Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa football lands 5-star recruit Xavier Nwankpa | Iowa Hawkeyes podcast

Episode Date: December 9, 2021

The Iowa Hawkeye football team received their highest-ranked commitment in years when 5-star safety Xavier Nwankpa committed to Iowa yesterday. We break down what this means for the Iowa football team going forward in terms of recruitment and on-field play and when we could see Xavier get on the field.We wrap up the show with a quick preview of the upcoming men's basketball game between Iowa and Iowa State. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.PrizePicksDon’t hesitate, check out PrizePicks.com and use promo code: “LOCKEDON” or go to your app store and download the app today. PrizePicks is daily fantasy made easy!NetSuiteOver twenty-seven thousand businesses already use NetSuite and RIGHT NOW through the end of the year NetSuite is offering a one-of-a-kind financing program to those ready to upgrade at NetSuite.com/LOCKEDONNCAA.Omaha SteaksThe holidays are around the corner and finding the perfect gift is tricky. Omaha Steaks makes it easy to send friends and family an unforgettable gift guaranteed to be loved. Go to Omaha Steaks dot com and enter “College” into the search bar to order The Perfect Gift Package. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back Hawkeye Nation to another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Podcast Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Witten. It is a great day to be an Iowa Hawkeye. Xavier Wampa of Southeast Polk, five-star safety, has committed to the University of Iowa. We're going to talk about that on today's show.

But first, I want to say thank you for making the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast your first listen every single day. You can find the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast for free wherever you get podcasts at and also on YouTube by searching Locked On Hawkeyes. In addition to talking about Xavier Wampa's decision to commit to the University of Iowa, what that means for recruiting classes going forward, and how that impacts the Iowa Hawkeyes. We're also going to be talking about tonight's game, Iowa versus Iowa State, in-state rivalry game between the two men's basketball teams. One, kind of in the spot they were expecting to be.

Another, Iowa State, surprisingly in a very good spot. Didn't expect them to be here at this point, but they are. It's going to be a lot of fun watching that game, so we're going to break that down towards the end of the show as well. This episode is brought to you by On Location. On Location is the official hospitality partner of the NFL. It is the only place to score a once in a lifetime Super Bowl ticket and experience package. Visit onlocationexp.com slash SB56 for more information or search Super Bowl on location. I didn't want to bury the lead here, y'all.

Xavier Wapa has officially committed. I have almost felt uncomfortable about how excited I was for an 18-year-old kid to make a college decision. I started thinking about why was I that excited. And really it means – it's a couple reasons. I started thinking about why was I that excited? And really it means, it's a couple reasons. First, Iowa doesn't get a lot of players who have that much national notoriety out of high school committing on television or on a national media source, right, like CBS Sports.

I honestly can't remember the last player who did do that for Iowa. Most of the time, you see a Twitter post, you see an Instagram post, bam, they're committed, then they sign, all that good stuff. You don't typically see this kind of situation or ordeal happen. So the anticipation was really killing me. The fact that Iowa in the summer was not in the lead. And honestly, for most of the recruitment, Iowa was just number three, just hanging on. So to even get to this point is incredibly exciting. And I think for all of you Iowa fans out there, it's okay to be excited about this. Iowa doesn't get a lot of these kind of blue chip prospects. In fact, outside of AJ Epinesa, who was a legacy, who grew up rooting for the Hawks,

we have not gotten a blue chip prospect like Xavier since 2004 and 2005. It has been that long since we've gotten a five-star recruit. This is a big deal. Now, I know he's an in-state player, and that definitely helped play a part of it. But it was not everything. Iowa did a great job. I mean, shout out to Tyler Barnes, shout out to Jay Neiman, Phil Parker, for doing a phenomenal job of recruiting Xavier

and showing him what life could be like for the Iowa Hawkeyes. The fact that Riley Moss, we talked about this a couple weeks ago, Riley Moss winning the defensive back of the Year Award for the Big Ten, really showed what Iowa defensive backs do. Five of ten winners of that Defensive Back Award are Iowa Hawkeyes. Most of those guys didn't have a lot of stars behind their name. Now imagine a guy like Xavier, a guy who experts at 24-7 sports predict to be a future first-round pick. They project him in the same mold as Derwin James, the first-round pick out of

Florida State for the Los Angeles Chargers now. Those are the kind of expectations. Now imagine that with the tutelage of Phil Parker, a defensive back, Wizard, and Kirk Ferentz, a guy who gets the most out of the least. This is a very exciting day for the Iowa Hawkeyes, and it bumps up the recruiting class, a recruiting class that people were not overly enthusiastic about. I remember legitimately being a day away from going to Alaska

and talking about recruiting. It was in the summer. It was the second week of August, and we had lost out on a few guys. We lost out on guys we thought we really had, especially. That was the biggest thing. We really thought we were neck and neck with a couple schools for a couple guys. We were the number two school several times, and people were sitting there thinking, what is going on? Can Iowa recruit? Why are we losing out on these players? will recruit, why are we losing out on these players? Is Iowa's message dead?

If this doesn't show you that Iowa's message is not dead, I don't know what will. They landed their guy, and they're about to land about three or four more guys as well over the next couple days. I expect the commits to start rolling in. We have T.J. Hall, the former Washington State commit. We have Orlando Trader, Central Michigan commit. Those are two cornerback prospects to watch out for. We got the Albany transfer we're looking into from a defensive end perspective. We just offered another kid down in Tennessee, another defensive end in the class of 2022. We're going to get three or four more commits in the next couple of days. This class is going to bump up

and it's going to ultimately get us back to a spot that goes back to one of the things I was saying in early August. And that was relax. We're going to be okay. It's going to be fine. Iowa's going to figure it out. But what really gets me going about this is that getting Xavier doesn't just impact the class of 2022. It impacts the class of 2023.

impact the class of 2022. It impacts the class of 2023. Xavier is good friends with Caden Proctor, a blue chip five-star tackle prospect at Southeast Polk. Caden already said Xavier's trying to get him to go to Iowa. It's tough to have that pull of a friend and also the fact that Caden has been considering Iowa. Iowa has been one of the teams on the leaderboard for Caden. They are a school that produces offensive linemen with ease. They're known as one of the best offensive line schools in the country. You're an hour and a half away. One of the things that was sold for Xavier was the NIL. You better believe Caden Proctor, despite even being an offensive lineman,

will have some really good NIL deals. The other guy to watch out for, Kyler Casper. Four-star wide receiver recruit out of Arizona, Kevin Casper's son. Kevin and Xavier, they're good friends. Or Kyler and Xavier, they are good friends. There are so many things that are going to trickle down from this decision. There are so many things that are going to trickle down from this decision. And with Iowa, arguably in one of the best four or five-year runs of their existence.

Now, some of you might be saying, are you kidding me? We just got smoked in the Big Ten Championship game. But Iowa has put together one of the more impressive four or five-year runs in the history of the program, especially the last three years. With that being said, we are now bringing in some very impressive recruiting classes, starting with the class of 2020. I know we lost Deuce, but that class is still there. There's still a lot of talented players there. The class of 2021, we have several very talented players there as well. And you have this class of 2022, there's some very talented players there as well, starting with Xavier and finishing up with Aaron Graves, a four-star recruit who committed to Iowa what feels like centuries ago.

Watch this momentum carry into 2023. It is going to be a lot of fun. Just such a good day in Iowa Hawkeye Nation, getting that commitment from Xavier Wampum, the five-star safety out of Southeast Polk. Coming up in a few short minutes, we're going to talk a little bit more about Xavier, what he brings to the table, and also where can he fit on the field and will he see time as a freshman? That is all coming up here in a few short moments. But first, let's talk for a minute about kicking things up a notch for the big game, the grand stage, the Super Bowl.

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That's NetSuite.com slash LockedOnNCAA. And again, thank you all for making the LockedOnHawkeyes podcast your first listen every single day. I appreciate you all tuning in to both our podcast and our YouTube channel, which you can find by searching LockedOnHawkeyes wherever you get podcasts at or at YouTube. And you can come see my very pretty mug. I know I call myself ugly, but I just got a nice little shave. See right there. See

right there. Not bad. Not bad. Right. So I appreciate you all tuning in. Thank you all for making us your first listen. So we spent a lot of time talking about one 18 year old who committed to Iowa, but we're going to continue that rolling through segment number two because Xavier Wapop has committed to the University of Iowa, a five-star commit. I am absolutely psyched and jacked up. If you can't tell, I don't know what to tell you. This is about as exciting as I'm going to get.

I am just pumped up to see Xavier in an Iowa Hawkeye uniform. So we talked about it. This impacts not only recruiting in the class of 2022, but impacts recruiting in the class of 2023 with Caden Proctor, with a Kyler Casper and several other members of that class, including Marco Lanes, who would be a good quarterback addition to this room. But what does this mean for Xavier? Well, if you haven't seen what Xavier can do on the field, he is a very dynamic athlete, a 6'2", 190-pound safety, who plays multiple sports, plays offense and defense for Southeast Polk,

as any amazing athlete, legendary-type athlete would. Returns kicks. I mean, this kid can really do it all. He can lay the wood on offensive players. He has good ball skills, fluid hips, great straight-line speed. I mean, this kid can really do it all. What gets me most excited, though, is thinking about this kid with Cooper DeGene back there at the safety positions. That is a very scary safety deal.

Now, when I look at what this roster could look like, next year's Xavier is going to be competing for a spot. My guess is Jack Kerner is gone. I think Dane Belton will return and Kavon Merriweather, I'm pretty sure is going to return. That would really shock me to see Kavon Merriweather leave. Now Riley Moss, I believe is going to leave as well, especially if his draft stock is as high as it still apparently is. According to Matt Miller, NFL draft scout, he has Riley Moss mocked in the second round. And then Matt Hankins has also gotten. Now I'm not saying Xavier is going to play cornerback. I would actually be a little

bit surprised to see Xavier at the cornerback spot. I think he's a little bit too tall, but maybe given his athleticism, they might want to just get him on the field wherever they can. I did not expect Cooper to Jean to be playing cornerback and we saw him play corner. So there's some opportunities there, but what more than likely is going to happen is we're going to see Terry Roberts on one side. We're going to see Jamari Harris on the other. Dane Belton in the slot. Kavar Merriweather at one safety spot. And then I think right now Quinn Schulte is probably the guy who is looking to take over for Jack Kerner.

However, Xavier is going to have an opportunity to get that spot. So will Cooper Dajim. What I'm looking for is really Xavier to make some plays next year, get some opportunities. But I think year two is when we're going to see Xavier really shine for the Iowa Hawkeyes. And at that point, given the fact that Dane Belton is likely gone, Kavon Merriweather likely gone, Terry Roberts could be gone as well, depending on how good of a season he has. He'll be a redshirt senior. We could see him take a COVID year. But what we could see from this lineup is Jamari Harris at one cornerback spot, Terry Roberts or A.J. Lawson, Brendan Dees

Fernandez, one of those guys potentially at the cornerback spot. Now, granted, we have a couple of guys coming in now. They could take over those spots from a cornerback position. Now, granted, we have a couple of guys coming in now. They could take over those spots from a cornerback position. But at that cash position, I would expect to see either Cooper or potentially Xavier there. And whoever doesn't make that, you're playing them back at the other safety spot. That's, again, a very impressive group of young men. Or we can see Cooper and Xavier at both safety spots. And we can see Sebastian Castro up at the cash spot or switch Sebastian with Cooper or Xavier. There's just so many opportunities here for Phil Parker to kind of play with

in that secondary, and it is a very scary secondary for a lot of Big Ten teams. When you look at the fact that Iowa has done so well at developing cornerback and defensive back prospects in general, I mean, Dane Belton, an under-recruited three-star guy. Riley Moss, a gray-shirt two-star kid with no offers. Are all first team, all Big Ten? Again, if I'm the Big Ten, I'm looking at this and saying, oh, shoot. Iowa's starting to reel in those big guns.

Match that with our coaching. There's a lot of things to be really excited about for the secondary for years to come. One of the things I also want to call out, when Xavier was talking about why he chose Iowa, he mentioned the atmosphere at Penn State and the fact that fans out there were chatting, we want X. That stuff does not go unnoticed.

I want to just echo it again. The fan environment, the atmosphere, what we do as fans does impact the recruiting process. So if you're one of those fans who is negatively tweeting out there, anyone, stop it. Stop tweeting at our players. Stop tweeting at the recruits. Unless it's positive, stop tweeting at them. These kids notice. Thankfully, he noticed how amazing that atmosphere was, Iowa versus Penn State.

He says one of the best atmosphere he's ever been in. He wants to play in that atmosphere. So just a really exciting day overall for the Iowa Hawkeye community, the Iowa Hawkeye football team to get a guy like Xavier Wampum. As we get more commits, and there will be more commits, especially with early signing day rolling in here soon, we're going to be covering all that right here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Coming up, we're going to talk a little bit more about Iowa basketball, Iowa versus Iowa

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2021 season. BetOnline is the fastest and the easiest way to bet on all your favorite sports. BetOnline.ag, where the game starts. So we've talked a lot about Xavier Wampa, the Southeast Pope, five-star safety. We're going to transition now into Iowa basketball. Iowa basketball tonight has a big time game taking on in-state rival Iowa State. And coming into this season, no one expected Iowa State to be very good. Well, shocker, they actually are pretty darn good. Under first-year head coach T.J. Otzelberger, he has done a phenomenal job of building this team up the right way

and with transfers, taking kind of the old Fred Hoiberg model there, doing a great job building up this Iowa State team. And to this point, they're already 8-0. They have a couple big wins, but for those probably Kennesaw State, Oregon State, Alabama State, Grambling State, Arkansas Pine Bluff, but they also have wins over Xavier, Memphis, and Creighton, wins where they were mostly dominating throughout the game. So what does Iowa State bring to the table?

Honestly, it's kind of similar to Iowa. They're a very strong defensive team that likes to force turnovers, get up in your face. At this point, they are 10th in the nation in seal percentage and 22nd in turnover percentage on the defensive side of the floor. They also are a small, quick team. So for Iowa, this actually matches up pretty well for them. With Iowa State, the tallest guy they're going to roll out there is 6'9", and their starting lineup has two 6'8 guys, a 6'3", a 6'4", and a 6'0 guy. So the size is not really there for Iowa State,

just like it's not really there for Iowa. So that's going to be a really interesting matchup. Where Iowa could benefit here is that Iowa State is not a strong rebounding team. Now, George Conduit is one of the best offensive rebounders in the country, 27th in the nation in offensive rebounding percentage. At 6'8", George is a strong interior guy, but I like our chances versus George better than I do against Kofi Coburn. And overall, as a team, Iowa State has not been as good of a rebounding team

to this point. They're 144th in defensive rebounding and 79 good of a rebounding team to this point. They're 144th in defensive rebounding and 79th in offensive rebounding. So after that game against Illinois, Fran McCaffrey very clearly said this is unacceptable to be this bad at rebounding. I expect a renewed effort and focus on both sides of the ball, on crashing the boards and getting that extra opportunity for the Iowa Hawkeyes to make another shot. Offensively for Iowa State, again, they are a very quick team. They're not exactly the best three-point shooting team,

but they have guys who can hit shots when they need to. And this team is going to be a team that people are familiar with if you've watched Iowa basketball. In their starting lineup, they've got Isaiah Brockington, a six-foot foot four guard who's shooting 44% from three and used to play at Penn State. We're familiar with him. We're also familiar with Gabe Kalischer out of Minnesota, another guy who can shoot the three ball very well. He's coming off the bench now and is second on the team in points. But the big two guys I want to talk to

you about is Tyrese Hunter, 37th overall recruit in the nation last year, joining the Iowa State Cyclones. He has been a key asset and a key player to this Iowa State squad, and he has been phenomenal on the defensive end of the floor, forcing a lot of turnovers. So for Joe Toussaint or Jordan Bohannon, if Jordan Bohannon does carry the ball up at all, you need to watch out for Tyrese Hunter. He's the guy who's going to pick your pockets. And Caleb Grill. Caleb Grill's got to watch out for shooting 47% from three. So Iowa, you'll be shocked to know,

technically doing a decent job of stopping the three ball to this point. But as we saw versus Illinois, they can still have lapses and are letting teams do pretty well from behind the arc. The big interesting factor in this game is Iowa, one of the best teams, the best team in the nation, at not turning the ball over. They are first in the nation, just four per game. Again, Iowa State, a top-10 team in forcing turnovers.

On the flip side of that, Iowa is a better team at forcing turnovers than they have been in the past, 67th in non-steal turnover percentage and 88th in steal percentage going up against an Iowa State team that can be a little bit careless with the basketball. What gives here? As we've seen, being able to win that turnover battle and force more turnovers and keep the ball in your possession does give Iowa an advantage there. If Iowa can crash the boards a little bit more intensity and focus, I think Iowa can come away with this game, and so does Kempom. Kempom projects Iowa to be a 77-74 winner in this game.

I think the big thing, if I had to argue, the most important player to stop is probably Isaiah Brockington or Caleb Grill. And from an Iowa perspective, you cannot let Tyrese Hunter destroy you on the defensive end. He can pick a lot of guys' pockets, and he will make Joe Toussaint, Aaron Ulis, Tony Perkins, Jordan Bohan, those guys' lives absolutely miserable. So coming up tomorrow, we're going to be breaking that down as well, have a lot of fun conversation to talk about that.

I'll try to get that episode out to you sometime in the morning. I'll actually be back in the Midwest. I'll be watching the game from Illinois and then breaking down the game for you the following day, that Friday, talking everything about Iowa basketball and the game versus Iowa State, hopefully AW. I do appreciate you all tuning in to today's episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. If you want more gambling advice, definitely go to betonline.ag.

And first, though, go to Lockdown Bets, where you can be given good information from your boy Q, a handicapping expert at least early in Paramount Sports. They do a great job of breaking down a couple games each night that you should be betting on at betonline.ag. So we can check out the Lockdown Bets podcast. As always, Hawkeye Nation, I appreciate you tuning in. Have a fantastic Thursday.

And as always, let's go Hawks.