Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Hawks trending towards Redbox Bowl | Recap Big Ten West football | Why the 2019 football team could be great

Episode Date: November 13, 2018

We dig into how bowl selections are made and why the Hawks are trending towards the Redbox Bowl before recapping the exciting slate of Big Ten West games from last weekend. Segment three has us taking a look ahead at why the 2019 Iowa Hawkeyes football team has a ton of potential.Follow us on Twitter @LockedOnIowa and follow host Andrew Wade @wade_andrew Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, the latest addition to the Locked On Sports Network's growing lineup of college podcasts. I'm your host, Andrew Wade, editor over at dearoldgold.com, where you can find analysis pieces on all things black and yellow, and we have an exciting episode for you today. If you haven't had a chance to check out yesterday's premiere episode, definitely please do that. You can find it at any place where you can get your podcast. So iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or Google Podcast. Definitely take a look, subscribe, listen, provide us feedback,

that sort of thing. Definitely take a listen because it was a great episode where we discussed Iowa's loss to Northwestern. We did a recap of the week in Hawkeye Athletics, kind of looking at the women's basketball team, the women's field hockey team, and the wrestling team as they are all off to a few, some good starts or good conclusions to their seasons.

And then finally, we wrapped up by talking about the men's basketball team's 2-0 start. On today's episode, we have three segments for you today. Segment one, we're going to be talking about the postseason aspirations for the Hawkeyes. What kind of goes into what bowl they might go to, what that means for you, the fans, and so on and so forth. On segment two, we're going to be reviewing the Big Ten West. So it was definitely a big weekend in college football. A lot of interesting scores. If you didn't get a chance to check it out, we're going to be providing you

kind of an overview or a recap of what happened on Saturday's games. And finally, in segment three, we're going to be looking towards next season. I know this season is obviously disappointing. I think many of us fans are excited about or were excited about the possibility of this team, especially after a six and one start, considering the Wisconsin loss, you know, truly Iowa outperformed Wisconsin for three quarters of that game. And so, you know, when you're looking at the schedule, you thought there's an opportunity for Iowa to really make a run this season. Obviously, the last three games, the three game losing streak by a myriad of ways put a damper on those hopes. But there's a lot of hopes for next season.

There's a lot of things to look forward to, and we're going to be talking about that next on the segment three. Before we jump in again, just make sure if you're listening to this now, please go subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast at. And please leave us a review. Feel free to also tweet at us. We are on Twitter at LockedOnIowa. And my name is Andrew Wade again. I'm on Twitter at Wade underscore Andrew. So please feel free to reach out to us.

Give us some suggestions on content you would love to see or some thoughts of what you'd like to see in the future for the podcast. Jumping into segment one. So as everyone here hopefully knows at this point, Iowa lost to Northwestern on Saturday and it was a disappointing loss. It was one in a streak of three losses that the Hawks have had over the last three weeks. Definitely a damper on the season as I talked about a little earlier. And that puts it at 6-4 and 3-4 in the Big Ten Conference. So they're basically eliminated from winning the Big Ten West. When I say basically, I mean they are.

Northwestern has clinched the Big Ten West. There was still a slight glimmer of hope that they could win if they were able to pull out a victory against Northwestern, but that is gone now. But what does that mean for postseason plans? Obviously, if you were like me, I was kind of looking forward to the opportunity to maybe go to a New Year's Day Bowl, maybe a college football playoff game. And after the Hawks lost to Penn State, some of those hopes kind of dampened a little bit, but there was still some, some hope, right? So being 10 and two, maybe winning the, the big 10 West championship game that would put the Hawks in the Rose bowl. So still some, some opportunities there. However, after they lost to Purdue, obviously that went down a little bit more,

the best they could have finished is nine and three. And we were looking at some, some opportunities and maybe the Citrus Bowl or maybe the Holiday Bowl. And attendees on Saturday were actually from the Holiday Bowl and the Citrus Bowl. So they were definitely looking at the Iowa Hawkeyes as a potential team to maybe fill in for the Big Ten in those bowl games. But with the loss to Northwestern, that really seeds the opportunity

that Iowa had to make one of those good bowl games, either in San Diego or in Orlando, Florida. It's unfortunate, but it's a part of life and being an Iowa Hawkeye fan. So we'll kind of move on, talk about what the criteria is that goes into how the Hawks get into a bowl game, and what opportunities are present for them now after losing again to Northwestern and facing the likelihood of going either eight and four or seven and five. So the three big factors to bowl selections, first is kind of where each team falls in the college football playoff rankings and the Big Ten Conference. So if we have four or five teams in the CFP rankings, Iowa is the fourth ranked team, that will obviously slate them in potentially the fourth

best bowl game that the Big Ten has ties to. It's not an exact science, but it's definitely a good kind of touch point to get an idea where your team may fall, specifically the Hawkeyes. an idea where your team may fall, specifically the Hawkeyes. The next big factor is the fact that the Big Ten has specific ties to bowls. So the Rose Bowl, the Citrus Bowl, the Outback Bowl, the Holiday Bowl, the Tax Slayer Bowl, the Pinstripe Bowl, the Red Box Bowl, and the Quick Lane Bowl all have allegiances to the Big Ten. So that means they try to slate a Big Ten team in there if possible. And then the final factor into bowl selections is a soft agreement to not repeat bowl teams. So what this means is we're kind of running into a situation where bowls do not want to bring the same teams back for a good reason.

They want to have a different product each year. And also, typically, teams' fan bases don't want to have a different product each year. And also typically teams fan bases don't want to travel to the same bowl over and over again, unless obviously it's the Rose Bowl or a bowl like that. But so what that means is for an Iowa Hawkeye team that made the pinstripe bowl last year, made the Outback Bowl in 2016 and made the Tax Slayer Bowl in 2014, it's likely that those are not going to be options on the table. This isn't a hard agreement. It doesn't mean that Iowa can't make those bowls, but if possible, those bowl representatives

are not going to be choosing the Iowa Hawkeyes to go there. And personally, I'm okay with not going to the pinstripe bowl. New York's a great city. It's fun to be in for about 24 hours. But do you really want to go to cold weather in December and watch the Hawks play? No, none of us Iowa folk want to go to a cold weather game. We want to go to a warm weather game and see the Hawks play in sunshine and 70 degrees. So what does that mean for the Hawks? Okay, so they're not going to make the Rose Bowl.

They're not making a CFP Bowl. They're likely not going to make the Citrus Bowl or the Outback Bowl, you know, due to some allegiances and also due to the record. Holiday Bowl is probably off the table. And so is the Tax Slayer Bowl and the Pinstripe Bowl. Really that leaves the Red Box Bowl and the Quicklane Bowl. And it's looking very much like the Hawks would play in the Red Box Bull. And that will be in San Francisco. It's late in December. I don't have the date off the top of my head. It is going at noon PST. So San Francisco in the winter, very mild temperature is probably going to be 50s to 60s. It doesn't get much warmer than that. Obviously, there's some issues right now with all the forest fires a little bit south of there, but for right now, it's looking like Iowa will be

slated to go to the Red Box Bowl. It also really depends on where Michigan and Ohio State fall within the college football playoffs. If Michigan or Ohio State makes the CFP playoff, that's fantastic. They will kind of just move Big Ten teams up in the ladder in terms of a bowl ranking. So that'll be something to watch, but it's likely going to be Iowa in the Red Box Bowl. If you have any comments or questions on that, definitely feel free to tweet us. I'm happy to respond about how that analysis went into play, kind of what we were thinking and our thoughts and why Iowa would be a good slot for the Red Box Bowl. Coming up on segment two, as we're going to do every Tuesday, we're going to be giving you

a rundown of the past weekend's Big Ten West games, what that means for the Big Ten West standings, and so on and so forth. When we get into the basketball season, we'll start doing some of that analysis as well. Obviously, we're a few games into the basketball season for both the men and the women's teams, but there's not a lot that's going on that's really going to change right now. So until the football season ends, we won't be able to jump or dive into the basketball standings for a little bit. But before I talk about the Big Ten West, I have a message for you, the listener, because if you're like me, you hate to miss your favorite team play, regardless of who they are playing. Fortunately for you, that's where Sling TV comes in. For me at least, I never have to miss a football or a basketball game again, and the best part is, I no longer have to pay for a bunch of channels I don't even watch with a typical

cable package. For just $30 a month, you get access to ESPN, Big Ten Network, and more without the hassle of a long-term contract. What's even more exciting is that we have a fantastic offer for you, the listener. Locked On listeners can get a free seven-day trial by going to sling.com slash locked on. That's S-L-I-N-G dot com slash locked on. Never miss a game again with Sling TV. All right, before we jump into segment two, quickly wanted to let you know for segment three, we're going to be talking about how the Iowa football team next year could be better than this year's team. There's a lot of key pieces coming back and you do not want to miss that.

I know, especially for me, it's always nice to try to think on the positive side of things, think what's coming up in the future. And while this season may be disappointing, there's definitely some promising aspects to next season, which I want to touch on. So do not miss the segment three that's going to be touched on here in a little bit. Again, we're going to touch on for segment two, what happened in the Big Ten West. I don't want to talk about the Northwestern game too much. Obviously a little bit sour about that. Northwestern did beat Iowa 14 to 10, and we touched on some of the analysis pieces yesterday. So if you want some more information on that game,

definitely go back to yesterday's episode. Check that out. Some good stuff there. The one thing I forgot to cover though, is what in the heck is going on with Noah Fant? More and more, we are not seeing him on the field in crucial moments. And after the game, Kirk had this to say.

He said, we try to feature our guys that are doing the best, whether it's TJ, Noah, our receivers. We're calling the game as we call the game. We're playing the best guys that we feel are best for the situation that's given. I'm not sure what your thoughts are, but personally, I think that's ridiculous. Noah Fant is a top 15 NFL prospect, and I cannot stress that enough. There is a reason why NFL teams are ecstatic about this kid's potential, and I do not understand how Iowa is not utilizing him more. Think about this.

Against Purdue, he took a bubble screen 65 yards and dragged a guy for another 20 after the first 40 yards of that catch. That is absurd. This guy is faster than most Big Ten corners and bigger than most Big Ten corners and linebackers. This guy can beat anyone in any matchup and we're not utilizing him. It's ridiculous. And just look at George Kittle, for example. He had probably 20, I think 20 to 25 catches his senior year at Iowa. And look at him now. He's one of the top tight ends in the National Football League. So why are we not utilizing Noah Fant? It's just absurd to me, and I don't understand what's going on.

If you do get a chance, definitely check out some of our affiliate podcasts, Locked On NFL Draft and the Draft Dudes podcast, because you will likely hear a little bit more about Noah Fant. John, Trevor, Joe, and Kyle love discussing what kind of a mismatch weapon Fant will be in the NFL. So again, why do we not utilize him? I could probably talk about this for a while. I'm a little heated already, but I want to get into the other Big Ten West games. Definitely an exciting day in college football and for the Big Ten. I don't know about you, but I'm not a big Wisconsin fan, and I did love to see them continue their free fall this season

with a loss to a banged-up Penn State team in Happy Valley. The one thing to note here is Jonathan Taylor did gash the Nittany Lions defense for 185 yards on 20 carries, but the Badger passing attack fell pretty much flat on their face. Jack Cohn, the backup quarterback to Alex Hornibrook completed less than 50% of his passes for just 60 yards. Personally, after having lived in Madison, Wisconsin for a few years, I have a lot of good friends who love the Wisconsin Badger team, a lot of coworkers that love the Wisconsin Badger team, and they

do not typically like watching Alex Hornibrook play quarterback, but I think it might be showing right now that they kind of need him. Either way, Penn State won 22-10. The next game I want to talk about is probably the biggest surprise, but Purdue, fresh off a last-second victory over our beloved Hawkeye football team, couldn't have had a more disappointing showing against the lackluster Minnesota Golden Gophers. It's ridiculous. They lost 41-10. The Boilermakers lost by more points against Minnesota, 31, than they have in their other four losses combined, which was 18,

and Minnesota was able to keep their bowl eligibility hopes alive. Also, a side note, might make a few of you Hawkeye fans a little mad here, but wide receiver Terry Wright, you know, the same Terry Wright who torched us all game a week ago, did not even have a target against Minnesota. I don't know what kind of game plan we have, but definitely wanted to bring that up, maybe rekindle some flames there. And then wrapping up in the Big Ten West was Illinois at Nebraska. Not really a marquee matchup with neither team likely going to be bowl eligible. Nebraska's already not bowl eligible, and Illinois is hanging on by a thread. But the Huskers continue to show their potential that they have under Scott Frost.

They won their third game in the last four. They racked up over 600 yards of total offense and freshman quarterback Adrian Martinez threw for 290 yards and three touchdowns and also ran another in. Based on these performances, I'm not going to lie. I'm a little worried about the game against Iowa. This could be a lot tougher matchup. And it's honestly kind of a flipping the script of what's happened the last few years where Nebraska might've been starting off hot, ranked in the top 25, and then struggled down the stretch before playing an Iowa team that was kind of out of the hunt for a while, was likely going to finish six and six or seven and five. And they come out and they smoke Nebraska. That's really been the theme the last three to four years unfortunately I have a really uneasy feeling

in my stomach that that might be the theme for this year but in reverse where Nebraska just put it down on Iowa on Black Friday we'll talk a lot more about that though over the next couple weeks as that game's coming up in just under two weeks. Just a recap of where the Big Ten West stands as of right now. Northwestern is the winner of the Big Ten West with a 6-1 record. They could lose their next two games and it doesn't matter. Wisconsin is sitting at 4-3 as is Purdue and then Iowa is in fourth place with 3-4 and then Nebraska, Illinois, and Minnesota are tied for last with a two and five conference record. Due to the tiebreakers, Nebraska would technically be ahead of Illinois and Minnesota.

Out of all these teams, Nebraska is the only non-bowl eligible team there. So good recap of the Big Ten West. Like I said, we'll be keeping you up to speed with the Big Ten West going forward. We only have two weeks of the regular season left, but there's definitely some other things we can cover. We'll also jump into the basketball season as well

once we get through with the football season. So a lot of good content coming here every single Tuesday on segment number two. And coming up soon on segment number three, we're going to be covering why the 2019 Iowa football team could be great. All right. We are back with segment three where we're going to be covering the 2019 Iowa football team and why we should be looking ahead with a little bit of a happy feeling in our hearts. Like I've been talking about, this season has been rough. It's been tough for me. I haven't enjoyed watching Iowa lose three straight games. I'm hoping they can get back on the winning streak against Illinois.

If there is a loss against Illinois, I would say the bottom just completely fell out of this team and a really disappointing end of the season. But neither here nor there. We can talk about that later in this week. What I wanted to cover, though, is looking at both the offense, the defense, and next year's schedule, because there's a lot of good things and positive things to take away from what the Hawkeyes are bringing back.

On offense, they're going to be returning seven starters. All right? Think about that. Seven starters, including both their tackles and star quarterback Nate Stanley. And I know Nate Stanley has definitely caused some frustrations. He's had some issues here and there. But when you look at it, when you compare him to other quarterbacks that we've had in the past, Nate Stanley's pretty darn good. And there's a lot of the, the intangible thing, you know, the, the, the non-tangible things

that we don't really think about, right. Whether it's stepping up in the pocket, getting the ball off, you know, be able to being able to create plays with his legs against Indiana. The guy just wouldn't go down. I mean, he's six, four, 220 pounds. He's built like Ben Roethlisberger. So definitely awesome to have him hopefully back. He definitely received some buzz early on about potentially being a first round quarterback, especially in a very, very weak and depleted quarterback class. I just can't see that happening. He has ties to Iowa. His parents went to Iowa. I foresee him looking at this team and thinking next year we have a shot. This year has been disappointing and coming back.

I foresee him looking at this team and thinking, next year we have a shot. This year has been disappointing and coming back. We're also going to be missing Ross Reynolds and Keegan Render, two interior offensive linemen. They've had a few starts in the past, but this is really their first full year of starting on the Iowa Hawkeyes. And then we're going to be missing wide receiver Nick Easley and likely Noah Fant.

As far as Reynolds and Render go, there's a few veteran players kind of backing them up. So I don't foresee that being a huge loss. Obviously, having some stability and consistency on the line is huge, but that's nothing new. Only replacing two interior offensive linemen will not be a huge loss for the Hawks. Nick Easley has been kind of Stanley's security blanket, been a Wes Welker type receiver for the Hawks, and that's definitely going to be missed. However, this will give Amir Smith-Marset an opportunity to step up and get even more snaps. That speedster, he's electrifying. I mean, we talked about yesterday, we handed him a game ball. This kid is fantastic, and it'll be

interesting to see how Brian Ferenc determines or decides to utilize him in next year's offense. The big person that we're going to be missing though is Noah Fant. And honestly, who can blame him? If I were him, I'd be gone too because the Hawks cannot use him correctly. Fortunately for Iowa, they are in a unique situation where they have two of the top five tight ends in the nation. And honestly, I would say Hawkinson is probably one of the top three along with Noah Fant. I don't care if you call that a hot take. TJ Hawkinson is fantastic. If you haven't seen him hurdle players, you definitely need to check out Google TJ Hawkinson hurdle, and I'm sure

you're going to find him making Big Ten defenders look really bad. So fans likely gone. TJ Hawkinson is technically eligible for the draft, but I don't foresee him going. He's just a redshirt sophomore. And then behind him, we have Sean Beyer, who is currently out with an injury. And then Drew Cook, who is a converted quarterback and a son of former Iowa legend Marv Cook. He has been touted as a potential tight end for quite a few years. It'll be great to see some of that potential come to fruition since we haven't seen him play a ton in his Iowa Hawkeye career. On the defensive side of the ball, this is really where we're going to see some stinging losses.

We're going to be losing the entire defensive line, plus Jake Gervais, who has been really in and out of the starting lineup throughout his Hawkeye career. To start with the easy pieces, Gervais is really replaceable. Obviously, you like to have that senior leadership, but with freshman stud Geno Stone, who has four interceptions already, playing outstanding, I can't foresee that being a huge loss for us Hawkeye fans. Jake Gervais will be missed, but not too terribly. However, the big item that we're going to be struggling with is replacing that fantastic

defensive line. That defensive line is led by four seniors. So pretty impressive, all things considered. They've had multiple years of starting. They have familiarity with each other. And that cannot be taken lightly. It's a big deal. However, if I had to pick one area on the Hawkeye defense that we had a lot of depth, it would be defensive line. All right. Replacing Parker Hesse, Matt Nelson, Anthony Nelson, and Sam Brinks is not going to be easy.

But when you're doing it with AJ Epinesa, Chauncey Golston, Cedric Lattimore, and Brady Reif, who are already consistently rotating in and out of the lineup, that's a pretty good contingency plan. Epinesa is going to be going off next year. And I personally would be worried if I am any Big Ten left tackle, better watch out for A.J. Epinesa. Against Northwestern, there was literally a play where he had the offensive lineman on skates. And I'm not kidding. He was shoving this guy just back into the quarterback.

He currently is in fifth in the Big Ten West in sacks. So definitely something exciting to look out for next year. Chauncey Golsan is kind of nipping at his ankles, though. He already has three and a half sacks. And again, limited playing time. And Cedric Lattimore has 17 total tackles. So it's not going to be the worst loss in the world considering how much depth we have. And then on special teams, Miguel Racinos has been pretty consistent over the last two years. He'll be gone. The likely starter will be Caleb Shadok, who has not had hardly any experience with the Hawks. But I will say if there's an area where Iowa's been pretty good

about having good kickers, it's that area. So hopefully an opportunity to see Caleb shine. It'll be sad to see Racino's go, especially he's been pretty consistent this year, even outside of a few long field goals and one against Northwestern this past weekend even outside of a few long field goals and one against Northwestern this past weekend, but not a huge loss there. And then finally, just the schedule. So the schedule is somewhat favorable for the Hawks and some may look at it and say,

I don't agree with that. But let me tell you why. They have two games non-conference against Middle Tennessee State and Miami of Ohio, and their last non-conference against Middle Tennessee State and Miami of Ohio. And their last non-conference game is against Iowa State. So no matter what, they're going to win the Middle Tennessee State game and the Miami of Ohio game. Iowa State looks pretty good this year. I'll give you that. And Brock Purdy, the freshman quarterback, is fantastic. But will Matt Campbell be there?

Who knows? He's been linked to a ton of different jobs. I'm not sure if he'll be sticking around. If he doesn't, that could have a pretty negative impact on the Cyclone program. So we'll see how that goes. Either way, that game's always tough. It doesn't matter how good either team is. So not going to be a change from this year. And then the crossover games over to the Big Ten East is playing at Michigan,

Penn State at Kinnick, and then Rutgers at Kinnick. So Rutgers is pretty much a guaranteed win. They are terrible. Penn State will not have Trace McSorley, who has been somewhat of a thorn in the Hawkeyes side. I mean, he even had a 50-yard touchdown run against Iowa a few weeks ago. The big kicker here is going to be that at Michigan game. Going to Michigan is never easy. They're going to be a tough team regardless of who they have returning. So that'll be probably the tough, honestly, it's probably the toughest game on their slate currently. And then their away games within the Big Ten West division is going to be Wisconsin, Northwestern, and Nebraska. None of those teams

are easy to play regardless of where you're playing them at. The good thing is, the nice thing about the Big Ten West, everything's within driving distance. So Wisconsin, that's not a hard game for Iowa fans to get up to. You drive two and a half hours north without cell reception on, I believe, Highway 51 maybe, and you're in Madison right away. And Madison's a great town to go explore, have a few drinks, get some good beer, maybe stop at New Glarus and get some Spotted Cow. So definitely a good opportunity for a road trip. Northwestern doesn't really have a home field advantage. Look at their stadium. It looks like a high school stadium. I'm sure half the teams in Texas have a better stadium than then. And then Nebraska, that'll be a tough, I'm not going to lie, that'll be a tough game as well,

especially because Nebraska is looking like they're going to be a pretty good team next year. But again, it's a black Friday game. It's an opportunity for Hawkeye fans to drive. It's a two and a half hour drive from Des Moines. It's a four hour drive from Iowa city. So good opportunity for Hawk fans to get to an away game at a pretty cool stadium and a pretty crappy city called Lincoln.

So that'll do it for our segment three. That's kind of why I think the Hawkeyes have a really good chance of having a fantastic 2019 season. They're not losing a ton of starters. They're bringing back a ton of good veteran players, and their schedule is pretty manageable, all things considered. They don't have to go to Ohio State. They don't have to play them at all. They don't have to play Michigan State. So definitely a favorable matchup. And anytime you get Rutgers in your schedule, that's basically like playing a D1AA program.

And I have no problem throwing shade at the Rutgers team. They are terrible. So with that being said, definitely make sure you are subscribing to the podcast. We have a fantastic episode coming up tomorrow. We're going to be previewing the men's upcoming game against the number 14 Oregon Ducks. We're also going to be taking a look at Kirk Ferentz's Tuesday media conference. So every Tuesday, Kirk gets up, answers a few questions from the media. We'll be analyzing some of what he said. I'm sure there's

going to be quite a few Noah Fant questions. So we want to make sure we're giving you the full breakdown of that discussion. And then we're going to be closing out tomorrow's show by looking ahead at the upcoming events on the Hawkeye athletic calendar. So definitely an episode you do not want to miss. Please tune in again tomorrow morning on our Wednesday episode. So that'll do it for our Tuesday morning episode. Like I said, I'm your host, Andrew Wade, and you can find me on Twitter at Wade underscore Andrew, and you can follow all of the exciting happenings of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast on Twitter at Locked On Iowa.

As I've mentioned to you multiple times, very important as we are a pretty new podcast on the Locked On Sports Network. Like I said, we are the latest addition to their growing list of college teams. So if you don't like the Hawkeyes, if you kind of stumbled upon us, make sure to check out the other programs they have. They have a Locked On Nittany Lions. They have a Locked On Bama. So a lot of great content coming your way, regardless of which team you are a fan of.

Either way, make sure you subscribe to our podcast though on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave us a fantastic review. And if you have any questions, comments, content ideas, feel free to shoot those over my way at Wade underscore Andrew or at our Twitter on Locked On Iowa. Thank you again for joining us on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Have a fantastic day, Hawkeye Nation, and we will be back tomorrow.