Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa's defensive effort leads the way in win over Purdue | Will the Music City Bowl actually happen? | Two Hawks named finalists for national awards

Episode Date: December 23, 2020

It was a busy Tuesday in Hawkeye nation. Two Hawkeye linemen were named finalists for national awards, multiple All-American teams were named, the women's basketball team gets a huge win, and doubt is spreading as to whether Iowa will be able to play in the Music City Bowl versus Purdue. We cover all of that before diving into our analysis of last night's basketball game vs Purdue.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order.BuiltGoVisit BuiltGO.com and use promo code “LOCKED,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back, Hawkeye Nation, to a Wednesday morning episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade. Excited to be back for another show today. We have a ton of information to cover. We've got some bowl news. We've got some NFL news, women's basketball, men's basketball. We've got all American teams. We've got finalist awards for national or finalist announcements for national awards and college football, all sorts of stuff

on today's show. We're going to kick it off by going through some of the news and notes, get into the bowl game and wrap up with segment number three covering the Iowa vs. Purdue game on the show today. So let's get into it right now. First and foremost, the women's basketball team crushed Western Illinois last night, 92-65. Western Illinois, not a good basketball team, but nice to get a win under their belt nonetheless.

Kaitlyn Clark struggled from the field, shot three of 15. However, she showed that she can get it done another way. Got her first triple-double, 13 points, 13 rebounds, 10 assists. Monica Chinano, 19 points on 7 of 11 shooting. This women's basketball team, again, we thought it was going to be a rebuilding year, just like we did last year. Kathleen Doyle shows up, wins, you know, Big Ten Player of the Year. This year, Kathleen Doyle gets drafted. Kaitlyn Clark looking like the Big Ten Player of the Year right now as a freshman. This team is ranked 34th in the nation. They received six votes. Their next game is going to be on December 31st at 1 p.m. 2 p.m. Central Time, excuse me, versus Rutgers, who is ranked one spot ahead of them. We're going to get rankings before that, obviously.

Maybe Iowa jumps up a spot or two. But I do expect Iowa to be ranked by the middle of the season as long as Kaitlin Clark continues to play well. Monica also does pretty darn well. Lisa Bluter deserves so much credit in the world for what she continually does with this women's basketball program, keeping them competitive every single year. So awesome stuff from there.

On the NFL front. CJ Beathard is finally going to get his start for the 49ers and it is about damn time. Excuse me for the language there, but it is about time because Nick Mullins was injured versus Dallas. So Beathard is getting his start. Jimmy Grappolo is not going to be playing. He's also dealing with an injury, or at least they're pretty sure he's not going to be playing. That's how CJ Beathard gets his start. I think he should have been in earlier. Nick Mullins hasn't exactly played that well. This year, 2-6 win-loss record while throwing 12 interceptions and 12 touchdowns on a 64% completion percentage. 64.7% completion percentage. Again, 49ers not doing great this year. They've had a lot of injuries, but Nick Mullins was not helping that. I think CJ Beathard should have been in the game

already, and the limited time he has played, he's looked pretty darn good though. 28 of 45 for 332 yards, two touchdowns, and zero interceptions. The issue with Beathard, though, has never been really the statistical standpoint. He's clearly improved from his rookie season until now. 2017, one-4 win-loss record, four touchdowns, six interceptions with a 54.9% completion percentage. And then finally, 2018, he had an 0-5 record. He went eight of seven,

so eight touchdowns, seven interceptions, 60.4 completion percentage. This year, again, showing improvement. This is a huge opportunity for him to get these starts in the final two games while the 49ers are out of playoff contention, or really, you know, out of playoff contention. He has an opportunity to show that he can be a backup player for another team. He is in a contract year. So whether or not he signs with the 49ers, this is an opportunity for

him to shine, an opportunity for him to, you know, really showcase himself. It's a job interview, essentially, for other teams, all 32 teams across the NFL, including the 49ers. So fantastic stuff for him. Really excited to see what he can do in that moment. Again, statistically speaking has not been the issue. It's been that win loss record. He just isn't able to lead the team to win. So we're going to be obviously covering that and see how he does with that as well. And other news along the NFL, TJ Hawkinson gets voted to his very first Pro Bowl. So congratulations, TJ Hawkinson, showing that he was worth that top 10 NFL selection, NFL draft selection.

Brandon Sheriff, fourth Pro Bowl nominee or fourth Pro Bowl nomination, I should say, or selection after dealing with injuries, being put on the franchise tag. This is huge to see him come back like this. I expect him to get paid big time next year. Awesome stuff for him. We also got the PFF All-American teams out. Cole Bandwert named to the third team All-American team and Tyler Linderbaum named to first team All-American team. You're going to notice that Davian Nixon wasn't even named to the PFF All-Big Ten team. And let me explain a little bit about how PFF grades. First and foremost, it's on a snap-by-snap basis,

specifically looking at what the individual does for his play assignment in that time. There are times where PFF is wrong. I think it's a fantastic opportunity to use and kind of prove points, but it's not the end-all, be-all in grading. As you can see, Davion Nixon has been an electric player for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Maybe it doesn't show up in PFF. Maybe it doesn't always show up in the stat board,

but what in the box score I should say, but what it does show up in is how Iowa improves when he's on the field, how that defensive line has been phenomenal when he's on the field, and the fact that he is going to be likely a first-round pick in this upcoming NFL draft. So PFF, you know, it's a great tool to use, but it's not the only tool to use. I think that's very important to, you know, to show again, Cole Bandwert named third team, all American PFF, basically how it works for those all American teams is simply by how high of a PFF grade you have. Cole Bandwert had a solid PFF grade. Tyler Linderbaum rated the number one center according to PFF as well. good stuff there along that all-american

talk we also saw tory taylor named the freshman all-american team by the athletics max olsen he was not named a finalist for the ray guy but i have no doubt that is in his future remember he has played eight games in his collegiate career he has played eight games of football ever so they're the improvement for him uh the ceiling is through the roof, right? We already see what the floor is, and it's pretty darn good. That ceiling is through the roof. We have a guy who could contend for the Ray Guy Award every single year, could be breaking some records by the end of his tenure at Iowa. Again, phenomenal rookies or freshman season for Torrey Taylor. I expect a lot of big things from him as his career progresses for the Iowa Hawkeyes.

We also got a few finalist awards. We have Davian Nixon named a finalist for the Outland Trophy and the Benarik. I always mess up that name. And then obviously we know that he is a finalist for the Nagurski Trophy. We went over that a couple weeks ago. And then Tyler Linderbaum named a finalist for the Remington Trophy for the best center coming up after the break we're going to get into those three finalist awards and then also talk a little bit about the bowl game because it's looking like we might not get a bowl game I hate to say it it's unfortunate but all good things come to an end and it seems like Iowa is dealing

with some COVID issues and I I kind of have a feeling that we're going that way I kind of have a feeling that we're not going to get a bowl game this year with the Iowa Hawkeyes due to the issues they have with COVID we'll talk about that on segment number two before we get into that though if you're anything like me they're constantly on the go especially the holiday season trying to wrap up work you got a lot of things going on a million different things going on including obviously the holidays adding on top of it sometimes though you just need to take a second turn everything off hit reset and chill out and there's only one beer out there that can literally is made to chill and that is Coors Light Coors Light is cold lager cold filtered and cold packaged it's literally made to chill and it's as crisp and refreshing as the Colorado Rockies perfect for a moment to unwind catch a

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wherever you get podcasts at. Let's get into those finalist awards though and then we'll talk about a little bit about the Bulls because it's awesome stuff to see Iowa Hawkeyes recognized for national awards and that's what they're doing. Davian Nixon, a finalist for the Outland Trophy, the Benardic

and the Nagurski Trophy. Let's break that down a little bit. He also was named to the ESPN All-American team. So just really collecting those awards, Davian Nixon. Again, phenomenal stuff for the junior player. Former JUCO player just has really put up a fantastic season all around. So let's talk a little bit about it. The Outland Trophy, what chances does he have to win this?

He's going up against Alex Leatherwood of Alabama and Liam Eikenberg of Notre Dame, both offensive linemen. Again, the Outland Trophy is named to the best interior or defensive lineman. And Nixon, the 69th graded interior defensive player with over 200 snaps, but 15th in tackles, 13th in hurries and firsts in sacks.

And again, that highlight play, the interception, the touchdown. Davion Nixon, again, what he does doesn't show up from all the advanced analytics, but there's a reason why he's talked about as a top 15 player in this upcoming NFL draft. Now compared to Alex Leatherwood, which I think, again, the people that are voting on this are not just going to look at PFF, they're going to look at the body of work. Does he have a moment? Does he have a time where he's been that phenomenal player? I truly think Davion Nixon supersedes both these players

when it comes to highlight impact plays, specifically talking about that Penn State play and some of his key sacks throughout the Iowa season. Alex Leatherwood, though, Alabama, a 79.1 grade by PFF. 15 pressures allowed, 3 sacks and 7 penalties. I'm sorry, but even Alabama doesn't want to talk about his statistical performance. When you look at their press release about Alex Leatherwood being a finalist, they said made 39 consecutive starts along the

Alabama offensive line. He earned a 91.1 overall blocking grade by the Alabama coaching staff. Okay. They did not talk about any other stats that are brought to you by non-biased people because he didn't play that well this year. All things considered, when you look at it, 15 pressures, three sacks, seven penalties. That's not a great stat line for an offensive lineman. Liam Eikenberg, 87.4 grade, 13 pressures, allowed no sacks and three penalties. To me, he is the top competition for Davian Nixon. I do believe Davian Nixon has about a 30% chance of winning this award,

which is better than 0%. He deserves it, but it depends on what they're specifically going to be looking at. Now, the Benarik is going to be a little bit more difficult because he's going up against Notre Dame's Jeremiah Owusu-Kuramoa, the ACC Defensive Player of the Year. As a senior, Jeremiah had 49 tackles, 9 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, 3 forced fumbles, 2 fumble recovers, and an interception.

He's also the 19th ranked player from a linebacker perspective in PFF. That's big time. And he played for the Fighting Irish. Again, when you look at some of these players, when you're playing for a top team, that does factor into it. We've obviously seen the SEC bias play into it as well. We saw it with the Lou Groza Award last year. Patrick Sertan is the other

competitor for that three-person race for the Benark award. He is the nation's top corner, according to PFF, and the number 10 overall defender, according to PFF. He has a coverage grade of 86.3. He's going to be a first-round pick this year. And he was targeted 43 times, only allowed 18 completions, 250 yards the entire season. He's a lockdown corner. That is going to be tough. Again, SEC type of player playing for the number one team in the NCAA or in college football. That is going to be tough for Davey Nixon.

I don't believe he really has much of a chance of winning this award. Now let's go over to Tyler Linderbaum, where again, by all measures, he is the best player here. He's going up against Josh Myers of Ohio State and Alabama's Landon Dickerson. The Remington Trophy goes to Best Center. Linderbaum is the third Iowa player to be nominated for this trophy or be a finalist for this trophy, I should say. And honestly, he stacks up pretty darn well. If he doesn't win this trophy, I would be honestly flabbergasted, which is why him not getting first-team All-Big Ten is just pathetic.

But Josh Myers graded out as 66. That's not that good. According to PFF allowed eight pressures this year on 374 snaps compared to Tyler Linderbaum who graded out 91.5 with three pressures allowed in 545 snaps. The other competitor, Landon Dickerson, he is the second best graded center. According to PFF, Dickerson. He is the second best graded center. According to PFF, he has allowed one sack, five pressures and three penalties and 725 snaps. So there's some competition there, but I would be shocked if Tyler Linderbaum doesn't win this trophy to me. He's the favorite to win the Remington trophy, which is phenomenal for a guy who was playing defense two years ago. Now let's get into some bull talk because that is a hot topic right now because Iowa has suspended practices through Friday.

Missouri is also not practicing either. Both these teams are having COVID issues right now, and Missouri has star linebacker Nick Bolton has opted out. He's likely going to be a day two pick. He is gone. Missouri has struggled with COVID issues throughout the season, oftentimes not even being able to suit up 30 to 40 guys for their team, only having 50 to 60 scholarship players available at any given game.

Iowa wants to play this game. Kirk Ferens said as much. They want to play this game, but they're under a lot of pressure to be able to get their COVID numbers down. Right now, supposedly, we have three starters out with COVID. They're not going to be able to play. There's a 17-day quarantine period or 17-day period before they can be active again, according to the Big Ten rules.

Those guys under this time frame will not be able to play. We also have the potential of opt-outs as well. Davian Nixon, Chauncey Golsan sounds like they are both playing, but it sounds like there are other players who are talking about opting out. I could see an Amir Smith-Marset, especially with an ankle injury, wanting to rehab and opt out. So what happens there, that'll be interesting to see. But it seems like at this point, if these two teams are able to play,

which I think is a big, big if, it's going to be without a lot of the players that they were able to get to this point with. So that is going to be very interesting to me as we watch this. Again, I know a lot of people already bought their tickets down there, wanted to see Iowa play in the Music City Bowl. But if there's too many COVID issues, and we also talked about the Big Ten guidelines as well, the green, yellow, orange, red timelines of COVID cases, if Iowa's outbreak is as big

as it seems like it is, and again, we don't know who has COVID. We don't know all the players. We know a lot of coaches are out. So is Kirk Ferentz. That could be an issue. We could not be seeing Iowa play in the bowl game, which is unfortunate. I would love to see Iowa play Missouri. I think it's a very winnable game.

They're favored by 14. So Vegas thinks so as well. I'm actually, if Iowa plays this game and there's not too many starters out, I'm taking Iowa at minus 14. But again, that remains to be seen if there even is going to be a game. As we get more information on that, we'll keep you covered. But for now, we don't know. We'll have to wait until Friday or Saturday to see what the new news is on that.

But as of now, all systems are go. I would honestly give it a 45% chance we actually play this game, though. It just doesn't look likely. We saw what happened with Wisconsin. You know, their quarterbacks are out. All of a sudden, their team can't play for three weeks. We expect Iowa to be able to go in eight days. I don't see it. I just don't see it happening, which is unfortunate. But again, a reminder that

it was a fantastic season, six and two. The fact that we even got a season was awesome to see. And Iowa did phenomenally through that last two-thirds of the season, winning three-fourths of the season, winning those last six games and absolutely dominating the Big Ten and building on something that could be very, very productive next year, especially with Spencer Petras having a year under his belt or at least a quarterback competition, designing or figuring out who is going to be that quarterback next year. There's a lot to like about this Iowa team, even despite the losses we're probably going

to see. Davia Nixon, Tyler Linderbaum, Chauncey Golsan, those guys are all leaving. But Iowa does a great job of reloading. So even if Iowa isn't able to play, just remember that they have done a phenomenal job this year battling through adversity, and I'm excited to watch them in 2021. Coming up on segment number three, we're going to break down the Iowa versus Purdue game.

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is simply no better place to get all the news surrounding the Big Ten conference than with Big Ten Ben Stevens on the Locked On Big Ten podcast. Whether it's football, basketball, baseball, if it's happening in the Big Ten, Ben's got you covered with an in-depth look at the conference every Monday through Friday. Subscribe to Locked On Big Ten wherever you get your podcast at. And with that, let's get into the Iowa-Purdue game, the good, the bad, the ugly, with what went down last night. So let's kick it off with the first and most important thing.

The Hawks won 70-55 over Purdue, getting that monkey off their back. They have struggled versus Purdue in the past. Purdue just matches up well. Purdue typically shoots the three-ball pretty well, and Iowa has struggled against Purdue. But in this game, Iowa wins 70-55, get out to a 10-point lead at the end of the first half, finishing up strong in that second half, despite Purdue trying to make a comeback going on an 8-0 run late in that second half. A couple things I wanted to talk about, though. First and foremost, again, Luka Garza putting together a nice performance despite getting in foul trouble in that second half 31 minutes 22 points 7 to 14

shooting and our best three-point shooter on the day four of eight from behind the three-point arc again Luka Garza it's always going to get his what else I was impressed with Joe Wieskamp showing up when we needed him the only other Hawkeye to get in double-digit scoring, 17 points, 9 rebounds, 6 of 13 shooting, 1 of 3 from 3, 4 of 4 from the free throw line, and 2 steals, 1 block. Again, a solid performance all around from Joe Wieskamp. We're going to need that to continue to happen if we want to win more basketball games going forward.

Obviously, we're going to win a lot of basketball games, but Joe Wieskamp is a key piece of that puzzle in winning a close basketball game for the Iowa Hawkeyes. I also love the defensive intensity. I feel like Iowa showed up in this game defensively. They were mauling the ball. They did a fantastic job of forcing turnovers on the Boilermakers. Again, I thought that was really impressive all around from Iowa getting to Purdue. They forced 14 turnovers on the game. Also got four blocks, six steals. And I really liked their half-court trap they were doing.

I thought a couple different lineups they had were fantastic defensively. And on the boards, they did a much better job in this game than they did against Gonzaga. Out-rebounded Purdue 34-32, and offensively out-rebounded Purdue 9-8. And that's the same thing, because Purdue coming into this game was a pretty solid defensive rebounding team and an offensive rebounding team. When you look at their Kempom score, they were actually 35th in nation in offensive rebounding and 23rd in the nation in defensive rebounding. So this is a strong team. They are arguably stronger than Gonzaga given the sample size.

And Iowa did a much better job on the glass against Purdue. So I love seeing the improvement there. The fact that Iowa won this game in a relatively unconventional way, right? They weren't shooting the ball perfectly throughout the night. The stats would tell you they were, but there was a lot of moments where they were just going on some scoring droughts. They just couldn't find the basket. And when you look at the box score, 43% from the field, 35% from three, that is not indicative of how they were shooting the ball in this game. Come out a little bit cold, not hitting all their threes. Jordan Bohannon started out a little bit cold as well. Finished up three of eight with nine points.

But again, they weren't shooting the ball as well as we've typically seen Iowa shoot. And that's, again, that's high expectations we have for Iowa, right? We expect them to be the best offense in the NCAA. And even scoring 70, they did a pretty good job. But again, what stood out for me for this game was defensively, Iowa did a really fantastic job. But again, what stood out for me for this game was defensively, Iowa did a really fantastic job. Now talking about some of the other things I think need to improve, I didn't like the lineup that came out in the first half around that 10-minute mark. They just couldn't do anything offensively. It was Keegan Murray, Jack Nunji, Joe Wieskamp, Joe Toussaint, and Patrick McCaffrey,

they just couldn't do anything with the ball. Offensively, they just completely stalled out. And that's, I don't know why you would put that lineup combo. I'm not a big fan of that lineup combo. And then also, Jack Nunji has been really struggling shooting the ball from three. I would like to see him, you know, put the ball down on the ground and go up for, you know for a layup or a dunk or something a little bit closer to the basket.

In this game, five shots for them from three made his only field goal, which was obviously a two-point attempt. He needs to play closer to the basket if he's going to struggle from three. Now, I understand we want to stretch forward. We want a guy who can step back and shoot that three, but he hasn't done that that well this season so to me being able to establish yourself down low when Luka Garza is not in that game obviously when Luka is down there you're going to have to stretch out a little bit more but we either need to see him can hit those threes more

consistently even at a 25 to 30 percent clip or play his back to the basket a little bit more as well but I thought on the boards he did a great job of being active and involved. Keegan Murray has been, again, a phenomenal revelation as a freshman. He had a couple really nice plays, very good hustle plays. And Joe Toussaint with Keegan Murray, I thought, was a really nice combo that's going to look pretty good for years to come. Also, a couple other things. Again, the scoring droughts were concerning,

but defensively Iowa held up to the end of the bargain Connor needs to develop a consistent shot as well these are just notes I'm kind of taking throughout throughout the game but again I like the defensive effort I like what Luka Garza brought to the game overall as the game got you know deeper Iowa did a better job of playing defensive basketball and shooting the ball at least at a consistent pace in this game Jordan Bohannon with his third three-point shot goes for 10th all-time in Big Ten history in three-pointers made. Luka Garza hits fourth all-time in scoring with his production that he put on last night. Iowa, again, they got a win in Big Ten basketball, got their first

conference win, and that is going to be huge for them. They now get ready to face Minnesota for another Big Ten game on Christmas Day. But rebounding from Gonzaga, you love to see what they were able to do on the floor against Purdue, winning 70-55. That's my quick recap. Apologies for not going a little bit more in depth. We are having quite the windstorm in Colorado, and our pergola almost blew away. So my wife and I were out there and the cold trying to tie that thing down. So trying to get this recorded, but not able to give you as much as I would love to give you just because, uh, there's quite a, quite a few things going on in my household right now with the windstorm that's coming through and Lakewood, Colorado,

just, just West of Denver. But again, Hawkeye nation, I appreciate you tuning in. I appreciate you listening to the show. We'll be back tomorrow for another episode of the show and have a fantastic day and let's go Hawks.