Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - LeShun & Trent: Rivalry team thoughts, special teams importance & Charlie Jones Speaks

Episode Date: August 22, 2022

LeShun Daniels & Trent Condon get together for the latest edition of the Locked on Hawkeyes Podcast. They open the show talking about special teams and the latest as it sounds as though Drew Stevens has won the starting kicking job over Aaron Blom for Iowa football. They also talk about LaVar Woods and the career that he has had and speculate about his future.Next, some talk about the decision from Charlie Jones to transfer from the Hawkeyes and go to division rival Purdue. Jones talks about the offense and the change at Purdue. They also speculate about his NFL future and what team makes the most sense to get a shot in the league.Finally, a look around the Big Ten West and the rivals for Hawkeye football. What those rivalries mean to Trent as a fan and LeShun as a former player. Some fun comments along with the games that Coach Ferentz seemed to have a little more juice for.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at Linkedin.com/lockedoncollege Terms and conditions apply.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” 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! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trent Condon, LaShawn Daniels on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. A look at special teams. Charlie Jones speaks for the first time since his transfer to Purdue. And we give our thoughts on the rivals of Iowa football. All today on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. You are Locked On Hawkeyes. Your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.

Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Trent Condon alongside LaShawn Daniels. Glad to have you aboard with us here as we talk Hawkeyes. Thanks for making Lockdown Iowa your first stop each and every day as you listen to podcasts. And watch us also on YouTube. Go and subscribe right now. And let the word know that LaShawn and myself,

we're going to be talking a lot of football here as we lead up until kickoff. Weekend in the books, and LaShawn, be our fine day without a chance to get back to college football because it's coming this week. We got Nebraska, Northwestern, Illinois has got Wyoming, Big Ten football this week. That's great. Yeah, it's exciting. It's exciting.

Best time of the year, so I can't wait for the weekend. Going to be a lot of talk about those games. They're two kickoff, but LaShawn, before that, a couple of different directions I wanted to go and I wanted to start today. We've talked a ton about the offense, obviously. A ton about that. We talked about the defense.

It has a chance to be again this, but a lot of returning stout. And, oh, by the way, an All-American coming cornerback, Riley Moss. The other guys. I mean, they look. We haven't talked a ton about special teams. And special teams is Kirk Ferris coaches this team. And the way that they are built is you've got to win in the margins, right? You've got to win those close games.

And a lot of times it is a punter pinning a guy deep. It's a kicker coming up and hitting a clutch field goal or just making that tackle in special teams. It's so important. As you guys, as you went through the program and you were not a huge part of special teams during your career as a running back, but how big of a conversation piece is it in the locker room? How big of a piece is it on the practice field? How important special teams during your career as a running back, but how big of a conversation piece is it in the, in the locker room? How big of a piece is it on the practice field?

How important special teams are? Yeah, I think everyone around the building knows how important special teams really is, especially us on the offensive side, considering, right. We haven't had the production as some other schools have where special teams might not be such a big,

big deal for them as it is for the Hawks, right? So we know it's a big deal, right? I mean, it's one of the first meetings that we have every single day, right? We start off special teams going over whatever we have planned for the day, whether it's punt, you know, kickoff unit, field goal, field goal block, et cetera, et cetera. So we understand that that is a very, very important piece of the game. And we know that those guys are vital, vital members of the team, right? We know that the punters are going to be great for, for us in general, right? Cause they can help flip the field and get us great field position. And we know that kickers come up big whether it's, you know,

early in the game or, you know know as the clock expires right um so special teams is a big big piece of the culture at iowa and it's one thing that coach ference always harps on like hey we're going to be excellent in our strength conditioning and we're going to be excellent um on special teams because the most part, those are things that you can control pretty well, right? You don't have to be the most overly talented person on the football field to be good in special teams or to go hard in strength and conditioning. So those are areas that coach Ference always harps on and everyone knows that. And that's a big part of the reason why, especially early in your career, a lot of people will try to get on special teams just so they can have another opportunity to play and show the coaches like hey

like yeah I can show those Iowa values and those other things so I can get on the football field and play the position that I actually want to play it makes a lot of sense an opportunity to get out there get your feet wet and especially for you know a lot of those defensive guys just ability to run down the field, make a tackle, those types of things. I did also want to ask you a little bit, you know,

you guys had great kicking Marshall Kane. You know what he did that season though, the struggles in 2015 with the extra points is still one of the most baffling things out there, but Marshall had such a strong leg. He was able to pound it out there and do a whole lot of things. What about kickers and putters though? You're a football guy, right? You grew up whole lot of things what about kickers and putters though you're a football guy right you grew up in a football family those kickers and putters

they're a different kind of breed over there i mean did you guys rib them a little bit how was the dynamic with those specialists no the specialists are cool they're they're definitely an interesting group of characters yeah uh but no they're they're all they're all a pretty cool group um obviously they like during practices like they basically do their own thing on whatever field they're on right they'll be in like total opposite field away from everyone else whether they're you know practicing snaps or doing kicks or punts or whatever um and then we'll join the group but i mean i mean they're they're part of the team right they do all that jazz even though like they don't necessarily need it right there it's not like they're going to be flying down the field on on you know on defense

or on offense right but you know they take part in all that stuff but obviously yeah they're they're definitely an interesting group of characters and it's hard for me to describe it unless you're around them. Yeah. But, no, they're always a good group and fun to be around. That's awesome, yeah. And, you know, a guy like Marshall Cain, I just remember back to, he was an athlete, right? I mean, he was not just a specialist.

He's not some of the kickers that you think about that are frail, a little sickly looking out there. That dude was a little bit of a football player. played pretty well back in high school yeah yeah he was really really athletic he was honestly he was a pretty fast guy i think he ran like a four six or something like that at combine like like this is like unheard of for a kicker so like um yeah marshall was a phenomenal athlete uh definitely whenever we would do like strength conditioning stuff like he was always um you know one of the fastest semi-skill guys right so semi so uh specialists

worked out with the but the semi-skill so that's like linebackers uh fullbacks tight end so yeah he was always one of the fastest in their group because yeah he's just just an extremely athletic guy all right so that leads to a conversation about the here and now, right? About this kicking game. And your era, you had good kickers. Your senior year, all right, you lose Marshall Cain. And what happens? You get this little skinny freshman that comes in from North Carolina

and all he does is beat Michigan, right? I mean, kicking has not been a problem. I go back to the beginning of the Ferentz era and seeing the struggles early on in Nate Kading and what he turned into becoming an All-American and winning the Groves Award. And it's been something that has been such a strength of the 24 years of Kirk Ferentz.

Now they come into this year, and it sounds like that the freshman, Drew Stevens, another Carolina kid, has come in and has won this job. From where we were in spring to how it finished up at Kids Day practice, 15-15 in the kicks, him and Bl where we were in spring to how it finished up at kids day practice 15 to 15 in the kicks him and Blom both were perfect on the day it was a little concerning coming into the year but now after seeing those guys the leg appears to be there my question becomes the mental side of it you know for a freshman you you saw it with with Keith when he

came in there and hitting that kick and he was just ready to go from the get-go. That mentality, how difficult is it for a freshman, not just to come in and play some football, but to be in that specialist role and know there's going to be games that very well could come down to his foot? Yeah, yeah. I mean, in general, right, it's tough for a freshman

to play college football, right? I mean, it is what it is. Making that jump from high school to college, especially Power Five, college football, right? I mean, it is what it is. Coming, making that jump from high school to college, especially power five college football is definitely not for the faint of heart. Right. But I think that's part of the reason why kickers are kickers, right? I mean, that's, that's, that's that type of environment is something that they live for, right?

Cause you can't be, you can't be a kicker and not have ice in your veins and kind of want the game to come down to that um point in time where it's like hey i gotta kick this i gotta make this kick to either tie us up or or win the football game like yeah it takes definitely a special type of character to want to be a kicker and be in that position and you know for a freshman to to come in and obviously compete and possibly win the kicking job right that's that's no easy feat so uh i'm sure i'm sure drew is going to be be ready and locked in and when he obviously has the

opportunity because we know i will we never win games and blowouts i mean it's going to be close at some point in time right so i'm sure sure he'll be i mean it's going to be close at some point in time right so i'm sure sure he'll be ready and it's going to be a moment i'm sure he's been dreaming about for his entire life right as at least when you start playing being a kicker right so uh yeah i definitely think you can't be a kicker without having ice in your veins so i'm never really actually worried about those guys when that situation. Yeah, it's been very good. And there's something, do you guys, did you have like a on staff?

And I know things have certainly changed inside the program. And we've talked a lot about that in the past, about the program and some of the maybe evolution into the 21st century that we've seen out of the program as a whole. Did you guys have sports psychologists back when you were playing guys like that? If something was going wrong on the playing field that you could talk to? Yeah.

So we did have a person that we would go to. I never went. I probably definitely should have. I mean, there's definitely times where I should have, but yeah, there, there is a person that the guys,

they can go and, and talk to times where I should have. But yeah, there is a person that the guys, they can go and talk to. And it is confidential between the player and the psychologist. But yeah, the players do have a person that they can go to that's not going to just obviously relay their entire conversations and all their struggles. He was an absolute stud, played two-way football, the same size school that I played struggle. LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar LeVar Le to get the head coaching job. And one of the reasons for it is because of, obviously, the job that he has done. But secondly, the way he knows the program. And the third part is being a special teams coach. I think there's something very special about a special teams coach that has to have more of that almost head coach mentality.

You know, that CEO where you're overlooking a bunch of different things. It's not just defense. It's not just offense. It's that big overall view that LeVar has. And that's a guy that I really like. So tell me a little bit about what you know about LeVar Woods. And certainly the job he's done with special teams has been great. Yeah.

Obviously, for starters, know that he's had a fantastic football career. Obviously, he's done it all right for guys that want to play football and want to do it at a high level right like there's not too many people on the isle of sap that you could go to and talk to about it right because he's done it all right so um after you get that out the way and then you just look at his his coaching history and he's he's done it all as far as coaching goes i mean he's coached on defense he's coached on offense now he's doing special teams and every position group that he's coached and now special teams group has been has been phenomenal right when he was when he was coaching there so uh lavar is obviously a great guy who loves and has a high big passion for for the game of football

and that's part of the reason why he's coached all these different positions and moved all around because, first off, he loves the game and he loves Iowa. So he's doing whatever he can to be in a position to help the team move forward and be better. So I'm very excited for LeVar and his future career, whether he does become a head coach coach whether it be at iowa or uh you know at another program even though we would love it to be in iowa um but he's just a guy who loves the game he studies the game a bunch and has a wealth of knowledge that spreads um

down to to the players that he's coaching and you really see it on on saturdays right every every unit that he has coached has been an extremely well-coached unit where the mistakes are kept to a minimum. And it's really been a thing that has helped Iowa win a bunch of football games over the past several years. Attention to detail. He has that certainly in spades. That's LaShawn Daniels.

I'm Trent Codd. And this is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. When we come back, Charlie Jones, the former Hawkeye, he speaks. We'll get into that. His thoughts on why he left the University of Iowa and the football program as we continue on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Well, as you know, I've talked a lot about gambling. I am excited about college football.

Illinois, a 10-point favorite against Wyoming. You got, of course, the Nebraska-Northwestern game where the Cornhuskers are more than a 10-point favorite against Wyoming. You got, of course, the Nebraska-Northwestern game where the Cornhuskers are more than a 10-point favorite there. Well, BetOnline is the fastest and easiest way to check in on all your betting needs, all your favorite sports. They have it all at the number one online source for odds, lines, and games. BetOnline continues to be the top online source for all your sports wagering information, live in-game betting, scores, podcasts, they have you covered.

Head to BetOnline today or use your mobile device to learn more about the action happening today. BetOnline, where the game starts. So when we get into our Friday conversations, LaShawn, are you into picking some games? Are you all right throwing your opinion out there a little bit? We can keep track to see who, maybe who picks the Big Ten games

a little bit better this season? Yeah, I'm all for it. Yeah, I'm all in, yeah. All right. In picking games. We'll find something fun to wager on here. Maybe a drink of our choice for the season, something like that we can do.

We'll put that up at the end of the season. So, LaShawn, I mentioned football is here. I'm getting so excited about this weekend. You got high school football starting this week. I got my first play-by-play coming up on Friday night. Excited about that. But there is one more thing in the rearview mirror that I want to talk about, and that is Charlie Jones.

So he departs to Purdue, and it came as a surprise. Tyrone Tracy, when he left the program, wasn't a shock. And an Indian, a guy that goes to play at Purdue, one of the finalists that he had coming out of high school, those things made sense. It was a very frustrating year a season ago, certainly for Tyrone Tracy. Charlie Jones, on the other hand, was out there playing wide receiver. He was a huge part of those special teams that we talked about earlier. And he went through spring practice. That was a huge part of those special teams that we talked about earlier. And he went through spring practice.

That was maybe an aspect of it looking back is he went through practice and then said, you know what? I'm still out of here. A decision like that, a decision where it wasn't like he wasn't going to play this year, that he wasn't going to get a chance. Just your takeaway and overview when you saw Charlie Jones decide to leave. your takeaway and overview when you saw charlie jones decide to leave yeah it's uh it's definitely a little upsetting when you lose a skill guy any when you lose any player but especially on the skill positions right because you know how important skill skill guys are um and helping put points on the board um so it is a little it is a little upsetting disappointing that he did

decide to transfer because in the honest he's a little it is a little upsetting disappointing that he did decide to transfer because in the honesty he's a good receiver and a fantastic uh special teams return man so to lose that type of weapon definitely definitely you know not the easiest thing the stomach but I mean hey that's why you build up a program that's why you recruit that's why you do all those if you lose a guy like that right it just opens up opportunity for for someone else to come in and step up and make those plays where where he's going to be absent but to say that he won't be missed would definitely definitely be a lie uh but um i'm sure uh there's going to be someone that's going to see jump at the opportunity and take it by the horns for sure.

And, you know, it's so funny because, well, they got him as a transfer, right? He began his career at Buffalo, so he can't be upset about a kid that then leaves via transfer. And ultimately, he wants a shot at the league. Now, I don't see any way that it's going to be as a wide receiver. It's going to be a returner. We talked about special teams and they're important and how good he was. I still think that Iowa would have been the best chance for him. But as it pertains to the offense, playing with Aiden McConnell,

who is a great quarterback, you know, one thing I do wonder about it, my buddy Jace, who also does the podcast here with me during the middle of the week, he mentioned this to me a couple of weeks ago. You know, after Charlie Jones goes through the whole process, goes through spring football, he sees there's no change in quarterback. It's going to be the same guys. It's going to be the guys that he played with, the new, had some struggles. And maybe there weren't the wrinkles that he was talked about.

They anticipated something like that. Maybe it does make sense that he said, great, I'm going to come back to this crap again for another year and decided to part. It's hard to kill him after what we saw a season ago. It really is. Yeah, I mean, as a receiver, I can't blame him. I mean, I literally can't blame him. I mean, we've seen the Purdue offense over the past several years, right?

They've been a team that passes the ball all over the place. I mean, we saw it at Kinnick last year, right? And they obviously have uh a really uh i think really an underrated quarterback um over there in aiden o'connell obviously it helps when you're throwing a david bell but um in general i think he's a really uh fantastic football player and underrated quarterback so when you see that and obviously like you're watching tape like throughout the week and you're probably like whenever you're watching another big 10 west team you're seeing them going against verdue you're watching tape, like throughout the week and you're probably like, whenever you're watching another Big Ten West team, you're seeing them going against Purdue,

you're watching them, they're running these concepts and doing different things. You're like, probably sitting there as a receiver, like, hmm, that, I could be doing that, right? And I could do that better. I could do it better than that guy, right? And if I really want this opportunity to show off my skills and, you know, make it as a receiver in the NFL. Right.

I can understand the reasoning for sure. But as you mentioned, yeah, I think he's obviously his future in the NFL. Right. Should it should it happen is definitely going to be on the return side of things. But putting out good, really good receivers tape is not going to be a bad thing either. So I can't blame the kid for wanting to go to another offense that's going to possibly distribute the football a little bit more and have more opportunities as a receiver. You know, he probably still was going to be behind, certainly Keegan, if he's healthy.

He was going to be behind Arlen Bruce and maybe behind Nico Regani. I mean, still at best, it's still at best. He's still the fourth receiver where he goes to Purdue and he might be the number two. Sure. That's also kind of a piece of it, but just an interesting one. And there's going to be a little bit of juice,

I think for that Iowa Purdue game. Now they were your guys's protected rival when the divisions first shifted over. And that was the protected rival for Iowa, even though it's not really a rivalry, it feels a little more like a rivalry. In fact, when we come back, well, Sean, we're going to talk about the rivalries. We're going to talk about the other six programs as it's currently constructed in the Big Ten West.

Just some initial thoughts. We're going to talk about what we see when LaShawn first hears Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin. We're going to do that. I'll also give more of my fan perspective. We'll do that when we continue here. The Locked On Hawkeyes podcast continues here in a moment. And thank you again for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen

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Trent Condon, LaShawn Daniels with you, wrapping things up, and let's fire through here. So, LaShawn, first an overview. Grew up in Iowa, a little bit different than you. Been a Hawkeye fan my whole life, and it's all been about Iowa. But I grew up in north central Iowa. So I grew up kind of by Mason City area. Osage is a little town I grew up in.

And huge Hawkeye town. Huge Hawkeye contingency. This is also a time when that's all we had in the 80s. We had Hawkeye sports and that was it. There was nothing else. Didn't have ESPN. You weren't able to watch games all the time. It was that excitement about waiting for the Hawkeyes that weekend.

So because of where I grew up, though, I had family in Minnesota. I also had family in Madison. But for me, the number one rivalry growing up, it was Minnesota. It was playing for a pig. You know, when you're a little kid and they play for a pig, how cool that was. So Minnesota, that's always the biggest rival for me. Wisconsin's another one. But we're going to kind of go through here.

We're going to get your initial thoughts. In fact, let's start with my biggest rival, the Gophers. When you think of Minnesota, you think back to your playing days. What thoughts jump into your head? For starters, I really was not a big fan of Minnesota at all. I just thought they were always a team who just thought their crap didn't stink, no matter what type of year they were having if they're having a bad year good year right that's just how they felt right and i feel like their fans kind of feel definitely feel feel

the same way so they're definitely a team that you know whenever we have the opportunity to beat them and practically anything i'm just like yeah i'm here for it so uh that's kind of how i feel about about them obviously um football right there they're gonna play tough that's pretty much all or all of our rivals right they're all always gonna play tough but uh they never they never really match that that iowa intensity i feel even though they try to hype it up you know every single year but they they never really match. And the we hate Iowa chant. I mean, did you guys crack up at that one time? I think it's a chant of endearment. Right. They wish they could be. I can't.

Yeah, I mean, essentially. Right. I mean, especially so like and then like we used to just get honestly just get tired of it because during the Minnesota week, they would be playing that chant constantly throughout the locker room or throughout the weight room. And you obviously get to the point where, okay, this is enough. We just got to shut these guys up on Saturday. It is definitely a little corny for sure, but I get it, right? They want to emulate one of the better teams. So I understand it, but yeah, definitely not a fan. Well, my tailgate group, when we go up to Minnesota,

we always have a good time up there. And one of my buddies, one he loves to do is start chanting back at him, who hates Iowa? You hate Iowa and point right in their face. And it's led to a couple of disagreements a time or two before or after some games. But yeah, Minnesota, I love the rivalry. I love the pig.

In fact, at the state fair, took the kids there yesterday and got to touch Floyd again, which is always good and got a picture right next to him. Did get to carry him off a field like you have, but it felt pretty good. Let's go around here.

We're going to go clockwise. Let's go over to Wisconsin. Another one. I have family in Madison. We're going to go clockwise. Let's go over to Wisconsin, another one. I have family in Madison. Went to that game a lot growing up. Now, when I was growing up, this is another thing. In the 80s, Wisconsin was brutal. They were terrible at basketball.

They were bad at football until Barry Alvarez got there. Obviously a different behemoth. When you went up against the Badgers, I'm sure you knew you were going to have to strap up that chin strap. Yeah. Yeah. That's a program i've got a ton of respect for um they do a lot of things right right they do a lot of stuff the right way right and then when you go out there when you know you're playing those guys right you're going to be in a physical four-quarter battle um entire game so and they're their program who, very similar to us in the sense where they're like, we're going to force you guys to play our brand of football. And we're not changing it for anyone

no matter who we go against. And they show that every single weekend, every single Saturday. And it definitely shows every single time that we play them. When I was in school, we obviously didn't have as much success against them. And we still haven't have as much success against them and we still kind of haven't that much haven't had that much success against them so every year like i'm always just like this gotta be the year it's gotta be the year even

though like right we respect those guys a bunch like i hate losing to wisconsin right because a lot of times like losing to them like it's what gets us from winning the west right and really taking that that next jump as a program. Really getting to where we want to go. Let's go to another one that's been a thorn in the side. And a different feeling because Wisconsin, they're like Iowa. They're very similar. They're built the same way.

Maybe just over the last decade or so, they've done a tick better. Northwestern, those guys. I've been to that dump of a stadium. I just shake my head. How do we lose to these guys it just stinks yeah i know i agree i agree i mean it's like like obviously i know that their coach is not a fan of us at all and he always gets his guys up ready to ready to play play us and when i was in school like we had a bunch of success against them i think we only lost one time yeah um in my time there but still like it's really frustrating whenever we do lose them because you're like you look at the programs and you're like like we're

we're in another level right and we shouldn't be like this isn't a team like like that we should be dropping games against um but obviously their team um with a great head coach who definitely gets the most out of his players for sure and definitely does does give us some fits a little bit because i mean every every now and again right you're going to get a really really good northwestern team like they were um two years ago three years ago um where they made the big 10 title game so yeah i mean that's that's another tough football team um but it is very frustrating whenever we do drop a game to them because you just look at here that's like like there's no way like there's no way you just compare the programs

um like that shouldn't be a team that shouldn't be a team that beats us and yet they find a way let's go down state and go down to illinois, this was a big rivalry on the football field back in the day, LaShawn, before your memories, and I think it might be coming back. I believe in Bielema that he's going to get the program, but when you guys saw Illinois on the schedule, was it just kind of ho-hum? Yeah, for the most part, yeah. I mean, we saw Illinois on the schedule, and we were like, okay, this is a game that we should win.

I mean, especially the program that they had when I was in school. Right. Nowhere near as where it was even, you know, five years prior to when I was in school. So when we looked at my schedule, we're like, okay, obviously it's another Big Ten West team. They're kind of a rivalry, but like right now at their program level, like this is a team that we should be competing. But with Bielema there, obviously we know his brand of football. We saw it when he was at Wisconsin. We saw it when he was at Arkansas.

So bringing it back to Illinois, so we know what they're going to get. They're going to be a tough-nosed football team that's going to try to run the football practically every single play. So that's definitely going to be another game we're going to have to start buckling up our chin straps for sure. But Illinois was definitely, at least when I was in school, was a team that was like,

okay, we should dominate this team. Purdue, you guys beat them in the snow to cap off the undefeated regular season, the Big Ten West Championship before the finale at Nebraska that year. It was the last game at Kinnick in 2015. Purdue, they've had Iowa's number here recently. How about when you played? Was Illinois

and Purdue kind of in the same realm? Yeah, they're really in the same realm. So that's why this new era over the past few years is a little different. So it's definitely a little frustrating. And it's like people

to me, whether it's like, they know I'm an Iowa guy. I like losing to Purdue and all this stuff. And I'm like, hey, when I was in school, that was a team that we never really worried about. Obviously, some things, things have changed. They're doing a great job over there. They're building up that program for sure. But yeah, they're definitely in the same boat as I am. Final one.

And we go to the other side. and that is over to the west side, and that is Nebraska. Nebraska, a brand for me growing up, was huge. So, LaShawn, you remember probably of the 90s, do you even remember, I mean, them being a big-time powerhouse, a real national player? What would that have been, like 1990? So, 96. 98. a real national player what would that have been like 1990 so 96 yeah 96 would have been their last national championship and then they played for a national championship in the 2000 season i think the 2001 national championship and just got absolutely obliterated and and for all intents

of purposes it was over at that point right right yeah it was meaning that they had in the early 2000s right they had like nfo players like on their four deep so yeah no um nebraska i mean obviously they've got a history and it's they're very very storied progress they haven't been at that level um we've i kind of get same vibe from them from and as i get from minnesota where they kind of think that their crap doesn't stay um because they're like, we're the story program. You've had all these national titles, et cetera, et cetera. But obviously they haven't been that way as of late. So whenever we play those guys, it's always like, hey, if we play our game,

we don't make any mistakes. We're going to win every single time because they're bound to make mistakes. It's things that they've shown every single year, honestly, since I've been in school, right? Whenever the games get tight, right, they kind of just fall apart. So obviously they're trying to build something and it's really not getting built at all, especially since their, what was it, their athletic director

like disrespected Iowa or whatever. Oh, yeah. Fire Paulini and whatnot. So, yeah, ever since those guys, now whenever we get a chance to dominate them director like disrespected Iowa or whatever oh yeah fire Cucullini yeah and whatnot so so yeah ever since those guys now whenever we get a chance to dominate them and which we do whenever we play it it's always good so listen we're talking about these teams and their rivals and kind of different aspects also Iowa State you throw in the mix with the non-conference rivalry game there Penn State's a huge rivalry we know for Kirk Michigan when, when he played a team like that,

how important a game like that certainly was him being more of an old school guy. I mean, could you feel, though, a little extra juice in a week? Yeah, you respect every opponent, but could you tell when Coach Ferentz, when he had a little something extra that week, and we kind of talk about Purdue, and maybe there's some

bad blood boiling right now. I've heard recently, you know, there's been some things that have been said by that moron Phil Fleck up in Minnesota that maybe rubbed Kirk wrong a little bit a couple years back, and he used all the timeouts at the end of the game. Could you guys feel those weeks when he had a little extra pep in his step? Oh, yeah, you can definitely feel it. You feel it either Monday like in the team meeting or even you could even feel it sunday you know after whatever game we have getting ready for the upcoming week like

whenever it's a rivalry week whenever we played like a blue blood team like a ohio state or michigan right like or penn state right like coach parents gets up for those games and he's like like you could definitely feel that energy and it definitely radiates throughout the entire building um whenever whenever you have those those games so yeah yeah you can definitely feel that energy and it's something that gets us players juiced up and gets us ready to rock and roll for for saturday it's a lot of fun stuff we go around the big 10 west and get some thoughts there i left the buckeyes for Saturday. It's a lot of fun stuff. We go around the Big Ten West and get some thoughts there. I left the Buckeyes out.

I know that's a different kind of conversation. Michigan, Penn State, those programs from the other side. But fun going through and fun living some memories with you also, LaShawn. Well, we're getting closer and closer to football, so you just think 12 days away now from kickoff, as we'll see Iowa, South Dakota State. We've got plenty more. LaShawn, you going to be good again one more time later in the week?

Yeah, yeah, I'm ready. We're ready to go. We'll continue breaking things down here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Well, we talked about everything going on across the Big Ten West. You can know what is happening across the Big Ten with Locked On Big Ten. Everyday host Nate Dickinson and local experts from Locked On take you across the Big Ten in 30 minutes. Make Locked On Big Ten your second listen every single day.

That'll do it for the show here today. He's LaShawn Daniels. I'm Trent Connan. We'll be back with you again tomorrow with more Locked On Hawkeyes. Until then, go Hawks.