Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football Instant Reaction: Hawkeyes embarrassed at Penn State

Episode Date: September 24, 2023

Trent Condon is back for an instant reaction podcast episode as the Hawkeyes goes on the road and lose to Penn State 31-0.The offense was terrible and the questions continue for Brian Ferentz and his ineptitude.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!NutrafolTake the first step to visibly thicker, healthier hair. For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners ten dollars off your first month’s subscription and free shipping when you go to Nutrafol.com/men and enter the promo code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE. DoorDashGet fifty percent off your first DoorDash order up to a twenty-dollar value when you use code lockedoncollege at checkout. Limited time offer, terms apply.Jase MedicalSave more than $360 by getting these lifesaving antibiotics with Jase Medical plus an additional $20 off by using code LOCKEDON at checkout on jasemedical.com.Athletic BrewingGo to AthleticBrewing.com and enter code LOCKEDON to get 15% off your first online order or find a store near you! Athletic Brewing. Milford, CT and San Diego, CA. Near Beer.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase.LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGE. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Right now, NEW customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED in BONUS BETS – GUARANTEED. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Well, that sucked. That was absolutely awful. A putrid performance from the Hawkeyes. Is it a one-off? Awful? One game? Or does this say more about the Iowa football program? We'll figure things out in an instant reaction podcast today.

Locked on. You are locked on Hawkeyes. Your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Men, it's a late night edition of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We're available wherever you get podcasts. You can also find us on YouTube.

Hit the subscribe button if you're over on YouTube. It helps us out immensely. Get in front of more Hawkeye fans. If you're on the podcast side of things, five-star reviews. Help us out, and we will continue to talk Hawkeyes each and every day. Your team every day, that's what we do here on the Lockdown Network. Well, this one tonight was a frustrating one as the Hawkeyes fall at the hands of Penn State 31-0. And the final score doesn't indicate, I think, some of the frustrations and just how bad it was at times.

So really a script that is playing out in some of the things that we talked about early on, what Iowa needed to have happen in order to win this football game, or at least have an opportunity come the fourth quarter to get the victory against the Nittany Lions. Early on in the football game, Iowa picks up a first down. They get to midfield. They pin them deep. Penn State starting on their own two-yard line. At four-yard line, they go backwards for a couple of plays. Third and long, they force the punt. They get it back in plus territory, and they're off and cruising, right? A big play. Eric Hall gets it on a beautifully designed play. The scripted plays, once again, looked incredibly

good for Iowa early in the football game. We'll get to what happened after the scripted plays, but you're going. All's got a first down. He's into the red zone, and right as he's coming to the ground, the ball pops out. I believe off a knee of a Penn State defender. Fumble luck doesn't go Iowa's way, and they turn the football over. So what felt like, at minimum, was going to be an early lead for Iowa. Iowa played the field position game. They got the short field. They're going to get a score out of it, maybe even turn it into seven.

We talked about Iowa getting into the red zone, how important for them as Penn State, one of their few warts on their resume statistically coming into the game was their red zone defense and to get nothing and to give it over and then from there the wheels just continued to fall off some calls that didn't go against Iowa early on in the first half Penn State's just one of seven on third downs, but three of three on fourth downs, including a play that Penn State was short. Unless the ball was stuck to Drew Aller's helmet, it was not a first down, but they get it. They moved March down.

And yet with all that, you have Cooper DeGene, and we can argue, was he too deep on that punt return? Did he not let the guys know, the gunners out there know, to get away from the football as the punt was short? Hits off of Dean Freitas and turnover, and it's quickly 10-0. But all that. Calls aren't going Iowa's way. Bounces aren't going Iowa's way.

It's just one of those things where things are not falling. And you go into the halftime locker room, and you're just down 10-0. And you take that deep breath, and you say, you know what? This probably should be a lot worse for as poorly as Iowa played from basically the middle of the first quarter through the end of the first half. And to only be down 10-0, you got a shot. And then it just went from bad to worse. Penn State gets the ball to start the second half. They drive right down the football field. 15 plays, 75 yards. They're just grinding.

They're tough. And from there, it's over. But down three scores with the ineptitude of this offense, the ineptitude of Brian Ferentz as a play caller in game. You know this thing's over. Against a defense as talented as Penn State's are, with their ability now to start to tee off, to pin their ears back,

to come after the quarterback unencumbered because apparently the tackles decide we don't need to get outside. We're just going to let these guys go through unimpeded. There's no chance. Gabe McNamara was off. And maybe he hurt his hand. He was shaking it after he made contact. It looked like with the wrist of a Penn State defender. He was off, and maybe he hurt his hand. He was shaking it after he made contact, it looked like, with the wrist of a Penn State

defender. He was off after that, missed poorly, really badly on a couple of throws after that. He was bad. The offensive line was bad. The play calling was bad. The offense was bad. This is something that continues. The second and third quarters, Iowa combines for minus five yards of total offense.

And the final numbers are propped up by a drive late from the backup quarterback and many of the backups in Deacon Hill. Kid McNamara finishes the game 5 of 14 for 42 yards. He sacked twice. He's hit another half dozen times. Iowa had two big plays in the game. One was a bootleg as he waggles out to the right. There's nobody out there. Of course, there's nobody open because, God forbid, Iowa actually have a scheme where people can get open. That's a conversation we will get to.

But rolls out there. Nobody's out. And he sprints for a gain of 18 yards. The other play is the aforementioned pass to Eric Hall. That went for 20. That's combined 38 yards. And for a long time, for three quarters of this football game, more than three quarters of this football game,

what, 80% of the football game, that's over half of their yardage. Iowa finished the game with a combined 76 yards of total offense. Now, this isn't the worst ever for a Brian Ferens coached offense. No, he had another stinker back in 2017. Fresh off a week where they put 55 up against Ohio State. The following week, they get 66 yards of total offense against Wisconsin. And they get blown out of that game, and the only scores that they had in that football game

were two defensive scores. This gets us to some big-picture stuff and what it means, and we will get into that. The running game early on, a couple of cracks. Had a couple of decent runs in there. Even the ones that looked like they were stood up, they were still at times getting three, four yards. It's not like many of the things we've seen in the past

where normally when they get stacked up, when they're running outside zone, it's a loss of two. At least you're falling forward and you're getting something, right? There was a little bit early on, but it was just not enough. And that's what this team is. Against Penn State, a year ago against Ohio State and Michigan, in the Big Ten Championship game two years against Michigan. It's not only that they're getting beat.

They're getting manhandled in these games. And yes, you can beat the crappy Big Ten West, and you can win this awful division, and you can go to the championship game. But when you have an elite-level defense, and they do, is it as good as last year's? No, not right now. And it probably won't get to that level. And you're talking about losing two first-round draft picks

in Jack Campbell and Lucas Vianess. And the sustainability of playing at that kind of level, it's just not likely. But it's still a very good defense. And if you want to argue back and forth about what actually is, you know, the real meaning of an elite defense, okay, we can get into that. But that aside, it's a very good defense.

Special teams didn't play well tonight. But we still know. They have one of the best punters in the country. That showed up again. Torrey Taylor's numbers were ridiculous. Penn and Penn stayed multiple times inside the five-yard line. He did his job. Drew Stevens didn't get an opportunity to do his job.

The kickoff game was nonexistent. They were pounding the end zone, and Wetchin wasn't returning them. I mean, he did his job. Drew Stevens didn't get an opportunity to do his job. The kickoff game was non-existent. They were pounding the end zone and Whetchin wasn't returning them. But return can't happen. If it's on Dejean, if it's on Defrates, whoever it is, you just can't allow that to happen. I was not good enough to not allow things like that to happen. I said, if I was going to have a chance, they had to dominate special teams. They didn't. Wasn't close. Dominated the punting game. That was it. Had to dominate all phases of special teams.

And it didn't happen. So here we are. But the big question remains, Brian Ferenc, right? Bribo. Bri guy. That dude. He's bad at his job. He He's bad at his job.

He's been bad at his job. This is a guy that without the last name, without the family connections, would be coaching in the Iowa Conference. Would be a high school football coach. And there's nothing wrong with that. There's a lot of great coaches. I see them every Friday night as I call football games here across the state. I see great football coaches.

Every Friday night as I call football games here across the state, I see great football coaches. And I certainly see guys that seem to have more football knowledge and understanding of how to actually build an offense than what I see out of this. This is supposed to be entertaining. This is supposed to be fun for us, right? And it's not fun watching this godforsaken offense go out there and hump a football for 60 minutes every single week. Even when they win, it's like pulling teeth.

When's the last time we've had just pure joy watching this football team? Wins are great, but when you got to grind it out to beat Utah State, when you have to play some of the most boring football games to beat your in-state rival in Iowa State, when you get excited about blowing out Western Michigan and you're down for most of the first half in that football game, where's the joy? Brian Ferris has sucked the joy out of Iowa football. And the nepotism angle and just the haircut and every it just he bothers me and he i know i'm not alone in that it's not a personal attack this is him as a play caller as what you are coordinating an offense four games in you have the most highly regarded wide receiver that i was ever had. Ever.

We could talk about Willie Guy. Willie Guy was a quarterback in high school. That was the 1980s that Hayden Fry recruited him, right? We're talking a long time ago. At least in the, how about this, the recruiting website era. The best wide receiver they've ever had in Caleb Brown. They get him from Ohio State. And he doesn't have a catch.

He's touched the ball twice. That is scheme. Now, I don't believe at this point that Caleb Brown is some great wide receiver. He still has a lot to learn, but you don't get him the ball once. That's schematic. That's a Brian Ferentz issue. We'll continue to talk about Bribo and his ineptitude as we continue. This is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Today's episode of Lockdown Hawkeyes

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lose. If you've been thinking about joining FanDuel, there's no better time to get in on the action. Getting ready for the slate. Hey, maybe you're a Bears fan. How about that? I'm, yes, watch the Hawks every week, and then I get to watch the Bears. Talk about offensive ineptitude. Well, the great thing is, with all the betting options that you have, you can have a little something going on in the game to make it a little more exciting for you. Not just spreads, player props, over-under, rushing yardage totals, passing totals, receiving totals, defensive stats, sacks,

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or hit us up with a five-star review if you're listening on podcast. As we continue here on the podcast, an instant reaction, a couple hours in the rearview mirror and the blood pressure was rising, the frustrations growing. Certainly no, not alone on that one. the frustrations growing certainly no not alone on that one and when we talk about this offense and scheming up ways to get your guys involved i was had good receiver play in the past you go back to the early ference era and seeing what guys like cj jones mo brown those kind of guys did they were playmakers. Even before that, when Iowa was still building, early in the Ferentz era, and they had Bruce Nelson out there at 255

pounds playing tackle, early Robert Gallery before he built himself into the Outland Award winner and the number two pick in the NFL draft. Those guys were not big. Yet Iowa schemed to get Kevin Casper 70 catches in a year. It would take eight seasons right now, it feels like, to get wide receiver 80 catches, 70 catches in a season. That's where we are. Again, it feels unthinkable. When you watch college football, and if you're a college football fan, you're watching games, you're flipping around,

and you're jumping over to watch a Wyoming-Appachian State game as I did for a little bit tonight you're watching these games you're watching everybody you see these teams from the Sunbelt from the MAC and they come into Kinnick Stadium and they can scheme up some kind of system to move the football to get the ball into their wide receivers hands and Iowa can. Where's the crossing route? You just see this. And this is not to discredit Penn State because they're an incredibly talented football team. If you were with us this summer, if you were every day as you know this,

I was incredibly high on this Penn State team coming into the season. Now, my hope going into this one, I also thought Iowa was going to be further along than what they were even before we got to this game and a huge step back tonight. But I know Penn State's talented. I understand that. They got dudes. Their defensive ends, their cornerbacks. This is a stacked team. This is certainly Franklin's most talented football team that he has had. But Iowa looked like they didn't belong in the same field.

This wasn't varsity versus JV. This was varsity against the sixth graders that ever played before. That's what this offense looked like. That's how bad it is. And how Brian Ferencz can have multiple games like this and still maintain his job. It's unthinkable. Now we also have to live in reality. And that's one thing that I Now, we also have to live in reality. And that's one thing that I always like to talk about is living in reality. We're out for blood, right? We want to see him fired. We want to see that skin on the wall.

I get that. And I understand. But the reality is it's not going to happen. Excuse me. The reality is that he is going to be the offense coordinator. Kirk doesn't fire guys in season. That doesn't happen. And Kirk said after the game tonight that they will evaluate. They're not going to throw it out because of just four games,

right? We're four games in, we'll evaluate. We got eight more of these to figure out. I get that, but Kirk is not four games. You don't have four years, or four games. We have eight years now. or seven and a third years to show that he's not the guy. He doesn't know how to do the job. And we can move the goalposts as much as we want, but your son isn't good enough at this job.

You think he's a good offensive line coach? You think he's a good tight ends coach? So be it. But what we do know, and we have history on our side now, is he is not a good offensive coordinator. He can put together 15 plays. He can script out a couple of drives early in the football game. But when the rubber hits the road, when you got to go out there

and you have to adapt and you have to figure out what to do, there are certain guys that get it. There are certain guys that understand the feel of the game, the flow of the game, what you need to do, what you do early to set something up later. And he just doesn't have that. And that's okay. You can still love your son, but we shouldn't have to be subjected to his awfulness. He has sucked the entertainment out of Iowa football. Ken O'Keefe, Greg Davis, never to get, not too Hall of Famer, certainly, as offensive coordinators.

There's numbers, though, in comparison to what we've seen with Brian Ferentz, it's night and day. The offensive line was brutal, and we thought we were going to see a step forward. It hasn't happened. Certainly not at the level to make this Iowa team be able to close that gap between them and that next year.

The gap continues to grow. And what we saw last year against Ohio State when the defense played out of their minds and he still get beat 54-10. The defense today played out of their minds. And he still get beat 54-10. The defense today played out of their minds. Played great. They're holding Penn State to four yards of play. And being on the field for as long as they were, those guys gutted it out.

Didn't have anything left in the tank. And your special teams, though it wasn't tonight, is normally very good. You have two excellent, year after year, excellent parts of the game that you have figured out. And yet you continue down this path of ineptitude with the offense. I just don't understand how it's okay. How is this okay for us as a fan base? We have no recourse. And unfortunately, Beth Goetz has no recourse.

The 25 points per game put a target on the back of Iowa football. Not just Brian Ferenc. Yes, it's about Brian Ferenc. But it made Iowa football an unnecessary target of the national media. And it's become a punchline now. It's become a national laughingstock. And even when they were hitting it. And we saw, obviously, the discourse last week as Iowa punched in the late touchdown.

And a great story in getting a walk on a touchdown. And instead of that being the story, instead the national media said, oh boy, is that Kirk padding the total for his boy? It's not the way it should be, but that's where we are. And we were put in this situation, not by Gary Barta. We were put in this situation by Kirk. He was the one. He was the one that wanted this.

And now he is the one that needs to answer. Because right now there's no oversight. There's nothing out there right now to come back for. They got the cockamamie thing because of the nepotism rules and the state laws, and they're in there for a reason. Because of this. Because Kirk Ferentz, as great of a guy and as great of a football coach as he is, he cannot see how bad his son is.

Because he's his son. It's as simple as that. He can't see it. We can see it. You don't have to be some kind of football savant to see just how bad this is and continues to be year after year after year. This is three years of awfulness now. Not just four games.

That's all Kirk says, and it's not four. It's not four. But 28 games now of terrible offensive play. A team that couldn't throw for 300 yards if he gave them 120 minutes in a football game. A team that struggles anymore to run for 150 against anybody with a pulse. The scheme is broken.

And even as they've tried to adapt, they can't do it because he's in over his head and he's got over seven years now to figure it out. It's too much. So where's the oversight going to come from? When we look at what's next for Iowa football, what is this going to be? Beth gets in an interim role as the athletic director.

She has a decision. And she very easily, I believe, if she had the power, she could have taken off the 25 points per game. Before the season said that was put in place, when she took over the role on August 1st, that was put in place before I was the athletic director. That is not going to be it. We are going to evaluate. We're going to evaluate everything from my perspective, not Gary Barta's perspective, and we're going to go that route. She didn't. And now Iowa continues to be a punchline. So Beth gets ultimately gets the athletic director role and she becomes the full-time AD. And she's done a great job of working with the Swarm Collective, getting NIL opportunities for student athletes

on the football program and across now the whole space. She's done a great job doing that. But is she going to have her first main objective? Either going to Kirk Ferentz, a potential Hall of Fame coach, a beloved guy, a guy that's won a lot of football games and built a lot of trust,

not just at the University of Iowa, not just in the state of Iowa, but across the country. And one of her first orders of business is going to be, Kirk, we have to get rid of your son. Because even if they don't hit the threshold, and the likelihood that they get to 25 points per game is incredibly slim.

And even if they don't get there, if Kirk wants this, if Kirk really wants this, he wants Brian Steele to be the offensive coordinator. Iowa goes 9-3. They win this crappy division. They get to Indianapolis. They lose 27-4. Two safeties.

27-3. All right, let's be a little more realistic. 27-5. Let's split the difference. All right, 27-5. They lose the championship game, whoever it is, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, whatever. And he says, you know what? That's a successful year. And they go to the Outback Bowl and they

win another Outback Bowl and they finish the year 10 and four. And Kirk, is that going to lead to head buddy? Is that going to lead to Kirk walking away? Those are the questions we don't have an answer to, but it's a definitely a very scary situation right now for Iowa football when you look at the future. The offense is broke. The defense can only do so much. And the special teams weren't very special tonight. And you see what happens. You're blown out. Penn State's good. It's a talented team. And the good news is there is not another team that is going to look like that Penn State team on the regular season schedule. But if Iowa does what I still believe that they should, I still believe that this is the best team in this awful division,

the Big Ten West. I still believe they're better than Wisconsin. Not just Wisconsin, but look at the Illinois struggles against Florida Atlantic now. Minnesota blows a 21-point lead to Northwestern of all teams. Purdue, come on. Saw them Friday night against Wisconsin. That's not a good team. You're still the best team, most talented team, I believe, in this division. Get it done.

But what does it mean? We got a ton coming up this week here on Lockdown Hawkeyes. We will continue to break things down. A primetime matchup with Michigan State coming up again for the Hawkeyes as Sparty comes to town. Speaking of broken programs, Michigan State, they're going through their own set of issues. We'll get ready for that one.

More reaction, more from Kirk. We'll react to what he said after the game. And of course, the Tuesday press conference, there'll be a ton there. Jason's going to stop by later this week. We'll talk with him. Of course, former Hawkeye running back LaShawn Daniels will be with us as he is each and every week.

Again, hit that subscribe button if you're on YouTube. Five-star review if you're over on the podcast side of things. It is a busy time, a frustrating one. Let's get some fun back, watching fun football. I'm not going to do it tomorrow with my Bears, that is for sure. We'll talk to you again on Monday with a first look back. And yes, I will do it as I do each and every week. We kick off the week with a re-watch of the game.

That is when we go back and take another look, see exactly how bad it was, how ugly it was, or were there some good things? And a lot of times in bad games like this, some good things do pop out. Hey, one other thing, gotta give credit to Jay Higgins. Gotta mention that dude. All over the field, 9-0 late in the game, there was a play, weird one

up on the sideline, he kinda ducked out of there and just stuck his foot out, but that dude and the whole defense was playing out of their minds. Xavier Wampa did not play well. He's been a disappointment back there. Cooper Dejean playing off, you know, Drew Aller was not throwing the football down the field, and he and I would just kept sitting back and sitting back, and they hung around, and it was 10-0, but there was a time that they had to play a little more aggressively, defensively, and it just didn't happen. Jay Higgins, though, he was out there.

He was doing his thing. Credit to him on a monster performance from the Hawkeye middle linebacker. We'll break it all down, though, as we can only do here on Locked On, Hawkeyes, your team every day. That's what we do on Locked On, Hawkeyes, with you each and every day. Thanks for making Locked On, Hawkeyes with you each and every day. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We'll talk to you again Monday morning with a look back. We'll talk to you then. Until that point, thanks for joining us here on the program.

And go Hawks.