Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football: Offensive Depth Chart For The 2022 Season

Episode Date: April 29, 2022

The Iowa Hawkeye's are going to have a lot to prove when it comes to their offense this upcoming season. Last season Iowa's offense had some notable struggles, mostly having to do with their offensive line. But with a bunch of guys with previous experience coming back to the trenches as well as several other offensive positions for the Hawkeye's this year, head coach Kirk Ferentz is hoping that most or all of those problems will go away with effort and an immense amount of hard work.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.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.Athletic GreensAthletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/COLLEGE. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome back Hawkeye Nation to another episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are, whoever you are. Thanks for tuning in to today's episode. And before we get started, I want to thank you all for making the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast your very first listen every single day. You can find the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast for free wherever you get your podcasts at and also on YouTube by searching Locked On Hawkeyes. Now, I only have one topic of discussion on the ballot for today, and that is the depth chart for the Iowa Hawkeyes football team heading into the 2022-2023 season.

Today, we are going to be covering the offense only, so all of the positions on the offense, and then we will get into the defense at a later time. I can already tell that there's not, or let me rephrase this. I can already tell that there's going to be quite a few of you that aren't very happy that I'm not talking about the first round of the draft today, but in my defense, this episode is being recorded as the draft is going on. I don't know why I planned it that way. I shouldn't have done that, but I can't really talk about it because it's, you know, the first round is currently going on. So as for tomorrow's episode, LaShawn Daniels and I are going to be sitting down and discussing

what games for the upcoming season are going to be the most important for the Hawkeyes on the football side of things. So I promise the draft episode is coming and it will be here Monday. And depending on how the draft goes, it may go into Tuesday's episode as well. I'm not quite sure yet. So as I said for today's episode, I figured that since spring ball is over for the Hawkeyes and we are in the middle of the offseason, I thought I would start getting into how I thought the depth chart was going to look for this upcoming season. Before we get into things today, I want to talk about BetOnline really quick. BetOnline.net is your number one source for all of your betting stats and sports info.

You can find all the latest sports developments, league reviews, and news, including this year's basketball playoffs and the start of the major league baseball season. BetOnline is your continued source for all of your sporting wagering information from live betting to playoffs to esports and more. So head over to the website today or use your mobile device to learn more about the trends and action. BetOnline, where the game starts. So as you know, there have been several injured Hawkeyes throughout this spring, but the question is how is that going to affect the upcoming season for the Hawkeyes? Whether or not these injured guys can get healthy again before the season starts doesn't quite, you know, really matter yet. What does matter is whether or

not they can stay healthy throughout the season because there are quite a few positions on the Hawkeyes roster that can't really afford to lose their starters right now. And I say that, and when I say that, I mean the offensive line specifically. But on Saturday after their spring game, Kirk Ferentz voiced his frustrations with Iowa's multiple offensive and defensive injuries in a statement by saying, quote, the other thing you notice is the volume of work we're doing right now is a little bit less. It's been like that all spring because of injuries. We had talked about how we were going to do spring practice a couple months ago. Then injuries almost kind of forced our hands, cutting back some of the reps, especially for the guys that have played. We have a couple guys you can predict what they'll look like when we get things going. We've seen a lot of areas where there is growth. Today is a clear indicator of

this. We still have a long way to go right now. Overall, the work habits and attitude have been good. Our leadership has been good. Probably got a little bit more personality than most of our teams have had to this point. That's because we have some really good older players. That part is good. The next two weeks, the guys will be in a little bit different type of training regimen, lighter, finish up their academic work with finals. Those guys will have a good break and then we will get back hard at it in June. That was a statement that he said after the spring game this past Saturday. So as far as I can tell

from Ferentz's words over the last few weeks, he's not really concerned with how the guys are performing because he's been trying to cater to the fact that the team is really banged up right now. And he can tell these guys are in need of their rest if they're going to be able to come back this fall and put on, you know, an actual decent performance. So with that being said, let's get into the offensive depth chart for this upcoming fall. So at quarterback, obviously the starter I have as Spencer Petras right now. Second, Alex Padilla. And in third, I have, or excuse me, the third string, I have Joey Labus. As much as I personally don't think that Petras should have the starting job as of right now, I still think he's probably going to be the Hawkeyes best bet as a starter this year

because he's the guy with the most experience and he's the guy that Ferens has the most confidence in. Even though Petras didn't have the best season as a quarterback last year, going 165 for 288 in passing for right around 1,900 yards, I believe it was about 1,880 maybe, with 10 TDs and 9 picks, Ferens still has a lot of good things to say about him as a player. He's been saying things like, I think he's done, excuse me, I think he has done a lot of really good things. He seems confident and healthy and he throws the ball well. Along with Petras,

along with that, excuse me, Petras seems to be pretty confident in his abilities as well, saying, quote, I think the biggest thing looking back is that I'm too smart of a player to not take advantage of coverage better than I did. For me, with how fast I can identify coverage and how fast I can get the ball out of my hands, if I'm getting soft coverage underneath, I need to take that more. I know how to attack coverage. That completion percentage needs to be much higher. It's not a talent issue with me. It's not a talent issue with our receivers. Now, let me get one thing very, very straight. I don't like Petras as a quarterback. I think that he is not good enough to be a starting quarterback. Once again, this is my only hot take of today. He's not good enough

to be a starting quarterback. And personally, in some way, I think Petras is right. It's not a talent issue. It's an attitude issue. Petras has every right to be confident in himself as a player because confidence is key, but there's a clear difference between confidence and cockiness. Okay. And I think that right now Petras needs to stop talking himself up and get back to work so that he can become the player he needs to be in order to keep the starting job he's ultimately going to have when the season starts. A 57% completion percentage and only throwing one more touchdown than you do an interception is not going to get you a Big Ten championship.

And that's why I'm not counting out Padilla for this season. Do I think Padilla will start off the season? No, most likely not. But I do think that at some point he will take over the starting job for Petras down the road. And listen, it's nothing against Petras as a player. You know what I mean? I believe he has the talent to do that. I just think that he lets

his ego and his cockiness kind of overcome where he's at right now. I don't understand how you can sit there and say, oh, well, it's not a talent issue. All he's saying is that him not playing good is not his fault. You know what I mean? And he said, he said too, that it's not a talent issue with the receivers, blah, blah, blah. I don't care. You can't sit there and blame other people for the fact that you are not playing well. You can't throw 10 touchdowns in a season and then throw nine interceptions and say that you deserve to have the starting spot. Yes. He has the most experience with the team. And yes, Kirk Ferentz has seems to have all the confidence in the world in him, but I don't. Right. And I'm not, you know, I'm not some big NCAA analyst or, and I'm not a head coach. I'm, I'm an 18 year old kid who runs a podcast about the Iowa Hawkeyes for locked on,

but that's my opinion. I don't think he deserves to have that starting spot. And I don't think that he can play as I shouldn't say, I don't think he can play as that starting spot, and I don't think that he can play as, I shouldn't say I don't think he can play as well as Padilla or Labus, but I think that Padilla can play just as well as Petras can right now, and I think that he deserves a shot at that starting spot. We're not going to know until the season starts, but ultimately I think that Ferentz is going to just bite the bullet and put Petras in at quarterback because he thinks that he's going to have the most success. But if Petrus

is going to have success at the starting spot all season long, he needs to get rid of his ego and get rid of his cockiness and just focus on becoming a better player. Because if he plays all year, like he did last year when he did play he's not going to succeed he will not be good and i can promise you that and we will go three and nine and we will end up like nebraska last season no no no hate towards nebraska or anything like that but you know my opinion about nebraska's football team it just it upsets me to see that a guy like this can go in there with all the cockiness in the world and tell everybody that it's just confidence and that he's just good and ultimately have the starting

spot. It just doesn't make any sense to me. So that's my rant for the day. Anyways, at the running back and fullback spot, first string, I've got Gavin Williams. Second, I've got LaShawn Williams at the running back spot. At the fullback spot, first string, I've got Gavin Williams. Second, I've got LaShawn Williams at the running back spot at the fullback spot. First string, I've got Monty Potabum and in the second string spot, I've got Turner Palazard. Now for running backs, obviously with Goodson being gone, the run game for the Hawkeyes is going to be quite a bit different, but with both Gavin and LaShawn in the backfield this year, I think Iowa can still relax a little bit knowing they have guys in there with plenty of talent. Personally, I think that Gavin and LaShawn will share the backfield responsibilities this season. But I have Gavin as a starter because I think he'll probably be the go-to guy in a lot of more important situations.

And Ferentz seems to have a lot of confidence in Gavin, regardless of the fact that he's still a newcomer and he's still pretty young. Ferentz said in a statement about Gavin, quote, he's only been our lead back for one game in his career, but he carries himself like an older guy, a senior almost. There's something about him, a maturity, a focus. He's really respected by everybody. I think we have a good mix that way. We're hardly there yet, but at least that's a big part of the next couple of months here, continuing to build on that and develop those stronger personalities as we go. I've talked about Gavin and LaShawn Williams on the podcast before, and I've said it then, I just said it now, and I'll say it again. They're going to share the responsibilities.

I've said it then, I just said it now, and I'll say it again. They're going to share the responsibilities. They're both going to be out on that field a lot during the season. I just think that Gavin, as of right now, is showing that he is going to be a little bit stronger. LaShawn, he can cut back and forth. He can make those plays and stuff like that, but Gavin is more of a downhill runner when it comes down to it. And LaShawn has said before that he can run downhill as well. I don't doubt that both of them can. I just think that right now, Ference has a little bit more confidence in Gavin as an overall running back, regardless of the fact that he's still young and that he's a newcomer and all that sort of thing. But I think

that Gavin will get, I think it'll be more of a 60-40. You know what I mean? I think Gavin will take 60% and LaShawn will take the other 40. And then, you know, obviously whatever is left over will be passed down to the fullbacks. It just depends on what Iowa's running game looks like this year. But I mean, if I could have them tied, you know, both at the first string spot, I would. But at this point, I'll give Gavin first string because, first string because that's where I think he's going to end up at. So let's get into the wide receivers here. So we'll go X, we'll go Y, and we'll go the slot spot. So at X, first string, I've got Keegan Johnson. That makes sense to me there. Second string, Brody Breck. The only reason I don't have him starting over Keegan Johnson is because

Johnson has a little bit more experience at that spot. Breck is going to be coming off of playing baseball, so he's going to be a little bit more underdeveloped than Johnson is overall. At the wide spot, first string, I've got Charlie Jones. At second, I've got Arlen Bruce. And at the slot spot, I've got Nico. And I apologize, I'm going to butcher this last name. Ragiani, I believe is how you say it.

Regardless, I have him at the slot spot. This spring was pretty rough, you know, for the Hawkeyes at the wide receiver position because of injuries and Breck playing baseball. There were times when Iowa didn't have very many guys to practice with, so they were underdeveloped going into the spring game, but the Hawkeyes do have their four top guys from last year coming back. And Keegan Johnson especially is excited to see what he can do for the Hawkeyes this upcoming season. When Johnson was asked about Iowa's offense, he said, quote, the work is not done yet. It's not close to being

done. I see that every day and and staying level-headed that way, understanding that there's still a lot to do, that will only help me get to where I want to be. And that's absolutely true. Just about everything that Iowa's got going on right now is, quote-unquote, underdeveloped. The defense still seems fairly solid, but obviously the defense is always going to be ahead of the offense,

especially for Iowa right around springtime for spring ball. I think that Iowa has a decent core for their wide receivers. Johnson and Bruce both coming back. So I think that Iowa is fairly set when it comes to their receiving core this upcoming season. I think they're going to be able to throw the ball around quite a bit and when they can't I think that both William or Gavin and LaShawn Williams are going to be able to pick that up when it comes to you know the run game and all that sort of thing so before we get into the tight ends once again I want to talk about bet online betonline.net is your number one source for all of your betting stats and sports info.

Find all of the latest sports developments, league reviews, and news, including this year's basketball playoffs and the start of the Major League Baseball season, which has obviously come and gone. BetOnline is your continued source for all of your sporting wagering information, from live betting to playoffs to esports and more. Head to the website today or use your mobile device to learn more about the trends and action. BetOnline, that is where the game starts. Once again, excuse me, that is BetOnline.net. Now, the tight ends. This one, if you want to argue with me about this on Twitter, I welcome you to because this is one that I'm not going to change my mind on, and that is first string Sam Laporta and second string Luke Lackley, or excuse me, Lackey. Personally, I don't think there's going to be much of a debate

when it comes to who's going to be starting out the season at tight end because of the fact that Laporta decided to come back. He had the opportunity to go to the draft this year, but ultimately ended up deciding to stay with the Hawkeyes for one more season. Laporta finished last season with, I believe, 53 catches and 670 receiving yards. I believe that's where he was at. And on top of that, Ferentz seems to, you know, he seems to be confident in his ability saying, quote, he's got a confidence about him, an air about him, just the way he is naturally. He's one of those guys that people gravitate towards. Some guys just have a certain knack or air about them and he's got that. It's a little bit ironic because he was not a five-star recruit. It took us a little while to

figure it out and thank goodness we did. Once again, that seems to be like the best option. If Iowa randomly decides to run a two tight end set, which I mean, I doubt it, but we'll just have to see. If they do decide to do something like that, I think both of them are going to be very good at the position at this point. I just think that Laporta deciding to come back really cements him having a starting spot for his last season. So for the offensive line,

this is where things get a little bit tricky for Iowa because Iowa had a, you know, a little bit of a rough season at the offensive line or at the offensive line positions. So let's, let's just get into it here at left tackle first string, Mason Richmond, second string, we've got Nick DeJong at the left guard spot. First string, we've got Connor Colby. Second string, we've got Bo Steffens at the right tackle spot first string we've got Connor Colby second string we've got Bo Steffens the right tackle first string I've got Jack Plum at the second string I've got David Davidkov at the right guard first string I've got Justin Britt right guard second string Tyler Ellsbury and at the center spot I've got Logan Jones in the first string spot and Matt Fagan in that second

string spot and I'm sure all of you are wondering how the Hawkeyes are going to manage to get somebody who can play at the same high intense level that Linderbaum did going, being brought to the center position for the Hawkeyes. But it seems like Ferentz has found that guy in the form of Logan Jones. Coming out of high school, Jones was an All-American on the defensive line, but ultimately switched to offense when he came to Iowa to play center because the Hawkeyes coaching staff was confident in the level of depth that they had at the defensive line at the time. And I think Jones in Iowa made the right choice because he's had the opportunity to play under a very talented center like Linderbaum, and he has the strength and physicality to play

the position just as good as, you know, anyone else out there. And when asked about Jones' abilities on the offensive side of the ball, Ferentz said, quote, I hate to even go back to the last trade, excuse me, to the last trade to throw a tag on a guy, but Logan was doing perfectly fine at that spot. It's about doing what's best for the team. And part of the reason is that we were afforded that opportunity because we have some guys right now. I think we've got 10 guys in the mix for playing on the defensive line. We were really young a year ago, but everybody's back. And, you know, Ferris is right too. The offensive line is extremely young. And they, I mean, they were last year. Thankfully, a lot of guys are coming back to play again. So, and there's a couple of veteran guys in there as well.

So I think Iowa is going to have a better, you know, a little bit better of a year on the offensive line, just because they've got a couple of those guys returning and they, you know, some of these guys, yes, are still young, but now they have, you know, a little bit more experience when it comes to playing in the trenches, as they call it. I think that Iowa's going to have a little bit better of a year on the offensive side of the ball, and I hope that they can get this quarterback situation figured out. And as I mentioned earlier, if Petras decides, or not if he decides, but if Petras ends up

being a great quarterback, good. I will applaud him. I will cheer him on. Good for him. But right now, I think that he has a major attitude adjustment coming his way. And I think that we're going to see that here throughout the summer and into the beginning of the season. He seems overly confident in himself to the point where he's cocky and he's getting a

big ego. Regardless of that, only time will tell. Only time will tell to see what happens. Also, I didn't talk about him much, but Joey Labus, he's a great quarterback. And we saw that in the spring game as well. He had more yards than Padilla and Petras, both. And he's really coming into his own as a solid freshman quarterback. I don't think that he will see the field at all

this year, you know, unless maybe Petras or Padilla gets hurt at some point. But I think Labus is just going to have to sit this year out and sort of, you know, oversee what's going on at the quarterback spot and, you know, kind of learn the best he can. So with that being said, that's all I have for the offensive side of the depth chart going into next year. As I mentioned at the beginning of the episode, me and LaShawn Daniels are going to be sitting down for tomorrow's episode to talk about what games are going to be the most important for the Hawkeyes this upcoming season.

What games, you know, we think we did go over score predictions a little while back, but I do want to talk about his thoughts on what, you know, what games are going to be the most important and what games are going to be must wins going into the season. And then obviously I mentioned on Monday, we will be talking about NFL draft coverage. I believe LaShawn will be on that episode as well. So we'll have a little bit of his insight into what, you know, what kind of goes on in the draft, him being a former NFL player. Hopefully we can get a little bit more insight and knowledge than I can personally give insight into what you know what kind of goes on in the draft him being a former NFL player hopefully we can get a little bit more insight and knowledge than I can personally give you because I only

played four years of high school football so I don't really know what happens in the NFL but like I said and then if if need be we can get into Tuesday's episode a little bit for the for the draft it just depends on how it goes for the Hawkeyes over the weekend, over Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. But if not, if we don't get into Tuesday's episode with the draft, then I will go over the defensive side of the JEP chart for the Hawkeyes. Once again, that will be on Tuesday.

So thank you all for tuning into the episode today. I appreciate your continued support and your continued patience. Make sure you go check out the Locked on Hawkeyes Twitter page and Instagram page at Locked on Iowa. You can go follow me on my personal Twitter, on my personal Instagram at RyHill as well. You're welcome to go follow me on there if you would like. That's it for today's episode.

I hope you all liked it and I will talk to you all tomorrow.