Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - DISRESPECTED? Iowa’s Jeremy Hecklinski Ranked Last? Here’s Why He’ll PROVE Critics Wrong

Starting point is 00:00:01 CBS Sports just ranked Iowa's Jeremy Hecklinsky, 18th out of 18 in quarterbacks for the Big Ten heading into next season. Dead last. Yeah, Hawkeye fans have heard that story before. Today, we're breaking down why that ranking is going to age very badly. You are Locked on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Trent Condon and this is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day, your daily Iowa Hawkeye podcast.

Starting point is 00:00:45 I've been covering the Hawkeyes for over 20 years on the radio here in the state of Iowa, including currently on the Iowa Sports Radio Network. You can hear me each weekday from noon to two. Stations all across the state, including Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, the Quad City, Sioux City, and our flagship 106.3 KX&O in the Capitol City. of Des Moines. Today's episode of Lockdown Hawkeyes is brought to you by Fandual. Fandual is giving you a way to

Starting point is 00:01:09 turn your energy into even bigger potential wins with the college basketball parlay profit boost. Head to fandual.com to get started. Today we are going to break down the Big Ten honors that were given out for basketball on the men's and women's

Starting point is 00:01:25 side, some surprises there and a head scratching decision, including a quote that came in from our friend over in Lincoln, Stephen M. Sippel, that continues to rile up the masses. We're going to be talking about Iowa's matchup in the Big Ten tournament. Maryland with a win today over Oregon. That means it will be the Terrapins.

Starting point is 00:01:44 Iowa will get the rubber match. Won the game in Carver way back in December, lost the game a couple of weeks back out in State Park and College Park, excuse me, and now they'll get the opportunity in the Big Ten tournament in Chicago. Tomorrow morning we'll break down the matchup in that one. But we begin today with a little bit of football talk. Because a week ago, Tom Fernelli from CBS Sports, he ranked the 18 anticipated starting quarterbacks in the Big Ten going into next season.

Starting point is 00:02:10 Now, I certainly did not anticipate that Jeremy Hecklinsky was going to be very high on this list. Definitely understood he was probably going to be down towards the bottom because, let's be frank, we don't know a whole lot about Jeremy Hecklinsky. He played sparingly this season, though he moved into the backup role after Hank Brown had the struggles against Indiana. missed a screen pass. I would have won the football game against the national champion Hoosiers. And then we saw Hick-Klinsky take over. Remember also that time.

Starting point is 00:02:39 And I think this is still incredibly important, is leading into that, Iowa had a by week after the Indiana game. And leading into the matchup against Wisconsin for a long time, there was an anticipation both inside and outside the locker room that we were not going to see the starter be able to go, that we were going to have a situation where Iowa was going to have to go with the quarterback. It was looking like this.

Starting point is 00:03:03 The backup was going to have to go, and we were going to have to see what we thought was going to be Hank Brown. Turned out to be Heklinsky as the backup. Now, Mark Grinowski made the call, and he was able to get himself back healthy enough. I will blows out the Badgers, and he, of course, continued on from there throughout the course of the season. But in that time, at a position in Kirk Ferrence that struggles to make a change at the QB spot, as we know throughout his 27 years as the Hawkeye head coach, We know that this is not something that is usually a quick change for Kirk Farrant. He's not just going to make change for the sake of change. We've seen that so many times.

Starting point is 00:03:38 And for that to happen and Hecklenzky to take over as the number two spot said a whole lot. Now, we can go here on Lockd on Hawkeyes, Tom Kekert from Hawkeye Report.com mentioned that he believes and continues to hear this is going to be a real competition. When spring football begins, it is not just Jeremy Hecklinski is going to get the job. And Hank Brown is going to be the number two and the goal from there. this is going to be a quarterback competition. They're going to push both these guys. They're going to look at both of these guys. The reason that I am excited and more excited about Jeremy Hecklinski is the running ability.

Starting point is 00:04:10 And we'll see how that translate, a guy that's not very big, a 510, 180 pounds, how that's going to actually translate at the Big Ten level. And if he's going to be able to withstand the pounding that you're likely going to be taking in the Big Ten, that's still something we just don't know about. But I'm excited about him because of the movement. we've seen this Iowa offense now these last couple of years going back to two seasons ago when Brendan Sullivan was in there adding that dynamic element in the running game and then of course what we saw from Grinowski this season with his legs that added a dimension that Iowa just sorely

Starting point is 00:04:43 needed now Jeremy Heklinsky is not going to be Mark Grinowski talking about size difference here we're talking about two guys that are probably 55 60 pounds different in terms of weight and the physicality that Grinowski played with it's going to be different but the hope is that this thing opens up and it's going to be higher. So as you go through the rankings, that was put out there. You start at the top, Dante Moore, number one ranked quarterback. Obviously have no problem with that. I mean, you look towards the top of the rankings, Julian's saying fresh off the campaign that he just had.

Starting point is 00:05:12 Jade Maya, I want to see what he looks like now without Lemon and that great wide receiver group that he had a season ago. Josh Hoover, I'd probably have in the number three spot who comes in from TCU. Had great seasons there. And now under the tutelage at Indiana, what he's going to be, Ahmad Williams, one of the highest paid guys, he's looking for a little bit more, but he's back in Washington. Hawkeyes will see them in Seattle. Rocco Beck checks in at number six,

Starting point is 00:05:36 Bryce Underwood, seven. Kate and Houser comes in from East Carolina to take over Illinois. He's number eight. I think that's way too high. It's certainly at this point in time. Bleak Washington's a tremendous talent at Maryland. Is he going to have enough around him? That remains the question.

Starting point is 00:05:51 A Colton Joseph, who goes into Wisconsin from Old Dominion, a dynamic runner and I wonder how he's going to hold up in the Big Ten now going from the old dominion to that not only that a very turnover prone quarterback I certainly wouldn't have him that high Anthony Calandria at Nebraska coming in from UNLV after starting his career Virginia not sold on him you got Nico I believea who comes in at number 12 Drake Lindsay at 13 yes these are all ahead of Jeremy Hecklinski aidan childs at 14 now on his way to northwestern after being of Michigan State. Ryan Brown at Purdue.

Starting point is 00:06:26 Number 16 is Dylan Longgren from Rutgers. Number 17, yeah, we're still not there. Number 17 is Mahalovich, who I really did like on what we saw to him from Michigan State a year ago, played very well in the game that Iowa just escaped at the end against Sparty at home. And there he is, number 18, Jeremy Hecklinsky. So this is what Tom Fernelli of CBS Sports has to say at number 18.

Starting point is 00:06:48 He has dead last for the Hawkeye quarterback. Iowa is a QB battle between Hecklinsky and Hank Brown but reading the tea leaves Brown started number two last year but Hecklinski seemed to pass him on the depth chart didn't seem to he did I'm leading towards Hecklinsky winning the job on a camp

Starting point is 00:07:04 on that one either way I haven't seen a whole lot of either and if history is any indicator odds are Iowa is not going to have the best QB in the Big Ten everybody was thrilled with Grinowski last year but he didn't throw a TD pass throw his first TD in conference play until Iowa's fifth game of the Big Ten. That's exactly right.

Starting point is 00:07:22 But we see the force through the trees here. And what we know, this is going to be the first time in three years, that Tim Lester is actually going to be able to have his quarterbacks go through spring football, his starting quarterbacks go through spring football. Remember two years ago, Cade Back to Mera was not a part of spring practice. It was coming back off the ACL. It was a whole lot of Deacon Hill, who ended up not even being on the roster then that following fall. And then this past season with Mark Grunowski with the shoulder surgery that he had,

Starting point is 00:07:50 was not able to go through things. I was going to have that this season. I was going to have quarterbacks that are going to be able to go through, learn the offense, get timing with the receivers. And I wonder if there's going to be more sprinkles, also some more options in this offense going forward. We saw the growth, obviously, these last two years in the running game of what they've been able to do up front,

Starting point is 00:08:11 both with the offensive line and just the different concepts that we've seen out of Iowa in the run game. I think it is going to be a step forward. I'm not here to say that Jeremy Hecklinski is going to be. going to be even a top half quarterback, but I don't think he's going to be last. If we get Jeremy Hecklinsky for the full compliment of this season, he's going to be up there, maybe top 12. I think that's a realistic range to shoot for. I don't anticipate he's going to throw for 3,500 yards or anything ridiculous like that. We're not going to see Iowa airing it out 40, 45 times a game. That's

Starting point is 00:08:40 not going to be, I think, a part of this offense going forward, but we are going to see growth in the passing game. It goes with both what they have coming back at the tight end position. and the emergence that we saw last year out of the spot there. You get a return. Obviously, getting guys back coming off of injury, as you'll get Addison Estrango that'll come back. DJ Venami, freshman, All-American, what we saw to him and certainly his emergence in the back half of the season.

Starting point is 00:09:09 He get excited about that tight end spot. The new additions that they're going to have in the wide receiver group, there's plenty to be excited about in this Iowa passing game. And you start with two offensive linemen coming back, preseason All-American with Cade Piper. We saw how good a year ago they were at the left tackle spot and what they were able to do out there with Trevor Lough. A lot of positive signs there.

Starting point is 00:09:30 There's veterans, those guys that don't have starting experience, guys at minimum with experience at the three offensive line spots outside of those two guys. So plenty to be excited about, but the biggest thing, they're going to have these guys going through spring practice with Tim Lester. We continue here, Lockdown Hawkeyes. Iowa knows their opponent in the first round of the big. Big Ten tournament. It'll be the Maryland Terrapins. Can Iowa bounce back beat Maryland and avoided another

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Starting point is 00:11:46 notifications as you go about your day. It's a relief of walking in and meeting a real person and walking out knowing your taxes are being handled right. Head to turbotax.com slash local to find a store near you and book your appointment. Trent, kind of back with you once again here on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for being with us and making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We are your daily Iowa Hawkeye podcast as we get ready for the Hawkeyes as they face off against Maryland in round two of the Big Ten tournament. So if you watched any of the game on Peacock earlier today, you saw Maryland race out to an early lead.

Starting point is 00:12:27 And Oregon looked awful. Now they battled back and got it within 10, but in the end, just a hideous performance out of Oregon. And you know, with Biddleback, I thought this Oregon team might look a little bit different. I thought the ducks, in fact, we're going to be the team that we're going to punch their ticket into the next round. Alas, that is not the way that it happened.

Starting point is 00:12:45 70 to 60 is the final in this one. Maryland didn't play great offensively. They shoot just 40% from the floor, nine of 30 from behind the three point arc. And for Maryland, they only got to the free throw line 18 times, which isn't a ton for them. And that leads to this matchup, a Maryland team that isn't the most skilled basketball team, but they got some athletes. And what gave Iowa so many problems when we go back to that game a couple of weeks ago is what they were able to do getting to the rim. Guys working downhill.

Starting point is 00:13:15 And this has been a huge issue for this Iowa basketball team throughout the course of this season. That has been when you're looking at one major negative with this Hawkeye team. It has been just that. They have struggled against guards getting downhill. You look at that matchup. Iowa was coming in after winning six in a row, started with the road victory against Indiana, wins against Rutgers, USC, Oregon, Washington, Northwestern. Not exactly the who's who of college basketball and certainly of the Big Ten.

Starting point is 00:13:43 Still six in a row, regardless of the opponents. That's pretty good in conference play. though we get to that one. And Iowa got out to a decent start, battled back a couple of times, but it was just time in and time out, the ability of Andre Mills, him getting to the rim.

Starting point is 00:13:58 That was a big one. A couple of three pointers from Coit, and he also played well in that game all over the place. They had guys that were just getting to the rim, though, most importantly, and Iowa couldn't do anything to stop it. The way they're built, you don't have the traditional rim protector.

Starting point is 00:14:14 You know, we have Man Yao, who is a good, guy inside, but that is not, certainly how his bread is buttered. The biggest thing, though, they went to the free throw line 28 times. Iowa got to the free throw line just 17 times in that game. And even with the heroics of Bennett starts with 32 points, Iowa could not get it done. 32.6 assists. Those are the games you'd need to win when you're all big 10 point guard is doing those

Starting point is 00:14:39 kind of things, but just didn't get a whole lot of help. The only other player in that game that was in double figures with Tavion Banks, who had 13 points in that one. Man Yao had eight points in the game, four or five shooting from him. It was another game, Fulgaris with a goose egg, Isaiah Howard had nothing.

Starting point is 00:14:56 Tate Sage got you four points. He got six out of Hassan who played in that game quite a bit, though it was two of eight from the floor in that one. Kale Combs, who's been playing better and obviously played really well against Nebraska offensively, coupled with the defense you get. I think it's going to come down to that. And really, I would like to see the same kind of game plan

Starting point is 00:15:14 that they put forward in the game against Ohio State a few weeks back, where they completely took Bruce, Bruce Thornton out of that game. I think that is the key to this one. Taking one of those two guards from Maryland, you put Combs on him, you say he's not going to beat us. And it doesn't matter if it's Coyt in there or if it's another one of the guards. You have to find a way, Andre Mills, a little bit bigger. But Combs is six foot four.

Starting point is 00:15:40 He can guard bigger guys and Bruce Thornton and certainly like that. That would be the game plan to, I would like them to employ. They're going to get to the free throw line. That's just the way they're built. Really, it's the only thing. You do wonder, we don't see Ben McCollum very often go with zone looks. It's just not anything that they do.

Starting point is 00:15:59 However, this might be the spot for that. This is a Maryland team that has not been successful away from home this season, had just one Big Ten victory away from home this year. Only had four overall. And one of them, unfortunately, was against the Hawkeyes. They beat Washington, Iowa, and Penn State at home and had the road victory against the gophers back in early February. Since then, lost four Niroda and the campaign, lost by 13 against Nebraska, lost by four against Rutgers. That one was at home, lost and got blown out by Wisconsin in Madison, and that played well in the finale against Illinois before they fell in that one at home to end the season.

Starting point is 00:16:38 You know, in this game, maybe take a half step back defensively when you're guarding the ball. and not be all the way up in them. Just give them a little bit of room, give yourself defensively a little bit of room where you can move your feet and stay afront of these guys as they work their way towards the rim. Again, stay out of foul trouble as much as possible. This is going to be their game plan there.

Starting point is 00:16:57 Buzz, that is what they do, kind of game in and game out. In fact, you go back to that game that was played all the way back December 6 against the Terps, even in that game, where Iowa just completely blew them out, raced out to a 30 to 15 lead. Even in that game, they went to the free throw line.

Starting point is 00:17:14 Maryland did 38 times. Now they're just 24 or 38 from the charity stripe in that one. But Payne went to the line 18 times. Also got 10 free throw attempts from Darius Adams. Their freshman, that one was at the end, you can see a bus.

Starting point is 00:17:33 He was almost asking in a blowout. Can he stop call a house? I love that guy. And a guy very well respected. A lot of success throughout the years. A&M, Bantec, even at Marquette, where he had maybe his highest of highs when he was back there in the early 2010s. Still, should be a winnable game. And, you know, the problem with this one, when we look at the Iowa resume, and we look at what a loss would do once again to them.

Starting point is 00:18:02 So currently, in the net rankings, Iowa still in good shape. They're 25th in the net. The one metric that has a little bit of concern for the Hawkeyes currently is where they sit, going into Tuesday, and that is Wob, Wab, Wob, wins above bubble. I was falling out of 39th in the country in that category. That is a results-based metric. The predictive metric still really like Iowa, Ken Palm at 24, Mark Torvik at 25, both those places rank Iowa very highly.

Starting point is 00:18:32 Iowa 4 and 9 against Quad 1, 5 and 1 against Quad 2, a combined 9 victories against 10 losses in those top two quadrants. Decent and certainly decent compared to a lot of the bubble teams that are out there. Currently, the home win against Ohio State, that is a quad one victory. Though if Iowa would win this game against Maryland, then beat the Buckeyes, very well could bump them out. And that becomes a quad two game. And you go from four wins, down to three in quad one, not a great one for the Hawkeye

Starting point is 00:19:01 resume. You know, I also do wonder how last week translates to hard losses. You played Michigan to the wire. You played Nebraska overtime on the road, two top 10 teams, and you didn't get the victory. You know, when it talk talking about that metric wins above bubble, it's just that wins. You don't get bonus points for playing close against good opponents like you do in some of the other predictive markets that are out there. We saw gutsy performances both times down in both of those games and we're able to battle back and give themselves a shot at the end. And that's all you can ask for.

Starting point is 00:19:32 Certainly as a team that doesn't quit and we're getting that out of Coach McCollum squad. But seeing if that does translate and some good vibes going, you don't want to go into the NCAA tournament losing this one and being when you look through losers of four in a row, 20 and 12 would be their record if that plays out. Just get a victory, get some good vibes going. Take your shot then after that as you match up against Ohio State in the next round. If you win that one, you get a rematch against Michigan. I will play well. Play well again against the Wolverines might be a little bit more different. for them. There's going to be a lot of changes this week. There's going to be a lot going on

Starting point is 00:20:12 with the conference tournaments happening in the major conference level. We're going to have some bid Steelers. Nearly had that on Tuesday night as Santa Clara eventually fell after beating St. Mary's the night before in the WCC. Still a real possibility that they'll be getting three teams in out of the WCC with Santa Clara, a pretty good resume for them. And a metric that they rank ahead of Iowa is that wins above bubble. But we've also seen the other side. Virginia. Tech had a lot to play for and they lose in the opening round of the ACC tournament. There's going to be fluctuation still. We do know that Iowa is in very good shape.

Starting point is 00:20:46 We go over to bracket matrix. That is the compilation of all the brackets that are out there. Iowa currently is the top nine seed meeting that they are still ahead of as I counted up here. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve teams that are currently in the NCAA tournament. according to this model with all the bracketologists put together, that means 12 teams would have to pass Iowa. This would be an ugly loss, no doubt. A loss here to Maryland, who currently ranks at 151.

Starting point is 00:21:17 This would be their second quad three loss of the season if they lose to the tariffins. Don't let it happen. Get the win. Any form or fashion. Just get the win. Move on. Take your shot against the Buckeyes and go from there.

Starting point is 00:21:30 We'll see if that happens. The Otters came out for the Big Ten, Big Ten player of the year and all Big Ten honors. There's a spot where Bennett Sturts was. And Loudmouthed in Lincoln opening his trap. We'll talk about that as we continue locked on Hawkeyes. College basketball is nonstop. Big games, tight spreads, momentum swings every single night.

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Starting point is 00:24:37 is the time. You're going to get ad-free shows and access to our group chat on Discord. Plus, if you're signed up before the NCAA tournament tips off, you can get into our everyday air club bracket pool on Discord for a chance to win Lockdown Merch. Should be a lot of fun there. Right now, use Code March. You're going to get your first month free. Head to Lockdownhawkeyes. That supercast.com. Lockdownhawkeyes.com. Or you can tap the link in our show notes. So the honors came out for the Big Ten and one of them did not have Bennett Sturts as a first team all Big Ten. So the coaches, in fact, had him second team. Now, you look at the first team.

Starting point is 00:25:16 You talk about how loaded the Big Ten is now. You have Keaton Wogler of Illinois, absolutely. Yaxel Lennepberg, who is also the player of the year in the conference, as he should have been. Jeremy Fears, when he's not going after people's midsections, he's a tremendous basketball player, Brayden Smith. And then the difference is the coaches had Price Sanford on the first team and Bennett Sturts on the second, vice versa for the media. We also had Stephen M. Sipple over in Lincoln. And I know Sip, I like Sip.

Starting point is 00:25:51 He's on my radio show. I like to have a beer with Sip, but he's got some ass and I takes. Remember back before the football season began, Sip tried to tell me that the Nebraska offensive line was going to be better than I was. goes on to win the Joe Moore Award, and Nebraska's offensive line sucks as usual. He's a guy that said that they had an SEC-like wide receiver group. Didn't show up this season. He works in hyperbole.

Starting point is 00:26:17 And that's okay. That's okay at a radio show. I got no problem with that. But he stated that Bennett Sturts is not a great player. Bennett Sturt's not on this Iowa basketball team. They're Maryland. They are, would have played today. the opening round of the Big Ten tournament,

Starting point is 00:26:36 while all 18 teams qualified, that's where Iowa would have been. And he was mentioning some different players. No, he's not Steve Smith. No, he is not Paul Pierce. Those are NBA Hall of Famers. I don't think Bennett Sturts is going to be a Hall of Famer. But to say that he is not a great college basketball player,

Starting point is 00:26:57 it's just frankly stupid. It's a dumb take. And that's okay. You can have dumb takes. Look, I have dumb takes from time to time. But for SIP to say something like that and not realize what was the game plan? What did Nebraska do in this basketball game? They took Bennett Sturt's away.

Starting point is 00:27:16 That was the game plan. And that was also a reason that Kail Combs went off and Cooper Kach went off because what were they doing? They were taking away Iowa's best option. Look, if that's your takeaway after watching him once or maybe twice, or maybe he missed the game over at Carver Hawkeye Arena where he was great and beating the Huskers, maybe he missed that one. I don't know. His morning show, his show is in the morning,

Starting point is 00:27:38 so maybe that was a case behind it. I was disappointed. I was called State Basketball. Sip was on my radio show today, so I didn't get a chance to push back. Sip, he knows. I love him. I love to give him a hard time.

Starting point is 00:27:49 And some of his takes just leave us scratching our heads. Second team for Bennett Sturts, out of the coaches, first team from the media. I've said it. Guy's a stud. He's tremendous. He's been fun to watch.

Starting point is 00:28:03 But now, it's time to take it up a level. Ben McCollum has been a great tournament coach in his career. Now, for the majority of that career, it was at the Division II level. But even on the national scene as they built themselves up in a national championship contenders and then ultimately winning multiple national championships, you saw in these kind of situations, he's been good, quick turnaround, those kind of things. You saw it a year ago in the NCAA tournament.

Starting point is 00:28:26 And not only beating Missouri in the opening round, when Missou wanted to go fast and they wouldn't let them, And that even that second round matchup in the round of 32, that Texas Tech team was loaded. Texas Tech should have, would have, beat the national champion Florida later on in the tournament. That's how good that Texas Tech team was, and Drake gave them absolute bits. We're going to see it. We go back and you remember the high point of the Fray McCaffrey area in the Big Ten tournament, winning the conference tournament, beating Purdue.

Starting point is 00:28:59 But outside of that, there wasn't a whole lot of success. not a lot of success in the Big Ten tournament, really historically for Iowa, outside of three runs. We'll see if they got a little bit more. Alfred was able to do it a little bit. Didn't happen a ton under Fran. Let's get some good vibes going. Let's get a victory.

Starting point is 00:29:16 That'll do it for today. We will be back with you tomorrow on Lockdown Hawkeyes. We will recap things as, excuse me, things go final in that one. And again, if you want to join us with our Everydayer Club, an opportunity for you to join Lockdown Hawkeyes, add free. Just go to Lockdown Hawkeyes. dot supercast.com. Make sure you use that promo code March to get your first month for free.

Starting point is 00:29:38 We continue here on tomorrow's episode of Lockdown Hawkeyes. If you're watching us on YouTube, make sure you hit subscribe. If you're on the podcast side, five-star reviews, all that helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Until then, go Hawks.

Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - DISRESPECTED? Iowa’s Jeremy Hecklinski Ranked Last? Here’s Why He’ll PROVE Critics Wrong

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