Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - CJ Fredrick drama continues plus Kirk provides insight into which Iowa football players are performing well in practice

Episode Date: April 20, 2021

We have more updates on the CJ Fredrick transfer situation as he officially entered the portal and the Iowa basketball team released their official statement. We discuss that and we do an Iowa Hawkeye sports roundup giving you the latest on every ongoing sport at this moment. Kirk Ferentz also spoke to the media Saturday, and we learned quite a bit about which players are making grounds to be starters come this fall.Listen to The Ultimate Mock Draft 2021 presented by Audacy and the Locked On Podcast Network. April 19th-26th. Follow the feed today!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back, Hawkeye Nation, to a Tuesday morning 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. Excited to be back for another show today. And of course, we still have to talk about the C.J. Frederick drama, the transfer situation. We're going to talk about that on today's show.

We also didn't get a chance to talk about Kirk Ferentz's press conference, so we're going to go through some of his quotes and kind of what it meant and how we can interpret those. And then we're also going to talk about some of the other Iowa sports because Iowa athletics is absolutely dominating the nation right now. And I want to make sure we're covering every single sport here on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast.

So let's actually, let's kick it off with that first. We have plenty of time to get into some CJ Frederick drama. Let's kick it off though, talking about some Iowa Hawkeye athletics. As I mentioned yesterday, the women's soccer team won their first Big Ten championship game. They finally got their seed for the NCAA tournament. They get Campbell on April 27th, followed by a match. If they win, first a three-seeded UCLA. So it's going to be a big-time match there if they can get through Campbell.

But again, just the fact they made the NCAA tournament after struggling through most of the season, going 2-8 and 1 until they got to the Big Ten tournament is pretty impressive nonetheless. On the swimming front, Alexey Tarasenko qualified for the Tokyo Olympics in the 100 free. It is unfortunate that he is not going to be at Iowa next year because there's no men's swimming and diving team anymore, but nevertheless, once a Hawkeye, always a Hawkeye in those situations, and I'm really excited to see what he can do in Tokyo. Our 10th-ranked field hockey squad fell to the 31st-ranked Northwestern squad twice this weekend, but nevertheless, they still are in a good spot to make the tournament

and to win the Big Ten tournament. The tournament begins actually today, and they are the fourth seed. The best of luck to the women's field hockey team as they take on the rest of the Big Ten competition trying to win that tournament. We also got some awards. Lisa Salucci was named the co-Big Ten coach of the year. Also, we had Anne Nizel. I definitely butchered her last name, but she was named Big Ten Field Hockey Player of the Year and the Defensive Player of the Year, and also First Team All-Big Ten. And Ellie Hawley named First Team All-Big Ten. In track and field,

we had a ton of big-time performances last weekend at the Husker Big Ten. And Ellie Holley named first team All Big Ten. And track and field, we had a ton of big time performances last weekend at the Husker Big Ten Invitational. I don't want to bore you with every single place, but I just want to let you know there were several first place finishes and a lot of second and thirds among the track and field squad. I don't, again,

there's about 20 names that I could go through and I don't think you just want me listing out names, but I'll give you some of the golds, at least. Serena Brown, gold in the discus. We also had James Carter first in the triple jump. We also had the Iowa women's 4x4 team getting first place, and the men's 4x4 team also getting first place. And then in the heptathlon, Jenny Kimbrough got first.

So congratulations to the track and field squad, men and women. On the golf front, men took first at their own Invitational this week with a score of minus 24, beating second place Kansas by four strokes. They have the Ohio State Invitational next weekend. Of course, you love seeing them win, but whenever you're playing on your home course, you kind of know the ins and outs of it. But nevertheless, fantastic stuff by the golf team. On the tennis front, actually let's finish up with the women's golf.

Let's try to keep this a little bit consistent, right, Andrew? Let's try it a little harder here. The women's golf team won last week's UNI Spring Invitational, but just finished 14th at the Indiana Invitational. So not exactly an ideal follow-up to that, but nevertheless, at least a big win at the UNI Spring Invitational. In the baseball and softball front, the softball team, they ended a four-game skid. They lost three states to Northwestern before beating them in Iowa City to close out the weekend.

They beat them 5-2. They next play a four-game series versus Minnesota next weekend. They are currently 15-13. The men's baseball team fared a little bit better this weekend, going 3-1 versus Rutgers, unfortunately dropping their last game to Rutgers after being up 6-0 after three innings. They're leading 7-1 going into the eighth, allowed five runs in the eighth inning and two runs in the ninth to ultimately fall to Rutgers. But nevertheless, a good weekend overall. They have a four-game series next weekend.

They get Maryland two games and Northwestern two games. They've already beaten Maryland twice this year. Maryland is currently 13 and 12. Northwestern is 12 and 12. And Iowa actually moved up in college baseball RPI up to 40th after a three and one weekend versus Rutgers. So phenomenal stuff there as well. And finally, to wrap it up, we got the tennis teams.

The men's tennis team beat Wisconsin four to three. Their match versus number 49th ranked Minnesota was postponed and right now the next scheduled event is the Big Ten Championships the last weekend of April. It remains to be seen if they try to make up that match versus Minnesota. On the women's tennis front though, they just took down Nebraska for their 6-8 win

beating them 4-1. 13th ranked Alexa Noel won her match currently up to 22-0. She's undefeated as a freshman. 86th ranked Elise Noel won her match, currently up to 22-0. She's undefeated as a freshman. 86th ranked Elise Van Heuvelen is currently 18-3. She also got the W against Nebraska as well. So phenomenal stuff as we do our weekly roundup.

Like I said, we're going to keep doing this going forward. If you like that, if you like hearing about the other sports, definitely let me know. If you're not a segment you're a fan of, let me know that as well. I just want to make sure we're giving as much coverage to all the other athletics going on in the Iowa Hawkeye community as much as possible. So if you don't like it, let me know. Again, we're going to try to do this every single week as some of these teams are really dominating their respective sports. So that's phenomenal to see. Coming up on segment two, we're going to get into some football talk.

And then segment three, we'll wrap up with some CJ Frederick talk. So that's all coming up on segment two, we're going to get into some football talk, and then segment three will wrap up with some CJ Frederick talk. So that's all coming up on segment two and three. Before we get into that, though, you know I've got to tell you about rockauto.com because rockauto.com is a family-owned business serving auto parts customers online for 20 years. Go to rockauto.com to shop for all of your auto and body part needs from hundreds of manufacturers. They have everything from engine control modules and brake parts to tail lamps, motor oil, and even new carpet. Whether it's for your classic or your daily driver, get everything you need in a few easy

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The Locked On Podcast Network is covering the NFL Draft from all angles. Catch up on the Ultimate Mock Draft 2021 podcast presented by Odyssey. Follow Locked On NFL Draft and the Draft Dudes podcast for the latest draft news and stay tuned for more info about our live NFL draft coverage. You're not going to want to miss that. I know we haven't talked about the draft as much as I would typically like to, but unfortunately, there's not a lot to say. I've told you kind of what the scouting reports are.

I told you kind of how the media is interpreting a lot of these guys. We don't have any, you know, Davian Nixon was initially considered a first round prospect, kind of dipping into that second, third round. I actually got a great question on Twitter about that. And just to kind of quickly sum it up, a couple of things come into play. As you're going through the season, scouts try to watch as much tape as they can, but they don't get to see everything. So when they actually go back to watch the tape, sometimes grades adjust a little bit.

In the case of Davian Nixon, I think there's two factors really going against him. It's the fact that it seems like his tape kind of dipped towards the end of the season. He might have been putting up good numbers, but the tape isn't really correlating to what the numbers he was putting up. And then when you factor that into the fact that he only had eight games of starting experience, scouts start to get a little bit concerned. The defensive tackle group also is a group that is not typically valued super high. So that is also going to hurt him as well. So you're starting to see him dip

into that second, third round spot due to the lack of experience and not an overly consistent production from a scouting perspective. We're going to try to get some NFL draft experts on the show as well in advance of this NFL draft taking place next weekend to talk a little bit more about Davion Nixon,

but that's also coming up to continue our football talk though. The spring practice was this Saturday, the open to the public practice. Again, there's a lot of other fantastic Iowa podcasts out there as well. They had an opportunity to be at the practice and were able to talk about that. I want to speak mostly about Kirk Ferentz's conversation with the media and kind of what he said and how we can interpret some of that. I want to speak mostly about Kirk Ferentz's conversation with the media and kind of what he said and how we can interpret some of that. First, though, I want to get into the injuries because

this is really important as you begin looking at who was on the field. Cody Inc., Y.A. Black, Zach Tweet, Justice Sullivan, Deontay Vines, Elijah Yelverton, Matt Hankins, Jack Kerner, Logan Lee, Chris Reams, Ivory, Kelly Martin, Nico Regani, David Davidoff, Terry Roberts, Justin Britton, Logan Jones. In some capacity, all those guys were injured or not playing. Logan Jones played a little bit but was definitely limited. And this is a really big time for Iowa football because they need to be able to develop these younger guys and get them on the field so they know how they're going to respond in the summer and in the fall. The spring is really a good time to improve your stock with the program,

get a good understanding of where you can fit into that fall's lineup. And it's a good time to, again, to really just show the coaches what you can do. So especially along that defensive line, when you see guys like Chris Reams out, that can really hurt him. Or a Logan Lee. Or the tight end position, Elijah Yelverton. Because also, Josiah was also out. Josiah Miamin was also out, held out of practice for the last week

due to the off-the-field issue. So that opens up some spots for other players. You look at the offensive line, Cody's going to be getting his time. That's not going to be a problem here. But it did allow for other younger guys to get into the offensive rotation. The only guys I really wouldn't worry about is going to be Matt Hankins, Jack Kerner, and Nico Regani, and Ivory Kelly Martin. Those are really the four main guys where they have their roles solidified.

They are going to be on the field. They are going to get playing time. That's not going to be a problem at all. Although I would relatively disagree on the Nico Regani front, and you've heard me talk about that quite a bit. Also, another guy who has been kind of off to a slow start, apparently it was Xavier Williams, who got off to a slow start, apparently, was Xavier Williams, who got off to a slow start due to an injury on the second part of the winter program.

So he's dealing with some of those physical setbacks. But Kirk Ferrin spoke very highly of him, saying he's a very mature guy physically and mentally. And really, at this point, it was just that physical setback and the fact that he's trying to learn a new system. But that he fully expects him to be a big part of this team come fall. So just be ready for him there, but he was getting a lot of time twos. So clearly not in that starting unit yet, but I do expect Xavier Williams to get a lot of playing time come this fall. Kirk also talked about some of the defensive linemen and spoke very highly of obviously Zach Van Valkenburg, Joe Evans, and John Wagoner.

And even Noah Shannon. And I would say, kind of looking at that, he said, John and Noah are just a tier below Zach. Joe is somewhere in between them. But that's pretty strong feelings towards those four guys. What I thought was most interesting is it really seems like Joe might actually be potentially winning that competition against John at this point. Based off of Kirk's comments now we've heard some different things but I didn't realize it would be as close as we initially maybe thought I expected Joe to

be on that again that NASCAR package and I need to do a better job of explaining some of those things that NASCAR package is really when Iowa likes to go a heavier pass rush skill set so typically what they're going to try to do is maybe slide some of the defensive ends inside and bring in more pass rush specialists. That's where you get Joe Evans on the field, John Wagoner would then slide inside. We saw this with AJ Epineza when he was around and also Chauncey Golsan being a little bit bigger defensive ends. They're able to slide inside, generate a bit more pass rush, be a little bit quicker than

those guards. And then you allow guys like Joe Evans to kind of get up the field and rush the passer as well. But it sounds like Joe Evans is doing pretty well. He also made some interesting comments about the quarterback position. Now, Spencer Petras had his up and downs in the practice. Sounds like Alex Padilla played pretty well, according to most people that were there. And Spencer also injured his knee, but ultimately came back. But here's what Kirk had to say about that. He said, Spencer still has a real advantage from experience and he's done a nice job.

And after that, it is wide open and we've had a pretty liberal rotation. He also said Alex and Deuce are the closest to each other and that Connor Kapusak has done a nice job. But that was interesting that Alex and Deuce are the closest to each other because when you look at what's happened during the live practice,

a lot of people were very excited about what Alex Padilla was bringing to the table. And we're also talking about Deuce being good but you know clearly the number three in that you know in that lineup but it seems like that actually is a bigger competition than what we're realizing and that the the lead that Spencer has is probably insurmountable at this point not a real quarterback controversy compared to what people might have wanted to see another guy he mentioned as well was Keegan Johnson. He said the first thing that stuck out was his attitude. He's really serious and focused

in an unusual way for a younger guy. He's really given himself some chances to get some work and he's part of that competition at the wide receiver position. And that actually goes into the fact that he also said after Tyrone and Nico, the wide receiver position is a land of opportunity. So when a guy like Deontay Vines is out, that's a big deal because it elevates other players into that rotation. Keegan Johnson has been getting so much praise, and I know he's a young guy. Arlen Bruce has also been getting a lot of praise, including from Kirk Ferentz. He said both those guys are in that competition.

So it's really starting to look like they could be stealing some snaps from some of the older guys and we could really be seeing the future of that position come to fruition right now like we did with Brandon Smith and Amir Smith-Marset a few years ago but Tyrone Tracy clearly the number one they love Nico at that number two it was interesting to me that he didn't mention Charlie Jones at all but I do think Charlie Jones would be that three and then maybe Keegan and Arlen getting the fourth and fifth receiver snaps, maybe Max Cooper a little bit as well. So that's what we learned from the spring practice. Again,

another spring practice coming up at the first weekend of May. So go check that out. If you're able to get to that, a lot of really good opportunity just to see some Iowa football and Kinnick, and we'd all know how much we miss Iowa football in Kinnick coming up though on segment number three, we're going to continue our coverage of the C.J. Frederick drama.

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presented by Locked On and Odyssey, featuring analysis from NFL experts Michael Irael irvin jason long confora and brian baldinger are local experts for every team making trades and picking the next stars of their team search the ultimate mock draft 2021 on the new odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast at odyssey is your audio home for all the sports podcasts music and news that matter to you. That's A-U-D-A-C-Y. And the topic that has been dominating the headlines the last 24 hours is C.J. Frederick. I went on a 20-minute talk about C.J. Frederick yesterday, so if you want to listen to that part and kind of what Iowa can do from here, go for it.

I thought it was a good conversation I had about him. But what I want to talk about today is the news that has really come out because there's been a couple things that have come out today. First and foremost, CJ Frederick officially enters the transfer portal and a statement was released by the Iowa basketball team and by CJ Frederick. So I want to quickly go through that and then kind of talk through what all this means. And as we talked about yesterday, this was a very weird situation. But here's what CJ said. After talking with Coach McCaffrey and with the statement released this morning from the University of Iowa, I have entered my name into the transfer portal.

I have come to the difficult decision to participate in this process. Thank you, Coach McCaffrey and the entire basketball staff, all my teammates, and to Hawkeye Nation for giving me a chance. I gave you my best and appreciate you letting me be a part of Hawkeye Nation. I gave you my best and appreciate you letting me be a part of Hawkeye Nation. Now, what's interesting about that is the basketball team put out a note, and it wasn't a very strong note. It said, Iowa head coach Fran McCaffrey announced Monday that junior guard T.J. Frederick has submitted his name in the NCAA transfer portal. Now, let's compare that to what they, A, they had retweeted Joe Wieskamp's departure notice a couple days ago. Let me see what they said for Jack.

They also retweeted a few things from Luka Garza when he obviously was leaving. And they had some really amazing words to say about Jack Nunji when he decided to transfer. They said they retreated Jack's actual transfer notice and Fran McCaffrey spoke a little bit about it as well. So to me, it's pretty obvious that I was not very happy about what happened. When you look at Fran McCaffrey's statement compared to what he said after Jack Nunji left, when you factor in the rumblings that CJ Frederick was telling his teammates up until the last couple days that he was going to be an Iowa Hawkeye and then ultimately just said, no, I'm leaving and kind of stunned them, they were seemingly hurt.

Connor McCaffrey, Patrick McCaffrey both unfollowed CJ Frederick. It's a bit ridiculous. And you have a lot of people going through kind of voicing their opinion. First and foremost, don't say mean crap to CJ. At the end of the day, it is his decision. I think where I get really frustrated by this whole situation is how he handled it.

I think the communication was poor. If he wanted to play at another school, that's fine. It's his choice. As I said, I'm pro transfertransfer portal and pro, you know, if you get that year of eligibility back. Sorry, you don't have to lose or wait on a year to be able to play. You just get to play instantly. I'm pro all that.

But the way C.J. Frederick handled this, the way it happened, I think is a bit ridiculous. And clearly there are people that are very frustrated within the Iowa basketball community, within the Iowa basketball team itself, that C.J. Frederick left. Now, some people are out there saying that C.J. Frederick isn't a big loss by just pointing out his stats. You're wrong entirely. He is one of the best shooters in the nation. If you look purely at stats, it's not telling the full story of what actually went down with CJ first and foremost he dealt with injuries throughout most of the season secondly his presence was probably

the biggest thing he added look at what happened against Indiana when CJ Frederick went out Indiana just collapsed on Luca the entire time because people were not hitting their shots there was no there was not enough people to keep them honest. Now, his shot attempts did go down. Last year, he shot 4.1 three-point attempts per game. This year, he shot only 2.8. And his points per game went down from 10.2 to 7.5. But what he brought to the table was just having that ability to hit those shots. Teams did have to worry about them, and they were not able to focus on other guys.

So him being gone is a big impact to Iowa. Now, as I talked about yesterday, I have a lot of confidence in what Tony Perkins can do. Now, I did see people say C.J. Frederick was pissed because his minutes were clearly going to go down next year, and he's probably pissed that Connor McCaffrey and Patrick McCaffrey, the coach's kids, stole his minutes. Those are some of the dumbest takes I've heard. A couple reasons why. They don't play the same positions, all right? First and foremost, they are not the same position in the rotation.

Secondly, C.J. Frederick is in line to be the guy next year. Not just the third option, but the guy next year. Now, if you want to talk about the fact that he was injured quite a bit and that's always a concern, okay, go for it. I agree with that, but his minutes were not going to go down despite dipping four minutes per game this season. A lot of that had to do with the fact that they couldn't play him very much. They would try to get a few minutes out of him, but his plantar fasciitis was acting up and he wasn't able to play a lot. And again, the fact that he dealt that injury for a couple months was quite a big deal. So the people were out there saying that CJ

Frederick leaving Iowa is not a big deal or wrong. It is a very big deal, but the sky is not falling. As I said yesterday, I think Tony Perkins can be a big time player for the Iowa Hawkeyes. I think Keegan and Chris Murray are going to really show out this year, especially Chris, because not a lot of people have seen what Chris can do. I like what Peyton Sanford is going to bring to the offense as well. And Patrick McCaffrey is a guy who gets the rim, and he just has to be able to finish at the rim. One of the things he really struggled with, in my opinion,

was finishing when he got to the hoop, and that would be a huge thing to be able to handle or to be able to add to that offense for Iowa. And again, when you have a guy who was injured quite a bit like that, he missed time in both seasons. That is tough from a consistency perspective as well in that offense. Nevertheless, whatever CJ Frederick decides to do, wherever he decides to go, it's probably Kentucky. I'm not personally going to be cheering for him. I don't wish him ill will, but I will not be cheering for him simply for the fact of how he kind of handled this situation from everything it seems from reading those tea leaves from seeing how Fran

McCaffrey is upset about it I mean Fran McCaffrey took this kid in and helped develop him in to the player that he is today now CJ Frederick had those natural abilities but Fran McCaffrey took a chance on CJ brought him to the program and allowed him to develop the skill set again this is exactly what Fran McCaffrey is frustrated by with the transfer portal. For seemingly unbeknownst reasons like this, where you just want to transfer to go to a different team, to go to a better team. You may not hate the situation at all. You just want to go to a better team.

That will kill some of the mid-major's progress. We saw it happen with Drake and Joseph Yesifu. I think Fran McCaffrey is frustrated by that. When you see situations like Jack Nunji leaving, you can get behind that because there's a real, there's an actual reason behind that that you can support and see, but the CJ Frederick situation is very interesting and how that was all handled. But as more news comes out, we'll make sure to cover that right here on the show. Again, thank you all for tuning in. I appreciate you jumping on the show today. I'm sorry if the

energy wasn't as high as it typically is. I just started a brand new job and it was my first day and a little tired, but I always want to make sure I get my content out to you guys. I'll be back tomorrow, though. We're going to be talking some NBA drafts, some NFL drafts, and whatever news pops up in Iowa Hawkeye Nation, I'm sure the drama has not ended. We'll also try to get to some portal targets and what Iowa could be doing. Felipe Braca is a guy that they are heavily targeting,

and he's expected to make a decision by the end of this week. So that could be a huge bonus or add for the Iowa Hawkeyes. We'll be covering all that on tomorrow's show and then possibly Thursday's show. Thank you all for tuning in. Follow us wherever you downloaded this episode at and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Have a fantastic Tuesday, Hawkeye nation, and let's go Hawks.