Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football: The Deacon Hill era begins, Cooper DeJean on offense?
Episode Date: October 5, 2023Trent Condon returns with Biz for the latest edition of the Locked on Hawkeyes Podcast.A look back at the environment at Kinnick Stadium last week against Michigan State, then a look towards the Deaco...n Hill era beginning for the Iowa football program.Run game issues continue for the Hawkeyes, do they have any hope of getting that turned around?A look at a defense that has taken a step back while the Hawkeyes special teams have continued to be at an elite level.Should Cooper DeJean play offense? Will Cooper DeJean play offense? Two questions that are similar but have much different answers.Then Lock of the Week presented by FanDuelSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!eBay MotorsWith all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.Athletic BrewingGo to AthleticBrewing.com and enter code LOCKEDON to get 15% off your first online order or find a store near you! Athletic Brewing. Milford, CT and San Diego, CA. Near Beer.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase.LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGE. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Right now, NEW customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED in BONUS BETS – GUARANTEED. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
After a long night of driving, I'm back and I got biz with us.
We talk about the Deacon Hill era as it begins.
And Cooper DeGene, should we play him on offense today?
Locked on Hawkeyes.
You are locked on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.
I'm Trent Condon, that's Biz, and this is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.
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Biz back at it after a week.
And well, before we get into it, I was sadly not able to make my way to Iowa City over the weekend.
A night game.
Yeah, it's not Michigan or Ohio State or Penn State there.
It was Michigan State, the down Michigan State team.
But what was the environment like on Saturday night in Kinnick?
I would say for most of the game, it was a frustrated environment. I think people were more annoyed than anything.
I mean, obviously any night game, it's always a good environment.
But it wasn't, I mean, for three quarters, three and a half quarters,
I think it was kind of an impending sense of doom almost,
and everybody was obviously mad at Brian and frustrated with just,
obviously, the McNamara injury.
But then, obviously, the last four minutes, it was about as loud as it gets.
I mean, that was – I mean, I don't think you can –
I mean, the crowd probably helped them, I mean, won that game for them.
Yeah.
I mean, it really did because, I mean, Michigan State really got flustered
in that fourth quarter, and it reminded me of that Penn State game
a couple years ago when the moment we got the lead I mean it was no doubt
the game was over they weren't going to come back and score again and you know they had what the
three straight false starts again and it was just but for most of the day I would say environment
was shaky the end the last five five to ten minutes of the game it was rocking so and thanks
to Cooper G absolutely and an incredible play there so
it wasn't pretty you but it doesn't matter what team it is I mean anybody bringing in a quarter
backup quarterback you're going to anticipate that things are going to be a little bit shaky
lose your starter and Deacon Hill early on looked pretty solid he was 7 at 12 at one point
now he finishes I think it was what four of his last 15 passes. So things went
down. Michigan State, I thought, did a really good job early on. We saw that bootleg action was
working really well, getting him out of the pocket, moving and really bringing the full
complement of the offense back. And I've talked about that a lot this week, Biz. But after that,
their defensive end or the outside backer, they weren't biting inside and made it difficult for
Deacon Hill. I mean, there was pressure in his face basically every time they tried to boot after probably about the middle of
the third quarter as you said what wasn't pretty is probably going to have to be our uh our team
motto down the stretch here i mean it's it's going to be every game is going to be an absolute
struggle the rest of the way i mean i know the the the drive for 325 is a popular thing to talk about,
and everybody loves to make fun of it.
But at this point, with everything that's happened,
shit, if we get to 325 points, they should throw a parade
in Bryan's honor at the end of the year.
I mean, we're not getting to 325.
I mean, they're going to have to just –
our offense is basically stuck together with duct tape and glue at this point.
Deacon Hill, he's a fun story, and I hope he can keep it up,
but I'm not optimistic he's going to.
You look at his background.
Have you looked into him at all?
It's a pretty crazy background.
He's a very interesting guy.
He's probably the most unique Iowa quarterback we've ever had.
I mean, you go back through, I mean, he's of Polynesian descent.
He's Mormon.
Things that generally don't usually get Iowa quarterbacks,
they're either of those.
He grew up playing water polo, of all things.
His older sister is an Olympic champion water polo of all things his his older sister is an olympic champion water ball water polo 2016 it
tells you how much they uh you know love water polo his family and he basically hasn't played
at all yeah in three years i mean his his last year of high school was wiped out due to covid
because california wasn't playing football and then he went to wisconsin and didn't play and
and now he's here.
And, I mean, he's thrown – I mean, I give him credit.
I thought he came in and played.
Given the circumstance, I thought he did fine last week.
It'll be a hell of a story if he ends up running with it and doing well the next two months.
But, you know, I'm not overly optimistic.
At this point, if he does, awesome.
But I'll go into each week just hoping for the best because, I mean, we are –
offense was going to be shaky to begin with, but given all the injuries,
it'll be a miracle if we can get to 25 points in any games now.
You know, Biz, I mentioned a bit ago that at least we get to see
the full complement of the offense.
I keep bringing up this example.
It was the Iowa State game.
And Cade McNamara early on dealing with that quad injury.
I mean, just how limited he was.
Just playing under center.
There was an outside zone play.
They didn't run many of them, but there was one against Iowa State where you could see
him just laboring, getting out from under center.
And then it was an outside zone.
You have to basically run out there. And he barely handed the ball off. He almost had to like pitch it to get it then it was an outside zone. You have to basically run out there
and he barely hit the ball off.
He almost had to like pitch it
to get it out there on an outside zone play.
Now with Deacon Hill,
they weren't running bootlegs
or if they were, they were so rare.
Now that full compliments back,
the Brian Ferentz offensive system
and what they're doing schematically is broken.
I think everybody can see that
and there needs to be a major change,
but it is what it is right now. They're not going to change their philosophy mid-season. It's just
not going to happen. With the full compliment, the ability to waggle and to bootleg and to
kind of do all the things that we're used to with Iowa football with Deacon Hill back there,
I see it as a positive because the Cade McNamara that we saw through the first four games,
that was not the Cade McNamara we thought we were getting last December.
Well, I mean, Hill can't be any worse than what McNamara was
those last couple games.
I thought he played fine the first two games,
but against Western Michigan and against Penn State, he was bad.
And part of that probably, I think, due to health,
but also he just wasn't – he was kind of gun-shy.
And, you know,
I'm not, I hope came in, America, tell if you hope he goes back next year and I hope he has, you know, he comes back and plays well,
but he was not a good quarterback that those two games. So, you know,
it's again, I'm, I'm just going to roll with it.
These next seven weeks, every game is going to be an absolute grind.
I mean, it's, I mean, there's not a single game on our schedule
and this is Iowa football to a team. There's not a single game on our schedule. We can't I mean, there's not a single game in our schedule, and this is Iowa football to a tee,
but there's not a single game in our schedule we can't win,
and there's certainly not a single game on the schedule down the stretch
we can't lose either.
And that's fully true now.
I mean, because we don't know.
Deacon Hill, like I said, might be a fabulous story.
And if he is, you know, the legend of Deacon Hill begins this week, I guess.
But, you know, given his lack of experience
and the fact that he was slated to be playing for Fordham,
you can't really, you know,
your expectations for him have to start low.
But having said that, Trent, we need a nickname for him.
You know, big guy like that.
Well, I like Bacon Hill.
I think it works.
Instead of Deacon, you go with Bacon.
Yeah.
So I was thinking,
they probably can't play this
because they probably frowned on
to play R. Kelly songs at Kinnick.
But Freakin' Deacon is great.
You just get Remix to Ignition playing on there
every time he does something well.
I'm in.
I'm in, yeah.
I don't know if that's R. Kelly catalog got kicked out of
Kinnick and Conner. Yeah, I'm guessing that's Conner.
And he probably doesn't, he seems like
a really nice kid, so maybe he doesn't want to be associated
with R. Kelly.
There's a few negative connotations that
come along with that one.
Freaking D can be good, because when he makes a
mistake, you can be, God, freaking D.
It can be in a negative way or in a positive way also.
It can go both ways.
I like it.
Well, we'll go with it.
We'll roll with it here, at least here on Locked On Hawkeyes.
Freaking Deacon.
And, you know, Caleb Johnson looks like he might be able to play.
Jazzy on Paris and still another week away from the passing game.
And what we've talked about a lot there.
I just, I don't know. The run game, they've tried different things.
We've seen more jet motion. We have seen them use counters,
more ISO, a lot of, instead of just inside, outside zone,
doing different things and it just doesn't work. Is it our offensive line?
They just stink. They're just not good players. I mean,
is it as simple as that?
Yeah, it is. I mean, I think it really is is i mean you you and i have been probably the most i mean that's the one thing you and i
have taken system over the years is how frustrated both of us are with the offensive line the last
five years i mean they're just haven't been they haven't been consistently good for a long time
um do they have their moments you know obviously we look good against Western Michigan, but that's Western Michigan.
I mean, they're just consistently below average.
I'll give them credit.
Their pass protection has been very good this year.
And I think they need to lean into that and they need to become a pass first
team.
They're just not going to grind it out, running the ball on people.
It's going to have to be kind of working backwards.
And so, but yes but yes i mean the simple
answer to your question transport is not a good run blocking team and we haven't been for a long
time and that's depressing it's not you know a team that likes to fashion themselves as the bullies
of the big 10 we have not been that for a long long time at least on the offensive side yeah i
mean i always bring up 2019 you got three high level nfl players two nfl tackles and alaric
jackson and tristan werf so you have tyler litterbaum already when he's healthy one of the
best centers in the nfl and they still can run the football that year consistently because the guard
play was so bad and scheme is a part of it but i think it's jimmy's and joe's and that's a big part
of this one too and it becomes frustrating well we don't still have a defense, including a guy we mentioned a little bit earlier, Cooper Dajin. Is it time to
move Cooper and play some snaps on offense? We'll get into that as we continue here on the Locked
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Trenton Biz back with you once again here on
the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. As always
thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes
your first listen every day.
Biz Cuperdashian.
He's a shiny object.
We know what a playmaker he is with the ball in his hands.
We see the punt return.
We've seen him in the interception returns.
We know that he can make plays.
His high school film is incredible.
So I'm playing quarterback for Odabelt Arthur, battle great guy to grow back in the day.
Iowa, getting the ball in his hands.
Now we've gone down this path before.
I remember there was a year where they really struggled at receiver.
Desmond King was brought up.
He said, yeah, yeah, I think I'm going to be out there.
And of course it didn't happen.
I think Cooper Dajin is a different kind of athlete, even than a Desmond King.
So just start right there.
I mean, the likelihood, and that's where I kind of start the conversation.
It's Kirk Ferentz.
The likelihood that we see this feels really, really slim.
Yeah. I mean, there's two different questions here.
Should he play offense and will he play offense?
The answer to the first one is yes, and the answer to the second one is no.
I mean, he should.
I mean, he should be playing some snaps on offense.
I don't think he should be doing what Travis Hunter was doing
and playing 125 snaps a game.
Could he be in on some unique packages, run a jet sweep,
run something with him, or even just use him as a decoy
for 10, 15 plays a game?
Absolutely.
Will he?
No, he won't.
I mean, as Iowa fans, we should know better than to even talk about this
at this point.
I mean, I know it gets brought up and it's asked at the press conference and everything.
And so you kind of have to talk about it.
But, you know, it's just a waste of energy at this point.
I hope I'm wrong.
Last week I was, I wouldn't say critical, but I commented that through four games, Cooper hadn't done much.
And clearly.
You called him out as a punt return against Penn State.
Clearly he listened
trent because uh yes he seems to be he seems to be the vindictive type kid you know he's very uh
no so so hopefully maybe uh reverse jinx two weeks in a row well uh last week i said he hadn't done
much and then he obviously uh carries us to victory and this week i'm saying there's no
chance in hell he's playing offense and so there you. Let's hope the reverse jinx is in.
Yes, I like that.
And I think you're exactly right.
And just imagine the buzz, though, if he trots out there,
second possession of the game, you know, trots out there and just lines up.
I mean, just something to get the juice going.
And how Purdue would probably react.
I mean, they who don't know who number three is, he's an All-American.
They know who he is.
And all of a sudden, all right, what are we going to do? What are we going to change?
And you said 10, 15 plays. I don't even know if it needs to be that. I mean,
five plays, just something. And throw him a wide receiver screen, get him involved,
just get the ball in his hands, a jet sweep, whatever it is, because he's dynamic. And I
would love to see it. I think all Hawkeye fans would love to see it. Will we see it?
You're exactly right. We won't.
So what will we see?
What's a realistic view of this football team going forward?
Earlier in the week, I talked about the floor has lowered a lot more.
And we came into the season believing what the floor was seven and five,
maybe even eight and four with this football team because of the schedule and what they had and what they were going to be good defensively,
elite special teams.
And that still looked to be the case before the injury.
Now, I lower that floor a lot more.
Even with four wins already in the bag, we just don't know what Deacon Hill
and what the offensive struggles.
And all these games being coin flips, there are times that those coin flips
just land tails and you're on the losing end more times than not.
Very well could happen this year.
How do you see it, Biz?
Yeah, I mean, the key thing is still the schedule god you look at that i mean we still should win every game
at kenny i mean the home schedule is very very easy still and the game at wrigley's going to be
basically a home game that place is going to be 80 iowa fans so you scratch out those five victories
that's nine and three at worst I mean
really only have two road games left Wisconsin which I mean I think you can put that in the
loss column at this point I mean us beating Wisconsin with all the things we got going on
right now I think it's pretty low and then Nebraska at the end of the year you obviously
you never know but I still think this team can scrape its way to nine and if
they do that's a hell of a year i mean given given the circumstances nine nine and three would be
awful impressive but you know like you said the floor right now hell i mean you never know we
might go lose by you know two touchdowns this week and then then then the discussion becomes
can they scrape it to a bowl game right yeah, yeah. Because, I mean, but I don't know.
I mean, again, we've talked about it in the past.
I always, you can be critical of our coaching staff in many ways,
but they find a way.
Those coin flip games, we win more coin flips than we lose them,
and we're going to have to down the stretch.
So, you know, I think eight and four, nine and three
is probably the goal at this point.
I think that's probably realistic.
And it's frustrating because of the buildup this year.
You know, I bought it.
I'm not normally an optimistic fan.
And I thought this team really had a chance to be special.
It hasn't happened.
The offense has just not clicked the way that I thought they were going to.
The offensive line has been a huge disappointment and just the scheme.
And I guess I should have come back to the scheme more than i did certainly during the the preview of the summer and i think
the other thing about is the defense just isn't nearly as good as it was last year and that's the
fact the matter is if you look at that you take an objective look our defense i mean
cave on mary where the weather was a you know four four or five year guy and now you got wampa
back there and he's struggled some this year.
I still think he's going to be a really good football player,
but he's a young guy.
And the linebackers, Jay Higgins has played well, but he's not Jack Campbell.
And Nick Jackson has had his struggles, and he's not Seth Benson.
And then Noah Shannon was supposed to come back, and he's not back.
And the young guys in the middle have been good, but they're young as well.
I mean, there's just a lot of, there's been, we lost those guys right there.
I mean, Merriweather, Benson, Campbell, Shannon, that's literally the middle of your defense.
And that had, you know, combined 20 years experience between those four.
And now you got guys in those same situations that
are all in their second or third year and it's and it shows i mean there are they we're not
giving up huge plays but i mean the amount of the last two weeks the amount of times we've given up
three four five yard rushes on repeat is is pretty concerning i mean at some point the defense just
has to wear down a little bit too so i mean that mean, that to me is probably the – I mean, the offense is what it is.
It's not good.
But, you know, last year we could count on the defense literally holding people
to, you know, seven points or less every week.
This week – this year, I mean, realistically,
the defense is going to give up 17 to 21 every week.
So, we've got to find a way to get to 20 or above.
And, you know, I'm not sure anybody has confidence that's going to happen.
But on the flip side, who knows?
Maybe Deacon Hill is freaking Deacon Trent.
He could be the next coming of Chuck Long.
Let's hope so.
Let's hope so.
And, you know, the defense, and when I brought this up,
some people react like, oh, they've only given up X amount of points here
and look what they've done.
And I get that, but it's just not at the elite level.
It's still good.
It's still a good defense.
I'm not in any way trying to be critical.
It's not last year's defense.
Last year's defense was a once-in-a-generation defense.
And this year's defense is good.
Good.
Solid.
It's a good B, maybe even B+.
But we had an A-plus last year. And that's a step down. It's not to say, maybe even B plus, but we had an A plus last year and that's a step down. It's
not to say that this is a bad defense. It's not what we're saying, but it's not at that elite
level. And because of that, a lot of those things that you're kind of left with, you mentioned those
three, four, five yard plays, but there's also those 12, 15 yard plays. I mean, that was such
a rarity last year. And a couple of times Michigan state would get the edge. And instead of them normally being, that'd be a five-yard play against last year's defense,
it's a 15-yard play against this year's defense.
And those little things and those kind of hidden yards that, all right, they got a positive
play, but it's not a positive play for five, it's 15.
That's impactful for this Iowa defense.
You know, the defensive line, I think, has been a huge disappointment.
And even with no one Shannon out there, just have not generated the pass rush that I think we were inspecting this
year.
Xavier Wampa last game against Michigan state.
He was coming off the field when they went away from cash and they went to
the traditional four,
three.
I thought he played well.
I thought that was his best game in a Hawkeye uniform last week.
I thought he was really good,
but his snaps have gone back because he hasn't been quite as impactful out
there.
Quinn Schulte has been fine, but hasn't elevated, I don't think, this year.
And it's just, you kind of go through all those guys.
And I thought Aaron Graves was going to come in here and be a difference maker.
He's not. He's fine right now. He's just fine.
And that's where we are.
But the good news is, one other thing, special teams, we love Torrey Taylor.
We love punters here on the podcast.
But Drew Stevens, that field goal that he hit from 53, like We love punters here on the podcast, but Drew Stevens,
that field goal that he hit from
53, like a third of the way up the net,
and he said on Tuesday,
yeah, I didn't hit that one very well. I mean, that dude
is an absolute stud at the kicker position.
Well, he's a kickoff
season machine. I mean, I can't remember
the last time. The only time they ever return kicks is if
occasionally we
intentionally leave it short
just so we can, you know, I guess Western Michigan a couple times we kind of pooch kicked
and let them return it so our return team gets to try it out.
But yeah, he is, you know, that's the one thing we've taken for granted for so long
in Iowa football is, you know, I can't remember the last time we had a bad kicker.
I mean, it's been consistently really good kickers,
and hopefully he's here for another two and a half years.
Yeah.
Well, it is time once again to make our picks.
We will talk a little bit about the Iowa game against the spread
and our lock of the week, including Biz, who is 4-0 this season.
And I'm right behind you.
I got another winner last week with Oregon State.
You were on Georgia Southern.
So I'm 3-1.
You're 4-0.
I think it only took us, what, six years?
We finally figured out only pick one game.
That's the best way we're going, at least at this point, right?
Yeah, just pick one and hope to get lucky.
And so far we've been lucky.
So I'm sure the luck will run out at some point.
But we'll ride it while we can, Trent.
We'll do that as we continue here.
Our Locks of the Week coming up next,
presented by FanDuel on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.
All right, Biz, back one final time on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast,
and let's get into it.
It is our Lock of the Week, just one game.
Also talk about the Iowa game against the number.
I will get to that in a moment, but the tee box remain yours
because you haven't missed one all season long.
4-0 on the season of your locks. What do you got for us this week?
People that have been crazy enough to listen to us for years know that we have a diehard listener named Arkansas Alley
who would never forgive me if I didn't pick the Razorbacks at some point during the year.
I've always been, I'm a big fan of Sam Pittman.
I think he gets the most out of his teams.
They're struggling right now, and people are really down on Arkansas.
They've got to go to Ole Miss this week,
and everybody's high on Ole Miss after their crazy win last week.
But the one thing you can usually count on for Lane Kiffin
is that whenever you think things are going well for them,
they usually find a way to – Ole Miss usually finds a way to blow it whenever you're high on them.
And so perfect week here.
Arkansas is going to Ole Miss.
Nobody expects Arkansas to do well.
So give me Arkansas plus 11.5, Trent.
I don't know if they'll beat Ole Miss, but they will keep it close and make it a four-quarter game.
So, woo pig suey, plus 11 and a half.
Arkansas, like that one,
and I think I'm going to be jumping aboard with you this week.
I love the angle that you talked about there,
kind of a letdown spot.
I'll be jumping aboard, and we'll make that one a family play.
For me this week, we're still waiting.
So, Kansas last week, I loved them.
I had them locked in it was one of
my numbers against Texas right away that I locked in plus 16 and a half and then right before the
game we found out oh Jalen Daniels isn't gonna play well that sucked because I was in the spot
where I could at least buy out of it and we took the L there but Kansas hung around even with being
at the quarterback position now it sounds like Daniels is gonna be good to go Central Florida
just a devastating loss last week.
You wonder kind of what their bounce-back factor is going to be
after blowing that game against Baylor a week ago.
I think the Jayhawks are the right side,
and I don't think it matters if it's Daniel or being here.
I just think they're a better football team.
At home, give me Kansas laying the one against the Golden Knights.
Kansas-Central Florida.
I don't know how much I'll watch. A classic Big 12
matchup. Well, as we look at the Iowa game, this is one that I am really excited. So I get an
opportunity every week to talk to a line maker out at Circa in Vegas and Mike Palm. And I want to
know, we know that every quarterback,
there is kind of a point spread that goes along with it.
My power numbers, I made the difference for Iowa,
three and a half points between Deacon Hill and the Cade McNamara that we've seen this year.
I think it's a lot more impactful
because every power number system
that I saw coming into last week,
had Iowa about a seven point favorite
in this game against Purdue.
It's down to what, two?
A couple of spots. I think I saw one and a half that popped at one point. I would just a slight
favorite. Remember Kinnick stadium is a four and a half or a five point home field advantage to
different the NFL where it's usually three across the board, not the case in college.
And Kinnick's one of the best home field advantages out there. I'm really surprised by
this one. I laid it with Iowa right away. I want to see, though, what the line makers,
how big of a gap they have between Deacon Hill and Cade McNamara.
Yeah, I mean, this, to me, feels like a Vegas nose spread.
I mean, it feels like they're begging you to bet Iowa with such a low number.
I think your random bettor would look at it like,
oh, a 4-1 Iowa versus a 2-3 Purdue at Iowa.
Of course Iowa's going to win by 2.5.
But, yeah, this line scares me.
I think it shows me that Vegas feels pretty confident that Purdue's going to win this game
because they're trying to get some money on Iowa, and they're struggling,
so they keep having to lower it more and more.
So, I don't know.
Anybody that bets this game with any confidence I think is nuts
just because of what we talked about at the beginning.
We have no clue what Deacon Hill is like.
I mean, Deacon Hill, he could come out, throw for 300 yards,
and like I said, the legend of the freaking Deacon begins.
Let's slow down to 300, maybe 200 yards.
Or he could come out and go 11 for 27 again, but this time with three picks.
I mean, he doesn't appear to be the game manager.
I think he's going to take some shots.
And they may work.
They may not work.
If they work, like I said, we talked about the legend beginning.
If they don't work, then get ready Joey Labus, I guess.
Because he will be a game manager.
But I don't know.
I have no clue.
I really don't.
I mean, good luck guessing right now on the Hawks.
But honestly, Trent, my whole thing is I'm just going to go and enjoy it.
I'm tired of bitching about Iowa.
I'm tired of bitching about the drive for 325.
And now that McNamara's hurt, the expectations are low.
So I'm going to go to Kinnick and enjoy it and hope for the best.
Hope that there's a good story with Deacon Hill,
but certainly not expecting it, let's put it that way.
So my answer to your question is, Trent, I got no idea on this one.
Stay away from it.
Over-under sitting at 38.5 right now at Bandua,
a little bit higher than we're usually used to with Iowa over-unders sitting at 38.5 right now at FanDuel, a little bit higher than we're usually used to with Iowa over-unders.
Well, that'll do it for this week here on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast.
And Biz joining me will be back tomorrow.
LaShawn Daniels is going to stop by, former Hawkeye running back,
and we'll break things down with his perspective coming up on the Friday preview show.
Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day.
Biz, we'll talk to you again next week.
All right, go Hawks.