Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football has an offensive problem...and a stubbornness problem?

Episode Date: September 12, 2022

Trent Condon is back to talk about Iowa football's 10-7 loss to Iowa State.The issues once again start at the quarterback position with Spencer Petras. Easy throws were missed, footwork was sloppy and his confidence appears to be shot. And yet, Kirk Ferentz and Brian Ferentz continue to play him over a backup quarterback in Alex Padilla that has proven to at least be competent.The stubborn nature of Kirk Ferentz continues to also be an issue. It's amazing that he continues to go this route at quarterback, much like the Jake Christensen vs. Ricky Stanzi & Jake Rudock vs. CJ Beathard decisions.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!UpsideDownload the FREE Upside App and use promo code Locked to get $5 or more cash back on your first purchase of $10 or more.Underdog FantasySign up on underdogfantasy.com with the promo code LOCKED ON and get your first deposit doubled up to $100! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Iowa offense falters once again in a 10-7 loss to in-state rival Iowa State. I'm Trent Condon with the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. As we go live here, a disappointing effort certainly once again from the Hawkeyes. We'll break it down. Kirk Ferentz becoming even more stubborn for a pretty stubborn guy in his old age. We got a lot on that. Brian Ferentz and of course the quarterback position. Where does Iowa turn for here?

It is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Our Locked On Hawkeyes. Your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team, every day with you after a disappointing effort from the Iowa offense as they fall 10-7 to Iowa State.

A lot to certainly get into here today. Before we start to break things down, I want to say a big thank you to our presenting sponsor of today's episode, Underdog. Sign up at underdogfantasy.com with promo code LOCKEDON and get your first deposit doubled up to $100. That's underdogfantasy.com. Let's break things down and trying to double up the offensive effort we've seen the last couple of weeks from this Iowa team.

It has not been pretty by any means. A lot of frustration and a team that, frankly, at this point in time, you wonder where are they going to be able to turn, where are they going to come up with answers. So plenty to break down here today. And as we're live, you can also hit us up on youtube hit that subscribe button and with it you can throw some questions here at me hitting at a later day so i had a couple questions why didn't go live yesterday well i was in iowa city for the game first of all on the way back and

got back well i accomplished what i said on friday's podcast i was gonna go for a million beers maybe i did um and i just didn't think it was the time to go live after that one, after getting back from the game, the frustration that reached a boiling point, not just with me, I think for anybody watching this team and well, maybe anybody except for Kirk Ferentz.

You just, the responses again from Kirk. And at this point, the stubbornness from him, it feels like Kirk Ferentz doesn't want to admit that he's wrong. The Spencer Petras conundrum that has now gone on for three years. We have seen this guy have absolute incredible issues at the quarterback position. Some of the simplest plays, he's not even able to make those anymore.

And the final numbers maybe don't even indicate how bad it was going back and rewatching this football game and seeing what it was again here on Sunday. It was ugly. It really was. It was even more ugly than I anticipated. I said the same thing, going back and re-watching the South Dakota State. All right, a little chance to decompress. You watch it again. It's going to be better. It's not going to be as bad as you thought. And the exact same thing happened here re-watching the Iowa State game. It was as bad and even worse than seeing it in person.

So we get into this, and it's the simplest equation, right? The backup quarterback's always the favorite guy on campus. All the stupid adages, right? This isn't about that. This is so far past that. And the baffling component about this is it's not like you just have a backup quarterback that has never played before or a backup quarterback that's when he's played has been awful. That's not the case with Alex Padilla.

Look, do I think Alex Padilla is great? No. Do I think Alex Padilla is even a top 50 or 75 quarterback in college football? I don't. But he's better than what we're getting right now out of Spencer Petras. Spencer Petras is by any measure the worst quarterback in college football and to go two consecutive weeks now scoring a grand total of 14 points. You're 130th in the country. That's last in points. You know, Kirk loves to talk about points. It's not about stats. It's not about that. It's about points, right? Points and wins. Well, you lost a game

you shouldn't have. And now the statistics are brutal. 130th in total offense, 130th in scoring. You look at any major statistic and Iowa is putrid at it. Blame the offensive line, blame the injuries to wide receiver. You can point the fingers all over the place, but ultimately it comes back to one spot. It's the most important position in sport, the quarterback position. And Spencer Petras has proven now over these 20-plus starts that he has had in his career that he's not good enough. I get it. He practices well.

Sure. We've heard this crap now from Kirk for too long. He practices well. We see now, oh, we get to be with them all during the week. That was the one that he threw out after the game yesterday. That's what they get to do, right? They see it every day. They see it in practice.

This is different. This is not practice. This is not wearing a red jersey where he can't be hit. They see it in practice. This is different. This is not practice. This is not wearing a red jersey where he can't be hit. He cannot figure this out. When pressure comes, he gets a happy feet and he gets sacked because he has no mobility. And this is what you're left with behind a bad offensive line, a bad quarterback that can't move on top of it. This is what you're going to get. It is awful. There is no measure that you can say that this team is even competent. Here's the frustrating part.

This defense is oh so good. This special teams, you get two, two punt blocks in the game, forced three turnovers from Iowa State. And all you can do is at a 16 yard field, generate that touchdown on two running plays. And that's it over the course of the whole game. It's not good enough is Kirk willing to say I was wrong is Kirk willing to say I made a mistake is Kirk willing to actually

swallow his pride and admit a mistake and I don't think he has I still don't think we are I think that's the point I don't understand it I don't get it one One thing was relayed to me from a contact over at the university and in the athletic department. And the way that it was is Spencer Petras, all the things that are said by not just the coaching staff, but the beat writers. He's a great kid. He really is. It's not just something you throw out for a guy that's struggling. You want to feel better about it. There's a lot more to it than that. He is a wonderful kid. He is a great representative of the university. He stood there and take the questions. He has done all those things. And Alex Padilla, maybe a little more, bit more aloof, likes to do things a little bit off schedule. He's not exactly what Kirk wants at the quarterback position, but we've gone through

this before. It was the same thing with Jake Christensen leading into Ricky Stanzi. Same kind of adage that was there. CJ Beathard, he took more chances than what we saw from Jake Ruddock. And ultimately they got that right. At this point, though, is Kirk willing to do that? Or is it just going to be another snort? Another, I'm smarter than you guys. You guys don't know what you're talking about because you're not there every day. We see it every day. Well, we see it every Saturday and every Saturday we see Spencer Petras is terrible. That's it. There's no other way to put it. Nice kid, get it. But that's not what we're talking about here. It's not about being a nice kid. The frustration level, it has gone to a completely new level. And that's where we are here today. The stubbornness of Kirk Ferenc

is baffling. The numbers are even worse out of this offense. Another thing Kirk mentioned after the game is don't think it's enough to have a fair assessment of where we are. It's not just two games. This has been going back now almost a full season of football where he's been bad, right? Is that a fair assessment? I mean, I don't know what more you can get. Excuse me, a little frog in my throat there. That's where we are. And it's just incredibly frustrating to have to go through this. Sold out stadium, week in and week out. People were pumped

up for this team, and they should be because the defense is elite. The special teams are elite, maybe outside of field goal kicking. Punter, great. Coverage unit, great. Everything is excellent, except for a huge, huge part of it. It's not all Spencer Petras, but that is a big chunk. I thought Brian Ferentz called an absolute brutal game. He had his own problems. We're going to get into that. We're going to break things down a little bit more. 158 yards of offense a game. 158 a game. The team that's right behind them in the country, 129 or right above them, I should say. They average 232. That's Colorado State.

232, Iowa, 158 yards per game. That's where we are. That's what this is. We'll talk about Brian Ferencz. Some of those play calls, I will let one slip away against Iowa State because Iowa State, they tried to give this one to the Hawkeyes and they could not capitalize. The frustration level, it is huge right now. We'll continue more on the Lockdown Hawkeyes, and they could not capitalize. The frustration level, it is huge right now. We'll continue more on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.

Today's episode brought to you by Underdog Fantasy, the easiest play to spice up the college football season. Things getting started here. Well, if you're putting together a fantasy team, I don't think you're going to take anybody from this Hawkeye offense, but the defense, absolutely. If punters were involved in fantasy, hey, we know we'd go be going with Tori Taylor in this one.

Right now, sign up with promo code LOCKEDIN and Underdog will double your first deposit up to $100. Deposit $100, you'll get $100 free. Go to underdogfantasy.com or just find the Underdog Fantasy app in the App Store or Google Play Store is where you'll get $100 free. Go to underdogfantasy.com or just find the Underdog Fantasy app in the App Store or Google Play Store is where you can get. That's Underdog Fantasy, promo code LOCKEDIN. A chance for you to get in the college pick-em action going on today.

Trey Cotton back with you. We continue on the Lockeddown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks again for making Lockdown your first listen each and every day. Well, we will get into things a little bit more, and we will talk about one area I want to go is play calling. And yes, this is not all quarterback, though. Spencer Petras is not just missing plays that are difficult. He's also missing some very difficult ones at this point. It's a frustration that continues at this

point in time. And, and is there a way that you're going to be able to get back to this? I'm not exactly sure how you can come back from this, but the decision when you get it inside the one yard line, and this is Brian at times trying to be too cute, right? Trying to do too much. Overthinking maybe what we've seen in the past. I think we have a whole lot of that with Brian Berenson, a whole lot in the past that this has continued to crop up. The Monte Ponte Bomb thing, I don't get. Going back to last week against South Dakota State, that third down play should have been the second interception of the game.

It was dropped from the Jackrabbits to begin the second half. Yet Monte Ponte Bomb a fullback. I understand the limitations of this team. I understand the injuries that they're going through at the wide receiver position. But on third and eight, you have Monty Pontebaum running a stop route right at the sticks. And he's double teamed and Spencer forces it in there. And then you couple that with what you do on that play. That is just being too cute. Hey, we're going to just pound it in here.

Give the ball to your running back. Sneak it with your quarterback. The limitations of this team. There's no need to be cute. And that's what Brian Ferentz did again. I don't think he put Spencer Petras in this offense in their best position to do things. Those first couple of drives too.

I was moving the pile. Of course, got the first drive, the 16-yard drive, two plays, and a touchdown. That offensive line was getting a push at least early in the football game. Now, Haycock, the defensive coordinator for Iowa State, he's an absolute wizard. He makes great, great adjustments throughout the game, and in the second half of games, he is one of the

best in the country at what he does adjustment-wise in the second half, but you're getting a push early on, couldn't figure it out. just too cute at times spencer petrus is not athletic you rolled him out all the time and is that when he's at his best maybe it's something where they just don't want him to have to think too much and while he's on the move he's a little bit better in that aspect i guess that's the thought process one catch for arlen bruce and 11 targets that says it all you have one scholarship wide receiver that's

available it has been brutal it has been bad and And Brian Ferentz definitely deserves some of the blame on that front. I think he had one of his worst games. And when's the last time we saw Brian call a good game? When we said, man, he was really locked in USC. Bowl game a couple years ago, probably. They say he was a quarterback in that one. That's the last time. You have to give Padilla a shot. And this is a perfect opportunity coming up this week to do just that. Padilla, go back and watch the highlights against Northwestern. Even watch the highlights from, or go back and watch the game

where he struggled against Illinois, at least statistically, finished 6-17. You'll still see an offense that had some life, had some juice. That is, it's completely gone. It's ugly at this point. And the frustrations that are out there, I think from this team, you can definitely understand where they're coming from. And those frustrations, they're going to boil over to another level. And it doesn't matter what kind of athletic event you are. You can have the best locker room. You can have the most camaraderie. You can have all these things.

But if it continues in this fashion, it's going to get ugly. And it's going to get ugly also with the team. So after the game, we heard from the tight end, Sam Laporta. And Laporta, he said, hey, I see Spencer. I see that he's in practice. I see that he's in the film room doing all these things. And it's all well and good. He said, hey, I see Spencer. I see that he's in practice. I see that he's in the film room doing all these things. And it's all well and good.

But if it doesn't translate on the field, what more can be done? He can't get it done on the actual field. No matter what happens in practice, no matter how much film he watches, he has not been good enough in the games. Padilla, he can make plays with his feet, something that Petras cannot do. He'll take shots up the field. We saw that in the three games that he played, something we his feet, something that Petras cannot do. He'll take shots up the field. We saw that in the three games that he played, something we don't see from Spencer Petras. And if Kirk Ferentz goes into this game against Nevada, a brutal Nevada team that gave up something like 525 yards of total offense last week to an FCS team, incarnate word,

like if you trot out Spencer Petras once again, it's going to get ugly. One interesting aspect of the game on Saturday and something that I was wrong about is I thought it was just going to be the Boo Birds raining down. And because of the way the game played out, Iowa getting the early lead, clinging to that lead into the second half, 7-3 after the field goal. It wasn't because of the lead, you didn't see the same poopers, but there was also just this interesting sound inside the stadium. And it was an aspect that I thought was just so different where just everybody is. They're just relegated to the fact that this is

going to be what we get. That's what we're going to get as fans and what more can be done. Yeah. Padilla, we think he should be out there everybody thinks he should be out there another question that I think needs to be asked is whose ultimately choice is this is this the offensive coordinator that decides on the quarterback because listening to Brian Ferentz on Wednesday and his comments after the weekly press conference the next day hearing him speak it felt like he was ready to make a change it felt like he was ready to go and Kirk stubborn not going to change not going to evolve that is where we're sitting at right now you run out of things right you just the aspect I know the offensive woes are a whole lot more

than that the defense was great and And credit all over the place. From Seth Benson, who was flying around. Terry Roberts had an interception. He was mad at himself, but he tweeted after the game, if I had just kept my feet. Well, first of all, I don't think he's running that back for six. I don't think it was going to be a pick six. He would have got on the sidelines, but there was a guy over there

probably would have pushed him back. But that's where this defense is. And back to that ugly aspect that this can turn into, right? Where this thing could get ugly because of things like that because of the defense you have to pitch a shutout every week we gave you three turnovers we blocked two punts we give you short fields and you get seven points for us and that's it the 21 play 99 yard drive was devastating when they go six of six on third downs i think that's what it was that iowa state on that drive. That's where we are. If Padilla doesn't give a shot, got to get Labus ready. And that's another thing. If I'm Iowa and if I'm here and if I have the

decision, first of all, it wouldn't have been a decision. We never would have got to this point. This is another aspect. Is Iowa and Kirk Behron's doubling down on what we saw last year? Hey, we won 10 games. We won the West division title. Need a little help to get there as can't be Wisconsin. So you had to have Minnesota do that to get in there at the back door. And we of course knew what happened in the big 10 championship game, but that aside.

So you have this happening. You have all this going on and you look at it and you say, we've got to make changes right it's a conversation i had i'm sure you as fans had we all had those conversations that you have to evolve and instead of evolving instead of doing something different they doubled down you had an opportunity with ken o'keefe retiring where you could really have gone out there and not completely change your offensive system your identity you can still be a pro style team team. I watched the NFL today, all day long today. It was great, right?

Watching the NFL. And most everybody, though they've evolved from the old school pro-style offense, you see teams that can all move the football. These are professionals, I get it. But at the collegiate level, you see this too. And Iowa, their unwillingness to adapt and the inability to look at this and say, you know what? We need to bring in somebody that can help.

Instead, we're going to make Brian now the quarterback coach. A guy that has no background in quarterbacks. We're going to make him a guy that should have never been the offensive coordinator five years ago, should never have got the job. And yet here we are. Four out of five years has been absolutely awful. One year has been okay at best when you look at it statistically. The frustration that is there. And this is the stubbornness once again of Kirk Behren look at it statistically. The frustration, that is there.

And this is the stubbornness, once again, of Kirk Ferentz at this point. And I worry about his legacy because I love what Kirk Ferentz has been over these 24 years, the building of the program, the high moments that we've had from the Big Ten championships early on, the great seasons that we've seen in the past, the Orange Bowls, all these positive things. We're still going to remember him in a positive light. But going down this route with your son in a place where you're not going to fire him,

Kirk's not going to do that. And does anybody believe that Gary Barta, who is actually Brian Ferentz's superior, that is how this has worked out because of nepotism rules with the university, that he doesn't actually have to answer to his dad. He has to answer to the athletic director. Was Gary Barty going to do anything? No, we know this. It's not going to happen.

That's where we are at this point in time. They had a chance to make a change. They had a chance to do something and they didn't. I think that says a lot about Kirk Ferentz at this point and the relationship with his son. And that's why this should have never happened. We should have never got to this point. A guy that was a tight end coach for a couple of years and an offensive line coach at the collegiate level was not ready to be a play caller yet. That's what Kirk did.

And he's doubling down. And this is going to tarnish a legacy. If it continues down this path, an interesting number from earlier today, I saw this one a little bit earlier, most recent power five teams to be held under 200 yards in each of their first two games. This is over, I believe, the last 20 years. Power five teams that this has happened. Of course, Iowa is averaging 158 yards per game. 2008, Washington State. 2007, Notre Dame. And 2006, Mississippi State. These are the teams that had this aspect. Their first two games held under 200 yards in each of them. Those teams combined to go 8-29.

I don't think any of those three teams had elite defenses and special teams like Iowa has, but that is what had happened record-wise for this team. Could it be that bad? Could we be looking at a 3-9, 4-8 type of team? Absolutely. If they continue in this direction i would state it's a great defensive team they're good i mentioned haycock he is absolutely great but you look at this team they lost a ton of talent

south dakota state nice fcs team good fcs team year after year but come on when this is the woes that you're going through, this is what we have. This is where we are. Hit me up on the comments section. We'll get to your thoughts and comments coming up here in just a little bit as we continue on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. As you're up for fall,

you need the right people on your team to help your small business fire on all cylinders. LinkedIn Jobs is here to make it easier to find the people you want to talk to faster, and it's free. That's a huge thing right there. Hey, small businesses, I have a small business, something you always want to be able to do things, do it at a high level, while also saving some money. Well, LinkedIn Jobs can do just that. You can create a job post in minutes with LinkedIn Jobs, reach your network and beyond with the world's largest professional network,

over 810 million people. Add your job in the purple hiring frame to your LinkedIn profile and spread the word around your network that you are hiring at this time. Simple tools like screen questions make it easy to focus on the candidates with the right skills and experience so you can utilize and prioritize who you'd like to interview and hire. It's why small businesses ranked

LinkedIn jobs number one in delivering quality hires versus leading competitors. LinkedIn jobs helps you find the candidate you want to talk to and does it faster. Did you know every week, nearly 40 million job seekers visit LinkedIn. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash lockdown college. That's linkedin.com slash lockdown college to post your job for free. Terms and conditions do apply. So

wrapping things up on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast, I'm Trent Condon for our watchers on YouTube. You can go to youtube.com, just search Lockdown Hawkeyes. Hit a subscribe there. We're trying to get to 1,000 by the Michigan game. Hey, we're go to YouTube.com. Just search Locked on Hawkeyes. Hit a subscribe there. We're trying to get to 1,000 by the Michigan game. Hey, we're getting very close.

In fact, let's make this even more difficult. Let's get there by the time we kick things off against Nevada next week, and that will be a night game, of course, at Kinnick Stadium. Be a fun day at tailgating. Always good. Game. We will see. So we will see later.

The depth chart is going to be released tuesday as the press conference we're going to find out hopefully a little bit more about this team it'll be tomorrow uh the big 10 teleconference so at least our first conversation with kirk ference after the game after the initial press conference that he had where he said just doesn't think he has enough to have a fair assessment of the quarterback position at this point in time. I mentioned the boos, and the boos just weren't as bad as maybe I anticipated they were going to be. But it's a frustrating fan base, and it should be.

At this point in time, the frustration level, definitely get that. EA Monterey, he comes in and he's got a little something for us here. Says, have to give Padilla a chance next week and get Labus ready if needed. Go Hawks. You know, EA, I'm right there with you. I've been a Padilla proponent for quite a while at this point in time. I really thought that he was a guy that you needed to get out there right away this season. I thought he gave Iowa their best chance to win.

He's a guy that overall can move, move around behind a young offensive line that is still developing and can open up some other aspects. Plus, he takes shots up the field. You know, the one time that I would try to do that, it ended in the fumble, right? It ended in the fumble. I had somebody else reach out and wanted to talk about the referee. And I mentioned the Monty Potabon play, the fullback dive, trying to get him in the end zone and trying to, for all intents and purposes, probably would have put that game away as Iowa would have went up at that point 14-3. And it's just highly unlikely to anticipate that Iowa, the way that special teams are playing, the way the defense was playing, would give up two scoring drives

against Iowa State. But that play, was he in? There was a camera angle that wasn't used a whole lot on the broadcast. And I don't know, obviously looking at the play of the referee crew that looks at the plays and makes the decision. If they saw that angle very much, I thought there was a whole lot more that was there. He had that play a hundred deckers getting knocked out of bounds and he got the personal foul call. That was a big one. Certainly maybe a drop over on the sideline. Here's the thing. Iowa, they got what they deserve. This offense got what they deserve. Kirk Ferentz got what he deserved. And that was a loss. That was a losing effort. That was a losing decision making process. That was all on this

coaching staff and most importantly, Kirk Ferentz. That's what it comes down to. The offensive staff didn't do enough. Kirk Ferentz didn't do enough to give his team a chance to win. How much of the camaraderie and the way that Kirk has built this program and the way that they are overall, when does that start to tinker, right? When does that start to falter, I should say? When do we go to the avenue where it goes from, all right, we got our guys back. This is my dude, right? That is where we are. Because the defense, I played on teams like this. You played on teams like this.

It doesn't matter if it was Little League or high school or if you played collegially or even professionally. We've all been in these spots before where there is a certain aspect to whatever team it is that's not carrying the weight. And it gets ugly at a certain point. Now, are we going to hear about it? Probably not.

We're probably not going to hear about it because that's the way this program is built. And the walls at Fort Kinnick are very high inside that football complex to find some information. I mentioned one thing and the negative that some of the coaching staff looks at in comparison to Petras and Alex Padilla. Padilla, A, takes too many chances.

B, doesn't watch as much film. Okay, well, watch all takes too many chances. B, doesn't watch as much film. Okay. Well, watch all the film you want. It's not going to change the quarterback play that we've seen from Petras. Let's get another comment in here from the YouTube channel. Every week Petras starts is another hit on KF's legacy at this point. He's going to completely ruin his legacy if this continues all year. And this is something brought up, I think it was earlier in the week on the podcast.

And it is with Kirk and what he has built. Go back to Hayden. I remember Hayden and for me, the end of the tenor. After completely rebuilding this program, taking it to a level it hadn't seen in such a long time. Three Rose Bowls, Big Ten Championships. Hayden resurrected Iowa football from a place it hadn't been in decades. Was it 19 straight seasons that were on the losing side? I think they had one 500 season in there,

but hadn't had a winning season in 18 years before Hayden got there. And he built up a lot. And he had the showmanship and the pomp and circumstance and the boots. And he had all these great things. But there's also an avenue to that legacy that you do remember at the end, how quickly it went. Now, the story goes, at least the way that it's been relayed to me, that Kirk was ready, excuse me, Hayden was ready to retire after the 96 season.

But in 1997, they returned Matt Sherman at quarterback, Tavian Banks at running back, Tim DeWayne at wide receiver. They had a good defense also coming back. I think that was a top 20 defense nationally that year. They looked at it and said, hey, give us one more year. We don't want to have to deal with the new coaching staff. Come back for one more season. And he said, yes, give it one more go.

That's at least what has been said. So that happens. He's talked into coming back for one final season. 97 was a disappointment. Injury is a big part of that. Matt Sherman with Tavian running wide open up the left sideline at Michigan, a team that went on to win the national championship that year. They had a beat. Misses the throw, hurts his hand, and the season they lose a couple of close games to Wisconsin and Northwestern down the stretch, and it ends in very disappointing fashion going to the Sun Bowl. The following season then 1998 they were depleted and it went bad quickly. Now people remember that and I think more than

anything people they feel bad for Hayden the way that last season went. I remember that last game against Minnesota and just how ugly it was and and watching of course the pig leave the stadium that day and and thinking that well we felt like this very well could be the end, but on top of it, not like this. And that's where I am with Kirk. Not like this. Don't go out this way. You've done too much good. You've done too much good for the university, for the athletic department, for the football program. 24 years that he has been there, rebuilt things back up, all the great memories we have. But to go down this path with a quarterback that doesn't have it and your son as the offensive coordinator, it's going to be a

difficult decision. It's going to be tough. And there's not going to be a firing, right? There's no way that Kirk Ferentz is going to fire his son. A demotion? Maybe. There's got to be more than that. Find a spot in the NFL, get him back as a position coach, tight end coach, offensive line coach, whatever it is. But there has to be a landing spot. That's the only way that this can work because Kirk is not going to fire his son. Gary Barta, he does, though he has the power. He's not going to use that power to do something like that.

This is Kirk's program. And that's where we are. Frustrating week. We'll continue to dive into things. Get ready for the matchup against Nevada. The good thing is hope isn't completely lost. We put in a new quarterback, get a little bit of juice there. You start to get the receivers back.

Keegan Johnson sounds like he might be close to coming back. At least that's what Kirk says. We'll see how much we can believe of that. Nico Regani also getting close. This Nevada team is brutal defensively. You should be able to move the football, get some positive vibes, get the new quarterback in there, be it Labus, be it Padilla, get a new quarterback in there and give some hope to this fan base.

Give some hope to the future. Give some hope to everybody that this can be all right. Nebraska fires Scott Frost, right? Today, after losing 45-42, I should say, against Georgia Southern. So you have that aspect. How about Illinois needed a lot of help to beat a pretty average Virginia team. Wisconsin loses to Washington State, really outside of Minnesota. And a little bit of Purdue, who already has a loss on their ledger, of course, to Penn State.

It's not like the Big Ten West. We're not talking about the SEC West. That's for sure at this point in time. There is still hope. But the hope has to be with somebody different at the helm at the quarterback position. That's where the hope is. I'm sorry we're beating this to death.

I know it's a lot, but the frustration is there for me. I know it's there for you. Let's get this thing turned around. Let's do what they're supposed to against Nevada coming up on Saturday. We'll break that thing down. We'll talk a lot more about what we saw. We'll hear from Kirk this week. We'll get a lot more into it, and we'll be with you each and every day on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.

Thanks again for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen each and every day. For your second listen every day, how about Locked On Big Ten? Nate Dickinson and the local experts on Locked On take you across the Big Ten in 30 minutes. Make Locked big 10, your second listen every day. That's locked on big 10, much more coming. We will hear of course, from LaShawn Daniels coming up this week. He'll join us a couple of times. We'll get the former players perspective from LaShawn, break things down in that Avenue. Biz will stop by with me again later in the week.

We'll get his perspective on things. We'll make some picks. We'll have some fun and we will hope to turn this thing around. Iowa sits at 1-1. In a way, it feels like 0-2. That's where we are. And the thoughts and the not-so-instant reaction after Iowa falls 10-7 to

Iowa State. That'll do it. We'll talk to you again tomorrow on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Go Hawks!