Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa takes down #16 Penn State | Tristan Wirfs is an absolute monster | Men's baseball has stunning win Saturday

Episode Date: March 2, 2020

It was a busy weekend in Hawkeye athletics. We had baseball, softball, basketball, and track in action. All performances recapped right here and we break down the combine performance of the five Hawks... who attended including Tristan Wirf's monster performance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 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!
Starting point is 00:00:21 Oh! He's got it! Smith! Touchdown. 85 yards. High on. Touchdown, 10. Taking a shot in the end zone.
Starting point is 00:00:32 It is caught. No offense. Touchdown. That's either one or you have it. Go ahead and three. Yes. Two-point lead for the Hawkeyes. What is going on, ladies and gentlemen? It is another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast,
Starting point is 00:01:15 your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. It is Monday. I do apologize for not having an episode out to you on Friday. I got home late from work trip, went on a date with my wife, and then had the flu starting at 2 a.m. Friday morning. I was planning on recording when I woke up and obviously did not have an opportunity to. So that was kind of how my Friday went.
Starting point is 00:01:38 Obviously, I'm sorry for not getting an episode out to you all, but I'm glad to be back on today's episode of the show. And we have a lot to cover. The NFL Combine is essentially complete. I know I'm kind of pre-recording this later on Sunday evening, so there's still a few things kind of going on, but at least can talk about some of the drills and some of the performances that Iowa Hawkeyes put out this weekend. Some pretty good performances, some a little bit disappointing performances, but we're going to talk all about that on today's show.
Starting point is 00:02:05 Iowa versus Penn State, a fantastic basketball game on Saturday that we're also going to cover and talk about. And then a lot of great things happening in Iowa athletics this weekend. The only real unfortunate one was the women's basketball team falling to Rutgers yesterday. But we're going to talk about that as well in our Hawkeye Sports Roundup on today's episode of the show. If you are tuning in for the first time, make sure to like, review, and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast at. And also make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Feel free to interact with us, all that kind of stuff. I do have one quick thing to say.
Starting point is 00:02:40 I got some interesting feedback on Twitter this weekend. Obviously, there's some concerns about my inability to pronounce names. I do apologize. I've said this a lot. I'm not very good with names. I do try my hardest to get names as correct as possible when I'm doing the show. But for anyone of you that have not recorded the podcast before, not saying it's not hard to go back and edit it, but as you're doing the recording, sometimes you kind of slip up and do things. It happens. So my apologies there. If you do have any constructive feedback, feel free to send that to me. You can DM me. You can Facebook me. I'm very open to all that stuff as long as you do it in a constructive and not an ignorant way. So anyways, that's all.
Starting point is 00:03:19 That's my TED Talk for the day. Let's jump into some Iowa Hawkeye sports. Like I said, Iowa Hawkeye Athletics did a pretty good job this weekend, especially on the baseball side. They played three ranked teams this weekend, took down two of them in Minneapolis. If you are an Iowa Hawkeye in the Minneapolis area and you were not able to watch the Iowa Hawkeyes baseball team, I do feel bad for you. If I were in the area, I would have loved to go to those games. Some really great opportunities to watch the men's baseball team. But the 5-4 Hawks did fall to No. 8 North Carolina State, 6-10 on Friday.
Starting point is 00:03:51 North Carolina State got off to a big lead, 5-0, before Iowa came back in the 7th, scored 4. NC State rallied, though, got another 4 in the 8th and obviously took the win, 10-6. Redshirt sophomore Jack Dreyer struggled in the outing and got taken out in the fourth. So anytime you have a starter taken out that early, it's always going to be a little bit difficult, especially in three-game series where they're playing multiple teams back-to-back-to-back. You're kind of going to your bullpen pretty quickly. It can hurt your team throughout the weekend. Obviously Iowa managed to hold on, though, for the rest of the weekend.
Starting point is 00:04:23 The following day, Saturday against No. 20 North Carolina, they beat them 5-4 in extra innings. Iowa scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth and got a walk-off home run by senior Austin Martin. The bottom of the ninth was quite thrilling. For anybody who got to watch it, it was fantastic stuff. UNC struggled. They walked four straight Hawks. Braden Frazier hit a single that
Starting point is 00:04:46 drove in two runs before Matthew Sosa got hit by a pitch and Lorenzo Ilian drove in the final run of the inning. Grant Jenkins pitched a pretty good game, I thought, but obviously got taken out before Iowa got the lead. So Grant Leonard got the W after closing out the 10th. And then on Sunday got even better. Iowa took down number 14 Duke 7-5. After being down most of the game, they were down 5-3 going into the 7th. They added four runs to take that win 7-5. So fantastic stuff by the men's baseball team there. Duncan DeVitt got the start, allowed four runs over five innings.
Starting point is 00:05:23 Peyton Williams came through with the home run. And Isaiah Fuller had a fantastic game, three hits on four at-bats for three runs and two RBIs. Grant Leonard came in and got the save in the relief inning. So fantastic performance all-around from the Iowa Hawkeyes men's baseball team. On the women's side, on the softball side, they went 2-2 down in Florida. On the weekend, they moved to 14-4. They lost to Miami 2-1, in Florida on the weekend and moved to 14-4. They lost to Miami 2-1, beat Florida Gulf Coast 7-1, lost to South Alabama 2-3, and then beat Florida Atlantic 6-5.
Starting point is 00:05:52 So solid weekend all around there for the women. Obviously would have loved to get four wins, but they were pretty close in those games regardless. Could have gone either way there. On the track side, the men's team had a historic weekend at the Indoor Big Ten Championships in Ohio. They placed second to Indiana with 107 points, their highest finish in indoors since 1963. And sophomore Wayne Lawrence claimed three gold medals in the 200, the 400, and the 4x400 meter relay. So, awesome job, men's track team. Great performance there. On the women's basketball
Starting point is 00:06:25 side, like I said, they did fall to Rutgers. Not great. Would have loved to see them win that game lost in overtime after staging a pretty big comeback, but they did end up falling in that game. They struggled a little bit, had a lot of turnovers. So not something you typically see from at least a bloater team. That being said, they do have the three seed in the Big Ten tournament. They likely play around 8 p.m. on Friday and they have have the three seed in the Big Ten tournament. They likely play around 8 p.m. on Friday, and they have a decent chance of winning the tournament. I mean, we've seen throughout the season this women's basketball team can play with any team in the Big Ten conference, and we're very much in the hunt for that Big Ten title throughout the season up into
Starting point is 00:06:58 the last week or so. So it's going to be awesome to see. I think they do need to get, they need to at least go, I think, to the finals. I think if they want to ensure that they get a number, or at least a home game during the NCAA tournament, that is something that they are definitely fighting for. I think a win versus Rutgers could have helped them there, getting a win over a ranked team. But they're going to need to win a couple games in the Big Ten tournament to get home games for the NCAA tournament, an opportunity to get to the Sweet 16 while playing home games at Carver, where we know they are very, very good.
Starting point is 00:07:28 I believe they have the second longest winning streak in the nation for women's basketball. I want to say it's 36 straight games at this point. I don't have it on my notes for right now, but I believe it's 36 straight games. They are undefeated at home this year. So any opportunity to play at home would be a great opportunity for the women, especially if they want to advance to the Sweet 16 for the second straight year. So any opportunity to play at home would be a great opportunity for the women, especially if they want to advance the Sweet 16 for the second straight year. So great stuff there. Obviously would have loved to see them win against Rutgers, but we get to see them back in action Friday night in the Big Ten tournament. And I'm really looking
Starting point is 00:07:57 forward to watching that contest. So that being said, that'll wrap it up for the Iowa Hawkeyes Sports Roundup on this Monday morning show, the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Coming up, we're going to recap the Iowa versus Penn State game before jumping into a little bit of NFL Combine talk. We are back with segment number two of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Like I said, we're going to be talking about the men's basketball game, Iowa versus Penn State. I thought it was a really fantastic game to watch. Iowa struggled in the first half. They went into halftime up only one, but I thought they didn't
Starting point is 00:08:34 really play their best basketball. I thought it was a little bit sloppy. Luka Garza was forcing a lot. Not a very good performance for the frontrunner for National Player of the Year. Really struggled in the first half, though. Like I said, really wanted to. It's not like he was just trying to do so much for the Hawks at that time. And Penn State was doing a pretty good job of sticking to them. They came out, though, and really slugged the hell out of Penn State in the second half. And it sounds like that's literally what they wanted to do.
Starting point is 00:08:59 They wanted to get Penn State on their heels. They wanted to hit them in the mouth and play physical basketball. And throughout the game, it was a great physical contest. Honestly, Iowa versus Penn State this season has been two of my favorite games this entire year, both games. Even the loss in Pennsylvania on the semi-neutral court I thought was a fantastic game to watch. This game was no different, especially now that Iowa got the W77-68, Penn state tried staging a comeback late. Iowa did a good job of holding them off. And then obviously not,
Starting point is 00:09:29 not able to not able to finish the thing for Penn state. So good job to the men's basketball team, getting another win at Carver Hawkeye arena. They get Purdue on, I believe tomorrow evening. So we're going to be covering that as part of our breakdown on tomorrow's episode of the lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Really the big thing here, I will kind of, they came out hot though in that second half.
Starting point is 00:09:48 I believe they started off with a 7-2 run. And then the wheels really started to come off for Penn State around that 13-minute mark. I thought you could tell they were getting very frustrated. I think one of the big things I noticed from this game is that Iowa was actually getting some calls they don't typically get. More often than not, I feel like Iowa is on the wrong end of the bad officiating. And for some reason, Iowa was on the right end of the officiating on Saturday's matchup against Penn State. You saw them getting a little bit frustrated throughout the game.
Starting point is 00:10:16 I thought Joe Toussaint played a fantastic game. Great on defense. You saw him make a couple big plays, a couple good steals. And then had a couple really nice drives to the lane, especially middle of the second half. I believe it was around the 1230-ish mark. Had a beautiful driving layup. Penn State came back.
Starting point is 00:10:32 They were down 10-ish points. Got a quick layup. Joe Toussaint came driving back and got another layup to kind of get the crowd back into it. Loved to see that. Connor McCaffrey played another flawless game from a turnover perspective, zero turnovers. And at this point, if you see that. Connor McCaffrey played another flawless game from a turnover perspective, zero turnovers. And at this point, if you don't like Connor McCaffrey, I'm sorry.
Starting point is 00:10:50 I don't have any hope for you at this point because what he's doing for this team is just absolutely phenomenal, playing great basketball. Again, his stat sheet, his box score isn't going to look impressive, but what he does for the team is just so great. He's so smart on the basketball court. He finished with six points, four assists, and two rebounds. And back to Joe Toussaint, one thing I want to echo is we've seen the emergence of him throughout the season. He wasn't expected to get this many minutes, but he has really performed well. And in just 16 minutes of play, had only one turnover, two points, which is that layup that I thought was really great. And had eight assists.
Starting point is 00:11:25 So that's one of the things we talked about last year, is that Iowa needed a point guard who could really collapse the defense, kick it back out to three-point shooters. And we're seeing Joe Toussaint do that now. And when he's playing under control, he can be really, really effective. Also added two steals in the game, which is something I want to touch on. I thought Iowa overall was a little bit sloppy with their passing. Ten turnovers isn't a ton, but I thought they were just a little bit sloppier
Starting point is 00:11:48 with their passing. At one point, Luka Garza got a rebound, turned around, and just fired it down the court right into the hands of Penn State. You need to see them play a little bit more conservative with the ball. Not conservative, but a little bit tighter with the ball when you get in some of the Big Ten tournament games and the NCAA tournament games. But again, Penn State's a great team at forcing turnovers and whatnot.
Starting point is 00:12:09 Iowa shot great from three, which was fantastic. See, I know they struggled a bit. Joe Wieskamp played okay. Still not what you would want to see. He hit an early three with a guy in his face with a lot of time on the clock, and I thought, this is going to be the game. Joe Wieskamp is coming back.
Starting point is 00:12:27 He still had 13 points, which six of those came from three throws. I would have liked to see him do a little bit more from the field, though. Three of 10 from the field, one of four from three-point, and that one three-pointer was the three-pointer I was talking about where he hit it early in the game. I thought he wanted to get going, wanted to get hot, but couldn't do it. Luka Garza had a lot of shots, took almost half the shots for Iowa. He really came up clutch though in the second half after he calmed down a little bit, went 11 of 28 for 25 points, added 17 rebounds, which is absurd, in four blocks. We're seeing him become an even better
Starting point is 00:13:00 defender, which is something he struggled with historically in the past couple of years, in the past two years, excuse me, in the Iowa Hawkeye basketball program, really becoming a great defender down low. CJ Frederick, you can tell the difference he made in this game, being able to space the four a little better, better defender. Sounds like he actually has been healthy from an ankle perspective over the last couple days, but he had food poisoning going into the Michigan State game, which is unfortunate. We could have definitely used him there.
Starting point is 00:13:25 But on the day, 4 of 8, 2 of 4 from 3, 10 points, added 3 assists and 2 rebounds. So awesome seeing him. And Cordell Pemzel is just – I was really tough on him earlier in the season. I actually had a person DM me and say he's playing really well. I've got to be honest, I didn't see it as much. I think – I just didn't see it. But the last couple of games, he has really turned it on.
Starting point is 00:13:48 And I thought his emergence as that off-the-bench kind of big has been fantastic. His game is not flawless. It's not fun to watch necessarily. It's kind of dirty, does dirty work. But you need a guy like that coming off the bench. And 15 minutes, went 3 of 3 for 6 points. Added 6 boards and a block. So just an all-around good performance from the men's basketball team.
Starting point is 00:14:10 I thought defensively they really tied it down in that second half. Played really good defense. And their offense went alive. And we're going to need to see that against Purdue as well. They're still very much in the fight for that number 4 seed. Or sorry, for top 4 seed in the Big Ten tournament to get that coveted double bye. And we're going to talk a bit more about that on tomorrow's show, but they need to get that top four seed. That is huge for the purposes of advancing in the Big Ten tournament.
Starting point is 00:14:36 Right now, if they get a sixth seed, right, they're probably going to play a Purdue type of team. And Purdue is not a great team by any means, but this Big 10 is tough. The only two teams you can really kind of look at and say, we should be able to get a win no matter what is Northwestern and Nebraska. And we've seen Iowa lose to Nebraska. So you want to get as many buys as you can. You want to get as easy or an easier schedule as much as you can in the Big 10 because they've already played so many teams. They don't need the wins necessarily to get in the NCAA tournament. They want to win that Big Ten tournament and advance and get a higher seed. And the best
Starting point is 00:15:10 way to do that is have a slightly easier schedule, a little bit more rest for this basketball team. They don't have to go through the gauntlet of the Big Ten tournament having even more games than they already need to. So more to come on that on tomorrow's episode. Coming up though on the third and final segment of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast we're going to be talking that on tomorrow's episode. Coming up, though, on the third and final segment of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast,
Starting point is 00:15:26 we're going to be talking about the NFL Combine. Lots of news and notes to touch on there. So that'll be coming up in just a few short seconds. All right. We are back with the third and final segment of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes. And like I said, the NFL Combine, a lot of great performances overall. I thought from an Iowa perspective, it was a little bit up and down.
Starting point is 00:15:54 We saw Tristan Wirfs put together maybe one of the most impressive, if not the most impressive, Combine performance for an offensive lineman in the history of the Combine. We saw Nate Stanley, I think, show a little bit more athleticism than we were anticipating. And then we saw AJ Iponeza and Geno Stone struggle a little bit. And then I thought Michael Ojemudia actually showed up pretty well as well. Let's start with the good, though. Tristan Wirfs, holy hell.
Starting point is 00:16:21 For 6'5", 320 pounds, ran a 4.86 40-yard dash, 1.69 10-yard split, which is fantastic. 121-inch broad jump, a 36.5-inch vertical, and 24 reps on the bench. I need to check that because I don't feel like that note was right off the top of my head. But that is one of the best performances in Combine history. Twitter was absolutely just blowing up. Someone called him the third best tight end in the class because of his performance. I mean, and it was better than most of the tight ends. And imagine if he trained for the 40.
Starting point is 00:16:54 He ran a 4.8640 at 320 pounds. That is absurd, especially because he said in an interview that he hadn't ran a time 40-yard dash since like his sophomore or junior year of high school. an interview that he hadn't ran a time 40 yard dash since like his sophomore or junior year of high school. And that got me thinking, I cannot imagine that he really trained for that a ton, because let's be honest, a 40 yard dash doesn't matter a ton. In fact, it really doesn't matter at all for an offensive lineman. There are some things that you can derive from a 40 yard dash for an offensive lineman, but an offensive lineman is not often running 40 yards down the field. If hardly ever, um, but there's some things you can drive from it, but I don't think he trained a ton for that and still ran a 4.86 40-yard dash.
Starting point is 00:17:29 And the big thing, I think the 10-yard split was huge. The vertical shows his explosiveness. His three-cone drill was not the best. It was at 7.65, but still, for a guy that size, I mean, just truly impressive. I think he is one of the guys who truly won the combine, a guy who solidified himself with a top 10 overall draft pick in the NFL draft coming up. So love to see that for Iowa Hawkeyes. I think no one who saw the Iowa Hawkeyes play the last couple years or followed Iowa very closely thought that athleticism or explosiveness
Starting point is 00:17:57 was going to be a problem for the tackle. But I think other people who haven't had the opportunity to be around him as much definitely saw that on his combine performance this weekend, and you've got to love to see that for the guy. Just a great kid overall. Nate Stanley, I thought, had a solid performance. I didn't think he threw the ball that well, airmailed a couple balls. I don't think he hurt his stock.
Starting point is 00:18:19 I think he basically showed what he is. I don't think he hurt his stock. I don't think he hurt his stock. I don't think he helped his stock necessarily, but not bad overall for the quarterback. I think he's going to be really helped by his pro day performance. And I think really he's kind of solidified himself as a day three pick. He's a guy who I think could perform pretty well in the NFL if given, if put on the right team, but he's not going to be a day to pick, right? That's just not happening. He's not getting that kind of hype. And I don't think he really deserves
Starting point is 00:18:50 that kind of hype yet. I do like Nate Stanley. I think he seems like a great dude. I don't know him personally, but he just didn't do as much. I mean, his 40 time was pretty solid for, you know, checking in at his size, being able to run that 40 yard dash time, a 4.81. time was pretty solid for checking in at his size, being able to run that 40-yard dash time. A 4.81, that was pretty impressive for a guy who's 6'4", 235 pounds. Again, checked in with 10-inch hands, love that. Vertical jump, not good, 28.5 inches, broad jump of 108 inches. Three-cone drill is kind of quick for a guy his size, 7.26, and a 4.48 20-yard shuttle. You don't expect Nate Stanley to be the mobility kind of guy.
Starting point is 00:19:26 He's a pocket passer, but being able to see that he does have some of that speed, I think does help. He's not just going to be a drop-back passer and just get screwed. He does have the opportunity to run a little bit, especially compared to a guy like Jake Fromm who ran a 5-second 40. Good for Nate Stanley. If he would have done poorly, that would have only solidified the case of him being super unathletic.
Starting point is 00:19:46 But I think he's the kind of guy who just had a very okay performance. No one's talking about it as great or bad. Probably stuck around in the exact same spot from a potential draft spot, and I think that's mid to late day three for Nate Stanley. AJ Paneza, this is an interesting one. This is an interesting case. Some guys are pretty low on him now, and I'll be interested to see where he's mocked at in upcoming mock drafts that are going to come out after the end of the combine. He ran a 5.04 40-yard dash, put up 17
Starting point is 00:20:17 reps on the bench, 32.5-inch vertical, not a lot of explosiveness, 117 broad jump a 7.34 second three cone drill not that bad given his size but not great and a 4.46 20-yard shuttle um here's the thing I I had a feeling I thought about a little bit when Tristan Wirfs did such a fantastic job I thought you know can AJ Epineza do that and to be honest I just didn't see it from him that he would be a freak athlete from that perspective. He's an incredible player. And I think, and I'm going to talk about that in a bit, but I never saw him being like a speed guy or just a super explosive guy. You'd love to see him perform a little bit better and maybe he's going to do a bit better when he gets to Iowa's pro day. I can only imagine he's going to do some of these drills over again, cause can't get much worse. And you
Starting point is 00:21:04 can only build on some of those things, but all he really needed to do some of these drills over again because it can't get much worse, and you can only build on some of those things. But all he really needed to do was run a sub-5 second 40, in my opinion, 4.9, 4.8, and I think that would have really helped his draft stock stay around the same. But he is a true power guy, and that's actually something that PFF Mike Renner actually posted. He said, you know, I'm not all that concerned about it because Mike Renner has him as a true power pass rusher. And I do think that's the case. He's not a speed guy. He's not a bend around the edge guy. He is a power pass rusher.
Starting point is 00:21:34 And he has shown that in college. When you get a power pass rusher like that, you're not going to get those unbelievable times and metrics at the combine. Nevertheless, I think it does hurt him. Another guy who I follow very closely, John Ledger, a guy who used to host Locked On NFL Draft, he said he wouldn't touch him in the first two rounds. So, again, opinions are very much all over the board with AJ Paneza. Here's my thoughts. I think he's going to drop, but I think some team is going to get really freaking lucky
Starting point is 00:22:03 in the back end of the first round to get AJ Paneza or the beginning of the second round if that's really how far he drops depending on his times. I do think with those times, you know, it makes sense that he probably could bulk up, gain, you know, 10-ish pounds, 15 pounds, and maybe play that 3-4 edge position. I looked at Derek Wolfe's times from the Denver Broncos. I would say they're relatively similar. Wolfe came in a little bit heavier too and also came in as a defensive tackle technically before moving over to that 3-4 end position. I think Epineza could do that. He didn't show as much as a run defender at Iowa.
Starting point is 00:22:35 Got burned a few times. Got better in his junior year. So that'll be the interesting thing if he were to play that edge position. But it'll be interesting to see how NFL teams evaluate him. I'll be looking forward to seeing where he projects that in upcoming mock drafts. And hopefully I'll get a few of the, the draft guys.
Starting point is 00:22:49 I know Nick, Nick Kendall definitely watches or listen to some of the show a little bit. And I appreciate his, you know, him listening to the show and hoping to have him on. So we can talk a little bit more about the NFL draft in the future. So hopefully that's coming up and we can talk a bit about AJ Epineza, two other guys.
Starting point is 00:23:03 Michael Ojemudia had a great day. One of the big knocks on Iowa defensive backs is that quickness and agility. He had a 4.45 second 40-yard dash, 36-inch vertical, one of the best in the day. His broad jump wasn't the best, one of the worst actually, 122 inches.
Starting point is 00:23:19 6.87 second three-cone shuttle though was fantastic. Three-cone drill was fantastic for that position. Second best in the day in a 4.21 20-yard shuttle. I think, if nothing else, Michael Ojemudia should be at least rising up that day three part of the day. I thought he had a really great performance down in Mobile. Showed he could man up on players, especially after playing so much zone at Iowa.
Starting point is 00:23:46 And then his combat performance only helped him a bit more. I think he stands by all those numbers when it comes to pro day and focuses on some of the position drills and maybe just doing some of the interviews. So great job by Ojemudia. I think a team's going to get pretty lucky in that third day getting a guy like Ojemudia. And then Gino Stone, I don't want to be that guy, but I kind of saw this coming from an athleticism perspective. I didn't think he would test very well. He's not a guy who blows you away with the measurements and whatnot.
Starting point is 00:24:12 He posted a 4.62 second 40-yard dash, 6th worst in this class, 116-inch broad jump worst in the class, 33.5-inch vertical, 4th worst in the class, and 12 reps on the bench worst in the class. Not an impressive performance. And I think what sucks for Geno Stone is that that is not where he excels. The underwear Olympics is not where Geno Stone excels at. That's not where he's going to perform well at. Where you're going to see him perform well at is with his instincts.
Starting point is 00:24:41 He's a guy who is a very instinctual performer, or player, excuse me, can read the situation very well and just balls out on the field. Similar to A.J. Paneza, a guy who, you know, didn't test as well, but he's a stud. He's a guy who can truly come out and play. It'll be interesting to see what happens with Juno Stone because he didn't come into the draft process with a ton of notoriety or a ton of hype like Imani Hooker did last year. Although I say, you know, very similar to their importance of the Iowa Hawkeye defense, Imani Hooker maybe has an edge there and also had that Big Ten Defensive Back of the Year award to go along with it. Geno Stone, I think he could have used another year at Iowa.
Starting point is 00:25:20 But either way, I'm going to be rooting for him. I don't think this obviously wasn't the best opportunity for him, I'm hoping a team can look at his tape and see a ton of great instincts and a true football player, not necessarily a guy who is going to show up at the underwear Olympics but a guy who is going to look fast on tape and play well on tape so it remains to be seen
Starting point is 00:25:38 on where he projects at but I'm thinking probably mid to late day 3 especially after this performance not a great performance by Geno Stone. That being said, though, that's enough talk about the NFL draft and the NFL combine. I'm going to cover a lot more of this on future episodes of the show, and especially when we get out some of those mock drafts. I want to touch on where these guys are falling at.
Starting point is 00:25:58 I want to get a few of the draft guys that I keep in touch with, Nick and Sarah, especially want to get them on the show to talk a little bit more about the NFL draft as well. So stay tuned for that. I appreciate you all tuning into today's episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. If you did like what you hear today, make sure to like, review and subscribe wherever you download it to this podcast at and make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. That's how you can get the most latest news on what is going on on the Locked On Hawkeyes
Starting point is 00:26:23 podcast. Thank you again for tuning into today's episode. Have a fantasticed on Hawkeyes podcast. Thank you again for tuning in to today's episode. Have a fantastic day, Hawkeye Nation. Let's go Hawks.

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