Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Hawkeye athletics makes history with women's wrestling plus predicting the Colorado State outcome

Episode Date: September 24, 2021

The Iowa Hawkeye athletic program made history with the announcement that they would be adding women's wrestling in 2023. We break down what all of that means and why Gary Barta is getting let off the hook easy but shouldn't be before diving into all of the storylines you need to know when Iowa takes on Colorado State tomorrow. How important is Jestin Jacobs? Will we see young guys like Arland Bruce IV and Keagan Johnson get more involved? How will the offensive line rotation continue to shake out with Connor Colby, Justin Britt, and Kyler Schott? We got you covered right here.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!SweatBlockGet it today for 20% off at SweatBlock.com with promo code LockedOn, or at Amazon and CVS.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.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back Hawkeye Nation to a Friday morning episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, excited to be back for another show today. And on today's show, we have to break down the amazing news in Iowa Hawkeye history. We are making history as an Iowa Hawkeye athletic program. We're the first Power Five program to officially offer a women's scholarship wrestling team.

And that is exciting news. We're going to cover all that on segment one. On segment two and segment three, we're going to be breaking down the storylines of this game. Iowa versus Colorado State that takes place in 24 hours. And we're going to be talking about how to bet that game as well. What should happen in this game? Giving our predictions. How much should Iowa win by?

And yes, I do believe they will win. And just a reminder, if you want more information on what to expect in this game, definitely check out our episodes on Wednesday and Thursday. We are a daily podcast, free Monday through Friday and on YouTube as well. I do want to remind you that if you want more information on the Big Ten Conference, if you want to know how good is Maryland, what is Ohio State doing? There's simply no better place to get all the news in the Big Ten conference than with Nate Dickinson and the Locked On Big Ten podcast. Follow the Locked On Big Ten podcast on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast at. All right, y'all, and that will get us into this. This is the biggest

thing we've had happen in quite some time from an Iowa Hawkeye athletic program. Yes, I know Iowa has had a lot of really good teams, but this is a history-making type of situation, and I want to break down all angles of it. So Iowa officially announced they're going to be the first Power 5 program to offer women's wrestling. That is huge. That is an instrumental impact on the history of the sport and on women everywhere.

I want to get to the good first, and then I'll discuss the other angle of it. So Iowa is going to start in 2023-2024. They're currently looking for a head coach at this point. And again, they are the first Power 5 program to offer this. If you were on Twitter yesterday, you saw an outpouring of support from women everywhere. We saw adults showing their little girls wrestling and saying they have something to look forward to. They have something they can be excited about going forward. And it just makes sense that the best wrestling program in the nation offers this first. There's already wrestling at the Iowa high school level. I actually have my sister's best friend, her daughter wrestles. I think that's

pretty awesome. And it's pretty cool to know that they now have an opportunity to go play a power five sport, to go play and wrestle in a power five school at a big-time school like Iowa. The coaches are going to be separate, so it's not going to be the brands doing this. There's going to be a different coach. But they did have a really good quote, I thought, that head coach Brands said. He said, women's wrestling is awesome. It's great for the women. There's little girls across the country and across the planet that are going to see this.

It's that impactful. But let me tell you something about it that impacts the men it makes the men's program stronger women's wrestling since its inception has always made has always made men's wrestling better there's a correlation and it's documented i think that's awesome i mean again the fact that we already have such a renowned men's wrestling program it makes sense for iowa to now offer a women's wrestling program. And this is going to be a big-time opportunity. From a national media perspective, this is huge. This is great news to see Iowa in the news for this,

as opposed to other reasons like Gary Barta removing sports. This is awesome to see them make history like this, and it gives them a leg up on the competition going forward. This puts Iowa women's wrestling in the driver's seat in terms of winning national titles going forward. In just two years, we'll be able to start seeing the, you know, the fruits of that labor come to fruition. So really excited about that. Now, the other side of this that I want to make sure we cover, because I think it's important to cover, is the fact that this came because of the lawsuit between the Title IX violations Iowa was having. And Gary Barta did not mince words on this at all.

He said, were it not for the Title IX lawsuit, I wasn't ready to add women's wrestling yet. But I can tell you, while the timing may be challenging, the decision is awesome. in women's wrestling yet. But I can tell you, while the timing may be challenging, the decision is awesome.

We have had Matt Purdy on talking about the decision to remove and cancel sports across the Iowa Hawkeye athletic community, right? Removing men's swimming and diving, gymnastics, tennis, and also cutting women's swimming and diving,

and then ultimately reversing on that decision. There are several aspects of that that Matt was upset about it was the lack of communication from gary barda it was a lack of strategic vision from gary barda it was the lack of willingness to actually have a conversation with people who cared who were able to come up with the plan to make money to actually make this profitable make these sports sports profitable. So while a guy like Matt, Matt is very excited for women's wrestling, and he completely agrees that women's wrestling, Iowa should be the first school to offer women's wrestling. He is still upset and annoyed by the fact that the initial outpour of support was for Gary Barta to be the first guy to do this.

I have never been a big Gary Barta supporter, and I think this is just a good example of where he has done a really good job of burying the lead. The news now is Iowa adds women's wrestling. What happened was Gary was getting sued, and he needed to add more scholarships, so he decided to add more scholarships. So he decided to add women's wrestling. Awesome. That's huge. Doesn't change the fact that we offered women's wrestling. However, it's coming from such a bad thing because he decided to cut

several sports and was getting sued for violating title nine. I seriously wonder how long Gary Barta could stay in his position. A lot of the Iowa Hawkeye athletic program success is not because of Gary Barta. He did not make a lot of those coaching hires. He has not been the person instrumental for the resurgence in this athletic community. And I think his handling of this even says as much. It almost takes away from the excitement because he didn't feel like he wanted to do it yet he felt like he had to do it in order to not be sued more as part of their you know agreement for doing this it just it's an interesting situation i want i want to focus on the positive

first because i think that's the most important thing, but I also want to point out the other angle of this and the fact that Gary Barta, he's not very good at his job, and he did a really good job of burying the lead on this one, and do not let him off the hook for this. This is because of a bad action he took. But nevertheless, the most important takeaway here

is that Iowa adds women's wrestling, and most important takeaway here is Iowa adds women's wrestling, and that is huge for the sport of women's wrestling. It's huge for the Iowa Hawkeye athletic community. It's huge for men's wrestling. It's huge for just Iowa Hawkeyes across the nation. It's even more huge for women and girls across the nation as they have another opportunity. Love that. Super excited about it. Coming up on segment two, we're going to talk about the storylines for Iowa versus Colorado State and then get into our predictions. I do want to remind you that Bilt Bar is the best tasting protein bar on the market today.

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Use the promo code LOCKED15, that's L-O-C-K-E-D-1-5, for 15% off at built.com. All right, y'all, we are back for our segment two of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Again, talking about the storylines. Yesterday, we talked a lot about Colorado State. So just to give you a recap, if you didn't listen to yesterday's episode, and I highly recommend you do, here's the breakdown of Colorado State, okay? They do not have a very good offense.

It is incredibly inconsistent the big playmaker is trey mcbride a potential first round tight end prospect they love to throw the ball to trey mcbride almost half or over half of their receiving yards have gone to trey mcbride they potentially are missing their top wide receiver their offensive line is terrible at best There's a few guys who can do a little bit, but this is an opportunity for the defensive line to feast. Yet they do like to run the ball. They are very, very consistent at trying to run the ball. David Bailey, a big-time running back, a big running back who can mow over guys,

has done a fantastic job of getting yards after contact. And Todd Sancio, the quarterback, has been incredibly up and down, but mostly down as of late. His performance has been slowly decreasing since the season began. This is a team that lost the South Dakota State and FCS team 42-23. They lost to Vanderbilt 24-21, and they beat Toledo 22-6. Defensively, this is a team that has put it together. They are a team that runs a 4-3 defense, something that Iowa is familiar with. They have done a very good job in rush defense,

allowing 1.9 yards per carry. Their pass rush has done an unbelievable job, now granted against teams who have pretty poor offensive lines, but they have 71 pressures, 10 sacks, 14 hits, and 47 hurries through three games. Coverage-wise, there's some vulnerability there, and I think that's why Iowa has the ability to potentially go over the top.

Finally, they're not a very disciplined team, 121st in the nation in penalties, but special teams is where they actually almost are very similar to Iowa. They have one of the best punters in the nation, Ryan Stonehouse, who's averaging 51.9 yards per punt, and they have a kicker who literally helped them win the game last week by kicking five field goals. So that is good to know when I get to the prediction standpoint about how good their kicker is. Now let's get into the storyline for this game. Last week, a lot of things I've talked about

was I really wanted to see some of the younger guys play, and we didn't get a chance to do that until the last four or five plays of the game. So in this game, I do want to see some of these younger guys. These are opportunities for these younger guys to get more experience and more snaps. I would love to get Alex Padilla more experience, more snaps. I know Kirk is still trying to figure out what that offensive line rotation looks like. I think he knows who his top six guys are. I don't think he has a great idea of who seven through 11 are or seven through 10 are. And I would love to see that happen as well.

So those younger guys are going to be something that I'm watching for. I want to see some of these younger guys get in. I want to see these younger guys get more playing time. Once Iowa get to come full lead. Gavin Williams, I thought looked pretty good against Kent State. I would love to see him get some more snaps in this game after Ivory Kelly Martin continues to get his confidence back. That is huge.

We saw Arlen Bruce and Tyrone Tracy Jr. do pretty well as well. They got in. They had two targets each. Arlen caught his first catch of his college career for a first down. That is exciting. And actually, a quick plug here. There is some cool stuff coming out. We have done our first NAI deal. NIL deal. Wow. Not NIL. NIL deal with Arlen Bruce. So be on the lookout for that.

Really excited for what's to come there. Obviously big fans of Arlen. He's been on the show before. I really like him, but I'd love to see him get some more playing time, see him get some more playing time and get involved in the offense a bit more creatively. In high school, the guy could do everything. He sat up at running back. He was in the slot. He was at quarterback. Let's involve him a little bit more. What if we put him at the wildcat with Tyler Goodson? How fun would that be? That adds a different dynamic to this offense. Defensively, again, I want to see that defensive line rotation. They've done a really good job. We've talked about it on Tuesday about what that defensive line rotation looks like. Lucas Van Ness has really come on strong as of late. Logan Lee has done a really good job. I want to see some of those younger guys

continue to develop there. And at corner, again, we're going to lose a lot of the secondary, so getting some more of those guys in there. Terry Roberts, we saw some time as well. That is the stuff I'm looking for. Jamari Harris as well. The big piece after the younger guys is can Iowa's defense clean up the unforced issues? Iowa's defense was not good against Kent State, and I want to make that very clear. Kent State had a solid team. I even predicted that Kent State was going to score early on. I thought they could do that, and they did. I thought Iowa's defense was not going to be ready for it. Kent State was going to score early on. I thought they could do that, and they did. I thought Iowa's defense was not going to be ready for it.

Kent State was going to get them, and then Iowa was going to settle down. And that's kind of what happened. But the way it happened was not necessarily what I predicted. I thought Kent State was just going to RPO their way down the field, not throw deep balls over Riley Moss several times. Riley Moss was not ready for that game. He did not come prepared in that game. He did not look like he was into the game.

So I would love to see Iowa's defense clean this up because they cannot afford to have those kind of mistakes in a game against Maryland or Penn State or Wisconsin. You need to be locked in every single play. And I think what happened against Kent State will roll over to Colorado locked in every single play. And I think what happened against Kent State, we'll roll over to Colorado State in the sense of they are not letting off now. That was a very nice wake-up call in a sense.

Iowa's defense has a lot of things they can clean up. Now, they played really well. Seven sacks, right? A forced fumble at the goal line. Not a lot of points, right? So they definitely did a good job to an extent, but there's a lot of things they can clean up and I want to see them do that against a Colorado State offense that has not looked that good and has been very inconsistent to the season. Can Iowa keep the running game going? They had

a good day against Kent State, one of the worst rush defenses in the nation. Now they're going up against one of the best rush defenses in the nation. How much of that is the teams that Colorado State has played, and how much of that is Colorado State and what they actually do? I expect them to load the box up. They're going to do a 4-3, but I expect them to bring more guys in the box to try to stop the run and force Spencer Petras to throw the ball. And that's why I think Spencer could have a big day. But I think it's going to be kind of the inverse,

where Iowa likes to run the ball to open it up. I think Iowa's going to need to throw the ball to open up the running lanes for Tyler Goodson because then Colorado State cannot afford to pack the box. We've seen it. Iowa State, every first down, they were all in the box ready for Iowa to run it. They said, you know what, Spencer? Throw the ball. We dare you. We need Spencer to actually be able to call their bluff on that. Will the offense hit more explosive plays? That is the big knock on Iowa right now. You read any national media pundits' information or articles out there,

and all of them are calling Iowa a fake, not legit, a team that is going to be upset at some point because they don't have explosive plays. Iowa has not been known for having explosive plays. However, it's even worse than before. They need to have some. This is a team that typically prides itself on, from a defensive perspective, not allowing explosive plays. But offensively, they do need to hit more than just one.

They need to be able to go over top. have some speedsters they have some guys who can do this heck they just need to hit guys even in the middle of field give them some open daylight give tyrone tracy an opportunity to run with the ball in his hands we haven't seen a lot of end around to this point either which i think is really interesting with amir sith-marset that was a lot of fun to see charlie jones has similar speed tyrone Tracy Jr., I think, is a better yard after the catch runner. He'd be good with the ball in his hands as well. And then Arlen Bruce. We have guys who can do this.

So I'd love to see Iowa hit a few more explosive plays, put that on tape. And then finally, Justin Jacobs, man. He is going to have a day against Trey McBride. It is going to be a fun matchup to watch. Justin Jacobs has been the third best coverage guy across the entire team. There's a reason why he is coming in McBride. It is going to be a fun matchup to watch. Justin Jacobs has been the third best coverage guy across the entire team. There's a reason why he is coming in on passing downs for Seth Benson,

who has also been pretty solid in coverage at this point. But Justin Jacobs has been the guy, and I'm excited to see how he handles Trey McBride. Again, with the Colorado State offense playing a lot of 12, 13, 14 personnel, that's two, three, four tight ends, one running back, we're going to see a lot more 4-3 defense. We might not have seen Dane Belton that much this game.

And if we do, I'm going to be really excited to break that down and see how we saw Dane Belton get into the game and where they're placing that. But Justin Jacobs is going to be the guy that I'm watching. After two games this season that we've seen him primarily play him, he has done a phenomenal job. He's a guy who is breaking out onto the national scene. He's an NFL type of player. And I'm excited to see what he can do against Trey McBride.

It gives Phil Parker's defense a lot more flexibility when you have a guy like Justin Jacobs who can be big enough to take on Trey McBride from a run block or a running perspective and also cover him from a passing perspective. So that'll be a big matchup that I'm looking forward to seeing as well. Coming up on segment three, we're going to get into the predictions of this game. Can Iowa cover a 23 and a half point. Coming up on segment three, we're going to get into the predictions of this game. Can Iowa cover a 23.5 point spread? I think they can. We're going to talk about all that on segment three of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast.

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Segment one, we talked about Iowa wrestling. Segment two, we talked about the storylines of this game. Segment three, we're breaking down the predictions for this game. And I want to just quickly toot my own horn because I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, I might have missed one thing here. But to this point, I've told you how to bet on the overs, the unders, the spreads, and even a couple first half spreads. I think I'm 7-0 or 7-1 to this point.

I know I called the spread in the under versus Indiana. I called the spread in the under versus Iowa State. And I called the spread, even if it was kind of a crappy way to cover, in the under versus Kent State. I even, I believe, predicted the fact that Kent State would cover the first half spread.

So I could be, I think I'm right there as well. That being said, I'm going to make some interesting predictions now. I think Iowa is going to absolutely demolish Colorado State. On paper, Colorado State looks like a team that could give Iowa difficulties. Where they're good at, Iowa's struggled at, right? Their defense has been pretty solid. Colorado State has been so inconsistent, though, to to this point let's start with the spread 23 and a half that is a lot that is a lot for iowa to cover however i make this game to be something around 42 to 7 42 to 10.

To me, I'm hammering this 23 and a half. I think Iowa could easily cover that. I think they're going to come out more motivated than they were before. They did not open up that playbook lot. They were more focused on getting the ball to their playmakers, moving horizontally, and just being safe with the football. I think we're going to see an offense, after what we heard from Kirk Ferentz as well, saying this offense, this is the best two days of practice.

We're ready. I think this offense is going to come out ready to roll. The over-under is 44.5. I'm hammering that as well. Let's go with the over, baby. So when you look at Colorado State in the three games this season, they are one and two against the spread, the one game being the one they beat Toledo. They have scored over 22 points in each game, and they would have topped the over in two of three. In the last three years, they are 1-0 versus ranked opponents, and as the away underdog since 2009, they are 20-22, and in the last three years, they are 3-4 against the spread. On the flip side, Iowa has only gone over the 44-point total once, but they've scored 27 or more in each of these games.

So really it comes down to do we believe Iowa can score more and do we believe Colorado State can score a little bit more as well. When you look at points scored in the first half, so I'm just giving you these numbers and I'm going to break down what I'm thinking. Colorado State is 99th in points in the first half with 8.5. Iowa's 24th with 20.3. In 2020, they had 17.8, so it's not like a huge variance here. The only concern is Iowa's 19th in points allowed in the first half with 6.7.

It's also worth noting that Iowa doesn't allow a lot of points in general. And Colorado State is 12th with 5. I'm not too worried about Colorado State's defense. Again, I don't think they're going to stuff Iowa. They have not had a high level of competition to this point. So here's the numbers. Spread, minus 23.5. Over-under, 44.5.

First half, over-under, 23.5. First half spread, minus 13.5. I'm taking Iowa to the spread, 23.5. I think they're going to win 42-7, 42-10. The over-under, 44.5. I'm taking Iowa to the spread, 23.5. I think they're going to win 42-7, 42-10. The over-under, 44.5. Well, just based off my numbers here, I'm hammering that 44.5. I think Iowa might be able to reach that over-under on their own, and that's why I feel comfortable with this.

But the thing that makes me feel better is that Iowa's bend-but-don't-break defense stops teams in the 20s and 30s. A good field goal-kicking team can get points in the board still, and I think that's what Colorado State can do. They have a good kicker. They're probably going to make three to four field goals in this game. They might make it nine to 12 points, and that will be enough to cover that over. That first half over-under, I do think Iowa's going to come out explosive. You don't want to bet on Iowa in the second half because you don't know what they're going to do.

When they get a lead, they typically just sit on the ball. It really depends. When they have their starters and they kind of sit on the ball, when they get a big enough lead, they put their backups in and they start running on the field and trying to do some things to get their guys some really good exposure and playing time. So I would not bet on the second half over-under at all. But that first half over-under of 23.5, I'm going to take that as well.

I think Iowa could put up 24 points in that first half alone. It's something they've almost done several times this season. And that first half spread of minus 13.5, I'm taking as well. I think it could be 24-3, 24-6, or even 24-9. And Iowa's still covering that. So I think Iowa's going to score 24 points in the first half. I think they're ultimately going to score 42-ish for the game. I think Colorado State could get a couple field goals,

but it's not going to be anything to write home about. Those are my predictions. Let me know what your thoughts are. Again, I think this is going to be a really fun game for Iowa fans to see how this offense has continued to evolve over the beginning part of the season. People do not like things coming along slowly. Iowa's offense has always come along slowly.

Thankfully, we were able to manage against two pretty good teams before getting Kent State and Colorado State. This is the game where they pick it up. After two good practices, a couple good practices this week, I believe this offense is set for an explosion. I think Spencer Petras is going to have a big-time day, and I'll be shocked if he doesn't. Let me know if you're following me on these bets as well. Let me know what your thoughts are. Again, thank you all for tuning in to the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast,

your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Lockdown Podcast Network. I do want to remind you that betting on your team doesn't have to be a guessing game. If you listen to the new Lockdown Bets podcast, hosted by your boy Q and handicapping expert Lee Sterling, Get daily picks, blowout specials, wrong team favorite picks and Lee Sterling's lock of the day. Follow the Locked On Bets podcast brought to you by betonline.ag wherever you get your podcast app. And that will do it for our show today. Thank you all for tuning in. Have a fantastic Friday and even better weekend and let's go Hawks.