Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - BIG 10 SQUAD - Does Iowa Hawkeyes returning production spell success in 2025?

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

Big Ten football is reshaping its landscape with surprising offseason moves. Did you know Illinois and Rutgers are leading in returning player production? Dive into the latest on Big Ten teams, where returning stars and new additions are setting the stage for an exciting season. Hosts Jacob Goins, Craig Sheman, Trent Cotton, Spencer McLaughlin, Zach Seo, and Roman Tomashoff break down the impact of NIL spending and transfer portal dynamics. Key figures like Cario Davis, Kyron Hudson, and Pat Coogan are highlighted as game-changers for their teams. The discussion also touches on the strategic shifts and ethical debates surrounding NIL spending, with insights from ESPN's Bill Connolly and On3's rankings. Will these changes propel teams like Penn State and Indiana to new heights? Tune in for expert analysis and insider perspectives on the evolving Big Ten football scene.

In the Big Ten this offseason, who made the biggest ad? And maybe more importantly, who paid the most to do it? And what returning production do they have to go along with it? We discussed that today on the Big Ten Squad. You're talking ball with the Big Ten Squad from USC to Ohio State, from Michigan to Oregon, from Nebraska to Washington. It's the local experts of the Locked On Podcast Network, bringing you scoops, breakdowns,

and the most comprehensive preview of the upcoming Big Ten weekend. Know her feelings and thin skin allowed. Squad up, you're part of the Big Ten Squad. Welcome, and it is the Big Ten Squad. That's right, it's a weekly episode that we get as many Big Ten hosts a part of the Locked On Podcast Network as we can together.

We have some fun, we talk some smack. It's hosts a part of the Lockdown podcast network as we can together. We have some fun, we talk some smack. It's the best time of the week. I'm Jacob Goins, host of Lockdown. Who is your moderator today? Nobody told me if I have to be middle ground or not, so we may talk a little Indiana on this show. We've got Craig Schiemann, host of Lockdown Big Ten,

Trent Cotton, and host of Lockdown Hot Guy. Spencer McLaughlin, somewhere in the world. I don't really know the traveling man himself of host of Locked On Hawkeye. Spencer McLaughlin, somewhere in the world. I don't really know the traveling man himself of host of Locked On Ducks. We've got Zach Seiko, Locked On Nittany Lions, and Roma Tomashov of Locked On Huskies. And so, gentlemen, there's a lot happening in terms of off-season movement and off-season production,

or maybe just additions for Big Ten teams. And we saw Bill Connolly of ESPN released his returning production list the- the- the- the- the- the- I mean what's going on between Illinois and Rutgers bringing all their players back? Well, first of all, and I like to point out that this is the first time ever this show's been up. Now Trent's done shows from his car before, but Spencer, I think is in a Chick-fil-A or something. I think this is phenomenal. No other locked on squad show does this.

So that's awesome. Chick-fil-A in Henderson, Nevada, Craig. That's a first. That's a first. That's a first here at the network. That's how lonely I am is I'm not desperate to hang out with you guys and delay my eating of Chick-fil-A. Well, to get back to, by the way, with pickle or without? I don't know what you'd like.

No, I don't care. Pickles are fine. Just throw it all on there. So back to a lot of the returning offense and production with the with these teams, you know, you start with teams like Illinois and Rutgers who have their their quarterbacks coming back. I'll throw Drew Aller in there too at Penn State. And I think that's everybody else is wide open. Everybody's all starting fresh in the big 10. I think nationally Clemson's got like, well, I thought so 80% of their production coming back or something like that. But there's, there's not that many schools at the big 10 that have returning quarterbacks. So if I think if you've got a returning quarterback coming back, you got a lot of your production

coming back right there. And that's only the case in about three schools to the big 10. We'll go to Zach Seiko locked on Nittany Lions. You guys are in that list a little bit. You're 33rd in terms of returning production, 63%. Does that sound OK to you? Does that make you a little bit nervous? We're going to talk about big additions later.

But the 63% returning production, is that fine for you there at Happy Valley? It's what the 63% is compromised of. You're starting quarterback. You're your two coast starting r out of your five starting as big of a deal as it is

and Abdul Carter, you are coveted positions back. Th games are won and lost in there you go. Penn State' is taken care of. Well, quarterback's the most important position in college football. Drowler's back for his third season of starting action for Penn State, fourth year within the program. How many people can even say that for a quarterback in this day and age of the portal and NIL? And then, well, if you can, you run your way to victory. Teams that win are usually running the football. Well, if you can you run your way to victory teams that win are usually running the football

Well, you have Nicholas Singleton and Ketron Allen back. So Penn State's offense is in a really good spot Oh, and they got Andy Cotill Nicky back too So the second year of Andy Cotill Nicky's offense that took Penn State to New heights that was a middle of the road team under Mike Yersuch when it came on came to being offensively a middle of the road team under Mike Yersuch when it came to being offensively, it was top 50, top 60, and I don't even like to frame it that way. And Andy Kudelnicki took that group

and made it a top 15 group conservatively for the stats, the eye test, whatever have you, and they made a national semi-final. So it's about what of that percentage is returning, and Penn State has some of the most important position groups checkmarked because of what they are getting back. Indiana ranked 44th in returning production. Nebraska ranks out the top 50 at 50 but Trent no Iowa, Spencer no Oregon and Roman no Washington. I mean you guys are nowhere to be found in that top 50 of returning production. What's going on there?

Well I'm used to it after, after what I had to go through following the 2023 season, this is not shocking at all. What I will say is the most important when it comes to Washington is you're getting some of the most important production back though. Like I look on defense and you're losing a whole bunch of starters, you're losing basically,

I think it's 10 of your 12 leading tacklers, highlighted by Carson Bruner, Alfonso Chupitalla. But I look on the offensive side and I say all the building blocks are there between Daman Williams, who's going to have a little bit obviously played something like 250 snaps last season, which is solid enough. You get your number one running back and Jonah Coleman back, he's your number one wide receiver Denzel Boston back who was leading the big 10 touchdowns, by the way, through the first half of the season. And then as the competition started getting tougher and Washington's offensive line just kind of fell apart

down the stretch there, his production dropped a little bit. But with Damond Williams at the helm this year, I expect that to just kind of jump back up. But yeah, it's not something I'd say I'm shocked about. No Washington being nowhere to be found. But with what they brought into the transfer portal, I think that this team has nowhere to go but up. You know, I think for Oregon, Jacob,

I wouldn't be surprised, I actually haven't glanced at their returning production ranking yet. I wouldn't be surprised if it's bottom 10% in all of college football. I mean, it might not actually be, but it's not going to be high. You lose a quarterback, four offensive linemen, two of whom are NFL caliber starting tackles,

your top two receivers, two linebackers, three defensive linemen, two of whom are NFL caliber starting tackles, your top two receivers, two linebackers, three defensive linemen and six defensive backs. There are recruiting classes ready to take a step forward. Oregon's done well in the portal. This isn't going to be a Michigan, Washington, TCU level drop off from last season after playing at such a high level. But I've been tampering expectations down for Oregon fans really all off season because I don't have the same expectation for Oregon.

I look at them in 2025 as, hey, you got 10 and 2, make the playoff and see what happens. That's a really good year. But I don't view them as having the same ceiling as they did in 2024, which they came close to hitting but obviously did not entirely because I believe they could have won the national championship, but they laid, of course, a massive egg against Ohio State the second time around. So I look at this Oregon team and, you know, they're not going to be high on that list,

and I expect them to be really, really low. Well, it's 109 in case you're wondering. And so, Trent, you guys, I was not the top 50, but, hey,, it's 109 in case you're wondering. And so, Trent, you're guys- Yeah, that sounds about right. I was not the top 50, but hey, Ohio State's not either. So maybe it's not so bad. Well- Yeah, I went to Ohio State, one in the same.

All right, knock it off. Yeah, 55-24. We still got that in our back pocket. You know, we can beat Ohio State from a tie or two, but it didn't happen, obviously, this season. The production obviously goes down with the loss of Caleb Johnson offensively. He was the offense this year. The hope is though, and I'm not gonna paint a picture, I'm not all sunflowers and

violets like you guys over there. I understand that the Iowa production is gonna be a concern. But we saw a year ago actually a competent offensive coordinator. The offense wasn't great, but it was improved from the idiot Brian Ferentz. And now we move on to year number two of Tim Lester. You bring in a highly competent quarterback in Mark Gronowski, a guy that's won national championships at the FCS level, can play an Iowa style that makes a whole lot of sense for them. You anticipate that they're going to take a step forward. But in terms of production, look, this past year was the year.

This was the year, this past year in 2024 for Iowa to make a big jump. They had the schedule in front of them outside of the game against Ohio State. They weren't able to capitalize. And I think we're going towards a time that this is going to be incredibly difficult for Iowa to make a big jump up to take a big step forward from the standard eight and four, nine and three type of team that we're grown accustomed to. And it's because they schedule wise are going to have as difficult as anybody's going to have in the big 10 next year. Plus you lose seven starters off that defense from the last couple of years.

Production is down and I think there's some big concerns for Iowa this coming season. Well, it's interesting that this is the group that we have here because it's kind of all over the place with returning production. But what about money spent? Well, who are spending big bucks to get big players? We have that coming up for you next, right? Definitely not. Definitely not. Oregon. Today's episode of the locked on Big 10 squad is brought to you by Roy attention. Big 10 fans. The future of college sports is here and it's transparent before the Roy app and I'll negotiations often happened under the table and fans didn't have a clear way to directly support the athletes they love now with Roy you get to be a part of the change and support any big 10 athletes and the

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Download the Roy app now from the app store and start backing any Big Ten athlete for your specific school and the way they deserve with transparency, trust and real impact. This is the future of college sports. Join it now by downloading Roy and supporting your favorite players. All right you got big time production coming back with some of the teams represented in the Big Ten and crazy how this works we lose people as we go we're going to be down to just me doing the final segment but I'm willing to do that. This is the production you were referring to this is the big production returning forget those guys. That's right this is the big production returning. Forget those guys. That's right. This is the only production we need, right? Jacob Goins locked on. Who's just Craig Schieman locked on Big Ten, Zach Seiko, Nittany Lyons, and Roman Tomashov with

the Washington Huskies. So we're not going to have any sort of passionate takes on who's spending the most money to get big time players, right guys? Did you see the list that On3 put out earlier this week where Michigan ranked second in the nation? With their transfer portal class and most NIL money spent Seiko I want to start with you with the with that side of the Big Ten a rivalry with the Wolverines These two teams seem to be near the top in terms of expectations every year Any surprise that Michigan was in the top five of NIL money spent in the transfer portal? Any surprise that Michigan was in the top five of NIL money spent in the Transfer Portal?

No, not at all because they are coming off of what? Seven and five season, that's well below expectations. I also think it's interesting. I mean, Texas Tech had the most money spent when it came to its Transfer Portal class. So it's anybody and everybody. I mean, Penn State's getting competitive. They weren't originally competitive with its NIL.

They were way behind once upon a time, and now they're catching back up. They realize, okay, if we want to be competitive in this landscape of college football, we have to be financially aggressive. We have to put millions of dollars into the stadium. We have to put millions of dollars into our coordinators and a supporting cast. I mean, Stan Drayton, the running backs coach for Penn State now,

I mean that this this title is beneath of him. He was just a head coach at Temple and now he's going back to being a position coach. But that's what Penn State is doing is they are making it financially. So it's not just about NIL. Penn State is going all in financially in every facet that there is to that you could name in college football. Michigan does not surprise me. If you want to be competitive in this landscape, you have to spend money. Michigan is one of the, one of the heaviest financial earners in all of the big 10 same with Ohio state, same with Oregon and same with Penn State. So if this is the name of the Big Ten, same with Ohio State, same with Oregon, and same with Penn State.

So if this is the name of the game, this is what you have to do. If you have the dollars available, if you can get the donorship to back all of this up, then do it, that's how you win. And I think Ohio State said, all right, we'll play by the unwritten rules. And then they said, you know what?

Let's go spend 20 plus million dollars on NIL and construct this roster to win a title. They did it. Penn state's kind of doing a similar thing where, okay, forget all the unwritten rules, let's just try it and see what happens because we're tired of being second, third and fourth in the big 10. I'll jump in and say, I'll follow what Zach said. You know, Ohio state jumped out there and just went all in on Name, Image, and Likeness

and put the $20 million roster together. And Michigan said, oops, we gotta keep up. So I think Ohio State got a huge jump on them. And then, you know, you look at how Michigan went about recruiting Bryce Underwood and flipping him from LSU, couple of things there. I think it was at that point that Michigan realized one of their alums was married to the head of Oracle, which is like a trillion dollar company. It's like, Oh, look what we discovered here. And all of a

sudden, they're number two in the country. The other thing I'm going to be interested to see is the way they threw $12 million at Bryce Underwood. Did they reset the market or the quarterback market if you will moving forward they did that late in November December last year right kind of when we things were wrapping up with recruiting and getting people to sign for signing day I'm curious to see our other schools that we now gonna be throwing $12 million out to get a quarterback somewhere is gonna be higher is gonna be $15 million just for the quarterback by the way that's over four

years but still I mean you you back in the old days of 18 months ago, you can get yourself a good starting quarterback for a million and a half bucks. Back in the good old days, man. Well, does it return on investment, though, Roman? Have something to do with all of this? I mean, will it not balance out at some point? Oh, 100% where, like, if Bryce Underwood wins

a national championship in Michigan over his four years, I don't think anybody's gonna care what the price tag is. And that's at the end of the day, that's kind of you know, to get my one Oregon shot in, unfortunately, Spencer's no longer here. Every single dollars Phil Knight has ever spent on the University of Oregon does not matter, because they haven't done anything. Like at the end of the day, who cares if it's not paying off at the end of the day? And that's why, you know, Ohio State going all in, spending $20 million. Who cares? They won the national championship. Penn State, if they're able to, you know, get to the national championship game this year, Zach, I feel like they have a really good shot at doing so. Who cares what that price tag looks like

at the end of the day? And I feel like it's the same thing for a lot of the top teams around college football as NIL continues to become a much bigger part of the game. And I'll say this, if we take a moment just to appreciate how as close to humble as Spencer was with the change in venue and internet connection, just how that will humble a fella. Yeah. And how he'll, there's no way he'll go back and watch this and catch Roman stray and come

back even more upset next week. I don't even think he hears Roman. I don't, I don't even think he hears. No, it goes in one ear and out the other. I can, I can tell you that with a hundred percent certainty. Or he just mutes his, mutes his setup. The second that, all right, we're going to go to Roman over at locked on Huskies. And he's, you know what, from that standpoint, I do understand that I get that. Yeah. Well, if I get my hosting abilities taken away from me and they do give them back to Spencer, I'm sorry, Roman, I have no control over that, if I get my hosting abilities taken away from me and they do give them back to Spencer,

I'm sorry, Roman, I have no control over that. But I do want to throw this out there too, because while we're talking about these big spenders in this top five list again, put out by on three, Michigan was ranked second, Texas Tech was ranked fifth. The other three teams are from the SEC. And so as the Big Ten squad, I know we're not all represented here today, but

should we be worried about the Big Ten being left behind? I'll speak from the Indiana perspective. I mean, we're catching up because of NIO and people are still sleeping on the money that's in Bloomington right now for not just basketball, but big time football as well. Any concern that the Big Ten is left behind from some of these SEC schools throwing dollars around? I have zero concern about it. I mean, the cash is flowing. The only thing, and I know Name, Image and Likeness collectives are separate from the athletic department, but I'm going to be curious to see how we meld the new revenue share once that gets approved in April. And

every team's got to fork over $20 million to every year to athletes. I'm kind of curious to see how that merges together. But I mean, athletes are going to be getting having multiple income streams between an image and likeness and revenue streaming. But I'm not too worried about it. I think I think the message is out the Big Ten and the SEC. They're going to be top dogs. I think everybody's going to step up to the plate and

spread the money around. So I've got two things I wanna get out there. First of all, no it's you know it's not shocking. The SEC is now you know gone two years without even an appearance in the national championship game. They're starting to get a little desperate down there in that part of the country. I think that that certainly plays a fact Yeah, we may or may not have an SEC guy running this show today so sorry See want to be around the producer

The fans don't even want to know who's running this show on the back end of things in representation of the SEC Let me pick up with Roman. I want to add to that too the SEC. Let me pick up with Roman. I want to add to that too. I'm going to steal your thunder because the SEC hates NIL. The SEC hates the transfer portal because for the longest time, this is all alleged of course, but notice how the paradigm shifted the second that okay, it is legal to pay players. It is legal to tamper. Nick Saban and other coaches in the SEC calling for regulation and litigation and there be more rules and everything. Do you notice how they weren't saying any of that

for the decade prior? It was only until the Big 10 started catching up and use it again at Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Notre Dame, all of these schools were playing by these unwritten rules of Penn State calls it success with honor. It's the exact same thing of, well, we don't want to buy. We don't want to go on a spending spree to get players. And the what the SEC schools would do was okay Allegedly you would pay some players under the table you would get them to stay and that's why they had all this depth And it was a next-man-up mentality and now Ohio State Michigan Penn State Washington, Indiana Anybody can go and say hey, you're a backup here

You could start here and we'll make it financially worth your while. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Now we need rules. Now we need regulations. So the SEC conference hates NIL. They hate the transfer portal. And that's why we're seeing all this concern about, is it going to be regulated? We can't have these. We can't have these unethical problems. Give me a break. I'm with you.

I'm with you on that. Can I, can I, now my second point since, you know, I've, I've kindly been unmuted. One thing I'm really interested in is something that Washington did a really good job of getting out ahead of a week or two ago. They hired the role as a former NFL agent in Cameron Foster as their senior director of contracts and cap management. Now I'm really interested to see if this is a position or just something similar that becomes more just widely Disgusted other other schools around the country where other other schools start bringing in somebody to handle that to handle negotiations to handle revenue sharing to handle

Just practically the salary cap that's gonna be coming down So I think that that's something that I just want to keep an eye on that. I think Washington's done really well Well, I think it is happening because the other schools call it a general manager. I didn't know you could be a general manager of a college program until about six to eight months ago. And everybody's doing it now because you got so much you have to juggle. You need a person in charge of all that stuff.

I think so. And I think North Carolina was the big one, of course, with Bill Belichick being hired there. That was one of the ones that really caught storm. And there's so much happening. You said it, Craig. There's so much happening. You have to have more people in the building. Good thing is like tampering and things don't happen. Right. None of that. None of that's going on with quotes floating around that say if you're not doing it your team is being left behind. Wild times we're living in in the college football season but coming up in our final segment on the lockdown Big Ten squad who brought in the biggest names this offseason around the Big Ten. We'll talk coming up in our final segment on the Lockdown Big Ten Squad, who brought in the biggest names this off season around the Big Ten? We'll talk about that in our final segment

coming up on the Lockdown Big Ten Squad. Today's Lockdown Big Ten Squad episode here on Across the Networks is brought to you by Fabric. Life moves fast, especially when you have a family. One day you're watching your kids take their first steps and before you know it, they're off to college. That's why securing their future is so important. Fabric by Gerber Life makes it simple to get them life insurance that fits your family's needs. With Fabric, you can apply for term life insurance online right from your couch. You could be covered in under 10 minutes in many cases. No

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protect their families applied today in just minutes at meet fabric dot com slash locked on college. That's meet M E E T fabric dot com slash locked on college policies issued by Western Southern Life Insurance Company not the next segment. The next segment is from the same for Jacob Craig, Zach and Roman and want to ask you, I guess two of you specifically with Zach with Penn State and Roman with Washington will have Craig talk about it as a whole across the big tonight can give the Indiana perspective but biggest additions made this off season through the transfer portal. It's been a big conversation today on returning production, biggest money spent

but Roman we'll start with you. What's the name that people need to know for this Washington squad coming up in 2025 that wasn't on the team a year ago? It's Chicarrio Davis. It has to be where you go out and you add the best cornerback in the transfer portal from Arizona who under cornerbacks coach John Richardson instead in 2023 at Arizona tied for the the Pac 12 lead with 15 pass breakups. And as a guy who at six, four, one 90, 200 pounds, if he's the number one quarterback off the board of the 2026 NFL draft, I'm not going to be surprised. He's got that high of a ceiling. He moves so, so well at his size. And I would honestly argue that he is the most impactful,

or might not have been the most important transfer for any team in the country this season. If we're going off of what NFL draft stock is going to look like moving forward because you don't find guys that are that big and move that well at that size at the cornerback position so I'm really curious to see what that's going to look like especially on September 27th when Jeremiah Smith comes to town. Sure Seiko and they're in Happy Valley what what who are the fans excited about this all season and did it fill a position that needed to be filled for Penn State? Ben Roman, that is a bold call out to say that,

oh, we're looking forward to Jeremiah Smith. Hey, it's what February, so why not? This is going to get. Hey, I just want to say it. I'm excited. I love good football. Clip it, clip it, say that. We'll, we'll, we'll, we'll put it on the fridge

and refer back to it later. For, for Penn, for Penn State, I mean, it's no surprise that we just got done talking about Michigan and how they spent as much money as they did in NIL. So they brought in a lot from the transfer portal, of course, Oregon, and Spencer's not here to pat himself on the back for whatever reason, because he covers that team.

Darn! I know. But for Penn State, they are not going to be a team that routinely tries to buy their way through the transfer portal. If you will, they go and get complimentary additions to the team. So they needed wide receivers. Well, they got not only one, but they got two. They got Kyron Hudson. It's a shame that Mark isn't here from Lockdown USC to kind of explain and back up what I think of Kyron Hudson. I mean, he was wide receiver four in a very crowded group, but now you give him wide receiver one responsibilities.

I think he can handle it. He's an avid blocker. He's never really been asked to do that at USC, but he can do it. And he has a 2.5% drop percentage, 2.5% over the course of his career. I don't think he had a register drop this past season. So he has fly paper forehand.

So that's what they're getting in Kyron Hudson, Devontae Ross, a speedster, truly a speedster from Troy. They're going to be this one, two punch of Hudson's gonna be the underneath receiver, the possession guy, and Ross will be over the top, that speedster. So Penn State has made good transfer portal additions just because they helped the team.

Are they the big splash at the top of the rankings? Not necessarily, but they don't have to be because what they're going to get Penn State is honestly going to be more important than what a star ranking says. And honestly, one that I don't think gets talked about enough just because Penn State's in such a great spot with its offensive line

and get ready for me to bang the drum that they have the best offensive line in college football at least at a minimum top three in the nation. They added TJ Shanahan from Texas A&M. That was an eight game starter a season ago, a five star prospect from the class of 2023. And he decides, you know what? I'm going to be I'm'm gonna give up my starting ability at Texas A&M to go be a rotational guy at Penn State. I mean, that's really saying something. So it's the rich get richer in the sense Penn State's returning four of its starting offensive linemen.

And then they get somebody like TJ Shanahan to fill out the depth chart when he could and should be starting, but he's gonna be a backup. And that's saying something. Well, I'll give the quick Indiana one. and then I want Craig to kind of give a I guess just an overlook on what has made noise around the conference if you're good with that Craig. The obvious one in Bloomington quickly was Pat Coogan, the Notre Dame offensive lineman who is now going to be a starting center at Indiana. Somebody that helped Notre Dame get to a national

championship game. They had one of the best offensive lines in the country. They had one of the best running games in the country. And Indiana brings that in along with two other starting power five power for now RIP to the pack 12 power for starting offensive lineman. And so you bring three of those guys in plus a starting quarterback. Indiana did pretty well in the transfer portal, but I'm curious with Craig, who does lock down Big Ten, the noise or who made the most noise around the conference in your month.

Well, actually, I had two schools that I wanted to drop, and thankfully, you know, you're locked down Hoosiers. I had the Hoosiers. I mean, seriously, you got a new starting quarterback that everybody wanted in Mendoza. I couldn't believe Coogan decided to come to Indiana. He said, all right, I'm leaving Notre Dame. And then he was considering Michigan where, you know,

it's good offensive line school. And then he goes, I'm gonna go play for Kurt Signetti at IU. I'm like, whoa, that's spectacular. So Indiana's gotta be on the list. And if you look at Signetti in year two, recruiting out of high school, he still ranked kind of still toward the bottom,

bringing the high school recruits. No five stars. I think maybe one four star. The rest three stars. So he's not he's still not doing it at the high school level. He's still doing it like he did in year one, bringing in the transfers. The other school I wanted to mention was Oregon because I think they got maybe the best singular transfer in the whole conference.

Their entire secondary is gone and they stole Dylan Theoniman from Purdue. And he was like freshman of the week six times this freshman year. He was among the leaders in the country in interceptions. He was the leading tackler. That was all his freshman year. And then he followed it up with another stellar year last year

as their leading tackler their second year. And he was a legacy at Purdue. I think his dad played there or something like that. And for Oregon to steal him away and pill for one of the few good pieces at Purdue, he's going to do great there for Oregon in their secondary. So Indiana and Oregon is my answer to your question. Yeah, I hate to see bad things happen to Purdue that sucks. I really do hate to see that they

lose their one good player that they had this past season. I hate that. Then they got to step up. I think getting I think getting better like I have no sympathy and empathy for the teams there at the bottom of the big 10 Indiana figured it out Indiana was not spending any as much money as they as they could have and Tom Allen failed because of it So he got pushed out of town and then everybody around the table realized Okay, we got to give what we got to give the appropriate resources to Kirk Signe. So who demanded it by the way Who demanded it when he walked in? Exactly. So Maryland's kind of starting to push the bar a little bit. They're getting a little more competitive for high school recruits. As you Craig, as you pointed out that Indiana

is very aggressive in the transfer portal. They've raised top 10 NIL funds or top 12 across the country. Don't quote me on that, but I know it's up there. It's definitely very respectable and something that you wouldn't have seen routinely but that's what was happening is that their rosters kept getting purged and Tom Allen couldn't keep up with it and he was like help me and and then it ended for for good reason and now Indiana's better for it so teams like Purdue and Northwestern and Maryland that are that are going to be at the bottom of the Big Ten until they realize that This is how you're going to have to play the game again I don't necessarily agree with it, but that's where we are the NCAA

Well, I don't necessarily agree with it because I do think college athletes should get paid But this is what they tried to prevent the tampering the pay-for-play all of this stuff This is why the transfer portal and NIL did not exist. We're seeing the ramifications of it. So the NCAA was right, but it still also was wrong at the same time. There's a lot of gray area with this. So this is where we are. And adapt or get left behind. Ooh, somebody cool off, Zach.

Seiko is on fire as we get done with the Lockdown Big Ten squad. Look, we talked about things today for a reason. Big portal additions, big money spenders, and returning production. Those three things add up to successful football seasons. And we hope to see a lot of that in the Big Ten this next season. Be sure you check out all of our shows.

Lockdown Hoosiers, Lockdown Big Ten, Nittany Lions, Huskies, and all the ones that we have a part of the Lockdown Big Ten squad. Be sure you follow us all on social media, check out our shows each and every day, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. We're back next week for another episode of the Locked On Big Ten squad.