Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa defeats Penn State: Brian Ferentz perfectly times touchdown play for Spencer Petras

Episode Date: October 10, 2021

The Iowa Hawkeyes took down top-five ranked Penn State in yesterday's matchup. Offensively, the Hawkeyes were able to get just enough done to seal the win with a game plan that stuck to the run with Tyler Goodson and had one huge play call by Brian Ferentz that resulted in a perfectly delivered ball from Spencer Petras to Nico Ragaini. Defensively, the secondary kept rolling with four interceptions and a strong overall showing against PSU's backup QB after Sean Clifford went down. We break down all of this and what this win means for the state of the program going forward. SweatBlockGet it today for 20% off at SweatBlock.com with promo code LockedOn, or at Amazon and CVS.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.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.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! 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, Andrew Wade. And as we do every single day after a game, which has been at this point six straight wins to start this season for the Iowa Hawkeyes, we are joined by former Iowa running back LaShawn Daniels Jr. LaShawn, before we get into the show, how are you doing today, man?

We're doing awesome. We're doing awesome. Any Sunday after a Hawkeye win is great, especially after a win like that, so we're feeling good. A hundred percent, man. That's two straight wins over Penn State, a team that I feel like is kind of like a rival at this point. We're going to talk about all that, though, on the show today. We're going to talk about the big-time catch by Nico, how that got set up, what the impact of Sean Clifford's injury was to the flow of the game. Is Riley Moss going to be able to suit up next week? What does that mean for the Iowa defense? We're talking about all that on the show today. Before we get to that though, I want to thank you all for making the Locked on Hawkeyes

podcast your first listen every single day. You can find the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast wherever you get podcasts at and also on YouTube for free Monday through Friday at Lockdown Hawkeyes. All right, man. So let's kick it off with that Nico Regani catch. I'm going to play some quick audio real quick because I just think Gus Johnson's play calling is truly phenomenal. Let me pull it up right here and I'll just put it into the mic Amazing. I think Gus Johnson is one of the best play callers all around. And what an amazing call

there. Just so much excitement. I was pumped up just thinking about that. So let's talk about that play. Nico struggled a little bit in this game. Honestly, I think in general, he's relatively new to football. I think he played lacrosse at a prep school and then started playing football his last year. But he struggles a little bit with drops. He had two drops in this game. But to come back, get that catch,

score the game-winning touchdown for the Iowa Hawkeyes, let's talk about the play setup, though. Iowa did a play action, and they rolled out. And typically when we see Iowa do play action, usually a tight end that goes into the flat. There might be another crossing route deep where Spencer Petras can hit. Nico was looking like he was going to run that deep crosser, turns around and goes the opposite way. And Spencer just hit him perfectly. How much of that do you think was Brian F ferens just setting that crap up the entire game and saving that play in his back pocket for six games a season knowing that at some point he's

going to use that when he absolutely needs a touchdown yeah um yeah he was definitely setting that up pretty much all year honestly i mean uh you think about the amount of two tight end sets that we run, especially with those guys into the boundary, right? It's always going to be some type of outside zone that direction, inside zone the opposite direction, or we're going to run some type of play action off of it, right? And I know that yesterday when it came to the run game, like we were way more effective when we were in two backs versus having, you know, two tight ends and just one back back there. And I know it was probably frustrating a lot to watch it in the run game. But, you know, you had to keep, you know, Penn State's defense honest. Right. So, you know, that's that's part of's defense on us. Right. So we know that's, that's part of our, of our, you know, identity, right. Having the two tight end sets running out of two tight ends. And, you know, the fact that, uh, that Brian decided to stick with that and then

insert that play call at the right time. Right. I mean, um, you know, we're just past midfield, right. You know, that these guys have been really aggressive in any two tight end sets and any single back sets and any two fullback, two running back sets just because of Penn State didn't trust our receivers to go out there and make a play, and they didn't trust Spencer to go out there and make the throws. Spencer to go out there and make the throws. So Brian calls a play at the perfect time and we actually catch Penn State in a zone defense, right? So no one was really marking Nico, right? So, you know, you call a play action, right? You expect us to throw to the side that we're booting to, right? Nico cuts at midfield or halfway across the field cuts it back wide open um special just has to get the ball to him and then nico goes make a play so it was just you know fantastic fantastic uh play call by uh coach brian absolutely man and i think it's worth noting coming into this game so people are really frustrated iowa gets that interception

justin jacobson's interception early in the game we think we're going to go down there and score Penn State has one of the best red zone defenses in the entire nation the second best red zone defense in the nation you know they they allow some yards in between the the 20 yard marks and the hashes and stuff like that but there's there's not a lot of wiggle room when you get down to the red zone so to know to get a call like that, that is a touchdown call. That is a call that you're like, we're going for it now. We're taking our shot now, and we're going to rely on our defense to close this baby out, and that's exactly what Iowa did.

You mentioned the running game and the fact that it was a little bit frustrating at times to watch Iowa stay with it. I personally feel like that was Brian Ferentz learning from his previous mistakes. I personally feel like that was Brian Ferentz learning from his previous mistakes. We have seen before in the last couple years where Iowa abandons the run because it's not working 100%. Then Spencer is throwing 40, 50 times. That's one of the reasons why we lost to Northwestern and Purdue. Now, it's not pretty.

It's definitely ugly as hell. No one wants to look at Tyler Goodson's stats and say 25 attempts, three and a half yards rushing, but it pays off at the end of the game, just like it did there. And you need to establish run to be able to establish a play action to keep your defense off the field, to wear down that defense. Anything else you want to add about just how important it is for Iowa to stick with the running game, even when it's not as successful as we want it to be? Yeah, I mean, it's just really about just keeping, you know, our identity throughout the game, right? We know that that's what we do, right? So when we move away from that and just start throwing the ball all over the place all willy-nilly, right? I mean, it it's not what we do we know we're not comfortable with it the other team knows that right so then that more allows them to take more advantage of that allows them to pin their ears back because they're like hey

they've already abandoned the run this is iowa they've abandoned the run so we don't even got to worry about it anymore right now we can just focus on you know seeing if they can pick up our blitzes right and then you know latching on to the receivers because they probably might not be able to make the plays to be able to have success. So staying with our identity, staying with our run game keeps the other team. I have to be honest. Right. The defensive coordinator can't tell us guys just continue to pin their ears back because they still are running the football. Yeah, very important. I think especially in this game, we struggled pass blocking. Our offensive line was just getting eaten alive

by Penn State's defensive line. When I looked at PFF's pass blocking grades, and I know PFF is not always perfect, but I think it does help tell a story at times. And when I looked at the past blocking, I was seeing Mason Richmond. I think he's going to be phenomenal, but he struggled in this game. Pretty much everyone struggled in this game. Tyler Linderbaum had a good game, but everyone struggled. It looked like Spencer was getting hit every single time he got a snap. And as you said, if they abandon the run, that allows Penn State to send another guy.

That allows Penn State to say, we don't have to worry about the run game. We're just going right after Spencer. And the offensive line just was looking bad. Is this a concern for you going into the rest of Big Ten play? Our offensive line has been arguably the most inconsistent part of our offense to this point of the season. probably the most inconsistent part of our offense to this point this season yeah um it's definitely going to be a point of emphasis over the next few weeks i think i mean obviously at purdue this week and by week um so it's going to be very important right that um the coaches get these get these young guys up to speed right Right. I mean, you know, when you look at the schedule, obviously.

Right. It's nowhere like the games. We're not going against another top five team. Right. And so possibly, you know, the Big Ten championship. Right. So even with that being said, it's still Big Ten play every single week from here on out. Right. You know, every single team is going to have players on the defensive line. every single week from here on out, right? You know that every single team is going to have players on the defensive line, right? So it does concern me a little bit because Spencer was getting hit a lot, right? Tyler was getting hit a lot in the backfield.

So I don't know what we got to do. I think we definitely going to obviously have to have a little bit more protections where, you know, running backs are going to have to stay in. I think a little bit more, which is unfortunate because our backs are really good in the past game or having a tight end stay in. Right. Every now and again. Right. It's going to have to be something to help those guys out more because, yeah, Spencer can't be getting hit like that. I mean, I know we always rag on Spencer a lot, but yesterday, I mean, I thought he was doing a great job with the time that he had. So I don't know what, what we're going to have to do on the offensive line side of it, but I mean, really, it's just going to have to be, you know, guys that are going to have to step up. Young guys are gonna have to step up in there. They're going to have to get in there

and they're going to have to, you know, make plays on the offensive line. They're going to have to step up. Young guys are going to have to step up in there. They're going to have to get in there, and they're going to have to, you know, make plays on the offensive line. They're going to have to win their one-on-one matchups, right? I mean, it's Big Ten football. There's the good defensive linemen all over the conference. So figuring that out is going to be another topic of emphasis for really the rest of the season, right? Because you know, the offense can't move and you know,

have the type of successes you want without the offensive line, you know, playing up to the Iowa football standard. Absolutely. Couldn't agree more. And I want to touch on that a little bit after this quick break. And I want to remind people that built bar is the best tasting protein bar on the market today. Built bar is the protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. They have nine delicious flavors, plus the occasional limited time flavor. Let's not, we talked about it before the show, but I got white chocolate birthday cake with sprinkles coming to your door. So you got to let me know how much you like it, but not only is

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I want to thank you all for making the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast your first listen every single day. You can get the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast wherever you get podcasts at for free Monday through Friday and also at YouTube at Locked On Hawkeyes. LaShawn, before we took a quick break there, you were talking about the offensive line, and I want to touch on something that you mentioned. You mentioned the fact that we might need to keep a running back in protection. We might need to keep a tight end back there in protection, especially with some of our young tackles who haven't had a lot of starting experience.

Unfortunately, when you do that, you take away a guy running routes. You take away arguably our most dynamic player on the team. Maybe not arguably. I think Tyler Goodson is our most dynamic player on our offense. If he's standing back there in protection, he's not out there burning linebackers. He's not out there getting good matchups with linebackers, which you are always going to win with Tyler Goodson. It puts more focus on our wide receivers, and they need to get open,

and it also puts a little bit more emphasis from a defensive perspective. They can key on those guys. If you're sending six guys, now you only have two guys going out for routes. That makes it very difficult for Spencer to then find an open guy, and I would argue our offense hasn't done the best job this season of winning those one-on-one routes or winning routes where you have bracketed coverage over top as well we're just not getting open as as consistently as we would like to see so anything you want to add to just how that changes the dynamic of this offense if we do need to put more people back there yeah um you know it changes it a lot because

now uh you know that um you know five man route now goes to uh you know four men right now it drops off significantly goes to four possibly even three guys out there running routes right um and now that just makes it more important for us to win one-on-one matchups. And Penn State, obviously, you've got to give them a ton of credit yesterday when it came to man-to-man coverage yesterday. They were doing a fantastic job in basically making it sticky. I mean, it felt like every single route that our guys were running, that Penn State defender was just attached to them,

just completely locked on. Right? So in that room, right, that receiver room, Penn State defender was just attached to them, just completely locked on. Right. So. In that room, right, that receiver room, they have to I think they're going to have to understand the opportunities that they're going to have to have and take advantage of them because they're going to have to win one on one matchups. Right. Teams aren't going to want to just give them zone defense all day and just let them kind of sit there and kind of get open. Right. I think teams will want to add more man to man coverage. You know, obviously, I don't know what other teams, you know, success on that is. But if I'm watching this game, right, I'm watching this game back and I'm looking, I'm like, OK. I think the weakness right now is obviously the offensive line.

And I'm like, OK, I think the weakness right now is obviously the offensive line. And when you look at their skill positions outside of the tight ends and the running back, right, receivers have trouble winning one on one matchups when it's in man to man coverage. So. I mean, they're going to have to take advantage of it, whether we do it via having concepts built in or, you know, guys just going and just winning. Right. So that's going to be another point of emphasis as we move forward here, because, you know, obviously better teams are going to want to have more man to man coverage, you know, as you go along. So, yeah, that's that's another point that's going to have to be emphasized as we go along here. But it's all going to end up falling back on the offensive line right i mean and they if spencer doesn't have time to throw the football doesn't really matter you know if these guys get open or not so absolutely the one uh piece of of good news i can take away from that though is that penn state is a top five uh coverage unit they are a top five secondary i was also that when you look at these top five units the only

team we might face at any point in this season is Georgia. That's what it's looking like. Georgia is going to most likely be the number one team in the nation after the AP pool comes out with Alabama losing. Iowa is going to most likely bump up to number two, which is really, really fun to see. But Georgia also has a phenomenal pass defense. We don't have anyone we face the rest of the season, though, from seeing in the top 25. Nebraska has a solid secondary, but that does give me a little bit of solace knowing that we're not going to get as tough of a test as we've had against Penn State,

most likely until the Big Ten championship game. I want to talk a little bit about injuries, though, because I feel like injuries change the dynamic of this game in several ways we'll start with the biggest one Sean Clifford goes out looks like he hit his shoulder hit his elbow really hard Sean Clifford was the x factor coming into this game in my opinion Sean Clifford can do it with his legs he can do it with his arm and he did make a couple mistakes Iowa could not capitalize off those mistakes two interceptions by Sean Clifford in the first half. But what really showed me how concerning and scary Sean Clifford can be

for an opposing defense is on that long third down, he scrambles and gets a first down. He keeps plays alive, and Iowa just couldn't keep up with him. Sean Clifford going out, how much do you think that changed the dynamic of this game? And do you feel like Iowa still wins this game if Sean Clifford is in there? And I know I don't like playing the coulda, shoulda, woulda, but I just, I think it is, I think it is important to evaluate all aspects of the game. And Sean Clifford's injury was a big dynamic changing

injury. Yeah. That was huge. It was a huge point in the game um you know when when your quarterback goes down i mean it's it's hard right i mean uh you got a guy who's gonna come in there who probably hasn't had too many meaningful snaps um you know at the big at college football level let alone in a big 10 game let alone in a top five matchup. Right. So that dynamic definitely changes because now you want you want your quarterback to still be able to play fast and not make as many, you know, decisions at the line of scrimmage. Right.

You just want them to be able to play his game. So I'm sure they had to, you know, pull our offense back a little bit. Right. They had to take some things out of the game plan that they might have had initially planned. So things can change. I mean, but for the most part, right, the quarterback should know right what the game plan is. Right. They should be there in all the meetings. Right. They're they're getting, you know, number reps with the twos right throughout the week. Right. Obviously, it's not quite the same, but still reps are reps. Right. And then when you're obviously not in, they have to take a whole bunch of mental reps.

So the dynamic definitely does change. But, you know, I'm sure, you know, their quarterback knew that, hey, next man up. This is an opportunity to to help our football team. like, hey, next man up, this is my opportunity to help our football team. That being said, yeah, Sean Clifford posed a lot of problems, you know, for us yesterday, right? I mean, he's not a guy who think of a dual threat quarterback, right? I mean, he obviously runs the ball well, but his strength is really in his decision making and, you know, obviously using his arm to win ballgames.

So, you know, when he was able to keep plays alive and he was able to move around the pocket, right, and scramble for first downs or extend plays and complete passes, right, I mean, we were struggling to find answers, right? Then we started getting more pressure on him. We started hitting him some more. And then, you know, we obviously hit him really good on that third down, right? And then they picked a field goal, right?

And then from that point on, right. The game kind of shifted. Right. We go down, we score a touchdown. Right. Then they bring out their other quarterback. Right. His first play. Right. Drops the football on the set. Right. I mean, he was probably like shaking. Right. Going out there. So. like shaking, right. Going out there. So I see it was terrible. It was terrible for Penn state to have him out. It was terrible to be put in that situation, but you know, obviously we took advantage of it. And, you know, you never know. Right. I mean, who knows? Obviously I think we started making some adjustments, you know, with Sean Clifford in the game. So I don't want to say that, Hey, like you know, we still probably, we still one of one, but it definitely would have been, you know, a lot tougher on our end for the rest of

the game. Right. And keeping those guys out. Cause obviously he was going to make the adjustments needed. They're going to be able to expand their playbook probably a little bit more in comparison to what they were able to do with their backup. Definitely. And I think it's worth noting that Iowa was only down 17-10 when Sean Clifford didn't go in the game. So Iowa was still there. I've also made plenty of notes that when you see Phil Parker's defense, it might struggle the first one or two drives.

And it did. We struggled a bit. But Phil Parker makes adjustments. He figures things out. And Iowa then starts really locking in. It seems like at least this season, especially, but you know, when people can pick apart that zone a little bit, Phil Parker makes the adjustments, makes the right adjustments.

And usually we can figure things out. Also worth noting that coming into this game, I can't remember if it was Kirk or if it was James Franklin, one of them had talked about the fact that Jack Campbell is, I think it might've been Kirk actually. And the fact that Sean does like to move with his legs, but that we're going to put pressure on him and he's going to get hit hard. And sure enough, Sean gets hit very hard and goes out for the game. I hope he is okay. I want to see a high quality Penn State team. I think seeing a rematch of that game and the big Ten championship game would be just a ton of fun. I love the quote-unquote rivalry. I guess you can't really call it. It's

not a true rivalry in the sense, but I think it feels like that now. We play them every single year. It's always a big game. It's always a huge game mechanic, so we'd love to see that. Hopefully he can get healthy soon. I want to talk more about some injuries because there's some interesting points out there about some of the other Penn State injuries and also our quarterback, Riley Moss, going down. I want to talk a little bit about that, but I do want to tell you about PrizePix for all of you college ball fanatics out there. PrizePix is daily fantasy made easy. I personally love this and I know that you will too. It's been pretty easy for me. Basically, I look at the opposing quarterback for the Iowa football team and I say, all right, what are the interception totals?

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Check out prizepix.com and use the promo code LOCKEDON or go to your app store and download the app today. PrizePix's daily fantasy made easy. All right, LaShawn, so before we took a break, we were talking about Sean Clifford and his impact to the game. I think we can both agree that the dynamic did change. Sean Clifford is a good player and was causing our defense some issues, but also we got to put some respect on our defense and what Phil Parker can do. I do want to talk about some other Penn State injuries, and this is a sensitive topic. I am always a proponent of healthy players and not cheering

for guys being down and not cheering for guys getting hurt. That's a terrible way to live. These are students, even with thefl whatever these are these are adults these are humans these have families you guys have families i never wish ill will on anyone however there's a big caveat here i don't like fake injuries now i don't want i don't like speculating but it seems very very interesting and coincidental that every time Iowa had a big play, it seemed like in the second half, all of a sudden a Penn state defender falls down. That Penn state defender sits there for about 30 seconds.

They walk off of their own power. They go to the sideline. They don't talk to anyone. They come back from the field. The next play. Did that seem, and that seems sketchy to you, or is that just me?

I mean, there was a, there was literally a clip of an Iowa coach fake falling down, trying to explain to the ref what was going on. So I'm like, what is going on here? I wanted to see, did you notice that too? Or is that just something I'm just making up in my mind? Yeah, so I noticed it early and I was like, oh, okay.

Well, he had a guy go down after a big play. Maybe he just got like dominated on the block or something or whatever. Like, okay, whatever happens. Or maybe it's just like a big play maybe you just got like dominated on the block or something or whatever like okay whatever happens um or maybe it's like a like a big block or something it happens but then what was it that was in what like the second quarter or whatever second or third quarter like tyler has like a like a what was it like 15 20 yard run the dominating run too what a good run yeah great run right and then next thing you know, this guy's on the ground. And OK, didn't see the replay. Didn't see anything happen to him.

So you're just like, OK, maybe it was something weird. But then he's just sitting there. They didn't really say anything. Looked like the trainers touched his leg once. And then it doesn't look like they moved their mouths or anything. Then he gets up, walks over, comes off the field. And then, you know, the next play he was literally in. So I don't know.

I don't know. I mean, I wouldn't like to think that teams would do that. I don't think teams would fake injuries. But I mean, it happens, right? I mean, I don't know if Penn State would take out, you know, they're obviously some of their better players. I don't know, fake injury. I don't know. they would take out, you know, they're obviously some of their better players on a fake injury. I don't know. Maybe maybe he was tired. Right. And, you know, just wanted to try to get a break or something.

But I don't know. It was it was it was weird. Right. I don't want to put any assumptions out there that they were faking injuries. But it was definitely weird and definitely frustrating because, you know know after every single big play right you you're trying to get that rhythm continuing going and it was stopping it so it just happened to be you know really convenient that they just happened after big plays yeah um couldn't couldn't agree more i actually thought i was trying to look up the quote real quick but i couldn't find it james franklin's quote in the press conference after the game was also very interesting basically slapping Iowa's plans on the wrist saying why would you boo our players but then he also went on to say something about we weren't ready for the up tempo and we weren't ready to handle some of the uptown I was like wait a second are you just admitting to what

I thought think you are so I'll try to find that quote. I'll put it on the show tomorrow. Maybe I'll tweet it out. But there was definitely a quote that I read. And it was first him saying it's bull crap that fans and Kinnick were booing. And then literally next thing saying we weren't ready for some of that up tempo. And that is a very that is a known thing that people have done. We've seen it in the NFL a couple of times. Very obviously, when people are, you know, they're moving up tempo, things are going, you don't have a timeout, all of a sudden

you just fall down, right? We've seen people tell a guy to fall down. So, I mean, it is very interesting, but nevertheless, I don't want to speculate anymore on that. People can make their own decisions on what you saw with the injuries. An injury that is very important, though, for Iowa is the injury of Riley Moss. Moss I want to first say made a beautiful interception I mean that was just picture perfect cornerback play he was saved the guy he turned his hips running step for step with him Riley Moss a very fast guy can cover anyone in the in the college football landscape gets a big time interception gets up doesn't do anything stupid from what i saw and i i use the word stupid loosely i mean um these are if i were getting the interception a big time game

i'm probably screaming and jumping and doing everything he just kind of runs and then all sudden just falls down and grabs his knee so initially when i saw this i had to rewind it a couple times because like did i see him jump at all? Did he land on his knee? He didn't make a cut. He was just running. And so, to me, it looked like he either injured himself when he caught the ball or he did something cramped up when he started running. Is there anything you want to say about this? Again, I hate speculating on injuries, but it is such an important topic because he is such a big-time piece of this defense.

but it is such an important topic because he is such a big-time piece of this defense. Yeah, so what I originally thought was a non-contact injury, and I was like, oh, gosh. Obviously, any time you fall in non-contact, right, you hope it's a cramp, but most of the time it's not, and it's some type of ligament or tendon or whatever. But that being said, when he makes the interception i think he like landed on his knee like his knee is full speed into the turf um and you know obviously i don't think he realized it until like he started trying to run off uh and you know trying to

celebrate a little bit um so you know with that being, I hope it's it hoping it's not anything too serious. I know coach Ferentz said that, you know, he's optimistic about, uh, Riley. And I mean, you know, he was able to walk off a little bit, right. And then we saw him be able to walk into the locker room. Um, so that was, so that was good. I was, um, good about that. So, you know, hopefully he ends up being OK.

Obviously, he's a huge, huge player for us, you know, not only for our secondary, but for the team. Right. I mean, I see he's an energetic, vocal guy. So having him out there is huge for us. So we're hoping that he's all right. But yeah, it looked like he probably hurt it when he landed on his knee when he made the catch. Like his knee, if you go back and look, like his knee goes full speed into the turf. And obviously it's a lot of speed, a lot of weight all at one time. So, you know, maybe it's hopefully just like a bruise or something like that. And, you know, we're able to be able to recover. And, you know, hopefully, if not be able to play this week,

or I'd be able to play after the bye week. Absolutely, yeah. Hoping for the best for Riley Moss. Kirk is not one to get – he uses words very wisely, I guess I could say. To say he's optimistic to me means that the initial prognosis is something that potentially could be recoverable. To me, it means the initial prognosis is probably not a torn ACL or something along those lines, which is definitely good,

but obviously you need the MRI and stuff like that to check that out. Riley Moss, such a key component of this Iowa defense. Overall, I thought this Iowa defense played pretty well in this game. You had the rough first couple drives, but after that, they kind of buckled down, locked in, and they were on the field a lot. And I thought overall, they did a pretty darn good job. Our secondary, phenomenal. Our linebackers, as always, truly fantastic. Anyone you want to specifically call out for this defense, I thought that you thought played pretty well. So I want to give a shout out to terry roberts i mean this guy special teams

literally special teams all american right probably the best special teams player in the entire country then you know riley goes down he steps in there on that on that corner side and was basically pretty much locked out right i mean every single time um you know they try or trying to test them right he was there was there, you know, competing for the ball, making plays. He almost had two interceptions. Yeah. I had opportunity to have two interceptions. So, you know, I just think that he's going to be a fantastic player. Right. And then obviously he's already shown out on special teams, but he's going to probably be just as good, if not better, right. On the defensive side, you know, as well, right.

Playing corner. Um, so that's the guy I wanted to give a shout out to. Um, and then, you know, all the guys, right. In the secondary, you know, when it stepped up, right. You know, uh, Kerner stepped up, Hank and stepped up, right. Making big time interceptions. Um, you know, so so again the secondary is obviously continuing to do the thing you know weekend and week out um but yeah i had to give a shout out

to terry because you know stepped in you know in a huge moment huge game um you know playing in that corner spot and was doing doing his job and you know making plays so absolutely i think that's a great a great call out terry roberts, uh, four targets, one reception allowed two pass breakups. The moment was not too big for Terry Roberts. And I think what's interesting about Iowa football is that you can see a lot of trends, right? When a guy has been there for over 20 years, you start seeing some trends and there is two specific trends. I think you always have to watch out for, for Iowa, when it comes to recruiting cornerbacks who are underlooked or overlooked out of Michigan and cornerbacks who are overlooked out of Pennsylvania Terry Roberts could be the next great defensive

back out of Pennsylvania as you mentioned I would consider him an all-american special teams or a special teamer if we had a role for, he would definitely be the number one guy. Truly phenomenal. We look at Tori Taylor and how great he did punting, which I want to cover here in a second. A lot of that comes down to the fact that Terry Roberts is down there getting that ball. He's the one who's there covering things.

So is Ivory Kelly Martin as well. I also want to just shout out some of the play calling that Phil Parker had late in that game, putting a lot of pressure onto Quan Robinson. Again, coming into this game, only eight pass attempts, coming into a very, very obnoxiously loud Kinnick crowd. They were putting pressure on him. Dane Belton was sent in a pass rush several times, and he was, I mean, we were a tenth of a second away from a safety or a big-time hit and fumble. I mean, just putting pressure on him night and day. Dane Belton struggled a little bit in coverage. It looked like at times,

but obviously in a very tough position, Parker Washington, a phenomenal slot wide receiver. Dane Belton overall, I thought had a really good game though, especially from a pass rush perspective. Let's turn our attention to Torrey Taylor though, man. Torrey Taylor. It is just every time I see him punt, it's like, what is going on? This guy is in his 11th game or 13th game of football, 13th game, I think, at this point of football. What he can do is truly amazing. Anything you want to call out from Tory Taylor and the Australian punter from down under? Obviously, he's just a phenomenal, phenomenal punter. I mean, that's what you want, right? You know, you send those guys, you send the punt team out there,

and, you know, you want to pin the opposing team deep, right? You want to get them inside the 20. You want to force them to be able to at least either hit a huge play or force them to drive down the field. And Torrey basically does that every single time he goes out there to punt um i mean the first point he had i mean it just drops literally right at the one yard line um and then you know we get down there and cover it and then you know a few several points later in the game right hits another great one and then it goes to ivory who ends up getting on it

right or prevents it from going to end zone so you, you know, when you have an asset like that, right, it's awesome to have because, you know, as you've seen, right, our offense can struggle at times. Well, a way to help our offense is, you know, pin them deep with our special teams, right? And then, you know, let our defense do our thing and then give us an opportunity with a shorter field, right? Winning that field position game. And Torrey helps us do that a lot. Um, so, uh, I hope that's something that's not overlooked, right? With, with, you know, our Hawkeye fans and being able to see that, hey, he's a huge asset to our team. Obviously, we would prefer him to never play but um that being said right uh you know him being such an effective punter does wonders for us in the field position which helps us win win more football games so yeah shout out to tory absolutely man and i also want to shout out to caleb shudock who at this point people keep dunking who i mean caleb caleb has hit 11 out of 12 field goals now granted granted, I love Keith Duncan. Keith Duncan's been on the show before, but

Caleb just stepping right in and drilling field goals from all over the place. 11 to 12. He's basically automatic. I mean, I'm watching. I'm going to jinx this come Purdue, but Caleb Shadock is just doing a phenomenal job at kicking the ball as well. So all around, special teams has been such a

huge piece of Iowa's success this season. And I expect it to continue to be as we get deeper into Big Ten play. My final two things I want to talk about a little less about the game itself and more about the impacts. Kinnick Stadium, let's talk about that first. It seemed like that crowd was just absolutely bananas. How tough is that on an opposing team? And we saw a ton of false starts from Penn State. Just tell me about, have you been, what kind of, I guess let me phrase this a different way. What was the most insane crowd you were ever a part of,

either at Kinnick or on the road? Ooh, ooh, that's a tough one. Let's see. Penn State is really loud. Ohio State, it's really loud. Played there 2013. They were really loud. Oh, Iowa State is pretty loud, too.

And then, you know, anytime, you know, at Kinnick, when we're going against a rival, anytime, like, you're playing, you know, Minnesota or playing Iowa State or Wisconsin or whoever, right, the stadium gets pretty loud, right? And then even when we were playing Michigan back in 2016, it was loud. So there's obviously great stadiums all across the Big Ten, right? Obviously, I put ours at number one. Um, but then, um, you know, I know Penn state gets loud. I'll say it gets loud. Even Nebraska gets loud. Um, and it's, it's, it's a tough,

and it makes it a tough environment because now you can't do your traditional cadence. Now you have to change it up a little bit and that's be some type of silent cadence. Um, and it was obviously giving them fits, right. um you know the backup went in uh harbison went in because it looked like i couldn't tell obviously i was not down there on the field but looked like they were trying to go off a clap for some reason which i thought was a terrible idea um uh because like you literally can't you literally can't hear i mean like, like when I'm thinking when I was, when we were never playing the loud stadium, I'm a running back.

And I was standing, you know, seven yards away from the quarterback. Couldn't hear the cadence. I'd basically just move. I'd move when the ball was snapped. Right. When I saw the ball, I'd move then. And then obviously like if they make a, if they make a audible or make a change, right. I have to go up there. I have to hear, try to tell them, make sure that the quarterback was usually cj right here like hey uh what was the what what check did you make or whatever um but but yeah a lot of that when you are in an environment like that it's extremely difficult um to make adjustments you know at the line of scrimmage

um and it's even harder hard for the offensive line to just know when to get off the football. Because now, obviously, you have to go in a silent cadence. You kind of have to see the ball out of your peripheral instead of just going off of your traditional cadence. So it looked like they ended up changing it and they made it so that the guard, whenever a quarterback was ready, like the guard, you know, flash his hand. And then the center knew that, OK, it's time for me to snap the football. But even with that, right, it was difficult, right? And it was causing a lot of false starts. So the Kennett crowd was doing a fantastic job last night.

Yeah, I mean, I can only imagine how few of them have their voices, considering I am struggling with my voice and I wasn't at the game I was just in my living room yelling at the tv and excitement I think my in-laws legitimately might think I'm crazy after after my excitement when I guess when that Nico or Katie touchdown happened I just started screaming and yelling and running around the room I was just so pumped the last thing I want to talk about and this kind of plays into the crowd, but Iowa had a huge recruiting day yesterday. A couple five stars, a lot of four stars, and obviously the stars don't matter when you get to Iowa. That's the beauty of Iowa football.

But when you're looking at recruiting now, it is something you do watch, and it is something we do look at, especially when there's some big in-state guys, Xavier, Caden. These are guys you can say by one name because people know exactly who you're talking about. And obviously, Kyler Casper, the son of Iowa Hawkeye, Kevin Casper. Those guys were all at the game. How does this impact recruiting? Because obviously, every recruit's different, right? Some recruits don't really, I guess some recruits might not care about the loud environment.

I would assume that most would. But how does this impact recruiting in your minds? It's huge. I mean, when you're in an environment like that and you see that, you're like, wow, like I want to go play for this team, right? If we're going to be in environments like that, I want to play for these guys

because it just makes me think back to my own recruiting journey. So I remember I took a game day visit to Ohio State and they were playing Wisconsin. And this was back when Braxton Miller was a quarterback. And I can't remember like exactly what the final score was. But Braxton Miller like runs around, you know, throws basically like a Hail Mary catches it for a touchdown and win the game. And I was like, holy crap, like this is amazing. Like, I want to be out there like I want to be out there and make these plays.

Right. So when you are in an environment like that as a recruit, you're just like, I don't know what else you really need to see. Right. I mean, at that point in time, you're like, like, wow, like this is what it's like to play for this football team. This is what it's like. These guys are just cheering for just those 11 guys, and obviously 100 guys that are on the team. But when you're in there as a recruit and you see that type of environment, you see the type of support that you're getting, and honestly, I don't know what more you need to see, honestly, as a recruit. At that point, obviously, you know, you have the facilities, you know, you have the coaching pedigree, right?

You have Coach Ferentz, who's been there for 23 years, I think, something like that. So what more do you need to see, you know, as a recruit? You know, the coaches are going to be there. You know, it has that type of culture that you're looking for as far as you know guys come back all the time right once a hawk always a hawk right and you're always welcome to the building and then when you're in that type of environment um you know i don't know what else you really need to see at this point and then you know when you look at iowa right i mean it's a lot different a lot different and programs in a much different spot than it was when I was being recruited.

Right now, you really look at Iowa as a team. That's like, hey, these guys can basically play with any single team in the country at this point in time and go toe to toe. Right. I mean, that's that's what you look like. Look at it as a program. And now you're looking at us like like these guys can compete for the Big Ten championship. These guys can win the West. These guys can go and win, you know, bigger, big bowl games. So it's definitely, definitely a huge impact being a recruit and being a top five ranked and then winning, being another top five team. I used to be beating top five teams before in my career. But, you know, being in that type of game, that's like one of those games where it's just like, yeah, like this program's here to stay. So, you know, as a recruit, I don't think there's really much more you need to see.

I was equating it to a program-defining win before this game. I mean, to me, when you look at what Iowa had to accomplish this season, if they were to lose this game, a lot of those things they wanted to accomplish are still on the table. You can still win the Big Ten West. You can still go to the Big Ten Championship game. You have an outside chance still at the college football playoff if you were to win out.

But what I was thinking of was this team, they needed a win like this, a top five. This is a big time matchup. Get that W. And this is a team that's built for not just this year, but for several years to come. I mean, yes, we're going to lose several guys in the secondary. But as you can see, the guys behind them are ready to step up and play and could probably be a top 50 secondary unit this year without any of our starters in. That's not knocking our starters. That's just how good our secondary is.

Our linebackers could all be returning. Our defensive line, for the first time in four years, we're not going to be losing three guys, which will be nice to have. We have several young offensive linemen, and then Spencer returning as well, and all of our wide receivers returning. I mean, this is a team that is built for the next couple of years. You bring in some big time recruiting classes, that only continues to bolster that. And maybe we're seeing the golden era of the Kirk Ferentz era. I mean, typically it's every five to six years, you have that one magical special season,

like 2015 or 2009 or 2002, but maybe it's something that starts happening each year right i mean that's the thing that could happen from a win like this so obviously i'm pumped i'm excited i'm gonna be talking about this all freaking week uh but before we get to that lashawn where can the folks find you at uh yeah you guys can follow me on on twitter usually on game days i'm pretty active uh about the games um you can follow me on Twitter. Usually on game days, I'm pretty active about the games. You can follow me on Instagram. Or if you're a professional guy, you can connect with me on LinkedIn as well. So, you know, excited to hear from you guys.

And, you know, as always, and always, go Hawks. Go Hawks. I love it, man. LaShawn, always a pleasure having you on the show. I just want to remind everyone, if you want content breaking down all the Big Ten, you should check out the Locked On Big Ten podcast hosted by Nate Dickinson. He covers the Big Ten

across the entire span of the conference. Every single team, Iowa, Penn State, Ohio State, you name it, he's covering them at Locked On Big Ten. You can get them wherever you get podcasts at

and on their YouTube channel as well. That does do it for our show today. We will be back on Tuesday breaking down the analytics of this big time win over Penn state before we turn our attention to a game coming up against Purdue, a team that has historically given Phil Parker some issues on the defense side of the ball.

So we're going to be covering all that on the show this week. Thank you all for tuning into this episode of the lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Have a fantastic day, even better weekend, and let's go Hawks.