Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Hawkeye football wide receivers, Coaches Top 25, Iowa Hoops newest commitment and top targets

Episode Date: August 8, 2022

Trent Condon is back for another week of the Locked on Hawkeyes Podcast. The show opens with Trent taking a look at the release of the USA Today's Coaches Poll. Iowa is the first team outside of the rankings at #26 overall.Then it's a look at the Iowa football receiver position. Keagan Johnson & Arland Bruce IV are expected to take a big step forward after outstanding freshman campaigns. Nico Ragaini has been productive during his career. So who else is there? Quick hits on Diante Vines, Brody Brecht, Jacob Bostick, Kaleb Wetjen & Jack Johnson.Finally, Iowa picks up its 3rd commitment for the 2023 basketball class. Pryce Sandfort will join his brother in Iowa City after this upcoming season. Trent talks about his differences in style on the court compared to his brothers and some different strengths that he has. Then a look at 2 other players Iowa is recruiting hard, JP Estrella & TJ Power and the Hawkeyes prospects for both.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

Iowa basketball picks up a new commit. The coaches poll is out. Iowa just outside the top 25 for football. And we take a look at the wide receiver position. All coming up next on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. 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 here to the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. I'm Trent Condon. Thanks for making us your first stop of your podcast day. A busy one here coming up as we are going to talk a lot of football, plenty of basketball also today after Iowa picks up a commitment that is not a surprise to anybody. Price Sanford makes his decision that he will be part of the Hawkeye program, joining his older brother Peyton, who will get ready for another season in the black and gold. We'll talk about that.

We'll talk about some of the other big names that also remain out there. Iowa in really good standing right now and a couple other top 100 players nationally. We'll talk about that here in the podcast today. Also, a couple other things. The top 25 is out for college football. The coaches poll will get into that. Iowa finds themselves at number 26.

Had a lot of conversation about how that's going to play out. The top, no surprise, you got Alabama up there, but Ohio State at number two, we'll talk about that. And the matchups that Iowa will have amongst those teams. And then today we're also going to talk about the wide receiver position, what we anticipate we're going to see at wide receiver this year. Of course, after the top three of what you have, Keegan Johnson coming

back, Arlen Bruce, both those guys getting ready for their sophomore campaign, Nico Regani for his final season in a Hawkeye uniform. So we will break that down and talk about that here a little bit here this day as we go through the college football and college basketball realm on the Lockdown On Hawkeyes podcast. All right, let's kick things off here and get into where I wanted to start today, and that is the coaches poll, the top 25, not the AP poll. The top 25, though, from the coaches. Now, the coaches poll, it is a little bit different, right?

This is not something that A, means anything. In fact, coaching polls and the AP poll both don't mean anything in the grand scheme of things because ultimately it comes down to the decision that you're going to have from a committee that's going to get together, and they're going to be the ones that make the decision about how things are going to play out, what we're going to see for the college football playoff, who gets into the access polls, the power polls that are out there anymore. That is going to be up to a committee.

So they don't meet anything, but they are a conversation piece and a conversation piece starting from the Iowa front at number 26. I don't think it's a big stretch to see them in this area. You look at some of the teams that are, you know, and the back half of the top 25. Now you have Texas,

their number 18. They actually got a first place vote, which is asinine in its own right. Wake Forest at 19, a great season a year ago. A team like Iowa, the one double digits last season, albeit in the ACC as opposed to the Big Ten. There's the Badgers at number 20. Kentucky 21.

Cincinnati, after the run to the playoff a year ago, they're 22. Arkansas 23. Ole Miss 24. Houston 25. And then the Hawkeyesyes the top others receiving votes followed by Penn State and Tennessee so when you kind of talk about that realm and I know there are people oh boy I surprised Iowa wasn't ranked in this poll well look at the teams right below them Penn State we know how good that game was a year ago how tight that game was could have

gone either way Penn State has some questions but I think an offensive line that's going to be better this year. They certainly have an argument of being a preseason top 25 team. Then Tennessee, one of the teams that has maybe the most buzz, not to win the SEC, or maybe even win their division in the East with the power that you have in Georgia,

the defending national champion, and of course out West with Alabama. But still, they're not even ranked in the top 25. BYU is right behind them. LSU. So we're talking about power brands that also aren't there. And teams, I think, that have some expectations coming in to the season. Look, this Iowa defense, as we talked about, it's going to be elite.

They are going to play at an incredibly high level. I think there is another step up that they can take from what they were a year ago. I don't think that is anything that is anything that is a concern to people out there looking at this team. It continues to be what we've talked about so much and it's quarterback. And what is the quarterback play going to be this season? And with it also, of course, is

going to be the offense in general. What Brian Ferentz is going to do to take this a step forward. And over the weekend, had an opportunity to listen to Chad Leistico of the Des Moines Register. He talked for two and a half hours with Brian Ferentz. And first of all, it was interesting just listening to Brian for that long. Of course, heard the press conferences, heard him speak a whole bunch of times.

But hearing him and just his mannerisms that came out a little bit more, a lot of just the verbiage, a lot of the verbal tendencies that you have from the old man, from Kirk, his dad. You could see so much of that playing out just in that conversation. But I thought some really good insight also came out of that, of what this Iowa team can be, what they can be offensively, where they need to get better. And he talked a whole lot about needing to have the completion percentage better, have to be better on that front. Again, these are things that we all know.

It's about implementing it. And he said those things, and he understands those things. So that's something we're going to be keeping our eye on with this offense. But I want to go to wide receiver. That's where the conversation goes today. Wide receiver, who is going to emerge after the big three we talk about? There's Arlen Bruce, a guy that, for my money, is a playmaker that I really hasn't seen.

This guy that has the ability to both run and catch the football, make guys miss. Is he a guy that's going to wow you with a 40? No. He's not going to wow you in terms of size. He's not a tall guy, though he's thick and strong and physical. He's not a measurable guy. He's just a football

player and a football player that made plays a year ago and I think can continue to make plays. So that's up to Brian Ferentz. Find ways to get him involved. Not just, he's our slot receiver. We're going to put him out there. He's going to be out. He's going to be split out wide. We're going to do. No, no, no. You have to find a way when you have a playmaker like this play to his strengths. And I think he has some strengths that make a whole lot of sense. Of course, Keegan Johnson. The play last year against Minnesota where he's running through people. Just how good that was.

You have that part of him. But then also what you saw to him becoming a more polished receiver. Go back to early in his career. Gets that first start against Colorado State. Goes up. Has a couple of big grabs in that one. But now becoming a more polished player. That's going to be another component, another piece that we're certainly going to be looking for this season out of Keegan Johnson.

And then Nico Regani. Look, Nico, he had some drops a year ago. Had the big play against Penn State. You're hoping for more, no doubt. But that's one part that you're also looking at. You got to get the consistency. So we got the top three. We feel good.

When we continue, we're going to look at some new names. This is not a deep room. This is not a wide receiver room that is 9, 10, 11 deep. And that is the case of a lot of college campuses right now. That's not the case. We're going to be talking about not just a couple of scholarship players, and they're not a whole lot out of them at this point in time, but also going to be talking about quite a few walk-ons,

quite a few walk-ons that this season are going to have opportunities to certainly get some playing time this year. We'll talk about that when we continue here. It's the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. I'm Trent Codd, and I want to tell you a little bit about our friends at LinkedIn. I have had to hire a couple of different people. In fact, just made a hire not too long ago during the high school baseball season for what I do, my daily gig on radio. And a guy that's over

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and they do it faster. Did you know every week nearly 40 million job seekers visit LinkedIn? Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash locked on college. That's linkedin.com slash locked on college to post your job for free terms and conditions do apply. Great stuff there. Big thank you to them linked in for being a presenting sponsor here of the locked on network. All right. So we talked about wide receiver, right?

We talked about the guys that we know, the guys that we have a pretty good feeling about what they're going to be, but after them, who're going to be. But after them, who is going to emerge? Bruce does his thing. Keegan's out there making plays again. Reganey covers up a little bit of the drops and becomes a little bit more consistent here this season. All right.

So we got to look for some newbies, right? Some new names that we're looking for, some new ideas. Who else is going to help out? Now, one guy that I've been incredibly intrigued with, and it's one of those guys that you just, if you follow recruiting at all, every once in a while somebody catches your eye, right? Somebody jumps out there and you say, all right, this is the guy that I want for my team.

This is the guy that I'm going to hitch my wagon to. And for me, that was Deontay Vines. He's wearing number zero. First in his own right, that's cool, at least to me. I love a single zero, right? And we have that number now available for the, what, second year in college football. But more importantly, going back to his high school days, I just thought he had the body type and he had the ability,

not knowing the competition he was playing at against Connecticut, I thought he had an opportunity to become a guy that at least was going to be rotational. Well, the opportunity's there, right? You got three guys that you feel confident about. There's three guys at this point that you look at and say, all right, these guys are going to be there. We talked about those three. Deontay Vines, you're a sophomore now.

You've been on campus for the last couple of years. This is the time. There is no more messing around. There's no more question marks. That is one. It is time. And it sounds from camp that he's been turning heads a little bit. He's been probably putting together his best on camp at this point during August, at least a

couple of reports that are out there right now. The other name, Alec Wick. So he's a redshirt freshman out of Iowa City, went to Regina, made big plays up and down the field. If you watched him at the semifinals and the championship at the Unidome for Regina. He was just an absolute stud up there playing on the fast track of the dome. Good speed, but we're talking about a guy that was playing what? 1A football? This is different. This is Big Ten football. He's listed as the backup right now.

You know he's going to get some opportunities. Some other names that we need to get to know at the wide receiver position. How about Caden Wetchin from Williamsburg? 5'10", 190 pounds. He went to Iowa Western, went over there to that great community college JUCO program, and they have put up some big-time yardage in numbers throughout the years, big-time players that have come out of that program. Wetchin, he's a returner, and I think that's where you look at him.

Wide receiver, could he get in the mix? Absolutely, but more than anything, his first chance is probably going to be in that game. And after what you saw in the loss of Charlie Jones and the disappointment with Jones leaving the program and transferring to Purdue, I get the frustration there. There's a pretty good backup. And here's what I keep going back to. Charlie Jones was special. There's no doubt.

He was a special return man. This is a guy that made plays. This is a guy that, without him, I don't know if they win the Illinois game a year ago. He was that kind of difference maker. But I also believe in LeVar Woods. I believe in Iowa's built, the way the foundation is, that special teams are important.

And because of that, I think they're going to be just fine in this realm. Wetchin will be good. They'll find other guys. You got the possibility of seeing maybe an Arlen Bruce in the return game. Is there a possibility there? Could we see Keegan Johnson back there? Is it going to be Xavier Wampa? On and on and on.

So many different guys. So many opportunities that are going to be there. I think Iowa's going to be fine, even with the loss of Charlie Jones. And Wetchin is going to be one of those guys. Jackson Ritter, disappointing for him. A big wide receiver, big dude that had a chance, certainly to maybe step in there during his junior campaign to make some plays.

Had a catch in the first game of the year a season ago against Indiana. Well, now he is out for the season. Him along with Justin Britt, both of those guys were listed as out for the season last week. So a tough one because there was going to be a big opportunity. One final name I want to throw your way. And I have not heard anything in camp. I've heard a lot about Alec Wick.

We continue to hear his name come up. I mentioned Deontay Vines. That name has been mentioned to me a couple of different times. But it's a CIML kid here from Central Iowa where I'm from. And it's not Brody Brecht. And Brody Brecht, he's making plays in the red zone. He's doing all the right things. There's excitement also building with Brody Brecht.

But we've talked about Brody Brecht, right? We've talked about this kid a ton. We know about Brody Brecht. Want to go to Jack Johnson. No, not that Jack Johnson. This is the wide receiver, Jack Johnson. He played a valley. Not a big guy by any means.

He's listed at six foot. It's going to be tight to get to six foot, 194. But the dude was just a playmaker. And he did that at Valley, time in and time out. A guy that's easy to root for. And in a season like this, where you don't have that big time depth, where you don't have the names up there in terms of eight, nine, 10 scholarship guys you're trying to work past, there's going to be an opportunity.

Don't bet against Jack Johnson. I have a feeling he's going to catch a couple of balls this season, and we'll see if he can become part of this mix. One other scholarship guy that I'm interested to see is Jacob Bostic. He is a true freshman from Palatine. He comes in 6'2", 171 tall, and he's lanky. He's got to add some weight to that frame, certainly. But speed, can he be a guy that is out there just helping out a little bit?

Is it 10, 12, 15 snaps a game? We'll see. Haven't heard anything yet. I'll do a little more checking and see if we can hear anything about Bostic and if he has an opportunity to play as a true freshman. We talked about a lot of those guys. One just mentioned Xavier Wampa, obviously at the forefront of things. He got Graves on the defensive side of the football too, a defensive line. He's probably going to be out there. A couple other names, but we'll keep checking. We'll see if we can find anything more about Jacob Bostic. When we come back, we have much more coming your

way. I told you, we're going to talk some basketball. Yes, we are going to do that when we come back. Basketball, Price Sanford, he is a Hawkeye. That is not a surprise. We're going to talk about, though, some of the other names to keep an eye out for. Other names we're going to be watching, other guys to keep an eye on in the recruiting front. Basketball looks to be very good. Fran McCaffrey also, he talked a little bit earlier with John Rothstein, a couple of quotes that came out of that, some interesting ones, and a new starting five, a new point guard maybe, somebody that we haven't talked about as much.

We'll talk about basketball when we roll through here. It's the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Well, as we've talked about, I love betting, and BetOnline is the fastest and easiest way to check in on all your betting needs. Find your favorite sports and events at the number one online source for the odds, the lines and the games. We got baseball going on seven games tonight. NFL preseason gets started again on Thursday after the hall of fame game last week. Golf. Hey, the playoffs are beginning.

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That's where the action starts. Well, a little bit later here in the week, we're going to talk about some made-up gambling lines. I'm going to come up with some numbers, some odds, as I make my way out to Vegas. So excited to get back out there later this week. In fact, Friday, LaShawn will be back with us on Friday, and him and I will be going back and forth, and I'll be doing it from Las Vegas and from a sportsbook there at Circa.

So I'm going to be looking forward to that. That should be a whole lot of fun, and we'll come up with some different numbers as I make my way to Vegas and some over-unders, if you will, for passing yardage and the like. That will come your way here a little bit later in the week. But as we've gone through, we've talked a lot of football today. Basketball certainly deserves a mention. And basketball, after a disappointing end.

Look, for everybody except for one team in the country, it ends in disappointment, right? It doesn't matter if you won the NIT. Then it's, boy, if we could have just got a bid, what could we have done in the NCAA tournament, right? You think back to that year, Iowa makes a run to the championship game, loses to Baylor. There's a lot of that, right? What could have been? There's only one team,

and that's the Kansas Jayhawks. That walks away real happy about the way that their season went. But as we go through the commitment of Price Sanford, top 150 player, saw him as high as number 99, I think on three was the new recruiting service. They had him at number 99. Here's the one thing that I will tell you, though, about him. If Price Sanford, well, first of all, if his name was Price Jones and his brother wasn't on the Iowa basketball team, he would have had some big time offers and he already had a good group. Nebraska came after him. Seton Hall, we saw what they did a season ago. Texas, Wisconsin, they were getting involved with him. So there was no shortage of teams that were interested. But I know there were a lot of programs, Kansas among them,

that said, we know where he's going to end up. We don't want to use our resources, our time, knowing that this is going to be the ultimate destination. And because of that, I think there were a lot of people that certainly stayed away from him. Good time prospect. He's a good prospect. So you look at his older brother, we saw him play for the Hawkeyes, obviously good shooter, right? Baton can fill it up in a big time way. What I'll tell you about price. And I've called now

a boy dating back to his last season playing with his brother at Waukee. And then this year at Waukee Northwest, boy, I probably called, I say, a dozen of his games doing play-by-play for radio and video, and he's different than Peyton. He's different this way. He's more well-rounded, and that's not a knock on Peyton, but Price, there's just more to his game. He can handle it, I think, at this stage of his career a little bit better. I think he can do things athletically at a higher level.

I think there's more upside in terms of that athleticism. Now, much like Peyton, this is not a jump out of the gym free. That's not his game. But he has the shooting, but more of a playmaking ability to his game. Also, credit to Matt Gatins and his role in his recruitment. He was the lead recruiter for him at Drake before he got the job back at his alma mater at Iowa. A lot of people said made the transition very smooth.

And really, if there ever was any kind of doubt, and I'm not sure if there really was about price or making the choice. You know, what should I go and forge my own path? Go somewhere else. Go to a different place than my brother. Matt Gaten's really solidified and sold what Iowa could do. So now they got three in the recruiting class. Hawkeyes, by the way, up to number 15 now in the recruiting rankings at 24-7

for the 2023 class with the three commitments. So they got Owen Freeman, the big man that made his transfer over to Moline. He'll be playing his final season with the future point guard in Brock Harding. Those two guys, along with Price Sanford, they are, well, not signed, but right now committed and close to being delivered.

Two more players, though, to keep your eye out for. Both guys from up in the Northeast, and Iowa continues to tap into that market. Of course, we'll see DeSante Bowen this year coming in. The hope is that the Luka Garza connection and that prep school world out there, along with France connections, are going to continue to be fruitful.

One name is JP Estrella. Now JP Estrella is a six foot 11 center from Brewster Academy. Took a visit just recently to Syracuse. Tennessee's also been involved with them. He's thinking about maybe taking a trip to either Kansas or Gonzaga. So that's still out there. Number 54 player in the country, JP Estrella, but he was on the same recruiting visit that we saw from Price Sanford and Price Sanford's already

said that he is working JP. How about that? Another big guy to go along with what they already have in Owen Freeman. Ooh, that would be pretty juicy inside for the Hawkeyes. And then another big out there, TJ power from the Boston area. He's from the Worcester Academy. He has named his final five. So for a long time, TJ Power, a lot of people thought he was a Boston college guy. And he wasn't that top-tier recruit. He was at that next level down.

He didn't have the blue bloods after him. The blue bloods had come calling. A lot of connections, though, to Boston College. His mom went there. His grandpa's like a huge, huge part of BC basketball, and a lot of people anticipated that's where T.J. Power was going to be. Well, Boston College,

they made the cut. Iowa made the cut, that's what we're talking about. Virginia made the cut, who got involved a little bit later, but a really good fit for his skill set. But the two blue buds that also jumped in, Duke and North Carolina, are there. Number 63 player in the country,

TJ Power. Is it a stretch that he can be there? That Iowa's got a chance? Iowa's been recruiting him the hardest, has been recruiting him the longest. Fran has done a really good job. You're not only hoping to beat out Blue Bloods, but you're also doing it from a guy from outside your area.

It's going to be an incredibly difficult hill for Iowa to climb to get there, but tell you what, they have continued to do a good job and I would not bet at this point against Fran McCaffrey getting that one done. So that is basketball. Some good stuff there. Things to be

excited about, about the future of Iowa basketball. Mentioned John Rothstein interviewed Fran McCaffrey, a couple of nuggets that came out, including John Rothstein and his website that he has, College Hoops Today. He's got his Big Ten numbers, his projections at this point

where the rankings are. He's got Iowa at number nine. I think that's a tad low, but he has his projected starting five. I don't know if this changed after he talked to Fran. Center, Phillip Robracha. We know that, right? Chris Murray, Patrick McCaffrey.

Sure. Tony Perkins in the starting lineup, absolutely. But the fifth starter, and this is where he could go. He handed the keys off to the freshman, DeSante Bowen, a point guard. Could make some sense. Aaron Uless, is he the guy? At least right away, a veteran point guard. Does Connor McCaffrey get the start?

Well, he's got Peyton Sanford, and what that means is that Tony Perkins would be your starting point guard. He is a guy that played point guard last year a lot, even after the change in the starting lineup from a year ago, and we saw Jordan Bohannon go back into the starting lineup late in the season. When Iowa was playing their best basketball, they played long stretches, not with J-Bo at the point. He was on the floor, but it was with Perkins at the point guard position. Just something to chew on and a little nugget there

as we look to the future of Iowa basketball this season. We're getting closer and closer. Football right around the corner. We got a busy week, and we will be with you each and every day. Daily podcast here on the Locked On Hawkeyes Network. Also, you can know what your team is up against across the Big Ten with Locked On Big Ten Every Day. Host Nate Dickinson and the local experts will take you across the Big Ten

and they'll do it in 30 minutes. Make Locked On your second listen. That's Locked On Big Ten. LaShawn back with us on Friday this week, and perhaps a special treat tomorrow. If you saw one of my former podcasts that I did, that was the Degenerate Hawkeyes podcast with my buddy Biz. Well, he's a lawyer.

He's big time. He actually works during the day. But hopefully we can get him tomorrow, and we will have our first Locked On Degenerates Hawkeyes podcast. How about that? Come your way tomorrow. One way or the other, I'll be back with you. Looking forward to it.

Looking forward to a lot more football and basketball talk here as we get ready for the season. This has been the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. I'm Trent Condon. Go Hawks.