Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Djimon Colbert opts out of 2020 | Hawks likely to split carries at RB this season | Northwestern can't possibly be as bad as last year

Episode Date: September 29, 2020

Djimon Colbert has opted out of the Iowa Hawkeyes 2020 season. We take a quick look at what this means for Phil Parker's defense before going around the NFL recapping the Iowa Hawkeye performances. We also continue our position and game preview series. Find out why Iowa will likely still have a timeshare in the backfield this season and why Northwestern can't possibly be as bad this season.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get $10 off your first order. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back, Hawkeye Nation, to another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, and I'm excited to be back for this Tuesday morning episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes show. On today's show, on segment number one, we're going to break down the performances across the NFL for all of our Iowa Hawkeye alums. On segment number two, we're going to continue our position-by-position preview going to

the halfbacks, why I feel like Tyler Goodson is set to break out, but also why I feel like there's going to be a lot more carry why I feel like there's going to be a lot more carry splitting than we think there's going to be. And then on segment number three, we're going to be touching on the Iowa versus Northwestern game, continuing that season preview, doing an in-depth look prior to the start of the season with Iowa versus Northwestern. Yesterday we did Iowa versus Purdue and we did the quarterbacks. Make sure to check that out if you did not already do that. But again, Northwestern is not as easy of a matchup as they were last year so we're going to be covering that on segment number three before we get into all of that though there's some breaking news

yesterday uh Jermon Colbert the linebacker for the Iowa Hawkeyes has opted out of the 2020 season we knew there was going to be one defensive starter opting out, but we didn't know who. We officially know now that he is opting out according to Hawkeye Nation. It sounds like there's a couple options on the table. He can graduate at the end of this year, so there's an opportunity that he could potentially grad transfer if he wanted to, but he is a guy that was expected to play some big minutes. He was a starter last year. A fantastic player at that linebacker position. A guy who can cover tight ends pretty well and actually line up pretty well as a weak side linebacker. That opens up a couple different opportunities for the Iowa Hawkeye linebacker group, which we'll get into more details coming up next week when we do our linebacker position preview.

But a couple guys I wanted to list out real quick. Justin Jacobs, a former four-star recruit from last year. He's a guy we haven't heard a lot of conversation about, but definitely should be in that conversation. Seth Benson, Nick Neiman is undoubtedly going to be probably the starting middle linebacker at that point. And then Jack Campbell as well got some time last year at that middle linebacker spot. So I expect those four guys to really be rotating across those three and primarily two linebacker spots. But we'll cover all that on our breakdown of the linebacker position. But that being said, let's hop into our content for the day, starting with segment number one, covering the NFL across the Iowa Hawkeye alums and how they did in the NFL.

So kicking it off with our NFL recap, we have the Denver Broncos and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers where we have Michael Ojemudia, Josie Jewell, Noah Fant, and Tristan Wirfs on the field that day. Michael Ojemudia rebounded quite well from a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers where he performed pretty terribly in the second half. He did a fantastic job, played 97% of the snaps, and is really making a name for himself as a rookie corner showing the Denver Broncos that he can be a starter long term for them so he's been playing fantastic I think as a rookie at least four tackles one for a loss Josie Jewell has really stepped up as well he's never going to be a great pass coverage linebacker but is playing a lot of snaps for the Denver Broncos. 91% of the snaps, 6 tackles.

Noah Fant on 10 targets had 5 receptions and 46 yards. What I think is interesting about his stat line is the fact that they are using him so often to chip block and stand and provide protection for their quarterbacks, their turnstile group of quarterbacks. Now they're on their third, potentially fourth. They start Blake Bortles on Thursday. But he is still putting up numbers. Imagine if he actually had Drew Locke back there in an offensive line and they worked in ways to get him the ball. They need to do a better job of that, but he's still putting up solid numbers. Tristan Wirbs had an up and down day. Run blocking

wise, did a fantastic job of driving guys back. Struggled a little bit more in pass blocking, but overall has put up a great three weeks in the NFL and did a great job against the Denver Broncos. The Chiefs versus Ravens, that happened last night. Geno Stone inactive again. Ben Neiman had a decent performance, had a very crucial sack in the fourth quarter. I believe it was the fourth quarter,

but it might have been the third. But he had two tackles and one sack. Anthony Hitchens had four tackles and one pass defended. Over in the Bills versus the Rams, if you missed that game, it was quite an interesting game. The Rams get up 28-3. The Bills come roaring back. The Rams ultimately win that game. But AJ Epineza got his first sack in that game. And Micah Hyde had nine tackles. Austin Blythe had another great game. Overall for the season, he has played 211 sacks.

Excuse me, 211 snaps. And has allowed just one sack so far. So another great underrated performance by Austin Blythe this season. Especially for a former 7 seventh round draft pick. And then another first happened this week as well.

The Titans versus Vikings. Monty Hooker got his first interception of his career and had one tackle. Jahlil Johnson had three tackles on the Vikings side. And Riley Reif is quietly putting together a very nice performance this season. For the Vikings, he had the highest PFF grade, 80.1 on Sunday, and allowed just one pressure. You're seeing fans not get upset as much about Riley Reif because his contract has been renegotiated and is slightly less than it was last year. I think that was the biggest concern was the cap that he was having, but now that his cap is down, he's playing well and you don't hear

any Vikings fans complaining about him anymore. The 49ers versus the Giants. George Kittle is still out. Honestly, I think he could have played if it was a normal field, but the fact that they were going back to New York, I think they wanted to be cautious considering all the ACL injuries they had the previous week. I think they wanted to be cautious with George Kittle and make sure that he was in a good spot to play. I think he'll be back next week and performing well. The Browns vs. Redskins. Adrian Claiborne wasn't exactly 100%, but did a solid job of impacting a few passing plays.

Didn't record any stats, but did get in the lane. And obviously Brandon Sheriff, another great performance by him. Patriots vs. Raiders. No actual action for Iowa Hawkeyes, but James Ferenc has been signed to the active roster from the practice squad. There was talk about him potentially even starting. I think the fact that he is still hanging around in the NFL is ultimately the most impressive thing. He has had quite an interesting journey. I'm going to try to get him on the show. Hopefully I have, have some connections with him. So we'll see if we can get him on the show. I would love to hear about his journey.

You know, he's played with the Broncos, played the Patriots, won a Super Bowl. I just want to know kind of what his thought process has been, especially considering the fact that he was working back at a hardware store before getting signed to the NFL. The Lions versus the Cardinals. Matt Nelson is actually playing a few snaps. He played six snaps on special teams. TJ Hawkinson, four receptions, 53 yards on seven targets.

He's putting together a very nice sophomore season for the not-so-good Detroit Lions. And then finally, to wrap it up with the Green Bay Packers and New Orleans Saints, Christian Kirksey has had a good season to this point. Had three tackles, but injured his shoulder and is likely going to be out a few games. So that injury bug continues to bite Christian Kirksey has had a good season to this point. Had three tackles but injured his shoulder and is likely going to be out a few games. So that injury bug continues to bite Christian Kirksey. And Josh Jackson, zero snaps on defense. 16 snaps on special teams. Honestly, at this point, I wouldn't be surprised if he was cut or traded this offseason.

It seems like he is not even a thought and the cornerback rotation at this point um sad to see that happen for for him um and then obviously the the final game the Los Angeles Chargers this week against the Carolina Panthers um last week we had you know the issues with Desmond King um not getting hardly any playing time uh week. Not much better either. Didn't get, didn't record a single statistic at all in that game and only played just 17 snaps on the defensive side. So his stats are going down the last three years, three games this season. The first week against Cincinnati, he played 41 snaps, which is 60 percent of the defensive snaps against Kansas City 44 snaps for 57 percent and then last week 17 or yesterday this Sunday 17 snaps for 33 percent

his special team snaps are also going down only played seven which is 27 percent down from 52 earlier in the season Brian Belaga also exited the game with a back injury we'll keep you posted on what that is expected for him or how long he's expected to be out as well. But that is our week one NFL recap for the Iowa Hawkeye alums. All right, we're going to take a quick break because we do have an announcement from one of our sponsors at rockauto.com. You've heard me say it here before,

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or truck right locked on their how did you hear about us box so they know that we sent you. Amazing selection, reliably low prices, all the parts your car will ever need, rockauto.com. All right, we are back to continue our position-by-position breakdown, and the running back position is on the docket for today. And I'm pretty excited to talk about this one, mostly because Tyler Goodson is an electrifying player that we haven't seen in Iowa in quite some time. You know, he has that agility that Akram Wadley does,

but he also had another gear, and he also has some of the most amazing spin moves I've ever seen, and we're seeing it at a young age. As a true freshman, he was able to get time and actually end up the full-time starter towards the end of the season for the Iowa Hawkeyes. So there's a lot of hype coming into the season for Tyler Goodson, but I don't want to take the spotlight away from some of the other guys who are expected to get into the mix. And as I teased before we hopped into segment number two, was that Tyler Goodson is expected to be the lead back, but that doesn't mean that Makai Sargent, Ivory Kelly Martin, and

Shaq Bird are not going to be involved in this running game. I do expect Iowa to have at least two guys toting the rock at least 100 times a season. And there's a reason why Ivory Kelly Martin came back. I mean, he probably could have had the opportunity to transfer elsewhere. He chose to come back to Iowa after redshirting last year. He came into the season, you know, third on that depth chart behind Makai Sargent, behind Torin Young, and didn't really work his way up, you know, dealt some injuries. And then obviously Tyler Goodson came in and handled things quite well for the Iowa Hawkeye running back group. But again, I think this group is one of the most

deep groups, position groups on the Iowa roster. When you look at this, Tyler Goodson, Makai Sargent, Ivory Kelly Martin all have starts in the Iowa Hawkeye, you know, in the Iowa Hawkeye careers, excuse me, they all have starting experience. So if one guy goes down, and let's be honest, there has been a lot of issues with injuries across the running back position in Iowa Hawkeye history, especially from, man, like 2005 to 2015. There was a lot of issues with injuries across the board. So it's expected that there are going to be multiple guys step up. I hope that's not the case. I hope, you know, everyone stays healthy, but let's expect the expected, right? There's probably going to be multiple guys step up. I hope that's not the case. I hope everyone stays healthy, but let's expect the expected, right?

There's probably going to be injuries. There's probably going to be some issues across the board, and we're going to need people to step up at that running back position. Again, it starts and stops with Tyler Goodson, though. The running game can be above average with Makai Sargent, Ivory Kelly Martin, but the running game with Tyler Goodson is electrifying and takes the Iowa Hawkeye offense to another level. And one of the things I would love to see them do is get Tyler Goodson out in space more as a receiver. They did that a little bit towards

the end of the season, but he displayed some pretty solid hands and if they can get him matched up with a linebacker one-on-one, Tyler Goodson is going to win that battle every single time. You can also have two running backs in there. You can put Makai-one, Tyler Goodson is going to win that battle every single time. You can also have two running backs in there. You can put Makai Sargent and Tyler Goodson. Makai Sargent is a fantastic pass blocker, but it also keeps defenses a little bit off balance of what they're going to do with those two running backs. Again, you can split Goodson out wide as a wide receiver. You can then run the ball with Makai Sargent if you take a linebacker out, or you can get a matchup you want with Tyler Goodson who can beat any linebacker one-on-one, I have no doubt about it, and get a touchdown or at least get an easy

reception. So I think there's a lot of options that Brian Ferencz has at his disposal with the offensive running back group. One thing I do want to note, like I said, due to injuries and whatever, all the other things that happen, we've seen multiple running backs step up in a season for Iowa. And I mentioned the fact that Tyler Goodson should get the lion's share of carries, but I do expect another guy or two to step up and at least get 100 carries in the season. And here's why. And when I say 100, obviously, relatively speaking, now that we're only playing eight games as opposed to 12.

But when you look at the previous years 2012 there were two backs with over 100 carries 2013-2 2014-2 2015-3 and Akram had 87 so they were close to four 2016-2 2017-1 but Butler James Butler had 91 there 2018-2 and Ivory Kelly Martin had 97 so he was very close as well and then last year there were two which was Makai Sargent and Tyler Goodson, and Torin Young had 81. So Iowa does like to spread the ball around to their running backs. In the past couple years they've played kind of the hot hand, but I do expect them to be more heavily reliant on Tyler Goodson

and then using Makai Sargent if they need to just wear the defense down or Ivory Kelly Martin as a change of pace back. And then obviously don't forget about Shaq Bird, another guy who was highly touted coming into the Iowa program last year as well. And this running game is really crucial, especially in this year, breaking in a new quarterback who has no starting experience. As we talked about on the show yesterday, Spencer Petras is coming into a great situation with a lot of talented playmakers

in that Iowa Hawkeye offense, and I fully expect Iowa to utilize that running game to help Spencer Petras get comfortable in the passing game to his pretty solid wide receiver group, arguably the best wide receiver group we've seen in the Kirk Ferens era. But one of the things that Brian Ferens stated as his goal was that he wanted to get, I believe it was to 4.5 yards per carry, if not 5 yards per carry. And that's how he feels like, if he can get to that mark, he feels like his offense can be rolling on all, or firing on all cylinders.

And I do think this is the year that that happens. The running backs are good. They've been in the program multiple years. The offensive line is good as well. Let's not forget about that. And then when we look at this team, though, I do think Tyler Goodson is being slept on a little bit across the board from media members. But when I did talk to Mello, which is one third of the Stick to Football podcast on Bleacher Report, he thought that Tyler Goodson, that's one of his

breakout players for the year. So not just in the Big Ten, but just overall for the year in college football. I completely agree with him on that front. I do believe Tyler Goodson will get all Big Ten honors if he is able to play the entire season. If he's able to be as productive as he was last year in limited time. The one thing to keep in mind, and this is important to note, is that he hasn't gotten a ton of practice time this offseason because of COVID issues. And what I mean by that is that he has been in quarantine three different times, twice because of contact tracing and once because he actually had COVID. So he has been out of practice quite a bit. And you do need to be in practice if you want to be able to play in the game. So there's a chance we could see a little bit more heavy dosage of Makai Sargent and

Ivor Kelly Martin early on in the season. But again, I think if Heather Goodson can get going, I expect him to be an all Big Ten running back. If not this year, for the foreseeable future, he will be an absolute beast. And for the Iowa offensive performance, He's going to be a huge and crucial part of that. But that breaks down our halfback position. I think this is arguably the deepest position group outside of maybe wide receiver in the Iowa Hawkeye football program right now. And that gets me very excited,

especially considering how many playmakers they have within that running back group. So that does it for our halfback breakdown. Coming up on segment number three, we're going to talk about the Iowa versus Northwestern game and why Northwestern won't suck as much this year. We are back for our third and our final segment of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast today,

and we're going to be doing our second game breakdown. Yesterday we did the Iowa versus Purdue breakdown. Today we're going to be doing our second game breakdown last or yesterday we did the Iowa versus Purdue breakdown today we're doing Iowa versus Northwestern and it's a nice time to plug in the fact that during the season we're going to be doing an even more in-depth breakdown giving you the guys to watch giving you the people that should be x factors in that game for both teams and we're also going to be trying to do crossover Thursdays every single Thursday breaking down each of those games with an expert from the other team. We have a couple different programs across the Locked On Big Ten division.

We have Wisconsin. We have Penn State. We've got a Michigan. We've got a Michigan State. And then we have Locked On Big Ten host Ben Stevens. So we have a couple guys that we can rely on to do some of these crossovers. But we're going to try to get crossovers for all of the games. So I'm going to be reaching out to a few experts

and making sure we're bringing them on the show. I already have one secured for Iowa versus Purdue. But just as an FYI, we're doing a little bit of a deep dive now, but we're going to go significantly more in-depth the week of the game time. So we're ready to get going with that, but I wanted to at least give you something to sink your teeth in prior to the season beginning. And now we're on to game two, Iowa versus Northwestern. If you remember last year, that Northwestern offense was absolutely abysmal. They were terrible. It is the worst I

have seen under Pat Fitzgerald, and I do not expect that to happen this year. Pat Fitzgerald and what he's done with that program, he's really modeled it after what Iowa does. The way they run their program, the way they manage their program, the way they bring in recruits, it's very symbolic of what Iowa has done in the past 20 years under Kirk Ferentz. And so I do expect them to rebound this year. They're going to have a chip on their shoulder, and they're returning quite a few guys. Offensively, they made a couple changes. Hunter Johnson, the former five-star recruit that committed to Clemson and then transferred. First of all, I don't know how in the hell he was a

five-star recruit. He looked garbage last year, but they have brought in competition with Indiana grad transfer Peyton Ramsey. I remember watching Peyton Ramsey against Iowa two years ago, and he had a, I believe it was against Iowa. Either either way Peyton Ramsey looked pretty darn good running that Indiana offense obviously he lost his starting job but I do think he is an upgrade over Hunter Johnson this year they also brought in a new offensive coordinator so they're going to be breaking in a new offensive system but I do expect them to be better in an upgrade over that terrible offense we saw last year and part of that is due to some of the injuries they had. Isaiah Bowser had a very injury-plagued season last year.

If you remember Isaiah Bowser, you might remember him just dominating Iowa in 2018. He had 31 carries for 165 yards. This is the guy not to mess around with. He's back. I am worried about him and what he can do to that Iowa defense. The fact that Northwestern basically played Iowa football against Iowa in that 2018 game, they just ran the ball down our throats over and over and over and over again and used that to set up the pass.

That was a pretty impressive performance by them. It'll be interesting to see how that new offensive coordinator looks calling plays in their first game. Once we get some of that information, we'll obviously give you what we expect in week two when Iowa plays Northwestern. But that's some of the new stuff that's happening for Northwestern. Defensively, Northwestern is going to be tough. They're going to be really tough. They have, I would say, maybe the top linebacker group in the Big Ten,

if not top three for sure, led by Patty Fisher. Seems like he's been there for freaking ever. Their secondary is also pretty darn tough. They're returning almost all their starters. The D line though is where they have a little bit of a weakness. They lost quite a few guys on that D line. I think Iowa's offensive line has the advantage against Northwestern's defensive line, and that will clearly make a difference for Spencer Petras and that running game. And again, if Iowa can out Iowa Northwestern as opposed to the opposite way, I do think Iowa wins this game pretty easily.

Personally, when I look at each position group, the only one that I see as potentially an advantage for Northwestern is that linebacker group. It depends on how they do plan on matching up with the Iowa tight ends though, and the running backs in space I think Iowa could create some mismatches there like I said with Tyler Goodson you can create some mismatches with the linebackers but the only position group that I really feel like is better than Iowa's at this point is that linebacker group for for Northwestern so to me on paper Iowa should win this game pretty darn easily defensively and offensively and special teams they have the advantage across the board but you never want to sleep on a Northwestern team.

So I predict Iowa is going to win this game, but I actually think it's going to be pretty close. I think it's going to be a one score game. I mean, obviously, as we get more information and see how Northwestern plays that first game, that'll give us a little bit more to work with going into that deeper dive preview the week before the game. But that is my prediction. Right now, I do expect Iowa to win that game. I expect it to be a close game. I expect it to be a one-score game. But Iowa does ultimately prevail in that situation to come away with the W versus Northwestern.

So that'll do it, though, for segment number three of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Just a reminder, we're doing all these position and game breakdowns every single day this week and next week. Tomorrow, we're starting with the deepest position in the Iowa football program with the wide receiver group. We already know how good that wide receiver group is, but we're going to talk about some of

the guys who can step up next year when Brandon Smith and Amir Smith-Marset ultimately leave. And then we're going to go into the Iowa vs versus Michigan State breakdown, what needs to be done there. I think with Michigan State bringing in a new head coach, we're not sure what to expect from that team in a tough offseason with COVID and whatnot. I don't expect Michigan State to be a very good program this year.

So we're going to be covering that, though, tomorrow as well. And then we do have some great guest interviews coming up in two weeks. We're kind of working on securing all those this week and next, and we're going to be dropping those in two weeks for kind of like an interview week. Lots of great former Iowa Hawkeyes are going to be joining the show. So stay tuned for all that's happening on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. And you can do that best by subscribing wherever you downloaded this podcast at so you can get those episodes downloaded directly to your smart device.

And make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. That's how you can get the latest updates about what is happening on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. As always, thank you for tuning in today for this Tuesday morning episode. Have a fantastic Tuesday, Hawkeye Nation, and go Hawks!