Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Hawkeye football offensive line woes, QB Changes & Booing from Fans

Episode Date: September 6, 2022

Trent Condon and LeShun Daniels return for another Locked on Hawkeyes Podcast.LeShun gives his reaction to the woes at the quarterback spot with the struggles from Spencer Petras. He also gives some i...nsight into the problems on the offensive line including what he saw from the new center Logan Jones.Finally a conversation from the fans booing at Kinnick Stadium.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! LinkedIn LinkedIn jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at Linkedin.com/lockedoncollege Terms and conditions apply. Built Bar Built Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order. BetOnline BetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! Upside Download the FREE Upside App and use promo code Locked to get $5 or more cash back on your first purchase of $10 or more.  Underdog Fantasy Sign up on underdogfantasy.com with the promo code LOCKED ON and get your first deposit doubled up to $100!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Back with you another edition of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Trent Condon joined today by LaShawn Daniels. We'll get LaShawn's thoughts on what we saw on Saturday and the disappointing offensive effort as Iowa gets the 7-3 win against South Dakota State. Kurt Fares talked to the media today. The players talked to the media and some interesting nuggets coming out of that. And, of course, it is hate week. Cy Hawk week is here.
Starting point is 00:00:25 We talk about the rivalry with the Cyclones. All coming up on today's Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Trent Cotton here. LaShawn Daniels over there. This is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen each and every day.
Starting point is 00:01:06 Available wherever you get podcasts. And you can also check us up on YouTube. Just search Lockdown Hawkeyes and give us a subscribe. I'll click over there as we approach the 1,000 mark. I put the goal to get it by the Michigan game, LaShawn. If we continue at this pace and if the Iowa offense struggles like this, I think we're going to have a lot of watchers and a lot of listeners. Boy, what a frustrating weekend it was watching that one seven three and no not on a touchdown two safeties in a field goal how you feeling uh probably the same way everyone's kind of feeling right now uh not
Starting point is 00:01:40 the greatest but we did come out with the win, which is better than a loss. So that is like the one good part of it, right? And, you know, defensively and special teams wise, we were fantastic. So those are some good things. But outside of that, yeah, not the best. You know, it's going back to the offseason. Our conversations, LaShawn leading in to the season, we talked about the quarterback position.
Starting point is 00:02:09 And the part that, well, there's a lot of frustrating parts, I think, as you know, and I think our listeners know. But one thing that does get very frustrating to me is we heard it was going to be an open competition, right, that there was going to be a competition. But it never played out in that fashion. From spring football to summer to the offseason to August camp, we all could read between the lines that Spencer Petras was going to win this job, that this was not an open competition.
Starting point is 00:02:37 And it's just so surprising to me. And this goes back to even two years ago, before 2020, when he was basically handed the starter. That's not how things are done in Iowa football. You know this incredibly well. You played it. You're not just handed things. And now for the third year in a row,
Starting point is 00:02:53 it feels like Spencer Petras was just handed this job. That's something that I really struggle to wrap my mind around, how it's played out in this fashion. Yeah. I tend to agree with you a bunch um of what you just mentioned because like the situation that we're in right now quarterback wise i mean it's it's got to be one of the worst if not the worst than calls football right now and to essentially just hand the job over to a guy who again i, I've never met Spencer in person, right?
Starting point is 00:03:27 So I can't speak on his character or anything like that. But what I've gotten is that, yeah, he's a great guy, you know, does everything right in the building and all that. Like teammates love him, which is which is great and fantastic. Right. And Coach Ferentz always says that he practices well. Right. It's like that's that's where everything kind of starts. Right can't earn the starting job right if you don't practice well um but all that said like at some point it's got to come down to like the play on the football field on Saturdays right because like if I'm practicing you know great I look like you know a Hall of Famer in practice, but I go out there and I can't do some of the most basic fundamental things that my positional spot asks for. as a coach and, I mean, as a competitor and as a player,
Starting point is 00:04:27 like Spencer's never going to sit out and just be like, yeah, like I'm not going to play. You should start like this other guy, right? These decisions ultimately come down to the coaches right now. And I feel like just right now, their choices right now, just it isn't really benefiting the team at this point in time. you know i haven't been in the building right so it's hard for me to kind of speak on it i've been in the building before but right now i'm an outsider right i'm a former player kind of just looking i'm looking in but like right now it's it's tough to see see their vision and
Starting point is 00:05:01 kind of how they want to move forward like with the situation you have now now this is not all on spencer petras there's plenty of blame to go around he had his struggles and struggles that continue to feel like they compound themselves it's not just a struggle because he's not real athletic he can't't move outside the pocket. It's missing open receivers. It's guys that are wide open, easy throws. I mean, these are junior high-level throws, and he's just missing, and he's doing it with lazy mechanics. That's Tony Rassiopi, his quarterback coach. I mean, get rid of that guy.
Starting point is 00:05:37 That guy, I think he's the one that talks about, all right, we've got a dovetail left, a drop step right. No, you're throwing the football to slant. I mean, there's too much it feels like going on in the mind of Spencer Petras, where he's overthinking every single thing, lazy mechanically, throwing off the back foot. He's not confident, and that confidence, I think, is shattered. You can blame the fans for booing.
Starting point is 00:05:59 I think that would hurt anybody's confidence. Brian Ferentz in the play calling. The offensive line is bad. And I do want to go there next with you, LaShawn, because you know offensive line and how important it is at Iowa in the scheme to have that line. What did you see up front? They were substituting a bunch of different guys,
Starting point is 00:06:16 guys playing new positions that they hadn't before. Mason Richmond hadn't had a chance to practice a whole lot leading into the game as he's coming off an injury. What do you see up front and maybe some of the reasons that Spencer Petras did struggle? Yeah. It's kind of some of the same stuff that, you know, Spencer has been struggling with, right?
Starting point is 00:06:36 I mean, a lot of fundamental work is just, it's poor. It's not up to the standard that, you know, it's been in the past and what, you know, I know for a fact that these guys are capable of, right? Like, we're at a point, like, right now, you know, on Saturday where we couldn't run. You know, just, again, me looking at, watching it from the TV view, right? It looked like we couldn't even run, you know, our base offense. We couldn't run, you know, some of our most basic plays without, you know, having something go wrong, right? Like, obviously, there's going to be times in a football game,
Starting point is 00:07:11 especially playing Division I football, where, you know, you just lose, you just lose against another player, right? I mean, those guys, they practice, too. They're on scholarship. They're on all these different things, right? So, obviously, they're trying to compete. They're trying to win reps. But there are times where it's like they're not even, like the defenders, like the D-line and linebackers, like they weren't even doing anything, you know, spectacular, you know, getting around blocks or beating blocks, right? It was just, you know, bad fundamentals, you know, not keeping a good base,
Starting point is 00:07:43 not having a good punch, not having good punch, all those different things. And, yeah, I get it. Like a lot of our offensive linemen, again, it's young, right? I mean, right now our center is a guy who was a defensive lineman, right, who made the switch to offense, right? So I see there's going to be an adjustment there. But, like, right now, just fundamentally, I just feel like, in general, from pretty much everywhere, kind of on the offensive side of football, right, I just feel like
Starting point is 00:08:13 fundamentally, like, the things just aren't there. They're not there to the level that it's been in the past. Even when I was in school, right, like, we didn't have, you know, the most spectacular offenses, right, in the Big Ten, right? I mean, everyone knows that. We all saw it. But, I mean, like it wasn't ever really a discussion, like, of, you know, are these guys going to be able to score a touchdown in the game, right,
Starting point is 00:08:38 or are they going to be able to move the football, right? Like, those are things that we were able to do, even if it wasn't consistently, like, we were able to move the football and at least put up points on the board on Saturdays because we had solid fundamentals. Now, if you want to talk about talent and ability, right, that's a whole other discussion. But right now, I feel like the guys, like, at least some positions,
Starting point is 00:09:01 like, we're not necessarily lacking in talent right now, at least up front, right? Right now, it's just, like,'re not necessarily locking lacking the talent right now at least up front right right now it's just like i can't even judge the talent because the fundamentals are all over the place and it's not producing really at the level that um you know offensive lines have produced in the past so that's something that's got to get fixed you know regardless what happens at the quarterback spot um and the rest of the skill positions, right? Like if we can't block consistently up front and run some of our base offense stuff, like the rest of the stuff is going to matter
Starting point is 00:09:32 because whichever back there is going to be running for their life, whether they're passing the football or hitting the ball off. All right, LaShawn, with that, what other on the offensive line? And obviously you watch a lot of center play you mentioned logan jones out there with your little brother james and what he's done and what a technician he is that's one thing in the aspect that i know a guy that knows offensive line pretty well and he mentioned to me you know technically that's the thing that makes him most concerned it's not that they're getting beat or they're young. There's a lot of aspects technically that are off.
Starting point is 00:10:06 And one thing that jumps to mind, somebody like myself that doesn't know offensively well, is Logan Jones. It felt like the snap count was a little bit off. He was slow snapping the ball, something there. I mean, there had to be four, five, six times throughout the course of the game where it looked like something was just funky with the snap. Any insight into what that possibly could have been is it as that maybe he was just a half tick slow getting the snap back
Starting point is 00:10:30 there my guess is yeah he's just a little bit slow getting back there because again like center i mean like if you think about it it's the easiest defensive line but it's also the hardest spot right like you really have to be consistent in your snaps every single time um right and then after you snap the football right you got to go and block someone who's trying to right get by you and make a play and all different things right and when you're making that transition from defensive line um you know when you're not used to hearing a cadence, right, and all the noises and stuff that's going on, like, during the stadium, like in the game, and now when you're making that switch over to the offensive side of the ball, now you're actually the guy that's snapping the football. to adjust to, you know, getting used to that cadence, getting used to hearing the crowd, getting used to hearing, you know,
Starting point is 00:11:30 adjustments come from, you know, the quarterback or, you know, the line talking and making adjustments on the fly, you know, right before the snap count. So that is a little adjustment that it kind of takes for centers, right, especially for young centers, right? I mean, I'm sure if you watch a bunch of young centers, you know, throughout, you know, Saturdays, I'm sure that some of those guys there are going to be a little bit slower with the snaps and things of that nature.
Starting point is 00:11:53 But that said, I'm not too worried about that part of the game because that's something that's going to get fixed, right? I mean, everyone, we all saw it, right? I mean, he's going to get used to hearing the cadence going on. He's going to get used to getting that ball out much quicker on time. So he's in sync with the rest of the offensive linemen. So that part I'm not too worried about for now. But the fundamentals piece of it, that's something that really has to start,
Starting point is 00:12:21 obviously, getting hit home. Because, again, he's a switch. He was an offensive lineman. He came in, right? He's playing defense. It's a lot different, you know, feeding blocks and defeating blocks than it is to actually block that guy and keep him from making the play and actually driving and moving your feet and making sure that, you know,
Starting point is 00:12:41 the quarterback or the running back has space to maneuver. So that's the offensive line that I'm a little bit more focused on at the moment. And I know that I was, especially early on in the season, they'll do a lot of rotating with the line to really find their guys. But sometimes I just wish that they just kind of kept one kind of core group together, let them gel, let them mesh and work and really develop that chemistry. So, you know, they actually look smoother, you know, come on Saturdays versus, you know,
Starting point is 00:13:16 play musical chairs with guys in and out. So plenty of that. That's the Sean Daniels. I'm Trent Cotton, Lockdown Hawkeyes here. We're going to continue the conversation in just a moment. We're going to talk a little bit about quarterbacks and a quarterback and what it was like when LaShawn was playing and they went through that.
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Starting point is 00:14:34 And who knows if it's going to happen. The depth chart was released yesterday. It was still Spencer Petras listed on top. But you were there during the Rudak into C. cj bretherd transformation at the end of 2014 that ugly bowl lost to tennessee and boy a lot of things wrong that day i doubt it florida but of course he's bounced back and then 2015 a historic season 12-0 in the regular season but it took maybe a little pushing a little plotting from cj bethers to get to that point saying look he's he's out of here if this doesn't happen but you had a really talented backup and i
Starting point is 00:15:13 think the difference here that jay christensen and ricky stainsey that's before your time ricky stainsey though an ohio guy him taking over for christians these are guys that ended up playing in the nfl alex padilla probably not play in the nfl right there's not a waiting backup that is that easy turn maybe that's what makes this more difficult but quarterback controversy it's a huge thing in what i do in media right talking on the radio every day talking on podcasts it's huge it gets clicked to get all those things what about for a player in the locker room isn't that big of a deal how does it play out at the quarterback spot yeah so um you know as much as we obviously try to keep the noise outside the building like outside the building um naturally
Starting point is 00:15:57 that stuff just works its way in right i mean there's no getting around it i mean we're called kids on the campus right we go to class. We hear conversations. We talk to people all the time. So we know that it's definitely a thing. That said, I think Jack Campbell kind of summed it up really the best the other day after the game. Basically, they're going to be behind who's ever back there no matter what. It doesn't really matter who they decide to choose right we know that as players right like we have a job um that we have to focus on right we can't focus on you know what guys in
Starting point is 00:16:39 there what they're doing um you know if they're struggling if they're not right like they see we're just trying to be good teammates by, first, making sure that we're doing our jobs, right? Make sure that we're focusing on our game, our assignments, making sure that we're doing those things to the best of our ability. And then, two, right, if a guy is struggling and we see them, you know, down the dumps, you know, maybe losing a little bit of confidence that we're trying to pick them up, right? And be like, hey, it's all right, man.
Starting point is 00:17:08 Next play, next opportunity or whatever, right? Because if we start worrying about a bunch of that noise and we start worrying about who's in there versus who's not, then our play is going to start to suffer more and that's going to be another drain on the team. And we know that everything, you know, cultural ball-wise, to be a great team, right, you've got to rely on each other.
Starting point is 00:17:34 It doesn't matter who's in there, right? You've got to make sure that you're backing them as much as possible. So, yeah, as a player, we definitely hear the noise a bunch, and we would never, like, outright go and just blame someone, throw someone under the bus if they're not playing well. That's just not what we do as Coastal Bowl players, and it's definitely not how the culture is at Iowa. So honestly, I wouldn't expect anything less, honestly,
Starting point is 00:18:02 coming from the guys in post-game interviews and things like that. They're going to stick with whoever they choose, and that's pretty much that. So not a lot of controversy, like, inside those walls, I guess, between teammates. It's one thing that, you know, between those walls that I've always been so impressed with Coach Ferentz about throughout the years.
Starting point is 00:18:27 And it feels like every time there's that back-to-the-wall kind of spot, right, where Iowa, oh boy, looks like the program's struggling. 2020, after that tumultuous offseason, an 0-2 start, and they rip off six straight wins. Go back to the win against number three-ranked Michigan, you know, with the Duncan kick. They lost the week before against Penn State, and they look brutal. The huge win against number three ranked Michigan, you know, with the Duncan kick. They lost the week before against Penn State. They look brutal. The huge win against Ohio State. I mean, one of the greatest wins in Iowa history, 52-24 the week before.
Starting point is 00:18:53 They look brutal. The offensive line looked as bad as it's ever looked. And we can play the game for the last 24 years of Kirk Ferentz. When it looks like there is no chance that they're going to figure it out, they always find a way to figure it out. And it goes to that part. LaShawn, with that, though, I do have one final thing. When we come back, I want to talk a little bit about booing.
Starting point is 00:19:12 What is like that perspective from a fan? I've been in the crowd. I was in the student section with one of the more famous booing incidents, Iowa-Michigan in 1999. Yeah, LaShawn, I'm an old man. Back in my freshman year and seeing that. Actually, it in 1999. Yeah, LaShawn, I'm an old man. Back in my freshman year and seeing that. Actually, it was 98. And just how disappointing that was with the big change
Starting point is 00:19:31 and hoping that Brad Banks was going to take over the reins, and it was Kyle McCann and the boos that rained down. We'll get your perspective on that as we continue here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. All right, LaShawn, final thing, and it is what just mentioned going into the timeout, booing from the fans. They were out
Starting point is 00:19:49 in full force. I know I mentioned to you, I've talked about it a lot this summer, I knew that it had a chance to be a very toxic environment inside the Kinnick if it was a bad start for Spencer Petras. I anticipated it. I knew enough people. I know enough season ticket holders. I knew what it was going to look like, and it might even have been a little bit worse. I anticipated it. I knew enough people. I know enough season ticket holders.
Starting point is 00:20:07 I knew what it was going to look like, and it might have even been a little bit worse than I anticipated. A, because I didn't think the quarterback play was going to be that bad, and Iowa was going to slow as much as they did offensively. But from a player perspective, when you're hearing that, you know running up the tunnel at Kinnick's great. You know the excitement. You know the fans say they love you, but there's also some expectations.
Starting point is 00:20:25 Your perspective, your takeaway when you hear that booing inside of Kenneth from Saturday. Yeah. So for starters, it tells me, hey, I play for a passionate, passionate fan base, right? Like it's a team. It's a bunch of fans. They want to see us be great. They want to see us win a lot of football games. They want to see us play extremely well, right? That's one thing that you do get from that.
Starting point is 00:20:48 But also with that, you hear it and it can kind of be a little bit frustrating because obviously everyone that goes out there, they're not trying to suck. They have a bad game. They're not going out there like, yeah, I'm trying to be bad. I'm trying to be a bad football player. like no one's going out there they're not doing that right um so it can be a little bit frustrating from that piece of it but then you also remember like hey like i am playing big time college football right at the end of the day right this is this is something that kind of comes with that that territory right there's going to be too critics. There's going to be all these different things,
Starting point is 00:21:25 too many people talking about us, whether it's in the media, as fans, all different stuff. And as a player, you're trying to manage that as much as possible. I mean, heck, I mean, even when I was playing, I mean, heck, I would have a good game if people still wanted less of me. Like, you know, like it's something that, you know, kind of comes with the territory of playing big-time college football. And I feel like it's not – I feel like the booing, and correct me if I'm wrong, isn't necessarily directly kind of just pointed at Spencer, right?
Starting point is 00:21:57 Obviously, like, yeah, they're frustrated at Spencer. But they understand, like, hey, he's a college athlete, right? He's not the one – like, again, like I athlete right he's not the one like again like i said he's not going out there he's not trying to suck right i feel like it's more something that's going you know towards the coaches and kind of their decision to continue to put them out there when you know the success just isn't there right i mean so you you understand that you you get where that's coming from and, it can be a little bit frustrating, but you know as a player, like, hey, I'm playing big-time college football.
Starting point is 00:22:29 This is something that kind of comes from the territory. It sucks. But I know that, hey, if I start playing better, right, those boos turn to cheers pretty, pretty fast, right? So, again, I know, like, a bunch of the boos, they're not directed outright to Spencer, right? It's a bunch on the coaches, right? Because again, they're the one that are making those decisions to put them out there.
Starting point is 00:22:49 And I mean, if at some point I feel like a change is going to have to be made, right? Or it's just going to continue to like those boos are just going to get louder and louder. And it's really going to be deafening at some point where it's going to feel like we're the away team. If Alabama and Nick Saban can make a quarterback change at halftime of a national championship game, there's no reason why it couldn't happen here at Iowa. Granted, obviously, we don't have a Jalen Hurts or a Tua Tagovailoa back in the quarterback room, but still, there's going to need to be some type of energy, you know,
Starting point is 00:23:31 from that quarterback spot. Or, again, I feel like those blues are going to continue to get louder and louder, you know, especially, you know, this weekend, you know, with the CyOx trophy, right, where it's going to be crazy, it's going to be electric, right? We know it's a rivalry game. And, you know, go out there, we start struggling. Like, you know, it's got potential to get ugly and even raises the potential of us even losing that football game. So that's kind of where I'm at with the boos.
Starting point is 00:24:02 Like, I understand it. It's very, very frustrating though, as a player, but we get it like, Hey, we're playing big time calls football. This isn't high school. We're not playing at, you know, a max school, right. We're playing power five football in the big 10, you know, so something that comes with the territory. Well, with that, it is you're right.
Starting point is 00:24:24 LaShawn, I think a chance to get very ugly if the quarterback play continues to struggle, if the offense as a whole continues to struggle, and we don't see a change, and Iowa's down 17-3 to Iowa State and staring at the loss for the first time since 2014 to the Cyclones. It's going to be ugly inside of Kinnick. And with that, I want to thank you again for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen each and every day. How about this for your second listen?
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Starting point is 00:25:14 LaShawn, back at it on Friday. We'll talk to you then, and we'll bring some positive vibes. We'll also talk about the rivalry and get into that, but positivity. We're going to try to turn the page. It's been a chance to let a little bit of the anger out, and we'll be back on Friday. We'll be a little more positive on that. How does that sound?
Starting point is 00:25:32 Yeah, I think we could definitely use a change of pace for sure. We'll do that. We'll make our pick still a couple more days. We'll be solo tomorrow. Thursday edition, my buddy Jace will stop by. All here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for listening again. And make sure to click that subscribe button on YouTube.
Starting point is 00:25:50 Locked On Hawkeyes. Back at it tomorrow. Thanks, everybody. This has been the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.

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