Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Analyzing the Big Ten Championship matchup between Iowa and Michigan with Isaiah Hole

Episode Date: December 2, 2021

We are joined by Isaiah Hole, host of Locked On Wolverines, for a crossover episode to discuss Saturday's big game between the Iowa Hawkeyes and Michigan Wolverines. We dive into Isaiah's concerns about Spencer Petras playing quarterback, Michigan's difficult pass rush and the improved Iowa pass protection, and the rushing attacks on both sides. Moreover, is this a look-ahead let-down opportunity for the Wolverines, and how are Michigan fans viewing this game considering they are 10 point favorites? We look at it all today.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.Omaha SteaksThe holidays are around the corner and finding the perfect gift is tricky. Omaha Steaks makes it easy to send friends and family an unforgettable gift guaranteed to be loved. Go to Omaha Steaks dot com and enter “College” into the search bar to order The Perfect Gift Package. 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 a Thursday morning episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Lockdown Podcast Network. As always, I am your host Andrew Wade. Excited to be back for another show today. And as I've been teasing, we have a crossover episode. We are joined today by Isaiah Hull of Lockdown Wolverines.

We're going to be talking about the Iowa-Michigan matchup all day today. Just a reminder that we're also going to be talking about this matchup tomorrow as well and giving you a little bit of a preview going into Iowa versus Purdue. Iowa has some very tough games in men's basketball and in football this weekend, so it's going to be a lot of fun as we watch and discuss all that throughout the weekend and also into next week. Before we get into any of that, though, I want to thank you all for making the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast your first listen every single day.

You can find the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast for free wherever you get podcasts at and also on YouTube by searching Locked On Hawkeyes. In today's episode, this crossover episode with Isaiah Hull of Locked On Wolverines is brought to you by Omaha Steaks. The holidays are around the corner and finding the perfect gift is tricky. Omaha Steaks makes it easy to send friends and family an unforgettable gift guaranteed to be loved. Go to omahasteaks.com and enter college into the search bar

to order the perfect gift package. With that being said, y'all, let's get into the conversation with Isaiah Hull right now. And it is almost here. It's funny because last year we were sitting there, we were talking about Michigan-Iowa playing in Champions Week. It's actually Champions Week. It's real Champions Week.

And it's the Big Ten Championship game. Michigan playing against Iowa on Saturday in Indianapolis, Big Ten Championship game. Got Andrew Wade here, and we are going to, I'm Isaiah Hull from Lockdown Wolverines, Andrew Wade from Lockdown Hawkeyes. We are going to cross things over. We are going to talk about the game, expectations, things that we think that may or may not happen here.

Andrew, first of all, how excited are you, man? Because last year, Iowa looked the the part but it wasn't there because of the two losses to begin the season they kind of managed to backdoor get in there thanks to uh thanks to a really thrilling comeback victory against Nebraska Wisconsin doing what Wisconsin hadn't done since it played Michigan and losing. But how excited are you that this ended up coming to fruition? Yeah, I mean, to give you some information on this, when I was watching Minnesota play Wisconsin, I was like, oh, my God, I think Minnesota is actually going to win this game.

Like, we're going to do this. Like, coming into the weekend, I was like, there's a slim chance Iowa actually makes it with a beat Nebraska. And I was not thinking of Nebraska as a bad football team. Nebraska is a solid football team. They were going to give us their best game. And they did for the most part until, you know, a Scott Frost mental breakdown and the team breakdown happened.

And I went up winning with a miraculous comeback, but I did not think I was going to be in this spot. So to see if I will be Nebraska, like, you know what? I'm happy with 10 and two. Maybe we go to the citrus bowl overall, a pretty good season. All things considered, especially for the expectations I had going into the season. And then as I'm watching Minnesota-Wisconsin, I was like, oh, my God.

Minnesota's going to actually do this. Oh, my God. Row, row, row that boat. And I got so freaking excited. I was like, get out of the house. And so I just took the dogs and ran. I sprinted two miles around the neighborhood yelling, go Hawks, and sprinting. Probably one of the fastest runs of my life. To say I'm excited would be an understatement, man. I'm thrilled to be in the Big Ten Championship game. I'm nervous as heck to play Michigan,

but honestly, man, I'm just happy to be here. I'm just happy to be in this game. I'm excited. It's going to be, should be a very interesting game. What about you, man? Well, I'll say this because I've turned off my, as any regular listeners to Lockdown Wolverines know, I turned off my Michigan fandom essentially my first year on the job, my first full year on the job at the end of 2016. As I learned after the 2016 Ohio State game, I couldn't function, you know, when Michigan loses a game of that

magnitude and uh i'd done a really good job all the way up until saturday and normally i'm on the sidelines i'm up in the press box and i'm shaking and i think part of it is i have spent since since i was like all right i'm not going to be like an actual Michigan fan, I'm going to learn how to be objective and unbiased and all of those things. For the most part, I'm like, I have to figure it, find someone else to root for. I've been rooting for Miami and they haven't been good at all. So I've been rooting against Ohio state mostly.

So then when, even though the other times that Michigan's's played ohio state and lost i was able to hold things together i think not by virtue of not having that game last year and then just kind of also that feeling because i just had so many people in my mentions all week with facebook twitter youtube instagram it was relentless of these incredibly arrogant ohio state fans just so like it's their birthright right it's a foregone conclusion it's going to be whatever so i i had a feeling because i i see i'd written a uh a piece for 11 warriors the ohio state site and i i made the mistake of reading the comments for a minute.

I was so even-handed, right? I was like, Ohio State's going to win this game. It's going to be, you know, it doesn't, you know, Michigan doesn't, not saying Michigan doesn't stand a chance, but Michigan will keep it closer than they've done in the last couple years. So,

I obviously didn't think that Michigan was going to win. Um, and then certainly I was getting destroyed by all these commenters because I wasn't bowing down to their Ohio, uh, savior down there. And I was just shaking. Cause I could not believe like just first touchdown.

I almost clapped. I'm like, I haven't clapped for a Michigan touchdown since 2014. Um, what am I doing? So I I'm like, I haven't clapped for a Michigan touchdown since 2014. What am I doing? So I'm just shocked that things transpired the way they did in a way, right? At the same time, I mean, this is the same Michigan team we've seen all year. They just did it against Ohio State. So looking forward to the next step, which is Iowa.

Now, you mentioned that you're happy to be there, but you're very concerned about this Michigan team. I want to know from your perspective, what about Michigan concerns you? Aiden Hutchinson, man, he scares the living hell out of me. So Iowa's lost two games this year, but throughout the season, the first nine games of the year, pass protection has been a huge issue. We have been one of the worst pass blocking teams in the Big Ten, just absolutely atrocious. We've been rotating linemen in and out. We've had some injuries. And then, you know, against Wisconsin, we get obliterated. We lose 28 to 7. Spencer Petras gets injured. Against Northwestern, a very bad defense, to be fair. Things started clicking, and you're like, maybe it's the defense. Maybe the defense is that bad that our offensive line is starting to look good.

But now, after a couple games, I'm like, maybe it's not. Against Minnesota, the offensive line looked good. Minnesota has a strong defensive line. Against Illinois, they have some good pass rushers. The offensive line looked good. Against Nebraska, it looked good. We're starting to kind of come together. against Nebraska look good.

We're starting to kind of come together, but Aiden Hutchinson, when I look at his stats, it is truly phenomenal. And he was a game wrecker against Ohio State. He has had at least three or more pressures in every game except for one this entire year. There are times where Iowa's defensive line doesn't get more than five pressures overall. So, I mean, like, when I'm looking at that from like an eight,

that guy scares the heck out of me. So just the defensive line against our pass protection is really what scares me. I know Michigan's, you know, running game is very strong and that does worry me as well, especially against Ohio state. It looked like outside zone sweeps and around that kind of stuff, basically getting to the edge was kind of Michigan's game plan.

When I look at the statistics it looks like the majority of michigan's runs are outside of the tackles and i was also had issues with that you look at the minnesota game i swear to god if i see another shotgun quick toss i'm gonna lose my freaking mind they'd ran it probably 10 12 times against us and they had so much success so i say aiden hutchinson and your two dominant running backs and the ability and the willingness to go outside and put pressure on our defensive backs and hopefully put pressure on our linebackers to be able to get out there, put pressure on our ends to set the edge. I mean, that really scares me, both those things. What are your thoughts on that? Well, Michigan does, Michigan's actually mixed up the run game quite a bit. It tends to

be a between the tackles rushing attack, with hassan haskins but they have added those wrinkles lately where they are doing more uh to to attack the edges there they started adding stretch plays they didn't use stretch necessarily as much against ohio state outside zone started coming started to come into play a bit more which was a staple a couple years ago but hasn't really hadn't really been this year they tend to be into play a bit more, which was a staple a couple of years ago, but hasn't really, hadn't really been this year. They tend to be more of a upfront man, man, ball, you know, pin and pull type team. They include some inside zone, but they've added some other elements and it's just, it's kept everything off balanced. And if I want to quickly pause the conversation with Isaiah, I hope you're enjoying the crossover episode with Isaiah covering Iowa versus Michigan taking place in just a few short days. But there's just something I have to tell you about. When I was younger, we had a very nice chest freezer and we would always get a ton of

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and also on YouTube by searching Lockdown Hawkeyes. If that didn't worry you, and I'll get to my concerns a little bit because actually your my concern is your your is the inverse of your concern um okay but um the uh the thing about it is is they started to really introduce a horizontal game uh particularly the screens and such with the the and or just like a quick underneath uh to with the running backs we saw that last week with donovan edwards obviously that happened uh ad nauseum that was more underneath but uh against maryland it was the respect for donovan edwards and that game that allowed the first touchdown to happen the end around statue of liberty play uh with aj henning so michigan to for for me i i look at it it's funny because it's like i am

confident in the sense that i'm like michigan's offense is pretty impossible to prepare for if you're another team because unlike like say ohio state you know you know what you've got to stop on offense again you know against ohio state you got to stop garrett wilson chris alabe and uh jackson smith and jigba and uh whoever's that running back whether it be travion henderson or mayan williams maybe jeremy rucker but that's kind of an afterthought against michigan you don't know because they don't really have like a like main guy like you aside from like Hassan Haskins then you're looking at Cornelius Johnson you're looking at I mean just name a receiver every single receivers had a pretty big game at some point

I think the more diminutive ones are probably Mike Sainer still and AJ Henning and even they have had these giant plays so I on the one hand I am confident that Iowa is going to have a tough time preparing for everybody. But the thing that I am most concerned about as well is that Michigan has played really well against some really good defenses. I look at Wisconsin. I got a lot of flack for saying look at Wisconsin and the fact that Michigan had success against them because people say, oh, it's a different Wisconsin team now.

And it's like, yeah, their offense is different because they found Braylon Allen. Their defense is still their defense, right? So but at the same time, I'm like, Iowa's kind of that, right? And how much can you strike gold twice in playing against a defense like that? And so I am concerned because if Michigan, we've seen Michigan be really inventive and ingenuitive at times, but we've also seen Michigan get into this mentality of, we are going to run it down your throats.

There's nothing you're going to be able to do about it. And against Rutgers in week four that really hurt them so the other thing that i'm concerned about is the uh i'm not i know i don't mean this without uh with much offense i'm not particularly concerned about the iowa offense but there spencer petrus being back, he helps lead that comeback against Nebraska. He is a much better quarterback than Alex Padilla. So to me, him coming back, it changes the complexion of the offense, right? Because that offense was better with him in it. And no offense to alex but

he got some wins obviously he he was the one that uh that helped uh helped him a big win against minnesota it does concern me getting him back because it's like that's another dimension of playmaking and i i think overall that and i would say this michigan fans are in general they feel good about this game but everyone has ptsd not just from typical michigan what have you but everyone thinks back to kinnick 2016 the way that iowa plays michigan and it's very much this oh no what if we beat ohio state and we're right there we're knocking on the doorstep of the big 10 uh not the just the big 10 championship of the college football playoff if they can get to the college football playoff and they're playing cincinnati that feels

really good right like national championship game but iowa stands in the way and that's terrifying because this is a team that's just it's like like an inverse of Michigan in a lot of ways. And I shouldn't say inverse. It's more of a converse of Michigan in that it's a team that has really good line play. It's fundamentally sound. And they play old school football. And that terrifies everybody.

It's, I think this is, the one thing I feel good about this game is the fact that it was arguably one of the biggest wins in the last, what, five, ten years for Michigan? I mean, beating Ohio State. The last team you want to play after beating a big-time team like that is Iowa. I think when you have a look-behind game like that where you just had such an exhilarating and exhausting win, and Iowa's been there. We beat Penn State in an exhilarating fashion. Kinnick is bumping.

Everything is, you know, roses and rainbows. And then we go against Purdue and just get smacked all around. Now, Purdue does that to us on a consistent basis, but that's the same thing as we've seen from Iowa and Michigan. Iowa plays Michigan very tough, especially under Jim Harbaugh. Now, granted, there hasn't been a lot of opportunities to play Michigan with Jim Harbaugh there, but Iowa plays really well against rate teams when they are underdogs.

And if you're Michigan, you're saying we have this exhilarating win. There is an emotional aspect to it. These are college-age students. I mean, it's not like this just doesn't go unnoticed. And then they have the look ahead to all we've got to do is get past this to play in the college football playoffs. And we're favored by 10.5 half points i would be a little concerned now i don't think iowa if i'm going to be intelligent here i'm not predicting iowa to win this game but it wouldn't surprise me

if iowa comes out smacks michigan in the mouth and all of a sudden we got ourselves a very close football game um that's the kind of thing i Iowa does when you're playing a great team. It doesn't matter how good Iowa actually is that season. They find a way to get up for these games where they are significantly, by Vegas odds, by everyone, by all the media, overmatched. Now I think it's interesting that you are worried about Spencer Petras. I have gone back and forth on this between Spencer and Alex the last couple of weeks. I think with Spencer, he's arguably a better arm,

but with Spencer, he's so freaking conservative with the football. There's times where there's pressure closing in on him, the pocket's collapsing, and he chooses to not throw the football at risk of either throwing a bad pass or potentially it seems like fumbling the football as he's trying to get out of his hands against Nebraska we saw him be a little bit more aggressive with that I saw some really pretty throws from him but his inability to move is incredibly concerning for me versus Alex Alex and what he really brings the table is that he can move around he can get outside outside of the pocket. He can do those bootlegs. If he needs to, he can take off. We have seen Spencer run for more than negative yardage,

I think, once this entire season. And honestly, everyone was so surprised by it. I think he was surprised by it that he got seven yards in the touchdown early on in the season. So against Aiden Hutchinson, against his defensive line, Spencer's immobility really does concern me. But you're absolutely right. Iowa plays fundamental

football they're not going to do anything too crazy on defense their offense is going to be very very basic for the most part um I would say this though going into Michigan I think Iowa realizes that they need to pull out all the stops they realize that they are maybe they aren't the more talented team but they're definitely they want it just as much, if not more. And they want to prove the world wrong. And that is never a position you want to be in when you're playing Iowa. And especially Brian Ferentz, who does have some creative genes in his body occasionally when Kirk lets him.

So that is definitely going to be a really interesting game. And I think it's one that for as much as we're going to be talking about this game on the show, you kind of have to throw some things out and say, we don't know what's going to happen because when game time hits, it is going to be a bloodbath. And Iowa, we don't know what Iowa team is going to show up in this game against Michigan. All right, y'all, one more pause of the conversation with Isaiah. We're talking a lot about this game. Later on tomorrow, I'll be talking about how to bet this game.

Spoiler alert, I'm probably taking the points. I think Iowa is going to cover, and actually, in fact, I already did, which is very exciting for me. And I did that at betonline.ag because betonline.ag has us covered all season long with more props, odds, and lines than ever before as football season continues to march to the playoffs. Betonline.ag remains your number one spot for all the sports action this season, so head over to their new updated desktop

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BetOnline.ag, where the game starts. I will disagree with you on the one thing when you say Iowa wants it as much, if not more. I'm going to disagree with the if not more part. That's fair. Because for Michigan, I mean, it's, they know and and they're they're this is the only one of the main reasons i'm not concerned about a letdown is because it's the same thing as like for them and i'm not saying that iowa is maryland i want i want to make that clear before someone thinks that you're about to get a bunch of hate comments, yeah. I know. I am not saying that, but it's the same reason that –

like I went into that Maryland game before Ohio State thinking that game had the potential to be 33-20 or something like that where Michigan was going to let a team hang around that had no business letting a team hang around in. That's usually how it goes for Michigan. Before a big game, that game beforehand is huge. Now this is a huge game itself. And no one is thinking that it's not. Michigan is not looking forward to the college football playoff. They're very

focused on the Big Ten championship. Those things in conjunction and the fact that they've spent all this time saying, we've stopped talking about ohio state that's done until we can enjoy it after the season but none of this means anything if we don't beat iowa right like like that's great we we beat you know beat ohio state but if we don't win the big 10 championship it's kind of like all kind of marred you don't make it a college football playoff in the one year that it's, it's right there. You know, it's, it's a game away.

And Ohio state's not the one standing in front of you anymore that they feel like this is a situation where they are taking, have to take things with utmost seriousness. So with that in mind, I don't think that they'll go into it with this. They're not going to go into it with an overconfidence. They're not looking ahead. This is this Michigan team has been significantly different than any Michigan team I've seen.

And sometimes it's made it look underwhelming at times because they're just sometimes they go out there and they just simply handle business. And it's not flashy. It just is what it is we spent a lot of the year batting down comments from michigan fans saying i'm not going to beat ohio state this way ironically the the way in which they said that michigan couldn't beat ohio state was precisely the way that michigan did beat ohio state that said i i'm very curious to see how this plays out. Um, I, I think I predicted Michigan will win in my, uh, in,

in my predictions piece that came out on Wolverine's wire today. Uh, but I, I, I have no idea, right? It's one of those things where it on paper, that's what makes sense.

But on, I was there at Kinnick on the sidelines in 2016 that there was no reason why that michigan team should have lost to iowa that michigan team was a national championship contender and you can't convince me that it couldn't have won at all if it had to go through the got to go through the playoff it it didn't work out that way. I was in their way. Things can happen in games. And I said this in my predictions piece, Michigan is more talented than Iowa. As far as when you look at the recruits, but guess what? Ohio state is more talented than Michigan. When you look at the recruits at Michigan, just ran them off the field. So it's a situation where

Michigan needs to handle its business. I don't think it's going to be easy by any stretch. And I don't think that there is any, anyone out there that on Michigan side, that whether it's inside Shem Beckler hall or in the fan base, I'm sure there's some in the fan base that are, you know, just, well, we beat Ohio state. So whatever, you know, we can, we can beat Iowa, not looking forward to it, but I, I, I looking forward to it, but I don't think that. And I don't think most Michigan fans think that.

I think there's Iowa gets a lot of respect. And it's one of those things where people want to, people are concerned that Iowa is going to make Michigan play its game, which would be a huge win for Iowa. That's what happened in 2016. You know, Michigan tended to just get up by two, three scores, and then other teams had nothing they could do about it, but Iowa just didn't let it happen. One of the things that I want to know from your perspective is what... Iowa's been very, very good defensively at causing turnovers. what has it been about the hawkeyes defense

and special teams because it's what two blocked kicks or punts as well uh so far uh what is it about the uh the defense and special teams that's been so good at generating turnovers yeah i'll start with special teams it's a little bit uh easier i guess to explain um lavar woods is one of the best coaches in the country, in my opinion, in terms of special teams coaching. The last couple of weeks, the special teams have generated huge plays. And it's not just typically to think of special teams,

it's an afterthought. I don't know what it is about our kickers. I don't know how we keep finding kickers who should be Lou Groza award candidates. I don't get that one, to be completely fair. Now that we've had so much success, we're starting to get big-time recruits in. We have a five-star kicker coming in this season. So we're starting to get some big-time players there.

Torrey Taylor was a shot in the dark, kind of a random find in Australia, and that guy has turned out to be a golden boy punter. I mean, when Iowa fans are clapping for your punter, you know something's up with that punter and the fact that he can, the way he kicks the ball can put some interesting spin on it as well. So it can be kind of difficult for punt returners to get that. As far as our big plays, Charlie Jones is a phenomenal return man,

but some of it's also designed. So against Illinois, Illinois has allowed four kick returns all year until Iowa. And apparently LeVar Woods saw something on tape that said, if they pin us in the right side of the end zone, you're sweeping all the way back to the left and you'll have an open lane. What happened? They pin us in the right side of the end zone, goes all the way around,

gets a 100-yard touchdown. Iowa's back in the game. Against Nebraska, they knew there was a vulnerability on the right side of that offensive line to potentially get a blocked punt. And they had Henry Marquise there willing and able to do that, a speedy guy, a speedy defensive back. So for me, special teams is about the play calling and LeVar Woods being so intellectually sound

and really analyzing every little detail and making sure his players know what they're doing to the point where Terry Roberts, so Riley Moss, Big Ten defense back of the year, was out. Terry Roberts is the backup corner. They asked Terry, like, you know, kind of what's going on. And they asked LeVar, what about Terry and him being gone on special teams? And he said, Terry came to me and said, you better not take me out on special teams.

Iowa players have pride in playing special teams. And that's a huge thing. Iowa prides himself on out on special teams um iowa players have pride in playing special teams and that's that's a huge thing iowa prides himself on playing good special teams as far as defense goes sorry you have a question on the special teams i was just gonna say that that's just such a good it's good that's gonna be such a good matchup because we've seen some elite special teams from michigan side and similar types of things so i'm very i'm very curious to see who wins that battle but But go ahead. Honestly, I'm going to talk about this on tomorrow's show. It's the first time where I cannot say Iowa has a significant advantage in special teams.

In fact, I'm going to look at it and say we're even here. We're mostly even here in special teams. I would say having Charlie Jones is a slightly bigger advantage from a kick return perspective. But, I mean, you guys got to kick her up with Lou Groza. Now have some controversial takes on Lou Groza and the fact that I think it's complete garbage and I think Keith Duncan should have won and Caleb Shudock should be in it.

But regardless, this is the first time I feel like special teams is even in this game, which I think is going to be a lot of fun to watch. Defensively speaking, Iowa plays a lot of zone. So we play a two-deep zone or cover two, excuse me. Our guys' eyes are on the quarterback at all times. So that's a huge piece. Our defensive linemen are taught if you can't get up there, you get your hands up, you deflect footballs, and that's really where it starts.

So you get pass rush. If you can't get there, your hands are up, you're deflecting stuff, and our eyes are always on the football. So if you look at our interceptions, it's either deep shots where our guys can track things down or it's deflected passes where our guys catch the ball and they're already off the races. Look at what they did against Indiana. Riley Moss with eyes on the back of the field the entire time. I think there was one deflected pass.

There's another one where I think it was an out route. And he just read the quarterback the whole time. Michael Pennington Jr. was just looking at him the entire time. He said, screw it, and just jumped right in front and ran it. So most of it is the fact that Iowa's defensive backs constantly have their eye on the quarterbacks. They know where they're going with that. Now, a smart, intelligent quarterback can make plays against this defense,

but Iowa's saying, you cannot do this consistently, eight to nine plays every single drive and drive down the field. We think you're going to screw up at some point, and that's really where Iowa's defense becomes successful. They're relying on the fact that they're playing against college quarterbacks who are going to make mistakes. I am concerned about the rushing attack, though, man.

We have not performed super well against the rushing attack, and that scares the living hell out of me against Michigan. See, I look at your numbers and I say, oh, they've done really good against the rushing attack. And that scares the living hell out of me against Michigan. I see. I look at your numbers and I say, Oh, they've done really good against the rushing attack, but obviously that's that's where things will be interesting. I would say that the one place that Michigan fans are particularly confident against Iowa is that they won't turn the ball over because even

though there was the interception by Cade against Ohio state, that was kind of an outlier, right? Like he forced it into double coverage. Actually, it was triple coverage. It looked like he was just a little bit late on his timing, essentially, on that play. If he gets rid of it about two seconds earlier, it ends up being a touchdown. But I digress. He hasn't been making that mistake, right?

Like the first interception he threw all season, he thought he had a free play. Just, you know, they have that fired, you know, the, I don't know what you call it. Just hitting, you know, basically go routes all downfield and threw it, you know, to the furthest receiver and it was interception. I know he has another one in there.

I just can't think, oh yeah, obviously Michigan State. I think that was his third of the year. So Michigan isn't really trying to hit you downfield too much. They'll take a couple shots maybe here and there. But generally what Michigan's trying to do is Michigan really spends most of its time working just around the line of scrimmage. And it's funny because everyone's saying well speed and space has been is gone that whole you know mantra from josh gaddis is gone it's all about this uh about going back to stanford style man ball but he he says it's not really a mutually

exclusive and it's true because what he's just trying to do is get those one-on-one matchups and if it's around the line of scrimmage he's fine with that right like yeah you know getting uh getting a running back on a uh on a safety or a linebacker you know one-on-one or a wide receiver in a similar situation and you know kate mcnamara really has been very good and for for all of this talk that we've seen we've seen and so trust me i saw saw it going into the Ohio state game. They're like, that guy's not going to beat us. And it's like, well, maybe not. But what Cade McNamara does is he tends to make the right decision.

He can go through his reads. He can find generally the open guy. Sometimes that's worked. Sometimes Michigan finds itself short of the sticks because, you know, maybe the defense has been there in a position to make that play when it's a one-on-one situation. So that's, I think, going to be the big key for Michigan is to try to find exploits in that zone.

Michigan wants to drive the length of the field. Michigan's not trying to hit you quickly. They're not Ohio State. They're not Michigan State. They do have more big plays than weirdly michigan had going into the last week's game and i think even yeah coming out of last week's game michigan has more 50 plus yard plays on the season than ohio state which is kind of baffling yeah a little bit backwards but that's not how they're trying to win. You know, Michigan's trying to win games by kind of slowly and methodically marching downfield.

So if Iowa will give them that to some degree, if they'll let them move four yards at a time, Michigan will take that. That's 100 percent what Michigan wants to do. So that's it's just such a curious matchup. It's just one of those ones where I don't think anyone can, can say for sure what's going to happen. You know, again, you can look on paper, but I agree. Iowa wants this game bad, right? Iowa was number two in the country for one week.

Right. And Kirk Ferentz said, Hey, we're not there yet. You know, I wouldn't say that we're there yet, but certainly they want that number back, you know? So it's just going to be such an interesting matchup and neutral site i know iowa fans travel well michigan fans obviously travel well uh it's just going to be such an interesting thing and these two teams spent since 2004 for both of them the last time both of them were big Ten championships was champions, where when they were that champion together.

The co-champions, yeah. Yep. So whoever wins, it's the battle for 2004 Redux. Yeah. I think if nothing else, we can all agree, thankfully, it's not Ohio State. I have a buddy who's an Ohio State state fan and i text him so much after the game he's like why do you even care and i was like i'm just happy that you're not happy because you're so annoying to watch like i'd be at his house watching you know ohio state view whoever

he'd be like gosh we just suck today i'm like you're up 35 you jerk like iowa doesn't even put up 35 at most games like screw off um so i i was texting i'm very happy it's not ohio state in this game um and i appreciate the respect that jim harbaugh and kirk barons have for each other and it seems like based off what you're saying i mean northwestern when when they have beaten iowa they have done it by dinking and dunking and dinking and dunking and being willing to take those it's it's doing being willing to take what the defense gives you i was not i was the one of the worst or one of the best defenses in the nation in terms of not allowing explosive plays. So if Michigan is not going to be that kind of team to do that, that honestly bodes well for Michigan. I would say the rushing attack is going to be huge.

I'll be really interested to see if Iowa can stop that, if Iowa can get a lead. I'd be curious to see if Michigan switches things up a bit unless they're going to be stubborn and stick with the run game. But Minnesota ran for what felt like six to seven yards every single carry. But ultimately, when they got in the red zone, Iowa was able to lock it down and stop them. That is the biggest thing is not allowing you to get touchdowns, forcing you to get field goals, and then capitalizing on one or two plays when you really need it and making things happen. I don't know what to expect in this game, man. The game plans are going to be – I think if Iowa wins, it's because they stop the run.

If Michigan wins, it's because Iowa didn't do anything against Aiden Hutchinson. And at that point, if we can't stop Aiden Hutchinson, our offense isn't going to do anything. And Michigan's allowed to just run the ball all over us, kill clock and destroy our quarterback. So those are kind of my two my two biggest things in this game. Yeah. And I think that that that's the only reason why I feel confident enough in a Michigan win. It's not because I think Michigan's offense, as good as it's been the last four or five weeks or so, really starting, I think, with that Michigan State game onward,

it's been really good, even though they lost that game. I think the thing that makes me say that Michigan should win this game is because of the Michigan defense, which I think has proven itself to be playing at an elite level. The fact that it isn't just Aiden Hutchinson that you're getting such a good pass rush from both Aiden and David Ajabo. And both of those guys are impacting the game. Every quarterback has been on the run, even if they're not getting sacks. You look at the Maryland game, again, going up against a prolific passing offense with Talia Tagovailoa. sacks you look at the maryland game again going up against a prolific passing offense uh in uh

with talia talgo by loa i know that they're pretty banged up but uh no sacks in that game or very or at least none from those two there were some sacks but not from those two it was uh they were he was on the run the entire game and and, and a lot of errant throws is because of that. That's the only reason. Now we've seen run game work here and there for other teams against Michigan. Didn't work last week, but it seems like it's working when Michigan's keying in on the pass. I feel like Michigan's going to be keying in on the run more. So we've really seen, if Michigan's really keying in on something, we've seen the other thing work.

But then they adjust. So I'm just curious to see how that goes from an offensive standpoint. So it's going to be interesting, and we'll see what happens again. Like, after coming off of Ohio State, Michigan gets punched in the mouth. How does it respond? So far, it's responded really well in some of those games. Coming off of Michigan State, they responded really well. Going on the road to Happy Valley, they responded very well. But that's the type of game I expect, exactly like that.

I don't know if you saw Michigan-Penn State. It was just a dogfight throughout the whole game. Penn State's defense didn't really allow Michigan to do much of anything. Found a way to win, found a way to get those matchups, took away, particularly with Penn State switching between man and zone. Once they were in man, they were able to take those guys out with the underneath the crossing route with Eric Hall. But that's why I feel like Michigan's got the better chances because, again, all of those athletes, different ways that it can kill you.

But I don't know i i if you're asking me to put a stake on the game i couldn't do it right like i couldn't sit there and be like i like oh i'll bet whatever you know i'm not gonna bet you know anything uh obviously but it's just it's not one of those games where it's like i feel that there is a definite 100 certainty because in this type of game, anything can happen. Yeah, I mean, I put money on Iowa to cover the spread simply because it is very rare that Iowa gets blown out, and it's even more rare that Iowa gets blown out when they are such a significant underdog in this case. But yeah, I'm not putting money on Iowa to get a win here.

Like I said, honestly, I believe in moral victories at times, and if Iowa comes away and it's a close game, I'm not going to be pissed off about this season. I'll be disappointed that we couldn't close it out, but I want a close game. It seems like, based off Michigan's style, that this bodes well for being a close game and who makes the least amount of mistakes.

The one thing I would let you know, and the people who are listening to you on lockdown Wolverines is I was rushing attack. Everyone thinks about Iowa and they think of the rushing attack is what gets this team going up until roughly three weeks ago, the rushing attack was pretty abysmal unless we were playing a bad rushing defense. And a lot of that was, we were doing so much outside zone, but in the last three to four weeks, we have just been hammering it inside behind Tyler Linderbaum,

the Remington pace, you know, award winner. Uh, and we have been significantly more successful going right up the gut and doing more inside zone type of runs and then utilizing our wide receivers to really, um, create confusion on the edge. That has really been our mantra the last two weeks. It'll be interesting to see what Michigan comes in to try to prepare to defend. Like, are they worried about stopping the outside? Or are they going to focus on the inside? And can our wide receivers then use some of that jet motion to open up the boundaries? That'll be a really interesting matchup.

But yeah, I mean, we could honestly talk about this for probably two hours and still not come up with a solution or what's happening. But that's what makes this game so fun, man. Yeah, that's what makes it so much fun. I just don't know what to expect. I'm just excited. Yeah, it's hard to believe that in two days, in less than two days, it's 2 o'clock my time right now,

I will be en route to Indianapolis. That seems insane to me that it's happening. I think Iowa fans thought for a little while. Yeah, we could be there. And then Purdue happened and that changed and Wisconsin happened and that changed Michigan fans. I mean, heck Michigan media did not think, you know, I did not anticipate at all. I was, I was expecting that at this point today I would be sitting down reading

a book and binge watching something I didn't think I was going to be going to press conferences and zoom press conferences and continuing all this stuff and it's just it's it's wild man it's a great place to be in but Isaiah man I appreciate always always chatting with you um man I just this game it'll be it's gonna be something i'm jealous you're gonna be there in indy uh my wife my wife did not expect i would be here either and scheduled a or planned a cookie exchange and a secret santa during saturday and i had the audacity to tell her fyi i'm watching that game and that was uh it was not a good experience in the wade household but nevertheless i will be paying attention to watching the entire game and i'm pumped for it man

well man best of luck to your guys and uh i'm just looking forward to it and i think that i think it'll be a good game i don't necessarily i don't want to say the word fun i don't know that it's necessarily gonna be a fun game. It's going to be nasty. I think it's going to be an anxiety-inducing game, but it's going to be fun to the winner in the aftermath in retrospect, I think. So nonetheless, neither of us expected to be here, so that's a good thing, I think. Absolutely, man. All right.

All right, All right. So that'll do it for us on the lockdown crossover. That's Andrew Wade of locked on Hawkeyes. I might say a whole from lockdown Wolverines. We'll talk to you soon. Peace. All right, y'all.

And that does do it for our show today. Appreciate you tuning into today's episode, our crossover episode with Isaiah hole of the lockdown Wolverines podcast. As a reminder on tomorrow's episode, we'll be diving a little bit deeper into the game, Iowa versus Michigan, also talking a little bit about Iowa versus top-ranked Purdue. So we're going to be covering all that on the show tomorrow. And again, just a reminder that after the game, win or lose, we are going to be breaking it down with LaShawn Daniels, former Iowa running back as well.

And also, if you want some more help on betting, and it's not just Iowa games, which I'm covering, make sure to check out the Locked On Bets podcast hosted by your boy Q and handicapping expert Lee Sterling of Paramount Sports. They are giving you three to four bets and plays every single day that you can go to betonline.ag and put a little extra money in your pocket. That does do it for our show today, though. Have a fantastic Thursday, y'all. And as always, let's go Hawks.