Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Fran McCaffery speaks to the media and the Iowa' football team's returning production numbers are shocking

Episode Date: February 17, 2021

Head coach Fran McCaffery speaks to the media. We break down what we learned in yesterday's press conference. We also take a look at the returning production of the Iowa football team in comparison to the rest of the Big Ten, and the numbers are a bit shocking. We also take a look at what next year's basketball team could look like,Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back, Hawkeye Nation, to a Wednesday morning episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade. Excited to be back for another show today. And just a reminder that tomorrow, Iowa takes on Wisconsin in a very pivotal matchup in the Big Ten, especially from a seating perspective.

It's a very important game for Iowa, and obviously wanting to improve as much as possible, as we talked about on the show the last couple days. Iowa needs to get this win, as they have the entire season. So we're going to actually be breaking down that game with Asher Lowe, host of Locked On Badgers, doing a crossover episode. Asher, a very knowledgeable basketball guy. It is going to be a fun conversation, so stay tuned for that.

And we do have a special guest coming on the show on Friday. I'll give a little bit more information on tomorrow's show about that, but we're going to break down the Wisconsin game and then kind of cover the Penn State game with him. So that's all coming up on that Friday show as well. On today's show, though, we're going to kick it off with a little bit of football conversation. Returning production numbers were released. I want to talk a little bit about that, where Iowa sits in the Big Ten. Then we're going to talk about the press conference from Fran McCaffrey.

He shed a lot of light on basically how this team is doing and what he feels about this team. And then we're going to wrap up with a little bit of a conversation regarding next year's team. Jordan Bohannon said something very interesting that resonated with me, and I want to make sure we talk about that and how it impacts next year's team, whether or not he will be returning. We know Luke is gone, but what about Jordan Bohannon? We're all going to be talking about that on segment number three of the show. Before we get into that, if you like the show, give us that five-star review and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. But let's get into the conversation talking about returning

production. When you look at teams going forward to the next year for college football, a lot of times you look at how did the team do the previous season and how much returning production are they going to have? And then you look at what does that returning production look like at key positions, right? A team that returns 95% of their players, but that 5% is their starting quarterback, who's Trevor Lawrence. That's a lot different than the team that returns 95% of their players and is missing their tight end who caught 10 balls. So it's a big difference, but it does provide some perspective, especially going into the season. And when I looked at it, I really thought Iowa would be higher from a Big Ten perspective.

The fact they lost two starting wide receivers and two tackles and a guard, I know that's a lot on the offensive side of the ball, but defensively returning a significant chunk of their defense. So I thought they would be a little bit higher, but apparently the Big Ten is locked and loaded with returning talent. So I'm going to go 1 through 14 and then break down what that means for the Hawks. The first one kind of surprised me. Maryland came in at number 1.

They are 10th overall in the nation with 85% returning production. They are a team to watch out for. They had some really good games last year. Getting to his younger brother is a phenomenal pickup. He played really well. I really liked his athleticism, but he is returning for that number one Maryland Terrapins team from the Big Ten perspective, number 10 overall in terms of returning production. Number two scares me a little bit, and that is the Wisconsin Badgers. They are number 14 overall, 83% returning production, number 24 in terms of offense,

and number 22 in terms of defense overall in terms of all the college football. That really scares me. Wisconsin, a team that played Iowa very strong, had a tough couple games, had to deal with a lot of COVID issues. But to me, Wisconsin is a team that they should be the frontrunner for Big Ten West next year, especially given the returning production and the key positions they are returning that production at. At number three, and this one really worries me for that first game of the season, is the Indiana Hoosiers and the fact they returned Michael Penix Jr.

They are returning 80% of their production, which is ranked 24th in the nation. Again, that is going to be a tough game, especially early on in the season. You want to take teams that have more returning production than teams that don't have as much returning production. I know that's more so on the basketball side, but even football, it takes younger teams a little bit longer to gel together. As we saw Iowa this year, having to play with a significant amount of production loss and putting guys into new spots like Spencer Petras. So that was tough for Iowa those first two games. So it does impact teams early on in the season. At number four, Minnesota, returning 80% of their team.

They are ranked 25th in the nation. At number five, the Penn State Nittany Lions. This is another team that really worries me, a team that I don't think they were as bad as they looked last year. They, I think, really just gave up on the season after losing to Indiana early on. They are ranked number 37 in the nation at 78% returning production. Number six, Purdue. They are ranked 38th in the nation with 78% returning production.

Purdue does not scare me because they're returning production. They scare me because, for some reason, Jeff Brom always does a good job of coaching up his team against Iowa and that passing attack always hurts Iowa. But this is the year Iowa secondary can handle a Purdue passing attack. At number seven, we got Michigan ranked 49th, returning 73% of their production. And again, I don't think Michigan is going to be as bad as they were this year. And they worried me a little bit, but not nearly as much. And finally, at number eight, we got Iowa. They returned 72% of their production, 69% offense, 76% on defense. And again, it falls back on the fact that Iowa loses three players

along that offensive line, depending on what you are classifying as a starter there, and then two wide receivers on defense, losing a linebacker, Nick Neiman, and three defensive linemen. I think from a defensive perspective, that is not a big concern from Iowa. The fact they are losing their top three tackles does worry me. There are going to be some growing pains there. Brian Farrant is going to have a tough job to try to protect those tackles as they break in. The good news is the fact that Iowa does a great job of rotating tackles in and out.

And we saw some great success from playing young tackles, looking at O'Larrick Jackson and Tristan Wirfs. Quickly wrap it up. At number 9, we've got Nebraska. They've lost a lot of guys in their offense that was already pretty bad. Only returns 56% of their offense. Illinois at 10. They are going to be bad under Brett Belima early on this year.

At 11, we've got Michigan State, another team where I feel like is going to struggle. Poor Rutgers. They return their 12th in the Big Ten, 82nd in the nation, returning 64% of their production. And Ohio State at 13, returning 50% of their production. A defense

that really struggled is only returning 44% of that production. And then finally checking in at last is the Northwestern Wildcats. They had a lot of transfers, a lot of big name players. I do expect a step back for the Northwestern Wildcats. So that's the breakdown of the returning production within the Big Ten. And how that impacts Iowa really starts at the top. They have their first game of the season against Indiana, a team that returns a lot of production. They also have a game against the Wisconsin Badgers that will be very pivotal in regards to Iowa winning a Big Ten West title. They need to get past and experience Wisconsin's squad.

Thankfully, that game is later on in the season, giving Iowa time to build up that experience among the roster. But that Indiana game is what really scares me, the fact that they do return a lot of key production. And key production at key spots will be huge when Iowa takes them on next season, early on in the season. That does do it for segment number one. On segment number two, we're going to hop into that press conference, giving a bit of

a breakdown of what Fran McCaffrey said, talking a little bit about that before hopping into a conversation of what can next year's team bring to the table. That's all coming up on the next two segments of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Before we get into that, though, you know I got to tell you about Bilt Bar because Bilt Bar is the best tasting protein bar on the market today. Bilt Bar has 18 amazing flavors. They are all covered in 100% chocolate and they are soft and easy to chew. Bilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. And let me tell you, my favorite flavor right now is mint brownie. I also love salted caramel and cookies and cream.

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Subscribe to Locked On Today wherever you get your podcast at. Now let's turn our attention to Fran McCaffrey and his press conference talking about the Wisconsin Badgers and some conversation about his team as well. In regards to turnovers, Iowa's always been a very strong team in terms of not turning the ball over. They have some of the best assist to turnover ratios in the nation when you look at it on a specific player-by-player basis. Even according to Kempom, their turnover mark is phenomenal. They are ranked first in the nation in terms of turnover percentage on

offense, non-steal turnover percentage is ranked first 40, 40 forced and a steel percentage to allowing steals. But again, phenomenal all around from a turnover perspective. And they asked for a McCaffrey. What is it about your team that allows them to not turn the ball over? And he said, so understanding the value of basketball is something that we stress, but I'm not going to take credit for it. I'm going to tell you that we

have smart, talented guys that truly understand that and understand the impact that that has on a team's ability to win. And we've talked a lot about who deserves to be handling the point guard position and Joe Toussaint. It has shown incredible flashes. Joe Toussaint is going to be handling the point guard position? And Joe Toussaint has shown incredible flashes. Joe Toussaint is going to be a key player on this team going forward after he gets a little bit more opportunity to touch the ball. But the reason why he's not getting as much playing time is when you look at this, Iowa is the best team in the nation in terms of turnover percentage. Joe Toussaint is the worst person on the Iowa Hawkeyes, the worst player on

Iowa in terms of turnover rate, standing in at 26.7. The next highest Hawkeye is Connor McCaffrey, 18.2 in terms of guys who get a decent chunk of playing time. After that is Jordan Bohannon at 16.1. So there's been some talk, does Jordan Bohannon turn the ball over too much? Not compared to how Joe Toussaint has. So you've got to take the good and the bad with Joe Toussaint. You get that kind of street court style, the drive to the basket, attack the basket, attack the lane. And he does a great job with that,

but it also comes with the con of potentially turning the ball over a bit more from that perspective. And I think a lot of the frustrations Fran McCaffrey has with Joe and why he's not playing him as much probably has to do with some of that turnover rate that we've seen under Joe Toussaint's lead at that point in our position. But again, I'll take the good with the bad. I love Joe Toussaint's style of play.

I love his defensive energy. It's phenomenal to watch. They asked a question about Fran McCaffrey and Wisconsin and how good of a group this is. He said, yeah, a really talented group. They have a, they've got a lot and Wisconsin and how good of a group this is. He said, yeah, a really talented group. They've got a lot of different weapons, multiple three-point shooters, like you said, veteran guys.

So they aren't a big mistake club, never have been, always a low turnover group. It starts with Trice as a veteran point guard. He's already in his fifth year. It starts with him. And I think that's what we need to realize. Wisconsin hasn't done great this year, but they are still a consistent team who is able to hold any team to, you know, kind of a low point total. And when he talks about the offense,

I would actually more focus on the defense for Wisconsin and that they bring the energy and that intensity. These games are grinded out games. They have a very slow pace of play and they get on you physically. We've seen, you know, Brad Davison throw quite a few dirty plays, but a lot of it has to come down to the fact that he's already on top of you already. And there is some general knickknacks that you're going to happen, some brush-ups you're going to have happen when you're playing so tight of defense. Wisconsin is going to be a fun team

to play against. It's very anti-Iowa, except for the offensive side of the ball where they do like to shoot a lot of three-pointers, albeit not as well as Iowa. We're going to talk to Asher Lowe more about that, though, so I don't want to get too much into the details on Wisconsin. He also got asked a question about Nebraska, because that game has yet to be rescheduled. Which, again, I go back to the fact that the Big Ten absolutely sucks. They are a terrible organization, and they do a piss poor job at best at handling the schedule. It's just ridiculous. How do you not know by now you knew when they were going to be coming back and that you still have no idea what is happening for Nebraska or for Iowa. And so

Iowa has to be a little bit flexible as well. My guess is, so Iowa gets no Wisconsin tomorrow night. They get this Nittany Lions on Sunday. They have a week off until they play Ohio State. And then they have another five days off until they play Michigan. My guess is they fit that Nebraska game in next week. That's what I'm assuming at this point. If they have to move some things around, I'd be shocked.

And honestly, if you have to move things around for Iowa, just don't play the game. Nebraska is a lose-lose situation. It does nothing for Iowa, except for maybe improve their Ken Palm statistics because Nebraska is so atrocious. That's the only benefit it has. Maybe get a little bit of playing time for the bench guys. But other than that, Nebraska adds nothing to Iowa's schedule.

It adds no value to Iowa's tournament resume. It adds no value to Iowa's rankings. And it adds no value to Iowa and their seating in the tournament. So if you can't schedule it, just don't. But it sounds like they are going to be doing it. Here's what Fran had to say about Nebraska. He said, it's going to be rescheduled. There's been a lot of talk about it.

But as we come down the stretch here across the board, there could be other changes. As well in terms of you're playing this day instead of that day. We're just going to have to roll with it. You can look and say it didn't make sense that you play here. We might, but we also might not, but it will happen. I think that's a nice way of francing. It's ridiculous that we might have to move the schedule around so we can play Nebraska, and I could not agree more.

To me, it's just bad, bad scheduling by the Big Ten, as expected, because that's exactly what the Big Ten does, and it just absolutely pisses me off. He also got a question about CJ Frederick who, again, has been in and out of the lineup. He said, he was terrific, you're right, against Rutgers and he felt good. He didn't feel so good the next day or the next day so he was not ready to go. I guess you're right. That's the definition of day-to-day.

Boy, he felt great. And then he didn't really feel that great. Well, then he's not going to play. We're not going to run him out there it's just not fair now why that's important is it does sound like he has plantar fasciitis that's a tough injury to deal with you want cj frederick healthy for the ncaa tournament the ncaa tournament is going to be in the big 10 tournament itself those games are played back to back right that's you don't get a lot of wiggle room in terms of those games, especially with the first round or the second round. You need a guy like C.J. Frederick. Is he going to be ready for those games? Can he play back-to-back nights? It

doesn't sound like he can. What does that mean for the rest of the season, though? My guess is having five days off or even a whole week off since Rutgers, C.J. Frederick will be able to go against Wisconsin tomorrow night. That's my guess. I also would say he's probably not going against Penn State. And if Nebraska is scheduled, he's probably not going against Nebraska, but he'll get an opportunity to go against Ohio State and hopefully turn it around and get to go against Michigan just based off of kind of the trends we're seeing, right? It's usually play a game, miss a game or two. And a lot of that has to do with the fact that he's just, he's not feeling good after those games. So that's my hope. It'll be interesting to see how Fran McCaffrey handles this.

Again, this is a nagging injury. Clearly, it's not behind him. It very much could impact the NCAA tournament, and we've seen with C.J. Frederick out, Iowa has struggled. So it'll be interesting to watch that. Coming up on segment number three, one more question from Fran McCaffrey that I want to cover, and then we're going to get into this team and what they return in terms of production next year.

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listen to Locked On Bets with your boy Q and Lee Sterling of Paramount Sports. They are picking college basketball, football, and NBA locks all winter long. Now, let's turn our attention to segment number three, continuing our conversation about the Iowa basketball team, the Fran McCaffrey press conference, and what this team can bring to the table next year. The final question I want to touch on, and I felt like this really bode well with what I want to talk about as well, talking about the production for next year. It was asked about the younger guys and talking about Chris Murray and Josh Ogundeli. And here's

what, here's what Fran had to say. He said, they both have been great. It's hard. We're playing 11, not 11 if somebody's out, but we've kind of rotated 11 guys, but I feel comfortable with both of them. Chris is ahead of Josh. Josh will get there. Chris can really play. He's just behind some guys right now, you know, with his brother and with Patrick and Jack and Luca and Connor and Wieskamp, but it'll open up for him.

He's gaining valuable experience in practice. He's different. He does a lot of things his brother does, but he's different in a lot of ways too. He's going to be a really great player here. And I talked to their dad, as we know, Kenya Murray, and he had a lot of things to say about both Chris and Keegan. And what really struck me was Chris is more of a slasher, whereas Keegan is more of a shooter, but that's really the big difference between them. Now, why that's important to know is, yes, it seems like Keegan is ahead of Chris, but Chris may as you know, very well could

be getting minutes on this team. But it's tough when he plays a position where we have a boatload of talent at already, right? You look at Jack Nunji and Luka Garza. Those are both guys who can step back and shoot the three ball. There are guys that can play inside Connor, Joe Wieskamp, Patrick Keegan, they all have a lot of length. They can drive to the basket. Not Connor necessarily, but they can drive to the basket. They are long defenders. That's Chris. Those are six guys in front of him, really four guys if you look at what position he plays, kind of that three spot, three to four spot.

Those are four guys in front of him. They're going to be tough to get minutes in that situation. Now Josh Ogundeli is really interesting to me because I thought this could be a guy that would be a big impact player this year because I thought there's a chance they might play Jack Nunji at the four and Luka Garza at the five and then have Josh Ogundeli come in to spell those guys. Really, Iowa has been playing with just two guys who can traditionally play center, and that is Jack Nunji and Luka Garza. And I thought with that kind of lineup, Josh Ogundeli was bound to get at least five to ten minutes with Jack Nunji and Luka playing some minutes overlapping

and then Josh Ogundeli playing minutes with both of them as well. It sounds like he didn't come in to camp in the best of shape. He also hasn't played basketball as long either, so there's still some development there. But next year will be really important to see if he can make that next step, take that growth step. And Josh is a fantastic young man. We've had him on the show before. So I'm rooting for him, but it does sound like he is

behind the rest of that freshman class. We've seen Aaron Ulas play well. We've seen Tony Perkins get some key minutes. Obviously Keegan Murray has been a phenomenal add to that program. And Chris has even gotten more minutes than Josh. So Josh is definitely behind in that five player recruiting class. It'll be great to see him though, if he can take that next step of development. They also asked Jordan Bohannon about him returning. And he said, this is his last year. Luka Garza, this is also his last year. The key is whether or not Joe Wieskamp returns. And we talked about that earlier in the week, but if Joe returns, this could be a pretty darn good team. Cause I don't see any other losses from this team. Now, there can always be a surprise transfer.

But I think with where Iowa's losing guys at, it opens up some major opportunities. So with Jordan Bohannon playing that point guard position, with him being gone, it now opens up for Joe Toussaint to get the start, as we saw last year. So Joe Toussaint could get some starting time. That means Aaron Ulis is going to step up and take more guard spots as well. And then with Luka leaving, that opens up opportunities in the rotation for Josh Ogundeli. It also opens up the opportunity for maybe a little bit more small ball, with maybe a Keegan Murray playing that five. You see a Patrick McCaffrey at the four, Joe Wieskamp at the three. You see a, you know, CJ Frederick at the two and a, you know, Joe Toussaint at the one. There's opportunities

there to mix and match those lineups. Now, why I think the team could be just as good though, is if Joe Wieskamp does return and a lot of this hinges on Joe Wieskamp returning. Now, if he doesn't, I still think this team could be an NCAA tournament team, but with Joe Wieskamp, if he were able to return, I think this could be just as good of a team as this year because Joe Wieskamp would then be the guy. He'd be taking up those reps, and if CJ Frederick can stay healthy, you have a lot of really young athletic guys. I think offensively, Iowa would take a step back. They're not going to be the number one team in the nation. Also offensively, they're not going to be a team that shoots a three ball as well. That's just, that's going to happen when you lose a guy like Luka Garza shooting 43%. You lose a guy like Jordan Bohannon, who's shooting

39%. You're just not going to be shooting the three ball as well. And you're going to replace them with guys like Joe Toussaint, who doesn't take a lot of shots. Connor McCaffrey, who, you know, does take a lot of three shots and is getting better, but still not all the way there. Patrick McCaffrey hasn't figured out his shot, his stroke nearly as much. So you're not going to get nearly as many three balls, but you're getting a lot more guys who can attack the basket, can create space because they can attack the basket, and open up more wide-open looks for this team.

So offensively, it's going to look a lot different next year. But defensively, I think this team can bring a lot of energy. I've been really impressed with what Jack Nungi has done on the defensive side of the floor CJ Frederick is probably one of the best on-ball defenders Joe Toussaint is a very active defender as well Joey's camp has gotten so much better defensively and really impacting in big ways you know getting the steals getting rebounds ending possessions and now you look at Keegan Murray who's really playing a Nicholas Bayer type of role but then that also opens up more times the guys like Tony Perkins and Aaron Ulas, who have really impressed me defensively as well.

So to me, this team, if Joe Wieskamp returns, could be an Elite Eight, Final Four type of team. I know anytime you lose a guy like Luka Garza, how can you talk about Final Four and Elite Eight aspirations the following year? But if the team can stay healthy, I think that's truly the case. Peyton Sanford's also a guy to watch out for. Another long, lean guy who can shoot the three. So this team is just going to continue to reload. And again, that younger core of guys, defensively, they really bring it. And when you can bring it defensively, that can hold you over while your offense gets going. And this offense will still be a very strong offense, just not the level that we're seeing this year. So that's my thought on the team coming into next year.

Let me know what your thoughts are. I know we're not even finished with this season, but I thought it was something kind of fun to talk about on the show as we prep for the Wisconsin game on tomorrow's show. As a reminder, we will be doing a crossover episode with Asher Lowe of Locked On Badgers tomorrow, and we have a special guest on Friday to review the Wisconsin game and preview the Penn State game.

That's all coming up Thursday and Friday of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. If you like the show, give us that five-star review and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast at so you can have it, every single show delivered directly to your smart device each and every day. And follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Hawkeye Nation, I appreciate you tuning in. I appreciate you listening. Have a fantastic Wednesday, and let's go Hawks.