Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Jordan Bohannon "rumored" to return plus a conversation with former Iowa football player Michael Ojemudia

Episode Date: April 26, 2021

Poor reporting sparked the question in the Iowa Hawkeye nation about whether or not we want Jordan Bohannon to return to the Iowa basketball team. The answer should be a resounding yes, but why isn't it? We talk about his potential return, why he would do it, and why we should want him to today before giving you a brief snippet of Locked On Broncos Cody Roark speaking with former Iowa football player Michael Ojemudia.Listen to The Ultimate Mock Draft 2021 presented by Audacy and the Locked On Podcast Network. April 19th-26th. Follow the feed today!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 “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% 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.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. 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 Monday 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, and today's episode is brought to you by Built Bar. Go to BuiltBar.com and use promo code LOCKED15 and you'll get 15% off your next order. And on today's show, we are going to be doing our weekend roundup of all the Iowa Hawkeye

Athletics that had events this past weekend, or the Iowa Hawkeye Athletics that have events coming up this actual week. So we're going to talk about that on today's show. We also are going to talk about the Jordan Bohannon news, I guess you could call it. Essentially, a Twitter person who has somewhat of a following announced or said that Jordan Bohannon reportedly is going to return. And then that sparked a little bit of funny drama between him and Jordan. And then it also got Iowa Hawkeye Nation talking about whether or not they want Jordan Bohannon returning.

I'm going to tell you why we should very much want Jordan Bohannon returning and why I think it's absolutely ridiculous that we're looking at this and saying, don't come back. To me, that's a little bit absurd, but we're going to talk about that as well. Finally, on segment number three, we actually have a brief clip from Locked On Broncos. Cody Rourke, the host of Locked On Broncos, sat down and spoke with Michael Ojemudia, former Iowa Hawkeye cornerback. That interview, you can find the full interview on Locked On Broncos today, but we're going

to give you a brief clip of it, and then you can go over to Locked On Broncos and listen to the rest of it. Just supporting our brother and sister channels across the network. And obviously Michael Ojemudia, a phenomenal person to talk to. We had a chance to talk to him down at the Senior Bowl last year and really enjoyed our conversation. You're not going to be upset about listening to this conversation either. Did a phenomenal job in talking to Cody about his past season

and what he's working on this upcoming season. But again, let's get into the Hawkeye Roundup. Lots of great stuff across the Iowa Hawkeye athletic community. It starts with the field hockey team. Despite losing in the Big Ten tournament, they did receive an at-large invite to the NCAA tournament. It is a 12-team tournament for those of you who are not familiar. And they got the fourth seed and they get a bye.

They play the winner of Northwestern and Delaware, so not exactly an easy matchup. But nevertheless, whenever you get into a tournament setting, there's always an opportunity there, and I think it's just so impressive when you look at what Iowa is doing across all of their athletics, and then the field hockey team. Not a lot of people talk about it,

but the field hockey team has been very strong the last several years, and it's very fun to watch them dominate the way they are on the field, so definitely get a chance to check that out if you can. The soccer team, the women's soccer team, the surprise Cinderella team of the Big Ten tournament, they take on Campbell tomorrow at 2 p.m. in the NCAA tournament with a good opportunity to win there as well. And on the softball front, the women did lose three of four games this weekend.

They lost 3-0. They won 3-1, lost 5 did lose three of four games this weekend. They lost 3-0. They won 3-1, lost 5-4, and lost 9-4. They are now 16-16. They get Rutgers next weekend. So we'll be paying attention to how they do there. The women's golf team finished in 10th at the Big Ten Championships with a score of plus 33. Kara Wildhaber and Morgan Goldstein finished 24th, tied for 24th at a plus 6. On the men's golf front, they did a little bit better. Fourth out of 16 teams at the Ohio State Invitational

with a plus 18 team score. They get the Big Ten Championships next weekend, so looking forward to seeing how they can do there. Seems like they've been really coming on strong as of late. do there. It seems like they've been really coming on strong as of late. On the track and field front, not as successful of a weekend in terms of wins and losses. Had a few divisions between going to the Drake Relays versus going to Bloomington, Indiana and competing in, or sorry, not Bloomington, Indiana, but going to Champaign and competing in their Invitational. They do have the Billy Hayes Invitational in Bloomington, Indiana on May 1st,

so this upcoming weekend. But this week in Champaign, Wayne Lawrence won gold in the 400 and the 200-meter dash. Jenny Kimbrough got second in the 100-meter hurdles. Josh Braverman got bronze in the 100-meter hurdles. And James Carter got third in the long jump. So good stuff all around there. We did earn a couple top five finishes at the Drake Relays. Delisa Huggins, Jamal Britt, Aaron Mallett, a former Iowa Hawkeye,

also was in the mix there, got second at the Drake Relays. So good job all around from the track and field team. And then in the baseball front, the men toparyland friday night six to two they fell to maryland saturday six to eight uh they beat northwestern yesterday on a barrage of runs winning 15 to four and they get northwestern again this monday or today as you're listening to the show they have three games next week for indiana and where the iowa baseball team currently is they are a four seed in the big 10 tournament. They are currently sitting at 17 and 11 and they have a very good chance of entering into the NCAA tournament right now.

They are firmly in that projected field of 64. So they just need to keep winning. They need to keep doing things right. That starts with taking care of business against Northwestern today and then taking care of business against Indiana next week. Rick Heller has done truly a phenomenal job with this program, but we'll keep you posted on where they sit in terms of an NCAA tournament bid. Obviously, the best opportunity to get there

is just to win the Big Ten Conference Tournament, and they are setting themselves up for a good spot there, but nevertheless, being in that at-large talk is phenomenal as well. So, fun stuff all around the Iowa Hawkeye athletic community, just absolutely crushing it. Nevertheless, coming up, though, on segment number two, we're going to get into a long discussion about, you know, our man Jordan Bohannon, what he's bringing to this team. If he decides to come, how these rumors started, all of that is coming up on a segment number two of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Before we get into that, though, you know, I tell you about BetOnline.ag because BetOnline.ag is the fastest and the easiest way to bet on all of your sports action. Football might be over, but the NBA, college basketball, and the NHL are in full swing. BetOnline.ag even covers awards, TV shows, and reality television. Real-time updated odds and props and almost anything you can imagine, BetOnline.ag has you covered for all the news, scores, and odds.

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The Ultimate Mock Draft 2021 presented by Locked On and Odyssey has completed at this point. Featuring analysis from NFL experts, Michael Irvin, Jason Locke, a four and Brighton, Balder, Brian Baldinger, our local experts for every team making trades and picking the next stars of

their team. Search the ultimate mock draft 2021 on the new odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast at odyssey is your audio home for all the sports podcast, music, and news that matters to you. That's a U D a C Y. And this weekend, sports, podcasts, music, and news that matters to you. That's A-U-D-A-C-Y. And this weekend, there was a report that Jordan Bohannon was supposedly returning to the University of Iowa for his sixth year.

That was reported by Dick Weiss. He said, Jordan Bohannon will reportedly return next season. Jordan actually replied and said, sources. Now, two things to take away from this. Jordan has not officially announced he's coming back or leaving. I do think the longer we play this out, the better chance that Jordan Bohannon does return. But that is for Jordan to tell us, for Jordan to decide, and Jordan to figure out on his own time. I think for the sake of the Iowa basketball team, though, it is very important to know if he's going to come back.

And I'll get to that in a second. But I do not like when reporters try to just get ahead of a beat that they don't even have information on. That really frustrates me a bit. But regardless, this lack of news did spar some controversy among Iowa Hawkeye Nation, and I wanted to give my take on this. First and foremost, if Jordan wants to be a part of the Iowa Hawkeye basketball team for a sixth season, go for it. I love it. We need a shooter, right? With CJ Frederick leaving, with Joey's camp likely gone, there are several shooters on this team. I think one of the things that Iowa fans are underestimating is Chris Murray's shooting ability, Keegan Murray's shooting ability. I just

had a great conversation with Patrick McCaffrey. That'll be airing probably next week. But he mentioned a lot about the Murray twins and how they were shooting and how they kind of developed. So that'll be really interesting to see their shot. Obviously, I think PMAC can improve his three-point shot. I think Connor McCaffrey can also get to a respectable range around that 34%. Philippe can shoot the three. Riley likes to shoot deep.. Riley likes to shoot deep.

Peyton likes to shoot deep. So, I mean, there's definitely some opportunity here for some shooters. But when you lose four guys, if you're counting, J-Bo, right, if you're losing four guys that can shoot the three reliably like that, that can be tough and you need a shooter to surround the rest of your good athletes. Jordan Bohannon is that shooter. There is not a more confident three-point shooter in the portal. I would name a guy who is a better three-point

shooter than Jordan Bohannon. And if you start pulling out stats from last year, it's going to piss me off because Jordan had a torn labrum. So the fact that he was even able to shoot the way he did, I thought was actually pretty impressive. But again, people are getting upset about whether or not Jordan Bohannon should return or not. I understand the concern about wanting to allow the younger guys to develop. I don't think Jordan Bohannon's return would take away minutes from a Tony Perkins. I think Tony Perkins is the guy who probably gets screwed the most from a minutes perspective in this situation, but Perkins has done enough to earn his minutes. I expect him, even if Jordan Bohannon returns, to get 15 to 20 minutes a game.

Tony Perkins has earned that right and he played very well down the stretch. There's a reason why Fran was relying on him as a true freshman coming in very important games and being a defensive kind of guy who can also get to the basket. The other thing I saw was that the only reason why Jordan Bohannon wants to return

is so he can take advantage of name, image, and likeness and that he can't make of name, image, and likeness. And that he can't make money without utilizing the Iowa name. Okay, two things there. What Jordan Bohannon is doing for name, image, likeness is not for himself. It's for the rest of the collegiate athlete community. Jordan can only benefit from name, image, likeness possibly for one year if he does return. After that, it doesn't matter to him.

He could honestly be making money right now. Are you telling me Jordan Bohannon could not go out there and sell his autograph or create an NFT? Yes. Is it going to go for as much as Luka Garza? Not a chance. But he could sell his autograph. He could create basketball camps. He has a big following within the Iowa City community.

He could be making money off his name, image, and likeness right now because he doesn't have to go to school. He could be done, but he's choosing to try to come back. He wants to create a better precedent for future collegiate athletes. So to say that the only reason why he wants to return is for the money, I'm sure it definitely prolongs the ability to make money off of your time at Iowa. And who knows what he has from a professional career standpoint developing, but he could make money right now without having to return to Iowa. So I think that's a little bit of a ridiculous situation. What does Iowa do though with this? I mean, I think again, from a roster construction perspective, you need to know if he's returning. Cause right now, if you look at this roster, Iowa has two open scholarships.

It's important to note that Jordan Bohannon does not count against that scholarship limit if he's returning. Because right now, if you look at this roster, Iowa has two open scholarships. It's important to note that Jordan Bohannon does not count against that scholarship limit if he does return. You say 13 scholarships. Right now, you have Tony Perkins. You get the Murray twins, Joe T., P-Mac, C-Mac, Philippe, Josh, Riley, Peyton, and Aaron. 13 scholarships. That leaves you two left as of now. If Joe W. returns, if Weezy returns, that puts you at one.

And again, that changes how you design that roster, and it changes how that roster looks from an outsider's perspective. So when we're looking at it, and I've seen people say, we need to get another shooter in the portal. First and foremost, if J-Bo returns, that is your shooter. And I think what happens is you look at having Joe T. at the point, and Jordan playing that too. I think Jordan can be a very good spot up

shooter without having the ball in his hands. Now there's going to be times where Jordan will bring the ball up, but I don't think that is going to be as big of an issue. Just sliding Jordan over to the two. He's a shooter first and foremost, that would be a good spot for him. He can play that CJ role, taking a few shots here and there throughout the game. Also just having his veteran leadership on the floor would be absolutely huge there. But that's just my thoughts there. What Iowa does next, again, they need to figure out if Jordan's returning. They need to figure out if Joe is returning.

They might not figure out about Joe returning until July. And because of that, I do think we could possibly be going for another couple months before we realize who might be that second scholarship or both scholarships. Iowa doesn't have to rush the gun here. As I talked about with Patrick, and you'll get that interview probably either this week or next, Fran developed this team knowing that there was going to be a lot of people leaving after this season. He knew what he was building, and he built this team specifically so there would be a younger team when this group of guys left and they could still compete.

Now, when he looks at the portal, you need to find a guy that can come in that can fit in the offense and also plays a role within the offense. But from the other side, as a player looking to transfer, you want to go to a situation where you have an opportunity to play. Philippe Rabraca is not going to Iowa if he's going to be sitting on the bench and not playing the game, there's no reason in transferring in that perspective. That's not helping your career by any means. So it goes both ways.

And I think because of that, because of the lack of certainty in regards to who's coming back, what positions are full. I think we could see this play out for a little bit longer for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Now, someone also mentioned about Joey's camp and the fact that there's no reason why he wouldn't return. He could be, someone even mentioned the ability for him to kind of go top end of the first round. I think with Joe Wieskamp, what he showed this past year

down the stretch was amazing. The fact that he got injured, I think actually plays into the fact that he might go to the NBA now so he can get his money. He is engaged. His fiance doesn't go to the University of Iowa anymore, as far as I'm aware. And he showed a pretty good high level of play. Him returning doesn't increase his draft stock. You know what you get with Joe Wieskamp at this point, in my personal opinion. Now, if he wants to come back and try to carry this team, if he thinks being the man will get him into the first round, then you have to come back.

But I don't think it does. I don't know as a – unless you just come out and have the most explosive season that a shooting guard has had in quite some time, I don't think coming back actually improves Joe Wieskamp's draft stock that much. I would love if Joe Wieskamp came back. I just can't see it happening. But nevertheless, as a prospective player looking at Iowa, you have to wonder if he does come back, what does that mean for my playing time? So when you're looking at Iowa trying to recruit a guard, I think that's probably one of the bigger issues at this point

is what does this roster even look like? We just don't know at this point. So that's my thoughts on that. Again, if Jordan Bohannon wants to return, I think we should welcome him with open arms, and that would be very exciting to have him return that gives Iowa a shooter at the guard spot which is definitely an area where they need to improve at at this point from a just from a skill set perspective I think our guards are going to be very good we just need someone who can also shoot the ball as well keep defenses honest a little bit coming up on segment number three, we're going to get into that interview, Cody

Rourke with Michael Ogimudia. And just a reminder that once that interview finishes up, you can actually go to Lockdown Broncos. Cody Rourke dropped that episode today, and you can get the rest of the interview there. And I just recommend you listen to the Lockdown Broncos anyways. Cody does a phenomenal job with that show. So check that out after you get through listening to the first part of the interview with Michael Ogimudia.

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experts. Subscribe to the Locked On NFL YouTube page to watch our live three-day coverage of the NFL Draft, April 29th through May 1st. And as we get you prepared for that, we're going to be covering some NFL Draft talk throughout this week. We have a special guest, I believe, coming on the show. We're recording tonight. As long as that works out, that episode will probably be dropping on Wednesday or Thursday.

And as the draft happens, I'll make sure to be giving you coverage as well and then give you kind of my prediction for when you can expect your Iowa Hawkeyes to go off the board. That way you're not sitting there night one wondering, where's Davia Nixon going? If you would listen to the show, if you are listening to the show, you would know, I don't think Davia Nixon is going until the middle to the end of the second round. So that's what we bring you right here on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. We'll be giving you that draft coverage going into the NFL draft itself. So stay tuned for that.

Now, though, let's take our time and turn our attention to Cody Rourke of Locked on Broncos talking to Michael Ojemudia. Very fortunate right now to be joined by Broncos cornerback Michael Ojemudia, his second year cornerback coming out of Iowa. His rookie season was last year. And Michael, you know, first things first, I know it's a different offseason for you all as players now. I mean, right about this time last year,

you were preparing for the NFL draft process. And what's it like a year later, no longer have to go through that process, but preparing for your second NFL season? it's definitely a lot of less pressure but I think the good thing about going in your second offseason I mean your first offseason is that you know exactly what you need to work on you have all the time and all the resources so it's definitely exciting that you can you know what can help you take that next jump into your second season well and I think that's always the important thing too because we take a look at the NFL it's constantly

a business where everything is changing now for you coming into your rookie season you kind of got thrown into the fire from the very beginning week one AJ Bouye goes down with a separate shoulder you come in and you get a go against AJ Brown, who we all know is a very talented wide receiver. You know, was it that game for you? Cause you guys had a nice little back and forth between each other, but if you could pinpoint it, what was your welcome to the NFL rookie moment in 2020? It definitely was a game where like, you know,

it definitely was my trial by fire game, but I'd say the next game versus Pittsburgh with Big Ben, that was my welcome to the NFL because, you know, from start to bottom, it was their game plan to just pick on me. Well, you know, the thing that stood out to me, you know, I think that there's no argument out there. I mean, it was evident that Claypool had pushed off on that deep ball. You know, the NFL officiating these days, you know,

it's so inconsistent what you're going to see. But, but you know the one thing I would say that really stood out to me Michael about just noticing a trend that you had is despite the fact that you know for a rookie your second game you know you kind of had one of those rough games but you met with the media afterwards and you were very I mean you were you were determined you were determined to learn from it you don't see that happen too many times in the NFL with a lot of young guys, and it just goes to show how far ahead of the game you are. Now, the one question I want to ask you now, too, you know, you got to be in a locker room last year with guys like Justin Simmons, Kareem Jackson. Those guys are back this year. Was there anything specific you learned from those guys about coming into the National Football League and now having

to be a pro in your day-to-day life? I mean, the preparation is a lot different in the NFL than it was in college what were the you know more important lessons you learned from those two guys yeah I definitely think um you know Justin Justin and Kajak were one of my two biggest mentors uh my rookie year a lot of things Kajak because I was always on Kajak's side we go right left with the safety so I would talk to Kajak a lot. And he also played corner, too. So, you know, he's seen the things that happen. He just, you know, he said it's just a bounce-back game because the guys across from me, they're professionals, too. So, you know, you got to face the media

because everybody's watching. Everyone sees how you respond because you're always going to have good days and bad days, but it's how you respond. So, you know, Kajak's been through it, and he's been a really big help for me. Well, and even going back to that week three matchup against Tampa Bay, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, you know, according to the stat sheet here,

I mean, you didn't allow a single catch, even though Mike Evans had one. It wasn't on your side of the field. You were able to bounce back in a big way, and they like to run a lot of those undercut routes where they bring the number two guy up and try to impede, you know, from being able to break on that slant from number one what kind of game was that like because you know you're a sizable guy you're six foot one you also have deceptive speed and going against a guy like Mike Williams with his size uh for you do you feel like you match up really well with the

guys that are more sizable or do you match up with the guys that have that speed I say um I definitely match up better with guys with size. Just me and size with size, physicality, physicality. That's kind of my game right there. And that game, we did have a good game plan. But, you know, Tom Brady's always going to find a way. But I feel like that game, you know, we played a little better versus the pass than we did versus Big Ben. So that definitely was a bounce back game for me, even though we didn't win, but it gave me a little confidence. Well, and then in the next week against the New York Jets, you know, they still try to argue downfield. You have an amazing pass breakup,

hand on the hip, great discipline. You know, I went down on film. I watch a lot of the all 22, and I broke down that game. I broke down the Broncos defense in the secondary, and you were in great position, hand on the hip, shielding the guy, knocking the pass away. I mean, you understand, you can tell that you're a technical cornerback and for your rookie season, you know, in 16 games, you had 62 tackles, six passes defense, but here's something that stands out to me. You know, you're a physical guy. You forced four fumbles last season. You became the first rookie in NFL history to record multiple games with two or more forced fumbles, and you were just the third NFL rookie in the last 20 seasons to force at least four fumbles in a season.

What part of your game, where did that come from, that physical side where you put yourself in a position to knock that ball free? How does that kind of translate into who you are as a corner? Yeah, you know, the funny part is that in college, I actually didn't force any fumbles. You know, I've always been physical, but I think, you know, being a pro, you can kind of focus on, you know, making those impact plays even more. So, you know, I watched some Marlon Humphrey tape,

watched some, you know, Peanut Tillman tape, you know, just kind of incorporated that. And so I say next thing I have to do is, you know, when the balls come, just convert on the interceptions too. So, you know, because those plays make you money. So I think being a pro, you can really focus on just being a playmaker. Well, and I think too, you know, that was one thing that stood out about your game is that even when teams would try to throw your way,

you would make a play and you're always in good position. You take really good angles. And even just to allude, you understand if that number two guy is going to come out to try to block me to free up number one underneath, I understand which angle I've got to take. You attack it at a 45-degree angle. It just goes to show, you know, Ed Donatel, you know, coach has done a really good job there, Vic Fangio. But not to mention, you're just that guy, that high-IQ football player.

When you were drafted, one of the things that I was told by someone in the Broncos organization is that, you know, hey, Michael Ojemudy, he is a high IQ football player. He's very smart. He's always in position. It doesn't matter if we play man coverage. It doesn't matter if we play zone coverage. He understands where to be. And when you look back on film, that was evident.

All right, and that wraps up the show today. That wraps up the conversation between Cody and Michael. I hope you enjoyed that brief piece of it. Go over to Locked on Broncos today and listen to the rest of that interview. And again, if you are a Broncos fan, you gotta check out Locked on Broncos. Cody Work is one of the best in the business.

If you're a Hawkeye fan, there's plenty of Hawkeyes on the Broncos. Check that out as well. He's talking about them all the time. He loved Michael Ogimudia. I'm a big fan of his as well. So he's gonna try to have him on other times as well. So make sure you're checking out the Lockdown Broncos podcast every Monday through Friday.

Again, thank you all for tuning in. I hope you had a fantastic weekend. I hope you have an even better Monday. And as always, folks, let's go Hawks.