Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football: Score predictions for the 1st half of the 2022 season w/LeShun Daniels

Episode Date: April 12, 2022

Join me and former Iowa football player, LeShun Daniels as we talk about how we think Iowa football is going to preform in the first half of the season. We talk score predictions and possible problems that the Hawkeyes may have in their first 6 games. Tomorrow LeShun and I will sit down again and talk about the back half of the season and how it is going to be much tougher than the first half. With opponents such as Ohio State, Purdue, and Wisconsin, there is sure to be some hot takes regarding the back half of the season.In today's "Story of The Day" LeShun and I discuss Iowa's newest young recruit, Derick Weisskopf, a stand out Sophomore Linebacker at Williamsburg High School here in Iowa. Not only being a stellar defensive player, Weisskopf has been a key part of Williamsburg's offensive gameplay over the last 2 seasons.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. As always, I'm your host, Wright Hillpiper. Today with me, my co-host, LaShawn Daniels. Before we get into things, I want to thank you all for making the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast your first listen every single day. You can find the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast your 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. So the topic of discussion for today is we're going to be going through Iowa's football schedule for this upcoming season,

going through what games we think they're going to win through what games we think they're going to win, what games we think they're going to lose, so on and so forth, just trying to give some insight on how we think the season is going to go. So first of all, LaShawn, how are you doing today? I'm doing well, right? I mean, it's good to be back on the pod again. So I'm really looking forward to obviously another Hawkeye football season. And anytime we get to chop it up and talk a little bit about some football,

I'm always feeling good. So how you doing? I'm doing just fine. I thought today would be the perfect day to kind of go through what our thoughts were on the upcoming season. You being a former football player yourself, I'd love to get your insight on some things. So let's start out with the first game of the season, which is going to be versus South Dakota State. It's going to be a home game. I have it down as being a 35-7 win. This one to me is probably one of the more secure locks for the season.

South Dakota State went 11-4 last season, but they didn't play any regular season games against big-time teams, and they don't play against enough big schools to be ready to play a game against Iowa. And they also lost to the University of Northern Iowa last year, 17-26. So I'm curious on your thoughts to this, because this is, this is definitely one of the games where I'm, I'm pretty, pretty sure that I was going to come out with a W. Yeah. So going into a season, first off, it's hard to win football games, like no matter who you play, no matter what the final score ends up being, right. There's always a lot of work that ends up going into preparing for a team

on Saturdays and obviously going out there and executing. And, you know, whenever you play like non-Power 5 school or you play at FCS school, those guys are going to give you your best shot, right? So it's never a situation where you can kind of just waltz in and kind of lollygag and hope you're going to get a victory. I mean, heck when I was playing, we had lost to North Dakota state, right. And we were a ranked football team at the time. Obviously that season didn't end up going, you know, quite as planned,

but we had still won a ton of big time games that season, but we also lost a few as well. Right. So whenever you playing against, you know, a smaller school, you do have to still be on your, on top of your game, regardless of the opponent, because you know that they're going to give you your best shot every single opportunity whenever they get a chance to play a big, big school, like, like, like us. So, but it is a situation where it's like, okay,

you expect our guys to go in and obviously play well. See early in the season is typically where Iowa, where we're typically trying to just get our feet, feet up under us. So obviously it's going to be growing pains and things like that. But again, it should be a game that, you know, the Hawks are ready to play and should have success in. Absolutely. Makes perfect sense to me. This next one, I'm very curious to get your stance on this. I have them playing Iowa State at home in

their second game of the season. I have them winning 17 to 10. Obviously iowa beat iowa state last season 27 17 in a very close game um i'm curious to see they lost to baylor west virginia and texas tech last season went seven and six what are what are your thoughts going into a game versus iowa state like is there is there like a different mentality to that uh yeah i will i wouldn't say that it's that we prepare any differently than we would for any any other week right because you see you're not going to change your preparation um specifically like you know how you schedule practice how you schedule lists and stuff and you know how you just tackle uh the week preparation but i say going into the game, I mean, all the players know that it's a big time, you know, rivalry game for us.

It's a big time rivalry game for them. And it's a game that you want to win, right? You want to have those bragging rights, those state bragging rights when you're playing Iowa State. So you do, you definitely are, though little bit more, more jacked up when it comes to preparation that week, just because you know, what's a robbery game, you know, everyone in the state is going to be tuned in. Um, you know, whether you're playing in Ames or you're playing in Iowa city, you know, the crowd is going to be rocking. So, uh, it, it's always,

it's always a fun week. Um, when, when I was playing, I mean, it was a fun week for the fans. So going into that game, the, the focus really is just trying to make sure that, you know, when you're focused on need to do day in and day out to make sure that come Saturday, you know, you're ready to play fast and you're ready to play, you know, to the level that you're capable because losing that game is not a good feeling at all. Thankfully, I only lost to Iowa State feelings better than that than kicking their butt. So you definitely are a lot more prepared, I would say, going into that game just because the excitement that is surrounded playing your in-state rival. Yeah, absolutely. That makes sense. Like I said, I was pretty excited to get your standpoint on that because I on that because I didn't, I didn't know if it was, obviously you don't prepare any different. It's just another game. But I was, I was wondering if the mindset was a little bit, a little bit different. Like you're, you're like, you know, we really, even if it's not like late in the season and it's not a super, super important game mentally, it is because you're,

you're playing your in-state rival and that's that's the one game where you're like you know if we lose this we're gonna hear about it for the next year yeah yeah no one wants to be getting nagged uh by Iowa State fans all year about how uh you know you lose that team over there so uh yeah you definitely make sure that we're ready to go for that game regardless of whatever the rest of the season is like being those guys. It's definitely always a great feeling. Yeah, absolutely.

Next one. I want to talk about third game of the season will be against Nevada. I have that as a W 52 to three because of the weaknesses that Nevada has shown on their defense. They, they let offenses put up a lot, a lot of numbers on them last season. And as you mentioned earlier with South Dakota State, they're going to be on their A game, being a smaller school going up against a bigger D1 school, especially that early in the season.

Nevada went eight and five last year, but like I said, they do have a lot of easily exploited things on their defense that i think i was going to be able to pick apart and i just don't think that they're they're going to be able to play on the same level as iowa but obviously like you said it's it's different for when you play smaller schools that earlier in the season because they're definitely going to be on top of their game yeah yeah i mean a lot of times when you are playing against a smaller school um there's always you know like there's always like one or two guys on that on that opposing team that there are obviously going to be draftable prospects right and that they're going to show out and and do

their thing so um it's tough when you do when you are playing a smaller school because as much as we try as players, right, you try to go into the game, you try to be, take, you know, as much focus as much as possible on, you know, getting ready to beat that team, whatever the small school is. It's just, it just doesn't have that same type of oomph that maybe some of your other games on your schedule have. I mean, it's just it just it is it is what it is. Right.

As much as you try to avoid that complacency mindset, it is tough sometimes for it to seep in. And especially coming off of a rivalry game. Right. It can be sometimes you can still just be thinking about that past game or maybe even looking ahead to Big Ten play. Right. It can be sometimes you can still just be thinking about that past game or maybe even looking ahead to big time play. Right. So sometimes there can be some lapses and play where, you know, maybe you're not playing up to your standard. Right. And that's something that I know Coach Ferentz always tries to harp on us, just making sure that, hey, that game's behind us. It's time to focus on our opponent now right it's it's a new week it's a new opponent right winning football games and calls football is very very difficult so you can't just go out there and lollygag through our preparation throughout the week

and expect to win right but again nevada i don't know too much about nevada to be to be quite honest um but you know i do know that you know, every now and again, they'll, they'll play some teams tough, right. I mean, to win eight football games last year is still a great feat to do, but you know, at the end of the day, you know, I still would expect Iowa to again, come out strong and, you know, play their, play their brand of football and force Nevada to try to adjust. And, you know, they most likely wouldn't be able to.

So, yeah, absolutely. Fourth, fourth game of the season is going to be the first away game. I have them start out the season three and three and oh, going into Rutgers. I have that. I have Iowa winning forty two twenty one in that game. Personally, I think that in the first in the first half of this game, it's going to be a shootout. I think maybe they might end up tied at the end of the first half with Rutgers, but I think in the second half, Iowa is really going to pick up on their offense and really start to show up on the defensive side of the ball. Rutgers went 5-8 last season, which it's a losing record.

But again, like you said, winning even five games in college football is extremely, extremely hard. But it's also very hard to ignore the losses that they had last season. They lost to Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Northwestern, who Northwestern is time and time again not a very good football program. Wisconsin, Penn State, and Maryland. But Rutgers, you know, just every year they just come back and they kind of prove that they can't really compete with, you know,

the top schools at the D1 level. So, like I said, I think this is going to be a shootout in the first half, but I think eventually in the second half Iowa is really going to start to pick up and start to put some numbers on the board. Yeah, see, Rutgers is interesting to me. Like there's some weeks when you watch them on film and you're like, OK, these guys might actually be all right, right? they usually do always have a have a couple uh good players um that will make it into the nfl and you know play place quite quite some time there but uh then there's times where it's like you watch them and then you're like i don't even understand how to how they're a big big 10 football

team right i mean there's there's plenty of teams that they'll play that they play tough right i mean i think last year uh you know they played michigan i mean pretty much down to the wire if i recall correctly right um and then you have times where you know the the following week where they play ohio state and then they lose by like 40 right and then it's it's it's it's an interesting team whenever you watch them every single year and i feel like it's it's been's it's an interesting team whenever you watch them every single year. And I feel like it's been the same story for for a long time for them. I mean, I feel like they haven't had they haven't had they haven't had any success since they joined the Big Ten, to be quite to be quite honest. And honestly, there's nothing that I've seen that's going to make me feel like that trend would change in 2022.

Obviously, I know that they made a coaching change two years ago. So now they're starting to get probably more into having their guys into the building and getting their guys to start experiencing the way that their coach wants the program to be. But again, it's Rutgers. As mean as that sounds, right, it's Rutgers, right? They've been really pretty much the worst Big Ten team since they joined the conference. And again, I don't really see any reason to feel like why that would change, to be honest. Yeah, absolutely. Going into week five of the season, this one absolutely breaks my heart.

But I'm going to have to say that Michigan is going to hand Iowa their first loss of the season. And I honestly, I have this one going either way. I have written down it's either going to be a loss 20 to 21 or a win 21 to 20. But regardless of how it turns out, I think it's going to be miles apart of what the big 10 championship game was last year. Obviously Iowa lost to Michigan 42 to three in the big 10 championship game. And Michigan went 12 and two last season. They were a very, very solid team. And Michigan went 12-2 last season. They were a very, very solid team.

Regardless of the outcome of that game, I think it's going to be drastically different than the Big Ten championship game. They beat Wisconsin, Penn State, Ohio State, but they lost to Michigan State in that rivalry game, which was probably one of the best football games I've ever watched. It was absolutely entertaining. I'd love to see Iowa pull out a win here. It just, I don't know if I can picture it happening, but I obviously, I would love to see it happen. Yeah. So that's an interesting, so for starters, right? Iowa's got a

tough, tough schedule, right? I mean, every year you're playing the big 10, you're going to have a tough schedule, but particularly this year they're going to have a really, really, really tough, tough ride. Right. And playing Michigan early in the season is definitely going to be tough. Right. I mean, you're looking at their offense. I think they, right. They return like seven starters. They do have a lot of holes. So they do have to fill out on defense, right, with Aiden Husserson obviously possibly being the number one overall pick

in the draft this year, and as well as a number of different defensive players that Michigan's going to have to replace, right? But you know that it's Michigan, right? You know that that's a blue blood school, that they're – that team, that program, especially under Harbaugh, they never really have or have to rebuild. They kind of just reload with more four-stars, more five-star players in several different spots, right?

So whenever we play Michigan, you know that you're going to be going against a very, very tough football team. You're going to go against a fast football team. And of course, you're going to be going against a very, very talented football team. And the biggest, I think, weakness. I mean, it's pretty obvious, right, that Iowa had been playing Michigan in the Big Ten title game last year was obviously the offense. And Iowa's offense is inability to score points, right? I mean, went down early, was able to kick a field goal, and, like, that was pretty much it, right? I mean, weren't able to generate any type of momentum offensively.

And you know that Iowa's always going to have a good defense, and Iowa was able to somewhat keep Michigan in check right in that first half. And then, right, the second half came. Again, Iowa still was not able to move the ball offensively. And then Michigan kind of just imposed their will and, you know, finished us off, right? So looking ahead, knowing that Iowa is going to have to make a bunch of changes offensively to have some success,

whether regardless of what they do at the quarterback position, obviously filling some holes with at the running back spot and filling holes in the center spot with Tyler Lindemann, obviously declaring. Right. It's going to be definitely interesting to see how Iowa's offense continues to develop this season. And if their offense can be a little even marginally better than they were last year, I feel like they're going to have a lot more chance of success versus Michigan this time around. Yeah, absolutely. And like you were saying, Michigan has always been a school that four and five star recruits want to go to because they know that they're going to be a good, they know that they're going to be a good team year after year. So it's hard to,

it's hard to kind of compete with that because, you know, Iowa doesn't get a whole lot of four and five star recruits, you know, consistently wanting to come and play football for them. But I, like I said, this is one that could really go either way. And I'd love to see Iowa pull it out, but it's, it's going to be interesting. And I think it's going to be a shootout and I think I'm pretty sure it's going to go down to the wire, but this is, this is the one game that I'm very, very excited to see this upcoming season. If we get a Michigan and the Iowa shootout, I think, I think everyone would be somewhat happy. That means the offenses are playing decent. So yeah, absolutely. Uh, rounding out the first half of the season, uh, Iowa goes to Illinois to play them. I have it down as a win 33, 17. Um, this one, I didn't. This one, I didn't really have a whole lot of trouble

deciding which way to go with this. Illinois went 5-7 last season. They lost to Iowa 33-23 last season. They also lost to Maryland, Purdue, Wisconsin, and they lost to Rutgers. Come on now. They did have that crazy crazy nine overtime win against penn state which was absolutely insane it was like a like a five-hour game or something like that i it was man i would i wish the nfl would do would do stuff like this where they can allow games to go into nine overtimes and obviously you know like with tv contracts and stuff like that you can't do that but it was it was an insane game i don't think that something like that's going to happen with iowa and even if it did i

think i was going to pull this one out will it be an easy win i don't want to say it's going to be easy but i think 33 to 17 is probably a fairly it's a it's a fair judgment call especially with you know iowa beating them last year by 10. I that's, that's how I think this is what this one is going to go. And like I said, I didn't have too much trouble deciding, you know, one way or the other. Yeah. Again, Illinois, again, as I mentioned earlier with Rutgers, right. Illinois is another interesting football team, right? I mean, they've had very, very good football teams in the past, right? I mean,

you look at some of their history obviously they've had some good football players come out of there they've had some good teams come out of there and they typically do play iowa pretty hard every single year um let's see now with brett bielma being there as their coach uh obviously he's trying to change a little bit of kind of their program and where they're at and how they, you know, really attack moving forward. And they were big on the run game last year. I wouldn't expect that to change this year. Thankfully, Iowa is going to have, I think we got eight starters returning on defense, which again, it's really, really, really good for us.

So guys, that's played a lot of ball for a long time you know what you're going to get a really solid iowa defense um especially with when you have coach phil parker uh really really leading that charge you know that that defensively they're going to be all right so not too worried about you know illinois just kind of running all over us even though there were times last year where i felt like we did have some trouble stopping the run or really just not necessarily stopping the run but making tackles when when needed to be but again illinois is an interesting team because they'll play teams very very hard right where again they beat uh at the time it was a really really quality

heard i mean penn state team but then the week before right they lost to rutgers and then the week after they beat penn state they lost to wisconsin like 24 to zip so it's like they're they're a team that kind of bounces around between being above average and then below average. So definitely them figuring out that, that mix and maybe they do make that, that jump forward. But all in all, I was going to be, I will,

and they're going to play salt football. And again, it's not a team that really keeps, keeps, keeps you up at night. So, yeah, absolutely. And like you were saying, they lose to Rutgers, and then they go beat Penn State, and then they get clobbered by Michigan.

I have to say I can't really blame them. You go in there, you play four quarters of football, and then you go into nine overtimes. You're playing virtually 13 quarters of football in one game it's it's in it's not quite obviously time wise but it's it's absolutely insane to me that they could they could even go in and try to stop wisconsin the next week after that but that that's definitely got to be kind of kind of hard on on morale after you know losing to rutgers and then having a great win over Penn State,

but then losing to Wisconsin. Like I said, I think Iowa is going to go in there and impose their will on Illinois in Illinois, which is even better. Obviously, winning a road game is great. So it's not one that is really tough to kind of interpret. But like you said, Illinois is just like Rutgers. They're interesting every year, and you can't really tell whether or not they're going to

be, you know, good week to week or not. So, you know, I, I'm, I am excited to see that game as well, but I think that's going to be, you know, one that Iowa isn't going to have too much trouble with. So before we get into the story of the day, I want to talk about BetOnline. BetOnline.net is your number one source for all 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 as opening day has come and gone. Make sure you get on there. Check that out. BetOnline is your continued source for all 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 about the trends and action.

BetOnline, where the game starts. Disclaimer, you must be 21 years of age to do live sports betting. I'm only saying that because I'm 18 years old and I'm hosting this podcast. So I guarantee that there are people out there who are younger than 21 listening to this. So make sure you are 21 years of age before you go check out betonline.net. Okay. So the story of the day today, which LaShawn, I want to get your opinion on this as well. Iowa football offers the in-state linebacker, Derek Weiskopf from Williamsburg. Now, I know Derek. I have not played against him, but I have seen him play before. He is currently a sophomore at Williamsburg,

which is 20 minutes from my hometown. He's a sophomore, 6'3", 205-pound linebacker in the class of 2024, like I said. While only being a sophomore in high school, Weiskopf has been a key member of the Raiders defense since he was a freshman at Berg this past season Weiskopf finished the season with 80 tackles and three picks on defense and 23 catches for 372 yards and five touchdowns on offense along with today's offer from Iowa Weiskopf has received offers from Wisconsin and Nebraska which came after he visited the schools during their spring practices Weiskopf has received offers from Wisconsin and Nebraska, which came after he

visited the schools during their spring practices. Weiskopf made a statement about receiving an offer from Iowa in which he said, my parents and I were talking to Coach Ferentz. We were getting to know each other and he said, I would like you to play for us. And I was super happy to get the offer. Weiskopf is also set to visit Iowa State on Wednesday and follow that up with a visit to Iowa this upcoming Saturday. So, LaShawn, basically my question for you is what do you think of this kid? Yeah, I mean, so I see I'm going to have to do more research on Derek. But just from what you've just told me and you look at a guy's size like that while being a young, still young, young football player, that's definitely something that gets you excited. Right. And you see a guy that's that young and he's already making plays on both sides of the football, showing his versatility and his talent, talent putting it on display is is huge right and when you

collect an offer any first off if you collect any offer right it's it's a it's a big deal right let alone when you've already racked up three three uh power five offers you know before your your junior football season it tells you that, that this guy's a pretty good football player, especially when you get an offer from Iowa and Wisconsin. I know Nebraska offers a whole bunch of people all the time, but I know Iowa and Wisconsin are pretty selective in their offers. And when you are getting that type of attention early on, that's definitely a really, really good thing. Now, the thing is, obviously, as, and when you look at the Iowa

football program, you want to keep your in-state guys right there and within your program, right? So trying to attack those guys and making sure, making them that they feel wanted and that they have the possibility to come in and continue, you know, really, I would consider a pretty strong linebacker tradition that we have here at the University of Iowa. I feel like that's an opportunity that I feel like would be great for him to take advantage of for sure. So when you're that young and you're already making plays and you're already making noise in the recruiting landscape, it tells you that, okay, A, that this guy's a really good football player

and we need to get him really really really um as part of the team so definitely excited for the kid i know how i how excited i was when i got my iowa offer and granted i didn't get mine until after my senior football senior football year so he's definitely way way way ahead of the eight ball for sure yeah absolutely and and not only football this this Weiskopf kid he's a standout on Williamsburg basketball team as well which I don't want to get into too much because Iowa is offering him a football scholarship but he's he's a sophomore he's 16 years old six foot three 205 pounds which personally is insane to me because I'm a freshman in college and I'm five foot seven and 140 on a good day.

So I can't wait to see if Weiskopf does end up making it to Iowa to see what he's able to do. And Williamsburg sits in the 3A class in Iowa, and they're consistently a good team year after year. I can't remember if they made it to state this past year or not, but they've always been a fairly good team, and the fact that he was a freshman starting on their defense speaks wonders about what he's able to do, especially on the defensive side of the ball, being that big.

I think that when he does come to Iowa, he will stick to that linebacker position I don't think that he will end up moving to offense but he he could and he may but I would personally love to see him at that linebacker spot yeah yeah without a doubt without a doubt but hey being versatile is never a bad thing right so love to hear that he's just a standout in all areas in all phases so that just only shows you that hey he's got that he's just a standout in all areas and all phases. So that just only shows you that, hey, he's got talent. He's got ability.

And any football program would be happy to have him, but especially Iowa. Absolutely. All right. So that is it for the episode today. Tomorrow, I'm going to be talking about the second half of the season, getting score predictions on that wins versus losses. So make sure you tune into tomorrow's episode to talk about that. Make sure you go follow LaShawn on Twitter.

You can follow him at LaShawnDanielsJr on Twitter. You can follow me on Twitter at RyeHill. You can follow my Instagram. You can follow LaShawn's Instagram as well. And make sure you stay up to date with the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast as well. You can follow them on Twitter at Locked on Iowa and on Instagram as well. So that is it for today's episode and we will see you all tomorrow.