Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa falls to Purdue 86-70 | Predicting Iowa football's final ranking | Outback Bowl top performances

Episode Date: January 4, 2019

On segment one, we cover what happened to Iowa against Purdue last night in their 86-70 loss before predicting where we think the Iowa Hawkeyes will finish in the final College Football Playoff rankings after their win over Mississippi State. We wrap it up by covering the top performances from the 2019 Outback Bowl. Twitter: @lockedoniowaHost: @wade_andrewEmail: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. The Locked On Hawkeyes podcast is a part of the Locked On Sports Network, and we are one of the most recent additions to the growing lineup of college podcasts. That's right, if you found us by accident and you like another college team, you can also find them likely on the Locked On Sports Network, in addition to all the NFL teams, all the NBA teams, and a growing lineup of the MLB teams. I'm your host, Andrew Wade, though, editor over at dearoldgold.com, where you can find analysis pieces on all things black and yellow, and we have quite an episode for you today.

On segment one, we're going to be covering the Iowa basketball team's performance against Purdue last night. We'll also touch on the women's basketball team's win over Nebraska. So some good things, some bad things. Obviously the Purdue loss was not ideal and not a good way to start off Big Ten play for the Iowa basketball team, but it needs to be covered and we will be covering it. On segment number two, we're going to be doing some deep diving into whether or not the Iowa football team will finish this season ranked. I personally believe they will. I find it difficult to find a

combination of events happening that would lead them to not being ranked. So we'll be talking about that on segment two. And then finally on segment three, we're going to be covering our top performances from the Outback Bowl. This is something that my buddy Jared and I covered on our Wednesday morning episode a little bit. We talked a little bit about some of the guys who surprised us. When I dug into some of the numbers, I wanted to really give my ultimate top performances from the Outback Bowl. I think there's a few people I really want to call out, and we'll be covering that on segment three. Before we jump in, though, make sure you are subscribing to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast at. And if you have a smart speaker or a smartphone, you can just tell Siri, Google, or Alexa to

play podcast Locked on Hawkeyes. That'll give you the most recent addition to the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast, and you'll be able to listen to whatever we are bringing up. So easy access to this awesome new podcast that we have on the Locked on Sports Network. With that, let's jump right into segment number one. If you didn't get a chance to watch the Iowa basketball game last night, you did not miss much. They lost to Purdue 86-70,

and honestly it was an even worse game than that 16-point margin. A little bit ridiculous. Iowa went on the road. They're the 25th ranked team in the nation. They've had some really good games this year. They struggled against Bryant last week, but a couple of their losses you can chalk up to just some interesting circumstances. When they lost to Michigan State, that was expected. They were going to East Lansing. It happens. The Breslin Center is one of the toughest arenas to play in in the country,

and Iowa has never really done well there historically. Against Wisconsin, you can honestly say Iowa probably should have won that game. Either way, they were very close in that game. Wisconsin's a very strong team, so you can look at that as a solid loss, even if it was at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. But losing to Purdue, a little frustrating. People might look at this team and think, how good is Purdue, right? They have five losses on the season.

But those losses have come to three ranked teams and two other teams that are very strong in Texas and Notre Dame. So I believe there are three losses to ranked teams that are actually top ten teams. So five of those losses are not bad, and they're actually two and one in conference play. So Purdue is a good team, and I think I talked about this on yesterday's podcast, but they're going to be a solid team. It's just a matter of them getting some good wins in Big Ten. They obviously came out a little bit more prepared than Iowa. Iowa was also missing Luka Garza.

Thought he was going to play. He was practicing, he was warming up, all that stuff. Really thought he was going to go, and then he ultimately did not go. Nick Beyer got the start in his place, and it pains me to say this, but I feel like you could tell they were missing that inside presence. Purdue is predominantly a three-point shooting team. They are, I believe, eighth or ninth in the nation or tenth in the nation in the reliance on the three-pointer.

Against Iowa, though, that was not the case at all. All right, so 41% of their points are coming on three-point attempts. In the game against Iowa, it was more around 32% of their three-point attempts, and they only shot 37.5% from the three-point line. So they were doing most of their damage, though, in the paint, and it was frustrating, right?

So it wasn't just backing wasn't just you know backing them down low and the paint and going up against nick byer or ryan creener or whoever it may be they were legitimately just getting transition points they were driving down the lane wide open able to you know going for the score a good example of this is the fact that you know edwards their guard let me look up make sure i get his first name right carson edwards you know, Edwards, their guard, let me look up, make sure I get his first name right. Carson Edwards, you know, he actually had 17 attempts, right? Nine of those were three-pointers, which makes sense. That's about what he averages.

But the other eight were field goals. And a lot of those field goals were him just driving down the lane and getting wide-open looks. So the defense was less than impressive. And I understand they were missing Luka Garza. But it was just kind of embarrassing to watch the lack of effort on the defense side of the ball, the inability to stop them. There were some times where they played some good defense, and Purdue still managed to get some solid shots off regardless.

So it wasn't just all Iowa's fault, but a little frustrating to watch that nonetheless. Obviously the turnover battle, Iowa got smoked in that. They had 14 turnovers compared to Purdue's 7, so not a good way to win the ballgame. And Iowa actually went to the line a lot less than they typically do. They only went to the line 19 times. They did have one of their best shooting performances from the line, though, 16 of 19. Tyler Cook had 6 of 7, so one of their best shooting performances from the free throw line, but obviously it wasn't enough.

And then just in general, their shooting performance wasn't bad. Iowa shot 48% from field goal range and then 35.3% from three-pointers. So not the worst performance offensively, but defensively just it was embarrassing. And I think, and not to place blame on anything, but obviously purdue had a lot of emotion coming into this game right and it was it was definitely a game that looked like it was going to be you know those teams that i think a good example is maryland versus texas early in the season you know maryland was missing their player uh you know the player

that you know died in in a spring you know training or in practice sorry a little tough talk about that. But he died and they came on the field with 10 players on the field. And then they ultimately beat Texas. A very solid, very good Texas team. A Texas team that's going to be finished probably in the top 15, top 10 this year. And they beat them on the first game of the season based on just pure emotion. I think Purdue was playing for Tyler Trent.

If you don't know the story of Tyler Trent, make sure to check that out. But RIP Tyler Trent, obviously a sad day. And Purdue Nation and College Sports Nation, as you know, super fan Tyler Trent did pass away. But obviously Purdue came out with a lot of energy in this game and looking to make a statement. And, you know, some of that emotion can really play into the game. And especially in college basketball, that can be a huge thing that the crowd seemed electric at the Mackey Arena and it just you know it wasn't Iowa's day it's a little tough Iowa's not going to be ranked I think that's pretty obvious at this at the end of the the week but you know not the worst situation they still have a lot of a lot of games to play but they really need to figure it out on the road I think obviously they've shown they can

win at home for the most part but on the road they can't afford to get down so much in the first half. They went into halftime down 17 points. And that was even after they made a few three-pointers, you know, had a decent shooting performance to end the half, but it's just, they can't do that every single game. Also interesting enough, one other thing I wanted to call out is Connor McCaffrey had a pretty bad day. 18 minutes played, he had 3 assists, 3 rebounds, 0 points on 0 of 3 shootings. So not exactly the best bench production. In fact, only 10 points came from the bench all day. 24 came from Tyler Cook. Isaiah Moss put in 13.

And then we have Joe Weiskamp with 9 and Jordan Mohannon with 8. So not exactly an ideal performance all around. Iowa does have an opportunity to pick it back up, though. They play Nebraska on Sunday. Nebraska just lost a close game. But Nebraska's not a bad team. I believe they lost to Maryland, actually. So not a bad team, though.

Nebraska was just ranked in the top 25. It'll be a good game for Iowa to take on Nebraska, at least at Carver-Hawkeye Arena too, which will be good. As far as that game goes, we'll be covering that on tomorrow's episode. So I have a good buddy coming on to join me to talk about the Nebraska-Iowa game and kind of what Iowa can bring to the table there and what Nebraska brings to the table. So make sure you are checking that out tomorrow morning. We'll be having our first episode ever on a Saturday morning.

So it's going to be some exciting stuff to talk about there. We'll be having our first episode ever on a Saturday morning. So it's going to be some exciting stuff to talk about there. On the women's side of the game, the women did win last night against Nebraska, actually. So big win for them there. They take on Wisconsin on, I believe it is Sunday. Let me check. No, Monday.

So they take on Wisconsin Monday as well. The women's basketball team is 10-3. Obviously, they're coming off a tough loss to Michigan State a couple days ago, getting a win against Nebraska. Even if it wasn't the prettiest win, they got it. Megan Gustafson, obviously, honored at the beginning of the game for breaking the career scoring record. She still has a ton of games to go to build on that lead. So we'll give some more coverage to that as well next week as we talk a little bit more about Gustafson and Iowa women's basketball. I mean, they're having a fantastic season, so make sure you're checking that out as well. Before we jump in, though, that's going to conclude segment one. I do have a message for you, the listener, though. Because if you're like me,

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Never miss a game again with sling TV. All right. We are back after those messages from our sponsors. We're coming up with segment two where we're going to be talking about the Iowa football team and whether or not they will be ranked. Just a reminder on segment three, we're going to be giving you a breakdown of our top performances from the Outback Bowl. So make sure you stay tuned for that after segment number two. It's one you're not going to want to miss.

And coming on, the Hawkeyes being ranked, obviously I gave my opinion on this earlier in the show, but the Iowa Hawkeyes should be ranked. Honestly, I'd be a little upset if they weren't. I thought they should have been ranked at the end of the regular season as well. I thought they could sneak in that 25 spot, but Boise State took that spot, obviously. But after a week where we saw, so within the rankings,

we have six teams with eight wins inside of the top 25 rankings and seven teams, nine wins. All right. So that's giving you a little bit of a benchmark for where I was going to be sitting in that, that group, right? So Iowa has nine wins. They are in the same line of 13 other teams. Obviously a few of those teams did win.

So they're going to be up to 10 wins. Obviously I was not going to be surpassing that out of those 13 teams. Obviously, a few of those teams did win, so they're going to be up to 10 wins. Obviously, Iowa's not going to be surpassing that. Out of those 13 teams, six of those teams did lose though, including number 24 Iowa State, number 23 Missouri, and number 18 Mississippi State. And that's really important because those are the teams that Iowa is going to be jumping over. If a team in the top 25 won, obviously it's going to be a little bit difficult for the college playoff committee to say, well now Iowa's the better team. Granted, they did beat a ranked Mississippi State team. I don't think Iowa played very well in the game personally, but they did enough to win the game against a very tough Mississippi State team, a team that their

defense was as good as advertised. I think Iowa had some lucky breaks and the ball bounced in their way a couple times, which helped them out. But regardless, they won that game. And then the other team to look out for is number 25, Boise State, that actually didn't get a chance to play their bowl game. So how much is the College Bowl playoff committee going to value a 10-win Boise State team that didn't really have a strong schedule, didn't even get a chance to play a power five school, versus an Iowa team that went 9-4, beat Mississippi State, a ranked Mississippi State team. They also beat a ranked Iowa State team earlier in the season. So they've shown they can win some of those big games. And two of their losses this season were

to Penn State and Purdue. Both teams won their bowl games. They're going to finish probably top 15. So how much does the College World Playoff Committee value that? Personally, I obviously think Iowa should be ranked. They will be ranked. The other thing to keep in mind, too, is there are a couple other teams that Iowa could jump in the rankings, and that's the number 17 team, Utah, who lost to Northwestern, and number 16, West Virginia, who fell to Syracuse. The West Virginia one's a little bit interesting.

It kind of depends on how much the College Bowl Playoff Committee values the presence and absence of Will Greer in getting them to that ranking and then obviously losing to Syracuse. But I think those are opportunities for Iowa to jump up. And I would say there's probably around six to seven slots that are really up for grab at this point. If I had to pick it, if I was a betting man, I would put Iowa probably at 19. I think Kirk also thinks that Iowa should be ranked. He had this quote in his press conference after the Outback Bowl win. He said, our team's certainly happy for them, but our seniors to go out with another good season,

finished up with nine wins, four trophies this year, and should be a top 20 football team. So obviously Kirk has been paying attention. He thinks that they should be a top 20 football team. I agree. When looking at the rankings, I'd be surprised to see them not finish 20th or 19th in the nation. Obviously any higher than that will be awesome. Any lower than that will be a little bit disappointing, but any year where the Hawks can finish in the top 25, I know it was a frustrating season for all, but any year they can finish in the top 25 is still a pretty

darn good season overall for the Iowa football team. And that'll do it for segment number two. Just a reminder that on segment number three, we're going to be giving you our top three performances from the Outback Bowl. So stay tuned. You will not want to miss this. All right, we are back with segment number three. And on segment number three, we're going to be covering the top performances from the Outback Bowl victory. There were a ton of good performances. There were some disappointing performances.

But I wanted to make sure I'm giving the credit and the recognition that's due for some of these players. And a few of these guys might surprise you. A few of these guys are going to be no surprise at all. The first one I wanted to cover is,'s not a player but it's the iowa defensive line all right mississippi state's defensive line looked incredible jeffrey simmons was causing causing havoc all day the run game couldn't get started they had negative 15 yards but one of the big reasons why iowa was able to stay in this game is because of the defensive line not just the fact they were able to stop Nick Fitzgerald with somewhat consistency,

not the fact they were able to get some pressure on him pretty consistently, but the fact they came up with some big plays and some big moments. And I'm talking about the A.J. Epineza strip sack that led to an Iowa touchdown a few plays later when Nate Stanley hit Amir Smith-Marset. Also, Anthony Nelson tipped one of the balls thrown by Fitzgerald. Chauncey Golsan caught it. That was huge. Iowa went on to score another touchdown. So two touchdowns off turnovers. That's something we haven't necessarily seen from the team this year in terms of making those big plays when it really ultimately matters. We've seen it from the defense, but to see it in this kind of big game was incredible, especially from two underclassmen,

Epineza and Anthony Nelson, that came in this game and kind of rocked it. In addition to them, we have Parker Hesse and Matt Nelson kind of rounded out the unit. Parker Hesse actually finished as the third highest graded player according to Pro football focus from the game with an 83 overall score. Hesse had six tackles and 0.5 tackles for loss. Nelson also rounded that group out with four tackles and half a tackle for loss. So pretty impressive overall. The defensive line, honestly, I think they should be the MVP of the game in terms of the fact they really kept Iowa in it in some of the big plays. Now I don't mean that as a slight to Nick Easley. As you know, I talked about Nick Easley in the last couple of podcasts.

I love Nick Easley. I think ultimately what he did in terms of statistical production was an MVP-like performance and he absolutely deserved an MVP performance. You can't give an MVP award to four players. So as an individual player, Nick Easley helped Iowa win that game more so than any other individual player. But as a core unit, the defensive line absolutely deserves some sort of MVP award for their performance. And that actually is a good segue because the other, you know, kind of the next group of people I want to call out is actually Nate Stanley and Nick Easley. And it was really tough for me to pick one of these offensive guys.

Nick Easley obviously won the Outback Bowl MVP. One of the better receivers in the Kirk Ference era. Pretty impressive for a walk-on wide receiver. The guy I want to really touch on though is Nate Stanley. And I think when you look at his stats, no one's going to come away super impressed from that, right? He had a 49.6 QBR. Not exactly ideal. That's about average. He also threw for 214 yards on 21 completions he did have one boneheaded interception that is pretty much on on par with what he does every single game with one big mistake but this guy hung in there all day long he made the pass that needed to be made

and he ultimately was the guy who helped Iowa win this game right I mean that that beautiful pass to Nick Easley a 75 75-yard touchdown pass, think about this. Against Penn State, Stanley had a wide open TJ Hawkinson. He could have broke that game wide open. He missed that throw. Against Mississippi State, that was the throw that was needed. They needed that throw to really build and grow the momentum. Iowa wasn't getting much momentum at that time. And to hit it perfectly, right in the money for Easley to keep running right in stride, those are some things I haven't seen from Stanley. And the other thing that really impressed me was that fourth down call. The few minutes remaining in the third quarter, you know, Stanley dropped back. It was a play

action pass. There were no options open, and he knew he had to make a play. He somehow weaved his way through that defensive line, and his big, tall, you, tall 6'4", 6'5", frame was able to kind of dive over and get that first down, and that's a play that leaders make. That type of play that you see Ben Roethlisberger make in the NFL, a Phillip Rivers who's going to do whatever it takes to win, makes that play. And that's what really stood out and impressed me from Nate Stanley and gets me excited about what he can do next year as he continues to grow in his leadership abilities and just his general quarterbacking abilities and his

mainly decision making. If his decision making and accuracy can improve, after seeing him play Tuesday, I have no doubt he can play in the NFL at a high level. The last guy I want to call out is Jake Gervais. I think this guy has been, you know, he's had a tough career in Iowa. Coming in as a walk-on, he kind of went in and out of the starting lineup, ridiculed by, you know, fans and media and whatnot for some of his performances. But this guy really showed out in his final game. And I will openly admit that midway through the game, I was thinking, man, Gervais is not having a good performance.

And that was mostly because he dropped two, not actually easy, but somewhat easy interceptions that I really would have expected him to grab. What he did, though, in the game, overall, outside of that, he had a fantastic performance. He was actually the highest graded player according to Pro Football Focus. Not that that's everything, but what he did in regards to that rating was impressive, all right? So he had one interception. That was a key interception in the end zone.

Obviously, it should never have happened. Mississippi State should have caught the ball, but Gervais caught it, and that was a huge game-changing play. He also had three pass breakups. Two of those, obviously, are interceptions he should have had. In terms of coverage ability,

on five targets, he allowed zero receptions. So pretty impressive day for the former walk-on safety. In terms of NFL abilities, I think he'll find his way on to a practice squad, some sort of priority undrafted free agent. He doesn't really have – he's not the guy who's going to stick out and be someone you have to draft in the top couple rounds, but he's a guy who's going to come in and work hard and play the game the right way. And I think NFL teams value that, especially on a special teams type of player.

So great way for the walk-on to end his Iowa career. Thank you, Jake Travos. You can also find him on Twitter now in case you're wondering, he's very active on Twitter again. So kind of fun to see some of those seniors get back to their social media ways after, you know, a few years of inactivity. And that will actually do it for, that'll wrap up and do it for our Friday morning episode. I hope you have a great and fantastic weekend. Like I said, we'll be coming back to you tomorrow with a special Saturday episode to talk about the Nebraska game, having a good buddy come on who's very into Nebraska basketball. We'll be able to talk a lot about what they bring to the table and give you some good insight as to what to expect on Sunday's matchup. As you probably know

by now, I am your host, Andrew Wade, and you can find me on Twitter at Wade underscore Andrew. You can follow all the exciting happenings as well of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast on Twitter at Locked on Iowa, and you can reach out to us via email at Locked on Hawkeyes at gmail.com. Lastly, make sure you are subscribing to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast at. And just know that you can also just tell Siri,

Google, or Alexa to play podcast Locked on Hawkeyes. There's so many ways to listen to our podcast. It's not even funny. There's no excuse to not continue listening to this fantastic new addition to the Locked on Sports Network. Again, thank you for joining us on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast.

Have a fantastic day, Hawkeye Nation, and we'll be back tomorrow.