Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football: Recap of Iowa's 2022 Spring Game

Episode Date: April 26, 2022

Iowa's 2022 Spring football "game" wasn't exactly one that a lot of people will remember for good reasons. Both the offense and special teams were definitely not on their A-game and have a lot of room for some much needed improvement. But there were also some positives. The defense is always going to be in a better position at this point in the off season but, Iowa's defense really showed they're ready for the upcoming season this past Saturday.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, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked on Podcast Network. 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. A couple things before we get started here today. I want to apologize for the late post today. I had a lot of stuff going on today.

I've got finals coming up, so I've got a pretty full schedule right now, but I'm still going to be getting daily episodes out to you guys. They might just be a little later today until I get out of school. And then once summer hits, my last day of school is May 5th. So once summer hits, those episodes will also be posted later in the day only because I will be working five days a week during the day. So those episodes will be posted a little bit later in the day. But regardless, they will still be posted daily. So you will still get all of the content that you are looking for.

Now, once again, before we get started here, I'm going to warn you, there's a lot of hot takes in today's episodes. And I already know that my opinions are going to be, they're not going to be taken well by a lot of people, but that's why I'm here. I'm here to give my opinion and my thoughts on what's going on currently with Iowa. So let's get into it. Today we're going to talk about the spring game and sort of my recap of it. So with the completion of the spring game this past Saturday, Iowa is now done until the start of the fall season. Thousands of people were in attendance for the spring game. I do have some opinions on how it went overall, and as many people expected, it was less of a quote-unquote game and more of an open practice, open to the public, and it was quite a bit shorter than a lot of people expected it to be. And, you know, on top of the game being slightly less than what people expected, there aren't really a whole lot of positive things to take away from the game this year. And I think a lot of analysts and fans alike left the game with a lot more questions about the upcoming season rather than answers to questions that they already had. So the first and probably the most confusing subject that I want to talk about is the quarterback situation that

the Hawkeyes are currently in. I talked about the battle for the starting quarterback position a few episodes ago, and I was pretty confident in saying that Spencer Petras had the job. And I believe, I'm pretty sure I even said that it was his job to lose. Now, after seeing how the spring game went, Petras might be on his way to just doing that, which would be losing the job. And to say that Petras had a rough day behind the line would be an understatement, because I've seen my fair share of off days at every position, but it just seemed like Petras had his mind on something other than football on Saturday.

Petras ended the day throwing seven completions on 13 passes for a total of 52 yards. And trust me, I'm not here to get on Petras' case or to try to convince you that he shouldn't be the starter this season, but it's hard to ignore the display that we saw on Saturday. And keep in mind, it was pretty windy in Iowa City on Saturday, but some of the throws that we saw from Spencer weren't even close to being anywhere near good. And it really seemed like he was lacking the basic fundamentals when it comes to having a solid and accurate arm. I did take into consideration that Petrus may have just been in his head and thought that maybe he didn't really have anything to prove to the coaching staff going into the game, but regardless of where you think you're at on the depth chart, you have to always be fighting to stay at the top of it because it doesn't matter how good you think you are. There is always somebody that's going to be there that thinks that they're better than you,

and sometimes they are. And if we move to the second and third string in Alex Padilla and Joey Labus, it seemed like they were a lot more on top of their game than Petras overall. Both Padilla and Labus had better completion percentages than Petras, and both had more yards. Keep in mind that Labus was facing mostly a third string defense. But regardless, I have to give props to the freshman on his performance. He finished the day going 7 for 12 for 93 yards. He had the most yards out of all three quarterbacks on the day, and it was considerably better than where I thought he would be at this time in the

off season. So it's great to see that he is coming into his own as a freshman quarterback, and I'm really glad to see that he is progressing miles above where I thought he would be. Padilla ended the day going 5 for 7 with 66 yards, which is definitely better than what he finished with last season. I think Padilla had a completion percentage of maybe 49 or 50% at the end of last season, and at this point, if Padilla can raise that percentage to like maybe the 60% to 70% range, he can very well take this starting job away from Petras. Now, Kirk Ferentz mentioned in an interview after the game that as of right now, Petras is still ahead of Padilla and Labas, but he also mentioned that the coaching staff is keeping an open mind

about the starting job. And it doesn't take an expert to see when Petras is not on the field. The way the offense is ran is completely different than when he is on the field. And what I'm saying is Iowa currently does not have a dual threat quarterback in Petras, Padilla, or Labus by any means whatsoever. But it does seem as though Padilla and Labus both can move the ball around a little bit more on their own than Petras can, especially when it comes to moving around inside the pocket. And that was very evident by what we saw from the offensive game plan on Saturday. You can tell that offensive coordinator Brian Ferencz tends to move Padilla and Labus around more in the pocket than he does with Petras. And with their, you know, with there being injuries on the offensive line this spring, that may be something that Brian and Kirk Ferentz

are going to be looking for this coming fall. As of right now, Petras still has the job, but I'm starting to think that come fall, he won't, which I mean mean would be unfortunate to say the least but if he's not if he's not the best guy out there and he's not putting in the effort and putting in the work that he needs to he's not going to be on the field regardless of how good he thinks he is because it really just looked like to me that he in his mind came, came into the game, thought, oh, well, I don't have anything to prove to the coaching staff. I know I'm the best quarterback out here, so I don't have to try today, which is terrible. That's a terrible mindset to have at any position, regardless of how good you are or how good you think you are or where you're at on the depth chart.

He did not have a good day by any means whatsoever. And that's not what you want to see out of your starting quarterback. And it sucks because he's supposed to be good. He said earlier this spring that he's going to be the guy. And there's no doubt about it that he's going to be the guy. guy and there's no doubt about it that he's going to be the guy but after Saturday it doesn't seem like a he wants to be or b he should be the starting guy whatsoever again my opinion take it how you want it I'm sure you watched the spring game but and if you did you know exactly what I'm talking about it was not good by any means on the offense whatsoever. And we'll

get to the ground game in just a second. The Iowa's offense on Saturday was not good by any stretch of the imagination. It was not what you want to see at this point in the off season. Yes, it is early and there's still an entire summer to go before fall, but it was not good. And it, it made a lot of people upset because they should be better than they are now. And maybe it was just an off day, but can you really have, can 11 guys really have an off day all at the same time? You know what I mean? It's, it wasn't like just Petrus was bad or just the receivers weren't, you know, doing all that well, but nobody really had a great day on the offensive side of the ball. And it's starting to worry me a little bit. I'm worried

about, you know, where this Iowa offense is going to be at come, you know, come fall, and if they're even going to be able to compete with other Big Ten teams. Now, let's get into the ground game a little bit. First of all, I know it, you know it, and every other team in the Big Ten knows it. When Iowa can't get their run game going, it's usually a pretty safe bet that the entire Hawkeyes offense is going to have a very rough day. And we saw it last year with injuries on the offensive line and Tyler Goodson being inconsistent at times. When the run game was turned off, so is the rest of the offense. And that's just how it is. So how does

Iowa plan to turn these problems around this fall? That's a great question. And honestly, I wish I had an answer for it, but I don't. And however, I can tell you what the coaching staff wants to do, and that's to get the offensive line more experienced with in-game situations so that hopefully they can work more as a complete unit versus having each guy do their own thing. And in theory, this is great, but that's not what we saw on Saturday at all whatsoever. Granted, the issue may have been solved or may have, or could have been solved last season by getting both LaShawn and Gavin Williams more reps in the backfield

throughout the season. But as we know, that didn't happen. And when LaShawn and Gavin did get reps, it seemed like the O-line couldn't stay out of the backfield and was having a lot of trouble getting off the ball altogether. Granted, their carries came in the Big Ten Championship game against Michigan. And it was a tough day for Iowa's O-line against that Michigan defense. And I will give them that. They're a tough defense, but this is Division I college football. This is the highest level of college football that you can play, and you're not showing that you want to be here. You know what I mean? You're not showing that you have what it takes to compete at the D1 level against top defenses,

and that's something that's really going to have to change this upcoming season. you have what it takes to compete at the D1 level against top defenses. And that's something that's really going to have to change this upcoming season. Now, if this problem continues into the fall, like into this coming fall, Iowa is going to be nowhere near as good as they were last year. And they may not have the opportunity to win the West again, let alone try for a Big Ten championship again. It's very concerning to me. And like I said, I was not there in person, but I saw the high of it. I saw the film of it. I've seen plenty of videos on Twitter about it. And everything that I've seen has not been good

at all. And I struggled. I promise you, I tried to find positives about the offense from Saturday's game, but there's just not many, really. I mean, the quarterbacks were not great. The offensive line was not great. The run game was not great. So something's got to change. Brian Ferentz, Kirk Ferentz, whoever it is, I don't care. Get it fixed. Get it through these guys' heads that if they continue to go this way, they are not going to be good and Iowa is going to end

up going three and nine. That's just how it is. And I say this out of, out of pure frustration. We don't want Iowa to turn into Nebraska. Okay. I know I hate Nebraska and they're another big 10 team, their neighboring state. There's a lot of talk that happens and that's mostly the reason why, but we cannot let Iowa turn into Nebraska because as soon as that happens, then our defense stops caring, our special team stops caring, and our defense and our special teams are what are consistently good. It's just the offense needs to get their head in the game and pull their heads out of their butts if they want to be good this year. I mentioned at the beginning of this episode, there's a lot of hot takes, okay? And my opinion is going to upset people,

but I'm just telling you how it is. I don't want to talk about this. I don't want to talk about how bad they were on Saturday, but I'm only reporting on what I saw and what I read. So if that upsets you, you can go watch that. You can go watch the highlights, go watch the film from it. It wasn't that good. And it really should be better at where we're at in the off season with spring ball being over. It's just not there yet. And it's frustrating to see that as a fan and as a guy that creates content on this team. I want to see them succeed. I want to see them be good. And I want to see them be at the top of their game. But there's just so many little fundamental problems that need to be fixed before the season

starts. And we really need to see them come into their own this summer throughout practice, throughout workouts, whatever it is. They've got to do something. It's just fundamentals. It's not like these offensive line guys are too small to be there. They're big boys. They have what it takes, but the fundamentals were not there on Saturday. They were not there. Same with Petras. He's a good quarterback when he wants to be, but his fundamentals were not there, and he did not act like he cared at all.

And that's a major problem. Especially, we cannot be carried by our defense again this year. It cannot happen because we will not win as many games. We have one of the toughest schedules in the Big Ten this year. We play Michigan, we play Penn State, we play Wisconsin. If we do not get this fixed, we are going to lose by 40 points to every single one of those teams. And I don't want to see that happen. Something's got to change and it's got to change fast or this season is going to be bad. And by bad, I mean very,

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teams can do by any means and I'm sorry I know I'm harping on them a lot but excuse me last season we really relied on Caleb Shudek to step up and put points on the board when we needed him to, and he definitely did on that. Granted, he definitely did. But to be completely honest, on Saturday, freshman Drew Stevens and redshirt sophomore Aaron Blom looked like they were playing JV football. JV football! I played that my freshman, sophomore, and junior year of high school.

Both Stevens and Blom finished with around 50% on field goals and if you don't already know that's not very good Stevens didn't make a single kick from more than 40 yards the entire day and before you go flood my twitter dms and my instagram dms with oh it's windy and they're not gonna make 100% of their kicks I know it was windy and they're not going to make 100% of their kicks. I know it was windy and I know that no one's perfect. But again, this is division one football. And if you want to play, you've got to show that you are better than this. And you've got to show that you deserve this starting job. And I know, I know I said it and I'll say it again.

I know it was windy and that take, it was very windy actually. And that, that does play a massive role in it. But 50% on field goals across the board is, is not, not good. It's not good at all, but let's, let's turn things. Let's turn things around here to the, if you want to look at the bright side of things take a look at tory taylor tory taylor continues to look like an absolute stud as usual he always does i don't think i've mentioned this on this podcast before but taylor is by far my favorite player on the hawkeyes right now and he was last year as well because he's just so good at what he does on saturday taylor was hitting 70-plus yard bombs, obviously with the wind to his back,

and he continues to be a massively positive asset on this Hawkeyes team. Now, I know what you're going to say. Oh, well, you're using wind as a positive for Taylor and wind as a negative for the rest of special teams, but still. And when Stevens and Blom were kicking with the wind at their back, they were making their kicks. I will give you that. They were.

But conditions are not always going to be perfect, and you're not going to play in college stadiums. They're not domes. They are open stadiums. It's going to be windy. It's going to be cold. You've got to, you've got to show that you deserve to be there. And if you don't think that you deserve to be there, help the guy behind you so that he can be better. Again, I'm harping on these guys and I'm only being so critical because I care so much and I know

that that sounds like I'm your dad after you know a bad t-ball game but you've you've gotta you've gotta do better and it's easy for me to say that while I sit here at my desk with my computer and my microphone in front of me it's easy to say that they need to do better. I understand that it's hard. It always has been hard and it always will be hard. But you've got to show up. And you've got to show up every single day and do the best that you can every single day. And I understand that people have off days,

but I don't understand how the entire offense and almost the entire special teams can all have off days all at the same time. That's too much of a coincidence for me to sit here and say that that's possible. So there's so many things that need to be fixed. So, so many of them. Before we get into defense, I want to talk about BetOnline. 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 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.

Head to the website today or use your mobile device to learn more about the trends and action. Bet online where the game starts. So let's get into defense. So in an effort to end the podcast today on a more positive note, I chose to save the defense for last. You know just as well as I do that Iowa's defense is good, and they've been good for a while now, and just based off Saturday, it appears that the

defensive unit is miles ahead of where the offense is as of right now, even with having several players on Saturday missing from every position, almost every position anyway. Lucas Van Ness, just to give you an example, looked very good on Saturday, and it appears that he's ready to make a big jump in the upcoming season, and this is a huge positive for a number of reasons. Zach Van Valkenburg is gone now. We can't rely on him, and Joe Evans and John Wagner are both going to be stepping up into starting positions on the edges this year. And as for linebackers, I was pretty disappointed to see Jack Campbell, Seth Benson, and Justin Jacobs all sit out on Saturday because as of right now, all of them are going to have starting jobs this coming fall. But

along with that, Iowa has plenty of talent at the linebacker spots, including Kyle Fisher, Logan Klemp, Jackson, excuse me, Jackson Renthroth, because he moved down from safety. So I think regardless of what, you know, what guys end up in starting spots this upcoming season, Iowa's going to have a very solid and very talented defense this year, just the same as they did last year. But we can't let the defense carry the offense again. It's not going to work, not with the schedule that we have this year. It will not work because those Big Ten offenses are going to score points on our defense. It doesn't matter how good we are.

They're going to score points because that's how football works. But we've got to make sure that the offense can score points. Hopefully, Iowa can have another great year like they did last year on the defensive side of the ball and hopefully put up some points, you know, for us, but we can't rely on solely that something has got to change. The dynamic in the locker room has got to change. The dynamic at practice has got to change, whatever it is. I don't, I don't know what's going on. I don't know what's wrong. I don't know what's causing this to happen, but something's got to change for the better or we're not going to be good this year. So I realize that this episode was just one big long rant,

but I mean, apart from the defense and Torrey Taylor, but I've said it probably nine times. Something's got to change and it's got to change fast, real, real fast. I will continue to talk about the positives and negatives of Iowa football throughout the summer as they go into summer workouts and stuff like that. But it's, it was just overall rough day for the Hawkeyes on Saturday. And if you were there, you can attest to that. If you weren't, but you watched there, you can attest to that.

If you weren't, but you watched it, you can attest to that too. It's frustrating and it's disappointing in a lot of ways, but there were some positives. There were a lot of positives, especially on defense. So we've got to look forward to that. We've got to focus on the fact that there are a lot of positives going on with the Hawkeyes right now, but we need to remember that there are also a lot of negatives. With that being said, that's it for today's episode. Go follow Locked on Hawkeyes on Twitter and on Instagram at Locked on Iowa. You can follow me on Instagram and Twitter at RyHill to get some upcoming news. I'm going to try to be more active on Twitter. Probably not so much on Instagram. That's only because most sports news happens on Twitter anyways. But like I said, make sure you're staying up to date with episodes, episodes coming out every single day.

As I mentioned, they will be, you know, later in the day, I'll be posting later in the day when it, when it comes time for, for summer summer and when I'm out of school just because I will be working a total of three or four jobs this summer. So my schedule is going to be chocked full of doing all sorts of things and running around all the time. Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I really appreciate it. YouTube, once again, will be starting back up again soon. Hopefully sometime this week, as long as I can get everything figured out. I've had a lot of stuff going on, like I said, and it's been a struggle. So thank you for your continued patience. Hopefully we can get YouTube back up by the end of this week. Once again,

thank you all for tuning into the episode today. Thank you all for staying consistent with listening to these episodes and I will see you all tomorrow.