Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football: What is the opening of football camp like & gambling investigation from a player perspective

Episode Date: August 4, 2023

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Trent Condon alongside LaShawn Daniels back with you on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Camp has started for Iowa football. We'll talk to a former Hawkeye football player about what it's like to get camp started and a player's perspective on the gambling investigation 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. He's LaShawn Daniels, and this is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.

Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We're available wherever you get podcasts. You can also find us on YouTube while you... ...network line or just leave it. as you're coming from the family home as you're away from your home uh today thanks for joining us though once again yeah no it's great to great to be on always always good to be on and uh talking some some Iowa football we got a lot to get into and camp has begun now this is a different kind of camp you have a lot of newcomers coming in has begun. Now, this is a different kind of camp. You have a lot of newcomers coming in with all the transfers that are making their way there.

Of course, many of the freshmen getting on there for the first time. Take us back when you walked in that first time getting ready for August camp. What was it like? And certainly for not just the newcomers, but certainly the freshmen, what it's like. You've been working out for a couple months, right? You've been getting a lay of the land. You're learning Iowa City and, well, not just where you're going to class, but probably a few other places too.

But what it's like is you're getting ready for that first football camp. Yeah, no, it's really exciting because at this point in time, like now obviously you're getting all your gear, you're getting your helmet, you're getting all that stuff that comes along with actually it being football time. So you're super pumped because like leading up to this point, all you've done is move into the dorms. You've done some summer workouts. If you're in classes, you took a few classes here and there. But it wasn't it's not like the real, real deal. And once you get to fall camp and now you got all the coaches around

you're with your position groups um you're in the hotel and you're getting ready for a football season now it's like okay it's it's time it's go time now like now we're actually we're here for obviously what we came to do obviously you came you go to school for an education but you also came to play big time college football so to get walk into you know the complex for the first time as a freshman um for fall camp it's super exciting um and you don't really know what's going on um you don't really know anything from anything and you just kind of you you learn as you go along but it's super exciting especially for a freshman um because like again this is is your first real, real experience of being a college football player. You get the playbook.

You have that. You have an opportunity to study a little bit and understand. You know what you're signing up for, certainly at Iowa, because they've run a lot of the same things for so long. You kind of know what it's like. But did you have a moment where, all right, this is different. This is is big 10 football did you have one of those moments early in camp that you remember that said all right i'm not in high school anymore uh definitely it was probably just learning learning the playbook i think was like the biggest the biggest deal i mean because i mean just

speaking like for myself and my experience like coming I mean, I wanted to play as a freshman and I wanted to play early. Like, that was something I always wanted to do. So being it to be the only way to be able to do that is you have to know what you're doing when you go out there. So when you look at the playbook, it's way different than what you experience in high school. Like, high school, a lot of times, you know, play calls and your schemes are very very basic like i mean it's got to be basic right i mean you got people you got a bunch of kids who maybe it is the first time playing football um and this and that and obviously you're trying to you don't have like the time and resources that you have in college so trying to get that adjustment is definitely definitely different and the speed is probably like the biggest thing that is the biggest shock to

you coming from high school to college. Because again, in high school, you're typically going to be, you're typically going to be the fastest guy on your team. You know, you're going to be able to recognize everything the quickest. And then now you, as you move into college, everyone else on the team is probably that they're probably the fastest kids on their team in high school and um now you're dealing with different experience levels from you know 18 year olds up to guys who you know are 24 years old on the team like you're dealing with guys who've been playing a lot of football and

have been who've seen a lot of different things and now you're trying to adjust to that speed of the game, and that's really where the difference is. So I would say definitely that. I mean, the first time I got reps with the first team, offense and defense, everything moving around was like light speed the first time you get out there. So your freshman year was 2012? 13, 2013. Yeah.

All right. So trying to think of the 2013 team. So who are some of the like defensive starters that you were going up against when you're starting to take the ropes, you're probably out there against the first team defense a whole lot. That offensive line probably wasn't real well formed in front of you. Who are some of the guys that were teeing off on you? Yeah, so, I mean, I just

think of the linebackers, and that was Hitch, Kirksey, and James Moore, so that trio of guys. How'd you survive, LaShawn? You know, it was definitely a culture shock for sure.

I mean, all three of those guys were phenomenal, phenomenal football players. And, you know, obviously Hitch and Kirksey had continued to play professional football, I mean, up to this day. So, like, yeah, there's some really, really good football players and guys that flew around. And, you know, obviously whenever you had to go in and, you know, do a blitz pickup on those guys it was never really a fun time um so yeah like those were like three that you know come to mind and you know you had like carl davis um big dude yeah huge huge huge guy who you know ate up offensive linemen. But, yeah, those are some, like, the defensive guys that, you know, just immediately come to mind from that 13 team. One more on this.

And speaking of getting laid out by those linebackers and the big defensive linemen when you're out there the first time, did you have a moment early on where you did something, where you got one, you had a little juke, you had a little wiggle, you did something, you had a stiff arm? One of those moments that also made you realize, hey, I can hang with this group. It was probably when, I guess it wasn't on like the first group, but it was like when I started working with that second group offense,

going against the second team defense. And at the time time there was a safety um nico law um who was that big hitter yeah big hitter and it was like a it was like an inside zone play or something like that it was a play in the middle um you know made a right read got to the second level and just just ran him over just like it was like it was it was probably it was early in camp so it was like one of our first like few days like when we were in like full pads and it was like that like that was what kind of like really set it off got like the entire offense hype and and whatnot um so that was probably like my first like yeah like obviously like yeah like i'm gonna be able to do

this uh for sure That is awesome. Well, love talking Iowa football and we take a look forward at the offense. We're going to do that a little bit later on here. You know, you mentioned blitz pickup and that's something I want to talk to you a little bit about with Caleb Johnson and something that Kurt Ferentz mentioned back in Big Ten media days about him becoming kind of that full running back. And that's certainly a component of that. We're going to get into that.

But first, we're going to talk about the gambling investigation, get LaShawn's perspective on what was handed out as we find out the news of Aaron Blom, the backup kicker and punter, and what that means for Iowa going forward and what we still wait for. We know Noah Shannon's also involved. There's other names that have been bandied about, but those are the ones that we know for sure. We'll get LaShawn's perspective about that when we continue here.

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All right, LaShawn, the gambling investigation, though it is not complete, the Iowa DCI says that it is still an ongoing investigation. It does feel like kind of the biggest news is out of the way, and that is Aaron Blom betting on an Iowa football game, a game that he did not play in back in 2021. That's a no-no. And there's been so many parts of this from my perspective that, okay, you can understand, right? Guys betting on an NBA game, guys betting on a baseball game. You kind of roll your eyes, even betting on an NFL game as a college football player. No, it's not right.

But, and we're seeing, we're not talking about guys that are betting thousands of dollars a game. It's a lot of low level. But LaShawn, these guys had to know you just can't do it right yeah i mean it obviously like it sucks like the entire situation just sucks right it's just completely brutal um everyone involved um all throughout obviously the state of iowa obviously there was a bunch of big news that came out of Iowa state as well. And, you know, it's something that is, that was definitely talked about. I don't, I know,

and maybe it was brought up more over the past few years, especially with how easy it is to be able to do it on your phones nowadays. Cause I mean, like when I was in school, it wasn't as big of a deal. So, I mean, it was something that was talked about, but it was never anything major. Apparently, like, earlier in Coach Ferentz's tenure, they actually used to bring, like, authorities in, and they would talk about, like, college gambling, like, with the players.

But it wasn't something that was done during my time. But I'm assuming, like, over the past few years, it's had to have been something that um that was done during my time um but i'm assuming like over the past few years there's had even something that has been talked about because obviously it's it's grown to exponential levels at this point in time i mean anyone can sign up for you know any app on their phone and and you know place a bet within the span of you know 30 So it's truly, truly frustrating to see, especially if you're a teammate or you're on the coaching staff, and to bet on their own team is crazy. Everyone knows that's a no-no.

I mean, that's one. And even if you're not going to play, you just can't. You can't do it. It's the insider trading component to it. And that's the other part, too. It doesn't look like it was a substantial amount of money. Is it worth the $25, $50 to bet on your own team? They're not betting against them.

The DCI has maintained there has been nothing that has shown them that there was any game-fixing or point-shaming. That's not what this is about. But even betting on your own team to win, you just can't do that. And that is a hill too far. I don't have a problem with guys that make that mistake, betting on their own team, losing their college eligibility. I think that one, that's going for making kind of a silly, dumb mistake.

That's taking it to another level. Yeah. I mean, like, it's crazy. I mean, it's literally insider trading. I mean, that's literally what it is. And obviously, we know that that's a huge no-no. And, you know, it's the same thing with sports betting. And to bet on your own team, it's just icky.

I know it couldn't have felt good, especially betting the under. Like, that is crazy. Like, that's just crazy. So, and I think, let's see, 2021, I'm trying to think. So, I was around the time, I think, when Calvin Ridley originally, you know, ended up getting suspended for that entire football season last year too. So it sucks. It definitely sucks.

But they're obviously going to have to make an example out of someone. And you hate for it to be someone on the Iowa football team. We don't know if Shannon is involved in some way and he was going to go to Big Ten media days decided that that wasn't going to happen because he's involved now we know it's not the part that we're talking about here using a proxy using a different identity and betting something that's a huge no-no in the state of Iowa and that's the reason underage betting they came down hard and we talked about that information and had that right away back in May when this came out. But, you know, the component for a guy like Noah Shannon, he's over 21.

He's making bets. It doesn't sound like there's any betting on Iowa or anything like that, at least on the football team. What his suspension is going to be, there's a few other players that sound like they're going to be involved too. That one, that's where it becomes a little bit more difficult because the likelihood, it's probably going to be involved too that one that's where it becomes a little bit more difficult because the likelihood it's probably going to be over eight hundred dollars look people i think saw some of the numbers that came out yesterday on both the

iowa and iowa state perspective like the basketball player aaron euless and you see what was it twenty some thousand maybe thirty thousand dollars like yeah whoa but then you look at the number of bets that he was making and he was a volume player i mean he bets like i do he bets a lot of games and it was it was an average of 25 a game and i've said this yesterday on the podcast lachan i believe the ncaa obviously did the right thing of looking back at their rules and evolving and changing with it but even that 800 threshold at that you put hundred bucks into account, which for most athletes now with NIL is nothing.

It's a drop in the bucket. You're playing five, 10 bucks a game. You can play on that a hundred dollars for a whole football season. And if you're betting on the NFL every single week and you're betting, all right, I'm going to do my $5 parlay here. I'm going to bet my three favorite games.

And well, I got to bet Monday night football every single week. Now those five bets over 20, what, 22 weeks of the season. Well, that is well over that number. I mean, you're talking about $5,000. That's bet just doing $5 bets. It adds up very quickly there. I think the NCAA needs to also reevaluate that a little bit,

but the tough part is for a guy like Noah Shannon, knowing that there's probably going to be something coming. How does Iowa go through camp? How do they go through camp with the guys that it might be a couple of games suspension. It might be a four game suspension. What do you do as it pertains to getting those guys reps, but then knowing we might not be seeing them for say the first month of

the season. Yeah. It's it's, it's, it's tricky, right? It's, it's tricky to navigate.

And let's see, the NFL has had to do it, not necessarily with gambling suspensions from their players, but dealing with players that aren't available for the first few weeks of the season. And I think back when I was in Green Bay in their training camp, and I think Aaron Jones might have been suspended for the first two or three weeks of the season for something. I don't remember why. And I know that they did have a heavy focus

on getting him as many reps as possible during that time to obviously try to minimize the amount of rust that would accumulate over the time that it wasn't, you know, on the team, but it's a little bit different. Now these would be on with the, with the players that are involved with the gambling investigation, because right now you don't know how, you don't know how long they're going to be out. You have no, you have no clue whether that's, you know,

they give them a suspension for a couple of weeks or they're like, Oh, we're going to make it a six week suspension for, for weeks or they're like uh we're gonna make it a six-week suspension for for half the season and it's it's tough to navigate because you want to be able to give them enough reps so that again you want to minimize the amount of rust that they have to knock off when they are able to come back and then depending upon the depth behind the line, obviously, thankfully, defensive line is a very strong position for the Hawkeyes this year. That the guys that are behind Noah, they're going to be able to, you know, fill right in and not have, you know, too big of a drop off from performance. So it's just something that they're obviously going to be trying to navigate to get Noah enough reps to keep him fresh and keep him, you know, as brush free as possible for when he comes back.

And then obviously getting the other guys up to speed so they can be, you know, as good of a player filling in those roles as possible. You know, another component I want to kind of go with you here, LaShawn, is going back to when you were playing. Again, sports wagering was not legalized at that point outside of in Nevada and in Las Vegas. So it was a different time, obviously, than what we're talking about here. But I know there's been plenty of guys that have made their way down to Riverside, right? Made their way over to the boat, doing those different kind of things.

I mean, did you guys kind of know inside the locker room the guys that were gamblers and maybe the guys that yeah probably maybe did dabble not on football but maybe did bet on some other sports was that something that was known in the locker room yeah it was definitely known like the people who were uh prone for gambling for sure i mean like it there's always times where you know guys would ask be like oh we're heading to the casino this weekend or whatever or you know we have a bowl trip one of the first things that that guys want to do is they wouldn't go to the casino it's like the first thing that they knock off the checklist so there's always you there was always those guys um that were involved in in that gambling space um but you never really thought of them gambling on sports like it was never anything that like really really came up obviously like a

lot of guys they were big in a lot of a lot of the casino games whether that's you know blackjack or or poker roulette or whatever um but it was never like, Oh yeah, I'm going to make this, this bet on this, um, NFL game or, or whatever. Or if they did, they didn't make it. Um, well, no. So. Good stuff. Well, we will continue the conversation. We'll get back into the here and now with LaShawn Daniels. We're going to talk about this offense. I want to talk about Caleb Johnson. LaShawn, anybody that was listening to us our every day or his last season, they know just how

quickly we fell in love with him as a running back and what a special player he has a chance to be. But there are other things than just running the football that you need to learn to become a complete player. We're going to talk about that and this Iowa offense when we come back here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. For a championship team, it's all about making sure every player is a perfect fit. It's the same when it comes to your vehicle. Every part needs to fit just right. So the next time you need parts and accessories, head to eBay Motors.

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Okay, LaShawn, let's wrap things up talking about our dude, right? I mean, we saw this right away. Caleb Johnson, you could just tell right away he was special. He's a different kind of running back. And Tyler Goodson was a really nice back. just tell right away he was special he's a different kind of running back and tyler goodson was a really nice back obviously we saw acroman and the special qualities that they had both those guys were littler guys the size the speed the full combination just on the surface caleb has it all yeah yeah i mean he does he's what you look for when you think of a franchise running back.

That's what you think of. You know, a guy, you know, 6'6", 1", you know, 220 pounds. They can run 4'5", faster, and they have a threat to take the ball for, you know, a long touchdown run any time they touch it. Like, that's what you're looking for in a franchise back. And we saw several times throughout the season last year that Caleb has that type of ability. And it's going to be interesting to see his development this season.

I mean, you saw that he added 10 pounds over the offseason to the frame. And then now when you get a full offseason compliment of uh college strength and conditioning uh you're gonna be stronger you're gonna be faster you're gonna be quicker and now that you've seen everything uh seen a bunch of football as a freshman now you're gonna be able to react and see things that much better you're gonna be able to see the whole easier you going to be able to make those decisions quicker, which are going to be huge, huge helps for the offense. And this year is something that I really want to see him make that next jump,

and that is being a person that can play on all three downs. And that's really what's going to separate him from being a really, really good runner of the football to really being that total offensive package. One thing that Coach Ferentz mentioned last week at Big Ten Football Media Days, he was talking about the full part of it. He was talking about blitz pickups. That's something, and I think we've talked about this before, but for our listeners and our watchers out there relay just how difficult it is to pick up a blitzer I mean that it just now look I was a middle school school quarterback and I was terrible at it but I cannot imagine that somebody that's got a full head of steam coming out there and you got to get up there and you got to get your nose and you got

to stick this guy that's coming full speed at you. How difficult is it? It's not it's not fun. I'll tell you what, you know, it's not fun. But there are you know that it's something that's going to come with the territory with being a running back, especially if you want to if you want to play all the time. Like you've got to be able to have that skill set in your toolbox. So it's not easy because, first off, you've got to understand the scheme. You've got to understand how the offensive line is protecting and knowing who they're blocking and knowing what your responsibility is.

So knowing what your responsibility is is half the battle. So in one way, your responsibility is half the battle. And it's easy in fall camp because you know the defense, our defense doesn't do anything too crazy. It's very basic stuff when it comes to pass protection. But now when you get into the season and some other teams start, you know, throwing a lot of different things at you, you know, you're having to re-ID who the mic is so the line know who they're sliding to.

And then, you know, you being the running back, you end up being essentially like that cleanup guy. So you've got to know who they aren't accounting for. So knowing all that is half the battle. And then the other half is just being able and willing to stick your face in there and give a good strike to a linebacker or safety or sometimes even a corner. And that's something that's not easy.

A lot of guys don't like – I mean, most guys don't like doing that. It sounds awful. Yeah. But there's a ton of guys that just won't do it, and that can be a big detriment to the amount of playing time that they get. So thankfully for Caleb, he's already got a good size and frame to him, so he's not just going to be just run over. But now it's just like, okay, am I willing to go ahead and stick him and use my hands and not cut every single time there's a blocker?

Because, again, you can't necessarily cut all the time because now sometimes if an offensive lineman gets free and they can come off to try to help you unblock, you don't want to get a chopping blocking penalty or, you know, you don't want to go ahead and try to cut someone. And then, you know, they end up falling in someone's legs and getting someone hurt. So there's a lot of things that go into it and you know all that stuff it's not a fun time for the running back but you know that if you can do that like it keeps you on the field more um it gets you on the field on on third downs you know so now you're able to have opportunities where you can go out and you can catch the football and be you of a dynamic player instead of just getting the ball handed to you.

Our first season together last year, it was awful. I mean, there was just no way about it. The offense and certainly the offensive line. They bring in a couple of transfers, guys that you feel like are going to help out. Also, the young guys that have taken their lumps, they're veterans now. You know, kind of the excuses are over. How much better do you think the offensive line? You know, Kirk, he was very, very excited, I thought,

about the offensive line. That was a surprise just how high it felt like he is on this year's offensive line. Are you in the same spot? Do you believe that they can make that big of a jump and not become, you know, one of the elite offensive lines in the country, but at minimum become become competent become above average this year do you think they can make that kind of leap yeah i mean i think they can make that kind of leap just because i

believe in the coaches that they have they're going to coach that have experienced coaching offensive line in that building and the fact that these guys have seen a lot of football, that they're going to be able to get those guys on the right track. I mean, I remember just talking with Coach Ference when I was back at Iowa for the Northwestern game last year. And, you know, we talked a bunch over my time when I was there. And we spent a good amount of time just talking about the offensive line and just the progress that needed to be made.

I mean, he knew that they weren't there yet and that they had a lot of things that had to, you know, be corrected and fixed. And obviously he knew that they're young guys, but also understood, like, you know, these guys, they're playing a lot of football. Like, we're going to need some more out of them. And just listening to him talk over the past few weeks,

like, I feel like he feels like they're in a much better place than they were at this time last season and then now you're going to get a full month of training camp before you have your first first game and allowing for more improvement there so i'm i'm super pumped for their ability and their progress that they've made since last year because again as you said I mean a lot of these guys they're they're veterans now they played a lot of football that you know we're a bunch of new guys isn't that exclusive isn't really going to fly anymore at this point I mean you got guys that have played you know probably well a bunch of guys on the offensive line that have played well over 500 snaps of you know high level division one football so that that excuse kind of goes out the door now

so now we should be able to expect a lot better communication we should be able to see you know the offensive line moving as a unit even if there isn't you know a superstar on the offensive line it should look and feel more cohesive and be more of the traditional Iowa offensive line that we're used to. Let's hope that it happens. Well, we've got a full August to talk about it. We'll break things down and continue conversation next week on Friday. It'll be Iowa football media days. We'll talk about that a little bit with LaShawn

and what it was like having us nerds in the media come and see you guys and hang out with you for the day. We'll do that next week. I'll be in Vegas late next week, LaShawn, so we'll figure out a time hopefully we can get together earlier in the week, but you know, we're calls. I got to make a return trip to Vegas. What can you do? Yeah, for sure, for sure. Sounds like a plan.

That's LaShawn Daniels. I'm Trent Cotter. Thanks for hanging out with us here today on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. We'll talk to you again next week. Go Hawks.