Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Hawk's defense projected #1 in nation | Parker Hesse is a TE now | Tyler Cook trying for NBA in G-League Camp

Episode Date: May 15, 2019

On today's episode we cover a few of the late breaking topics including John Beilein's departure for the NBA and what impact that has on the Iowa Hawkeyes basketball team. We also discuss the most recent news on Isaiah Moss, Parker Hesse, and Jake Gervase and their futures. Segment #3 has us discussing 247 Sports recent article claiming the Hawks are the most likely #1 defense in 2019. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are listening to the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering the Iowa Hawkeyes for the Locked On Sports Network, hosted by Andrew Wade, editor at dearoldgold.com. Welcome to our Wednesday morning edition of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. I am your host, Andrew Wade, editor over at dearoldgold.com, and today's episode is going to be, again, a little bit more traditional than what we've done in the past couple weeks. As you are aware, if you've been listening to the show, we've been doing a lot of interviews. We've been interviewing former Iowa Hawkeyes. We've also been interviewing each of the players on the Iowa United, the team that is put together

comprised of Iowa Hawkeyes, Iowa State Cyclones, Drake Bulldogs, and UNI Panthers, and Matt Tybee, an Urbandale, Iowa native. That team is going to be playing in the $2 million winner-take-all, the basketball tournament. So we've been interviewing those guys to kind of go along with Iowa United's player previews that they do on a weekly basis. But we've also been able to get some great guests that are specific to the Iowa Hawkeyes on the show as well. So I hope you really enjoyed that.

If you've missed any of those shows or if you are joining us for the very first time, make sure you check some of that stuff out. Some of our former Iowa United players or some of our, sorry, excuse me, current Iowa United players and former collegiate basketball players that are on and have been on the show. Matt Tybee was on the show last week. Nicholas Bayer was on the show two weeks ago. And yesterday we had Marcus Fizer, the former number four overall draft pick of the Chicago Bulls in the 2000 NBA draft, a former Iowa State Cyclone.

He was on the show yesterday. And that was a fantastic conversation that you do not want to miss. Even if you aren't necessarily a Cyclone fan, if you are just a diehard Hawkeye fan, you can appreciate what Fizer has to say. A lot of what we talked about was professional basketball. It was life. It was family. So it's not exactly specific to Iowa State.

So you'll definitely enjoy that, even if you are not a Cyclone fan. And then some of our great interviews that we have coming up, specific to Iowa State. So you'll definitely enjoy that even if you are not a Cyclone fan. And then some of our great interviews that we have coming up, we have former Drake basketball players Nick McGlynn, Reed Timmer, and Josh Young all coming up on the show over the coming weeks as we do their player previews

in addition to Iowa United's player previews. And then we also have a couple Iowa Hawkeye quarterbacks, Drew Tate and Ricky Stanzi are going to be joining the show as well. I've already done Drew's interview. It was extremely fun. He's a pretty funny guy.

Kind of shoots straight from the hip. Love talking to him. You're going to enjoy that show. That will be airing next week. And then we also have Elijah Yelverton, a tight end recruit out of the class of 2020. He is joining the show for tomorrow morning's podcast. So make sure to check that out. I loved what he had to say. It makes me really excited to talk to more of the class of 2020. He is joining the show for tomorrow morning's podcast. So make sure to check that out. I loved what he had to say. It makes me really excited to talk to more of the class of 2020.

One of the things I thought was really interesting about his show is that he mentioned that him and Deuce are actually planning on getting out there and doing some routes together. And if you are not familiar with Deuce, check out our interview a month ago when we talked to Deuce Hogan, four-star quarterback recruit for the class of 2020. You know, him and Elijah live in the same area. They're going to get out and start running some routes and playing together and getting familiar with each other. That cannot be understated to have that connection built before you even get into Hawkeye camp. So really excited to see how that all plays out. As far as a few housekeeping items, if you have been following, you know that we are working with the Iowa United to do some of the podcasting

to give some of those player previews out for the Iowa United team. Make sure to go follow them on thetournament.com. Like them on thetournament.com and give them the support they need to get into the tournament. Also, if you are on social media, the easiest way to figure out if we're going to be having shows, who our special

guests are, when the shows are airing, the easiest way to do that and find that information out is actually to follow us on Twitter at LockedOnIowa and to follow us on Facebook at LockedOnHawkeyes. We also post other stuff there as well, but that's really how you're going to get the most up-to-date information about the podcast. That being said, on today's show, we have a couple different topics. On segment number one, we're going to be talking about Iowa basketball. Lots of kind of small tidbits I want to cover. Currently, Tyler Cook and Peter Jock are playing in the G League NBA elite camp. We also have Isaiah Moss. Some information came out on him as far as what schools he's interested in and what schools he is not

interested in. I think the latter is probably the more important piece for Iowa Hawkeye fans. You're going to enjoy what I have to say on that. And then finally, Michigan's head coach, John Beeline, he's going to be leaving the program and what that means for the Hawks. On segment number two, we're going to be talking about football today for a lot of our segments. So segment number two and segment number three, we're going to be covering football.

On segment number two, we're going to be talking about two signings that have just happened recently for a few undrafted free agents from the Iowa Hawkeyes. And then on segment number three, we're going to be talking about Iowa's defense and whether or not it can actually be better this year than it was last year. And then giving our MVP emerging stars and newcomers of the year that we're kind of predicting. And I'll give full credit to Mark Morehouse for that. He kind of posted that on Twitter.

I thought it was a really great exercise to do, and so I want to do it on today's show. So let's jump right into segment number one. G League information. Tyler Cook and Peter Jock are currently playing in it. Tyler Cook is battling for a spot in the NBA Combine. So the way it kind of works is you get invited to the NBA Combine outright. That's awesome. That means you're one of the top 60, 65 players in the country as far as what the NBA sees.

And then there's a group of players who get invited to the G League Elite Camp. And this is an opportunity for the guys who maybe didn't get invited to the NBA Draft Combine and the guys who are performing really well in the G League to come out and show NBA scouts kind of what they can do in a more competitive setting that's surrounding them with their peers. For Tyler Cook especially, this is an opportunity. If he does really well in this camp, he's going to have an invite to the NBA Draft Combine, which is going to give him an opportunity to play against even better players

and show what he can do on a bigger stage. That'll be one step closer to getting him on an NBA team. Meanwhile, Peter Jock is basically just playing to see if any other teams want him. Right now, he is currently tearing it up with the Northern Arizona Suns. He's doing fantastic there, shooting over 40% from three, which I cannot understate or overstate how important that is and how big of a deal that is to do that in professional basketball. Obviously, I'm really excited to see him play with the Iowa United this summer,

but this is a really good step for him. Maybe get additional exposure. Maybe have an opportunity to actually move on up to the NBA. I believe personally that he is an NBA player. So I'm kind of curious to see how this whole weekend plays out. But we'll find out more about Tyler Cook. We'll probably find out the information. I'm recording the day before, so we'll probably find out the information

at this time that you're listening to it last night. And I'll give that information on a future podcast or on Twitter. Some other news in Iowa basketball. Isaiah Moss has limited his teams down. He is currently looking at Kansas, Arkansas, Oregon, and Arizona State. Originally, it was reported that Iowa State and a few other Big Ten schools had interest in Isaiah Moss, and I personally was really concerned about what could happen with that. I didn't like the fact that he could be going to Iowa State.

I thought that would have felt just wrong to see him playing there. It also would have felt wrong to see him playing within the Big Ten and kind of a slight towards Iowa. But it comes out, he says he doesn't want to do that, he wouldn't do that, he already eliminated those teams, and I love that. To me, he's basically doing a very political move there. I think he possibly could have played at those schools maybe a little bit more than a Kansas or an Oregon,

but by eliminating those schools, he's staying on Iowa's good side. I mean, Iowa fans can look at Isaiah Moss with a lot of love and endearment and respect because he did give Iowa his all for four years. He did a fantastic job. He was a starting shooting guard for the Hawks. And honestly, had Fran McCaffrey not kind of forgot about him half the time on the bench, maybe Isaiah Moss is still with the Hawks. I think from an Iowa Hawkeye fan perspective, I still love the guy. I'm going to be rooting for him. It just makes it a lot easier to root for him if he's not going to be playing Iowa at any point in the near future, especially not playing with ISU or any of the Big Ten schools.

Kansas, Arkansas, Oregon, and Arizona State I feel like are pretty interesting choices, though. I really thought Isaiah Moss would have been going to a mid-major program, but going to a school like that, I mean, I thought he was looking for more playing time. I don't necessarily know if he's going to get it at those schools, but neither here nor there, obviously he's taking a lot of things into consideration. Arizona State would just be a fun school to be at. Oregon's going to be losing a few guys this year. Kansas always reloads, but they actually kind of had a down year. I'm honestly not as familiar with Arkansas, but I know, you know, just typically they're not as high level of a basketball program. None of the schools really in the SEC truly are,

obviously except for LSU this past year. So it'll be interesting to see kind of what and how that plays out. Other interesting news, John Beeline is leaving Michigan to go coach the Cleveland Cavaliers. That is fantastic news for Iowa Hawkeye fans because since he's joined the Michigan program as a coach 12 years ago, they've kind of been kicking Iowa's butt. I mean, their record, I believe, is around 15-9 or so against Iowa.

So not exactly, you know, it's not Michigan's stage record by any means. But Michigan has been pretty much on top since Beeline joined the program. They went to two NCAA finals. They've been in the NCAA tournament almost every single year, I believe. And every year they're at the top of the Big Ten. So it's kind of a big transition. They're still bringing in some great recruits, but they are losing their top three scores. Ignace Brzezacki, I definitely butcher that.

Charles Matthews and Jordan Poole are all in the NBA draft right now. They could technically come back, but with Beeline leaving, I cannot foresee them coming back, which is great for Iowa Hawkeye fans. I mean, Michigan's the team that's knocked Iowa out of the Big Ten tournament the last two years. So excited to see kind of how that whole issue plays out. The Michigan Wolverines do have two four-star recruits coming in, but it's tough to replace your three leading scorers. It's just not as easy as plug and play. There's always some transition, especially if you're going to a new coach. So that'll be interesting to see how that plays out for Iowa Hawkeyes. But that'll do it for segment number one.

Just a quick reminder that on segment number two and segment number three, we're going to be covering a few football things. On segment number two, we're going to be talking about Parker Hesse and Jake Drafas. And on segment number three, we're going to be talking about the Iowa defense and giving a few of our superlatives about what to expect with the Hawkeyes this year. So stay tuned after a few messages from our sponsors. All right, we are back with segment number two. I appreciate you taking a couple seconds to listen to a few messages from our sponsors. That's how the show keeps going. If you do love this show, make sure to like and subscribe wherever you download this podcast at.

That is also huge in addition to the advertisements and listening to that to helping our show grow and become even better. So, that being said, let's jump into the football pieces. Parker Hesse signed as a tight end with the Tennessee Titans. As you probably know by now, Parker Hesse was a defensive end. He did not play tight end at all with the Iowa Hawkeyes. However, in high school, he did play quarterback and pretty much played all over the field. So it's not incredibly surprising. He did work out as a tight end and a fullback at his combine. That was really kind of the fit that made sense for him. And when I ran the numbers, actually a lot of his pro day numbers matched up pretty well

to TJ Hawkinson's. His 40 yard dash time is a little bit slower. He's about five pounds heavier and two inches shorter, but everything else, broad jump, vertical, short shuttles, those were around the same, if not better than Hawkinson. So it's a matter of really just understanding and learning the position. But I feel like the Titans are a great spot for Hesse because they do not currently have a fullback on the roster. If Hesse can carve out kind of a niche role as an H-back, he might be able to stick on this roster. Additionally, if you look at their tight end position,

there's not a lot of players that you would even recognize. In fact, I follow the NFL draft very closely. I follow the NFL very closely, and I've heard of one of their tight ends. That's Delaney Walker, who is coming off an injury. So there's a good opportunity here for Hesse to at least make the practice squad, if not make the team. But it's going to be a lot of learning very quickly, similar to how Matt Nelson is kind of experiencing it in Detroit as he is transitioning from defensive line to offensive line. What I think is interesting about this as well is that that is the second guy on Iowa's defensive line to transition this year.

And you typically don't see Iowa players transition once they get to the NFL. I can't think of one off the top of my head. And I'm kind of curious kind of what your thoughts are about why that is. Personally, I feel like it's the fact that Kirk understands two things. One, he understands player development and he understands what the NFL wants in players and he tries to put them in the best position to succeed. Sometimes the team needs other things though. So for example, Tyler Linderbaum, he got moved over to the offensive line. It made sense for him given his size that he'd be on the offensive line. What Kirk said about Matt Nelson is, you know, they would have loved to potentially have him on the offensive line, but when he came

in, there just wasn't as much depth on the defensive line as they would have wanted. They didn't really understand what they had and some of the other guys that were under him. So obviously they would have loved to have him at offensive line and given him a better shot at the pros, but it's just interesting to see not one, but two players in the same year transitioning to the offensive side of the ball from the Iowa Hawkeye defensive line. Also, in other news, Jake Gervais, and I'm reporting this based off of listening to the Washed Up Walk-Ons. If you have not listened to the Washed Up Walk-Ons podcast and you are an Iowa Hawkeye fan,

please check out that podcast. Obviously, it's a little bit of competition, but they do a lot of other things that are a lot different than what we do on here. Their stories are great. They talk a lot about what it meant to be an Iowa Hawkeye football player, whereas we kind of cover the general news and do a bunch of other things like that. But Washed Up Walk-Ons, great podcast to listen to. On the podcast, they actually broke that Jake Gervais signed with the Los Angeles Rams after a tryout this past weekend. So he originally had a tryout with the Raiders, did not make it, had an opportunity with the Los Angeles Rams after a tryout this past weekend. So he originally had a tryout with the Raiders, did not make it,

had an opportunity with the Rams, and it sounds like he did make the team initially, that 90-man roster. So he'll be on that team for at least a few more weeks. It'll be a little bit difficult for him to actually make that team, though. They have some solid players at safety. Eric Weddle and John Johnson are currently the starting safeties. Eric Weddle's carved out a very fantastic career in the NFL, and they also drafted Taylor Rapp, who is projected to be a first-round draft pick until he kind of ran a pretty crappy 40-yard

dash time, so it'll be tough for Gervais to stick on that team. He's coming in as the, I believe, eighth safety on the team, but if he can maybe show what he can do on special teams and just work his butt off like he did at Iowa, he could probably make practice squad and continue to work his way up. Eric Weddle is going to retire soon. You know, the Rams aren't as stout defensively as you would expect given the big names in that roster. So there are some opportunities for DeVos to, you know, at least make the practice squad

there. So I'm excited to see kind of his development under Sean McVay and the Los Angeles Rams. That'll do it though for segment number two. On segment number three, we're going to be talking about Iowa's defense and giving a little bit about our superlatives for the Iowa Hawkeyes in the coming 2019 season. So stay tuned after a few messages from our sponsors. All right, we are back with segment number three, our final segment of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast for the show today.

If you have enjoyed what you are listening to, I'm glad you're still listening. Please make sure to like and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast. I cannot express that enough. Also, give us a review. Let us know what you think of the show. We'd love to hear your feedback, good, constructive, bad, whatever it may be. Just be respectful and I can respect that feedback. So the Iowa defense, one of the things I found really interesting. So 24 seven sports has been putting out some pretty good content lately and I like to peruse it. I like to check it out. So give them some support

over there. But one of the things they put out was kind of a quick ranking of the defenses in 2019. put out was kind of a quick ranking of the defenses in 2019. And so I checked it out, you know, thinking Iowa might be 10 or nine or eight. No, Iowa is number one. And I love the love that I was getting, but also seems a little bit high. I mean, I think Iowa can have a pretty good defense. I'm surprised that mainstream media is giving them that much clout when it comes to their defense next year. I mean, they're ahead of Alabama. They're ahead of Mississippi State. They're ahead of Washington and Miami.

So those are some pretty good defensive teams. Also LSU and Georgia and Michigan and Clemson. So those are the teams that are on the top 10 that they are ahead of. One interesting inclusion on that is Southern Mississippi. Last year they ranked number three in total defense, so I'm just not sure that they're really, I mean, they're in the Conference USA. They can't be that good. But I thought it was interesting, you know,

what they said about Iowa in their rankings was, and I'll quote it for you, one of the best defensive players, if not the best, in the country returned to the Hawkeyes in the form of A.J. Epinesa. Coming off a season where he racked up 10.5 sacks, Epinesa will continue to burn opposing offensive linemen. He's not alone on the defensive line. Chauncey Golsan will be on the other side to help pressure the quarterback. Iowa shouldn't see a drop-off on the defensive side of the football.

So, you know, I am surprised to see Iowa as number one. Do I think they could be number one? I think so. There's a lot of stuff that kind of goes into that. I do believe they have a chance to be a better defensive team though than last year. And there's a couple of reasons for that. First, they actually have more experience this year than they did last year. Last year, they were bringing in three completely new linebackers who did not get much playing time. It's tough to get much playing time behind Josie Jewell, Ben Neiman, and Bo Bauer. So they have three linebackers and those linebackers, they all got a great opportunity this past year because of injuries, because of ineffectiveness,

a lot of players got some playing time. So there's a lot of depth at the linebacker unit and a lot of interesting chess pieces that Phil Parker can use in that, you know, middle, middle tier of the defense. And the secondary, I think what people are sleeping on right now is that the secondary is kind of deep too. Last year they lost Josh Jackson. This year they lost Imani Hooker and Jake Gervais. And Imani Hooker and Jake Gervais are not replaceable guys. Jake Gervais' work ethic is incredible.

Imani Hooker is a guy you can't replace. He was so versatile. But at corner, we have Matt Hankins, and that kid is going to be an absolute stud. We'll talk about him more in a few seconds. On the other side, you potentially have Michael Ojemudia, who I was actually pretty impressed with, even though he kind of got burnt on a few plays,

and Julius Brentsch, who I think could be outstanding as long as he gets healthy. I know people don't like Riley Moss as much. They didn't like what they saw against Purdue, but I think Moss has the opportunity to be a solid corner or a solid safety for the Iowa defense. Also, we're feeling that Geno Stone started eight games last year at safety. He's going to be Manning that strong safety spot,

and then Kayvon Merriweather is actually going to be taking over that free safety spot, most likely, or John Milani, who is a former walk-on, kind of a Jake Gervais-esque in that sense. So the safety position is actually a little bit deeper than I think we realize. Kayvon Merriweather actually burned his redshirt last year as a freshman, which is something that Iowa doesn't like to do. So you know he had the talent to get on the field if they're going to be willing to burn that redshirt. On the defensive line, where I think most people are most worried about, personally, I think the defensive line actually has a higher ceiling.

Maybe a lower floor. The potential, though, is through the freaking roof with this team. A.J. Epinesa and Chauncey Golsan could form arguably one of the top five defensive end duos in college football. Inside, you've got Davian Nixon, you've got Brady Reif, you've got a couple guys who could really make a huge impact there. I'm forgetting one off the top of my head, but I'm going to get it for you right now. And that guy, Cedric Lattimore, sorry, excuse me,

Cedric, my apologies, but a lot of good, solid players. And those guys have gotten a lot of snaps as well because of the rotation that Phil Parker did. And behind them, Iowa actually has some potential there as well. Like I said, Davion Nixon did return. He's going to be outstanding. Austin Schulte's a redshirt junior from Pella. He's been kind of working his way back on offense and defense and now back on defense. John Wagoner was a big-time recruit

out of West Des Moines Valley. He's behind Chauncey Golsan. And then Zach Van Valkenburg, he's that graduate transfer that Iowa got. Big-time recruit. He kind of knows. He's alreadyValkenburg, he's that graduate transfer that Iowa got, big-time recruit. He kind of knows. He's already experienced college football, so he has that experience already. I think what we're not realizing is that, again, the ceiling's very high with this group, and the depth isn't as bad as people are making it out to be. So I do believe this defense could be even better than it was last year. And one of the things helping them out is that the punting game hopefully is actually going to get the freaking ball on the other side of the field and not hit these quibblers that kind of go

20 yards and die and put the football team in bad position defensively. Now onto my superlatives before we wrap up this show, I am going to say, so MVP emerging star newcomer, and please leave who you think the MVP emerging star newcomer is in the comments section or the kind of give us a review kind of thinking, you know, let us know what you think of the show and then put it in the comments about what you think your MVP emerging star newcomer is, or tweet it at me. And I'll make sure to retweet that on the locked on Iowa Twitter account. Big shout out to Mark Morehouse for this idea though. So I want to make sure I'm giving him the credit where credit is due. But as far as an MVP, I think you really have two options here. You have Nate Stanley or you have AJ Epineza. I love the

defensive side of the ball and I think Iowa is typically relying on a strong defense. It doesn't matter who's that quarterback. So I think AJ Epineza is going to be that MVP of the Iowa Hawkeyes this year. I think he has the possibilities to possibly break the single season sack record for the Hawks, which I think would be incredible. That is currently at 18, as we talked about on Monday. An emerging star, I think, is Matt Hankins. This guy is getting slept on. He doesn't get thrown the ball, and he's a very sound tackler. All he needs is a few more opportunities, and we could be talking about him as a first or second round draft pick in the coming years he is an outstanding cover corner and then the newcomer is Kayvon Merriweather who's going to be starting at free safety we've just seen Iowa do a great job of

plugging and playing safeties in and I think Kayvon Merriweather is the next in line of you know being a strong Iowa safety again the fact that he got on the field last year as a freshman speaks volumes to his readiness to his work, and that kind of stuff. So I'm really excited to see kind of how he plays this year as the starting free safety, if he is able to hold off John Milani in that role. So let me know who you think your MVP, emerging star, newcomer are.

That's who I believe is going to be it for the Iowa Hawkeyes this year, but we're going to do a lot more superlatives as we head into the coming 2019 season. That'll do it though for our Wednesday morning show. Just a quick reminder that on tomorrow's show, we have Elijah Yelverton, a tight end commit out of Bishop Dunn High School in Dallas, Texas. Great kid.

You can tell he's really excited about being an Iowa Hawkeye, so I want to make sure that you all tune into that. Make sure to go support the Iowa United on thetournament.com, and make sure to check out our previous episodes where we were interviewing Iowa United players, including Marcus Fizer yesterday, Nicholas Bayer two weeks ago, and Matt Tybee last week. So lots of great stuff coming. We also have Drew Tate and Ricky Stanzi joining the show. I know you all are going to love that.

Two of the, I think, most popular Iowa Hawkeye quarterbacks in the last 20 years, especially in the Kirk Ferentz era. Those guys are going to be joining the show, and those are really great interviews that you are not going to want to miss. Make sure to also follow us on Twitter at LockedOnIowa and Facebook at LockedOnHawkeyes. You can follow me, your host, Andrew Wade, on Twitter at Wade underscore Andrew. And if you have any comments, suggestions, feedback,

please feel free to leave that in a review or send me an email at LockedOnhawkeyes at gmail.com again I really appreciate you all tuning into this episode and enjoying the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast I hope I make your morning or your evening commute or when you're walking the dogs or if you're just you know working and feel like listening to a podcast

I hope I'm helping you pass the time whatever you are doing so again thank you for tuning in to the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast have a fantastic Wednesday morning, Hawkeye Nation. Go Hawks! We'll see you next time. you