Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Five Hawks go to the NFL Combine | Does the new transfer rule proposal impact the Hawks at all?

Episode Date: February 19, 2020

Five Hawks are heading to next week's NFL Combine. We break down what needs to happen for each prospect to improve their stock before diving into a discussion on the newly proposed transfer rule allowing players a 1-time penalty free transfer. 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 we are back for a Wednesday morning episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes. Apologies for not getting an episode out yesterday. Had a good college buddy come into town and just, let's be honest, just did not get around to it. My apologies. I do have a life and I do try to get you five episodes a week, but sometimes it can be difficult. And as you know, if you've been a longtime listener, there are times where I do have some personal things going on that I need to attend to and take care of.

So my apologies on that, but we should be getting you an episode every single day the rest of this week, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. If you are tuning in for the first time today, make sure to like, review, and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast at. If you are a longtime listener and you love the podcast and haven't done this already, make sure to give us a five-star review wherever you downloaded this podcast at, whether that is Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, or the brand new Himalaya Podcast app. And make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Always posting great content on there. Posting our opinions, analysis, that kind of thing on there. So make sure to check that out as well. On tomorrow's episode, we're going to be breaking down the Iowa versus Ohio state game. So stay tuned for that. On today's episode though, we're going to be covering the NFL combine, and we're going to be talking about the new legislation that's being put into place to potentially update and change the way transfers work in the NCAA system. So we're going to be covering that and what it means from an Iowa Hawkeye perspective on today's show. So let's jump into it, though.

The first things first, the NFL Combine. That is an opportunity for some great Iowa Hawkeye football players to showcase their ability, showcase their athleticism, and build a rapport with NFL teams. Basically, an opportunity to audition in front of these NFL teams. So the NFL Combine is huge, and it is an exclusive event. You cannot get invited if you have an issue on your record. I believe it's some sort of assault or anything worse than like an assault, that kind of thing. You're not going to be on the NFL combine list. I believe they typically extend it to 300 players, which is a bit more than what the NFL draft will hold. So the NFL draft typically has, I think, 252 draft picks. So a few people

in that NFL combine are not going to be drafted. Clearly, at least 50, probably 60, 70, 80. But getting invited to that combine is the first step. Basically saying that you do have an opportunity to play NFL football and it looks like you are on draft board. So there's an opportunity to get drafted. Last year, we saw a few of the seniors not get invited. Nick Easley is a great example. Ross Reynolds, Keegan Render, none of them were invited. I thought those were kind of some bad non-invites, but they did end up landing on squads, on the practice squad,

and playing on the practice squad throughout the year. So you can tell that the NFL Combine is not perfect, but it is great to see five Iowa Hawkeyes get invited. The obvious ones were A.J. Epineza and Tristan Wirfs. Also, we saw Geno Stone, Michael Ojemudia, and Nate Stanley get invited as well. If I had to pick out of any other Iowa Hawkeyes, there are no other Iowa Hawkeyes that I thought were probably deserving of getting an invite. Obviously, I would love to see all Iowa Hawkeyes that are draft eligible to get an invite, but nothing was very surprising about this. In fact, I was almost a little bit surprised to see Geno Stone get invited, and not because I don't think he's an incredibly talented

player. I think he is going to make a huge impact on a football team in his career in the NFL, but I think the fact that he is a junior who has not started for a full season other than this year does make you know the tape is a little bit limited people probably weren't expecting him to go out he didn't have the accolades that Imani Hooker did coming out you know the Big Ten defensive back of the year type accolades you know wasn't it wasn't all Big Ten player but not exactly the the hype you expect I think when people look at his tape, they're going to really love his instincts. But getting invited is huge for him. So let's talk a little bit about these players

and what really matters for them going into the NFL Combine. First, let's start with Nate Stanley. In the NFL Combine, they do a bunch of different drills. A couple of the main ones you can think of, the 40-yard dash, you've got the bench press, you've got the agility drills, that kind of thing. For Nate Stanley, that honestly does not matter. The only way his stock can go is up with these drills. If he can show he has some speed, some burst, some athleticism in him.

Because right now he's not looked at as a mobile quarterback. We saw him pull the ball down and run a few times this year. Once he gets going, he can get up to speed kind of like a Donkey Kong and Mario Kart. Not a very quick guy, but once he gets going, he's got a long stride. He's also got some power in him. I think for him personally, if he were to run a four, nine, four, eight, 40 yard dash, I think that's about where we could probably expect him to be. And I think that'd be pretty solid for him, you know, especially a guy, his size, six foot four, six'5", 240 pounds.

Again, the athleticism isn't going to make too much of a difference because he is a pro-style quarterback. What I think is going to be possibly important for him is if he does decide to do the throwing drills at the NFL Combine. Typically, top quarterback prospects do not do that. And even lower-rated quarterback prospects, such as Nate Stanley, sometimes choose not to. And the reason why is because you're not throwing to your receivers. You're not throwing your script that you want to throw. You can't put on the best performance you want to put on, typically. But I think Nate Stanley is a competitor.

I think he's going to go out and throw the ball at the combine. And that will be an opportunity for scouts to see how strong his arm is. And I think that's really where he can shine. scouts to see how strong his arm is. And I think that's really where he can shine. The issues with Nate Stanley are not his measurables, are not his pure talent. People know he has a strong arm. The issue is the accuracy, the decision-making at times. And so to be able to go out there and put together a combine performance where he can put the ball on the money, I know he's been working very hard with the renowned quarterback guru who works at the Manning Passing Academy.

So maybe he's done a little bit to refine his passing. If you listen to the Washed Up Walk-Ons podcast, which if you're an Iowa Hawkeye fan, I highly recommend listening to it. Typically, if you're talking about Iowa Hawkeye podcasts, I prefer you listen to ours, but I do think there's some really great ones out there that also should be listened to. And I think washed up walk-ons is probably the best. And I include my podcast in that evaluation that I think washed up walk-ons is the best. They get some really great, great information. They give some great information about the life

of the program and being a player. And they had Nate Stanley on a few weeks ago, or I think a week ago. And he talked a little bit about trying to become a quarterback and not just a thrower. And he played baseball in high school. I believe he topped out around 90 miles an hour. And having been a baseball player myself, I'll go out there and obviously it's not the same. I'm not going to be a pro quarterback.

But when I go out there and throw the football, for the most part I can be accurate. For the most part I can throw the ball hard. But there's every once in a while where that baseball throw comes out, and it just really messes with the ball and how it's coming out of my hand. So I think that's, you know, obviously a loose translation there. But Nate Stanley did talk about trying to become more of a quarterback who can pass the ball as opposed to a quarterback who's just throwing the ball

and not really having as much touch and accuracy on it. So hopefully working with that quarterback guru has got him in a good spot where he can go to the NFL Combine and put on a good passing display. And I think any NFL team that grabs him is going to get a very hardworking, intelligent player who puts football first, second, and third among his life. And I think he's going to make a huge impact at the next level as a backup and possibly a spot starter. And I think some team, you know, depending on the situation,

he could land in a situation where he could be a serviceable, you know, mid-tier starter in my personal opinion. But that's just me. Anyways, more stuff to come on the combine. I want to cover Geno Stone, Michael Ojemudia, A.J. Iponeza, and Tristan Wirfs and kind of what they need to do at the NFL Combine to make their draft stock go up. So that will be coming up in just a few short seconds. We are back with segment number two of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast, finishing up our

discussion on the NFL Combine. On segment number one, talked a lot about Nate Stanley. I want to talk about the defensive backs though now for the Iowa Hawkeyes. And that comes down to Michael Ojemudia and Geno Stone. And one of the big issues with Iowa defensive backs, you see Phil Parker recruit these under-the-radar type of guys and turn them into Big Ten, all-caliber type of players, NFL type of players. You saw it with Micah Hyde, Desmond King, Josh Jackson, Imani Hooker, the list goes on, right? So he's done an incredible job, and you can see that with Michael Ojemudia and Geno Stone. And the other issue you see with these guys is that the athleticism isn't always top-notch

compared to the SEC type of players, and they come from a scheme that has their heads facing towards the line of scrimmage. Their eyes are always facing towards the line of scrimmage when they're typically playing a zone defense. They're not playing a lot of man. I saw Michael Ojemudia down in the Senior Bowl. He was always playing man. That's one of the things about the Senior Bowl.

You get a lot of one-on-one matchups, and it's a lot more difficult on the cornerback, but I thought he did a pretty good job considering he hasn't played a ton of that. What we're going to see at the Combine, though, with Ojemudia, or what I'd like to see, he's going to measure in really well. He's a tall, lanky guy. People are going to like that height on him. But what we're going to need to see is that quickness and agility. How quick can he turn his hips?

How quick can he go from a backpedal to a full-on sprint? Can he keep his eyes looking backwards? So I think that'll be huge for him. How he runs in the 40-yard dash will be huge. We saw Desmond King. A lot of people talk about Desmond King dropping and how the NFL teams made a mistake. And I don't disagree. He saw Desmond King. A lot of people talk about Desmond King dropping and how the NFL teams made a mistake. And I don't disagree. He shouldn't have dropped. But the reason why is

because of his, it wasn't because of his senior year production. It was because of his athleticism. There were concerns about his athleticism. There were concerns about whether or not he could play cornerback at the next level. I think you just need to look at the game tape. So Ojemudia kind of has a similar issue he's coming into. Is he athletic enough to play that cornerback position? He had a great opportunity getting invited to the Senior Bowl, and we covered that down in Mobile, Alabama. If you didn't get a chance to listen to it, poor you. You definitely should go back to that last week of January.

Check out some of the episodes I was doing where I interviewed Michael Ojemudia at the Senior Bowl and talked a little bit about that. But for the combine, he just needs to test well. I think if he runs a 4-6-40, that is just adding to the perception of Iowa cornerbacks. If he can run a low 4-5s, I think that'll be huge for him, especially with the height he has and the versatility he has being able to play potentially a dimebacker type of role, moving closer to the line of scrimmage, that kind of thing. So testing will be huge for him. It'll also be huge for Geno Stone, where his instincts show out mightily on tape. He does a great job of reading the defense or reading the offense, excuse me, and attacking

the ball wherever the ball is at. What we need to see is that athleticism. Coming out of high school, he was a quarterback in Pennsylvania, lightly recruited guy, undersized, not very big, not very fast. And you don't get to see necessarily that straight line speed on tape. But if he can run, I would say under a 4.640, that'll be huge. Last year, Taylor Rapp, big time prospect, ran, I believe, a 4.640 and dropped to the second round. That's what Geno Stone, that's kind of the benchmark. Needs to run faster than that. And the other thing kind of going against him is that safeties are often undervalued in the NFL. They're always going to drop a little bit more.

Right now he's listed as probably, I would say, a mid-day three pick, a fourth, fifth rounder. A good 40-yard dash time could keep him in that top half of the fourth round. A bad 40-yard dash time, a bad three-cone drill, that kind of thing, could push him down to the sixth or seventh round as a flyer type of guy who could a bad three-cone drill, that kind of thing, could push him down to the sixth or seventh round as a flyer type of guy who could play special teams. So very, very big. I think those are the two guys who have the most to gain from their time in the combine. Now on to Tristan Wirfs and AJ Epinesa. I think these guys have the most to lose. Right now, when you're viewed as a top 20 prospect, and Tristan Wirfs and AJ Epinesa's case,

even maybe a top 10 prospect, you only have downfs in AJ Epinesa's case, even maybe a top 10 prospect, you only have down to go. You can either solidify your spot there or go down. There's not a lot of room to go up unless they come out and AJ Epinesa runs a 4-4-40, which is not going to happen. I think Tristan Wirfs, one of the big knocks on him, has a stiff base. They think he has some short arms so maybe he could transition over to guard and for some reason some stupid dumb analysis of him is that he's unathletic that's not true

he is a beast, there's a reason why he was the number one freak on the freaks list coming into the college football season, he set the hang clean record. If you follow him on Instagram, you can see some amazing athletic feats from him doing a backflip into the pool, standing backflip. Overall, just a very good athlete. So I think that's kind of dumb.

The arm thing is going to be huge. How wide are his arms? How long are his arms? Is that long enough to play tackle at the NFL level? Either way, I think if he does check in with some shorter arms, I do think he could have a great career at guard, similar to Brandon Sheriff, who played tackle at Iowa and then transitioned into an all-pro guard. If Tristan Wirfs doesn't check out as a tackle, he could switch over, slide into guard. Even if he does

project as a tackle, sometimes it can be a little bit more difficult to play tackle at the NFL level, maybe slide him in guard. He could play there as well with how big he is with his power and force. He could play inside a guard the first couple years. But I think for him, the biggest thing is his arm length. How does he check out there? How does he check out from a height, weight perspective? And then the rest, I think he's going to absolutely blow away from an athletic perspective.

AJ Paneza, an interesting guy. I'm following down some draft boards because he's kind of looked at as a tweener. He's a little bit big for a defensive end position, 280, and a little bit small for a defensive tackle position at 280. So where does he check in at? How much is he weighing at? Does he come in and say, I'm playing defensive tackle. I can play a 3-4 end, that kind of thing, and check in at 285, 290? Or does he come in at? How much does he weigh in at? Does he come in and say, I'm playing defensive tackle, I can play a 3-4 end, that kind of thing, and check in at 285-290?

Or does he come in at 270? He's a big freaking boy and got a lot of power, so I'm not too concerned about that tweener label. I think he could play through that, but I think NFL teams will be watching his weight closely to see where he checks in at and where he thinks he projects at the next level, whether that is defensive end or maybe sliding inside occasionally into that dime defense playing an inside tackle position.

For him, the 40-yard dash will be huge. How fast is he? And the quickness, too. A lot of times you see on tape his power. Has a great, great powerful punch, some great counter moves, very intelligent rusher. But how great is that quickness? How fast can he run?

I think if he runs a 4.8 and under, that'll be good enough for him. Anything lower than a 4.8 I think will be a little bit concerning for him. So that'll be huge to watch for him. Basically, AJ Paneza has a lot to lose and not a lot to gain in this. I don't think he's going to rise a lot more, but he definitely has a room to drop depending on where he weighs in at, how fast he runs, what his quickness and agility drills look like as well. So that'll be one to watch.

But I think Geno Stone and Michael Ojemudia have the most to gain. Nate Stanley probably is somewhere in the middle. Tristan Wirbs and A.J. Paneza have the most to lose. So that'll be something that I watch coming up with the NFL Combine. And that'll be taking place next week, February 27th, Thursday, February 27th, the tight end quarterbacks and wide outs will be doing their drills. On Friday, February 28th, the place kickers, special teams, offensive line and running backs. February 29th, defensive line and linebackers. And Sunday, March 1st, the defensive backs. That'll be the opportunity to see

Geno Stone and Michael Ojemudia and you can follow along on TV. You can't actually get into Lucas oil field, um, without being basically a, an NFL scout. You can't be an analyst or anything like that. Um, but you can follow along on TV. And if you aren't able to follow along on TV, do not worry. I'll be covering all of it right here on the lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. That being said enough about the NFL combine.

Um, I want to wrap up the show by talking about the proposed legislation regarding the NCAA transfer rule, so we're going to cover that coming up in just a few short seconds. All right, we are back with segment number three, our final segment of today's Locked on Hawkeyes podcast, and I want to talk about the NCAA transfer rule and what it means for the Iowa Hawkeyes. As you know, there's a lot of issues with college football.

If you follow Scott Dockterman, or Doeterman, I always mess up his name, on The Athletic, if you don't have a subscription to The Athletic, make sure you do that. He wrote a great article talking to Kirk Ferentz about some of the changes that are needed in the NCAA, which kind of came at a great time where the NCAA is looking at changing the transfer rules. As of now, basically if you are an undergrad, you have to sit out one year before you can play college football unless there's some sort of waiver as we saw with the Oliver Martin saga this summer.

summer, they're looking at basically proposing that players get an opportunity to play immediately without having to sit out if it is their first time. And there's a couple things that kind of go into this. Basically, they're saying you have to receive a release from your current school. And one thing to note is that some schools in the past wouldn't always grant that release, but it's kind of become a pretty taboo subject to not grant that release. Those players also have to be academically eligible when they leave. They have to maintain eligibility at their current school, and they cannot be suspended by their outgoing school. So those are really the four criteria they're looking at using to allow players to transfer

once without penalty. And again, this doesn't really impact Iowa a ton. Iowa doesn't like to go to the transfer portal a lot. We saw them grab Michael Sleep Dalton last year and Zach VanBalkenburg. They needed a punter bad, and they needed some defensive line depth bad, but those are both grad transfers, not even players who had to sit out. There's two wide receivers on the Hawks right now, one from Central Michigan, one from Buffalo,

who did come to Iowa and are sitting out, did sit out last year for that one-year eligibility thing. They would have been allowed to play, although I feel like they would have redshirted. I believe one of them does have a redshirt still available. The other one does not. But they would have had the opportunity to at least redshirt or sit out if they wanted to.

But obviously NCAA just made them sit out because they were transferring. The Oliver Martin saga, you wouldn't have saw that happen. He would have just been eligible because it was his first time playing. Obviously, Iowa was able to get that waiver, which was awesome, but he wouldn't have had to worry about that. From a basketball perspective, Bakari Evelyn, he doesn't matter at this point from a sitting out perspective because he's a grad transfer able to play. The only big one I see as an issue or one that could have been a huge impact

was Jared Uthoff, who did sit out a year prior to coming to or prior to playing for the Iowa Hawkeyes. He played for Wisconsin, decided to transfer over to Iowa, and did have to sit out. And that was unfortunate for Jared Uthoff to have to sit out that time. That could have been one more year. He could have been an Iowa Hawkeye and playing in the black and gold. But the fact of the matter is this rule doesn't have a ton of impact on Iowa. If anything, it's an opportunity for, it's

potentially a chance where it could hurt Iowa or players aren't playing right away and they decide to leave. But even then, I feel like both Fran and Kirk do a great job of recruiting players who are willing to stay there and buy into the process and be there for the long term. So this rule, I think, is a great next step for the NCAA, allowing college players to change their mind. I think there's a stat that said 33% of college athletes do end up changing schools before their time is done and they end up sitting out. They choose to sit out. before their time is done and they end up sitting out, they choose to sit out. Imagine the opportunity if you do have a get-out-of-jail-free card, essentially,

the opportunity to leave your school and go to a new school because you don't have to worry about it anymore. You don't have to worry about sitting out. I think that really opens up a whirlwind of commotion, essentially, because there's going to be a lot more. I feel like there's going to be more transferring, but I think Iowa does remain kind of uninvolved in that process just by the way that they do things currently. So that'll be interesting to follow,

and we'll obviously keep track of that and keep you posted right here on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. But I just thought it was really interesting and wanted to talk about how it does impact Iowa. And obviously, as you can tell, I don't think it will a ton. So more to come on that. But I'll do it for our show today. I appreciate you all tuning in to today's episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.

Absolutely appreciate all the love and support on the show and always tuning in every single day that we do post a show. So thank you again. If you haven't done this already, make sure to like review and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast app and make sure to go follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We have some great stuff coming up with March Madness. I'm looking at putting together a kind of March Madness bracket of former Iowa men's basketball players and allowing you, the listeners, to vote and kind of

watch them move on to determine who would be the best men's basketball player. So some fun stuff coming up right here on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. I hope you stay along for the ride. Have a great day, Hawkeye Nation. And go Hawks.