Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Hawkeye midseason review with Celia Palermo: Why Keagan Johnson, Logan Lee, and Lukas Van Ness are the biggest surprises in 2021

Episode Date: October 20, 2021

We are joined by WQAD's Celia Palermo to do an Iowa Hawkeye midseason review over this bye week. We break down why Keagan Johnson, Logan Lee, and Lukas Van Ness are our biggest surprises of the 2021 team before discussing the best players on both sides of the ball, and who or what the biggest disappointment has been this season. We wrap up the show with a prediction of how the Iowa Hawkeyes will finish out their remaining five games Big Ten West slate of games.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.PrizePicksDon’t hesitate, check out PrizePicks.com and use promo code: “LOCKEDON” or go to your app store and download the app today. PrizePicks is daily fantasy made easy! 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 another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Podcast Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade. Excited to be back with you all for another show today. And we are joined by a very special guest, a recurring guest to this point, Celia Palermo from WQAD.

She's going to be joining us on the show today. We're talking about Iowa football, doing some superlatives, talking about who was the best player, who's been someone who's been struggling, what is happening on the offensive and defensive side of the ball. We're covering all that on today's show. And I want to quickly thank you all for making the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast your first listen every single day. You can find the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast for free wherever you get podcasts at

and also on YouTube now, Monday through Friday, for free to search Locked on Hawkeyes. So, Celia, how are you doing, though? First of all, sorry about that. You're totally good. You know, I think I'm doing well. Obviously, Saturday was not fun from a work perspective. Nobody likes to see the Hawkeyes lose. Nobody likes to see the Hawkeyes lose nobody likes to see any

anyone lose ever um but I think things have settled down you know not all hope is not lost like we're moving forward it is uh yeah I think that's kind of we're finally when we're dropping the show it'll be Wednesday I think at this point most people are probably along the lines of we got to look forward now we We have five more games. All of our goals are still on the table from an Iowa Hawkeye perspective. When we came into the season, I don't think anyone was predicting Iowa to go 12-0. I don't think anyone was predicting Iowa to be a college football playoff contender. I think most people would have been pretty darn happy

if they shot at a New Year's Six Bowl. And that's very much in play still. I mean, we have five games. Iowa is favored in all five games, which is good on paper, scary in some regards when you're going to Wisconsin and you're favored, but nevertheless, Iowa favored in all their games should be an interesting end to the season.

And Purdue, you know what? You just got to wash it away and say it happened. Purdue is a, they coach, they have a good, well-coached team that plays well against Iowa. What else are you going to do about that when David Bell goes off for 230

something yards? So nevertheless, we're here. We're talking some positive things today. We're going to be breaking down the biggest surprise on offense, the biggest surprise on defense, the best offensive player, best defensive player, favorite play, and biggest disappointments on both sides of the ball. And we're going to do something a little different. Celia, I'm going to let you go first,

and then I'm going to pick someone different because I feel like some of these are going to be pretty easy to pick, and I want to make sure I don't cover yours as well. Okay. So I think, like, for example, one of us is going to pick Tyler Linderbaum probably at some point, right? So I think we got it. I'll go second.

We'll go from there. Celia, let's start off with the offensive side of the ball, though. Biggest surprise on offense. Oh, biggest surprise. You know, first of all, I think we need to get this out of the way that, you know, the Iowa offense has been underwhelming. And so coming up with a best of or a biggest surprise is actually a little bit more difficult than you might think. But I think for me, I'm really enjoying seeing Keegan Johnson.

He is a true freshman. Was that yours? I was really hoping you weren't going to pick him. That was going to be mine. I was like, I'm going to pick someone under the radar. I hope she doesn't pick this one. Okay, keep going. I'll pick someone. That's good. That means we're on the same page. Yeah, no, Keegan Johnson has been great. They have done an excellent job utilizing him. And talk about a guy who's come into the program as a freshman and really gotten right to work and fit right in with how they do things. They put him in, of course, not in tight game situations, but they have put him in in moments when the offense needs a spark. He's had a touchdown.

I mean, he's just done an incredible job of stepping up in, you know, in a moment like that when the game really hasn't slowed down for him at all. I talked to him last week. He says he's still, you know, there's still a pretty big learning curve for him, but he likes where things are headed, and he appreciates that his coaches trust him enough to throw him into the game to make something happen, especially in an offense that has needed sparks here and there to get things going. Yeah, Keegan Johnson has been phenomenal in his small amount of snaps that he's gotten.

I would argue he's one of the best man beaters on the team against Penn State and Purdue. He's the only guy that felt like he could get consistently open and make plays. And the best thing is when you get Keegan Johnson the ball, whether it's a 45-yard pass down the field against Colorado State or whether it's a five-yard curl, the guy can make plays. His balance, his control, his yak ability is truly phenomenal. And I actually, on the show yesterday, I made a big case for why I think Keegan Johnson deserves to either be starting or at least get starter-type snaps. I mean, this guy needs to get 30 to 40 snaps. What he's been doing has been truly amazing. That was going to be my pick. I was hoping you weren't going to take that. I'm going to go a little different here, and I'm going to say the biggest

surprise, and not necessarily in a good way, but just a biggest surprise that we have two freshmen on the offensive line. I think coming into the season, if you would have told me we were going to be starting a true freshman on the interior and a red shirt freshman on the exterior at the tackle spot, I would have laughed a little bit. I didn't think that was, that's typically not going to happen. And then also not nothing against Connor Colby, a top 300 player, but I would have thought it would have been David Davidoff, a guy who was the most highly touted prospect coming into this class.

Nevertheless, Connor Colby and Mason Richmond getting a ton of playing time and even beating out veterans who had the starting job initially. It wasn't like they were handed this role. They had a spot that they had to go grab. They were the number two on the depth chart and they've done a good job to that point of getting above those guys. Now we just need to see some consistency from both those guys. Mason Richmond has had some tough battles. It is not easy going up against Big Ten defensive linemen. Connor Colby also has struggles. And I think that probably has more to play in the fact that when you're at that guard spot, there's a lot more communication that goes on. You're not necessarily putting on an island where Mason Richmond is. But the nice thing about this, you have two freshmen who are playing very important spots in the offensive line. We saw Larrick Jackson do that before.

We saw Tristan Wirfs do that before. Those players turned out to be NFL players. Clearly, the staff really likes these guys. So it's a struggle right now, but I'm really excited to see the future of those guys. And that was my biggest surprise on the offensive side. Yeah, 100%. I think what you have to think about with those guys is, yeah, they're not perfect right now.

But if this is how they're playing as a redshirt freshman and as a true freshman, you can only imagine how much they can grow in the next two, three years and how efficient they can be at protecting the quarterback and protecting the ball and doing their job and making sure that there are holes for the run game and things like that and opportunities. So you can only imagine just how much they can grow in the next few years as they mature and as the game slows down for them. A hundred percent agree.

I mean, these are 18 and 19 year old. You can't call them young adults, I guess, going up against George Carl Aftis, who's going to be a first round pick and destroying quarterbacks. Yeah, a hundred percent. Like I, that's ridiculous. So yeah, definitely an interesting thing biggest surprise on defense biggest surprise on defense um i'm gonna go with you know we've talked about him

before but he has become a favorite for me very easily um logan lee um small town kid um you know he's dealt with nagging injuries and you know know, coming into the season, he, I believe he was second on the depth chart. I don't think he was listed in the starting spot. And so there really was no telling how much game action he was going to get. But I think from the very first game from Indiana, when we saw him check into the game and take some serious snaps, it became very clear. Hey, you can play and he can be a consistent factor on this defense. Since then, we've seen him move right in. He's getting, you know, 40 to 50 snaps a game and easily a mainstay on the Iowa defense

and a very important part of why that Iowa defense has been so consistently effective and so disruptive. Logan Lee's it for me. He's massive. He's put on 65 pounds since he came to Iowa out of high school, and he is easily becoming one of their top factors on this defense. Couldn't agree more. Former tight end converting to the defensive line.

That's not an easy thing to do. That's a completely different skill set and positional play style. I mean, that's just not easy to do. Looking at this afternoon, Logan Lee has played 241 snaps. So being a very integral part of this team, as you said, I thought you might be going a different way. And so I was like trying to think of someone else and then you went Logan Lee. And so I actually changed my mind. I was originally going to go with Justin Jacobs. I want to shout out Justin Jacobs because, you know, he was a four-star recruit. We weren't sure how he was going to get into this linebacker rotation

because we knew Iowa was more than likely going to play a lot of cash, which is two linebackers. But what Phil Parker has done with Justin Jacobs is really rotating him in a lot with Seth Benson and getting him still 30 to 35 snaps a game. And he has been a dominant playmaker. But as you said, Logan Lee, I thought, you know what? There's another guy on the offensive line that has also been playing really well.

And that's Lucas Van Ness. Interior defensive lineman has been absolutely dominating. Whenever I look up the advanced analytics, Lucas Van Ness is always up there in terms of pressures generated right now, second on the team with 18 pressures generated. The defensive line has struggled, and that's what I'm going to talk about later on when we get to one of our other superlatives. But I think the young guys that are showing up, I mean, there's some really good hope for how this defensive line can develop for the next couple of years to come. We're finally in a position where Iowa is not going to lose three defensive

linemen to the NFL. This defensive line could be a wrecking force for future years. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I think it speaks to, you know, coming into this season, you and I spoke, and this was a pretty much a narrative all across Iowa media was that there were a lot of question marks on the defensive line and we really weren't sure how they were going to function, how cohesive they were going to be, how effective they were going to be. I think they've risen to the occasion. You know, I think they've shown, Hey, listen, yeah, we're young. Yeah. A lot of us don't have that much experience. There's, you know, I think we can point to one guy who has a ton of game experience, Zach Van Valkenburg, of course, he's an incredible

player, but they have risen to the, and they have managed to do their job in a way that I don't think a lot of people expected. And so, like with the offensive line, if this is where they are now, you can imagine, as they develop even more, how great they can be and how even more effective they can be in years to come. Couldn't agree more. I mean, if you take away maybe the Purdue game, where I think Purdue, their offensive line just had a great day against Iowa.

But outside of that, they have done really well to this point of generating pressure without needing a lot of blitzes, which allows Iowa to do what they want to do and sit back in coverage. Purdue is just such a weird game. Again, wash that game out. It is not a normal game. The offensive lines Iowa is going to be going up against is not going to be at the level of a Purdue or even a Penn State going forward. So there's going to be a

lot of opportunities for this defensive line going forward. We're going to get into some more superlatives here in a second, but I do want to tell you all about Price Picks. Price Picks is daily fantasy made easy. I love this and I know that you will too. Price Picks is a leader in college sports daily fantasy. They offer more college football props than anyone in the world and they offer all the star players of the power five, as well as the mid major players. You might not have even heard of. They offer any prop you can think of from yardage to touchdowns,

even interceptions thrown. So basically any week, if you were picking the opposing quarterback against Iowa, you probably could go over on the interceptions and you were going to hit on that. All users just need to go in, use the promo code of locked on when you sign up and deposit, and you'll get a 100% instant deposit match

up to $100. Here's how it works. You pick two to five players. You pick the over-under on their projections. You can mix and match sports, and you can do this all in under 60 seconds. PrizePix is safe and offers fast withdrawals. Don't hesitate.

Check out prizepix.com and use the promo code LOCKEDON, that's L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N, or go to your app store and download the app today. Prize Fix's daily fantasy made easy. I want to thank you all again for making the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast your first listen every single day. You can find the podcast wherever you get podcasts at

and also on YouTube for free Monday through Friday. Search Locked On Hawkeyes. So, Celia, we talked about the biggest surprise on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball. Let's talk about the best offensive player and the best defensive player. Now let's get into that. We'll kick it off with offensive player. I feel like you can really go one of two directions here. So I'll probably be taking the other direction that you don't go. Well, like we kind of mentioned before, it's difficult to point to, you know, your best offensive player, just because the offense really

hasn't been the one getting the job done to to win games nothing against them they're figuring it out they're just not unfortunately it is what it is and scoring more points than that um uh so i let's see best offensive player i think it's a no-brainer you got to go tyler linderbaum he's one of the most experienced guys on the team in general and he he does his job. He absolutely plays lights out every single game. Now at that point, then it's on Spencer Petras and the running backs and the wide receivers and your tight ends to actually move the ball down the field. But in terms of getting his job done and performing at a high level, I have to go Tyler Linderbaum. Yeah. I mean, no disagreement there. I would, I was like, when we did this together, I disagreement there. I would, I, I was like,

when we did this together, I was like, I'm going to, I'm going to pick two just cause I figured there's some that like, I would love to go Tyler Linderbaum here as well. It's he's the clear, he's the best player on the team. He's one of the best players in the country.

I mean, I just saw a mock draft done by Matt Miller, NFL, NFL draft scout, a former bleacher report analyst also on ESPN. He has Tyler Linderbaum going, I think 11 to the New York jets. I mean, that's, that's a center centers don't go that high. So, I mean,

that's just how good he is. And it's only his third year. I mean, this is ridiculous. Junior and you're definitely predicted to be in the first round, if not maybe even one of the first 10 draft picks. That's insane. As a center, like you don't see that very often. No. And like coming from a converted defense, I don't know. Some of the stuff Iowa does with these players is truly amazing. Robert Gallery is always going to stick in my mind being a tight end moving to tackle, but my best offensive player is the entire

Linderbaum has taken. I have to go Tyler Goodson. I think whenever Tyler Goodson has the ball in his hand, you don't know what's going to happen, and that's a good thing. I think there's a lot of things he still needs to improve on on I think he can sometimes get a little bit too happy feet and dances a little bit too much because he doesn't see a hold and he wants to create something out of nothing which is it's a good problem to have to a degree against Maryland he created stuff but against teams you have guys who are swarming to the football you're not going to have that opportunity you need to take one cut and go up the field. And we saw that in this game against Purdue. They take him out for a whole series

and they put Ivory Kelly Martin in. Ivory Kelly Martin has the same speed, if not better speed than Tyler Goodson, but he also just does one cut. He's not going to dance. One cut and in. We just need two to three yards sometimes. We just can't be taking some of those losses.

However, 98% of the time, Tyler Goodson is one of the best players we have on the team and one of the most explosive players we've had in a very long time. And what he can do when he gets the ball in his hands is truly amazing. So I'm going Tyler Goodson with the best offensive player. I think it's obvious that's the offensive player too, because Tyler Linderbaum is definitely number one. Two, two Tyler's.

Yep, exactly. Best defensive player. Who is yours? I think this could go a lot of different ways. So, um, you know, I'm really sad that he's out right now, but I'm going to go Riley. I knew it. I knew you were going to pick Riley. I just love Riley.

I love Riley as a person. He's a character. He has fun with it. He doesn't take things too seriously, but he's also an incredibly skilled athlete. And I think from the very first game when he had that pick six, his first pick six, I think it was very clear that there were special things on the way for this defense. And he has stepped up in, you know, he's just been incredibly disruptive on the defense. Those, you know,

turnovers that he's forcing are incredible. He continues just to play at a high level so when i saw him go down with an injury at that moment i was like i was in trouble i was in trouble and luckily i mean not luckily but the injury was on the play it wasn't during the celebration so fans can chill out it wasn't because he was jumping up and down. No surgeries required. He'll be out for a couple of weeks, so hopefully they can get him back and he can return to full strength. But it's been tough to see him in plain clothes on the sideline because he is such an important factor of that veteran secondary. Yeah, and what he's gone through has been, I mean, he's gone through the been i mean he he has had he's gone through the ring the ringer with with iowa fans i mean um i think even up until this year i some iowa fans didn't like

friday moss they didn't feel like he was a good enough cornerback i mean we kind of talked about that before i mean just he had one bad game he and against kent state he had a couple bad plays not a big deal he's still the one of the best cornerbacks it's also yes kent state like and to be fair they ran the ball so freaking much and didn't throw the ball deep. He probably didn't expect them to go deep. Kudos to them. He adjusted. Not a big deal.

The reason why I knew you were going Riley Moss. So I remember we had our conversation before the season began. And I can't remember what you said, but you had mentioned the fact that you were really excited about Riley Moss and what he was going to do and his potential in this defense. And then when I was trying to create my list, my first player was going to be Riley Moss. And I thought, I was like, shoot, I'm pretty sure Celia is going to take him. So I went away from Riley.

I agree though. I love Riley doing a phenomenal job. I'm going to go Jack Campbell. I think what he does from a leadership perspective on that defense, he's a guy who can play every single snap at the linebacker spot. He does a good job of tracking down running backs.

I think he really can do, he's a jack of all trades. He's probably one of the best. Oh, wow. That was not intentional, but I'll take your, you're thinking I was intelligent enough to do that. But Jack Campbell, the jack of all trades, did it intentionally there, but he is a guy who can really do anything. He can blitz the quarterback. He got several pressures against Purdue. He can also handle running backs in space. He can track down quarterbacks. I mean, one of the things Iowa struggled with in the past is handling scrambling quarterbacks and they haven't done the best job, but Jack Campbell is not the reason why they haven't done a great job. Like he's been able

to track those guys down and make sure they don't go very far. So Jack Campbell is my guy for best defensive player. And he can also scoop and score versus Iowa state. That was awesome. I was like 10 feet from there shooting it. I was like, oh my gosh, he really just did that. For a guy as big as him and as burly as him. Six foot four. Right? And he's like broad-shouldered.

He's thick. He is a big dude. To see a dude like that scoop and score is pretty awesome. So I love doing that for sure. For sure. You actually bring me into my next thing. So the next thing was going to be favorite play. And this could be taken a number of different ways.

I think without a doubt, mine would have to be the Nico Regani catch. But I have to – I wanted to be a little bit different here. And so I tried to think of a different play. And my play that I actually picked was that Jack Campbell scoop and score, the fourth one by Justin Jacobs, Brees Hall, and, you know, backed up in their own spot. That was a huge play for Iowa against Iowa state. And Jack Campbell coming up that touchdown was just phenomenal.

That got me so jacked up. Do you have a favorite play from the season? And it's okay if it's a Nico, cause that is my favorite. I just like, I talked about the play like 10 times. So yeah, well, of course that's an amazing play, but I think I'm going to actually go the Riley Moss pick six because for me, that set the tone, not just for the game, but for the season. I think when you think about at what point did Iowa make it very clear that they were going to go crazy? I think it was in that moment when we realized that that secondary that defense could

make plays like that. Because coming into the season I think there were you know of course questions also on offense about how good they were going to be Spencer Petras needed to show some progression to show that they can score on the defensive side of the ball was really telling for me and just a crazy moment that really did kind of set the tone for the rest of the season plus I was like on the sideline right where he was. So he like raced right by me. And I was like, that was really cool. I definitely have a question about that. Cause I want to get, um, get some, some information for you on your experience, covering them on the ground. And then also I saw you rode in that limo bus to Iowa state. I have to, I have to ask about that. But before

we get into that, I got to tell everyone about Built Bar. Built Bar is the best tasting protein bar on the market today. If you haven't tried a Built Bar by now, you are absolutely missing out. They say it's a protein bar, but it does not taste like one. Believe me, I've tried so many protein bars, and this is the best one I've ever tried. It actually tastes good. But not only does it taste good, they have so many flavors, nine amazing flavors, plus some seasonal flavors like white chocolate birthday cake with sprinkles. It's also really freaking good for you. Low carb,

low calorie, low sugar, high in protein. Literally all the healthy benefits plus the amazing taste. This Bilt Bar is good enough for the USA track and field team. It's also good enough for Iowa football player, LaShawn Daniels, who just tried this last week when I sent him some. He said best protein bar he's ever tasted. I love it. LaShawn loves it. The USA track and field team loves it. So you'll probably love it too. Go to built.com, B-U-I-L-T.com and use the promo code LOCKED15. That's L-O-C-K-E-D-1-5 and you'll get 15% off your order. Use the promo code LOCKED15 for 15% off at built.com. And I got to tell you all about betonline.ag because you know me, I love to place a lot of bets on every single game. I'm telling you every single week what to do for Iowa.

I've been good until this last week, although I did warn you not to bet on Iowa to cover the spread because I just had a bad feeling. But nevertheless, when you are making a bet, you got to go to betonline.ag, your number one sport for all the basketball and football action this season. They have a new web interface, making it even easier to place all of your bets.

And they have more props, odds and lines than ever before. Head over to their new updated desktop or mobile website. And it's time today and receive a 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit. When you use the promo code locked on that's L O C K E D O M 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit. What a great deal from, from basketball,

football, baseball, post-season NHL, boxing, UFC, right to your favorite Vegas casino games. They have everything. Why wouldn't you take advantage of that right now? So BetOnline is

the fastest and easiest way to bet on all of your favorite sports. BetOnline.ag, where the game starts. Cecilia, you rode in that limo bus. How awesome was that? That looks sweet. So that was really cool. So we rode on a land jet, which is based here in the Quad Cities, but they have locations elsewhere in the Midwest, including Kansas City and Des Moines and

stuff like that. So basically that came about that they actually reached out to a colleague of mine and he invited me to come along because the drive from the Quad Cities to Ames, it's about two and a half hours, maybe even, you know, closer to 245 when you're dealing with traffic coming out of Ames and stuff like that. So when you think about covering a three o'clock game, it can be a really long day if you're also driving. And that's kind of what he and I ran into two years ago because we traveled together as well. That, I mean, we weren't getting home till 1am. So we took the land jet, which was awesome because it had wifi, flat screen TVs, a little desk and things like that. And obviously just really comfortable seats

so we could work on the way back. So we took it up there. It was really great to get prepared while we were going up. And then when we were done, after I shot my like on camera standups and stuff on the field, we literally just packed our stuff. We got on the bus and I was able to, you know, edit everything through TV and send it back while we were driving back. So saved a ton of time. Uh, land jet was awesome. And it was, um, it was a great opportunity to, to be able to take that. I would do that anytime I take a road game.

If I could, that'd be awesome. It looks sweet. Like you said in a video, I'm like, Oh my God, this is, this is like magical.

This would be like riding on a cloud and having as a blast. I mean, that, that thing was freaking cool. I had to ask you about that. So definitely that was, that was a pretty cool experience for, for your Iowa state game.

Unfortunately, now we have to get into disappointments though. So we talked a lot about some happy stuff. We can talk about players. We can talk about themes. We can talk about general team concepts, whatever you want to do. I don't want to force it onto a specific player. Biggest disappointment on offense this season?

I think my biggest disappointment isn't the player's fault, but it is the underutilization of Tyrone Tracy. I think coming into the season, he was really hyped up as, you know, he is stepping up in a wide receiver room that loses two really awesome wide receivers in Brandon Smith and Amir Smith-Marset, and he was expected to be a major focal point of this offense. I think he has been used very little. I don't think it's his fault. I, of course,

love seeing Keegan Johnson succeed, but I also know, having seen him make plays in the past, that Tyrone Tracy can do all of that, if not more. And so it's really difficult to see him not be utilized. And honestly, I'm surprised he's still around. Maybe he won't be after the season because he's an incredibly talented wide receiver and he deserves to be in an offense that is using him to his full potential to make plays. Yeah. I'm going to kind of build off of that. I think the lack of reduction from the wide receiver group is definitely a big disappointment. Tyrone Tracy, as you said, Tyrone Tracy Jr. is a phenomenal player. I have never been super high on Nico Regani.

I don't want to hate on Nico. I think he does some really great things, and he's made some really big catches. But Nico has also shown that he can be productive. Charlie Jones, I was really excited to see what the ball looked like in his hands when he was able to play more wide receiver snaps. But I think overall, what they're doing just doesn't make sense to me. I think Tyrone, when he was successful, was playing in the slot. Now he's played – really he's been successful playing on the outside.

But when Keegan Johnson is doing so well on the outside, maybe you move Keegan on the outside, you slide Tyrone on the inside. But nevertheless, you just got to get them more involved in these games. And part of it is the fact they're not beating some of their guys in one-on-one situations. But, I mean, we're seven games into the season, and Tyrone Tracy has like 20 targets. I don't understand it.

There's so many things that go into it too. It's not just Tyrone's play. It also goes down to Spencer and where he's going with his reads. It goes down to play calling. It goes down to how defense are scheming for these wide receivers. So it becomes very difficult. But I've also thought that I hope Tyrone sticks around, but this has got to be an incredibly frustrating season for him. Yeah. I mean, it's just, it's really difficult to watch because obviously last season was very different, very different, you know, just with COVID and how

everything was structured and, you know, just the state of college football. But it's very clear what he can do. And so it's really difficult, I can imagine from a fan perspective to not see him utilized in a way that he can be successful, because I always thought it seemed like from all of the offseason chatter that he was going to be a major focal point of the offense. And he has been, unfortunately, an afterthought. Yeah, it's weird. I don't understand it at all. I just don't comprehend it.

Hopefully they can get some things figured out. It'll be interesting to see what they do coming off a bye week. We were going to do the biggest disappointment on defense, but honestly, there hasn't been a lot of disappointments. The defense has been so good. I think you could argue the Purdue game in general was a big disappointment, but I don't really want to talk about Purdue anymore. So we're going to finish it up by getting into our predictions for the rest of the season. What is your record prediction for the rest of the season? Do you have any concerns for any games? First of all, I do want to say though, want to point out that the iowa defense has nicknamed themselves at least the

secondary has the dough boys because they get to the money which i think is awesome matt hankins told us that two weeks ago uh i think that's so cool so cute they have so much swagger on that secondary i love it when you're playing with confidence, you play so well. And they just clearly have a lot of fun with it. I imagine the Purdue game was incredibly frustrating for them just to be kind of out of their element a little bit. And I think you could see that in Matt Hankins and some of the other guys on the defense,

that they were really frustrated. But the Doughboys, I think they should come firing back and should be just fine. So, yeah, looking at the rest of the schedule, I think the biggest question marks right now for me is Wisconsin, because Wisconsin has always been a thorn in Iowa's side. Wisconsin, because Wisconsin has always been a thorn in Iowa's side. I think Iowa just has to be really careful because Wisconsin and Northwestern historically have been thorns in Iowa's side. And you got to go on the road for those games. And everyone wants to beat Iowa, especially after they lost to Purdue.

Everyone wants to beat them. But if Iowa still wants to achieve those goals that they still have and they still can achieve, they have to win those games. You know, Nebraska, I'm not too, too concerned. But, you know, if Nebraska can get out of its own way, I can see it being very competitive. They have a talented team. They just literally screw up every single game somehow.

Miraculously, they do it differently every single game. Yeah. So nothing against illinois also i cover illinois here um but i just think it's brett bielma's first season they have had some struggles and if there's a game that they can you know easily get through i would hope it would be illinois who am i forgetting am i forgetting Minnesota Minnesota I mean I think again that kind of is I don't want to say it's on the same level as Nebraska because I would say they're a little bit of a step down um but again it's it's the point of view that you they just have to be really careful because all these teams have really talented

players and if I was not careful it could turn into a Purdue situation. I don't think they have a David Bell that they have to worry about. Thank God. Right? Yeah. But it just – Iowa has to bring its A game every single game and get it done. Absolutely. Did you see the quote from Brett Bielema regarding his players?

No. What was it? Oh, gosh. I'll try to pull it up real quick while we're talking so i would just i would echo what you're saying um minnesota doesn't scare me as much i don't know what it is but pj fleck just feels like kirk barron's is in his head i just doesn't really worry i mean i don't think tanner morgan's all that good illinois does not concern me literally at all um nebraska is concerning because somehow they managed to not make those

stupid mistakes against iowa which is surprising to me. And Wisconsin, I agree. I think it'll be interesting going up to Wisconsin and playing Wisconsin, but I'm ultimately saying, I think we should be able to go five and oh, but Brett B. Lama, here's what he said. I don't believe we have a player in the two deep that they've recruited here over the last three years.

That is really significantly doing anything for us in the plane department that's a major concern like wow talk about chucking your guys under the bus true but he's not wrong for them so yeah i mean like he's not wrong but like wow if i'm on the 2ds i'm like, what is going on? Here's the thing though. I actually respect that. I hope that lights a fire under the Illinois players. Obviously you don't want coach versus players kind of situation, but I think in a world where we so often hear coach speak about, yeah, our players are elite. They can go to Iowa and make plays. I think he's being honest.

I think he is looking at their season and the way they've played thus far from a transparent perspective. I think he's accurate and I respect that he said that because it's true. Yeah. I mean, they're not a good team. So definitely, definitely saw that. I was like, wow, that is, that is harsh. The Big Ten has gotten spicy this year. I love it. Kirk and James Franklin. You have Jim Harbaugh literally going for it on

fourth down in Wisconsin territory because he just doesn't respect Wisconsin literally at all. I mean, it is just, it has been a fun year in the Big Ten. It's so good. Celia, obviously we love having you on. You have a lot of cool stuff you're doing though. Can you break down where people can find you at and all this stuff you're doing?

Cause I know you're doing some stuff for a Niners nation as well. Yeah, absolutely. So you can find my work on Twitter at Celia Palermo. You can look on your screen and it's right there in case you can't spell my name. The beauty of the YouTube channel now. Yes.

Yes. So if you're on YouTube, you can look that, but find me on Twitter. I work for WQAD. I'm a sports reporter for them and anchor. So I cover Iowa, Illinois, and a little bit of Iowa state here and there. But I am also a features writer for Niners Nation, which is a blog and I'm a, you know,

born and raised 49ers fan. So it's been really awesome to tell feature stories about the players and their families from an outside perspective. So yeah, find my work. And I appreciate, as always, you having me on, Andrew. Absolutely. Staying busy for sure. Make sure to check out the Locked On Big Ten podcast as well. Nate Dickinson does a great job there

covering everything across the Big Ten, just like Celia does for several of the teams in the Big Ten every single day at WQAD. Thank you all for tuning in to another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Have a phenomenal Wednesday and let's go Hawks.