Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football: The future of Hawkeye Football with Brian Smith, Hawkeye women face Indiana

Episode Date: February 22, 2024

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Today, Locked On Hawkeyes, it's a look towards the future. We welcome in our analysts on the scouting side of things. With football recruiting, Bryant Smith is going to join us. We talk about the class of 2025 and the changing landscape, maybe, of Iowa football. And the offense aside, we do it all today, Locked On Hawkeyes. You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day.

Hey, welcome in. I'm Trent Condon. I'm joined today by Brian Smith, and this is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We're available wherever you find podcasts. You can also find us on YouTube. While you're there, make sure you hit that subscribe button. Helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Make every moment more. New customers join today. You'll get $150 in bonus bets. If your first bet of $5 or more wins, just visit fanduel.com slash locked on to get started.

We get started today with some football talk as we welcome in Brian Smith, our analyst presented by LinkedIn. And Brian, good to catch up again. It's been a while since we talked last. Iowa's got a new offensive coordinator. They got a new wide receiver coach. They got some commits for the class of 2025. How are things down in Florida? It's going well. Everything down here is a little warmer than where you're at,

so life is better in that regard. But I am happy to see Iowa finally make some changes. For the love of mankind and all things holy, it was time. So hopefully for Iowa fans, it gives them more to talk about. And that's what we're here to do as well. Well, and we got warmth here. I mean, we should be starting spring football right now with 64 degrees, at least where I sit. We got a heat wave here. So we're doing well, but we're still a month away from spring football. And it's been interesting.

Tim Lester gets hired as the offensive coordinator. And for a while, it felt like it was down to a final two. After Paul Chris was kind of the odds-on favorite initially, that didn't come to fruition for whatever reason. It got down to Kevin Johns, a name I'm sure you remember from the past. He's been kind of all over the place as a coordinator. And Tim Lester. And at the time, the flavor of the day, it felt like it was John's.

And the reason that I was a bigger proponent of him is because he'd done it in a couple of different systems. He did it a couple of different ways, and he had real offensive coordinator experience in a multitude of levels. But I'll be honest, Tim Lester, I wasn't happy initially. I listened to him, did a little bit more research, and I'm fine. But the big caveat, Brian, and you know this, you got to be fine with it. But regardless of who the coach is, Kirk Ferentz has got to take the shackles off in order

for this to work. When you hire a quarterback coach to be your offensive coordinator, and I mean, Iowa last year, Dreadful would be kind to how awful they were on offense. I would have to think Tim was like, look, if I'm even going to interview you, you've got to tell me X, Y, and Z. That's what I would have done. And if Ferentz didn't like it, I'd have said goodbye. Who cares?

Because there's just other jobs that are more fun. Like, I'm not running the ball on third and sixth. You know what I mean? Like, it's just they have to be more creative. And he's been a head coach in the MAAC, et cetera. So he's had his hands on offensive and defensive game planning for a long time. But he's a quarterback guy. He played quarterback and he's coached it.

I think they're going to have to throw it some more. And I know they're not like loaded like Ohio State or Michigan or Florida of old at receiver. But I want to see some come out on first and 10 is Iowa in a three wide set check boxes. This will tell me before any play call, if Kirk is like, no, we're doing this because if he's doing like that, this guy will be here one year. Yeah. Like they move things around and then that'll probably be it for, for a certain guy that's been in Iowa city a long time too. Cause the fans want to see the ball in the air. I know that's the topic in everything. And it also changes your recruiting.

They're not going to get anybody until they start throwing it. It's just simple as that. They're not common. So like it's made fun of even in Florida, like Iowa has made fun of. Yeah. Florida. Come on, man. That's become a national punchline.

It really has. And the frustrating aspect, you know, when you kind of look at it here on the local front is yeah, they are winning games and it's not pretty and it's not a national punchline. It really has. And the frustrating aspect, you know, when you kind of look at it here on the local front is, yeah, they are winning games and it's not pretty and it's not fun. Look, I've been a season ticket holder since I was a sophomore in high school. I've been going to games now for going on 30 years and it's frustrating to watch. It's not a fun brain of basketball to football to be able to watch there. It's not basketball and grass like Purdue did back in the day.

But if you're winning, it can be palpable. But that winning very well could dry up and it could happen quickly. I mean, you think of the number of coin flip games that have gone Iowa way. Oh my goodness. Three years. And over time, those things tend to even out and you go back to their last huge victory when they beat Penn state a couple of years ago, they had the lead in that game late and they were willing just to kneel the ball ball knowing that they were going to have to give it back to Penn State because they believed in their defense that much. Now, they're also doing that against a backup quarterback from Penn State in that game as Clifford was injured in it. So those kind of things are just not sustainable. And the crazy thing is we're not asking this offense to suddenly become a top 25

offense nationally in yards per game, yards per play, those kind of things. Just be okay. Tim Lester, if the reins are off, does he have the requisite skillset? Can he do that with an offensive line that should be pretty good, a running back room that is loaded, Cade McNamara coming off injury again, but at the quarterback position,

is that enough to at minimum make this a top 70 offense next season? If it's not not something's wrong McNamara I think is the key he can extend plays he'll get you a third down and four where he makes two guys miss nobody's open because I wish receivers aren't you know what I'm not getting drafted here make something happen and get a first down they should be able to extend plays they just need one or two plays more a game Trent it's okay. The scheme got us this first down. That's not a big ask.

It's not because they're running game. Like their zone is as good as anybody's historical and they've changed it up. Everybody adapted to it. They still have principles with they'll run some gap and some other things. How about a bootleg? How about a waggle? How about an RPO? How about a jet sweep?

That's not telegraphed from 10 miles away. Things like this tend to work out for everybody else. Now it's time Iowa did that too. Again, does the head coach allow it in critical moments against big time teams? If you resort to the mean, you will get beat and beat handily. That's it. I mean, there's no way around there. get beat and beat handily. That's it. I mean, there's, there's no way around there. There's fundamentally coached well as probably any team in the country, but it's about play calling to get over that hump. Cause they're not just going to go out there and roll the ball out like Georgia does and smoke people. So you gotta be able to coach guys in critical moments. And part of that's gotta take some risk. Another place I want to go with you is, you know, people are wondering what Iowa had done until the last couple of years,

because last two years, when they played somebody really good, they've gotten blown out. That wasn't the case before where Iowa they'd hang around in a game and then they pull an upset and they'd hang around against Michigan and beat the number two ranked team in the country. And they do it against Penn state. They do it against Ohio state.

And they'd be able to find ways to win these games because teams would hang around and they would make a mistake. The last two years, those mistakes have completely gone away. It's not that the Iowa defense is different. It's still elite. But they're not forcing turnovers at the same level. And my theory is, Brian, it's because every coaching staff now going into playing Iowa know that they're so impotent. Offensively, we don't have to take a chance. We don't have to take that shot on third and 11. We don't have to

go down the field and get an interception. All of a sudden they got a short field and all of a sudden we look up and we're down 10, nothing. How the hell did that happen? They don't have to worry about that anymore because of the issues offensively. Do you think I'm onto something here? Well, let's look at the games in the big 10 amongst the four best teams, Michigan, Ohio state, Penn state, and Iowa, whoever had the Big Ten amongst the four best teams. Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, and Iowa. Whoever had the worst offense, the team they were going against, it was always Iowa when they were playing. Let's just be honest.

The other team would dumb down their offense that week. Even Ohio State. Ohio State, they're still throwing at some, but it was more conservative. How many times did they throw in the middle of a field against Iowa? You know what I mean? They don't have to. Okay, if we run the screen and we got a punt, who cares? They're not going 80 yards.

Kick it in zone. I don't care. They'll get one or two first downs and they'll punt it back to us. And that's what happened. Yeah. So, you have to strike fear into the other team. So, part of their game planning is the following. We know we can't win unless we hit some big shots.

When was the last time somebody said that going against Iowa? 20 years ago? Well, not quite that long, but it feels like that. It does. It does feel that way. You know, Amir Smith-Marset, he could make some plays. He was a big play receiver that they had, and he's now bounced around in the NFL.

You know, they've had those guys. They've done it with the tight end position when they had Noah Fenton and TJ Hawkinson. And that's still the basis of what they're going to be. You're not going to completely go away from the tight end because who do you recruit? Who can you get? Talented tight ends. You're not going to go away from that. But on the outside, Caleb Brown, they got him from Ohio State a year ago after a season

with the Buckeyes. He really came on at the end of the season. And hope is he can be that big play receiver. Is he going to catch, though, 30 30 balls or can he catch 60 balls? And that's going to be a big component. You mentioned RPO. I want to talk to you a little bit about that. And then we're going to get into the recruiting side of things.

We're talking with Brian Smith, talking football, talking recruiting here. It's presented by LinkedIn. We'll get into it a little bit more as we continue Lockdown Hawkeyes. We'll get into it a little bit more as we continue Locked on Hawkeyes. Passion, drive, and patience. What brings home the winning trophy is also what keeps your ride or die alive. eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to peak performance. From superchargers, roof racks, exhaust kits, LED headlights, and more.

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Brian, RPO, it's a magic word here in Iowa as we're getting excited about the potential of a little bit more. I go back, and what always jumps to mind is 2019 Minnesota. When P.J. Fleck had that thing running, they get off to the 10 and 0 record. Of course they lost in Iowa city because that's what PJ Fleck normally does, but they were running that RPO system with Tanner Morgan, not an overly mobile quarterback, a guy that can move a little bit, but he had two good receivers and they were able to do that thing.

Just slant route after slant route. Edge guy comes down, crashing down. We're going to run the football. If he doesn't, we're going to throw that slant route after slant route. Edge guy comes down, crashing down. We're going to run the football. If he doesn't, we're going to throw that slant. I mean, that's the most simple version and it worked incredibly well for them. With what Iowa does,

what they do with the zone blocking scheme, how much can that be and should be a part of Iowa's offense? If you've got the personnel, you use it. Caleb Brown's probably the most important player on the roster next year because he's, I know him, super athlete. Like I thought he was the top 50 kid conservatively coming out of high school.

If he's going to figure it out with Iowa and they figure it out in terms of, okay, we're actually going to let him throw it around, jet sweeps, reverses. He'll make a guy miss in a phone booth, and he's a strong kid. He's built like a boxing team. He's put together. Those kind of guys then you get your tight end out in the flat you play action one second block then he kicks it out there to that flat he's wide open and then you got a 245 pound guy rumble down the field nobody

wants to tackle it's not complex it's really not I don't know why more teams don't do some of that stuff on first and 10 they just grind it out a lot but i think iowa would be good with that with the running backs too they can use a running back in the backfield have a second running back in the game that's in the slot run motion a million ways you can do some of these play fakes why would you not they've got some personnel and cade being a veteran quarterback probably going to be a little easier to call those plays because he understands okay i need to do x here i need to do y there you know ferentz and the whole staff will have more confidence in that easier to call those plays because he understands, okay, I need to do X here. I need to do Y there. You know, Ferentz and the whole staff will have more confidence in that.

It'll be interesting to see. Now, spring football coming up in about a month, it'll start. We'll get one glimpse at them in the spring game or the spring scrimmage is actually what it is, but it'll probably be clunky at that time. Cade McNamara will not be back running things at 100% at that point, but that's also the part of implementing a new system, right? I mean, for Hawkeye fans that are out there and expecting all of a sudden, we're going to see them in late April for the first time. And this thing's going to look perfect and look good. You're talking about a pretty big turnover of what they potentially can do now under Lester.

The first spring, I don't care what the system is, it's not fun. I don't know how much access the coaching staff gives you guys, but it wouldn't matter. Okay. Why am I not surprised? And this is the reason I have zero interest in Iowa. I won't cover a team that does that. I won't. So I wouldn't have covered Michigan because he didn't allow anything.

It would have been the worst. So the whole point is still the same. Do you have the ability to make it in the long run? You got to go through the grind in the spring, which, you know, Kirk's been great at. They've had young teams before, new coordinators, et cetera. If they can get through spring and at least get the receiver, like Brown again is very key. Him and McNamara got to continue where they finished at. And you need somebody else to be a complimentary piece.

When you get to the point you got two receivers that the other team has to think about on third and sixth, okay, where's Johnny and where's Timmy? If it's just one guy, you can double him. You've got to have that second option. Maybe it's tight end for him. Iowa always has at least four of those guys it seems like running around. But if you can get to the point where they're outside, then the RPO game really goes because you're stretching teams horizontally.

You can't beat Georgia in the box. That's what I always tell everybody. We're like, you win a couple of plays, but on third one, I'm betting on the team from Athens, Georgia. You play Ohio State, et cetera. You've got to be able to win outside the box. You have to because they're going to have more guys than you do right there in the middle.

So this is an important spring for Iowa. Look at the basics. Don't get overwhelmed if they throw some incompletions. Imagine that in the spring game or whatever it's called. How does the quarterback look with the receivers? That would be the only thing I'd look at. Does it look comfortable? Is there some timing?

If not, then that would be a little concerning because they've been throwing, you know, probably about every day that they can this offseason. So it's at least fun. Last year they didn't want to talk about the passing game because there wasn't any. So, you know, this, this is an uptick. Look at it that way. All right. Before we let you go, Brian, just a couple of minutes left with you. Want to get into at least a couple of the guys for the class of 2025. Our conversations brought to you by LinkedIn jobs. And I want to start first with the guy that I think most people anticipated talking about the

tight end position was going to be a Hawkeye from up on my neck of the woods where I grew up, grew up up in Clear Lake, Thomas Meyer, tight end, had some big time offers from across the country. He had the standard Midwest teams that were involved, of course, K-State, Iowa State, Kansas, Missouri, you know, all teams like that. But there were some national programs after him as well. can run a great basketball player obviously a great football player he just he fits the mold of all right they already got it figured out for the next four years right at the tight end position with Meyer this is a kid that'll start as a sophomore at Iowa that would be my guess yeah and if he's not

that just means they have another guy that kind of developed out of the blue and he's the second string guy either way it works out for Hawkeye fans. Look, I don't know what is in the water in that state, but they always have a 6'5 guy they can catch. That's pretty much the way that state works. No different this year. There's probably one in the 26 class that I don't even know about. That's kind of how it is. If Iowa didn't get this kind of kid, it would be a really big problem.

Because, again, even going to RPO and all that, nothing wrong with dumbing it to the tight end of the flat and letting it run over somebody in its first intent. That's, that's something that's a part of that as well. And it's a part of your running game. You need these kinds of guys. Cause you're not going to just flat out, out recruit Michigan, Ohio state, Notre Dame, Texas LSU at receiver. You're not.

So you got to be able to do some of these things with the tight end position. And now this kid's really athletic. Like you said, they'll use him as a flex. I don't care what he's called, but on third and seven, he can take it away from a defensive back in a 50, 50 situation. Who cares what if he's, if he's a receiver tight end, that's a really important kid and you're protecting your home base. Got to have it. He is a stud and it's not very often we get to see texas a&m stanford miami coming in and offering kids from exactly exactly it shows you the kind of talent that thomas meyer has all right one more for you it's the quarterback for the class of 2025 i've heard varied opinions about the kid from indiana jimmy sullivan kind of all

over the place now he committed before the obviously change and the new coordinator coming in we'll see Tim Lester will probably get his eyes on him and see if he's a guy that makes sense for what he wants to do but had some good offers again Michigan State Illinois Minnesota also in on him tell us a little bit if anything that you know about class of 2025 quarterback Jimmy Sullivan well the state of Indiana is my home base. That's where I'm originally from. But look, there's two parts to this, and I don't want to go over the kid, but does he have the Miamis and all that kind of like the tight end does?

No. Does that mean it's a bad sign? Not necessarily. You only take one quarterback in a class. I want to see him in the early part of this summer if he goes to a camp I'm at or whatever, but especially in the fall. What are they going to work on? Because I guarantee you that the new coordinator, receiver,

everybody on the staff are going to want that high school to run a little bit more of what they do. Do things a little bit more and then adjust. And if it's not right, it could be a parting of the ways way. This is how it works across football, not just Iowa. If it's not the right fit, you're done. If you don't have the right quarterback, you're done. I don't care who else you got.

They'll figure that out. Now here's the other part. Is he a good player? Yes. Illinois, like that staff, I respect immensely with their evaluations. That's a hard place to win at. And they've been pretty good recently. They offered him early.

What does that tell you about him as a football player? So I haven't watched him, watched him just briefly, but I'll go with what they said. As far as next year, though, you need to watch the first three games for his high school team. If that's matching a little bit more Iowa, that'll tell you how things are going. And maybe Iowa takes a second quarterback. They might take somebody totally different. that's a run pass guy, just wide open athlete, some kid from middle of nowhere in Mississippi or something. Who knows?

But if they're going to go to RPO, they got to get kids that are more mobile to truly use it. They got that guy for this year's recruiting class, a guy from your neck of the woods now down in Florida and James B. He can run. Does he fit better now with the potentially new style? He does. He's got to revamp his throwing style a little bit,

but, man, James can flat out run. Like, he's an athlete. And he played in Florida, and I saw Florida kids every day that he could run with any of them. So if you've got a quarterback that can do that, that's a good sign. We'll see. Maybe he's the future after all. I think the new offense fits him a gazillion times better than the old one did.

I never knew why they went after him because he wasn't the most accurate kid. But now, if you're RPO and you're running it right, somebody's wide open. That's the whole reason for the offense. You don't have to be as accurate. You know, Jackson and some of these guys in the NFL, they can be good, but there's one Patrick Mahomes. You know what I mean? Like certain guys are just more accurate than everybody else,

and it is what it is. You've got to be able to create more space for your receivers through the RPO game. Brian, good stuff as always. Always enjoy our conversations, talking some football with you and get into the recruiting, obviously. It'll ramp up a little bit more here in the coming weeks and months. Iowa, their big day coming up in June.

But five commitments already for the class of 2025. We'll also talk about a couple of those other prospects going forward here. I will run you down the next time. Brian, as always, appreciate your time. Thank you very much, sir.

I appreciate it. That's Brian Smith joining us. You can find him on Twitter at FBScout underscore Florida. Brian Smith always doing great work with us here on the Lockdown Network. And a big thank you to him. And a thank you as well to LinkedIn and LinkedIn Jobs,

our presenting sponsor of our recruiting profiles. When you're hiring for your small business, you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role. That's why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs. LinkedIn Jobs has the tools to help find the right professionals for your team faster and for free. Well, we got a little basketball game coming up this evening. We're going to talk about that as we continue.

Take a look at Iowa, Indiana, the weekend ahead for Iowa Hoops. Game Saturday and Sunday. The men go to Illinois on Saturday. The women back home for the Illini on Sunday. But first day preview of Iowa, Indiana. We'll do that as we come back here. This is the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast.

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Well, a big weekend ahead. We'll talk a little bit more about that one coming up this evening after we wrap things up with the women's game. We'll have an instant reaction podcast that will be coming up into your feed, but a couple of news and notes. And first, let's talk a little bit about obviously that game and what we anticipate we are going to see. It is a matchup with Indiana. And when you talk about Indiana, you start with Mackenzie Holmes. A 6'3 post player, incredibly talented. She's good around the rim.

She knows how to use her body. She is kind of the embodiment of what we have seen develop at that position in college basketball, the women's side, over the last 15, 20 years. She is really, really talented, knows how to work inside. And I know people look back at the last time that Edina went out and they got blowed out by Illinois, and you thought, all right, well, this thing is going to be a pushover. With Mackenzie Holmes, 20 points per game, seven rebounds. She scored 20 points or more in 16 games this year. She's really good, but it's what happens around her. And with that, what's going to happen

the way that they're shooting the basketball? Because if you're collapsing down on Holmes and you anticipate that's going to be the case when Iowa does that, they're going to be collapsing on her. They're going to bring extra help. They're not going to leave Hannah Stolke alone on an island. When that happens, well, that's going to lead to open shooting. The first time these two teams played, going back to the game earlier this season when Iowa on Fox on wildcard weekend got that victory, they didn't shoot the ball very well. Indiana did not.

Scalia, she was 0 for 4. She has had three or more three-pointers in 16 games this season. She was 0 for 4 in that one. As a whole, Indiana shot 5 of 20. Now they're back in their home gym. And I didn't like the way that the loss went. I mean, losing by 20 to Illinois in its own right is bad, but now you got an angry team.

And now how does Iowa respond? I think that's a big question too. The week away, I think was a great thing overall for this team. They needed that. They needed the time away. They needed the ability to reset themselves, right? After the breaking of the record by Kaitlin Clark, all the lead up to it,

all the build up, all of the just conversations that were had about that scoring record, what happened against Nebraska in the fourth quarter, all these different things. You flush it, you move on, and then you get this week to reset themselves. But is it going to take a little bit longer for them to get going? As we saw early in the games has not been a problem for Iowa. In fact, you look at all three losses this season. They played well early in all of those games. It's been the fourth quarter that has been the issue overall.

That is something to keep an eye on here. Indiana as a whole right now shooting 41% from three. That's tops. Tops in the country. They're really good. Defensively, they're okay. Not as good of a defensive team as maybe you'd think with a good post player. That's not the case there. Indiana doesn't shoot a ton of threes, but when they do, they knock them down because usually they are open. Point spread right now has an Iowa favorite by four and a half. I would lead Indiana. I just, I have a sneaking suspicion. Point spread right now has an Iowa favorite by four and a half. I would lead Indiana.

I just, I have a sneaking suspicion. As well as Iowa has played lately against Indiana, and they've won five to the last six, as well as they have played, it just has that feeling that Iowa might be in some trouble tonight. Hope I'm dead wrong. We will see. We will be back with you with an instant reaction. We also take a look, a deeper look, at Iowa men's basketball as they sit on the NCAA bubble.

We will break things down, go a little bit deeper. A lot of great comments as well over on YouTube. A lot of good things from some of the commenters over there and some good information that we're going to bring to the podcast for Friday. Talk Iowa baseball. They have a huge weekend. Maybe their biggest weekend of the year comes in the second weekend of the year. Auburn, Wichita State,

a couple of big opportunities, three big opportunities, in fact, in their three games that they're going to be playing coming up this weekend. Big opportunities can get some big wins, solidifying themselves as a top 25 team this season.

This is going to be an important week. Of course, it'll be Brody Brett getting the ball in game one, followed up by Marcus Morgan in game two and Wes Obelmuller against Wichita in game three. We'll dive into that a little bit deeper. The Iowa wrestling team with their final duel of the season. A little bit on that.

It'll be a busy show. We got you covered as we do your team every day here on the Lockdown Network. Thanks to Brian for joining us as always. Thanks to you for being out there and listening. If you got a moment, make sure you hit that subscribe button once again over on YouTube.

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