Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Cade McNamara's California Trip with his receivers, Kirk Ferentz disrespected

Episode Date: May 19, 2023

Trent Condon wraps up the week with another edition of the Locked on Hawkeyes Podcast.Cade McNamara is taking a much deserved vacation to California before the Iowa football team reconvenes in June in Iowa City. But he didn't go alone. He brought along with wide receivers and tight ends for some relaxation and doing some work and team building.Kirk Ferentz was ranked at #30 by CBS among the power 5 coaches in college football. Trent explains why that is disrespectful.Some thoughts on Iowa baseball as they wrap up the regular season and Iowa softball as they see their postseason continue.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BirddogsToday's episode is brought to you by Birddogs. Go to birddogs.com/lockedoncollege and when you enter promo code, LOCKEDONCOLLEGE, they’ll throw in a free custom birddogs Yeti-style tumbler with every order.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I was starting quarterback Cade McNamara having a little vacation in California, but he's not alone. He's doing work while he is out there. We give you the details today on Locked on Hawkeyes. Our Locked on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in. I'm Trent Condon, and this is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.

Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We're available wherever you get podcasts. Make sure you give us a five-star review while you're there. And if you watch us on YouTube, hit that subscribe button. It helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. There's a lot going on here as we wrap up the week. The baseball team got things started on the right foot with a win against Northwestern. We'll get into the details with two games remaining on that one. We'll talk about that coming up here today. Iowa softball sees their season continue as they play at a postseason tournament. That young team

continuing to get more and more acclimated to the collegiate level and certainly a bright future on that front. But we begin today's show with football and great conversation yesterday. You everyday hear it with LaShawn Daniels, a lot of good insight into looking at the gambling investigation, what was done when he was a player here, and also just talking about what Kirk Ferentz did. You can check that out on the archives yesterday on the Thursday edition of Lockdown Hawkeyes. So the news that came out a few days back, that Cade McNamara was on vacation, went out to California, and the Swarm Collective helped make that happen.

Now, it's one thing for a quarterback to go out, take a little vacation. You're done with classes. You're getting ready for things ramping up again in early June. That's when we're going to see Nick Jackson arrive. We'll see Rusty Feth arrive. We'll see those transfers that aren't quite there yet, along with a bunch of the incoming freshmen. They'll arrive in campus there that first week in June,

and then really it's all systems go. A lot of the guys take classes during the summertime, kind of shorten their workload for actual schoolwork come football season. So that's when what's done. Then you get the work in. And in a spring where Iowa was not able to get maybe everything done that they wanted to. Cade McNamara coming off the knee surgery.

Knew he was not 100%. He did not compete on 11-11. We saw him on 7-7. You saw that at the open practice. But he was not out there completely. Still making his way back. Looking incredibly good. And no doubt about it it the number one quarterback that's going to be trotting out there to begin the season but we also had the late addition to Caleb Brown Caleb Brown a guy coming in from Ohio State former top 100 recruit in the country played four games as a

true freshman at Ohio State I continue to hear this well I mean the guy only had one catch he only played four games how good can he be first of all we're talking at Ohio State. I continue to hear this. Well, I mean, the guy only had one catch. He only played four games. How good can he be? First of all, we're talking about Ohio State, the deepest wide receiver room in the country. Not Alabama, not Georgia, not Florida, not Texas A&M, not USC. No, Ohio State. That's where he was. And in the freshman that they brought in last year, there was one that played four games. It was Caleb Brown. Not only that, Ohio State worked incredibly hard to keep him around. This is not somebody that they were happy to move on or trying to find him a soft landing spot. That was not the case at all with Caleb Brown. He was going to be a part of their future. And even as they're bringing in more and more wide receivers, he still was going to have a role with the Buckeyes. And here he is in Iowa City and from all the reports.

So Cade McNamara goes out there, but he makes sure to tell Brad Heinrichs, the head of the NIL, hey, if I'm going to do this, I want to bring everybody with me. So he brings the wide receiver group with him. He brings the tight ends and they're out there and they're having fun and they're surfing and doing the thing and probably having a cocktail or two for the guys that are in range, of course. But they're also getting some work in and this developmental time yeah it's one thing figure

it out a guy like Caleb Brown speed to burn an absolute game changer something that Iowa has not had a player like this in the wide receiver room that has this kind of top end ability since Amir Smith-Marset and Brandon Smith are there. And I think the upside is even higher for a guy like Caleb Brown. Seth Anderson, the other guy transferred that they brought in from the portal, comes in from Charleston Southern, little guy, not real big frame. Well, he heard a Sam string and really didn't get much reps during the spring. And because of that, you're working on timing. You're working those things.

But most importantly, I think this trip is also about the camaraderie. And going back to after when Cade McNamara made his commitment to Iowa and hearing the things he said, went on a podcast he was talking about, keep saying we're going to have the crappiest offense in college football. Keep saying that. And you could tell that this is a guy that's just wired differently. Iowa hasn't had a leader like this in a long time at the quarterback position.

Nate Stanley was not that guy. Not demonstrative. Not a guy that can circle the wagons, I guess, to fail to find a better term than that. That's not who he was personality-wise, and that's okay. Spencer Petras had many of those qualities as a leader. He just couldn't back it up on the field.

Now you have a guy that can back it up on the field that has a resume already. A Big Ten championship, took Michigan to the college football playoff for the first time. He's a guy that did that at the quarterback position, and he's just got this swagger. And getting these guys to buy in and getting the wide receivers and the tight end to understand, we're not going to be the laughingstock of college football again. We're not only going to be good for Iowa standards, we're just going to be good in general. Cade McNamara has that ability to take this team, take this offense, and build it up. And to see that this is something that he wanted to do.

And to read the story and read some of the things that Brad has posted on a couple of the Hawkeye message boards talking about that, I think is just a great insight into the kind of person that Cade McNamara is. He's different. We all saw it. If you're a Hawkeye fan, you've been around for a while, you remember what that swagger was like with Ricky Stanzi. You knew late in the game, certainly during that 2009 season, that he was the guy that you wanted with the

football. There was just something different. C.J. Beathard, early in his career, what that was like and what he was playing at that high level and what you got out of him and leading the team to an undefeated regular season and inches away from making the college football playoff. He had that. He had the big ones, right?

And you're going to get that from Cade McNamara. Cade McNamara. Cade McNamara is not going to be running around and making plays back there like Michael Vick. He's not going to go out there and beat Tom Brady. That's not what he is physically. There are limitations, but his understanding coupled with the swagger that he has is going to be a huge, huge step forward. It's an exciting time, and I think it says a lot about this young man.

The hype machine, it's starting up. And this is as excited for an Iowa football team as I have been in a really long time. I still have my concerns. I still have my questions. I still need to see Brian Ferentz take a step forward. Last year with the offensive line play, really the last two years, there's not a ton that can be done. Like you put

Kyle Shanahan running the Iowa offense the last couple of years, and they weren't going to be great by any means, just because the limitations that they had with all the injuries and the lack of development and the guys that got hurt and the guys that never were able to play along that offensive line, it just never happened. The excuses are gone. There are no more excuses. Those offensive linemen that were taking their lumps early in their career, now they're upperclassmen. You bring in two offensive linemen to help build depth, and Rusty Feth, who comes in from Miami of Ohio, and De'Jon Parker. You have wide receivers now, and Caleb Brown, Seth Anderson Niko Ragini comes back for another season you have possibility of Deontay Vines turning in to at minimum a very solid Big Ten receiver you

have all this there a running back room it's all in front of them I believe the hype Brian I haven't given you a whole lot of positivity. Bet a lot of stick, not a whole lot of carrot in my watching of him and my thoughts on him as an offensive coordinator, as a play caller, as a designer of the offense, of what they're trying to do. There's a lot of negatives there. You can put it all to bed. One thing about the Ferences, this is one of the good qualities that Brian took from Kirk.

A chip on the shoulder, that can be a good thing. I think it's going to be a good thing for this Iowa football team coming up this year. Speaking of the head man, Captain Kirk. Rankings came out from CBSSports.com. Ranking 1 through 69, the top Power 5 conference coaches in America. Kirk Ferentz, maybe lower than you think. We'll do that as we continue. This is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.

Well, guys, about the last couple of days, and here we are. I just picked up my new pairs of bird dog shorts. These things are absolutely incredible. So I'll be honest. I was a little bit nervous. So these are the shorts that you wear. Athletic, leisure, whatever it is, whatever you're looking for. You can dress them up.

You can dress them down. You can wear them to the gym. You can wear them going out. That's what bird dogs is. But they have a liner inside of it. I was a little bit nervous about it. I'll be honest. I've had these types of shorts before, but I normally get the ones without the liners, but I gave it a shot.

Wore them tonight to my daughter's softball game. So daughter's playing seven-year-old softball, wearing the new shorts out there, helping out pregame, throwing some ground balls. So doing the athletic thing, it looked pretty nice, but I was nervous. What's this liner going to be about? It's different. It was great. So comfortable and stylish. It had everything that you're looking for. You can wear them on the go. You can wear them going out for dinner afterwards. All good. That's what they can do for you. In fact, I got two pairs of them. Wore one pair of them tonight. I'm wearing them again tomorrow, hitting out the golf course, and we will hit you back. When we're

in there, I will tell you, Bird Dogs incredible shorts. Go to birddogs.com slash lockdown college, and when you enter promo code lockdown college, they'll throw in a free custom Bird Dogs Yeti-style tumbler with every order. Got that ready to go for tomorrow as well

when I make my way to work. Birddogs.com slash LockedOnCollege. Again, with that promo code, LockedOnCollege. Trey Conner back with you again here on the LockedOnHawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making LockedOnHawkeyes your first listen every day. Make sure you hit that subscribe button every dayers.

We got you covered. Coming up next week, we will continue the football conversation. We will know what the bracket looks like for the Big Ten baseball tournament. And does the season continue for the Iowa baseball team and the softball team as they make their run in the National Imitation postseason tournament? So I mentioned Kirk Ferentz. He is the longest-tenured coach at the FBS ranks. He is a guy that has been incredibly successful.

He has been a guy that has reinvented himself a couple of different times. We had fun with Kirk 2.0 or 3.0 or whatever point we're at right now, and the evolution. And this very well could be, if Iowa has a big bounce-back season after the 7-5 regular season a year ago, 8-5 after the Bull win against Kentucky, there's an opportunity.

They take a step, get back to the Big Ten championship game, maybe even do a little bit more than that, that we're talking about this guy that hit the portal, something that many people out there didn't believe he was going to do. Certainly not at the level that we saw this offseason. Last year, it was frustrating, offensively, incredibly frustrating, right? And I get that. I completely understand that. But to see this article, it comes out from CBSSports.com and a bunch of their writers, their college football writers, come together, and they put together a list of every coach.

Everybody gets a vote. Tom Fernelli wrote the little piece about Kirk Ferentz, and he mentioned in that piece that it was a big drop from it. And coming off the year previous when Iowa did get to the Big Ten championship game and obviously ended in defeat to Cade McNamara, Eric Gala, and the Michigan Wolverines, he was flying pretty high at that point in time. And then offensively, the wheels fell off. Well, he drops from number 17 to number 30. Now, I think top 20 is fair. You look at in the context of what he has done historically. You look at the numbers that have been out there since 2015.

What Iowa has done. They've won at least eight games every single year, except for the COVID year where they went six and two that year and won six straight games to end the season. Didn't get to play Michigan because the Wolverines didn't show up and didn't get to play Missouri in the bowl game because Missouri didn't show up. Now, I maintain that Michigan didn't show up and didn't get to play Missouri in the bowl game because Missouri didn't show up. Now, I maintain that Michigan didn't show up because they knew that was waiting for them. That Iowa team was played incredibly well at that point in Michigan.

They were not devastated by COVID or not. That was a team playing bad football and it looked like, in fact, here's a crazy thing. Quick sidebar here. If that game was played, if Michigan in 2020 would have played Iowa game that was ultimately canceled, I think I would have throttled them. I mean, not just beat them. I think they would have beat them 45 to 10, just an absolute bludgeoning that they would have put on the Wolverines. Also that year,

Ohio state game wasn't played the game, Ohio state, Michigan. They would have been blown out in that one. I think it might've been 63 to three. And if that happens, if those two games are played, I think that we would not have seen Jim Harbaugh get an extra year. But he comes back in 2021, wins the Big Ten title, finally beats Ohio State. We see last year, and with some better play in the semifinal, they easily could have been right there with an opportunity against Georgia.

Now, it would have gone their way. We'll never know. But that's just how crazy this business is. Sidebar, now we come back. Kirk fans, come on. Number 30 in the country. And some of the names that are out there, I mean, it's just absolutely incredible. It really is. That is what they's just absolutely incredible. It really is.

That is what they came up with here. It's disrespectful. It's frankly not even close to who he really is. It just, I get it. The offense stunk. But use a little foresight. When you're talking about a guy that's been around for 25 years, is one of the winningest coaches

in college football, that has done so many good things, that has reinvented himself, and he's done it at a place that isn't easy to win. Not only is this not Penn State, Michigan, Ohio State, it's not Nebraska, it's not Wisconsin, It's not Nebraska.

It's not Wisconsin. It's not Minnesota. Those teams don't have to deal with another Power 5 program inside their state. Illinois and Northwestern, but Northwestern is a different animal with the private entity and the admissions process that it takes there. They swim in different kind of waters for the most part that Illinois does. I was not an easy job. And though over the last 44 years, dating back to when Hayden Fry took over,

we're a little bit spoiled maybe at times. And we forget how tough this job can be at the University of Iowa. 30th? I'm going to slap in the face. Shouldn't come as a surprise. Latest is always the greatest, right? That's what we seemingly see time in and time out. Shouldn't have been surprised, but once again, I was wrapping things up. Iowa baseball gets a win on Thursday evening against Northwestern. They roll in that one. Two more to go. We'll tell you about that. Iowa softball with the victory as they keep their season rolling on that front. Two more to go. We'll tell you about that. Iowa softball with the victory as they keep

their season rolling on that front. Some spring sports cleanups as we clean things up here. Coming back with more in a moment. This is Locked on Hawkeyes. Trent Cotter back with you one final time on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Got it back with you one final time on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Well, we got stuff going on for you here on the Locked On Network, including coming up on Saturday. That's right. On Saturday, the finale of the Iowa-Northwestern game.

That is going to be available on SiriusXM. Yeah, some good news there. If you're out and about on Saturday, driving around and you're looking for the broadcast of the game. Now, hopefully it'll be Iowa looking to complete the suite at minimum. It'll be them trying to win the series

if they would fall on Friday against the Wildcats. That game will be played on Sirius XM. You can check that on the college sports channel. So good news there. Channel 372 is where you can find it. One o'clock first pitch with the Hawkeyes and the Wildcats. So Iowa on Thursday gets the win as they run past the Wildcats. No surprise there. We knew more than likely was going to be a dominating performance and that's exactly what Iowa done. And since the

four players have been sat out, including Keaton Anthony, what has happened with this squad, though? They have continued to maintain in the batting order. They've been good. 15-3 was the final, by the way, with the victory as they hold Northwestern just three hits in the game. Keaton Anthony is their best offensive player. But guys have stepped up. The bats are rolling. This team is playing incredibly well. And we see one loss from one of the top teams in the Big Ten.

Indiana and Maryland sit in front of the Hawkeyes. Iowa now could get as high as the number one seed. They need help. They need help to get there. They need some losses. But if both teams lost just one game coming into the weekend and Iowa sweeps Northwestern as we'd anticipate, Iowa would have a regular season crown. If, so the great if, that game against Penn State was not weathered out.

You know, that week of the Penn State game, too, there was some talk about shifting the series to Iowa City just because the weather looked so lousy in State College, and that's how it obviously turned out to be. Sting a little bit. Have a chance for a regular season title. Those things are always nice. It doesn't matter the sport. You get a regular season championship, that's incredibly important.

And if it comes down in Iowa, misses it by a half game, a little bit of frustration. But ultimately, what matters is what happens in the postseason. Iowa has put themselves in great, great spot now to be an NCAA tournament team. Northwestern, not good. Iowa wins the game. In fact, they drop two spots in the RPI with that loss. How crazy is that, huh? You get a win, a road win,, they dropped two spots in the RPI with that loss. How crazy is that, huh? You get a win, a road win, and you drop two spots. And that's likely going to continue here

over the next two days. You got the Big Ten tournament in front of you. Still a chance to improve the roster. We said, you know, if Iowa runs the table here, finishes off Northwestern, runs the table, doesn't even lose a game in the Big Ten tournament, how high can they go? runs the table, doesn't even lose a game in the Big Ten tournament. How high can they go? Talk to a couple of people that know the baseball selection committee and the way that they do things a little bit deeper. The chances are incredibly slim. And we're talking about like a 2% chance.

And I always got to do that, which is not going to be an easy task, is to run the table in the conference tournament. But a chance, I guess, yeah, a chance. 2% though, 1 in 50, it doesn't feel very good. Iowa softball also gets a win as they continue their season. Again, they are playing out in Fort Collins, Colorado is where they're playing. It's the NIT, if you will, for softball. They move on and now they'll take on South Dakota State.

Coming up here later today at one o'clock central time is where you can get that one a six three win for the softball team talk about that young squad uh young pitcher adams from fort dodge she came in got the save in the game as iowa gets another victory and they move on in the nit of women's softball that is your roundup of what's happening in the spring sports. Let's just keep these things going, right? Hey, it's not a bad thing at all when that happens. Thanks for making Locked on Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Thanks to our great sponsors, including Bird Dogs.

Excited to try out pair number two. Again, you can get that Yeti-style tumbler with every order. Use the promo code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE, birddogs.com, slash LOCKEDONCOLLEGE. Things are sweet. Absolutely love them and excited to have them aboard with us here on the Locked On Network. Have a great weekend.

We will talk to you again on Monday. Unless we get any big news, we'll keep an eye on everything. We always got you covered. Your team every day here on the lockdown Hawkeyes network. We'll talk to you again, Monday. Have a great weekend.