Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Hawkeye Fireworks; Who makes the biggest impacts to Iowa football & basketball this year

Episode Date: July 3, 2023

Trent Condon is back with another week of podcasts on the Locked on Hawkeye Podcast.The week opens as we prepare for the 4th of July. Trent talks about some of the Iowa football players that have a chance to make fireworks for the Hawkeyes this year including Kaleb Johnson, Kaleb Brown, Luke Lachey, Erick All, Xavier Nwamkpa, Cooper DeJean, Tory Taylor and more.Why does Iowa's offense have a chance to make a big jump in 2023? Not just better weapons all around, but an offensive line that is ready to asend. Why is Trent so high on the front 5 for the Iowa offensive this upcoming season?Then some talk about Tony Perkins becoming the starting point guard for the men's basketball team and some fireworks from the women's basketball team.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Explosive plays. Hawkeye fireworks. Where are they coming from this year? We'll talk about that on the football field. And Tony Perkins as a starting point guard. Oh, that has a chance to be explosive today. Locked on Hawkeyes. You are locked on Hawkeyes. Your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hey, welcome in. I'm Trent Condon, and this is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We're available wherever you get podcasts. You can also find us on YouTube. While you're there, hit that subscribe button.

Helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, official sportsbook of Lockdown. Make every moment more. Visit FanDuel.com slash locked on today to get started. Well, as we get ready for the 4th of July holiday, it is time to talk about some Hawkeye fireworks. And what we're going to be doing today is taking a look at some of the impact players on both the football field and the hardwood coming up for this upcoming basketball season.

Of course, a lot of different directions to go and a lot of excitement for this Iowa football team. And that's what I continue to come back with is just my anticipation to see what there are. There are plenty of reasons that you could be pessimistic about this squad. What we've seen going into year number seven of the offense and Brian Ferenc about Iowa and what they have in front of them and getting over that hump and getting back to Indianapolis knowing that what awaits coming out of the east in the final year of the two divisions is going to be incredibly difficult if it's Ohio State or Michigan or even Penn State you know what's going to be waiting on the other side but the optimism for me has continued to ring true, and I love the

makeup of this team. So a couple of different directions to go, and I want to start with the guy that I continue to praise, and I think certainly does it when we're talking about fireworks this year, and that's Caleb Johnson. A year ago, we see Caleb Johnson thrust into the scene after getting a couple of carries early in the season. True freshman out of Ohio. He hit the ground running in that weird, crazy game that ended up at nearly, what, 2 a.m. against Nevada. And in that one, we saw a couple of plays.

In one of them, he was clocked at well over 23 miles an hour, one of the fastest running backs at the time in college football. Remember, we're not talking about a scat back here. You know, this is not Dave Megan. Yeah, I'm showing my age a little bit. We're not talking about one of those speed running backs back there that just makes plays. This is not a guy like that. He's got some size to him. He is thick and he is up even bigger from what we saw a year ago, along with keeping that top end speed that Caleb Johnson has. But last season, we certainly know how bad that offensive line was. It was brutal. And the reasons for it, we've talked about before every day, or as you know, those conversations

that we've got into of how the offensive line, especially the last two years, has been as bad as it has been. And it's been bad. I mean, there's just no two ways about it. And I have some metrics here, but we're talking about the fireworks. And I think the fireworks are really going to come with Caleb Johnson. He is a guy this year that is going to have the job all to himself. Yes. LaShawn Williams will be the backup. Yes. We're going to see a little jazzy on Patterson and I'm excited about both those guys and what

they can do. But ultimately this is your workhorse. This is your bell cow. This is the guy that needs to be touching the ball well north of 250 times this upcoming season because he has game-breaking ability that we just don't see very often in Iowa. We've had nice running backs. We've had guys like an Akron Wadley that can make plays. Tyler Goodson here in recent times. Guys like that going way back in the day to the Fred Russells and to the Jermell Lew's and on and on and on.

Albert Young, Sean Green. We can play this game all day long. We've had a lot of nice running backs, but the combination of speed and power that Caleb Johnson has, a guy that was a year ago, just really learning what he was as a ball carrier and what he can be. So just some numbers for you from last season, what Caleb Johnson was able to accomplish as a true freshman. Obviously led the team in rushing. 151 carries, 779 yards, just shy of 800 yards rushing.

But the biggest thing, well, he had six touchdowns, including a couple of long ones in there, including a 75-yarder, but he averaged over five yards a carry. He averaged 5.2 yards per carry behind that porous offensive line. The rest of the guys, LaShawn Williams, second on the team in rushing, averaged 3.5 yards of carry. Gavin Williams, 3.2 yards per carry. Even Patterson, when we saw him, just 3.4 yards per carry.

On the jet sweeps, Erland Bruce, he averaged 3.9 yards per carry. It was a completely different level with him. Offensive line was bad. The game breakers, though, that you're going to see and the fireworks from Caleb Johnson, they're going to be immense. If you're putting a number out there, what's he going to average this year? If he's got a healthy season, I think you start with the baseline of 1,200 yards. I think he is that good, that talented, and that important

that he needs to be out there. And yes, would you like to see a little bit more from him in the passing game? Absolutely. I think that's going to come. I think you're going to see more of the game that's going to come his direction. But you start right there with Caleb Johnson. We continue on on those explosiveness and the Iowa players. I think you're going to see some explosiveness this year. And that is, of course, at the wide receiver position. What we have with another Caleb, Caleb Brown. Coming in from Ohio State a year ago. So was hanging out with my brother-in-law this weekend.

He's an Ohio State grad, a huge Buckeye fan. He likes to rub it in what they have. But we're talking a little bit about him. And one thing that he said is, this is a guy that Heartline wanted to keep around. They're a great offensive line coach. This was somebody that they had identified right away last year as a true freshman. Remember, he played in four games. It's incredibly difficult to get into that wide receiver room and have a whole lot of opportunity to go out there and get a lot with the depth that Ohio State has at the wide receiver position. They wanted to maintain his

red shirt, yet still get him out there because they thought he was going to be a guy that was going to be able to help them out this year. And yet Iowa was able to get him right away out of the portal. A huge coup Iowa has never had, at least in the recruiting era, if you will, on the internet over the last 25 plus years. I was never had a guy this highly regarded part of their wide receiver group. That is something to be excited about. And you know, they're going to use him in a myriad of different ways. They're going to get him out wide. They're going to play him in the slot. I think he is going to be a guy with his versatility, the speed that he has. They're going to do a lot of the short stuff. They're going to get them involved,

intermediate, get them underneath. They don't out, a little swing pass, do different things with him, bring back the bubble, do different spots that you'll see him getting the ball, but also with the speed, the ability to make plays up the field. And they need a whole lot about that. You have to go that direction. The other part is kind of a combo. And that's the one-two punch at the tight end position coming up this year with Eric Aul and Luke Lachey. Luke Lachey last year led this team in yards per catch at over 14

a catch. Big plays from the tight end position. Eric Aul is your prototypical inline guy. He is big. He is physical. And Lachey can block as well. But Lachey also has that ability to go up the seam and make plays, and he's going to make some more plays, I think, up the field than what we've maybe grown accustomed here the last couple of years, what Sam Loparda and how close he's had to play to the line of scrimmage, and that goes hand in hand with what they have, obviously, with the offensive line problems. I think that offensive line is going to be not just better this year, because that goes without saying. It can't be much worse than what we saw this past season. There were all

kinds of issues with the offensive line, but when you're talking about fireworks, you're definitely going to see fireworks this year from the tight end position for Iowa. That means quarterback play is going to be improved. We've talked a ton about Cade McNamara and what he means to this team and his ability to get the ball out quick, to be incredibly accurate, maybe as accurate of a quarterback as Iowa's had an incredibly long time. Those things with what Iowa wants to do and how they're going to be, I think is going to lead to, yes, an explosive offense for Iowa standards this year. Look, I'm not here and telling you that this team's going to suddenly go out there and they're going to average 425 yards of total offense every single game. I mean, that's just,

it's so unlikely. Iowa the last time, and the only time that they've even been north of 375 came in year number two with Brian Ferentz as the offensive coordinator. It's been a long time. You got to go back to 2018 and that was an offensive line that took their lumps, had some studs out there and worse. And Larrick Jackson, the sophomores inside the guard play. There was a lot of moving parts, but they were at least adequate in that season. But the big plays that they were able to make, of course, came at the tight end position with TJ Hawkinson and Noah Fant. I think you're going to see that back again this season.

More on that offensive line. Mentioned the troubles that it was a year ago. Why do we have reason to be excited about the 2023 Iowa offensive line? That's as we continue here on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. We got a lot more coming. We're talking football.

We're talking some basketball as well. Tony Perkins as the starting point guard. We'll get into that also after we talk more football and talk to our friends at FanDuel. FanDuel Sportsbook, it's the official sportsbook of Locked On, and they got a great offer for you coming up again here this week. Take your first swing at all the action with what they're doing over there with MLB on FanDuel, and you get 10 times your first bet amount in bonus bets. That's right, bonus bets up to $200 going on right now at FanDuel.

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FanDuel.com slash LockedOn. FanDuel, official partner of Major League Baseball. Trent Conant back with you once again here on the LockedOn Hawkeyes podcast. As always, thanks for making LockedOn Hawkeyes your first listen every day. So we're talking some football today. We're talking about fireworks. And I do believe we are going to see some fireworks here coming up with this football team. Upgrade at the wide receiver position, no doubt.

Upgrade at the quarterback position, absolutely. Upgrade at running back., absolutely. Upgrade at running back. But you can talk about skill positions all you want. It doesn't matter if you can't block. So where's this optimism for this offensive line coming from? Well, you start with this. They can't be worse than they were a year ago. It's very simple and maybe a little bit frustrating just to think of it in that angle. But here's some numbers from you a year ago. Last year, I was offensive line. Offensive line numbers from footballoutsiders.com. Average line yards, just measuring what your offensive line is doing.

Mono e mono, 128th in the country. Standard downs offense, 127th in country. Again, this is out of 131 teams. Passing downs, 125th. Power success rate. This is lining up. Third and short, fourth and short. Goal to go situations. Line it up, power it in there. I was 97th.

That was the high watermark for this offensive line last year. Stuff rate, meaning did you get hit at the line of scrimmage or behind it? 125th. A lot of those last season. Zachary, better 120th in the country. Standard down Zachary, 124th. Passing down Zachary, 100th. They're bad.

No two ways about it. So you look at this offensive line this year and what they have. You start with Mason Richmond. He's taken some lumps, but he continues to evolve into an incredibly good left tackle. This is going to be a guy that's going to hear his name called in the NFL draft. I think you're going to see him go from a really nice player last season after learning on the ropes two years ago to becoming a star in the Big Ten. That's the kind of upside I believe we're going to have out of Mason Richmond. Connor Colby last year, we were hopeful that he could play the right tackle position. He could. And that's fine. You can be a great guard, and Connor Colby last year, we were hopeful that he could play the right tackle position. He could. And that's fine. You can be a great guard and Connor Colby can be a great guard.

And I continue to hear from people across the Big Ten landscape. This is not Iowa people. This is Big Ten people. This is national people that believe of what he is as a road grader at the guard position that you're going to see a huge season out of Connor Colby as he moves back inside. Logan Jones, there were frustrations last year, but they are saying everything positive that Logan Jones has figured out at the little bit of the hitch of the snap, but also not just that, but at times where he was overwhelmed, moving over from the defensive line to the offensive line, trying to take over for Tyler Lindenbaum.

It didn't go very well last season. Now it's about making the plays. It's not thinking, it's reacting. It's going out there and doing with the muscle memory and the repetitions that Iowa football does that Logan Jones is going to take a huge step. You bring in Rusty Fett, he'll be maybe at the other guard. So you're talking about Richmond, Colby, Logan Jones, Rusty Fett, and then the question remains at the right tackle position. Is it going to be Dejan Parker? Another transfer that they got out of the portal this year.

Kid from up in Saginaw. Really good feet. An opportunity for him to take a jump forward this year. Making the step up in competition. Playing Big Ten football. But there's anticipation. You'd love to see him. Obviously he got hurt right away in spring practice.

Get more. But you have that. And if it's not him, there's depth. There's guys that have played from Nick DeYoung to Bo Stevens, Jennings Ducker. You got three guys that have experience also that are going to be able to help out. Now, the last two guys, those guys are more interior guys. We're talking about more guards with both Dunker and with Stevens. But still, a little bit of depth now has been developed.

You bring in guys from the transfer portal to help solidify what they're going to do the versatility of a rusty feth played center played guard in the mac at miami of ohio you have all these things and that's why well it's not exactly fireworks but this offensive line is going to lead us some fireworks because i think they're going to be pretty good this year you know if they can be in the top half of an offensive line in the Big Ten this year, sixth, seventh, eighth, right in that range this upcoming season, you're going to see this offense unlocked. You're going to see a lot more positivity in the Boo Birds that were out in full force a year ago. I'm not going to have kind of the same swing at it this season. Speaking of fireworks, boy, over on the defensive side, and we could go all day long from the depth that they have up front at defensive line.

Nick Jackson's going to have 130 tackles this year behind that defensive line in front of him, taking over the middle position. He is going to be all over the place, making big plays for this Iowa team. We know the backfield and the versatility now that they have with Xavier Wampa becoming a full-time starter. Cooper Dejean, the All-American coming into this season. There is depth that is a little bit of a concern still. But overall, when you talk about those starters in the defensive backfield along with the linebacker spot, there's going to be big plays. And it's the Iowa defense.

I mean, they're always coming up with fireworks, right, out of that Iowa defense and even special teams. It's not very often you talk about a putter making fireworks, but we've seen it the last couple of years of Torrey Taylor out of that Iowa defense and even special teams. It's not very often you talk about a punter making fireworks, but we've seen it the last couple of years of Torrey Taylor and what he does and pinning guys deep and just placing that ball beautifully. And someone coming down there, one of the gunners comes down and catches the ball on the two-yard line.

Hey, for us Hawkeye fans, those are fireworks, and you're going to see more of that this upcoming season. Drew Stevens had the kicker. What a freshman campaign that he had. Again, the optimism meter for me is as high as it's been for the really long time with this Iowa football team and the schedule's there too. The schedule is set up for them to make an absolute big push forward

and not just to win the West. I think there's more there with this Iowa football team. All right, we continue our conversation on fireworks. We talk some basketball, both men's and women's, including Tony Perkins as the starting point guard. That could release some fireworks for this Iowa basketball team. We'll do that as we continue here. Get ready for the 4th of July. It's a Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. here. Get ready for the 4th of July.

It's a Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Try and count it back with you one final time on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Hey, every dayers coming up this week, we got a lot of fun things for you throughout the course of the week. We're going to have a throwback Thursday. We're going to take a look back at my favorite Iowa basketball team. It was back to the 80s. You youngsters out there, we're going to have to give you at my favorite Iowa basketball team. It was back to the

80s. You youngsters out there, we're going to have to give you a little bit of a lesson and we're going to go back in history and talk about the 86-87 Iowa basketball team. In fact, if you're watching on YouTube, you can see we'll shift over a little bit over my shoulder. There it is, my guys. There's Ed Horton, BJ Armstrong, and Roy Marble. Yeah, the super sophomores that year during the 86-87 campaign. And though I have a little Iowa basketball memory, remember George Raveling in his final season at the helm that first year of Dr. Tom Davis, my all-time favorite Hawkeye team. The depth that they had for a number of years.

They had the most ever players to go to the NBA on their roster on that team. And it's since been broken by, I believe, a Kentucky team. It has broken that. But the amount of depth that they had, the style of play that they had, it was so much fun. And we'll talk about that on a throwback Thursday

coming up here later in the week. We got a lot more going on. We continue to wait. The decision from the DCI as things are going to be handed down from their side and what the investigation is all going to entail. Of course, last week, we talked about the NCAA and the evolution of their rules

as it pertains to sports wagering. And you can go back and check out that podcast. We'll have more as the information continues to come in. But I want to finish up talking some basketball and Iowa basketball this year. I've said as much optimism as I have for football. It is the other way for the men's basketball team. The team that loses, obviously, another stud and Chris Murray and All-American. Did we want more out of Chris this year? Yeah, we did. Had the injury early in the season.

Really struggled in the Duke game. Sat out a couple of games, including that pitiful loss to Eastern Illinois. But we also had the good wins and what they did against Indiana, both home and away, and those great victories. There were some high moments throughout the course of the year, but ultimately, well, for so many people anymore, it's all that matters what happens in March in the NCAA tournament. And until Iowa can put together a couple of victories, that's going to continue to be the conversation.

But with this Iowa Hoops team. So the anticipation. In fact, last year, I believed that we were going to see DeSante Bowen. DeSante Bowen was going to take over the point guard spot. And I didn't know if it was going to be in December or January. But I felt eventually we were going to see Bone be the guy. Now, this is a player that Fran identified really early. And when Fran identifies guys early, well, a lot of times doesn't get over the hump in recruiting and Iowa finishes second

and third. And we've had plenty of those instances throughout the year, but this is a point guard. He identified early. It's a guy that he really liked. This was a top 100 guy, guy that had a really nice offer list. And I thought with Aaron Uless, who is pretty milquetoast, he was fine, but he was what he was. That Iowa was going to take a big, big step forward this season. And it was going to be Bowen at the point guard spot that was going to elevate what they've had after basically six, seven years of Bowhannon back there. It was going to be a different. It just didn't happen. We saw glimpses.

We saw moments. We saw some early in the season that we did late. There were a long stretch where we didn't see Bowen get off the bench, but a lot of people thought he was going to be the point guard, if not this year, last season, excuse me, certainly by this year. And throughout most of the offseason, that's been the case. Well, now there was media availability earlier last week. And what came out of that is that Tony Perkins has been running the show.

Now, I was a big advocate of Tony Perkins being a point guard more last season. I don't think he's a full-time guy. I don't think he's a guy out there, and if he's playing 32 minutes a game, that he's running the.30 of them. I don't think that is him at his best. But A, his ability with the ball. He is a guy that can put his head down, get into the lane. We saw it last year in the Illinois game where he just completely went off and it was ability to get into the paint, hit those short

jumpers, hit the 14, 18 footers, doing those kinds of things. That's when he's at his best, going downhill. Two years ago, when Iowa made the run in the Big Ten tournament, what they did at the end of the season, at the end of the regular season that year, though it was him and Bohannon out there, Bohannon was playing off the ball a ton. Tony Perkins was the point guard for big chunks of that team. And though Bohannon was out there,

that's what they were able to do with him. And I thought you saw him play at a high level. It was a frustrating year last year for Tony Perkins. But if Iowa is even going to be a bubble team this year, they need Tony Perkins to be a star. They need a ton of fireworks. They need a lot of those games like we saw against the Illini out of Tony Perkins. And if that's the case, if Perkins is your starting point guard, you go that direction with them. You think the Brock Harding's not ready. He's got to add a little bit more size, certainly physically, to defend at the Big Ten level. He can help you out in spurts,

but he's not going to be a starting point guard. And Bowen just has not progressed at the way that you thought. Well, there you go. You put Perkins there. You put the backcourt and put Sanford out there. I'm going to guess that Patrick McCaffrey will be back in the starting lineup.

And then a couple of different directions you go. Ben Crick,ricke will no be the guy in the middle. You know, do you go Evan Bronze? Do you go that direction? Do you play one of the young guys? It sounds like of the freshmen on campus right now, Owen Freeman continues to turn heads. Does Freeman become a starter as a freshman? And he's the four and Kricke's the five. You can go that route. You get more shooting out there. There's a lot of different directions that Fran can go with this team. But if it is Perkins at the start, going to be fun. Now, Iowa's got their trip coming up, their European trip here in about a month. They'll play three games.

We'll get a little bit more of information about the way things are going, those lineups, how they're put together. And one thing that Fran said, and I really like about this, is they are going to also go out there and they are going to just play with a lot of combos. Win-losses don't matter. They just don't. Yeah, if they lose to some random French team, I know people are going to freak out about it. That's just the reality of the situation. But if I was able to go out and do some good things, if I was able to go out there, play with some combos, learn some things about this team, maybe that's the push that they need to be better. Certainly

that I anticipate. And I think most of the media out there is going to agree. Saw a Big Ten rundown last week. They had Iowa 12 out of the 14 team, Big Ten coming up this season for men's basketball. And finally, the women's team. Where are the fireworks going to come from? Well, we know it's Kaitlyn Clark, but here's another one. And another thing that I'm excited to see and the explosiveness that this Iowa women's team is going to play with is getting Hannah Stulkey out there now and realistically a starting role.

And we're going to see her playing in 25, 28 minutes a game, something like that. We saw last year her ability to run the floor, her ability with the speed that she has along with the side, what you're going to see from her, coupled with what Jan Jensen does with post players. You're going to see a big step forward for Madison O'Grady. I don't think there's any doubt.

I know there were so many people that wanted to see I would do more in the portal. They want him to go out there and get one of the top bigs of the country and go out there and put together a roster that you believe can compete with LSU. Look, LSU, they ran into a buzzsaw in the national championship game. But again, it was the national championship game. Iowa got there, and they upended a team that everybody thought a year ago was unbeatable. Don't sleep on this team. Don't sleep on how good they are going to be again this season.

Is it going to culminate in the same place? Is it going to be another Final Four this year up in Cleveland? Are they going to be back there again? It's going to be a tough path. Look, Indiana's not going anywhere. Ohio State's going to be really good in the Big Ten. They play Virginia Tech early. You know Iowa State, and you and I and Drake are going to be ready for them

in the non-conference. It's going to be a tough year. And the realism of getting even a top two seed, it's going to be really difficult this season. But you're going to see improvements out of the two posts that I mentioned. You're going to see fireworks there. You got Gabby Marshall hitting the three-pointers from the outside. Kate Martin doing her thing.

It's going to be another fun season of women's basketball, and I am here for that. Thanks for joining us here today on lockdown Hawkeyes, little Hawkeye fireworks for you as we get ready for the 4th of July. Stay safe out there. Have a great time. Celebrate America. Celebrate the summer. It is a great time. And we love being with you here on lockdown Hawkeyes. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Go Hawks.