Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa defeats Nebraska post-game recap with LeShun Daniels Jr: Henry Marchese comes up huge, Spencer Petras relieves Padilla, and Kirk gets emotional

Episode Date: November 27, 2021

We are joined by former Iowa running back LeShun Daniels Jr to review the Iowa Hawkeyes unconventional win over the Nebraska Cornhuskers in yesterday's Heros Game in Lincoln, Nebraska. Despite a sputtering red-zone offense, questionable officiating (on both sides), and a quarterback change, the Hawks managed to leave victorious on the back of four Caleb Shudak field goals, a beautiful blocked punt return for a touchdown, and an Iowa Hawkeye patented goal-line quarterback sneak. Tyler Goodson also ran ragged as he put up career numbers, and the defense held strong against a blistering fast backup QB running a modern triple option that gave Iowa fits for the majority of the game.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.PrizePicksDon’t hesitate, check out PrizePicks.com and use promo code: “LOCKEDON” or go to your app store and download the app today. PrizePicks is daily fantasy made easy!NetSuiteOver twenty-seven thousand businesses already use NetSuite and RIGHT NOW through the end of the year NetSuite is offering a one-of-a-kind financing program to those ready to upgrade at NetSuite.com/LOCKEDONNCAA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back, Hawkeye Nation, to another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Podcast Network. As always, I am your host, and as we do after every single Iowa Hawkeye game, we are joined by former Iowa running back and my co-host on Monday mornings. Today is Saturday morning, though. LeSean Daniels Jr.

LeSean, how are you doing today, buddy? We're doing great doing great always feeling good you know after we beat Nebraska um and it's just a yearly thing at this point so we're feeling we're feeling going great it does feel it feels really nice to wake up and be like you know I had the whole day of watching college football Iowa already got the W it's very it's gonna be a very interesting day of watching college football. It pains me to say this, but row, row, row your boat, PJ, because I want to get to the Big Ten championship

game. I know that's something you might not even want to utter ever, but we're going to talk about that on the show today. Before we get to that, though, I want to thank you all for making our Monday morning episode, our Monday morning recap, me and LaShawn, that episode your first listen every single day, as well as all of our other episodes we drop throughout the week.

You can find the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast wherever you get podcasts at and also on YouTube for free by searching Locked On Hawkeyes. And this episode with LaShawn is brought to you by NetSuite. NetSuite is the number one cloud financial system to power your growth. Head over to netsuite.com slash locked on NCAA for special end of year financing on the number one financial system for growing businesses. So let's get to it. I want to quickly get your thoughts on how does it feel to root for Minnesota today? It's tough. It's definitely tough, but it's all right because you know that if they win, right, you know, we get to go to the Big Ten title game.

So it's like, you know, something you just got to swallow. And it's like, all right, well, Minnesota, after we ripped your hearts out year after year, after, you know, we won yesterday. So you guys can't make it to the title game. It's like, yeah, but we still need you guys to win today. So, you know, we can make it to the title game. So it's like, ah, I don't want to, but, you know, we have to. And so hopefully they can get it done today. It would be quite amazing that we not only beat Minnesota, as you said, we ruined their chances of getting a Big Ten West title,

and then they give us the Big Ten West title. If you're Minnesota, you've got to be thinking, man, we're damned if we do, damned if we don't here, because if we lose, we lose to Wisconsin, and we hate losing to Wisconsin. I mean, you're just in a real crap position all around. But nevertheless, good for Iowa to put ourselves in this situation, beating Nebraska yesterday. And it was one of the most ridiculous games I have ever seen

uh I was telling you before we started the show I was uh already going through the stages of grief thinking you know what it's okay uh it was a good football season I enjoyed watching them play uh nine and three ain't bad uh you know we'll go to the Music City Bowl Nashville will be a hoot whatever you know that's literally what I was thinking at 21-6. I hate myself for doing that, but Iowa figures out a way to come back. Was this one of the more impressive comebacks you've ever seen? Yeah, this was a great, great win, you know, for those guys. I mean, you're down 21-6.

I mean, it was looking real it was looking real, real grim, you know, in that third quarter, you know, we ended up getting a field goal again, 21, nine going into the fourth quarter, you're still down by 12. Like that's not a good spot to be in. And especially with how efficient Nebraska's offense was being at the time. It's like, I don't know. I don't know if we'll be able to battle back.

But, you know, knowing the guys, knowing the staff, right, there's never any quit. And we saw that. So, huge, huge win. Impressive to battle back like that and come from behind, you know, in the fourth quarter and come and get that victory. Absolutely, man. So at the five-minute mark in the third quarter,

what was your confidence level that Iowa would win? Because mine was about one. I mean, what did I say in our group chat? No, we were just talking. We were just like, of course, Iowa's selling right now, blah, blah, blah. You know, but it's Iowa, right?'s iowa um we'll see what they do there's always something always a play um in games like in rivalry games like this um you know that's gonna change momentum and sure enough did right um but how about through that third quarter i'm like it's not looking great especially

after uh you know we had the good drive and then tyler fumbled um you know in the red zone i'm like oh god here we go next thing you know they drive right down the field go and score and i'm just like oh this is not looking great i think we still have a chance we still have a chance because i felt like at that point in time in the game, a lot of, you know, the things that we were doing were really just self-inflicted wounds, right? It wasn't anything that they were doing that was preventing us from being in the ballgame. It was just all we're doing. And, you know, when the fourth quarter came, we changed that right around pretty quickly.

So, yeah yeah i want to get to uh obviously the touchdown that got overturned and the uh tyler linderbaum tyler goodson collision fumble and and how many points left on the board but first i want to get to a thing you mentioned we always have something drawn up we always have something ready to go for these rivalry games i think to a common fan you don't typically realize there are very specific play calls on special teams. That was a specific play call they had for that punt block. Henry Marquise executed it perfectly last week against Illinois. They saw something on tape that said if Charlie Jones gets the football on the right end of the end zone, he's going to take it all the way across the field and that could spring a touchdown against a team who's only allowed for kick returns not touchdowns kick

returns in general so i think it's pretty impressive of the bar woods and what he's seeing on film to be able to put these types of things together and then ultimately for the iowa hawkeye football players to execute on that that pump block was truly amazing at that point i was like i don't know what what we have to do here. We have to have some sort of big play. You don't typically see a lot of pump blocks. Beautiful, beautiful pump block by Henry Marquise, though, fully extended. Even if he missed the ball, wouldn't have hit the punter.

There was no chance of roughing the punter. Just, oh, my God, what a beautiful play all around. And then Kyler Fisher, just the ball just floating right into his hands, like little angel coming out of the heavens. And then just getting escorted into the end zone by Jay Higgins. I mean, all around just an amazing pump block. I know you haven't played a lot of special teams. You've been fortunate enough to not necessarily have to do that, but what were your thoughts on that pump block uh just incredible incredible um game-changing play um and you know it's one of those things that you expect from from your seniors right when uh you know when everything's going not the way you want it to and the going gets tough right you're as a team

you're looking to towards you know seniors and those leaders on the team to make a play. And, you know, Henry went out and did just that. Right. Special teams isn't just I know a lot of people don't kind of think of special teams. It's just like, OK, like whatever. It's just some other play until the next offense or the defense comes out on the field. Right. But those are actual plays that can be used as weapons for your team. And they're treated that way as such at Iowa, right? I mean, you go in the meeting rooms. They have special teams meetings, right?

They're drawing up plays. They're critiquing every single player that are on the field. And the special teams, like, they're treating it like it's not just some other play. Like, it's an important, those are important plays in the game. And I think Henry had said um it was all preparation they knew how they were going to be lined up and they knew what opportunities were going to be if they um ran you know their pump block to perfection right and then henry said that they got a you got a tip on their cadence you know throughout the game and then you know when the opportunity came right

they were all ready for it and you know they they may do on it right so uh it's huge huge huge um plays in the game and when those guys preparing like that and when you have your seniors stepping up like that uh i mean there's no way you can't win there's no way you can't win games so i think i would equate and this is gonna be a bad analogy but i'm gonna try it anyways i would equate special teams in college football the way people look at it as the way people look at the right fielder in elementary school baseball like it's almost like it doesn't matter we're just gonna put whoever out there but in all actuality that's a really important position and a lot of times games can be won and lost by your performance there.

I think what's even more impressive is we've seen year over year, we've seen guys who have been three-star recruits coming to Iowa who play four, five, six years. They change positions multiple times. I mean, I think Henry Marquis started out as a wide receiver. He's technically a defensive back. We saw Devonta Young go from wide receiver, defensive back, back to what might have been the other way too.

But we see these seniors stick with the program. And I've never been a three-star recruit. I've never been a four. I mean, I've never been a recruit for football or any sort of high-level sport like that. I had some NAI offers, so really just nothing to talk about. I don't know how you deal with that. That's got to be tough to come in and kind of be humbled a little bit

to thinking maybe I have a chance to go to the NFL, maybe I have a chance to go to the next level, and then you stay with the program for five or six years, and it comes down to a huge play like that. I don't even know how to ask this question, but what does it mean for you and other Iowa Hawkeye football players to see guys like that stay committed throughout their time and come up big in a huge way for the Iowa Hawkeye football program? Yeah, it's tough, right? uh, I mean, could probably go to a smaller school, could probably transfer to a smaller school

and play, you know, every single down on offense or defense or wherever. Right. Um, but you know, to have those guys around and stick around the program, those are things that really, I think help keep your program, um, really at the level that you want it to be. Because, you know, when guys start transferring out all the time because they're not playing the way they they're not playing as much as they want to play or they don't have quite the impact that they're looking for, you know, as a lot of revolving doors. they're looking for um you know as a lot of revolving doors right there's lots of people that are coming in and out um and you're not really sure like who you can trust and who are going to be leaders on the team but when you have people like that you stick around and embody the Iowa way uh you know it only makes sense for people new people who are coming in for the freshmen uh coming in or other transfers that are coming in, like, Hey, like these guys are sticking with the program.

They're dedicated to the program. They obviously love their teammates and being around, um, to be there. And that they know that when their number is called and they do have the opportunity, uh, to make a play, they go ahead and do that. Right. We saw that the past couple of weeks with Henry Marquis, and we've seen it. We saw plenty of times with Devonta young, Young, you know, when he was in school. Right.

And these guys are guys who stick to the program. They embody the Iowa way. They obviously love the teammates and the people that they're around. And they know like, hey, yeah, I probably could have gone elsewhere and maybe had an outside shot at playing NFL. But I love it here. Right. And I want to make, I want to make most of my opportunities here when I get them. And those guys have definitely done so.

Yeah, man, it's, it's pretty impressive. I'm going to throw you off with this next one for a bit, but this is it. The putt to win the tournament. If you sink it, the championship is yours, but on your backswing, your hat falls over your eyes. Is this how you're running your business, LaShawn? Poor visibility because you're still relying on spreadsheets and outdated finance software? To see the full picture, you need to upgrade to NetSuite by Oracle.

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Netsuite.com slash locked on NCAA. And again, I want to thank you all for making the lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Your first listen every single day. You can find the lockdown Hawkeyes podcast for free, wherever you get podcast at, and also on YouTube by searching locked on Hawkeyes. Probably threw you off for that one for a little bit. I wanted see I could I got like you probably have no idea what I'm talking

about right now as I said like no time about golfing why why did you switch from Henry Marquis to golfing um try to be transitioning there but I did not give you any heads up on that at all um so before we we took a break we talked about Henry Marquis Devonta Young the guys who make such a huge impact in the special teams phase of the game, which, as we have seen, is a huge reason why Iowa can win and be so successful. There's a reason why they have 10 wins this year. It's not because our offense is high-powered like Oklahoma's. Our defense has had some times where they've struggled.

Our special teams have had some times where they've struggled. But special teams yesterday won the game for the Hawks. I mean, four field goals by Caleb Shudock, which, by the way, the fact that he is not a Lou Groza Award finalist is absolutely flabbergasting to me. I mean, the guy is just so consistent and can also just boot the ball. I was kicking that 51-yard field goal, and my buddy's like, he can't make this.

Look at him. He's 5'6". I was like, watch him make this and have like five to six yards to go. He kicks. He's like, all right, I don't know where the heck you guys are getting these kickers at. Nebraska can't find anyone to kick a ball through the uprights, and you guys keep churning these guys out. Funny enough, that guy came from Council Bluffs.

So, anyways, lots of fun things from a special teams perspective. Anything you want to add on to about Caleb Shudock? Yeah, no. You know, great guy. I think he was there. Is he there when you were there? I want to say he was there when I was a senior. I feel like that's how he –

You were there with Keith, right? Yes. Yeah, so Keith was there. Yeah, so Keith was there too. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it feels like, yeah, he's been in the program forever. And, you know, obviously just happy to see him you know have success right i

mean he stayed the state of the course and decided to stick stick with it and you know he's had his opportunities this year and he's definitely made the most of it so yeah um caleb has been probably our best offensive player this year um you know as good as uh tyler has been, both Linderbaum and Goodson, Caleb's probably our best offensive player this year. So it's really a shame that he wasn't a finalist for the Lou Groza because he's been playing that well. But he will probably get the recognition, hopefully, in some way, shape, or form, you know, in the postseason awards where

they're hopefully making some lists or things like that so it'll be interesting i mean uh two of the three lugros award finalists are kickers in the big 10 you got ohio state kicker you got the michigan kicker and i would love to see caleb shudoff be a first team all big 10 the way he absolutely deserves um we're gonna have some big kicks in the Ohio State or Michigan game today as well, so maybe separate themselves a little bit there. You talked a little bit about the comeback and how impressive that was, the fact that Iowa persevered through a lot of issues all around. Just some real fluky plays, what I would call some poor officiating early on. I wanted to get your thoughts on the touchdown catch

or no catch by sam laporta did you believe that was a catch yeah i mean he it was it was a ridiculous reverse i mean he literally catches the ball his butt like touched the ground he's like on the ground for like a second and then the ball like pops out absolutely ridiculous that they overturned it and i feel like officiating in general this year and football at both the college and nfl level this year has just been horrendous and i don't know what's up with it um i know a lot of the refs are part-time right and they go they go ref a game and then they go to their law firms or whatever like monday morning. I think some things that I would like to,

you know, see change with that is, you know, move to some full-time refs, refs that, um, you know, only focus on officiating at least during the season. Um, so, you know, they can actually do their job properly and actually make the right calls and see the right things on the field because yeah, it's it's really frustrating when, you know, your guys go out there and they make a great play. And then, you know, one of the striped shirts decides, nah, that's not that's not that's not it. Right.

So the officiating has been was yesterday was really, really terrible on a number of different fronts. And that's really terrible on a number of different fronts. And that's really all I have to say about that. I thought, yeah, Sam made the catch. I didn't even think anything of it. I was like, oh, okay, cool. We're on the board. We were able to answer, right?

But, honestly, it just wasn't the case. Yeah, I mean, I have no idea what a catch is at this point or what it means for a play to be confirmed or state i mean like i my thing is if it's a play that you cannot decisively tell which way it went and you call it a certain way typically it means you don't have enough evidence to overturn it and somehow nebraska had enough evidence or the not nebraska the officials had enough evidence to overturn three different catches. I mean, two of them were Nebraska's. I'm not sure what to say on both of the Nebraska catches.

As a Nebraska fan, you can't be upset because you got one of the two. As an Iowa fan, I could kind of see both those not being catches. I could kind of see both them being catches. I mean, like I have no idea what a catch is at this point, but nevertheless, there's also some very interesting targeting or no targeting calls. Now, I'm not a big fan of targeting penalties. I think there's a lot of iffy instances, like if a wide receiver drops down and a defensive back is lowering their

head to hit a guy in the waist and the guy drops their head down targeting. There's not a lot the guy can do there. There was an early play against Arlen Bruce, and he got popped hard. I thought that probably should have been called targeting. I also thought the play where they called roughing the passer on Alex – or against the defensive end against Alex Padilla, they were looking at it for targeting, and my buddy was like, that's not targeting.

I'm like, dude, the guy went up to Alex, had had his hand and then extended it and just chucked him down like I know that's not targeting but that is forceful intent to potentially injure a guy I want to get your thoughts on those two calls yeah so the targeting that they reviewed um on the hit against Arlen. It's definitely like what is in the rule book for targeting, right? I mean, the guy lowered his head and basically, you know, speared him in his head. But I feel like it's a lot harder to call when they're not defenseless. And, you know, they're, they're as a runner.

And I mean, it's, I know like on, as a defensive player, you're taught obviously hit with your head up and all these different things, but it's hard, right? I mean, especially when you're going against guys who create can create explosive plays, like it's hard to, uh, you know, go in there with perfect technique and all these different things. So I think that like calling targeting is tough and yeah, I was, I with them you know not calling it because i mean again it's it's the last game of the year you don't want to get kicked out on some on some nonsense but i mean it was the definition of targeting right and i think a lot of people would just like for the officiating just

be consistent right um whether you know they make like is it targeting or is it not right and you know have it the same way all the time instead of you know like kind of being iffy and i mean i know like a lot of stuff gets obviously like reviewed upstairs gets reviewed with the refs and then um like they obviously got to figure out some some way, right, to make it all consistent. And the one, you know, against Alex. I mean, yeah, he did take his hand and shove his face, which is ridiculous. Definitely roughing the past 100 percent without a doubt. But targeting again. I just I'm just not a fan of the targeting call. Yeah.

It's crap. Right on. So yeah, I'd much rather just be like some personal foul or necessary roughness and just know it's called a day and, uh, leave it like leave it at that. Um, but yeah, doing it like that one is targeting cause it wasn't. Um, but yeah, that one was more forceful than I would say, like, intent-wise than the one on Arlen earlier in the game. Yeah, I could definitely get on board with that. I'll have a couple other interesting calls, no calls, and situations I want to talk about.

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So many great deals going on at builtbar.com today. All right, LaShawn. I want to talk about a few other interesting situations. There was a play where Tyler Linderbaum just absolutely destroyed his defensive tackle and honestly we saw it like probably seven or eight times we've seen it all throughout the season he embarrassed that guy so much the guy got up and was like that's gotta be unsportsmanlike conduct throwing up you know trying to get a penalty called um how much joy does that bring you seeing Tyler Linderbaum embarrass and destroy

guys so badly that they feel like there's a penalty on the play for him just being that darn good yeah first off it just tells you how soft uh their players were i mean that's ridiculous like what do you think he's blocking to the whistle um just because you know he drove, you know, he drove you, you know, five yards back and then pancaked you, it doesn't mean that it is, you know, it was it was it was a late, late block. So but, you know, as an offensive guy, you know, seeing that, that's just that's just awesome. offensive line is like one of the positions where one of the few spots where, and really life where you get to take another grown man and move him against his will. And then, you know, you can finish it off by, you know, slamming them to the ground. Like there's, there's not too, too much better things than you can do than that. And, you know,

I love seeing that because that just tells you first off, how creative a player that tyler is um but also his his gnashy streak that he has and how he's gonna go hard you know through the whistle every single time and if you don't like it tough luck you better find a way to be the block and get around him or you know be him but it's very rare that that's gonna happen so that that was awesome though. I love watching Tyler Linderbaum play. There are some weird rumors floating around that maybe he actually returns.

I would be so shocked if he returns. This is the second time in a row we have a center who is the best in college football. You're very familiar with the first one, James Daniel, your brother, who had an opportunity to go to the NFL. I just don't know how Tyler Linderbaum doesn't take that opportunity. He's projected as a top 15 pick. If for whatever reason that guy decides to return,

watch out defensive tackles next year because he is going to just absolutely annihilate and manhandle everyone all season um we have managed to make it 27 minutes without saying the words spencer petrus alex badia or quarterback and i think that's honestly a new record for any show i've done uh on a monday morning uh with you and then previously of matt. We got to talk about, though. Alex Padilla comes out. Now, there's some interesting stuff about a flu bug coming around. Sounds like Alex might have been sick. Maybe Spencer was sick as well before this week kind of started.

Alex comes out. I thought he had a really nice first drive. I thought he did a great job of handling the offense. We should have scored that touchdown. Then he started making a few questionable throws. Uh, there was the one ball, um, he was trying to, we had an open tight end, uh, going into the flap. He just couldn't get out, you know, couldn't get it up enough, kind of knocked down by the defensive end. Great play by the defensive end who,

or I don't think it might've been their linebacker, uh, might've been cam Taylor or camp Tanner or something. I don't know his name. Uh, thought that was just a solid play by the linebacker. There's another play where we had another, I think, tight end going across the middle, wide open, all outs. But yeah, what he needs to do is just throw it about six feet high or just loft that ball. You don't got to chuck it hard. Just loft that ball up, and we're going to get it.

And then he had a really bad decision on the sideline trying to get to Keegan Johnson and double coverage where that was just – that should have been picked. That was just a bad, bad throw. Were you shocked to see Spencer Petriston come in in the second half? Yeah. Yeah, I was shocked to say it wasn't. I would have been lying. Yeah, I was definitely shocked. Hmm, I don't want to say it.

I mean, I was shocked for sure. I thought Alex was playing okay. I mean, they were moving the football really, really, really well. First off, I thought Coach Bryan called a pretty good game yesterday, probably his best game of the entire year without a doubt. I definitely want to talk about that in a second because I was clapping back at people yelling about Bryan Farris should be fired after the second drive i was like y'all are just ridiculous right now like come on sorry keep going with your thought yeah yeah no but uh yeah

i was making questionable throws where honestly frankly if their defensive guys could catch they probably would have uh it probably would have been a different game right i mean uh james lorinitis in the booth was saying like, yeah, that's why these guys are playing defense because they can't catch, right? I'm sure if James Laurinaitis was out there in those positions, those would have all been interceptions without a doubt. So, yeah,

Alex is making questionable throws, but I mean, I feel like that's just to pull them. I don't know. Maybe something happened or whatever, but to pull him. I don't know. Maybe something was going to happen. Maybe something happened or whatever. But to pull him, I thought that was strange. But, you know, credit Spencer for being ready, right? I mean, he came in the game and, you know,

made the throws that he had to make. Frankly, they weren't the prettiest throws. A lot of them were ducks. That wobbly duck. Everybody's like, what just happened just happened like that ball was nasty i don't know miko came up and caught that uh-huh uh-huh um but you know he came in he was ready and you know made the plays that he had to make made really made a lot of throws they had to make and then the offensive line was doing a great job in pass protection um you know because obviously you know uh you know spencer's not a mobile guy right they're not they're getting they didn't really do a lot more they didn't really do any rollouts too

too much i think they ran like one with spencer the second half but uh the offensive line was did a great job knowing that they were gonna have have to, Hey, sit back and, you know, pass protect. And then obviously like we were able to run the football to again, take the pressure off the quarterback as well, quarterbacks as well. So yeah, I was definitely shocked to see Spencer in, but you know, I was happy that he came in and obviously played well and, you know, was able to make the plays needed to help win the football game. Yeah, this is going to be, if Iowa makes the Big Ten championship game,

this is going to be the number one topic of conversation. If Iowa doesn't make the Big Ten championship game, we are going to have a month of who is playing quarterback and a lot of speculation in regards to transfer portals and that kind of stuff. It's going to be a long month and a lot of speculation in regards to transfer portals and that kind of stuff uh it'll be it's going to be a long it's gonna be a long month and a half of of that being the centerpiece of conversation um we've talked about this i think we both kind of agree with where with where we stand on the quarterback situation anyone who's listened to us talk knows what our i think preference is um i talked about the fact that, yeah, there's some risky throws,

but Ricky Stanzi also threw about a million pick sixes, it felt like, and yet Iowa was winning football games. I will say this. Kudos to Spencer to be able to come into that game and perform well. He made some really nice throws. He made some of the ugliest-looking throws I think I've ever seen, but ultimately he got the job done. And two things I also want to point out, there's a couple times where Spencer had pressure on him and was about to get hit and was able to get the ball out.

Alex Padilla's release is really quick. Spencer's a little bit more elongated. But in some games, we've seen Spencer, when he's getting ready to throw the ball, just take it and just get sacked. And he actually made the throws this week a couple times, like, oh, he's going to get sacked. Oh, he's going to get – and then he actually threw. So that was impressive to see some of that development and growth.

And just a shout-out to our offensive line. We spent three-fourths of this season talking about how atrocious this offensive line was and how bad it was. I've spent the better part of two years talking about how I have not been impressed with Jack Plum. And I don't like to call people out, but there have been a lot of inconsistent performances. This offensive line, for the most part, did a pretty good job. There were definitely some struggles. Connor Colby just got annihilated on a regular pass rush, but he's a true freshman. You're going to see that happen. But overall, this pass blocking but he's a true freshman you're gonna see that happen um but

overall this this pass blocking unit has gotten a lot better and that gives me a lot of hope going into the remaining part of the postseason i guess with the big 10 championship game potentially and then obviously a postseason game any thoughts on that before i move on for the the rest of the show yeah uh they definitely done a much better job really i think these last three weeks um and they and i'll send up definitely settled on some guys who they feel um gives them the best chance to win and that's really what i've been talking about on all year like yeah gotta find five yeah gotta find five gotta find five right and oh not they've been in right we've seen them obviously get better week after week right and it's they've been in right we've seen them obviously get better week after

week right and it's only going to improve right because they know that they're in right and they know that they can they don't have to worry about you know they mess up maybe one play right they're going to get pulled and then someone else is going to be in for them right so um credit ton of ton of credit has to go to the offensive line because they've been battling, battling all year. And obviously you got to credit the staff as well for finally sticking to some guys and getting them ready to play on Saturdays and Friday. Yeah, man. Truly amazing. I want to talk very briefly about the defense. We don't talk about defense a ton here because it's usually just really good and very consistent. And so, I mean, what else are you going to say there? A couple of shout-outs.

Riley Moss, without a PCL, has been performing lights out and has been a rock-solid piece in the secondary. Jamari Harris is playing well in extended playing time with Matt Hankins out for the foreseeable future with what appears to be a hamstring issue. Just my thoughts there. I want to talk, though, about the running, the rush defense. If Iowa makes the Big Ten championship game, it's either against Michigan or it's against Ohio State.

Both those teams, very good at running the football. Now, a little bit more traditional than what Nebraska did, but what are your thoughts on Nebraska's option game? I thought the way they're running the football, I'm like, why aren't you guys doing this all year? Like, stop throwing the football. Just do the, they're running the football, I'm like, why aren't you guys doing this all year? Stop throwing the football. That was tough for me. I had no idea where the ball was half the time. I honestly am impressed

that we had one guy and thank God our tackling was a little bit more fundamentally sound. We had a much better tackling performance, but man, their rushing attack was good under Logan Smothers. I really liked the running back sweep, where then he looked like he was,

and then just optioned it at the last minute. I'm like, okay, how are we supposed to stop this? It's ridiculous. So any thoughts on their rushing attack and what you saw from that and how Iowa eventually got better at stopping it? Yeah, it's a very, very interesting approach to the triple option and bringing it into modern football.

Frankly, they never had any mishaps with the exchanges that they were doing. They probably won that game. They probably won. But, you know, that's the part of the of the triple option right you got to make sure that you know the exchanges are crisp all the time right everyone knows who has the ball the quarterback is knows who has it right to avoid those fumbles uh but it's hard to do right because you really have to play assignment football and thankfully iowa does really a really really good job of playing assignment football because again you have to be responsible for your guy you can't have you can't be caught like

looking back field trying to figure out who has it and who doesn't right you just know you have to do your job and focus on your part right and yeah if i was nebraska i don't know why you would even bother passing the football um right if i don't have have to, I'm just going to run that all game. And then, you know, when I get in a situation where I have to pass it, then I pass it, right? I mean, it's not like, you know, you're in the NFL where, you know, the defenses are going to be, you know, lights out every single week, right? And you have to keep those guys off balance. In college, you literally could probably run, you could probably run the same play every single time until they stop it, and you would have success

with it. If I'm Nebraska going forward, that's what I would do. That would be my focus. Obviously, you still continue to improve your pass game. You've got to be able to throw the football a little bit, but I don't know why you wouldn't continue doing that. Logan Smothers

is 16-22, so when he did have to throw the football, it worked Yeah, I don't know why he wouldn't continue doing that. Yeah, I mean, Logan Smothers, 16 of 22. So when he did have to throw the football, it worked pretty well. It just felt like they ran the ball the entire game. But, I mean, when you have athletes like that, it makes it so much better. I mean, think about like Army and Navy and a lot of those academy schools. They run the triple option because it's a way of minimizing the risk and allowing lesser athletes to be able to put points on the board because it relies on deception.

But a massive deception with good athletes and quality tight ends and wide receivers who can run and a quarterback who can kind of throw. I mean, I don't know why. I mean, you put that modern spin on that triple option, and I'm scared of Nebraska if that's what they do. I mean, that game plan was pretty good at Iowa, uh, in a bad spot until Nebraska started being Nebraska making stupid mistakes. Um, which kind of was the end of the game at that point.

So, uh, completely agree there. Um, want to talk about Scott Frost real quick. I can't remember. We talked about it before the show. Um, he said in his press conferences, his press conferences are great. He always finds a way to just screw up and say something inappropriate or wrong. He said, yeah, the game was over after that punt block. He's up six, and the game was over at the punt block. If you're a player, compare Scott Frost to Kirk Ferentz. Kirk Ferentz, we win the game.

He's in the middle of a press conference he's trying not to cry because he loves his players so much meanwhile scott frost is out there saying yeah we lost the game when we were up six i mean um can you just talk me through like as a player what that means to you yeah i mean you know what's great when you play for a guy that cares so much about the game, cares so much about their players. And you know that he's basically always going to have your back. And, you know, you know that after a game, right, he's never going to first off, he's never throwing anybody under the bus. Right. At the end of the day. Right. under the bus right at the end of the day right he'll say you know something apart um along the lines of either like that's football or uh um you know what's on us right we have to coach better

and you know all these different things right and um you know it makes it easy to go out and play for a guy like that and when you see that raw emotion you know on saturdays after big wins um it's really like so this is like why we put in all this work, right? Because obviously like, you know, he cares and he cares so much. And it just kind of permeates through the rest of the, the rest of the program. And then when you contrast that with, you know, Scott Frost and he's basically saying like, yeah,

like we had already lost, you know, when that punt was blocked. Right. He's basically saying we might as well just took all of our stuff and win the locker room and call it a game at that point. Right. I mean, like when you hear that, like as a player, you're like, well, then did you not believe in us? Did you is there is that the reason why we end up losing the game? Because you said you thought it was over. So you just stopped putting us in position to be successful. It's like, I don't know. I mean, I feel like when your coach is saying things like that and, you know, I get it right.

He was on those Nebraska teams where they were obviously really, really good and they never really had to go through anything like how they've been yeah who they are now and obviously he won a lot when he was at ucf um but you know i feel like when when you hear that as a player and you guys know that you're struggling like you obviously know that struggling right you want someone who's there who's going to have your back and try to pick you guys up instead of you know saying all different types of things like uh i don't know obviously he says a lot of nonsense in his press conferences almost every press conference he managed to say something dumb but yeah like you you hear things like that where he's like where he's basically already gave up on gave up on the game like you're just like like dude like why would i want to continue to play like i know if it was me i'd be like why would i want to continue to play for a guy like

that um you know who who quite frankly you know gives up on his players you know at the beginning of the fourth quarter so yeah it's it's ridiculous i mean literally you saw the team just absolutely i mean it was a completely different ne different Nebraska football team after that five-minute mark. Yes, credit to Iowa for never quitting and playing their hearts out. But Nebraska – I mean, as much as I hate – Nebraska lost a lot of that. I mean, Nebraska lost that game. They had the game in their hands 21-6. They should have won that game.

they have the game in their hands 21-6. They should have won that game. And you have a couple botched handoffs. All of a sudden, the pass protection looks like they're a JV squad. I mean, our pass rush hasn't been that good this season. And all of a sudden, we are just blowing up Logan Smothers, who has four or five speed and all of a sudden can't get out of the pot. I mean, like, I don't know. It's just absolutely ridiculous nevertheless though i'm glad

we don't have scott for us and we have kirk ferens uh when he starts almost crying and you see those uh those in the locker room and i'm sure you've experienced this i obviously haven't but those in locker room clips where you start goading him on to start crying it's just uh it makes you just love him so much more as a coach and it makes you really appreciate having a coach like that at the helm of the Iowa Hawkeye football program. Iowa does win 20-21, 10-win season, something that is not a very common thing. I think people are looking at this and being like,

well, we didn't beat that many good teams. Who the hell cares? We got 10 wins. This is a big-time feat. A lot of teams don't get to do this. It's a big-time season for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Any last thoughts before we close out the show though, LaShawn?

Winning 10 games is really hard. I only did it one time in my career. We obviously had opportunities practically every single year, but frankly, it just didn't come out that way. It's very's very very hard to win

football games in the big 10 um let alone in college football right so like um it's it's impressive feat it's a great year i gotta know that if you told 99 of hawkeye fans like before the year started, you're like, you guys are going to finish 10 and two. You'd probably have been like, all right. Yeah, cool. Like that sounds pretty good. Like that sounds pretty good. And, you know, it's it's really impressive to the team that they were able to fight through some adversity.

Right. We're able to fight through some adversity, right, all the way from being, you know, number two in the country to losing to Purdue to battling back and finishing the season strong. You know, it's really just credit to the players and the staff, you know, not giving up and continuing to fight, even though that, you know, you probably had a different outlook, you know, halfway through the year versus, you know, the second half, but that's all right. Um, so yeah, that's really pretty much all I got to say. Uh, you know, excited for these guys, you know, moving forward, they're going to be in a good, they're going to be a good bowl game, um, to make it to the big 10 championship. It'd be even better. Um, so, but definitely excited for, for definitely what the future brings,

what we can see, you know, from, from this Iowa squad, because yeah, there's a guy group of guys that don't quit and that'll keep, that'll keep going. And the last thing I got to say is, uh, go Hawks and, uh, let's roll that boat today. Oh man. You said it, you said it. I had to like, you had to like die a little inside when you said that but yeah row row row that boat pj uh we need you to get that w we also need penn state to knock off michigan state and honestly um you're gonna hate me for saying

this but i would prefer to play michigan so uh go michigan i'm sorry man i know i know that i know Michigan, so go Michigan. I'm sorry, man. I know that hurts deep inside your heart. Why did I even join this show? But anyway, Hawkeye Nation, we, as always, appreciate you tuning in after every single game for a postgame recap. LaShawn, it's been a pleasure. I'm looking forward to at least one more episode, possibly two if Iowa goes to Big Ten Championship Games. It should be a lot of fun.

Hawkeye Nation, appreciate you tuning in. If you want help with how to bet on any games today at betonline.ag, check out the Locked on Bets podcast hosted by your boy Q and handicapping expert Lee Serling of Paramount Sports. That will do it for our show today. We'll be back Monday through Friday this upcoming week breaking down everything that is happening. If we get a Big Ten Championship game, we'll be breaking that

down. If we don't, we'll be talking a lot of basketball and our relatives with what is going on with the football team. Hawkeye Nation, appreciate you tuning in. Have a fantastic Saturday and even better weekend. As always, let's go Hawks.