Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Big Ten cancels Fall sports + 2021 football recruit Skyler Bell joins us as he prepares for his August 16th decision

Episode Date: August 12, 2020

The Big Ten cancels Fall sports. Here is what went down and what the short-term and possible long-term impacts are to that monumental decision. We are also joined by 2021 Hawkeye recruit Skyler Bell as he prepares to announce his commitment decision on August 16th. Skyler narrowed his school list down to five including the Iowa Hawkeyes. What has gone into his decision, what does he like about each school, and what are his plans for his announcement? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I thank God I was born on the good arms of the Midwest, and not on the battlefields of the U.S. It's a time of panic, and it's intercepted! It's picked off right away! Intercepted by Marty Hooker! Pick six! Eight seconds into the game! Buffen sets up deep in the pocket, goes down the field for Smith!

Oh! He's got it! Smith! Touchdown. 85 yards. High on. Touchdown, 10. Taking a shot in the end zone.

It is caught. No offense. Touchdown. That's either one or you have it. Go ahead and three. Yes. Two-point lead for the Hawkeye Nation, to another episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Lockdown Sports Network.

As always, I am your host, Andrew Witten. Today, we have a lot of news to cover. We're going to kick it off by talking about the Big Ten's decision to cancel all fall sports for the 2020 season. Obviously there's a hope that there is football in the spring, but given the fact that the Big Ten changed their mind in a span of six days over information that I don't really think is that valid, who actually knows? So we're going to be talking about that. And then on segment number three, we do have a very special guest, a recruit of the Iowa Hawkeyes, not a commit,

but a recruit, Skyler Bell, wide receiver out of Taft High School in the class of 2021. He's hopping on the show for segment number three to talk about his decision. He is announcing on August 16th what his decision is going to be. He's down to five schools, Iowa, Wisconsin, Rutgers, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia. Had a conversation with him about kind of what he's looking for and all that good jazz. So we're going to be talking about that on segment number three.

If you do like the show and you have listened to it before or you listened to it for the very first time today and you like what you hear, make sure to like, review, and subscribe. Give us that five-star review. If you don't like something, make sure to send us that constructive feedback as well so we can make sure to improve for you. And follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. So, that being said, let's hop into the show today.

Again, lots of stuff to cover on today's episode, starting with the Big Ten canceling the 2020-2021 fall season of sports, which includes football. It does touch a little bit of basketball, includes lots of other sports in the general, volleyball, all that kind of stuff. So huge deal. Obviously, football is kind of the big thing we're going to talk about and focus on today, though. I'm going to read what the announcement was quickly, and then we're going to jump into some of the factors. And we're going to be talking about this a lot over the next couple of days. This is a huge deal across sports, but I want to read what they kind of had to say. So our primary responsibility is to make the best possible decisions in the interest

of our students, faculty, and staff. The mental and physical health and welfare of our student-athletes has been at the center of every decision we have made regarding the ability to proceed forward, according to Kevin Warren, the Big Ten Commissioner. As time progressed and after hours of discussion with our Big Ten Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Big Ten Sports Medicine Committee, it became abundantly clear that there was too much uncertainty regarding potential medical risk to allow our student-athletes to compete this fall. We know how significant the student-athlete experience can be in shaping the future of the talented young women and men who compete in the Big Ten Conference.

Although that knowledge made this a painstaking decision, it did not make it difficult. While I know our decision today will be disappointing in many ways for our thousands of student-athletes and their families, I am heartened and inspired by the resilience, their insightful and discerning thoughts and their participation through our conversations to this point. Everyone associated with the Big Ten Conference and its member institutions is committed to getting everyone back to competition as soon as it is safe to do so. Like I said, this impacts not just football, it impacts cross country, field hockey, soccer, and volleyball. So, I guess let's start with the first thing. How do they get to this decision?

Because seven days ago at this point, when you're listening to this recording, seven days ago the Big Ten released their new schedule. And then in the final hours, they just started talking about delaying the season. There was really three options on the table from what I understand. The options were to either proceed forward with football, to delay a month, or to cancel the fall season. It sounds like there were multiple schools, multiple coaches that were fighting for a fall season. Iowa being one of the strongest proponents of a fall season. It sounds like Gary Barta worked his butt off to try to get to a point where we could play sports in the fall.

Him along with Bruce Harreld. So they were really fighting for Iowa to get a chance to play this fall. Kirk Ferentz was pretty happy and appreciative of their efforts to do so. But no matter what, it just did not happen. We are not having fall sports this spring. Or this fall, excuse me. So that brings up a couple different things. Obviously, it disappoints me that it took this long for the Big Ten to decide.

They've had the last five months to figure out what the heck they should do. NBA has figured it out. The TBT figured it out. MLB is kind of struggling through it, but figuring out how even the NFL did more, it feels like than the NCAA to prepare for this. So that, that really upsets me. It upsets me that it took this long to make a decision. It upsets me that it took three days to make a decision. Obviously it was not a decision they took lightly, but there should have been better leadership in place to kind of handle what was going on and figure out what needed to happen kind of going forward. So the decision has been

made. Where do we go now? What are some of the questions that kind of get brought up? And there's a lot of things that get brought up. First, are's going to go to other conferences. What are going to happen with the other conferences? The Pac-12 has canceled, but the SEC, the Big 12, the ACC, they have not canceled yet. And it sounds like the SEC does not plan on canceling. So what does that mean for the Big 10? It definitely hurts. If the other conferences don't cancel, it absolutely hurts the Big Ten. It hurts them from a revenue perspective. It hurts them if they want to play spring football. It hurts the athletes who are looking to go into the NFL draft this upcoming year.

There are so many ways it hurts if other conferences play. Now, if other conferences do ultimately decide to push back, it definitely is in the favor of Iowa and the Big Ten schools. But what if they don't? Would these schools be interested in switching conferences? It sounds like the Big Ten said basically if you want to switch, that's up to you. But, you know, you're not really welcome on coming back. And also, you know, Kirk Ferron said now more than ever is a time for the Big Ten to stay together and be strong together. But is that going to happen?

I mean, Nebraska seems pretty keen on trying to find a new division to play in or new conference to play in. And I think if they decide to do that, good riddance to them. Obviously, they have not had a very good bout in the Big Ten since joining. So maybe they're looking to, you know, maybe go back to the Big 12 or maybe try to get their butts kicked in the SEC. Who knows what's happening there? So that is obviously, you know, a big thing to be on the lookout. Obviously, we're going to get a lot more news over the next couple of days about what kind

of happened. I believe things are going to be popping off pretty quickly. So we'll see what happens there. And we'll obviously be we'll be breaking that down as well. Now, though, if that does happen, if teams do decide to kind of go behind the scenes, could we see kind of a change in the the overall NCAA structure and the change of the conference structure? Could the Big Ten be on the verge of losing multiple teams? Could we see Rutgers and Maryland maybe go to different different conferences and maybe just

get rid of them in general? There's a lot of things that could really happen over the next couple of days, and we'll be covering all that right here, but just kind of spitballing some possibilities of what could really be happening. Also, how does this impact the players? That's probably the biggest question that I have right now is, what is the impact on the players? So coming up on segment number two, we're going to be breaking down what that impact looks like from a player perspective. What happens to players that want to enroll early? What happens to players that are planning to go to the NFL draft? What players are impacted the most from the Iowa Hawkeyes?

We're going to be covering all that on segment number two of the show today after a few quick messages from our sponsors. We're back on segment number two of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes. And let's talk about the players and also what spring football looks like. And let's start maybe the spring football piece. Because the idea is that they want to play spring football. And I would argue that there is some safety concerns with that as well. Playing basically two seasons in one year is not good for the athlete's body. There's a reason why they need to take so much time off.

There's a reason why they need that time to get the medical attention, to train, to get all that stuff in order. It beats on your body. So the fact that they have potentially due two seasons in one year is going to be tough, but it does sound like Kirk feels like that is something that they could make happen if done the right way. So I imagine maybe shortened seasons, starting right in January, hopefully finishing by the end of March, really giving them still about five, six months until they start football up, maybe even pushing back the fall season of the following year by a month or so. There's definitely some wiggle room there either way, but that'll be interesting to see what they come up with from a spring football standpoint. I would really love to see the Big Ten take some leadership

and accountability and start having those discussions right now. But I'm not holding my breath. It has been pretty disappointing to see what has happened so far. But now let's get into the players. Because we saw with some of the FCS schools, these players were looking to transfer. We saw Keegan Johnson's older brother, Iowa recruit, his older brother, Cade Johnson, looking to transfer a legit NFL draft prospect, a guy who was looking at coming to Iowa potentially. They were looking to transfer so they could get more tape so they could have a little bit more visibility heading into the NFL draft season, which, mind you, is currently

scheduled for April of 2021. However, the NFL draft does have a little bit of flexibility. They have the opportunity to move that back to, I believe, June 2nd is the latest date according to the current CBA. But given these unprecedented times, I'd be interested to see if they would be willing to push that back even further to allow these players a chance to recover, allow these players a chance to train. Because let's be honest, tape is really important, but so is the testing. And so is being able to have your body in a good, healthy spot.

Now, some of these players, though, are in a tough position. Like I said, if some of these conferences decide to play on in the fall, could we see guys grad transfer out of Iowa? Could we see an Amir Smith-Marset or a Brandon Smith or an O'Laric Jackson, a Coy Cronk, a Nick Neiman? Again, I'm not saying these guys have talked about it. I'm just speculating that Matt Hankins even, some of these seniors who need to get good tape, who want to have an opportunity at the NFL Draft, they may want to take that opportunity to play fall football. That way they can get the tape and then they can start training for next year or next season.

Now, let's say the other conferences decide to push back to the spring. Now, that still opens up the question, do these draft eligible prospects decide to sit out the season? We already saw with Rondell Moore and Rashad Bateman and Micah Parsons, they already decided to sit out even though the fall season hadn't been pushed back to the spring. Could we see that for additional players next year? It is interesting with Iowa because there's not a lot of top-level guys from a draft perspective.

Tyler Linderbaum is getting a little bit of day one, day two love. I've seen him on a few mock drafts. But he's a redshirt sophomore. So it's not as pertinent for him to be able to go out this year. He still has technically two more seasons. He's not an older guy by any means. But when you look at guys like a Larrick Jackson, a redshirt senior who was possibly going to declare last year, but had some injury issues, didn't have the best tape.

Could we see him sit out the spring year? Could we see him decide to grad transfer to another school and try to get better tape? He was a guy who was considered a first round prospect. Coy Cronk, a guy who was considered a day two prospect, possibly out of Indiana, tore his, you know, destroyed his ankle and transferred to Iowa. I can't imagine he would transfer again as a grad transfer, but that's a guy that really hurts from a playing time perspective, not getting that tape, not showing that he's healthy and able to play tackle in the NFL.

Brandon Smith and Amir Smith-Marset, those are both guys who are late day three prospects at this point. Amir Smith-Marset has a little bit more wiggle room, I would say, just because he has that returnability. We've seen the speed and he wasn't injured last year. But both those guys could really have used additional tape and additional year in college football to build up that tape. So what happens if the season gets pushed back?

Do they decide to do something about that? Chauncey Golsan, another redshirt senior, a guy who's a little bit older. What happens with him? This is the guy who was really looking to shine in his first year as kind of the main guy on that defensive line last year, overshadowed by A.J. Paneza. This year, he'd be the guy. And he no longer has that opportunity

to, at least in the fall. He's a guy who really needs some more tape, needs to put up some better sack numbers. This hurts him as well. Nick Neiman, um, kind of bounced around the starter to the, you know, the backup spot, but he could be a guy who I think could definitely be an NFL player. His brother's NFL player, Nick Neiman has that, um, the ability to do some coverage type of things and also is a very instinctive player who could be an NFL caliber guy, red

shirt senior as well. What does he do? Again, Matt Hankins. We look at Keith Duncan, a redshirt senior. He's a guy who he's getting a little older, but really needed to show that he could kick the ball off and could expand his range on field goals. Now what happens?

I think he's probably the least impacted simply from the fact that his testing doesn't matter nearly as much as his tape does and what he does from an accuracy and a distance standpoint. So he's probably the least impacted of this group. But again, these are the guys that this impacts the most. These seniors, especially these redshirt seniors, who now have to look at potentially playing in the spring, or do they transfer for fall football so they can work out in the spring? Do they decide that they're going to forgo the opportunity to produce more tape and just test and try to build up some of those testing numbers that they need to do in order to get into the NFL? These are really the guys who are really hurt by this, in my opinion, from an Iowa football standpoint. Obviously,

the other guys could use that other tape. We've seen Iowa Hawkeyes bust out in their sophomore and junior seasons and go into the NFL. Those guys no longer have as good of a chance to do that. But this really puts a wrench in what the NFL draft looks like. This puts a wrench in the Iowa Hawkeyes program. This puts a wrench in college football in general. And we're all here to kind of look and see what actually happens over the next couple days and couple weeks. There is going to be a lot of change happening. There's going to be a lot of things that are going to happen quicker than we typically would expect because of this unique time.

But I will say this. If there is no spring football next season because of the Big Ten not being able to figure it out, that is absolutely ridiculous and looks absolutely terrible on Kevin Warren, who is the Big Ten commissioner. Again, this is just a sad day in general for college football and college sports overall. For all those athletes, not exactly ideal. Also, what happens for the Red Shirts? What happens if Arnold Bruce decides to enroll early? Does this count as a season for him? Does he get technically six years? How does that look?

Do they have the option of basically saying he's an early enrollee, but he's not going to be on the roster until next season? That'll be something that they're going to have to work out in the NCAA as well. So lots of stuff that's going to be coming over the next couple days. Just wanted to give you an idea of what we're thinking about, an idea of kind of what the impact is of this. As we get more information, we'll continue to break down what that impact is. But that'll do it for segment number two of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast.

A reminder that on segment number three, we got Iowa Hawkeye recruit Skyler Bell hopping on the show to talk about his commitment process, what he's looking for in schools, and to talk about what he has planned what he's looking for in schools, and to talk about what he has planned for his big day on August 16th when he actually decides to make a decision. And also, does he already know his decision or not? Find out on segment number three of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast after a few messages from our sponsors.

We are back for our third and final segment of the show today. And as I've been teasing, we have a very special guest, a recruit of the Iowa Hawkeyes, a guy who has not committed to any school yet. He has listed out his top five, which is Iowa, Wisconsin, Rutgers, West Virginia, and Virginia Tech in no order. And we have him on the show today to talk about his recruitment process and what he is looking for in a school. So I'm going to turn this over to my interview with Skyler Bell right now. All right, so I am joined here by 2021 recruit Skyler Bell.

He is getting recruited by a couple different Big Ten schools, notably the Iowa Hawkeyes. So, Skyler, how are you doing today, buddy? I'm good. How are you? Not too bad, man. So let's jump right into it. You were initially going to commit a few months ago, obviously decided to push that back a little bit.

What made you decide to push that back? Just, you know, trying to make sure that I'm making the right decision. I wanted to take a little bit more time. And, you know, my family told me to take a little bit more time. So that's what we did. And, you know, we like where me to take a little bit more time. So that's what we did. And, you know, we like where we're at right now. Absolutely, man. I mean, it makes sense. Obviously it's a huge decision for you. So I want to make sure you're doing what's right. Do you know, at this point,

do you know what school you're going to pick then on August 16th? I do not right now. Awesome. So what is your plan for as, as far as when you hope to have a decision at that point, when do you hope to decide? Hopefully about Thursday, I should know, you hope to decide? Hopefully by Thursday. I should know, you know, exactly where I'm going. And I'll let the other schools know either Friday or Thursday that, you know,

I'll be picking somewhere else and then announce on Sunday. Awesome, man. So what are your plans for your announcement? Anything you have planned for that? I don't know yet. I think I'm probably just going to post a picture on my instagram or i might do one a little video that i'll have somebody make for me but i don't know yet that's awesome man so obviously you haven't decided yet um but out of the schools that you're looking at right

now um obviously there's five schools in your top five what are some of the things you like about each of those schools um so you know three big 10 schools uh big 10 is you know great football and you know one is in the big 10 east and two are in the big 10 west so two of them i'm gonna play against you know the other one or four years so that's gonna be fun and then um you know the other two west virginia and virginia tech you know those are just two historic programs that you know have good football behind them and you know they're west virginia's up and up and trying to get things back up and running and virginia tech is you know trying to make that next jump to win the acc definitely man yeah and it looks like when i'm looking at the roster outlook virginia tech and west virginia kind of have lower numbers from a

wide receiver perspective as well so maybe some opportunities to get some playing time quickly. But obviously, you have that love for the Big Ten, it looks like whether that's Iowa, Rutgers or Wisconsin. Obviously, if you had if I had to pick, I hope to God is not Wisconsin out of all schools. So play you consistently, but just my own personal opinion. So as far as obviously, you know, Deontay Vines, an Iowa recruit or Iowa commit, how has he been involved in your recruitment to Iowa at least? Obviously, has he been in your ear a lot trying to get you to come there? Yeah, you know, I talked to Deontay a bunch. You know, he always hits me up about, you know, what I'm thinking about the schools

and, you know, that, you know, Iowa wants me there and that we could do damage there for, you know, more years to come as we went to Taft together. So, you know, he's always talking to me about it and, you know, making sure that I feel the love from Iowa. Definitely, man. And so from my understanding, I think Taft is not playing football this fall, correct? Yep. So what are you going to be doing in the offseason or, well, I guess the new offseason to kind of get ready for football? Are you looking to transfer to a the off season or, well, I guess the new off season to kind of get ready for, for football. Are you looking to transfer to a different school or just kind of ride it out and train until you can get into college football? Yeah, right now I'm just going to ride it out and train until, you know,

the fall for college. Makes sense, man. And then what are you, what are some of the main things you've been valuing during your recruitment process? I would say just getting, getting to know each school and building a relationship with not only the position coach, but the head coach, the offensive coordinator, things like that to make sure that I feel comfortable wherever I go. I love it, man.

And then obviously you probably saw the news today break that the Big Ten is not playing fall football. The Pac-12 is not playing fall football. The Pac 12 is not playing fall football. I wanted to get your thoughts on the NCAA playing football this year. Obviously, it's heartbreaking and sad that we can't play football the way we want to. But with the Big Ten and the Pac 12 canceling, or not canceling, but postponing until the spring, hopefully, it gives some sort of hope that, you know,

there'll be football, you know, sooner rather than none until, you know, next year. So, I'd rather that than, you know, have nothing until next fall. Definitely, man. And then the last question, obviously, if you were to commit to Iowa, you know, people listening to this podcast are going to be Iowa Hawkeye fans. What do you bring to either Iowa, Wisconsin, Rutgers, West Virginia, or Virginia Tech?

What is kind of the – what should they know about Skyler Bell? I would say I'm dynamic on the field, explosive. I like to have fun. So, you know, if any fans get to the games before, you'll see me dancing and, you know, just having fun. You know, I bring energy, you know know after big plays and things like that because energy you know helps team and momentum and things like that and off the field i'm just a laid-back guy you know um like to have fun and just you know be who i am i love it man well skyler any

last words before i let you go i know you're on the way to the airport so i don't want to keep you too long uh no that's that's that's pretty much it thank you're on the way to the airport, so I don't want to keep you too long. No, that's pretty much it. Thank you for having me. Awesome, man. Absolutely, dude. Happy to have you on. Obviously excited for August 16th. I hope you go to Iowa, but if anything, I hope you don't go to Wisconsin.

But nonetheless, I'll be rooting for you either way, and I'm looking forward to seeing your career, man. Yep, thank you. Awesome. Have a good day, buddy. Yep, you too. All right, and that will do it for our interview with Skyler Bell. A big shout-out to him.

I know he was on the way to the airport to go back home. Really appreciate him taking the time out of his day to talk with us a little bit about his upcoming decision. Obviously, he has a lot to think about, and I 100% understand and agree with him deciding to delay his commitment. Obviously, I hope he joins the Iowa Hawkeyes. Sounds like he has a good relationship with Deontay Vines. Sounds like they've been in talks about, you know, potentially, you know,

forming that dynamic duo and imagine him coming in with a Keegan Johnson as well. There could be a lot of explosiveness in that offense. So I'm excited to see what he decides on August 16th, whatever the decision ultimately becomes. I just wish him the best and hope that he's making the best decision for him, which it sounds like he's looking forward to doing so. But that'll do it for our show today. As more information comes up, we'll be breaking that down. Hopefully going to get a chance to drop an interview tomorrow with Roy Higgins III. Been kind of pushing that out as all this news has been coming up with the Big Ten,

but had a really great conversation with him about the recruitment aspect from his eyes recruitment aspect from him, his like eyes as a parent, what he's looking forward to for an Iowa Hawkeye football perspective, how much he loves Hawkeye nation, all that good stuff. It was a really great conversation and loved it. I'm really excited to drop that. Hopefully that we can do that tomorrow, barring any crazy news coming out of NCAA and college football in general. That being said, if you liked what you heard today, please make sure to like review and subscribe. Give us that That being said, if you liked what you heard today, please make sure to like, review, and subscribe. Give us that five-star review wherever you downloaded this podcast at, and make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

As always, I appreciate you, Hawkeye Nation, for tuning in today. Have a fantastic day, and as always, let's go Hawks. We'll see you next time.