Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Hawkeyes get throttled in B1G Championship Game recap with LeShun Daniels Jr

Episode Date: December 5, 2021

The Iowa Hawkeyes got torched by the Michigan Wolverines in last night's Big Ten Championship Game. As always, we are joined by former Iowa running back LeShun Daniels Jr to break down what went wrong in the game and how Iowa rebounds from here.The Iowa football team's lackluster offense moved the ball well in the first quarter and tried to throw a knockout punch early but missed. Meanwhile, Michigan's offense hit on two explosive plays that put Iowa down 14-3. It never got better from there. Between a mid-game quarterback change, offensive line issues, and a defense that didn't have anything left to give, we've got you covered here.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.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.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!NetSuiteOver twenty-seven thousand businesses already use NetSuite and RIGHT NOW through the end of the year NetSuite is offering a one-of-a-kind financing program to those ready to upgrade at NetSuite.com/LOCKEDONNCAA.Omaha SteaksThe holidays are around the corner and finding the perfect gift is tricky. Omaha Steaks makes it easy to send friends and family an unforgettable gift guaranteed to be loved. Go to Omaha Steaks dot com and enter “College” into the search bar to order The Perfect Gift Package. 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, and as we do after every single Iowa football game, win or lose, we are joined by former Iowa running back LaShawn Daniels Jr. Before we get into that conversation, because we have a lot to talk about today, it was a very, very rough game watching that yesterday.

And I think you all can probably agree with that. If you watch any of that game, losing 42-3 is never exactly a good time. Before we get to any of that, though, I want to thank you all for making the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast your first listen every single day. You can find the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast for free wherever you get podcasts at and also on YouTube Monday through Friday, breaking out everything in the Iowa Hawkeye world. And this episode with LaShawn is brought to you by Sonos. Sonos is the official sponsor of ESPN College Football. Go to Sonos.com to learn more. All right, LaShawn, before we get into the game, how are you personally doing today, my man? I mean, I'm good. I can't complain about too much. I mean, I was able to get out here and enjoy Indy.

The Iowa fans before the game, which I think was a good time, and the fact that people still show me love tells me that first thing, I'm not that old. And obviously the Hawkeye support is still great. So we're feeling all right. I love it, man. I actually had a couple of buddies text me like, yo, LaShawn's talking right now. I'm like, that's cool, man. LaShawn's awesome. Yeah. I like LaShawn too. He's, he's, he's dope.

They were, they were very excited to hear you, hear you speak. So I got several text messages uh saying you gave like a speech um at like a pre-game festivity and they were they were all very amped up to hear you talk so I think the support for you is is live and well man Hawkeye Nation is is truly amazing agreed agreed um unfortunately Hawkeye Nation's fan support and the fact that we travel incredibly well and drink a lot of Bush Light did not really roll over into the game time festivities. I want to talk about that today. Iowa losing 42 to 3. When I looked at this game coming into it, I felt like Iowa had to punch Michigan in the mouth early. I felt like you had to get a lead early. Otherwise, bad things could happen. Michigan is

a better team. I think we could probably both agree with that even before we saw the final score. Michigan is a more talented team and some of the things they did or can do is what Iowa is not good at doing. I thought Iowa came out strong though. That first drive stopping Michigan, we haven't seen them stop an offense on the first drive in quite some time. This defense loves giving up an opening drive touchdown. I thought Brian Ferencz, I know it was scripted,

but called a beautiful first couple of drives. Iowa was moving the ball well. That halfback throw to Monte, what a beautiful play design. Imagine if we hit that. I guess, what were your thoughts in the first probably eight minutes of the game, Sands, Michigan scoring two ridiculous touchdowns? Well, first, I mean, like, we get the stop, and then we drive. We're out right down the field.

Obviously, we got some help on that drive. But you go right down the field, you know, get in the red zone. And Brian calls it. Again, this is a great call. I mean, like, at first I saw the toss. I'm like, I'm running the toss. I had a shotgun. And the next thing you know, I look up, see Monty run down the seam.

I'm like, oh, my goodness. We're going to score a touchdown right here already. And see, it didn't turn out that way. It was a field goal. And then, see, it didn't turn out that way. Then he missed a field goal. And then everything kind of just went downhill. And we missed the field goal. Yeah. We missed that field goal, and I was like, this is not –

this is literally the worst-case scenario of how that first drive goes. Like, that honestly to me is almost more deflating than a three and out. Like, you were so close, and you just don't get it. And then Michigan comes back. They put in their, their fast quarterback. They run a night. I mean,

they do a nice run play. Just go right past us. We just can't do anything to stop it. Iowa drives down again. They get a field goal. Great. And then Michigan has a trick play. That's literally the,

almost the exact same thing as ours. Same thing. And we have no one within 20 yards of the guy. I mean, it's tough, man. It's very tough. I want to get your thoughts from a player perspective. Do you feel like if Iowa scores that – and obviously it's going to be a little different, but if Iowa scores that touchdown, do you feel like the outcome of the game is significantly different?

I mean, obviously how Michigan starts to play, especially in the second half, I mean, Michigan still probably wins that game, but I feel like it's a much closer game because, again, you put Michigan on your heels like basically you let michigan off the hook on that first drive by not scoring that touchdown um for like you let him off poker going three and out um you know you let him off the hook for driving in the red zone right because you know if you're playing a good team especially a team's going to be ranked number one come this afternoon, you can't miss opportunities in the red zone. And we let them off the hook right there. And then,

you know, they come right back and then they hit an explosive play, right? Like that was literally Michigan's best case scenario after going three and out on offense. So, you know, momentum is a big, big thing in football, and momentum can swing very easily. And after that missed field goal, you could kind of feel it kind of go back towards Michigan just from the air, kind of in the stadium a little bit. And, yeah, I mean, it sucks, right? But, I mean, it is what it is is that's just how football is and that's how football can be at times and when you miss opportunities like that especially against really

really good football teams you know it is really hard to come and come back but yeah I do agree that the game is definitely different it's probably much much closer because now you're already down by a touchdown and now Michigan, you're like, okay, well, we have to press a little bit more, you know, because, you know, we already predicted to win by double digits. And now we're down by seven in the first after Iowa's first drive. So it's, it's definitely tough. I feel like Iowa came into this game.

If I'm going to go to a boxing reference, kind of the, the underdog here and they had to throw the knockout punch in the first quarter, and they had to land that knockout punch to have a chance at winning the game. It was like, I'm going to throw a knockout punch and just get you off your feet and hope I can keep you there until the fourth quarter, and maybe it's a close game, and maybe anything can happen. They tried that knockout punch, and they didn't land it,

and things went very downhill to that. I mean, when you look at the game, 42-3 was not indicative of how the entire game went, though. I mean, Iowa was 14-3 into the end of the first half, 21-3 going into the fourth quarter. I mean, theoretically, Iowa still had a chance in this game. Did you feel like any of the players in particular were pressing? And I have one guy in my head.

I just wanted to see if you had any thoughts on any players particularly pressing in this game. I mean, it's hard. It's hard for me to be able to say as much because again like I was there like it's harder for me because like you might miss something that kind of happened in on kind of play and like sometimes they ensure replace and things like that so I mean I'm sure guys were I know I mean just like the quarterback position I mean the guys are trying to make plays as well.

But I'm sure there's a whole bunch of people that were kind of, you know, kind of anxious and trying to press and trying to do things kind of outside of their job. But I'm happy to hear your thoughts as well. Yeah, I was going to say, I think Charlie Jones, man. Charlie has been a phenomenal return man the entire year and a huge asset to the team. Once Iowa got down, he was just trying to make something out of

nothing every time he touched the ball. I've never seen him run backwards so many times. I cannot imagine he was going back on that sideline and LeVar Woods was like, good job, buddy. I can only imagine he was getting an earful each time, but the guy was just trying to make anything happen. But it also speaks volumes to this Michigan team.

I felt like there was a lot more speed than I anticipated across the board on offense. I mean, their backup quarterback was outrunning their running back, who was also out running our entire defense on that first touchdown run. Charlie couldn't escape anyone when he got the ball in his hands. It was just, it was rough, man. I do want to talk a little bit about the quarterbacks because that is going to be a really, really terribly, a terrible conversation that we are going to have to talk about for the next month, the next year. I'm not looking forward to a quarterback controversy over the next eight

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We're going to be here Monday through Friday, win or lose. We're always covering everything going on in Iowa Hawkeye Nation, even this very, very rough weekend where Iowa falls to what's probably going to be the number one ranked team in college basketball and then ultimately falls the number one ranked team in college football. It was not a great weekend in Iowa Hawkeye Nation, but we're covering it all right here. You can find us by searching Locked on Hawkeyes wherever you get podcasts at

and also on YouTube. LeSean, quarterbacks. Spencer Petras, I thought Spencer looked really nice and really good that first quarter. I mean, he was getting out of the pocket a little bit. He was making some really good throws. I liked the fact that he was taking shots as well. He was really keeping Michigan's defense honest.

And that pass interference, I mean, that guy was mugging the heck out of Keegan Johnson as he was going down the field. I appreciated what he was doing from a quarterback perspective. After that first quarter, it kind of went downhill from there. Iowa makes the change to Alex Padilla. It sounds like there was a torso injury suffered by Spencer at some point. I honestly thought Spencer might have been concussed from when he got hit, and they almost called targeting.

What are your thoughts on the quarterback play and ultimately making that move to Alex Padilla? The gift that keeps giving, right? We never get to not talk about quarterbacks here. I mean, it's tough, right? I mean, because, I mean, Spencer's really been the guy for the entire year. And, you know, we started off the first quarter. I mean, I thought, you know, he was doing some great good things.

Again, like you said, he was getting the ball out of his hands, taking some shots deep-grained. We weren't really hitting on them. But then the second quarter came, and I felt like we didn't complete a pass. I felt like we literally didn't complete one pass in that second quarter. We were missing, you know, really a bunch of easy, easy throws. Again, I was never a quarterback so they're probably not as easy as i think but i felt like they were easy uh if you were thinking

all of iowa fans are thinking it's you man um and then uh like just based on his play and if he really was still trying to battle through injury again granted i mean he's a he's a warrior obviously right he's gonna give his all but you know you know that he was hurt um i probably would have made the change earlier just done it at halftime um instead of waiting um until basically the fourth quarter practically um to make that switch um but you know really it's quarterback position is But, you know, really it's quarterback position is just really in a tough spot right now. I mean, there's no really other way to really put it. I mean, quarterback's in a tough spot right now. I mean, I feel like, you know, really with the past few years, besides like last year, we were obviously kind of spoiled having CJ and then, you know, even Nate Stanley, right?

I mean, he obviously did a really, really good job at quarterback, even though there are times where people were calling for his head. But, like, you know, I felt like those guys, you know, did a really, really good job with the football and were able to make big, big-time plays. And I feel like that's just something where we are kind of missing right now. You know, I don't know what it is. I'm sure it's a combination between, you know, play calling

and obviously Spencer's injury and then, you know, Alex, not a lot of playing time. But, you know, I just feel like the quarterback position is in a really, really tough spot right now. And it's – someone's going to have to take the reins, like, because you're not going to be able to keep bouncing back and forth between quarterbacks and things like that because it's just I don't think running a two quarterback system is really a productive way to run an offense and

kind of having that revolving door a lot. So it's just something that's going to have to be figured out. Yeah, unless you're Purdue playing Iowa right after a win over Penn State, having a revolving door quarterback is not a good thing. Credit to Jeff Brom for making revolving quarterbacks work against Iowa, one of the more obnoxious things I've seen in a while. The quarterback position is in a very weird spot. We're going to be talking about it for the next month.

Is Spencer injured or did Alex pass him up? And can either of these guys take Iowa to the next level? As you kind of mentioned, every Iowa Hawkeye quarterback, it doesn't matter who you are, there were calls to probably bench you at some point. CJ got those calls. I'm sure Ricky Sanzy, no one will admit it today, but I'm sure when he was throwing pick six after pick six

in the early part of the Indiana game back in 2009, people were like, get this guy out of here. He's garbage. And then he leads us back for a win. So that's what's going to happen at that quarterback position. I have a question for you, and you don't have to answer. I know you obviously still care very deeply about this coaching staff and this program. have to answer i know you obviously still care very deeply about this coaching staff in this

program um do you think changing offensive coordinators fixes this or do you think this is always going to be somewhat of an issue under kirk ferens and is amplified because of bad offensive line play and bad quarterback play now that can also be a loaded question it could be a myriad of factors but i'm just curious i mean people wanted brian people are looking for brian ferens's head after scoring three points now i could make an argument there that they almost had a touchdown in the red zone they missed a field goal and they had to go for it on fourth down against a tough michigan team yeah i know but what are your thoughts on that i mean like it's I feel like it's definitely a great deal, probably, you know, both sides of that, right? I mean, it's definitely probably both sides of it.

I mean, again, as you've seen, the offense, I mean, of style has obviously kind of been the same the entire time since Coach Ferentz has been there. has obviously kind of been the same the entire time since Coach Ferentz has been there. And, you know, it really hasn't, I guess, kind of taken that next leap, I guess, in the direction that cultural football is going. It's still kind of staying like that old school type play, which, I mean, is perfectly fine. I mean, teams kind of do make it work. But, you know, I just feel like just the way that the game is moving right now, I mean, I feel like there's definitely different ways and probably more effective ways to, you know,

get players in better position to succeed, especially knowing kind of where our offensive line play was this year and as well as quarterback play as well. Like, I mean, it's tough to run our style, our true style of offense, you know, when we can't protect the quarterback, right, and we can't run outside zone to save our lives, right? Because those are really two staple two big staples of an off of our offense um helping the quarterback be able to get into his drops block long enough so that the props can develop and you can hit those um intermediate intermediate

throws to convert you know some of the longer third downs and then you know again outside zone is literally one of our staple play that's really like the second play we put in when we install right and we can't run those um and you know the creativity that we have and when we are calling plays even whether it was with um brian whether it was with uh coach davis and you, we're not diving deep into the playbook besides of, you know, our prescriptive plays, then, like, issues arise, right, when we are in these battles like that, because then it just feels like everything gets stagnant, and then it kind of snowballs effect, right? I mean, a lot of times we were able to prevent a lot of damage, you know, through the defense, the defense and you know end up getting enough points to either keep it close or win the

ball game but when you're going against a team like that that can create an explosive play basically any single time they're on the football field and then you couple that with um you know a stagnant offense that is you know at the bottom part of the Big Ten. It's just all a bad combination. It's a combination, I feel like, of a lot of different areas of the offense right now. I feel like the Iowa football team, at least, is kind of in a bend-but-don't-break stance of, we can bend for most teams, but against good teams, we break. You're good enough to get there, but I don't think with this offense,

you're good enough to take that next step and win a Big Ten title. I just don't think it's going to happen anytime soon, unless you have phenomenal offensive line play and average to above average quarterback play. Then you have enough to do some things. Like, you look at the Michigan State game, Iowa versus Michigan State in 2015. We had the ability to make some things. You look at the Michigan State game, Iowa versus Michigan State in 2015, we had the ability to make big plays. There's a reason why people are looking at that Tavon Smith touchdown on replay

for all of time. We don't see that happen. We saw Spencer versus Nico, but holy crap, that was a once in the season type play call that Iowa hit perfectly at the right time, but we don't have that happening on a consistent basis. It's just not something that's been happening. I want to talk a little bit more about offensive line play because I have a couple of interesting stats, and I also want to get your opinion due to the fact that, obviously,

you've seen James' development as well, and he was a young offensive lineman in this Iowa Hawkeye offense. Before we get to all of that, though, I hope you did not take my betting advice on this game. I said hammer the spread. I thought there was no way Iowa comes out and crafts the bet the way they did. I hope you all know I lost just as much money as you did at BetOnline.ag, but that is not

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What I thought was interesting was Iowa at certain times just felt like they knew they were not going to stop Aiden Hutchinson in this game. I have not seen a tackle chop block facing forward, a defensive, just chop block and say, screw it. We're going to put them on his feet and not even try to block him more than I saw in this game against Aiden Hutchinson. And we even got called for a tripping penalty on it because we just did such a poor job of doing that. I mean, it was wild to me when I looked at the PFF grades of this, and we break down PFF grades every Tuesday because it's fun to do. You can put some context behind some of the numbers. What's interesting coming into this game, Aiden Hutchinson is a guy who could be a number

one overall pick. On the other side of him, David Ojibwe is a guy who could be a first round pick. Ojibwe is a guy who could be a first round pick. Jack Plum had a horrendous day going up against Aiden Hutchinson, had a zero pass blocking grade, allowed four of Iowa's eight pressures. Mason Richmond, on the other hand, a redshirt freshman, put together a very nice pass blocking day, one of the best on Iowa, held David Ojibwe to a 59.9 pass rushing grade with one pressure. My question to you is this line. We've talked about the whole year how young it is. We have a true freshman at Connor Colby at guard. We have Mason Richmond, a redshirt freshman. Jack Plum, he's not a young guy this one. I'm not giving him a pass there. He's been in the system for a while. Now granted he came as

a tight end, but we've seen Robert Gallery come in as a tight end. We've seen other guys come in as tight ends, play well. This is a very long-winded backstory to this. You saw James Daniels obviously come in. He played early on as a guard and center for Iowa as a true freshman. What kind of growth can you make from a true freshman to your true sophomore to your true junior? Is there excitement in the air for the fact that Iowa does have

a young offensive line that could get better? Or is this an issue we're going to see next year potentially? Well, you know, I've seen going – I mean, depending upon what Tyler decides to do, if he decides to stay or leave, obviously that's going to be a big, big indicator, right, for how the offensive line is going to be able to be next year. But, I mean, you know, a lot of times offensive linemen take pretty, pretty big, big jumps from when they're a true freshman to their second and third years. And comparison where they were at freshman, right? They make huge jumps because, right, you get into, you know, through a full offseason program.

You go, obviously, you've already had a season under you now. Then you get into um winter strength conditioning you go through spring ball you go through summer conditioning then you go through camp again and there's a lot of time and a lot of development that happens there um and you know all freshmen we're gonna have like a game where they just kind of just get put in this position where they just are in a tough spot and just keep getting and losing and losing and losing. And eventually, you know, if they keep working it better, like, they get over that. Like, well, in 2015, when James was a freshman, I remember we had two of our tackles got hurt. And we were playing Illinois. And then they throw change at like right tackle and he had to go against uh what was his name something like smooth smooth or whatever and he got drafted that guy got drafted in like the third round and again jay's had a

tough time blocking him right it's a lot of those things um growing pains that kind of happen you know with freshmen you get put out there against good players. But, you know, the best players are going to continue to, you know, obviously use that as an experience and use the opportunity to learn from and be like, okay, how can I get better now? How can I get stronger? How can I get quicker? How can I just be an overall better offensive lineman?

And knowing how Coach Ferent be an overall better offensive lineman and knowing how um coach ference's development with offensive lineman and strength staff development of offensive lineman has been over time i mean usually it's going to be good things especially if you've been playing early because then you have that additional experience so i definitely think there's going to be good things to come um you know moving moving forward here for a couple of those young guys playing. But, you know, obviously trying to replace some of the other classmen, you know, if they decide to leave is going to be, you know, a tough position to be in for sure. Yeah, I think Hawkeye Nation collectively is holding their breath thinking,

is Tyler linderbaum coming back or not because he by all measures should leave right i mean this guy has yeah a bunch of money on the table he is going to be a top 15 pick he's done everything he can do at the collegiate level but if that poll i guess is pulling you back to iowa and you really want to go we'll welcome you back with open arms, buddy. But, like, I would not be – I mean, I would completely understand if he leaves. It makes sense. I just don't see him going back.

Yeah, like he should go. He should leave. But reports say he might not, and that's bizarre to me. I mean, I guess it kind of happened with TJ Hawkinson, but TJ finally woke up and realized, yo, this is a lot of money on the table. I mean, I guess it kind of happened with TJ Hawkinson, but TJ finally woke up and realized, yo, this is a lot of money on the table. I got to go get it. I got to go get mine. Yes, you love Iowa, but you got to go get yours at a certain point. Otherwise, what are you doing? Right. So if Tyler Linderbaum comes back, it'll definitely make this offensive line

at least be as good, if not better. If he doesn't come back, I'm a little worried. Without the creativity we have on offense coming into this season, what is Iowa going to do? We're no longer going to have that big push up front like we've had for the last six years. I mean, it went from James Wright to Tyler, if I remember correctly. I don't think there was a center in between. Yeah, I think so.

I think that was it, yeah. Yeah, that's six years of dominant center play. That's not normal in college football. So I know there's a couple – I was going to say, even before Austin Blythe was there, I mean, again, another really good football player. I mean – NFL guy. I mean, again, another really good football player. I mean. NFL guy.

I mean, he's still in the NFL. It's tough. Yeah. It'll be interesting. We have Michael Maslinski, who is his dad's – I think he was a strength and conditioning coach for the Jaguars. He does something for the Jags. He used to. He's a guy to watch out for next year at the center position.

We could see some guys slide around. But regardless, you don't replace, you don't hit gold twice. You're not the Green Bay Packers. Iowa hit gold three times at center position. It just doesn't happen like that on a normal basis. That'll be really interesting to see. I want to talk about Iowa and the Citrus Bowl for a second, but before I get to that, I looked up your brother on the Chicago Bears profile. I just want to see how big he was now. Six foot four, sounds like 327 pounds. You're second but before i get to that i looked up your brother on uh the channel bears profile i just want to see how big he was now six foot four sounds like 327 pounds you're his older brother who wins in a wrestling match is it you or james i still win i still without a doubt uh let's know that i still win let's know that i still win okay you know that there's no there's nah nah he might be bigger or whatever but i think i'm

probably still i'm honestly probably still stronger to be quite honest he um so yeah i definitely i definitely got him all right and who wins out of you uh are you and your dad if you and your dad would wrestle dad maybe maybe a little bit younger version of your dad like 45 i'm still taking me i'm still taking me no dad was really really strong uh in college um i know that he had set like some weightlifting records when he said well i'll say i believe so like um i know he was a strong guy um coming out of school but i still take me i love it um right, so the last thing I want to call out for the game is I thought the defense did play really well for the first three quarters. I mean, if you look at the pure statistics,

this team did a pretty good job of holding their own against Michigan outside of the explosive play. I mean, they held Blake Corham to 74 yards. 67 of that came on one rush. They held Hassan Haskins, who is an all Big Ten running back, to 3.3 yards per carry. Chase McNamara had only 169 yards thrown. I mean, like, they did a pretty good job ultimately,

all things considered, from a defensive perspective. They got put in some bad positions. Then they kept getting – Michigan kept getting the ball in good field position. They couldn't hold up forever, but I thought the defense held strong. There was one thing I wanted to call in particular. There was a rushing play. Riley Moss is about to get just annihilated by the offensive lineman, somehow dipped under him, got his hands on Hassan Haskins and took him down for no gain. That was one of the most impressive tackles I've seen from a cornerback in quite some time. Before we move on to the Citrus Bowl, anything you want to say on the defense?

Yeah, I mean, you know, obviously, when you let up explosive plays on the defensive end, you know, it's hard to combat that because, again, like the offense stays fresh. You know, they hit a play, and next thing you know, they're up by seven. Then next thing you know, they hit another one, and, like, the game kind of get away from you quickly. But I felt like, you know, really kind of after those two exposures, they kind of buckled down for quite a long while, right?

And I'm sure they probably felt like the pressure was building, building each drive after, you know, offense couldn't produce anything. But, you know, I feel like they did a good job. But then, you know, obviously we get into the fourth quarter and they kind of just, you know, broke it open. You couldn't set any more edges or land up big plays now and you know they were making some phenomenal catches like that

one-handed one down in our ends what are you gonna do about that yeah ridiculous I believe Dane Belton was covering him and like he had perfect coverage. Yeah, a ridiculous catch. But all things considered, I felt like the defense did a relatively good job. It's just we let up big plays like that. It's just tough to come back from. It's back-breaking. So Iowa had a chance at the Rose Bowl. They win this game, they're going to the Rose Bowl. They lose this game, they're more than likely going to the Citrus Bowl. We're going to find out today. Anyone who's listening to this on Sunday, we're going to find out today where Iowa is

going to the Bowl. What are your thoughts on the Citrus Bowl? What does Iowa need to do to finish off this season? We've got to get a W there. Is there any thoughts on how you prep for the Citrus Bowl and what these players need to be doing to get a W there, right? Is there any thoughts on how you prep for the Citrus Bowl and what these players need to be doing to get better over the next 15 practices? Well, first off, you got to get guys. Some guys that have been playing a lot of football, this is really their time to get healthier and, you know,

take care of any injuries or any ailments that have been kind of lingering from the season. Can I stop you there real quick? How much does Iowa hide some of that? And I say hide. I mean, like, I think Iowa fans realize what players are going through. And then all of a sudden they're out and they're like, that guy wasn't hurt. I mean, like, how much of that, like,

how much of that do people not even realize is happening during a season? I mean, it happens quite a bit. I mean, it happens – I mean, I'm sure there's a great number of guys that, right, if this was the NFL, right, they'd probably have a long injury list report, right, of guys that would – that's questionable, doubtful, and all that jazz. But, you know, because you're not required to do that and then see a double a big 10 um you know you don't really know and yeah i mean there's guys going through a whole bunch of things i mean you will go through the training room um during times when there's no meetings or practice i mean there's a whole bunch of guys in there um getting treatment on a number of different things and then um you know if today was a normal day so

for example today wasn't yesterday wasn't the big 10 championship game for this regular season right they would have had guys that had to go in early right to get treatment and get looked at by the doctors and all these different things and there's usually always a good amount of people in there as well so like there's always um things and and injuries and little element things that guys are going through throughout the season that really kind of gets hidden because it's not necessary for people to know. They're just not going to know it.

So, yeah, a lot of it goes on, and you want to keep a lot of that stuff secret, especially if you can play because you know why you can bother letting other people know. Do other teams target players in that regard? Like if, for example, let's say you hurt your wrist or whatever. This is a bad example. Let's say you hurt your wrist.

Do teams intentionally try to hit you on your wrist or find ways to kind of, if they know about it? Yeah, I don't know if they do intentionally. I mean, it may feel that way just because, like, that body part hurts. Yeah, that body part hurts, and you're like, ah, that dude was telling me. But, I mean, I don't necessarily think that they do. They could. Again, I don't play defense, but they could do it. But for the most part, I think a lot of it just ends up coming just from the repeated hits that you take

and then feeling the effects of your injury. Makes sense. I was asking about the Citrus Bowl, and I cut you off, but I actually want to switch gears on the question. If Iowa wins the Citrus Bowl, do you feel like this season was a success? I mean, any time you can – first of all, any time you can win double-digit wins is fantastic, right? I mean, it's not easy to do. And, you know, to add another win to that win column and be in 11 wins,

again, there's only been a few teams in the KF era to win 11 games. So to be able to do that would make the season, obviously, really good. And even if we lose the game, right, the season's still really good, right? I mean, you still have a lot of highs throughout the season. But, you know as football is there's going to be some lows as well and there were um you know unless you obviously just go uh 15 and 0 and you know win a national title right so um i feel like the season is definitely a success anytime you can win double double-digit games because, again, it's hard to do Iowa's only team on the West to win 10 games.

And going into Citrus Bowl, again, you have an opportunity to get number 11. And, again, you're going to go against another probably really, really good football team. So there's going to be things that are going to have to get cleaned up, things that are going to have to get shirred up for us to go up there and be able to win. But, you know, we come away with a win there.

Again, it'll just add on to just another good Iowa football season. Absolutely. We're going to go up against an SEC team. It'll be really interesting which SEC team we get. I know, obviously, the SEC likes to think they are the best conference in the world, and it can be very obnoxious. And we're going to see two SEC teams probably in the college ball playoff, which is also going to be quite annoying as well. But I digress a little bit.

My last question to you, man, is do you feel like this team overachieved more this year than most KF teams do? I mean, anytime you talk about an Iowa football team, they do the little things, right? Like they're doing the things that don't show up that people aren't really thinking, wow, that's pretty. Wow, it seems like not a lot of KF teams come in and people are like, that's a Big Ten champion team. Especially, I don't think people thought this was going to be a Big Ten champion team.

So do you feel like KF and this team overachieved more than most years in this year? You know, see see i was actually uh thinking other elsewhere right i kind of thought we were going to be around 10 wins this year i mean i knew that we had a good football team um but i thought the biggest thing i thought the offense was going to be a lot better than really what it was. I think that's really been, I guess, the biggest disappointing part of the year. Granted, again, 10 wins is really, really good. And the offense and the special teams, for the most part, has been really, really good.

But, you know, I thought the run game was going to be a lot better, you know, especially with Leonard Vaughn and Goodson, right? I mean, I just felt like our run game was going to be better than what it was. So I guess in that area, I felt like it wasn't as good. But as far as like overall performance, you know, I definitely, we're not going to say that they overachieved, but kind of were expected to be where I thought they were going to be, especially knowing how strong the defense in the back end was going to be. And obviously they were able to provide a big, big spark

for a good portion of the year. But I wouldn't say that they necessarily overachieved, I guess, in my eyes. That's just kind of how I felt. Yeah, no, I think that's a great perspective on it. I had Iowa at nine wins. I think if you had asked me before the season, if I thought Iowa was going to go to the Big Ten championship game, I probably would have said no.

But you're right. I mean, I had them at nine wins. It's one win above that. That's not that significantly different. I did think the defense was going to be really good. I thought that the offense could be just adequate. Yeah, we could,

we could win some games and you know what, in some cases the offense was adequate when we won. And when we didn't win, the offense was a garbage dumpster fire atrocious. So it's been, it's been a weird season, man. And I've enjoyed all of our conversations. I've enjoyed learning from you about the game,

learning from you about Iowa football, and excited to do it more when Iowa plays in what is more than likely the Citrus Bowl. Any last words or thoughts on this game or the regular season for Iowa football? No, man. You know, obviously, congratulate the boys for having a great year so far. And, you know, obviously, the season's not over yet. Obviously, this one stings.

It's going to hurt me. Getting beat down like that is never fun. hurting me getting beat down like that is never fun um so you know obviously it's gonna sting for a while because again you're not gonna play for a while um but you know guys will get over it um there are some good things that they can look back on um from the season um that they can enjoy and then um you know when they do get back on the practice field and, you know, get past – really get past finals week and everything and get back rolling and get ready to take another opportunity that you get in the bowl game, it should be fun. But, you know, definitely want to congratulate the guys.

A 10-1 season so far is really, really good. It's very hard to do in college football. So, yeah, that's kind of really, that's pretty, pretty much it. And as always guys, go Hawks. I love it, man. Yeah. I can definitely appreciate that. Excited to talk more Iowa football with you after that game. Excited to see the development of these guys.

And I think trying to get slowly excited for next year as well. It's always next year is always right around the corner. There's Iowa football team, depending on who comes back, this could be a team that is set to contend for years to come. They've had some really good recruiting classes coming in as well. I think when you look at this game, it leaves a sour taste in a lot of people's mouths. Maybe that's enough to convince a few guys to come back. Maybe Riley Moss wants to get his PCL healthy and maybe decides to come back.

That would be wild if he did. I would be very excited. But lots of things are going to happen over the next month and next couple months that's going to really change the direction of the Iowa football team. So more to come on all that. LaShawn, as always, it's a pleasure having you on. Always enjoyed your insight. Hawkeye Nation, appreciate you tuning in every single post-game recap.

It has been an absolute blast. We're going to start focusing a little bit more on basketball now and then doing some football before we get to the Citrus Bowl. But as always, you can find us Monday through Friday wherever you get podcast app. Hawkeye Nation, thank you all for tuning in. Have a fantastic Sunday and even better week. And as always, let's go Hawks.