Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - How does Big Ten expansion impact Iowa? Hawkeye wide receiver deep dive

Episode Date: August 7, 2023

Trent Condon returns for another week of the Locked on Hawkeyes Podcast.The Big Ten is getting bigger with conference expansion and the additions of Oregon and Washington. What does it mean for Iowa though and is this a good thing from an Iowa perspective?Then some football talk with a look at Iowa wide receivers including Kaleb Brown and Seth Anderson from the transfer portal.Finally some thoughts on Iowa basketball on both the women's and men's teams.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BirddogsToday's episode is brought to you by Birddogs. Go to birddogs.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGE or enter promo code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for a free white tech hat with any purchase. You won’t want to take your birddogs off we promise you.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

The Big Ten is now the Big 18. How did the additions of Oregon and Washington impact the University of Iowa? We get into that 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 Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.

Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We're available wherever you get podcasts. You can also find us on YouTube. While you're there, hit that subscribe button. It helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. Today's episode is brought to you by LinkedIn. These days, every new potential hire can feel like a high-stakes wager for your small business. That's why LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the right people for your team

faster and for free. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash lockdowncollege. Terms and conditions apply. Well, the news continued to trickle in throughout the week after we saw the additions of the Big 12 going out and adding Colorado a week ago. One more with Arizona and very quickly Utah and Arizona State followed course taking that league back to a 16-team league. Well the Big Ten already at 16 decided to add two more. So here comes Washington and Oregon. Two teams that are an obvious fit with the additions of the West Coast teams from LA and UCLA and USC. This is something that many people, myself included, believe was going to happen.

Go back two years. And if you're listening to me on the radio back then, you knew where I felt this is ultimately going to go. And it's going to eventually become two super conferences. That's what the end game is going to be in football in some form or fashion, basically breaking away and having something different than what we see the structure of college football at this point. Now, is that in 2030?

Is that in 2036 when the grant arrives is up in the ACC or a similar time frame? I think that's a likelihood. But in the here and now, this is what we have. We have three power conferences, two that are off in their own category with what the SEC and Big Ten are financially. The Big 12 keeping it together. And though the Utah fan base like to call it a truck stop conference, now they're a part of it. And they're going to be involved in the conference there.

But where I want to go today is figuring out what this does for Iowa. And we know financially this doesn't change anything for Iowa and for the rest. They were able to go to Fox, the Big Ten was, or Fox came to them and said, all right, if we add these schools, what do the financials look like? They gave them basically a little more than half a share. $35 million is what they're going to get. $30 million, I think, was the starting point, and it'll escalate by $1 million every year. On the surface, compared to what Iowa and Purdue and Northwestern and Ohio State and

Michigan are all going to be getting $60 to $70 million a year, yeah, they're going to be working from behind. But in comparison to what they would have got with the new deal that was out there that Klayvakov, the commissioner, had put forward to them, this is a whole lot better for them, certainly financially, and then knowing when the next rights are up and the next time that the Big Ten goes to the negotiating window, that Washington and Oregon will be getting full shares when we get to that point.

That is different than USC and UCLA. They will be getting full shares in the beginning when they join the league next season. But it's a quick turnaround. And one of the disappointing parts about this is what the schedule looked like next year. Incredibly difficult. Road trips to Ohio State and USC next season. It was really, really difficult.

Well, now they're going to have to rework what these schedules are. There was a tweet, though, Friday, Saturday. I don't know. It all kind of wraps together. It was just such a whirlwind of information coming in. I believe it was Adam Rittenberg, though, that mentioned that they're not going to completely rip up the schedule that's already in place. They obviously have to add now the games with Oregon and Washington.

But at least that's going to be a good starting point. That's going to be the baseline that they'll start. There'll be some games that'll be taken off the board, but you're still going to see that at least some form of it going to look very similar for the Big Ten teams. And certainly, selfishly, you hope that that road trip out to USC and getting to go out there and see a game in the Coliseum, if you're planning on making that trip, that that's going to stay. The additions of Oregon and Washington as football brands is excellent. Oregon has played in the college football playoff. They have been there.

Washington also has had an appearance. For you old-timers like myself, you remember Washington, a power, a national champion in the early 90s. Just a really, really solid program. Though the consistency isn't there than like when Don James was the coach there for me growing up. We saw them obviously in a couple of Rose Bowls, also a really good program. Good addition, Seattle, a big market. You got that. And another important part here is the academic side. And I know so many times that part of it is kind of left by the wayside of people and just don't even think about that when they're bringing up these conversations. They're thinking about football only or even athletics only, but academics are a part of this

and both these institutions are part of the AAU, the Association of American Universities. And that's something very important as it pertains to research. I look where those programs stack up financially on that part of it and what they do. And it's not only going to increase now with their admission into the Big Ten, but what does this mean for Iowa? Outside of a fun road trip, but going to Seattle, But what does this mean for Iowa? Outside of a fun road trip, going to Seattle, going to Husky Stadium, a game right there on the water, great backdrop. My nephew just graduated a couple years ago from Washington, had nothing but great things to say about the campus and about the university and life in Seattle as a youngster. What a great environment that is. Eugene, a little bit different, a little more difficult to get into. You fly to Portland, then Marana Carr, and get there. But another great football environment, Ottson Stadium.

And for the people that were out there when Iowa played their last back in the early 90s, they'll tell you, as they were just starting to build into what they eventually became and played in a Rose Bowl a couple years later against Penn State, just how good that environment is and certainly is even better here today as we're talking about, what, 30-some years later, what it was when Iowa was out there for the last time but i i was a little bit surprised by this and that is some kind of pushback from the iowas the minnesotas the purdues the illinois on and on and on this conference is already difficult and it's becoming more and more difficult as divisions go away to get to the big game, you've got to be in the top two. You've got 18 teams.

How difficult that's going to be. What does this do for Iowa athletics, though? What does this help? Outside of visibility, outside of a fun road trip, and they will be. I get that part of it. But short of that, what does this do for Iowa? Your path to the Big Ten championship game is much more difficult. Your path to the college football playoff, even an

expanded 12-team playoff that's coming up after this season, even with that, it is going to be that much more difficult just to get in there. And a very solid 8-4, 9-3 team, that just isn't going to be good enough, probably more so in years to be a playoff team. And with it, how is Iowa going to get there? And at 10 and two, how difficult is it going to be to get to that one? And if we expand this thing out even further,

and you're talking about now, instead of nine conference games, do we go to 10? And how much more difficult that's going to be? Eventually, what does that lead to? If Iowa goes and the Big Ten goes to 10 conference games, you know what that means, right? It means the Iowa State game is gone.

Iowa will play five at home, five on the road in the Big Ten. They'll have two other games to get that, seven games in the Kinnick Stadium every year. That means it'll be two bye games. It'll be a game against Central Michigan and a game against a team from the Sun Belt or from the Mountain West.

It'll be Colorado State will be coming to town. And that's what you'll get in the non-conference every single year. I don't think that's a good thing. It's not real exciting. Again, the road trips will be fun. But that aside, what else? Help me out here. What else does Iowa get?

What else does Purdue get by inviting these members in? I don't think a whole lot. Then you throw in the obvious travel concerns that are going to be there. And you know, the football one is overblown. Yes, late night game. You're going to get home early Sunday morning and that's going to be difficult. I get that, but it's football, right? You got a week off. But when you think of the other sports, you think of the sports that play multiple games inside the course of a week. And you're going to be out there and making a swing. Do you play two, three, four games while you're out there?

Figuring out that element of it is going to be difficult. From basketball to gymnastics to track to wrestling, on and on and on. Does USC and UCLA add wrestling? How about Oregon and Washington? Do they go that route and add wrestling? Probably not is going to be the answer, but that will be something to keep an eye on. And wrestling, always a big part of the conversation.

But that's what we have right now, and that still remains my great question. Somebody help me out there. What does this do for Iowa? How does this improve the lot for Iowa? It's difficult to find many things, at least to my mind, that are just that. We continue here on the Lockdown Hawkeyes

podcast. We're talking some football today. That's right. Getting into the wide receivers. A couple of nuggets for you coming out of camp. We will get into what youngster is turning heads and what do we know about the additions in the wide receiver room from the transfer portal? What about Kayla Brown? What about Seth Anderson? We'll get into that. Plus, Iowa basketball. The women started their trip as they are over in Italy right now. We'll talk about that and a big win for the women as we roll through here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. These days, every new potential hire can feel like a high-stakes wager for your small business. You want to be 100% certain that you have access to the best qualified candidates available.

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Just add your job and the purple hashtag hiring frame to your LinkedIn profile. That spreads the word that you're hiring. Simple tools like screening questions make it easy to focus on candidates with just the right skills and experience so you can quickly prioritize who you'd like to interview and eventually hire. It's why small businesses rate LinkedIn Jobs number one

in delivering quality hires versus leading competitors. LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to faster. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash lockdowncollege. Again, that's linkedin.com slash lockdown college. Again, that's linkedin.com slash lockdown college to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Trent Conner back with you once again here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.

Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Let's talk some football, huh? Little camp, pads are popping. Get to see those videos. Don't get to see many of the still pictures, unfortunately, as that's not going to be happening. Now you know what that would lead to is everybody speculating

about all the goofy sides of it, right? Oh, man, that guy looks really good out there in a still picture. Yeah, we do that every August camp. It's just kind of part of the territory. But also the people that you don't see. You know, I haven't seen Player X. He hasn't been out there for this many practices. I haven't seen any pictures.

Is he part of the gambling investigation? That is definitely something that is going to be talked about, something that is going to be out there if they would have had the pictures. But as we saw from Chad Leistico with the Des Moines Register, he reported last week the pictures will not be part of a camp, and a reason for that is something we're going to be talking to a little bit more. A lot of the staff, well, they're out of the country as they're helping out with the women's basketball team, the men's basketball team on their trips. Let's get into the wide receivers, though. You start with Nico Ragini, and a year ago, another foot injury for

him. We know what he is, right? If he's solid, if he's healthy, if he is that dependable slot guy, he can make plays up the field. Just a guy that's been around, played a lot of Big Ten football, and he's got a guy that can help you. You're solid there, right? He's not going to be a guy that's going to go out and suddenly catch 75 passes this year for 1,000 yards and 12 touchdowns. That's not what he is, but he is a very competent,

very solid wide receiver in your baseline, your veteran, and you love to see that part of it. From there, it's a lot of questions. Next down the line is Deontay Vines. And a year ago during camp Vines was a guy that was really starting to make an ascension. He was really starting to build into something. Then he breaks his wrist on a free play and he's out for the first six games a year ago and got back into the mix in the back half of last season. I think he's going to be a big time player. I think he is going to be a guy that is going to be that consistent guy. The guy that can go out there, play inside, play outside, help you out in a myriad of different ways. Then we get into the young guys.

And after Vines, it's the two transfers coming in along with Jacob Bostic. And Bostic is such an interesting guy. You talk about the size speed combination that he has. I know a lot of excitement with the Iowa staff. Heck, they were excited about him last season during his true freshman campaign. But again, injuries were the big setback for him a year ago. Didn't get much run in the spring again because of those injuries. If he can be healthy, he's going to be a part of this rotation at the very middle. But we get into probably the two most intriguing names out there, and it's the guys coming in from the transfer portal.

And first, Seth Anderson. He's got the NFL bloodlines, obviously, with his dad, Flipper Anderson. Great wide receiver for the Rams back in the day. He got that component to it. He's a little guy, not real big, slight of frame. And the unfortunate part is he had that hamstring injury back during the spring of just understanding, building momentum a little bit out there. And he wasn't able to do that. But from the sounds of things, he has been a guy that has been turning heads. Now they just want to see

him on the practice field. And since he's been out there, you've seen a lot of good things out of Seth Anderson anticipate. We're going to see six out there, a whole bunch this season, making some plays for the Hawkeyes. And then the other one, it was the big domino. And when Caleb Brown announced his intention to leave Ohio state, and you heard some of the programs that were going to get involved. I know Oklahoma was talked about right away. There were a few other programs that were after him. And I will very quickly swooped in and made it happen. And just the excitement. Iowa getting a four-star, a former four-star wide receiver. That was huge.

A guy that, yes, he only played 22 snaps last year for Ohio State. Yes, he only played in four games and had one catch. But I take it a different way. He played in four games for Ohio State last year. Still maintained his registered status. That's what they wanted to do. But for a guy that was a running back in high school to walk into one of the most talented wide receiver rooms in college football in the last couple of decades to go in there and get snaps, I think that's highly impressive. Now, we also need to pump the brakes a little bit about him. Like I said, this is still a guy that was playing running back in high school.

This is not a standard four-star, I think, that a lot of people think at, at the wide receiver position. There's still a lot of learning that is going into it. Now, he got a great study a year ago in that wide receiver room and one of the best wide receiver coaches in the country with heartline. That's a great help to him and what he's going to be able to do hit the ground running here but i think there's some people out there that believe caleb brown is going to put together a season this year where he leads the team in receptions and yards and he's out there averaging 18 yards a catch and though we hope that happens

i think that's going out there too far for him this early still a guy learning the position now learning a new offense. You throw that into it. In terms of raw talent, he's the most talented guy in the roster. There's no doubt about that. Raw talent, Iowa rarely gets wide receivers like this. They have to build them up, right? From DJK to Marvin McNutt to what we saw in the emergence of a guy like Amir Smith-Marset, they take a while to build up because you're not getting those star guys ready to go. One thing that I would love to see for him, Scott Dockerman from The Athletic a year ago during the offensive struggles came up again and put together some

great numbers about how much better Iowa was running the football last season and have been here recently when they used that jet sweep motion. Last year was Arlen Bruce. And for whatever reason, Arlen Bruce last year was not nearly as effective as he was the year previous. And we've seen different guys in that role. But you take a guy like Caleb Brown that has the running back qualities that he has, coupled with him turning himself into a wide receiver.

I think that is a great candidate to take over that role, more jet sweep motion opening the eyes changing the eye level of the defense doing things a little bit different Iowa has shown when they do that that offense could hum for them pretty well bring it back use it with Caleb Brown and then finally when we're talking about wide receivers also bring up the freshman here three guys uh Dayton Howard saw a little bit he's the biggest guy out of this group and maybe can eventually become the X receiver on the outside. Jared Bowie from down in Florida and then the local kid in Alex Mata.

I haven't heard a ton about them from camp, but you keep an eye out and maybe one of those guys can emerge and become part of this rotation. Now, of course, the big part after wide receiver when you're talking about guys catching the football is what they have at the tight end position. We know that is really, really good football talk. It is a great time and we have it here on Locked On Hawkeyes. We continue to preview and get ready

for the upcoming Iowa football season. Also, Iowa basketball. The women in action yesterday. We will get into that. The men also getting ready for their trip. We will talk about that as they prepare for their first game. We roll through here on a Monday. This is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Trent Conner back with you one final time on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. All right, let's get into it.

Little hoops talk to wrap things up. Iowa, it was an easy one on the women's side today as they beat the Slammers. The Italian Slammers? What do we call them? Team Slammers? I think that's what they were, at least in the box score here. An easy one. 1-16 to 46.

They cruised to the victory. So you got Kaitlyn Clark out there doing her thing. She jumped out early and led the team with 17 points in the game. Also had seven assists in the victory for the Hawkeye women. But we know what we have there. One of the great things to see in this box score is Addison O'Grady. the big shoes that she has to fill for zanano what she has to do inside a lot of people very upset that iowa wasn't able to attract a transfer big that they were not going to be able to help there but if we see the building that we normally do with o'grady this year and what jan Jensen does year after year and building post players up, I was going to be in good shape.

I think we saw enough from O'Grady a year ago. And all she does is go eight for eight from the floor in the victory and second in the team with 16 points in that one. Also had a blocked shot. Another one, Sidney Fulter. Six of 11 from the field, hit a couple of three-pointers. Now she's got a chance to be a starter also on this team she's going to be a really important piece Taylor McCabe didn't see

a ton of her a year ago but she can shoot it I had the state record over in the state of Nebraska for three-pointers over there to her high school career McCabe can fill it up from the outside trying to spread the floor a little bit more get more room for Kaitlyn Clark you got another shooter out there that would help in a big-time way. Also seeing Hannah Stolke. She goes out there 5 of 8 from the floor, but 2 of 4 from downtown. What, seven three-pointers a year ago? Now you add that element to her.

But you get a one-two punch. If Grady takes the step forward that I believe she will, coupled with what we saw in that freshman campaign from Stolke, you're going to be in good shape inside. This team is going to have a ton of pub. They're going to bring preseason at minimum top 10 in the country, probably top five with the return of Caitlin Clark, Martin coming back for another season, obviously the same with Gabby Marshall. So that will be one to keep an eye on. Look, you walk away from these, you're not going to be able to tell a whole lot, right? You just don't get a ton out of these matchups when i was winning by 70 points but here we are the men's basketball

sides get a little look a little different patrick mcafree he is going to the skills academy and so he will not be part of the chip same with riley mulvey he will not be there for a different reason uh family members get married so he will not be on the trip. So it's a diminished team. Numbers is also has departed the program and he's in the transfer portal, so he will not be there. It's going to be a shorter rotation. I know originally Fran had decided he was going to switch things up a little bit, give each of his assistant coaches an opportunity to coach a game and give them basically a seven man roster. We'll figure it out from there. We'll see if that changes with a couple of guys not going on this trip, if they change it a little bit, but we will see.

We'll see what these box scores look like. We'll see if we can get anything out. I just missed the primetime league, right? I mean, the PTL, yes, it was not great basketball and you didn't want to overreact when a guy randomly went off for 45 points. And all of a sudden that he's going to be an all-Big Ten player and some kind of star that's going to go off to the NBA. But it gave us a jumping-off point.

And you could see guys that seemed to be playing better and had added maybe something to their game. Without that anymore, well, we're waiting for this trip and maybe we'll see how this goes. Does that mean Tony Parkins is running the point guard position? What are we going to get out of the freshman? Are we going to see much from Brock Harding at the point guard position? Owen Freeman, as I know, really turned some heads

at what he's been able to do inside. It'll be our first look at Ben Crickey. Same thing with Evan Braun. So a lot of new faces here. You got the freshmen coming in. You got the new faces out of the transfer portal. Going to be a different look to this Iowa football, basketball team, excuse me.

And we'll see exactly what we're able to find out. We got you covered here on Locked On Hawkeyes. Also, it's a travel week as I'll be making my way to Las Vegas over the weekend. Been getting out there on Thursday, but we'll still get you covered on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast with some content from out there in Las Vegas at Circa.

Going to be at Stadium Swim. Hey, if you're happy to be out there, make sure to stop on by, say hello. They'll be signing up for their football contest and have a great time, as we always do in Las Vegas. We will talk to you again tomorrow. We got LaShawn Daniels set to join us again here this week as we continue to talk Iowa football. The excitement continues to build, and a little more basketball

sprinkled in here as we make our way through August. That'll do it for today. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Go Hawks.