Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa football releases it's depth chart heading into media days

Episode Date: July 23, 2021

We've got our latest depth chart for the Iowa football team, and there are a few surprises plus we discuss what questions we would have at Big Ten Media Days. We wrap up with a discussion regarding the importance of naming the field at Kinnick Stadium to Slater Field to honor an amazing Iowa Hawkeye.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.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. 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 a Friday morning episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade. Today's episode is brought to you by the live NBA Draft show. NBA Draft GOAT, Chad Ford, Lockdown NBA Draft host, Rafael Barlow, and Lockdown NBA host, John Corrales, will be live this year covering the NBA Draft.

It's Lockdown NBA Draft 2021 brought to you by Built Bar. Get local expert analysis on each pick. Follow Lockdown NBA on YouTube today and watch our live coverage on July 29th at 7pm Eastern Time. And they will be talking undoubtedly about two Iowa Hawkeyes, Joe Wieskamp and Luka Garza. We'll be giving some more coverage on the draft next

week. On today's show though, we're going to be talking about the storylines we want to hear about at the Big Ten Media Days. Obviously, several coaches spoke to the media yesterday. We're not going to get into that too much today. We'll talk a little bit more about that next week. We're also going to hear from Kirk Ferentz, Tyler Linderbaum, Tyrone Tracy Jr., and Zach Van Valkenburg.

So again, what are those storylines? What are the things that we're curious about when talking to those four individuals? That's what we're going to talk about on today's show. We're also going to be breaking down the depth chart. Definitely some interesting movement with the depth chart and some really big news that I wanted to just go on a soapbox about is Slater Field at Kinnick Stadium. There are some really ignorant takes out there and I feel like it is my responsibility to talk a little bit about that.

So that'll be on segment three of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Let's get into it though though, with the depth chart. Again, I think the first thing we want to cover on the depth chart is that this is not set in stone. Very important there. This is not the end all, be all, set in stone. This is it. If you've ever looked at the depth chart over the course of the year, it changes drastically. Not drastically.

I should say it changes from week to week, though. Every single week, there are different people in and out of that lineup, whether that's due to injuries or just ineffectiveness at certain positions. They do a good job. Iowa does a good job of moving guys in and out when necessary. So I think it's important to note that this is not the end-all, be-all of the depth chart. But with that being said, let's get into it and some of the interesting question marks. Let's start with the offensive side of the ball.

A couple freshmen, true freshmen, making that offensive preseason depth chart. And this is not due to a lack of depth. This, to me, is due to the talent that they are bringing to the table. At wide receiver, we have Keegan Johnson on the two deeps behind Tyrone Tracy Jr. We also have Charlie Jones on the two deeps behind tyrone tracy jr we also have charlie jones on that two deeps as well max cooper not a guy on that list we don't see arlen bruce with iowa in their offense so do expect both those you know young athletes to get some playing time but thought that was really interesting to see there at tight end no shocker here sam and luke one two combo uh luke is going to be a huge asset, I believe,

and has an opportunity to really break out this season. Sam Laporta, we know the hype coming into this season. He is going to be a big-time player as long as, you know, Spencer Petras can consistently get him the ball in an accurate manner. On the offensive line, really, there's no changes. It's kind of what we saw in spring ball. We have the left tackle position jack plum at left guard cody inc uh center tyler linderbaum right guard kyler

shot and right tackle nick dejong behind them we have redshirt freshman redshirt freshman mason richmond uh left guard redshirt freshman tyler elsberry at center matt mcfagan uh he's a walk-on junior actually at right guard we have sophomore Justin Britt. And at right tackle, we have Connor Colby, a true freshman. One notable name missing there is David Davikoff. Connor and David were the top two recruits in the class of 2021. So no surprise to see at least one of them there. David was a guy that many predicted could even win a starting job this year.

I do expect him to see some playing time. I expect him to eventually make part of this lineup. Also at center, I'm behind Tyler Linderbaum right now. The plan would be to have a former walk-on be the starter if Tyler Linderbaum were to go down. It is worth noting that Iowa did bring a center in in this class. Michael Maslinski, a guy who has an NFL pedigree behind him. So be on the lookout for some potential offensive line changes throughout the year. Not saying that Matt can't hold up, just saying that David Davikoff and Michael are two guys to watch out for in that

lineup. And as we all know, Iowa does like to rotate their linemen quite a bit. And we've had some injury issues across the offensive line the last couple of years. So this is again, not set in stone. I have personally gone on record saying I have not been a huge fan of Jack Plum and what he did last year. There clearly is some projection here. We're expecting him to get better, but I was not impressed in the snaps I did see him play last year. So hopefully he can improve on that. The one thing to note, this is a pretty young offensive line. Tyler Linderbaum is probably going to go pro after this year. Kyler Schott as well, but you still have Cody, Nick, and Jack as a sophomore, a junior, and a junior. Behind them, you've got a lot of freshmen, a lot

of young guys. Justin Britt has been getting playing time for quite some time, so over the last two years, I should say. So this is going to be really interesting to see how this offensive line develops. At quarterback, no changes here. Spencer Petras and Alex Padilla and nothing at running back, fullback, or place kicker. On the defensive side of the ball, defensive line is definitely an area of interest for everyone, I should say, because we are replacing so many guys. So the starting lineup on the defensive side of the ball for the defensive line is John Wagner ahead of Joe Evans. We got Noah Shannon, For the defensive line is John Wagner ahead of Joe Evans. We got Noah Shannon, Y.A. Black, and Zach Van Valkenburg.

Behind them we got Deontay Craig. We got Logan Lee. And we got Lucas Van Ness. I think the one thing I think is kind of exciting about this is for the first time in quite some time, we might not lose three defensive linemen. Now, I say that and watch Noah Shannon and or John Wagner have breakout seasons, but nevertheless, at this point, it does not seem like we are going to be losing guys

all three or three of our four linemen this year or after this season, but again, a lot of young guys on that list. Y.A. Black, a red shirt freshman. Lucas Van Ness, a red shirt freshman. Logan Lee, a sophomore. Deontay Craig, a red shirt freshman. So, very exciting stuff. If this defensive line can come together like a lot of national media believes they can, Iowa is going to be wrecking some teams' dreams for the next

couple years with their defensive line just dominating the line of scrimmage. At linebacker, no big changes. Jack Campbell, Seth Benson, and Justin Jacobs are there. That starting linebacker trio, Seth in the middle, Jack at weak side, and Justin at that Leo spot. And at corner, nothing too life-changing there. The one thing I would note is that there's no Xavier Williams on this list. Now, Xavier Williams was a big-time transfer for Iowa this past season. He went to Iowa.

I think there probably was an expectation that maybe Matt Hankins was going to go to the NFL. Matt Hankins decided to come back. Xavier Williams decided to transfer to Iowa. It makes Iowa's secondary even stronger. It gives Iowa a significant amount of depth, but I am slightly shocked to not see him on that two deeps. He has been battling. He battled injuries early on in spring. He's also trying to learn the defensive playbook. I do expect to see him get some playing time over the course of the year. You don't transfer to a Big Ten school as opposed to going to the NFL draft if you think you're not going to get playing time. He's going to get playing time. It's just a matter of time as he learns the defense, expects him to make an impact. And as Phil Parker has said in the past, he doesn't care really what position. He just wants to get the best guys on the field at any given time. That's what led to the cash position. That is what's

going to lead to potentially Xavier Williams getting additional playing time on the Hawks with that loaded secondary. But the fact that we have a guy who has NFL potential as a backup in our secondary backup to our backups just goes to show how strong and how deep our secondary is right now. At that cornerback spot behind Riley Moss and Matt Hankins, we got Jamari Harris and Terry Roberts. I'm really excited to see what Terry Roberts can do on the defensive side of the ball after seeing him be a standout special teams player. That does do it for our depth chart.

Every single Monday, we're going to get that depth chart and we're going to break it down on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast on that Tuesday episode. So be on the lookout for that over the course of the season. Coming up on segment two, we're going to get into some of the questions that we want to hear about at this Big Ten Media Day today. So stay tuned for that. Before we get into that, though, I do want to tell you about Built Bar, the best tasting protein bar on the market today.

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locked 15 that's l-o-c-k-e-d-1-5 and you'll get 15 off your next order use the promo code locked 15 for 15 off at built.com all right y'all we are back for segment two of the lockdown hawkeyes podcast your daily podcast covering your iowa hawkeyes on the lockdown sports network and on segment two we're going to talk a little bit about media days. First and foremost, the guys who are coming, Tyrone Tracy Jr., Tyler Linderbaum, and Zach Van Valkenburg. I really combed through the roster, and I was like, is there anyone else I want to hear from?

And to be honest, these are the three guys I would love to hear from the most. Nothing against our fantastic linebackers, but we've seen them in press conferences, and they just don't really offer a lot. They don't really say much. They kind of go out there and let their play speak for themselves. So not exactly going to be an exhilarating interview by any means. I think they seem like amazing young men,

but I'm not going to give you a lot there. From a secondary perspective, we've heard from a lot of those guys already as well. Defensive line, I think Zach and Volkerberg is the best representative. He's the only person with starting experience. From an offensive line perspective, Tyler Linderbaum is the leader of that line and the leader of the team. I think it would have been interesting to hear from Kyler Schott potentially.

That would have been pretty cool. At the wide receiver tight end spot, Tyrone Tracy jr. Is the leader in that group as well. Sam Laporta would have been interesting, but Tyrone Tracy jr. Has been such a good representative of the program. And that's not to say that anyone else has it, but Tyrone Tracy has always been very forthcoming in his,

his interviews, a very professional upstanding kid and really excited to hear him speak to the media. When you also look at the quarterback position, I don't think you want to put Spencer Petras in that position to be grilled by other press members. I just don't think that that's a really good fit for Spencer Petras considering how much controversy has gone into last season

and the fact that many are clamoring for other people to start over Spencer Petras this year. Tyler Goodson would have been really interesting. Would have loved to hear from Tyler Goodson or like even ivory Kelly Martin, just given his experience in the program. I think Tori Taylor, I've obviously had him on the show and he was a really fun guy. He gives very candid answers.

That would have been pretty interesting too. But overall, I'm excited to hear specifically from Tyrone, Zach, and obviously Tyler Linderbaum and then Kirk Ferentz. What are some of the questions that we have coming into this day? I think there's several things. First and foremost, I'm curious about how Iowa is specifically handling name image likeness. It's come up a couple of times. It's come up in other press conferences as well for other conferences. Iowa, if you would have asked me two

years ago about name image likeness, Iowa would have probably been one of the worst schools for that. They just they there wasn't a lot of emphasis on player brand. It was a very unified team type of outlook. But I do feel like they are making the right progress and name image likeness. It seems to be adopted and they're ready to roll with it. They understand that it's a part of college football these days and they're ready to go. And several Iowa football players are already capitalizing on their name image likeness. Heck, Dane Belton, Tyler Goodson, and Tyrone Tracy Jr. had an autograph session, which I think is just super cool. People get a chance to meet some of their favorite current players. It gets a chance

to know those guys. Those guys get a chance to know some of the fans as well in the community and see the support that they have. I think that's amazing for both the fans and the players. So name image likeness is definitely going to be something that's brought up. I'm interested to see if there's any deals or things they're working on, especially from Tyler Linderbaum and Zach Van Valkenburg. I've seen Tyrone Tracy Jr. Be pretty active in that market on, on several different platforms,

but I'd be very interested to see if Tyler or Zach have any specific things they're doing and also what Kirk Behrens' message has been in that regard. I know Tyler Linderbaum, I think he has a shop with some of his shirts. That's pretty sweet. I wonder if there's anything else that he's looking at being as high profile as he is. He has an opportunity to earn potentially a lot of money, but it doesn't seem like that's really on his agenda. At least we haven't seen anything come out about him promoting or sponsoring anything. So I'll be very interested to hear about that. Quarterback position has to be a question. If I'm even opposing media, I want to ask Kirk Ferentz what the plan is at quarterback

and how quick is that trigger? Right? You could argue Iowa lost their two games last year because of quarterback play. You could also argue that it was bad play calling and maybe we don't throw the ball 49 times, but average quarterback play gets Iowa to 8-0 last year. Average. Not above average, just average. And that's going to be a huge factor in the season. Iowa fans don't have the patience for this at this point. They wanted to give them a chance,

but when you go through a whole year of that and you see glimpses but not the full thing, it gets very frustrating. And now that they're already frustrated, any mistake by Spencer Petras early on is going to be absolutely amplified out of proportion. So that is something that we have to talk about. Recruiting is going to be a big thing.

The West has really struggled in recruiting. Northwestern's done a pretty good job, but I would argue that a lot of the other schools haven't done that well, especially Iowa. I'm curious to hear from Kirk Ferentz what their plan is. My guess is it's going to be a very PC answer in that this was kind of expected. But I would love to hear if there's any additional

concern about negative recruiting and his age specifically as those things have come up and surfaced since Iowa has struggled a little bit with recruiting the past couple months. And in regards to the age, what is that succession plan? Is there a succession plan? Have they talked about a succession plan? Kirk Ferentz doesn't have that much more time as the head coach of the University of Iowa football team. So what is the plan to eventually replace him? And is that a concern from a recruiting perspective? I think you have to talk about it. Injuries, I think are going to be huge. Spring ball, there's a lot of guys sitting out and want to get a sense of the health of the team and what their mental aptitude coming into the season is. Are they ready? What is the outlook?

We've heard in past years that there are certain years where everyone is just practicing really well and super hard, and you can tell it's going to be a good team. We'd love to get a sense from the players on that. How do they feel like this team is playing? Tyler Linderbaum has been a part of two seasons of pretty darn good Iowa football teams. How does this team compare to those teams considering the people they've lost and the people they've, you know, kind of stepped up to replace them with? And then finally, and this is just literally an opportunity to defend himself.

I am sick of that Cedar Rapids Gazette reporter trying to create a non-story out of Kirk Ferentz not taking a pay cut this year, considering what the football team does bring in in monetary value to the university, I think when you look at the state of Iowa and those who don't understand how Kirk Ferentz is getting paid or the fact that traditionally Iowa's football program, Iowa's athletic program is self-sustaining and doesn't require tax dollars.

People don't understand that they just look at, Oh, he's a public employee. I would love for him to have an opportunity to speak on that. And I would love to get some of that, you know, passive aggressive, candid Kirk Ferentz talking a little bit about that and defending himself again. I think it's absolutely ridiculous. The crappy stories that that one reporter is putting out on the Gazette. I think it seems to me like they're trying to chase down a non-story or create an issue over something that maybe isn't. But I would love for him to have an opportunity to defend himself, especially considering there are a lot of critics out there about his salary that don't understand where his salary actually comes from. That's the kind of stuff I'd be interested in.

Obviously, would love to hear about how Caleb Shudock is doing, replacing the GOAT and Keith Duncan. Would love to hear about that defensive line and what movements they potentially anticipate on the defensive line and offensive line and what other freshmen are really stepping up at this point. I'm also, I bet they talk about Brody Brecht at least a little bit. Would love to get Kirk Ferentz's answer on that and how excited he is to have him as an Iowa football player.

So those are my questions for the Big Ten Media Days. As I said, we'll be breaking all that down on next week's episode. So stay tuned for that. Coming up on segment three, I do want to talk about Slater Field at Kinnick Stadium. All right, y'all, we are back for our third and our final segment of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Lockdown Sports Network.

I'm your host, Andrew Wade, and we are talking about Slater Field at Kinnick Stadium. Unless you were living under a rock, you probably saw that they are planning on changing the name of the field at Kinnick Stadium to Slater Field in honor of Duke Slater. Leave it to a contingent of people to make that seem like a bad situation. I want to be very clear here. I don't want to typically get political here. I don't want to typically get into those super deep, I think, conversations on the show.

I want to keep it light, keep it sports heavy. But there are cases where that stuff overlaps. And there was a lot of threads that had a lot of ignorant takes saying that this is a political situation. This is a woke situation or a liberal agenda situation. This is none of those. And saying it's any of those is taking away what Duke Slater did

for the Iowa Hawkeyes and the profession of football. Duke Slater is one of the most important figures, not just in Iowa Hawkeye history, but also in the professional football atmosphere. He was one of the best ever to suit up for the Hawks. He was an All-American tackle.

He's going to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951. He's the NFL's first black lineman. This is, if anything, people should be upset this didn't happen sooner and also this is not taking away from Kinnick Stadium this is not taking away from Niall Kinnick geez people you can honor two people at once and actually Cody Foster on Twitter if you're listening to this appreciate you bringing this up I didn't even think about this Slater Field at Kinnick Stadium is way better than Mediacom

Court at Carver Hawkeye Arena. Do you have a problem? I have a problem with that. Mediacom Court at Carver Hawkeye Arena. Slater Field at Kinnick Stadium should have been done 30 years ago. It wasn't. Or 40, 50 years ago. I think in the 70s. It's done now. He does have a residence hall named after him. But I'll be honest, I didn't know what that hall was named after. I didn't know it was named after a person, let alone one of the most famous or arguably important Iowa football players in the history of Iowa football. allow for that story to continue to be told, for people to continue to understand the importance in the history of Iowa football and where Duke Slater stands in that importance. Alongside Niall Kinnick. This has nothing to do with Niall Kinnick.

This has nothing to do with taking it away from Niall Kinnick. But those two together are two of the most important people in all of Iowa athletics and especially in the football area. So if you are one of those people who are truly upset that they're calling a Slater field at Kinnick stadium and you want to talk about it, you're please jump in my DMS. Happy to talk about it. We can talk about it in a constructive,

non rude and demeaning way. I'm happy to do that and kind of give that, you know, continued point of view. But I, if you are that upset about the field within Kinnick Stadium being named a Slater field to honor one of the most important figures in Iowa Hawkeye history, I think you need to check yourself there.

I think you need to look at yourself in the mirror and say, why is this bothering me? What is making me so upset about this? Why am I so upset about honoring Duke Slater, a guy who has been one of the most renowned football players in Iowa Hawkeye history outside of Nile Kinnick. He was a part of those amazing teams in the early 1900s. Some of the best teams Iowa has ever had in football. Duke Slater was a part of. Seriously, if you have a concern with this, please,

I would love to understand what your issue is with this. This is, again, is not a political situation. This is not a woke situation. This is about honoring a great player, a great athlete, the way he deserves to be honored, and doing it alongside another great Iowa athlete in Niall Kinnick. That is my take on that. If you didn't like the soapbox, apologies. I think it's important to cover that though. I think it's important to address that situation. I am really excited for that to officially get approved Slater Field at Kinnick

Stadium. That does do it for our show today. A little bit shorter of an episode, but we have five episodes dropping next week as well. Lots of content coming up, and we're going to start doing some NBA draft preview. We also have the season preview. We're going to be going team by team, breaking down each of these teams, heading into the college ball season. So stay tuned for all that on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. And we are

going to be on YouTube soon, so be on the lookout for that. Lots of great stuff coming right here on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. And if you want more Locked On content, you want to hear a little bit about Luka Garza or Joe Wieskamp, listen to the Ultimate Mock Draft 2021 presented by Locked On and Odyssey. Featuring analysis from

the GOAT of NBA Mock Drafts, Chad Ford and Odyssey NBA experts Brian Scalabrini and former general manager Ryan McDonough. Our Locked On NBA local experts will make selections and trades for your favorite basketball teams throughout this week-long special event. Search the Ultimate Mock Draft 2021 on the new Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast at.

Odyssey is your audio home for all the sports, podcasts, music, and news that matters to you. That's A-U-D-A-C-Y. Thank you all for tuning in on this Friday morning. Have a fantastic Friday and even better weekend. And as always, let's go Hawks.