Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Kirk sheds light on recruiting woes for Iowa football class of 2022

Episode Date: July 27, 2021

We do a full review of Big Ten Media days including breakdowns of Tyrone Tracy Jr's, Zach VanValkenburg's, and Tyler Linderbaum's time with the media. We wrap up with some interesting comments that Kirk made in regards to the Iowa football team's class of 2022 recruiting efforts and why they are "struggling" to this point.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 Tuesday 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 Wynn. Today's episode is brought to you by rockauto.com. Amazing selection, reliably low prices, all the parts your car will ever need. Visit rockauto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.

And on today's show, we're going to dive deeper into the Big Ten media days. We didn't talk a lot about it yesterday, but we did hear from Tyler Linderbaum. We heard from Tyrone Tracy Jr. And we also heard from Zach from Valkenburg. And we also heard from Kirk Ferentz on the side. So we're going to talk about that, what they said, what it means, a lot about recruiting and what Kirk Ferentz had to say on recruiting, which I thought was a really interesting piece of news.

We also got some news that there were a lot of extensions in Iowa Hawkeye Nation, a ton of extensions for our head coaches, our deserving head coaches. So we might not cover that today specifically, but I do want to at least note who got extended. Fran McCaffrey got extended through June 2028, which we knew. Tom Brands through June 2028. Lisa Slucci through June 2026. Lisa Bluter through June 2026.

Renee Gillespie through June 2026. Lisa Bluter through June 2026. Renee Gillespie through June 2026. Rick Heller through 2026. Dave Delaney through June 2026. Megan Mentzel through June 2024. And women's tennis coach Sasha Simid through June 2024. So we're going to cover all that on tomorrow's show more than likely. We'll talk a little bit about Fran McCaffrey. Although it's not necessarily news, I'm sure this is going to get people probably pissed

off, those people who do not like Fran McCaffrey. So I want to tell you why Fran McCaffrey is actually a fantastic coach and a great representative of the Iowa basketball community. That is something for tomorrow. Again, we're going to get into some football talk today, though. Before we get to the interviews, it has been made official. The Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns have basically submitted their official notice that they're going to be leaving the Big 12. So it is made official. There's a lot of rumors floating around. As we get more

information, we'll make sure to cover all that on Realignment Talk. If you did miss yesterday's episode or Friday's episode and you want to hear about realignment talk, definitely check those out. We are here every Monday through Friday. Let's get into the show though. We'll kick it off with Tyler Linderbaum's interview. Lots of questions for him. I thought really not a ton of insight, but he did speak very highly of several guys. So specifically, there's a couple of questions, one on name, image, likeness. And he said he would love to be working with Nike probably. Just a reminder that Tyler Linderbaum does have a t-shirt or basically some t-shirts

that his family has been selling on the side called the Bomb Squad. I've already purchased one. Definitely highly recommend. Check it out. Prices are phenomenal. But again, kind of expected for Tyler Linderbaum. One of the things I noticed was just how humble he was throughout that entire time talking, uh, never wanted to focus on himself, only wanted to focus on others. When asked about how excited he was for the

preseason awards, he said, reminder that is just a preseason. It's if it's after the season is cool. Nobody remembers your preseason award. So again, that humility that he's showing, I thought was really, really cool to see from a guy who is projected to be a first round pick has been getting a ton of hype and hoopla coming into the season after having a phenomenal season last year as well. But again, what he wanted to do was shower praise on a lot of other guys, including Nick DeJong and Cody and YA Black. On Nick DeJong, he said he has done a tremendous job being a former walk-on, and I'm excited and proud of him for earning a scholarship. He can play either tackle or guard. And on Cody, he said Cody's going to help us a lot.

He's the only guy who can play all five positions, and he's a leader on the O-line. So whereas a lot of people look at this offensive line and think, wow, we're maybe not in a good spot because we lost so many pieces, Tyler Linderbaum is really excited about those guys that he has next to him. And as the leader of that offensive line, not only is he supposed to say that, but it is exciting to see him kind of talk a little bit about, especially the tackles with Nick DeJong as a guy who is going to be getting a lot of snaps this upcoming season. He also mentioned, because he got asked a couple questions about Spencer Petras,

and he did mention, you know, it's not easy for a first-year player, first-year starter. He said, my first year is tough. There were times where I wondered if I belonged there. And he said, what you want to see out of a quarterback, Spencer is doing. Again, with Tyler Linderbaum being the leader of this team, it is exciting to hear that when he talks about Spencer. It also makes you feel a little bit better, right? When you look at how Spencer did his first year starting versus how other first year starting quarterbacks have done, you wonder why could he not put it together. But then when you listen to a Tyler Linderbaum or a Sam Laporta

talk about how the game is finally slowing down for them or how they were struggling as first year starters despite the fact that it didn't look like it to the outsider, it makes you realize, wow, these guys really haven't put it all together yet, and they're still doing such an amazing and phenomenal job. So I'm hoping it does mean good things for Spencer Petras. The only way Iowa is going to be a good football team this year is if Spencer Petras can at least provide average quarterback play to above average

quarterback play. In regards to some of the defensive linemen, he said, specifically Y.A. Black, he's a big dude. He's one of the biggest dudes I've gone against. He's definitely going to be someone who can contribute a lot of good defensive linemen and that's a credit to Kelvin Bell. And we saw this when we looked through the pick six previews, their predictions. They mentioned Iowa's defensive line is one of the best in the country. And I believe the second best in the Big Ten, despite the fact they were replacing three starters and have a lot of guys who haven't had a lot of snaps.

John Wagner has not had a lot of snaps. The next most experienced person on the defensive line outside of Zach Van Valkenburg is Joe Evans, a former walk-on quarterback turned linebacker turned rush and turned true three down defensive end. That is not a lot of experience. So the fact that Tyler Linderbaum is pretty excited about that defensive line, the fact that we've seen so many other media outlets excited about that defensive line, it's definitely a question mark in terms of Kirk Ferentz's outlook. He mentioned that defensive line, they feel good about eight of 11 starting spots for that defense. And three of those that he wasn't comfortable with, the three out of three is on that defensive

line. You know, it's a lot of projections. So let's see if they can do better. But it sounds like Tyler Linderbaum feels good about that defensive line. And so does Zach and Valkenburg, which we're going to talk about here in just a few short moments. We're going to take a quick break and then get into that and Tyrone Tracy before wrapping up with Kirk Behrens' side press conference

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We are back for segment two of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. We heard from Zach and Valkenberg and Tyrone Tracy. We want to break both those conversations down. Continuing with that defensive line theme, Zach and Valkenberg said, in terms of the benefits of the spring, we have a younger group, so the spring ball has been huge in having team members been able to learn our defense, which that was a really interesting thing. The fact that a lot of those guys are playing scout team defense. They're not spending nearly as much time just learning the intricacies of Iowa's defense. He also mentioned three guys by name. Y.A. Black, he said, this guy is big, he's super athletic, and he's really smart. And he said, Deontay Craig and Ethan Hercut,

we don't have a clear depth chart, but they've improved immensely from practice one to practice 15. As we know, Phil Parker, Kevin Bell, they like to rotate defensive linemen in and out. So expect between six and eight guys to get a significant amount of snaps. What we saw from the depth chart is currently John Wagner, Noah Shannon, Y.A. Black, and Zach Van Valkenburg. The only guarantee there is Zach Van Valkenburg. Now, I feel pretty good that it's going to be John Wagner and Joe Evans at the defensive end spot. And I feel pretty good that the starters are going to be Noah Shannon and Y.A. Black,

considering all the hype that has come out of preseason or spring camp, all the hype coming into this upcoming season. But that doesn't mean they're going to get the lion's share of snaps. Look at what A.J. – not that we have an A.J. Epineza on our roster, but A.J. Epineza wasn't starting until his final season at Iowa, but he was getting started like snaps. So expect that from other guys as well as Iowa tries to continue to develop these younger guys. And hopefully we don't have a situation where we are losing three of our four starters again

going into next year. We have at least a little bit more experience because we're going to get so many guys rotated in and out of there. He had a couple other questions, which I thought was really interesting, just about Zach and Valkenburg. The fact that he was a D2 transfer, and the biggest reason he transferred was because of academics. Obviously, the football piece was a huge piece of that, but he transferred due to academics. He's already graduated with his master's, and so now he's basically, he said, he's studying Russian as a language, and it's going to give him more time to watch film.

Long term, he said, if he doesn't play football, he wants to work in the State Department or government. Just a really interesting character, a great representative of the Iowa football team, and really awesome to see a transfer like that work out so well for the Hawks. He also mentioned, which I thought was a really interesting quote, he said, any type of team that is a power team is actually going to give us a little bit more difficulties

because they typically practice against the spread so much. So Wisconsin is actually, you would expect them to be an easier team to play against because they are very similar to Wisconsin, but because they're always practicing for spread looks, Wisconsin actually provides a bit more difficulty. Now that being said, another team that doesn't have, so like Indiana, for example, is going to have a tougher time against Wisconsin

than Iowa is just understanding the defense and the offense because Iowa at least has that on their side, but Indiana doesn't. But I mean, it's still difficult for Iowa to be able to play Wisconsin and prepare for that when they've been preparing for the spread all season.

That was pretty much it though from Zach from Valkenburg. Tyrone Tracy, I thought was an incredibly well-spoken, what a great representative for the Iowa football program, basically willing to talk about anything. And I thought he had some funny quotes. But he did say there was obviously some racial bias talk in there. And he mentioned that, you know, the biggest change was Coach Ferentz and that he's helped us out in multiple ways. He's put in place the DEI.

It's a program that anyone can go to and talk about any issues they are dealing with. You can go there and let out steam before you could go talk to your position coach, but there really wasn't much more you could do. And he feels really good about that group. He also mentioned that him and Dane Belton and cave on Merriweather and ivory Kelly Martin on a group within the team. And they communicate to Kirk on a regular basis at least once a month, letting them know what they're hearing, what they're seeing, what's happening.

I think the biggest thing, what we realized from all this, is that people were feeling like they weren't heard. People were feeling like they weren't getting the help they needed in a lot of different situations, and there really wasn't an outlet if there was an issue with coaches like a Doyle in that example, or in the example of the racial bias issues and the fact that they're opening up so many more avenues and allowing players to be vocal and speak up, I think is, it shows that change.

Now we're going to talk about it here in a second, but obviously that is something that a lot of teams are negatively recruiting against. But I think as Kirk has said, the only thing they can do is hit it head on and talk more about it. I think when you hear a guy like Tyrone Tracy Jr. talk about what has happened and what is going on because he has played such an integral role in helping continue to develop this culture into a better Iowa football culture, you have to feel good about the program direction that the direction of this program is taking. And if you're an incoming recruit and you hear

Tyrone Tracy talk, you've got to be pretty excited about where Iowa is heading at. He also had a couple comments about Spencer Petras and Keegan Johnson. He said, Keegan is doing really well. There are obviously things he can improve, but he was developed beyond other freshmen. Overall, a very good wide receiver. And with Spencer, he said, Spencer is the opposite of Nate. Nate is quiet, but you'll hear Spencer.

He's a good leader. And that Spencer and Tyrone probably spend up to 90% of the week together. And they have throwing sessions twice a week. Spencer has talked a lot about the importance of throwing with anticipation. And Tyrone said, if he doesn't get it, because they work on that a lot, but if he doesn't get it, they're going to do it over and over again until Spencer gets it. That way they are comfortable together.

And he said, if this offense can get going like we did towards the end of the year, i.e. look at Wisconsin, we can be a very good team. No one's going to disagree with that. If Spencer Petras can put together, again, average quarterback play, can get the ball in the hands of playmakers

like a Tyrone Tracy, who only had 14 catches last year, like a Sam Laporta, who was getting a ton of targets but not in the best positions, getting Luke Lachey, Nico, Charlie. I mean, giving the ball to Tyler Goodson, IKM. Like, if you can get the ball in these guys' hands, this offense could be dangerous.

This is arguably one of the best skill position groups that Iowa has ever had. If they can just get average quarterback play, Iowa's going to be in a very good spot. You're going to hear me say that a lot, but it absolutely is 100% true. Iowa just needs average quarterback play to be a good football team this upcoming year. We are going to take a break. I know it was a short segment. Segment three is going to be quite a bit longer as we get through Kirk Ferentz's comment and talk about recruiting. Before we get into that, though, you know I've got to tell you about rockauto.com.

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So go to rockauto.com right now and see all the parts available for your car or truck right locked on in their How Did You Hear About Us box so they know we sent you. Amazing selection, reliably low prices, all the parts your car will ever need. Visit rockauto.com Alright y'all, we are back for third and our final segment of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast today. And I wanted to talk a little bit about Kirk Ferentz's press conference that he did on the side.

We talked about his official one yesterday, but we're going to talk about the side press conference. And there are some really key pieces here. We're going to get to recruiting here in a second, and we're going to talk about the side press conference. And there are some really key pieces here. We're going to get to recruiting here in a second, and we're going to get to vaccinations after that. But a couple things I want to get out of the way. As far as the transfer portal, he says, you know, the fact that players can play immediately. One time he said it does change his view on the transfer portal, but he's not out there

shopping around. He can't do much about players wanting to leave. His biggest concern, though, is for players to think that the grass may be greener on the other side, and it isn't. He said it's way too easy to surrender that first time it gets bumpy, but he doesn't feel too concerned about the transfer portal because when they've needed to go get a guy, it's typically worked out pretty well. Look at Makai Sargent. Look at Zach Van Valkenburg.

Heck, look at Charlie Jones, a walk-on transfer as well. These are guys Jack Heffin last year was a big-time contributor. It has worked out more often than it hasn't for the Iowa Hawkeyes to get transfer players in there, and they've done a really great job. Also, Ivory Kelly Martin sounds like injury-wise he is doing well. Logan Jones is not going to be ready for August. That's the two injury updates. So we're going to get into vaccinations and recruiting.

I don't want to get political. Just going to talk about vaccinations real quick. Though, in regards to football, the Iowa football team is close to 70%. But Kirk is not mandating anything. What I think is interesting about this is they're obviously trying to articulate all the different important updates to the players. But this can become a competitive advantage for other teams. And so does Kirk. Kirk believes that as well.

Other schools like Northwestern's at 95%. I believe Wisconsin is above 90%. Any guy who is not vaccinated is subject to testing and contact tracing. If they get the positive test, they are out for 10 to 14 days. They are not going to be playing that next weekend's football game if they get COVID. So that is something to keep in mind, which could be a competitive advantage if someone important on the team, a big-time player, let's say, God forbid, a Tyler Goodson or a Tyrone Tracy or, you know, Tyler Linderbaum,

these big-time players in the Iowa football program, if they were to contract COVID, if they haven't gotten vaccinations, again, and I guess Tyrone definitely has, but he's actually said that. If they haven't, though, and they get COVID, they're out for those games. So it does become a competitive disadvantage for the Iowa football team. Now, again, I'm not advocating to get it. I'm just saying, just speaking the numbers at 70%, that is significantly lower than a 90 or 95% for these other schools. And it did sound like they had a bout of COVID in June,

where I think a lot of players kind of realized this could mean that I'm not playing if I get COVID. So maybe it is something I want to look into, but I do think that was interesting to hear a bit more about those vaccination numbers. Now moving over into recruiting because recruiting was something I really wanted to hear more about coming into this big time media days. And Kirk spoke a lot

about it. First off, he mentioned there's a bigger story with this. First weekend in June that we had a lot of interest in, there was a guy that had a lot of interest in. He visited a school and committed randomly, and it sounded like that really surprised us. He said guys are jumping before they had to. Mentioned that when teams are recruiting a player, they're basically telling them we have one spot and it's up to you to take it. If not, sorry, it's not going to be there. And that's forcing guys to commit sooner than they typically have seen in the past. And the fact that Iowa did not have their visits until the end of June definitely hurt them.

So he said, if you wait to the end, you might not get a guy. He also mentioned that this was a weird year. The fact that they do do better when they get to know people and have them in camps. They like to know what we are doing when we try to recruit. And he even mentioned, this one was a really interesting quote. He said, we had a group of 16 prospects on campus this June. A couple were good players and good people, but it just didn't seem like maybe they were going to be a good fit in our program. I can't remember that ever happening like that.

That's a result of us not knowing people the way we know them or would normally know them during a normal recruiting cycle. Now, I don't know who that specific comment was geared towards, but there were several guys that, actually a decent chunk of guys, who were on that official visit that ended up committing to other schools. to other schools. Now, they're not going to come out and say which guys that specifically was, but it does make you wonder, well, how many of those guys was Iowa not okay with? And you hear some of the rumors coming out, and you're like, well, maybe there is some truth to the rumors that Iowa wasn't interested in those guys anymore, maybe didn't want them to commit to the University of Iowa.

So that's also something to factor in. He also mentioned as far as negative recruiting, that it's a fact of life. People have always found ways of being subtle about bad things. And he said, there's a story every year and you have to anticipate and address that. He mentioned a player who had came in the early June and had a lot of questions about the racial bias issues and the fact that it was happening at the University of Iowa where that big, you know, all the big story came out. And he said, they talked about it.

They, you know, spoke ag And he said they talked about it. They spoke agnosium with the prospect about it and their parents. And the player ended up committing because they felt comfortable with what they were hearing. That's the other side of that negative recruiting. You need to be able to handle that negative recruiting and be able to show progress and whatnot. Keegan Johnson is a great example of that as well. Kirk has actually spoken a lot about Keegan and the fact that they didn't know whether or not they should be going to Iowa

at that point, him and his family. But at the end of the day, they felt comfortable knowing what they knew and Keegan is now thriving at the University of Iowa. He also said, this class isn't going to be big. They don't have a lot of scholarships, but that they have found so many guys in their senior years, Bob Sanders, Desmond King, Josie drool, Anthony Hitchens, and George

Kittle were all guys that he mentioned that they offered late in the process. And he mentioned that people improve in their senior years. We are going to get a class and there's going to be big time contributors. And this is really the point of me telling you this, this is really echoing a lot of the things I've said about recruiting. Now I would have loved to gotten a lot of those guys that said that Iowa in the top two and ultimately chose not to go to the University of Iowa. But I also am trying to trust in the process that this isn't going to be a big class. There's a lot of young guys on this team that are playing key roles. So there's not a lot of opportunity right away. And Iowa does a better job than almost anyone in the country and finding

those under the radar guys and turning them into stars. That's what pick six previews, their analytics set as well. And what Iowa can do from a certain star prospect to turning them into draft picks. It's what we've seen. You can see big examples there. Those are all draft picks. Those are big time players, Bob Sanders, Desmond King, Anthony Hitchens, George Kittle. I mean, those are big time players. And Josie Jewell, NFL guys who were found late in the process. There are several guys Iowa is targeting now. They are going to get a class. They're going to get a good class.

And they're going to find guys who are going to come here with a chip on their shoulder, ready to show what they're all about at the University of Iowa. So that is my soapbox for today. That is Kirk Ferens talking about recruiting, kind of highlighting what I've also mentioned as well in several episodes of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. That does do it for our show today, but we will be back tomorrow.

If there's more realignment news that breaks, we'll talk about it. But we'll also be talking about Fran McCaffrey and the extensions and a few other topics on tomorrow's show. So make sure to tune into that tomorrow on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. We also have the NBA draft coming up. So you're going to want to get in on that.

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get your podcast app. Odyssey is your audio home for all the sports podcasts, music and news that matters to you. That's a U D a C Y. And that does do it for our show today. Make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And make sure to subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast at if you haven't already.

And if you love the show, we would love for you to give us a five-star review. Let folks know why you love the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thank you all for tuning in to today's episode of the show. Have a fantastic Tuesday, and let's go Hawks.