Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Could Spring football actually work? | George Kittle signs record deal | Nebraska stops searching for a new home

Episode Date: August 14, 2020

George Kittle signs a massive, record-setting deal and Purdue's Jeff Brohm releases an initial proposal for what Spring football would look like in the Big Ten. Is 20 games in a calendar year too many for these college athletes and how would the Spring season intertwine with the NFL Draft? Also, can the ACC decisions on whether or not to play influence the Big 12 to move to the Spring? We also cover the NFL transactions that impacted Iowa Hawkeyes and briefly chat about former Iowa Hawkeye All-American Jarrod Uthoff's game for the Wizards yesterday.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Built BarToday's episode is brought to you by Built Bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get $10 off your next order.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

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 Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network.

As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, and today's episode is brought to you by Built Bar. Go to BuiltBar.com and use promo code LOCKEDON and you'll get $10 off your next order. And can you believe it? For the first time in what probably feels like months, we have five episodes this week. We've had an episode every single day this week. So if you haven't listened to them yet, please make sure to go back and tune into those. We had Griffin Little on the show on Monday. We talked a lot about the Big Ten and what they were deciding to do on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Wednesday being our reaction show to what the heck they decided to do. Yesterday, we had Roy Higgins, the third father of Jay Higgins, an Iowa football player, talking a lot about football, faith, and family. We had a great conversation with him. On today's show, we're going to be kind of be wrapping up what happened throughout the week, some of the things that we didn't get a chance to touch on, some of the signings or contract extensions around the NFL, talking a little bit about some of the drama from Nebraska and the Big 12,

and then wrapping up the episode, we'll be covering the idea released by Jeff Braum, the head coach of Purdue, and talking about can his proposed schedule be doable. So we're going to be covering all that on the show today. If you do end up liking what you hear, make sure to subscribe and give us that five-star review and also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We have some really, really fantastic content coming your way right here on the show. I don't want to give it out all the time or give it all the way,

but we have another father coming on, another parent of an Iowa Hawkeye. We have a former MLB player, a guy who is currently in the Chicago Cubs organization from originally playing with the Iowa Hawkeyes. He's going to be on the show. And we have an Iowa superfan who is currently an actor on the CW coming on the show as well. So lots of great content we have coming right at you on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. And before we jump into the show, just a quick reminder that Skyler Bell, we talked to him on Wednesday episode talking a little bit about what he's kind of going through with

this recruitment process. He is committing on Sunday, August 16th at noon, I believe. So make sure to tune into his Instagram so you can get the latest on whether or not he is going to be joining a fantastic group of wide receivers at the University of Iowa. And while we're talking about wide receivers, let's just basically jump into it. Arlen Bruce, the three-star recruit out of Kansas, sounds like he is going to be going to the state of Iowa to play high school football this year, which is fantastic, especially if he chooses to go to Ankeny where he could team up with another Iowa Hawkeye wide receiver, Brody Brecht. So really awesome stuff if he does decide to go there.

And obviously we've talked a little bit about it on the show, but Iowa high school football is about to be wild this year. There was a four-star quarterback out of Colorado, I believe, that transferred to Valley. So, I mean, just lots of really big-name players going all over the place to get to Iowa and play high school football. So it is going to be an exciting year in Iowa high school football having Arlen Bruce around as well. The seventh leading rusher, the top seventh rusher in the nation last year

in rushing yards. So just what a deal for Iowa high school football. And while I'm on the note of just Iowa in general, I hope everyone out there is obviously safe. I hope you're able to get your yard cleaned up and get some of this stuff fixed at your house. If you did suffer any damages from the freak derecho storm that kind of happened on Monday. So again, prayers and thoughts go out to you all out there who are dealing with that.

And I hope, if nothing else, this can be a little bit of a brief moment of kind of getting away from the craziness that's happened over the last couple of days. So kind of getting into the NFL news, Mike Daniels signed with the Cincinnati Bengals. Again, a couple days late, but wanted to make sure I got all this news covered. But there was so much going on the last couple days that it was kind of tough to get into some of the smaller things. So we're kind of making a few segments out of it today. Mike Daniels does sign with the Cincinnati Bengals for a deal that is worth up to $2.7 million. Last year he played for the Detroit Lions,

only played in nine games though, only two starts and one sack. So not really the impact the Detroit Lions were looking for last year when they signed Mike Daniels. If he can be healthy though, he could be a great depth player, role player with the Cincinnati Bengals. The days of starting are likely gone for the former Iowa Hawkeye. When you look at the Bengals' depth chart right now, they have Carlos Dunlap at the left defensive end,

Sam Hubbard at the right defensive end, Carl Lawson, a former fourth-round pick. He is the backup. At the defensive tackle spots, though, we have Geno Atkins and DJ Reeder. And then after that, though, there's not a lot of guys. And people, if you haven't been really paying attention, probably don't realize the fact that the Bengals have kind of been hurt And then after that, though, there's not a lot of guys. And people, if you haven't been really paying attention, probably don't realize the fact that the Bengals have kind of been hurt by a few freak kind of things.

Ryan Glasgow was waived. He didn't pass his physical. And then Josh Tupou opted out of the 2020 season, leaving the depth chart pretty slim pickings for the Bengals. Right now they have a college free agent as their fourth defensive tackle. So Mike Daniels is definitely going to get some playing time there. Exciting for him to continue to latch on to another team and have an opportunity to continue to extend his NFL career.

Another guy who is working on extending his NFL career, Nate Weeding, who was released by the Cleveland Browns last week, has headed to the Miami Dolphins. And there really couldn't be a better fit for him than the Miami Dolphins. And I say that because they are coached by Brian Flores, a Bill Belichick disciple, a New England Patriot disciple. And when I look at that depth chart, it looks a little bit intimidating. I won't lie to you there. They have Mike Jacecki, a former second-round pick.

Durham Smith, a fourth-round pick in 2018. Adamcki, a former second-round pick. Durham Smith, a fourth-round pick in 2018. Adam Shaheen, a former second-round pick that they traded a pick to Chicago for. But after that, they have Chandler Cox, a guy who plays a little bit of H-back. He's listed as their fullback and their tight end. And then Chris Marayek. I actually don't even know. I'm pretty up on the NFL draft, and I don't know who he is. Let me see where he is from.

He is from he is from man this is not even giving me any information oh let me look up this name but the point of what I'm trying to say is this is a good landing spot for Nate Weeding and I think especially if he can fill that role as a H-back that could be really huge for him. He could maybe take Chandler Cox's role at fullback and at that tight end spot and kind of be that fourth tight end, fullback, hybrid kind of guy. So he is a good blocker. I mean, that's why he got on the field at Iowa over guys like Noah Fant because he could block. That's why he was a starter last year is because he's a fantastic blocker. And no matter what, he is a relentlessly hard worker.

And as just a follow-up, Chris what, he is a relentlessly hard worker. And as just a follow-up, Chris Marriott is a tight end out of Temple. He was a walk-on at Temple as well. So not a high pedigree there either. I think there is an opportunity, though, at that fourth tight end spot if he can carve out a role as an H-back for Nate Weeding to latch on with the Miami Dolphins. Clearly they liked something about the guy. So obviously a big deal, big deal there.

And then finally, the big news. The big news that was late breaking. Obviously there was some weird stuff kind of popping out yesterday about some contracts, but we have George Kittle signing a five-year, $75 million deal. Shout out to the man, the myth, the legend, George Kittle. It's hard to imagine the fact that

he didn't really get a lot of playing time at Iowa. He got a lot of playing time, just not a lot of stats at Iowa. And he has absolutely put on for the NFL since joining the NFL just a few years ago. He gets a five-year, $75 million deal, a lot of money guaranteed. That is good enough for 12th, I believe, as the highest wide receiver paid in the NFL today, 12th highest wide receiver. So he's getting some wide receiver money there. Sixth highest O-line money ever, I believe. I'll need to check on that as well. Definitely some big money regardless though. And it sets the market for the tight end, the highest paid tight end in the NFL today.

And it is absolutely deserved without a doubt. I mean, this guy is putting up phenomenal numbers as a tight end, basically wide receiver numbers. Kyle Shanahan has done a fantastic job of getting him in space, and he is a willing and incredible blocker. There's so many clips of George Kittle just destroying players. He's essentially a sixth offensive lineman on the field when they are in blocking plays. That is the kind of mismatched tight end you want. A guy who can run down the seam, run a 4-5-40, can be a mismatch for a linebacker because

he's too fast, mismatch for a safety because he's too physical, and then can also block like an offensive lineman. Those guys just don't come around very often. And George Kittle is really not only on top of that, but his personality is just something to die for. People love that with the 49ers. I mean, his personality is just fantastic. You get a guy like that who's a great guy off the field, a great guy on the field and has personality that you can really

build a marketing program around, which I know is hard to believe for a tight end building a marketing program around, but that's the kind of guy you want to have in your building. So fantastic stuff. Great job to George Kittle, getting that opportunity to sign for another five years with the San Francisco 49ers. Coming up, though, on segment number two, we're going to talk about the Big 12 schedule and the drama surrounding Nebraska, so stay tuned for that. Before we do that, though, make sure you check out rockauto.com because for me personally, going to rockauto.com is the easiest way to get my car parts

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make sure to write locked on in there. How did you You Hear About Us box so they know we sent you. Again, amazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. RockAuto.com All right, we are back for segment number two of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. And like I said before, we took a quick break. Wanted to touch on the Big 12 schedule and the drama surrounding Nebraska. You know, I will say this, kudos to Nebraska. They were not giving up without a fight. You know, I think personally, had they left the Big 10, no one would have really cared. They've been that overhyped team ever since they joined

the Big 10 and they have done nothing in the Big Ten. They made a Big Ten conference title game and got their butt smoked, but since then, it's not doing a lot. So I think there was kind of an interesting divide. First, Iowa fans were going along with the Nebraska, saying, yeah, let's get this Big Ten season going. And then Nebraska, there's rumors coming out that they were trying to move on to a different conference to get a season in. And then Iowa fans turned on to a different conference to get a season in. And then Iowa fans turned on them pretty quick. And actually most fans in the Big Ten did as well. They said, go back to the Big 12.

Put that money back on the table. We don't need you anyways. Turns out Nebraska is going to stay in the Big Ten. They have squashed those rumors. They are not leaving at this point. But interestingly enough, the Big 12 did actually drop their schedule, which I thought was great to see. Interesting, though, they did, you know, come out with a few caveats of how they're doing everything. And I want to walk through that just to see kind of the differences between, you know, the Big 10 and the Big 12. The Big 12 decided to push back their schedule

just a month. And they did release what I thought was actually a pretty nice schedule with built in buffer times between teams. No teams are playing more than, actually except for West Virginia, no teams are playing more than, and Baylor, excuse me, are playing more than four games at a single time. So I liked how they built out their schedule. Iowa State opens up their schedule on 820 or 926. That's when the entire conference opens up their schedule and they will be playing nine conference games. I know Iowa State, not that we all, this is not an Iowa State podcast, but Iowa State is looking to add a non-conference game against Louisiana, which I thought was an interesting power play, getting a non-conference game like that. Not really a huge, huge win there for Iowa State, but nonetheless, it'll be interesting

to see. It sounds like the Big 12 as well also came out and said if other conferences push back, they were willing to push back as well. And so it really remains to be seen what the ACC does. The SEC sounds like they are going for it, but if the ACC decides to push back, that could be a huge domino because now you just have the big 12 and the SEC. You're not having Clemson, which is a perennial title contender out of the big 12. You basically have Oklahoma. You can say what you want about Texas, but I don't think they are that good of a team and worth mentioning as part of a national title contending crew. So now we're kind of up to ACC and I'm'm recording this at 4 p.m. on Thursday.

So I know ACC was looking to convene today and come out with a decision. So if that happened, apologies. That's why I'm late on that. But that'll be interesting to see kind of what happens there. Personally, as a fan of the Iowa Hawkeyes, obviously, and a Big Ten fan, I'm hoping the ACC does decide to push back. That way we could look at the option of spring football, which we're going to touch on in segment number three. I know there's a lot of concerns about having football in the spring,

especially considering the NFL, possibly a fall season for college football. But I think with Jeff Braum's plan, there is a possibility. It's not going to be the safest way of doing things, but what's done is done. It doesn't seem like the Big Ten is going to move back, although there are some players led by Maurice Goodson, Tyler Goodson's dad, who are looking to write a letter to Kevin Warren to say, please reconsider. Let's get this Big Ten schedule back on track.

Let's get the Big Ten to play football. At this point, I think we're pretty much dead and gone at that point, though. Iowa has stopped practicing for a couple weeks. I think a lot pretty much dead and gone at that point, though. Iowa has stopped practicing for a couple weeks. I think a lot of teams are done practicing for a little bit. At this point, it looks like it'd be inconceivable to do that unless they decide to maybe push back to that late September time frame like

the Big 12 did, follow that model a little bit closer. So that'll be interesting to see what happens there, and we'll keep you posted right here on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. And before we get into segment number three, I do want to make sure we cover a little bit of basketball. Not a great spot to really fit this in, but Jared Uthoff did get into the game yesterday, had a solid showing with the Wizards in their final game.

He had a 24-minute shot, seven shots, made three of them, eight points, two for four from three and three rebounds. On the course of the season, had, I think, got into two games total. So two games for the Wizards this year, averaged seven and a half minutes. So really didn't get, you know, sorry, three games total if you count today's game. Averaging a little bit over four points per game. So again, I hope that Jared Uthoff has an opportunity to sign an NBA contract. You can tell the guy can play in the NBA.

I knew going to the Wizards would be a good opportunity for him just because some of their big name guys were no longer going to be playing with them this season. And the Wizards really weren't going to be a great team heading into the playoffs if they made the playoffs. So great for them. Oh, my gosh. And I just got news coming across my phone that the NCAA canceled all national championships. I will try to get a confirmation on that actually happening. But that would be crazy to see. I think that would really push the narrative of moving along with college football in the spring. So I'll try to get more information on that as I can, but be on the lookout for that.

I just got a tweet about that. It seemed like it was coming from a credible source. So yeah, that being said, didn't mean to derail there, but we're going to hop into segment number three in just a few short moments where we talk about Jeff Brom's idea for what we can do to have spring football. I think it's really important to cover that and what I agree and don't agree with. But before we do that, I have some pretty fantastic news, y'all, because Bilt Bars are back. I don't know about you.

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Before we do that, though, let me just break down kind of the new stuff they have done. They have 12 original flavors, including salted caramel, which is my favorite, mint brownie, another favorite of mine, and peanut butter, which is always fantastic. They've added six new flavors, caramel brownie, cookies and cream, cherry barcia, lemon almond cheesecake, carrot cake, and apple almond crisp. All these bars are covered in 100% chocolate, and let me tell you, they are fantastic. It is what I go to for my post-workout routine. It is nice to use that as a kind of easy way

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All right, we are back for our third and our final segment of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast today. And as I talked to you about before, hopping on to our awesome announcement about Bilt Bars being back, Jeff Brom came out with a pretty cool idea for how we could handle spring football. And I think the big takeaway here is, thankfully, people are talking about this now.

I think the biggest concern I had was the fact that we're here and nothing seemed to be talked about until three days ago. And then all of a sudden the big 10 cancels fall sports. So it's great to see them actually doing something now, or at least some people stepping up and being leaders here like Jeff Brom. So I'm going to lay out kind of what his structure is and then go into the details about how feasible that is. And keep in mind,

the caveat here is I know no matter what, spring football is not going to be easy to do in coordination with the NFL, in coordination with fall football. There is definitely going to be an inherent safety risk there, not having as long as an offseason. But I thought Jeff Brom did a good job of giving us an opportunity to get both seasons underway. did a good job of giving us an opportunity to get both seasons underway. First starting with looks like a two-week training camp build up from January 16th through January 29th. A four-week main training camp of January 30th through February 26th followed by an eight-game season

with no bye weeks February 27th through April 17th. A two-week break before we head into two options either a Big Ten championship, a Rose Bowl, or a four-team playoff, or a six-team playoff starting May 1st going through May 15th. That would give teams a pretty solid time frame. That would also allow the draft to potentially get pushed back even more. Ideally, the draft could be pushed back to late June, mid-July, but I know that's probably unlikely given the current structure of the collective bargaining agreement. But then going on, what they would do is from April 18th through Sunday, July 18th, there'd be up to three months off, no mandatory workouts at that time. Starting Monday, July 19th through August 27th, six weeks long, there'd be eight hours per week during the summer period of workouts. August 28th through Friday, September 3rd, an extra one week off, kind of discretionary time.

And then September 4th, there will be a four-week training camp until the beginning of October, where we would start a 10-game season with one bye week. That would end December 11th. And then there would be, again, kind of the same thing for the playoffs, either a Big Ten championship and a four-team playoff or a six-team playoff, which would be plan B. And that would go from January 1st to January 15th. So again, the big takeaway here is the fact that they're at least starting to talk about

this. They're at least starting to do something with the spring schedule so that we don't have a similar situation where all of a sudden we get into, you know, December and we're starting to have these conversations again and it's too late already. It's too late to do anything about it. So thankfully they're finally starting to do something. Hopefully that means we can actually have spring football. I think it's possible if they get their mind, you know, get their mind right and actually

figure this out. And I hope they do because everyone wants college basketball. I would love to have college football, but college basketball is what I'm most looking forward to. And the NCAA is already trying to figure out the best ways to handle it. They've mentioned stuff like bubbles. They said that they're going to have a March Madness no matter what. So they're really committed to doing that. And I'm excited about that. I'm excited about the opportunity to potentially see spring football as well, even though we can even though I would love to see it in the fall. But that being said, another thing the NCAA came out with

I thought was quite interesting is how they're going to handle eligibility because they have made an announcement on some of the kind of emergency legislation stuff, or at least the Division I Council has made some recommendations. They said Division I Council recommends the Division I Board of Directors provide fall sports student-athletes who compete and then opt out of future participation or have a season cut short due to COVID,

either an extension of their five-year period of eligibility and an additional season of competition if they participate in 50% or less of the maximum number of competitions allowed in each sport. I think that's a good start because one of the couple of issues I talked about on the previous show on Wednesday with spring football is how do you handle early enrollees? And it sounds like that is actually something that Kirk said could possibly increase, especially considering the lack of football being played around the

country. Um, obviously we're seeing some guys go back to Iowa and play high school football there, but that is something to keep in mind. Um, I think the big thing that we cannot digress from, though, is the safety piece of playing so many football games in a season. However, when you look at Jeff Brom's plan, he's basically putting it in a way that allows college football to happen and to not add that many more games. If you think about today, if a team plays a 12-game season, let's say Ohio State plays a 12, or team plays a 12 game season let's say let's say Ohio State plays a 12 or Iowa plays a 12 game season then they play the Big Ten championship game now they're 13 games and then they get into a you know the playoff the playoffs they play two games to make it to the championship game now they're at 15 games right now 15 games then they play so that's

pretty much it's their 15 games at the end of the season. That's the max at this point. In this breakdown, though, essentially they would be playing 18 games in the regular season and possibly two games in the playoffs. That would be 20 games. They're only adding five additional games. So that is, I think, a really key note to add. You're not playing two entirely full seasons, but you're still getting college football. You're still at least getting that opportunity to see college football. You're still getting game tape for the NFL. And if they can end, you know, by April 17th,

I think you're going to see a lot of people drop out of bowl games that are, you know, potentially NFL draft eligible. But if the draft could push back to, you know, at least, at least June 2nd, which is kind of the deadline. But if they can maybe do late June, that would give prospects two to two and a half months to kind of prep. If you're thinking about college football prospects a day, pre-COVID, if they're in the playoffs, they're not getting done until mid-January. The draft is late April, so that gives them just a little over three months to prepare so I would say given the circumstances having two to two and a half months to prepare for the NFL draft is actually not bad all things considered so the way this is broken out limits the liability a little bit on the players limits the opportunity for injury due to you know fatigue and playing

just a ton of games it limits it a little bit while still giving college football an opportunity to succeed. And again, this is just the first step. This is the first step in trying to figure out what we're going to do for college football going forward. And again, it remains to be seen what the ACC does. I think, again, they're a big one to watch because if they decide to cancel, I think the Big 12 could follow. And that leaves the SEC kind of hanging out there.

And if the NCAA canceling championships actually holds true, and I haven't confirmed that, that would be huge for College Bowl possibly moving to the spring this year and actually succeeding given kind of the initial structure that Jeff Brom outlined. And it sounds like he's also talked to a few coaches about this outline as well. So great to see people starting to do something. I want to see college football in the spring if they can make it safe for the players, both from a coronavirus perspective and from a general fatigue perspective. And I want to see them work with the NFL to also try to give these kids another opportunity.

I mean, there's a couple guys in Iowa, as we talked about on Wednesday, that are really impacted by this coronavirus thing and the fact that the season has been pushed back potentially to the spring. There are a lot of guys that are really impacted. So if they have a chance to put on some more game tape, I'm all for helping them succeed in their future NFL career. That being said, though, I'll wrap that up for today. We're going to have lots of time to talk about that as more news comes out,

and we're going to cover it all right here on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Again, thank you all for tuning in to today's show. I hope you all have a fantastic weekend, and if you did like what you heard today, please make sure to like, review, and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast at. Give us that five-star review and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and be on the lookout next week because we have some really great interviews coming next week as well. Really excited for those.

So thank you all for tuning in to today's episode. Have a fantastic day, a fantastic weekend, Hawkeye Nation. And as always, let's go Hawks! We'll see you next time.