Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Hawkeyes win vs Maryland deep dive: Tyler Goodson or spin shady; Cody Ince to the reserves

Episode Date: October 5, 2021

We dive into the analytics of the Iowa Hawkeyes victory over the Maryland Terrapins in this one. Spencer Petras proved a lot of people wrong on Friday night, but where does he stack up with the nation's top quarterbacks? The answer might surprise you. Tyler Goodson put together a masterful performance on the ground and through the air, but just how electric was he? Advanced analytics say pretty darn electric. And the wide receiver group had a great showing from true freshman Arland Bruce IV but with younger guys getting snaps late, the writing was on the wall for one Iowa wide receiver who has decided to enter the transfer portal. Defensively, the Hawks dominated, but it was, in large part, without a dominant effort from the defensive line. Despite that, Lukas Van Ness is still on the Big Ten leaderboard with sacks and Matt Hankins and Riley Moss are making their names known for their coverage skills. We're breaking it all down here.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 Tuesday morning episode of the Locked On Hawkeye Nation, to a Tuesday morning episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Lockdown Podcast Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, and I want to thank you for making the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast your first listen every single day. The Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast is free and available on all podcast platforms and on YouTube at Lockdown Hawkeyes Monday through Friday, and I appreciate you all tuning in.

Today's episode is brought to you by RockAuto.com. Amazing selection, reliably low prices, all the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Lockdown sent you. And on today's show, we're going to be diving deep into the analytics of Iowa's win over Maryland. We're going to talk about the offensive line rotation. Kodians is no longer a starter. People are wondering, was he hurt? He wasn't. It's just Connor Colby has been playing better. So we're going to talk about that offensive line rotation. We're going to talk a little bit

about a wide receiver who just decided to transfer as well. An Iowa wide receiver has entered the transfer portal. What do the snap counts tell us about his potential playing time and why he decided to leave? And we have two Iowa Hawkeye cornerbacks in the top five in terms of coverage grade. According to PFF, we're going to talk about how dominant they have been and how dominant this defensive line has been as well. And one surprise backup defensive lineman who has been absolutely dominating. That is all coming up on our analytical deep dive on today's show. So let's get into it. But first, before we talk about football, I have to shout out our number one ranked women's field hockey team. The Iowa women's

field hockey team has been absolutely dominating and I have not done the coverage just. In fact, I haven't done a single ounce of coverage on the Iowa women's field hockey team. And I'm sorry for that. I will get better and we'll be covering them more going forward. I don't know how you don't cover the number one ranked field hockey team in the country. They have currently started the season 12-0. They have five more regular season games left. And they just capped off an impressive week in getting two ranked wins on the road. This is the team that got the Final Four.

They are in an opportune position to potentially win a national championship. A lot of fun and a lot of excitement on our way for the next two months as they make their way to the NCAA championship, which takes place November 21st in Ann Arbor. We're going to be making sure that we're covering them as well. Also, let's say welcome, Hawkeye Nation. Your Iowa football team is now third in the nation. This has only happened three times since 1961, where Iowa was ranked in the top three. 2015, 2012, and 1985.

Only two times in my lifetime until now has Iowa been ranked number three. And they have a very tough test against Penn State, the number fourth ranked team in the nation. And I want to remind you that on Thursday's episode we're going to be doing a crossover episode with Kevin McGuire of Locked On Nittany Lions, breaking out what to expect in this game. So stay tuned for that. Should be a blast to do. And we're also going to be going on the Locked On Big Ten podcast as well,

talking a bit more about the game. You can find that episode tomorrow on Locked On at Big Ten. Now, I mentioned Quavon Matthews, a wide receiver. I didn't actually mention his name yet, but a former three-star wide receiver, Quavon Matthews, a wide receiver. I didn't actually mention his name yet, but a former three-star wide receiver, Quavon Matthews, out of Florida, has officially entered the transfer portal. When you look at the snap count of this wide receiver group, it was clear he was not in a good position to get snaps,

especially when you have two true freshmen, Keegan Johnson and Arlen Bruce, having back-to-back fantastic games. All right, Quavonon and this pecking order, if you take away Nico, you take away Tyrone, and you take away Charlie, guys who still have some eligibility left, mind you, it went like this. You have Keegan, Arlen, Jackson Ritter,

Desmond Houston, and Deontay Vines. And then potentially Quavon, but we still haven't seen him get a snap, so it makes sense for him to take his talents elsewhere. And we wish him the absolute best, obviously in a different time period, in a different era in Iowa football, there probably were probably going to be more snaps to be had, but Iowa has done a phenomenal job of recruiting at that wide receiver position. And it's only going to get deeper, especially if Iowa can land Kyler Casper in the class

of 2023, a guy who is going to be visiting again with his father, Kevin, this upcoming weekend as Iowa takes on Penn State. Kyler is a phenomenal prospect and seems to be high on the Iowa Hawkeyes. If you follow his dad, Kevin, at all, you know Kevin is very high on the Iowa Hawkeyes and would love nothing more than to see his son play in the black and yellow. However, he's also a dad first and really just cares about where his son goes. But I think if he could have his way, Kyler Casper would be an Iowa Hawkeye.

So let's get into the analytics, though, of this game. And I think before we get to the analytics, the depth chart came out. And the only difference that I noticed was the fact that Connor Colby was officially listed as the starting guard and Cody Ince was officially not starting. So we knew that, right? Before the game, we saw that Connor Colby was going to be getting the start. Cody Ince was not going to be getting the start. And we're wondering what was going on there.

Now, this can still change. This is still in flux. It's still flexible, right? But I think when you make that decision to finally move that true freshman into that starting lineup officially and not just as a game-time decision, you're clearly making a statement about what you believe in for Connor Colby. This is not the end of Cody Ince. In fact, I think there's another possibility for Cody Ince. Let's break down this offensive line

rotation first. Coming into this game, Maryland was getting 18.5 pressures per game. They were absolutely dominating on the defensive line. In this game, only 10 pressures allowed from the Iowa offensive line throughout the game. Now looking at the snap count, Tyler Linderbaum and Mason Richmond, of course, led the way with 70 snaps. I actually mentioned Kyler's shot. 19 snaps the first game, 27 snaps the second game. I thought he would get between 40 and 50 snaps. I hit that one right in the money. He got 45 snaps in this game. Connor Colby got 44 snaps, and Nick DeYoung got 44 snaps as well. Behind those guys, Jack Plum got 42, Justin Britt got 42, and Cody Ince got 25. So they're doing a little bit of a rotation there, getting Justin Britt in there,

getting Cody Ince in there, wherever they could, and having Jack Plum play that tackle position a little bit more. Now, anyone who's listened to the show knows that I have not been fond of Jack Plum play that tackle position a little bit more. Now, anyone who's listened to the show knows that I have not been fond of Jack Plum's play. I don't like to bash guys. I just like to point out what has happened. And what I saw on tape last year was not very good. What I've seen on tape this year, also not good. And the analytics backed it up. In this game, Jack Plum allowed three pressures and had a 6.1 pass blocking grade. That is almost as bad as if he just didn't show up at all,

or if they just left that tackle position open. That's how bad he played in this game at the tackle spot, which is very interesting to see. Tyler Linderbaum also did not have that great of a game from a pass blocking perspective, a 45.2 pass blocking grade, but in the run game, absolutely dominating at 86.3 run blocking grade. Connor Colby, the newest addition to the official starting lineup, a 63 run blocking grade, a 67.3 pass blocking grade. And Kyler Schott continuing to be consistently in that 70-ish range, 66.9 run blocking, 65.3 pass blocking grade. And Mason Richmond, after a rough game, let's be honest, a very rough game

against Colorado State where he was arguably the worst pass blocker, Mason Richmond had an 83.6 pass blocking grade in 70 snaps, showing that he can bounce back in a big way against Big Ten play. And we're going to need that to be the case as Iowa gets ready for a Penn State team that has some pretty superb pass rushers. Justin Britt coming back from injury played really well as well. I think we could still see him spell a little bit of Connor Colby and Kyler Schott in the offensive line as he had a 76.8 run blocking grade and an 83.3 pass blocking grade while backing up Connor Colby. And then Cody Ince, this is the guy who I want to talk about a little bit more, had a 68.2 run blocking grade and an 80.5 pass blocking grade.

So again, along the offensive line, coming into this game against Maryland, there were some concerns. Could Iowa's offensive line hold up to a pretty strong Maryland defensive line? Could Iowa's offensive line show they have the ability to protect Spencer Petras? So far this year, Spencer Petras has not been the problem, but his protection has. And until now, we haven't been able to see this offensive line really come together and do a, for the most part, pretty darn good job. I thought against Maryland, against a strong defensive line filled with a lot of older guys who played in this program for some

time, Iowa did a really good job on the offensive line while they still try to figure out what does that rotation look like. And here's why it might get a little bit more difficult. So Cody Ince is listed as the second string guard, but we know that Cody Ince has the ability to play all five positions. Kirk Ferentz has even talked about it and said, we don't want him to play all five positions, but he certainly can. We would like him to be able to stick at a few other places that gives him some more opportunities to really solidify a spot there. But with Cody Ince moving to the backup spot, what is the opportunity here where maybe Cody has the ability to slide outside if Nick DeYoung struggles? Nick DeYoung has not had a bad season. He just hasn't had a good season either. He's been very much like this,

just kind of riding it, right? Around that 65-ish range in terms of grading, doing an all right job. But if he struggles, and we saw him struggle against Colorado State, they were willing to put in Jack Plum. Maybe they're willing to try Cody at that right tackle spot as well. Because clearly the left tackle spot has been locked down by Mason Richmond and will have been locked down by Mason Richmond for the next three years.

Tyler Linderbaum has that center spot locked down. And when you're putting a true freshman as the official starting guard and Connor Colby, clearly he has a leg up on the competition. Coming up, we're going to talk about some of the younger guys. We saw Deuce Hogan. We saw a couple other four-star guys come in and some more tight ends that we haven't seen before.

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right locked on in there. How did you hear about us box? So they know we sent you amazing selection. We're lively, low prices, all the parts your car will ever need rockauto.com. And thank you again 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 on YouTube at Locked on Hawkeyes. And as we were taking a break, we were talking about the offensive line, giving you the breakdown of that rotation

and telling you why Connor Colby is now sounds like the official starting guard and where Cody Ince could be playing at next. Could we see him at the tackle spot? It's a possibility. But overall, the big takeaway from this offensive line is that the offensive line did perform well against a pretty strong Maryland defensive line. Now they have to put it together against a strong Penn State defensive line as well, at least in the pass rushing game. Run defense is another question, which we're going to talk about on Thursday's show and Friday's show.

But this Iowa offensive line, at least handling this test, let's see if they can continue to improve as Kyler Schott gets healthy and as they figure out what does that rotation look like. But in this game with Iowa absolutely dominating Maryland, we saw quite a few young guys. So we're going to talk about some of those younger guys. And I want to talk a little bit about Spencer Petras and the wide receiver group. Let's start with wide receivers though, because Arlen Bruce is a friend of the show and he had an absolutely phenomenal game. In only 13 passing snaps, he had six targets and six catches dominating in the game for Arlen Bruce. Sam Laporta had another good game as well. And after this game is fourth in the nation in receiving yards for tight end and third in the nation in tight end receptions. So another great

game by him. Tyrone Tracy. This is the person I really want to talk about. Tyrone Tracy has an immense amount of talent. His yard after the catch ability is second to none. I would even argue better than Arlen Bruce's. Tyrone Tracy has shown that he can go up and get deep balls if he needs to. He can go up and get contested catches. But Tyrone Tracy has been struggling to this point. We haven't seen the best version of Tyrone yet,

and it doesn't feel like him and Spencer are on the same page. In fact, Spencer has done a really good job all around with spreading the ball around, but he's not really getting it to Tyrone. Now, I don't want him to force it to Tyrone. I want him to get it to Tyrone when Tyrone is open. So I'll need to go back and look at the tape and see whether or not that's kind of an issue there. But Tyrone has struggled. And in this game, only three targets and graded out at a 53.2 pass receiving grade, which is the worst on the team behind Luke Lachey. He also had a drop in the game, as did Nico Reganey. And as you're seeing, these last two games, it was not Tyrone and it was not Nico who stood out.

It was Arlen Bruce and Keegan Johnson. If Arlen and Keegan keep playing the way they have been when they get their number called, we could be spelling a wide receiver controversy on our hands. Now, that is going to take a lot more of stellar play from both of these guys, a lot more consistent play from both these guys. But Tyrone has struggled. So has Nico Reganey. He had that one really nice Willie Mays catch,

but overall struggled with drops still. Charlie Jones has been pretty consistent and would love to see him get a few more deep balls as well. But overall, this wide receiver group, lots of depth, and there could be some interesting developments as we get later in the season, especially if Arlen Bruce and Keegan Johnson continue to play as well as they have been. Running-wise, Tyler Goodson clearly was dominating. Now, he did kind of do some dancing a little bit like we talked about with Sean Daniels, but overall you got to love the results. Six missed tackles had 56 of his 66 yards after contact. What that means, Maryland was getting pressure. Maryland was getting penetration. Maryland was getting to Tyler Goodson before he could get any yards, but he's able to

bounce off them. He was able to get around them and make things happen out of nothing. And that's what I love so much about Tyler Goodson. And with those six missed tackles, had 13th. He's 13th in the nation in missed tackles for us, which is phenomenal. And we love to see, I mean, that one play where he stepped back and then stepped to the side and had a guy just falling down was truly amazing, was able to take it up for another eight yards. And you got to love that from a running back perspective. Now, the quarterback perspective, Spencer Petras has played so well this season. And I think finally, this is finally the part where if you were not a believer, you finally were able to say, you know what? I'm good with Spencer Petras as my quarterback. Spencer Petras had a pretty good game, 21 of 30, had an 85.4

offensive grade overall and an 83.5 pass or grade. His adjusted completion percentage was 79.3. So that's after those two drops, a 79.3 adjusted completion percentage and two big time throws and only one turnover worthy play. No interceptions, but one turnover worthy play, meaning it probably should have been picked or could have been picked, but it wasn't. Now what's interesting about this is that when you look at some of the other top quarterbacks in the nation, so I did a little sorting on the top passers according to PFF. When you factor in custom dropbacks, so anyone who has 75 dropbacks or more was included on this list. Spencer Petras ranks 12th in the entire nation in passer grade

with 87 for the season. He has 10 big-time throws and two turnover-worthy plays, seven touchdowns, and one interception. Why that's important. Let's look at the list ahead of him. So if there are any doubters still out there about Spencer Petras, I just want to give some recognition to his name. CJ Stroud, the five star big time quarterback out of Ohio State, 13 touchdowns, three interceptions, 11 big-time throws, 5 turnover-worthy plays. He's 11th in passer grade. Malik Willis, a guy who people have talked about as a first-round pick,

11 touchdowns, 0 interceptions. He has 15 big-time throws and 2 turnover-worthy plays. Bryce Young at Alabama, 16 touchdowns, 2 interceptions, 9 big-time throws, 4 turnover-worthy plays. That's one less than Spencer in terms of big-time throws and 2 more turnover-worthy plays. Spencer Rattler, the guy who was projected as the number one pick going into the season. 10 touchdowns, 4 interceptions, only 1 big-time throw and 7 turnover-worthy plays. The reason why I'm telling you this is because if you are still not believing in Spencer Petras, interceptions, only one big time throw and seven turnover worthy plays.

The reason why I'm telling you this is because if you are still not believing in Spencer Petras, you need to. He does exactly what we need to at the quarterback position and he does it pretty well and he's coming into his own. Yes, there were some plays where I thought maybe you shouldn't have thrown that. Maybe it wasn't the best pass, but overall he's doing exactly what we need to keep this team going and we saw some explosiveness out of this offense. We're seeing him make decisive decisions. And we're seeing him look off his first read a couple times. Now, there was a zig route to Nico Regani where the cornerback kind of bit on it or could have picked it off. And people were complaining about the fact that Spencer wasn't getting off his first read.

If you look at him on the All-22, he was literally on his third read going to Nico Regani. So Spencer Petras has been playing lights out, in my opinion. I'm very excited that he is our quarterback now and going to be for the rest of the season. You have to appreciate what he's been doing. Now to wrap up this little piece, I want to quickly give some shout-outs to some of the younger guys that we saw get some snaps.

Everyone's been clamoring for Deuce Hogan. Deuce Hogan gets his first snaps, four snaps in this game. Desmond Houston and Deontay Vines, both wide receivers behind Arlen and Keegan, got 13 snaps each. And Bo Stevens, a big-time lineman recruit, got 16 snaps in this game. And Josiah Mineman, tight end, got 16 snaps and a catch in this game. So fun to see some of those younger guys get some opportunities in a Big Ten matchup. And as we get ready to play some of these other Big Ten teams, we're fun to see some of those younger guys get some opportunities in a Big Ten matchup. And as we get ready to play, you know, some of these other Big Ten teams, we're going to need some of that depth because there's undoubtedly going to be some nicks and bruises and cuts here and there. We're going to need some of these guys to be willing and able to step up. So getting them

that playing time and that exposure is only going to help Iowa as we move forward. Coming up on segment two or segment three, excuse me, we're going to get into the defensive side of the ball, talk a little bit about Lucas Van Ness, Riley Moss, and Matt Hankins. That is all coming up on segment two or segment three, excuse me, we're going to get into the defensive side of the ball. Talk a little bit about Lucas Van Ness, Riley Moss, and Matt Hankins. That is all coming up on the show today. And people were wanting to talk about this defensive line. The defensive line did all right, but they weren't actually getting that much pressure on Talia. So I want to talk about that as well.

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Talked a lot about some of the younger guys. Talked about this offensive line rotation. Now I want to talk to you about the defensive line and the secondary because they have been playing absolutely great to this point. Three Hawkeyes after this game are in the top three in interceptions in the Big Ten. Riley Moss, Matt Hankins, and Dane Belton. Lucas Van Ness after this game, fourth with four sacks. And when you look at the coverage grades of all cornerbacks, we have two cornerbacks in the top 50 with over 75

coverage snaps. We have two cornerbacks in the top five. Matt Hankins has an 88 PFF coverage grade, and Riley Moss has an 86.7 PFF coverage grade. They respectively ranked fourth and fifth in the entire nation for all corners that have played over 75 cover snaps. So pretty fun to see. Now coming into this game, the big thing was the fact that Pauly Atagavola has been pretty consistently good. He has torched defenses and he hasn't been making a lot of bad decisions. Well, after this game, he struggled quite a bit. He did have four drops.

I think it's worth noting that coming into this game, Maryland had 12 drops throughout the season, so three drops in each game. This time they had four drops, which definitely did not help them, but it also did not help the fact that Talia had three turnover-worthy plays. Coming into this game, he had zero before, zero turnover-worthy plays. Coming into this game, Maryland had zero turnover worthy throws the entire season leaving this game after they put in backup Reese Udinski, who also had two turnover worthy plays. They left with five turnover worthy throws considering the fact that

before that they had zero. That is pretty impressive for my ball hawking secondary that a lot of people have been doubting. Turnovers are just lucky bounces. No, Iowa has been very good at forcing turnovers for the last several years. This is a team that is forcing a lot of things. They are making quarterbacks make bad decisions. Now, we saw Talia have a pretty good drive. But after that, Iowa locked in, they settled down, and they absolutely destroyed the Maryland offense. And they did this without having that much pressure generated from the defensive line.

Only seven pressures from the entire defensive line all night and no sacks. John Wagner had two while five others had one. That's right, no sacks, only seven pressures. Talia had 2.72 seconds to throw the ball. Now, if you remember coming into the season, Spencer Petras mentioned he wanted to get the ball out within 2.5 seconds. That was his magic number of when he was going to be successful. Now, there's several reasons for that.

Some of it is timing routes. Some of it is if you have waited that long, there's potential that some of your guys aren't open or you haven't been able to get the ball out because you haven't made the right read. But nevertheless, 2.72 seconds does also mean you had a lot of time in the pocket. Now, our defensive line wasn't getting pressure. Tally had 2.72 seconds, which means our secondary was holding onto their coverage for a very long time. The only thing honestly I can complain about for this defense is the fact they really struggled in that first quarter with missed tackles. All Maryland was doing was running screen passes, screen passes, screen passes before they started opening it up with deep crossers.

But Iowa had six missed tackles in this game, which honestly I thought it was going to be more like 10 or 12 after seeing them miss a tackle on almost every single play in one drive, which I thought was absolutely ridiculous. For example, Seth Benson graded out at 32 for tackling, 32 on that 100 scale for PFF. Dane Belton graded out at 23.4. He had two missed tackles. Now I'm not going to sit here and bash Dane because Dane did a phenomenal job throughout the game. The fact that he was able to secure that fumble, that interception he had, and a couple pass breakups, he played really darn well. But tackling wise, there were some struggles from Dane and from Seth Benson. For example though, when I talk about coverage, Dane was targeted eight times

in coverage and only allowed three catches. Again, getting an interception, getting a fumble recovery, and having a really nice pass breakup on the sideline. Let's move on to the linebacker group. A lot of people want to know, what is this linebacker group going to look like? Well, clearly Jack Campbell is the main guy. Jack Campbell is going to stay in every down he possibly can. He played 39 snaps. But what we're more interested in is where is Jessen and Seth fitting into this? Because Jessen has been making it hard on the coaches to say, you have to play me. When you're playing a team like Maryland, though, where they spread the ball out, you're going to be playing predominantly in the cash, so a 4-2-5.

But in passing downs, we are seeing Justin Jacobs sub in for Seth Benson. Justin Jacobs getting 28 snaps in this game and Seth Benson playing 25 snaps. I really like how Phil Parker is utilizing all three of these linebackers to really the best of their abilities. And the thing is, Seth isn't the worst linebacker in the nation in covering and Justin isn't bad at rush defense, but both of them have their strengths, and they are playing to their strengths to make sure this Iowa defense is living up to the standard that they have set for themselves already to this point. That does do it for our show today. I quickly want to tell you, if you want more Locked On content, though, you have to check

out the Locked On Big Ten podcast. Get all of your news on the Big Ten in less than 30 minutes with Big Ten expert Nate Dickinson in the Locked On Big Ten podcast. It's free and available on all platforms, including YouTube. So go there as well. And we are going to be back tomorrow, as we are every single Wednesday, breaking down the Kirk Ferentz press conference. On Thursday, we've got our crossover episode

with Kevin McGuire of Locked On Nittany Lions. And on Friday, we are giving you our predictions for this awesome top five matchup between Iowa and Penn State. Thank you all for tuning in to another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Have a fantastic Tuesday and let's go Hawks.