Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Hawkeye football offensive wrinkles & What it's like to play for Brian Ferentz

Episode Date: August 5, 2022

Trent Condon and LeShun Daniels return with another edition of the Locked on Hawkeyes Podcast. They open things up with a look at the Iowa offense and what kind of wrinkles the guys would like to see this upcoming season.They then talk about why it seems like Iowa football always audibles to runs to the short side of the field. LeShun talks about the different running backs options for the Hawkeyes and what kind of back fits in best for the way that Iowa plays football. Trent talks about his idea to get Arland Bruce IV more involved in the run game.Finally, it's a look at Brian Ferentz and the pressure that is upon him for the upcoming season. LeShun talks about what it's like to play for him and the differences between he and Kirk. Trent poses the question about what happens if the offense doesn't improve in 2022.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn 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 BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Another edition of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Myself, Trent Condon, and LaShawn Daniels take a look at the wrinkles we expect out of the Iowa offense in 2022. LaShawn, a former running back, what's it like and what's the best running back for the Iowa Hawkeyes scheme? And Brian Ferencz, what's it like?

He goes from offensive coordinator into new title. Quarterback coach will ask LaShawn what it's like to play for Brian Ferentz. 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 once again to the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Trent Condon here. LaShawn Daniels there.

LaShawn, it's Friday. We're getting ready for the weekend. And boy, those summer months, they are becoming, weekends are becoming more and more precious. We got football right around the corner. Last night, kicked off Jacksonville and the Raiders. And I'll tell you, I watched a whole lot more of that football game than I anticipated. Now, of course, I bet on it because that's what I do. But also, I just was so happy to see football again last night.

Yeah, yeah. Anytime football is back on the TV, like, you know, like, all right, it's time, right? Regardless if it's preseason or not, right? I just love seeing football out there. And even watch one of our former Hawkeyes play for a little bit. Makai did pretty well yesterday. So, yeah, anytime football's on the TV, it means we're getting around that time of the year, which is what I love.

No doubt. And I'm right there with you. And we get a little bit of a respite now. Wait until next week when every team will get their chance to play three preseason games, the extra NFL game. But we're here to talk about Hawkeyes. And we talked about a little bit with you last week because these guys now are in camp. They've been into it now for a couple of days.

You're kind of getting your feet underneath you just this time. What are you looking to do? Of course, you want to catch a coach's eye, right? You want to get your position coach. You want to get the coordinator, whatever it is. You're working to do that as you're going through the reps. And it's got to be such a grind out there every single day what's the mindset what was the mindset for you as camp was going on you knew you still had a lot of practice in front of you but just trying to maybe get the eye of that coach yeah um you know especially like if you're

a young guy or a guy who hasn't uh played a lot of football um this early part of camp um especially like while we're just in shells and helmets um you really you're really just trying to get down a lot of fundamentals and really learn the playbook because right now the bulk of the install most of the offense takes place pretty much early on in camp right um and then once you get past that point in time then you can start to kind of start playing faster and um doing doing the things that you know how to do best but early on in camp you want to show the coaches that hey going out there and executing and taking the corrections that are made in the film room and applying them out there on the football field

right so there's not there's not going to be there's not too much kind of going on right now it's still like a lot of people, a lot of the guys, just knocking the punch of the rust off, getting their feet under them to prepare for themselves as the season goes along. Because, again, fall camp, it's a long period of time. You still have about a month until the first football game. So there's still a lot of practices that are going to have to go through. But at least early on in camp, you want to show a coach like hey i'm coachable um you know i can learn um things

pretty quickly i can grasp my assignments so when i go out there i know that they the coaches have belief that they know that you know that what you're supposed to be doing out there so well today's episode brought to you by bet online bet online has you covered this season with more props odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline, where the game starts. I mentioned I'm already deep into it, betting on preseason football. And, you know, another bet that you could possibly make out there is how much improvement are we going to see

from this Iowa football offense this year, an offense that was much maligned a year ago. You had the team won 10 games, a quarterback position. It goes hand-in in hand with it. But LaShawn, I'll tell you, you're looking for some wrinkles. You know that this is not going to suddenly be an offense that's going to look a whole lot different, right? It's not going to be where suddenly we see them out there chucking around 50 times a

game or they're going to go away from the zone blocking scheme. The fundamentals are going to remain the same. Are there any wrinkles? Is there anything that you look at and you say, I want to see this just a little bit different, knowing it's not going to be a complete tweak? It's not going to be anything wild that we're going to see this season. Some wrinkles maybe that you're looking for.

Yeah. It's a great question. For starters, I think one of the easiest ways that Iowa in general can get can add some different wrinkles is really just kind of how plays are called in different situations when they're called. Right. I think, for example, last year, I know a lot of times like guys like to see us, you know, open up, open up a playbook a little bit and throw on first down. like guys like to see is you know open them open up a playbook a little bit and throw on first down right but i want to say i don't remember who had posted it and so someone's probably gonna have to fact check me on this but if there was a time where we threw the ball so as a defense if i if i know like we're scheming against iowa and i know that hey if they they go come out throwing and they don't complete that first play like it's a pretty high probability that they're going to run for the next play right and with this type of success i guess

non-existent success that we had um in the run game last year right you're already behind the chains and then you have you know maybe a one yard gain or even if you go for a loss now you're in third and long and now the defense can probably do whatever they want um because they know that our offensive passing offense just isn't isn't there where it needs to be right so that's that that's one area right where coach brian ferens can make some adjustments right just kind of scheming against himself right like if i'm okay if i know that the defense is anticipating that i'm gonna run the football on, you know, second down, why not just try to open it up? Why not try to, you know, push the ball downfield a little bit more on second down, even if we are behind the change after first down, right? That's one area.

Another area is obviously just trying to get some of your skill guys in space some more. I know that that's things, those are things that they try to do a little bit and depending upon how the game's going right a lot of times they find themselves getting away from that and uh try to fall back on old habits instead of trying to continue on with some of their game plan game plan stuff right so i feel like those are those are a couple areas where as a play caller the defense isn't just predicting or every single move right as well as you know some of the checks and audibles that happen i know that we have a lot of our basic audibles a lot of times like hey yeah we gotta go here lashawn because i'll tell you i mean i've been watching this this offense

some iteration one way or the other now for the last 24 years. And why does it feel like every single time they're checking something, it's just a run to the left? Why does it help us out here? Because I know it's not true, but boy, does it feel like it watching from the stands? Yeah. It's like a,

if they're bringing a blitz on some side, right. It's pretty much all right. Checking slant to usually into the boundary. Right. Yes. Short side of the field. There we go.

Yeah, everyone knows it. We see it every single Saturday. Brandon, it's one of the bread and butters. I mean, heck, I mean, the slant plays and the inside zone plays, I mean, those are the first plays that we install, right? So, I mean, it's very easy to run. It's an easy check for a quarterback to make, right? And especially, like, if they're blitzing from, you mean, it's it's it's very easy to run. It's easy check for a quarterback to make. Right. And especially like if they're blitzing from the field side, you're kind of trying to run away from that.

But when you know you're not when the when the blocks up front aren't clean and the running backs are making a definitive decision on those plays. Right. It makes it very difficult for you to have success in those plays. But, yeah, I mean, we all know know it every team that we go against knows that i mean heck even when i played we even tried to change like how we called how we would call the audibles right and team still kind of got a handle on it like hey they're checking it this way they're running this way um so i think i think a part of it is a little bit of a pride thing as well. It's like, hey, this is what we do. We don't want to change it really for anyone. Yeah, we're going to make a few adjustments, but at the end of the day,

this is our bread and butter, and we're going to run this because that's what we want, right? And that's what usually Coach Ferentz wants, right? He wants to run the football. He wants to run his scheme. He wants to run these slam plays and really inflict some some pain on defenses doing that so that's that's a little bit that's why that's why it feels that way um but you know as a play caller um i feel like brian does get some input on a bunch of things obviously because, because obviously they are family, right?

They've been coaching together for a while now. So he does definitely get some additional input. And I think that we see it sometimes, but I feel like there's definitely times where we can build a little bit more off of that. Well, we're going to come back when we do, we're going to talk a little bit about another name that I think could help out this running game this season.

Of course, Tyler Goodson, he's off to the NFL. He's working out right now with the Green Bay Packers as he gets his shot at the next level. A different kind of name. We'll talk about that. We'll also get LaShawn's thoughts on playing for Brian Ferentz. We'll do that as we continue back here in a moment with more. It's the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. So I mentioned earlier, betonline.net, the fastest and easiest way to check in on all your betting needs.

I'm betting baseball every single day. I got a couple of golfers going this weekend. Both guys in the top five right now have them to win, so I'm going to be watching some golf this weekend. But we know most importantly, football is right around the corner, and you want to get in with BetOnline. They continue to be the top online resource for all your wagering information, live in-game betting, scores, and podcasts. They have you covered there.

Head to BetOnline today. Use your mobile device to learn more on the action happening today. BetOnline, where the game starts. All right, so let's roll through here. We talked a little bit, LaShawn, earlier about what we're going to see with this offense, some of the improvements that possibly could happen in the running game. So I want to go to Arlen Bruce. So I got to see Arlen play his senior season, calling high school football here in Central Iowa and their run to the state championship.

He transfers in, he's ineligible, then he's eligible eligible all I knew is as soon as I saw that dude I said I don't care where he is that dude is a playmaker he makes a play to beat Dowling in the semifinals defensively hadn't played defense all year they put him back there he has an interception that helps win that football game he just makes plays is he going to be a guy that catches 60 70 balls in a season I don't think so, but they're just something. Those guys, they have that wiggle. They have that dynamic personality. We saw that a year ago at times where they got him involved.

How easy is that to unlock in the Iowa offense? A guy with the jet sweeps, the end of rounds, getting them involved different ways, and a guy with the talents like an Arlen Bruce. Yeah. First off, when you have a guy, a skilled guy like that, that can just create plays with the ball in their hands, right, you want to do whatever you can, right, scheme-wise to help emphasize that, right?

There was a bunch of times I was last year, they found several different ways to get him the football, whether it was in the passing game whether it was in the passing game, it was in the run game, short pass game, wherever, right? They just wanted to finally get the ball in his hands. And I feel like as a play caller, right, that's where you got to let your kind of creativity kind of go to work, right? You obviously have a lot of your base stuff, your fundamentals, things that you do all the time. But as we've kind of mentioned throughout the show, right, there's different wrinkles and things that offense can do that can, again, alleviate some pressure on offense and put the defense on their heels.

And having a guy like Arlen Bruce allows for that type of versatility. So I'm anxious to see kind of how they how they build on that some more, because obviously we've seen guys like that throughout college football for several different teams, right, where they have that kind of guy where they're listed as a receiver, but really they're kind of just an athlete on the offensive side of the football, where they can virtually do everything on the field. And that's really how you let your creativity go, because that's going to help open up a lot of different things, right? When you have a guy like that that can create big plays with the ball in his hand um it makes it that much easier on the rest of the offense right because again as i mentioned the defense does have to play on

their heels so it's going to be interesting to see how that plays out we uh we talked a lot about obviously the running game and it makes sense with your background what kind of running back do you think works best in Iowa's system? I mean, a guy like you, more of that power kind of running back, a speedster. I'm just so intrigued because you got both Williamses coming back, both Gavin and LaShawn. Both those guys run hard. They got some size to them.

Hilson's also on the roster. He was banged up last year. And then they bring in two freshmen this year. Caleb Johnson, the dude looks like Hulk already. I mean, he is put together. He's an Ohio guy. You know that he's going to be ready to go. I'm just intrigued by a guy like Jay-Z.

They haven't had that quick, shifty, kind of quick twitch kind of guy at the running back spot in a while. Can a guy like that work 20, 25 carries a game? If it turns out that he is a player that is ready to go not at this point but down the line is i was offense conducive to having that smaller running back be able to be i guess you're you're every down back if you will so it's interesting i would say that yes i mean a smaller back definitely does have the ability but you kind of have to be careful just because of the frame that they're getting right the friend that they have right just naturally giving having them you know run the

football 20 25 times a game isn't really the smartest thing to do right because you obviously want to you want to keep those guys healthy but i do think a small running back can have plenty of success in the offense right because especially Because especially in a zone blocking scheme, you watch, you know, football on Sundays, right? And you watch the Packers and Aaron Jones, right? A fantastic zone running back, right? Does an excellent job of being patient, taking his time and reading the hole. And then when he hits the hole, right, he's very definitive on it.

And another thing that aaron jones has is obviously fantastic lateral speed um and quickness to make the bright jump cuts right the hole is closed you can bounce it in bounce it out right and make a place um wherever you can right so i feel like a back like that is definitely the back that you're really looking for in a zone-type scheme that Iowa runs. But now you know that Iowa also has a bunch of their power plays, right? You know, third and short, power is typically going to be the play that's going to be coming, right? So you want to have, in that situation, you definitely want to have a back that is a little bit bigger, that has that straight-ahead speed, but also is going to have some pretty good size

to be able to want to fall forward. But in the grand scheme of things, when you're looking at Iowa's offense and you're looking at, you know, the ideal running back for offense that can essentially play all the downs, right, you're going to want a guy that's going to have great patience, excellent vision, and excellent lateral quickness

to succeed in the run game. And then in the pass game, right, you want to have a guy that can obviously pick up blitzers and pass protection and catch the football out of the backfield. So it's going to be interesting this year with the amount of backs that we have. I feel like there's a bunch of guys that are there that have the ability to create plays. And I'm even more intrigued to see both of the Williams to go out there and see what they actually can do. Because obviously we only really got a small taste of them last year

in the bowl game. So it'll be interesting to see how those guys develop and as well as the younger guys behind them. Good stuff there. I just go back to 2015 with you and Jordan Canzeri, kind of two different type of backs back there, how successful both you guys were. Akron was out there getting the football at times too.

It just, those different dynamics and different kind of running backs, I think works really well. And it's great to get your perspective on that. All right, LaShawn, we're going to come back and we're going to talk about playing for Brian Ferentz. A lot of pressure on him. You can hear from the interviews this summer. Chad Leistico

recently here with the Des Moines Register. Scott Dockerman about a month ago, back in June, he talked to Tom Caker of Hawkeye Report. He knows the pressure. What's it like to play for Brian Ferentz? We'll talk about that when we come back. More on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. All right, one final thing with you, LaShawn,

and that is the new quarterback coach, Brian Ferentz. Now, when you played for Brian, did you ever think that was going to be one of his titles? Offensive coordinator, yeah, you can see that. Quarterback coach, Brian Ferentz. Yeah, quarterback coach is definitely something I didn't see. And then especially like being around him enough, like all four of my years, like I would never, never guess that he is going to be a quarterback coach.

But I mean, here we are, here we are. He is obviously a guy that knows the game. I mean, you don't get to that level regardless of what your name is. If you don't know the game of football, you don't get to that level regardless of what your name is. If you don't know the game of football and you don't work for Bill Belichick staff, like he has the guy knows football. How much do you think he is hamstrung though by his dad? You know, we talk about nepotism and the negative side of it just because of his last name. Well, he only has the job because his dad is the coach. We can argue the merits of that, but also you get mad at your boss.

I think we've all been there, right? Where you've been upset with your boss, but when your boss is your dad, how difficult is that to tell the old man, not only who is your boss, but also your father, hey, you're wrong here. I'm right. We need to do this.

That's gotta be a difficult dynamic. And one I just don't think is talked about as much. Yeah, it's definitely definitely tricky for sure it's definitely tricky um because again i'm not in those like i'm not in the i'm not in the building now and i definitely was not in the coaches rooms right with the having their coaching meetings and things like that so who knows the type of discussions that that goes into those things but obviously we know when you look at Iowa's basically offense, right, and Coach Ferentz's tenure, that they've all pretty much for the most part

have looked pretty similar to each other, right? So we obviously know that Coach Kirk Ferentz has what he wants his offense to look like, right? And we totally get that, right? He's a head man right he honestly has to say it and um you know kind of all the final decisions right but when your offensive coordinator is your son right and coach brian's parents uh you know that he's obviously gonna he's gonna have a lot of very similar feelings right as the head man does right

i mean it's just it's just natural right or family you're gonna typically have um a lot of very similar feelings, right, as the head man does, right? I mean, it's just natural, right? You're going to have a lot of the same ideas and things like that. But I'm sure that a big part of it, I'm sure there's plenty of things that Coach Brian wants to do, that he wants to expand upon, where, you know, kind of Coach Bryant's probably like, well, maybe not quite yet. I'm pretty more confident about this, yada, yada, kind of Coach Ferentz is probably like, well, maybe not quite yet. I'm pretty more confident about this, yada, yada, yada. So I'm sure that there is a bunch of discussion that's kind of going on between those two about what things he wants to do with offense and how he wants to look.

But obviously, we all know that Coach Brian Ferentens is under a lot of pressure this year. In general, the offense is, right? Because we know the downfalls that they had on the offensive side of football last year, right? I mean, again, what was it? The last, like, four games of the season, they only threw, like, three passing touchdowns or something like that. Last six games. Yeah, last six games. And two of them came against minnesota right so like as an offensive coordinator right that's that's definitely not something you

want to have on your resume right and and obviously we i'm sure coach brian has um bigger aspirations right to possibly you know become a head coach right expand on his um you know, become a head coach, right? Expand on his, you know, coaching career. And so he knows that, hey, our offense has to be better, right? And it's going to obviously start at top, start up top with him. But also it's going to be a part of, hey, having those discussions with his, with his dad, like, hey, we were having a lot of struggles last year, right? And areas X, Y, and Z. And I feel like X, Y, and z are the ways that we can alleviate that right and obviously we've heard them talk that they've added all these different

things and off season here and that um so as that starts to develop throughout camp and what that begins to look like and what it looks like you know week one well we'll know how much uh you know work and obviously there's plenty of work i went into it, we'll, we'll know how much, uh, you know, work. And obviously there's plenty of work I went into it, but we'll actually know how much influence actually went into that and what type of changes are being made because yeah, I mean, there's plenty of pressure on the offense. We want to have some success. We're going to have to pass the football.

If we want to be able to get to the, to the, uh, goals that we have for the football season. So it's, uh, it's going to be a fun one. One final thing. What's it like to play for him? So listening to him talk, knowing some people, a couple of my buddies that are a little younger than me, I'm 42, he's 39, but some of your younger buddies

that lived on the same floor as him in the dorm, I had some things to say. He's got a personality. He likes to swear. He can be difficult to get along with i i have heard what about you as a player your perspective playing for brian and play for a guy boy he is cut from a different cloth than his old man it feels like yeah yeah he's definitely a lot more fiery for sure than than coach kirk parents for sure um but don't get me wrong kirk will definitely he if

there's times where he will definitely get riled up for sure but brian definitely takes that to another level and i mean back then i mean when i was in school he was coaching alignment so you know alignment coaches are always already two stuff to begin with so yeah he was definitely a fiery guy, fiery personality. But obviously he just loves football, right? And he loves Iowa so much that that passion definitely comes out quite a bit. Definitely it came out a lot when he was offensive line coach. Obviously he's coached several different positions since then, right? He's coached running backs, tight ends, and O.C.

Now he's coaching quarterbacks. So who knows how that has developed. Maybe he's became a little bit more mellow i mean i would guess you kind of have to if you're going to be coaching um quarterbacks kind of have to be a little bit more chill you just can't be that kind of crazy rah-rah guy doesn't really make sense as a quarterback coach but yeah back when i was in school he was definitely a fiery guy um has a lot of passion for the game blows iowa um so there are times where it's like yeah like yeah like we kind of need that and there's other it's also times where you're like okay that's a little much like i think we got this um but yeah that's kind of the idea so you're so your buddies are definitely spot on when it comes to Brian Ferentz. At least they was when I was in school.

He's probably a lot more chill now. Well, I don't know, a lot more. I mean, that's a relative one. I don't think you're going to shake that out of him. It's just his personality, right? And it's difficult for that to transform. And it can evolve and it can get different. And age has something to do with that as you get older and more mature.

I'm sure that's a part. But it's going to be a big season. And just listening and reading through these transcripts and a lot of things, let's say things go south this year. You know, if things go poorly in Iowa, the offense does not make improvements. And they stumble through a season and they finish 6-6. And it's a big disappointment this year. Reading through, and again, this is reading through the lines. This is all conjecture, but I think Brian would step away.

If it went that poorly again, I think he knows he doesn't want to put his dad in that situation where he has to fire him. I think if it goes poorly this year, Brian, he has enough understanding of what's happening and the conversation surrounding him that he would resign, that he would step away, and he would get another job in football. It's not like he would be done. But I just don't think he'd want to put his dad through that, at least.

That's the way that I read it. Yeah, it's definitely something that you're going to have to consider, right? If offense doesn't go that way, right, what does he do, right? I mean, obviously we know that the Iowa football program, it's really a family business, right? We know that a lot of the people that are on the staff or that come back are people that went to Iowa, that are part of the program at some point in time, right?

It's kind of like that family business. And you're definitely right. I mean, I know that if my dad was you know coaching and i was working for him and uh you know my offense wasn't doing great right i wouldn't want to be in the position where he has to fire me out right um different things so yeah who knows i mean i definitely think brian can be a fantastic offensive line coach obviously he's done a great job with tight ends as well um pretty much pretty much anywhere right whether it's in college nfl i think he'd do a great job um obviously this year if he wants to continue

being an offense coordinator right it's going to be honestly it's going to be a huge year for for him and i mean we've already talked about it um we're probably going to continue to talk about it but because i mean it's really that just that important but i could see that being a situation where that is something that he does possibly do but you know we hope that doesn't come to that right we hope that hey they make that 4-180 uh turnaround right and the offense just lights it up right relatively for iowa football they light it up iowa football style but um yeah we'll definitely see see how that plays out. But obviously we wish everyone the best, and we hope that doesn't come to that point.

Well, we are 29 days away from kickoff in Kinnick Stadium, 22 days away from the kickoff of the Big Ten slate over in Ireland with Nebraska as they match up against Northwestern over there. You can know what your team is up against across the Big Ten with Locked On Big Ten. Every day host Nate Dickinson and local experts from Locked On take you across the Big Ten in 30 minutes.

Make Locked On Big Ten your second listen. That's Locked On Big Ten. Weekend in front of you, LaShawn. Any big plans? What's going on with you? Are you doing something fun in Chicago? No. Actually, no.

I'm chilling for the most part this weekend. My high schoolers start their fall camp starts this upcoming week. So that's exciting. So before that, I think I'm just going to kind of chill out for the weekend and relax for a little bit before football season really gets going. I'm right there with you. Yeah, this is kind of low key. Of course I was on vacation last week and early late next week.

I'll be going to Vegas for work. Yeah. I'll be working out there. Doing my radio show out there and actually working out a couple of football contests with our, our partners from circus sports that are brand new sports book. They're the biggest in the world. So I'll be out there. In fact, maybe we'll try to do a show on Friday. If your schedule allows, we'll try to do it. I'll do it from the biggest sports book in the world. So I'll be out there. In fact, maybe we'll try to do a show a Friday. If your schedule allows, we'll try to do it. I'll do it from the biggest sports book in the world.

And you can do it from your confines there in Chicago. Yeah, for sure. That sounds good. All right. Well, we got a big weekend in front of us. We'll come back next week and we will be on our daily schedule as we

continue to roll through. He's LaShawn Daniels. I'm Trent Condon. This has been the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.