evolved now to the point where 15 years ago,

you could get by running this kind of offense because there were a lot of them still around and everything. What you see today with today's offenses, and they're so sophisticated and so good that you just, you can't run this antiquated, you know, this is like driving an Etzel around kind of thing, offense, that you just, you get by with it. modernize it, hire a young coordinator or go out and change your entire offense and bring in some people who know how to run an offense like that and completely go in a different direction. Now, will Kirk Ferentz do that? I don't know. It's hard to see. He's 68. You don't see guys in their late 60s radically changing what they do. Well, another thing that I've always found somewhat confusing is everybody knows that quarterbacks have become more mobile over the years and running quarterbacks would go play other positions, but now that's who gets recruited to most big-time college programs because you need to be mobile too. With Iowa, you go back, you think of some of the best seasons, Brad Banks, C.J. Beathard could run pretty well.

Why aren't they recruiting guys who can run? That's a good question. It's something that's been brought up. They do have a kid coming in, the 2024 class, James Reeser, who's like a 10-400 guy. So he can run a little bit. But generally, they have it. I mean, Kate McNamara is not really a running quarterback at all. And he's been hampered all year with the quad thing before he tours ACL. So they're, you know, the backup.

I mean, Deacon Hill's a big guy. He's more like a linebacker. He's fairly mobile, though. I was impressed with his mobility and his pocket awareness. But Marco Lainez, the guy coming, who's a true freshman, he's not all that mobile. Joey Labus, who started the bowl game last year, he's fairly mobile. He can get around a little bit, and he's got some toughness.

But they don't have anybody like Brad Banks or even a Beathard. Now I want to imagine Deacon Hill is like, remember John Clay at Wisconsin? Yes. He's just a massive massive running back just bowling ball like yes i i'm i'm thinking the wheels are turning i don't know if kirk or brian want any suggestions but listen let let this dude cook hey all the all i know is that there's some nil deals waiting for deacon Hill. There's got to be some pizza joint that's got a deep dish pizza kind of thing that's just got to get him on board, right? That's what you think about now. You've got to get your NIL deals. Especially if the fan base is calling him Bacon Hill.

There's a lot of – well, and we already saw the Iowa Pork Producers make a great ad with the Iowa State players. Yes. It's an awesome ad. Purchase more ham and bacon. Let's get Deacon Hill involved in that so you have an Iowa State and an Iowa angle for a very important part of the local economy. Absolutely.

There's nothing better than pork in the state of Iowa, so let's get some bacon in there. Bacon Hill. Tom Caker, thank you so much. Okay. Thanks, Andy. That's Tom Caker talking all things Hawkeyes. You can find him at Hawkeye Report. That is one of the on three team sites.

If you're an Iowa fan, you're not already a member, what are you waiting for? Join up. Now, my extra point today, we're going to piggyback off what Tom said, and I realize piggyback is probably the right choice of words here. We were just talking about the Iowa pork producers need to immediately sign Deacon Hill to an NIL deal. 63260 playing quarterback.

I am here for that. I am here for every beefy quarterback. We love the late Jared Lorenzen. We love it when there's a guy of larger carriage who's playing QB and with Iowa, you know, maybe they can use this. Maybe the brotherly shove becomes their best offensive play. We talked about that with Tom, but you see it in the NFL with Jalen Hertz and the Eagles. You saw some other teams try. It didn't go so well. Perhaps you need a quarterback who can deadlift 600 pounds to make it work, or you need a quarterback who weighs more than all the linebackers to make it work. So Deacon Hill, I'm telling you right now, I want to see the all quarterback sneak offense.

If nothing else works, Iowa, just do it. Just get behind Deacon Hill and start pushing. You might gain more yards than you have. That's the show for today. Thank you so much. It's a pick show tomorrow. Jeff Schwartz, former Oregon offensive lineman, longtime NFL offensive lineman, will join us to help make the picks for a week that it's not going to be easy to pick. But man, these games are intriguing.

We'll talk to you tomorrow.