Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - 5 Reasons Why Iowa Football Can Upset Michigan

Episode Date: September 28, 2022

Trent Condon and Biz get back together for the latest edition of the Locked on Hawkeyes Podcast. They start with a look back at the win over Rutgers and get Biz's thoughts on what he saw and if we just chalk this up to a win against another crappy opponent or if we can read more into some of the postitives that we saw.Biz then gives his top 5 reasons why he thinks that Iowa can pull off the victory against Michigan including some history lessons with help from Stat Boy.Wrapping up with Picks of the Week presented by Bet Online and Biz's Beat with a basketball angle to it.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at Linkedin.com/lockedoncollege Terms and conditions apply.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!UpsideDownload the FREE Upside App and use promo code Locked to get $5 or more cash back on your first purchase of $10 or more.Underdog FantasySign up on underdogfantasy.com with the promo code LOCKED ON and get your first deposit doubled up to $100! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trenton Biz back with you this week as we break down Iowa's win against Rutgers. We get ready for the matchup against Michigan. Can Iowa pull off another shocker against a top five opponent? And we'll make our picks for good or for bad. All coming up on today's Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Our Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Trent Condon, that's my buddy Biz. And this is the lockdown Hawkeyes podcast.

Thank you for making lockdown Hawkeyes. Your first listen each and every day available wherever you get your podcast. And we're also available on YouTube biz, not in the office today, working from home, rock and roll lifestyle for you. Business casual today, Trent.

I'll try to, I think last time I worked from home, my dog went nuts in the middle of it. So I'll try to keep her under control today so we can pretend to be a professional, a professional outfit here. But it's always a work in progress, no doubt. And I have some breaking news for you here today. I'm coming to Iowa city on Saturday.

Well, that's, that's good news, Trent. I was kind of disappointed. You, you know, you, you claimed you had other more important things to do. I'm not sure what's more important than being in Kinnick on a uh you know you you claimed uh you had other more important things to do i'm not sure what's more important than being in kinnick on a you know against the top five opponents so i'm glad you got your priorities straight yes absolutely it was a little bit of a problem with the daycare and having somebody watch the kids but finally tara said just go just go price and ella's ella's old enough to watch eight seven she's good enough seven yeah well it'd be a long day but we've we got it figured out and i'll be over there and looking forward to it it's a game against michigan it's a game against the top five opponent it's environment

against the wolverines we're gonna break that thing down a little bit later here today but before we get into that let's talk about what we saw over the weekend and the win against ruckers this is not though they were three no coming in not not a great Rutgers team by any means. They have limitations offensively. Do we just say it's just that, and we just still don't know about this Iowa team, or were you able to walk away and take those positives and take them more than just beating a crappy opponent? I think there's more positives to take away than the Nevada game. Rutgers is bad. They're really bad, but they are a Big Ten team. Anytime you can dominate a Big Ten team on both sides of the line of scrimmage, that's certainly a really good thing. My biggest worry we talked about last

week after the Nevada game is we did not dominate the line of scrimmage on the offensive side of the ball. Nevada kind of pushed us around every once in a while. That was definitely not the case against Rutgers. That was the first time in a long time that our offensive line actually established some dominance over anybody. Is Rutgers good? No, but they're not horrible either. They were 3-0 coming in. The opponents weren't great, but two of the three teams they beat, Boston College and Temple, at least have a pulse.

So, you know, the interesting thing, Trent, I think we talked about this a little bit on our text chain, but if Iowa football plays Iowa football, if it does what we want to do, which is, you know, play great defense, flip the field, have just enough offense to win games, and then don't screw up. Limit the penalties, limit the turnovers. What percentage of teams out there can we beat? Honestly, 75-80%? Oh, I think it's probably 85% of the teams in college football. There's maybe 15 teams in the country.

If we play that fashion, we're not going to beat on a normal day where they're not completely screwing up too, but yeah, that's it. That's the list. And maybe that's where the frustrations were that, especially those first two weeks is just be confident. We're not asking for even a top 20 offense or a top 50 offense, be top 70.

It just so shows some semblance of something offensively. And this defense is so good. And the special teams are so good that you're going to be fine. We just haven't been able to get to that point. And maybe there are signs. Spencer Petras has looked a lot better the last two weeks. It wasn't a high bar from what we saw the first two weeks, obviously, but he has looked better.

And it feels like those throws that he was sailing and making bad plays, it's almost like they've taken them out of the playbook. They just said, you know what? We're going to make this as simple as possible. Those out routes that you're struggling with, don't even throw them anymore. Yeah. And that's what we've seen the last two weeks. I think just kind of returned to Iowa football.

I guess we've gotten back to that. Don't shoot yourself in the foot and be competent on offense. And that's – I mean, anybody that – if you're going to complain about Spencer Petras' performance on Saturday, then you're never going to be happy with Spencer Petras. I mean, he's never going to be a world beater of a quarterback, but he played really, really good football on Saturday. I see people complain right away, well, no catches by the wide receivers.

Well, first of all, Laporte is a wide receiver. I mean, when you line him up wide and you throw a 42-yard fly pattern to him, that's a pass to a receiver. Yes, he's a tight end by name, but that was a pass to a receiver. And second, like you said, I mean, I think the coaching staff has determined, let's just play to our strengths. And right now our strengths are not wide receivers. You can say what you want about wide receivers, but there was truly –

I went back and looked. There was only one bad pass. He made one bad pass the entire game. Early in the game he threw way behind Laporte on a slant. Other than that, every pass was catchable. There were a couple of drops in there and a couple of other ones. Reganey falls down on a route. If you're not happy with Spencer Petras' performance on Saturday, you're never going to be happy with him.

That's who he is. And who he is is what we have right now. And it doesn't feel like, obviously, there's going to be any change with that. So a few more takeaways. The running game looked better. Certainly didn't look great by any means, but better. Tyler Ellsbury came in in the first drive. They moved the football.

They had a couple of long drives. Again, we're talking against Rutgers, but some semblance of a running game again, and it all works together. It's not just only Petras. It's not only Brian Ferentz. It's not just the offensive line or wide receivers. It's everything together, but positive signs, a step forward at the very least, I thought, out of that offensive line. Yeah. I mean, I've been as critical of the offensive line as anybody, and they certainly played much better on Saturday. And, you know, you and I talked about last week, Rutgers' defensive line was supposed to be one of their strengths.

I mean, that was an area where they had a lot of returning talent and good depth, and they kind of kicked their butts up and down the field up in that part of the game. So, yeah, certainly things are going in the right direction from the offense. And like I said, we've just got to get back to competent. We're never going to be, you know, we're never going to be Ohio state or Tennessee or teams like that. But we talk about all the time, the goal is 24 points.

If you can put 24 points on the board, we're going to win 90% of our games. And if they do that this week, I think they get a chance. We'll talk about Michigan coming up here. Final thoughts on a Rutgers though, and takeaways from the game. How about Drew Stevens? First of all, even attempting a 50-plus-yard field goal with a 14-point lead, very un-Kirk-like there. But then secondly, knocking that thing through with plenty of distance to spare.

Now he needed a little help from the upright to get it there. But showing some confidence there, Kirk, is in the young kicker. Well, I think we can put to bed any kicker controversy. He's a kicker for the next four years. And, man, he's got a leg. I mean, this is not, you know, he's similar to Shudak when it comes to distance-wise. I mean, that 54-yarder had easy six, seven, eight yards to spare. I mean, he's, he's, I'm sure he'll have some bumps in the road and there'll be some games

where he won't be pretty. He's not going to be a hundred percent for his career, obviously. But yeah, I mean, I think we can confidently say we've got our kicker for the next four years. Looking good there. Also saw Cooper to Jean, obviously the interception return for a touchdown and back there in punt returns. I wonder if that becomes permanent, as it seems more and more like Keegan Johnson's not going to be part of the plans,

maybe for the rest of the season. Arlen Bruce is so important to have him out there, just because they don't have a whole lot of wide receivers. With his ability, Cooper Dejean, he might become that full-time punt returner. And if Arlen Bruce was good in that role. Dejean might even be better. Yeah, why not? I mean, he's – that kick – that interception was special. I mean, that's something – I mean, I think when he first caught that,

I think everybody was thinking, oh, good, get 10 yards back. We'll start at the 30 and have a short field. But that was certainly not his mentality. The moment he caught that, he was thinking touchdown right away, and he's a special talent. We've got to find ways to get him on the field as much as possible. So I'd be all in if we want to make him our partner turner in hell, make him our kicker turner as well.

Kavon Merriweather also with the defensive touchdown, and because we talk so much about the offense, it gets missed. This defense, we try to talk about it a the offense, it gets missed. This defense, we try to talk about it a lot, but it's still ultimately defensive. They're so fun to watch. They're flying to the football. They're making plays there and they're getting the football. And when they do, well, they know they probably need to score with the two. And they have that mentality going forward. We are just so lucky to have Phil Parker in our lives. Well, I don't know if you saw this morning with your show, but cave on was one of the, the guys that was one of the guys

that was available to the media today. And they talked to him about, apparently he was this close to committing to play basketball at Western Michigan. And actually his coach talked him out of doing it and wanted him to just kind of wait and see what came down the pike. And obviously, you know, here we are. I mean, he is your, I mean, at some point you run out of success stories in the defensive backfield. I mean, this is your classic Phil Parker, find a two-star that was going to go to a Mac school and make him into a, you know, 10-year NFL player. I mean, he's a great player.

I mean, it's just he's – how many times can we say it? I mean, you can probably count on both hands, you know, two-star guys that ended up playing in the NFL at D-back. And, you know, it's a testament to Phil Parker, but it's also a testament to guys like Kayvon Mayweather to come in. And, you know, we've had, on the flip side, you got a guy like Dallas Cradeth, who was a four-star, come in, expected to be the next great guy in the world.

And he's still in the program. He's still there. He's still involved. But you got to come in and put in the work. And obviously Merriweather has. I mean, he's a great story for a lot of reasons. I mean, his willingness to speak up and advocate for, you know, issues he believes in, you know, those types of things,

just listen to him talk. He's obviously an incredibly intelligent young guy and, you know, whatever he ends up doing, he's getting really successful at it. Yeah. He was so important in 2020 and talked about that yesterday with LaShawn a little bit. And just the importance of having that advocate inside the program and a guy that wanted to stick around and do things right and see it through.

And he's been a big part of that program and getting past some of the issues, obviously, that were plaguing the program. Great to see scoring his first touchdown on a scoop and score. Just a great moment, certainly there. Now a guy that more than likely will get a shot at the next level because he played defensive back for Phil Parker. You're going to get that shot, and it happens time in and time out.

We got a lot more to get into here as we continue. We'll talk about the matchup against Michigan coming up. The Wolverines come in currently a 10 and a half point favorite. And that line continues to grow as a week goes on. We'll also make our picks coming up this week as we get into everything happening inside the world of the Iowa Hawkeyes. This is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Stay right there.

We're back with more here in a moment. All talking about point spreads, BetOnline is your number one source for football betting information this season. Find all the latest player developments, team matchups, news, podcasts, and in-depth articles and analysis on every game you can find. As always, BetOnline remains your continued source for all your sports wagering information, live betting, and up-to-minute scores

for every sport out there. Baseball playoffs right around the corner. There's still golf going on, boxing, MMA. They have you covered at BetOnline. Head to BetOnline or your Zoom mobile device today to learn more. BetOnline, where the game starts. Biz, we will get to our BetOnline bets coming up here a little bit later on but before that let's talk about the big bad

wolverines and you mentioned i did see it just a little bit of a couple of the news and notes as we're recording here today before kurt goes in front of the assembled media but some of the players and a couple of the defensive guys said ph Phil Parker, a little bit upset about that 42 points that was put up by the Wolverines last year in the Big Ten Championship game. This defense is going to be ready to go. Is it going to be good enough? We will see, but I don't see 42 being put on the board again by the Wolverines. No, Trent, you know, usually I'm pretty, I like to think at least I'm a pretty measured Iowa fan and pretty realistic. I'm throwing that out the window this week. We are, we're winning this game.

Damn it. I'm drinking the, I'm drinking the Kurt Kool-Aid this week. I am, I am all in on, first of all, I think the spread is insane. Ten and a half, you and I, you know, our techs had talked about it, and I was adamant. I thought the spread would be seven or less. I just didn't think they'd put it on seven. Clearly, I was wrong. I mean, clearly, Vegas thinks people are going to bet on the Wolverines,

obviously, but it's ten and a half. Like you said, it's even moved up. I saw it 11 in one spot. But I've got five reasons, Trent, five reasons why we're going to win or at the very least come on Saturday. So as usual, I reached out to Statboy and got a lot of info from him. But you can talk me off the ledge, Trent, but you ready to dig in deep on why we're going to win this game?

I'm ready to do it. I love the optimism. Let's go. All right, five reasons, Trent. One, you just talked about it or brought it up a little bit, is the revenge factor. Do you know about the Hawkeye challenge, like what they do in the summer? I think I've heard of it. Phil, remind me. So I don't, I don't know exactly. I'm kind of making this up on the fly, but from what I understand, they split up into groups and senior captains draft the team. So you end up with like, like you know 10 different teams and they have a whole bunch of different things throughout the summer as far as

weight lifting and you know different workouts and all that so you get points for everything you do throughout the summer and the team that wins you know wins the hawkeye challenge ever do you know what the name of the team was that won it this year? What? The 39ers, which if you take their 42 points, subtract our three, the 39ers won it this year. That team, I believe, was captained by Jack Campbell. So not only is Phil Parker ready, I think this whole team took him out ready. There's some revenge factor to this game. Not only did we get beat, but I think everybody's going to be a little pissed off that Jim Harbaugh didn't

ease up a little bit. Legitimately, that should have been a 28-3 game and Harbaugh put 42 on the board. It's easy to say revenge factor, but let's bring Statboy into the equation and let's look at how Kirk has done in revenge games over the years. We talk about it a lot, Trent. Not often does Iowa get their butts handed to them and get truly blown out. If you look at it, it's only happened – there's only been five times – this will be the sixth – five times – or actually, this will be the fifth.

There's been four times in 20 years where we've gotten beat by at least 25 points and then got to turn around and play that same team the next year so four times let's dig into them first one 2007 purdue whoops us 31 to 6 we turn around the next year beat them 22 to 17 in 2008 okay five years later, Michigan stomps us at the big house. 2012, a bad Iowa team. We get whooped 42-17. The next year they come to Kinnick, 2013, we beat them 24-21. 2014, Trent, you remember the debacle up in Minnesota

where we got just absolutely stomped 51-14? Remember it well. Boner and Ricks were there. Yeah, it was a game where it was kind of the eye opener for Phil Parker where they kept running jet sweeps and outside action. We looked like we'd never, ever defended those before. I think Phil took that personally. So 2015, they come to Kinnick. We beat them 40 to 35.

So last of the games, 2016, the Penn State game where we lose 41-14, give up almost 600 points offense. They come back to Kinnick 2017, we lose, but we lose 21-19. The epic Saquon Barkley game, they score literally at the buzzer to beat us. So you're looking at revenge games. We're 3-1, and the only one we lost was at the buzzer to beat us so uh you're looking at revenge games we're three and one and the only one we lost was was at the buzzer so uh you know not a huge sample set to look at but when it comes to revenge games kirk and kirk and the boys will uh info park will have them ready to go i think so so there's a reason number one all right i'm i'm in the revenge angle i love

revenge angles absolutely all right number one i'm with, I'm in. Revenge angle. I love revenge angles. Absolutely. All right, number one, I'm with you. Number two angle, Trent, you see it all the time. It's as simple as this. It's a top five opponent coming to Kinnick Stadium. Last 15 years, it's happened six times. I'm sure you saw the stat, but what's our record in those six games

in the last 15 years? The only loss was the one you mentioned, the Penn State game, but what, five and1 in the six games? Yep, 5-1, only lost that same 2017 heartbreaker to Penn State. People talk about, oh, it's got to be a night game at Kinnick.

Three of those six games weren't night games. They were 2-30 kickoffs or 3 o'clock kickoffs. They ended at night, but they weren't night games. Half of them were, half of them weren't. I honestly, I actually kind of like the 11 o'clock kickoff. I think for Spencer Petras' purposes, it might help a little bit for him to get going without having to get in his own head all day long

and without having 70,000 completely intoxicated Iowa fans angry when he throws one bad pass. So I don't mind the 11 o'clock kick this week. We'll see. I think one way or the other, this crowd's going to be electric and ready to go. It is, yep. So there's your second. You've got revenge game.

You've got the top five game. Third, I think this is huge. It's the first road game of the year for Michigan and the first road game ever starting for J.J. McCarthy. Do you watch any of Michigan, Maryland? Just a little bit. I didn't see nearly as much. For me, unfortunately, I had to be locked into Iowa State Baylor, so I didn't get to see a ton of it, no. Maryland could have and probably should have won the game. Michigan got handed seven

points to start the game. There were a couple other fluky plays that went their way. I think turnover to 3-0. I mean, Maryland played really good football. But my takeaway from it is J.J. McCarthy is a talented quarterback, but certainly a work in progress. He holds the ball forever. I mean, he keeps it for three, four seconds. He's looking big play all the time,

and that's just not how you're going to beat Iowa. I mean, Purdue has shown the blueprint for beating Iowa. You've got to dink and dunk and be patient and take what they will give you. He's not that quarterback. He's going to be aggressive. He's going to put some balls up for grabs, and it's going to come down to, to me, who makes those plays. Can we force turnovers, or are they going to hit a couple of big plays? Kate McNamara might be the better quarterback for this game from a mission perspective. I mean, I think so.

So there's your number three is first road test for Michigan team. They're not the same Michigan team as last year. I mean, they've got what eight defensive starters that are new this year. They've got some injuries on offense. I mean, they're a really good team, but I really question whether they're the number 14 in the nation. Realistically, I think they're probably a top 10 to 15 team. So there's your three. Number four, Trent, comes down to just style of play. I mean, I think Harbaugh's going to run the ball and run the ball and run the ball.

I just think we've talked about before, we've got an elite defense. I just don't see them coming in. This isn't Ohio State. It's not a game where they're going to put up 40 and we've got to outscore them. I really do think the rule we talk about all the time applies. We've got to get to 24. I think we can hold this Michigan team to under 24 points. It's just a question of can we somehow piece together 24 points.

So then last, Trent, number five, and this is more the – this is my bailout. If we don't win, we're at least going to cover. So number five is the cover factor. Kirk is a beast when it comes to being a double-digit underdog. In the last 20 years, Trent, we've a double-digit underdog. In the last 20 years, Trent, we've been double-digit underdogs 12 times. We're 8-3-1 in those games as far as covering. And at home, Kirk's 5-0. We're 5-0 as double-digit underdogs at home, including two outright wins. You got the wood shedding of Ohio State and the Michigan 14-13 win the year before. So when it comes to double-digit underdogs,

A, it doesn't happen all that often for the Hawks, but when it happens, we usually handle ourselves well. That's good. There's my top five, Trent. So now you've got to talk me off the ledge. Why am I wrong? Oh, Spencer Petras, Brian Terrence parents our offensive line alec wick um those are a few reasons that that i would go that direction i just actually noted here one reason why we don't win it was

i just put offense so yeah we'll just uh put it in general terms if we put it put all those together yeah it's just i i still struggle i was going to play better than they did in the championship game i think they're going to hang around but are they going to have a sustained drive are they going to be able to go eight plays 75 yards for a touchdown it's it's so damn tough with this team and this offense and the way that they do things can brian scheme together a game not even even like the Ohio State game in 2017, just some semblance of putting together, not a drive, but multiple drives together.

And until I see that, it's hard. I think Iowa hangs around. I think the defense plays well, but with all that together, can they hold them under 20 points? That's what they're going to have to do. Do you see Iowa scoring 24? I just can't.

Unless we're talking defensive scores, unless we're talking about a safety and a touchdown put up by the defense, I just can't envision that. And that's where my struggle continues to come from. Yeah. I don't think anybody can confidently say, oh yeah, we're going to put up 24 points. But it wouldn't shock me if we did. I think what we've learned the last couple of weeks is you can be frustrated with Brian Ferentz, but I think he's made some good adjustments the last couple of weeks. I think we've changed our offensive playbook a little bit.

We've gone more shotgun runs. We've done some different things. We've got some different personnel on the field. You know, I think one of the things I saw against Maryland is, you know, Maryland had good success, you know, just kind of dinking and dunking and staying patient and moving the ball down the field on them. And I think that's something we might be able to do a little bit is, you know, just this is not the same Michigan defense as last year. It's just not.

They don't have Aiden Hutchinson anymore. Are they a good defense? Absolutely. But I don't think they're – I mean, Maryland put up 400 and some yards on them. And, you know, I just – this is not an elite Michigan defense. They're going to be really good. But I think we'll put up yards against them. When I say yards, probably 250.

Yeah. That's good. And on the flip side, Trent, I mean, this is, like I said, this has no possibility to be a truly elite Iowa defense. I mean, we've given up 23 points in four games, which I don't know if you saw the stat, but that's the lowest in the modern era. It goes back to 1956, the last time we did that. I mean, it's this defense.

I'll ask you this way. What's the weak spot of this defense, Trent? Is there one? Right now, depth at, well, probably a couple of positions. Cornerback, as you saw, a couple of guys on there getting a little bit down there. And, of course, the injury to Justin Jacobs, which I think will impact this game a little bit too but Sebastian Castro coming out there and playing with the physicality at that cash position does he moving back over to cornerback they're really talented you're right depth might be the

question right now and that's why put some drives together if if you can at least keep this time of possession keep it 32 2828, something like that. Obviously, I'm on the wrong side of it, but even if they can do that, that's another thing where I just have concerns. The way that Corum runs, and it feels like you got him bottled up for three and he gets six.

Looks like you got him stopped short of the first down and he reaches four and he gets that first down. And those long drives. If I was out on the field again for another 38, 39, 40 minutes, you just wonder what the fourth quarter is going to be because there's going to be so much pressure put on them. Yeah. On the flip side of that though, if we can just get to the fourth quarter, if we get to the fourth quarter and it's close game, there's a lot of pressure in that situation. I mean, I think it's, you know, I don't know. Again, maybe I'm just drinking the Kool-Aid,

but I really think there's going to be a four-quarter game, and I think it's going to be a lot closer than 10.5. All right. So, with that, we will break down this game a little bit further from a betting perspective. Anything else from Stat Boy? I know every once in a while he's got a few more nuggets. No, that's it.

I gave him an easy week. If you remember last year before the championship game, we had them really get deep. I think we did a top ten list of Iowa-Michigan games over the years. I thought about just going back and talking about a few of those because, man, there have been some entertaining Iowa-Michigan games. But any of our new listeners can go back and find the find the old one from last November. Cause it's a fun recap. There have been some fun, fun games over the last 30 years.

And they've included, you know, three or four of the greatest wins and, you know, Iowa history against them. And we saw the last time at Kinnick stadium, how big that one was and another opportunity coming up on Saturday. And when we come back, we will make our picks presented by BetOnline. As we continue, this is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. All right, Biz, wrapping up here with our picks for the week.

I took the week last week and we're back to even on the season. I went two and one. You went one and two. Our national game of the week is where game day will be. No, not in Lawrence, Kansas. Again, this week, as Iowa State didn't hold up their end of the week. It's where game day will be. No, not in Lawrence, Kansas again this week because Iowa State didn't hold up their end of the deal, losing to Baylor last week. Instead, they will be at NC State making their way

to Howard's Rock and Clemson. Six and a half is the number. Who do you like in this matchup or are you going back to the total well again? No, the total well has not gone well for me. Give me the roll back. I think Clemson is just a team now. They're not the Georgia, Alabama, that type of unbelievably elite team anymore.

They're really good. I mean, they're probably going to win the ACC, but they're not that juggernaut Clemson team that we saw for a five-year stretch there. And I think NC State will be in the game the whole way, whether they win or not, I don't know. But six and a half seems like too much. So give me the Wolfpack plus six and a half.

Clemson, that defense is not the same. And that's, I think, their biggest issue. DJ Ongolele continues to make strides offensively. Shipley is so much fun to watch. I mean, that guy is just absolutely. And of course, you got to say it because he's white. He's more athletic than you think. that dude's just an absolute stud. I don't know if NC state's going to be able to slow them down and Leary their quarterback, who was really good a

year ago. He has not been the same guy here since it's at Clemson. I'm going to lay it a little less than a touchdown. I like that part too. I'll lay the six and a half and I will take Clemson as we disagree with pick number one, number two, our best bet of the week. This is what he got for us this week. Last week, there were a couple that jumped off the board. Not the same here early in the week, at least for me. Well, I got a question, Trent. I just spent 15 minutes talking about how much I love Iowa.

Can I just double down on Iowa and make it my best bet of the week? Best bet and Iowa when we pick the Iowa game? I'll allow it. We're just making rules up on the fly here. Double it down, Trent. Give me Iowa plus 10.5. of the week and best bet and Iowa when we pick the Iowa game I'll allow it all right make the rules up on the fly here double it down Trent give me give me Iowa plus 10 and a half and I want it as my best bet and my Iowa bet so look at that I love the double down I love going down that route with you okay so that's your best bet of the week I got a couple of different directions I was looking I'm going back to Michigan State they look look brutal against Minnesota. They look brutal the week

before against Washington. Maryland, people are excited about them. They played well against Michigan. As you said, they easily could have won that game. They had the fumble on the punt early in the game. I think we've gone too far. I'm getting eight points here. One final time, but if it doesn't happen here, you have to just tell me

to stop on Michigan State. Give me Sparty plus the eight with my pick of the weekend. Busy. You, you talked me into it. Give me the Hawkeyes. I'm going to go. It is a kiss of deck. I'm putting it on you though.

You are the one that talked me into it. You got me excited here. I'm coming over to Kinnick. I'm fired up about that. Give me the Hawks. I will grab the 11 with you. Well, you talked about Michigan state and by them, I, if you didn't allow me to do the, uh, the double down the Hawks, my pick of the week was actually the, the fighting Burt

Bielema's against Wisconsin. I think I'm getting them getting a touchdown versus Wisconsin is way too much. I think Illinois might be a better team than Wisconsin this year. So that, that, that always makes me nervous betting on Illinois, but that, that's my, you know,

it didn't happen since you allowed me to double down the Hawks, but I like the fighting Burt's this week. Fighting Burt's going, is that a camp Randall? Is that right? It is. Yep. Yeah.

Interesting. Well, fun, big 10. We're finally here. fun big 10 we're finally here real big 10 football all over the place even last week against ruckers it still kind of felt like a non-conference game but we're into the reality now of the big 10 slate as it's michigan this week if you want to hear about more about the wolverines and the big 10 as a whole you can

check out locked on big 10 nate dickinson each and every day takes you through the big 10 in 30 minutes breaking down this game and a whole lot more that's locked on big 10 make it your second Locked on Big Ten. Nate Dickinson, each and every day, takes you through the Big Ten in 30 minutes, breaking down this game and a whole lot more. That's Locked on Big Ten. Make it your second listen of the day after Locked on Hawkeyes. Let's roll out with this biz. It's time for Biz's Beat, minus the music. I'm trying to remember if you saw it, but this Friday,

they're doing a thing called Hawkeye Hoops from downtown. I've ripped on the Iowa marketing department for not to be in the most forward thinking department in the world over the years. It's pretty cool. It's both the Iowa women's and men's team are going to be doing an event downtown Iowa city with a bunch of interactive contests and, and, you know, live DJ and a bunch of stuff. So my, my kids are bringing my kids down there for it. It's kind of a cool way to get the, uh, the weekends,

hopefully a really fun weekend in Iowa city started. Yeah. It's a, an idea that I saw here a couple of years ago, Drake did that downtown, uh, here in Des Moines and you and I has jumped aboard. Now we got Iowa doing it as well. It's going to be exciting. And we can start talking some hoops here pretty quick. Practice has already started this week, which is awesome to see. And ready for basketball, ready to get back into that. And we'll have plenty of conversations.

Biz and I, we were not high-level high school football players. Well, you were a high-level basketball player, me on the other hand. I like to watch a lot. That was all. But basketball. High-level might be a little bit. I can shoot basketball. That's about it. Yes, you can. You want to stay championship lot. That was all. But basketball. My level of might was catching it a little bit. I can shoot the basketball. That's about it.

Yes, you can. He won a state championship. I mean, that's pretty good. Yeah, it was clearly all my doing. Yes, all you. Not Adam Dahl. Not B.J. Fleming. It was all Biz.

All the time. I was the glue to that team, Trent. We all know that. Well, the emotional leader, obviously. In my own head, at least, yeah. No doubt. Well, Biz, we'll be talking In my own head, at least, yeah. No doubt. Well, Biz, we'll be talking plenty of hoops going forward here, but a big one on tap this weekend.

If you're in Iowa City, make it over there. It should be a great time. Biz, we'll talk again next week. All right, go Hawks.