Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football: Best and worst case scenarios for 2022 w/LeShun Daniels

Episode Date: May 18, 2022

On today's extra long episode, former Iowa Hawkeyes running back LeShun Daniels and I make known the world of sports pre-season predictions on how the upcoming football season is going to turn out for the Iowa Hawkeyes. The current best case scenario for the Hawkeyes isn't really something LeShun and I agree with but granted it is early yet and pre-season predictions don't hold as much marrit as some people like to think they do but it is definitely something we will have to look into further as the off-season slowly turn into the pre-season.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.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our 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, Wright Hillpiper. With me today, my co-host, LaShawn Daniels. And before we get into anything today, I want to thank you all for making the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast your very first listen every single day.

You can find the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast for free wherever you get your podcasts at and also on YouTube by searching Locked on Hawkeyes podcast, your very first listen every single day. You can find the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast for free wherever you get your podcasts at and also on YouTube by searching Locked on Hawkeyes. Now, like I said, I've got LaShawn Daniels, former Iowa running back with me on the podcast today. Got one very specific topic to cover today. As you know, me and LaShawn are both on the podcast. We tend to get a little carried away and spend 45 to 50 minutes talking to each other about whatever the topic is for that day. So we'll try to keep it a little bit shorter for you guys. No story of the day to day or anything like

that. Just one, one very specific topic. And that is the best and worst case scenario for the Iowa Hawkeyes football team this upcoming season. Now I found an article yesterday written on 24 seven sports. I can't remember the name of the guy that wrote the article, but he went through and did the best and worst case scenarios for each big 10 football team for this upcoming season. So we'll start out of course, with the best case scenario. He had Iowa best case scenario going 10 and two, uh, overall in seven and two in the conference has losses, uh, to Michigan and Ohio state wins

over Minnesota and Wisconsin arguably are the most important of the season. Um, you know, if, if Iowa drops these games against Minnesota and Wisconsin, they're putting their chances of, you know, going back to a big 10 championship, 10 championship in a little bit of jeopardy as well as he, he talked about, you know, if, if Iowa ends up losing to Iowa state early in the season and week two, that could, you know, kind of make Iowa's chances to go back to back sort of touch and go. So LaShawn, I want to get your thoughts on, you know, that sort of,

that 10 and two prediction and what, you know, what you think about that. Yeah, for sure. So, for starters, I mean, at this point in time in the offseason, I mean, everyone's just trying to find something to talk about, right? Whether it's us, you know, other people in the media, you know, you're just trying to find something to talk about, just try generate some hype because i mean obviously football season is so far away we still got um what three three months four months until until the start of the season so

we're just trying to fill in here right and talk about things um and i mean predictions they don't really matter in the grand scheme of things really at all um obviously it's nice it's definitely nice to have um people think highly of your team um before going into the season right i mean you'd rather have them think highly of you um than not but um at the end of the day it really doesn't matter um because again it's going to be a new team that's going to roll out there this year right it's not the same team as 2021, not the same team as 2020, right? So on and so forth, right? You're going to have new people in different spots.

You got new players coming in. You're going to have guys that have gotten better at football and guys that have made the jump, as well as several other teams, right, who are going to have players coming in that are going to be looking to obviously make the jump and make that next hump over different things, right? So obviously to have a prediction of 10-2 is an okay start, right? Preferably you want it to be undefeated, right? But obviously you know that every single year, especially being playing in the Big 10,

you're going to have a challenging schedule no matter what. No matter what everyone may think of it, even if you may avoid Ohio State or Michigan, regardless, it's going to be a tough schedule because playing in the Big Ten, playing in any conference in college football, division in football, it's going to be very difficult to go out there and pull out victories. Division I football is going to be very difficult to go out there and pull out victories. But, you know, there's going to be a lot of different things that are going to play a part of, you know, Iowa being successful.

You know that Iowa typically is going to have a really good defense and spectacular special teams, but it's all going to be falling back on the shoulders of the offense, right? Are these offense going to be able to produce in a way that's going to help keep the defense off the field and provide enough points to obviously win football games? So a lot of questions, a lot of things that are going on. And it's all season that people want to know and have answers to.

Unfortunately, we can got to wait until, until September. Absolutely. And I love your point of view on that as well because you're one of the few people that I know that is like predictions like preseason predictions don't matter all that much and I wish more people understood that too because yeah

like you said it's nice to have you know experts and analysts or whatever you want to call them out there talking highly of your team like all this team's you know definitely gonna go undefeated or they're only gonna lose one or two games but in the grand scheme of things you're absolutely right preseason ratings or predictions i guess aren't aren't as big as they seem to be um granted so it's it's tough to kind of overlook that thing and sort of go more in depth to what the team looks like go into the the depth chart and look at what they're, cause no, nobody has the time to go through and look at every single team on, on a game

or on a team schedule and be like, well, this is the player that's going to give us trouble. Like that's, that's the coaches and the players jobs. You know what I mean? Like it's not, not the fans jobs to go through the rosters and game film and all that sort of thing to kind of predict what's going to happen. So it's not, it's not something that gets done very often, which is unfortunate, but granted, you know, people want to hear about it. They want to hear about the predictions. And I, I obviously, I like to hear about them too, regardless of whether they mean anything or not. It's a,

it's not, it's definitely nice to hear that. Um, there are some, some analysts out there that are like, yeah, this Iowa team's going to come back and they're going to be just as good, if not better than they were last year, which is, you know, obviously great, but it's, it's hard. And like you said, I mean, everybody's looking for stuff to talk about. There's no, there's no major sports that's in season right now. Like you get for Iowa right now, it's, I mean, for men's, at least it's track there. I mean, their track team is probably, I mean, better than their baseball team is right now. I mean, they're baseball granted third in the big 10, but still, um, so Iowa doesn't have like a major sport, um, that's in season right now. So it's hard to find things to cover. And I'm, I'm sure everybody out there listening that has also listened to any of my other episodes can

tell you about that personally. It's, it's hard to find, It's hard to find very interesting stuff to cover, but obviously recruits help with that, commits help with that, random different things going on within programs and schools and stuff like that helps a lot. But like you said, it's hard to find stuff like this nowadays. So we have to rely on predictions and stuff like that and see what everybody else is talking about, see what is getting everybody else fired up or not fired up about the upcoming season. And I mean, according to this guy from 24-7, he's not concerned when it comes to the best case scenario of any of these other games. And me and you have talked extensively on the podcast before about, you know, Iowa schedule and, you know, how we like score predictions, what, what our, what our thoughts on the record was going to be. And that's where I had Iowa at two was 10 and two,

um, losing to Michigan and Ohio state. Um, but obviously it's, it's, it's hard to say that, um, when you're, when you're not for sure. So one of the questions that I had for you, I had a list of questions for you today, was do you think that Iowa has a legitimate shot to go in and beat a team like Ohio State or beat a team like Michigan? Because obviously we know that going into those games, Iowa is not going to be the betting favorite.

So what do you think, LaShawn? How do you think these games are going to play out? Yeah, so it's definitely tough to say, but I definitely do believe I was obviously going to have a really good shot for Manny because they got a lot of guys coming back, both the offense side of the football and defensive side of the football. So you're going to have a lot of experience. You're going to have a lot of guys that have played a lot of football

and that have played in a lot of high-'re going to have a lot of player guys that have played a lot of football and that have played in a lot of um high stakes football games right and that are going to be um anxious and ready for the opportunities um you know when they present themselves because i mean again it's not very often especially being on the west side of the big 10 it's not very often that you play in ohio state and in mich, let alone play them both in the same season. So those are definitely going to be games that your guys, your players are going to want to be jacked up and ready for, because not only does it feel good whenever you have a chance to play those teams and you have to get a chance and beat those teams for the guys that want to play at the next level.

Obviously there's going to be plenty of scouts and um eyeballs on that football game right because they want to scope out the kind of talent that is going to be available um so it's just going to be a great opportunity um but you know knowing iowa and the history uh really since um coach ferz has been there, right, they usually always, always play the blue bloods of the Big Ten, you know, extremely, extremely tough. And obviously Ohio State and Michigan are no exception to that. It's very rare that you get an outcome that was like in the Big Ten title game, right? And I'm sure that's been constantly in the back of their mind,

especially, you know, as we're trying to find things to talk about right you and the players got to find you know things that kind of motivate them to uh want to keep going hard in the offseason right and obviously i was has a good culture fantastic culture um that you know the guys are gonna come in they're gonna work hard but you know definitely having the extra motivation of you know when you think about the last time that you were out there um playing a big 10 football game right and really being embarrassed on national television and you know losing in a tough way in a bowl game right like those aren't those aren't fun aren't the funnest memories right yeah exactly um you know

there's definitely going to be things that uh kind of continue to motivate those guys going forward but again i mean we got so long until until those games um and and then the start of the season so uh but just knowing iowa and you know knowing the way that we play our brand of football it's definitely going to come down to um you know doing the things that uh you know iowa does best and right enforcing other teams to play to play iowa football versus the other way around and that's usually how um we have a bunch of success playing playing teams like michigan and ohio state absolutely and i mean to what you said i think that iowa has a real shot to beat both of these teams granted i think that ohio a real shot to beat both of these teams.

Granted, I think that Ohio State is going to be more of a challenge than Michigan is just based off of their recent history as a college football playoff team. But neither of the games are going to be any easier than the other by any circumstances. I don't I'm not I'm not saying that, you know, oh, well, you know, if we if we Ohio state, there's, I mean, there's zero shot we lose to Michigan or, you know, the other way around, whatever it is, but it's, it's two games that, and like I said, during, um, when we talked about score predictions and, um, our record predictions, it, these are the two games that scare me a lot for this season. And every team is going to lose a football game at some point. I mean, if Alabama, Clemson, Georgia talk about whatever football team you want, all of them have lost games before.

Um, and these, these are the two games that I think that are, might get the better of the Hawkeyes this season, but that's not to say that they don't have a shot as well. Um, so to, to what LaShawn said, yeah, there's, there's a shot that, that Iowa can beat both of these teams. Maybe I will go undefeated this season. Who knows? Maybe I will win two games this season. Nobody knows. And that's why the, that's why these preseason predictions don't hold, you know, as much credit and as much merit as a lot of people think that they do, because every, every team's going to be different every single year. Like you said, um, there's guys on this Iowa team that aren't returning. There's guys on Michigan that aren't returning. There's guys on Ohio state that aren't returning.

Several of them went to the NFL. So it's all of, all of the teams in the big 10 have lost quite, or I mean, combined anyway, I've lost quite a few very, very talented players. So it, it kind of opens up the conference a little bit to, um, a little bit more interpretation for those guys that are going to be coming in, um, to fill those spots. So it's, it's definitely going to be interesting to see how these games turn out. And I, I mean, I wish the best for the Hawkeyes, obviously. Um, but like I said, these are, these are the games that just, ah, they send shivers down my spine. I don't want to think down my spine i don't want to think

about them i don't want to think about them until the week before you know what i mean um but you know win or lose we'll be we'll be back here on the podcast to do you know uh game game recaps you know win or loss whether whether iowa loses by 42 against uh michigan or if they beat michigan by 42 we'll be back here on the podcast to talk about all that. And I'm sure that LaShawn will be on for a lot of those game recaps because, I mean, there's no better person out there related to locked on than LaShawn to come on and talk about college football game recaps, especially in division when there's nobody out there who knows more about it. So anyways, we've got to get into the worst case scenario at some point. I don't want to talk about it. I'm sure you don't want to talk about it. So anyways, we've got to get into the worst case scenario at some point. I don't

want to talk about it. I'm sure you don't want to talk about it, but it's something that's got to be done. But before we get into that, I do really, really quick need to talk about Built Bar. Built Bar has these new things called birthday cake puffs. They taste almost exactly like dipping your hand into a tub of that like birthday cake or like funfetti frosting, you know, that you get down at the grocery store. They're also covered in 100% real chocolate and you can make every day feel like your birthday when you're eating this. And on top of that, they're healthy as well within 150 calories, 16 grams of protein and nine grams of sugar. It's a limited time flavor. So you gotta get your hands on it. Now we can't promise it's going to be there tomorrow. So you better go get it today. Once

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with losses to Michigan, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa State. We talked about it earlier, they're not going to be the betting favorites versus teams like Michigan and Ohio State, but obviously Iowa has one of the toughest schedules in the Big Ten, and that is not something that I will leave up for debate whatsoever. If you go through, you look at the Big Ten, you look at the schedules, Iowa has one of the toughest schedules in there. And like you said, it's not, not every year that Iowa has to come in and play Michigan

and Ohio state in the same season. So it's Iowa has an extremely, extremely tough road ahead of them. If you would like to say, um, and 24-7 sports seems to think that if Iowa does lose to Iowa State, granted it's week two, keep that in mind. 24-7 seems to think that if Iowa loses to Iowa State, Iowa's going to be sort of touch and go for the rest of the season when it comes to being able to get to a bowl game or to a Big Ten championship game. And granted, if Iowa doesn't make it to the big 10 championship game, it's not the end of the world, but if Iowa doesn't make it to a bowl game at all, let alone the big 10 championship, that's going to be raising some questions from a lot of people,

myself included, because I'm going to want to know what's going, what, you know, what went wrong, what's going on. So, you know, what, what are your thoughts on the whole five and seven thing? What could make somebody think that a team like Iowa coming off of a Big Ten championship loss, granted, what would make somebody think that they could possibly go five and seven at this point? Yeah, that's definitely a good question because you look at Iowa and you look at the brand football that we play right we play very very tough defense play great special teams and then we score enough points on offense right to win to win the ball game and i think that's the part that gives a lot of people pause it's just the offense really hasn't progressed as much as I know Fort Reck. I wouldn't have liked it to, you know, over the years.

And I'm sure as much as the coaching staff would have liked to at this point. Right? I mean, it seems like almost every year at the defense, in some way, shape, or form, like almost every year at the defense in some way shape or form is does bail us out on a number of different occasions um which is granted that's part of team football right that's called complimentary football um when one part of the ball isn't um you know really doing what they know that they can do it's it's part of the other side to pick up that slack right but you know knowing how football is starting to evolve and knowing how um you know strong offenses are getting um each year right it's tough to see iowa really you know not take that jump offensively right no matter how

good your defense is right it can be tough to win that when that brand of football all the time. And we kind of saw it a little bit last year, right? With Iowa and really the games that we lost, you know, it was just a lot of pressure that was put on the defense, right? And, you know, the offense really just couldn't hang up and hold their part of the bargain so that that i know for a fact is definitely a part that plays a piece into why people might not be as highly on iowa as they may be other teams right because then you look at a team like last year like georgia right i mean obviously they had a really really good defense and their offense wasn't spectacular right but their offense is able to put up points. Right.

When need to be winning football games. Right. And although Iowa has, I'd like to think, I'd like to say that they have consistently right. A top defense in the country. The offense just really hasn't been able to make that jump. Right. And that's something that I'm going to be looking for the guys to be able to do this season. I'm sure many of the people listening and as well as players in the building, coaching staff and the fans around the country are going to be looking for the

offense to make that jump. Right. And you mentioned that, you know, losing a game early in the season can definitely feel like a true gut punch, especially losing to Iowa State, being so early in the season. And I know that when we talk about schedules several weeks back, that the best teams are going to make a big jump from week one to week two, and they're going to continue to improve each week. So if you look at a team and you know they look kind of okay you know week one and then they don't improve at all that following week

right then you're going to start to raise some questions regardless of whether they win the football game or not right because again you want to see teams make that make that make that jump right and it felt like there was times last year, like, where the defense was consistently making that jump, right? I mean, they had their defense was playing so well that they benched several quarterbacks throughout the year, right, because their defense was playing so well. But the offense just never really, you know,

they never really made that jump, right? And that's going to be, I feel like, really, really the key for the Iowa football team this year and their success, they never really made that, that jump. Right. And that's going to be, I feel like really, really the key for, for the Iowa football team this year and their success, just because the teams that they're going against this year, especially the way that they end the season with basically like three rivalry games. And then you have, you know, you got a Purdue, you got a Northwestern, you got an Ohio state, right.

To finish the season like that is definitely not going to be easy. So you're definitely going to want to see that improvement week to week, especially on the offensive side of football, because I feel like offense is really going to be the driving force on Iowa's success if they make that – to take that next jump, right? So who knows? Who knows? We'll have to wait and see.

But, I mean, it's been like a decade since, you know, Iowa hasn't made a bowl game, and I don't really see that happening this year. I am very glad you brought the offense up because it has raised some questions this offseason throughout spring ball and now going into summer workouts and stuff like that. There have been a lot of questions raised about Iowa's ability to perform consistently on offense. And now, don't take this the wrong way.

This is no discredit to you, but Iowa's defense has usually been a little bit at a higher level than the offense has been in the last few years. Like I said, no disrespect to you at all as a former player. But that's how it's been the last couple of years coming out of spring ball, especially Iowa's defense has been a few steps ahead of the offense. But I mean, over the last two, three years, Iowa has had a lot of guys come back that have had a lot of experience playing. And now this year playing or going into this season with three guys in the linebacker core that it's projected to be one of the best linebacking cores in the entire country. Obviously the defense is going to be a little bit ahead of the offense at this

point. We don't have, you know, a star quarterback or, you know, wide receivers that are going to go number one overall or anything like that. But we've, we've got a lot of big names on defense. So it's, it's, it's definitely hard to ignore the questions on offense and I've tried my best to answer as many as I can here. But I have my doubts about the offense as well. I obviously have less doubts about the defense. I'm very confident in Iowa's defense. Um, but yeah, there's, there's a few eyebrows that have, that were raised, especially during spring ball about Iowa's offense. Hopefully they can pick that up. Um, obviously, like you said, there's zero way to tell, um, without seeing games from this coming season. And obviously we're going to have to wait for those.

But I'm excited to get into this football season, especially being able to bring you on the podcast. I'm excited to see how this goes because I'm probably going to bring up this episode specifically quite a bit. But yeah, there's a lot of questions on offense. And I think that Iowa does have a very good chance of going this best case 10-2, uh, seven and two in the conference record. If the offense can, you know,

pull their own weight and make sure that they're doing, you know, the jobs that they need to do as well. And maybe they can even improve, maybe go 11 and one 12 and oh, you know, depending on whether or not Ohio state decides to be good this year. I don't see them being bad. I think their best case scenario was projected to be 12-0, and I think their worst case was maybe like seven or eight wins. So it's going to be tough, and I'm excited to see it all play out. But the offense needs work, and the defense does too. Don't get me wrong.

The defense needs work as well. Um, but there's, there's definitely a lot more questions to do, uh, with the offense right now. Um, rather than, you know, the defense going into this upcoming season and summer workouts as well. So I'm, I'm excited and I'm very nervous, uh, to see how this plays out. Um, so I do have a few questions for you as well. Don't think I don't think I'm letting you go yet. Before we get into those questions really quick, I want to talk about BetOnline. Our partners at BetOnline continue to be the number one source for all of your sporting, wagering and betting sports info.

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the 1999 season. He has had three seasons in that time period where Iowa has had less than six wins, which is a pretty good, pretty good, you know, pretty good outstanding record to have. Those three seasons were his first two years where they went one in 10. And what, what was the other one? One in 10 and three and nine, uh, in 1999 and 2000. And then obviously 2012 where they went four and eight. I will not bring up the 2012 season again on this podcast because it haunts me to this day. Uh, I was a very early Iowa fan back in those

days and I will not, I refuse to bring up that season. Um, I didn't know enough about football back then to know what was going on, but I was very confused as to why Iowa was not good that year. But we won't talk about that. That's not what today's episode is about. So, like I said, a couple of questions that I have for you. Do you think that as of right now, does Iowa deserve to be in the top 25? Pre-season-wise, do they deserve to be there? So if you're basing it off of body of work last season,

without a doubt, obviously they deserve to be in the top 25, right? But honestly, like going into this season, honestly i feel like no one is honestly deserving of being in the top 25 ranking um really just because again no one's played football right i mentioned at the beginning of the season no one's played any real football no one again you have so many different moving pieces and calls football and you know really outside of you know maybe your top four teams right you have every year right you have alabama you gotta um you know georgia ohio state um you know clemson usually most of the time right like outside of like those few right it's there's so many other different teams that that find their ways into the top 10 or that were ranked in the preseason

that find themselves unranked right to finish the season right so i feel like there's so many different things going on so i really like really feel obviously feel like no one is honestly deserving of it and i'd much rather just have it be just say just let them let their play um determine that and you know come november right when the Colts ball rankings first come out right then now you're like okay now where are we at like what like how do we look now because um that's really when when things start to matter right it doesn't really matter right when you have you know um early in the season when you have two top five teams playing against each other because hey you might find yourself in a situation just like we did last year,

right, when we were playing Penn State. And, again, it was a top five matchup. And, you know, obviously several weeks later, right, Penn State found themselves unranked, right, and we found ourselves, you know, outside the top 15, right? So, like, none of those rankings honestly matter and if you but if you are basing off a body of work from last year yeah i would most definitely deserve to be in the top 25 but and and all honestly um going into every single season

no team deserves to be in the top 25 um until you know games are honestly honestly played yeah absolutely and you you said you said um just a second ago about how they're you know games are honestly honestly played yeah absolutely and you you said you said um just a second ago about how there you know any team can come into the top 25 and be a contender in the preseason and that got me thinking about Cincinnati and Wake Forest uh because I had never heard of Wake Forest before this before this past I knew, I knew that Cincinnati was there, but I didn't think that they mattered. Um, and then I, I mean, I had never heard of wake forest before. Um, so yeah, there's, I mean, any, any given team, any given day, any given year can, you know, outperform somebody else. But like you said, it top 25 predictions. They don't matter

right now. You can, put alabama one and you could put alabama at 25 and it's not going to matter people are going to be upset if you put them that way but it's those those don't matter as of right now and i i wanted to get your take on that because if yeah if you base it solely on on last year's performance, yeah, I think they deserve to be there. I think, I mean, USA Today has the Hawkeyes ranked as number 11 in their preseason top 25, but CBS Sports has them not ranked at all. So there's too much variation between whatever these websites are, whether it's 24-7 or CBS Sports or USA Today. There's too much variation because everybody's list is going to be different.

There's always, like you said, there's always going to be those select few teams that are always going to be up there within top 10, top 5 sort of thing. But there's just too much variation. You can't get a level read on things. And like you said, none of this matters until we see everybody play because I mean, Alabama could go back to the early two thousands days where they won three and four games a year. And Iowa could go undefeated and win a national championship. Who knows anything, anything's possible. Anything can happen. So it's, it's tough to say, but I agree with that. If you go based solely off last year's, I think they deserve to be in the top 25, maybe in the top 15.

But it's all up to speculation at this point. We won't know for a few more months whether or not Iowa actually deserves to be there or not. So we'll just have to wait on that and see. Where do you think Iowa will finish the season ranked? Do you think they'll be in the top 25? Do you think will finish the season rank do you think they'll be in the top 25 do you think they'll be out do you think they'll be in the top 10 where where are you thinking yeah um again you know it's hard to say but i will say that you know i feel like the things that iowa has been doing um you know really over the past few years has been very, very good, right? They found themselves every single year. I mean, usually, right, you're competing, right,

for a Big Ten West title, but I feel like, you know, really over the past few years, right, it's really been something that it's like, hey, it's like they've been kind of tearduttering, right, between either winning it or just coming in second um and just missing it right and um you know that if you're most years if you win the big 10 west right you're gonna finish the season right um without a doubt and i feel like uh um the staff has definitely been doing doing some great things um and you know i really can't see that see that changing right i mean we've seen that we've seen it in recruiting a little bit. We've seen it on the football field as well. So I don't see them really taking that step back, honestly,

especially knowing the amount of guys that are having to come back this season that have played a lot of football. So, you know, I would obviously anticipate them being able to finish a season ranked, especially if they're continuing on the trajectory that they've been, you know, really over the past few years. But, again, you never know, right? Football is a dynamic, dynamic game. And year to year, week to week, and even day to day, things change.

So, but i'm definitely hoping that they would finish the season um as a pop team for sure absolutely and i i do want to apologize i know that a lot of the questions i'm asking you can't really be you know answered until we see them play and i'm sure everybody listening is is saying the exact same thing so i i mean i obviously our opinions about where Iowa is going to finish are fairly similar in some way. But we both agree that there's no way to tell until people actually play. Now, one thing that I want to say, I only want your opinion on this.

Do you think that Iowa will finish better or over than 500 over 500 do you think they'll finish over 750 you know what what are you thinking here because i don't i don't think that there's a single chance that i was going to finish below 500 right and i don't think there's a good chance that they'll finish below 750 but you know what what do you think yeah i definitely they're definitely not going to finish under 500 they finish under 500 uh it's how definitely would not want to be in that building for sure i mean i might i might have to quit the podcast i might i might have to quit the podcast we went we went seven and six in 2014 and it was miserable it was miserable in the complex so i couldn't imagine i couldn't

imagine being under 500 and i mean ghost parents has done such a great job right he's leaving under 500 three times and you know 20 plus year career at iowa so um no no i'm just gonna leave it at no they're not gonna finish under 500 um even though. Even though I'm not saying we haven't seen them play, but I'm fairly, fairly confident they're not going to finish under 500. 750, again, I feel like they've been on such a great trajectory over the past few years, right? We've seen flashes of, you know, real greatness, right, where they could be considered, you know,

on a consistent basis as a top five team. And if you can get that consistent play a little bit more, I feel like there's no reason they don't finish over 750 as well. So that's kind of where I'm at. Absolutely. And you said something to the fact that back in 2014, you guys went seven and six, and that locker room, that sort of facility mentality was a little not great. I can't even imagine what it was like in 99 when they went 1-10. I don't want to imagine what it was like.

Granted, it was Ferentz's first year of coaching. He had to take over for Hayden Fry. I didn't even like being in the locker room after losing a home football game in high school. You know what I mean? Nobody's talking. Everybody's silent. There's no phones out.

There's no music playing. There's nothing. Nobody wants to say anything because you know the first person that talks, everybody's just going gonna unload on them you know what i mean so i i can't ah it gives me gives me chills thinking about what it must have been like um after go and seven and six that's that's a winning record that's not terrible you know what i mean i just i can't even imagine but iowa has built the tradition of that they're gonna be a you know a fairly decent team year after year so I can imagine it's probably not fun being in being in those facilities after

something like that happens no not at all not at all it did help that we didn't win a single rivalry game that year so that definitely made it a little bit worse well you know those seasons happen from time to time I don't think we'll see it this year. Um, even, you know, even with the schedule that I was got, um, playing those two very, very, you know, big schools, um, even within the big 10, um, everybody, I haven't seen one story, one article or anything like that of anybody saying that they have a chance to beat Michigan or Ohio state this year. Everybody's saying, oh, you know, I was going to go 10 and two.

There's no way they're going to beat them. There's no way they'll go 11 and one or undefeated, whatever it is. But there's also nobody out there saying that they're going to finish less than 10 and two. You know what I mean? Other than this worst case scenario thing, and that was done for every team in college or every team in the big 10, at least nobody, nobody's really out there doubting Iowa either. And we talked about it too. And I've talked about it multiple times in the podcast right now, the biggest questions have to do with the offense. Um, but the defense is, is pretty set where they're at. Obviously there's, there's stuff that needs to be fixed

with that as well. Um, as, as far as, as far as special teams goes, my guy, Tori Taylor, he's going to cook it up this year. There's no doubt. Tori Taylor is an absolute beast and I need to get him on the podcast really bad that I've wanted to talk to him for so long. Um, granted he's only a punter, but you know what? I wanted to be a punter once too. So yes, sir.

Absolutely. Superstar punter. He's man, that guy is something else. I've, I've seen his interviews and he's, he's an interesting guy for sure. Um, but yeah, I mean, other than the offense, there's not a whole lot of questions, um, circling around how good I was going to be this year, how bad they're going to be or whatever. Um, so I think that, I think that 10 and two, um, is a fair, you2 is a fair estimate of where they'll finish at. I think that obviously 12-0 is the best case scenario for Iowa this season,

and I think everybody should think that. But, I mean, I don't really have a whole lot to say about the worst case scenario. I mean, like Wisconsin's kind of touch and go with Iowa. Iowa's had Minnesota's number for a while now, and I think they've won the last seven meetings against Minnesota. And then there's Michigan, there's Ohio State. I mean, I don't think Iowa's going to lose against Iowa State. Iowa State just lost a starting quarterback, a starting running back,

and a starting tight end all to the NFL. Also, shout out Brock Purdy for going to the Niners. He's my boy. Now, anyways. But I don't see Iowa taking an L against Iowa State, especially this year. If they could beat out Brock Purdy and Brees Hall last year, I don't think they'll give them any more troubles than they did. But that was definitely a fun game to watch last year, and it will be another fun game to watch this year. But I think the main mantra of today's episode is that you can't say anything with certainty until you see him play.

It's how it is. It's how he's always been. And some people take these predictions, these preseason predictions, a little bit too seriously. I mean, I still even get a little heated about it. Like, don't come in here saying we're going to lose to Iowa State. Come on now. That's not going to happen.

But, yeah, like we've said, it's all up to speculation. Nothing's set in stone. We can't tell you anything for certain until the season gets underway and we see how good Iowa is this year. But I think we're running into about the 40-minute range, so I think we'll get out of here. So I want to thank LaShawn Daniels for coming on the podcast today. It's always a pleasure to get to sit down, talk Iowa football with him.

He knows miles more than I do about this Iowa football team. He's been a part of it before he's played for them. So he's definitely got a little bit more knowledge up there about iowa football than i do um so it's always great to have him on the podcast so we'll have him back on here uh soon as well uh lishan is there anything that you would like to say no man it's always a good time uh you know you know talking hawks uh hawkeye football so no thank you thank you and go hawks as always yes absolutely and you guys know every time me and leshawn are both on here we're gonna have

we're gonna run 40 45 minutes that's just how it is um we only had one topic today i thought this was gonna be a 20 minute episode uh but we got we got to riffing a little bit it went went a little long but you know who cares i'm sure the I'm sure the fans of the podcast enjoy it. So thank you all for tuning in today's episode. You could follow me and LaShawn on Twitter at Rye Hill and at LaShawn Daniels, Jr. Twitter. If you're listening,

please verify me. LaShawn is verified and I'm not, and that's not cool. Please fix that. Anyways, that being said, go follow Lockdown Hawkeyes on Twitter as well. That's at Lockdown Iowa. Once again, thank you all for tuning in today's episode,

and I will see you all tomorrow.