Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Hawkeye Mailbag, Iowa games on Peacock

Episode Date: August 16, 2023

Trent Condon returns with a Hawkeye Mailbag with your questions on Iowa football, basketball and a whole lot more.Some thoughts on Iowa games on Peacock and streaming this season as the match ups against Michigan State in Kinnick and the matchup with Northwestern at Wrigley Field. And both games are scheduled for 2:30 kickoffs.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!NutrafolTake the first step to visibly thicker, healthier hair. For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners ten dollars off your first month’s subscription and free shipping when you go to Nutrafol.com/men and enter the promo code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE. LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGE. Terms and conditions apply.eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit. eBay Motors dot com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Right now, when you bet on a Super Bowl Winner, you can GET BONUS BETS EVERY TIME THEY WIN IN THE REGULAR SEASON! FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's a Hawkeye Mailbag Wednesday here on Locked On Hawkeyes. We take your questions and comments and Iowa football on Peacock. What is going on today, Locked On Hawkeyes? You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in. I'm Trent Condon, and this is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day.

We're available wherever you get podcasts. You can also find us on YouTube. You can see me hanging out here in the man cave and getting ready to talk with you about everything going on. If you're on the YouTube side, hit the subscribe button. Let's you know each and every time that we are available. On the podcast side, five-star reviews. That's what we're looking for. Your team every day here on the Lockdown Network.

Let's get into it today. We got a lot of different directions that we're going to go. A lot of your comments that have been piling up here over the last couple of weeks, we're going to get into. Leave those comments on YouTube and we will make sure to make them a part of a mailbag here in future episodes. But the big story of the day, some news from Brett McMurphy of the Action Network as he has continued to see some start times and kickoff times trickle out, along with what we're going to see TV-wise or streaming-wise. And that is where the conversation starts today. So two games will be, at least as of right now, are targeted to be on Peacock.

Peacock is the streaming network that is put out by NBC. Of course, Iowa now has an NBC affiliation. They'll be playing the night games on NBC coming up on Saturday evenings throughout the course of the year. So that's where this all starts. And a number of those games were placed on Peacock. You're also going to need Peacock coming up this winter. If you're looking to watch Hawkeye basketball, both men's and women's wouldn't be surprised to see maybe some wrestling on there from time to time. This is something that happens. And for us to be able to pump our chest and laugh at little brother and say,

oh boy, look at all the money that we have. Well, this money comes from television networks. And that's how Iowa is able to compete in the Big Ten and the SEC. And that's why they're the big two and everybody else is playing for the scraps because that's what it is. But in order to do that, you also have to cater to TV, and that's where we are. So it can be very frustrating. I get that. In fact, I was talking to a local owner here of a sports bar in town, the station on Ingersoll, and just talking about NFL Sunday Ticket, now what they're going to have to do with Peacock and getting things going.

And if you're just used to being at home, I remember people consider it the good old days, right? You just flip on your television and the game would be on. It would be as simple as that. But there were also the components going back to what, 2001, I believe the last time that an Iowa football game was not available on television. That is changing. That is the evolution that we're seeing.

More and more companies are going to streaming. It has not been the cash cow that some people made you believe years ago that was going to be coming. In fact, many of these companies, ESPN, we're seeing the cutbacks that are happening there, both on the talent side and also the behind the scenes. And that's happening because, well, the money has gone down.

The cable bundle is dying. And your normal days of just flipping on your TV and watching games are not going to be a part of it. So the two games is the home game against Michigan State that is targeted for a 2-30 kickoff. That game will be on Peacock. That game will be played at the end of September after the Penn State game. And then later in the season, the November game, as they will go to Wrigley Field to take on Northwestern. 2.30 Central starts for both of those games on Peacock. Now, networks as they still go with the 13 and even the six-day window of selecting the

games that they want, if they decide that they want that game. You know, say Iowa pulls off a big upset against Penn State and they're sitting there and they use a six-day window going into the Michigan State game. That could be a very real possibility that gets picked up by a Fox, by an FS1, even an NBC, doing something like that. These things change, they evolve, but the way that it's set right now is that's what we're going to have, and you're going to have to get it out. Now, here at my house, we have crappy internet, and it's very frustrating, and I get absolutely, incredibly upset with our cable provider.

We don't have a ton of options in our area in West Des Moines. Long, long story that nobody cares about. But basically, we're in what is basically a dead zone, which is incredible in the middle of a suburb. But that aside, for whatever reason, this part just doesn't work very well. And Google Fiber is coming here, and hopefully I'll have it soon. But that's another thing I got to decide. You know, if I happen to know I'm going to Wrigley Field for that game and we'll have details for that coming up here in the coming weeks, but

say for whatever reason, not able to make it to connect for the Michigan State game. I can't feel confident watching this thing at home. I mean, I'm going to probably end up having to watch it off my phone or cast it on there. The frustration, it's a change. It's an absolute change, but something that we have to get used to definitely in the future. And for basketball, you're going to see a whole lot more of this. In fact, BTN Plus, that is where you'll see the exhibition game for the women's basketball team against DePaul. We got some more info coming your way about that one and a chance for you to get tickets. It is also a mailbag day. I love these days, getting your comments, your thoughts,

and just kind of different jumping off points that we get throughout Iowa football. We will get into that here today. Get some of your questions. Again, you can always leave them for us on Twitter at Lockdown Iowa. Hit me up myself at Trent Cotton is where you can find me on Twitter, or X, I guess, as it's known now.

You can find me at those places, both LockedOnIowa and at Trent Condon. Hit me up there or just leave a comment over on YouTube, and we'll get those to you here in future episodes. Mailbag, when we come back, this is LockedOnHawkeyes. When we come back, this is Locked on Hawkeyes. You don't have to choose between better hair growth and your health. Nutrafol provides a whole body health approach for men that promotes healthier hair. No drugs, no compromises, just better hair.

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Try and count it back with you again here on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. All right, let's get into it here. We got some mailbag. We got a ton of questions out there, kind of a lot of different directions that we're going to go. So let's just do it right now. And I've got a couple of things I thought were very interesting.

Here's one. As we've been talking about the Big Ten West, this comes from Travis. He says this when we were talking about the race for the Big Ten West and why I believe Iowa should be the favorite. They're not the betting favorite right now at FanDuel. It's still Bucky Badger. And he said this. I went from loving the fickle hire at Wisconsin to thinking it's Rich Rod

slash Michigan as soon as I heard the offense he's running. You know, that's going to be the part about this that I just, I know the Wisconsin schedule is easy. It really is. Ohio State, yeah, that's going to be a difficult game. Iowa come to town. Overall, it's an incredibly easy schedule for Wisconsin. I think that they got history on their side, but going from what has been their identity for three decades,

30 years of identity, and now going to this system where you bring in Phil Longo to run basically what they're calling a power spread. Now, his teams at North Carolina and other stops, they ran the ball. This is not your air raid when you think of Mike Leach's teams where they're throwing the ball 55 times a game and run it at eight. This is a more balanced approach. It's still a spread offense. My concern with Wisconsin, though, is from their perspective,

their offense alignment, changing what they're doing up front. I like Tanner Mordecai. He's a good quarterback. I like what he did at SMU. He was a guy that impressed when I had an opportunity to watch him. I like the wide receivers that they brought into the portal. It's not that, but it's the transition and taking guys that are just used to such a different system, that were recruited at such a different system.

And then the other side of the football, we know, obviously, at Iowa, how many troubles we've had against Jim Leonard's defense over there with the Badgers. You think they're going to take a step back? I think it's a real possibility there. What made Wisconsin so great here, at least on the recent part of things, has been what they were defensively, not what it was offensively. I understand their excitement over there. They're excited to see a new brand of football, offensively. I understand their excitement over there. They're excited to see a new brand of football and it very well could work, but I like what Travis said there has maybe a little bit of those feelings of Rich Rod when he made his way to Michigan and that one certainly didn't go well. Let's see what we have out here on Twitter. This one comes from the Hayden Fry burner account.

The line was much better at the scrimmage than it was last year. Well, that's a good one to know. And definitely a season ago, we know how bad that offensive line was. I hope it was better. And talking to a few people, you know, maybe I was a little too difficult on the offensive line because yes, it looked better than it has the last couple of years. It's just, I think anybody, you everydayers, you know, just how important offensive line is to me, the way's just, I think anybody, you everydayers, you know just how important offensive line is to me, the way that I talk about the offensive line, the way it's built. Do I go too deep sometimes? Maybe I do, but boy, it's just what they are up front, and just the hope that it all starts to click again for this offensive line. Iowa hasn't had a great offensive

line in a long time. It really, you go back to 2015, yes. 2008, 2009, absolutely. They've had pieces, but they haven't been able to put it all together. And I still remain concerned at the right tackle position. I just don't believe that Jennings Dunker, at least from the little bit that I have seen, has against some of those speed rushers and some of the guys that he's going to face, including a couple of behemoths from Penn State, that he has the requisite foot speed to be a guy out there on the edge, on an island, to be able to be there. I'm just hopeful that Dejon Parker can get healthy after he had the scope back in spring football.

He's behind in reps already. He's making the transition from Division II up to playing D1 football at the Big Ten level. He just is the guy that I think has the most upside at the position, and I certainly hope that he can find that and make that happen. But good to know. Thank you, Hayden Fry's burner account, for hooking us up with that one. Let's see.

What else do we got here in the mailbag today? This one comes from a tweet, subtweeted to me and Chris Hassel, and the conversation about Spencer Petras that he's helping out and see he's not going to play. He's done playing at Iowa. I get it. He's not on the roster. We talked about this a few weeks back.

It was just that lingering thought in my mind. There's something about Spencer Petras that the Ferences can't quit. I don't know if there's another player in the country that would have been rehabbing an injury like this and still be hanging around. Look, he's beloved. And so be it. Look, we're not in those football facilities. We don't understand what's happening inside.

We might pretend we do. I might holler into a microphone what I think it is, but we don't really know. What you can tell from the outside looking in, though, he is beloved. You talk to people that are on the beat, that are there interviewing every single time, and how much, certainly, they look at it, and how much respect they had for Spencer Petras to stand up there to answer the tough questions.

He wasn't good. But that wasn't his fault, in a way. It was the staff's fault of not identifying his inadequacies. It was the staff's fault that they did not find a quarterback that could not only overtake him, but could fit behind a bad offensive line. He was a statue back there behind a bad offensive line for the last two years. And it's very difficult for anybody to overcome something like that. Let's see what we else have here in the mailbag.

Trent, what about the freaks list? Yeah, if you missed this one, Bruce Feldman of The Athletic. He comes what about the freaks list? Yeah, if you missed this one, Bruce Feldman of The Athletic, he comes out with his freaks list every single year. And you get to find about 50, 60 guys in college football, guys that are the weight room warriors, the guys that have ridiculous speed, the guys that do things differently than most other players.

And it's fun every year, get to know some different guys a little bit deeper down roster. Sometimes you get some young guys out there. Well, Iowa this year had two on the list. Now, the first is not going to come as a surprise. Cooper Dejean being up there. We know about Cooper.

We've had Cooper here on the program last summer. We know about his exploits, the three pick sixes, everything else. What he was as an athlete at high school. Still, I remember the first time seeing him on the hardwood after what I saw as an athlete at high school. Still, I remember the first time seeing him on the hardwood after what I saw him do on the football field. And the dude is just drop-step dunking on people at 6'1".

I mean, he's just a ridiculous athlete playing, you know, a small school out in western Iowa, and we knew we had a different one. But some of the numbers that were here in the article, talking about what he's doing on the speed side of things, they sound impressive. I don't know how impressive they are because I don't know exactly what a flying 10 is, but he ran a 0.92. His 20-yard sprint speed was a 2.39 out of a two-point stats. This NFL combine trainer said his numbers were insane. He has capability of breaking four, three in the 40 at 210 pounds. Aluel and also mentioned a little bit later on in the article.

This his acceleration is incredibly fluid and super powerful. He's the best athlete I've seen in person. Pound for pound. High praise there for Cooper to Jean. And we know Cooper is going to be an absolute stud. But the other one, this one surprised me. Logan Jones, much maligned after his play last year at the center position. But we have heard from coaches that they are so high on this guy.

It was a difficult transition last year, moving from defensive line to the center position, learning all the calls, learning a new position, learning basically everything from scratch. But they believe in his upside so much. 6'3", 290 pounds. He is second best in the hang clean at University of Iowa behind only Tristan Wirfs. I mean, that's pretty good company that you're keeping there. And also with a vertical leap of 36 inches for a 290 pound guy, that's getting up there. Look, if Logan Jones can put it all together, it's going to really make things just so much easier for this offense coming up this season. The upgraded talent, a quarterback and wide receiver. Yes. But if you just have a guy making the right calls,

getting guys in the right spot, getting that continuity back on the offensive line. We saw it at times. We saw some spurts a year ago from Logan Jones. Got to get that snap problem figured out. Just seems a little bit slow getting back there, both out of shotgun and even under center. They're just something that always seemed off with him a season ago. Over is a little bit overstating it, but you get what I'm saying there.

Yeah, saw the freaks, listen, and what am I? Another one of those rights of summer right that we have just crossing things off as we make our way to football season all right let's go over to the youtube side of things and some of your mailbags again hit me up on twitter or on youtube in the comments section and we will get uh your comments here is one this one comes from hot I think Ferentz would tell the fans media that the offensive line looks good no matter what he actually felt. It's just that usually they actually do look so good. Iowa fans have been convinced Ferentz is telling them the truth. When a position group doesn't match what the coaches say, that's when you go back and realize

it's always just been coach speak. So what I think Hot D dangers is saying here is something we talked about yesterday and just how high Kirk Ferentz has felt like about this offensive line and asked the question is he just trying to speak it into existence, right? Just making it something that's true. And we'll see. This is one that we definitely have in a holding pattern. I understand what he's saying, but I would disagree that they've been good no matter what, because that hasn't been the case. Again, go back to those offensive lines and how big of a struggle that it has been. Got a lot of comments on the news that we had last week that the Big Ten championship game is not going to be moved permanently to Las Vegas, but there will be games being played. We had that story on my radio show, Miller & Condon, on KXNO

as we were out in Las Vegas. I think you can make some connections of exactly where that information was coming from, but we have it in good authority that games will be played there. It's more than the bidding process. It's past the bidding process. This is going to happen in the near future, that there will be multiple games, two games at minimum,

that will be played in Las two games at minimum that will be played in Las Vegas in coming years. Now, I'm a huge fan of it. I love Las Vegas. I love gambling. It's for me, a no brainer. You can get out there easily. Look, making the drive from Des Moines to Indianapolis. I've done that for a Big Ten championship game. It's not an easy one. I know you guys on the eastern side of the state, you're a little bit better if you live in Chicago. All right. If you live in Indiana, absolutely. It's good. And it's, yes, a very central location for what we have right now. But still, Nebraska made it there back in the day. One of their first seasons back in the leaders and legends days. That's not an easy drive from Omaha or Lincoln to make your way to Indianapolis. Not a whole lot of flights you can get in short order. Minneapolis, Madison, same kind of thing there. You're out and we see Penn State. It's centrally located. I get it, but it's not just hopping in the car.

And what's cheaper? Trying to find a flight to get into Indianapolis in short time or making your way to Las Vegas. Plus it's Las Vegas. Look, Indianapolis, I understand. If you get one of those hotel rooms downtown, you're in good shape, right? You're in really good shape if that happens. If not, it sucks. And one of those years, it sucked.

The 2015 season, we couldn't find anything downtown. Everything was sold out. We had to stay out in some crappy suburb. It was awful. We couldn't get an Uber afterwards. It was absolutely terrible. A bad after game experience after that heartbreaking loss to Michigan State. Yeah, if you're downtown, it's great.

For this, there are so many hotels available. There is cheap flights getting in there to Las Vegas, even with a quick turnaround. I love it. I know that's not for everybody, but a lot of comments on that one. Comment here on Spencer Petras. Spencer could have done it physically. It was mentally he hit a wall every Saturday.

That one comes in from Tammy Matt, 91-86. You know, I disagree with that. I know where you're going, the mental part of it, because you could absolutely see at times some of the most simple throws, throws that he probably made in his sleep throughout a long portion of his career. And he was broken mentally. But there was also the physical angle there. It's not just about throwing the football. could throw the football that was not the problem for

him there was the mental side but the physical part was also his inability to move being so statue as one of the most unathletic quarterbacks that i've ever seen at the college football level i mean that's that's a part of the physical part of it that you just can't overcome. So a little disagreement there. Going back to when the coaches poll came out and me, yes, they were a spot out, but not being in the top 25. I think this team should be preseason top 25. And the AP poll, they agree with that one. Brent had this to say, it's not a snub.

Preseason polls mean nothing. Better for Iowa not to be ranked. You don't think if they beat Utah State, won't they be ranked? Well, it probably will be. More than likely going to see somebody there. They'll move up in the coaches' pool and probably get in the top 25 and you anticipate they're going to be there leading into that game against Penn State.

I agree with you there. You know, they have been ranked. What is it? I think I saw the number the other day. Iowa's been ranked 10 times in the 25 years of Kirk Behrens in the preseason AP Top 25. It'd be fun to go back and see the years where they're receiving votes, maybe if they're in the top 35, that 25 receiving votes range compared to when they have a little more expectations the way that those seasons

played out. We know 2005, that one, how disappointing that turned out to be. Preseason top 10 had the early loss to Iowa State when Drew Tate was knocked out of the game. That was a disappointing year. 2010, another one of those with big expectations. So I get that, and I get that scar tissue that builds up when you have those expectations coming into the year and national expectations that go along with it, and it doesn't exactly play out. But I just believe that they absolutely should have been in the top 25. With the worst offense in the country, why should they be in the top 25? This comes from DDB and a bunch of numbers,

especially since they did nothing to try to change that. Fire Brian, fire Brian, fire Brian. Well, we're past that part. Look, they're not going to fire him on August 16th. So that's not happening, but they did change. They didn't change the coordinator. And that concerns me because even when things are good, when the offense is okay in the Brian Ferentz era as offensive coordinator, it's still not great. It's still maybe not even average. And there were plenty of play calls that left you scratching your head

i know that's the case for every almost every offensive coordinator there's gonna be plays that kyle shanahan calls they're like what are they doing over there there's gonna be plays with name your favorite offensive coordinator and you're gonna let be left scratching your head there just was a whole lot more of them with brian ference even when he had a good offensive line that's certainly not the case with this year's team. We will see on that front. Mailbag again, hit us up on YouTube in the comments section or find me on Twitter and we will get some more. Wrapping things up, Iowa's non-conference basketball schedule.

We found out just a little bit more. Iowa and their exempt tournament. We'll talk about that in a little hoops when we come back. Locked on Hawkeyes. All right, Trent Conner, back with you one final time on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. So, Iowa Hoops. We talked about this yesterday, every day, as you know,

that I walked away a little bit more excited about this basketball team after their foreign trip. It wasn't what they did kind of individually. It was seeing some things that pop. Owen Freeman, the buzz is real. He showed up, averaged a double-double, and get excited about that. Maybe the possibility of playing Tony Perkins and Josh Dix together in the backcourt. All right, that's something going. Ben Crickey, as advertised, that's good to see. We saw enough to know that this team is going to be good offensively.

Defensively will be another one. So Iowa will be playing Oklahoma in the non-conference portion of the schedule. A four-teamer that is scheduled to be played in San Diego. That is one that popped up a couple months ago that that was announced. And John Rothstein had the news from earlier today talking about in the first round USC will play Seton Hall Iowa gets Oklahoma in the first round of the ready children's invitational in San Diego that's what we have there it's going to be tough Oklahoma been a solid program throughout the years we'll we'll see but maybe possibility we'll see if

Bronny James is back for USC. That USC team, by the way, they are going to be absolutely loaded. Should be a fun one out there, and I will be jealous of the people that are going to be able to make their way to San Diego for that road trip as we continue to build the pieces of this non-conference schedule.

There's going to be plenty of bye games in there. Of course, you've got the Iowa State game. That's the way that it's going to be set up. Gavit games, the schedule will be okay. Let's get a good look at that. See what also the conference schedule. We know the teams that Iowa will be facing this year in the conference grind. We just don't know the order.

We don't know when the December games or even late November as it was, I believe a season ago, when those first two Big Ten games are going to be played. We'll be having that here in the coming weeks, I am sure. And we'll get that basketball schedule and start to ramp it up. Football, basketball, boy, it's a great time of year to be a Hawkeye. It's always a great time to be a Hawkeye.

Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every single day. We'll be back with you tomorrow. A whole lot more coming your way. Gonna look to track down LaShawn Daniels, talk with him a little bit. And for fans of my buddy Biz, he is clamoring to come back once again on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. We will get Biz back in here also.

And a lot of Hawkeye talk to Bandy about. We got you covered every day, your team every day. That's what we do here on the Locked On Network. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Go Hawks.