Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Fran provides insight into upcoming season | Can Matt Hankins break out this year? | The Big Ten West still goes through Wisconsin

Episode Date: October 7, 2020

Fran McCaffery spoke to the media regarding the upcoming season and shed light on the advantages his team has heading into an unique college basketball season. We discuss that before continuing our position breakdown with the cornerback position. Who will fill Michael Ojemudia's hole and can Matt Hankins break out this year? After we tackle those questions we dive into the final game of Iowa's regular season versus Wisconsin.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 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,ited to be back for another episode of the show today. And if you've been tuning in for the last week and a half, you know what's coming today. That's right. We are continuing our positional preview, starting with the cornerbacks today.

I do believe there is a lot of great depth on this team. And I do believe the biggest key for this team is, for this group specifically, is to be consistent. We're going to cover that on segment number two of the show today on segment number three, we're going to break down that Iowa versus Wisconsin game, concluding our eight game Iowa football team schedule preview. Like I said, pre four each game, we're going to be doing a more in-depth preview, but one to give you at least a little bit, something to think about prior to the season beginning. So we're going to be covering that last game of the regular season, Iowa versus Wisconsin.

But coming up on segment number one, we do have press conferences with Fran McCaffrey and quite a few Iowa football players. We're going to be breaking down some of the thoughts on that. I couldn't actually attend the Zoom conferences, so I'm taking bits and pieces from some of the other fantastic reporters out there covering the Iowa Hawkeyes. My goal is not just give you the information, but to give you my analysis on it. So you're going to be getting a little bit something different on segment number one, giving my analysis of some of the information and tidbits that came out during the press

conferences yesterday afternoon. So with that being said, let's hop into segment number one. We got a busy show today and we're going to break down that Fran McCaffrey press conference first. press conferences yesterday afternoon. So with that being said, let's hop into segment number one. We got a busy show today, and we're going to break down that Fran McCaffrey press conference first. A couple things I thought were pretty interesting. He did say they are going to be playing a multi-team tournament at Carver Hawk Arena, and he believes they're going to be playing 27 games, but that there is a lot of uncertainty. And to me, that means they have no clue who's playing at that multi-team tournament. My guess is they have a few teams that they've looked into having come to that tournament but

that is key for them to get to that 27 game mark just not not a lot of certainty here at this point other than the fact that they do feel pretty confident in the fact that they are going to be able to play basketball games this season and I think a a big thing too with Iowa that I, you know, kind of taking away from Fran McCaffrey is the fact that Iowa's in a fantastic position to handle the adversity of a pandemic like this. The teams that are going to come out and be successful are the teams that are consistent and the teams that have that veteran leadership, which Iowa has. They have that veteran leadership. They have a group of guys who have played with each other for years. And then they also have a ton of depth.

So if you're going to have outages, you need to have good players who can come back in. And Fran made note of the fact that there's likely going to be two freshmen that could play. There's a chance that all of them could play, depending on what shakes out with the NCAA's ruling for winter sports and their eligibility for a future season, which also impacts the wrestling team and Spencer Lee's quest for four national titles. But that is interesting to me. The two freshmen I think that have the best chance of playing, based on the fact that Josh Ogundeli wasn't able to join the team until late and is still working on conditioning, I thought if I had to pick before all this news came out,

I would say that Josh Ogundeli is one of the two freshmen who is likely to get time simply because there's not a lot of front court depth for the Iowa Hawkeye basketball team. You have Luka Garza, you have Jack Nunch who's coming back from the knee injury. So you want to have a big guy like a Josh Ogundeli. If he can get in shape, I think he is in line to get a lot of playing time. I think the other guy who most likely is in line to get some playing time is Tony Perkins. I think his size and his shooting ability and his dynamic explosiveness can make a really great pairing with Joe Toussaint. And I think he's a guy who is likely that other second guy to get in. And obviously a lot of it depends on how healthy this team can stay. We saw last year the team had to dip into their reserves a little bit. They shortened up their bench a little bit,

but now they have some really strong freshmen, including Aaron Ulas and the Murray twins, that they have the ability to go deep into their bench if needed. And so having that experience and that deep bench will really benefit the Iowa Hawkeyes as they make a quest for a national title. And the last thing I wanted to touch on is the fact that Fran doesn't believe the outside expectations are a factor because the internal expectations are incredibly high with this Iowa basketball program. It is national title or bust.

The most pressure they're going to get is from internally from themselves because they believe that they can do it this year, which I love to hear. We saw last year this team is confident. They are adversity prone, I guess. No, they're able to handle adversity, I should say. Excuse me. And they are ready to make an impact on the court this year. Put last year behind them the issues of not actually having an NCAA tournament,

not being able to play a Big Ten tournament, dealing with a ton of injuries. This team is back and hungrier than ever, and I'm excited to watch Iowa basketball. But transitioning into the football team, a couple news notes that I wanted to touch on. And again, I wasn't able to attend the Zoom conference, so I'm going based off reports from some of the fantastic Iowa reporters out there, specifically David Eichel and Chad Lestico did a fantastic job of covering this. And again, I'm going to break down some of the things they reported, specifically Charlie Jones.

And this has been kind of going and circulating around the Twitter sphere. But I actually talked about this when I did the wide receiver preview as a guy to watch out for Charlie Jones had a solid freshman year at Buffalo, walked on to Iowa. Seems like he is making an impact right now. And, you know, we've had some pretty good success for some of those walk-on wide receivers, a la Nick Easley. So be on the lookout for Charlie Jones as a guy who could fit into that rotation. I had mentioned on our, you know, positional preview of wide receivers that Max Cooper is probably the first guy in line for that fifth spot, but it seems like Charlie Jones right now is really taking reins

and could be sliding into that fifth wide receiver spot. And speaking of Max Cooper, Amir Smith-Marset is currently not working at punt returns. I think this is very interesting. So Max Cooper is the guy at punt returns right now, or at least he has been the last year. I'm confused as to why you wouldn't want to play Amir Smith-Marset at the punt returner position. I don't understand it. He's the most dynamic player on Iowa's roster. And I believe if you have a guy like that, you want to

get the ball into his hands as much as possible. Unfortunately, it seems like that is not the case. I don't understand why. It can't be a ball security thing. Maybe it's fielding the punt correctly or kind of having a good understanding of where to field it at. But there's definitely a little bit more intricacies that go into the punt return game than the kick return game, which can be a little bit more consistent from kick to kick. So maybe that's it. But I do find it interesting that Iowa is not choosing to use their most dynamic player as a punt returner this season, as far as we are aware. And then the other thing I do want to cover is the fact that Cole Bandwert believes this team is the closest they've been in his five years.

I'm thinking back to 2015, where that team wasn't necessarily the most talented team, and C.J. Beathard was in his first season as a full-time starter, but they were able to win and go undefeated in the Big Ten. I believe, to me, when we talked about what happened this past June and July, that that could strengthen a team's bond and bring them closer together. It seems like, maybe not because of that, but for whatever reason, this team is incredibly close. And close teams know how to win close games. Close teams know how to persevere through tough

times. And that quote gets me excited about this year's team. The fact that we talked, you know, we listened to Tristan Wirth's talk on washed up walk-ons, you know, six months ago and talked about how close he thought last year's team was. And the fact that they did handle some adversity pretty well, ended up winning 10 games. I believe as long as Spencer Petras can have a consistent season and not turn the ball over, it sounds like this team is in a similar boat of having that closeness, that bond, that can bring a team together to do some pretty incredible things, such as the Iowa Hawkeye football team back in 2015 when they ultimately made it to the Rose Bowl.

So who knows if that's in store. We're obviously going to get a pretty good understanding of this football team in just a little over or a little under two, a little over two weeks, excuse me. And I'm excited for that, but exciting stuff to hear that this team feels like they are that close. And the last little bit of news that I want to make sure I end on, cause I thought it was pretty funny is Keith Duncan wishes he would have done more after his kick against Nebraska. I personally love his confidence. And if you haven't had a chance to listen to the guy talk, I highly recommend you check out The Standpoint, hosted by Jordan Bohannon and my former co-host Zach Cohen.

They had an interview with Keith Duncan. They also did one with Spencer Petras. Obviously, I want you to listen to this podcast, but I highly recommend you check out their podcast as well. They do a fantastic job there. But coming up on segment number two, we're going to hop into that cornerback position because again, Iowa has produced some fantastic cornerbacks over the last couple of years. And I believe Matt Hankins is the guy who could be that guy to step up

and break out this year, a la Michael Ojemudia last year. But we're going to cover that in just a few short seconds. Before we do that though, we do have a fantastic message from the folks at Built Bar. Because not only do they produce fantastic Built Bars, they also have some other fantastic workout solutions such as Built Go. Built Go is made to be whatever you want it to be and take you wherever you need to go. That's right. It comes in a one and a half ounce package, so it's small. It fits into whatever you need it to fit into. A briefcase, a golf bag bag a pocket in your gym shorts bilko is a workout gel and it is the best workout gel on the market it's basically five hour energy without the same crash feeling has a hundred milligrams of caffeine

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We've seen Iowa send a number of guys to the NFL over the past couple years, starting with Desmond King, going to a Josh Jackson, and then followed up with Michael Ojemudia. Safety position, we've seen Imani Hooker and Geno Stone. The secondary is pretty darn solid consistently, and that's no different this year, where due to injuries and whatnot, we've seen multiple guys get a lot of playing time, which means the first three guys in this cornerback group, I have the full confidence in,

especially at this point in their careers. That being said, there is some uncertainty with this position. Not unlike the linebacker group, which I think has the most uncertainty of the entire team, but Matt Hankins is the elder statesman of this group, a guy who we could see break out like a Michael Ojemudia last year. I would argue has the most talent we've seen in the last couple years, just hasn't been able to be consistent on and off the field. Last year, only played in 10 games, missed three. 2018, played in eight games, missed five. All starts that he played in, 18 starts, but not a great,

you know, you want to have a guy who can consistently be on the field, and whether it's because of injury or other things, he has not been able to consistently be on the field. However, I do, again, I believe his ceiling is incredibly high for the Iowa Hawkeyes and this could be the next guy to break out at that cornerback position for the Hawks. He's listed as a preseason 13 all big 10 by Phil Steele and I fully believe that is accurate. I think he could be even higher than that, especially if he notches a few more interceptions a la Josh Jackson, but I think he is the best cornerback on this roster by far. Last year, 58 tackles, two interceptions, and seven pass breakups.

Again, the big thing here is he needs to be consistent. And speaking of consistency, Riley Moss, a ball hawk, but also a guy who has had some issues getting burnt. I think he could be playing out of place. I think he might be better fit as a safety, but it seems like he is moving in and continuing to grow as a cornerback. A former gray shirt who got in the game as a true freshman gray shirt, which is pretty impressive, and definitely had an up and down freshman year. There's a reason why he didn't get to continue his time at corner because he had a couple interceptions, especially against that.

In Minnesota's game, he had two interceptions, ended up becoming freshman of the week, I believe, but also got burnt quite a bit. Back in 2018, played in 13 games, had five starts. Last year, he had injuries he was kind of dealing with, but played in nine games with one start, five tackles, two interceptions, and three pass breakups. Again, in only six starts, he has four interceptions to his name. That is huge for a guy, especially in the Iowa Hawkeye defense. You want to be opportunistic and make plays, especially in zone coverage where you can

sit back and read the quarterback's eyes. A guy like Riley Moss can be huge. And the big thing for him is I'd like to see him play again more consistent as a true junior and not have to rely on his speed as much. He's getting burnt relying on his speed to catch up. Let's see him play with a little bit better technique and keep guys in front of him and then break on the ball and get those interceptions. Another guy who came in the same class, Julius Brents, a guy who came in with a lot of hype but has been injured. As a freshman, played in 11 games last year. Only one game and ultimately redshirted because he was dealing with injuries throughout the season. This is a guy who I wouldn't be surprised if he was able to take that

starting role against or you know versus Riley Moss but I also think Iowa as Phil Parker has said the best 11 guys will play and I think due to the situation at linebacker the situation at safety kind of I believe that Julius Brent could slide over into that cash position and maybe let Dane Belton move back to the safety position and make a position of uncertainty a bit of a strength. And Julius Brentz can then play that slot corner role, also support in the run game. He's 6'2", over 200 pounds.

I mean, he's got the size needed to do that pretty well. So Julius Brentz is another guy to watch out for this year. Behind Behind him though, there's three guys to consider to watch out for. Terry Roberts played last year in 12 games. Another guy from Erie, Pennsylvania. Think of, you know, just the Pennsylvania vibes, Bob Sanders, Geno Stone. You know, this guy could probably play a redshirt sophomore. There's a lot of buzzing, a lot of buzz going on about Terry Roberts and what he can do in this program. We haven't seen him be able to play a lot of buzzing, a lot of buzz going on about Terry Roberts and what he can do in this program. We haven't seen him be able to play a lot, but he's a guy I want to watch out for. Jamari Harris also has gotten some action, has been performing well out of camp.

Deron McKinney, a guy who, you know, not on a lot of people's radars, but, you know, we've seen injuries happen to this cornerback position. And Deron McKinney is a guy who could end up seeing some game action depending on how well and how healthy this team can stay. We've seen a lot of issues with health, especially in the NFL. I wouldn't be surprised if we see some of that in college football as well just because of the lack of conditioning programs that we've been able to have due to coronavirus. Three freshmen to watch out for that are not likely going to be playing this year but are going to be on the radar going forward.

Brendan Desfernandes, an unheralded recruit out of Michigan. Think of the Desmond Kings. That's where Phil Parker has kind of made his money at, is finding those guys who are a little bit undersized or a little bit under-recruited and turning them into all Big Ten kind of guys. Reggie Bracey and A.J. Lawson both project more as safeties, but who knows where Iowa does ultimately see them fitting in at. We'll know more once they release that first depth chart

and we get a better idea of where those freshmen project at. This cornerback position has the makings of very, very high ceiling, but also a pretty low floor. They just need to be more consistent, and they're going to get a really tough test first game out of the, you know, in the season playing Purdue, when you get Rhonda Moore and David Bell, that's going to put the secondary to the test. It's going to be a tough learning experience for some of those guys. If they cannot keep up with those Purdue wide receivers, which we've seen in the past, not be something they're very capable of doing. Purdue is a very good team throwing the ball against Iowa,

and I would love to see them perform well, but it could be a tough moment that Wednesday as we see, or sorry, not that Wednesday, that Saturday as we see Iowa take on Purdue. It could be a rough day for that secondary. So hopefully their confidence doesn't get ruined in that first game going into game number two. But that does it for the cornerback positional preview coming up on segment number three. We're going to break down the final game of Iowa season, Iowa versus Wisconsin, a game that I would just love to see Iowa finally win after not winning for the last several years.

It would be great to get a W under our belt against Wisco. And I think this is the year they could do it. We're going to cover that on segment number three. against Wisco, and I think this is the year they could do it. We're going to cover that on segment number three. We are back for our third and our final segment of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast on this Wednesday morning. And like I said, we're breaking down the final game of the regular season for the Iowa Hawkeyes, Iowa versus Wisconsin.

And this is a rivalry game, but it doesn't feel as hatred. And this is a rivalry game, but it doesn't feel as hating or as hatred. The hatred, I don't feel the hate. I don't feel the hatred nearly as much as I do Iowa versus Iowa State or Iowa versus Nebraska or even Iowa versus Minnesota anymore. And the reason why is because I feel like Iowa fans have a respect for Wisconsin. They have a good team. They've beaten us. You can't talk crap when a team continues to beat you every single year. I wish Nebraska, Minnesota, and Iowa State would learn about that.

If they were to beat us, great, good for you. I'm not going to talk smack because you beat us. That's how Wisconsin and Iowa behave. I feel like it's a very respected rivalry in a sense from an Iowa fan perspective. But this year could be the year where Iowa does notch that win, and it comes down to the quarterback position in my opinion we've seen Nate Stanley get really close but not able to seal the deal for Iowa and that was my biggest complaint about him he just couldn't step up in the biggest games can Spencer Petras do that and on the Wisco side Jack Cohn was expected to be their starter but he's out for the foreseeable

future with a broken foot Graham Mertz comes in and arguably has a much higher ceiling than Jack Cohn, a four-star recruit who people thought could actually supplant Jack Cohn last year, but did not. It's Graham Mertz time. So I think it really comes down to how well does he play in the offense and when can Jack Cohn come back. Wisconsin fans are just starting to warm up to the Jack Cohn idea of starting again. But what is going to happen at that quarterback position?

And also in the backfield, but what is going to happen at that quarterback position and also in the backfield, Jonathan Taylor is gone. He's no longer with the Wisco program. Thank God because he just consistently dominated the hell out of Iowa every single time he played them. And it was getting really freaking frustrating to watch over and over and over again, as he dominated Iowa, he is gone though. Thank again, thank the Lord that he is gone. And so now instead of, you know, Jonathan Taylor, they do get some other comp

trio of running backs. I believe could be also pretty solid, but again, not a Jonathan Taylor ask kind of player. But again, last year, Jonathan Taylor, 31 rushes, 250 yards, 8.1 yards per carry. That's absurd behind him though. We got Nakia Watson against Iowa, sixes, 250 yards, 8.1 yards per carry. That's absurd. Behind him, though, we got Nakia Watson against Iowa, 6 carries, 32 yards, 5.3 average. And then Garrett Groshek, a guy who doesn't run the ball nearly as much, more of a pass-catching back out of the backfield, a la James White for the New England Patriots. Ironically, James White did go to Wisconsin. But those are two guys to watch out for for this run game.

Nakia Watson, not a Jonathan Taylor type of player, but still a respectable back in his own right. But the guy that I'm more worried about is Jalen Berger, a four-star running back out of New Jersey. If you remember correctly, Jonathan Taylor, also from New Jersey. So could Wisconsin be replacing a New Jersey back with another New Jersey back? That could be scary to me, considering that Iowa has not figured out how to stop Jonathan Taylor. Can they figure out how to stop a Jalen Berger if he does take on that

starting role by the end of the season and is able to prove that he is the full-time running back for that Wisconsin Badgers football team? Fortunately, offensively, the Wisconsin Badgers did lose Quintez Cephas, a guy who could go up and make a big play. A couple times, Jack Holm, the play was literally just throw a fade to Quintez Cephas, even if he had someone on him. So it's good to see him gone. They don't really have a lot of big-name wide receivers. That wide receiver group is significantly weaker than the Iowa Hawkeyes.

And offensive line-wise, they're always going to produce and have a pretty solid offensive line, but they are missing Tyler Biedez, who was a stalwart at that center position, a guy who they didn't need to worry about having a bad game. He played so consistently well over the course of his career for Wisconsin. Now they need to replace him. So it will be interesting to see how they replace him in that interior. And if by game eight they figured out kind of how that interior can work. We saw it with Iowa last year.

Their interior offensive line struggled midway through the season as a couple guys kind of got their feet wet on that interior. So that'll be interesting to watch out for Wisconsin and how that impacts their running game. Defensively, Chris Orr and Zach Bond are gone. They were beasts last year. 24 sacks combined from those two outside linebackers. They are gone. But outside of that, this defense returns almost all of their starters from a defense that allowed 16.9 points per game last year, 10th best in the nation. Again, I'm not worried about the offensive line. I'm not really worried about that defense.

Kind of like Iowa, they find ways to plug in guys and do well. I am worried about that quarterback and running back position from Wisconsin. If that quarterback position and running back position gets resolved and Wisconsin just continues to plug and play, that worries me for this game. If Jack Cohn comes back and struggles, or if he can't come back and Graham Mertz is struggling, and at the running back position, they're just average, I believe Iowa can take away this game and win pretty easily. It would be fantastic if we could also see fans in the stadium as well, but I don't think that is going to be at least enough to make a huge difference. But the couple of keys for this game is to control

the clock better. Iowa needs to control the clock better, establish a running game and stop Wisconsin from continually running the ball so darn well against them. And then also not be, you know, not allow Wisconsin to run the ball well. They need to force Wisconsin to pass the ball. They need to put the ball in Jack Cohn or Graham Mertz's hands. They need to load up on the run, put their corners in one-on-one situations. I know it's not a traditional Iowa thing to do, but I think against Wisconsin, I'd rather get beat by them passing

than get beat by them running the ball down our throat over and over again. And then finally, Iowa needs to convert in third down opportunities and big play opportunities. We've seen them come close and they just couldn't get it done. Iowa needs to be able to step up and do that in order to win this game against Wisconsin. Because even if Wisconsin isn't playing great, they're going to come to that game prepared and ready to play in a bloodbath, which typically happens when Iowa and Wisconsin take on each other. The trenches are just a crap show between those two teams, just battling each other. Iowa needs to win that battle in the trenches, and they need to make the big plays in order to win this game.

But that'll do it for our regular season preview of the Iowa Hawkeyes' eight-game schedule. Again, tomorrow we're going to be breaking down the safety and the cash position on Friday. We're going to be talking about the specialist and why Iowa could continue the punting tradition that Michael Sleep Dalton finally rectified after a couple years of struggling at that punting position. And we're going to talk about the Ohio State potential game and the potential Michigan game as well

if Iowa were to take them on in the postseason play of the Big Ten and what that game could look like. Ohio State could be a little ugly, but we're going to cover that on tomorrow's show, so stay tuned for that dropping early in the morning. Again, if you like the show, make sure to give us that five-star review and subscribe wherever you downloaded the podcast at, and make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. As always, Hawkeye Nation, have a fantastic day, and let's go Hawks!