Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football: Kaleb Brown news, Tom Kakert joins the show & AJ Ferrari leaves Iowa

Episode Date: June 21, 2024

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It's a big recruiting weekend for the Iowa Hawkeyes. The football program, the future, is going to be in front of us. We'll talk about some of the big prospects. We'll talk to the godfather of recruiting in the world of Hawkeye land, Tom Caker, from Hawkeye Report. And a Ferrari has left the building. 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 Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We're available wherever you find podcasts, and you can also watch us on YouTube. Hit the subscribe button for everybody out there on YouTube if you can. Five-star reviews on the audio side. A big thank you to everyone out there. Well, we have some football recruiting to get into. We're going to talk a lot of Hawkeyes with Tom Kakert from hawkeyereport.com. That's coming up here momentarily, but we open with a little bit of news here today, and that is the news that Caleb Brown, the outstanding,

hopefully outstanding wide receiver for the Iowa Hawkeyes, it has changed just a little bit of where we see him in terms of eligibility. Now, this isn't a concern as in he's not going to be eligible or anything like that. It is just the way that he is classified in the University of Iowa and his college eligibility. So his freshman year at Ohio State, for the most part, it felt like he had played four games. That's what most everybody believed when Iowa was recruiting him a year ago. That was the talk.

He had played in four games and he had played in four games. He also played on a fifth game, though, that was special teams only. And maybe where the discrepancy came from is just that. This from Chad Leistekow of the Des Moines Register, who had the word. He is now a true junior, not a redshirt sophomore this season. So just two years of eligibility left for Caleb Brown. He played nine games all on offense against Toledo early in the season for the Buckeyes, played 15 against Wisconsin, Rutgers, 15-5 against Michigan State.

All of those were on special teams. And then the game against Iowa and that drubbing at the horseshoe. He played three snaps offensively and three on special teams. So that's where the discrepancy comes in, what it means for Iowa. We're only going to have Caleb Brown for two more years. Now, of course, the hope is that he goes out. This new offense absolutely catches fire. Suddenly, we're talking about an Iowa football team

that is moving the football, looking like a real competent offense, and he puts together a monster season, and he moves on. Now, the likelihood of that is not real high. We're probably stretching a little bit, but we do know the importance of Caleb Brown. Out of this wide receiver group, he is certainly the guy that at minimum has shown the most

juice. The guy played as a true freshman in Ohio State in that loaded wide receiver room. They wanted to keep him around, and they had plans for him going forward. Not the case now, obviously, as he is in Iowa City. You look at this wide receiver group. You got Caleb Brown. Seth Anderson last year was a disappointment, and when he was on the field, we just didn't see enough out of him, I think,

to be an impactful type of player. Hopefully, a healthy season in front of him this year. We're going to see what he was able to do down at the FCS level the year previous. We got Jarrett Bowie. Is he going to be involved? The redshirt freshman. He was on the travel team last year, played a little bit, still maintaining his redshirt. Jacob Gill comes in from Northwestern, a guy that at minimum has played snaps in the Big Ten, and that is a component there.

But that's what we're looking at at the wide receiver position and a little bit of news to kick things off. We're hoping for a lot of good news coming up this weekend for Iowa football. It is their big tailgater, as they call it, the big recruiting weekend for Iowa football. And a myriad of prospects are going to be on campus. Most of the guys that are committed to Iowa will be making their way in. One that won't be there out of their top targets, as mentioned earlier in the week here on Lockdown Hawkeyes, is Jose Epinesa will be taking his visit this weekend to Miami as opposed to a visit to

Iowa he took his official visit a couple of weeks ago all signs that it went incredibly well AJ his brother came back for that visit surprised him in Iowa City yeah that component is that of course a player under Hayden Frye repeat as Hayden called him Epinesa Epinesa there's a lot pointing there but this is also a different era. Even just going back with his older brother, AJ, with the recruiting territory, he will not be here. For me, one of the top targets, and we opened up today talking about

the wide receiver position. For me, it's the wide receiver that they have coming on campus, and that's Terrence Smith. Now, Terrence Smith, a big wide receiver, 6'4". We've been talking about the need for Iowa to be able to go out and figure out a way just to get some kind of big receiver, right? That big physical wide receiver on the outside, that is something that they have been sorely lacking here over the last couple of years. He took an official visit last week to Minnesota.

Phil Fleck and his, let's just say, a different way of recruiting. That's a nice way to put it, right? The guy is, he's a problem. He is. And, you know, you go back and if you remember the story of Smith-Marset when he was being recruited out of high school and basically what Smith-Marset said is basically locked him in the room and said, until we get a commitment, we're not going to let you out of here. And those kinds of tactics, they're not for me.

I know they work for some people, and they certainly work for Phil Fleck. Not my cup of tea. And a myriad of different reasons for P.J. Anyway, that aside, he got out of there without a commitment. So he makes his way to Iowa City. And the importance this weekend for Tim Lester to explain why this offense is going to be different, how he fits in, what wide receiver targets have been so minimal over the last two and a half seasons.

And overall, the reputation of Iowa, it's an incredibly difficult sell. And Tim Lester can sell the move. But that is going to have to be a big starting point. And then John Budmeier, the new wide receiver coach, and what he's going to be able to sell and how he's going to be able to translate. The pressure to me then John Budmeier, the new wide receiver coach and what he's going to be able to sell and how he's going to be able to translate. The pressure to me is on Budmeier here. This has been their top wide receiver target, their top realistic wide receiver target

for a long time. This is a guy that they had the most interest in, a guy that had interest in Iowa. And yes, it's a two-way street. It's like dating, right? You can be interested in somebody, but if they're not going to look at you, it's not going to work out very well.

Same thing happening here. And at the wide receiver position, what they're going to be able to do. So, to me, that is the top name on the list coming up this weekend of what I was looking at. Some other names, Cameron Heron, an interior offensive lineman. Cincinnati, Louisville, Northwestern, some of the other teams that are involved with him has taken visits to Northwestern and Cincinnati. That would be a good piece, certainly inside the guy that they made one of the first offers

in the class of 2025 a couple years back to Heron. So they have been on him for a long time. Brad Fitzgibbon, another one. There are some other guys with some connections to the University of Iowa, including an offensive tackle, Lucas Allgaier, whose cousin played baseball for the Hawkeyes back in the day. Also had an uncle that played under Hayden Fry. So a lot of family connections there. Those are some of the names going to be looking forward to coming up this weekend.

With that, we're going to talk to the godfather of recruiting for Iowa football and a whole lot more. We got some football talk. We got basketball talk. Going to take a look at the Big Ten and a whole lot more with Tom got some football talk. We got basketball talk. Going to take a look at the Big Ten and a whole lot more with Tom Kakert from HawkeyeReport.com. He joins us as we continue Locked on Hawkeyes.

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With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it's easy to make your car the MVP and bring home huge wins. Keep your rider die alive today at ebaymotors.com. Eligible items only, exclusion supply, eBay Guaranteed guaranteed fit only available to U.S. customers. Let's talk some Hawks. Tom Caker at HawkeyeReport.com, part of On3 Media in his normal spot. Tom, Trent, and Ken, thank you for coming on. I know that there was a football availability early in the week for some of the players. I think you have another one coming up. Not sure if it's next week, but there's still one more

to come prior to media days taking place in late July. But first of all, good morning or good afternoon. Welcome. What were one or two of your takeaways from that media avail that you had the chance to attend? Yeah, and the second one's going to be sometime in July before we get to Indy. So I think it'll be in a couple weeks. But, you know, I think the prevailing opinion was that everybody likes what they've seen from the offense.

Everybody, you know, Cade McNamara's back out there doing things and seems healthy and seems ready to go and seems to be throwing the ball pretty well. So I think all those are positives. And the other thing is these guys are it seems like they're pretty excited about a video game coming out fairly soon. So we got that going too. Video game talk and excitement. I'm pumped up for it too. I got to upgrade my system though. I haven't had the college football game in over a decade.

So we'll jump back into that one. You mentioned Tim Lester and there's got to be growing pains, right? It's not going to be all of a sudden, oh, look, this is what we've been waiting for for the last 25 years. No, not that much. But you know what I'm saying, Tom? When it comes to those kind of growing pains, though, and kind of the ability to work through it, when you've heard him talk, when you've heard him adapting to the Iowa system, yet

also bringing in these new ideas, how good do you think it's going to be right away? You know, I'm on the record as saying they're going to hang half a hundred on Illinois State. Just because I think they just want to go out and just pummel somebody. I think it's going to be better.

Now, how much better I think depends on a couple of things. I think it's the health of the offensive line and how the offensive line performs, because I think all the other pieces are there, you know, but they might be a little limited at wide receiver, but you've got some guys that are capable. You certainly got some running back, certainly got a couple of really good tight ends and Lachey and Ostranga.

And I think guys like Zach or worth will come along this year as well. So they've got enough to easily surpass what they did last year. How could they not? If they don't surpass what they did last year, we've got real problems. You know, it might be Kirk's job on the line after that. But, you know, they won 10 games last year, guys. I always come back to that hey they won 10 games last year and that's really the defining thing that you look for from anybody is is you win games no no no question about it uh ohio this big 10 games only ohio state clearly

is is the most difficult game on the schedule in conference play. What's the next one? Good question. The last one, maybe? It might be. Nebraska? You look at the road games, and the road games are just, they'll be challenging, but there's nothing on there that goes beyond Ohio state. There's nothing that goes, well, that's an apple.

You know, Michigan state is rebuilding a lot of new faces in there. I don't know what to think. We'll, we'll see what they look like. Maybe that will end up being tough. Um, the go, I don't know. I don't know what Philip John'sck has got going on up there. And I know Iowa's going to be plenty motivated for that game for a lot of reasons, mainly to get the pick back, but also other things that go along with EJ Fleck.

So it might be Nebraska. It might be Nebraska because I think all three of us are, I know at least Ken and I, Trent might be on the bandwagon. He is. I am. I think Nebraska is going to be good. I think they're going to be good. I think they're going to be in October,

and they're going to be like 7-0, and everybody's, you know, you'll see go big red everywhere you look. I don't think they're getting to 7-0, though. They'll find a way to stub their toe, but I'm certainly in. Now, Ken falls for it every year. He's a gliding sinker. It goes with the territory with him, but I think they're going to be good. Yeah, they'll lose to

Rutgers or something like that and still get to Buckeye land at 6-1, something like that. They're really talented. That defense is going to be outstanding, and the way that I was able to kind of dip their toe into the new look Big Ten this year, getting Washington at the right time. You're not beating Ohio State either place, all right?

You're going to go to Columbus and take your medicine there. But outside of that, what about the Maryland game? Coming on the heels, you've got a bye week in between, the Friday night affair against UCLA, another trip to the other side of the country against Maryland. What do the Terps have here? We've seen them before on a Friday, and that was the last time the Iowa offense looked good two and a half years ago.

You know what? They hung half a hundred. They did. I was there. I was there on that Friday night. You know what the story of that week is going to be, though? The story of that week is going to be Brian Ferentz versus Kirk, you know, because Brian's an analyst there. And it's going to be going to be strange, going to be wild.

And I don't know what analysts do on game day all the time, but going to be awfully curious to see what Brian Ferentz is doing that day. And seeing him in just something other than Iowa colors is going to be wild. Yeah. Just going to be so strange. But I don't know what Maryland has got. But you have to think they'll be well prepared because who knows Iowa's personnel better than Brian Ferris? Yeah, that's a great point. And how much is he – would it be different?

I mean, we know that if somebody goes to another team or another school, share whatever you can. Is it going to be different in this respect? No, I think he's going to share whatever he can. A little bit more gardening. He's got to.

I choose putting food on the table for you. So what do they have after the other two, Tagliavoa? Because he's gone. I don't know who the backup, I don't know who the quarterbacks are. Tagliavoa played all the time. Yeah, I don't know who their quarterbacks are. I don't know much about their personnel.

I don't know that Maryland's going to be great. You know, I think Rutgers is a sleeper this year. We feel the same way too. Yeah. We're on the same page a lot. Their schedule, their schedule sets up pretty well. I like Shiano a lot. I think they got a little bit of an upgrade. I'm not big on Kelly Comanis, but he's an upgrade from what they had from Winsett. I mean, he's better than that.

So, yeah, it's going to be a challenge. It's going to be. I mean, thankfully, Iowa doesn't play them, but, you know, I like that they have the bye in between UCLA because that's just, boy, that's a lot. I was looking at, like, some, you know, I might dabble in some, you know, I might, I may dabble in some wind totals from every once in a while. And I was looking at like,

at like, uh, Cal having to go like to Auburn and then having to go to Florida state. Um, you know, after a week in between, I mean, that's, boy, that's a long trip from Berkeley to Auburn and then to Tallahassee. Boy, that's a long trip from Berkeley to Auburn and then down to Tallahassee. Boy. Big recruiting weekend. Go ahead, Tom. No, go ahead. Mentioned the big recruiting weekend coming up.

This is their tailgater, and this is the most important recruiting weekend on the calendar for Iowa football every single year. In terms of volume, it doesn't feel like the sheer likely prospects are on campus as opposed to. This one just feels different to me from the outside looking in. You know recruiting a lot better. Is that a fair assessment? Yeah, I think they feel pretty good going into this weekend, though,

with what they've got and then what they're hoping to get. There are a couple of kids that I put out there earlier this week that I think they feel good about getting, like Brad Fitzgibbon, a kid from Marist High School. Iowa seems to have a good thing going with Marist. And then Cameron Heron, an offensive lineman from the Indianapolis area. I think those two guys, I know that one of the guys they really want flying kind of under the radar,

but PJ flex all over him too. It's this kid named Terrence Smith, wide receiver. He's about six, four. He was up in Minnesota last weekend and did not commit with the high pressure tactics of one Philip John flex. So he,

he stayed available. So I think I was really hoping that he's in a Chicago area kid too. So I think they're really hoping they can get him and, and, you know, getting Mason woods. I know everybody's just kind of looking at it. I was LaVar's kid. He's, he's a really talented athlete. And that kid has just blossomed. And I mean, I remember seeing them just like a year or two ago and he was kind of this gangly like six one and uh, you know, kid and, and I saw him about the bowl game and he was walking with LeVar. He's as big as LeVar now.

I mean, he's a, he's a full grown kid now. He's six, three and two 20 and still running really well. So that was a really nice get for Iowa this week. And he gives them a really talented tight end coming in next year. Tom, what on basketball? I don't know if you've had a chance to talk to Peyton Sanford. The draft is next week. Do you know, or did he share that?

I mean, did he have a team promise? Give him a second round promise, anything like that? Do you know that, Tom? Not that I'm aware of. I don't think anybody gave him any sort of promise that he was going to get drafted. So I think he just kind of just stuck with it, stuck with coming back, and good for him.

I mean, it really changes the complexion of the team now. And now we'll get the expanded tournament here in a couple of years, probably. So I know that makes everybody mad, except for me. And Trent and I. Who is against more basketball? I don't get it either. It's not going to change the structure. It is just an additional game or two on that Tuesday and Wednesday. And we might even have him some here in Des Moines,

which wouldn't be a bad thing. I have a feeling that there may be going to get involved in that one. Speaking of hoops on the women's side, I know you had an opportunity to talk with Lucy Olson, the other players on your podcast. You've been doing a ton of them over there. The vibe that you're getting practice underway, Jans taking over, all those different things, what you're hearing on the women's basketball front and what's going to be, though many familiar faces, a completely different era. Yeah, and it's really been positive so far from what I've heard. They really like each other. Lucy's come in and really, you know, melded right in with the culture and everything. She's just a totally chill person.

So she's a great gift for them. Gives them another scoring option. I think her and Taylor McCabe are going to be fun to watch because both like to get them down and score. Ava Hyden, I think, is impressed from what Taylor McCabe said on our podcast. She's really impressed them. And Tegan Mullaney is another one that's really come in and impressed them, kind of another McKenna Warnock-type player.

So I think they've got some talent, and I think they're going to be able to get something out of, uh, Leah Guyton this year too. And that was something I wasn't counting on this year. So that's, that's really good as well, that they can get a really talented guard to come in and maybe help them after she tore ACL last season. You'll have the weekend covered at Hawkeye report.com. I'm assuming Tom Caker.

Absolutely. We're going to be all over that. And, uh, fans are interested. The buck for the first month, stop by, sign up. Uh, and then if you don't like us after a month, just head out the door. That's fine. We're good. Absolutely. Tom Caker, Hawkeye report.com. Tom, talk to you next Friday. Thanks for jumping on. Have a good weekend. See you.

Thanks. Bye-bye. Tom Caker, Hawkeye report.com. Great information as always. Tom Caker, hawkeireport.com. Great information, as always, from Tom Caker. A big thank you to him for joining us on the program. We continue, and a Ferrari has moved on from Iowa City. That's next, Locked on Hawkeyes. Trent Conner back with you one final time here on the lockdown Hawkeyes podcast little Iowa wrestling for you to wrap things up today and an announcement earlier this week on Instagram that self-proclaimed Mr. Fast Twitch AJ Ferrari is no longer in Iowa City leaving

the Iowa Hawkeyes well not really there's a guy that was never a Hawkeye officially. Wrestled in the Open Tournament, flipped everybody off afterwards in a tough, tough hard-fought match against Glazier. Look, we know the baggage. We know everything that comes along with AJ Ferrari. Tom and Terry Brands and the rest of the wrestling community thought that they were going to be able to lead him in a positive direction. But with the off-the-mat antics and on-the-mat antics,

it was a difficult sell. Iowa needs more talent. Iowa to compete with Penn State, you have to take some chances. You have to do some things that are a little dirty or feel a little dirty, and A.J. Ferrari was absolutely like that. I know us as fans, we tied ourselves in knots trying to explain it, trying to justify it, trying to come up with the positives that can come out of this, even short of winning a national championship, even short of competing for the team title, even seeing great successes for him.

But the baggage was too much for some people in the athletic department. And what he is still looking for today. It's odd. It's weird. His little brother, as of right now, is still anticipated to be part of the wrestling program next season. But boy, this will be one that I think we'll remember for a long time. We'll see where his career goes from here,

what he still has in front of him as it pertains to college athletics. He still has three years of eligibility remaining as he used an Olympic red shirt this year. Wild circumstances. And for Iowa Wrestling, getting him away from the program, just not having to worry about all the craziness that comes along with it, not a bad thing. Now, the pressure's on Tom and Terry Brands. They know that they need to deliver.

They need to build this roster up. And it looks like they're doing just that. You look at the young talent in there. But the behemoth that is Penn State has completely changed the equation in college athletics. And as the former big dog, as the former blue blood,

alone on the top, nobody really competing with you, that stings. It's tough. They got to figure it out. And Iowa Wrestling needs to figure it out. They'll do it. Minus AJ Ferrari.

Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every single day. Appreciate all of you out there for checking in with us as we got a lot going on here during the summer months. We got a big mailbag with a lot of your questions. If you happen to have a question for that, hit me up on Twitter at Trent Condon or at Lockdown Iowa. You can find us both places there. If you have any questions that you'd like me to dive into.

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Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Go Hawks.