Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football Bowl Destination, Who Plays QB? A possible return of Keagan Johnson & Wrestling beats ISU

Episode Date: December 5, 2022

Trent Condon returns for the latest edition of the Locked on Hawkeyes Podcast.It will be a match up with Kentucky again, this time in the Music City Bowl from Nashville for the Hawkeye bowl game. We start about the rematch and then talk about who the quarterback will be between Joe Labas and Carson May.Kirk Ferentz had some comments at the media availability after the announcement for the bowl. What can we read into the comments? And is there a real possibility that Keagan Johnson decides to stay at Iowa instead of leaving through the transfer portal.Wrestling got a win over Iowa State and we talk about that, the return of Spencer Lee and our first look at Real Woods as those guys were needed to get the win.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at Linkedin.com/lockedoncollege Terms and conditions apply.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” 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!SimpliSafeWith Fast Protect™️ Technology, exclusively from SimpliSafe, 24/7 monitoring agents capture evidence to accurately verify a threat for faster police response. There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe. Visit SimpliSafe.com/LockedOnCollege to learn more.Omaha SteaksOmaha Steaks is a gift from the heart – a gift that will be remembered with every unforgettable bite. Order with complete confidence today knowing you’re ordering the very best. Visit OmahaSteaks.com use promo code LOCKEDON at checkout to get that EXTRA $30 OFF your order. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Iowa has their bowl destination. It'll be Kentucky once again, this time in Nashville in the Music City Bowl. But who will be the Hawkeyes quarterback? We talk about that on today's podcast. Also, the transfer portal is officially open. We'll get into the latest rumblings and rumors out there about some potential targets for the Hawkeyes as they try to fix their offense coming up for next season. And Cyhawk Week, the winter season, got off to a good start with the win in the wrestling duel earlier on Sunday. We break that down and take a look forward to the basketball week. Women take on the Cyclones on Wednesday and the men on Thursday.

A big week in front of us all today on Locked on Hawkeyes. You are Locked on Hawkeyes, your today on Locked On Hawkeyes. Our Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Trent Conda back with you once again. This is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen each and every day. We're available wherever you get podcasts. You can also find us on YouTube on the video side of things.

While you're there, hit the subscribe button on the podcast side. Hey, hit us with those five-star reviews. Hel helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans as we break down what is going to be an incredibly busy week here the news that came out on Sunday Iowa will be traveling to Nashville I know this is a destination that a lot of Hawkeye fans have been clamoring for for a long time maybe a country music band maybe just like the ability to hop in the car and get there in a day's time, as opposed to the long drive to Florida or California or Texas and pull past bull destinations. Well, this one is one that you can definitely

make that happen. But that is what we know it is going to be against Kentucky. Now, it's a rematch, and that's disappointing. Let's be honest here. Now, the likelihood that they were going to play anybody outside is somebody that they've seen recently earlier in the day on Sunday Ole Miss they were already picked up by a bowl they had accepted a bid that looked like everything was

done there so the potential of them taking on Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss that one was pretty much off the table it was going to be one of two teams if it was going to be in Nashville it was either going to be Mississippi State of course saw them in the Outback Bowl a couple years back or it was going to be one of two teams. If it was going to be a Nashville, it was either going to be Mississippi state. Of course saw them in the Outback bowl a couple of years back, or it was going to be Kentucky. Really? The matchup doesn't matter that much, right? I mean,

we've seen these teams before we see Mississippi state. Recently we saw Kentucky a year ago. Our rematch is a little bit dull and boring. Sure. But in the grand scheme of things, I don't know if that's really the excitement about what's coming up in this bowl the excitement has to be what we're going to see at the quarterback position so the other big news here of today was that officially Spencer Petras is out for the bowl game he had shoulder surgery and with that he is going to be out not just weeks

but it looks like months before he's going to be able to do anything, be it he decides to get in the transfer portal and go to another destination, if he tries to take a shot at the next level, if he goes out and uses his degree, whatever it may be, it's going to be a while before he is healthy and able to use that shoulder.

So it comes down to, of course, two names. We know it's not going to be Alex Padilla, who has entered the transfer portal as a grad transfer. Already some contact out there from him. It'll be interesting to see where he officially ends up. But you have that component of it. Padilla is gone. So it is two guys that we have never seen before in official capacity.

The one, Joey Labus, which is intriguing. So Joey Labus is a guy that last year, during the season of 2021, he was running scout team, he was a freshman, and there was a little bit of buzz there. You heard a couple of good things that was coming out from time to time about him. And whatever buzz had built up completely dissipated here. Now, you're talking about practice reports,

and we know how tight and how high the walls are at Fort Kinnick over there when you're trying to get information on practice it's not easy it's not open to certainly the media it's not open to the public and for the people that are able to get in there very difficult to get much information but didn't hear that same kind of buzz well we did not hear much buzz either about Carson May so he is the true freshman that is on campus. Both these guys as prospects had other good offers. These guys were guys that you looked at and thought maybe had some potential. Now, Joe Labus is a guy interesting. I have some people

I know out in Ohio and asked a little bit about him and they were surprised that he got an Iowa offer. Now, these are just a couple of high school coaches that I know out there. They're nothing huge by any means, but they were surprised. They thought he was more of a Mac level guy. Iowa got a late offer from him and he committed then in the summer before his senior season, but didn't have a bunch of big time offers. He was committed to Ball State. So that's what you have with Levis. Carson May is a little bit different. Carson May, at least from 24-7, he was a guy that had a big ranking by his name. He was a four-star. He was from down in Oklahoma. Big guy, 6'5", 220. I mean, he is more of kind of your Nate Stanley type of guy, big physical dude, but he also had some pretty big numbers. He would top 500, a prospect from their rankings,

a top 30 quarterback also at 24-7. And you look at his offer list, a little bit different. He had Western Michigan, Old Dominion, a couple others. I guess I was wrong looking back upon it. Not quite the offer list that I was anticipating. That is who's going to get the start. One of those two. So again, we anticipate it'd be Labus. He'd been on campus longer. He was number three all season

long. You thought that was going to be the guy. And Kirk in the press conference on Sunday said it'll be one of those two. This is going to be a full competition, which is good to see. Go out there and just a chance to see something different. And if it is either one of them, do they have an opportunity to be the guy that you say, all right, that's going to be your backup. He's going to sit behind Cade McNamara, who Tracer's in for Michigan. He'll be the starter for the next two years. And then one of these two guys will be his backup,

ultimately perhaps leading to them becoming the starter after McNamara departs. Now, if that's what you're hoping for, that's what you're looking at, but certainly some interesting stuff there. More from the press conference from Kirk Behrens. And we will look forward also to the transfer portal. We've been breaking down everything that we know as the information continues to come in. We will continue to talk about that and some of the names that continue to pop. Of course, wide receiver, offensive line are now with McNamara in the fold. Those are the two biggest areas that you're looking for. We'll get to that here in just a moment. But listening to Kirk and the way that he was talking, it wasn't new Kirk,

but there were some nuggets that he threw out there that I think at the very least have to get you a little bit excited about the direction of things. Yes, there has not been a change in the offensive staff. There has not been a firing. There has not been guys that have moved on, anything like that. There's been nothing like that at this point, and you don't anticipate. That is not the way that Kirk Ferentz operates, as we talked about last week. That's not the way that he did things the last time they had a big shake-up on the staff when they got rid of Bobby Kennedy, when they got rid of,

oh man, already blanking on that one. But when the two coaches that departed, guys that were part of the Texas connection down there and the recruiting snafu that they went through, when those guys were ultimately fired, that didn't happen until January. You're not going to see the same thing, I think, happen here. I know there's rumblings out there. New offensive coordinator, Josh Gaddis, who was at Michigan two years ago, Miami this season. There's been a lot of talk about that.

The offensive coordinator from Tulane. I know that's been rumblings about that. Obviously nothing definitive at that point, but those are some of the things that are out there. It's not going to happen for a while. So to think that Kirk was going to have this bull announcement, he was also going to announce a bunch of staff changes. We haven't been paying attention for the last 24 years.

It's just not the way that he does things. But a couple of interesting nuggets he talked about. And the first one that I really just enjoyed hearing is him talking about a reevaluation. And last year, coming into the year, we knew they had problems offensively. If you saw that team, yes, they won 10 games a year ago, but that was a team that was not good offensively. And instead of changing anything, they doubled down. It didn't work. Had an opportunity to go out and get a real quarterback coach. They didn't. They made Brian the quarterback coach. There was a lot of things that they could have done. They decided not to. Kirk's not willing to do that now. He talked about that during the press conference and said, this is going to be very much like going back to 2014. You remember

after that 2014 year, they get beat last game of the year against Nebraska. In fact, that was the last time before this year they got beat by the Cornhuskers was in that game. Blew a big lead in that one and afterwards played in the Tax Slayer Bowl against Tennessee and had their doors absolutely blown off and the reevaluation happened. And that's when they changed and started to do practices in the morning and the like. So there were changes that happened at that point in time. And it looks like there's going to be changes, significant changes going forward. Good news there.

And another interesting nugget from the press conference. There was a question posed about guys that have already announced that they're entering the transfer portal. Maybe second guessing that choice. We'll talk about Kirk's response about that and what it really means. We're talking about Keegan Johnson. Keegan Johnson has said that he is going to enter

the transfer portal, okay, but is there an opportunity, if he's second-guessing, for him to come back? That would be big news for that wide receiver group for the Iowa Hawkeyes. We'll talk about that when we come back here on Locked on Hawkeyes. Today's episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast is brought to you by Omaha Steaks. Oh, yes, it is that time of year.

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Know you're getting the best. OmahaSteaks.com. Again, that promo code locked on at checkout to get an extra. $30 off your order. Minimum order may be required. Welcome back once again to the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. I'm Trent Condon. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen each and every day as we roll through here and the conversation about wide receivers.

So we've talked about Holden. He's the transfer from Alabama. He is now officially in the portal. Are there other teams that are going to be involved? Absolutely. As you listen to this, is there going to be done deals perhaps? Talasaw, the kid, the D2 kid from up in Michigan at Hillside, he took a visit this weekend to the state of Iowa.

Not to Iowa City, though. He was in Ames. I know a lot of people are maybe getting a little bit nervous about that. Look, there's going to be other suitors for these guys. I mean, these guys are not just all lining up to come in and try to fix this iowa offense there's going to be other people that'll be interested and there's going to be tense times if if you follow recruiting i know there's plenty of you out there that do you know that it can be a lot of highs and there's plenty of lows too and things that look very good for a moment then don't look very good for a while it's just it is the reality of the recruiting world.

And now with this new transfer market and with NIL and how much money is being offered and on and on and on, it's a different era. You just have to be ready for it. But before all that, there's going to be a lot more information coming here in the next couple of days and we'll continue to monitor and pass along anything that we get here on Locked On Hawkeyes. But one thing we got to throw out there is the questions that were asked during the press conference today.

And though they didn't outright mention Keegan Johnson, it's about Keegan Johnson. So Keegan Johnson, we know the story of this year. And he played the Nevada game, probably the worst game of the year that he could possibly play because of long delay in there, working his way back from injury, didn't play in the bowl game last year, didn't go through spring practice. People outside the program, everyone wondered about toughness and those kind of things, willing to play through injury, comes back, plays the last game of the year, a couple snaps against Nebraska, and then, well, not a surprise, he's going to the transfer portal. All right, all that makes sense.

But then all of a sudden, after the Cade McNamara news last week, there was some talk about maybe Keegan Johnson is second-guessing it. So a lot of people connecting dots anticipated he was going to go to Nebraska. New staff was going to come in there. Matt Rule was going to be the coach. And he was going to keep Mickey Joseph on as wide receiver coach or some kind of position coach. Well, it makes sense because Keegan Johnson's father played at Nebraska, played with Mickey Joseph. Apparently him and Mickey Joseph are incredibly tight. Well, then you get the news that Mickey Joseph has been arrested and

probably not going to have a home on that Nebraska football staff. How much does that play into it? Notre Dame has been involved. That is one of the programs that has reached out to Keegan Johnson, but at minimum right now, second guessing, I may be thinking more about that. Kirk talked about it today about, yes, there are going to be guys that we want to make sure if they're going to do this, that they're doing it completely right, that they're all in, that they're doing it for the right reasons.

Again, ultimately, these are about kids that you've recruited. And things go bad. There's disappointment. There's frustrations. All those things happen. again ultimately these are about kids that you've recruited and things go bad you know there's disappointment there's frustrations all those things happen but they're still ultimately people that you care about even if they are ultimately going to leave your program you do want what's best for them you've invested a lot of time and resources in these players and because of that you want a happy ending for them would you love it to be in iowa city if you're keegan johnson absolutely now go back and watch that play against minnesota a year ago in 2021 we just You want a happy ending for them. Would you love it to be in Iowa City if you're Keegan Johnson? Absolutely.

Go back and watch that play against Minnesota a year ago in 2021. He's just running through guys and making his way to the end zone. He is a special kind of talent. He is a deep threat that they don't have on this roster, and it was greatly missed this year. If Keegan Johnson is willing to repair whatever damage was done with this will-he-won't-he, were there some hurt feelings, to repair whatever damage was done with this will he, won't he? Were there some hurt feelings being in the coaching staff, teammates, whatever it may be?

I don't know. That can be a possibility. But ultimately, if Kirk Ferentz is okay with it, if he believes that Keegan Johnson is going to do the right thing, he's going to make it right for anybody that might have felt wrong, and it's not going to be a locker room distraction and all the like, then yes, absolutely.

Signed you up because those guys, they're important. Another big receiver, a couple with the guys that we've talked about here lately. There's still a lot of work that needs to be done, but a real possibility. Keegan Johnson, at least second guessing it and Kirk willing to listen at least to the

possibility of it coming back. As we wrap up here on lockdown hawkeyes we're going to talk about cyhawk week no not the football side of things it's the winter sports season yesterday a great wrestling duel the return of spencer lee to the mat as he gets it done a major decision and will prove to be pretty important for Iowa. We'll talk about the match. Some good, some bad, and some ugly in there. The high-powered nature of that rivalry in wrestling continues to go up in a big-time level. Kevin Dresser, Tom Brands,

those guys don't like each other very much. We'll give you a little bit of the backstory, break it down, and look forward to the rest of this wrestling season for Iowa. Get into that. Wednesday, the women take on Iowa State at Carver. Then on Thursday, it'll be the men. Oh, and before that, of course,

the men with the big one Tuesday against Duke. And it's an important week. We'll talk about that as we roll through. This is Locked on Hawkeyes. Today's episode brought to you by Simply Safe. At Locked at Hawkeyes, we believe home should be where you and your family feel safest, especially over the holidays. This season, give yourself and your family the gift of peace and protection with the number one rated home security system, Simply Safe.

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There's no safe like SimpliSafe. Trent Conant back with you one final time. This is LockedOnHawkeyes. Thanks for making LockedOnHawkeyes your first listen each and every day. For your second listen, don't forget about Lockdown Sports Today. From the games that matter the most to the biggest stories in sports, go beyond the scoreboard and behind the scenes with local experts and insights that only Lockdown can provide.

Lockdown Sports Today, available on this app, YouTube, or wherever you get podcasts. As we put a cap on things, rolling through a little wrestling. Now, I grew up a huge wrestling fan. We grew up in the wrestling community, grew up in Osage, up in North Iowa. If you're a wrestling fan, you know, Osage, right? Dunk Schwab, of course, won a national championship with Iowa. Trent Goodale had some guys that have gone through the wrestling room here recently as

well. Wrestling community. My grandpa, he was a four-time state qualifier, got to the championship twice, fell short both times, but grew up in a wrestling family. I just sucked at it. I was terrible. I was just absolutely brutal. I love the sport, though.

And with that, today's match, the duel, it had everything that you look for. First of all, starting at 25, a decision for Spencer Lee me for spencer lee to go out there to try it out there now it proved to be incredibly important because if spencer lee doesn't wrestle and everything plays out the way that it does iowa more likely is on the short side here because i don't see them getting win at 25 but just the build-up you could hear just the excitement in the crowd and the build-up there's something about those wrestling crowds in Carver, just how smart the group is and how well they know wrestling. And they know the times, you know, to get into it.

And that was a time to get into it. And he comes out right away. He gets a take down eight seconds in to the match. Gets a couple of tilts early on. He's just cruising along. Now, you saw a guy that hasn't been on the mat a whole lot. And he's got to get those lungs going. But he's got three more months to do that.

You feel good about, obviously, where he's going to be. But still look like Spencer Lee. That was great to see. A couple matches later, Real Woods made his Carver debut. The Stanford transfer. And what a plucky match that was against a freshman. Kid from Michigan that comes in from for Iowa State he was a highly regarded kid one of the highest ranked guys Iowa State has ever got he's gonna be really really good though going forward Casey Swiderski for

them at 141 Woods got the win 4-2 was the final little antics afterwards, a little pushing and shoving from both sides, and that's what you're going to get in wrestling. It was highly, highly competitive. Then late, as Iowa puts it away ultimately with the win at heavyweight, Cassiopeia made you a little bit nervous. He got locked up in a cradle there, and you're just thinking, oh, man, the winning streak's coming to an end. The traveling trophy's actually going to travel for the first time over to Ames, where it hasn't been since

Kevin Dresser's been there. It hasn't been now in 18 tries, but it will stay. In fact, they put this thing together, I think, in 2010. That's never been in the hands of Iowa State. Not a bad thing. The win streak continues, 18-15 the final. If you're a believer in the point spread, Iowa did not cover. They were favored by initially five was the opening line by Circa. I saw it at six. Didn't see what it closed at at Circa. I tried to open up the app right before the match went off, but got in a little bit late. It was a little after 1.30, so didn't get to see what the closing line was there.

But all that matters, I think, for wrestling fans, unless you bet on it, was that Iowa gets the win. 18-15 the final there, hopefully setting up a big week. So Iowa State on the women's side. That's on Wednesday. We'll break that down a little bit more as the week goes on. But the way Iowa's playing right now, the defensive struggles that they're having, it is concerning. Iowa State, good team.

And now this 6'6 center that they they have a transfer. She's really good and she can move and she can make plays coupled with what they have, obviously, with Ashley Jones. And it's a deep team. It's a team playing, I think, a lot better than the Iowa women are right now. It's in Carver and we've seen things get away as well in Carver Hawkeye Arena. But I will tell you at this point in time, if it was a pick-em, I would be picking the Cyclones going into this one. Again, we'll break it down a little bit more as we get close to the game on Wednesday. Then on Thursday, it'll be the men's side of things.

But they got their own set in front of them, of course, with the Duke game happening on Tuesday. We'll have a full breakdown of that one coming up on tomorrow's podcast and what I am so looking forward to. Just the opportunity to play against Duke. Chad Leistakow in the Des Moines Register. Great piece talking about the connection. Of course, Chris Street's final game came against the Dukies as they played that non-conference game in January that year. Hitting the free throws, of course, late in that one. Just so many stories, so many memories of that one coming flooding back.

You have this being also a Jimmy V game with it. Because it's a Jimmy V game, there's going to be a ton of talk about Patrick McCaffrey, what he went through with cancer, researches on and on and on. Ton of storylines going into this game. Should be fun and a potential big win for Iowa. If they can pull this one off. Yeah. Is this Duke team great right now?

They're not. Are they going to get better? They will. And Duke national TV audience going to be a big crowd on hand there at MSG. All those different things. A lot of potential excitement in front of it. And we will break it down here on Locked on Hawkeyes. Again, thanks for making Locked on Hawkeyes your first listen each and every day.

Being with us, we greatly appreciate it. Hit that subscribe button, everybody out there on YouTube. Give us a five-star rating and help us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. The transfer portal is open. There is going to be news. Keep an eye. Locked on Iowa on Twitter is where you can find us at Locked on Iowa. Locked on Hawkeyes. Just search. We'll pop up there. Follow me on Twitter

at Trent Conant. We will keep you up to date. I'll be back with plenty here throughout the week. A busy one in front of us. Looking forward to it. Great time to be a Hawkeye. It's always a great time to be a Hawkeye. We'll talk to you again tomorrow here on Locked on Hawkeyes. Go Hawks!