Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football Offensive Coordinator Hot Board, Hawkeye Hoops returns Saturday

Episode Date: December 15, 2023

Trent Condon is back with the latest edition of the Locked on Hawkeyes Podcast.A look at some of the candidates for the open offensive coordinator position after the firing of Brian Ferentz.Do we make... anything of the Scott Frost rumors?Paul Chryst, the former Wisconsin and Pitt head coach would make a lot of success and was highly successful as a play caller.Joe Philbin was the Hawkeye offensive line coach from 1999-2002 and a offensive coordinator and head coach in the NFL. Would he make a return to college coaching after a year as an analyst for Ohio State?Andy Ludwig of Utah remains at the top of the list for Trent. He gives reasons why and some connections to Kirk Ferentz and Iowa City. And then a few off the radar candidates.Then a look at Hawkeye Hoops as both the men and women teams will play in Des Moines. The women face a Cleveland State team that won 30 games a year ago, but will be missing its best player. And the men face an awful Florida A&M team. A look at some potential changes for the team as it plays its final 3 games in the nonconference.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!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.eBay MotorsWith all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.PrizePicksGo to PrizePicks.com/lockedoncollege and use code lockedoncollege for a first deposit match up to $100! Daily Fantasy Sports Made Easy!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelScore early this NFL season with FanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook! Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning FIVE DOLLAR MONEYLINE BET! That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – if your team wins! 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

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 It's time for the Iowa football offensive coordinator hot board. We take a look at some of the candidates that have been talked about, some of the ones that are a little funny, and maybe a few names that you haven't thought about. Plus, Hawkeye Hoops returns to the hardwood Saturday in Des Moines. 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.
Starting point is 00:00:38 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. You can also see us on YouTube, watch us there, and make sure you hit that subscribe button. Helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. Today's episode is brought to you by the Game Time app. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code LOCKDOWNCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase.
Starting point is 00:01:07 Well, as we make our way through this very slow week of athletics, the transfer portal, though it is open, not a whole lot of movement right now as it pertains to Iowa football, as they have a numbers crunch, as we've talked about throughout this week, every day, as you know about that. And we've talked about this ad nauseum. Iowa just does not have a whole lot of available scholarships as it is coupled with the potential of returning players. Guys coming back for another year of eligibility from the Jay Higgins, Sebastian Castro, Nick Jackson, maybe a couple of the tight ends, Eric Hall, Luke Lachey, and a few others.
Starting point is 00:01:43 Because of that, Iowa just does not have the flexibility that they certainly had a year ago as it pertains to the transfer portal. That has slowed things down. It is bowl prep, but we're waiting until January for that game. We're still over two weeks away from this football game being played. So we're waiting. Practice, there isn't a whole lot going on. But we have an offensive coordinator search.
Starting point is 00:02:06 And across the country, when there's an offensive coordinator search, there's excitement. There's a whole lot of buzz. You're throwing out names. It's different in Iowa. And Iowa football is different. And that's okay. But we know that the way that Kirk Ferens does things is different than most everybody across the country.
Starting point is 00:02:24 that Kirk Ferentz does things is different than most everybody across the country. And because of that, it has led to, let's just say, a tepid nature as it pertains to this search. Now, as we know, and as we talked about a week ago here on Lockdown Hawkeyes, there has been conversations, there have been interviews, there has been talk going on between Kirk Ferentz and potential candidates. Earlier this week, we saw the university finally posted the job officially. Great to see that, as a job has to be posted with the university bureaucratic rules for 14 days before it can be filled. Now, that doesn't mean
Starting point is 00:02:56 that Kirk Ferentz, for the next 14 days, is going to be interviewing candidates and trying to find the right guy that way. However, there are some names here on this list that we've talked about, and I got a couple of others, a couple of guys that do have an angle, do have maybe a possibility of finding their way to Iowa City. But we start at the top, and we start with what this is going to be, right? Building the new offense. And we're going to get into that a little bit later here in the show. But what we do know, Kirk Ferentz, as he has aged, as most everybody when they age, has become more
Starting point is 00:03:30 conservative. In fact, up here on the screen down in the man cave, I had the 2009 Iowa-Wisconsin game on. And as I was doing some prep work and doing a few other things, I had that on in the background. And I'll take a peek every once in a while, look up at the screen and see plays. This is back when Ken O'Keefe was running the offense. And if you believe that the Kirk Ferentz offense is the same, regardless of the offensive coordinator, I don't know what to tell you because it's not. Go back and watch a game, not just from 2002, which was obviously the high water mark. Watch other games, watch other seasons, and you see that this is not what we've seen the last two or two and a half years of Iowa football. That's not what it has to be. And that's not what normally it had been until these last couple of years. The program was
Starting point is 00:04:14 handcuffed by offensive line play that was atrocious, as bad as it had been since Kirk's first year in 1999 when he had Bruce Nelson out there trying to play tackle at 255 pounds. In 1999, when he had Bruce Nelson out there trying to play tackle at 255 pounds, he had a young, not the Robert Gallery, maybe you all remember, but him early in his career, a guy that was not ready. That's what that offensive line was, and they took their lumps. That's as bad as what we've seen, certainly a year ago in 2022, and even this season, though it was improved from what we saw a season ago, not great.
Starting point is 00:04:45 Yes, it starts there, coupled with bad quarterback play. From Spencer Petras and all the warts that he had to what we saw this season throughout most of the season with Deacon Hill, there's no way to slice it other than bad quarterback play. But it's not always like this. Is it great? No. I'm not going to sell you that bill of goods because that wouldn't be fair to you. And we always try to be fair to you, the viewer and the listener out there. That's what we try
Starting point is 00:05:08 to do. We try to bring you information and we try to bring you things that make sense, right? And it makes sense when you look back and you watch what this program has been in the past, that they can at minimum become competent. Kirk Ferentz has a certain way of doing things, but as he saw the evolution of the run game this year, where the outside zone basically became a dead play. It was something that wasn't completely ripped out of the playbook, but it was used very sparingly compared to what was the bread and butter running play for the better part of two decades. That's gone. Now, it should have been gone years ago, at least at the level that we saw this year because
Starting point is 00:05:45 of the change in blocking scheme and blocking rules, and that's where we are today. You're going to need an offensive coordinator that's obviously going to run the football. It doesn't have to be pro-style. It doesn't have to be completely under center. In fact, look at even Brian Ferentz's offense. They run a ton of shotgun out of their scheme and a lot of five wide receiver sets. We saw plenty of that even this season. So those are things that I think maybe sometimes get lost. The people just think, well, Kirk Ferentz is old
Starting point is 00:06:15 and this is the way it's always been. It's not true. It's been brutal the last two and a half years. No doubt about it, but it can become okay. So who are some of the names now I think the names that have been bandied about the most here in the recent days well first you get the goofy one and it's the Scott Frost right so Scott Frost former Nebraska coach he was a coach at UNI he was a coach at Oregon he was of course a great player with the Cornhuskers back in the day
Starting point is 00:06:43 before he eventually leaving Oregon got the job at Central Florida and very quickly resurrected that program. However, it didn't work in Nebraska. And Scott Frost is not a guy, personality-wise, I think that would fit with Kirk Ferentz. You go back and you remember after the game when Scott Frost was upset about some clapping from the Iowa defense and Kirk Ferentz about lost his mind on that one. You hear about some of the off-field antics as well from Scott Frost. Just does not seem to be culturally the right fit. Yeah, he had good offenses, both as a coordinator and even as a head coach. He had good offenses. There is no two
Starting point is 00:07:23 ways about it. He absolutely coached football at a high level when he was calling plays and doing that many, many years. But his style, his system, when it was running best, it's just not a style, I think, that Kirk Ferentz is looking for. Now, there's no doubt that I think a guy like Scott Frost probably reached out to Kirk Ferentz and either getting back in the game, looking for some advice. I don't have any doubt that those kinds of conversations happen and probably happen
Starting point is 00:07:49 more often than we even believe. But to think that Kirk Ferentz called up Scott Frost, that the contact was made from Iowa to Frost to set something up, to have it be an interview, I just can't wrap my mind around it. Very well could be dead wrong. Look, I have absolutely nothing on that, but from what I've heard, it's almost laughable that people would connect those kind of dots and even a conversation and people believing that Scott Frost would become Iowa's offensive coordinator or even have an opportunity to do something like that. Paul Crist is a guy that we've talked about a ton.
Starting point is 00:08:23 The former Wisconsin head coach, Wisconsin offensive coordinator. In between, he was the head coach at Pitt. Highly successful at Wisconsin. You look at his offenses when the Badgers were running right under Bielema and even last year of Barry Alvarez. These were teams that ran the football incredibly well. Had a season with, what, 3,000 yards combined rushing from Melvin Gordon and James White. They had great running schemes and ability to run the football at a level that even Iowa, even with their success running the football, hasn't been close to. Coupled with quarterback play that was never elite outside of the Russell Wilson year, but was always very, very good. There's weird things that happened with him.
Starting point is 00:09:05 You go back to the Joel Stave situation, if you remember that, where basically before their first game of the year, they were taking on LSU, I think down in Houston, if memory serves. And Stave had the yips. Do you put that on a coordinator? I don't think so, but that was a weird one. And that was a weird combination that was happening there we're going to get a little bit more into this we're going to talk more about what is happening with
Starting point is 00:09:29 this coordinator search some other names that are out there talk about a guy that has been in iowa city a guy that is high on my list very high on my list in fact you probably heard me talk about him before at an iowa connection that I hadn't realized. We take a look out to Utah. We'll do that as we continue. This is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by the Game Time app. You shouldn't have to worry when you're buying tickets to your next big event.
Starting point is 00:10:02 Game Time is the fast and easy way to buy tickets for all the sports, music, comedy, and theater events near you. Killer last-minute deals, all-in prices, views from your seat, and their best price guarantee. Game Time takes the guesswork out of buying tickets for whatever you are looking for. We got Christmas right around the corner. You're looking for those last-minute gift ideas. Game time is the spot to go. It doesn't matter. Hey, maybe that special somebody in your life isn't a sports fan. They got you covered or buy yourself a gift. Get yourself
Starting point is 00:10:35 some tickets to that big game. Maybe even take a look at some tickets for the bowl game as Iowa makes their way down to Orlando. One of my favorite parts of game time. I've used the app many times now. And the view from your seat before you buy, know exactly where you're going to be in the stadium. It's something that I don't know. I'm obsessed with. I love looking around, seeing what it is. Kinnick Stadium, got great seats all over the place.
Starting point is 00:10:57 That is not the case in a lot of different areas. Maybe you're looking for basketball tickets, sold out cover all season long for the women's team. They got you covered there as well with game time. Download the game time app, create an account and use code LOCKDOWNCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time. Again, download the game time app, create an account and use code LOCKDOWNCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.
Starting point is 00:11:26 Download game time today. Last minute tickets. Lowest price guaranteed. Trent Conner back with you once again on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. As always, thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. So I mentioned one thing that I got to correct, and it's the guy that I like the most. But when I was talking about Joel Stave,
Starting point is 00:11:55 the offensive coordinator during that time was the favorite guy on the list, and that is Andy Ludwig of Utah. You probably heard, if you've been listening to me for a while, myself and Biz when we do podcasts, Andy Ludwig and the Utah system has been the apple of our eye for the last five years. It is a program and an offensive scheme that is built on power football, running the football with authority, good offensive lines, great tight end play,
Starting point is 00:12:22 and just enough out of the quarterback position. Now, they've had a little bit more. You look at the days when they had Cam Rising, when he was healthy, and what they were able to do when they've had high-level quarterback play. It's gone to another level and averaging over 400 yards of offense a couple of those seasons, averaging nearly 40 points a game in a couple of those years. Andy Ludwig is a guy that has connections to the Midwest. And another thing I didn't realize about Ludwig until just the other day
Starting point is 00:12:47 as I was searching around a little bit more about him, his son actually was a walk-on in the Iowa program back in 2017-2018 before he departed and went with his dad out to Utah and was a walk-on with the Utes as a fullback. He was a linebacker in high school in Wisconsin, came here to Iowa as a walk-on. You have to anticipate the relationship. Got to be pretty good.
Starting point is 00:13:09 If you're a coach and wherever you're sending your kid, you know all the tricks. You know the recruiting stories. A kid that comes in as a walk-on as well, as Andy Ludwig's son did, I think that's something to be said as well. So that's another possibility. We mentioned the flight tracker.
Starting point is 00:13:27 Yes, there was a flight tracker out that had a flight departing from Iowa City to Cedar Rapids. And then after that 12-minute flight, which cracks me up, the 12-minute flight to Cedar Rapids went to Salt Lake City the other day and then came back later that day. Could be nothing. Could be something. That's the one more than anything that would get me excited. Yes, Ludwig is 59 years old. Yes, there's that weird Stave situation that
Starting point is 00:13:51 happened when Gary Anderson was the head coach, but overall what he's done at Utah, that is the number one for me. I don't think there's any doubt about it. That is the guy that should be on top of most everybody's list of realistic possibilities. Finally, Joe Philbin is another name that's being bandied about a whole lot. He was the offensive line coach when Kirk first got here in 1999 as the head coach. He was there through 2002
Starting point is 00:14:16 and that great, and maybe the greatest offensive line in Iowa football history. He was a part of that. He was the coach that built that thing up from the scrap heap in what they turned into in four years. He's 62 years old, been an offensive line coach. He's been an offensive coordinator. Now he was the Packers OC from 2007 to 2011. The caveat you have to put in there though, is he was not the play caller during that time. He's called plays. He's done it plenty of times, but does not have
Starting point is 00:14:45 a full slate of, you know, eight, 10 years of play calling experience. Look, you're an offensive coordinator though, in the NFL, even when Mike McCarthy was calling the plays, your thumbprints are very much a part of what they were doing in Green Bay. Very successful there. He became the head coach in Miami with the Dolphins. The first year they drafted Ryan Tannehill who had a okay a couple of years there but they just never could get over the hump he was seven and nine in the first year eight and eight the next two years got another year they got off to a slow start he was fired he's bounced around he was with the Cowboys when McCarthy went there a couple of years back and was the offensive line coach this past season was an analyst at Ohio State there's a lot of talk
Starting point is 00:15:24 about he didn't love recruiting and that's one of the reasons that he went away from the college game and found a home in the NFL. Look, at this point, there are plenty of young guys that can go out and do the recruiting, go out and find a way to, you know, do a whole lot. And you remember Ken O'Keefe, even towards the end of his career as the offensive coordinator before he became the quarterback coach, and even when he was the quarterback coach, he didn't do a whole lot of recruiting in comparison to some of the younger guys on the staff. I mean, there are plenty of ways that you can get around that. And Joe Philbin can't completely not do any recruiting. I mean, that's silly to think anything like that. It would be the safe choice. It would be the boring choice.
Starting point is 00:16:02 It would probably be the most Kirk Ferentz-like choice to go with Joe Philbin, but definitely another name that has been bandied about. And then the off-the-radar guys. I brought up Matt Drinkel. He was a student assistant on the 2002 team. He is the offensive coordinator at Army. This is not me advocating that I will run the triple option. That's not what it would be. And in fact, Army this year moved away from the triple option because of the inability to do cut blocking anymore in line. And they had to move away from it because it's just an offense that wouldn't work anymore. They evolved and he definitely would be a guy. I think that probably not right now. He's still younger in his early forties. He doesn't have experience at the power level of calling plays and doing those kind
Starting point is 00:16:45 of things, but want to put out there. And maybe if there is a bigger shakeup on staff, you know, that's another possibility here. As an offensive coordinator comes in, they're going to want a few of their own guys, or at least maybe some fresh voices out there too, and doing things differently, whatever position group that is. So don't think that this very well could be only a Brian Ferentz thing as the offensive staff changes. You wonder about John Budmeier, who is not an on-field coach, though definitely was very much a part of what we saw in this scheme the last couple of years that did not go very well. I have always been not very much in the corner of John Budmeier. He had his hands in the quarterback room and it did not go well these last couple of seasons and then a couple of a dark horse candidates well Matt Drinkle is certainly one
Starting point is 00:17:29 of those dark horse candidates uh another name that I've seen from time to time that's been brought up and in fact it was even a year ago we wonder if Brian was going to come back for another season there were a lot of rumors about Brian potentially taking an NFL job and making it easy on his old man and not having to fire him. He didn't do that, and here we are with him officially being fired. But Slade Nagel is a guy down at Tulane. Offensive coordinator was not a play caller initially. They had two offensive coordinators.
Starting point is 00:17:57 A lot of things that you'll see at the college game, and really across football anymore, is you'll see teams do the run game coordinator, the pass game coordinator. Only one of those guys eventually call the plays that was not the case this year slade nagel took over the play calling duties look too late had another really good season this year dealt with injuries including at the quarterback position they went to old miss i actually old miss went there i'm still an old miss team it's playing in the new year six they have them on the ropes with their backup quarterback so this is a guy that can put points on the board and showed it certainly this season with a lot of tumult happening at Tulane.
Starting point is 00:18:31 The connection there is Slade Nagel and George Barnett. The offensive line coach worked together at Tulane before Barnett came to Iowa City. So that would be another name. Now, Slade Nagel has not left Louisiana a whole lot. Could he open up a pipeline to Louisiana? Look, you're not going to beat lsu for any prospects and most of the sec however that next year flip on a sunbelt game and see some of those kids from louisiana yeah if you can open up a pipeline maybe that'd be something we could go a different angle on that one and then one more uh this one just popped into my head as I was really digging and I was
Starting point is 00:19:08 going down a bunch of different roads and trying to find Kirk Ferentz connections and things that would make sense. I looked at New Mexico State. I know Jerry Kill is a guy that back when he was at Minnesota, Kirk Ferentz seemed to really respect him. And obviously Jerry down in New Mexico State now doing an incredible job with a win coming up on Saturday. They'll win 11 games in New Mexico State. I mean, you talk about a Morbin program. Well, who's our OC, right? It's Tim Beck.
Starting point is 00:19:33 No, not that Tim Beck. Not the old Nebraska offensive coordinator and NC State offensive coordinator. That Tim Beck now is the head coach at Coastal Carolina. Not that guy. It's a different Tim Beck, who's the OC. Older guy, didn't see a whole lot there. Again, we were searching around.
Starting point is 00:19:49 But I did come up with this name. Zach Luan, who is the offensive coordinator at South Dakota State. Now, he's incredibly young. Late 20s, but he was a quarterback in college at South Dakota State. He was a guy that has had his basically right away. He was an economic major and right away got into coaching after his playing career finished up with the Jackrabbits. You look at their offense, though, if you watch any FCS football,
Starting point is 00:20:16 watch UNI football, watch a lot of MVC football, and love it when we get to this time with the playoffs and watch a ton of it. And I'll be doing the same this weekend with the semifinals happening. We saw South Dakota state, obviously a season ago, back in 2022 tight game. It was five, three for a while. We remember it. Well, seven, three, the final couple of safeties for the Hawkeyes.
Starting point is 00:20:37 And they just missed on a couple of past place. I would easily could have lost that football game. South Dakota state's really good. And they run an offense that, again, physical style, something that I think could work. That's off the radar. That's one that we're really going down the well there. No connections to Iowa that I know about on that front,
Starting point is 00:20:57 but there's a new name. And I'd like to throw some of those into the mix from time to time. Well, Iowa is getting back on the hardwood coming up this week as they get ready on Saturday at Wells Fargo Arena for a double dip. The men before the ladies this time. That's right. Iowa men will open things up against Florida A&M, followed up by the Iowa women and Kaitlyn Clark as they face off
Starting point is 00:21:19 against a Cleveland State team that won 30 games a year ago. We'll talk in hoops when we come back. this is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Today's episode of Locked On Hawkeyes podcast is brought to you by PrizePix. PrizePix is a wonderful place to go as you are looking to jump into the world of daily fantasy sports. It's the largest DFS platform in North America. Prize picks, the easiest and most exciting way to play DFS.
Starting point is 00:21:50 It's just you against the numbers. I love this part of it. I have been in there. I have played daily fantasy sports now for a number of years and worrying about battling thousands of different players. You got people in there that they're just not playing it the way that I think you and I usually are playing it. It's just you against the numbers. You're picking more or less of a two to six player stat projection, and you can watch the winnings roll in. You can play
Starting point is 00:22:16 combo specials, football and basketball together. That's right. They're specials league where you put things together and play something like Travisvis kelsey and lebron james more or less 10 and a half combination of three pointers made and receptions more or less 75 yards rushing for christian mcafree coming up this weekend that's how you do it it's as simple as that so simple you can make your picks in less than 60 seconds quick withdrawals easy gameplay and they have an enormous selection of players and stat types. It's what makes PrizePix the number one daily fantasy sports app. Go to prizepix.com slash LockedOnCollege
Starting point is 00:22:54 and make sure you use the code LockedOnCollege. It'll give you a first deposit match up to $100. Again, that's prizepix.com slash LockedOnCollege with the code LockedOnCollege for that first deposit match up to $100. PrizePix, daily fantasy sports made easy. Trent Conner back with you one final time. This is the LockedOnHawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making LockedOnHawkeyes your first listen every day it is coming up on Saturday and with it being finals
Starting point is 00:23:33 week that means that well we don't have anything going on as it pertains to games going on with Iowa it's something that was implemented a number of years ago, something that makes a whole lot of sense. If you were in college back in the day, I remember bouncing around. One semester, it was my second semester at Iowa. So we're talking spring of 1999. We'll go back in the Wayback Machine with you. I had one of the first finals on Monday, and then I had one of the last finals on Friday, and not a whole lot in between.
Starting point is 00:24:04 Not good for your boy TC. However, you don't know what the schedule is going to look like for these players. And yes, they are still student athletes as much as sometimes we forget about that, myself included. Yes, they do still have classes that they have to do and go through. But with that being said, so they get back out there. On the women's side, they take on Cleveland State. Cleveland State, a year ago, they were the number 13 seed in the NCAA tournament, went out to Villanova in the opening round.
Starting point is 00:24:32 They got crushed. They got throttled early in that game, but still a team coming from the Horizon League that won 30 games a year ago. And look, it's the Horizon League, I understand. Winning 30 games, though, in any league, they're a pretty good program. They brought back their best player from a year ago, and she's hurt.
Starting point is 00:24:49 Out for the season, Destiny Leo is her name, which would have been really fun. You know, last year in that game against Villanova, she went off for 25 points, four rebounds, four assists. She's a really, really skilled scorer, but a torn ACL. She's going to be out for the season. And what took on the surface looked like maybe this could be a decent game. Probably not going to be the case on Saturday night at Wells Fargo Arena. But how about that?
Starting point is 00:25:15 You go to a high school game 99% of the time. It's the girls first and then the boys, right? Here, it'll be the Iowa men first. And the headliner will be, if you will, the Iowa women right here it'll be the iowa men first and the headliner will be if you will the iowa women as it should be how many people are making their way to des moines or living here as we are in des moines and you're just going to watch caitlin clark as season tickets are sold out maybe you don't want to pay an outrageous price that is the direction for a lot of people that they're going to go.
Starting point is 00:25:45 It's going to be interesting to see what that environment is. And I do wonder when we get to the first game with the men's game, both these games will be on Big Ten Network. What's the attendance going to look like during the first game? Is it going to be people that are going to be making their way in? They're going to go check out Jethro's, going to go check out Buzzer Billy's before they came. And you know what?
Starting point is 00:26:05 Maybe we'll trickle in for the second half of the men's game. I wouldn't be surprised if that's going to be the case. And we're going to see plenty of that going forward. But as mentioned, women's game, I was more excited about that game than I was the men. Just because Cleveland State, pretty good team, thought it'd be potentially somewhat of a fight. That's not going to happen. We get to the men's team. That sits at 5-5.
Starting point is 00:26:37 And at 5-5, though they're not out of it by any means, we're still incredibly early in the season. You look at their losses. They're all quad one losses at Purdue, at Iowa State, even the home game against Michigan. Maybe it'll turn out to be a quad two loss, but likely is going to be up there if Michigan can salvage their season with all the tumult that they have happening there. And of course, the neutral site loss to Oklahoma. At minimum, three of those four losses are not bad. They're all good losses.
Starting point is 00:26:59 The Michigan one, ultimately, I don't think it's going to be a good loss. But that aside, it's not over. You win these next three games of the non-conference, and then you're off and running, and then you got to pile up a bunch of victories in the Big Ten. But the more I go back, and I went back and watched the Michigan game on Monday night, and look, the defense is bad. It's always bad outside of basically the last two years of Adam Woodbury and that crew. It's always bad under Frey. And this is a different level.
Starting point is 00:27:31 So three points. You've heard number one if you've been listening. Every day, as you know this, DeSante Bowen needs to be the point guard. Last three games, you've been blowing out in all three. And he started three different point guards. You started with DeSante Bowen. You get blown out of Purdue. You go to Iowa State. You give Josh Dix his first career start. He turns it over twice and misses a couple of shots in the first couple of minutes of the game. That didn't go well. Then he had the keys off to Tony Perkins,
Starting point is 00:27:58 and he loses it home to Michigan. So, okay, that didn't work. home to Michigan. So, okay, that didn't work. Very simply, DeSante Bowen, you look at the offensive numbers, a four to one assist to turnover ratio, an offensive efficiency that is through the roof, a guy that is at least competent on the defensive end of the floor. I think you need to go back with it, but not only go back to DeSante Bowen, but give him some rain, right? Some free rain to go out there and make a mistake and not be looking over his shoulder the whole time. Tell him in this game and tell him for the next three games and these three tomato cans that they're going to play to finish up the non-conference portion of the schedule. These three games are yours. Earn the job on the
Starting point is 00:28:40 floor. Earn the starting point guard job. He can get to the rim. He's an okay shooter. Assisted turnover ratio is excellent. He is the guy that they need if they have any hope of turning things around. What else needs to be done? I've said that one, and maybe you're sick of hearing that one. More Evan Bronze.
Starting point is 00:28:58 Speaking of the defense, which again has been brutal, he is the best defensive player on the team at this point by advanced metrics now the minutes are very limited to be fair Evan Bruns hasn't played a ton but I think you need to you need more out of him maybe it's eight to ten minutes a game four minutes in each half something like that whatever it is you need him out there he's not a skilled offensive player he is a dunker that and that's about it.
Starting point is 00:29:25 He's a round-the-rim kind of guy. Ben Kricke, though, is bad defensively. And a year ago, his years of Valparaiso, that showed up in any metric you looked at, and it's continued here. Going through in the per 100 possessions defensive rating. Your top defender on the team right now is Owen Freeman. Number two, Evan Braun. Number three, this might surprise, is Peyton Sanford.
Starting point is 00:29:51 And then you go all the way down towards the bottom and your bottom three players of the regulars, Ben Kricke, Patrick McCaffrey, and Josh Dix. Continuing, defensive plus minus. Defensive box floor plus minus minus your best players defensively evan bronze owen freeman and then josh dicks gotta play weird uh again i don't know how exactly these numbers are made your bottom players defensively though in this plus minus rating defensively patrick mcafree and ben cricky cricky's not a good defender. He just isn't.
Starting point is 00:30:25 Very skilled offensive player. He's going to put numbers up and he might put 18-20 a game. He's also going to give a bunch on the other end. We saw that. Michigan team that was not playing very well inside. They played very well against the Iowa team. More Evan Brawns. Get him out there and get a role for him. You're not going to be elite offensively this year. This is not going to be a standard Fran team. They're not built that way. So you have to be better on the defensive end. That goes hand in hand.
Starting point is 00:30:53 And I think your starting lineup needs to be this. DeSante Bowen at the one. Tony Perkins at the two. Sanford at the three. And then Owen Freeman and Kricke together. Patrick McCaffrey, how about this number for you? He has played nearly 300 minutes of basketball. He has one offensive rebound this year.
Starting point is 00:31:18 One. Says a lot. We'll be back with you in Instant Reaction podcast after the games on Saturday. We will react to everything that we see at Wells Fargo Arena. We got you covered. Your team every day here on the Lockdown Network.
Starting point is 00:31:33 That's what you do. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We'll talk to you again over the weekend. Go Hawks.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.