Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Hawkeyes land coveted tight end, Throwback Thursday & Iowa baseball portal news
Episode Date: June 22, 2023Hawkeyes land coveted tight end, Throwback Thursday & Iowa baseball portal newsSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BirddogsGo to birddogs.com/lockedoncollege and they’ll throw in a free custom b...irddogs Yeti-style tumbler with every order.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go 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
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Iowa football gets their first commitment in over a month.
That's great news.
Better news, who they beat to get the three-star tight end.
We'll talk about that.
Iowa football recruiting.
Plus, it's a throwback Thursday.
A look back at great teams here throughout the summer in Iowa sports history.
It's a busy one.
All today on Locked on Hawkeyes.
You are locked on Hawkeyes.
Your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.
Hey, welcome in.
I'm Trent Condon, and this is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.
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Let's get into it here today.
And it had been a dry spell for Iowa football as it pertains to the recruiting world.
We talked about last week, Iowa had their big event inviting the class of 2025 in,
offered a number of prospects, guys that maybe we felt there were going to be commitments
for the guys that are getting ready for their junior campaign.
The incoming senior class, though, 2024, grew by a member today
as Iowa picked up a commitment from michael bird so michael
is a three-star tight end from over in omaha but the best news about that is iowa beating out
nebraska for his services look we look over there at nebraska and after they finally got the hawkeyes
for the first time in eight years a season ago and ended Iowa's chances of getting in to the Big Ten championship game.
There were frustrations, but maybe it did raise up the level a little bit.
Now, I'm going to guess I'm not alone.
Wondering if I would have got to that championship game,
how ugly it could have been against Michigan,
the way the offense was playing.
But we will never know.
And maybe something good for the Cornhuskers.
But there is no more Scott Frost.
Frosty the Coachman is no more, and that means they now have Matt Rule.
Matt Rule did something unthinkable at Temple.
He made them competent.
I think people sometimes forget how poorly Temple football was looked at.
This is a program that was kicked out of the Big East
back when the Big East, yes, had football.
Sorry, youngsters, yeah, that was a real
thing that happened. They had a bid to the BCS,
all kinds of things. That's how UConn got a
bid into the BCS where they played in the
Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma. But
he got them
respectable after pulling them out
of the doldrums that they were.
An incredibly difficult place to win.
They play in a
stadium that does not make any sense for them,
and he made them good and got them to bowl games.
Then he goes down to Baylor, and after the fiasco that they went through
with the Art Bryle situation, and he pulled them back up
and built that program into a very good one.
Look, it didn't work in Carolina, but we know as a college coach,
he is very good.
He's a kid in their state borders.
He's a kid that they wanted,
and Iowa went into Omaha and got that. The last time that Iowa got a player from Omaha,
a tight end prospect that Nebraska wanted, it worked out pretty well, right, with Noah Phan.
Let's hope the same thing happens here with Michael Burt. Michael Burt, 6'6", 220 pounds. He is
a willing blocker, still has plenty of work to
do though to become that inline tight end. He is a guy that, though high points the ball incredibly
well, makes a lot of catches in traffic watching the film. One thing that jumps out at times is
quarterback. Didn't give him a whole lot of help there, and he made a lot of very difficult catches
in a lot of traffic in places that normally the football isn't going
to be. Excited about this one. Now, there is some other news in the recruiting world that
is a little bit frustrating, and that is Eric Karner, another one of the tight ends that they
were after, also made a commitment today. Unfortunately, it was not the University of
Iowa. We've talked about Eric Karner's background, a kid that was committed to Purdue,
We've talked about Eric Conner's background,
kid that was committed to Purdue,
decided to reopen his recruiting,
and then he was getting offers from all over the place,
from Florida to Alabama, Texas A&M, Michigan State, Iowa.
Those were his five finalists. And with Matt Bowen, the former Hawkeye NFL player,
and now coaching at his high school,
there was hope that maybe that was going to help things out a little bit.
And obviously the conversations that Matt Bowen could have,
a guy that was part of the transition from Hayden Frye into the Kirk Ferentz era.
I've had an opportunity to talk to Matt a number of times throughout the year on radio,
a guy that still loves the University of Iowa.
But he also wasn't going to push me,
and it wasn't going to be anything where it was going to be forceful.
And we understood that, but every little bit helps well this morning he took the offer and probably the bag from texas
a&m look the swarm collective is doing a great job but there are certain programs out there
at least financially that iowa cannot compete with and certainly texas a&m is one of those
programs eric harner this is not about money for him.
This is about fit.
This is about finding the right situation.
He believes it can happen with Texas A&M.
They got somebody finally running the offense.
It looks like they're going to be competent.
And Petrino coming in and running the offense.
We'll see.
You never close the door on anything.
You never know what's going to happen in the future.
Heck, we don't know what happens this year.
All of a sudden, we might get to the end of the season.
If Texas A&M is struggling again, I don't think they will. But you think those Aggie
fans that got gobs and gobs of money and plenty of oil money, they're just going to sit back and
swallow another four and eight season with Jimbo Fisher? I don't think so. So don't completely
close the door on this one. Remember, he cannot sign until December. Eric Karner, don't close the door
on that. So they are looking at a couple of tight ends in this class. Already with Michael Burt,
the commitment from him. One other name that is out there right now is Gavin Hoffman from down
in the Kansas City area. That is another guy that has been bandied about a whole bunch. So that is
something to keep an eye on. A little more on football. As mentioned, coming up this weekend,
it's the big Hawkeye event with all the guys that are committed
to making their way to Iowa City,
along with some of the top prospects that they're looking for
for the class of 2024.
I hope you walk away from this weekend after the next week or so,
and that number is up to probably 17 commitments,
something like that, 17, 18.
I think that's what they're shooting for with the 12
that are currently committed to the
Iowa Hawkeyes.
And that's what they're really looking for coming out of this weekend.
We'll talk about that a little bit more.
And of course, recap things for your everydayers coming up next week on what is happening.
But I want to continue.
And yesterday, also some more Iowa football news, an opportunity to hear from a number
of the Iowa football players as they had media availability.
So, Cade McNamara talking a little bit more about the trip out to California, bringing his wide receivers with him, bringing his tight ends.
Also, bringing along Joey the Bull.
That was pretty fun to see.
He apparently became the strength and conditioning coordinator while he was out there
and the work that they were able to put in
the thing that stepped out
to me, there's two things that Cade
McNamara said. He's down to 4% body fat.
We know the work that he is putting in,
coming off that injury, the chip
on the shoulder that he has, losing his
job at Michigan, the opportunity
that Iowa has this season,
you're going to see a completely
different one. But the other part is Cade McNamara has never been known as a gunslinger. This is not
a guy with a Brett Favre, a Jay Cutler, a Dan Marino type of arm. That is not Cade McNamara's
game. He's a guy that is incredibly accurate, something that is great in the Iowa system,
and can make some plays up the field. But he is not the guy that is going to go from one hash mark
over to the other side of the field and throw it on a dime 25 yards up the field.
That's not arm strength.
That's not something that you look at,
and you're talking about some of the top things that he has as a quarterback.
That's not at the top of the list.
However, he's added a couple of miles an hour to his throw.
And in football, where you're looking about 60 miles an hour,
that's kind of an average number
for a quarterback throwing a football.
He had a couple of ticks to that.
Those tough throws,
cutting through the wind in a November game,
up in Camp Randall in October,
that can be incredibly important.
Great to see the work is being done
and a whole lot of excitement right now
for this Iowa football team.
We'll talk a little bit more about some of those nuggets coming out from the media availability
here in the coming days and weeks on Locked On Hawkeyes.
When we come back, I told you we're going to do it this summer and we finally have a
chance today.
It's a throwback Thursday.
We are going to talk about my favorite Iowa football team for a myriad of different
reasons. We go back 21 years ago to 2002, the Iowa Hawkeyes winning the Big Ten Championship,
playing in the Orange Bowl, a season of highs, a season of a few lows, but a fun, fun team. That's
as we come back here on Lockdown Hawkeyes. Along with that, we also talk a little bit more about
the portal and Chris Murray. We'll hear his name called tonight in the NBA draft.
We break things down and continue on Locked On Hawkeyes.
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Try kind of back with you once again here on the lockdown Hawkeyes podcast.
As always,
thanks for making lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day.
So as we go and look forward,
it's always fun to look back.
And maybe this will be a history lesson.
Maybe we'll jog some memories here.
But throughout the summer months,
we're going to, on Thursdays, have throwback Thursdays.
We're going to talk about some of my favorite teams.
And if you have suggestions, different teams to talk about,
certainly hit me up on Twitter at Trent Condon.
You can also find us with the Lockdown page at Lockdown Iowa.
Hit me up that way.
Tons of different ways to get involved.
But I want to go to this.
2002.
So, well, I'm 21.
So I can drink legally.
All right.
That makes it a little better, right?
At the tailgate, not putting it over your shoulder every once in a while.
I was a young looking guy. I'm a while. I was a young-looking guy.
I'm 43 now.
I had a baby face.
In fact, I just saw some pictures from college where I looked like I was about 12.
So once I turned 21, all right, don't have to worry, right, about that.
When you're at the tailgate, make your way to the stadium, those kind of things.
So maybe that's a piece.
But secondly, the way that season went.
So it opens up the year.
And Iowa opens up against Athens.
Look, it's the Zips.
They stink.
And Iowa's up 37-0 at the end of the first quarter.
They roll 57-21.
It was just a dominating performance.
Little bit of everything in that one.
Iowa goes for 376 rushing yards in the game.
Brad Banks hits his first eight passes of the game.
A couple of touchdowns to Moe Brown.
They're off and running.
The following week, they make a road trip to Miami of Ohio.
Yes, kids, Iowa played a road game at Miami of Ohio.
Ben Roethlisberger was on that Miami team.
And Iowa, it was a tough one.
With Iowa State looming the following week,
perhaps a look-ah ahead kind of situation.
Iowa took care of business.
I did 13,
10 at the half went on 29,
24.
They scored a touchdown.
The Red Hawks did with about five minutes to play.
I would get the ball back after the kickoff.
And this was just one of those drives that kind of stuck in your head.
We knew the offensive line had a chance to be good.
There was a lot of excitement about Brad banks taking over at the quarterback spot for Kyle McCann. We knew the running line had a chance to be good. There was a lot of excitement about Brad Banks taking over at the
quarterback spot for Kyle McCann. We knew
the running back stable was going to be good, but
the way they get the football back,
backed up at their own 20,
something like that, and they just ate up
the clock. I mean, they just ran it down their
throat, and they did whatever they wanted down
the field. They easily could have punched in another
score. It would have looked prettier than the 29-24
victory that the Hawkeyes got.
But they win it, move on to 2-0.
And then, boy, one of the crappiest games of Iowa football, certainly in the Kirk Ferentz
era, 2002 against Iowa State.
Kinnick Stadium under the lights, a 5 o'clock kickoff, just a weird start time.
Game was on the deuce.
Iowa races out to a 24-7 lead at the half. They are just dominating
this Iowa State team. Brad Banks twice in the second half fumbles the ball. Both times in Iowa
territory. 29 straight points by Iowa State and a game where it just felt like Iowa handed it to
them. It was not Iowa State doing things, and they did.
They made plays.
I mean, credit to them.
But the two fumbles from Brad Banks, he had a sore wrist, I believe it was,
or maybe it was a hand injury that he sustained.
Had it wrapped.
There were talk that maybe the wrap was too tight,
and that's why he wasn't able to secure the football the same way.
Regardless, not only does Iowa lose that game,
I lose my wallet in the student section.
That sucked. So I was without a wallet the next morning i will just say take the sleep out of
my eyes and make my way back to kinnick hoping hey maybe there'll be somebody in security there
maybe there'll be people cleaning up no go while it's gone walking around and the area that is now
the children's hospital that was a big tailgating lot and a ton of students.
And that's where we tailgated for a while
before making our way over to Olive Court.
And just walking past that area,
it looked like a war zone.
And I know some changes were made after that.
And there was a lot of conversation about this rivalry,
how ugly it got downtown that evening.
Now, I unfortunately had to go to house
parties because I didn't have my ID. I didn't have a wallet, but we made it work and certainly
drowned our sorrows after that one. 36-31 Iowa State. The next week, they also get out to a 24-7
lead. This time it's against Utah State though. Come out in the second half, they continue on
24 points in the third quarter in a 48-7 win against Utah State. Really, my only memory of that game was Clinton Solomon late in that game.
He made a big-time play, and a 43-yarder, I think it was,
as he made a big play up the sideline.
Nate Chandler, we got to see him maybe before he did play
in the first game against Akron, but extended minutes in that one
in a big way.
Next up, it's Penn State.
Nittany Lions are undefeated.
They're ranked 12th in the country. Iowa goes out to Beaver Stadium, and they are running roughshod over this Penn State team.
And then the fourth quarter came. It's wild to think about how great this team was offensively,
and certainly early in the year, how bad they were on the defensive side. They had two freshmen
playing cornerback.
Antoine Allen and Jovan Johnson, both of them turned out to be outstanding players.
But it took a while to get there.
It took a long time for those guys to get there.
And there were certainly growing pains that happened over the course of that one.
Game gets to overtime.
There was a funky play, a blocked extra point.
Iowa ran that back for two.
Iowa cruising along. Looks like they
have the easy victory. They're up 35-13. Here comes Penn State. They scored 22 points in the
fourth quarter. Overtime, Iowa gets the win and gets into the AP Top 25 after the victory of 4-1
for the first time since 1997. Another game that will be long remembered and one of my favorite games. Now, one thing I do
remember is this was not a well-attended game. The attendance is listed at 68,249 as Iowa welcome
is in Purdue for homecoming. There were not that many people there. Now, there are a lot of people
that say they were there and we saw one of the most incredible performances out of Dallas Clark.
a lot of people that say they were there and we saw one of the most incredible performances out of Dallas Clark I mean this game alone very well could have been the difference maker for him
winning the Mackey award that season a 95 yard touchdown by Dallas Clark and it was coming up
the sideline right on our sideline on the old student section where it was and just seeing him
pull away from a safety from a cornerback the speed that he showed on that one I think that play
also helped him make some big money at the next level but the biggest play came late in the game
fourth down from the Purdue seven yard line and Brad Banks rolls out to his left turns back to
his right chucks it into the end zone and Iowa gets the win on that one still Purdue got the
ball back with a chance to come back tied up with the field goal or get the win with the TD.
And the name that will go down in infamy,
at least in my circles, is Adolphus Shelton.
So if you've been with us for a while,
you remember last football and basketball season,
my buddy Jace, he hops on to the podcast from time to time.
Jace said after that one,
his firstborn son was going to be called Adolphus.
When he had a kid, that was not the case.
He skipped out.
A liar and a lawyer.
Big surprise.
Next up is Michigan State.
Iowa cruises 44-16.
This was the only home game that year,
but they didn't make it to.
My sister was getting married.
Yeah, frustration.
Frustration about that one. The defense started to turn the corner. A great performance. They shut down Charles Rogers,
the outstanding wide receiver, had a touchdown catch in 14 straight games. That came to an end
on that one. Iowa up big in the ball game. They cruise in for a 44-16 win. The next one was kind of a dangerous spot as they took on
Indiana on the road. The reason is looming was a road trip to Michigan. So Michigan on deck.
They go to Indiana. Not a good Hoosier team. They came in three and three on the season, but
Iowa just took care of business. 17 points in the first quarter. Grant Steen was all over the place.
He had three interceptions in the
game. And though Iowa made some errors, frankly, Indiana wasn't good enough. And Iowa gets the win
24-8. Then we go to my first ever big time road trip. And maybe this is another reason that I love
this Iowa football team so much. I've been to a lot of games in the Metrodome. Growing up in North
Iowa, hop, skip, and a jump.
We could get to the Dome in just over two hours.
We went there a ton.
Didn't matter if it was Twins games or if it was Iowa-Minnesota.
We were up there a bunch.
Been to Madison a couple of times.
I have family in Madison, so I've been there.
But this was first outside of the, I guess, close area.
First time going out and watching the team.
We took an old school bus out there.
It was a RAGBRAI bus. Had a guy that drove us out there we a bunch of college dudes i think there was 12
of us on the bus an incredible time which should have been i think a nine hour drive something like
that turned out to be about 12 hours because the bus well it couldn't get over 55 miles an hour so
it took a little bit longer than we anticipated but we had an incredible time leading up to the game and then when the game came oh how fun that was it was tight early on 10-6 at the half another Michigan
field goal made it 10-9 and then suddenly here comes Iowa and more importantly here comes Jermell
Lewis for a lot of people you have memories of living little Fred Russell out there back at this
game I got to meet Fred's brother,
his older brother, who I towered over.
He might be two, three inches shorter than Fred is,
but had an opportunity to meet their family, great people.
And then the performance that we saw out of Jermell Lewis
in a game where Fred Russell was struggling against a team
that he thought he was going to be a Michigan Wolverine,
and not the case.
Brad Banks was outstanding.
He found a couple of touchdown passes in the game, also to CJ Jones. Used the tunnel screen to perfection.
They hand Michigan their worst home loss since 1967. I still have the Ann Arbor newspaper from
the next day and the headline in the kind of foldout section. It doesn't get any worse than
that. Iowa into the top 10 for the first time since 1991 with the victory.
34-9, it was domination.
And if you go back and see those highlights,
you can see me and my buddies and a couple of them.
And the celebration was on from that.
It's Wisconsin the following week.
The Badgers were all right, 6-3.
Not a vintage Bucky team, but the defense started to
roll for Iowa. Iowa's defense held Anthony Davis, a very good collegiate running back,
to 34 yards on 16 rushes. Iowa's defense knocks out Brooks Bollinger and Jim Sorge. They were
all over the place. And one of the most beautiful plays, they've been using that tunnel screen all season long,
really the first couple of seasons of Kirk Ferentz and with the offensive coordinator,
Ken O'Keefe, they had to because of the limitations that they had
offensively those first couple of years.
But the tunnel screen, the bubble screen, that was a big part of what they did.
And they faked it.
Dallas Clark shot up the field.
Everybody was converging in.
He was wide open.
A thing of beauty.
And Iowa gets the 20-3 win.
By the final home game of the season,
Iowa's up to number six in the country.
Northwestern comes in, and they had no chance.
We see this offensive line, what they were.
We saw the five seniors run off the field together,
hand in hand.
At the end of it, it was a little bit of everything.
Fred Russell came back after the hand injury.
He went for 100 yards and a 1,000-yard season on that one.
Iowa gets their 10th win of the year, 62-10 against Northwestern.
Finally, another fun road trip.
Back up to the Metrodome, I go and my group of buddies,
and we had a party in Minnesota.
It is a chance to clinch an undefeated regular season
in the Big Ten, something Iowa had done in a very long time, depending on what happened with Ohio
State later on that weekend, the possibility to go to the Rose Bowl. And that's where we thought
we were going. It was a different era. The BCS was becoming a thing in the national championship,
which Ohio State ultimately played for and won. But Iowa brings 30, 40, 50,000 fans in, and it was domination.
Late in the game, they tried to get Brad Banks in Heisman conversation,
tried to get him a touchdown catch, just missed on that one,
an opportunity there.
Mo Brown had another touchdown, his 10th of the season.
Iowa, with their 10th straight Big Ten win and their longest winning streak in the Big Ten
since the 1920s in front of the largest crowd ever
to see a Gophers game at the Metrodome, 45-21.
I went back last summer, as I like to do,
and watched this game.
It was a little tighter than I expected
before Iowa finally pulled it away,
but ultimately Iowa gets the win.
But what happened afterwards is what many people will believe.
So I had front row seats for this game.
Back then, Minnesota would limit who could buy tickets for the Iowa-Minnesota game.
And one of my buddies had just moved up to Minnesota and moved up to St. Cloud.
And as a Minnesota resident, he got first crack at the tickets when they went on sale
to the general population with Minnesota addresses.
So he got us great tickets. We were right behind the Iowa bench. And one of my good friends from high school
was a walk-on on the football team, Will Lack. And I was talking to Will towards the end of the game,
and I said, do you think we could come on the field afterwards? And Will just said,
if you do, don't tell me. And so we left it as that. But we hopped down, and we were some of
the first people on the field. Now, we were going a little bit we weren't gonna rush the field or anything
well as we did and being some of the first people we look over to our right and left and we found
out we were not alone that were a lot of people a lot of hawkeye fans had the same idea so everybody
comes storming onto the field we see everybody starting to make their way to the middle we do
the same we see out of the corner of my eye,
I see a guy get absolutely laid out by a security guard
and kind of had to hop to the side to evade him
and get out of the way.
We get to the middle, go over to the goalpost.
They get pulled down.
Then the Metrodome staff is trying to get us out of there.
They are playing this just screeching, awful sound.
It was a good one.
Got interviewed after the game by the local TV station up there.
One of the local TV stations up there.
My cousin was the first to be interviewed.
They could not understand what he was saying.
I stepped in his place, and away we go.
Iowa is Big Ten champions.
And we thought we were going to the Rose Bowl.
That turned out not to be the case.
It would have been a matchup against Washington State.
Instead, the Orange Bowl had a selection after losing Miami, who played in the national
championship game, and they selected the Iowa Hawkeyes. So the Orange Bowl against number five
USC. USC came in probably the hottest team in the country. They were playing incredibly well. They
had sustained a couple of losses early in the season. They lost to Kansas State on the road
and also lost an early game to the aforementioned Wazoo squad, Washington State.
But after that, they ripped off seven consecutive victories,
dominated No. 7 Notre Dame, dominated No. 25 UCLA, dominated Oregon.
It was Washington.
All ranked teams on the end of the season, excuse me, they were playing incredibly well.
Of course, Carson Palmer, what he was,
this was a loaded team.
Iowa, with the long layoff,
they had an extra week off
because they played the week before Thanksgiving
was the finale back then.
An outstanding start.
CJ Jones, see you later, as it was called
in the broadcast on ABC.
But alas, Iowa, too many missed opportunities early in the game.
Saw Brad Banks just not look the same.
He looked out of sync.
The whole team really looked out of sync.
And the domination from USC as Carson Palmer was able to pick the defense apart.
It was a game that was 10-10 at the half.
But the second half, not the case.
And really, a lot of domination also happened in that game,
the running game.
It was, Carson Palmer was good, no doubt,
but what Fargus was able to do changed the complexion.
Still, 2002, one of my favorites, that Orange Bowl, the trip,
they estimated 48,000 Iowa fans were in attendance for that one.
It was so, so fun.
And we went for a while.
We really did. We'll come back here, put a cap on things, as fun. And we went for a while. We really did.
We'll come back here,
put a cap on things
as we continue
on Lockdown Hawkeyes.
All right, Trent,
kind of back with you
one final time.
Boy, wasn't looking
at the clock there.
And that was a lot of talk
about Iowa football in 2002.
But as I said,
one of my favorite seasons,
if not my favorite season
of Iowa football
came in that one.
It was certainly timing
was a part of it,
but absolutely loved that.
So as we wrap things up,
some news from the portal,
Iowa baseball loses and adds.
So Sam Hozier is on his way to Maryland.
It appears he entered the transfer portal a couple of weeks ago.
And the biggest thing is,
well,
money.
So Iowa and all college baseball teams only have
11.1 scholarships to play with. That means it is a huge rarity that you ever see anybody that is a
full-ride athlete in collegiate baseball have a lot of 25% scholarships, 50% scholarships. There
are a few, but in comparison to what we're used to with football and basketball, it's a different conversation.
There are some guys that come there and they're getting books, basically.
You know, they're going to get maybe a tenth of a scholarship, and that's all that they're
going to get.
Plenty of walk-ons, including what Sam was, and put his name in the portal.
He's been a walk-on.
He's been paying his own way, has not had any help scholarship-wise as it pertains to
a baseball scholarship.
And I was not set up right now very well for the other sports.
Football, as it pertains to NIL, it's going well.
Always can be better.
Donate to the Swarm.
That's how you're going to help Iowa get those athletes.
But more that, even basketball, women's basketball,
those are different levels.
Well, those are the three that the Iowa Swarm gives money to.
Those three programs alone right now.
And as it gets bigger, maybe baseball will be a part of it.
Maybe wrestling, who has their own collective at this point.
Maybe softball, track and field, on and on and on.
But at this point, it's just not there.
And though they have some individuals and some different things
and people that have stepped up, it just wasn't enough.
Now, another thing is this loss.
Good player, starter for a team that finished
what, in the top 32 in the country? I mean, it's pretty dang good. But Gabriel Mitchell, they
believe, is going to be a star. And we saw him come in a lot defensively towards the end of the
season at second base. He's your heir apparent. And very well could have been seeing the writing
on the wall that Mitchell was going to get more playing time this season, you can see that be a part of it.
But the other thing is I was doing incredibly well in the portal
in bringing in different pitchers.
So we saw ultimately what was their demise was the bullpen.
They ran out of arms.
And Keaton Anthony could have helped that out.
Another player that was suspended.
But they've gone out there now and brought in Grant Hogue from Oklahoma State, Grace Buter from Dallas Baptist, and now Anthony Watts makes his
commitment today from Creighton, who was at Ankeny and then, excuse me, Waukee and then
Waukee Northwest.
Called a number of his games in high school.
He was dynamic.
He's got a good bite, a real good kind of sinker, if you will, with his pitch.
Sits in the mid to low 90s.
He is a guy that I think has a real chance. You look at the overall numbers, his freshman campaign, not great at
Creighton. Still, making eight starts in the Big East as a freshman, it's pretty good stuff. He is
going to be a help. I was going out there and doing a whole lot more. Finally, Chris Murray
will hear his name called this evening in the NBA draft. We will hear more on that.
I had him targeted to go number 19 to Golden State.
Now Golden State's making moves today and news today with the re-emerging of Chris Paul making his way back out to the left coast with Golden State.
But we will have more coverage for you on this one.
Coming up on tomorrow's podcast every day as we have you covered and we'll dive in a
little bit more.
Some of those Iowa football comments that we had.
Hey, thanks for hanging out with me today.
Always appreciate your time. And thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day.
We'll talk to you again tomorrow.
Go Hawks.