Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Kirk Ferentz explains Brian Ferentz as QB coach plus more insight from Iowa football media conference

Episode Date: March 24, 2022

Iowa football head coach Kirk Ferentz spoke to the media yesterday and provided insight on the hiring of Abdul Hodge and how it was an easy decision to move Brian Ferentz to quarterback coach. Kirk also provided insight into several Iowa Hawkeye position switches and the upcoming quarterback battle that looms large between Alex Padilla, Spencer Petras, and Joey Labas until Fall. Follow & Subscribe to the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast on these platforms… Apple: https://apple.co/2X8a29HSpotify: https://spoti.fi/3E1FTtBTuneIn: https://bit.ly/3trQeKuStitcher: https://bit.ly/3A6GwjiMegaphone: https://bit.ly/3C0FRAu Follow Locked On Hawkeyes on social media… Twitter: https://twitter.com/LockedOnIowaFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/LockedOnHawkeyes/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lockedoniowa/ 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. BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. StatHeroStatHero is reshaping the way the way you play fantasy sports. Dozens of house based games to play daily. No sharks, no funky props, just your skill vs the lineups you choose. Sign-up today at StatHero.com/LockedOn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team, every day. Welcome back, Hawkeye Nation, to a Thursday morning 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, Andrew Wade. Excited to be back for another show today. And on today's episode, we are breaking down everything we heard from Kirk Ferentz at yesterday's press conference for the Iowa Hawkeye football team.

He talked a little bit about the quarterback competition, also spoke about his decision to make Brian Ferentz the offensive coordinator and how that was pretty easy. He talked about a few position switches as well and provided a little bit more details on the center position battle that is taking place now with Tyler Linderbaum gone. So we're going to cover all that on today's show. But first, I want to thank you all for making the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast

your first listen every single day. You can find the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast for free wherever you get podcasts at and also on YouTube by searching Locked On Hawkeyes. And today's episode is brought to you by BetOnline. BetOnline has you covered this season with more props, odds, and lines than ever before. BetOnline.net, it's where the game starts. So let's get into it. BetOnline.net. It's where the game starts.

So let's get into it. Kirk Ferentz spoke to the media, and he provided a lot of great information, especially going into spring practice. There's a lot of things that kind of happened since Iowa stopped playing football after the Kentucky game. We already talked a little bit about this on yesterday's show, but Elijah Yelverton and Cody Entz are no longer with the football team. It sounds like, according to Kirk Ferentz, neither of those guys are pursuing football as of right now going forward. Both have dealt with a lot of injuries. Regardless, I wish them the absolute best. Elijah, a friend of the show, I've had him on a couple times.

I really enjoyed my conversation with him. Wish him the absolute best. It's unfortunate that it couldn't work out for both of them in an Iowa Hawkeye uniform. But as we talked about, we have a lot to cover on today's show. The first thing I want to get to, though, Kirk Ferentz said it was an easy decision to name Brian Ferentz the quarterback's coach for the Iowa Hawkeyes. What does that mean? Why does it matter? And also, why we shouldn't overreact to brian fair to kirk saying

brian ference doesn't really know much about quarterback coaching so let's get into it here's the quote that he said about about brian ference let me pull it up here we go and then brian's going to switch over to the quarterback position brian ference will and it just made perfect sense i thought he was the best position to handle that role at will, and it just made perfect sense. I thought he was the best position to handle that role at this point. And I think the bigger hope is that he'll help us add to our efficiency and proficiency offensively. And that's the thinking behind that. And he's embraced that and done a good job as well. He went on to say, really all that outside of 1999 in the last couple of years, that's been the way we've been operating. The guy calling the plays is coaching the quarterbacks directly.

Personally, I think if he can get that situation, it's better. And Brian is more than capable of doing that job, and he knows our offense better than anyone, quite frankly. So in regards to that, I completely agree with Brian. With Kirk, this is a great opportunity for Brian to be coaching the quarterbacks. Now, there's been a lot of critique about that decision. A lot of people were already frustrated by Brian Ferentz being the offensive coordinator.

They've been really frustrated with the quarterback play. So you combine Brian Ferentz with our quarterbacks, and I can understand why a lot of people are a bit upset about this. We've even heard the great Chuck Long talk about this being an opportunity that Iowa sorely missed. We had a chance to bring in an actual quarterback coach. But in listening to Kirk Ferentz, it makes sense why you want your offensive coordinator to be working with the quarterbacks,

especially in Iowa's scheme where it is incredibly important that the quarterbacks have a good understanding between the ears about what needs to happen every single play. Iowa puts more on the quarterbacks mentally than most systems in college football. Now, whether or not that's appropriate or whether or not Iowa's scheme is too complex is a conversation for another day. But just saying that this is the scheme we're going to stick with, it makes sense for Brian Ferencz to be the quarterback coach. It makes sense that this is kind of a prove-it year for Brian Ferencz. Kirk has talked about the fact that the offense needs to improve, the quarterback position needs to improve. I mean, how often has

Iowa had a legitimate quarterback controversy with a starter currently in the mix. It doesn't happen very often for the Iowa Hawkeyes under Kirk Ferentz. It's a make it or break it year. Now, to the point that people are upset that Brian Ferentz is taking over the quarterback play or quarterback coaching position, and the fact that I've seen several things on Twitter about, you know, basically Brian doesn't know a lot, right? He went on a podcast and said he doesn't know a lot about coaching quarterbacks. Brian is just being honest and transparent. I don't hear a lot of people complaining about

Abdul Hodge coaching tight ends. I didn't hear a lot of people complaining about Brian Ferentz coaching tight ends. Brian Fererenc never played tight end. He was coaching tight ends for the New England Patriots. Where you grew up playing does not necessarily dictate where you need to end up coaching. A great example of this is LeVar Woods. Most people would say LeVar Woods should be the next candidate to potentially be the head coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes. He's done a phenomenal job with special teams.

He does a phenomenal job of representing the Iowa Hawkeyes. LeVar Woods is a former linebacker. Yet, we've had a Lou Groza Award finalist at kicker. We've had an All-Big Ten punter. We've had an All-Big Ten punter. We've had an All-Big Ten return man. We have one of the best special teams units in the country year in and year out. Going into this role, LeVar Woods did not know diddly squat about kicking or punting. He would be the first to admit that he didn't know a ton of that.

You figure it out. There is so much information out there. There are so many resources that you can work with. It is not important that you know every single little piece and every single little detail, but how you coach those players is very important. We've seen Brian Ferentz be very successful in his position coaching responsibilities. There's a reason we're seeing tight ends flock to the NFL and be successful from the Iowa Hawkeyes. Brian Ferentz has been a big part of that. I'm going to trust Brian Ferentz, the coach, over Brian Ferentz, the quarterback guru, any day, right? That's not a concern for me. Plus, these guys have their positions their position coaches

right Spencer Petras is working out east we have Alex Padilla working with Tim Jenkins these guys have position coaches that they're already working with the importance of Brian Ferencz becoming the quarterback coach is to really tie in the tutelage of those quarterbacks with the offensive principles on a consistent basis. And so Brian has a better understanding week in and week out where these quarterbacks are. I think it gives him a better opportunity to evaluate these players as well as he gets to spend more time with them each and every week. time with them each and every week. So while I was definitely on the board of hiring a specific quarterback coach, maybe hiring a quarterback coach that was going to be the passing game coordinator, I understand the reasoning behind this for Kirk Ferentz. I understand the logic, and I'm willing to trust Kirk Ferentz and his decision-making. I am not as down on Brian

Ferentz, the position coach. I'm also not as down on Brian Ferenc, the position coach. I'm also not as down on Brian Ferenc, the offensive coordinator. I think a lot of the things that we see that we're frustrated by as Iowa Hawkeye fans is actually coming from his father. We've seen a lot of growth and development of this offense under Brian Ferenc. Unfortunately, that growth and development has been slower than the growth and development of opposing teams' defenses and catching up with what Iowa is doing. That is not necessarily on Kirk, though. If it was under Kirk, if it was under Greg Davis, we're not seeing this offense go up at all. It's just flatlined. So to me, it's been really

impressive to see what Brian Ferentz has done, and giving more reigns to him, I think, will actually help expand the ability of this offense. It's also worth noting that the offensive line struggled last year as well. That is a big piece of it. With Spencer Petras being literally a tree, it's going to hurt you even more when your offensive line can't block for you. So I'm all on board with this. I'm excited to give it a try run, see what happens. I'm excited for this quarterback competition. And to me, it does seem like there's actually a competition. But it's actually not between the guys that you're probably wanting to talk about.

So I'm going to talk about the quarterback competition, who is actually leading it, who is the second guy, and why there's a distance gap, a distant, very big gap between the second and the third guy. That's all coming up here in a few short moments. But first, your bracket is busted. You and everyone else, don't worry. We believe in second chances here, and so do our friends at Run Your Pool. Round up your friends who picked Baylor, Kentucky, or Iowa to win it all and start a Sweet 16 pool at runyourpool.com. Along with sweet 16 brackets

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So start your second chance, your sweet 16 pool and more at run your pool.com slash locked on. That's run your pool.com slash locked on. And as I said, our brackets are on. My bracket is just absolutely annihilated. Just got destroyed last weekend. Thankfully, I have been hedging my bets over at stat hero.com. Stat hero.com NCAA single game.

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your first listen every single day. And I appreciate your love, your listenership, and your support. And you can find us wherever you get podcasts at and also on YouTube by searching Locked On Hawkeyes. And if you missed the little teaser yesterday that I gave at the end of the show, if you didn't stick around towards the very, very end, I did make kind of a big announcement. Announcement, after 650-ish shows, after three and a half years of being your dedicated host to the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast, due to a lot of personal things going on, right? If you've been listening to the show, you know I just recently celebrated the birth of my first son, my first kid, with my wife.

I'm also in grad school, and I have another full-time job working at the children's hospital out here as director of operations. All of that takes up a lot of time. And while it has been my absolute pleasure to host this show each and every weekday, unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and I will no longer be hosting the show at the end after the end of this month. So I have, I think seven shows left. I decided to step away. You all will be in very good hands. We're working on the transition plan right now. We have, uh, some things we're working on. It's, I don't want to say it's, it's not official yet, but it's going to be good and it'll be good for April. I promise you you'll be in a good spot, you know, locked on Hawkeye fans.

Um, but I just want to say thank you all for listening in. And you got seven more episodes of me, six more episodes of me. So appreciate you all tuning in. So let's get into more Iowa Hawkeye talk. The big thing we talked about a couple of days ago was the center position. The depth chart came out. As Kirk Farren said, I will release a depth chart. It doesn't really matter.

And he's absolutely right. And that's what I tried to articulate to you all yesterday. The depth chart doesn't matter at this point because there's so many things that can change between now and fall. But one thing that really caught my attention was the fact that Michael Maslinski was not even on the depth chart. It went Tyler Ellsbury, Matt Fagan, and Logan Jones. That was really interesting to me because Michael Maslinski was being groomed to be the center after Tyler Linderbaum. So here's

what we heard that kind of piqued my interest, and I'll tell you about why that matters. On Michael Maslinski, Kirk said he got injured, unfortunately, down in Florida. So he was doing really well, really excited about what we see there, and we were hopeful when we recruited him. You're always hopeful with every guy you recruit, but you don't know. I think we've seen enough of him to know he's a football player and a good football player, potentially would be a good one, but he won't be able to work this spring.

He went on to say, and Tyler did a really good job. We worked him there in the latter part of the year. I think that's the best he's looked, quite frankly, since he's been here. And he's had a great offseason. Logan's had a good offseason as well. It helps us, first of all, have enough depth to practice, but it also increases the competition.

Matt Fagan has done a nice job in there too, gives us at least three guys, and Justin Britt could jump in there if he had to. The biggest takeaway I have from that is that we will not be seeing Michael Maslinski as the starting center. And in fact, I would say it's a two-headed race right now between Tyler Ellsbury and Logan Jones. With Matt Fagan, you are getting someone who probably could step in there, wouldn't be a terrible center by any means. Granted, I haven't seen a lot of Matt

Fagan play, but I think with Tyler Ellsbury, you're getting a guy who had a ton of potential coming in here and is finally hitting his, you know, kind of hitting his speed and Logan Jones, who has a very high ceiling, but a very light, low floor, considering he hasn't played on that side of the ball in quite some time. He's been on the defensive line side. So to me, it means there's probably Tyler Ellsbury up here and a little bit of a gap. Then you see Matt F and logan jones michael muslinski could be waiting a few years before he gets some opportunities there but it sounds like at this point what i was trying to do is really build the depth around that position to give them plenty of options if things were to go south anytime you try to replace an nfl caliber center or an all-american caliber center who's going to be a first-round

pick, it is not easy. So you want to throw the gamut at it to see what sticks, who is going to be in there, who is going to be consistent, who is going to provide just above-average center play. And at this point, when you look at the fact that Logan Jones just moved over there, Matt Fagan is a former walk-on. Tyler Ellsbury looks like the cream of the cop at this point, when you look at the fact that Logan Jones just moved over there, Matt Fagan is a former walk-on. Tyler Ellsbury looks like the cream of the crop at this point, considering he has been in this program for a while. He came as a highly coveted four-star recruit. He had moved over now.

To me, he is the guy that is currently in the best position to win this center spot. Speaking more on the offensive line, I thought this was kind of interesting as well. Griffin Little, when asked what position is, what side of the ball is Griffin Little on? Kirk Barron said offense. So last year's first year class, we had a lot of guys come in with medical issues that kept them away. Griffin had a great career in high school and he's working back from surgeries he's had, trying to encourage him to think big picture now because he won't get much work this spring. Encourage him to think big picture now because he won't get much work this spring.

The defensive line has a ton of depth. This is all about trying to balance out that depth with guys they feel like would make sense on one side of the ball or the other. We have seen Iowa be incredibly successful with moving guys from the defensive line to the offensive line with none other than Tyler Linderbaum. We're seeing it start to come to fruition with Logan Jones, and now we're seeing it with Griffin Little, a 6'3", 270-pound kid out of high school, has that ability to probably slot on the inside playing a guard spot. And there's going to be some open positions there in the future. It is a relatively young offensive line right now,

but there's going to be some opportunities there with Griffin Little coming back from surgery. Sounds like this is an opportunity for him to get more playing time there as well. Finally, one of the things we've talked about with this offensive line is how are they going to break it out, right? On the depth chart that we saw, we saw Nick DeYoung and Jack Plum slotted at that right tackle spot. One of the things that I have mentioned several times is that I feel like Connor Colby could be a great addition to move over and play that right tackle spot because we do have quite a plethora of guards

that I feel more confident in their potential than I do the potential of Jack Plum or Nick DeYoung at that right tackle spot. And on that, a question was asked, would Connor move to offensive tackle? Has that been a discussion point? Here's what Kirk said. I think we're moving in the right direction and I'm confident that Connor can jump out there. I'm not so sure that some other guys could move in. That will be spring ball. We'll fool around and play. And whenever we do our public workout, who knows who will be playing where at that point, but hopefully they are all out there and improving. To me, that's a very PC way of saying all options are

on the table. And I was going to try to get the best five offense linemen on the line at any given time. And if it's me, based on what I've seen, that means Connor Colby needs to slide out. We saw him have a pretty impressive performance in his true freshman season, which is not easy to do. He did have some times where he got burnt, but he needed to put on a lot of weight still. He needed to really grow into his body. He came in as a tackle. He slid inside because that's where Iowa needed help, but I think his future could be on the outside, and Iowa has several guys who have slid inside and can play those guard spots. I think there's a better chance for Iowa's offensive line to be successful if Connor Colby is playing right tackle. Again, you look at those guard spots.

I feel pretty good. I feel better, again, about the floor or the ceiling, I guess you could say, about those guys than I do the ceiling of Nick DeYoung and Jack Plum. I have not been overly impressed with what I've seen from either of those guys. When you look at the guards, Bo Stevens is a guy to look out for at the guard spot. Jennings Dunker, Justin Britt. So there are some guys there that I think could be that are high potential kind of guys at

those guard spots. Slide Connor Colby out. You're going to be a little younger, but get some of those highly touted guys in there who are able to play that guard spot. Give Connor Colby that experience on the tackle spot. That is my opinion of what should happen. Coming up, we're going to talk about the defensive positions. Most notably, who is projected to play cash and why could it be a current second year player in the program? One that Iowa fans are very, very excited about. Kirk had some pretty nice things to say about him. Before we get to that, though, I know it's been tough on you all. We're almost through month three of year 2022.

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And use the promo code LOCKED15, L-O-C-K-E-D-1-5, and you'll get 15% off your next order. Use the promo code LOCKED15 for 15% off at built.com. All right, y'all, we talked a lot about the offense. It is time to turn our attention to the defensive side of the football. Not as many questions on this side. There's obviously going to be some guys Iowa needs to replace, but a lot of that is incredibly fluid at this point. As we've talked about, the depth chart that was released doesn't really give a lot of that is incredibly fluid at this point. As we've talked about, the depth chart that was released

doesn't really give a lot of details yet because there's a lot of things that are going to happen over the next six months that are going to change that. On the defensive side of the football, Iowa has been able to bring in quite a few highly touted guys, and I expect them to make some jumps. The only area that really, actually, two of the three areas don't have a lot of significant

changes here. The defensive line only loses Zach and Valkenburg. Linebackers lose no one. So for the first time in several years, Iowa is only replacing one guy in their front seven. Considering the fact that they've had to replace three or four guys every year on the defensive line alone, that is very, very good. And now when you look at the fact that Phil Parker is the best defensive back coach in the entire country, and Iowa consistently has one of the best secondaries in the entire country, you feel pretty good about the fact that Iowa should be able to find replacements for the guys they currently have. Or the guys they currently lost, excuse me.

So looking at it, we don't know exactly who's going to start at all those five defensive back spots. Riley Moss is guaranteed to be one of the starting corners. Kayvon Merriweather is going to be the starting strong safety, barring something absolutely crazy happening. The other spots are absolutely up for grabs. Right now, you have Jamari Harris probably slotted in at the other starting spot and you have Terry Roberts as a backup right now you have Quinn Schulte at the free safety spot but cash has been something that we've all been kind of wondering and Kirk had a couple things that made it kind of interesting about this and talking about the cash position he mentioned both Terry Roberts and Justin Jacobs now if you listened to my show yesterday you know that I'm I think that

Iowa might play a little bit more traditional 4-3 defense next year because they trust Justin Jacobs to play that coverage linebacker role a bit more than what they've been able to do in the last couple of years. Iowa wants to get the best 11 guys in the field, and if Justin Jacobs is a part of that, which I think by all matters, by all facts that matters, he is, they're going to want to get him in in those situations. However, there are other guys they're working in to really be that dime backer. He mentioned Terry Roberts. I think Terry Roberts came on really, he's been great on special teams, looked really good as a defensive back, unfortunately got injured. We could see him slide over when they're playing a lot of spread offenses like a Purdue that we can cover in the slot. Also Cooper Dajin was also mentioned in this as well. Kirk had this to say, he said,

yes, I don't know what he's going to be doing. We thought he was a safety. We had death problems last year due to injury at corner and he jumped in there and he's actually the guy that made the big tackle in the bowl game fourth quarter across the field. He then went on to make some vague comparisons to Bob Sanders. Now, Cooper is not Bob Sanders, but the fact that Cooper is being talked out this highly by Kirk Ferentz and also mentioned the fact that Cooper played corner, they thought he was a safety, he's a big, fast kid,

this really aligns well with that cash position. So right now, if I had to guess, I would say Cooper Dejean and Sebastian Castro are the frontrunners for that cash position right now. For the starting dimebacker, not the starting spot. I think Justin Jacobs could be that 4-3 linebacker, will be that 4-3 linebacker, getting a little bit more time, a little bit more snaps,

even in spread situations, even in dime packages. But Cooper DeGene and Sebastian Castro are the guys I'm watching out for, and I expect X to maybe fight for that free safety position with Quinn Schulte. But as we know, Quinn Schulte's done a pretty good job, and there's a history of seeing walk-ons really succeed in that spot. We saw it with Jake Gervais. We saw it with Jack Kerner. Now is it Quinn Schulte's time? That remains to be seen.

That does do it for our show today. As always, I appreciate you all tuning in, and I appreciate you all making the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast your first listen every single day. Now it is time to make your second listen to Locked On NFL Draft podcast, hosted by Ryan Tracy and former NFL cornerback Eric Crocker. They bring the NFL draft to life every single day with insight and analysis

on college football prospects and NFL front offices. And it's free and available wherever you get your podcast app. That will do it for our show today. We will be back on tomorrow, dropping some more content for you as well. There were some transfers from the women's basketball team. Also just have a few other pieces that we want to touch on, on tomorrow's episode.

So be on the lookout for that again. Thank you all for tuning in. Have a fantastic Thursday. And as always Hawkeye nation.