Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football: Big Ten Football Media Day travel party, Throwback Thursday to 2009 Hawkeye Football

Episode Date: July 14, 2023

Big Ten Football Media Days are just two weeks away. Trent Condon returns for the latest Locked on Hawkeyes Podcast as he takes a look at the Hawkeyes decision to bring Noah Shannon, Cooper DeJean and Luke Lachey to Indy. Who did the Hawkeye leave home? Should they have brought Cade McNamara or any other players? It's also a Throwback Thursday to 2009. A look back at the Orange Bowl championship team and the highs and lows from the season. Finally, Hawkeye fans are buying beer. No suprise, but the Hawkeye Swarm Golden Ale is selling at a high rate and leading to a bunch of money coming into the Swarm Collective. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!birddogsGo to birddogs.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGE or enter promo code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for a free Yeti style tumbler with your order. You won’t want to take your birddogs off we promise you.eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit. eBay Motors dot com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We are two weeks away from Big Ten Football Media Days, and we know the three players that will be accompanying Kirk Ferentz over to Indianapolis. We'll talk about that. We'll also take a look back. It's the throwback Thursday, 2009 in the spotlight today, plus a beer update with Swarm Ale. All coming up today on Locked on Hawkeyes.

You are locked on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, welcome in. I'm Trent Condon, and this is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We're available wherever you get podcasts. You can also find us on YouTube. While you're there, hit that subscribe button. It helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans.

A busy program here today as we get into a myriad of different topics. It's Thursday. That means it's a throwback Thursday. Our summer series, as we'll look back at some of the great teams in Iowa history, we've hit 1985 and 2002 football. We've talked about the 86-87 Iowa basketball team. Today, it's back to 2009. The most recent of the great teams. We'll go back to that undefeated start at the beginning of the year. Some of the craziest games in Iowa football history and some memories with you here today. But first, our story of the day. Cooper Dejean, Luke Lachey, and Noah Shannon will be making their way to Indianapolis for Big Ten Football Media Days. It is crazy. Over the

last two days for me on my day job on the radio side of things. That has been a big component talking about big 12 media days. And really, I think a stroke of genius putting this right after the all-star game, having two days with absolutely nothing, at least what we're used to in the big sports out there and not a whole lot irrelevant conversation to be had in what I do, what ESPN.com does, what ESPN and,

and all the other networks out there. You're looking for content and the Big Ten hit that. We'll get the SEC coming up, the ACC, and then the Big Ten towards the end of the month. I have been, excuse me, at Big Ten Football Media Days a number of times in the past. I haven't been at them since they moved it to Indianapolis, but in Chicago a bunch of different times.

And it just, it's that jumping off point where we really feel like we are digging in to football season. Camp is right around the corner. We got Kirk Ferentz's birthday. That's always right around the corner too. It just has that feeling where you can really feel it. You wake up a couple of those mornings, do on the ground a little, every once in a while, a little crispness in the mornings when you wake up.

And that certainly leads to what we have coming up this fall and one of the more anticipated Iowa football seasons that I certainly can remember in a number of years so the decision first the guys that didn't make it that weren't invited and I think what a lot of people anticipated or maybe wanted to see was the quarterback Cade McNam, for him to get the invite to Indianapolis. Now, that didn't happen. I think there's a couple of different reasons for it. First, I think we know what this would have turned into. There would have been so much of the conversation.

What about the transfer? What about leaving a Big Ten program in Michigan, a place that he had a lot of success, a place that he led his team to a Big Ten championship and a college football playoff appearance, and there would have been a lot of that. In fact, that's what the Big Ten, that's what the regional and even the national media, that would have been the storyline

that they were gooding about. It wouldn't have been about Iowa football. And that's what this is about. That's what Media Days is about. It's about spotlighting your program, and I think if McNamara would have went, he wouldn't have been there. Now, the thing that you love about Cade McNamara is what he brings and the attitude that he certainly brings.

He brings that chip on the shoulder, a tough guy mentality, a great leader. He has all those tangible qualities that you're looking for, and he brings them out seemingly every single time that he's in front of a microphone. He is just, he's a great soundbite. He is a guy that gets it, understands it, and certainly is an easy guy to root for. And we're going to get plenty of that. As the quarterback, you know,

he's going to be there each and every week. He's going to be there after the games. He's going to be there on the Tuesday availability. We're going to see plenty of Cade McNamara, but I think that's a reason behind it. Another reason, just the Iowa football program, the way that they're built, the Iowa way. And the Iowa way, this is something where being part of a program, doing the work,

put investing the time in and doing it the Iowa way is incredibly important. And I just don't think Kirk Ferentz, though, his adaptability and his willing to adapt here again with the transfer portal and what he was able to do going out there in the portal and bringing in seven, eight impact guys for this class says that, yes, he's willing to evolve, but there's still, there's still tenants, right? There's still baselines that you need to hit or Iowa football. And I would be surprised if we ever see him invite somebody like a McNamara, a transfer right away before they've ever played a game.

I just don't think that's the way that Kirk Ferentz wants to build his program. Another part of this is also, this is a little bit of a carrot. We've heard this in the past from players. This is something that is dangled out there. This is something for some of those older veterans to shoot for. And if you're somebody that, you know, thinks that this would be something that you would enjoy, you get wine to dine when you're doing it.

And now in the NIL era, it's a little bit different. Certainly back in the day before NIL, that was a huge one. You get to go to these fancy dinners. You get to do all these fun things. That made it a little bit different. People pushing for that because you didn't get much of it. Now in the NIL era, you got a little more cash to spend. You can go out for that nice dinner a little bit more, and maybe that's changed it just a little bit. Cade McNamara, certainly one of the guys that I know a lot of people wanted to see there. I'm not too worried. And here's the other part.

Remember, Cade McNamara does have two years of eligibility. If this season goes the way that we anticipate and he decides to come back for his fifth season of college football next summer, next July, I think we'll see him at Big Ten Football Media Days. Torrey Taylor, I wanted to see. Look, he's an older guy, right? He's been through. He understands.

He's Australian. He's got funny stories. He gets it. He's a good quote. And it would just be so Iowa, right, for them to bring their punter with them to media days. You only get three choices. You can only bring three guys, and it would be just such the Hawkeye football way for them to bring their punter along with them and to see yes all the jokes and all the national media either rolling their eyes or throwing the jokes out there I don't like the term punting is winning punting is losing

let's score some points let's get this offense revved up again let's see at least some kind of an average offensive play this season I want to to move past. The punting is winning. But punting is a component of the team, and Iowa's got one of the best in the country in Torrey Taylor. That was certainly another one of the guys that you want to see. Yeah, there's always some young players. They're not going to go. In fact, for years and years and years,

Kirk wouldn't even bring a junior. I mean, not even talking about a freshman or a sophomore or anything like that, a redshirt sophomore that's been around for a while. He wouldn't even bring juniors. Well, that changed this year, certainly. And it changed a couple of years back for the first time when he brought a non-senior to a media day. But now Luke Lachey and Cooper DeGene are both coming. We will get into those guys. Cooper DeGene, he's an All-American. He is a guy that is all over the place in terms of where you can play him. I maintain that I believe Cash might be his best position at the next level in the NFL. It very well could be safety. We know what an elite level cornerback that he is, as he

proved a season ago. This guy is versatile. He's a good kid. It's a good story. Small town, western Iowa, right? Going out there from odabelt arthur battle creek ida grove high school and then what we have seen out of him that's going to be a fun story luke lachey he continues to ascend of course you know one thing that i i do wonder is if there was ever a thought for luke lachey to go back home didn Didn't get the Ohio State offer. His dad is the radio broadcaster. He does color on the Ohio State Buckeye games. He is a guy that you would think, hey, if there's something there,

would it make sense? When Eric Hall committed to the Hawkeyes, did that make him think about maybe entering the portal? I think we're going to get some good stuff out of Luke Lachey and both those guys, both DeGene and Lachey, though they're both juniors, likely their last season in Hawkeye uniforms. And then finally Noah Shannon and Noah Shannon, I think really cool coming back for a six year of eligibility, a guy that went out there

early in his career. He was plugging holes. He was making a few plays, but for the most part wasn't impactful. And what he has turned into in the interior of that defensive line, really, really good. And one of those carrots that you're talking about, stick around for a six year, was an impact and what he has turned into in the interior of that defensive line. Really, really good. And one of those carrots that you're talking about. Stick around for a sixth year. Get to go over to Big Ten Football Media Days. It'll be really good.

We continue here on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. We think that this has a chance to be a great team. We go back 14 years ago. Boy, does not feel like it's been that long. 2009 and our throwback Thursday series. A look back at the Iowa football team that won the Orange Bowl. That's as we continue here, Lockdown Hawkeyes. Today's episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast is brought to you by FanDuel.

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So we're throwing it back to 2009, one of my favorite Iowa football seasons. So a little background on this one. I'm well out of college at this point. I am in my late 20s and though still going to every Iowa football game and making my way to Iowa City every single opportunity. This is also the summer before when I started my relationship with my now wife. We knew each other a little bit in college. She moved after college, after teaching for a couple of years to Japan and taught two years there. But she came back, we've been talking, and she

decided to move to Des Moines. So the conversation increased. All right, that aside. Now, one of the things I always told her, her teaching partner while she was in Japan was from Alabama. And I said, we'll invite her up for an Iowa game and we'll go down to an Alabama game. And we actually did that this season. We will get into that. But the season begins.

And for the first time, my now wife and I go to an Iowa game together. September 5th is you and i comes to town iowa big expectations preseason top 25 team i would did not play well and it took two block kicks to beat the panthers so sitting that day in section 109 as my seats have been now for the last what 15 years the uh I sit as the game ends after the second block kick, my head in my hands, my wife, at the time girlfriend, new girlfriend, kind of struggling, I think, understanding what I was going through. I said, this team is going to suck.

They're terrible. They can't do anything offensively. It took two block kicks to beat you and I. This is going to be an awful season. I'm an idiot. I think we know that from time to time, but boy, that was not certainly a forebear of what it was, but that is what it turned into. The following week, the road trip out to Iowa State, dominating performance in that one as they run past and win the game 35-3. What a fun game that one was as Iowa got out to a 14-3 lead at the half, started to cruise in the second half.

It was a thing of beauty, and big plays were being made all over the field by the Hawkeyes in that one. It was a little bit stansy, a little bit more. Six turnovers from the Cyclones leading to four Iowa Hawkeye touchdowns and a easy 35-3 road victory. Then the return trip with Arizona coming to town. Mid-afternoon, 2.30 kick on ABC, and it was a fun ballgame. A really charged-up atmosphere as well.

Iowa jumps out early. Arizona came right back. Of course, we know what happened the following year when we had to make the return trip out there, but it was Tyler Sash once again, the late, great Tyler Sash making a big play in this one. It was Iowa defense turning up a performance and a fun, warm day at Kinnick Stadium as Iowa moves to 3-0 on the season.

But now, it gets difficult. It gets difficult here, and on top of it, there's a trip out to Penn State. So Penn State, at the time, the previous year, 2008, it was the green out. Sean Green. So everyone in the stands is wearing the green shirts, And Iowa upends third-ranked Penn State. Penn State was really good. They dominated that first half in Iowa. With grit and guile, came back and won that game on the Daniel Murray walk-off.

But all offseason, anybody you'd run into that's a Penn State fan, from somebody in person to somebody online, it was about revenge. It was about payback. And one somebody online, it was about revenge. It was about payback. And one play in, it was not pretty. So I was there that day in Beaver Stadium. It was a long tailgate, a night game. It was a 8-12 kickoff, East Coast time, 7-12 for us back here in the Central Time Zone. It was a long day of drinking. So I started off the trip in Pittsburgh. We went to Pirates-Dodgers game on Friday night, then maybe our way over to State College.

Got there late morning, and the tailgate was on. Another group of friends, they took an RV out there, so we had a great setup. It was absolutely picture perfect, well, except for the rain. A long day. Every Penn State fan that I talked to all throughout the day, we talked to a ton of them,

they said paid back was going to happen. And one play in, looked like that was going to be the case. A 79-yard touchdown pass from Darrell Clark to Powell on their first play from scrimmage. And then a 20-play drive right after that. It was 10-0. Looked like the Hawkeyes were in trouble. But the defense started to tighten up.

And that is the story of this 2019. Is a absolute elite level defense. And what they did, Iowa continued their domination against Penn State. Found a way again. It started early in the fourth quarter. Down 10-5 in what an Iowa football score. That is the block punt from Adrian Claiborne. Up until that point, the Iowa offense was struggling so much in that game.

And you could just feel the pressure of the 110,000 people in the whiteout conditions and just how difficult environment that was. But Iowa hung around and made plays. And maybe this is when you put up the week of the Penn State game this year. Yes, we can go up there and we can win a game in a whiteout. We've done it before. Let's do it again 14 years later on a cold night in that one. The block punt and then the offense finally started jump starting a little bit more. We got the offense going. That was a great

thing to see certainly as Iowa was able to get a late touchdown and push it past and get the victory as they win it 21-10 against Penn State and suddenly it went from the disappointment of week one what was going to be to what it turned into Adam Robinson with a late touchdown run Danny Murray tacked on another field goal with eight seconds remaining 21-10 the final there then the weird game against Arkansas State and bad Ricky he showed up again Ricky Stanzi with a couple interceptions in this game. Let them hang around. This game was tied up at 14 apiece with Arkansas State. You anticipated that Iowa certainly was going to be slow going, getting out of the gates on this one after what they did the week before. That was the case. Here comes Michigan after that. This was one of the coldest games that I've ever experienced at Kinnick Stadium.

Maybe one of the reasons for that is because it was played in early October. You don't normally think of early October games are going to be as bone chilling as it was. Wake up that morning. It is snow on the ground in Des Moines. Make your way over to Iowa City, and it was just cold. Now, of course, we had plenty of booze. Keeps you warm throughout the time.

But Iowa, in a back-and-forth affair, they win the game in a crucial interception by Brett Greenwood. What a story that was, as Iowa was clinging to a 30-28 lead, and they win it there to run the second-longest winning streak in the country behind only Florida. Next up, it's a road trip to Wisconsin. No big deal. Iowa gets it done in this one.

Coming back in the second half, the Cartier kids, again, they were out there. Also that day, the Buckeyes lost to Purdue. Iowa was alone in top of the Big Ten. We go to the matchup with Michigan State in one of the more physical games that you're going to find in the Big Ten. This is a knock it out, drag it out affair. This was the week that I went to Alabama with my then girlfriend. We made the trip down to Tuscaloosa. I was wearing my black and gold. We went to the game. It was Alabama-Tennessee. It was a great game in its own right as Alabama in their first big year under Nick Saban

continued their undefeated run. And I had a great line. Everybody come up. Why are you wearing an Iowa gear? What's the Hawkeye gear? What's this all about? And I said, I'm scouting for the national championship game. And that got a bunch of ha-ha-has.

Oh, you know, we had a good time. We got a few free beers out of that. That was good as well. But because of that, we didn't get back and we were staying with my wife's friends in Birmingham. Well, the Iowa game was that evening. This was a late afternoon game. I don't want to know anything about it.

They had it set up on the DVR. The game was recording. I didn't have a smartphone at the time, and maybe that made it a little bit easier. But I said, phone's off. Don't tell me anything. So we get back to Birmingham. It's about 830. And then we start watching this game against Michigan State and the back and forth affair, the physical play players laid out in this one.

And then the play to win it. Marvin McNutt on the receiving end from Ricky Stanzi. Iowa walks off again with a 15-13 win on the road at Sparty. A week later, here comes Indiana. Not a very good Indiana team, and Iowa is down in this one. In fact, they're looking like they are going to get blown out of the building on Halloween against a bad Indiana team in the undefeated streak. Iowa at this point, to number four in the country was going to come to a close. Super windy day that day. That was a huge part of it. And throwing into the wind, it was a death knell. Ricky Stanzi throwing interceptions all over the place. Five picks in the game, four in the third quarter as they were going into the wind. But they had the wind at their back in the fourth quarter. Tyler Sash made the big play on a somehow. I still don't even know if it was an interception.

Whatever it was, how he got that football and ran it back 86 yards for the scores. It looked like Indiana was going to, if not punch it in, they were going to kick another field goal and add to their lead. Instead, Iowa comes roaring back, wins it 42-24 with 28 fourth quarter points. Not only that, Iowa was favored by 17 and a half. They covered. How about that if you're favored by 17 and a half. They covered. How about that? If you're on the losing end of a Indiana ticket,

well, you're still talking about that one today. But a week later, it does come to an end. The winning streak finally falls as Ricky Stanzi, up 10-0, bootlegs out in the north end zone, and then is taken down. Wooten gets him, rolls up on that ankle, and he is done for the rest of the regular season. James Vandenberg came in, nothing he could do.

There was a touchdown that was taken off the board on a long run in that one. One of the more devastating losses that Iowa has had in Kinnick Stadium, certainly of recent history. 10-0 lead, cruising, looking like you're going to be undefeated going into the game in Columbus, yet Iowa gets it done. Well, I wasn't done for my road trips.

I had to make another one. So I decided to go to Columbus. So I had tickets for a while with one of my friends, and Barry and I had the talk. After the loss to Northwestern, so much momentum, how bad James Vandenberg looked and how well the Buckeyes were playing. Do we really want to drive to Columbus and watch this in person? We can sell our tickets. We'll probably even make a couple bucks on it.

What do we want to do? Let's do it. And we did. We take off Friday evening, make our way late early in the morning, I guess it would be on Saturday morning, get a couple of hours of shut-eye, and then the boozing began, and we got ready to see what we anticipated at the time was going to be Iowa getting clubbed. They didn't. They hung around, led after the first quarter, down 10-3 at the half. They tied up in the third quarter. And every time that Ohio State looked like they were going to open it up,

including a 24-10 lead in the fourth quarter, Iowa responded. Had a Buckeye fan, a loud mouth, behind me after they took that 24-10 lead, slapping me on the shoulder saying, well, have that fun ride home, idiot. Well, it's a Buckeye fan. Goes without saying. But right after that, DJK fun ride home. Idiot. Well, it's a Buckeye fan. Goes without saying. But right after that, DJK returned the kick. 99 yards, and I let him know in no uncertain terms, hey, I didn't know you guys only played 48 minutes of football here in Columbus.

We got 60 to go. Those 60 accomplished nothing, though. It goes to overtime. Iowa had an opportunity in the fourth quarter to go for it. And I know a lot of people playing revisionist history, they like to go back and say, you know what, what we should have done is try to go for the win there in Columbus. James Vandenberg's numbers were a lot better than they were the previous week. They still weren't great. He was struggling. He had a pick six. I was called back on a iffy penalty call in that one. I was fine with the decision then. Yes, in hindsight, you'd look back and say, do it.

I had no problem with it because as good as Vandenberg was, there were still plenty of shaky moments in that game. Trey Strauss really struggling. Ohio kid in that matchup, helping out his home state school. It was not a great one. Iowa had opportunities and a lot of what ifs about that season. Wrapping up the year here, as we look back at 2009, it was a very ho-hum, a 12-0 win against Minnesota the following week,

Floyd to Rosedale matchup. That, it was just bad. Vandenberg, as good as he looked at times a week before, he was hideous. There were 17 punts in the game. The lone touchdown came with 52 seconds left in the first half as Brandon Weger made his way in for the score. But Iowa gets a bid into a BCS Bowl game as they make their way to Orange Bowl against Georgia Tech.

Well, when we have more time, we will talk more about that on another day. But we got one more thing to get into here on Locked On Hawkeyes. There is plenty to talk about. 2009, always a fun look back. We'll continue here throughout the series this summer. Some of the great Hawkeye teams. Iowa Swarm Beer from Exile Brewing. It is a big story.

And how big financially is it? We'll talk about that as we continue Locked On Hawkeyes. is it? We'll talk about that as we continue Lockdown Hawkeyes. Trent Cotter back with you one final time here on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. So Exile Brewing and the Swarm Collective, they come up with the new beer. The Swarm Golden Ale.

Every day as you know, a couple weeks back I was at Exile, did a couple of podcasts there. One with RJ Tersey who is the owner of Exile, the other with David Eichel from 24-7 Sports, Hawkeye Insider, that was also there for the unveiling of the new beer. It tastes great. I bought a bunch.

I've had one with my Buckeye brother-in-law. I've had one with my Badger cousin and even my Gopher family. I have had them all have it, and they all liked it. That's a good thing. And they didn't know until afterwards that they're helping out the Iowa collective. They're helping the Hawkeyes get more student athletes. So the great question about this is what it was going to lead into as it pertains to money. How much money was this actually going to generate?

How much was this going to bring to the collective? And there were varying ranges about it. People thinking, you know, tens of thousands of dollars up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Well, one month in, we have the answer. And it's not even a full month. And the availability of Swarm Gold Nail was not even available, not just across the state. You can barely get it outside a couple of tap rooms.

Of course, the Exile Tap Room, a couple of bars, a few Hy-Vees had it early on before we got to July 4th. And what happened? They hit the ground running. 30K going to the Swarm Collective. For all of you, just drink a beer. I'm doing my part. I'm going to continue.

I absolutely love it. I love giving it, sharing it with friends, Hawkeye fans that haven't had a chance to have it yet, and also giving it to those other people in your life that don't know what they're doing and don't root for the Hawkeyes. Get out there. Help out the Swarm Collective. Enjoy a great beer with Exile and the Swarm Golden Ale.

That will do it for today. Thanks, as always, for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day, available wherever you get podcasts and also you can find us on YouTube. Hit that subscribe button while you're there. Helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Every dayers, we hope to have LaShawn Daniels back with us talking a little

football to end the week. Have a great one. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Go Hawks!