Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Big Ten may return by October 17th! | IHSAA continues to screw over Arland Bruce | Tristan Wirfs puts together impressive first game performance

Episode Date: September 14, 2020

Big Ten football is back? There could be a vote and decision as early as today, but all things seem to be pointing to a start date of October 17th. What does that mean for the conference and for Iowa football this season? Also, while the Iowa Hawkeyes try to get their season back, Arland Bruce is trying to get his back as well, but the Iowa High School Athletic Association is giving him the run around leading me to believe that something shady is going on within the state's governing body of athletics. And finally, NFL football is back. We break down the top performances from Iowa Hawkeyes around the league.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get $10 off your first order. 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 another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, and I'm excited to be back on this Monday because there is a lot of news to cover. We had college football, we had NFL football, and most importantly, the Big Ten is looking like they're going to be playing football sooner rather than later. So we have a lot of stuff to cover on today's show.

I do apologize for getting this episode out late to you. I got home really late last night, so I'm actually recording this on Monday morning after I woke up. So you're getting this a little bit later, but going forward, you'll have episodes the rest of this week back at your normal scheduled time early, early in the morning. We do have some great interviews. I don't want to give them all away yet, but we're going to be dropping those this week as well. We're going to be recording tomorrow and Wednesday most likely. So I usually like to wait until I actually have that interview recorded until I tease you what is going to be dropping. So lots of stuff coming up.

On today's show though, we're going to first kick it off by doing a little bit of a Monday roundup, kind of hit on some of the news and notes around Iowa Hawkeye Athletics. On segment number two, go through a quick NFL recap, and then finally on segment number three, we're going to get into the meat of the show and talk about the Big Ten plans to play and what that could mean going forward. So, let's hop into it with our Monday roundup. The Nuggets extended the series. They are now 3-3.

They have a chance to beat the Clippers and move on in the playoffs. Tyler Cook is not getting any playing time, but always great to see some Iowa Hawkeyes on there. Also, if you do want to hear about Tyler Cook a little bit more and what his life is like in the bubble, I do recommend checking out The Standpoint hosted by Jordan Bohannon and Zach Cohen. They had him on a week or so ago, and it was a great episode to check that out. In other basketball news, though, the WNBA did wrap up the regular season.

It was the end of Kathleen Doyle's rookie season, the WNBA did wrap up the regular season. It was the end of Kathleen Doyle's rookie season, the end of year two for Megan Gufferson. Neither of their teams made the playoffs, but we did see some improvements, especially on the final game of the Wings season. Megan Gufferson got 16 minutes of playing time in Dallas's win over the Liberty. She went two of three, shooting 66.7%, hit all four of her free throws, had two rebounds and two turnovers and eight points. Eight points being a season high for her this year. So fantastic stuff by Megan Gustafson. She also got in in the loss to Chicago on September 11th as well,

so just two days earlier. She had five minutes of playing time, two rebounds and assists, and a block and no points. Kathleen Doyle put together probably, I would say, a much more impressive rookie season. She got a lot more playing time with the Indiana Fever over the last three games. She got 16 minutes, 11 minutes, and four minutes, and a loss, a win, and a loss. The last game, though, on Saturday, her last game of her rookie season, she went 3 of 7 from the field, 1 of 4 from 3 with 3 rebounds, excuse me, 3 assists, 1 steal for a total of 8 points.

That's exactly what we typically expected from Kathleen Doyle after seeing her play for the Iowa basketball team for the women's side. She was really just kind of a do-it-all guard who could fill the stat sheet. So that's what she's been doing for the Fever and putting together just a really impressive day all around in her last game, which is also a career high in points scored for the WNBA at eight points. So fantastic stuff there. I'm assuming they're both possibly going to be going overseas to play European basketball,

but we'll let you know as soon as we do find that out. Also, still lots of stuff happening on the college basketball side in general. There's talks about playing a few more league games in December. And obviously, from everything we hear, the Big Ten absolutely wants to make sure they're playing some of their non-conference games as well. Still lots of talks trying to figure out what is actually going on there. So we'll be giving you more information as that continues to come up. In other news, on the football side, Arlen Bruce, a guy who is a commit to Iowa in the class of 2021,

did move up to Ankeny to play with Brody Brecht, to play football there after the football season in his high school was postponed for the fall. It was supposed to be canceled, but they actually are coming back. That school is actually back in play now. But he did move up to Ankeny to make sure he did not miss his senior season. However, the Iowa High School Athletic Association is really screwing with him at this point. I don't use that word lightly.

I think it's absolutely ridiculous. They email him not too long before his first game saying he's ineligible and unable to play. He hires a lawyer. They do an appeal. And now apparently they can only mail back the hearing of that. I'll be completely honest here. I think there's some Iowa parents that have some money that are a little pissed off that some of these good players from out of state are coming in and taking over their

son's starting roles they might have worked for i'm sorry if your son isn't good at the play that sucks for you but you shouldn't be screwing over someone else's you know career arlen bruce moved up here his mom is up in ankeny There is no reason why he shouldn't be able to play. The guy has done everything he's needed to do to make himself eligible to play football this season, and they're taking that away from him. I think that is just atrocious. I think it's a pathetic showing from the Iowa High School Athletic Association, and clearly there is someone trying to screw over Arlen Bruce and the other people who have transferred into the state of Iowa to play high school football this year. Just an absolute embarrassment for the state.

Obviously, the High School Athletic Association, like I said, has someone in higher powers that is a little bit upset about their kid not getting some playing time, which I think is absolutely ridiculous. So that's my thoughts on that. That's my thoughts on that. Hopefully we do hear back sooner rather than later for him so we can get at least part of his season in play and get a chance to play with Brody Brett because they are going to be an absolutely dynamic tandem in high school and at the college ranks. And going into the college ranks,

Iowa did extend an offer to a tight end in the class of 2020. If you listened to our show last Friday, you knew that we kind of felt like they were missing a tight end in that class. They had probably three to five spots left open. We were likely going to see them extend some offers later on, and that happened sooner rather than later. James Carney, a 6'5", 220-pound tight end who was originally committed to the University of Miami, Ohio. He has ranked the 1582nd player in the entire class, the 85th tight end in the class. This kid is out of Firth, Nebraska.

So we have some tough competition right now. The 24-7 sports experts have him going to Nebraska, but he doesn't actually have an offer from Nebraska. So Iowa is his only Power 5 offer at this point. And that bodes well for the Hawks. They produce tight ends well. Also, he'd be going up against Thomas Fedone who is one of the best tight ends in this class so if he were to go to

Nebraska so there's a good opportunity here for Iowa he's already I mean he's already got pretty good athleticism at 6 foot 5 220 pounds runs a 4 6 40 yard dash has a 4 3 second shuttle has a 4.3 second shuttle has a 30.5 inch vertical you know that's going to change once he gets into the Iowa program and that has a nine foot broad jump what I find interesting is Iowa offers him on September 12th he decommits from Miami of Ohio on September 12th so clearly that sparked his interest I don't know if he's looking to pick up more power five offers but the fact that Iowa got in there early is big for the Hawks. Hopefully they can land their tight end in the class of 2021. But that'll do it, though, for our Monday roundup.

Coming back up on segment number two, we're going to go through our quick NFL recap before hopping into segment three, where we're going to talk a lot about the Big Ten plans to play. Before we go into segment number two, though, I do want to remind you that Built Bar is back, and they are better than ever. The improved Built Bar is even delicious-er. It is fantastic. It is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar,

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So go to BuiltBar.com and use promo code LOCKEDON. We are back for segment number two of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. And as I said before we took our break, I do want to do kind of a roundup of NFL players from the Iowa Hawkeyes. And let's start with the big one. Rookie Tristan Wirfs got some high praise from John Ledger. If you don't know who John Ledger is, he used to be a host of Locked On NFL Draft Podcast.

Used to be a big member of the Draft Network. Now he is currently working for Puda Report, which is a credentialed media site covering the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And he's big on offensive line play. That's one of his things he loves to scout. And so, with all that being said, he covers the Bucs. The Bucs did lose to the Saints yesterday, and Tristan Wirfs had a pretty tough battle as he had to go up against Cameron Jordan. But, John Ledger, and I know I've got to watch that game,

but again, I'm not as good at covering offensive line play from that perspective. He said, Biggest positive takeaway from this Bucs game for me, Tristan Wirfs, I didn't want to jinx him all game, but he played one heck of a game against Cam Jordan. Beaten the one time, but in past obvious situations late, he was battling Jordan like crazy. That is fantastic to hear. Great to see Tristan Wirfs holding up his side of the line. And across the NFL, we saw a few other Iowa Hawkeyes perform pretty admirably as well. In the Packers-Vikers Vikings game you have a couple

Iowa Hawkeyes in that game but most notably you have Jaleel Johnson who finished with four tackles on a defense who just got absolutely destroyed against Green Bay but on the Green Bay side Christian Kirksey playing in his first game not as a Brown had 12 12 tackles, a game-leading total in tackles. So fantastic stuff by the former Brown and former Iowa Hawkeye linebacker. You love to see that happen there for a guy like Christian Kirksey, one of the best guys in the NFL. When we were talking to Jeff Lloyd of Lockdown Browns, he mentioned just how much Christian Kirksey meant to that Browns organization. So you love seeing that.

In the 49ers loss to the Arizona Cardinals, George Kittle had four receptions for 44 yards on five targets, also had one rush for nine yards. Unfortunately, did leave the game with an injury, but sounds like he's expected to return in week two. So no concerns there from a long-term perspective for the most interesting man in the NFL today. In the Bears-Lions game, another tight end performed pretty darn well.

TJ Hawkinson, five receptions for 56 yards and one touchdown. And I think the key here is TJ Hawkinson kind of leveled off a lot last year. Didn't really live up to the hype, I guess, of being a top 10 pick, especially when Noah Fant drafted a few picks later. A pick 20 had a better, statistically speaking, rookie season. And TJ Hawkinson was kind of struggling from an injury perspective as well. But in this game, did fantastic. And also, the way he got that touchdown I thought was really great.

Boxing out players to get into the end zone and get that, get that touchdown catch. So love seeing that from TJ Hawkinson chiefs from the chiefs, Texan standpoint, Anthony Hitchens finished with seven total tackles. And then we have a couple of guys playing tonight as well. We have a Monty hooker for the Titans. We have Noah fan and Josie jewel, both starting tonight for the Denver Broncos.

So it's going to be a little bit of an Iowa Hawkeye love fest tonight on Monday Night Football. So highly recommend you checking that out. Every week, though, as we go through this, I'll be trying to do some recaps of the NFL season and what is happening for these Iowa Hawkeyes. I would say today is a little bit lighter than normal, mostly because I was traveling back yesterday. So it's a little bit tough to catch every single game. But that'll be, you know, again, changing as we move forward in the NFL season, I'll be catching all those games and giving you full recaps of that. And if if a player does a pretty good job, I'll be bringing on that

lockdown NFL host as well to talk about that. So stay tuned for that every single Monday of the upcoming NFL season. That being said, we're going to take a quick break, and we're going to get into what I really want to talk about today, which is the Big Ten news and whether they are planning on playing this season. We are back for our third and our final segment of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast today. All right, we are back for our third and our final segment of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast today. And like I said before we took a quick break, the Big Ten has been having quite a few discussions, and it sounds like there's a good chance we're actually going to get Big Ten football this season. And I, first off, just want to say, wow, the Big Ten has really screwed this up.

They have done almost nothing right throughout this entire process to get football back in place. What happened though is kind of do a quick recap. Obviously they, you know, switched up the season, made it conference only. A couple of days later, they actually canceled the fall sports season. Now they are targeting an October 17th start date, which is just over a month away. Enough time for these schools to get back in play um you know get their get their practices up um get going and get ready to play football this season what happened was last month the council of presidents and chancellors voted 11 to 3 to shut down all big 10 sports um ohio state nebraska and iowa were the only schools that actually voted to play and you

could kind of tell that based off of the response that came out of that. Iowa fans were pretty pissed. Nebraska fans. Ohio State's coach, Ryan Day, has been very adamant about playing. And I don't blame him. He has a team that is able to compete for a national title this year. He needs to be able to play this year. Otherwise, they're not in contention for that, which is a little bit unfortunate.

And now we are here, where they are returning to the concept of possibly playing, and I think the big movement for this, and we want to know why, because Kevin Warren didn't give us any real description about why they canceled other than medical concerns, but he's done a really piss-poor job of actually explaining what is going on right now in the Big Ten. But it sounds like the big change that has happened is the availability of rapid testing because you can rapidly test a player on game day, ensure they don't have it.

If they do, you can make sure that you do the contact tracing and all that stuff of those players and make sure you get those players out of harm's way before that game. So the rapid testing is huge. What I do find interesting about this though, is while this is going on, some of the biggest hotspots in the country right now are big 10 areas. Madison, Wisconsin is hugely hit right now. They just moved to online courses. Iowa has been hit hard. Those are two of the bigger schools in the Big Ten that have really struggled with the coronavirus so far. But they are looking to return to play.

And this will be interesting to see as well because what we're finding is some of the parents and boosters are a little bit pissed off that Iowa did shut down the tennis program and did shut down the swimming and diving program and the gymnastics program. in the gymnastics program, could the return of football help provide the financial need that they have to get those sports back in play? Could that be overturned? And also, if football does return now, what does that mean for next year's fall? I know when they originally talked about moving football into January, there's a lot of talk about shortening up the fall season the next year as well, which would hurt not only one season, that would hurt two seasons. And that would be really tough to overcome.

But if they play a season now, they could wrap up by the end of December and go through their normal routine going into the fall season next year. So we could have a normal football season next year. So I think it's really huge. They're looking to do the October 17 start date. It appears that it would be an eight-game schedule. So obviously there will be some changes to that schedule again. Iowa will definitely play all the teams in their conference.

They'll get one other crossover, which I believe would probably be Penn State in that scenario, or sorry, two other crossovers. One of them would be Penn State, likely just using kind of their previous Big Ten schedule that they had from the very beginning. But the big thing here, again, a couple things actually, a lot of big things really, is the fact that they could wrap up the season in a normal time frame. They would be a part of that, you know, the top 25, the AP poll. They would be in that national title conversation.

And people wonder, you know, what about the only the eight games played? A lot of schools are not going to be making their full game schedule this year. We're seeing games already get postponed due to outbreaks and whatnot. So I'm not too worried about that. If they're a good team, they will make it into the national championship talk like in Ohio State. If Iowa does really well, you know, they're going to make it into a bowl game. So the one thing I am curious about is with the Big Ten returning,

what does the Pac-12 do? What do bowl games do? What are some of these smaller conferences doing? We're seeing college football being played at a relatively successful level. I wouldn't say successful from an on-field product, but successful from the fact that they actually are playing college football. So do these other conferences try to return? Do we try to get back to as much normalcy as possible from a college football perspective?

Who knows on that? I'm curious to how this is going to impact some of these bowl games as well. Are these teams just going to play a regular season and not go to a bowl? I find that highly unlikely. These bowls do make a lot of money just off the media rights of being there, the television rights. Obviously, if you can get a team like Iowa there, you typically will get a pretty good fan base as well. But these Bulls, if there's more teams in play, are likely going to try to get their games in as well. So we could see a couple of Bull games happen, but it'll be interesting to see what happens to some of those lower tier Bulls,

which I actually talked about with Josh Ward on the Lockdown College Football Podcast on Wednesday. We'll be back on this Wednesday as well, probably talking a lot about this. But that vote, so they talked a lot this weekend. That vote is expected to happen, I would say, probably today or tomorrow. They need to decide as quickly as possible if they want to get this actually rolling as quickly as possible. So that vote is likely to take place very soon. And with this schedule, they would wrap up with a league title game on December 19th,

which is great because the college ball playoff field is scheduled to be revealed on December 20th. That being said, this year has been very interesting. If something happens and they are unable to make that timeframe, I'm very, I'll be very shocked that the college ball playoff committee doesn't move back a little bit to make sure that they can include the big 10 especially given the fact there's likely going to be a team or two that is competing for that cfp playoff field so that's what's happening in the big 10 right now we're likely going to get some good information today i hope um as a reminder don't listen to anything sir yacht says listen to the people who actually understand what the hell is going on and actually have real sources before you're retweeting that uh make sure you know we know exactly what's happening

and not just listening to some random kid who's trying to make a name for himself spewing out bullcrap but hopefully the big 10 does come back obviously we'll have a lot to talk about if they do and what that looks like so that'll be coming up though on future episodes again just a reminder that we are back every single day this week. I know last week was a little bit interesting. We missed a few shows, but we'll be back every single day this week, and we have a couple great interviews coming up as well. Stay tuned right here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes.

If you like the show, make sure to follow us. Subscribe wherever you downloaded it. Give us that five-star review if you liked it a lot, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Thank you all for tuning in to today's episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. I hope you all had a fantastic weekend, an even better Monday, and check out some of those Hawkeyes on Monday Night Football tonight.

And as always, let's go Hawks. We'll see you next time.