Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Hawkeyes' Brendan Sullivan: Can He Prove Himself Against UCLA? Plus Hoops Thoughts & Best Bets

Starting point is 00:00:00 One final look back at the win against Wisconsin. We got Biz with us here today as we talk some Iowa football. And, of course, the short week with the road trip out to UCLA, we preview the Bruins. A little basketball talk and our best bet of the week all today, Locked On Hawkeyes. You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:32 And I'm Trent Condon, that's Biz, and this is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We're available wherever you find podcasts. You can also watch us on YouTube if you want to. Make sure you hit that subscribe button while you're there. If you're listening on the podcast side, five-star reviews helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. You can start off the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a $5 bet. You'll get started with $150 in bonus bets if you win your first $5 bet. Just visit Fanduel.com to get started. Biz, good to see you once again. A night game at Kinnick Stadium over

Starting point is 00:01:14 the weekend. Domination of the Badgers and we've been on the other side of that a time or two. Seen some big rushing performances out of Wisconsin. That one had to feel good. Had to be a fun night in Kiddick Stadium. Yeah, it's been a long time since we've just absolutely dominated the Badgers. Like you said, we've been on the wrong side of giving up 300 yards rushing a lot against the Badgers. But, yeah, fun environment, fun night, fun everything. If you're a Wisconsin fan, you have to feel just sick right now. You were a team that forever was really the bullies of the Big Ten.

Starting point is 00:01:48 You were never the most talented, but you were definitely the most physical and the most best running game for a decade. And now, I don't know what that was, but that was not the Wisconsin football we've seen over the last decade. More importantly, Trent, I think it's a true trend now, 4-0. You have me on during the week. Minnesota, Washington, Northwestern, Wisconsin. So let's hope we can make it 5-0 this week against the Bruins

Starting point is 00:02:17 because we've clearly found the key to success to Iowa football, which is me and you blathering on for 40 minutes on Thursday before the game. It's working out well, and we'll keep it going certainly as long as possible. Now, Thanksgiving week could throw a little wrench into things, and we'll have to do it another time, but we'll figure out when they get there. Let's keep it going this week. Short week against UCLA. One thing I want to get your perspective. I talked about this a lot this week, Biz, is this and I think a lot of fans know this, but just understanding whenever Kirk retires after this year, two years, four years down

Starting point is 00:02:51 the line, whenever it is of also understanding your identity, understanding what you are. You see Wisconsin trying to change their identity. They went out and made a good hire. Luke Fickle was a wanted coach at big programs across the country. They were able to get him, but instead of kind of going with the recipe that he had at Cincinnati, he decided I'm going to hire Phil Longo and we're going to go with this Derry Raida offense. And it's been absolutely hideous for them. Rich Rod, when they went out, Michigan went out and picked up Rich

Starting point is 00:03:19 Rod and trying to change their identity. Iowa very specifically, there's not a whole lot of paths to victory for the Iowa football program. They have to be built in a particular way, and I think this is something that will be good ammunition whenever it happens when Kirk hangs it up to say, it doesn't have to be an internal candidate. It doesn't have to be somebody with Iowa ties, but there has to be an understanding of the way that you need to win

Starting point is 00:03:44 at a place like Iowa. but there has to be an understanding of the way that you need to win at a place like Iowa. I view us as the, the, the equivalent of Pittsburgh Steelers, Trent. I mean, you look at the Pittsburgh Steelers there, you know, they have an identity and they've had what three coaches in 50 years. I don't, I don't see any way. When Kurt decides to hang it up, that we don't hire somebody that completely understands what identity we want

Starting point is 00:04:08 to have going forward. I don't see any way we try to do what Wisconsin's doing or what Nebraska did for a while. I'm not saying we're going to hire LeVar Woods or we're going to hire necessarily somebody that's on the staff right now, but we're going to hire somebody that understands what it takes to win at Iowa because it's not easy to win at Iowa, and it's gotten harder with what's happening with the Big Ten and the expansion and those types of things.

Starting point is 00:04:32 But last Saturday is a perfect example of when we are clicking, our identity is pretty damn tough. Unfortunately, we haven't been consistent in doing what we did on Saturday night. But, you know, it's the recipe for Iowa football has worked really well in the last 20 years. You know, play great defense, run the football, don't make mistakes. You know, as you saw on Saturday, if you can add all those things, plus just have capable quarterback play, you're going to win. Are you going to win every game?

Starting point is 00:05:08 No, but you're going to be in every game. I mean, up until the last three years, part of the frustration I've had and I think a lot of the fan base has had is up until the last three or four years, you knew Iowa was going to be in pretty much every single football game. And that hasn't happened the last three years. We've gotten our butts kicked consistently by the upper echelon teams. And that's the frustration I think you see more than anything with Iowa football right now is that are we winning?

Starting point is 00:05:33 Are we still winning? Yes. But we're also not anywhere near that upper echelon. And so that's the key to me is you've got to get back to where if you get capable quarterback play and you can be in every game. That's about as much as you can ask for as an Iowa fan, I think. With the victory and now a domination again.

Starting point is 00:05:58 After Brendan Sullivan came again, it's Northwestern. After those three and outs, we saw things start to click. And then we see, of course, the way that it clicked against Wisconsin. We still got three games and four games with the bowl game to figure this out. But do you see Brendan Sullivan, at least right now, as a guy that you're confident can be the quarterback for next season, that he's your full-time starter? Yeah, maybe you're going out there and you're going to bring another backup or a guy at least to compete for the job. But have you seen enough for Brendan Sullivan that you're going out there and you're going to bring another backup or a guy at least to compete for the job. But have you seen enough for Brendan Sullivan that you're confident

Starting point is 00:06:28 that he can be the guy that is the quarterback for 2025? I'm more confident than when we talked last week. But am I there yet? Absolutely not. I mean, he threw the ball 10 times. I mean, we threw it 54 times to 10. But the throws he made, I mean, he had a couple ugly, you know, just kind of drag routes early in the game.

Starting point is 00:06:47 But I thought when he settled down, that same pass he threw to Ortworth late in the game was beautiful. And a couple other throws, I mean, he showed me more passing the ball than I anticipated last week. But, I mean, he's going to have to – I mean, I think this game is going to be kind of the decision-making game for him because UCLA has good run defense. They're going to stack the box, and he's going to have to throw the ball more than 10 times on Friday night.

Starting point is 00:07:15 I mean, and so this is the one where I think we'll really find out. We haven't seen him on a road game. I mean, fortunately, UCLA's road environment is probably not going to be great, but we'll find out a lot this week. So, I mean, to answer your question, am I there yet? Absolutely not. But am I feeling better than I was a week ago? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:07:31 And like I said last week, I mean, this is the perfect window. He's got a month to prove himself. And to me, as an Iowa fan, it's kind of a no-lose situation because either one of two things happens. Either he shows that he's capable and you go into next year with a guy that's got some experience under his belt, or he fails and you realize you've got to start from scratch. And so one way or the other, I mean, obviously we're playing mostly

Starting point is 00:08:00 for pride at this point. So if he fails and the season ends poorly, so be it. I mean, do I want to end 9-3 and end on a high note? Absolutely. But, you know, if we end out 7-5 and he doesn't get the job done, then we know what we've got to get into for next year. Yeah, I think it's very simple. I think you laid it out really well.

Starting point is 00:08:20 All right, Biz, we'll continue here. We'll get in a little bit more into this UCLA game. Some memories of the Rose Bowl, including the last time Iowa was there. Was heavily lubricated for that one. Not a pretty performance. And do we have to worry about cleats? We'll talk about that as we continue. This is Locked on Hawkeyes. Today's episode of Locked on Hawkeyes is brought to you by Robinhood. With Robinhood Gold, you don't need a silver spoon to eat up the financial favors of the 1%.

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Starting point is 00:10:22 an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. Trent and Biz back with you once again on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Biz, it's UCLA. Not great memories of UCLA. One of my earliest memories, well, 1985,

Starting point is 00:10:43 I was in kindergarten. Great year. Of course, the Iowa to the Rose Bowl, Bears win the Super I was in kindergarten. Great year. Of course, the Iowa to the Rose Bowl, Bears win the Super Bowl. It's been pretty much all downhill since, but that aside, faint memories of that game, memories of the Iowa-Michigan game that year. Of course, we were there for the matchup against Stanford after 2015. Has been a bit of a house of horrors for Iowa, but it's not just the Rose Bowl. It's just traveling west in general has not been a good thing. And this is not just an Iowa problem.

Starting point is 00:11:09 This has been Big Ten problems throughout the years. Yeah, I've been to a lot of them. I went to the Arizona State game, went to the Rose Bowl, like you said. Not a lot of great memories coming back for those. So I saw, I mean, it's been, was it, I was talking to my brother earlier this week. He's out there for the game. And it's been since 1987 that we've won a road game outside the Central Time, or either the Mountain or the Western Time Zone.

Starting point is 00:11:42 So it just means we're due, Trent. Yes. You know, it's interesting. I was looking, you know, this season has been just eerily similar to 2008 in so many ways. Yes. And we talked about, you know, great running back, frustrating losses early in the year team that really meshed as the year

Starting point is 00:12:02 went on quarterback controversy and things like that. And then, you know, that season they dominated the Badgers just like we did last Saturday. But do you remember what happened the week after we dominated the Badgers in 2008? No. Went to Illinois and laid a complete egg. Bad Illinois team lost 27-24, 27-21, something like that. Then we turned around beat penn state number three penn state the week before week after but you know after the good vibe started we really destroyed

Starting point is 00:12:31 wisconsin and sean green completely dominated just like you know with three touchdowns exactly like we did last week we went laid an egg so you know i've talked about last week ucla was my lock of the week in nebraska because ucla worries me me. They're a team that you look at their schedule, 3-5, you look at their schedule, as hard as anybody in the Big Ten, they've lost to LSU, Oregon, Penn State, Minnesota, all teams that are at least 6-3

Starting point is 00:12:58 or better right now. And they gave LSU, Oregon, and Penn State decent games for 2-3 quarters. They ran all of, and like I said before, they've got a good run defense. So, you know, if anybody looks at this game and says, oh, UCLA's three and five, this should be easy, they clearly aren't paying attention because this is a decent UCLA team

Starting point is 00:13:17 and it's an Iowa team that has a history of not doing well and traveling westward. So, don't have great vibes going into it. But on the flip side, Trent, there's no way in hell I'm betting against November Kirk at this point. And November Kirk's been amazing the last, what are we, 19-1, lost 20 games in November. So you got the November Kirk on one side versus all the bad history

Starting point is 00:13:39 of going west on the other side. Something's got to give, Trent. And I am pretty concerned about that rush defense. You mentioned that a little bit earlier. 11th in the country, giving up 100 yards. I watched a lot of their game earlier this season against Penn State, and that's when they're starting to turn the corner. You can see, alright, they're not a great team by any means, but it's year number one. And that was another concern that I had going into this one. You had Deshaun Foster, he had a flub at Big Ten Media Day and people freaked out about it.

Starting point is 00:14:05 Like he kind of froze in front of the camera. He was good. I mean, you hear the players talk about him. And when you have these new coaching staffs, a lot of times they're starting to build and they need they got the win last week against Nebraska. And I was so happy they got that win because maybe there is a little bit of a letdown for a new team and new coaching staff. That's a possibility.

Starting point is 00:14:23 I was happy to see them be able to pull that out. But you've been seeing them trend this way for a long time. Garber's a guy that he's going to take chances. But as we saw in the Michigan State game, yeah, Childs, it feels like it was a great matchup for us and we couldn't make any plays against him. And the same thing I think is kind of a concern here with Garber's is he'll make plays down the field. He'll take aggressive shots down the field.

Starting point is 00:14:43 And we've seen throughout the course of the season season this Iowa defense is not at the elite level that we're used to lately too. They've got an outstanding linebacker. Their defensive line is very physical. It's a matchup where I think if I was going to win this game, Brendan Sullivan, he's going to have to make some plays in the passing game. It feels like, I mean, you look at that line, Trent, it feels a little bit like a Vegas knows line. I mean, I'm shocked we're favored by six. I thought maybe we'd be favored by two and a half, three and a half at most.

Starting point is 00:15:11 And so Vegas must feel pretty good about us going out there and taking care of business, because that line seems to be screaming at you to bet UCLA. But, you know, on the flip side, Garbers is somebody who tends to make mistakes and they're not a perfect team by any means. So I don't know. I, again, there's a lot of things you can point to that are bad signs in this game, but I think, I think we're a team that will be motivated going out there. I think, well, I think we'll play pretty good football. And so I don't think it'll be a repeat of the Michigan State game where you see a team that just didn't seem like they're all that motivated

Starting point is 00:15:49 and just kind of went through the motions. I think we'll be motivated and I think we'll go out and play decent. Whether it's good enough to win, we'll see. But, you know, I think we'll play good football. Unlike most trips out west, I think we'll have learned our lesson and play. We'll play good football. We'll see what happens. So we saw in the last Rose Bowl trip, slipping and sliding all around,

Starting point is 00:16:15 I saw Jay Higgins, somebody asked him about the cleats, like, hey, we're just going to wear normal cleats. I don't know what it is about that. And you see this happen time to time, playing on grass. I think you saw it a little bit against Michigan State. Why is it such a big deal? I guess just because so many college teams now just play on turf. I don't know.

Starting point is 00:16:31 It seems like, but we see this happen quite often where you just see teams and specifically road teams just kind of slipping and sliding around before they kind of figure out the way to go. I don't know. It's odd. Isn't there an equipment manager community where, hey, what size cleats? How deep should our cleats go when we're going to this building? I think you'd clearly agree with me, Trent. If we had better shoes, we'd beat Stanford. Clearly, that was the

Starting point is 00:16:55 problem. I think part of that slipping was trying to keep up with Christian McCaffrey. It's easy to slip when the guy is going to get one of the all-time greatest running backs in college football history. I don't know. Watching UCLA games this year, I haven't seen anybody have problems on the field this year. Whatever the issues were back in 2016, I think the Rose Bowl seemed to have fixed it. I'm not too worried about it. If we go out there and slip

Starting point is 00:17:25 and slide and lose, I guess we can blame the equipment managers. Yes. Put it on Greg Morris and company. We'll put it on them. All right. Let's talk a little basketball. Let's start ladies first. And last night, I don't know, watch about half the game. Not sure if you made it. No, you got your tickets there for the season tickets for the women, but Northern Illinois was missing their best player. It wasn't a great performance by any means, but Northern Illinois was missing their best player. It wasn't a great performance by any means, but it's also, it's so many new faces and figuring out how to play as a falter is going to be making her way back.

Starting point is 00:17:53 A big one coming up on Sunday against Virginia Tech. I don't know. I guess I was left, and maybe the point spread had something to do with it. Iowa was favored by 37 and a half. I was left looking for a little bit more out of the women's team, even as I like some individual components. Ava Hyden's going to be a star.

Starting point is 00:18:09 That freshman class is outstanding. Yeah, I mean, I think you see the same thing for both the men and the women. They were kind of underwhelming opening performances, but nothing you should be freaking out about by any means, I think. The thing is, a lot of those girls, like you said, a lot of new freshmen, new people have never played. I think, you know, the thing is, I mean, a lot of those girls,

Starting point is 00:18:26 like you said, a lot of new freshmen, new people have never played. I mean, I know it wasn't a sellout last night, but there was 10,000 people there. And, like, that's got to be a little bit intimidating for, you know, girls that have never played in front of that kind of an audience. And so I'm sure there was some nerves involved. Ava Hayden especially looked really nervous, and she didn't play very well. But I think she will play much better than she did last night.

Starting point is 00:18:47 And so I don't know. I don't think you can read too much into game one for either the men or the women. Were they perfect performances? Absolutely not. I mean, the biggest concern probably for both teams is it looks like neither team is going to play a lot of defense again this year. I mean, you give up 80-plus to both Northern Illinois and Texas A&M Commerce, that's probably not a great sign for down the road.

Starting point is 00:19:12 But there's always going to be a tradeoff. Both teams like to get out, and they're very offensive-oriented teams, which means you're going to give up a lot of points. But it appears to be defense optional again for both teams. Going back to the old days, definitely on that front. What's your expectation for the women's basketball team? I mean, is it just get into the tournament? Is it higher than that?

Starting point is 00:19:34 Where are you kind of going into the season? No, I think they can be, I mean, the interesting thing, you look at the big 10, it's very top heavy. There's, you know, three or four teams are going to be really, really good, but we've got a pretty favorable schedule. We don't play USC and UCLA only at home. We don't have to go out there for those two.

Starting point is 00:19:53 Then you look at the bottom half. The bottom half of the Big Ten is bad. We should be able to clean up against the Wisconsins and the Penn States of the world. Realistically, you look for trying to get top six or seven in the big ten you get a you know and then you know ultimate goal is can you sneak in and get a you know can you get a top four seed and so you can get two home games i think that

Starting point is 00:20:18 would be unbelievable if we you know if we can sneak in as a four seed but i don't know but my guess is you're looking probably more at a six, seven, eight seed in the NCAA tournament. Yeah. And that's kind of what I was thinking on that front. We'll get into the men their first time out officially on the hardwood after the exhibition game. They get a win and they go again tonight. Southern makes their way in from Baton Rouge. We'll talk about that.

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Starting point is 00:22:23 Price varies based on product and subscription plan. Back with you one final time. Trenton Biz talking Iowa Hawkeye sports football in the books. Women's basketball in the books. Let's wrap things up with a little men's basketball before we make our best bet of the week. And let's open things up here. A men's basketball before we make our best bet of the week and let's open things up here a win ho-hum you mentioned it when we're talking about the women's team just

Starting point is 00:22:50 kind of an underwhelming performance and i guess my expectations i don't think they've changed at all i think this is still a tournament team but it's one game right i you hate to overreact to a game against an absolute terrible program like they did in the opener. But I just, I want to see more out of this squad. I liked what we saw from Thelwell. We'll see. There's some rumblings out there about him, maybe not happy about his role.

Starting point is 00:23:16 I don't know, Biz. It's just kind of all over the place. Where are you with the men's team? Yeah, like I said, one game you can't read into much. But the one thing that I will hold out on, whether it's a good thing or bad thing, I thought through one game, I'm not sure the added 20 pounds to Owen Freeman is a good thing. He looked, there were a couple of times after four or five minutes, get it on the court, he was sucking wind. And I'm hoping that was an aberration

Starting point is 00:23:43 because I mean, I'm hoping that was an aberration. I'm hoping the extra 20 pounds doesn't slow him down. To me, his biggest strength is that quickness and being able to beat guys in the post and that spin move and things like that. I didn't think he looked all that great.

Starting point is 00:23:59 He just wasn't that aggressive around the hoop. I'm hoping it's a one-game thing. He proved me wrong. After one game, I'm not overly excited about the bigger, bulkier version of Owen Freeman, but we'll see. But, yeah, I'm still – I think this team's got the chance to be a top-half Big Ten team, and I think – I still think, and I'll say it every time we're on here probably,

Starting point is 00:24:24 Josh Dix needs to shoot the ball 15 to 20 times a game every single game. I mean, I just can't emphasize enough he needs to be a more assertive offensive player. I just think he has a chance to be a great player, but he's just not assertive enough. When he, you know, there's shots out there. I mean, Tony Perkins shot 15 times a game last year. Somebody's got to take those shots, and I'd be more than happy. I mean, Tony Perkins shot 15 times a game last year. Somebody's got to take those shots.

Starting point is 00:24:46 And I'd be more than happy. I mean, I've loved how aggressive Peyton Sanford is. Sanford's been super aggressive in both the exhibition and the first game. I'd like to see Dix do the same. It really feels like he's taking a step forward. And I wondered this summer at times, you know, what kind of role there was going to be for Price Sanford. You look at the guys that they're bringing in,

Starting point is 00:25:04 and we'll see kind of what Traore, what he's going to be, but he's going to be an interesting one to see what kind of role he can carve out. This team needs to shoot the basketball well from the outside, and they need to be, you know, have to be an elite level because of the way they are, the way they run offensively. But if they can be a good three-point shooting team, and I think there's enough guys that can shoot it on this squad to do that, I think that's going to elevate everything else offense isn't a problem

Starting point is 00:25:27 it's as always the defensive end of the floor I think there's a chance I think my biggest concern walking away from that one is again the rebounding the rebounding just wasn't great again it's one game against Texas A&M Commerce they were kind of going through the motions it felt like for long stretches of that game but rebounding again is something that I have my concerns about at this point. Yeah, so it wasn't great rebounding, but I didn't think Texas Commerce, they put up a decent challenge. I mean, some NBC teams, I mean, you're the RPI genius. I'm sure the RPI is not good, but have you gone on your annual rant yet this year?

Starting point is 00:26:01 No, so that's an old one because after we morphed into the net system, actually, Frank McCaffrey was at the forefront. We saw a lot of talk last year. The ACC was ripping Iowa State and a bunch of Big 12 schools for playing these awful, the worst of the worst, and then beating them by 50, and it kind of ruined the net. Well, Frank McCaffrey's been doing this for the last six or seven years. And in the old system of the RPI,

Starting point is 00:26:24 you play these terrible teams who would drag you down. If you go out and do what you're supposed to, beat these teams by 40, 50, 60 points, it helps your efficiency numbers, even as the point spread is capped. So no, this is one now, play these games. It helps you as long as you blow them out. It actually helps you because it's going to help

Starting point is 00:26:41 your efficiency numbers. So maybe Fran, maybe that Wharton Business School degree came to work here. It's worked out pretty well the last couple of years. Speaking of annual rants, Trent, I was happy to see that the Fran jail is still in effect. You talked about rebounding. Part of the reason rebounding was so bad in the first half is that Laji Dembali got two fouls immediately. It was, of course, put into a two-foul jail, which I will go on my annual anger. It is baffling to me that your, what, fifth, sixth best player is put into jail with two fouls.

Starting point is 00:27:15 Who cares if Lodgy picks up a third foul in the first half? Like, he's not going to play more than 20, 25 minutes anyway. So what is the concept? I can totally understand sometimes if your best player not wanting to get that in foul trial early on, but what is the, well, I just, I will never, ever, ever understand the thought process around a guy who's already playing 20 minutes at most being put into jail for having two fouls. Like if he fouls out, he fouls out, he's still going to play us to 20 minutes.

Starting point is 00:27:46 I know I'm pissing into the wind on this, and it's never going to change, but how Matt Gatins hasn't sat Fran down and been like, Fran, here's the analytics on this. You're being ridiculous. Fix it, and fix it now. We're going to be a bad rebounding team. You better have guys like logia on the court because he's a good rebounder like it just you'll never convince me that evan braun is more than a five to ten minute player a division one basketball like he shouldn't be so like that's part of the reason that he's not a

Starting point is 00:28:22 great rebounder he's not i mean so i. He's not, I mean, so. I know. There's my Fran jail rant for the year. I'll leave it alone at this point. No, you won't. No, you won't, because it's going to come out in an important time, not against when they're playing Texas A&M Commerce, and we're going to freak out because that's what we do. So I'm going to guess this one's going to come up again.

Starting point is 00:28:39 I'm with you. I've asked Fran about it, and he said he just wants his guys that are able to play at the end of the game. And I argued with him at the time, well, if you're down 20, it's not going to matter if they're available at the end of the game, but he's never going to change. That's the thing about Fran. Fran, one thing I noticed on Monday night, I thought he looked good. I thought he looked almost reinvigorated, if you will. And something that I've talked about, just not having the baggage of having your kids with you,

Starting point is 00:29:06 playing for you, those kinds of things. I thought we saw and hearing Fran, I thought he was just, I don't want to say renewed focus. I don't think that's the right terminology, but looked like a little more pep in a step, certainly this year than early that he did a year ago. I'm not going to lie, Trent. I did not analyze Fran's peppiness on Monday.

Starting point is 00:29:24 So I'll trust you. That was a miss out on Monday. That was a miss out of you. I'll trust you on this one. All right, Biz. Let's get into our best bet of the week. You nailed it last week with UCLA, not just covering the number, obviously, against Nebraska. They got it outright. What are you looking at this week in your FanDuel best bet of the week?

Starting point is 00:29:43 My bet this week is very similar to – similar concept to last week. Like I said, UCLA was a team that was trendy in the right direction, and I just didn't think Nebraska was as good as they pretended to be against Ohio State. So same thing. Give me the Florida Gators getting 21-and-a-half going to Texas on the early morning on Saturday. I think this is a team, Florida,

Starting point is 00:30:07 it's trendy to talk about how their coach is a dead man walking, but look at the numbers. Florida has been an adequate football team, and they've gotten better as the year goes on. They've competed against, you know, their schedule is absurd, but they've competed against everybody. They fought. They played defense.

Starting point is 00:30:24 And on the flip side, you've got Texas, who I think Texas is a good team. They're probably a top-ten team, but they're not the world beaters that we thought they were going to be. They're not the number one team in the nation. They've got some flaws. And then you add all that to an early morning start. I think, will Florida win? No.

Starting point is 00:30:42 But I think Florida will do the same thing they did against Tennessee and Georgia, which is make it a four-quarter game and probably lose by 10-14. So you're going to give me more than three touchdowns against a team that's still fighting. I'll take it. So give me Florida plus 21.5. The concern there, obviously, DJ Legway after Graham Mertz was lost for the season. Their quarterback, Legway, got hurt last time out, and I saw he was listed as questionable for the game. Warner, the kid that came in last week, he is 9 of 25 passing on the season.

Starting point is 00:31:13 But he's from Yale, I believe. He is very intelligent, so he'll figure it out. He'll figure it out. I hope you're right on that one. All right, I got one for you this week. I've become a little bit of the gopher whisperer throughout the course of this year. Always been a P.J. Fleck fan, son. I'm going to fade the gophers this week.

Starting point is 00:31:33 A closet Phil Fleck fan. You know me. Our personalities would really mesh well, I'm sure. If he hung out at our tailgate for a while, I'm sure that'd go well. Might turn when some neighbors made an appearance one time at our tailgate for a while, I'm sure that'd go well. Might turn when some neighbors made an appearance one time at our tailgate. Rutgers is not playing well. And this is more than anything. Minnesota, I just don't know if they can cover six and a half against this team.

Starting point is 00:31:56 This thing looks destined for 10-9, 13-10, 17-13, something like that. So giving me six and a half points, I'm going to grab it here with Rutgers. I think this is just going to be an ugly, hideous November, something like that. So giving me six and a half points, I'm going to grab it here with Rutgers. I think there's just going to be an ugly, hideous November Big Ten football game. And I'm going to grab a Rutgers and the points for my best bet of the week. Famous last words. So hold on.

Starting point is 00:32:13 So you talked about you being a closet Minnesota fan. Rutgers isn't playing well, but you're taking Rutgers? No, no, no, no. I said I've become a Minnesota whisperer because I bet on the right side of the goal for seemingly every single week here the last week. That's what it is. Not because I like it.

Starting point is 00:32:26 You had me confused. Yeah. Yeah, geez. Jump into conclusions over there. All right. Before we argue anymore, we got to get out of here. Biz, good talking to you this week. A Friday night game.

Starting point is 00:32:37 I'm going to be on late on 1040 WHO with the sound off show so you can catch me after that one. It's going to be a late night. And I got high school football before, so a busy Friday for me. No road trip to the Rose Bowl for you this year. No, we get the Liberty High Iowa doubleheader on Friday, so I'll be watching the first half of the game probably on my phone

Starting point is 00:32:56 while cheering on the Libertarians. They get to continue to battle against the Des Moines Suburbs squads. They took down Waukeena. They get round two against Ankeny Des Moines Suburbs squads. They took down Waukee. Now they get round two against Ankeny. So we'll see how it goes. Yeah, this is going to be a healthier team than what you saw a week ago with that Waukee squad that was playing without Baker, their quarterback. But it should be a fun Friday night. A lot of people are going to be doing the same as you, Biz.

Starting point is 00:33:19 I'll be doing the same. I'll be over at Valley doing the Johnston Valley game. Should be a great night of football. And hopefully that recaps with a win. Biz, we will talk to you again next week. All right, go Hawks.

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