Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Hawkeyes vs Wisconsin Badger crossover episode: What happened to Graham Mertz and why Iowa has a special teams advantage

Episode Date: October 28, 2021

We are joined by Locked On Badgers hosts Asher Low and Ben Kenney for a crossover episode as we break down this Saturday's game between the Iowa Hawkeyes and Wisconsin Badgers. What happened to Graham Mertz this season and has Wisconsin rediscovered its identity? Also, is Wisconsin's pass blocking situation worse than Iowa's? The answer might surprise you. Moreover, what type of personnel has Wisconsin been running with on defense and why that could lead to some interesting defensive formations if Phil Parker wants to stop the Badgers.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!SweatBlockGet it today for 20% off at SweatBlock.com with promo code LockedOn, or at Amazon and CVS.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.PrizePicksDon’t hesitate, check out PrizePicks.com and use promo code: “LOCKEDON” or go to your app store and download the app today. PrizePicks is daily fantasy made easy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back, Hawkeye Nation, to another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Podcast Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade. Excited to be back for another show today. And as we do every single Thursday, we are giving you a crossover episode. We're going to be joined by the Locked On Badger hosts, Asher Lowe and Ben Kenney,

as we break down what to expect in this Iowa-Wisconsin game. Before we get to that, though, I want to thank you all 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 at and also on YouTube for free at Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. That's being said, let's hop into the show right now, though. Don't want to waste any time. Let's get to it. The crossover episode with Asher Lowe, Ben Kenney of Locked On Badgers. Joining us on the Locked On Badgers podcast for a crossover Thursday episode is the host of Locked On Hawkeyes, Andrew Wade,

as we get ready for Wisconsin and Iowa, a game that could probably and probably will end up deciding the Big Ten West Division. Andrew Wade, it's been a while. We did a lot of stuff on Locked On Big Ten. We've done quite a few crossover episodes here, but it's good to have you back on the show. It's always good to be back, man. Always good to talk Iowa, Wisconsin. I'm not looking forward to this game at all. I'm literally just dreading everything about this Saturday, but happy to talk about it. Ready to get into it, man. I just wish Wisconsin was

actually bad. No, we have to start with why are you dreading it this is like this game is like my super bowl honestly it's a contest where no one's going to score the weather hopefully will be cold and it'll be somewhat in the national spotlight where we're cheering for stops and two-yard gains instead of touchdowns yes those are the positive pieces of it i look at it as for 60 minutes i'm gonna have to wonder is iowa gonna screw this this up against Wisconsin like we did for the last five years? Is Spencer Petrie going to get sacked 25 freaking times? Are we going to get hit behind the line 20 times? Is Tyler Goodson going to get more than a yard every time he touches the ball?

And also, it's in Madison, and I just hate Wisconsin, man. I really hate Wisconsin. Were you about to say you hated Madison? I almost did. I stopped myself because I do like Madison, the town. I just don't like the university at all. Fair enough. Fair enough.

Because that's going a little too far. That was going too far. I know. I have a lot of really aggressively rude hot takes. Madison is not one of them. I love Madison near and dear to my heart. I spent five years there. I love that place.

Ben, do you want to bring back your Iowa City takes right now, or are we going to save that? Should I? If you hate Iowa City, don't you dare. It's my second least favorite place in the Big Ten. What? Yeah. What is the last one?

West Lafayette. The absolute bottom. Well, it comes with a disclaimer that I've never been to Rutgers and I've never been to Northwestern. I've never been to Champaign either. I've really only been to five of them, but it's second to last. Okay, what are the five you've been to? I'm just – this is ridiculous.

Well, Ann Arbor is third to the bottom. So third. Yeah. Madison's first. Penn State's second. And I haven't been to any others. So you've been to Ann Arbor. No, it's first. Penn State's second. And I haven't been to any others. So you've been to Ann Arbor. No, it's five.

Wait, Ann Arbor, Happy Valley, Madison, and Iowa City. And Purdue. Oh, West Lafayette. Okay. So Iowa's fourth out of those five? No, it's last. Wait. It's behind West Lafayette?

Yeah. Wait, did I say it was the second? Honestly, I don't know. They're both at the bottom. You said it was second to worst, but for the sake of content, just say it's the worst. I like that. All right, I'll say it's the worst.

It is definitely next to West Lafayette for me. We definitely got to talk about football, but I just have to talk about this real quick. What was so bad about Iowa City? It wasn't anything specific. I was just there for a couple weekends, and I just didn't enjoy it. It's a very subjective take. I'm not talking as if it's like an objective fact.

I just happened to have a pretty bad weekend when I was there. A pretty bad three weekends, it sounds like. Well, one of them was really bad. The others were just like, eh. I was there. I was like, I want to go home to Madison huh I'm okay well I don't know this really threw me off I don't know how to take this um screw you and your opinions uh ready to talk some football I will say this and with that and with that banger of a line I'm gonna get into a football question for Andrew Wade Andrew what the hell happened against Purdue that line. I'm going to get into a football question for Andrew Wade. Andrew, what the hell happened against Purdue?

That's all I'm going to ask you to start. What the hell happened? Dude, it's Purdue, man. I don't get it. It pisses me off. Purdue has officially become my least favorite team. I want Jeff Brom to go somewhere else. I'm sick of him.

I don't understand how Iowa goes in this game. They see the fact that David Bell has torched them for the first two years of his career. Also, mind you, David Bell was choosing between Iowa and Purdue imagine how that would have looked had he not gone to Purdue however Iowa comes in and they decide you know what we're gonna single man coverage David Bell okay that's a bad idea so when you look at what Wisconsin did where they bracketed David Bell all day, they had two guys on the entire day, and David Bell's held to 40 yards. It makes me sit there and cringe because we have Phil Parker. Phil Parker puts together a defense that is one of the best in the nation every single year with arguably a pretty – I'm trying to think of the right word here – a low-rating group of human beings.

Now, stars-wise from like a recruiting perspective, these guys are all going to probably play in the NFL. He coaches them up. He gets them to the right spot, but he's not rolling out in Alabama, talented defense out there. And yet we stopped teams like Ohio state, like high, you know, with Scott, not we're stopping Wisconsin. I'm trying to think of other teams, Ohio state, a Penn state, a Michigan, a Michigan state. We can usually hold them to under 20 points. I don't understand what it is about Purdue. They have three garbage quarterbacks. They have David Bell. They had one scholarship running back. Their offensive line was not that good. I don't understand what went wrong there. It just, I'm already pissed off, man, between Ben's takes on Iowa city. And you asked me about Purdue.

I don't get it. My question is what went right against Purdue? I don't understand how Purdue can actually not do anything with any other teams besides Iowa. Well, I will say this. I think I call Phil Parker, the four, three Jim Leonard in a way they have, they're have their differences, but they have the same kind of effect on a defense where they tend to bring the best out of players from really every position. And obviously in the secondary is the most scary group in terms of what went right. I mean, it seems like Wisconsin has finally found a groove in run blocking. So on offense, they finally, finally against a not bad team were able to move the football and pose some kind of threat. And then on defense, I mean, this is top three defense in the nation that has finally started to get turnovers. And part of that

was great plays by cornerbacks and safeties. Part of that was eight, eight and O'Connell handing them the ball. But it finally, like I, Asher and I talk about turnover luck a lot. And while some of it is not luck, there has been this crazy end of the pendulum where I was at the very top

Wisconsin at the very bottom, both with great defenses. So it kind of started to even out with obviously Spencer Petras throws four picks, but Wisconsin finally started to force turn with obviously spencer peters throws four picks but wisconsin finally started to force turnovers which then like they were finally just able to play with momentum instead of having a grand mertz turnover kill them and kill them in the second half yeah that makes sense i would agree to a degree that there is a lot of luck in turnovers i think certain teams as you said wisconsin iowa can make their own luck to a degree.

Iowa typically has their eyes on the quarterback because they're playing zone coverage. So their back is to the end zone. They're looking at the quarterback the entire time, which allows them to swarm to the football. And one thing I want to say, though, is Spencer Petras, he gets a bad rap because he threw four interceptions against Purdue. But three of those were in the final six, seven minutes where he was just trying to force a play. And that is really putting him outside of his comfort zone and outside of what Iowa wants to do with the football. So the first interception went off the guy's hands, get it, but Purdue should, Oh my gosh, that just frustrates me. But yeah, Spencer Peters actually has been doing a pretty good job of controlling the football and keeping the football this year,

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Ba-da-ba-ba-ba. I am loving it. And thank you all for making the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast your first listen every single day. You can listen to the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast wherever you get podcasts at for free by searching Locked on Hawkeyes. We are also on YouTube Monday through Friday as well. Let's get back to our conversation with Asher and Ben right now.

On the flip side of that, you guys have Graham Mertz, who everyone was very excited about. And I was very worried about, I was like, man, gosh, darn it. Wisconsin actually got a quarterback. Like you can always account for them. Like Horny Brook Cohen. You're like, these guys are average at best. They're not going to do a lot. Then you get freaking Graham Mertz. I'm like, oh crap. They actually combined that with an offensive line, a running game and a defense. Like this team should win a national title. And then he honestly makes me feel pretty darn happy about Spencer Petras. So what has been going on with Graham Mertz? Well, the take you just gave is the one I'll take offense to because they had a quarterback in Jack Cone. You forgot who you're talking to when you're talking to Ben Kenny about Jack Cone, but with Graham Mertz, I think that the win over Purdue is the perfect example of what we need from him.

And it's to not do anything, to basically be asked to do nothing and hold the ball, hand the ball off correctly. Which, by the way, that has even been an adventure at times as you're just handing the ball off routinely has been a problem multiple times in the beginning of the season. And it cost them games. It absolutely cost them the Penn State game. Literally, Mertz's ability to hand the football to a running back cost them that game at the end of that game. But when he throws eight passes in an entire football game, that's a win, a massive win for Wisconsin, because if they can run the football, nothing else really matters.

As far as Mertz, though, listen, it's a bit of everything, right? It's having feet in the pocket, inconsistent on really easy short throws. That's the thing that has been mind-boggling to me. It's like the three-yard outs that he just can't time up and complete for simple first downs. And then you'll see like a glimpse, and this is honestly the most frustrating part, you'll see a glimpse, a throw like once every two weeks where you're like, there he is.

That's the guy that they recruited. The drive against Michigan at the end of the half. Did you watch that drive at all? He had two throws back to back that I think were the best throws of his Wisconsin career. Like both those throws were the best throws he's ever made as a Badger. And then he comes out in the second half and gets injured in the first series. So we've seen the glimpses of it, but listen, the offensive line just hasn't been a Wisconsin offensive line. And that's been hurting him a ton. Hasn't had time for some of the deep shot plays they want to take. They haven't had time to develop them. The run game obviously hasn't been as much of a threat early in the year when the offensive line was really struggling. And I think when you pair

a quarterback that can't complete the simple, easy layups and an offensive line that is mightily struggling, which is something you don't think about with Wisconsin football. Usually that's a really bad recipe for offensive football. And I think it's been a little bit more of a dual thing with the offensive line and Mertz combined. But yeah, I think it does start with Graham Mertz. I think it's interesting to me how similar both of these teams are because Iowa, their biggest weakness this year on offense has been their inability to block anyone in pass protection. The interior is pretty solid, Tyler Linderbaum, but we have two injuries to some of our veteran guys. On the tackle spots, we have guys who have a combined, I think, two starts going, maybe not even two starts going into the season. Mason Richman's a redshirt freshman,

never started. Nick DeYoung got some snaps last year, but I don't believe he got any starts either. And we're really struggling in pass protection. So I just wanted to take a look. I looked at PFF, looked at the pass blocking grades, and I was shocked to see that Wisconsin is actually worse than Iowa in their pass blocking grade. I think Iowa is 22nd worst and Wisconsin is 21st worst in the worst,

worse, whatever, in the nation. Both teams, not very good pass blocking teams. Is Graham Mertz very mobile at all? He's shown it, especially recently, actually. He's been able to scramble, but it's more of a scramble into an open field than pure mobility. Not as mobile as Jack Cohn was for the Badgers. But the crazy part about Wisconsin's tackles are that they are really experienced and they've shown greatness before.

And then this year, for some reason, especially Tyler Beach at left tackle, they've just really struggled against anyone formidable on the outside, which is why against Purdue, George Karloftis, one of the most scary edge rushers in the Big Ten in the country. He dominated Iowa. Yeah, they just ran the ball right at him all game when they actually did drop back to pass. Uh, Graham Mertz was caught with a

corner blitz. It was returned. He fumbled. It was returned for a touchdown. So the fewer times he takes steps back with the football, the better, uh, this team is, which is crazy. Cause I, I look at these teams and I think they're the exact same team. You just have one team that has turned the ball over a lot and somehow not forced many until last week. You have another team whose defense has turned teams over at an insane rate, and the offense has done a good job keeping hold of the football. So it's like I don't even know how to preview this game because I feel like I'm playing myself.

Yeah. I mean, they're literally like the exact same team. I guess my my question would be so for Iowa there. So I guess when Wisconsin's playing offense, what are their personnel groupings? Because one of the things I've been talking about a lot is how does Iowa change up its defense going into this game? Because every team we face this point is going to was a spread attack. We're typically running a 4-2-5. But against Wisconsin, we're going to see a 4-3 most of the time we might even see a 4-4 from Iowa so I'm curious what are the typical personnel groupings for Wisconsin so early on in the season there was a lot of 11 personnel one running back one tight end a lot of 12 personnel in the last couple weeks

especially as Wisconsin has seen a lot of tight ends go down and this doesn't make much sense, but it just happened this way. Like last week, they're playing with Jake Ferguson, who's a great tight end, but then behind him is a converted offensive lineman in Cormac Samson and Jalen Franklin, who started the season as a six string. And all Paul Chris did against Purdue is throw them on the side of the offensive line, either have one or zero wide receivers out there and just ran it right at Purdue all game long. And they had a lot of success. So early on when they were turning the ball over a lot, not really moving the ball well, there was a lot of 11, a lot of 12 personnel. I mean,

it depends if you count fullbacks as tight ends, but you had some of the fullbacks stretched out wide on the formation. So if they go with what has been successful recently, which I think they obviously should do, you might only see one wide receiver on the field if that. That actually aligns with what I was thinking too because when I look at Wisconsin and how they ran the ball against Purdue, to me it did look like they were playing with literally one wide receiver on the field, maybe at any given time. And with Iowa,

it's going to be a change from what they've had to do. Now they have three really good linebackers. One was kind of the four-star recruit out of Ohio a couple of years ago. Haven't heard much of him until this year has been phenomenal. I think we're going to see, I will play a lot of four, four linebackers, four defensive linemen, potentially even do five defensive linemen, especially if Wisconsin's going real big with three linebackers. So it's going to be really, it is going to be very traditional smash mouth football, bringing it back to like the 1930s when there was no forward passes. It is going to be a very interesting game for sure.

So go ahead, Ben. for sure so go ahead then no quickly what does Iowa do with obviously you have Matt Hankins who was covering David Bell a lot of the Purdue game which you said was questionable uh because no one can really cover him one-on-one how how is Iowa set without Riley Moss there because Hankins is the one and he's been solid minus the David Bell game from what I've seen yeah what do they have next to that yeah so I mean I would say what I've seen. What do they have next to that? Yeah. So, I mean, I would say what I've been saying is the Iowa secondary, their back secondary could arguably start on 75 teams in college football as that entire secondary.

You have guys with a lot of experience. We have a transfer that came out of Northern Iowa who was an all conference guy who could have went to the NFL and and he's our fifth-string cornerback. This is a guy who could have went into the draft, and he's playing out as our fifth-string corner. We have a couple of big-time recruits that are also behind our guys. So anyways, behind Riley Moss, though, which is a huge loss, and I've actually talked a lot about that.

I think with Wisconsin going to such big personnel and going to 22 or 23 personnel, you do need a corner on the, on the boundaries that can actually cover a guy one-on-one that you can leave on an Island and say, we are good with him there, or potentially two corners and guys who can come up and tackle. So Matt Hankins is a great tackling corner and a good quarterback in general, Riley Moss, not as good of a tackler, but it does hurt not having Riley Moss there, a guy you can rely on to say, we're going to shut down any wide receiver that Wisconsin does out there. So we can basically rely on stopping or focusing on stopping their running attack. Behind Riley Moss, you got Terry Roberts.

Terry Roberts, his first start was last week. He did okay, all things considered. David Bell, 80% of his production came against Matt Hankins. When you look at the production of the Purdue offense, 70% of it was David Bell. So Terry. When you look at the production of the Purdue offense, 70% of it was David Bell. So Terry Roberts, he got picked on early in that game or attempted to get picked on. They were throwing the ball at him every single play. And he held his own. He's a guy who I feel comfortable going into next season

as our starting corner. So just to answer that a little bit. I also think, though, if we see a 4-3 or a 4-4-3 even, we could see Dane Belton take over that other cornerback spot. Dane Belton plays our cash position, basically our dimebacker position. Imani Hooker is a great example of what we have with that position. We could see Dane Belton be there as well, just because he's usually playing closer to the line of scrimmage. And that gives Iowa a better opportunity in stopping the run,

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and 98% of the country is going to hate everything about it. And there's going to be Iowa and Wisconsin to be like, yes, punting and running. Let's go. 13-8 is the projected score right now from our friend on Twitter who does a lot of analytical stats stuff. The over under though is set at 36 and a half and I would still absolutely smash that under.

It's a lot of points. It's a lot of points. Okay. I was, I was phrasing this to Ben during the army game when the over under was at 39. And I was like, Ben 21 to 17.

Doesn't that sound like a ridiculous amount of points for this game? That's 38. Like if you take 36 and a half, a final score of 20 to 14, 21 to 14. Doesn't that sound like a lot of points a team scoring 21 points in this football game? That's a lot. I mean, I could see this being three, nothing at half. I think especially the way Iowa plays rivals and the way Iowa plays good football teams is they come out slow and they just try to not screw things up I said I mean like that's what they did against Iowa State they're like we're gonna test some things out we're gonna see what works so that we can capitalize in the second quarter in the third quarter and they did capitalize in the second quarter once they got a lead they're like screw

this we're not doing any I mean freaking Spencer Petras took like three or four sacks on third down because he just didn't want to make a mistake that's how i will plays against these teams i could see i will coming i think i could see it honestly being like six three and outs in a row i will wisconsin just a ton of punting um which will be very interesting i'm curious how is uh how is wisconsin special teams because obviously i was a superb what a what a conversation have. It's a mixed bag, though. It's loaded. It's a mixed bag because when you talk about the punter and the kicker, this year both have been really, really good.

Andy Vujnovic is jacked. He's a big-time strength punter. He gets in the weight room and does some crazy things. He let out some boomers against Iowa last year. I remember that game. He was sending them like 50, 60 yards. The only positive from that 28 to seven loss was probably Andy. But Colin Larch has been really,

really good as Wisconsin's kicker this year, 10 for 12 on field goal attempts. But those two misses, one was like from 54 yards against Michigan. Don't even know why they wanted to take it. And then the other or against Notre Dame and the other was a blocked kick. So basically 10 for 10 on attempts you should make and was solid against Purdue at a 43-yard field goal. That was money. He's been really, really reliable. Now, the rest of the unit in every other way

has been an unmitigated disaster, like a complete utter disaster, and that's not the first time I've been saying that. That's kind of been a theme now for Wisconsin the last five, six, seven years. I don't know if you remember like the big games this team has had right like ohio state in the big 10 championship two years ago the rose bowl against oregon what can you point to with both of those games that

lost in the football game it was ridiculously dumb special teams mistakes and it's been like the the fair catches that this team the fair catches that this team – the fair catches that this team – Oh, it's unreal. That this team calls for will literally make you pull all your hair out and never want to watch Wisconsin football again. I mean, they'll be standing at the two-yard line calling for a fair catch. It is remarkable. And then not catch it.

And then not catch it. That's even better. Must. This is music to my ears. Coverage. Coverage ridiculousness on that side of the football when a team's returning. I mean, that game against Notre Dame was decided, I think, completely by that special teams play when Wisconsin had all the momentum,

took a lead, boom, kickoff. Notre Dame scores 100-yard takeoff return. Notre Dame takes the lead in the fourth quarter. Wisconsin loses the game. This has been a longstanding problem now for Paul Chris teams, the special teams issues in general. I think the one thing, like I said, that has me a little confident is that this game is probably coming down to

field goals. And I like Wisconsin's position right now in terms of calling large, kicking the football. Yeah. You don't have to cover many kickoffs if there are only two in the entire game. So I guess that's positive, but yeah, the three games Wisconsin lost early in the year, one of them came in large part due to a field goal

that was blocked from like 20 yards. The second they give up that big kick return, which loses them the game at Notre Dame against Michigan, they muff a punt on their own five. So like, they just can't get out of their own way. It has been better recently, but their kickoff returner, Devin Chandler, did enter the transfer portal. So that's a revolving door. So it's not great. Yeah, that's interesting. So I think from my perspective,

when I look at Wisconsin's offense versus Iowa's defense, Wisconsin can't throw the ball. Iowa doesn't let anyone throw the ball except for David Bell and Purdue. But Wisconsin's running game against Iowa's undersized defensive line is a concern. On the flip side, I'm very's running game against Iowa's undersized defensive line is a concern on the flip side. I very concerned in general about Iowa's offense against Wisconsin's defense. I think Iowa needs to throw the ball quick and get basically start with throwing and start with the passing game to open up potentially the running

game against Wisconsin. I think that's the only way Iowa can get any momentum or generate any movement with the football is they have to take shots, throwing the football and get the ball out quick. But special teams is where I feel like that is actually the one thing I would truly has an advantage in. You mentioned obviously your kicker, Caleb Shudock. It's been said multiple times. He would, he should have, or he could have been starting over Keith Duncan. It was neck and neck. Keith Duncan should have won the Lou Groves award. Caleb Shudock has a better leg. He's only missed two field goals. One was a really bad snap. The other one, I don't know what

it was against Purdue against Purdue. Literally it's a Murphy's law. Anything that can go wrong does go wrong. But our punter, Tori Taylor, you guys all know, I mean, he's the, he's one of the best punters in the nation. I've seen him probably force eight or nine muffed punts. And that has truly changed the game last year it hasn't been as impactful this year but that is something to really watch out for if you guys are having trouble fielding punts the way the ball comes off his leg can be a little bit weird just like you guys say that like oh my god i see the way we win it's you pump the ball we kill the guy or we that's a bad way to phrase this.

We crush the guy. We get the fumble. We don't move the ball at all. We kick a field goal. We win 3-0. We go home. Iowa's a winner and on the way to a Big Ten West championship. God.

That's like Bill Belichick signing a lefty punter just because no one knows what it's like. It scared me so much. I don't even know. It's unreal. It's so scary. I will say this. What Wisconsin does have going for them, that they might be able to find rushing success against Iowa,

albeit not a lot, but they've done it great over the last couple weeks. They'll be able to find success. They've moved the ball on Michigan. They've been able to move the football. They've just shot themselves in the foot, and they can't score in the red zone, which is another problem in and of itself. In terms of Wisconsin on defense, I just don't see how Iowa finds a lot of success unless it's Spencer Petras hitting someone over the top, because that's where Penn State beat them.

And that's weeks and weeks ago. That's where Notre Dame found success. Michigan found some of those plays. Phelan Hicks and Cesar Williams are great as corners on the outside, but they've just been beat at times because running against this defense is a waste of time. If you run the ball, it's because you want to take 40 seconds off the clock to give your defense a rest. At this point, you're not gaining yards or staying on schedule by trying to run. At this point, you're not gaining yards or staying on schedule by trying to run. So I think it's interesting because, like, on the Wisconsin side,

I want Spencer Petras to throw the ball as much as possible, and the same thing you would want for Graham Mertz. But, yes, I am deathly scared of what special teams could do. Yeah, I think that's a good point, though. I think we would agree that basically the way Iowa wins this game from an offensive perspective is throwing the football, and it comes down to honestly utilizing, which is ridiculous, their true freshman wide receiver Keegan Johnson and Charlie Jones. We just haven't hit them as much deep.

But also you've got to factor in the fact that with Wisconsin's 3-4 and throwing blitzes every which way, and you don't know where the pass rush is going to come, that also is a concern for Iowa trying to go deep. But it will be interesting to see if even Spencer just is willing to chuck a few things up however I know Iowa is probably not going to be able to run the ball very well I know that but it's Kirk Barron's and they're going to run the ball probably 35 times so they can take as much time off the clock as possible make this like a one possession ball game essentially almost sounds like exactly

what Paul Chris does every single game it's almost almost the same exact thing. Also, what is it with the young studs named Keegan over there in Iowa City? Dude, I don't know. I love it, man. Keegan Murray, Keegan Johnson, you name it. We got good Keegans all around. It's a lot of fun here in Iowa City. I'm in Denver, but in Iowa City, it's been a lot of fun watching those guys play.

I do have to get going to the gym. So what are you guys' predictions for this game? I was about to say, for our predictions, I think I made this analogy last week on an episode, but let's do like the Kirk Herbstreet where you don't actually say the score when he's calling the game. You know what I'm talking about?

When they go to him last and he's like, you know, these are the keys. This is what I kind of think is going to happen, but I can't say the score legally. We should probably drop those because Ben and I will do our prediction show on Friday as our last show of the week. I will say this.

I do think one team wins 17-9, and I'll say who that is tomorrow. All right. I think the winner is going to score less than 13 points. Wow. I love that. So we are just railing the under. By the way, Charlie Jones is a – 27 in triple overtime. By the way, Charlie Jones in triple overtime.

By the way, Charlie Jones is a friend of a friend and I am telling him to chill for this game because I can't have him. Charlie Jones is a freaking monster. Yeah. Yeah. That guy has the biggest balls I've ever seen. There are guys from like me to my computer from him. And he's like, oh, I'm going to catch this.

And I'm taking this baby back. Like there is no fear in his game. It is yeah when he was a wisconsin returner is what you're saying he is yeah when he was at buffalo all my friends were saying oh yeah this kid that we know he's tearing it up and i was like yeah whatever and then he goes to iowa and he's playing like this yeah it's absurd well guys i really appreciate your time i apologize for having to cut it cut it short um but as always, I hope Wisconsin loses. I hate Wisconsin. Love Madison.

And Ben, your opinions on Iowa are terrible. Any last words on Iowa City, Ben? No. No, I'll save it. Save it for later. Yeah, no fighting words today. I'll save it. As always on Wisconsin, we'll see you for the lowest scoring game of the season.

All right, y'all. That does do it for our show today. If you were wanting to follow us on YouTube channel, we did not post this on YouTube. We had some technical difficulties with the video, but we do obviously have the podcast here. And I want to appreciate and say thank you for listening to the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. If you want more Locked On content, maybe a nice preview of what's going on across the Big Ten, definitely check out the Locked On Big Ten podcast hosted by Nate Dickinson to get all the storylines across the Big Ten. That will do it for our show today, though.

We will be back tomorrow breaking down this Iowa-Wisconsin game a bit more and giving you our predictions, so stay tuned for that. Have a phenomenal Thursday, and as always, Hawkeye Nation, let's go Hawks.