Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - ALERT: Will Iowa's Receivers SILENCE Critics? | Can Ferentz's Team FINALLY Win with Aerial Attack?

Episode Date: May 19, 2025

Can the Iowa Hawkeyes football team break their offensive slump and average over 30 points this season? With the introduction of the Shanahan offense by new coordinator Tim Lester, the Hawkeyes are poised for a potential transformation.Explore the potential of Iowa's wide receivers, including Jarrett Bowie and Seth Anderson, as they aim to elevate the team's game. Basketball recruiting insights reveal Jane Kuhn's commitment to Creighton, while Tom Caker from Hawkeye Report shares bold predictions and discusses the impact of NIL spending. The episode also covers the Iowa baseball team's recent challenges and their quest for a Big Ten tournament bid.Join the conversation for an in-depth look at the Iowa Hawkeyes' strategies and prospects. Listen now for exclusive insights and expert analysis!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

Iowa wide receivers they've been a punchline in the past not this year. Why Iowa is going to be so much better and a shot to go deep down the field. You are locked on Hawkeyes your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, welcome in, I'm Trent Condon and this is the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast. I've been covering the Hawkeyes for over 20 years on the radio here in the great state of Iowa,

including currently on the Iowa Sports Radio Network. You can hear me each weekday from noon to two in Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, the Quad City, Sioux City, and our flagship 106.3 KXNO in Des Moines. You can also check us out on the iHeartRadio app. Just search Miller and Condon. Today's episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKDOWNCOLLGE at MonarchMoney.com for 50% off your first year. It was a rough weekend for the Iowa baseball team with a regular season championship on the line.

They get swept. We'll break it down a little bit later on. Plus Tom Kaicker is going to join us. A little bonus edition from late last week. Conversation with Tom Kaicker from Hawkeye Report. The latest on Emily Rodriguez and she makes her commitment to Iowa. We'll have more time for that a little bit later on. But this is kind of a bonus episode through the weekend. And I'll get you into an episode on Monday that'll become your way with more information on Rodriguez. We'll dive a little

bit deeper into the baseball. But today begins with a conversation talking about the wide receiver position at Iowa. And as we continue our breakdown position by position, we finish up one of our last spots that we kind of re-engage in and talk about is a spot that we ended up talking about quite a bit during spring football, and that's the wide receiver position.

It's been a punchline. It's been a disappointment. Go back to a handful of years ago when Iowa was going through spring practice because of injuries and because of guys that had left the program, they're going through with one, two guys, scholarship wide receivers out there even running around. We saw players leave at the wide receiver position, guys that have moved on and had good careers or guys that have moved on, Charlie Jones had the good ones or not done a whole lot. There's been both sides of it. But in the end, it's been a weak spot. And it's been an incredibly bad spot overall for Iowa, really during the Kirk Farrant's tenure. And we can go through and we can point pieces that have been okay. Good college guys. In the beginning, you go

back to Mo Brown and CJ Jones and what they had at the beginning. Obviously, Kevin Casper was part of the transition from the Hayden era into Kirk. And there's been bits and pieces. Amir Smith-Marcet was a nice wide receiver. DJ K with all his problems was good. Marvin Gnut was outstanding. So there's been those stories at the wide receiver position, but what is it just continued to decline into here these last few years has been taking it to another level. Never great. And then you go to this level and it's been bad That's the only way to do it and I look at this group now You have a bunch of guys that have resumes guys that have proven it at the collegiate level you start right there the young talent that feels like there's guys that are gonna be able to hit here and You put it all together with an offensive coordinator

in Tim Lester that you feel like he knows what he's doing. That there is an understanding. Chad Leistockow last week had a great article talking about the Shanahan offense and implementing it and being the only college program that is really going, diving head first into the Shanahan offense. And maybe this is something that is going to create an advantage for Iowa football. Now let's be honest. If I would take that next step this year after going from the dregs that they were under Brian Ferentz to what they were a year ago, serviceable still a passing game that was broken, but a running game that was fixed. And if in your number two, Tim Lester is able to fix the passing part of

this that we see all of a sudden Mark Grunowski comes in and he has a 3000 yard season through the year and throws for 25 touchdowns and five picks, something like that. If they're able to do that, look, Tim Lester is going to be wanted by a lot of programs, not just at the collegiate level. There's going to be, I believe, NFL teams that are going to be looking at them. Maybe not as a coordinator, but to bring them back. And a question that I got last week on the comments section on YouTube, and a shout out to you every dayers out there with us each and every day. Love reading through your comments that you have. Well, some more than others. You know where those come from. But it asked me, Tim Lester,

could he be the next Iowa head coach? And I think it's a fair question. In fact, a little bit later this week, we're gonna have a mailbag edition. So if you're watching this on YouTube right now, hit that subscribe button, but also leave a comment. You got a question, we will do that later this week. We'll have a Q&A, a mailbag episode of Lockdown Hawkeyes,

but I thought it was a really good one because if Tim Lester really does that, people are talking about who the next head coach is going to be, who's going to be that next guy, going through list after list after list, guys with connections to the program, going outside the program. People want fresh blood. Everybody has their own opinion, right? But Tim Lester, first of all, I just like his personality. I like the way that he speaks, and that shouldn't be a huge prerequisite for being a head coach at the University of Iowa and the football program, the stability that comes along with it.

Again, two coaches in 47 years. Pretty good. But you throw in the fact that I think he's proven himself. You know, he had success at Western Michigan. And doing it now at a program that has been struggling so much offensively, if he can do that. And it's a big F. We're still talking about taking the final step.

But let's take our final look through here, the wide receiver position as we've done, a position by position going through. We're gonna go here numerically. That's how we're going to do it. Start with number zero. Jarrett Bowie. Ben Banked Up. Banked Up in spring and that does leave you a little bit concerned. But for a guy last year as a redshirt freshman, I think you

saw a little bit out of him that that guy can be eight and he just looks like a receiver, right? Six one, 200 pounds. That's what you're looking for. Next up, Jacob Gill. He comes in last year from Northwestern. He came in late with Sullivan. All right, you're getting this guy that had, what was it? 18, 17 career receptions coming in to the program, something like that. You saw, this guy's dependable.

Sure hands, knows what to do, knows how to run routes. See that underneath guy, just a very solid. You don't want him to be your number one, he was a year ago, but a solid number two or number three, that's what you get out of Jacob Gill. Now Seth Anderson, this very well could be the wild card. Seth Anderson we know is incredibly fast. We know this guy knows the position. You look at route running, what he was able to do. I think of that corner route that he had that was just overthrown in the end zone when he finally came back into action. It's just with Seth Anderson it's injuries. The healthy senior season for Seth Anderson

he could be big play. He could be a guy that's averaging you know 15, 16, 17 yards for reception and not doing it on three catches. Doing it on 30, 40 catches. That's the kind of big play ability that you can have with a healthy Seth Anderson. Gotta put that caveat in there. Dayton Howard. Now I know it was one play, but he had on that touchdown play that he had late in the season, he made a move. He is big. He has built different six, four, 200 pounds. I wondered about him coming out of high school. A Kansas city kid plays at Park Hill, Missouri, Kansas, Kansas State. Nobody's really even sniffing around. They like him. He's got the big body and looked like he had a little bit of wiggle

to him on that touchdown reception. We saw Reese Vanderzee when he was healthy at the beginning of the year, what he's going to be. I'm excited to see with Vanderzee also what you're going to get out of him now fully dedicated to being a football player. Remember this is a multi-sport athlete at the high school level. Still came on gets to Iowa City late was dealing with injuries leading into August camp comes in there and he hits the ground running a couple touchdowns right away. Reese Vader Z what he can be. Sam Phillips the transfer he's going to be wearing number two. Sam Phillips 5'9", 185 some people say maybe not even maybe not even 59 but he is fast. Another speed element

speaking of speed about Caden Weijin what you're going to get out of him and it looks like they it sounds like they're going to implement him more in the offense and that was one of the things that he asked for if he was going to come back to Iowa for his final season if he was going to come back and not either go into the portal or see if he could find a spot as a returner at the next level, he wanted to sure it is that he was going to get opportunities more in the offense and they are going to give him that. And then one final name, KJ Parker, the redshirt freshman out of Illinois, continue to hear a lot of good things about him. And this is a guy, and KJ Parker, gonna be another one of those speed guys. But that's

kind of how many times have we mentioned speed, right? Speed, speed, speed. This is a good thing. This is something that we're looking for out of this group. It's an exciting, doesn't mean that it's an automatic that they're going to be elite, that this is going to be great. No, I don't think you can go there. However, when you go through this group, there are more pieces than they've had in a very long while. And that's not even talking about what they also haven't coming in here in August as Terrence Smith is going to arrive from Illinois, another one of those big body receivers at 64185. Terrence Smith, going to be tough and not something

we say very often to crack that lineup at the wide receiver spot. Something very, very different for Iowa football. We continue on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. I mentioned this is a bonus episode to begin the week. We'll be back with you later on Monday, diving a little bit deeper into a few topics, but had a chance last Friday to talk with Tom Kaker from hawkeyearrapport.com. A lot of good things out of Tom. We'll talk about that as we continue on the Locked On

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with the code LockedOnCollege for half off your first year. MonarkMoney.com. different. Tom, Trent and Ken, thank you for jumping on. How are you? Tom Tretton, Ken, how are you? Doing well. How are you guys? Doing well. I want to ask you this before I forget because I promised I would. Emily Rodriguez apparently took her visit yesterday. She's subsequently went on to Indiana apparently. Any chance she becomes a Hawkin place for Jan Jensen? What are you hearing about the UCF transfer, Tom? Tom Tretton, Ken, I think there's a chance and they feel like they put their best foot forward she becomes a Hawkin place for Jan Jensen. What are you hearing about the UCF transfer, Tom? Yeah, I think there's a chance and they feel like they put their best foot forward on the visit and you know, she's still taking trips. So I think that's where we're at is you just don't know what else she may take more visits after Indiana. So we'll see what happens. But I think some of these people have to start making decisions,

right? Because they, you know, as Ben McCollum was talking at the high club thing out in Omaha, in Council Bluffs, I guess the other night, you know, we're going to start practicing on, or doing workouts and stuff on June 2nd. So best that you get to town soon. So I think some people are gonna make decisions soon. Those decisions, I know McCollum talked about what, June 2nd, they're gonna start their off-season workouts and hopefully have your roster kind of put together

at that point, knowing what it's gonna look like going forward. But for next year's class, his first full recruiting class, Jane Kuhn, a kid from his hometown of Storm Lake that he grew up, commits to Creighton last night. Oh, did he? Yeah. Pretty big glow. And a guy that I know the staff obviously was high on and most

everybody was high on there. I think that was a tough one to swallow. Your takeaway from Kuhn going to Creighton. Not surprised. I had heard a couple of weeks ago that it was basically kind of a done deal that he was going to end up at Crate. And it you know what it reminded me of is when Fran came in and Marcus Page ended up going to North Carolina and not saying that this kid is as good as Marcus Page or anything like that. Just kind of the similar field new coach comes in and the dies already kind of cast that he's going to another, the best player in the state quote unquote is going to another place. And, you know, he went up there and visited and, and tried to put his best foot

forward to him. But I think Creighton was already well on his mind. Tom, I read a, a tweet from yesterday, got by the name of Evan Maya, how are you familiar with him? Yeah, I know Evan. Yeah. Evan and I correspond frequently privately. Gotcha. So, um, apparently, uh, this is the, uh, how much teams, how much schools, uh, men's basketball programs have estimated to have spent their NIL money. And I was spent the third highest amount, Indiana, 10.1 USC, 9.9 million, Iowa, 9 million out of Michigan, Kentucky, St. John's has got an endless flow of cash.

I can tell you this is that true. No, it's it's that is an estimation of what the roster is worth. Not what we spent his he's Ken Pomeroy. He is one of the analytical guys. Basically, this is what the roster would cost in terms of that. So, no, this is not strictly a financial thing. I was going to say, I thought there, I thought they were starving for money. Yeah, it's probably a little more than half that total, based

on what I've heard. Still quite a chunk compared to where they were. It's still it's still better than the 1.5 or 1.1 depending on who you speak with on what they spent last year. So yes, they have significantly improved their investment into their basketball roster this year. And they're still trying to finish it up. But as McCollum told Chad Weistico the other day, they're trying to get one more that can help them. I know that people are all charged up about a couple of guys that,

Well, it, the, and people were all charged up about a couple of guys that, you know, including the, the kid that visited, but it just, the, the financial aspect of things right now, they're kind of hamstrung. I think they're, um, there's just not another million dollar player or whatever that you can really throw out there right now. So they've got to adhere to a little bit of a budget right now and, and try to make that work. And so they're going to find, let's find somebody that can help. It doesn't mean specific position. Obviously they'd love to get a big kid that could bang a little bit and go up against big 10 players. But if not, I know now I had Luke Barnwell, one of the assistants on my podcast the other day and and he's basically like hey

We feel pretty good about the guys that we got and that you know But good majority of those players were part of a team that won 30 games including what like four or five or whatever Against power five you know something like that So want to jump into a little football with you and we got camp season right around the corner I will get a ton of commitments in the month of june seemingly every year That's kind of the way that it plays out But I want to go to the class that's coming in the guys that are either already on campus are going to be here In a couple of weeks you can't say yose epanessa because that's the easy one

Which one of the true freshmen do you think has a chance to not just maybe play some special teams But maybe be a guy that gets past that four games and actually is out there on the field a little bit more I'd always lean towards the guys that are already here in that case like a You know like a CJ bowler somebody like that. There's always a defensive back that ends up playing early on and that's just sort of a thing that Phil has always done. And so I would throw Bell out there as a guy that, and it's a position of need right now, a cornerback. I mean, there was a reason they went out

and got the Barrows kid from South Dakota to add to the depth there. And I can see Bell coming along and working his way up the depth chart a little bit and being out there this fall. I read a piece, Chad Lestico speaking to Lestico caught up with Tim Lester, the Shanahan offense at Iowa. Is it going to work? And apparently, I mean, he's somewhat of a trendsetter when it comes to that offense in the college game. Certainly if it clicks, more people can follow because we know everybody copies everybody.

But your thoughts on the Shanahan offense working at the University of Iowa, what does it potentially mean, Tom? Yeah, and I've talked to Tim about that before because he's like, hey, nobody runs this off in the college game. And it is odd because it is a very successful often. And you know, it's the Chanan offenses made it to the super bowl more than one, uh, has it won, but it's, it's made its way there. So, um, you, one would think that they would, uh, that people would like to copy it or, or use some use some aspects of it, but

I think he's pretty excited about what he's got now because they've got more depth at receiver and they've got, I think, a healthy and motivated quarterback that wants to go out and prove himself to everybody. So I, I'm really interested to see how this, this offense comes together and provided that offensive line stays healthy or gets healthy or wherever you want to term it right now. Uh, but if they can get steady offensive line play, I, I, one of my bold predictions this year is that I was going

to average over 30 points a game. But that Iowa is going to be refreshing. Hey, how about, how about if they have a guy who throws for just over 2000 yards in the season, which happened? Nate Stanley was playing in the, playing in the football. What did it truly, what did Serco put out a few years ago for points. Oh is the point it was the driver 325 25 points per game and then they put it out again last year and iowa surpassed it. Yeah, tim lester Yes, absolutely. Um a question for you on the recruiting front

So george nejas kid that saw a ton of his games in battling was a walk-on at iowa state Now he's going to be a walk-on at Iowa walk-ons now Where I want to go and not just nehas but the guys that have departed though those walk-ons for the most part that have left Iowa with parents doing the right thing and giving them a chance How is this gonna work? They're already enrolled at another school. They've a lot of them went through spring practice at another school. They're just welcome back with open arms. Do they have to go back in the portal? Can you give us any insight into that, Tom?

I just think all those guys have just moved on. If they've moved on to another place, they've moved on. And my buddy Rusty Van Wentz again. He's moved for Central Michigan now, and, he just, he's from central Michigan now and that's just where he's at. And I think all these other guys now, is there a chance that somebody who's still hasn't found a place that they bounce back onto the team? Yeah.

I think there's potentially that, but I also think Iowa has kind of just capped themselves too. I think they've kind of gotten from the administration, hey, we're just going to go with 105. So let's stay with 105. And that's what I think what they're going to do is just play with 105 this year because that's what they've allocated financially for it.

The books are starting to put on, more of them are starting to put out to win totals. We'd seen seven and a half earlier circa back that up there. Seven and a half on I was a wind total this year when it comes to football. Do you have an opinion either way, Tom, as you look at it, obviously that back to back to back home games, home to Penn State, Minnesota, and Oregon, like Indiana before that at home, your thoughts on, your thoughts on seven and a half being the, uh, the wind total.

Yeah. I, I could have swore somebody had it out there at six and a half early day, and do a bit or something. I think Adam at six and a half. And it's gotten that up to seven and a half. And I think seven and a half is the right number. It's plus money if you go over right now over seven and a half. So, um, I think, you know, that's the, that's the side I would, I would go with,

but boy, it's a hard road to get the, say that it's a, you know, again, I get Oregon and Penn State and Iowa city, but it's Oregon and Penn State. Well, it's going to probably be top 10 teams. I would think, you know, maybe. Although I'm not sure how good Dante Moore is that's going to be the quarterback at Oregon. I know he's really talented, but you know, he's not Dylan Gabriel in terms of experience and proven what he can do. So, you know, at UCLA when he was there for a year, all he did was throw interceptions. So yeah, it's gonna be,

Penn State's really good and they gotta go to Ames, gotta go to Wisconsin. I mean, there's some top games in Nebraska. I think Rutgers-Arrows pointing up. Gotta go to Nebraska. Nebraska at the end. I think that they're gonna be motivated to Nebraska Nebraska at the end think that they're they're they're going to be motivated to to win for the second time in what? 10 years something like I'm already con in our final segment our number one Mike Palm VP of operations There he was that was Tom kaker from Hawkeye report appreciate Tom as always for joining us and give us an insight into some Recruiting a lot of football talk and that win total at FanDuel Iowa. A seven and a half number put up there so if you think they're going to win eight or more you go over, you get plus

money you go the other side over on FanDuel you think they're not going to reach the eight win plateau you go under that seven and a half number. We'll be talking about that more here in the coming days as we continue on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. A look at the Iowa baseball team, a disappointing weekend and what the stage is now, what has to happen in Omaha if I was going to be an NCAA tournament team. We'll talk about that as we continue Lockdown Hawkeyes. Trey Konna back with you one final time on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for being with us and making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Your team every day, that's what we do here on the Locked On Network. And a big shout out to you every dayers with us each and every day. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every single day. Alright, Iowa baseball. Limping to the finish line here as they are swept at the hands of Oregon. A couple of takeaways.

Championships on the line. Frustrating. Right there. Cruising through. A couple of different options, but boy Oregon's good. Went back to, and I had some pushback for people because Iowa had leads in the games against Oregon State. Boy, just the depth of those lineups, the way that they grind you, the depth that they have in the bullpen, those two teams are ranked highly for a reason. They're really good baseball teams. And I think we've seen here over these last couple of weeks, it was a great story and it's not over, but it was a great story.

But it was also aided by a big 10 slate that wasn't overly daunting. You don't have to apologize for it, but it's the reality. Iowa did not have to face many of the heavyweights. And they got hot, that's gonna happen in baseball too. Got that sweep against Michigan, that was great. got some sweeps in a bunch of series this year but when it came down to it Oregon Oregon State even to a lesser degree Washington these next-tier teams Iowa just wasn't good enough now they got a

sweep against Indiana and now the Hoosiers are in their pod for the Big Ten tournament. We'll talk about this pod system a little bit more later in the week. We spoke of it last week with Kyle Heusman, also from Hawkeye Report, who joined us and dived in. But I want to give a shout out also to the fans that showed up at Duane Banks' field this weekend. Attendance records, great environment grout.

It really popped on the television you could see it was a great environment and great work out of you for making that happen those are the things that need to do and Hawkeye fans no surprise showed up in a big way so I will be back in action on Wednesday against Rutgers then on Friday against Indiana that is the slate in their pool again we'll dive a little bit deeper into those matchups what it's going to look like who I was going to throw a lot to talk about on that front, and we will do that here later in the week. But a frustrating end, certainly to the regular season for Iowa baseball. And now, as you take a look at it, and where their place is, they finish with their NCAA tournament resume, 30, 20, and 1, but their RPI now up to number 73 181 in their last 10, of course three consecutive losses the tie in there not a good end a Couple injuries definitely a part of that

It's baseball and we'll see hey They've caught lightning in about bottle over in Omaha before they played well well in the Big Ten tournament before, and they can do it again. It's got to start, though, getting off on the right track on Wednesday. We'll talk about that more as mentioned later on in the week. Want to talk some Iowa basketball and give you a minute's breakdown sometime this week. Mention also the mailbag episode coming up later on.

Send your questions in. You can hit me up on Twitter at Trent Condon, or you can also do it on the YouTube side of things. Just hit us up in the comment section there with your questions and we'll get to those later in the week. Thanks for being with us and thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen today. For your second listen, check out the Portal Show. Brian Smith has the latest rumors, Portal entries, and signings. Be the most informed

fan on the rapid changes to the college football landscape. Find the portal on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for being with us. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Until then, go Hawks.