Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football: Creating some offense, Picks presented by Fan Duel with former Hawkeye LeShun Daniels

Starting point is 00:00:00 Well, it's not as entertaining for us. We're not at Merkel's like we were last Friday. But Trent and LaShawn back together today for Locked On Hawkeyes as we break things down. Any hope for this Iowa offense to get things turned around as they prepare for Rutgers? You are locked on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day.

Starting point is 00:01:03 Today's episode is brought to you by Jace Medical. Empower yourself when you purchase a Jace case, providing you with a personal supply of five antibiotics that treat 50-plus infections. Get yours today at jacemedical.com. That's Jace, J-A-S-E medical.com. LaShawn, good to see you, and good to meet you in person last week. We had a lot of fun with that one over at Merkel's getting ready for the matchup in Wrigleyville. Really good time there and good to see you again. How you doing?

Starting point is 00:01:33 Yeah, doing great. Doing great. Last week was pretty fun. You know, getting out, meeting you in person, interacting with all the fans over the weekend. It was definitely, definitely a great time. with all the fans over the weekend. It was definitely, definitely a great time. So your experience as a former player, you had mentioned that had a bunch of people, former teammates and just Iowa alumni that were kind of going to be there. What the experience was you, I've talked about it here throughout the week,

Starting point is 00:01:55 what the experience was like you in the town that you live in now in Chicago? Yeah, it was great. You know, everywhere, first of all, everywhere I went, there was always someone who recognized me uh while i was fans of players uh you know chat up a little bit even um you know some northwestern people uh northwestern uh former northwestern players uh i ran into who you know i uh teamed up with in the nfl so i was able to connect with them too so just overall overall

Starting point is 00:02:25 the weekend thought it was great to you know talk to some people who really you haven't talked to in a great great deal of time so being able to sit there and enjoy a kind of a football game that we watched i mean over the week i mean not going to sugarcoat it obviously there was it wasn't the most entertaining uh game but it had its moments. And, you know, overall, it was just a great weekend. It really was. Had such a good time and really enjoyed it. Great catching up with you and all the fans.

Starting point is 00:02:55 We had people stopping by at Merkel's, and I was there Saturday as well. Just a really, really cool experience. And happy that we could enjoy it. It felt like a bowl game and maybe a little bit more because this team still now, with what was happening on Saturday is everybody in the Big Ten West falling Iowa now in control once again of their own destiny to win this division title and three games to go I believe that Rutgers is certainly the most talented team that they're going to face here the remaining season and maybe the second best team that they faced after Penn State this season which is crazy to think think. But this is a good Rutgers team.

Starting point is 00:03:25 This is a Rutgers team that can run the football good defensively. They do not allow explosive plays. And kind of my theory of the day and something I wanted to run past you is we know this team is not going to be great offensively, but I kind of like the game plan that they had on Saturday.

Starting point is 00:03:39 It didn't work. And when they got to the 30, 35 yard line, they just kept shooting themselves in the foot. But I think that's kind of the scheme of the game plan they got to go with going forward I mean simplifying things so much for Deacon making it as incredibly easy for him I liked what I saw on Saturday crazy to say in a 10-7 game yeah I mean uh they did a good job of controlling the football game um obviously you know limiting turnovers, that's a pretty big part of having success. And I think it was just the one down in the red zone.

Starting point is 00:04:14 But for the most part, yeah, I thought they did a solid job of controlling the game. And, yeah, you hit it right on the head. I mean, it was very, very basic offense. A lot of almost what seemed like day one install type stuff. So they threw a little bit of wrinkles in there. I mean, we saw Cooper come in on offense for a couple of plays, which was fun to see. But for the most part, yeah, it was very, very simple offense limit,

Starting point is 00:04:39 the amount of mistakes and just kind of play that field position game, which is a little bit of what they've been doing all year. But I think they simplified it even more to put in a position where, you know, Deacon's not going to have to really put the ball in, in harm's way. And then I see when you got to the end of the football game and they have to run a quick two minute drill to get into position to,

Starting point is 00:04:59 you know, kick the game winning field goal. They were able to do that. So that was, that was encouraging to see. And hopefully that that game is going to allow them to continue to build off of that, because, again, you mentioned it. Rutgers is probably going to be the second best team that they've played up to this point in the season. And Rutgers is a really good football team.

Starting point is 00:05:21 They've played a lot of their tough opponents extremely, extremely tight, and I would expect that to continue on Saturday. You mentioned Cooper Dijon getting out there for a couple of plays, and it's a part of it. Yeah, we'd love to see him out there. Iowa needs any help they can get offensively, but Kirk mentioned it earlier this week on Tuesday, just trying to almost walk that fine line, not trying to get him out there too much, knowing that, oh, what can happen if he's injured? Well, we saw it last year against Nebraska. It was so debilitating to that team defensively. And all of a sudden your elite defense isn't elite anymore if Cooper Dijon is out. Walking that fine line, what would be a good number? Is it, you know, a package that you come in for a drive here in the first half, another maybe in the third quarter? Would that be something that would make sense to you

Starting point is 00:06:06 as you're kind of preparing for this one and knowing that points are going to be at a premium again this week? Yeah, I think it's definitely around there, probably around, you know, maybe that, I don't know, five to eight play range, like just something where you put him out there and just makes the defense kind of think about, you know, the potential of him getting the football. Because, again, he can impact the play with him not even getting the football,

Starting point is 00:06:32 whether you're just sending him in on a motion or even if you're just lining him up out there because it's something else that the defense has to account for. But, yeah, you don't want to have him on offense all the time you just you just don't want to do it because again it's it's it's really too risky for your football team knowing how valuable he is on the defensive side of the football and i know that they're getting healthier on on the back end but um there's a reason why he's a starter and you know the people behind them aren't right i mean at the end of the day like there's a reason why those guys are starters and when you're at the type of caliber player that he is it's

Starting point is 00:07:09 going to be practically impossible to replace him if something does happen so um knowing how good he is on defense how good he is on special teams you want to limit it and do things that necessarily keep him out of harm's way so if you are going to run plays for him on offense that he does get the ball, try to position it where he doesn't have to, where he's going to limit the amount of contact he's going to take, or, you know, obviously just keep him from getting the ball entirely just there when I think about adding him to the offensive side of the football.

Starting point is 00:07:40 So yeah, it's definitely a fine line you're going to want to balance on. And I think that they did a solid job of it last Saturday. And I kind of want to see them sprinkle it in a little bit more, maybe not just in one quarter or one specific drive, but, you know, kind of sprinkle it in throughout the game just to continue making the opposing defense have to think more. Well, last week we saw grumpy Kirk Ferentz. We heard it after the game. He was not too pleased to be playing in a football stadium. I want to get LaShawn's thoughts on what it's like when Kirk's a little grumpy around the football offices and what it's like for a football player

Starting point is 00:08:14 when he can't have that feeling. We're going to talk about that. Also make our picks presented by FanDuel. We'll do that as we continue. This is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by eBay Motors. Passion, drive, and patience. What brings home the winning trophy is also what keeps your ride or die alive.

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Starting point is 00:09:16 Exclusions apply. eBay guaranteed fit only available to U.S. customers. Trenton LaShawn back with you one time here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Make sure to check out SiriusXM if you're out and about on the game on Saturday.

Starting point is 00:09:37 You can catch it there with the hometown broadcast from Gary Dolphin and always enjoy that. You, speaking of XM and, of course, here locally on the radio, did you ever get the post-game awards? You get to talk to Dolphin Eddie after the game and have those guys as you're sitting down in the locker room? Yeah, yeah, I did it a few times. It was a good time, a good time talking with those guys.

Starting point is 00:10:03 And obviously you don't ever really want to do media, but you want to do media like that because you know that you had a pretty good game. So, you know, you're probably feeling pretty good about yourself at that point in time. So yeah, definitely had my fair share of that for sure. Well, leading into the Northwestern game, of course, we had the firing of Brian Ferentz

Starting point is 00:10:21 staying on through the end of the season. We knew that Kirk was going to be emotional with that. We're talking about his son for crying out loud. And we also know the connection that he has to his coaches. I mean, they're not all best buddies, but these guys work incredibly close together, tons of hours together, and that's going to be impactful one way or the other, regardless of if it's somebody like that, right? That is obviously his son.

Starting point is 00:10:42 But a postgame press conference on Saturday evening, hearing Kirk and not happy about playing a Wrigley field. He was asked earlier in the week about that. He was all, all grumbly about it. You can tell Kirk's fired up and when he's fired up, we get something on the media side of things. So how about you guys as players going back to your time when you say, Oh boy, coach is in one is in one right he's he's in a mood right now what was it like and what is it walking on eggshells just kind of your perspective as a former player uh sometimes you are um and usually that that energy like will start like bursting in the morning which is crazy it's like it's like you know seven seven a.m in the morning and a team

Starting point is 00:11:24 meeting and you know you can just feel that energy already you know coming off and you're like oh the day hasn't even started yet we're at this and we're getting this type of energy and um then like especially like if it's a padded day at practice and we've got like um whether it's uh nine on seven or we've got one on one blocks like it's like it's definitely something that you feel that energy coming from Coach Ferentz and like he wants his players to kind of play up to that type of energy as well. So those periods end up being a little bit more intense than what they might usually be. But we know that that's obviously a good thing.

Starting point is 00:12:04 usually be. But we know that that's obviously a good thing. He's trying to get us ramped up and, you know, really kind of in that same state of mind to go out there and, you know, play with a little bit of chip on your shoulder, play a little bit of angry on, on Saturday. And, you know, obviously it kind of starts early in the week and then it ramps up, you know, as you get through the rest of the game week and so you get to saturday you get to kick off time and you know you're ready to go and you're ready to ready to hit someone so yeah it's definitely something that you you feel that energy and it uh

Starting point is 00:12:36 pretty pretty early in the week and then it kind of just carries over and it just snowballs as you continue throughout the week and i think the players and the team typically responds really, really well to that. One final thing on the game coming up tomorrow with Rutgers, and we talked about a little bit of some of the parts to the game. This offensive line is incredibly banked up. We saw Rusty Feth lead the game for a long time. He had to come back in because of the other injuries. Logan Jones goes out.

Starting point is 00:13:01 We'll see about him. I thought Ellsbury played pretty well in his place at the center position. Richmond's banged up. They just have all kinds of injuries right now along that offensive line. And with that, how debilitating is that? Trying to come up with some kind of game plan, knowing that even if the guys are going to make it a go, you're looking at probably playing some backups up there. The chances of the offensive line being able to play 50, 60 snaps snaps are incredibly low how much more difficult what's already difficult with all the other injuries doesn't make it when your offensive line's banged up yeah it's tough it's definitely a struggle and um it doesn't help that we have all the other injuries on the offensive

Starting point is 00:13:41 side of football as well because like so i think back to you know that 2015 season and like in the middle of the year there like there was a point in time where offensively like we were down bad extremely like with injuries i mean like there was a point in time i think we had like three backups in on the offensive line i think that might have actually been the illinois game um where we had you know we had james playing tackle in that game and i see he's an inside offensive lineman um so when you get to a situation like that, it's, you got to simplify the offense extremely, like extremely a lot because now these guys, they haven't been playing as much, you know, especially as a unit, you know,

Starting point is 00:14:22 the offensive line is a, one of those position groups where everyone has to be on the exact same page or usually it's going to end up being a tackle for loss or a sack and not a successful play so uh you definitely have to keep everything simple now obviously they have a week of game planning they know they're going to get an idea of kind of what the the group that they end up sending out there, what type of plays that they like, and they're probably going to try to lean on those things and probably going to end up coming back to really what we mentioned at the beginning of this pod is a bunch of that day one install type of stuff

Starting point is 00:14:55 that maybe they'll throw a little bit of wrinkles here and there, maybe with the formations or with motions, but it's going to be probably very, very simple for them and simple in the pass protection as well so a lot of that responsibility of cleanup in the past protection games probably going to end up falling falling on the running back since right now that's probably going to be that's your most veteran group i would say right now i mean like when you think about it like they're going to they're that's going to be the group that's going to have to help pick up the slack so um it's never easy when you're dealing with offensive lineman injuries

Starting point is 00:15:27 because first off, it's very, very difficult to find good offensive linemen to begin with. And now when you have to go to, you know, maybe your second or even third string guys, it's not an easy task. So it's definitely going to have to rely on, you know, that day one install stuff and being consistent there and helping these guys stay ahead of the change so they don't have to get in those tough, you know, obvious passing down situations where typically where, you know, backup offensive linemen tend to struggle. Well, Sean, I know a little tight on time today. So just quickly here in about 30 seconds before we get into your picks, caleb johnson situation an odd one uh kirk said on tuesday that it was a coach's decision

Starting point is 00:16:11 sounded like maybe he was ill last week and maybe didn't put in the practice time even being ill that they wanted i'm kind of reading between the lines on that one but just a quick hit on that yeah i don't know it's very honestly it's weird like i don't know i know nothing else to really say about it i mean obviously he came into the year uh you know undisputed starter and then i see he was out for a little bit sean comes in and start playing well but even though kayla's been back like we really haven't seen much of him. They're not really the walls at Kinnick. They're not letting anything out, no information out, so you're never really going to actually know.

Starting point is 00:16:51 I just think it's a weird situation, and I would love to have an idea of what's going on, but I have no idea, and I don't want to speculate anything. Alright, LaShawn. Time to make our picks for the week. It's presented by FanDuel, and we will get into those as we continue here. Locked on Hawkeyes.

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Starting point is 00:18:25 Trent LaShawn back with you one final time on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. All right, LeSean, time to get into it. Our picks of the week, and we kick things off with the big neuter. It is Michigan State going to Penn State. Wolverines favored by four in the hook. Yeah, going to be a great game uh it's obviously gonna be a really really good environment uh it's a shame that it's uh really not a night

Starting point is 00:18:51 game here I really think that this is a missed opportunity there um and obviously everything surrounding Michigan kind of gives me a little bit of pause of uh rolling with the Wolverines but I just think that they're such a really good football team. I know that they haven't played a tough schedule to this point, but they've been dominant every single week, and I really honestly kind of see that continuing. So you're going with Wolverines, going with Michigan, and going with

Starting point is 00:19:18 Harbaugh as long as he makes it. We'll see later today if anything is handed down. I am on Penn State. I love this team coming into the season. Chop Robinson's coming back. That defensive line has been impactful in Michigan. I haven't seen anything like this. I think it's a field goal game, so I'll grab the four and a half and take the Nittany Lions. Pick number two, we go to our run of SEC battles and start with Ole Miss going to Georgia. The handicap is simple. Georgia, when they have their head screwed on

Starting point is 00:19:43 straight, they dominate teams. I think they will against Lane Kiffin here. I'll lay the 11 and take Georgia. Yep, same thing here. I know last week they played – Mizzou played them tough. And I think Mizzou is actually a really underrated football team at this point in time of the year. And I see Ole Miss has done a lot of good things. But give me the dogs. I'm all for that bandwagon right now. point in time of the year and um let's see Ole Miss has done a lot of good things but yeah give

Starting point is 00:20:05 me the give me the dogs I'm I'm all aboard that that bandwagon right now speaking of Mizzou that is our next game as they play host to Tennessee teams battling in the SEC should be a good one here volunteers favored by two LaShawn yeah I love Mizzou in this one. I really do. I think that they've done an extremely good job the entire football season, especially offensively. And I see that continuing this week, even though, you know, Tennessee's a solid team and they do a really good job running football. But I just like the way the way Mizzou is playing right now. So the one handicap that I come into in this one

Starting point is 00:20:46 is their slot receiver for Mizzou, Luther Burton. He got hurt last week. He's an absolute stud. I mean, he might give Marvin Harrison Jr. a run for his money as a best wide receiver in college football. And because of his status, not knowing how injured he is, I'm going to lay the two points here and take Tennessee.

Starting point is 00:21:02 Pick number four, let's go to Alabama as they travel to Lexington to take on Kentucky. The Crimson Tide are favored by 11. They're figuring it all out. Everything's going their way. I don't want to say a letdown. Yeah, letdown spot here. I'll grab the points. Give me it a sleepy.

Starting point is 00:21:20 Central kickoff time. Give me Kentucky getting 11 as they grind out an ugly cover. See, I can see this game starting off slow. I can see it. But as I've said, I told you this last week, I've been on the Bama bandwagon as well. Ever since that USF game, they've been an entirely different football team

Starting point is 00:21:39 and have really just started choking teams out in the second half. And I see that continuing with how good they are in the run game and how strong that their defense is. I like Bama a lot. Going with Bama. All right, we wrap things up as we do each and every week. With the Iowa game, Hawkeyes currently a one-point favorite. The total sits right now at FanDuel at 28.5, a historic low in this one.

Starting point is 00:22:04 And everybody's betting the under. Finally, people are jumping aboard on the under trade. We don't play totals here. We play the point spread. Hawkeyes favored by one. What do you got, LaShawn? Yeah, so it's an interesting game. I think Rutgers is a really, really good football team,

Starting point is 00:22:20 and they've done a lot of great things this year. But the fact is, I feel like with the line being as tight as it is and, you know, playing at Kinnick, I feel like Rutgers is going to fall into the trap of playing Iowa's type of football game. And because of that, that's where I give Iowa the edge here, and I'm going to go with the Hawks because they're going to play strong defense.

Starting point is 00:22:42 They're going to play strong special teams. And something about that, especially when it gets to November, that November, this time of year, that's when Iowa style football really shines. So give me the Hawks. Going with the Hawks. I'm on the other side. Give me Rutgers and I don't know, the offense has got to catch up to them at some point. Like I said,

Starting point is 00:23:01 I think this is a second best team that they face. And because of that, I am going to go with Rutgers. Those are our picks of the week presented by FanDuel. LaShawn, hope you're right. I'm wrong this week, certainly on the Iowa game, and we will talk again next week. Have a great time. I know you got to run to a meeting. We'll talk again soon. Yep, sounds

Starting point is 00:23:17 good. Go Hawks. That's LaShawn Daniels. I'm Trent Condon. This is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. We'll be back with you tomorrow with an instant reaction podcast after the game against Rutgers.

Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football: Creating some offense, Picks presented by Fan Duel with former Hawkeye LeShun Daniels

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