Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Beats Rutgers behind 2 defensive TDs, Michigan Up Next

Episode Date: September 26, 2022

Trent Condon returns for the latest edition of the Locked on Hawkeyes Podcast after Iowa goes on the road to beat Rutgers 27-10.The defense was the story as Cooper DeJean picks off a pass and goes 45 yards to give Iowa football a lead that they wouldn't relinquish. Kaevon Merriweather also had a defensive score with a scoop and score as Iowa jumped out 14-3.A look at the numbers from Pro Football Focus on both sides of the football in the win. Spencer Petras played his best game of the season and the running games started to show some signs of improvement.Up next it's a home date with Michigan. A quick look at the Wolverines and what the opening point spread says about the game.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at Linkedin.com/lockedoncollege Terms and conditions apply.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!UpsideDownload the FREE Upside App and use promo code Locked to get $5 or more cash back on your first purchase of $10 or more.Underdog FantasySign up on underdogfantasy.com with the promo code LOCKED ON and get your first deposit doubled up to $100! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Iowa goes to 1-0 with the win against Rutgers, 27-10. We look back at the performance. How good was the offense and the defense? Well, we know just how good it was once again. Two defensive scores as Iowa gets their first Big Ten road victory of the season. Up next, a date with Michigan. We'll start to take a look ahead to that one as well. But a look back as Iowa wins it, 27-10.

Coming up on today's Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Our Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Welcome back to the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast.

I'm Trent Condon. Glad to have you aboard with us here today. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen each and every day. Available wherever you find podcasts. You can also find us on YouTube with the video element. Just search Locked On Hawkeyes, and when you're there, make sure to hit that subscribe button. I'd like to thank LinkedIn Jobs for being the official

college football recruiting sponsor across the Locked On College network. LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to faster. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash lockedoncollege. Terms and conditions apply. Iowa gets the win against Rutgers 27-10. A very workmanlike victory for the Hawkeyes in this one. Not a lot of histrionics and not a whole lot of craziness here, but Iowa finds a way once again, and they do it behind the power of two defensive touchdowns. Again, just a great performance out of the guys there. Let's in in fact, start on that side.

You know, we fall into the trap a lot of talking about the offense and the struggles that have happened this year, some of the disappointment that has been there. So let's talk about the guys that deserve the kudos at the top, and that is on the defensive side of the football. All night long, you know, this is a Rutgers team. They had some question marks about the passing game coming in, and I thought Simon, the quarterback that took all the snaps in the game for Rutgers,

he had a solid game overall against that very opportunistic Iowa defense. That opening drive made a couple of plays down the field, marched them right down the field, and they got into field goal position, knocked in that field goal early on. You saw afterwards, though, Iowa defense really clamped down, figured a few things out. But this is a team that had run the ball incredibly effectively throughout the season. They had come in running the football at a high level. Rutgers finished the game, though, overall in the rushing statistics, just six rushing touchdowns, 61 yards and 24 carries, 2.5 yards per carry in this one.

The Iowa defense up front, they were outstanding. And you got to start with that defensive line. We knew the linebackers are going to be great coming into the season, and that certainly has been the case. Jack Campbell has continued to play at an all-American level. Seth Benson's out there just a workman-like dude, you know, that lunch pail guy that goes out there, and he's going to be in the right spot. He's going to be making plays. Disappointing, the linebacker coming back this week. We did get to see Justin Jacobs out there. He left the game with another injury.

And it sounds like possibility that same hamstring injury that he's been dealing with and a possibility. This is going to be a long-term injury for him. So that's certainly the disappointing news coming out of that one. But starting up front with Lucas Van Ness. And we've seen a little bit of depletion on the defensive tackle spot. He's been playing in there. He's been playing inside. He's been playing outside. He was a behemoth once again. The pick six that was started on the pressure that he had against the quarterback, Simon. He gets in there, just a beautiful hit,

right underneath the helmet, no helmet to helmet there. Got him right with the shoulder, right in the chest plate. I mean, it was a thing of beauty, applying that pressure. Cooper DeGene makes the play, gets the interception, and of course runs it back. Great blocking also on that play. And that's something now you're seeing with this Iowa defense is when they get their hands on the football,

they're looking to score. They understand. And we go back to the Iowa State game. And Terry Roberts, he tweeted after the game, if I just kept my feet, that's what this team is thinking about it's not just about forcing turnovers it's just not playing and getting the plays that they have all throughout the season but it's also getting the football and then trying to score with the football because of some of the limitations offensively they know that's going to be some of their best course of

work is getting into the end zone so starting up front front with Van Ness, he was really good. We saw Aaron Graves come in again and he was continuing to make plays. It didn't create out at a high level. We'll get to those defensive grades from pro football focus coming up here in just a little bit, but certainly showed up in the stat sheet and I felt watching and even on the rewatch, Graves is playing at a high level. There's times that he's still out there maybe thinking a little bit more than you'd want. That's going to happen with a young guy, a true freshman out there, but he's really helped out that defensive line rotation, what they've been able to do up front. A couple other names to certainly remember and what they were able to do. Quinn Schulte again. He continues to impress. This is a guy playing at a really high level. His ability to close on the football,

the separation that you see in the past, some of those soft zones where I was going cover for, and they're just sitting in front and making plays in front of them. Quinn Schulte, with his closing ability, he has been incredibly good and had a couple of big plays also, and he finished up the game with seven tackles overall. I mentioned Cooper DeGede. He also had seven tackles. Of course, had that interception.

He's been so good. Now interceptions continue for him to pile up. This is a crazy thing too. And we had an opportunity before the season to talk to Cooper from the football complex. And one thing that he mentioned is before last season, he never played cornerback before. Now, yes, he's playing the cash position, but he's also playing a lot of cornerback. You saw a lot of that. In fact, starting out the game as it was Sebastian Castro in there playing the cash, and it was Cooper DeGene at the cornerback spot. This is a guy that's still incredibly new to this position, and what a high level that he is playing at. It's just a great thing to see, and you're so excited about his upside and what he can still be.

And we talk about what an athlete he was, and going back to his days at high school when he was a quarterback and he was running around and making plays and willing his team to a state championship but not only that but also what he was able to do all over the place return game we saw him back there in this one and that's also arlen bruce and we'll get into that we'll talk about special teams coming up there but cooper regime making plays caleb johnson also in the return game. But I want to stick with the defense. They were the story of this game, what we saw out of the defense. It was great to see Merriweather in there after the game,

the post-game press conference or on-the-field interview that he did out with the crew from FS1. And he mentioned he had never had a scoop and score before and gets his first defensive touchdown that way. Great to see. One of the great ambassadors to this Iowa football program. and with the tumult of 2020 and during the summer and a lot of the negative things that were talked about and brought to the forefront as they needed to with this football program and the way that African-American players felt that they were certainly respected in a different way compared to others. Those things came out there, but one of the people that helped bring this together and understand that

there was a light at the end of the tunnel tunnel, that you could improve this program and do it in a positive way for all the athletes that were there. Kayvon Merriweather was a huge, huge part of that. And if you ever have an opportunity to hear him talk and here's some of the things that he said about that and just talking football in general, he's a great guy, a great ambassador to the program program and it's good to see a player like that get the

recognition that they deserve with the defensive touchdown so great to see there you know there was a point though in the game as it was kind of rolling through and boy without those defensive touchdowns how bad was it going to be how close could this game be ultimately they all score you know they they score score. They score the same. They count the same, but you got to give credit to this Iowa defense for getting it done once again. Let's take a look at those pro football focus numbers. I mentioned Lucas Van Ness at the top, and he graded out as the top defensive lineman for Iowa in the pro football focus numbers. Logan Lee, another guy. The way that he plays inside at the defensive tackle position, he's not going to rack up huge numbers. He's not going to be a guy, you know, the way that he plays inside at the defensive tackle

position, he's not going to rack up huge numbers. He's not going to be a guy, you know, you look at the end of the season, he's got 70 tackles and 12 and a half tackles for a loss, anything like that. He had just placed this position, allows those linebackers to make play. He continues to play at a really high level. Late in the game, Max Llewellyn, a guy from where I'm from, Central Iowa, called some of Max's games in high school. Outstanding athlete, a guy I know they were very excited about, and he's going to have a big future. He rated out number three. Joe Evans, he made a play late in that game. He continues to play at a high level going from what he was early in his career, where he was really a third down specialist. Undersized at the defensive end spot, he has built his body into a

guy that can be now a 3-4 down player. He has done that, and he's making plays, not just as an edge rusher, but also out there in the run game and being able to do that. Great to see for Joey the Bull, Joe Evans, making some plays. Deontay Craig got 29 snaps. He graded out well. Ethan Hurkett, good to see him back, and he works his way into health. He was up there as well.

Noah Shannon, a little bit of surprise. He played 43 snaps in the game. Didn't grade out real high, but good to see him after only playing five snaps the week previous against Nevada. His ability to get back out there. He's going to be important this week in the matchup against Michigan. So that's a look at what we saw up front from the defensive line. At the linebacker spot, Seth Benson.

Other guys have played a bunch. He graded out high. Jack Campbell behind him. Didn't grade out as high as we saw in fact tackling down a little bit for Jack Campbell it says maybe missed a few tackles he normally would just four snaps for Jay Higgins but he grades out as the number one linebacker Logan Klemp right with him just five snaps out of those guys I mentioned Justin Jacobs the disappointing injury for him. And we'll get probably an update on Tuesday exactly how bad that is. But from the initial reports, does not look good. And then finally, in the defensive backfield, Kavon Merriweather,

he was through the roof along with Cooper Dejean. Both those guys rated out over an 80 overall. Huge numbers out of them. Quinn Schulte, he comes in at a 69, 67 for Riley Moss. And then Sebastian Castro playing the most snaps of his career. Good to see him out there and really good at pass defense as well for what he did in tackling. So that's a look at the defense. The story of the game, obviously, is what this team does.

And they got to be strapped on and ready to go because here comes Michigan. And Michigan, are you going to be able to win a game 17-13 against this Wolverine team even with the struggles they had against Maryland you wonder about that we'll get into the offense and some of the positives that we saw at least yeah we saw some signs that this offense is continuing to evolve it's still not great it's still one of the worst ranked in college football but just maybe this offense is showing some signs and certainly getting the running game going. We'll talk about that as we continue here.

This is 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. That's why you have to out LinkedIn jobs. LinkedIn jobs helps you find the right people for your team faster and for free. I mentioned before, I have a small business. I've hired people to do a host of different things, a number of different things throughout. You want to make sure you're getting those best candidates. And most importantly, don't have a lot of time.

If you're a small business owner like I am, you just don't have time to pour through resumes and go through a bunch of things. LinkedIn jobs can help you with just that. It's very easy. Add your job and the purple hiring frame to your LinkedIn profile, and it'll spread the word to everybody out there that you're hiring. They have simple tools, screening questions, make it easy to focus on the candidates with the right skills and experience that you're looking for and prioritize who you'd like to interview and ultimately who you'd like to hire.

It's why small businesses rate LinkedIn Jobs number one in delivering quality hires versus leading competitors. LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the quality candidates you want to talk to and does it faster. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash locked in college. That's linkedin.com slash locked on college to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Trent Cotton with you as we continue here with the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.

Have LaShawn later in the week. Business is going to stop in as well. We'll continue to break things down and going to have a road show coming up on Friday. It's going to be over in Clinton. And have a champion's dinner over there with a little betting contest that I've been in. Got to bring my trophy along. Don't want to forget about that. And going to be over there in Clinton.

So, hey, if you're out on Thursday night, want to watch some Thursday night football, me and a bunch of degenerates going to be out there with the contests that we've been running and the champions from the last calendar year and these contests that we do. You can follow along with me on Twitter. Wasn't a great week for me overall, betting-wise, in college football. The NFL, though, that worked out pretty well. But that aside, we'll get into our picks here later in the week. And we'll do that with Biz and LaShawn as things continue.

But we continue right now and talked about the defense at the top let's get into the offense and what we saw in the 27 10 win against ruckers offensively the run game looked so much better and i think a huge part of that was tyler elsberry tyler elsberry came into the game and right away as soon as he came in that offense looked completely different running the football the overall numbers are not elite by any way. LaShawn Williams did lead the team in the pro football focus numbers with a 73.9 grade, 71.4 for Gavin Williams and Caleb Johnson at 71.2. Those three guys are all bunched together, and those guys overall had really nice performances

and great to see that all of them got out there. And how about LaShawn Williams? Obviously getting into the end zone for the offensive touchdown from the group, 11 carries 64 yards, average 5.8 had 21 yards was his long. Also had a couple of targets and a couple of catches in the game. Saw a lot of LaShawn Williams. And after the passing of his father last weekend, great to see him get in the end zone for the Hawkeyes.

Caleb Johnson continues to impress and not to see him get in the end zone for the Hawkeyes. Caleb Johnson continues to impress and not only what he did in the running game and he saw good things out of that, but you also saw what he was able to do in the kick return game. A couple of big kick returns and getting them good field position. That's an important component and with the team that is struggling like Iowa does offensively, those are the things that you need, right? You need the ability to be able to go out there, get an extra 10, 12, 15 yards. It's just so important for a team with the limitations. Look, is Iowa going to be able to march up and down the field to get four, five, six first downs in a drive and get a score?

It just doesn't look realistic right now. Realistic though, Spencer Petras looks better with a obviously offensive line that is getting better with a running game that is showing some signs and with some receivers back though, Arlen Bruce, he was banged up this week. Only three targets overall in the passing game for the wide receivers, one for Bruce, one for Brody Breck, and just one for Nico Ragaghini. With those three guys, it was a tight end game. That's where they were looking a lot. It was tight ends. It was running backs. That's where they were going with the football. But I thought overall some signs of improvement. And the biggest thing with Spencer Petras is what we talked about

the first two weeks where he was just missing throws that were makeable. They were easy throws. They were out routes and he was thinking and overthinking things. And maybe him playing on the road was what he needed. You look at the statistics and the split between him at home and on the road he has been a lot better quarterback on the road throughout his three-year career now as the Hawkeye quarterback unfortunately I guess if you look at it in that fashion the game's gonna be a kid this week it's not gonna be on the road but he's still signed up for that right we'll see what they have for Michigan we'll continue to break that one down throughout the week Petras he goes he goes 11 of 17, 148 yards, was taking a few shots up the field, looked a whole lot more comfortable, though,

and I think a lot of that has to do, obviously, with the offensive line. In fact, overall, Spencer Petras, those pro football focus numbers, he was the highest rated offensive player last week at an 88.5. I didn't see it at that level. I rewatched it again tonight. Still didn't see it at that level. I rewatched it again tonight. Still didn't see it quite at that level, but that's what their numbers bear out. Talk about the running game. Let's talk about finally the offensive line. And I think that was a huge part. Mason Richmond, this guy is probably going to be your next great offensive lineman. Maybe not a

first rounder, but maybe he's got a shot. Just a sophomore and still time in front of him, but he grades out number one, pass blocking. That was an elite level. Connor Colby did struggle in pass blocking and lowered his grade. Very good, though, in the run-blocking game. In fact, the highest-graded run-blocker was Connor Colby. So the tackles are playing well. I mentioned Tyler Ellsbury as soon as he came in.

Seemed like it ignited a little bit of life to that Iowa offense. He got going. Bo Stevens did outgrade him from pro football focus, but I thought Ellsbury in his 24 snaps, he played really, really well. So just some things to keep an eye on. We also talked about Logan Jones. Didn't have a great game again overall. Just okay in both of the metrics, below average in both pass blocking and run blocking.

You do wonder if that continues, would they make a move to Tyler Ellsbury? As Kirk Ferentz talked about last week, he was a guy that was out there. The passing game, it was about the tight ends of this one. Sam Laporta, he grades out a very high number at 79.6. Luke Lachey was the second graded receiver right behind him. Then Arlen Bruce, Brody Brecht, and Nico Rioghini was the bottom guy here this week. A lot of pressure, had a lot of family there, and just a game where the game plan, not for the wide receivers here. We'll see. No Keegan Johnson was not with the team again,

and talking to some people, the question is not just when he's going to be back, it's more if he's going to be back this season for the Hawkeyes. Definitely scary as he works his way back from the hamstring injury. Played last week against Nevada. Didn't get a ton of snaps. And then, of course, with all the shutdown because of the weather delays, that changed things a lot. He didn't go back out there. And we'll see. But something to keep an eye on if we're going to see, again, Keegan Johnson here in 2022. 27-10 the final. Final thing, special teams for the Hawkeyes as they get it done there uh in the special teams talked about Caleb Johnson in the return game

Drew Stevens he's got a powerful leg banged it in off the upright and got the long field goal to really put the game out of reach at that point made a three score game as they went up 17 and and he knew it was over there's no way this Rutgers team was going to be able to score against Iowa defense three different times late in that football game. But good to see the ball just comes off of his foot a little bit differently than what we saw out of Aaron Blum. This is going to be your kicker. It feels like for the next four years and Drew Stevens and great to see him

with a powerful leg being able to pound through a long field goal. Overall special teams unit. You got to see again, Arlen Bruce because he was banged up this week. He was not in the punt return. It was Cooper Dejean back there. Caleb Johnson on the kick returns. Coverage units were good again overall.

And finally, the punting battle. You know, we dubbed it Punt-A-Thon 2022, and it was Torrey Taylor. I thought he certainly outplayed his counterpart for Rutgers. There was so much talk, you talk, All-American last year, nothing into the end zone, no touchbacks from Corsak. But Torrey Taylor was the better putter, at least on Saturday night, and helped the Iowa team back them up a bunch of different times with four punts inside the 20-yard line for Torrey Taylor.

He was good, and Iowa gets the victory. We'll wrap things up. A quick peek ahead to what we see Michigan on tap coming up this week. It'll be the big noon kickoff, 11 a.m. Central time kickoff. We'll talk about that as we continue here. This is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Trent Conant back with you one final time, and we look ahead to the opening lines this week with

michigan coming to town the wolverines are installed nine and a half point favorite that was the early number that was released circus sports the first sports book here stateside and available in the state of iowa that does release those numbers nine and a half was the opening number saw offshore bet online they had it at 10 the wolverines that you know it's interesting i i mentioned before so i have the uh a grading scale that i use i use a couple of different professional bettors power numbers uh what they had it my couple of places that kind of put them together a few of the own tweaks that i do in my handicapping i had this number at five and a half and i thought it was going to open more in that touchdown range, but we're talking nine and a half, 10, you know, in the double digits.

So I was a little bit surprised by that. Just knowing how close usually those numbers are with the opening line. I think a lot of it has to do, obviously, Michigan, they're going to be ranked to the top five coming into this game, go back to a year ago in the big 10 championship game. And Iowa this year, they've been a punching bag on the national scale. People looked at this and their offensive limitations, and they're outgamed by 100 yards by Rutgers again on Saturday night. You kind of put all those things together,

and that's what you're going to get. And definitely get that and understand it. But we're going to break this game down all week long. A huge spot for Iowa. Look, the game plan is very simple. This is Iowa football, right? They're not going to be able to win in a track meet. It's not a game.

It can go back to the great 55-24 win against Ohio State five years ago. It's not going to be a game like that where they're going to be able to go and do it in a shootout. This team's just not built for that. They don't have the skill position, guys, at the wide receiver position to win in that kind of fashion. But they can do it with the defense. I think this defense is that good that they really have an opportunity to close down Michigan. Some

issues, at least, that popped up. Peaches has got to be good. That offensive line has got to play their best game of the year to give them hope. Probably going to have to hit a couple of big plays in the running game in order to make it happen, but if they do, hang around, hang around, and you know, funky things can happen in Kinnick Stadium. We've seen a ton of that, obviously, throughout the years. And I just go back when number three Michigan came to town here a few years back in Iowa, was able to find a way to get it done. 14-13 in that game.

Yeah, had the last second field goal from Keith Duncan, but also had a safety in that game. Yeah, probably going to need some defensive scores as well to beat this Wolverine team. But after a year ago, motivation's going to be no problem. We'll talk more about LaShawn when you're taking on one of these heavyweight programs. I know this is something talking to people that have been inside the Iowa locker room under Kirk Behrens and the conversations that happen in the talk. There is a whole lot always about these kinds of games, a little bit extra juice that is in there in the locker room and you anticipate that's going to be the case this week and the payback and yeah probably going to have that

game from the big 10 championship game on a loop and remind those guys hey we got a little payback here we'll see if i was going to be up to the task a ton of that lejano join us tomorrow we will break things down what he saw out of the running game what made the offense look so much better against a ruckers team that have been playing well? Look, they hadn't played a great schedule at Boston College. They got blown out by Florida State over the weekend. Wagner is terrible, and Temple's a bad team as well. They had not played a murder's row

by any means, but there was a semblance of positivity that you can take away. We'll get LaShawn's thoughts on that. We'll talk about the Michigan matchup and a whole lot more. Gonna be a busy week. We'll be with you each and every day here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Iowa wins it 27-10 over Rutgers, and Iowa now gets ready for Michigan. That'll do it for today.

Thanks again to our great sponsors. You want more coverage here from Locked On? Of course, you can check out Locked On Big Ten. Nate Dickinson goes around the Big Ten each and every day in 30 minutes talking about everything happening inside the Big Ten. Nate Dickinson goes around the Big Ten each and every day in 30 minutes talking about everything happening inside the Big Ten. We saw Minnesota now I think the prohibitive favorite in the Big Ten West going on the road and a surprise to me putting it on Sparty in that kind of fashion. The struggles from Northwestern once again they lose over the weekend to Miami

of Ohio. Purdue hair on fire to get past Florida Atlantic. Nebraska, good news is they didn't lose. They didn't play this week for the Cornhuskers. Minnesota looks to be that team. Of course, Wisconsin blown out by Ohio State. And how about this week? The Burt Bowl. Brett Bielema taking on his old team, Wisconsin, with the Illini. So a lot going on this week in the Big Ten. Nate Dickinson's got you covered with Locked On Big Ten. This is Locked On Hawkeyes. I'm Trent Cotter. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Go Hawks!