Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Are the Iowa Hawkeyes a top-25 football team in 2022? | Iowa football podcast

Episode Date: January 12, 2022

We take a deep dive into the Iowa football team's expectations heading into next season with the way-too-early preseason polls already coming out. Do the Iowa Hawkeyes have what it takes to win 10 games and finish ranked top-25 for the 5th straight season? Next season's schedule is daunting but manageable with several Big Ten West teams losing major pieces of their teams, and if Iowa can return the remaining four undecided guys (Sam LaPorta, Tyler Linderbaum, Charlie Jones, and Jack Campbell), they should be the team to beat in the Big Ten West. **Note** -- I repeatedly said Jalen Berger when I meant to say Braelon Allen for the Wisconsin running back.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.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 a Wednesday morning 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, and we have another great episode coming at you today. We're going to be discussing the 2022 Iowa football team. Okay? We have a schedule.

Now, it could be changing. The Big Ten is having a weird announcement, potentially rearranging a few things. But as of right now, we have the schedule for next year. We know mostly who is coming back for teams, not just Iowa, but also across the Big Ten. So we're going to basically be talking about what is the expectation. We have all these early top 25 or way too early top 25s coming out. The AP poll just came out for 2021. We're covering all that on today's show. 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. And today's episode is brought to you by NetSuite. NetSuite is the number one cloud financial system to power your growth. Head over to netsuite.com slash locked on NCAA for special end of year financing on the number one financial system for growing businesses.

So let's get into it. Before we can talk about what to expect for next year's 2022 team, we have to talk about, is this roster finalized? And the quick answer is no, not at all. However, there's very key and very important decisions that are coming up in the next five to six days that could decide just where we actually put this Iowa football team. So let's first start with the roster construction. We already know starting safety, Jack Kerner's gone. Starting cornerback, Matt Hankins is gone.

Starting cash Dane Belton is gone. Zach Van Valkenburg is gone. And Kyler Schott is gone. Those are your starters that at this point are gone. What we don't know is, is Charlie Jones returning? Is starting tight end Sam Laporta returning? Is All-American center Tyler Linderbaum? Is Charlie Jones returning? Is starting tight end Sam Laporta returning? Is All-American center Tyler Linderbaum returning?

And is Jack Campbell returning? We're pretty sure Jack Campbell's returning, but we don't know about the other three. Tyler Linderbaum clearly is still trying to make up his mind. Otherwise, why wouldn't you have declared already to this point? He loves being at Iowa. Could he actually return? Does he want to put his name in the history books for the Iowa Hawkeyes?

That's something that's on the table. You come back, you'd be an All-American again. It would be pretty impressive. Maybe he has unfinished business. Maybe he wants to go to a Rose Bowl. Maybe he wants to win a New Year's Six Bowl game. We don't know. But right now, they have five days to make a decision with the deadline being January 16th, or 17th, excuse me,

at this point. So we don't know about Tyler Linderbaum. Charlie Jones is a bit interesting. If I'm Charlielie my biggest concern is what will my involvement be on the offensive side of the ball right we know what he can do from a special teams perspective he should test pretty well but will he get a lot of snaps at wide receiver right now there is quite a bit of competition for that slot receiver. What's interesting is how does the X receiver shake out? Do they put a Brody Brecht there and slide Keegan Johnson over?

Do we have a true expert right now? We don't have a true X outside of maybe a Brody Brecht on the roster today, but if Brody starts, if Brody is able to get into the lineup, it kind of shifts these guys around. And with Arlen getting a lot of the snaps that I would anticipate making sense for Charlie as well, what does Charlie have to offer coming back for the offensive side of the football? Not to the Iowa Hawkeyes, but what do the Iowa Hawkeyes have to offer Charlie? What can he do to increase his draft stock, right? At this point, a UDFA kind of guy, but any guy who has the return skills Charlie has, if he's able to test well, which I think he could,

could land on a roster. Riley McCarron landed on a roster because he was so good at testing, because he tested so phenomenally well, ran a sub 4-4-40. So there's precedence for him being able to make a roster, but if you're coming back, it's for one of two reasons. Either you have unfinished business at Iowa, or you think you can improve your draft stock. I think there's a possibility,

but it depends on what his involvement is in this offense. Finally, Jack Campbell, a very interesting situation. From all things we've heard, he is not leaving. Jack Campbell is returning to the Iowa Hawkeyes. But it's kind of tough. He's projected as a fourth-round pick at this point. A lot of people are getting very excited about Jack Campbell. In Matt Miller's most recent mock draft, he was in the fourth-round draft pick.

From the draft network, they have him ranked as the 100th ranked player in this class. Sam Laporta was not in Matt Miller's mock draft, but he's ranked 108th according to the draft network. So both these guys are getting a little bit of love from draft media. And Sam Laporta is coming off a pretty big game against Kentucky. But does he want to come back? Does he want to improve on his blocking, which I think is definitely an area of opportunity for him?

Does he feel like he could really shine and get the John Mackey award? There are opportunities here for Sam Laporta as well. If quarterback play does improve, he could have one of those legendary tight end season for the Hawkeyes, But we're still waiting on those four guys. Out of those four guys, you have to assume, for me, Jack, Tyler Linderbaum is clearly the most important loss or gain there, followed by Jack, Sam, and then Charlie, in that order in my personal opinion. I would love to have all four guys back. Now we're going to talk about the significance of Tyler Linderbaum

returning or not returning in comparison to other Big Ten teams here in a few moments, but let's first continue to talk about this roster construction. Outside of those guys, we know who's gone already. Who could be coming in? Well, Iowa is flirting with the transfer portal. They're looking at Chance Mayne, a former last chance U guy, played at Incarnate word at defensive end. They're looking for reinforcements on this line. They're also looking at offensive line help as well, which is why they are in cahoots with Hunter Norzad, the Cornell tackle, who can play on the interior as well. Hunter has Iowa listed in their top five or in his top five. Iowa has a very good chance of landing him. That would be huge for this roster.

But for the most part, what we see is what we get, right? There's going to be a few changes here and there. There's a chance all four of these Iowa guys come back. There's a chance that all four of them leave. But we won't know for another couple days potentially. And as we find out more of that, we'll let you know. But the biggest thing is Tyler Linderbaum. Because when you compare the losses of other positions, right,

look at a Tyler Goodson that's a big loss but you feel pretty comfortable about the the law firm duo of LaShawn Williams and Gavin Williams you feel pretty good about what they showed in that bowl game you look at Kyler Schott yeah that is a big loss but also he was injured throughout the season and we have a lot of really good young talent on that offensive line on that interior you look at dane belton huge loss right but at the same time you have a former four-star in cooper dejean who has been making waves on special teams sebastian castro has been vying for his time jack kerner is a big loss but that's those guys are not a tyler linderbaum or an aiden hutchinson from michigan or a george carl a guys are not a Tyler Linderbaum or an Aiden Hutchinson for Michigan or a George Carl Aftis or a David Bell for Purdue.

Right? If you think about it in Madden terms, those are not X-factor players. They're big players, right? They're very important to the success of Iowa, but they are not X-factor players. So in comparison to some of the other teams, Iowa's making out pretty well, especially if they somehow manage to get Tyler Linderbaum to return to the team. Again, as we get more information on that,

we'll make sure to break all that down right here on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Coming up, we're going to talk about Iowa's roster in comparison to these other Big Ten teams. And then we're going to get into the schedule. Again, Iowa finishing the season ranked in the top 25 again for the fourth straight year, ranked 23rd according to the AP poll. In these early, way too early rankings,

Iowa has been anywhere from 20 to 25 from what I've seen. I think that's the floor for Iowa if they return all these remaining guys, Tyler Vinderbaum, Charlie Jones, right, a Sam Laporta, Jack Campbell. If they return those guys, including a Riley Moss, which is also, to me, an X-factor type of player, this team can be even better than they were this year with an improved offense as well. So we're going to be talking about all that over the next couple 15, 20 minutes.

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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. So before we took a break, we talked a little bit about this roster and what guys we still don't know if they are returning or not. Now we need to talk about the expectations of this roster compared to other rosters. So again, Iowa finishes 23rd in the AP poll. Some of these early rankings have Iowa in the top 25 as well. And I think that's spot on.

Again, I look at X-factor players. And I think that's important. It's not diminishing what these other guys have done or are going to do, but it is increasing the value when you are perceiving some of these other guys. Like a Riley Moss or a Tyler Linderbaum, those are X-factor type of players. Those are game-changing type of players. A Jack Kerner, a Dane Belton, those are phenomenal players, but they are not at that level of a Riley Moss or a Tyler Linderbaum. When you look at Iowa compared to some

of the other guys, some of the other teams across the Big Ten, you have to feel pretty good about Iowa's roster to this point. Wisconsin loses both their edge rushers, fantastic edge rushing duo. They lose a lot of wide receivers, their tight end, and a few all linemen. They do return stud freshman running back Jalen Berger, who I don't understand how he's doing what he's doing at this age. Wisconsin will still be a good team, but they lose a lot of big-time players for this defense and for the offense. Purdue loses their two X-Factor guys, David Bell and George Karloftis. George Karloftis

absolutely dominated Iowa in the game. Michigan, who we play this year, is also losing quite a few guys. Aiden Hutchinson being the biggest one of all of them. There's an opportunity here for Iowa to make a run again. Now the biggest question mark comes down to quarterback play and offensive line. Can the offensive line continue to make improvements? If Tyler Linderbaum returns, I feel very confident this offensive line will be more improved than last year. If Tyler Linderbaum does not come back, I don't see how collectively this offensive line could be better than this year,

and that's saying something. Anytime you lose a Tyler Linderbaum who elevates the play significantly, you have to factor that in. But again, you look at this Big Ten conference, and while other teams are getting better, right? Illinois is getting better. Nebraska is getting better. Rutgers is getting better.

You have to feel pretty good about where Iowa stands at this point coming off a 10-win conference season, or 10-win season in the regular season. The team I'm most worried about is probably Minnesota. They bring back their offensive coordinator, Kirk Sriracha, who did a fantastic job calling plays earlier in his career with Minnesota a couple years ago. Tanner Morgan returns.

Chris Ottman-Bell returns. Mo Ibrahim returns. This is going to be tough for them. Minnesota is going to be a good team, and they're going to present a challenge for the Hawks, especially considering Minnesota gets a home game against Iowa. Now again, this could change with the new schedule coming out for the Big Ten, but at this point, Iowa has to go on the road to play Minnesota. Now they have not been able to get over the hump against Iowa,

but this is arguably the most challenging team in the Big Ten West this upcoming year. But by all means, I think the floor for Iowa is 23 through 25. I think this is a team that could be top 10 next year if they return those remaining four guys, Tyler Linderbaum, Sam Laporta, Jack Campbell, and Charlie Jones. Again, we talked about it. The guys that Iowa lost can be replaced. We saw decent play from Jamari Harris and Terry Roberts in the absence of Matt Hankins. You can expect that they are going to improve more.

We saw Riley Moss improve drastically from year one to year two, year two to year three, and then year three to year four. Expect similar improvements from Jamari Harris and or Terry Roberts. Quinn Schulte has always played pretty well in his limited playing time for Jack Kerner, but you also have to look at Sebastian Castro, Reggie Bracey, and then obviously X. When you bring in a five-star recruit, a top 25 player like Xavier, you have to factor him in as well. Maybe he can get some playing time. Maybe he can take that starting spot. Dane Belton, yes, it's a big loss, but Cooper Dajin, Sebastian Castro, those are guys who are willing and able to step up and I think can fill in pretty admirably.

Remember, we lost to Monty Hooker, and Dane Belton came in as a true freshman and took over that spot. Iowa has reinforcements at these areas. Kyler Schott, we have reinforcements there. Tyler Goodson, we have reinforcements there. Again, so when you look at the losses, losing a Tyler Linderbaum, you don't have anyone that can step up and play even closely resembling the play of Tyler Linderbaum. I don't know if we have a return man like a Charlie Jones on the roster.

We have good linebackers, but it would be a pretty big loss losing a Jack Campbell. And while Iowa is always able to plug and play tight ends for the most part, they're lacking a lot of depth. Losing a Sam Laporta immediately thrust either a former walk-on or an Addison Ostringa or a Cale Vanderbush early in their career into that number three tight end spot. So you get a little bit worried if you lose those guys, but having those guys back, Iowa should be able to

compete from a talent perspective with every single team they play. They have the ability to, and I think Iowa could be a top 10 team next year. So we're going to talk about the schedule, though. That is the most interesting piece about this. They have some tough games. When I look at it right now, I call probably a 9-3, but these games are not spoken for already, right? There's a lot of things that can happen between now and then. So we're going to talk about the schedule as of now, coming up here in a few short moments, but this is it. The putt to win the tournament. If you sink it, the championship is yours,

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We talked about the guys who could or could not be coming back. We talked about this roster in comparison to other Big Ten rosters. Now let's get into the schedule. I'm going to quickly read it off. They get South Dakota State at home, Iowa State at home, Nevada at home. They go on the road to Minnesota, Michigan at home, at Purdue, at Ohio State, versus Northwestern, at Rutgers, at Illinois, versus Wisconsin, versus Nebraska. Immediately when I look at the schedule, I see a potential loss at Minnesota. I see a potential loss at Purdue and a potential loss at Ohio State.

That to me is the floor, 9-3 at this point. South Dakota State should not be a problem for Iowa. Iowa State lost a lot of players. Now they are going to be solid next year. They still have a lot of good young guys. Hunter Deckers looked pretty good in limited time. For the like of me, I cannot remember the backup to Brees Hall, but he's looked pretty good as well. But they do lose quite a bit of guys. Matt Campbell is a good coach, though. They will be ready for that game.

Nevada's losing Carson Strong. They'll be fine to play against. Again, at Minnesota, that's the biggest test. Can Iowa get past that first test at Minnesota? If they win that game, we should be thinking Big Ten title at this point. You get Michigan at home. Again, anytime you get a team in Kinnick, you have to factor in the fact that Iowa plays well at Kinnick and Michigan is going to be depleted from some of their big time players. Plus Jim Harbaugh is flirting with the NFL. Could he leave for the NFL? That would also hurt this team as well.

At Purdue, this one sucks because Iowa is going to be more talented than Purdue next year. Purdue does not have a David Bell or a George Karloftis, but I'm sure it'll be either Tyrone Tracy or another wide receiver who will torch Iowa's defense again unless Phil Parker finally makes changes to how he handles Purdue's offense, unless he can finally get a step ahead of Jeff Brum. It doesn't matter if Purdue's at Iowa or at Purdue, that game's going to be tough. And then you get at Ohio State.

That is going to be a very difficult game. Let's just say, in theory, Iowa gets that point undefeated. So you're looking at a 6-0 Iowa team versus an undefeated Ohio State team more than likely. You always have a chance, right? You always have a chance, but it gets significantly tougher going on the road at Ohio State. It's tough for me to predict that to be a win for Iowa. They are losing quite a few wide receivers, but like in Alabama, Ohio State constantly restocks and restocks and restocks.

Northwestern is not going to be as down as they were this past year, but getting them at home should be a win. I'm not worried about Rutgers or Illinois on the road. They are better teams than they have been, but that home field advantage is nonexexistent for Rutgers and Illinois. Getting Wisconsin and Nebraska at home will be huge for Iowa, though. And I do believe Wisconsin is, you know, they're losing quite a few guys that are important for their team.

I think Iowa has the advantage in these games. When I look at the schedule, I'm thinking 9-3 or 10-2 at this point. Iowa's team should be even better going into next season. If they can just figure out the quarterback play, if Brian Ferencz can modernize this offense a bit more significantly than they have in the past, this is an Iowa team that will have a significant portion of their defense returning. A top 10 defense in the nation, most of that will be returning.

You get Big Ten defense back of the year, Riley Moss returning. We should expect this team to be a top 10, top 15 team next year if we get those guys back. That's my thoughts on next year. Let me know what your thoughts are in the comments on YouTube

or in a podcast review if you want on Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts, wherever you're getting this podcast at. Give us a review or tweet at me. Let me know what your thoughts are on this Iowa football team heading into next year. That does do it for our show today. If you want some betting advice, I highly recommend you check out the Locked On Bets podcast hosted by your boy Q and handicapping expert Lee Sterling of Paramount Sports. They do a great job of breaking down three to four games every single day and giving you who you should be betting on at betonline.ag.

That does do it for our show today. We are doing a crossover episode with the host of the Locked On Hoosiers podcast in preparation for tomorrow's Iowa versus Indiana men's basketball game, so be on the lookout for that. Again, thank you all for tuning in to today's episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Have a fantastic Wednesday, y'all, and let's go Hawks.