Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Adrian Martinez is OUT vs Iowa plus Keagan Murry and MBB dominate Western Michigan

Episode Date: November 23, 2021

Scott Frost told media that Adrian Martinez is out for the season after suffering a shoulder injury vs Wisconsin. What does this mean for the Iowa Hawkeyes and their upcoming Friday game against Nebraska? We've got you covered here but before we get into that we have to discuss how dominating Keagan Murray has been and how great the Iowa men's basketball team looked vs Western Michigan last night. The defense was suffocating and aggressive throughout the night and Iowa was easily getting to the rim with Tony Perkins while Payton Sandfort was knocking down threes at an impressive clip. And as we do every Tuesday, we have a quick analytic breakdown from Iowa's win over Illinois.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.PrizePicksDon’t hesitate, check out PrizePicks.com and use promo code: “LOCKEDON” or go to your app store and download the app today. PrizePicks is daily fantasy made easy!NetSuiteOver twenty-seven thousand businesses already use NetSuite and RIGHT NOW through the end of the year NetSuite is offering a one-of-a-kind financing program to those ready to upgrade at NetSuite.com/LOCKEDONNCAA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back Hawkeye Nation to another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Podcast Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, excited to be back for another show today. We have an action-packed week. Obviously, we have men's basketball going on. We have football coming up on Friday. It's a holiday week. The women's basketball team is out with COVID for right now, so I'm not covering any women's basketball, but still a very busy week. And on today's show,

we're going to be breaking down yesterday's or last night's, I should say, huge win over Western Michigan. Defensive energy was there. Offense was also there. It was a lot of fun to watch this Iowa basketball team continue to grow and come together. Wow, Keegan Murray is an absolute beast. We're also going to dive into the analytics from Iowa's win over Illinois. We do this every Tuesday. We're not stopping this week. We're also going to wrap up with talking a little bit about the depth chart, some interesting things on both the Nebraska side and on the Iowa side.

So we're covering all that on the show today. And today's episode is brought to you by Sonos. Sonos is the official sponsor of ESPN College Football. Go to Sonos.com to learn more. Thank you. We're also on YouTube as well. Just search Lockdown Hawkeyes. We are there as well. You can see my ugly mug on video, and it should be a lot of fun. And as I mentioned, a big week this week. Yesterday we had LeSean Daniels, former Iowa running back, on the show. Had a lot of fun breaking down and recapping the Iowa-Illinois game. Again, as we talked about today, already broke down what's going on on today's show. Tomorrow we have a Nebraska media member joining us to break down Iowa versus Nebraska,

doing a full preview episode, kind of bumping that up a little bit. And then on Thursday or Friday, I haven't decided when I'm dropping this show yet, but we're going to be doing a preview of the upcoming Iowa men's basketball game versus Portland State. And also do a little bit more of a preview into the Iowa-Nebraska game. So all that's coming up on the show this week. I hope you all are tuning in. Let's get into it, though. The big stuff from last night, men's basketball just absolutely annihilated Western Michigan. Now, I want to start off by saying Western Michigan is not a good basketball team.

We know that. They're actually one of the worst basketball teams in the nation. But what stuck out to me was what Iowa was doing throughout the game. Defensively, they were dominating. I don't remember the last time I saw that many breakaways. I don't remember the last time I saw that many just straight up steals. It wasn't bad passes. It was straight up steals from this Iowa basketball team. And that was a ton of fun to watch and see. Of course, Keegan Murray had a phenomenal game, continuing to basically say, I deserve to be in that National Player of the Year conversation.

I mean, what he's doing has just been light out. It started off with 20 of the first 23 points for Iowa. 20 of them went to Keegan Murray. Just truly absurd. I mean, what he's just, gosh, I can't even describe how amazing it has been watching him continue to play basketball these last couple weeks. And honestly, there is no way he comes back. I would be absolutely floored if he comes back, just based on the fact of what he can do offensively and then how he contributes outside of that. Last night in 21 minutes, 21 minutes, had 29 points,

8 of 10 from the field, 2 of 4 from 3, 7 of 9 free throws, had 6 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 2 steals. had six rebounds, three blocks, and two steals. That's the kind of stat line that not only gets you National Player of the Year consideration, and he very much is one of the frontrunners right now, that's the kind of stat line that gets you drafted in the top 10, top 12 picks. Keegan Murray has been that good. If he can continue this going into Big Ten play, that'll be quite the sight to see.

The biggest thing that's shown out for me about Keegan Murray is that he's looking for his shot, and then he gets it. He sees an opportunity, and he absolutely attacks, and it has been a lot of fun to watch. What also stood out on ball defense early on in the game was phenomenal. Iowa getting a 49-20 lead at the half. Iowa was just swarming the basketball. They came out in the second half, full court press, and then going into a half-court trap and continuing to put pressure on the basketball, consistently getting their hands in the back pocket of the offensive player. I mean, I don't think I't seen Jordan Bohannon get that many steals

in quite some time. Tony Perkins has also been one of our best on-ball defenders. Fifteen steals from Iowa in this game. Twenty-four turnovers from Western Michigan. Now, we don't have a huge sample size from Western Michigan and what they have and have not been able to do, but coming into this game, they were actually one of the better teams in turn of turnovers. Number one in the nation in non-steal turnover percentage, not as good in steal percentage, but against Michigan State, only 10 turnovers in that entire game. Against Iowa,

they had 11 in the first half and eight of those were steals. Again, 15 steals. I'll have to go back and look at the last time Iowa had that many steals, but a pretty, pretty dominating performance. Six blocks. Rebounding, not as, not as good. One rebound more than Western Michigan, which, all right. There's one thing to say.

There's a criticism here is probably the rebounding, but overall you have to be really impressed if there's one thing to say, there's a criticism here, it's probably the rebounding. But overall, you have to be really impressed with what Iowa was able to do, especially with Patrick McCaffrey out and Josh out as well. Riley Mulvey got his first bucket, which was a lot of fun. Peyton Sanford, that kid does not stop shooting. Five of seven from three. It felt like every single time he was on the court, they were looking for him to take that shot. And again, Tony Perkins, two steals, adding in 15 points.

Tony Perkins is showing that he belongs in that starting lineup. And when Jordan Bohannon does eventually leave next year, Tony Perkins is going to take that spot and he's going to run with it. He's going to be ready to absolutely roll. Tony Perkins showing what he can do. Phillip Obrach, I thought, despite him a very quiet night of only six points and five rebounds, he had a couple plays at the basket. There's one late in the first half.

He got the ball right in the low post, face up his defender, and then beat the defender off the dribble to get a bucket. Phillip Abracha, I know we worry a lot about the size of this team and whether or not we can handle the Big Ten centers. I will say Phillip Abracha and his speed and quickness will give them some difficulties. Now, they're also going to be able to body him out, but Phillip Abracha does have very good quickness and will be able to score on a lot of Big Ten people. And I'm really excited to watch how that all plays out. But again, Iowa getting a big time W, 109 to 61.

Just absolutely dominating that game from start to finish. There was never a doubt about that. Coming up, we're going to be breaking down the analytics from Iowa versus Illinois. And then we're going to be jumping into the news that Adrian Martinez is not going to be starting this upcoming football game for the Nebraska Cornhuskers. A big time loss. I know a lot of people will say, oh man, Adrian Martinez was a turnover machine. Adrian Martinez is actually the entire offense for Nebraska.

So as much as you want to hate on him, the guy's a good player. So we're going to be talking all about that coming up here in a few short moments as well. But I do want to remind you that this is it, the putt to win the tournament. If you sink it, the championship is yours. But on your backswing, your hat falls over your eyes. Is this how you're running your business? Poor visibility because you're still relying on spreadsheets and outdated finance software? To see the full picture, you need to upgrade to NetSuite by Oracle. NetSuite is the number one cloud financial system to power your growth with visibility and control of your financials, inventory, HR, planning, budgeting, and more.

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your first listen every single day. Again, you can find the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast for free wherever you get podcasts at and also on YouTube find the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast for free wherever you get podcasts at and also on YouTube by searching Locked On Hawkeyes. Before we took a break, we talked about Iowa versus Western Michigan. Now we're switching gears back to the football landscape as we do every Tuesday. We're breaking down some of the analytics from the win over Illinois.

There's a couple of very interesting things about this. Now, I saw several people on Twitter say, did Tyrone Tracy even play? I'm here to tell you, he did play. But what's happening? There's clearly either a divide with where Tyrone Tracy can perform, or they were punishing him for his tweet. Or it's a mix of both. Because in this game tyrone tracy had six snaps for reference keegan johnson 62 snaps arlen bruce the 430 snaps nico regani 29 snaps charlie jones 28 snaps tracy 6 max cooper 1 now one of the big things when he looked at this game. Alex Padilla, only 6 of 17. And people thought that was absolutely terrible. It's not good, but 6 of 17 for one interception and 83 yards. When you go back and look at the tape, and according to PFF, there was four official drops,

but arguably seven catchable footballs. We're looking at more of like a 10 of 17 or even a 13 of 17. The drops have been a problem since Alex Padilla has taken over. Now there were definitely drop problems when Spencer Petras was quarterback as well, but almost seven drops is absolutely absurd. Part of it, I truly believe, is the ability to fit the ball in windows that people are not expecting. ability to fit the ball in windows that people are not expecting. Now, the other part of it is he's targeting Keegan Johnson significantly. Keegan Johnson has had some issues with drops this season, but what he can do when he gets the ball in his hands is just too good to pass up that opportunity where he might drop a football here and there. Nico Regani has struggled with drops throughout his career, and I have said that

plenty of times. He had two drops in this game as well. So it's kind of interesting when you look at that, what kind of the context behind some of those throws were. Now, the interception, I liked the idea of throwing down the sideline to Keegan Johnson, but when you have safety help over top, you have to be a little bit better on the ball placement with that throw. He overthrew Keegan Johnson with that safety help over top, you have to be a little bit more better on the ball placement with that throw. He overthrew Keegan Johnson with that safety help over top. There was no chance.

He had to put it in a place where Keegan Johnson might be able to get it, but arguably, you don't make that throw at all. When there's safety help over top, that's going to be a really tough throw to fit in there. But overall in the game, one big-time throw, two turnover-worthy plays, and two throwaways. His average depth of target was 11 yards, though. Again, a much bigger increase than what we've seen from Spencer. He's willing to take shots over the middle, deep.

He's willing to go deep to several other players as well. And one of the big things that has helped him do this is the pass blocking. The pass blocking has significantly improved. Jack Plum, I have been hard on this kid. He had the best day of any offensive lineman in terms of pass blocking against Illinois, and Illinois has a strong pass rush. He had an 86.9 pass blocking grade, only three pressures allowed from the entire offensive line. Kyler Schott also had a good game, 86. Tyler Linderbaum at 61.4. Nick DeYoung, 63.8. Connor Colby, 65.2.

Again, Iowa is figuring out this rotation. They're locked into it. It'll be interesting to see where does Mason Richmond fit in now or they leave the rotation the way it is because this rotation has looked pretty darn good. Now the next question would be, is this Alex Padilla or is this the offensive line starting to figure it out? I would say it's both.

Defenders can no longer just bull rush and go right for the quarterback. They do have to play a little bit of contain. They have to be a little bit on edge because Alex Padilla can get out of the pocket, and we even saw that against Illinois. He was able to scramble for a few yards here and there. And when the pocket collapses, Alex can get out. So we're avoiding some of those sacks that we have seen in the past. His time to throw has increased as well.

Spencer Petras' time to throw was less, around 2.5 seconds, whereas Alex's is roughly up to 3 to 3.1. And Alex's delivery and release is also, in my opinion, a little bit quicker than Spencer's. So when the pocket is collapsing, he's able to get the ball out quicker where we've seen Spencer just tuck and get a sack. So to me, it's kind of a mix of both, but I've been really impressed with what I've seen from this pass blocking unit the last couple of weeks. And if they can continue this development, Iowa's a team people don't want to play in a bowl game. And think about the fact that if Tyler Lindenbaum does leave,

we're still returning potentially four offensive linemen, four starters. Tyler Schott could definitely leave, but I could see him returning as well as he's struggled with injuries and dealing with that this year. But that would be really interesting to me to see as well. Running wise, run blocking was good. But the other thing that I noticed that Iowa ran a lot more inside zone, they avoided a lot of the stuff to the outside quite significantly.

The one thing I would say is the jet sweep was not overly effective, but it keeps a defense honest. And when we put it on tape, you have to account for it. And in certain situations, it can be really effective. Like the Arlen Bruce TD, I put him one-on-one with the corner. All I had to do was bulldoze his butt over. So I really like what Iowa has done in the run game. Brian Ferencz has done a really good job of calling the run game as of late, and it has obviously helped the run blocking grades. The inside zone has

worked significantly better than the outside zone, where guys have to hold their blocks longer, and we're not able to do that. The inside zone, you get a block on, Tyler Linderbaum can push two guys at once, and then here you go, you get Gavin Williams running for 50 yards. You get Tyler Goodson putting together another career day. And I got to say, I have been really impressed by Gavin Williams. He has looked so good. And if Tyler Goodson does leave, it will be unfortunate. I think Tyler Goodson has so much big playability, and I've really enjoyed watching him play over the course of his career.

But Gavin Williams is going to be a stud as well. This is a guy, he's a more traditional Iowa running back, a guy who's going to fall forward, a guy who's going to hit some guys and knock them over, not really dance a lot. And it's going to be a lot of fun to watch him play football for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Moving over to the defensive side of the football, coverage-wise, did a pretty good job, all things considered.

Jamari Harris, making another start, did allow five catches on eight targets for 74 yards along a 45. Had a 57.2 coverage grade. Riley Moss played really well, a 71 coverage grade, considering he only has one PCL. Kavon Merriweather, 61.7. Dane Belton, 73.2. And Quinn Schulte getting really significant playing time for the first time 66.4 considering Jack Kerner was out and also Matt Hankins was out I thought the secondary performed pretty darn well

the pass rush 13 pressures on the day including two sacks we're starting to see this pass rush get a little better I also thought Phil Parker did a nice job of timing a couple blitzes to put pressure on Brandon Peters when they were throwing the football. The one thing to note is that once Illinois got down, they did have to throw the football more, and the fact that Iowa was able to key on the run and stop the run right away forced Illinois to turn to the pass quicker, allowed Phil Parker to turn off the pressure, allowed the secondary to make some plays like Dane Belton's interception. The last thing I want to note is that after this game, Lucas Van Ness, 15th in sacks in the Big Ten,

Joe Evans, 7th in sacks, Jack Campbell, 2nd in tackles, Tyler Goodson, 5th in rushing yards, and Dane Belton, 1st in interceptions with Riley Moss, 3rd in interceptions as well. And the last thing I want to say, we did see Cooper Dejean play a little bit of football and he actually had the best defender grade of the entire team. He only played six snaps, but what I saw from Cooper was impressive. The fact that he was playing corner was a bit shocking to me, but now he has made the depth chart and there's a chance we could see Cooper play a little bit more in this upcoming game against Nebraska. We're going to talk about all that, though,

and how the depth chart has been shaking out when we come back here in a few short moments. With Iowa taking on Nebraska, a lot of you probably saw that first line, the plus four, and you're like, let's hop on this, and then the Adrian Martinez news came out, and that line shifted very quickly. So I hope you were able to get your bets in at betonline.ag. It is Thanksgiving and we all know what that means.

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All right, y'all. And as we were talking about before we took a break, we started to get into the depth chart. The biggest news that came out yesterday was that Adrian Martinez is out. Now, what does that mean? Well, we're going to talk about that, but I want to quickly go over a few other depth chart things on the Iowa side as well. Again, no Mason Richmond on this depth chart. Spencer Petras makes his return as the number two. I expect to see Alex Padilla as the starter

versus Nebraska. Matt Hankins, he's out. I don't think we see Matt Hankins until the bowl game. Looks like it was a hamstring. The guy could barely walk during senior day. Jack Kerner, on the depth chart, in my opinion, he's probably a go. Sounds like he was a game-time decision and was unable to make it, but he's probably a go. Terry Roberts could be back. Kirk Ferentz alluded to a bone bruise,

so there's definitely an opportunity there. I would love to see Terry Roberts get back in this game. He is a big-time asset, both defensively and on special teams. But again, the biggest news is that Adrian Martinez is out. Now, what does this mean for Nebraska? Well, their whole offense is predicated around Adrian Martinez. Now, a lot of people make fun of Adrian Martinez. They say he's a turnover machine. He's not very good. The Nebraska offense isn't very good, and Adrian Martinez carries them on their back. He is a dynamic playmaker, and yes, he is not the best thrower, but again, without Adrian Martinez, it'll be really interesting to see how this offense moves. Without Adrian Martinez, it'll be really interesting to see how this offense moves. Taking over for him is more than likely Logan Smothers, a backup out of Alabama. On the season, he's 7 of 11 for 119 yards, 13 rushes for 69 yards.

I texted one of my good buddies who watches every Nebraska football game and is very invested in Nebraska football, huge Nebraska fan. I texted him and said, Adrian's out. What does that mean? He said, Logan's fast. We're going to throw short, and it's going to be really terrible watching him pass. Now, the 7 of 11 doesn't speak to that, but that is the general consensus I've heard about Logan is that passing-wise,

he is not a very good passer. He is worse than Adrian Martinez significantly, but this guy is fast. So expect a lot of option. Expect a lot of running plays. And Iowa has struggled with running quarterbacks in the past, but expect a lot of running plays to set up one or two big-time pass plays for Logan Smothers. I also expect to see a lot more pressure from Phil Parker,

probably a lot more run blitzes, trying to stop the run and force Logan into throwing. This also means you want to get a big lead quickly. Now, every game you play, you want to have a big lead quickly. But against teams like Iowa State, Iowa typically slow rolls it a little bit until they kind of figure out what is this game going to play like, and then they start going.

But I think when you play like a Minnesota, you play an Illinois, when you play Nebraska, it's important to get a 10-point or a 14-point lead quickly because then all of a sudden these run-first teams have to throw the football. And when you have a quarterback like Logan Smothers back there, a backup quarterback making his first start, you want to have him throwing the football. And when you have a quarterback like Logan Smothers back there, a backup quarterback making his first start, you want to have him throwing the football. So I expect Iowa to come out slinging on offense, and I expect pressure from Phil Parker. You want to force him to throw.

You also need to worry about the contain. So Joe Evans, Zach Van Valkenburg, John Wagner, you need to worry about letting him get outside the pocket. That's where we're going to probably not play a lot of man. Now, granted, Iowa doesn't play a lot of man, but especially against his Nebraska wide receiver crew that is not very good outside of one guy. I expect Iowa to just be sitting his own the entire day,

allowing everyone to have their eyes on the quarterback, especially with a Logan Smothers who can run. It's worth noting that Scott Frost did say Heinrich Harbaugh is also getting reps too, so we'll talk a little bit about him. He's also a dual threat quarterback and make plays with his legs, but I really do expect it to be Logan Smothers at this point. It'll be really interesting what to expect from this Nebraska team. Iowa now has four days to prep for a different quarterback and a different game plan than playing Adrian Martinez. And this is definitely advantageous for the Iowa Hawkeyes,

getting to go up against a backup quarterback making his first start. But I just want to reiterate that Nebraska is probably going to try to run the ball, and they're going to try to do it with Logan Smothers, who has what I've heard to be 4'4 to 4'5 speed. That is a concern. We have to watch out for Logan Smothers. So, again, the key is this, pressure on Logan, force him to throw so stop the run, and get a big lead early so you're making Nebraska play from behind in this game.

That is so crucial. Once Iowa got up against Minnesota, they started throwing the football. It became easier for them to stop. Illinois, they almost completely abandoned the run because Iowa stopped the run and they got a lead finally and forced Illinois to throw the football. It was good. Both those games, Iowa needs to do that again against Nebraska. They need to stop the run, force them to throw the football,

and you will have an opportunity to win this game and claim 10 wins, which will be huge for the Iowa Hawkeyes. That is all for today's show. Just a reminder, we are going to be joined by a Nebraska media member tomorrow to break down this Iowa-Nebraska football game, so you definitely ought to be on the lookout for that. And I want to remind you that I'm going to be talking to you about how to bet on this Iowa-Nebraska game,

but if you want to know how to bet on other games this week at betonline.ag, check out the Lockdown Bets podcast hosted by your boy Q and handicapping expert Lee Sterling of Paramount Sports. They got you covered for every single game or lots of games, at least three to four games every single day, letting you know how to place your bets so you can put some money in your pocket. I want to thank you all for listening to the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Have a fantastic Tuesday.

And as always, Hawkeye Nation, let's go Hawks.