Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - "Iowa Triumphs Over Troy: Big Win, Bigger Questions for the Hawkeyes"

Starting point is 00:00:00 Iowa gets the win over Troy 38-21, but still some major questions about this Iowa football team. And are we looking at a two quarterback situation? Today we break it down. Locked on Hawkeye. You are Locked on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hey, welcome in. I'm Trent Condon and this is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast.

Starting point is 00:00:34 Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We're available wherever you find podcasts. You can also watch us on YouTube. While you're there, make sure you hit that subscribe button. Helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. Today's episode is brought to you by 5-Hour Energy. Go to 5hourenergy.com and make sure you use the promo code LOCKEDONCFB to receive 20% off your order.

Starting point is 00:00:58 38-21, the final. Iowa gets the win against Troy as we react to what we saw on Saturday at Kinnick Stadium. But in a game where Iowa cruised in the fourth quarter, dominated, put the game away. They dominate the statistical profile of this game. Nearly 500 yards of total offense. Iowa finishes with 462 to 253 yards of total offense out of Troy. Looking at the rushing totals, Iowa runs for 284 yards, just 24 from Troy, 25 first downs from the Iowa offense

Starting point is 00:01:32 against just 10 on the other side. This was a dominating performance, but we're all, I think, left wondering, what is this team? We are a quarter of the way through the season, three games into this regular season, and we still, I still have this feel of what is this team going to be? Is it the team that many believe myself included coming into the season that had a shot to push for the college football playoff? Now that is going to be an incredibly difficult task with the lost Iowa

Starting point is 00:02:01 State hanging over their heads and what still looms with a road trip to Ohio State coming up here in a couple of weeks. The road trip, obviously, this week to Minnesota. Still games against Nebraska later on this season. Washington team that I think has looked better than people thought. And Michigan State, though they've been inconsistent, that's going to be no gimme. I mean, this schedule proves to be much more difficult, maybe, than even we thought coming into the season, and you already have a loss on that resume. Or are they going to be a team that is just frankly inconsistent?

Starting point is 00:02:32 I mean, we go back and we looked at this team, and they have played three good halves of football, but three brutal halves of football as well. The first half against Illinois State, up 6-0, shooting themselves in the foot, inopportune penalties, just not playing good, solid, fundamental football. And then they come back in the second half of that football game, maybe look as good as Iowa football has in a really long time offensively and what they were able to do in the third and fourth quarters of that one. A week later against Iowa State, they look great in the first half. And though they weren't able to punch it in, and we talked plenty about that in the goal-to-go situations, they come out in the second half, give 20 second half points up and can't find a way to hold a lead. And then this week, find yourself down 14-10 to a Troy team that came in 0-2 and

Starting point is 00:03:21 just been bludgeoned by Memphis. And you're down at the half to this squad. You come out and you take care of business in the second half, but that's where we are, the inconsistencies of this team. And it's just not one thing. It's not just a quarterback play that has to be better. Though Cade McNamara was fine, if I was going to be special this year, Cade McNamara has to be better than just fine. And it's crazy to say after the

Starting point is 00:03:45 quarterback play that we've watched over the last three seasons, that a guy that goes 19 to 23 doesn't turn it over is just fine, but that's what he was. Missed receivers, even some of those completions were thrown behind guys and not an ability to go down the field. You look at the statistical profile of where these shots were taken, where the passes were going. It was check down Charlie. I mean, it was cut and dry. We'll get into the quarterback situation a little bit later. And if it was just as simple as the quarterback play needs to be better,

Starting point is 00:04:14 all right, we'd have kind of a solution to this equation. But there's been so much more. Special teams gaps. You have a freshman kicker come in a week ago, not get a 54 yarder. Didn't get a hand up. Weren't able to get a block on a guy that now he drilled it. I've been credit to the kid, but still. And then this week, Reese Dakin has not been good. He's been okay. And after what we've seen in the superhero nature of Torrey Taylor at the punter position, we're looking for more than that. You give up a punt return on

Starting point is 00:04:45 just an awful punt and the coverage was even worse. Everybody's going the same spot. I was listening to the radio call at the time. Pat Anger said, you never want to have your return team where everybody blow up in a grenade. And that's what it was. Everybody's going the same spot. It was just all these things together. And then we haven't even mentioned the defense and the cracks in the back end. Now, TJ Hall gave up the first touchdown. The second was a safety was supposed to have help over top. We found that afterward good reporting from Tyler Tashman and Chad Lysenko of the Des Moines Register. But that aside, they're giving up big plays. How did they lose a week ago against Iowa State? Giving up big plays. This is not what we're used to with the Phil Parker defense. And suddenly we're looking at this squad and what they are and

Starting point is 00:05:31 what they're going to be. And I think we have more questions than answers. And that's not where you want to be three games into the season. As you get ready for Big Ten play, you want to have answers to this. And we just don't know. We thought this defense was going to be elite once again. And then we saw good moments. And Brian Allen, there's a dude. We finally get to see him. And on the field, he is producing. Not just being a guy out there getting reps. He has been productive when he's been on the field. We saw Aaron Graves in the first game, played really well. I thought Y.E. Black was outstanding. Later this week, we'll get the numbers from Pro Football Focus and see if they exactly marry up with what we saw.

Starting point is 00:06:09 But there's just so many components to the squad right now that are question marks. And we didn't think that was going to be the case. The running game has got going. The offense looks markably better. Caleb Johnson is now the leading rusher in all of college football. We have these things, the offensive line, at least run blocking wise, looks pretty good. Wide receivers that looked the part. Look, Jacob Gill's a dude. They got him off the scrap heap from Northwestern.

Starting point is 00:06:36 Let's be honest. This is a guy that was a fourth, fifth option at Northwestern. He looks like our best receiver we've ever had. Being a little hyperbolic there, but you get what I'm saying. After what we've gone through, what we've seen, we see this offensive improve, and now we're giving up plays defensively. It's just on and on and on. Where is this team? What is happening at the front? And then you have decisions in this football game. As mentioned, we'll get to the quarterback a little bit later on. They have the goal line package or the red zone package, excuse me package where we saw Brandon Sullivan go in. There was a touchdown, his first play of the game. He handed it off to Caleb Johnson for a touchdown.

Starting point is 00:07:13 You can't give him a ton of credit, but it was a running element that went in there. I'm sure Troy probably knew who he was and knew what it was going to be if he came into the football game. See if that part of it as well. It's just on and on and on. For every good, it feels like there's a bad coming right back with it. With Minnesota, yes, this is a big game for Iowa. It's a big game for both teams.

Starting point is 00:07:35 Phil Fleck is a weirdo. He is a weird, weird guy. But he actually has football acumen. He's not one of these carnival barkers, he is that that has no substance behind it he's also a good football coach and he has put together a staff and they put together a system that works well against iowa now it took until a year ago for them to finally beat iowa but there were so many games that came down to the wire and so many breaks that went iowa's way throughout the course of that series in the early going and a year ago the break didn't go Iowa's way. And yes, the fair catch signal.

Starting point is 00:08:06 Yes, we know how that went with Cooper Dajim. But that's what happened. You think they're going to back down? Absolutely not. Just because they have the pig for a year, they don't want to give it up. It's going to be a big matchup. We're going to be talking about this.

Starting point is 00:08:17 My favorite rivalry game on the Iowa schedule each and every year. We'll be breaking that thing down throughout the week. But we're still looking back, and we're taking a look back at this matchup against Troy. So let's talk about the quarterback situation. Came back to me, mentioned the numbers, 19-23, 176, looks solid. But left plays on the field.

Starting point is 00:08:35 And here comes Brendan Sullivan. He adds a different element. Is this something we're going to see going forward? Was this a wrinkle that they put in for Troy, and then it's going to go the way of the dodo bird? Let's go through a little bit deeper. We'll talk about that. Plus those questions on the back end of the defense. What's happening with the Phil Parker defense?

Starting point is 00:08:54 We have questions. We should never have questions. We'll do that as we continue. This is Locked On Hawkeyes. Today's episode of Locked On Hawkeyes is brought to you by 5-Hour Energy. Look, I'm a night hour. I'm up late. Last night, I was up late getting my daughter softball.

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Starting point is 00:10:48 thanks for making lockdown hawkeyes your first listen every day all right let's continue as we look back at the victory against troy 38 21 the final in this one let's dive a little bit deeper into the offense the running game has been outstanding and it continued. It was not just the Caleb Johnson show in this one. Now this is also going up against the team in Troy that came in ranked, I believe, 118th against the Rush in college football. So we're not talking about that they're beating up the Ohio State front by any means,

Starting point is 00:11:18 but we're seeing improvement. We're seeing a schematic change in this offense that makes sense for what they're doing. You look at some of the inside and outside zone plays that they're running, and the outside zone that they run is still more internal. It's not going completely wide. It's more kind of going off the hip of the guards, going off the outside hip in between the guard and the tackle box.

Starting point is 00:11:42 That's more kind of the outside. And then they got the inside slant. That's been working really well. And it helps when you got a guy like Caleb Johnson. Look, we've talked about Caleb Johnson for the last couple of years. The eye-popping part for me every day is, I'm sure you've heard me say this story before, but it was in that lightning delay game against Nevada his freshman year.

Starting point is 00:12:03 He had a long carry in that one and he saw him out there. All right, this freshman we've been hearing a little bit about. Sounded like he had a good camp. Sounds like they're really happy when they got him out of Ohio. A big time recruit. It was them and Cal, I think, were the finalists for his services, but they were excited about him. Good size, 5'11", 220 pounds. All right, let's see. And you see him get the touchdown, long touchdown against Nevada. But then I saw this metric that was put up by one of the analytical sites out there. And they mentioned that at the time, it was the second fastest running back had got in college football to that point.

Starting point is 00:12:38 So maybe there's something different here. Now, last year was a huge disappointment. Last year, I think we all expected more out of him. And I know there was an injury that he was dealing with. I mean, that was a component too of the injury that he was going through, but there are other parts. There was a reason that Caleb Johnson was suspended for the first half of the game. And it was just, this didn't come down from Kirk. This didn't come down from the coaching staff. This was something for the player council where they were disappointed in some of the things that he missed, doing NIL, doing different things, not being there for team activities.

Starting point is 00:13:14 And the team kind of seen enough. We know the talent. Talent is not a problem for Caleb Johnson. But the great thing is, instead of sulking, instead of pouting, instead of taking the easy way out and transferring and maybe dominating at some max goal right now, instead of doing that, he put in the work. We know the physical gifts. But the one thing also about Caleb Johnson is he's a glider, right? He's just got that running style that's more of that smoothness to him.

Starting point is 00:13:43 But when you need a hard three, he'll get you two. Need to put your head down and get that first down. He wasn't always doing that. We're seeing that a lot more this season. And an element of physicality to his game. The speed's there. He is a long strider. He doesn't look nearly as fast as he is.

Starting point is 00:14:02 He's got good size. But now you're adding a little bit of power to the element that he had. Well, now you see why he is the leading rusher in college football to this point. It's going to get more difficult starting this week against Minnesota, no doubt about it, but I think credit needs to go to Tim Lester. I think credit needs to go to Caleb putting in the work to make it happen. But the quarterback is the big question.

Starting point is 00:14:24 And as the offensive line has made a prudent, wide receivers are showing at least signs, including Jacob Gill, of being confident, something that hasn't always been the case over the last decade, half decade for Iowa wide receivers. I mean, it's just, it's been a bloodbath out there and they have been able to find a way. All right. So you got these elements. You have a quarterback in Cade McNamara that's missing place. 19-23 looks great. And I thought he was okay. But as you go through and you watch the plays again,

Starting point is 00:14:54 and you see throws behind receivers, you see throws that if you hit a guy in stride, he's going to be able to turn it up and make a big play. You see early in the football game, having Luke Lachey out of read up the seam all by himself and you miss him. And that at least from the end zone camera appear to be that read that you're supposed to make. That's a problem. That's a problem that Iowa doesn't have time to figure out. One of the reasons I was excited to see Brendan Sullivan come into the game is because Iowa

Starting point is 00:15:25 has to know now that the leash has to be short. Cade did nothing to make you say he should lose his starting job. That performance on Saturday was not enough to say, all right, back to the drawing board. We're going a completely different direction. That's not where we are. However, if it goes poorly again, if we see another performance like we saw over the final three quarters against Iowa State, he's not going to get three quarters. He just can't. If they're in a dogfight against Minnesota

Starting point is 00:15:54 and he's up there throwing balls in the dirt, making bad decisions, throwing awful interceptions like he did against Iowa State, if he's doing those kind of things, got to make the move. And now you got Brendan Sullivan some reps. You put together a package in the red zone for him. That is a starting point. Brendan Sullivan's a smart guy. Like, go to Northwestern. We're not talking about a guy

Starting point is 00:16:18 with rocks upstairs, right? This is a smart guy. He's going to be able to pick up the playbook. Even if you have to slim the playbook down, that's okay. I mean, it's pretty easy, right? Give it to Caleb Johnson. That needs to be a huge, huge component of what you're looking to do. But able to get that a little bit more, I would anticipate there's going to be more layers that they're going to be adding for Brendan Sullivan going forward.

Starting point is 00:16:45 You see the versatility that he has. Now, I'm here to warn you. Go back and watch him at Northwestern. This is not a guy. If you're worried about the arm strength of Cade McNamara, Brendan Sullivan's not going to wow you. He is not going to be a guy that, oh, well, boy, look at the velo coming off here. This isn't Jake Cutler cutting it through the wind, right? This is not Dan Marino.

Starting point is 00:17:04 This isn't anything close. This isn't C Cutler cutting it through the wind, right? This is not Dan Marino. This isn't anything close. This isn't CJ Beathard. Arm strength is not something that's going to wow you with Brendan Sullivan, but with the running element that he can add along with at minimum a solid, accurate underneath thrower, you're not too bad. The option is now there. Cades are starter. Cade should be your starter. But the leash needs to get tighter and tighter. And if it goes bad, even for a quarter, Brendan Sullivan needs to be ready to play. We'll, of course, talk about this more throughout the week.

Starting point is 00:17:38 We will see on Tuesday at the media availability if we do get to hear from Cade McNamara. He was unavailable a week ago after that performance against Iowa State. Now he has had a conflict. This was not something that just cropped up out of the blue. We knew this coming into the season that he had a conflict during the time that there's normal availability. And one of the press conferences, they had him come in after all the other players had finished up their press responsibilities. So we know it's a little bit different.

Starting point is 00:18:05 This was not him just hiding for sake of hiding. There is an element there, but we'll see if we're going to get him. We'll see if Brendan Sullivan maybe will be available. That'll be something also to keep an eye on. What other element we got to hit on? And that was the end of the first half. And the Boo Birds were out in Kinnick Stadium, as happens from time to time. Look, I was not alone in this.

Starting point is 00:18:27 And for anybody that's looking down, I'm not pious. Iowa fans, because they boo their team or they're booing a coaching decision. And they say, well, your fan base, they stink because of that. You're dead wrong. You just are. It's just, it happens everywhere. Across the country, across sport, this happens. It was a disappointing first half. Let them hang around, hang around. A missed receiver here,

Starting point is 00:18:55 a missed opportunity there, a punt return after giving up a long touchdown, and we'll get into that as well. But here Iowa is with a minute left on the clock, down 14-10, and Kirk sits on the ball. As you listen to Kirk after the game and you hear what he had to say, just about the general mood of the team, he came into that football game, look, he's been around a long time. He's been on the sidelines for a lot of football throughout the past, what, 50 plus years now. He's been around a lot. And he knows something stunk with this team. They weren't ready.

Starting point is 00:19:33 They're overlooking Troy. They weren't over lost to Iowa State. Whatever it was, he knew that. And I think that leads to what we saw at the end of the half. He didn't want to make a bad situation worse. And I didn't have a bad feeling about that. I get it. Like you don't want to do something dumb, throw a pick six. And all of a sudden you're down two scores. You're down 21, 10, suddenly going into the second half, because that's what that news gets a little tighter. I mean, that's when your britches

Starting point is 00:19:59 are tight, right? When something like that happens, that's when you get into trouble. right when something like that happens that's when you get into trouble I understood it it's frustrating and in the moment I was frustrated too but looking at a big picture and hearing Kirk and he wasn't even talking specifically about that at the end of the half but he was just talking about the general mood of the team like he knows his team he knows his team better than I do better than you do there's no doubt doubt. And because of that, sometimes, yes, we will second guess. And you guys know, I am happy to second guess all the coaches at the University of Iowa. It's what we do. And I did at the time. However, I get it. And hearing him say that, I think maybe clarify that a little bit more. It was a team that wasn't

Starting point is 00:20:44 ready. You can put that on Kirk. You can put that a little bit more. It was a team that wasn't ready. You can put that on Kirk. You can put that on the coaching staff that they should have had the team ready to go. They weren't. You look across college football, this is going to happen. Notre Dame lost to Northern Illinois. Georgia was in a dogfight against a Kentucky team that had looked brutal the week before against South Carolina. You're not going to rip off 12 consecutive great games.

Starting point is 00:21:04 It's not going to happen. Iowa has not put together one solid 60 minutes of football. That needs to change. But I understood it at the very least. So the offense, we talk about quarterback and what's going to happen going forward. Running game looks great. Wide receivers look okay. We need to get Luke Lachey involved a little bit more. Five catches for Addison Estrango for nine yards. It's a weird one. Weird stat line. What's going on with the Iowa defense?

Starting point is 00:21:35 That's what we're going to get into next. We're looking back at the victory against Troy. Iowa gets it done 38-21. We continue Locked on Hawkeyes. Look, you've heard us talk a lot about FanDuel. It's America's number one sportsbook. Well, we have something a little bit different for you. Now through September 22nd, all FanDuel customers

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Starting point is 00:22:12 and you can cancel at any time. Games already up this week at FanDuel. Iowa is a two and a half point favorite and their matchup against Minnesota. That one will be up North. Excited to get up there once again. I love time in Minneapolis, an opportunity for that one. College football galore. They got you covered there.

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Starting point is 00:22:58 Once again, visit FanDuel.com to download America's number one sportsbook. Back with you one final time. I'm Trent Condon, and this is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. As we wrap up here, let's talk about the defense and Phil Parker's defense now that for the second consecutive week has given up big plays. Jamari Harris with a pick six. That was great to see.

Starting point is 00:23:22 TJ Hall gave up one early. Then the safety coverage over top wasn't there. A week ago, it was Xavier Wampa who was benched in that game. We got a lot of issues. I believe in Phil Parker. I believe that he will figure this out. But this goes hand in hand with the theory that we've talked about going all the way back to spring football.

Starting point is 00:23:41 And if Iowa got an offense that is okay, and that's what they've been, better than okay. And if Iowa got an offense, that is okay. And that's what they've been. Better than okay. And certainly for Iowa standards, a tick above that. Look, we would have killed at any point last year to have nearly 500 yards of offense. And we got it on Saturday, albeit against Troy. We would have killed for a quarterback

Starting point is 00:23:58 that could complete 19 of 23 passes. We got it, albeit against Troy. So we had this going on. But the theory at the time was, as the offense gets better, I believe we saw over the last two years, teams just unwilling to take big opportunities against Iowa, to take big shots against Iowa, because they knew if we give it back, if we punt the ball back to them, they're not going to do anything. We can't have that thought anymore, at least at this point. And we're seeing teams because of that, I believe, be more aggressive. Know that we're not just going to be able to hang around in a

Starting point is 00:24:37 slugfest. We're going to have to do a little bit more offensively. And because of that, teams are taking shots. But to have it happen as often as it has now, we're talking about two big plays against Troy, two big plays against Iowa State. To have this happen four times against a Phil Parker defense, it's just unthinkable. We saw Purdue and Brahm. They were able to do it a few times.

Starting point is 00:25:01 And they were able to find and exploit matchups. He did an incredible job of that against Phil Parker's defense in the past. But that's one of the few examples that you really can come up with. Is it a personnel issue? Maybe in a way. We saw Deshaun Lee come in for TJ Hall. Hall was back out there, though, shortly after. That appears to be your

Starting point is 00:25:26 number three cornerback. TJ Hall gave up a touchdown the week before against Iowa State to Higgins. He was right there. He made as good of a play as you can make without actually intercepting the ball. And Higgins just took it away. It's going to happen. Cornerbacks know that. That's going to happen. Is it a mental lapse? Is it Phil doing things a little bit different? Look, we also talked about this at the end of the Iowa State game. Them going man underneath in a situation where Iowa State didn't have anything. And you didn't see your typical cover four look that we're so used to with Iowa

Starting point is 00:26:00 or even giving up the middle of the field. So they went a different route. Maybe it is Phil doing things a little bit different. If that's the case, maybe go back to the way it was. I guess we'll keep it as simple as that. Look, I'm not overly concerned. I'm just not. Phil Parker has too long of a track record to be concerned

Starting point is 00:26:17 that this is something that we're going to see throughout the course of the season. However, how often do they practice against those deep balls? Because watching Cade, he's not taking many shots up the field. How often do they have to worry about something going over their head in practice? Just a question.

Starting point is 00:26:34 I don't know. We're with each and every day here coming up this week with the big matchup against Minnesota. We will take one final look back at the game in our Rewind Edition. We'll take one more look at the game DVR come up with some of the big plays and big highlights we didn't get here in our instant

Starting point is 00:26:50 reaction podcast we will do that tomorrow Scott Dockerman from The Athletic will join us we'll hear from Scott Dockerman we have that coming your way later on in the week we got a few other things cooking up that we're going to be continuing to work on here as we get ready for the matchup and big 10 play underway nine in front of the hawkeyes it starts in minnesota thanks for making lockdown hawkeyes your first listen every day for your second listen find lockdown college football from nil deals to the never-ending conference realignment rumors spencer mclaughlin gets you ready for an exciting season on the gridiron. Find Locked On College Football on YouTube or wherever you get podcasts.

Starting point is 00:27:30 We'll talk to you again tomorrow. We'll have the numbers from Pro Football Focus. A few other things coming your way. Your team every day. We got you covered on the Hawkeye front. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Until then, go Hawks.

Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - "Iowa Triumphs Over Troy: Big Win, Bigger Questions for the Hawkeyes"

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