Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football/Baseball: Updates on Racial Discrimination and Iowa's Impressive Wins Over Rutgers

Episode Date: April 28, 2022

On today's episodes I continued discussing the recent updates regarding the racial discrimination lawsuit currently happening within the Iowa Hawkeye's Football program. I discussed the new counts that have been presented in the case and also what those counts mean as well as some positives that are currently going on within the Hawkeye's program including a change in team culture and recruiting.I know we don't really get the chance to talk about Iowa Men's Baseball much on the podcast but the Hawkeyes put on an ABSOLUTE SHOW against #1 ranked in the B1G, Rutgers over this past weekend. Iowa managed to go 2-1 against the Scarlet Knights which is not something a whole lot of people expected Iowa to do.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.Athletic GreensAthletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/COLLEGE. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

are locked on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening to whoever and wherever you are, Hawkeye Nation. Welcome back to another episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked on Podcast Network. I want to thank you all for making the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast your very first listen every single day. for making the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast your very first listen every single day. You can find the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast for free wherever you get your podcasts at and also on YouTube by searching Locked on Hawkeyes. Now, to get into things today, we talked a little bit yesterday about the racial discrimination

lawsuit currently going on within the Iowa Hawkeyes football organization slash program, whatever you want to call it. the Iowa Hawkeyes football organization slash program, whatever you want to call it. So yesterday I began talking about some recent updates in the racial discrimination lawsuit that is happening. If you haven't heard about this lawsuit or if you still don't know much about it, I covered a lot of it in yesterday's episode. So make sure you go check that out. If you would like more information, you are more than welcome to DM me on Twitter or

on Instagram, and I will answer your questions to the best of my abilities and my knowledge. I'm just a regular guy, so I will give you the best answers that I possibly can. I'm sure you can find more information about it online, whether you use Google, Safari, whatever it is. If you want to do a little bit of research on your own about it, you're more than welcome to do that as well. But I will try to give you the best answers that I possibly can if you come to me seeking information. And today, I am going to sort of finish out the updates that have recently come about in the, excuse me, sorry. I'm going to finish up the updates that have happened recently with the lawsuit. So I mentioned it at the beginning of yesterday's episode, and I want to mention it again. None of the information that I

am talking about today is a representation of my opinion on the lawsuit, and the information I am reporting on has come from an article written by Chad Lesticow, who is a writer for Hawk Central and also works at the Des Moines Register. So jumping right back into the updates, the trial date is set for March 7th of 2023, which is still about 10 months away, so I'm sure there is still a lot that is yet to happen within the case. Dispositions have yet to happen with Brian and Kirk Ferens, as well as Chris Doyle, since the plaintiffs are still waiting for Judge Stephanie Rose's ruling on personnel reports that I mentioned yesterday. On Friday, the University of Iowa's lawyers explained why they think the four new counts against the program should be denied, and their

reasoning had to do with time-barring accusations as well as insignificant evidence or insufficient evidence. I didn't get a chance to go in depth about what the new counts really are and what they really mean for the lawsuit, so I will be talking about counts three through six. Count three is an equal protection clause violation against Chris Doyle, Brian Ferencz, and Seth Wallace. Count four is an equal protection cause violation against Kirk Ferencz for a failure to train and supervise. Count five is also an equal protection clause violation for failure to train and supervise against Athletic Director Gary Barta. And Count 6 is a deprivation of rights retaliation submitted by Kirk Ferentz against Jonathan Parker. As you know, back in January, Kirk Ferentz signed a new contract with Iowa that ultimately raised his pay to an immense $56 million over the next eight years.

About a week and a half after Ferentz signed his salary contract, he sent an email to his personal advisory committee that stated he was being, quote, or excuse me, that stated he was, quote, dissolving the committee in its current form. dissolving the committee in its current form. And then later, Ferenc said that a new committee would be formed with younger members who also happen to be ex-Hawkeye players. The committee was originally created back in 2020 when the racial bias and discrimination allegations came out. And as far as this past weekend, Ferenz has not yet put together a new committee. After the spring game this past Saturday, Ferentz spoke with the media about his personal advisory committee. In a statement, Ferentz said, quote,

The last month, the focus has been more on our team. Yeah, I've got some ideas. I think we're getting closer. We've probably, excuse me, we'll probably have this wrapped up here by June. Now, before we get into the rest of the information that I have for you regarding the lawsuit today, I want to talk about Bilt Bar. Summer is coming up very, very fast here in just a couple weeks for me. And with summer, you're going to need to have some food on the go. Bilt Bars are the perfect snack to take with you on family vacations. You can throw them in your

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within the Hawkeyes program over the last about 23 or so months. over the last about 23 or so months. Players who are currently listed on Iowa's roster have noted a more overall inclusive culture within the program. And for the first time since he took over the head coaching responsibilities, Kirk Ferentz has half of the on-field assistant coaches at Iowa as African-American. This came after the hiring of the new tight ends coach, Abdul Hodge, back in March. Recruiting has also been going very, very well for the program over the last few months during the offseason. And according to 24-7 Sports, as well as the NCAA, Iowa,

along with Baylor, are the only Power 5 programs within the NCAA with five or less player departures since August of last year. But going along with that, Solomon Simmons, who I talked about immensely yesterday, talked in the Des Moines Register interview that I also mentioned yesterday about the university's $1.1 million payment to Doyle in a separation agreement saying, quote, that's generous for even great employees. Plus the way the advisory committee has been handled are indicators of a deeper problem that hasn't been fixed. We said in our hearing on March 11th that we believe that the advisory council was just a PR move to simmer things down in the

wake of the killing of George Floyd. And now that things have moved on and Ferentz received his contract extension and his raise, he doesn't need that anymore. Plus it's undisputed, right? That the, excuse me, that the handpicked chairperson of the committee who is former offensive lineman, David Porter for the Hawkeyes stated that Kirk Ferentz and other coaches were not willing to do what was necessary to really understand what they had done and to really do what's necessary to have true actual accountability and transformational change. That's not my words, that's David Porter words. We think that's why the case is important because the University of Iowa

has proven from our perspective that they do not have the capacity to do what's necessary to make sure that this does not happen again. Definitely far from over on both sides. And it will continue to grow, or excuse me, continue to go on and on over the next few months right up until the trial date, which is set for March 7th, I believe, of next year. This is a very touchy subject. And I did want to come on here today. This will be the last time that I talk about the lawsuit in any sort of main capacity on the podcast. If there do happen to be more updates that come out, I will talk about them in a sort of story of the day type of scenario, but they will not be main topics. main topics. I understand that there's not really a whole lot of content creators or media personnel such as myself out there who are talking about this lawsuit right now. And that's why I thought that it was very important to come on here and kind of explain everything that's going on because

I want to make sure that everybody is informed in the best way that they possibly can. Because when you're not properly informed, you get this thing where people believe one thing and other people believe the other thing, and that's not right. That's not how this should go. And I mean in no way to get into anything political that has nothing to do with this podcast.

All I'm saying is that I want everybody who listens to this podcast to be educated on the situation and know exactly what's going on. And that is why I'm offering you to hit me up on Instagram or on Twitter to ask me any questions that you have or to do a little bit of your research on your own. That's completely up to you. But I just want to make sure that everybody knows exactly everything that's going on within

this lawsuit. exactly everything that's going on within this lawsuit. The only other thing that I will say pertaining to this is that in my opinion, racial bias and discrimination has no place in this world or in sports or in anything in general, whether that be at the high school level, the college level, or the professional level. My belief is that racial bias and discrimination is never okay and it should never be tolerated. So I believe that if these statements and these accusations come out to be true, that Iowa's coaching staff and those responsible should be punished in the correct way for what they have done. That is the only thing, as I said, that is the only thing, the only part of my opinion that I will inject into this subject. And that's really all I have to say about it,

is that racial bias and discrimination is not something that I stand for. And I really hope that it's not something that you stand for either. And I hope that if these accusations do turn out to be true, that everyone involved is given a correct and fair punishment and that justice is overall served. I mentioned yesterday that I was very nervous to talk about this subject because it is something that has become a very large problem in the world of sports especially and it's something that needs to be fixed. It's not something that can go around and be tolerated. That's just personally my opinion. I'm very against racial bias and discrimination, so it needs to be fixed in some way, shape, or form

so that we can continue on with loving sports as fans, as media analysts, whoever you are, whatever you do. We want sports back. And this is really something that's been hindering that sort of thing. We've seen it in professional baseball. We've seen it in professional football. And we've seen it now, especially in college football. It's never something that is okay. And it needs to be fixed because it makes it really hard as a fan to watch sports knowing that somebody out there is not getting the opportunity that they should or is not um you know playing to their standards and abilities that they know that they can based off of racial discrimination and bias so it really

i mean i i apologize for saying, but it really sucks that this kind of thing has continued to go on in the world of sports. And I really wish that it would go away because it's really hard to sit down and watch a game knowing that those things continue to go on and that they have gone on for a very long time. So again, this is the last time that I will talk about this lawsuit on this podcast unless there are new updates that come out and they will not be a main sort of topic unless they are fairly large to the case, but I will continue to give you guys updates about it so that you continue to stay well informed. about it so that you continue to stay well informed. So before we get into today's story of the day, I would like to talk about Rock Auto. Rockauto.com. You can save time and you can save

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right now, they have a lot of great accessories on there as well. It's absolutely great. So go to rockauto.com right now and see all the parts available for your car and truck. They have an amazing selection, reliably low prices, and it has all of the parts your car will ever need. Once again, that is rockauto.com. Now, the story of the day. So yesterday, I mentioned that I wanted to talk about Iowa's games that they played versus Rutgers this past weekend over in New Jersey. Now, I know I'm going to get comments and DMs on Twitter that we don't talk about baseball or softball on this podcast. And yes, you're right. They're smaller sports at the University of Iowa, and we don't typically

talk about them because they are not Iowa's main sports. But, you know, in light of what I've reported on the last two days, I figured we could all use, you know, sort of a feel good story to pick up our spirits a little. And on top of that, Iowa's performance against Rutgers was extremely impressive. And I didn't even, I didn't, I will admit to you, I will fully admit, I did not watch the games, but I saw the videos on Twitter. I saw the highlight videos. They're crazy. And personally, I'm not the biggest fan of baseball. Football is by far my favorite sport and will always be the one that I watch religiously, but this was insane by Iowa. So if, if you didn't know, as of right now, Rutgers is the top rankedranked baseball team in the Big 10

with an overall record of 33-9 and a conference record of 12-3, which isn't exactly characteristic of Rutgers having a record of 12-3, if you know what I mean, but we're not going to get into that. And currently, Iowa sits in the No. 4 spot behind No. 2 Maryland and No. 3 Illinois with an overall record of 24-13 and a conference record of 8-4. So over the weekend, the Hawkeyes traveled to New Jersey to play Rutgers in a three-game series and Iowa won the first two games 4-1 and 12-2 respectively and ultimately lost the third game 10-4. But winning two of these three games is absolutely massive for the Hawkeyes baseball team because going into the weekend, Rutgers was in the top five in all of the NCAA

in both batting average and overall ERA. Now, if you don't know what ERA is, because I will admit I have not known what ERA means for a large time, but I have learned it in the last couple of months. And now I know that it means earned run average, and that is a pitching stat. So basically that means it's how many earned runs a pitcher gives up throughout the course of a game. So say in the MLB, if a pitcher has a six ERA, that is not very good.

That means he averages six earned runs per game, and that's not good. Five is not terrible, four is good, and anything below four is extremely impressive for a pitcher. Now, Iowa was able to have solid pitching in the first two games and played very well on defense, only having one error. So if we get into pitching, Adam Mazur started the first game on Friday. He went and pitched eight innings, only giving up six hits and one earned run. He also had 11 strikeouts and walked no one, so he improved to 4-2 on the season as a starter. Dylan Nedvid took over the ninth inning in that first game and had his third save of the season. Connor Schultz started off the second game and also went eight innings, only allowing two hits,

no earned runs. He struck out six batters and walked one while improving to 2-0 on the season as a starter. Tyler Langenberg started the third game of the series. Excuse me, that is Ty Langenberg started the third game of the series. Only went in for one inning, ultimately giving up four earned runs. And that ultimately brought him down to 4-1 as a starter on the season. So not a very great game for Langenberg, but dual sporter for the Hawkeyes, Brody Breck, as you know. I talked about him on the podcast before.

This kid is an absolute marvel of the imagination. What a stud he is. A dual sporter for Iowa in baseball and in football as well. He only got to pitch for one inning in the final game, struck out all three batters in that inning. In the 12 games that Breck has played, he has gone one and two as a starter with an overall ERA of 2.5, which by the way is extremely impressive. Nine hits in 18 innings, which means he's batting 500, which is also pretty good too, and 34 strikeouts. So I'm excited. I was excited to talk about this today, especially because of Brecht, because

he's putting up numbers on the baseball diamond, and I'm so excited to see what he's going to be able to do on the field this upcoming fall for the Hawkeyes. I knew that he was going to be good. And that's the problem with dual sporters is usually when you're a dual sporter, you're really, really good at one sport and you're kind of just average at the other. Like now, take me for example. I know I talk about myself a lot on this podcast, but I'm only using it as an example. My junior year in high school, I dual sported track and golf, which are two extremely different sports. And I didn't really like golf all that much, but I really loved track. So I played in almost no golf meets and went to

almost no practices, but I was still on the team. Hopefully that's not the case for Breck. I hope that he's really able to shine on the football field this upcoming season. Hopefully that's not the case for Breck. I hope that he's really able to shine on the football field this upcoming season. Hopefully he can because he is clearly doing well on the baseball diamond as well. He's not the best player in the country on the diamond, you know what I mean? But he's definitely up there. So congrats to Breck for having a so far pretty successful season for the Hawkeyes. That is going to be it for today's episode. I appreciate all of you tuning in every single day. YouTube is going to be starting back up again soon.

We're going to have LaShawn on Friday's episode. And tomorrow, you've been waiting for it. I know you have. We're going to talk NFL draft coverage. So once again, thank you all for tuning in today's episode. Thank you all for your continued patience. And I really, really appreciate the comments and stuff and the questions that I'm getting asked on Twitter. I answered a couple of them yesterday on Twitter, and then I also talked about them on the podcast yesterday. So thank you for asking me

those questions. I love hearing from you guys, and I love talking to you about sports, about my opinions, about your opinions, whatever it is. Ask me any question you want, and most likely I'll answer it as long as it pertains something to do with the Hawkeyes or with college sports in general. So you're welcome to follow the Locked on Hawkeyes Twitter page at LockedOnIowa and the Instagram page as well. And you're welcome to follow my personal Twitter and Instagram at Rye Hill as well.

That's it for today's episode. Thank you all for tuning in and I will talk to you all tomorrow.