Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Fran secures huge in-state commitment! | Why this offensive line could be tops in the Big Ten | What Iowa needs to do to take down Penn State this year

Episode Date: October 2, 2020

The men's basketball team secured their first commitment in the class of 2021 last night with Waukee small forward Payton Sandfort announcing he was heading to the University of Iowa. We break down that decision and what it means for the future of Iowa basketball before continuing our position by position preview with the offensive line. We wrap up with our continued game preview series breaking down the Iowa vs Penn State matchup, which is the 5th game on Iowa's schedule.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 Friday 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, and I'm excited to be back for a Friday morning episode of the show, especially because today we have some fantastic news. The men's basketball team has secured their first commitment in the class of 2021, the second best prospect in the state of Iowa, Peyton Sanford.

He has committed late last night, well, mid last night, I guess, 6, 7 p.m., and he has committed to the Iowa Hawkeyes. So we're going to be covering that on segment number one of the show today. On segment number two, we're going to continue our position-by-position breakdown, jumping into that offensive line, and why I feel like that offensive line could be the best offensive line in the Big Ten, and possibly one of the best in the nation. And then we're going to wrap up with our game preview. That's right. We're going to game preview every single day this week going through games one through four.

We're getting into game five this week, Iowa versus Penn State. Definitely the toughest test to this point in the season. So if you are tuning in for the first time this week, make sure to check out our previous episodes. We've been doing a position by position preview all week, starting with the quarterbacks, moving on to the running backs, wide receivers. Yesterday were the tight ends and why Sam Laporta should be all Big Ten. And now we're on the offensive line. If you loved this position by position preview, we're doing it next week as well. We are going into the defense and then finishing up with the specialists all next week. And we're continuing our next week as well. We are going into the defense and then finishing up with the specialists all next week.

And we're continuing our game breakdown as well. So I hope you've enjoyed this because we have a lot more coming all next week. We also have some really great interviews coming as well, specifically with former Iowa Hawkeye wide receiver and NFL veteran Quinn Early. It is an interview you do not want to miss. A fantastic guy, just a really incredible career and an interesting perspective on everything. So you're really going to enjoy that as well. We'll be dropping that sometime in the next week, week and a half, depending on the stuff that comes out for

the Iowa Hawkeye news cycle. But let's hop into the content for today with the Peyton Sanford signing because that is such a big news or big news for the men's basketball team. Peyton Sanford is the second best player in the state of Iowa ranked 138 by 24 seven sports, 163 in the nation by 24 seven sports composite. This guy is a six foot eight, 200 pounds, small forward. Let that sink in. This is another small forward for the Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball team. If you have watched Iowa basketball, you know Fran McCaffrey likes athletic guys who can run the floor. We get that with Peyton Sanford. I think this is an incredible fit. Not an incredible fit for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Think of an offense and a defense led by Peyton Sanford and Patrick

McCaffery. You have two 6'8 players running the floor that can guard all five positions possibly, depending on how much weight they put on. That is impressive. The other cool thing about this, and I don't want to kind of jump ahead, but Peyton Sanford has a brother, Price Sanford, who is now ranked top 50 in the nation in his class of 2023. That is also a guy that I'm sure Iowa will be targeting as well. So that is exciting nonetheless for the men's basketball team. And why that's important is Iowa is going to be losing a few guys next year. They're going to be losing Luka Garza and Jordan Bohannon. There is a chance they lose Joe Wieskamp as well. So there's about two to three scholarships available. Ideally, now that they have a small forward, they can bring in another center or someone to play a big role.

Keep in mind, Iowa does like athletic bigs who can shoot the ball. So they're looking for a very specific type of big. Right now, Josh Ogundeli is the only person on that roster who can play center. Technically, Jack Nunn could play that center position. And they have a lot of forwards. So you could see Iowa potentially move towards a more small ball approach. But I do believe they're looking to probably get another tall center type of person that, you know, fit that Josh Ogundeli, fit that Luka Garza mold if possible.

Obviously very difficult to replicate what Luka Garza does, but again, looking for a big athletic center who can shoot the ball and stretch the floor, that really fits Iowa's offense. I think that's what's next for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Also keep in mind, out of all the scholarship offers they have, the only one who's really still considering Iowa at this point is Daniel Nixon, a 6'7", 210 small, 207-pound small forward who is a top 300 prospect, has 16 offers right now.

But again, the big news for today is the fact that Peyton Sanford has signed with the Iowa Hawkeyes. So go show him some love on his Twitter if you are on Twitter. He's at Peyton underscore 20 underscore that's P-A-Y-T-O-N underscore 20 or sorry 2-0 underscore. Go follow him on Twitter right now. And again, a big get for the Iowa Hawkeyes. A guy who held seven offers including to Minnesota, including to Stanford.

He was also getting looks from Colorado and Oklahoma. So fantastic to see him commit to Iowa. Not exactly a huge surprise. We kind of expected that to happen. He was kind of rumored to be going to Iowa. But awesome to see that commitment actually happen and be in place today. So great news across the board for the men's basketball team. As more stuff comes up for the Iowa men's basketball team, we'll make sure to keep you

posted on that, especially on the recruiting front. Like I said, I believe they are going to be targeting probably two more people for this year. It depends on, you know, Fran McCaffrey has a great relationship with this player, so I'm sure he has at least an understanding of what Joe Wieskamp is going to be doing. For example, Tyler Cook, you know, it sounds like based off, if you listen to the standpoint, which I highly recommend you do, hosted by Jordan Bohannon and Zach Cohen. Zach being a former host here on the Lockdown Hawkeyes.

We love and support that show. Tyler Cook was on the show and did mention the fact that he knew he was going pro after his junior year. He knew before the season even began that he was going pro. So I think Fran McCaffrey probably at least has some sort of idea of what to expect from Joe Wieskamp. He's a guy who has tested the waters and ultimately has NBA aspirations with a good season. Could he decide to turn pro? I don't know. I think there's definitely some work and development that needs to happen. We haven't really seen him take over games and be the guy, but that's neither here nor there.

My point of this whole thing is, Joey's camp is kind of the X factor here of, does Iowa have two or three open scholarships? You also got to factor in the fact that there might be a guy who decides to transfer, one or two guys who decides to transfer, kind of like last year we saw multiple guys leave the program that we might be a guy who decides to transfer, one or two guys who decides to transfer, kind of like last year. We saw multiple guys leave the program that we may not have been expecting. Macy Daly did end up leaving, I guess, kind of expected,

but still a guy who was in the rotation and ultimately left. So there are a lot of things, a lot of moving parts here with the scholarship distribution, but I expect to have two more guys to be committed to Iowa by the end of this recruiting cycle for that class of 2021. And congratulations to Fran McCaffrey for getting and securing one of the top players in the state of Iowa, a Waukee guy who is going to be great for the Iowa Hawkeyes in the future. That being said, that wraps it up for segment number one.

Coming up on segment number two, we're going to hop into the offensive line preview and talk about why this offensive line is not only good for their starting five, but has a ton of depth and a ton of young guys who can kind of jump in and fit right in there for the Iowa Hawkeyes if needed. Now, I do have a very important message. You've heard me talk a lot about Bilt Bars. Bilt Bars are the best tasting protein bar on the market, but you have not heard me talk about Bilt Go. And Bilt Go is another fantastic solution by the folks at Bilt Bar producing essentially a pre-workout. I love the Bilt Goes because it helps me break through that wall that I need to do to get in a good workout or to get through whatever tough thing I'm going through. The reason why it's a fantastic 1.5 ounce solution that you can pack anywhere you need to.

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It's what the Iowa Hawkeyes are known for producing those big guys up front. But over the past couple years, we've had a few issues on the offensive line, whether that was because of injuries or ineffectiveness. It just hasn't been the offensive line we're traditionally used to seeing. Specifically last year against Michigan and Penn State, that interior offensive line got just destroyed by both of those teams taking advantage of those teams. Obviously, we had some injuries as well. Aleric Jackson struggled with a little bit of injuries after hurting his knee.

But we're going to get into it with that position-by-position breakdown today because that offensive line should be one of the best lines in the Big Ten, if not the entire country, coming into this 2020 season. I firmly believe that. When you look across this line, the projected starters are a Larrick Jackson, a three-year starter who is in his fourth year of playing that tackle spot for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Obviously had a little bit of injuries issues last year, but he's projected to be a day two pick in the NFL draft. Mark Kallenberger, a redshirt junior, four years in the program, started five games last year, four at right guard, one at left guard,

and played in all 12. Tyler Linderbaum, a one-year starter. He's still learning a lot. He had some struggles last year, but he looks like a first-round player, and he's getting mocked in that day one, day two conversation as a junior. So there's still a lot of opportunity for him to continue to grow. But right now, scouts have their eyes on Tyler Linderbaum as a guy who could be the next great player to come out of Iowa. At that other guard position, Kyler Schott, a former walk-on who is now on scholarship. He had

six starts last year, eight games of action. And overall, I thought he played pretty darn well. It's important to also note that when Iowa struggled the most in that interior was when he was out. So he didn't play in Michigan, in the game against Michigan or Penn State. He's back this year, hopefully healthy. Obviously earned that scholarship by playing so outstandingly last year during his time. And then on the other side, replacing Tristan Wirfs, which is not an easy task to do. But we have Coy Cronk, a former three-year starter for Indiana. If he is healthy, this is the guy who is getting projected in the day two as well for the NFL draft.

This is a really good opportunity for him to prove it, that he is back from injury, back from that horrendous ankle injury he suffered at Indiana. And if he can lock down the other side, I think this offensive line, like I said, could be the best in the Big Ten and possibly the country as well. You've got two fantastic tackles on the outsides. You've got a first-rounder on the middle. And you have two guards who have experience. Now, that's all well and good, but as we know, as Iowa Hawkeye fans,

our offensive line is only as good as the depth. And also, Brian Ferenc and Kirk Ferenc really like to rotate in guys to get them experience. So what does that look like? What does it look like if a Kyler shot goes down? What does it look like if an Aleric Jackson goes down? So it's important to note, we're just going to cover a few of the depth guys and then talk through a few scenarios. But let's go through the five depth guys that I think are really important

to keep in mind as potential replacements and also guys who are likely going to get a few minutes of playing time or a few snaps every single game to get some experience if they are not starting. Starting with Justin Britt, though, we were one injury away from having his redshirt pulled. He appeared in four games last year, and I would say arguably was the young-sung star of that recruiting class from an offensive line perspective. There was a few other guys that came in that were more highly touted, but he was the guy who was getting action. He had four games of experience, obviously wanted to keep that to four games if possible

due to the ability to redshirt a player, but that's a guy to watch out for. Cole Bandwert, a guy who's often forgotten. Seven starts in 2018, two starts last year, but has really dealt with a lot of injuries. He's in his redshirt senior season. He can also play all of the interior positions, and there's a chance he could return for another year if he feels like he can win that starting job and doesn't do it this year due to the new NCAA guidelines that they came out specifically for 2020. So it's nice to have a guy who has nine career starts as a potential backup.

Otherwise, we have Jack Plum. No starts, but has appeared in 14 games, including one as a freshman, just a redshirt sophomore, a young guy who's undoubtedly going to get a few minutes or a few snaps of playing time this upcoming season. Cody Ink saw action in 11 games as a left guard, redshirted as a freshman. And then Tyler Endres, this is a guy who I think people are kind of sleeping on, was a four-star tackle in last year's class. He redshirted, and I think they're going to want to get him some time because they're going to be losing a Larrick Jackson and Coy Cronk after this upcoming season. And that's a very important note. Now we got to replace not just one tackle, but two tackles. So they're not going to

probably be able to go to the grad transfer market and find two more tackles. At some point, you need these younger guys to step up and be able to play. So that to me is probably the biggest question mark is, you know, who do they use to replace these guys? Who are going to replace these guys? Now, I talked a little bit about those NCAA rules. If Cole Bandwert doesn't start this year, I think there's an opportunity for him to potentially return again. You know, if a Tyler Linderbaum decides to go to the NFL after he has a fantastic season at that tackle spot, you could see Tyler Endres play. You could see Jack Plum slide over there as well. You could also see Mark Kallenberger play that tackle position because you could see Tyler Endres play. You could see Jack Plum slide over there as well.

You could also see Mark Kallenberger play that tackle position because that's kind of where he was originally groomed at. But because we have tackles and we need linemen, he's kind of moved over to that guard spot. So if he takes over a tackle spot, maybe a Justin Britt steps in, right? So there's some options there, definitely. As far as new guys, though, on the roster right now, we have Mason Richmond, Tyler Elsberry, and Josh Volk. These are all three guys to watch out for. As we saw with Justin Britt this past year, if they perform well, they're going to get playing time, especially with the four-game rule.

And in a shortened season, they could theoretically play half the season and still maintain the redshirt. I guess it's even trickier with those NCAA guidelines. They technically don't even have to redshirt, I guess. That'll be interesting to see how that plays out. But watch out for one of those three guys to potentially step up and get a few snaps of playing time as well. If not, they're literally just going to be kind of waiting and watching

and learning because these are the guys of the future, is what we just talked about with those depth guys and those new guys. A lot of young guys with multiple years of eligibility left that could step in after we lose a few guys to the NFL draft next year. And personally, when I look at this offensive line, like I said, I think it could be the best line in the Big Ten, possibly the country. And I believe that we have three possible all Big Ten guys. I'm not talking about honorable mentions. I'm talking about first through third.

That's a Larrick Jackson, Coy Cronk, and Tyler Linderbaum. I think Kyler Shaw is a sleeper guy as well, depending on how well Iowa runs the ball this year and how many sacks they give up to a Spencer Petras. I do think Tyler Linderbaum has the potential to also be an All-American, so watch out for that. But that is our position-by-position preview with the offensive line, and that wraps up our offensive position previews. Next week, we're going to be going into the defense, starting with the defensive line. So we're going to be going into the defense, starting with the defensive line.

So we're going to be covering all the defensive positions, including the specialist, throughout next week as well. Coming up on segment number three, we're going to be breaking down the toughest game in the first half of Iowa season. That's right, Iowa versus Penn State. Talking a little bit about why Penn State might not have as good of an offense,

but still going to be pretty darn good. So we're going to be covering that in just a few short seconds. We are back for our third and our final segment of this Friday morning show, the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. And as we've been doing the entire week, we've been going through each of the games. And I did say, you know, the first half of the season, Iowa actually gets Penn State at game number five, but they get them after playing Minnesota.

So not an easy game for this Iowa football team to come off, play Minnesota, and then get Penn State. That's going to be a tough stretch for this Hawkeye football team. However, Penn State is in a bit of transition as well. And again, I've talked about this a lot this week, but any program in a state of transition is going to take some time to build up. Now we're in game five, though, with Iowa versus Penn State. By that time, you kind of would expect the struggles to be worked out a little bit. In a traditional season, this would be the second Big Ten game of the year for each team. This is the fifth, though, so are they able to get in place and ready to play that quickly?

Penn State has to break in a new offensive coordinator. It's Kurt Kuroka. I'm probably butchering that name, but it's the offensive coordinator from Minnesota. He does have Journey Brown and Sean Clifford. And as we know, if we remember the Trace McSorley era, which seemed to last for freaking ever, Iowa struggles with mobile quarterbacks

and Penn State seemingly produces fantastic running backs every freaking year, whether it's Saquon Barkley or Miles Sanders. Now they have Journey Brown. He had a fantastic sophomore season. He's back as well with Sean Clifford, but their wide receiver group is not hot this year. So we've seen KJ Hamler burn us quite a few times, right? He was arguably the toughest wide receiver to cover in the Big Ten next to a rondell moore which we also are going to get and that purdue game but kajan hamler is not there anymore he's

with the denver broncos a second round draft pick the wide receiver group for that penn state team is a little bit rough they also have a new wide receiver coach taylor stubbifield there's a lot of young guys just one returning starter that could be a weakness for this penn state team that has traditionally done pretty well through the air against Iowa and running the ball. But at tight end, this is going to be a tough matchup for our linebacker crew, especially with Jamone Colbert not playing this year. Pat Fryermuth is back, and I think he is the best tight end in the Big Ten. He's a guy to reckon with. He's going to be a day two pick, if not a day one pick next year in the NFL draft. That is going to be

the toughest matchup for the Iowa Hawkeyes. We've seen them stop the run, but we haven't seen them do well against mobile quarterbacks. And it'll be interesting to see how they handle and game plan for an athletic tight end like Pat Frymer, who is the best one in the Big Ten. Defensively now, that's where it gets a little bit better for Iowa. So Penn State historically has had a good defense, but they are returning only four starters from last year. Keep in mind, Micah Parsons could be returning. He has technically opted out and has not made a decision to return yet. If they get Micah Parsons back, that is a huge win for Penn State

because he is likely a top-five pick in the NFL draft, so not having him is a big loss. We've seen other guys return. We saw Rondell Moore return. Does Micah Parsons want to return? Honestly, if I'm a projected top five pick, maybe you don't. You already have enough tape out there. Stay healthy, be working out, get ready for the combine. That's what, you know, maybe I would do that. I guess I'm not in that position to make that decision, obviously. Otherwise I wouldn't be hosting this show. I'd be playing. But Micah Parsons is a guy to watch out for.

If he returns, that makes this Penn State defense automatically significantly better. He is a playmaker, a dynamic playmaker, who can play all three downs of that linebacker position. And again, this Penn State team lost seven of their starters. A couple guys to watch out for. Shaka Toney on the defensive line. Tariq Castrofields and Lamont Wade. Those are three guys to watch out for, Shaka Toney on the defensive line, Tariq Castrofields, and Lamont Wade. Those are three guys to watch out for. The last two are corners. Penn State's secondary, though, didn't really do well last year,

but those two guys were looking at potentially going into the NFL draft. So, you know, they have the talent. Can they put it all together? This could be an opportunity, though, for Iowa's offense to actually match up better than they traditionally have against a Penn State defense, especially as we saw last year, that interior offensive traditionally have against a Penn State defense, especially as we saw last year, that interior offensive line really struggled against Penn State with Iter Grosmatos coming on the outside. They had to focus on him, but Robert Windsor made his name known against Iowa last year. They are both gone.

Those wrecking balls are gone. Can someone step up for Penn State? Probably. They have great recruiting classes every single year. Just like with Iowa, we look at this team and we think, oh, we're missing this guy or this guy, but we know there's a few guys stepping up. It's still important to know that they are going to be new. So there's always a little bit of uncertainty. That being said, going into the fifth game of the season, we should have a pretty good idea of what kind of team Penn State is going to be. And we're going

to have Kevin McGuire from Locked On Nittany Lions on the show prior to that game to do a crossover episode to talk about what to expect for Iowa versus Penn State. So be on the lookout for that each and every game of the season. We're going to have a crossover show with an expert for that team, whether it's an expert that's on the Locked On podcast network, or if it's a team that doesn't have a Locked On show yet, we're going to get an expert on a talk about that. Now to finish up with Penn State. Thankfully, there will not be fans in the stands, hopefully, because Penn State is a very tough place to play. Iowa doesn't do well there.

They have won before, but they don't do well there because that is a tough – it's just like going to Kinnick. The fans there are incredible and Happy Valley. I do think this might be the closest, the most evenly matched Iowa has ever been with Penn State in the past five to ten years, but it will really come down to the quarterbacks and the running backs. Can Tyler Goodson outshine Journey Brown? And can Spencer Petras keep up with Sean Clifford? Again, there's a lot of turnover on both teams' defenses. Can these teams, can Iowa keep up from an offensive perspective? And can the defense for Iowa contain a Journey Brown and a Sean Clifford?

That will be the difference to me in this game. Now, if there are fans in the stands, I definitely am picking Penn State. I think it's hard to pick against Penn State at this point. I think there's a chance we could see Iowa be favored depending on how Penn State starts off their season. But Penn State has hopes of being a college football playoff contender. So at this point, that's probably out of the question. I have to pick Penn State to win

this game. I think it's just, it'd be bad analysis of me to say, I think Penn State's going to lose just because I want Iowa to win. I think coming off a game against Minnesota, regardless of whatever that outcome is, I think Iowa, it's going to be tough to rebound and go again and play Penn State. I do think this is going to be Iowa's first loss in the season. If they surprise me, awesome. If they don't, it's what I was expecting. That being said, we'll cover more of this as we get into the season and get into that week five of the college football season for the Big Ten. But that will do it for our Friday morning episode

of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Just a reminder, we're covering the defensive line next week on Monday's show. How does that defensive line break down? There's a lot of moving pieces there. But the nice thing about Phil Parker's defense is they do a lot of rotation. So there's a lot of guys who have experience playing defensive line for the Iowa Hawkeyes. But really what I'm curious about is what is that defensive end position opposite of Chauncey Golsan going to look like? Is it really going to be Joe Evans?

Is he big enough to handle the every down position, positional needs of that position? I don't know. We're also going to get into a good rivalry game with the Iowa versus Nebraska game and what to expect from that. Obviously, Nebraska thinks they're more talented. They are not. We're going to cover that on Monday's show of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. As always, Hawkeye Nation, I appreciate you tuning in to today's episode of the show.

If you loved it, give us that five-star review. If you didn't like it, let me know what you didn't like about it. Either way, if you like the show, please make sure to subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast at and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. As always, Hawkeye Nation, I appreciate you tuning in. Have a fantastic Friday and even better weekend. And as always, let's go Hawks.