Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Hawkeye Football Rewatch: How bad was the Penn State drubbing after a 2nd look?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Yep, we watched that again. Yep, it was just as bad a second time around. We talk about the disaster in Happy Valley and any chance of a turnaround for this offense today. You are Locked on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:40 Hey, welcome in once again, I'm Trent Condon and this is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We are available wherever you get your podcast. Make sure you hit us On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We are available wherever you get your podcast. Make sure you hit us up with a five-star review. And if you're on the YouTube side, hit that subscribe button. All that helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. Today's episode is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs.

Starting point is 00:00:58 These days, every new potential hire can feel like a high-stakes wager for your small business. That's why LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the right people for your team faster and for free. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash lockdowncollege. Terms and conditions apply. Well, I did it. Rewatched the game on Sunday evening, and I will tell you,

Starting point is 00:01:21 a second viewing made it maybe even more frustrating. The frustrations obviously were flowing. We came to you after the game with an instant reaction podcast and frustration level was at a peak at that point. At least I thought it was. And then after re-watching the game, you're left with maybe even more frustrations knowing that at halftime of the football game, I was still optimistic. Now, for people that listen to me and have been listening for a while, you will know I am not exactly a pessimistic sports fan. In my real life, I'm a really optimistic guy.

Starting point is 00:01:54 I am. Like to look at the bright side of things, positive attitude, positive energy. That's what it is. As a sports fan, not so much. Now, probably the teams that I root for have something to do with that. As you can see, if you're watching on YouTube, got a Twins hat on, that's my team. At the NFL, I'm a Bears fan. Yeah, frustrations, a lot of frustrations throughout the years. And of course, the Hawkeyes, and anybody listening knows about those frustrations. But

Starting point is 00:02:20 I came into the season optimistic. I came into the season believing that we were going to see an evolution, that the offensive line play was going to be better, that the young guys that have been battered and beat up early in their career were going to take a leap. That has not been the case for Mason Richmond, who was absolutely abused on Saturday night against Penn State. That has not been the case for Connor Colby. They have struggled to find guard play,

Starting point is 00:02:46 something that they struggled for the better part of a decade to find adequate guard play. It has not improved, not at the level that I was optimistic about. I was optimistic that with the influx in talent at the wide receiver position, that better wide receivers were going to lead to better play from the outside group. That has not come to fruition. I was optimistic that Cade McNamara was going to be a monstrous upgrade over Spencer Petras. That has not come to fruition. Look, here we are. We're talking about this football team.

Starting point is 00:03:20 And as you go back and watch the game, knowing with that optimism, even at halftime, that watching the game live, it's 10-0. Penn State was playing a lot better. The breaks were all going their way. The calls were all going their way. All those things were happening. And you're only down 10-0. Maybe, just maybe, this is another fair and special.

Starting point is 00:03:38 That this is going to turn out to be like the 2021 game. Like this was against Penn State. Like this was going to be the 2016-17 games against Ohio State, Michigan, that we were going to see another one of those goofy games that goes Iowa way. And very quickly, we found out in the second half that was not going to be the case.

Starting point is 00:03:55 And watching what they were trying to do, watching the ease of what Penn State was able to pick up four, six, eight-yard chunks time after time after time, and the inability for Iowa to do those kind of things left me even more frustrated. Going back and watching the game, I think I also exemplified just how overmatched Brian Ferentz continues to be in the role as a play caller. But another thing that popped out in the rewatch was frustrations from the defensive line.

Starting point is 00:04:24 And speaking of optimism, I called this defensive line the deepest group that Iowa's ever had, maybe at any position group in their program history. That's what I thought about this defensive line coming into the year. And though they are incredibly deep, they don't have a difference maker. I thought Deontay Craig was going to be a difference maker. He's not. He has not proven to be that, certainly this season. I thought we were going to see a guy like Aaron Graves take a huge step forward and be an absolute behemoth inside. That has not happened this year. Joe Evans is working

Starting point is 00:04:56 his butt off. He's doing his thing, but there's only so much that can be done. Iowa, through four games, has three sacks. They have 14 pressures on the season. That's not good enough. It just isn't. For a team, for a defensive line that is this talented, it's not good enough. They're on the field for 97 plays. The defense was more of a problem than I thought. And you look at it in a yards per play statistical category, something that Iowa was very good at. The defense played well enough if the offense could have helped them out. Complimentary football, right?

Starting point is 00:05:33 Oh, Kirk loves to talk about we play complimentary football. And I've argued for the better part of a decade, it's not complimentary when your offense sucks this much. That is not complimentary football. Complimentary football is keeping your defense off the field, not having to have them bail you out every single time that there's anything difficult that happens. And the growing gap between Iowa and the elite of the Big Ten continues to widen with an influx of talent that starts next season. It's not just,

Starting point is 00:06:00 well, maybe you'll see Ohio State or Penn State or Michigan one or two times over the course of the season. Now you have a season where you're also bringing in USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington. And though those road trips will be fun, and us Hawkeye fans that are going to travel, we're going to have a good time. The actual 60 minutes of football and the way that it's set up currently are not going to be fun. This is a program in deep trouble. We will get into more of that a little bit later. A few other notes re-watching the game.

Starting point is 00:06:31 I will tell you, late in that football game, there were guys that were playing for themselves. You saw that before the backups came in, and especially defensively, guys that, I don't want to say quit because I don't think that's a fair characteristic. I don't think that it's fair to put those guys and throw that label on it because quit, it's a terrible connotation. You never want to see any team that you root for quit. It is one of the worst things that you can say about an athlete.

Starting point is 00:07:00 It wasn't quitting. I think it was self-preservation. It was guys that were on the football field defensively for so damn long because of the inability of the offense and their inability to get off the field. It wasn't quit, but it was about helping themselves. Self-preservation. I think that is the right term to use on this one. It was ugly. I watched it again. I wish it didn't, on this one. It was ugly. I watched it again. I wish it didn't, but here we are. Brian Ferentz, he's got issues. We know he's got issues. That is no surprise, obviously, in this one. After the drubbing, though, what's wrong with this team? What can be fixed? Big picture. And any chance at a turnaround? We will get into that as we continue. Try to bring some optimism. It's going to be difficult to do. We'll do that that as we continue. Try to bring some optimism.

Starting point is 00:07:47 It's going to be difficult to do. We'll do that and take a look back one final time at the numbers from Pro Football Focus here and see just how bad do those numbers marry with what we saw. We'll do that as we continue here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. These days, every new potential hire can feel like a high-stakes wager for your small business. You want to be 100% certain that you have access to the best qualified candidates available. That's why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs. LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the right people for your team faster and for free. I personally own a small business.

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Starting point is 00:09:09 Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash lockdowncollege. That's linkedin.com slash lockdowncollege to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Trey Conner back with you once again on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. So after the rewatch, take a look at the numbers. And something that I enjoy doing is looking at the numbers from Pro Football Focus. We talk about this a weekly feature here on Lockdown Hawkeyes.

Starting point is 00:09:39 And looking through and seeing does what we see from these numbers marry with the way the game played out. Now, it's a rating scale 1 to 100. 80 and above, it's considered excellent. 70 is average. 60 is okay. And then you get down below that. Well, Cade back to Mary.

Starting point is 00:09:56 He grades out at a 29.7. Clean pocket. 3 of 8 for 35 yards. That's not good. Under pressure, even worse. 2 of 6 for 7 yards. Not blitzed. Cade goes 2 of 6 for 7 yards. That's not good. Under pressure, even worse. 2 of 6 for 7 yards. Not blitzed. Kane goes 2 of 6 for 7 yards.

Starting point is 00:10:08 Woof. Woof. Woof. With no play action, Kane McNamara. 3 of 10 for 27 yards. Oh boy. Passing grade of 34.1.

Starting point is 00:10:21 It was bad. Running back. Not good. Sean Williams was a 60 below average. Kamari Moulton, 49. TJ Washington, Terrell Washington Jr., the youngster. He was a bright spot at a 60.6. Not good there. Eric Gall grades out high, the highest offensive player to 65.9. Of course, had the big play. Couple of them, Three catches, 35 yards, but also had the fumble as he put it out in the turf. Wide

Starting point is 00:10:47 receivers, bad. Vines was the top at a 60.7. Kayla Brown, a 56.6. I mean, these guys are getting a lot of wind sprints. Not a whole lot of balls coming their way. Seth Anderson, a 53. Same thing for Nico Ragini. There we go. Offensive line. Inside, pretty good. Logan Jones, your

Starting point is 00:11:03 top-rated offensive lineman, a 72.3. Well, we know the pressure wasn't coming from up the middle, and the little bit that they did run the ball did come up the gut. All right. Good job, Logan Jones. The rest stunk, including the lowest-rated guy, Mason Richmond. A 50.3. But how about this?

Starting point is 00:11:21 Pass protection. He grades out at a 4.3. Again, this is not a scale of 1 to 10 where 4.3 would still be bad. No, this is 1 through 100 and he grades out with a 4.3. Yuck.

Starting point is 00:11:38 Hideous. Awful. Big time issues. Let's look over at the defense and then we will turn the page from Penn State. Aaron Gray is your highest-rated defensive lineman at a 74.8. Ethan Hercut, he was good, a 69. Y.A. Black maybe had his best game in a Hawkeye

Starting point is 00:11:54 uniform with a 67.5. A little bit lower. Logan Lee at a 66. Deontay Craig at a 65. They're fine. Defense is fine overall. Kyler Fisher, your highest-rated linebacker with a 68.3. fine. Defense is fine overall. Kyler Fisher, your highest rated linebacker with a 68.3. Jay Higgins with those 18 tackles, still a 57 and down there with a 55 is Nick Jackson, who has been a disappointment. You look at the tackle totals, both those guys,

Starting point is 00:12:16 both Higgins and Jackson, the tackle totals look very good, but there were plenty of plays that were left out there. Your highest rated defensive back was Jamison Hines. Now, he played late in the game. Xavier Wampa was next. That did not match with my eyes. I thought Wampa really struggled in the football game, late getting to balls. There were a couple of beautiful passes against him, too. That's going to happen, but I did not have Wampa on my grading scale. The TC grading scale, not the same as pro football focus.

Starting point is 00:12:42 Castro is next. You get into Schultee out of the starters. Bunch of reserves were in there. Jamari Harris graded out as the lowest rated defensive back and also at the bottom of the list. Cooper Dijon with the 55. Jamari Harris with the 53.9. Not good.

Starting point is 00:12:56 Not good at all out of the defensive backfield. Look, Iowa got whooped. 31-0. We can make excuses. This is a football team in trouble. And when you're talking about the defense, it's something I mentioned earlier. We're not seeing this team get to the quarterback.

Starting point is 00:13:10 That's a problem. We're not seeing this team make the turnovers, force the turnovers that they have in the past. And because a big reason for that is a lack of pressure. So Phil Parker, it's time to dial it up. We saw safety blitz from Wampa in the game. We saw some different things. We've seen them bring corners. This is going to have to be a year, it's time to dial it up. We saw safety blitz from Wampa in the game. We saw some different things. We've seen them bring corners.

Starting point is 00:13:27 This is going to have to be a year, it feels like, where Iowa, if they're going to get back to a level where they're forcing turnovers and coming up with big plays, they're not going to be able to just do it with the front four. They're going to have to be more exotic. They're going to have to be more pressures brought and more stunts and doing different things. Iowa's going to have to play it that fashion because they play straight up. They're still going to be good.

Starting point is 00:13:46 And there's going to be few teams that are comfortable like Penn State was dinking and dunking and playing mistake-free football, not making the big mistake. Not a lot of teams can do that. Penn State was willing to do that, and credit for them for doing that. Good news is there's not many teams like that, and not many teams that are willing to do that and also have the talent that Penn State does.

Starting point is 00:14:10 Still, Iowa, to get those big plays, going to have to do more. We will see about that. Now we know the offense is broken. And the run game, though, we have seen improvements. We saw improvements, certainly in the third game. We've seen Iowa trying to do different things in the run game. We've talked about the adaption and moving away from the zone blocking scheme and running more and more gap blocking, running more and more counters, doing different things like

Starting point is 00:14:34 that. But what we also know is the passing team, the passing routes, what they're doing schematically in the air game, it's broken. And there's no coming back. But Charlie Jones leaves, and he becomes one of the top receivers in the country. It's not a lack of talent. That's not to say that Seth Anderson's an All-American. It's not to say that Caleb Brown, at this point in his career, should be out there being an All-Big Ten player.

Starting point is 00:14:59 That's not what it is. But it's not a lack of talent. It's a lack of imagination from Brian Ferencz. And it comes back to, again, a guy a lack of talent. It's a lack of imagination from Brian Ferencz. And it comes back to, again, a guy that doesn't know what he's doing. As a coordinator, he doesn't know what he's doing. In scripted plays, I was very good. Really good. In fact, I got a number here. Let me bring it up. Numbers in the first two drives of each football game this year. And this is telling. the first two drives of each football game this year.

Starting point is 00:15:24 And this is telling. On the year, Iowa has just shy of 1,000 yards of total offense. 4.9 yards per play. Their first two drives of each game, they have 341 on 47 plays. That's 7.2 yards per play. That's good. That's really good with the way Iowa's built. On every other drive, they have 641 yards on 171 plays.

Starting point is 00:15:54 That's 3.7 yards per play. That's putrid. That's awful. That's why this is one of the worst offenses in the country again. Kirk Ferentz told us that he's going to bet on himself. We've heard that before. He bet and he's bankrupt. Well, that literally, we know that's not the case. Figuratively. There's no change. There's no evaluation. There's not really doing anything different. It's the same crap that they throw against the wall

Starting point is 00:16:25 and think that it's going to stick. And for the argument, well, this is just the way that Iowa football always is. This is Kirk Ferris' problem. It's not. That's not true. Look at the numbers. And what the numbers tell you is that Iowa,

Starting point is 00:16:40 yards per play, they are down to 102nd, I believe, in the country right now. Last year, 126. Yards per play. They are down to 102nd, I believe, in the country right now. Last year, 126. Yards per play. That's taking tempo out, how many plays you run. Yardage totals can be a little bit tricky because some teams like Iowa run more like 50. 60 plays a game and other teams run 90. So taking yardage totals out of it, this is yards per play.

Starting point is 00:17:00 And every play you want to get yards, right? Right. 126 in the country last year. 121st season before that. The high water mark came in that goofy 2020 season. Iowa was 78th in the country in yards per play.

Starting point is 00:17:16 84th in 19. 86 in 2018. And Bribo's first year, 103rd. It's awful. In the five years of GDGD, Greg Davis, best year, 2015, 53rd in the country in yards per play. That's a winning number for Iowa football. The year before that, 2014, they were 65th. Prime parents can't approach that. go back to ken o'keefe 2005 iowa was 22nd in the country in yards per play unthinkable 22nd in the country

Starting point is 00:17:53 2006 37th in the country 2008 32nd in the country these are good offenses 2010 22nd in the country in yards per play. And yet after a year where Iowa finishes 126th in the country, on the heels of finishing 121st in the country, Kirk Ferentz doubles down on his son once again. Nepotism sucks. And we as fans have to deal with it. This is where we are.

Starting point is 00:18:27 There is no kind of lipstick you can put on this pig. He's overmatched, and he has no clue how to work out of it. He's arrogant. When he was asked back a couple months ago about a message to the fans, he has none. You know why? Because he doesn't care. Because there is absolutely no accountability. From the athletic director and the old one on down,

Starting point is 00:18:47 there's no accountability. You can go to daddy, but he doesn't have a real boss. Now, that'd be great, right? Not have a real boss? We'd all love to have that. When you don't have to be accountable and you're still able to go out there and put out the same tired product

Starting point is 00:19:03 year after year after year and still get paid year after year after year? How great does that sound? We'd all sign up for that. Unfortunately for the rest of us, we don't have daddy calling the shots. We continue here. Is there any chance of a turnaround? We'll get into that as we continue Lockdown Hawkeyes.

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Starting point is 00:20:43 for 15% off at athleticbrewing.com. Near Beer. Exclusions and conditions apply. Athletic Brewing Company. Fit for all times. Trey Conner back with you one final time on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. So as my blood pressure starts to simmer down a little bit, it can be changed. And for this season, Kirk likes to talk about evaluating 12 games in. Doesn't like to change on the fly. I don't know why. You think you'd want to adapt and change, but hey,

Starting point is 00:21:18 Iowa has bounced back pretty well after some of these embarrassing losses. And that is the hope. When you look historically, things have been good. But history's not on Kirk's side. As what we've seen the last couple of seasons, I don't know if there's coming back. But what does that mean? And a schedule that includes a broken Michigan State program, a Purdue team at year number one, Orion Walter,

Starting point is 00:21:44 a Wisconsin team going through a huge transition right now as they change over from the old style of football that they played for 30 years into what they're doing now. A Wisconsin team that just blew it, excuse me, a Minnesota team that just blew it against Northwestern, that aforementioned Northwestern team. Rutgers at home. Illinois, who has not looked good this year in Nebraska.

Starting point is 00:22:06 But the schedule is a joke. But that's what it is. So can they turn it around? Sure. Against the schedule. In terms of wins, they can win these football games. They can be a bit better offensively and still get by

Starting point is 00:22:21 if the defense still plays well. The special teams plays better than they did. Torrey Taylor keeps pinning teams deep and they can still get by. The defense still plays well. The special teams plays better than they did. Torrey Taylor keeps pinning teams deep. And they can still get by and win a lot of 16, 13, 20, 17 games and finish the season with a 9-3, even a 10-2 type record. It wouldn't come as a surprise. But is it different? I talked about this in the Instant Reaction podcast.

Starting point is 00:22:42 It's entertainment, right? And I love the Hawkeyes. I love the black and gold. I love when I make my multiple trips out to Las Vegas and wear a Hawkeye hat and run into somebody or be in an airport and have somebody and talk about the black and gold and talk about the Hawkeyes.

Starting point is 00:23:01 I enjoy that. These games are not enjoyable right now. The first four weeks of the season, game one, just stuck in the muck against Utah State. You beat Iowa State, okay, it's a win against a rival. You get a trophy. But do you feel great coming out of that one? Western Michigan, it took a half to get going.

Starting point is 00:23:21 Western Michigan. And then the craziness that happened Saturday night. The enjoyment. The excitement. The build-up. The fun. Where's the fun? Not a lot of fun. And I know

Starting point is 00:23:37 you pile up the wins and you get to 9, 10 wins and a successful season and maybe a return trip to Indianapolis. And I'll be a board. And I'll make the trip to Indy. I'm going to Chicago and going to Wrigley to watch the Hawks this year and I'm going to have a great time. But the actual games, it's about the build-up. It's about tailgating.

Starting point is 00:23:56 It's about being around friends. It's about talking about memories of games past. But the 60 minutes on the field, it's not enjoyable. It is a bad product to watch. We got eight more of them. We'll talk about each and every one.

Starting point is 00:24:11 This is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Coming up tomorrow, Jace is going to stop by. A couple games in, he was trying to give Brian Ferron some credit. We'll see if his tune has changed. Also, LaShawn Daniels, former Hawkeye running back.

Starting point is 00:24:28 He is going to be stopping by later in the week. We'll also have a crossover edition with the Michigan State Lockdown hosts. We will get the Sparty perspective for this one. Two programs not feeling very good right now. That's all coming up this week here on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Go Hawks.

Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Hawkeye Football Rewatch: How bad was the Penn State drubbing after a 2nd look?

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