Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football: Defensive Depth Chart For The 2022 Season

Episode Date: April 30, 2022

Today I sit down and talk about what the Iowa Hawkeye's defense is going to look like this upcoming season. Hopefully today's episode has a few less hot takes than yesterday's episode. Regardless, I'm pretty confident in my predictions today, granted Iowa's defense is a little more solid than the offense. I also talk about the special teams depth chart today which also has a guarantee in punter Tory Taylor.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.Athletic GreensAthletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/COLLEGE. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

are locked on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back, Hawkeye Nation, to another episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, whoever you are, wherever you are, Hawkeye Nation. Thanks for tuning in to today's episode. I want to thank you all for making the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast your very first listen every single day. You can find the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast for free wherever you get your podcasts at and also on YouTube by searching Locked on Hawkeyes. Now, before we get into the things I want to talk about today, I want to mention I was

supposed to have LaShawn Daniels on the podcast today, but unfortunately, he had a wedding rehearsal that he had to attend, so he will be back for Monday's episode and we will talk about the draft, excuse me, for Monday's episode. Today, I'm going to get into the defensive depth chart for the Hawkeye season. As you remember, I talked yesterday about the offensive depth chart and I had a lot of hot takes in yesterday's episode. I will fully admit that and you guys let me know. You guys let me know for sure. I got messages about it on Twitter, on Facebook, on Instagram, the whole nine yards. And there were quite a few

of you that were not very happy with my opinions, but as I said yesterday, those are solely my opinions. We're going to have differentiating opinions. That's just how it is. This is only based on what I think and how I think Iowa is going to be able to succeed in their best possible way this upcoming season. So if you do disagree with my opinions, feel free to reach out. Let me know. I love the feedback. I love hearing from you guys. It's absolutely amazing. Try to be nice about it. I have feelings too. I know I'm young. Some of you guys are quite a bit older than me, and some of you probably have quite a bit more experience with college football than I do. So if you have feedback, you're more than welcome to share it with me on any of those platforms.

Just try to be a little nicer about it. You know what I mean? I've got feelings too. But once again, I do welcome your guys' feedback. So as I said, we'll be back with LaShawn. We will talk about the draft and on Tuesday, we will get into some other things. But for today, the defensive depth chart for 2022. So we're going to start out with the defensive line at the left defensive end. I've got John Wagner in that first string spot. Deontay Craig in that second string spot for left tackle. I've got Noah Shannon in that first string spot. Jeremiah Pittman in that second string spot for the right D tackle. I've got Logan Lee in that first string spot, Jeremiah Pittman in that second string spot for the right D tackle. I've got Logan Lee in that first string spot, the second string spot. I've got

Yaha Black and for the right defensive ends, I've got Lucas Van Ness in that first string spot and Joe Evans in that second string spot. So as you know, last season, Lucas Van Ness was very, very impressive at the defensive tackle position. Last season, racking up a solid eight and a half tackles for loss and seven sacks on the season, which was tied for first on the team with, I believe, Joe Evans. But so far this spring, it looks like he may be making the move to the defensive end position while maintaining his skill set at that defensive tackle spot. I feel as long as Logan Lee and Noah Shannon can stay healthy throughout the season in those tackle spots, then most of Van Ness'

snaps this year are going to come on the outside of the line right at that end spot. Recently, Jay Neiman, who is Iowa's assistant defensive line coach, was asked about where he thought Van Ness would end up playing this season. Neiman said, quote, he played inside almost exclusively last fall and just the opposite this spring. It's been good to watch him grow on the outside, too. He does have a skill set that allows him to have the flexibility to be either inside or outside. Typically, if you look back over the years here, we've typically had a player or two that had the flexibility or had that flexibility as well. Right now, I think he's a guy that can contribute either inside and out. It gets more complex depending on the team you're playing. There are some quite, excuse me, there are some things mentally that you have to be able to do

on the inside versus the outside. It's a long answer to a short question, but it's a work in progress. It's a good thing for us that we have a guy like him who's capable of doing either. And that's completely right. I think that Van Ness may end up going back to the inside for some games this season. It really just depends on where Ference feels that he needs him. But I think for most of his snaps throughout this season, he is going to be on the outside at that end spot. I think he's really going to be able to thrive there. And like I said, with Shannon and Lee being there, they're both very, very solid players on the inside. So I think that if they can stay healthy throughout the season, then they'll probably stick there as much as they can. But Van Ness is the guy on that defense who has the most versatility

to go either inside or out. So as long as he stays healthy, Iowa's defensive line should look fairly solid this season. Now let's get into linebackers. Now linebackers is, you know, it's pretty obvious where this, you know, how, how this position group is going to end up at wrong side linebacker or Mike linebacker, whatever you want to call him. Obviously, I've got Jack Campbell in there. Second string, Jay Higgins. For the weak side or the will, whichever you prefer. First string, I've got Seth Benson.

And for the second, I've got Dayton Harrell. And then for the outside linebacker, Justin Jacobs in that starting spot. It's, you know, it's really becoming more and more evident every day and in fact, that Iowa is going to have one of the best groups of linebackers in the nation this season. I guarantee it. Argue with me all you want on that, but I guarantee this group is going to be in the top 10 in the country this season when it comes to their positions. Not only are they going to have Justin Jacobs and Seth Benson, but they're also going to be led by a preseason All-American, Campbell, who managed

to rack up 143 tackles last season and consistently can make plays when he needs to. He consistently disrupts offensive run games and makes it almost impossible for teams to run off tackle on that strong side. Now, granted, Jacobs, Benson, and Campbell were pretty limited in their time on the field this spring, but at the same time, that gave an opportunity for these younger guys, those linebacker spots, to gain some knowledge and experience on what it means to have a very solid overall defense. Linebackers coach Seth Wallace talked about Higgins, Harrell, and Fisher's extensive workload this spring

in a statement saying, quote, you try to get in there because they need to see the fastball, curveball, and changeup. I don't really understand what he means by that baseball reference, but regardless, it's the kind of variables that our young guys, you backups, need to see. If they see it

in the spring, it isn't new. They aren't going to be playing catch- up in the mid section of the depth chart. You're going to move them from middle reliever to a starting spot. And now, now don't get me wrong. Don't get it twisted. If Campbell Jacobs are all healthy throughout the season, they're going to stay in those starting spots. They're not going anywhere as long as they are healthy. But keep in mind, Campbell and Benson are both seniors on this defense, and it's going to look a lot different next year with them gone. So in this case, I do agree with Wallace.

It's important for those younger guys to work in as much as they can whenever they can so that they can live up to the expectation hanging over their head this upcoming season because you know that they're going to. Iowa consistently has good linebackers and they have for the last couple of years and these young guys are going to have a lot to live up to when it comes time for them to step up you know and kind of put themselves into this defense. They're going to have to be good and they're going to have to be good right away otherwise people are going to start losing faith in our defense and that's not what we want. Iowa will be good this year in the defense, or excuse me, when it comes to linebackers, as long as our guys can stay healthy. There's a lot of guys right now

that are dealing with injuries and have been dealing with lingering injuries for a while now, offensive line, defensive line, linebackers, whatever it is, we're dealing with a lot of injuries right now. So as long as all of our guys can stay healthy and we can keep these injuries to a minimum, then we shouldn't have a problem having a top 10 defense in the country. And I don't mean top 10 in the big 10. I mean, top 10 in the country overall. This is including defenses like Michigan, Alabama, Georgia, Clemson, all of those big-time schools that you see in the national championship every year with these one-of-a-kind, quote-unquote, one-of-a-kind defenses. Iowa can live up to that as long as we keep our guys healthy. So now, before we get into the secondary side of things, I want to talk about Bilt Bar. Summer is coming up fast and with summer,

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So go to Built.com, use our current promo code LOCKED15 to get 15% off your order at checkout. Once again, that promo code is LOCKED15, L-O-C-K-E-D-1-5 for 15% off at Built.com at checkout. Now, let's get into the secondary this is where things kind of be you know start to get more consistent for the hawkeyes in that you know it's pretty much guaranteed who these starters are going to be so right now at the cornerback spot uh the left side corner i've got terry roberts or jamari har Harris. With that DUI charge, it's going to be hard to tell who's going to be starting. Obviously, he's going to have to serve a suspension at some point. So I think that to start out the year, it will be Terry Roberts. And then towards a couple games in, maybe the middle of the season,

they'll go back to Jamari Harris, depending on how his development goes after his suspension. It just kind of depends. Right side, obviously it's a no brainer. I've got Riley Moss in that first string spot. And then in the second string spot, I've got Brandon Dersen, excuse me, Des Fernandez in that second string spot. The secondary is, is another one of those position groups for the Hawkeyes. Similar, similar to that in the linebackers in that the starters, as I said, they're pretty much guaranteed. And when you have guys coming back with previous experience like Moss and a coach like Phil Parker, who is considered one of the best defensive

coordinators in the country right now, it's hard to see a situation where Iowa's secondary won't shine like they did last year. And when Riley Moss was asked what his goals are for the upcoming season, he put it very, very bluntly. He said, quote, absolutely my goal is to win the Jim Thorpe Award and be a first team All-American. Hopefully I can win first team All-Big Ten and Player of the Year. That comes with doing your job. Those are my individual goals and I'm going to work towards those goals because it'll make the team better as well. And that's true for anything out there.

It doesn't matter if it's a sport or anything else. Let me give you some life advice really quick. I'm only 18 years old, so take this how you want it. If you're working within a team, if everybody's doing their job to the best of their ability and everybody has a set goal for themselves, everybody is going to benefit from that. And that is exactly what Moss means in this quote. He thinks, or he knows, excuse me, that as long as he has these goals for himself and as long as he continues to put his mind towards football,

working his butt off day in, day out, week in, week out, game in, game out, he's going to see results and therefore the rest of the defense is going to see results. Now, when asked about his opinions of the secondary, Kirk Ferentz said, quote, we've certainly got a lot of work to do, but I think we have a chance to have a good team if we can work the way we're supposed to and don't get too many bends on the road that are unexpected. Obviously, currently, there are several bends in the road happening. Obviously, currently, there are several bends in the road happening. When you take into account the amount of injuries that Iowa currently has,

you take into account the racial discrimination lawsuit currently going on within the program, and you take into account with guys like Harris getting suspensions for whatever it is, it's hard to predict Iowa is going to have a good season. Now, a while back, me and LaShawn did score predictions for the upcoming season, and I felt pretty set in most of those scores. But all these things come up, and they kind of just hinder that. You know what I mean? It's hard for me to sit here and say that Iowa's going to be able to go out and win nine or ten games this season

when they've got all of these Kirk Ferentz quotes, Ben's in the road. It's hard to see that. And there's a lot of problems surrounding Iowa's program right now. And I think that a lot of those problems are going to be sticking around for quite a while. So Iowa's got to do something players wise, not necessarily coaching staff wise, but as long as, as long as the players can get their heads in the game and hopefully,

you know, sort of stay the course, stay focused on what they need to do and not let these outside problems, not well, you know, inside the program, but outside, uh, off the football field problems out of the way, then they should be able to succeed. And that's what's plaguing Iowa right now. It's not anything other than, you know, the injuries. It's not anything that has to do with on the field problems. It's all this off the field stuff, players getting suspended for driving while drunk, racial discrimination happening within the program, whatever it is, all of that stuff needs to stop so that Iowa can continue being a good team within the Big Ten. And I understand that these problems don't just

go away. You know what I mean? I perfectly understand that these problems do not just happen and then boom, they're automatically fixed by paying somebody or whatever it is. fixed, you know, by paying somebody or whatever it is. The Harris thing, him getting an OWI, he will, you know, not serve his time, but he will serve his suspension. He will take his punishment. And we won't even know if a lot of this stuff about the discrimination lawsuit is true until we get to that set trial date all the way in 2023. And I know I said I wasn't going to talk about it again, and I don't want to talk about it again because it's only negatives plaguing this team right now. And I don't like talking about negatives on this podcast because that's not what this podcast is about. This

podcast is about positivity, talking about the things that's going to make Iowa better overall in their individual programs, whether it's basketball, baseball, softball, wrestling, football, whatever it is, I want to see Iowa succeed. But I have to talk about these things because they are the problems that are going on. And it sucks to see that a lot of these problems could have been prevented. A lot of these things that are plaguing Iowa right now could have not happened if somebody had, quote unquote, used their head a little bit more. But regardless of that, that's my daily rant for today. Before we get into the safeties position, I want to talk about BetOnline. BetOnline.net is

your number one source for all of your betting stats and sports info. Find all of the latest sports developments, league reviews, and news, including this year's basketball playoffs and the start of the Major League Baseball season. BetOnline is your continued source for all of your number one sporting wagering information from live betting to playoffs to esports and more. Head to the website today or use your mobile device to learn more about the trends and action. BetOnline, it's where the game starts. Once again, that website is BetOnline.net. Now, the safeties positions. This one is also fairly, you know, fairly set in stone. I wouldn't say set in stone, but we've got a pretty good idea of where everybody's going to be at. So at the strong safety position for the first string,

I've got Kayvon Merriweather. In the second string spot, I've got Xavier Nwankpa, the freshman coming in from Southeast Polk. At the free safety spot, I've got Quinn Schlute. At the cash position first, I've got Cooper DeGene. I did look up that name pronunciation, so I know that one's not wrong. So don't come at me for that one. I looked that one up because I was nervous about that. I get a lot of flack for not pronouncing names right. So I want to make sure I got everything down. In the second string for the cash spot, I've got Sebastian Castro. And now I want to talk about Kayvon Merriweather for a second.

If you didn't know, Merriweather is the only member of the Hawkeyes secondary that received no postseason recognition last season. And that is according to his words, not my own. So going into the 2022 season, he's going to have a little bit of a chip on his shoulder. And, you know, he may have a little bit more to prove than the rest of his defensive teammates. And now this isn't to say that he's not a solid player on defense because he definitely is.

And on top of that, he's willing to play in any position that he's needed. He's pretty much only played safety while at Iowa, but he's flexible enough to go wherever Ferentz needs him within the secondary. Now, along with Merriweather and Dane Belton, excuse me, being gone for this year's draft, Cooper Dijon is really going to have to step up and make a name for himself this season on the defensive side of the ball, much like he did back in high school, back in Ida Grove, excuse me, at OAB CIG. I watched some of his highlights while writing my notes for this episode. And I tell you what, the kid was good on offense and on defense. I tell you what, Dijon is extremely versatile and athletic. So, you know,

he should have minimal issues stepping into, you know, a sort of quote unquote leadership role on Iowa's defense. And on top of that, as I mentioned, Dajin knows the ins and outs of how quarterbacks think because he played quarterback in high school. Now that doesn't mean he's going to be the number one defensive player in the entire country. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is he might have more success coming into that starting spot because of the fact that he knows how, you know, he knows how these quarterbacks are going to think. And he knows, you know, he can get inside their head a little bit. And as long as he's watching film and studying and doing what he needs to prepare for the game, he should have the same tools, if not more tools, than other players

at his position because of that quarterback background. Now, no doubt Dajin has the support from his teammates as well. Iowa cornerback Terry Roberts speaks very, very highly of Dajin. He even said, quote, Cooper is one heck of an athlete. I am paraphrasing there, just so you know. It's out of this world. He can jump and he was a bit faster than I thought. I got to run next to him side by side during the season. I was like, whoa, this kid's fast. He's going to be a dangerous player. And I mentioned it earlier

and I talk about this kid a lot because I've seen him play personally. I've sat in the bleachers at the Unidome and seen this kid play. We cannot overlook freshman commit Xavier and Wongpa. Now, I got a message on Facebook about how... I won't obviously say his name. But there was a guy that messaged me on Facebook on the Lockdown Iowa account. And said he thought it was funny that I think some of these 2024 recruits coming into Iowa could start right away. It's true, in my opinion. If you have a different opinion, great.

Feel free to let me know about it. Xavier Nwongpa is a different type of kid. Granted, he will not hold a starting spot on defense this season. I guarantee he will not. But as the season goes on, I think he might get to see the field just a little bit. In my opinion, he's too talented to keep off the field all year long. Do I think he should start at the beginning of the season? No. Do I think he should start halfway through the season? No. I think he should get some playing time. He is underdeveloped and he

does not have the experience to be a starting in the secondary for this Iowa team that is known for having this good of a defense. He's not good enough for that yet. Regardless of that, and in spite of that, I do think that he should get playing time at some point during this season, throw him into a game where we're leading by 40, 50 points. You know what I mean? I don't know what, I don't know what game that's going to be. It could be Rutgers. It could be Nebraska. It could be Michigan. We could be beating him by 50 points. Who cares? I think that he should get a chance to show off what he can do on the defensive side of the ball. So like I said, throw him into a game where we're leading by 50, you know, 40, 45, 50 points and let him out there. Let him, let him show what he can do. You know what I mean? Give him a chance to fail because

that's exactly what he needs. He was so successful throughout high school. He needs to, he needs to have a chance to fail. He needs to have a chance to fail on a D1 level college team to see what he can do. And I think that Ferentz really needs to put him out on the field to see what he can do at some point. No, he's not going to start. No, I don't think he should start. So I don't want to hear it. Don't come at me on Twitter and on Instagram and on Facebook telling me, oh, well, he shouldn't start because of this and this and this. I know he shouldn't start, but he should get playing time. I think that he should. I've seen the kid play. I know how good he is. He should get some playing time. Now, my second little rant for the day. Let's get into special teams here. Obviously, punter, Torrey Taylor.

He's the GOAT. Greatest of all time, my absolute favor on the Hawkeyes. He's a stud, and he was a stud last year, he'll be a stud this year, absolutely no question there. The kicker, Aaron Blom or Drew Stevens, we haven't seen enough to say. I have not seen enough from either of these kids to tell you who's going to start this year. Granted, it is only the kicker, but that's a very important position on Iowa, especially because Iowa relies on their special teams a lot throughout the season. They did last year. So regardless of who it is, they're going to have to step up because neither of these kids did very well during the spring at all. And you saw that in the spring game. I talked about that when I did a recap of the spring game. Neither of these kids did very well during that game, but at this point, I don't have an opinion on who should start over who because I haven't seen enough. Maybe we'll get some more information regarding that over the summer, and ultimately somebody will make that decision. I don't know who it's going to be yet, but we'll just have to wait and see.

make that decision. I don't know who it's going to be yet, but we'll just have to wait and see. As for kick returning and punt returning, I think it's going to be Charlie Jones. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be. I don't see any reason why anyone else should be out there returning kicks and punts. Maybe if they want to give a receiver a chance that they can do that, but I think it's going to be Charlie Jones. So that is it for the defensive and special teams depth chart for today's episode. Thank you all for tuning in. Once again, you are welcome to go follow me on Twitter, on Instagram, uh, at Rye Hill and the Locked on Iowa's pages on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook as well. Please, please comment like, or not like I'm not a YouTuber, uh, yet, uh, Instagram, and Facebook as well. Please, please comment, like, or not like,

I'm not a YouTuber yet. Comment, you know, DM me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, whatever it is. Let me know your opinions on today's episode. Let me know your opinion on yesterday's episode. Let me know where you think I went wrong. Let me know where you think I went right. That was a pun. My name's right if you didn't know that yet. Anyways, let me know your thoughts. Let me know where you think I went right. That was a pun. My name's right if you didn't know that yet. Anyways, let me know your thoughts. Let me know your opinions. Let me know your comments, concerns, whatever it is. Once again, thank you for tuning into today's episode. And I will see you all on Monday.