Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Hawkeye's Kirk Ferentz praises Sean Clifford, Jahon Dotson; James Franklin enamored with Zach VanValkenburg

Episode Date: October 6, 2021

Iowa Hawkeye head coach Kirk Ferentz and Penn State head coach James Franklin both spoke to the media and had high praise for each other's team. Kirk had glowing things to say about Sean Clifford and his running ability while also praising wide receiver Jahon Dotson and his ability to basically do anything in the Penn State offense. Franklin has big concerns about Zach VanValkenburg's ability to put pressure on the QB and Phil Parker's secondary forcing turnovers. We also break down why this is one of the biggest games in the Kirk Ferentz era.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!SweatBlockGet it today for 20% off at SweatBlock.com with promo code LockedOn, or at Amazon and CVS.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back, Hawkeye Nation, to a Wednesday morning 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 here for another Wednesday episode of the show. And as we do every single Wednesday, we're taking a look at Kirk Behrens' press conference, and we're also taking a look at James Franklin's press conference and letting you know what

we learned from those, giving some context behind some of the quotes and talking about how it impacts this upcoming game. I do want to quickly say, though, thank you for making the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast your first listen every single day. You can find the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast wherever you get podcasts and on YouTube for free Monday through Friday at Locked on Hawkeyes. And on tomorrow's show, we are going to be breaking down this game, Iowa versus Penn State with Locked on Nittany Lions host Kevin McGuire. We are doing a Thursday crossover episode, so it should be a lot of fun there. So let's get into it, though. As Kirk Ferren spoke to the media, I think it's important to note that as opposed to in other weeks where he spoke a lot about the upcoming game,

there's a lot of historical questions. How does he feel about a top five team coming to Kinnick? How does he feel about previously major matchups in Iowa Hawkeye history? What is his history with Penn State in general? So not as much to glean specifically coming into this game, but he did speak very highly of several offensive players, including Sean Clifford and Jahan Dodson. We also heard James Franklin talk a lot about some really good defensive players, Zach from Falkenberg, Riley Moss, speaking very highly of them. So we're going to talk about all that and how it impacts the game today. On Sean Clifford, though, I thought Kirk Ferentz's quote was pretty interesting

because we have actually seen what he said happen several times against the Iowa Hawkeyes in the form of other Penn State quarterbacks like Trace McSorley. He said offensively, their quarterback is a veteran player, can make any throw that they ask him to make. Besides that, he's a dangerous runner. They'll run with him a little bit by design. As dangerous as anything, if it's not there for him, something opens up, he'll put it down and go.

He'll throw off the run and take it and make the yardage necessary for a first down or even more than that. That's where it all starts. And any Iowa Hawkeye fan can remember Trace McSorley running on the sideline. He had the opportunity to make several big plays against Iowa in this season. Iowa has done pretty well against some of these more mobile quarterbacks. Now, granted, Michael Penix Jr. did not look as healthy as we saw him last year. He did not look as mobile as we've seen him be.

Brock Purdy, I thought we did a pretty good job against. Dustin Crum, I thought we did a pretty good job against at Kent State. Todd Sencio at Colorado State, we struggled a bit. But Talia Tagovailola also has some legs, and we did a really good job maintaining and containing him. So there is some hope going forward. We have struggled with running quarterbacks in the past. It hasn't been a big strength of this defense.

But we have Jack Campbell, we have Justin Jacobs, and we have Seth Benson roaming the sidelines. Now they have the ability to get to the sideline and track down these quarterbacks. We have linebackers who have the speed to cover sideline to sideline. So that doesn't concern me as much, but when you look at Sean Clifford and what he's bringing to the table in terms of statistics wise, he is second on the team in rushing yards. He has 185 right behind the leading rusher of 187. He's averaging six yards per carry, and that is on 16 runs. Apparently only one of those was designed according to PFF. So that's 15 scrambles in five games. So he does have the ability to make a lot

of plays with his legs and he's done a really good job, not just running the ball, but also passing the ball as well on the season, 66.9% completion percentage, 1,336 yards passing, 11 touchdowns, and three interceptions. A lot of that, though, is coming from the fact that he has a lot of time in the pocket, and he is being very successful getting the ball to his main primary wide receiver, who is Jahan Dotson. And Kirk had some stuff to say about Jahan. Honestly, incredible, incredible comments to say about Jahan Dotson. He said, this receiver core is probably as good as I've ever seen. I'm impressed with number five

as anybody we've seen this year. I say that with all due respect. We played against some really good players so far, but he's outstanding. Everything about him is good. He's a really good athlete, which is great. I'm not going to say a lot of people are. There's a lot of really good athletes out there. But football player-wise, he does everything. Anyways, you just watch him play. There's no waste of movement. He's concise. Everything is really sharp.

I have to think the pro guys are watching him, have to like him. He's a really decisive player. He's a talented player, but he's a good football player. He plays hard. That is a love fest from Kirk Ferentz on Penn State wide receiver Jahan Dotson. And it's something to be noted for because in this game, the main target is Jahan Dotson.

Jahan Dotson accounts for 33% of the targets in this offense to this day. 35 receptions, 446 yards, and six touchdowns. And we'll talk a little bit about this with Kevin McGuire on Locked on Nittany Lions. And we're also going to talk a little bit about this on Friday. But across the board, Penn State's wide receiver group is pretty explosive and pretty dangerous. They got Parker Washington operating out of the slot as well, who has been pretty dangerous. That's going to be a tough cover for Dane Belton. The only thing that doesn't concern me is they're not getting their tight ends involved.

Pat Fryermuth went on to the NFL. They are now actually their leading tight end receiver is actually Theo Johnson. Some of you might remember Theo Johnson as the tight end. Iowa was recruiting very heavily. Ultimately, he chose Penn State for whatever reason. Great for him. Hope he's doing well there, but he is their leading receiver from a tight end perspective with five inter or five reception so they very much rely heavily on that wide receiver group and not as much on the running game which is something we've seen them do in the past they really like relying on that running game having a heavy running game and a heavy dose the running game and we're going to see that probably try to

continue to take place in this game james franklin has several things to say about his running backs and the fact that they have struggled to this point. They haven't been as good as he would have liked to see, but he knows this is going to be a slugfest, and he needs the running game to get going in this game. But nevertheless, Kirk Ferris spoke very highly of the wide receiver group. Jahan Dotson is a guy that Riley Moss and Matt Hankins, two of PFF's top five corners in the nation,

are going to have to be very heavily focused on, and they need to stop him in order to be successful in this game. We've seen Penn State struggle against other big-time Penn State wide receivers, such as KJ Hamler. So very interesting stuff over there. They also asked Kirk about a couple defensive questions. He said on the defense itself, they were trying to figure out what scheme to run, really,

and he didn't really care. He said he had a couple things that he wanted to make sure happened. He said we didn't want to allow big plays. We scheme to run really. And he didn't really care. He said he had a couple of things that he wanted to make sure happened. He said, we didn't want to allow big plays. We wanted to tackle well. And they wanted to, they wanted to make sure that the other team couldn't block us essentially. So basically big plays, tackling and making sure that the other team didn't have easy blocking

opportunities against us. That started with Norm. It has now moved into Phil, and they have done a tremendous job since Kirk Ferentz has taken over this program. And a lot of people, James Franklin even talked about it a little bit, and we'll get into that quote here in a second. A lot of people want to say it's simplistic, but really geniuses make complex things seem simplistic. And I think it's fair to say Phil Parker is a defensive coordinator genius. He has been instrumental to the success of this Iowa football program, a football program that doesn't have always the best offensive production,

but it's okay and they're always in games because of their defense. He also talked a little bit about interceptions. People asked him, you know, is this something you practice? And he said, I joke about it. It's not like we have a drill for this stuff. If we did, we should do it more. I think that's experience, but it's also a team effort. All the guys will tell you.

The guys in the back end will tell you. That's where staffs come up a lot. I made a point in letting our guys know by record we didn't have a sack the other night. We were making the quarterback uncomfortable, though. There's value in that, too. If you can get to the guy and you can get the guy moving where he's not comfortable, throw the ball. That stuff doesn't show in the stat column.

That's the beauty of a guy like Ben Balkenberg when they're working up front so again this past week you know Talia didn't have a single sack against him only seven pressures but that very first interception it was because we were getting pressure and we had a big time quarterback hit on Talia Tagovailola which forced a bad throw which got Riley Moss the pick and then things spiraled from there. One interception, two interceptions, three interceptions, right? A fumble on special teams. Those things spiral out of control very quickly, especially for a young quarterback like Talia. Now, Sean Clifford is not a young quarterback.

Sean Clifford is a veteran quarterback, but Sean Clifford has also had these struggles in the past with turnovers. He looks better this year. Last year, he had a new offensive coordinator, struggled quite a bit. We saw Will Levis, who is now the Kentucky starting quarterback, get a lot of playing time as well. Sean Clifford, though, should be better, able to handle the emotions and the mental side of the game a little bit better than Talia did in this game, Iowa versus Maryland. But he's also going on the road at Kinnick Stadium to play the Iowa Hawkeyes, and that is never an easy task. But again, to the point, this Iowa team is not forcing –

they're not practicing making interceptions, but they do have a scheme that bodes very well for producing more interceptions than several teams. Now, a lot of people want to point to turnovers and say there's a lot of luck involved. I would argue when you've led the nation in turnovers consistently or been in the top five in turnovers almost every single year, that's no longer luck.

That's a trend. And clearly there are some things about this defensive scheme, the fact that Iowa always has their eyes on the ball, the fact that Iowa's defensive linemen are taught more so than others and do a better job of doing it, of getting their hands up in the air to tip balls, the fact that our linebackers are good in coverage and able to just get their hands up in the passing lanes, those are things that create opportunities for our defensive backs

to make big-time plays and to get interceptions like they have throughout the season. Coming up on segment two, we're going to get into the James Franklin conversation. He talked a lot about what Iowa does well offensively and what they do on the defensive side. Really wanted to speak out about Tyler Linderbaum, Zach from Valkenburg, and Riley Moss. So we're going to talk about all that coming up here in a second.

But I do want to tell you about BetOnline.ag because they are back and they are better than ever. All eyes are on the great iron as teams are back on for another football season. As always, BetOnline is your number one spot for all the pro and college football action this season. With a new updated site and interface, even more odds, props, and contests. BetOnline continues to be the number one source for everything football. Head over to the website or use your mobile device to sign up today

and receive a 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit. Use the promo code, though, LOCKEDON, L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N, for that 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit. From football, basketball, boxing, right to your favorite Vegas casino games, don't wait to take advantage of all the amazing offers available for the 2021 season. BetOnline is the fastest and the easiest way to bet on all of your favorite sports.

BetOnline.ag, where the game starts. All right, y'all, we're going to get into the James Franklin conversation, but I do want to thank you all again for making the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast your first listen every single day, Monday through Friday. You can find the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast wherever you get podcasts at, and also on YouTube at Locked On Hawkeyes. And before we took a break, we talked about Kirk Behrens and what he had to say about this Penn State game. Now I want to hear from James Franklin. We're going to talk about some of the quotes that he said as well. Some of the things I thought were really interesting,

especially mentioned a little bit about trick plays. So let's talk first, though, about offense. He said they do an excellent job with their play action. That's probably the biggest thing. We're going to be working that all week long, play action, play action, play action. They do a really good job in getting four and five guys out into the route, so it's not like they're just going max protect all the time. They do a really good job of obviously using their tight ends.

You see their tight ends and running backs are targeted a lot. So that'll be challenging dealing with them. A couple of things I want to say about that. When the running game is working, we do have seen the play action rollouts look pretty good. We saw it actually several times against Maryland. That was where I would say our play action worked the best out of the entire season.

But until that point, I haven't been that impressed with our play action. What teams have been doing is they've been loading the box and just selling out on the run. And then they happen to get pressure on Spencer Petras. But when the running game is going, and I think what we saw about from James Franklin and the Penn state defensive line, they have allowed some big time rushing performances.

Wisconsin had over 180 yards. Auburn had over 180 yards. I expect Iowa to try to do the same. Again, we saw Tallya, or not Tallya, but Maryland. Iowa came out passing to set up the run. I do expect them to have a more traditional Iowa football game this game, where they're going to run the ball to set up the pass, and then utilizing those play actions to get guys out in space, get tight ends like Sam Laporta and Luke Lachey out in space. And he did mention the fact that they are using their tight ends and running backs. When you look at our entire receiving core, running backs, tight ends, wide receivers, Spencer Petras has done a phenomenal job of sharing the ball.

It has been truly amazing. It actually makes it very difficult for the defense to key on literally anyone because he can go to anyone on any given play. Now, a lot of that is going to be by design. Brian Feren's calling the play calls. We've seen last year Spencer struggled a little bit of getting off his first read. I haven't seen that as much this year. But nevertheless, whether it's by design, by Brian calling some of the plays

and the primary read being a different guy on each play, which very well I think probably is the case, Spencer is doing a good job of sharing the ball, and that does make it very difficult on a defense because they can no longer key on a guy. We also have to worry about Tyler Goodson splitting out wide or coming out of the backfield, or Ivory Kelly-Martin. We've seen them both do damage from that aspect before as well. He also had a lot of really good things to say about the defensive side. He said the guys that stand out with us on the defensive end, number 97 Zach from Valkenburg, very, very much an Iowa defensive line name. Seems like they always got a guy like that. Linebacker number 31, Jack Campbell, impressive. Watching him on tape, I didn't

realize he's as big as he is listed. He's 6'4", but he's active and really productive. Number 44, Seth Benson, linebacker, impressive, impressive on tape, productive as anything. And then number 33, Riley Moss, the defensive back. So I wouldn't disagree with that. That is probably your top four guys. You probably could have thrown in Matt Hankins there as well, but those are probably the top four main guys on Iowa's defense. Seth Benson, you could probably substitute him for Justin Jacobs in and out for them.

But, yeah, I think he hit the nail right in the head. Zach from Balkenberg has been the catalyst for this defensive line. Coming into the season, the defensive line was the big concern. We did not know what to expect from this defensive line. We knew Zach from Valkenburg was productive. We knew Zach from Valkenburg was able to hustle and make things happen, but we did not know how the other guys could respond in playing time. Now with Zach from Valkenburg getting a lot of the attention, we've seen guys like Lucas Van Ness really show up. We've seen Joe Evans have

another outstanding season as a pass rush specialist. So these are guys that Penn State is clearly worried about. He also mentioned a couple things about their defense. So when we talk about the fact that Iowa does a really good job of forcing turnovers, he also mentions the fact that they just have a really good scheme. He said, I think it's a couple of years. I think obviously they've done a couple or he thinks it's a couple of things. Obviously they've done a really good job with it over multiple years. Obviously they do a good job of teaching it. I think their scheme more times than not allows them to capitalize on mistakes because they have their eyes on the quarterback probably as much as anybody in college football. And they obviously do a great job of

coaching it and drilling it and teaching it. I also think they have length, that they have a defensive tackle and defensive end also plays into that because they are able to get their hands on some balls. Now, again, this is exactly what we talked about on the first segment of the show today. Iowa does a really good job of getting their hands up.

Now, when people want to complain about the Iowa State offense just having a bad game, I would argue it's the fact that Iowa was able to get their hands up on several plays. There was one play in particular, Joe Evans was able to get his hand up, tip the ball in the air, and we saw, I believe it was Matt Hankins, running down the sideline with that football. When Iowa can get their hands up, that ball is anyone's ball at that point. You are changing the trajectory, the direction, the flight path of that football. And again, as we mentioned, Iowa, all of them have their eyes on the quarterback. That is the beauty of a cover two zone scheme. Everyone is looking at the

quarterback. So when the ball's up in the air, it's Iowa's ball to lose. And they're going to go get it every single time. When we looked at the Colorado State game, the one thing that sticks out to me is the fact that Iowa wasn't getting those balls. There was a lot of balls tipped up in the air. There's several balls that were dropped that I would just couldn't get to. So it is important for Iowa to capitalize on that. But again,

as, as James said, this is not just luck. There's a lot of skill and a lot of scheme that is involved in all of this working. The one thing though, I want to talk about the James said that I thought was really interesting. He said, the other thing we're working on is trick plays.

We're going to spend a lot of time on those things this week, whether it's on a PAT field goal with shifts and motions and swinging gates, as we call them. They ran one a few years ago that we had worked on, but they still were able to be successful with it. They're always going to have a wrinkle in there that you need to be prepared for. So we're going to be working all those things.

I find that quote incredibly interesting because Iowa does not run a lot of trick plays. I think we've seen like two in the last two years. However, when you start thinking about the times they have ran trick plays, they have been successful. It was against Penn state. Penn state has been the team where Iowa pulls out some tricks

out of their bag on a pretty consistent basis. And it seems like James Franklin, he's aware of that. He's ready for it. He knows it's coming, but they've also known as coming in the past and they've been unable to stop it. So that's going to be a really interesting matchup battle in my opinion. How does Iowa special teams take on Penn State special teams and can Penn State special teams sniff out any of these fakes? We saw a fake earlier in this year with Tori Taylor throwing the football. Now that was a very unsuccessful fake, but they put it on tape and now that's something that Penn State has to prepare for. But nevertheless, I expect Iowa to have a few tricks up their sleeves. This is a big time game, which is something we're going

to talk about here in a few short moments. This game expands beyond just this season because Iowa, even if they lose this game, they still have a pretty clear path to the Big Ten championship game. They even have a slight path to a college football playoff if they were to win out. But this game means more than just winning this season. This is more than just winning and getting to the college ball playoff this season. This could change the trajectory of this Iowa football program. And I want to talk about that coming up in a few short seconds. But I do want to tell you about PrizePix.com. PrizePix is the place for football fanatics.

PrizePix is daily fantasy made easy. I love this, and I know that you will too. PrizePix is a leader in college sports daily fantasy. They offer more college ball props than anyone in the world, and they offer all the star players of the Power Five, as well as mid-major players you might not have even heard of. PrizePix offers any prop you can think of, from yardage to touchdowns, even interceptions thrown. All of our listeners just have to go in and deposit and use our promo code LOCKEDON, L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N, and you'll receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100.

Again, PrizePix is awesome. You can combine bets. You can combine sports. You can pick the over on a touchdown bet and an under on a basketball bet. Whatever you want to do, PrizePix allows you to do it. Use the award-winning app on both the App Store and Google Play, and entries can be made within 60 seconds or less. It's really that easy.

PrizePix is safe and offers fast withdrawals as well, so 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. PrizePix is daily fantasy made easy. And I do want to tell you about Bilt Bar. Bilt Bar is the best-tasting protein bar on the market today. Bilt Bar is the protein bar that tastes just like a candy bar. They have nine delicious flavors, plus the occasional limited time flavor that are honestly awesome. You got to get your hands on some of those. They have cookie dough chunk. I've had white chocolate birthday cake with sprinkles, and I absolutely love the white chocolate birthday cake with sprinkles. So you got to check out BiltBar.com. But not just for the taste benefits, the taste truly phenomenal, but really where they get you at is how amazingly healthy they are for you as

well. 17 to 18 grams of protein, 130 to 180 calories, only four to five grams of sugar and only four to five grams of net carbs, nine amazing flavors, all tasty, all healthy. And built bar is the official protein bar of the USA track and field team.

If it's good enough for them, it's probably good enough for us. So go to BiltBar.com and use the promo code LOCKED15. That's L-O-C-K-E-D-1-5. And you'll get 15% off your first order. Use that promo code LOCKED15 for 15% off at BiltBar.com. And before we took a break and gave you some awesome stuff you should take a look at, I wanted to talk to you about the fact

that this is a huge game. I was about the fact that this is a huge game. I was mentioning the fact that this is a game that goes beyond this season. This is a game that goes beyond Iowa doing well in the year 2021. This is a game that sets up Iowa for the next four to five years, and there are several reasons why. When you look at Iowa in the last 10, 20 years, they have had a really good season about every five to six years. You think 2002, 2009, 2015, and then I would argue 2019 was a really good season.

One of the best seasons in Iowa history as well. And then last year could have been something. This year, the ranked top five, they have a schedule. They might be favored in most of the games going forward. They should be at least. They have an opportunity with college football in what I consider to be a parity position. Ohio State is not the same Ohio State. The Pac-12 is not looking that good.

Alabama has issues with their running game, or their run defense, excuse me. Georgia has looked pretty good, but they haven't thrown the ball at all. And Clemson is down. This is the opportunity for a team like Iowa to step up and take advantage of a down year in college football. And when I say down year, I should really say it's a year where college ball has a lot more parity. So the teams that are traditionally in the middle of the pack,

they have a lot of veterans returning because of that COVID year. You have a lot of teams like Alabama who still lost a lot of guys as well. So those teams that constantly reload have a lot of younger guys where those teams that have a really good year every couple of years are returning a lot more guys than they typically do, just like Iowa did. So that gives Iowa a really good opportunity here to take advantage of an interesting situation. They have the opportunity to make a college ball playoff. They have the opportunity to go to a Big Ten championship game for the first time since 2015.

They have an opportunity to go to a New Year's Six Bowl for the first time since 2015. They've had opportunities in the past. We saw them last year. Had they won those two games, we could have been talking about a very different Iowa football team. They barely lost those two games. Now, some could argue those two games were also a catalyst for what happened the rest of the season. But again, all these things are on the table. And win or lose, these things are also on the table.

If they lose, Iowa still, all they have to do is win out to go to the Big Ten Championship game. You win out and you win the Big Ten Championship game, you might still be in the college ball playoff if you beat a Penn State team that gets there. So that's something to watch out for. But what I think is interesting about this game is the fact that this extends beyond this season. When you look at those great teams, there were one or two games you think, man, they would have won those games. 2002, what if they would have beaten Iowa State? I think USC was not a good matchup for Iowa.

What if they would have beaten Iowa State? A good Iowa State team with Seneca Wallace. 2009, what if Ricky Stanzi doesn't go down? Now, granted, James Vandenberg, I thought, played pretty darn well in his time against Northwestern and Ohio State. But what if Ricky Stanzi doesn't go down? Maybe Ricky Stanzi picks it back up in the second half against Northwestern. Maybe Ricky Stanzi is able to carry out that win against Ohio State

that James Vandenberg almost got. A whole different ballgame there as well. 2015, they had a chance. They had Michigan State on the ropes. LJ Scott gets in there, gets that touchdown. Iowa goes to the Rose Bowl against freaking Christian McCaffrey. I mean, it's like we can't catch a break on these teams we're going up against, right? Now, we have an opportunity now to go up against a Penn State team

that we just got over the hump with last year. We've been in these situations before. We have one game we got to win to go to the Big Ten Championship game. It's usually Wisconsin. Now again, this isn't going to change going to the Big Ten Championship game per se, but we have not been able to beat Penn State consistently. A top five team. We haven't had this kind of matchup in a very, very long time. They need to take advantage of an opportunity like this because if they get this game, if they win this game, it's putting Iowa on a path to win for the next four, five, six years. This is not, you know, if they're able to do this, it's not a situation where Iowa then

falls backwards next year and regresses. They return a lot of guys still. A lot of young guys in the offensive line. A lot of young guys in the defensive line. The linebacker group could all be returning. They even returned several guys in the secondary, even though they probably are losing Riley Moss and Matt Hankins. But nevertheless, this is a team that is built to win now and for years to come. And they have so many good guys coming in from the recruiting class that 2020 and 2021 recruiting classes. Great. I'm excited for that. What's even more important is that when you look at this game,

they have a lot of big time players on campus, several five-star recruits, several four-star recruits, guys who have Iowa high on their list. If they're able to take care of business at home against Penn state at Kinnick, we could be seeing some recruits and some commits start flooding in. And again, building this program up for not this year, but for the long time. So this is a big time game. I mean, I would argue this is

one of the biggest games in the history of Iowa football, at least in the last 20, 25 years. This is a top 15, top 10 game in Iowa Hawkeye football under the Kirk Ferens era. I know it's a lot to throw on a regular season game, but that's how important this game is. And we're going to talk about that more on tomorrow's show with Kevin McGuire of the lockdown Nittany lions. We're also going to talk about that on Friday, as we give you our predictions or this game,

Iowa versus Penn state, breaking on the spread, breaking on the key matchups, the storylines, all that on our Friday show. And if you want to listen to even more of us, you should check out the Locked On Big Ten podcast because Kevin and I were on there yesterday morning.

So you can check that out. We talked a little bit about the game, but we're going to dive more into that as well on tomorrow's episode. So check out Locked On Big Ten podcast wherever you get your podcast on YouTube. And then make sure to tune in to us every single day, Monday through Friday. You should subscribe to us. And if you like the show, give us that five-star review. Thank you all for tuning in to this Wednesday morning episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast.

Have a phenomenal Wednesday and an even better day all around. And as always, let's go Hawks.