Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Women's Wrestling has 2 new recruits, Cooper DeJean is basically a defensive Deebo Samuel, and Michael Kilbane is SCARY!

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome back Hawkeye Nation to another episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked on Podcast Network. As always, I am your host, Wright Hillpiper, and before we get into things today, I want to thank you all for making the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast your first listen every single day. You can find the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast for free wherever you get your podcasts at and also on YouTube by searching Locked on Hawkeyes. And actually, before we get into all the stuff I want to talk about today, I want to talk about BetOnline. BetOnline.net is your number one source for all of your betting stats and sports info. Find all of the latest sports developments, league reviews, and news,

Starting point is 00:01:04 including this year's basketball playoffs and the start of the Major League Baseball season. And I want to give a disclaimer. You must be 21 years of age to use BetOnline. I only say this because I am only 18 years old, and I know that there are several of you out there that listen to this that are under the age of 21. So before you go check out BetOnline.net, make sure you are 21 years of age and can prove it. So with that being said, go check out BetOnline.net, make sure you are 21 years of age and can prove it. So with that being said, go check out BetOnline.net. It's where the game starts. So the first thing I want to talk about today is Sam Calkins and Bella Muir, who are the most recent recruits for the Iowa women's wrestling team, bringing the total number of wrestlers to the Iowa women's

Starting point is 00:01:47 team to 10. The first one I'm going to talk about is Sam Calkins, hailing from Liberty High School in Brentwood, California. Currently a senior in high school and considered the number 16 overall women's wrestling recruit in the nation. According to USA Wrestling, Calkins is also ranked number one in the nation at the 200 pound weight class. And Bellamere from Nevada is currently ranked at number six in the nation at the 144 pound weight class. Calkins also won a California state title this past season. And she also placed first at the junior women's folk style and junior women's freestyle national title this past season. And she also placed first at the junior women's folk style and junior women's freestyle national championships this past season.

Starting point is 00:02:30 Mir also a senior in high school is a four-time Nevada state champ and also took home first place at the 2021 junior folk style tournament. On top of that, Mir took fourth at the 2021 junior women's freestyle world team trials at 65 kilograms. Or for those of you who don't Off of that, Muir took fourth at the 2021 Junior Women's Freestyle World Team Trials at 65 kilograms. Or for those of you who don't know the conversion on that, it's 143 pounds. They say kilograms because it is a world team trial. So she placed fourth at the 143 pound weight class at that tournament. And for those of you, if you don't happen to recognize the last

Starting point is 00:03:06 name Muir, Bella's dad, her father is a guy named Frank Muir. Frank Muir is a two-time UFC heavyweight champ and has fought in the UFC for 16 years. And in case you're wondering, yes, Bella has tried her hand at mixed martial arts, and she happens to be very good at it and currently has a 2-0 record. Back in February, Mir did an interview with UFC.com and said, quote, I'm going to be doing this my whole life, and that's why I'm sticking so much to wrestling. Wrestlers are the most dominant fighters in the UFC and I only have four years of wrestling left. I just know that I'm going to be fighting for 10 years. And she makes an absolutely solid point because most UFC fighters that have past wrestling experience, whether it's in high school, college, or at the Olympic level, have been extremely good

Starting point is 00:04:05 at the UFC, like in fighting in general. If you take a look at, let's say Brock Lesnar, for an example, he was an extremely good college wrestler. He went on to the WWE, did the whole professional wrestling thing and did UFC as well. And he was extremely good in his time in the UFC and was, I'm sure you've seen the pictures of him wrestling back in college. The guy was absolutely massive. He took a crack at the UFC, was extremely good at it, and then eventually went to the WWE, made his name there.

Starting point is 00:04:39 So keep in mind that technically, Muir could have more than four years of wrestling left if she decides to take a crack at the Olympic trials after she graduates from Iowa. But after reading that quote, it seems like she's more focused on continuing her fighting career after her college wrestling days are over. So I doubt that we'll see her go, you know, try to go for the Olympic side of things after she gets done wrestling at Iowa. I assume that she will go back to UFC or to MMA or to Bellator or wherever she ends up after her college wrestling career. But I can already tell that she's going to be

Starting point is 00:05:19 extremely, extremely talented when it comes to the college level. As I mentioned earlier, with the addition of Calkins and Muir, the Iowa women's wrestling team now consists of 10 extremely talented recruits, including Kylie Welker, who is the number one ranked pound for pound high school wrestler in the nation, men's or women's, which is absolutely insane to be, to be ranked as number one pound for pound. Get like granted. It's still insane. She she's out here. She's consistently beating guys who are just as good, you know, at, at this weight class. She is, she is a little bit lighter, but number one ranked in the nation pound for pound, extremely, extremely talented wrestler, Ella Schmidt, a three-time Iowa State champ and junior All-American, very good at the women's side

Starting point is 00:06:13 of, like women's only side of wrestling. She can wrestle with the best of the men as well. Reese Laramendi probably has the least amount of accolades on her resume, but still is a top 20 overall recruit in the nation right now. Nyla Valencia is a California state champ. Emily and Brianna Gonzalez, the twins from California, two extremely talented lightweights. Nania Estrella, an NAIA national finalist who is transferring from Menlo College out of California. And Ava Bayless, who we talked about a couple of days ago, is a two-time national prep champion as well. You might have noticed a lot of these wrestlers that Iowa has been picking up for the women's wrestling team have been out of California. California typically has extremely, extremely good high

Starting point is 00:07:05 school wrestling programs, along with a lot of the Midwest states. If you go look at Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, all the way up into New York. These are states that consistently put out extremely talented high school wrestlers and have extremely talented college wrestling programs and Michigan as well. If you look at the Michigan wrestling program, they just did extremely well at the NCAA championships as well as Penn State, Iowa, and third behind those two. So these are all states all the way from California to New York to Missouri to Michigan to wherever all have extremely good wrestling

Starting point is 00:07:45 programs. So I'm extremely excited to see what these females are going to be able to do when their time comes to step out onto the mat for Iowa's first ever women's wrestling team. All of these wrestlers must be extremely proud. They're going to be making history as Iowa's first women's wrestling team. Extremely, extremely excited to see that happen. The second thing that I want to talk about today is Cooper DeJohn. You may know him. He's a sophomore at Iowa on the football team. He is extremely talented, but where exactly is he going to play?

Starting point is 00:08:26 There's a lot of speculation on where he's going to be at on the defensive side of the ball for Iowa. Before we get into that, I want to talk about Athletic Greens. Our partner has a product that I literally use every single day. Every single time in the morning when I wake up, I drink my AG1 because recently I had some problems with my gut health and I wanted to get back into the gym. I wanted to get back in the weight room. I wanted to get my physical health back on track. So what exactly is this stuff? With one scoop of delicious AG1, you're absorbing 75 high-quality vitamins, minerals, whole food source superfoods, probiotics, and adaptogens to help you start your day right or finish your day right if you want to take in the evening this special blend of ingredients supports your gut health your nervous system your immune system your energy your recovery your focus your aging all of these

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Starting point is 00:11:51 Cooper Dijon, Cooper Dijon. I'm going to say Cooper Dijon. That's how it's spelled. That's how it looks. Extremely talented. As I mentioned, originally when Dijon was recruited by the university of Iowa, he was extremely talented. He was an extremely talented high school quarterback in the class of 2021, but had every intention of playing safety at the college level. About halfway through the season though, he was moved to cornerback and then was put on special teams and also played for the Hawkeyes scout team as a wide receiver. Granted, that is an awful lot for a true freshman to try to focus on, but having an extremely large skill set has set him up comfortably for early starting time in his college career. Currently on the depth chart, Dejean is listed

Starting point is 00:12:32 as the number two cornerback, obviously behind Riley Moss, but in an interview this past Tuesday, he mentioned that he has been mainly working at the safety and Iowa's hybrid linebacker defensive back position known as the cash position. During that interview, Dijon, Dijon, excuse me, said, quote, it's been a learning process. I'm still trying to get it all down. Cash is a lot different. I haven't played linebacker in a long time and that's kind of where that position's at. So it's definitely a change, but I've learned a lot. As you might remember, when Jermaine Harris went down with an injury in this past season, Citrus Bowl versus Kentucky, Dajin stepped in and was able to get his first look at live snaps as a true freshman

Starting point is 00:13:17 for the Hawkeyes defense. Dajin also said during that same interview, quote, I got to work on just trying to figure out what the offense is trying to do to me. I only got a couple of plays at corner at the end of the bowl game, but I think it helped a lot just to show the speed that these athletes play at on the perimeter, which is absolutely true. You see it on TV, but these guys are way faster than they look on TV. You see guys with visible, there's a difference between visible

Starting point is 00:13:45 speed and physical speed. Visible speed is the speed that you see on the TV when the cameraman is following. Physical speed is what people see when they're actually at the games, standing on the sidelines or on the field during play. These guys are obviously extremely fast at the D1 level, especially Kentucky's wideouts. Dijon also mentioned that he credits his development as a defensive player to his ability to get some special teams playing time last season for the Hawkeyes as well. LeVar Woods, Iowa's special team coach,

Starting point is 00:14:20 had Dijon playing gunner last season, most notably starting at Wisconsin when he also had a kick return for 20 yards. And I I've done a little bit of kick returning in high school, only did it a couple of times. I had maybe one, I'm not here to brag. I had one that was maybe like 36 yards, which I was on top of the world after that. I thought I was king of the world. I was the greatest dude to ever play football ever. Obviously, that's not true. Anyway, it's extremely hard. Kick returning, punt returning, it's not an easy thing to do. You've got 10 guys, not including the kicker or the punter, all coming at you at the same time. You roll out to the right to go catch a pass. You're going to

Starting point is 00:15:00 get lit up by that left side gunner. Same thing goes for the opposite way. You roll out to the left to catch that punter kick. You're going to get lit up by that left side gunner. Same thing goes for the opposite way. You roll out to the left to catch that punter kick. You're going to get lit up by that right side punter. You have to have your eyes on, you have to use your two eyes to have all, you know, focused on all of these 10 guys that are running at you as well as the ball. So you've got 11 different things that you've got to focus on. Granted, if the kicker or punter doesn't decide to run down the field with the rest of the team. Whileijon continues to Dijon excuse me continues to work at both the gunner and kick return positions on special teams he's also inserted himself in the field goal holding position on special teams as well which is something that he did back in high school usually that position

Starting point is 00:15:39 in high school and at the NFL level is reserved for whoever the backup quarterback is. Sometimes it's different at the high school level because a lot of teams, especially in eight man, which is what I played in high school, tend to run these fake field goals or fake extra points. So typically though, it is the backup quarterback's job to hold those field goals. If Dijon does continue to be a field goal holder into the upcoming season for the Hawkeyes, it could open up the opportunity for fake field goals if the stars align and the opportunity arises. It's not something that you see a whole lot. It's not even a game-to-game thing, really. It just kind of depends on whether or not the team has the skill and has the personnel to be able to do that sort of thing.

Starting point is 00:16:26 I think if Cooper DeGene does continue to hold those field goals, then Iowa might be able to incorporate something like that into their offense slash special teams. But like I said, it's not even a game-to-game thing that happens. It's sort of once in a blue moon when the stars align and when pigs fly that you know these fake field goals happen you know if it's say it's fourth down you're on the 15 yard line you've got 10 seconds left in the game and you're down by five points might be a fake field goal most of the time people people slash teams are just going to go forward and forth down in that situation.

Starting point is 00:17:06 But it is something that could happen, and I would love to see Dajin get the opportunity to do that in the upcoming season. Woods also discussed the possibility of continuing to have Dajin hold the ball for field goals, saying, quote, it starts with holding the ball and putting it through the uprights. Obviously, that is the main fundamentals to it. It certainly adds another dimension. Cooper is an exceptional athlete. We all saw him in high school with the ball in his hands at QB. He has a unique ability with the ball in his hands, and I think that's a part of the position.

Starting point is 00:17:39 I don't think that we will see Dajin return to the offensive side of the ball as a Hawkeye just because I think he's a little bit better suited at the defensive side or the defensive position, whatever that position may be, whether it's cash or cornerback. I don't think he will be moved to mainly a linebacker spot just because he's a little bit small to be a linebacker, but I would love to see him at that cash spot. It's really going to depend when Xavier and Wongpa gets to Iowa, what they have him at. And I think it's really going to be a battle between those two to see who gets the starting spot in whatever position it is.

Starting point is 00:18:18 Right now, he is listed as the second defensive back, as I mentioned earlier, on Iowa's roster behind Riley Moss. So it just kind of depends. I'd like to see him at defensive back and obviously at that gunner position on special teams. So it just kind of depends on where Iowa decides to put him. But I think that regardless of wherever they put him, he's going to be extremely, extremely talented in those positions. So we'll just have to wait and see for the upcoming season what Iowa decides to do. The last thing I want to talk about today, Michael Kilbane. Sounds intimidating, and that's because he is. Before we get into today's story of the day, maybe I should get

Starting point is 00:19:04 that trademarked. I don't think they would let me, but maybe I should try. Once again, I want to talk about BetOnline. BetOnline.net is your number one source for all of your betting stats and sports info. Find all of the latest sports developments, league reviews, and news, including this year's basketball playoffs and the start of the Major League Baseball season. BetOnline is your continued all of your sporting wagering information from live betting to playoffs to esports and more. Head to the website today or use your mobile device

Starting point is 00:19:30 to learn more about the trends and action. BetOnline, where the game starts. Again, just a disclaimer, you must be 21 years of age or older to use BetOnline as it is a live sports wagering application. I only say this once again, because I am only 18 years of age. I'm sure that there are some of you out there listening to this podcast that are also under the age of 21. So before you go check out betonline.net, make sure you are 21 years of age or older to be able to get in on all of that live sports betting information. Once again, bet online where the game starts.

Starting point is 00:20:14 So Michael Kilbane, as I mentioned, he has a very intimidating name and that fits with who he is as a person. And as a football player, Michael Kilbane, I was astonished when I read this article because this kid is an absolute freak of nature. It's like he was created in a lab. It's just, let me get through this and you'll understand. Michael Kilbane is a six foot four, 240 pound four star 2023 defensive end outside linebacker recruit out of St. Edward High School in Lakewood, Ohio. And since the start of 2022, the sophomore has received an astounding 19 scholarship offers. That's since the first of the year. I'm recording this on April 13th, but you'll be listening to it on April 14th. It's April 13th, and in four months, he's received 19 scholarship offers to play at the next level of college football, which, by the way, brings his total number of offers to 26

Starting point is 00:21:12 since he started receiving offers. This past Tuesday, Iowa became the most recent D1 college program to offer Kilbane a football scholarship. Kilbane said in an interview about Iowa's scholarship offer, quote, Iowa has been recruiting me for roughly a month now. Kilbane said in an interview about Iowa's scholarship offer, quote, Iowa has been recruiting me for roughly a month now. This offer was a little bit of a surprise because I haven't made it to the campus as of yet, and I know that they are very strict with recruitment, which is extremely true, especially with football. They are extremely selective with wrestling as well as football, um, football, especially earlier this month, Kilbane visited Northwestern along with Cincinnati and those programs along with this list, Duke, Indiana, Iowa state, Penn state, Purdue, Rutgers, Virginia tech, and West Virginia

Starting point is 00:21:56 are just some of the current 26 offers he has to play at the next level. Sort of a shorter story today, a story of the day today. But the last thing that I want to say about Kilbane is whether it's Iowa, whether it's Purdue, Penn State, Rutgers, Virginia Tech, all those schools that I just mentioned, whoever it is, hopefully it is Iowa. I'd love to see this kid on Iowa's defense come 2023. Whoever it is, on Iowa's defense come 2023. Whoever it is, somebody better pick him up soon before Ohio state finds out who this kid is. Okay. Six foot four, 240 pounds. He's 17 years old, 17 years old, six foot four, 240 pounds. This kid's a freaking nature. Are you kidding me? He's going to be even scarier once 23, 2023 rolls around because he's probably going to have 20 more pounds of muscle. He might be an inch and a half taller. Who cares? This kid is absolutely

Starting point is 00:22:51 insane. And I was only able to find a little bit of information on his high school numbers, so I won't read them off here. But once again, at a St. Edward high school in Lakewood, Ohio, somebody needs to lock this kid down before Ohio State gets his hands on him because he's already scary. I think that at 17 years old, he already could be an extremely, extremely heavy force on whatever defense he ends up on, even if he went to college right now. But he's still got a year before he's going to be at any college playing football once again as a 2023 recruit. But seriously, the big 10 is going to be in some serious trouble if Ohio State gets their hands on this kid. Now, Ohio State has not offered him a scholarship yet, which is interesting to me considering he is from Ohio and he is a four-star athlete but you know they kind of do their own their own thing over there in Ohio so seriously though

Starting point is 00:23:50 somebody hopefully it's Iowa but somebody needs to pick this kid up before Ohio State gets their hands on him it's it's absolutely it's scary to me it's scary what this kid is going to be able to do especially with the last name Kilbane this kid's's a monster. Can't wait to see what he's going to be able to do at the college level, regardless of whether it is at Iowa or not. We'll just have to wait and see who he commits to. It may be a while before he commits, but you know I will have the information for you as soon as he does commit to a school. If it's not Iowa, I will mention it. If it is Iowa, I'll talk about the offer a little bit further in depth. So that is going to be it for the show today. Make sure you go follow me

Starting point is 00:24:30 on Twitter and on Instagram at ryehill, W-R-I-H-I-L. Go follow me there. I need more followers. Please go follow me. Go check out my pages. They're great. I run them both. Oh, check out the Locked on Hawkeyes pages on Twitter and Instagram as well. I also run both of those pages at Locked on Iowa. If you have any questions about today's episode, about previous episodes, if you have any personal questions for me, want to get to know me better, you're welcome to DM me on Locked on Iowa's Instagram or on Twitter. Disclaimer, if you do DM me on my personal Twitter or on my personal Instagram, I probably will not answer you because I do not know who you are. So if you would like to talk

Starting point is 00:25:10 to me, DM me on Locked on Iowa's Twitter or on their Instagram and make sure you are staying up to date with the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast, whether it is on Spotify or on Apple or on YouTube, whatever it is, make sure you are staying up to date with that. With that being said, that is it for today's episode. Thanks for tuning in and I'll see you all tomorrow.

Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Women's Wrestling has 2 new recruits, Cooper DeJean is basically a defensive Deebo Samuel, and Michael Kilbane is SCARY!

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