Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Sim founder Cody Hills joins the show to talk about Hawk fan's favorite football simulation

Episode Date: February 6, 2020

We are joined by special guest Cody Hills, a lifelong Hawkeye fan and the founder of Iowa Sim, the weekly simulation during the Iowa football season. This year Cody was able to turn his awesome creation into a charitable cause and raise money for the children's hospital. We talk about this, how he got started with Iowa Sim, and his thoughts on the state of Iowa sports programs today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I thank God I was born on the good arms of the Midwest, and not on the battlefields of the U.S. It's a time of panic, and it's intercepted! It's picked off right away! Intercepted by Marty Hooker! Pick six! Eight seconds into the game! Buffen sets up deep in the pocket, goes down the field for Smith!

Oh! He's got it! Smith! Touchdown. 85 yards. High on. Touchdown, 10. Taking a shot in the end zone.

It is caught. No offense. Touchdown. That's either one or you have it. Go ahead and three. Yes. Two-point lead for the Hawkeye Nation? It is a beautiful Thursday morning, at least where I am at.

I'm your host, Andrew Wade, and I am probably on a beach in Mexico drinking a Mai Tai or a Corona or something with alcohol in it because I'm on vacation down in Quintana Roo, Mexico for a friend's wedding. So I am pre-recording this episode, which means you're going to get a great interview today with Cody Hills, the founder of Iowa Sim, the guy who turned Iowa Sim into a charitable event and was able to raise thousands of dollars for the University Children's Hospital. And we talked to him today about how he got started with Iowa SIM, how he got started as an Iowa fan and you know, what kind of, how did it turn into a charitable opportunity for him to, you know, donate money to the children's hospital. So you're going to love this interview.

I had an absolute blast interviewing Cody Hills. That being said, with this being a pre-recorded episode, that means I have no analysis for you today of the Iowa Purdue game. I'm hoping that you all are happy because Iowa won. If they did, if they lost, that really sucks. I watched the game. I just can't. I didn't bring my recording stuff down to Mexico. You know what I mean?

So hopefully they won. No analysis here today, though. The women's basketball team does have a game tonight against Maryland. That'll be a huge game for them. And obviously I'm not going to be covering the Nebraska game that I was taking on later in this weekend. So just a heads up, it's not going to be as timely as that kind of stuff that I've typically been doing. But like I said, we have a great interview today with Cody Hills, and I think you're going to really enjoy it. Before we jump into that interview though, make sure to go like, review, and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast at,

whether that was Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or the brand new Himalaya Podcast app. And make sure to go follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. That way you can stay in the know of all the things happening right here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. That being said, though, let's jump into our awesome interview with Cody. I think you're going to like it, so let's do it now. All right. I am joined here by Cody Hills, the founder of Iowa Sim. If you are not familiar with Iowa Sim, you are missing

out during the Iowa football season. Cody, how are you doing today, man? I'm good, brother. How are you, man? I appreciate you having me on. Absolutely, man. I'm doing well. Like I said, nice to have you on. I think it's a great time to talk about some Iowa football. Obviously, basketball is doing really well on both sides. The wrestling team is doing great, but there's a part of me that's always missing when football season is not in session. Oh, 100%. Yeah, I know. I think I had withdrawals immediately that

first Saturday. We were without there in December. Thankfully, a good holiday bowl performance held us over, but yeah, now I'm really starting to drag in these Saturdays. I'm trying to find out what I'm going to do on these Saturdays now for sure. Absolutely, man. We got, yeah, now I'm really starting to drag in these Saturdays. I'm trying to find out what I'm going to do on these Saturdays now for sure. Absolutely, man. It's – we've got, what, seven long months until college football is back

and Iowa football is back. And I think more so than, you know, past years, I feel really excited about the growth and direction of this team. I don't know about you. Yeah, I do as well. I think, you know, I think everyone's kind of made mention of kind of the rebirth that the program had after that pretty dismal 2014 season and how this kind of, you know, whether it was Brian Ferenc or whoever it was,

this new life has just kind of breathed back into the program. And I think it's hit another step here in the last year or two. I just think that whether it's getting playmakers in spots or getting up with the times, modernizing the offense a little bit, defense is always strong, but there's definitely excitement now. I think that there wasn't even three, four years ago,

just kind of a little bit of a buzz that we're on the same level as a lot of the other teams and we're making a lot of the same strides as well. Absolutely. I know my thought process was basically whenever we would have a good season, like the 2015 season, it was going to be four years or five years of seven and six or eight and five. Now I feel like we can actually compete every single year,

which is not something that I didn't have that feeling before. So that's really, I mean, even losing Nate Stanley, I feel like Spencer Petra's coming in. We have a chance to contend next year, too. Yeah, I agree. And I definitely agree with what you were talking about, just kind of that cyclical effect, right? Kind of the wave after wave.

It feels like you ride a wave, you have a great season, get it up there, and then have to come back down a little bit, maybe kind of flatline out. But really it seems like those waves, whether it's a facade or whether it's actually happening, it definitely feels like those waves are not as bumpy, and the time between break seasons it doesn't feel like it's going to be as much

now, so I'm definitely excited with you, same as you. Same, man. So, I want to jump into the Iowa Sins stuff, but before I do that, obviously some other teams in Iowa are doing pretty well, right? So the basketball teams are doing well on the men's and women's side, and the wrestling program is doing great. Wanted to get your thoughts first on the basketball side.

How surprised are you by the men's and women's team and what they've done in both these seasons? I think Fran McCaffrey and Lisa Bluter are putting together potentially coach of the year type of resumes right now. Oh, 100%. And honestly, I'm equally surprised by both, right? Because I think as much as the women's team lost with losing

McDote, I mean, playing in Temple, losing Megan, I didn't know honestly how they would respond. I mean, they have only one player, and we all know how much a basketball is such a team sport, and you need all five on the quarter once kind of thing, but with as much as she brought to the game, I almost wondered

I didn't see any way, honestly, that they would even be ranked, let alone obviously contending for a Big Ten title. And then, moving over to the men's side, it's just been this team's different, man. I think I've seen, as you tweet about it and talk about it, I've seen

some others, it just feels different. It feels like there's a little bit different makeup or moxie, if you will. It seems like they've kind of taken Fran's character on a little bit, honestly. They're kind of tough, hard-nosed, kind of that silly-style ball. I really don't think there's going to be a lot to deter the team other than themselves. I really think that's the only thing that's going to get in the way. If anything, it's going to be themselves because I think they're just so hard-nosed.

They don't quit. They're gritty. They're gutty. Whatever adjective you want to use, it likely sticks for this group. I couldn't agree more. It has been one of my favorite seasons to watch of Iowa basketball because in some regards, they really shouldn't be in some of these games. In previous seasons, they would have lost a lot of these games.

Anytime they're down by 10 or 15 with a couple minutes left, that game's over in past years. And this year, it's just not. And I think I tweeted about it a couple days ago, but they had a terrible shooting performance from behind the arc against Wisconsin. In previous years, they lose that game, but somehow they managed to turn it on or figure it out at the right time, whether it's getting other players involved or being a better defensive team, which is something they've struggled with in the past. So I couldn't agree more. I think it's really great to see that, and I'm hoping that it continues to translate into future seasons as well. Yeah, I definitely agree. I think you touched on the defensive side of the ball, especially for the man. I think in years past, you'd see them, when they would get down, not only maybe it was because of some offensive

ineptitude, but then defensively, you know, they would just, the effort wouldn't be there after they would get down at the 10, 12, 15 points. And they very easily could have swung that way, given that against Wisconsin, or really picked any of the last couple wins where they've been down a little bit or had to have a bit of a dog fight to get back into it. You know, they've shown that ability and that will and that want to, you know, to keep winning. And, you know, confidence, all really confidence is is proven ability, right?

I mean, once you've, the confidence is just you've proven that you've done something and now you've got the ability from it. And this team has gained a lot of confidence, honestly, because of their proven ability and they've been proven to battle back and battle through some big stuff this year. Definitely, man. It makes me excited. The last sport I want to touch on is the baseball team. I know you follow the Iowa baseball team pretty closely. Since Rick Heller came there, it's been a huge –

I think he's done a really great job with the program. But I wanted to get your thoughts. Do you think that a College World Series is in the future, you know, in the future cards for the Hawks? They haven't been since 1972. Do you think that's a possibility under Rick Heller? Sure. I think a lot of things, obviously. Honestly, with any sport, right, whether it's football, basketball,

you're going to have a championship season coming out of Iowa. A lot of things are going to have to break their way. I think it's probably the same for baseball. But in terms of if you want one man who I think can get you there and have the job done, it's Rick Keller. And as you mentioned, I am a big follower of the program. I don't think there's a bigger Rick Keller bandwagon bus driver than myself on Twitter.

It's not a shame to say it. He's just – when you've done with the program, it's been incredible, as you've mentioned. I think his greatest ability, honestly, is hitting a lot. as you've mentioned. I think his greatest ability, honestly, is getting a lot. He's able to get so much out of what's in the cupboard there, and he's certainly done a great job with his recruiting as well,

don't get me wrong. He's been able to really kind of extend the talent they've had and not only extend it but get the most out of it. And then he's also, I mean, the schedule that he's playing, I mean, they're not going through and racking up wins again. You know, I guess every team plays for midweek at moments. You kind of have to look up on the map where they are. But in terms of actually going out and playing really tough competitive series, he's scheduling that way.

And the team this year as well has got really good pieces coming back. I think the pitching is going to be much better. They're going to be healthier this year. And I'm really looking forward to seeing what they can do. really good pieces coming back. I think the pitching is going to be much better. They're going to be healthier this year. And I'm really looking forward to seeing what they can do. And I definitely think a Big Ten title is certainly within reach. And then once you take care of that, you know, who knows where the possibilities go. But, yeah, Rick Keller, I'm on that bandwagon for sure, man.

I love it, man. I mean, growing up in Iowa, as you did as well, I would see people who got committed to playing at Iowa, playing baseball against them, and think they're not that good. Basically, they're done after they go to Iowa because nothing's going to happen. But that is not the thought process now with Rick Keller there. I think as you touched on with the scheduling, they had Oklahoma State and UC Irvin last year, both ranked teams, both tough opponents.

Teams don't do that unless they're confident, unless they want to play those tough teams. I think it makes this team a better team going forward. 100%. Yeah, and I'm really excited. Like I mentioned, I think this year they're going to have some arms help that they didn't have last year just as they're developing. And I'm sitting here looking at all the preseason stuff. You know, the baseball accounts tweet and stuff here and there getting us excited for the season.

I'm definitely excited because they started down here in Florida. I've been the last few opening series. I've been fortunate enough to catch a lot of the games and get a good look at the team at the start of the year. But I'm really excited. I'm watching all this preseason stuff, and we've got a lot of guys that are on NLB radars here, which hasn't been the case in the last, if you go back 5, 10, 15 years, I mean, the talent, obviously

Iowa pulls big kids in, the programs have been able to pull in some good, talented players, but they've got guys now that are on draft boards and stuff, so it's going to be really exciting to see them pull all of them together and what they're going to be able to do this spring at the bank. Definitely. If Iowa were to go to a College World Series, would you be there? Oh, my goodness. I would. I'd have to tell a kid if I had to.

Yeah, I'd definitely be there, man. It would be amazing. It would be incredible. Not only just for, I think, if that were to be the case, as would, you know, I think if basketball makes a deep run or what have you. But I just think if you get a baseball team to the Colts, I think you're going to see the whole state come together unlike, you know, unlike anything during a usual year or usual season.

I think even non-diehard Iowa baseball fans will latch on. I think we've seen that in recent years, right? I mean, we've kind of seen some teams when – or seen it when Heller Ball has kind of caught fire and people have got excited about it and rallied around them when they're playing in the Big Ten tournament in Omaha and the fans just show up there. It's crazy.

So, yeah, looking forward to it. God willing, if they are to get there, man, you know I'll be there. Me too, man. Honestly, I've been to the College World Series a couple times and it is just an absolute blast there. And I can only imagine going there and actually caring about what team wins yeah I can imagine it looks so much fun I've never been unfortunately but um getting to see it on TV I mean of course we have sports guys you and I you know we watch it every year that college world series such a spectacle and um it's wild to have

something right to root for that'd be that'd be sweet absolutely well man um I want to touch on the Iowa Sim stuff before we get into the Iowa Sim first, though, how did your Iowa fandom start, though? Yeah, so it just started. I mean, I was born and raised in Iowa City, moved down to Florida. Sometime, gosh, it's a while. I'm 28 now, so it's been at least 15 years or so. But, yeah, born and raised in Iowa City. Family all throughout the state. Family in West Branch.

Family outside of Winterset and the Earlham. Family in the southwest part of Iowa down there near Mount Air. So, got a lot of family in and out throughout the state. Been a diehard fan. My father was on Hayden Price's staff as a student manager back in the 80s. That's incredible. Yeah, so he got a lot of cool stories. Recently, unfortunately, the coach got his passing.

But then, yeah, just been around the program with some connections and just diehard as I can get. Even that Tiger Hawk tattoo, like I know a lot of folks have, but got one on my shoulder blade. Yeah, just through and through all the way, man. I love it and how did iowa sim start i think it's starting to really catch on fire um really kind of take off over the last year when did iowa sim actually start yeah so it started um it's kind of funny

it started back i honestly started back in 2013 in the middle of that oh wow that season yeah so i used a ncaa football 2014 which would have came out in July of 2013, for the PlayStation 3. And then I just started doing it for fun on Twitter. It was a completely different account than I have now. Honestly, I was just doing it for 15 or 20 people. There was a group of like 15, 20 of us who just wanted to see how accurate it could be. And honestly, that's probably all the following I had back then,

maybe 15, 20 followers. And it was literally just something silly, something fun, update the rosters as accurate as you can every week, get the weather right, uniforms, just make it as realistic as possible. I have some game sliders setting type things set up to make it as realistic as possible with the game speed and that type thing and penalties.

And then it really took off this last year. It's exploded unlike ever before because of some of the donation stuff. I'm sure we'll get into that. But 2015, it predicted an undefeated season as well. Every week, some of the margin of victory stuff was eerie. It was off, I think. The difference in the average margin of victory from the sim to real life was only like 4.8 points that year or something like that.

I mean, it was really close, yeah, how absolute it was. So it predicted all 12 wins in 2015. It predicted a loss by a field goal, actually. A loss to Michigan State in the Big Ten title game. That's insane. Yeah, so it was crazy 2015, and then that really kind of got some following with it, and then I think just people kind of stuck to it,

and we just like seeing how real it can get, some of the quirky things, and then that obviously this year was what we've done with it. It's kind of picked up and ratcheted up tenfold. Yeah, man, I mean, I loved watching it, loved seeing it what do you have any of the statistics on how well it does against the spread or against you know the actual records win losses in the last couple years yeah it's uh i don't have the actual number in front of me but it is um the last time i looked it up and calculated through i want to say it's 65 and 13 or 65 and14 and just correctly getting the actual winner of that week's game, right?

So you're talking, you know, out of 80 tries or so, it's getting right about 65-66, 65 or 66 of them. So, yeah, it's been pretty accurate just in terms of win-loss, and that's kind of the measurement I go by, just kind of win-loss, just kind of see how close it gets. But I know certainly now, and especially with the people this year, with sports betting opening up in Iowa, some people wanting to get a head start,

kind of wanting to know just how close it would be. So that was really funny, and I certainly would caution folks on a video game to put all of that into that. Everyone's having fun with it and um that's great however people want to watch it entertain themselves with it that's why i do it honestly because it takes some time every off season it takes um you know it might take part of an online group operation sports that does all the rosters available um for all all the uh fbs teams and you know the group of 12 or 15 of us probably takes,

we grab 8, 10, 12 teams apiece. So it'll probably take anywhere from maybe 15, 20 hours of actual manpower work to do my teams. And every week it takes about 20, 30 minutes to get the depth charts for Iowa, Wright, whoever they're playing that week, say Illinois or whatever. But none of that really matters. And then obviously I'm going to sit there and watch it for two hours

because none of the time matters. It's interacting with people and treating it like it's a real, living, breathing thing. That's kind of what's the best part and what's most fun and makes it worth doing for me. That's really cool. So you actually have a group of people that help you out with this? Yeah, it's called Operation Sports. And actually, ESPN did a story not too long ago, probably a year or two ago, just on the group.

I wasn't featured in the story because I wasn't really involved heavily with them yet. But yeah, Operation Sports is just kind of a gaming website or message board. But the goal is to keep NCAA football alive, obviously with the lawsuits and the player-likeness and that. that ES4 stopped making the game in 2013. And so we're able to kind of recreate rosters and recreate every single year, kind of carry over the whole algorithm, if you will, for even the ratings based on stats from the previous year. And that's how we determine attribute points and how guys are ranked.

There's a system for incoming freshmen based on the recruiting rank than where they are at recruiting boards it's a whole elaborate type saying operations sports that there's been a couple articles done on it so inclined to kind of read more about it but yeah it's a cool group to be a part of and obviously it's it's a key component in keeping the sim alive because um if i had to do iowa by itself and it'd take even longer if i had to just physically do them and then do all the other teams as well with the play every year so um yeah the key component to it that's incredible um yeah i was i was gonna ask you how long it took you but you basically answered that question so when did you decide to turn this into a charitable idea when did you decide to turn this into a charitable idea? When did you kind of get that spark to do that? For this year you're talking?

Yep. Yeah, for this year it was the last two years I've had a sponsor, right? Just kind of a joking thing. It was two years ago, two football seasons ago, I guess the 2017 season, it was Main Street Streets and West Branch. They were just obviously being a family from the West Branch area, I'm a family of West Branch area, it was just kind of a jokey thing. They hooked me up with, I think it was a gift certificate to the restaurant there in West

Branch. And then last year it was Justice Tech Solutions, which is a high school buddy who has a tech company and he wanted to sponsor it, see how many views it gets online. And for me, that's not a mountain. He sent a company T-shirt. And then from this year, I opened it up again to a sponsorship, and I put on there, you know, tweeted out about it. Hey, you know, this isn't serious, folks. I don't want any monetary values. I don't, you know, I don't actually want an actual sponsorship.

Just something silly. Very interested. Reach out. And the Stuff and Things podcast with Pete ande there on twitter they they reached out but they'd be interested and then um they asked what everyone's do and i said well i don't you know i'm not too sure yet um they said what if we make a donation to the children's hospital i said yeah that'd be great definitely and um and then it was the idea just kind of spiraled from there was, well, what if we just have a sponsor each new week? You know, every new week we could have a sponsor for the sim, and as silly as it sounds,

but the silliness can kind of go away when we say, well, if you want to be a sponsor, just make a donation to the University of Iowa State Family Children's Hospital. So that's what we started doing. And the first one was Knickerbocker Real Estate out of Des Moines. They made a very generous donation right away. That was the first sponsor of the year for the Miami-Ohio game. Really just picked up

from there. We were able and very fortunate to get a couple of former Ohio players, Pat Anger, Ricky Stanzi, Tavon Smith, who not only were sponsors for a couple weeks, but they were also generous enough to autograph some memorabilia for us, and we were able to kind of raffle those off, and all the proceeds went to the St. John's Hospital as well there in Iowa City.

So it really was just organic, and that's why I kind of liked it. It was just kind of like the wave, right? It was really organic, kind of natural, the way it started and how pure it was. And so once that idea kind of came up, we just kind of ran with it. And it's a credit to the people. It's credit to people of Iowa, credit to the people who enjoyed the sim, people who wanted to donate. So many people just wanted to donate. They didn't really want to be a sim sponsor. They didn't want their business. They didn't want to shout anybody out. They just wanted to donate. They didn't really want to be a sim sponsor. They didn't want their business. They didn't want to shout anybody out.

They just wanted to donate because they enjoy watching the sim and they enjoy obviously what the hospital does. And we all know that marriage between the hospital and the university and the football program is such an amazing thing. So I guess selfishly I just wanted to be a little bit of a part of it for myself

and kind of do some good for obviously folks at the hospital who do so much good. Yeah, man, I mean, that is such an incredible story, and I think it just really speaks to how incredible Iowa is, right? I mean, I haven't lived in Iowa for eight years, but I do love the fact that I'm from Iowa. I'm sure you do as well. You have those values from Iowa, and the people from Iowa are just second they're second to no one right I mean they're just the people that are just absolutely great and obviously the

players um I've had the pleasure of talking to Ricky Sanzy great guy um they're always willing to do something to kind of um further the attention being placed in the right places you know I mean oh 100% yeah and that's like I said it's a credit to the people of Iowa as you as you said too I mean obviously they're just uh it's a different breed man as you know and a lot of us, it's a credit to the people of Iowa, as you said, too. I mean, obviously, they're just a different breed, man. As you know and as a lot of us know, it's just a different breed. It's helping each other out. It's helping your neighbor. It's, you know, going out of your way to open an open door for someone,

be polite to someone. That's a parallel exchange in your pocket. You know, someone needs it. I mean, just giving it up. I mean, it's a lifestyle. It's a mentality, I guess, if you will. And it's that Iowa nice thing that I know a lot of folks kind of poke fun at. But it's a real living, breathing thing, that's for sure.

Yeah, man. I mean, people poke fun of it. That's because they don't understand how incredible it is. 100%. Yep. Well, man, heading into 2020, do you have any big plans for Iowa Sim? Is there anything that you're looking forward to continuing to do? Or just kind of go with the flow and see where it takes you?

Yeah, I don't honestly know. It's awesome, man. You know, I said at the end of last year, at the end of last season, not this past one, but the 2018 season, that I was going to be it for the Sim and I was going to put it down and it got a lot of reaction out of folks. And I was like, okay, well, I'll consider it. And then, you know, I decided to bring it back sometime in, I don't know,

it was probably June or July this past year, and decided to crank it back up again. Started working on some of the roster modifications, and that got great feedback and got some great feedback and reaction out of folks. And then, so as I was going through this year, I thought, you know, yeah, this is definitely it. You know, I got, obviously, a job and a family, and it is time-consuming,

but it is so much fun. But, hey, maybe I could – maybe it's enough enough. It's had a good run. And then we did what we did this year, and raising, eventually, and even $3,000 for the University of Iowa Fifth-Denver Children's Hospital. When you do that, it's very hard for me to turn away now. I mean, once I've seen how good it is and what good it can do and how people kind of rally around it, it's now very hard to turn away from.

It's very hard to say, hey, I'm not going to do it again this year. So I think I'm definitely going to bring it back again to the 2020 season. Don't know yet in what capacity in terms of what good it will do. I haven't decided what we'll do yet. Certainly donating to the hospital is never a bad thing, and certainly I know there's more businesses and there's more people out there who've reached out to me and said they'd be interested in not only doing it again,

but other people have said they didn't have an opportunity the first time to sponsor and they'd want to next time around. So certainly, definitely Sim 2020, Iowa Sim 20, is going to be a legit real thing once again. And as far as what's good on the horizon, I don't know yet, but I definitely encourage folks to stay tuned, and we'll figure something out for sure. Absolutely, man.

And where can folks find you on Twitter? Yeah, so my Twitter handle is by cody hills b-y-c-o-d-y-h-i-l-o-s by cody hills um and then uh um anybody wants to access some of the old sim stuff i've entered a hashtag every single tweet every every sim this year so people can just search on twitter for hashtag iowa sim 19 they can find everything from this year and uh everything for next year will be on IowaSAM20. So yeah, bye Cody Hill. See you. We'll convince you. Follow our direct message.

If they've got ideas on how they want to do some good next year, I'm all here. Definitely. I love it, man. I really enjoyed it this past season. I thought it was really fun. A great way to kind of get prepped and excited for the games. It was kind of like a nice midweek break of oh my gosh, we're close to football.

This is as close as I'm going to get to Iowa football. And you were doing something great with it. My last question for you is, what has been your favorite Iowa Hawkeye memory? Oh, man. Loaded question. Yeah, loaded question. Favorite one,

I'm obviously going to cheat here and throw a couple at you. The 05 Capital One Bowl being there in Orlando with my father, that was pretty sweet. Let's see, we also got to experience the 09, or I guess technically it would be the 2010 Orange Bowl together. I did make the trip out to Pasadena. I certainly kind of blocked everything after kickoff out, but just being in there and that's being there in the stadium and

experiencing that and kind of kind of a bucket list item there for sure. And then I have to throw in the grapple at the gridiron, didn't do a 10 mat. That was something special back in 2015 doing the rest one deal at Kemiq. That was something I certainly won't forget. And hopefully, man, if we talk again soon, I'll have some more memories for you, whether it's this basketball team, how it finishes out, or baseball this spring, or maybe even football next fall.

But, yeah, definitely a lot of good memories, a lot of great memories just watching Hawkeye Sports and interacting with people. And, honestly, interacting with folks on Twitter has become a part of the game-watching experience for me. Interacting with you guys, interacting with everyone on there during a game and getting instant thoughts and opinions from people. It's definitely made it a lot more fun and enjoyable experience for me.

Absolutely, man. Hopefully, like you said, there's a bright future on the horizon for the Hawks, whether it's wrestling, basketball, baseball, or even football next season. So I'm excited. We'll have to have you back on the show, maybe even before IOSM 2020, kind of talk through some of your thoughts and what you're going to be doing for that. But, Cody, thank you again for taking the time out of your day.

Obviously, we're doing this airing a work day. This will be airing at another time. But I just appreciate your time. And, obviously, what you did for the Children's Hospital was absolutely amazing last season. I think I speak for all of Iowa when we say that's really awesome. We love what you're doing. Oh, man, I appreciate it. Thanks so much for reaching out.

Thanks for having me on any time. Any time you take out the phone, give me a call, I'll be happy to do it. Thanks to everyone, and thanks to you for being a part of it this year, the Iowa Sam, and everyone who reached out and was a part of it. For a good cause I uh I'm just blessed to be able and happy to facilitate something that's uh really so organic and something that's awesome and something we all can share and have a lot of pride in as well couldn't agree more man well have a great day Cody and thank you again thanks brother I appreciate it absolutely man

all right bye all right and that concludes our interview with Cody Hills. I hope you loved it as much as I did. I really enjoyed talking to Cody. It was a really cool story to hear how Iowa Sim started, how long it's been going, how it became so popular this past season, and the fact that he's looking to continue to do it next year and determine what he wants to do and how he wants to potentially make it impactful next year as well. Obviously, the fact that he was able to raise $3,000 for the Children's Hospital is no small

feat. And if you're an Iowa football fan as avid of an Iowa football fan as me, watching the Iowa Sim and kind of staying up to date on it was a great opportunity to kind of get your football fix in the middle of the week. So if you haven't seen it before, make sure to follow that next season when the football season begins again. And make sure to go follow Cody Hills on Twitter as he gave you his Twitter info at the end of the show. So thank you to Cody for joining.

I hope you all enjoyed this episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. I hope you all have a fantastic Thursday, Hawkeye Nation. And go Hawks! We'll see you next time.