Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football: Who has the most pressure on them in 2024?

Starting point is 00:00:00 who's facing the most pressure in 2024 for the Iowa football team? We talk about offensive line. We talk about players. We break it all down today. Coming to you from Las Vegas, it's 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. Hey, welcome in.

Starting point is 00:00:31 I'm Trent Condon, and this is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We're available wherever you find podcasts, and you can also find us on YouTube. While you're there, make sure you hit the subscribe button. It helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. Today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKDOWNCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase.

Starting point is 00:00:55 Terms apply. Well, coming to you from LV, Las Vegas, here for the next couple of days, here for Big 12 Football Media Day, and excited certainly to take a look at Iowa State opponent number two on the schedule for the Hawkeyes this year. I'll get a deeper look at them and we'll have a little content coming of that when we talk about some of the individual matchups coming up for Iowa football this season. But I want to open up today with a question that

Starting point is 00:01:19 has been certainly bouncing around in my mind and is, who's facing the most pressure in 2024 for this Iowa football team? Look, the expectations are high. And being here in Vegas, talking to many regional and national reporters in college football, and I think their expectations are high for this Iowa squad as well. When you bring Iowa up, there's so many people that believe that this can be a college football playoff team. Now, can they ascend to the top? Can they be a team that's able to compete with an Ohio State, Oregon, those top level teams in the Big Ten? Maybe not there. Even with improvements offensively, how much improvement can you make in a year? I'm not talking about that level, but getting in, there is a path. The schedule is a part of it, as we've talked about

Starting point is 00:02:03 a bunch here leading into the season, is the schedule is a huge component. It's really an important one. I was talking, one of the people that I was talking to the other night was Colin Wilson, who is a college football writer and podcaster with the Action Network, very heavily involved in the betting space. And he has a formula that basically a statistical model that spits out point spreads for every single game. He has rosters, what production comes back and the like,

Starting point is 00:02:31 and he has Iowa favored in 10 of their 12 games this season. The ones Ohio State and Iowa State, in fact, were the only ones that he doesn't have Iowa favored in. And that just shows you that there's a real possibility for this team to make that kind of run, but there's going to be pressure. And I think there's a lot of different areas. I want to start first with, for me, I believe the guy that has the most pressure, at least on the coaching staff and that's George Barnett. So after what we've seen the last few years of the offensive line and offensive line play in this realistically, I do not believe is a Barnett problem. I don't look at it and point all the blame on him. I think it was schematics that played a huge role

Starting point is 00:03:11 in just how bad that offense got. Poor quarterback play, lack of wide receivers. Look, there's a lot of reasons why this offense has cratered over the last two and a half years the way that it has. And you can point a lot of fingers, but the pressure's on. And there were questions about George Barnett and his job and with the coaching staff changes that we saw, Ryan Ferentz out, Kelton Copeland out.

Starting point is 00:03:33 A lot of people believe that he should also be right in the mix with those guys, and he also should have been out. Not the case, as we know. That's not the way that it played out. But the pressure, certainly on him to deliver. The experience is there. And if Caden Proctor would have stuck around, it would have helped immensely. Look, we can talk about the baggage that comes along with Caden Proctor.

Starting point is 00:03:53 We can talk about the flakiness that the young man has certainly exhibited during his time and his commitments and his back and forth and what happened here this spring. We get all that. However, he's an incredible player. He's really good. I mean, he started as a true freshman at an Alabama team that played the college football playoff, and he improved so much as the year went on. He would have been a help, but he's not there.

Starting point is 00:04:16 So, all right, you can call it an excuse. You can give that reason, whatever your terminology that you want to use for it is. We know that this offensive line has to be better. If this offense is going to take a step forward, that has to improve. And they showed improvements a year ago, that offensive line, certainly in the run game, it was a whole lot better than what we had seen the last couple of seasons previous to that is they were able to run the football better. They're able to hit some big plays and they have that kind of capability with the running backs that they have that goes four or five deep that you're really confident in those running backs and

Starting point is 00:04:48 they're going to be able to make plays. And they moved away from inside zone, outside zone, that being the heavy emphasis and basically the only emphasis in the running game. You saw a lot more hat on hat blocking, straight up blocking, opening up holes, some counter plays, something that I've been begging for for decades and finally got to see it a little bit more last season. Those are the kind of things that help the offense out. Now we're going to see a passing game and a passing scheme. I believe that is going to be much more conducive to going forward. Plus all the starts that come back. It's something like 155 career starts or Iowa football back. You have guys with starting experience up and down that line, inside, outside. When you

Starting point is 00:05:25 bring back that many players that have that kind of experience, that's going to be big. And then finally, another point about this and why I believe George Barnett has the most pressure on him this season, at least out of the coaching staff, is this. You have all those guys. You have all those starts. And if it doesn't work now, when is it? You go through a different scheme. You go through and you do things in a different way this season with Tim Lester taking over. And if you can't get an offensive line with this much returning starts, at least in an adequate level, I'm sorry, you got to move on. You have to go a different route. It's as simple as that. And that's the pressure that's facing George Barnett this year. But he's not alone.

Starting point is 00:06:05 We're going to talk about some of the players facing some of that pressure coming up this season. Quarterback, oh yes, that is a big one. And maybe at the top of the list, Cade McNamara, certainly going to feel the pressure. We got some other players, some other ideas, some other coaches. Plus, we're going to talk a little Iowa basketball coming up here today. Iowa hoops as Chad Leistekau and many members of the media had an opportunity to watch practice the other day and a lot of good content coming out of that. I think you know if you've been listening and you're every day and we appreciate you for being

Starting point is 00:06:36 that that I'm high on this Iowa basketball team. I think higher than a lot of people. I think they really have a chance and it sounded like for the people that had the opportunity to see them they're kind of jumping aboard with it. We'll get into that. More pressure and some Hawkeye basketball talk as we continue. From Las Vegas, this is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. GameTime is an authorized ticket marketplace of Major League Baseball.

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Starting point is 00:08:26 Trent Conant back with you here again on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. As always, thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Hit that subscribe button if you're watching us and see my hotel room here at Circa in Las Vegas, or if you're listening on the audio side, five-star reviews greatly helps us and gets us in front of more Hawkeye fans. We continue the conversation of Iowa football and who faces the most pressure this year. And we'd love to hear your comments. You can jump on the comment section on YouTube.

Starting point is 00:08:52 You can also jump aboard on Twitter on X. You can find me at Trent Condon, or you can find the show page at locked on Iowa. Kate McNamara. Look, it goes without saying afterade McNamara, the fanfare that he had a year and a half ago when he made his commitment very quickly after deciding that he was leaving Michigan and it all came together, at least in our eyes, very quickly the way it is. There were rumors. And as soon as there were rumors, it was a day later, it was happening. And the excitement there. I had a quarterback position. Leadership, happening. And the excitement there. Kawhi had a quarterback position.

Starting point is 00:09:26 Leadership, absolutely. You hear a ton about his leadership and the way that he carries himself. You got that component. You couple that with what we also see from him just as a football player. I mean, this is a guy that completed passes at an incredibly high level, led his team to the Big Ten Championship, led his team to the college football playoff. So many positive things for Cade McNamara as a quarterback. He lost a job to a guy that was a first-round pick and jj mccarthy i mean you you can't just look at and say well this guy wasn't good enough for michigan that guy the michigan hasn't had very often taking over the reins for him and there was a reason for it but

Starting point is 00:09:59 after losing his last year at michigan of an injury, then this season what happened? Starting off the year with the injury, he had the quad injury that was incredibly debilitating. As we talked about at the time, that was something that it was still touch and go if he was going to be able to go or at least go at the level that they needed from him even in game number one. He did it. You saw that he was not 100%, not even close to it. And then by the Michigan State game, torn ACL, and now for the season.

Starting point is 00:10:27 Pressure's going to be on him. The pressure's also on him because they brought in other players. You know, Brendan Sullivan comes in, and hearing some things about him, the athletic part of it is absolutely there. He's a big dude, 6'3", 225. He can move around, is not the greatest passer. Look, that's not his strength. He is more of an athletic, a quarterback, a guy that is a physical runner. That's what you get with him. Cade

Starting point is 00:10:51 McNamara far and away is the number one. And if you believe that Brendan Sullivan's going to be pushing him for the starting job, from what I've heard, that's not going to be the case. Nobody's job is guaranteed. They're going to go through practice. And I don't anticipate that they're just going to hand him the reign without any pushback at all. But Sullivan, at minimum, is a competent quarterback, and knowing that you have that as opposed to what they had a year ago with Deacon Hill, that's a step forward,

Starting point is 00:11:14 and that's going to lead to some pressure on Cade McNamara. Some other players facing some pressure this year. I want to go over to the defensive side of the football and Deontay Craig. Two years ago, Deontay Craig, I believe, was on his way not just to the NFL, but maybe an early entry into the NFL. And that didn't happen a season ago. He was injured. He was banged up. He fought through it. And you commend him for doing that. But we didn't see even close to what we normally see out of a guy like him. And now with him aside, with him off the board and coming back for another season, now you have a guy that if he's going to get that, if he's going to take those talents and be even a mid-round NFL draft pick, and I think he has that kind of upside that he can get to in order to do that, he has to produce this year. Another reason I think there's a lot of pressure on Deontay Craig is his running mate on the other side is no longer there in Joe

Starting point is 00:12:04 Evans. And you look at the lack of depth at the defensive line position. That is still a concern for me in this Iowa football team. Can they find it, find it with no Brian Allen, Ethan Hurkett, you know, guys like that, they're going to have to play a lot more minutes. And the depth is something that has been a strength for Iowa football really for the last seven, eight years, the depth on that defensive line, at least as we see it right now, that is not the case. On top of it, what Joey the Bull Evans did last year, getting to the quarterback, it was elite. It was something that we haven't seen very often out of a defensive end at Iowa. And now you take him away, there's certainly going to be a whole lot more pressure, I believe, this year on Deontay Craig because of a couple of those. A few others I want to jump into here and some of the guys facing the most pressure coming up this season for Iowa football. Next up is Averwampa. Speaking of fanfare, of course, five-star out of Southeast Polk. I've talked about it in the past how much I just loved watching him on the football field. I'd never seen anybody at the high school level. I called a lot of high school games

Starting point is 00:13:09 throughout the years. I have never seen somebody that can just cover so much ground in the backside of a defense and his closing ability, either getting to the ball or getting to the guy trying to catch the football was something unlike anything that I've seen before. Much like Deontay Craig, we didn't get to see a completely healthy Xavier Wampa. There are plenty of times where it's not taking the easy way out, but it's, he wasn't a great tackler last year. And that's not the Xavier Wampa, certainly that I'm used to. The athletic ability is through the roof. It would be great to see a full season for him, but the pressure's on because you're looking for a five-star. You're looking for a guy that delivers and delivers right away.

Starting point is 00:13:47 And he, though he was a starter a year ago, he certainly didn't deliver the five-star billing, I think, that a lot of people thought we were going to see. We got to see his first start his freshman year in the bowl game against Kentucky, had to pick six. There were a lot of good things. However, we had the interception, excuse me. But Xavier Wampa, there's going to be pressure

Starting point is 00:14:05 and there's going to be a lot of eyeballs on number one this year and seeing what he does on the backside of that defense. When you return him, Quinn Schulte back there, the depth that they've built at the cornerback spot, of course, Sebastian Castro was maybe one of the more overlooked guys that you have in Iowa football. When you have that group, you're in really good shape, but we need to see Xavier Wampa, I think, take a big step forward. Well, we talked about George Barnett. Here's another one for you. What about Kirk Ferentz facing pressure?

Starting point is 00:14:33 Pressure in a different way. Look, if this thing falls apart this season, I don't see Beth Goetz going out there and firing Kirk Ferentz. It's one thing to get rid of his inept son. It's another to take a 25-year head coach and after one down season, after playing in the Big Ten Championship game two of the last three years,

Starting point is 00:14:53 and one down year, fire him? I don't see that happening. However, pressure, as we've talked about in the past, to get up to that 60% win threshold and with it, an ability to be a college football Hall of Famer. I don't think that's something that motivates Kirk, but it's something out there. It's something to shoot for.

Starting point is 00:15:10 You throw in the fact that it's going to be different and you got a road trip to UCLA this year and you got road trips coming in the future and you're going to USC and Oregon and Washington and it's going to be great for the fans. We know that's not exactly Kirk Ferentz's favorite thing. But if this goes poorly, and especially if the offense struggles again, two reasons that there's a lot of pressure, I believe, on Kirk Ferentz. Number one, if the offense doesn't work again, look out.

Starting point is 00:15:36 Because you tried the coordinator, you fired him, you changed what you're doing, and it doesn't work still, there's going to be a lot of fingers pointed at Kirk Ferentz. That's a huge part of it. That's a huge, huge part is knowing now that there's nobody else that's going to be able to take the ax. I mean, I guess you could fire Tim Lester after a year if this doesn't go well, but it's going to show you some more about him. And then speaking to the offensive line and George Barnett, maybe just those run schemes don't work. It was better last year as we talked about, but maybe just those run schemes don't work. It was better last year, as we talked about, but just his style of football doesn't work. And certainly at the highest levels,

Starting point is 00:16:10 that is going to be a question, I think, throughout the course of the year. We continue here, Lockdown Hawkeyes. Let's get into a little basketball, talk some Hawkeye hoops for you. Open practice the other day for the beat media and a lot of good content coming out of that. A lot of questions and a team that I think has a chance to be pretty good

Starting point is 00:16:29 coming up this season. We'll do that as we continue. This is Locked on Hawkeyes. Trent Conant back with you one final time here on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. As always, thanks for making Locked on Hawkeyes your first listen every day. For a lot of people, the first opportunity to see some of the newbies out there on the hardwood. Sadly, anymore, we don't have the primetime league. It's something that I greatly miss, and it's not because of the actual basketball between the lines.

Starting point is 00:17:01 We know there wasn't much defense played in that. It was glorified pickup basketball, but it was something. We'd have a guy that go off for a 50.9. That'd be fun. Or a guy that hit eight, nine, 10, three pointers. It more than anything though, it just gave us something to talk about seeing these guys out there, seeing the changes that they make. And speaking of changes, one of the biggest ones physically is Owen Freeman. Owen Freeman, who a year ago got in foul trouble a lot. I think at times he got that freshman whistle and not a senior whistle. Didn't get the superstar whistle. That is for sure.

Starting point is 00:17:33 I think there were some tough fouls against him, but it's something that he had to learn and realize as a big man in the Big Ten that it's going to be different. The athleticism that you're going up against is different. There's times you just got to let guys go by, right? You just have to give up that layup instead of picking up the foul. And I think he learned that throughout the course of the year, but he is physically bigger. That's going to be important. He's going to be manning the middle. It appears this season, there isn't a whole lot of depth at the strictly center position. If you will, a lot of power forward types, a lot of guys that can play that position, but not exactly sure. But Owen Freeman, I certainly look the part as he is gaining confidence out

Starting point is 00:18:09 there. His running mate in the Quad Cities at the high school level in their senior year at Moline is Brock Harding. So you bring in Drew Thelwell to push him at the point guard position. I think you're in really good hands with both of those guys. They do things differently. Like he's an elite playmaker. He is. Offensively, he is so good. And there are guys his size that have been able to survive and been able to play

Starting point is 00:18:33 for good defensive teams. I know that's going to be the knock and that's going to be the question about him. Yeah, maybe he's going to average 12 points and seven assists a game and that'd be great. But what's he giving up

Starting point is 00:18:43 on the other end of the floor? That's what you get when you're talking about Brock Harding. However, I think that he is going to improve enough. He's also looked much bigger, much more physical going into his sophomore year. And him and Thelwell are going to be a really good one-two punch there. We know Peyton Sanford comes back. The new base, though, the advertisement of Cristagio, an athletic freak. Yeah, that showed up in a big time way.

Starting point is 00:19:09 Talking to some people that have had an opportunity to see him in the past and seen him here recently. Nothing but great things. He is a little more developmental. I think of it in his way, kind of like Lachie Dabale was a year ago. He'll get some minutes. He'll flash at times, but still has plenty of work to do. He's a great rebounder, though. He'll get some minutes. He'll flash at times, but still has plenty of work to do. He's a great rebounder though. He can play some defense. That is a good, good thing. Sadu Treyar comes in from Manhattan, and this is probably the piece of this puzzle that I'm most

Starting point is 00:19:36 intrigued by what he is. You look at some of the numbers from him. Highlights can only paint a certain picture and usually highlights paint a pretty good one for a guy, right? They don't put the low lights on there. They call them highlights for a reason. And you see that you see the athleticism. Boom, got that.

Starting point is 00:19:52 A shot that isn't hideous. It didn't shoot it well from three last year, but shot free throws pretty well. I think that's something that you get excited about and the way the frame of Caffrey coaches offensive basketball.

Starting point is 00:20:03 He's going to be able to put the buck, the ball in the bucket, and he's going to be that kind of player. So that's another one. And finally, this is one we didn't hear from him. It's Price Sanford. Now, how he fits with Peyton and Josh Dix and even these new guys that are coming in. Cooper Koch also got a throw mention to him and love the shooting that he's going to provide for this team.

Starting point is 00:20:24 What kind of role is Price going to have this season? I don't think it's a real big one. I don't think the minutes are going to be there to see a big jump up this year. One final go around, though, with his brother. That's one that I'm still kind of in wait and see mode with him and what he is going to be. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Coming to you from Las Vegas. I've got some betting information coming up for you later this week. We've talked about in the past over with our friends at FanDuel what they put up for the college football odds. A

Starting point is 00:20:53 few other odds for you if you're looking to bet on the Iowa Hawkeyes coming up this season. Some games of the year. Those numbers also out. We'll talk about those here in the coming days. Plus an opportunity earlier this week to talk with Cham Leistiko after he was at that practice. Also, Scott Dockerman. We'll have those come your way here later in the week when I get back home. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Appreciate you all.

Starting point is 00:21:15 We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Go Hawks.

Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football: Who has the most pressure on them in 2024?

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