Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football: Hawkeyes land a transfer QB in Brendan Sullivan, what's next in the portal?

Starting point is 00:00:01 Let's go Brendan. Iowa has its quarterback out of the transfer portal. Brendan Sullivan commits. We break it all down today. Locked on Hawkeyes. You are locked on Hawkeyes. Your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, welcome in. I'm Trent Condon, and this is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We're available wherever you find podcasts. You can also find us on YouTube.

Starting point is 00:00:40 While you're there, make sure you hit the subscribe button. Helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. Today's episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast is brought to you by Monopoly Go. Game on. We got to talk more about Monopoly Go. This fast-paced game lets you team up with friends for tournaments to unlock awesome prizes like unique stickers for trading, cool playing pieces, and hilarious emojis for taunting your friends. So download Monopoly Go now for free on Google Play or the App Store. Game on. Let's get into it. Iowa has its quarterback out of the transfer portal. Our long nightmare is over and now at minimum there is a backup for Cade McNamara at the quarterback position. It has been a huge topic of conversation here over the last weeks,

Starting point is 00:01:25 really over the last months, going back to the end of last season. We knew that Cade McNamara was going to be coming back for another year for the Hawkeyes and what we hope is a healthy season. You look at Cade McNamara, obviously what he did at Michigan as a signal caller, as a leader, some of the good qualities that come along with them. We're not talking about a top-level NFL prospect. We're not talking about anybody that is going to a wow-you-come pro day or anything like that. But at minimum, after what Iowa had endured the previous three seasons, it looked to be a quarterback that was competent.

Starting point is 00:01:57 It was a quarterback that wasn't scared of big moments, that when a rush would come, it wouldn't fall over or throw an interception. He was a guy that was capable of taking any kind of offense and at least taking it a step forward. Now, the unfortunate part a year ago, of course, is we never got to see a healthy Cade McNamara. We saw a guy that banged up his quad, was iffy to play going into the beginning of the season, gutted it out, and didn't play very well. And finally, he tears his ACL against Michigan State. That is the guy, though, we hope to see, a healthy Cade McNamara. And as he works his way back off that torn ACL, hopefully in the next

Starting point is 00:02:36 month, he's going to be all systems. Go. If you saw the pictures that came out from when Iowa's played a little softball, Looked to be good. He's diving around, making plays out there. Is it scary? Yeah. Your quarterback that you've invested a lot, both financially and really just backing your offensive program and what you're going to do

Starting point is 00:02:56 out there, running around, jumping around, making plays. But it looks like the knee is making its way back. That is your starter. But the question is, who is the backup? Last season, Deacon Hill showed that he is not good enough to be a Big Ten quarterback. In fact, the level of play that we saw from Deacon Hill a year ago was as bad as we've ever seen, certainly in Iowa Hawkeye uniform in my lifetime of 44 years, and probably even further back than that. I mean, we got to go back before Hayden Fry and go back to some of the dark days of Iowa football in the late 60s and into the 70s when we're talking about quarterback play

Starting point is 00:03:29 as poor as what we saw from Deacon Hill a year ago. This isn't to denigrate the guy. It's just to be truthful. He wasn't good enough. Iowa knew that. Iowa realized that, and they went out and they found somebody. That somebody is Brendan Sullivan. It's a name that we've talked about a lot here on Locked On Hawkeyes. And of the likely names that were still in the portal that Iowa appeared to have some interest in, this was at the top of my wish list. A couple of reasons for it. First, pedigree. A Big Ten player.

Starting point is 00:03:59 He comes from Northwestern. He has gone through the trials and tribulations of playing in the Big Ten. He knows the environment. He knows the Iowa program. He has the background necessary, absolutely, to be the kind of quarterback that can step in in a situation and can at least be okay. The drop-off between Cade McNamara, a healthy Cade McNamara, and Brendan Sullivan, I don't think is that significant. That leads me to my next point. This is a real competition. It goes in and pushes Cade McNamara knowing that yes, he has to be healthy. He has to be ready to go and he is going to have to put the work in. Now, I've never

Starting point is 00:04:36 questioned the work that Cade McNamara puts in, but having another level of competition there can only help things, can only push. Iron sharpens iron, right? And you're going to get that now with a competent quarterback and Brendan Sullivan, somebody that can compete. And if it turns out that Cade McNamara is not healthy, or maybe just maybe these injuries have debilitated him, not on a physical sense, but the mental sense.

Starting point is 00:05:02 That is one thing that we certainly don't talk a lot in spaces like this, but is incredibly important. Go back and remember when we heard Sam Darnold, when he was quarterbacking the Jets, early in his career on a Monday night football game. And he said he was seeing ghosts out there. Now, a lot of people took this as something that was a huge negative and he was never going to be a quarterback because of that.

Starting point is 00:05:24 And he was never going to be able to compete. Well, quarterbacks will tell you all the time that yes, you see ghosts. It's an ability to be able to pull yourself out of that. Something that Darnold certainly was never able to do at that level with the Jets and on in his other stops since then. But seeing ghosts is something that happens. With Cade McNamara, we don't know. With the injuries that he has sustained throughout his career, with just the amount of tread that has been worn off that tire, what he is going to be. Maybe all of a sudden he is a little bit gun shy or making those decisions a touch quicker or a touch slower. When he feels a pass rush, suddenly is he going to be more likely just to get rid of the football a little bit quicker because of those injuries of the past? I don't think that's the case.

Starting point is 00:06:10 I don't believe that is. And knowing his background and his makeup, I don't think that's what you're going to see from Cade McNamara, but we don't know. And now you have a quarterback that can come in, compete, and if McNamara either doesn't have it or gets injured again, can come in and at minimum be okay. So this past season, Sullivan started a number of games for Northwestern. He throws 714 yards, six touchdowns, and two interceptions. He can run. He's big. He's sturdy. I like that part of him too. 6'3", 225. He's tatted up. He's a tough guy. Hearing from some people that were involved with Northwestern, talking to a couple of people there, they mentioned that he is a guy that definitely is a rally the troops kind of guy. I'll figure that he's going to get

Starting point is 00:06:56 in people's faces if need be and be that kind of guy. And that's not a bad thing at the quarterback position. I don't believe he comes in here believing that this is Cade McNamara's job either, that he is going to push him and he's going to make it difficult for McNamara to earn that number one job. These are all good things. These are all things that Iowa absolutely needed at the quarterback position this past year. He started both games against Iowa over the last two seasons. The game at Wrigley Field, 12-19, 81 yards through a touchdown in that one, was sacked five times as the Iowa defense was all over the place. That's the thing that you do notice a lot over the last couple of years. He was sacked a ton. Is that maybe his inability to get rid of the ball quickly? We will see. He also has a background with Tim Lester,

Starting point is 00:07:40 the new offensive coordinator. I think that is something that is also important. This whole group of quarterbacks that is in the room, and it's not a very deep group anymore, but these were not guys that Tim Lester recruited. We saw the quarterback recruiting over the last five, six years be as bad as I was had, again, in an incredibly long time. How you can possibly choose Spencer Petras as your top choice over Zach Wilson is still baffling. Zach Wilson, though it didn't work for him in the Jets, again, with the Jets come up for a second time, that guy was a top five pick in the NFL. Spencer Petras, we saw.

Starting point is 00:08:17 The guys that have transferred out, the guys that never got an opportunity. A guy like Alex Padilla, who we saw have glimpses, but just weren't able to get there. The way that they have evaluated quarterbacks has been so poor. It's hard to get excited about Marco Lyon as it's difficult to envision James Rezar suddenly becoming a big 10 quarterback because the way that they have evaluated quarterbacks has just been so piss poor over the last six years that you're just left saying this will probably be another bus. I mean, can you think of another collection of quarterbacks as bad as what I was put together at the power conference level over the last six seasons? Show it to me. Go to Vanderbilt, go anywhere else. And I'm going to

Starting point is 00:08:59 guess you're going to find better quarterbacks than what Iowa was able to pull up. Now you can argue it was the scheme. It was an inept offensive coordinator, and that was a big issue for it. And I'm not going to argue back about that point, but the evaluation was poor. And now Tim Lester has a guy in the quarterback room that he recruited out of high school when he was at Western Michigan, and a guy, I don't want to say handpicked, but again, this was also their first visit, right? This was the first visit that they wanted out of these quarterbacks, over General Booty, over a legace, guys like that. This is who they brought in first, and they get the commitment from Brendan Sullivan.

Starting point is 00:09:34 Well, Iowa, are they done? Yes, they are over the scholarship limit. However, there are still needs for this football team. What are they going to do next in the transfer portal? We'll talk about that as we continue. This is Locked on Hawkeyes. Today's episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast is brought to you by eBay Motors.

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Starting point is 00:11:05 podcast side, how about a five-star review over on Apple? We would appreciate it. A big thank you to all of our great listeners out there. Coming up here in the next few days, if not this week, we will get to it next week. We'll have a mailbag edition. All your comments, see a ton of the comments over on YouTube.

Starting point is 00:11:22 You can also find us on Twitter on X, at Trent Condon, or you can find the show account page at lockdown iowa you can find us over there as well so iowa has its backup quarterback at minimum with brendan sullivan like it like him as a player uh the completion percentage i think is something that i would just hasn't seen a guy that's incredibly accurate with the football that's something to get excited about as we look forward to this new regime and this new offensive system. Look, it's not going to be a huge change. It's going to be, yes, ball control.

Starting point is 00:11:54 We're not going to see them suddenly going out and trying to run 100 plays a game. That's not what this is going to be. It's not going to be at a ridiculous tempo. But the passing scheme was broken and had to be fixed. And I believe that Tim Lester can be a guy that can do it. Is Kirk Ferentz willing to be hands-off enough to allow that to happen? We saw an evolution this past season with the running game and the hope that the passing game now is able to keep up this season. So what else is out there? Well, Iowa continues to look around

Starting point is 00:12:20 the transfer portal. Again, it closed a week ago as it came to a close and guys that wanted to enter the portal, they are no longer allowed to do that. However, there's plenty of names still in there. Of course, a week ago, the big story is Iowa lost out on a wide receiver transfer that they had on campus and Ryland Sharp, he decides to go to Fresno State. You start right there. Iowa needs more help at the wide receiver position. I don't think there's any doubt about that, that that is still a huge, huge need. You're excited about Caleb Brown. Seth Anderson, if he can stay healthy, he's going to be a guy that can help out. We know the tight end position is deep and talented with Luke Lachey, one of the best tight ends in the country, coupled with what we saw from Addison Estringa last season. They're in good shape there, but you need to find somebody else, if possible, in the portal.

Starting point is 00:13:08 Caleb Wetchin, we'll see. He's a gadget kind of guy. He's super fast. He's small. He's a slot guy. You can do a myriad of different things. We saw them a year ago using that jet sweep and doing that with them,

Starting point is 00:13:20 but that was basically it. Still a guy with that kind of speed. There's got to be a place on the field to find him out there a little bit more. But you don't have your prototypical ex-wide receiver. Is that Jarrett Bowie, the redshirt freshman out of Flora, a guy that was on the travel team a year ago and played limited snaps a season ago?

Starting point is 00:13:36 Is that Dayton Howard, the big kid from down in Kansas City, six foot four, has the big frame? Can he go into that one? But if you can find a veteran wide receiver a guy that's ready made yes you would prefer that big guy six two six three that would make the most sense but any kind of wide receiver they need help at that position and when you look at the scholarship numbers in comparison to what's out there across the landscape college football i was just incredibly low on that one it was one is one of the walk-ons going to hit?

Starting point is 00:14:05 Are we going to see an Alex Wick or a guy like that hit? Possibly, but I think that's a place that definitely makes a whole lot of sense. And then the other one, and something that we talked about a little bit last week, was the potential of them looking at defensive tackle. So defensive tackle is a spot I was fine with their starters. In fact, better than fine. I mean, most teams right now would absolutely sign up for having Y.A. Black and Aaron Graves as your starting defensive tackles in pretty good shape there. We'll see about Pittman. You know, I thought we

Starting point is 00:14:34 would see more of him a year ago, two seasons ago. He was not a huge part of the rotation. He was down a little bit more, but we saw him get a few snaps at minimum. I thought those numbers would increase. That didn't happen this past season. Don't know if it was injury or performance related. He's your third guy. And then after that, it's a whole lot of youth. Now, passing downs, you can get a little tricky, right? You can move Ethan Hercat inside.

Starting point is 00:14:56 It'll kind of go that direction. Even Deontay Craig, move him inside on the third and eight, third and 10. Do those kinds of spots and move those guys inside while still maintaining your four man defensive line front. But there was a name that came out earlier in the week, Gavin Meyer. This was from Hawkeye Report and from Blair Sanderson over there out of Wyoming that he was the one that had been potentially looking at. So that would make a whole lot of sense. This roster though is in good shape. It really is. I look at this team up and down. The schedule is not overly difficult. It just isn't. Yes, we do not have the Big Ten West,

Starting point is 00:15:31 and that means we don't get yearly matchups against Northwestern and Purdue and Illinois. That most part, though they've had pockets of success for all of them and appearances in the Big Ten championship game, we're certainly not talking about power programs. But the way the schedule sets up this season, non-conference, Illinois State, Iowa State. By the way, a line came out with a sportsbook out there, had Iowa just a two and a half point favorite in that game. That one surprised me. And then Troy. That'll be a good Troy team coming in. But still, three home games to open up the season. You go to Minnesota. Revenge. Doesn't look like Phil Flex got a great squad on his hands this season. And boy, getting that pig back is going to be important this season. You go to Ohio State.

Starting point is 00:16:12 Okay, that's tough. But then after that, this is how Iowa finishes up in their final seven games of the season. Washington at home. Yes, the Huskies played for a national championship last year. Get it. The Huskies also last year lost almost everybody from that team. Michael Penix isn't there. That great offensive line isn't there.

Starting point is 00:16:30 Their top three receivers that were outstanding, they're all gone. They have a ton to do, a new coaching staff to do it. You get it in Kinnick Stadium. I think a great opportunity in that one for Iowa to pick up a win against a team that played for the championship a year ago. Michigan State had like 50 guys in the portal. Another program going through a regime, a regime, a change there. Easy for me to say. Michigan State, it's on the road, but still a very winnable game. Northwestern. Okay. You get them at home. Wisconsin. Are you scared of the badgers after last year deacon hill beat that

Starting point is 00:17:06 team a year ago i'm not i think i was going to be in good shape in kinnick stadium in that one you go to ucla another team going through a huge huge rebuild chip kelly off to be the offensive coordinator now at ohio state and with it that ucla program looks to be very down this season. When you're talking about kind of the structure of the 18 team, Big Ten, all of these teams, Washington included, are going to be picked in the double digits. Washington, Michigan State, Northwestern, maybe not Wisconsin, but yeah, certainly UCLA. You get to Maryland, a road trip there. Now, it is kind of that funky road trip thing. You go to UCLA, you get a bye week, then another road trip out to Maryland, and then you finish up against Nebraska. Now the Huskers are getting better. I know a lot of you out there hate to hear it. That yes, Nebraska. I have never

Starting point is 00:17:54 been one that has subscribed to Nebraska's back or they're treading in the right direction. I've been very much keeping them at arm's reach away. However, I think rule is going to do it. Rayola is going to be the guy at quarterback. And I'm not saying they're back competing for national championships because that era of college football that Nebraska was competing at those levels, it isn't there anymore. We are talking about something so completely different. I don't see them getting back to those kind of levels.

Starting point is 00:18:20 But they're going to be good. And that's going to be a dogfight as we've seen a lot of those games between Iowa and Nebraska over the last seven, eight years be dogfights. And a lot of them come down to the wire. And I think that's going to be the case again on Black Friday this season. Still, not overly daunting. An opportunity. The roster's in really good shape.

Starting point is 00:18:37 Iowa's there. And one of their biggest checklist items has now crossed off with the commitment of Brendan Sullivan. We got more for you here on Locked On Hawkeyes Iowa, looking at a couple of different directions on the basketball front. What's the latest there for both the men's and women's basketball programs as they look to add to their rosters? Plus, you're a Caitlin Clark fan?

Starting point is 00:18:58 Well, you better be. You're getting an opportunity here in the state of Iowa to watch even more Caitlin as she gets ready to begin her WNBA career. We'll do that all as we continue. This is Locked on Hawkeyes. All right, game off. We got to pause here to talk about Monopoly Go. I know what you're saying.

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Starting point is 00:20:12 So get off the bench and download it for free on Google Play or the App Store. Game on. Today's episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast is also brought to you by Yahoo Finance. Wouldn't it be great if you could see all your investment and retirement accounts in one place with Yahoo Finance? You can consolidate your views from multiple accounts all into one hub and access the expert

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Starting point is 00:21:18 behind every great investor, yahoofinance.com. The number one financial destination, yahoofinance.com. Once again, that's yahoofinance.com. Back with you one final time on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. I'm Trent Connan. Give me a follow on Twitter at Trent Connan is where you can find me. T-R-E-N-T-C-O-N-D-O-N. Talking Hawks baseball season coming to a close final season of the regular season in the big 10 as iowa makes their way to illinois this weekend a lot of up at the

Starting point is 00:21:53 top of the big 10 opportunity though to solidify themselves the hawkeyes as a t excuse me maybe on the top side of the bracket and maybe even potentially more if they can get a little bit of help but great series win with the sweep against Northwestern over the weekend culminating with a 13 inning win and we'll get ready for that series coming up here a little bit later on Iowa's put themselves in a position got to win the Big Ten tournament to be an NCAA tournament team but even with all the injuries the issues early in the season with the bullpen the staff towards the middle part of the year maybe starting to trend in a positive direction all right Hawkeye fans we know you love Caleb Clark I love watching Caleb Clark it's incredible it's also great to see that that creep Greg Doyle

Starting point is 00:22:37 will not be allowed to be on the beat for her this season that That was an ugly look, and for a guy that I had dealings with in the past, no surprise, not a very good person. However, we're here to talk about Kaitlyn, so let's do that. The news that came out today, that we are going to have the opportunity to watch Kaitlyn Clark in so many more games than we initially thought. Now, yes, there are going to be a ton of games that are going to be out there that you're going to be able to see on ESPN. She's going to be a huge part of that. And no surprise,

Starting point is 00:23:10 because we know exactly what it's going to be. But now the chance, if you're in Des Moines, on Channel 5 here, WOI, the ABC affiliate, along with Channel 23, KCWI, to have 17 additional Fever games being on television here. It's amazing. I am always surprised when the latest story comes out and some of the old guard in the WNBA and the vitriol that has at times been there for Caitlin Clark. Is it going to be a learning process? Absolutely. It doesn't matter the level. That Is it going to be a learning process? Absolutely.

Starting point is 00:23:51 It doesn't matter the level. That's always going to be the case. But how these players, both current and former, cannot understand that we are seeing something completely different. Is it difficult to wrap your mind around why Caitlin Clark is this star. And it didn't happen for Brianna Stewart. It didn't happen for Diana Taurasi. It didn't happen for Cheryl Swoops. Is that maybe as a competitor difficult to swallow? Yes, but this is different. She's different.

Starting point is 00:24:18 This is not a state of Iowa thing. This is not a Midwest thing. This is not in the Big Ten footprint kind of thing. This is nationwide. You see the numbers on television. She draws eyeballs. There's so many reasons for it. She's compelling. She's interesting. She's fun. She's all the things that you want. She's a competitor. She's a little rough around the edges at times. There's all the things that make her the star that she is. It's different, but it's impactful. I'll tell you this. The news came out earlier in the week

Starting point is 00:24:47 that the WNBA for the first time is working to charter all their flights for all the teams traveling around the country and playing their games. Something that hasn't happened with the aforementioned stars that have been in there. And without Caitlin Clark, I don't believe this is happening. It is something that is going to cost the WNBA $25 million to charter planes for all their teams across the season over the next two years. It's costly in order to make this happen. And without Kaitlyn Clark, it wouldn't. So instead of continuing to tear down Kaitlyn Clark,

Starting point is 00:25:18 instead of continuing to try to be the tough person about it, how about these players celebrate her a little bit? Understand what she's doing is better for you. It's going to be better for you in terms of travel. It's going to be better for you in terms of your bottom line. How they don't understand that, how they don't realize it is confounding, but it's where we are at this point in time. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every single day.

Starting point is 00:25:43 Greatly appreciate each and every one of you out there. We got a lot more coming up this week. The impact of the Brennan Sullivan transfer news. We will talk more about that. Are there any other new names to talk about as it pertains to Iowa and what they're doing on the men's basketball front? Women's basketball. We talked about the Arkansas transfer and the potential there.

Starting point is 00:26:04 We got more news coming in on that one. i'm gonna get a visit out of that so much going on we got you covered your excuse me yes still struggling with the cold a little bit we got through about 26 minutes there without a cough apologies i don't have a cough button here on this setup here but we are with you every single day. We'll be with you tomorrow. We'll be with you throughout the rest of the week, breaking down Iowa, Illinois, and a whole lot more on the diamond coming up this weekend.

Starting point is 00:26:34 We'll talk to you again tomorrow. I need a drink and we will talk to you then. Go Hawks.

Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football: Hawkeyes land a transfer QB in Brendan Sullivan, what's next in the portal?

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