Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football: Biggest concerns going into spring practice, Hawkeye Hoops prepares for Penn State

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

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We are three weeks away from the start of spring football practice. We give you the three biggest concerns, both offensively and defensively. Talking some football today. Locked on Hawkeyes. You are locked on Hawkeyes. Your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On 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 find podcasts. You can also find us on YouTube. While you're there, make sure you hit that subscribe button. Helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel.

Make every moment more. New customers join today and you'll get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet of $5 or more wins. Visit fanduel.com slash locked on to get started. We got basketball, we got wrestling, we got baseball and softball, and a whole lot more going on right now. But today, we're going to talk plenty of football. We're going to get to the Iowa-Penn State matchup coming up this evening in preview as Iowa needs to stack up the victories at the end of the season.

They're going to put themselves in consideration to be an NCAA tournament team. We will get to that, but as we sit here today on the 27th of February, it is time to look forward. We are three weeks away from the start of spring practice. In fact, it'll start in 22 days, but you know where we're going here. Three weeks away from the start of practice. It's going to break down, for me, the three biggest concerns on each side of the football going into spring practice. And you might say, well, defensively, there aren't any concerns over there.

Pump the brakes on that a little bit. And there's a lot more than three probably on the offensive side of the football. But I'll give you my three here today. And first things first, when you're talking about concerns for this football team, I believe offensively it has to start at the quarterback position after the injury from Cade McNamara a year ago tears the ACL against Michigan State and we saw just how decrepit the offense became after that it was hideous and there's no two ways about it and a big reason for that was obviously the lack of quarterback play. They didn't have a competent backup. And because of that, you saw a ton of ugliness throughout the course of the season. Getting Cade McNamara back healthy.

And unfortunately, we never got to see him healthy in a Hawkeye uniform. He sustained that injury going back in the open practice at Kids Day when he was scrambling. And from there, it just was never completely there. We saw that Iowa really struggled, even going under center with him in the lineup. Him pushing off and getting even a five-step drop was incredibly difficult as he was working through the injury before the ACL.

So we never got to see him completely healthy. The numbers were not great. Now we got excited that first drive of the season, coming down and on the second play, having the big throw to Seth Anderson. All of a sudden, oh, here we go. This team is off and running. Maybe that was the offensive high note of the season in that game. But overall, Cade McNamara, what he can do. Now, he is not a burner by any means. He is not a guy that is some kind of uber athlete making plays up and down the field but what he is is an incredibly when healthy

he is an incredibly accurate quarterback and accuracy that the feet are right the legs are right the timing is right you can move the football incredibly well in any kind of style of offense and that's something i would just has not had recently obviously go back to spencer peters that was not a strength of his. Not a strong enough arm, could make all the throws. Accuracy, though, was just terrible. And because of that, you saw how hamstrung the Iowa offense was. Even go back to Nate Stanley. And in hindsight, looking at his numbers compared to what we saw after him, I think everybody would sign up for that. But you saw that as well from Nate Stanley accuracy certainly was not one of his strengths even the better quarterbacks the C.J. Beathards the Ricky Stanzies has never been

at an elite level when you're talking statistically now part of that is the way that Iowa runs their offense and what they do but the hope with Tim Lester is that you're going to have an offense that is going to be able to make the makeables a whole lot more often you're going to be able to do some things and and get those easy throws and be able to make the makeables a whole lot more often. You're going to be able to do some things and get those easy throws and be able to pick up 4, 8, 12 yards in chunks in just those little plays and the high accuracy plays that you need to make. Cade McNamara, that has been one of his strengths. You go back to his time at Michigan and people talked about that.

Never talked about a strong arm. He's not a guy that's going to be breezing it. You can just hear the ball snapping through the air as it comes off his hands. That's not Cade McNamara. However, accuracy absolutely is, and they're going to need that. When you're implementing a new offense, when you're putting together something new, you need all hands on deck. You need everybody to really be pulling in the same direction. We also know that the backup situation is incredibly, let's just say scary. Deacon Hill, we saw he is not the answer. I don't know what the question is, but he is not the answer to the quarterback position. We saw Marco Lyon as late in the game against Tennessee in a blowout. He was running

around. Didn't see a whole lot in the passing game though. That makes you believe that he can be a big 10 starting quarterback. There are things to like. We'll see. Both of those guys will get plenty of opportunity as McNamara works his way back. But when you're talking about concerns, for me, that is number one. Because if Cade McNamara goes down again, and they're not able to bring in a transfer quarterback in the next transfer window that opens up after spring practice, that is a huge, huge concern. James Rezar also comes in, the true freshman.

We don't see many true freshmen getting snaps unless they absolutely have to. Well, going back to Drew Tate, and that was a different story for a different day. So number one on the list is the quarterback position and certainly the health of Cade McNamara working his way back. He was throwing the football around down in Florida, doing some things. He's not going to be a full go or even close to it in spring practice, but can do some seven-on-seven work. Can he at least get a few more reps working his way back off the torn ACL?

That is the hope on there. Number two on our concerns for the Iowa football team, three weeks away from spring practice, is the offensive line. You bring in Caden Proctor, boom, there is a huge help. But over the last two seasons, talk about quarterback play, talk about the play calling, and some of the reasons that this Iowa offense has

not just been bad, not just been Iowa football, it has cratered to a level that we had never seen before. And a huge reason for that is the offensive line. Now, a year ago, they improved as an offensive line. It was still not elite by any means, but the improvements that we saw in the run game and what they were able to do. And I think also a part of that was the move away from

the outside zone blocking scheme that they'd implemented for the last two decades. And we saw more gap blocking. We saw more assignment football, beat the guy in front of you, those kind of things, a lot more iso plays. We talk about that a lot with LaShawn when he joins us here on the program. Those are the things that they needed to implement, maybe a tick longer than you wanted to see, but you did do that, and you did see that, and because of that, we saw some improvements in the run game, but you have to figure it out. And this goes to with what Iowa has right out of the gate. An Iowa State team in week two, that's going to be returning 20 of 22 starters

from the end of last season. Game number one, you go up to Minnesota. Then you followed up with a road trip to Ohio State to begin Big Ten play. No more tinkering around. No more trying to figure things out as we work our way into October with the offensive line. You got plenty of weapons. Left tackle, done, set. Caden Proctor is your guy. around. No more trying to figure things out as we work our way into October with the offensive line.

You got plenty of weapons. Left tackle, done. Set. Caden Proctor is your guy. Boom. What do you do outside of that? What does it mean for Mason Richmond? Does he move over to the right tackle position? Do you go that route? Are you happy with Jennings Dunker at that spot? And though we saw certainly a big guy and there's some speed rushers that can give him problems do you believe that even more development that dunker's going to be fine on the right side is it richmond out there and dunker checks inside what do you do at the center position i know they love logan jones but i continue to be impressed by tyler elsberry obviously what you happen there and then a healthy season of connor colby and a guy that was honorable mention all big 10 and you hope he's not a tackle but he's been a pretty good guard,

and finally in his senior year maybe puts it all together and puts together an outstanding season. Plus you have depth. You have Bo Stevens that started games for you. You mentioned Ellsbury. Nick DeYoung, a swing guy that comes back for another year, another guy that is going to help out the depth. Cade Pieper, who redshirted last year, was on the depth chart late last season.

Do we see one of the freshmen, other redshirt freshmen, along with Peeper, a guy like maybe a Trevor Lauk, somebody like that is able to come in and not be a starter by any means, but be a rotational piece and a guy that you're building towards the future. The options are there, and the excuses need to be over for Coach Barnett and that offensive line. It needs to be immensely better this year if Iowa's going to get it done. And then finally,

that's wide receiver and it's finding weapons outside. You are set again at the tight end position with Lachey. Obviously, Addison Estrengo, we saw how well he played, but what are you doing on the outside? I think we saw enough out of Kalen Brown

to understand that Brown can be a guy that can make some plays and he's going to be good. However, who else? Is that the Anderson? Okay, not a real big big guy who's going to be that big X receiver who's going to be the guy is it Jared Bowie who was on the travel team as a true freshman a year ago Dayton Howard another guy with size Reese Van Der Zee comes in as a true freshman this season Alex Moda and we saw a little bit of wet gin he's more of kind of a gadget type of a player that you have there. Alec Wick has gotten some snaps, hasn't done a whole lot with them. Jacob Bostic, if he could

ever stay healthy, that's another one, but you have to figure it out. If you're good with Anderson, you're good with Caleb Brown, those two guys. And I think you are, those that can be at least competent, big 10 wide receivers. And I think even more than that for Caleb Brown, got to obviously cure the drops, can't afford that, and what I was going to do and what the offense is going to look like. So those are the three biggest concerns that I have, and that's not bringing up a new system, play calling, what Tim Lester is going to do, how much autonomy he's going to have and run the offense that he wants and doing RPOs and doing different things and playing certainly a different

style than what Kirk Ferentz has been used to here over the years. Those are different ones. And don't worry, we'll talk plenty about those. We go over to the defense. Now our three biggest concerns defensively for Iowa football as we get ready for spring practice. Three concerns, three weeks away from spring practice. We'll do that as we continue Locked on Hawkeyes. Today's episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Get buckets with your first bet on FanDuel. It's America's number one sportsbook. Right now, new customers, you're going to get $150 in bonus bet with any winning $5 bet. That's $150. If your team wins, just hit that bet. A $5, you got $150 in bonus bets coming into your account. You can

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FanDuel, official partner of the NBA. Welcome back. It is the LockedOn Hawkeyes podcast. I'm Trent Condon. And as always, thanks for making LockedOn Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We go from offense to defense as we're talking about the biggest concerns

for Iowa football going into spring practice. Three of them for you on each side of the ball with practice being three weeks away. Let's get into the defense. And I start up front and not just starting up front because there's names there that you're excited about. But really, more than anything, it's an ability to get to the quarterback. And as we've seen historically, when I was defenses at their best, it's an ability to get to the quarterback. And as we've seen historically, when Iowa's defense is at their best, it is an ability to get to the quarterback. And the way we saw both Nick Jackson at times last year,

I thought he was really good when they did some blitz packages for him. That's something that they had to do probably more than Phil Parker wanted. And you need that defensive line to step up in a big-time way. You couple it with the losses joe evans departs after having nine and a half sacks becomes one of the top sack guys all time in iowa football history i talk about a guy that just built him into something uh the story of joe evans just absolutely great and a great career out of joey the bull he moves on logan lee he's going to give it a shot at the next level he was so good and just so impactful in a myriad of different ways.

It wasn't getting the quarterback his ability just to play fundamentally sound, game in and game out. His assignment, he knew it, he did it, time in and time out, and you're going to lose both those guys from last year. Another guy that you lose that was going to be part, certainly of this rotation this year, was Antonio Thompson. And we saw Thompson last year with a couple of blocked punts, and the hope was, with that great athleticism that he had

on the defensive line, that he was going to be a big piece this season. Not the case anymore. He transferred out. So that leads Deontay Craig. And I was a person that thought Deontay Craig, this past season, was going to have a breakout year and potentially himself have a question if he was going to come back for another year. Well, with the year that he had, that wasn't the case. Just three sacks last year, and that was a disappointment. I mean, you want to see that number probably triple that.

I mean, nine sacks, maybe put it at eight and a half when you're talking about it over under for him next season. I know he was banked up last year. We didn't get to see the complete season out of Deontay Craig, but definitely need more. And we need him to get to the quarterback and really be that kind of guy. Hawaii Black, that's not his game. He's a occupy space in the middle type of player. And though he had a couple of sacks last season and really after a shoulder injury, maybe played the best football of his career. He's just a mountain of a man and he occupies a lot of space in there, but that's not his job. You don't expect,

and certainly the Iowa scheme, for him at that position to get to the quarterback, you know, a half dozen times. That's just not something that you see a whole lot out of that spot. And then a step up from some of the young guys. We've seen Aaron Graves now, now going to be an upperclassman now, and it's crazy to think he's going to be a junior this season. Max Llewellyn, who's made some plays and I think at minimum is a good rotational piece. Maybe the heir apparent over there and taking over for Joe Evans. I'm probably going to see him a whole lot more. Then who else can be somebody off the edge? Is it some of the young guys? You got a great true freshman class coming in of defensive linemen. Joseph Anderson,

Chima Shanake, Drew Campbell, Devin Kennedy, all those guys, certainly good accolades from all of them. And I think exciting really with all four of those players defensively. Some of the redshirt guys, Chase Brackney, Kenneth Merriweather. There's a couple of names that you throw in the mix and see what they can do. And really the star last spring and even during August camp was Brian Allen. And we just didn't see a whole lot of Brian Allen this past season. He's a guy I think definitely can be impactful, showed enough. I think they want more consistency out of him to get more reps, but definitely has the motor that you'd hope out there.

And one other name, well, Jeremiah Pittman, he's going to be involved inside and he's going to be helping out. Didn't see as much of him also as we thought we would this past season. But I continue to throw this out. Didn't see as much of him also as we thought we would this past season. But I continue to throw this out. I did it last summer, even before he arrived officially on campus. And that's Ben Keeter. As we see Ben Keeter get a nice win on the wrestling mat against Oklahoma State over the weekend, and now a decision that the wrestling program needs to make if they're going to burn his red shirt, use him in Big Tens, or if he's going to red shirt and his season comes to a close. red shirt, use him in big tens, or if he's going to red shirt and his season comes to a close.

Going from linebacker, put your hand on the ground. Is that something that Ben Keeter, as he probably wants to have his weight wrestling at heavyweight, a little bit higher? Is that something that makes sense? He's got a great athleticism. I mean, he's certainly got a motor. You're on the wrestling mat like that. You definitely have that. You think about hand placement, the ability to kind of battle more inside as opposed to linebacker, if that would be something that would make sense for Ben Keeter and just another one to throw in the mix. But you have to get to the quarterback and probably even going to have to be better this season with a more difficult schedule. Though not overly daunting, as we've talked about every day, as you know, that got to be better getting to the quarterback this year. Let's go to number two on the list.

getting to the quarterback this year. Let's go to number two on the list. And my second concern going into the next season with this defense, it goes hand-in-hand with the offense, but it's getting back to creating turnovers. How about this? Last year, Iowa averaged forcing 1.1 turnovers per game. That was 111th in the country. Opponents, they only threw interceptions on 2.12% of their passes this past season.

Think of that. About one out of every 48 passes in the air is all Iowa was picking off a year ago. That was 103rd in the country last season. Now, my theory behind it is because the offense has been so decrepit, teams anymore are just not willing to take any chances against Iowa. They'll live to see another day. And coaches across the board have said, don't make a mistake because their offense can't do enough to make it hurt.

And because of that, if it's third and 14, don't take that shot down the field because we know what Iowa's defense is going to do. They're going to pick it off. They're going to get a short field. Maybe they're going to return it for six, and we're going to be screwed. Instead, teams said, we're going to pick it off. They're going to get a short field. Maybe they're going to return it for six and we're going to be screwed. Instead, teams said, we're going to put it in the lockbox. We know they can't do anything on that side of the football. The hope is with an improved offense that that will change.

We'll get back into it. But you have to be better about forcing turnovers this season. That's where Iowa's defense is at that elite level and can win some of those big games. You look at what's happened now over the last couple of years against the big boys. Michigan in the last two Big Ten championship games that Iowa's played in. Ohio State a year ago. The defense played great in Columbus back in 2022. They played excellent.

Held them, what, under 300 yards, I believe it was, in that game. I mean, their average of 550 yards a game. And Iowa's defense gave everything. And the offense was just so bad that they'd give it right back. And that was the biggest issue in that one. Obviously, the Penn State game this season. Iowa had opportunities early in that game, and with the play here and play there, non-fumble, those kind of things, maybe it would have been a different game, but Penn State knew in that game, they simplified it. We're not going to make a mistake because we just know if we play

straight up football with our talent and we don't screw it up, we're more talented and we're going to win that game. And how I was one of these games in the past against the big dogs is the other team making mistakes. Didn't happen those last season. Was it a one-year anomaly or was it something more? At least a theory for the reason behind it. And finally, in our biggest concerns going in, well, the punter is considered a defensive player. Yeah, it's a punter. You lose an All-American, Torrey Taylor. And I understand that Rhys Dakin,

a lot of people are pumped up about him. You see the videos from Pro Kick Australia and you see him just having some absolute moonshots and booming it. Still, there is some kind of translation. Remember when Torrey came in, his first game over in Purdue, came in 2020 with nobody in the stands. That's not going to be the case for Rhys Dakin.

He's going to see certainly a different level to that. How does he catch the ball? How quick is he actually getting it off his foot? Is there going to be a little bit of growing pains that happen there? And it's not just about the powerful leg. Torrey Taylor obviously had that, but it was his ability to find his gunner, his ability to pin teams deep. And that is more than just a powerful leg.

That is precision. That is something that is a little more, something innate to it, right? A little bit more like a golf swing than anything. And we don't know with the new punter if that's what it's going to be. So those are your concerns on the defensive side of the football.

Finding a pass rush, getting to the quarterback. Number two, getting back to turning over other teams and get that turnover rate up to the level that we certainly anticipate with Iowa football and the punter. Offensively, your three biggest concerns, health of the quarterback position, offensive line of the woes we've seen

the last couple of years, and getting it figured out early this season. And number three, finding some weapons outside. Three weeks away from spring practice. Can't wait for it. We will have plenty for you here. Leading up to it and throughout on Locked On Hawkeyes. As we continue Locked On Hawkeyes, a monster matchup for Iowa.

They're all big going forward on the hardwood for the men's basketball team. Coming up, it's a matchup against Penn State, a team that Iowa had on the ropes out in State College here about a month ago and let it slip away. Stop me if you heard that one before. We'll break things down. What's it going to take for the Hawkeyes to get the victory? We'll do that as we continue Locked on Hawkeyes.

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of more Hawkeye fans. You can follow me on Twitter as we will be keeping an eye on the hoops tonight. I got a little sub-state basketball I'll be calling on the high school side of things with Waukee and Dallas Center Grimes in Central Iowa looking to punch their tickets into the state basketball tournament. But I will definitely, after that thing wraps up,

be watching Iowa hoops this evening and follow along with me at Trent Condon on Twitter. All right. Hoops tonight. Penn State. It's a must-win game. I mean, there's no two ways about it. Short of Iowa winning the Big Ten tournament, you have to win this game.

It's a home game. It is not going to be a quad one victory. It's not going to be anything like that, but you have to hold serve. If Iowa wins their final three games, they get to 19-12. Well, you can't win your final three if you don't win your first one, and that's against Penn State. So we go back first to that game and Iowa had a big lead in the game, had plenty of opportunities really to salt that one away. They're leading at the time. I'm bringing up the box score here after a 12-1 run. They're up by seven, 63-56

with just over eight minutes to play. Fouled up with an 11-0 run by Penn State. Then Iowa ties it up again. It's tied up at 71. What do they do? They give up a 13-2 run and ultimately lose that one. They gave up 35 points in the final 10 minutes of that basketball game. Going back to that one, Ben Kroenke, he was outstanding.

He had 22. Tony Perkins had 11. Patrick McCaffrey had 11. Those are the only guys that were in double figures. Peyton Sanford didn't shoot it very well. Owen Freeman played 26 minutes, had just nine points. He was 4-4 from the floor, but just never was able to get into a rhythm. And it was very uncharacteristic of Iowa

and the way that they play. They turned the basketball over 18 times in that game. And if memory serves, a bunch in the first half of that one. It was just not what we're used to with Iowa basketball and the way they play, certainly offensively. On the other side, Ace Baldwin, the VCU transfer, he was an absolute stud. And he was really the difference in the game. He came in with Coach Rhodes from VCU transfer he was an absolute stud and he was really the difference in the game he

came in with coach Rhodes from VCU and he has been right worth the price of admission admission of Penn State right now they're okay I mean they're I was better I was had a better season overall but they've been inconsistent throughout the course of the year but they come in after beating Illinois all right we know about that and they come back victory last week. Then they get a win against Indiana and really controlled that one on Saturday, right before the Iowa-Illinois game. Really kept the Hoosiers at arm's length away. You know, for them, they're really looking at this and saying, can we keep our head above water, be above 500, and get to the NIT? And you're number one of a new regime there. That would be a great building block for them. Made the run last get to the NIT. And you're number one of a new regime there. That would be a great building

block for them. Made the run last year to the round of 32 in the NCAA tournament. Had a great chance to beat Texas in that game in the round of 32 that was played right here in Des Moines. But when you look at what they have, they go, obviously, come here to Iowa tonight. Then they go to Minnesota and they finish up against Maryland. At minimum, they have to go two and one here down the stretch to at least be 500 for the NIT and getting in there. Now the NIT rules I know are a little bit different this season. Things are a little bit different in the way that things will be selected. You're going to see more power conference teams in there, but good building block, good opportunity here. Iowa favored, what did we mention? Eight and a half, I think was the number,

over at FanDuel. Ken Palm has it at 7. Got to be better on the defensive end. Can't give up 95 points like they did against Illinois. I like the heart of this Iowa basketball team, though. I like the resiliency that they've shown throughout the course of the year. For this team to still be playing at this high of a level, 11th in the country in offensive efficiency

in a year where they are shooting 33.5% from three. Say, oh, that doesn't sound too bad. That's 196 in the country. That's not good. That's not good at all. And yet still playing at an elite level offensively shows you what a great offensive coach,

obviously, Fran McCaffrey is. If he can take this group and if they could actually do this here, and it's easier said than done. Winning these final three and putting themselves in contention to be an NCAA tournament team, you very well could argue it's Fran McCaffrey's best coaching job,

and especially where they were a month ago. Still work to be done. Starts tonight. Get the win against Penn State. We will be back with you afterwards with an instant reaction podcast as we have you covered each and every day. Your team every day. That's what we do across the Lockdown Network and not just here with Lockdown Hawkeyes.

Your favorite NFL, NBA, NHL, NBA team. You name it. We got you covered here on Lockdown and your team every day. Love being here with you on the Hawkeyes side of things. Again, hit that subscribe button. Also want to let you know that Lockdown has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube. And now it's also available on Amazon Fire TV and the free Fire TV channels app.

Lockdown Sports Today is here for you 24-7, covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of Lockdown, plus our national shows covering every league. Find Locked On Sports Today now available on the free Fire TV channels app. We'll be back with you after the game tonight against Penn State. Women on the floor again against Minnesota coming up on Wednesday and the preview of the week ahead. A lot more football coming your way as well.

Plus, we'll get into baseball, maybe a little softball. We'll see what else is hanging out there. And plenty to talk about, as there always is in the world of the Hawkeyes. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Go Hawks.