Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Linebacker Battle INTENSIFIES as Young Guns CHALLENGE Veterans | Will Preston Ries STEAL the Show?

Starting point is 00:00:00 August is here and that means we get Hawkeye football this month. Today we predict the winners of the biggest position battles in Fall Camp for the Hawkeye. You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, welcome in. I'm Trent Condon and this is the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day.

Starting point is 00:00:34 I've been covering the Hawkeyes for over 20 years on the radio in the state of Iowa, including currently you can hear me on the Iowa Sports Radio Network. We have stations all across the state, Sioux City, Quad Cities, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, and our flagship 106.3, KXNO in Des Moines. You can hear me each weekday from noon to two talking Hawkeyes and a whole lot more. Today's episode is brought to you by

Starting point is 00:00:56 Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use the code LOCKDOWNCOLLege for $20 off your first purchase. Well, we've been talking about the floor and ceiling for this Iowa football team. We will get into that a little bit later on. We're going to, they'll begin today's conversation with a look at the position groups, the most important position battles that are happening for Iowa football. A little bit later on, we'll get to the defense, but let's open up the conversation here today with a look at the offense of what we're going to see out of this offense this year and these position group battles that are happening. So with practice already underway, I'm sure many of you, like myself, you're looking for every bit of information you can have and make a few phone calls, send a few text messages, seeing if we can unearth anything at all from it. And it's difficult. You get glimpses.

Starting point is 00:01:48 There's a few people that are willing to give you a few morsels, but that is about it. Iowa is locked up. Now, Wisconsin, their media gets to go to practice every day. And Illinois is the same. There's other programs that operate in that fashion that if you want to, you're able to get that kind of information, practice in, practice out, not the way at Iowa. And not only that, it's

Starting point is 00:02:10 very difficult to get those kinds of tidbits, but we do have a few for you that we're going to pass along and we'll continue to work on that and try to get more coming your way. But the position battles, let's start with the offense. And for a lot of people, your favorite is that backup quarterback. We know that it's going to be Mark Granowski will be the starter for the Hawkeyes game one of the season. He'll be trotting out there under center for the first time. However, the question remains who will be the backup. Now, the only guy with experience in the Iowa program that is in that quarterback room now is Jackson Stratton.

Starting point is 00:02:45 I don't believe that he is going to be a factor for this. We saw him a year ago and though there were a couple of nice moments against UCLA, you know, he'd go back to the touchdown pass against Nebraska. Look, that was Caleb Johnson, right? And there were the major mistakes. And listening to Tim Lester last week as he was on with the Hawks Central podcast on KXNO and the Des Moines Register's Chad Leistekow, he mentioned that when he was talking about Stratton, that it's the mistakes are not just mistakes, they're big mistakes and he can't afford that and certainly can't afford that for a Kirk Farrens quarterback. So I put him a clear fourth. Also when you go back and really our only glimpse at a lot of these

Starting point is 00:03:25 guys was back in that open practice at the end of spring. Remember who he was going up against in comparison. You know, he was going up against a third and a lot of times fourth teamers in comparison to what Hank Brown was going up against. I believe that Hank Brown's going to win the job as the backup quarterback. I think he's going to be the guy. I think he's the heir apparent at the position, but it continues to grow with Jeremy heck Linsky, the wake forest transfer who comes in. So you got Hank Brown coming in from Auburn. You got heck Linsky coming in from wake forest. Not only does heck Linsky have the connection to warner, Jarrell, what are the office of analysts on the staff who was the offensive coordinator with Wake Forest. But these are two different

Starting point is 00:04:06 types of quarterback. Hank Brown is that big arm guy, right? He's the guy that can make all the throws, looks great out there. Hakelinsky's not that. I mean, he's your Drew Tate starter kit, right? Undersized, a little fiery, is going to make the throws. He's not going to wow you with arm talent, but he's a little jitterbug, right? He's making those plays. He's probably annoying you. He is that kind of guy. And at Glinski was going to be a guy that very well could have been competing for a starting job this year. And they believe maybe it was going to be a four-year starter for them. That's the upside that Wake Forest saw. Now this is Iowa. That's a step up. Wake Forest has had some success. This is different. And eventually, I believe it will be Hank Brown that's going to win up the back up role.

Starting point is 00:04:48 Let's move over to running back. And this is another one that isn't about the starter. Kamari Moulton is going to be the starter. I would be absolutely shocked if that's not the case. Remember, he was the starter last year before Caleb, as you heard first here on Lockdown, Hawkeyes was going to be suspended for the first half of the game against Illinois State hit the ground running and then the season that he had after that it will be more we know we'll see a bunch of Jazz Patterson we know that Terrell Washington I mean the top three is pretty well set really the question becomes who's number four and we look at that

Starting point is 00:05:19 number four spot from Xavier Williams Brevin Dahl Nathan McNeil of those three who is going to be the guy and there will be moments that they will get to the fourth running back. Not often. You're hoping it's only in a blowout and that injuries don't hit and that that top three is healthy or at least healthy ish throughout the course of the season and that you're set with Moulton and Patterson and Washington and you're good to go. But there will be a fourth guy that sees carries this year. And of that group, I know you're good to go. But there will be a fourth guy that sees carries this year and of that group. I know you're going to be shocked to hear this. It's Brevin doll. The speed is elite. We're talking about elite level speed that you just can't teach. He has that. He definitely has the size. He has added weight. He's up to 212 pounds. Now the

Starting point is 00:05:58 frame is there. Everything that you're looking for. He's been banged up and it comes down to health. If Brevin doll is healthy, I will take him to be that fourth running back this season over Williams and over the freshmen McNeil. I think eventually McNeil he red shirts, right? I mean, there's just too much depth at this position right now when you don't have to, to waste a red shirt, excuse me, to waste your availability and not to redshirt McNeil. Doesn't mean it doesn't play. Remember you can play up to four games eligibility and not to redshirt McNeil. Doesn't mean it doesn't play. Remember, you can play up to four games and still maintain that redshirt status. And that very well could be the case for McNeil.

Starting point is 00:06:30 But when I'm talking about those guys, he is going to be my guy, number four, Brevin Dahl. Let's go to wide receiver. And for this one, it's not about the top spot. Jacob Gill is the number one. No, he's not your typical number one receiver. You might be saying, if Jacob Gill's your number one, you might have some problems. But a year ago in a passing offense that was still in its infant stages, it didn't have good quarterback play. You

Starting point is 00:06:54 had injuries that piled up again at that position. It was not good. Do you think that that's going to be a step forward this year? Obviously Jacob Gill still led the team, not that wide receiver group in receptions. And I think he's going to do that again. What is that number? Eventually, I don't know. Really it comes down to how do you place two through eight? Because Gill's going to play a ton. He's going to be out there and when you're talking about, I guess just raw number of snaps, he would be my choice to be the number one guy in Jacob Gill. After that, here's the list. He got Reese Vanderzee. You got Sam Phillips coming in from Chattanooga. KJ Parker registered a year ago. Seth Anderson. We keep waiting for the help to happen for him.

Starting point is 00:07:31 Dayton Howard, Jarrett Bowie, Kaden Weijin. Weijin stuck around because part of it was that he was going to be a part of this offense. And that's what they're trying to figure out a way to get him involved. So you got eight guys. And as you're narrowing it through, spots two through eight. I know for a lot of people Reese Vanderzee is that number two guy and a year ago 14 catches you know burst onto the scene in that monster game that he had against Illinois State. Five catches 66 yards and a couple of touchdowns. After that though high water mark three catches 47 yards against Michigan State. That was the only other game that he had a touchdown in. Injuries were a major part of that, no doubt, but there were some goose eggs.

Starting point is 00:08:13 Have to have him more involved. Now the hope with Vandersee is he's going to take a big step forward, right? That a guy that was a multi-sport athlete finally dedicating himself and really playing the position in a full-time role for the first time and understanding the nuances of not just being able to go out and out athlete people, but the actual understanding of the position that he's going to take a step forward. I still believe in Seth Anderson. I really do. I know we have not seen it over the last two years and it's been frustrating because we got this guy and for us older people, you hear Flipper Anderson's kids coming to Iowa. This is going to be great. You look at the numbers

Starting point is 00:08:47 that he had at the FCS level. You think it's going to, and it just, it hasn't because he hasn't been healthy. The speed is real with Seth Anderson and health has been real to this point throughout the course of 2025. If that continues, I think he's going to be number two. I'll put Seth Anderson to Vanderseet number three. Then it gets difficult. KJ Parker, Sam Phillips, two similar guys, smaller side, but speed to burn. And they definitely need that out there. I'll put Phillips, then Parker, and then wrap it up with Howard, Bowie, and Weijin. It's incredibly difficult, though. And I could

Starting point is 00:09:20 be dead wrong. And I'm talking about in terms of snaps. And we'll see, you know, how it plays out in terms of playing time and the way that it gets there. Finally, one more on offense. And this might be the biggest of this whole football team. Figuring out left tackle. When you're talking about position group battles, this is to me, number one on the list. They have to figure this out. You have an all-American candidate at right tackle and Jennings Dunker. Same at center with Logan Jones. You feel very good at the guard positions. You got Cade Pieper and both Stevens. Pieper hasn't been a starter, but we saw him play a year ago. If you saw

Starting point is 00:09:52 Bruce Feldman over at the athletic, his yearly freaks list, Pieper showed up at number 22. We'll talk about that a little bit more tomorrow, but it's left tackle. And after talking to Kirk Ferentz in Las Vegas, and I asked him straight up about Bryce George and bringing him in, and they said, we wouldn't have brought him in if we didn't believe he had the ability to be a left tackle. He said that. So that says, obviously they did their homework, but that is what they're looking for. I don't believe that Bryce George was brought in to be a depth piece.

Starting point is 00:10:23 They want him competing. And remember, they were going through spring practice when that recruiting began. That's not to say that Trevor Lapp is not going to turn in to a good left tackle because I think he will. That Jack Dotsler, you throw him out, the baby with the bathwater. That's not what this is at all. I just think the upside of Bryce George, a veteran and though coming into a new system is going to be enough that he is going to be the starter at left tackle at game one. We go to defense next and there are a lot of questions over there as well. One of the more intriguing Iowa football seasons

Starting point is 00:10:55 in a while just because of the questions. Kurt Farren said as much in Vegas. I'm saying it to you here now. We figure out the defense. Who's going to win those important battles? What's defense attack look like? What about linebacker and who is the starting cornerback on the other side of TJ Hall? We'll talk about all that as we continue on the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast. Time to fuel up and turn it up with 5-hour energy transfusion. It brings the bold grape, ginger and lime flavors of your favorite golf drink minus the alcohol into a quick energizing shot. Whether you're sinking birdies or just making memories with friends, this one's a hole in one for your entire energy game. Let's be honest. Some days on the course or off it, you just need that extra boost to stay sharp

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Starting point is 00:13:03 position battles and let's go over to the defense. On the defensive side of the football we jump over and we take a look at defensive tackle. The middle of that defense and what I love is what they did in going out and bringing in depth. We come to the season you know Aaron Graves is gonna be fine and as we've talked about earlier in the summer this was a time with Aaron Graves kind of a season ago where was there going to be another step? He looks statistically there was now it's about getting that consistent production that we saw at times a year ago, had a couple of monster games, had some quiet games in

Starting point is 00:13:37 there. That kind of production though, definitely ramping up in a big time way. You think Jeremiah Pittman, we saw him a year ago, he still got work to do. And if he can have that senior jump that we see so many times in Iowa football, this is going to be special because bringing in Jonah Pace and Bryce Hawthorne, two guys out of the portal, Pace out of central Michigan, Hawthorne from South Dakota state. They needed depth there. Hawthorne continues to sound like this was an absolute slam dunk that he was a guy that their hope was going to be more developmental and instead he's going to play their parents told me when I asked this question at Big Ten football media days asked him about

Starting point is 00:14:14 defensive tackle he said yes both those guys are going to play and they're going to play a lot I think that says a ton will one of the two be the starter I think we might get there and I don't know if it's going to be in game number one. We'll see. But then after that, you know, where does Yosei Apanesa fit in? Does Yosei play defensive end, which he looks more like now? A lot of people believe that he is targeted to become a defensive tackle and build himself into that. If there's going to be reps available, you get into the veterans, a guy like Luke Gaffney, Will Hubert, can they get any snaps now in this rotation? It looks to be reps available. You get into the veterans, a guy like Luke Gaffney, Will Hubert, can they get any snaps now in this rotation that looks to be a solid top

Starting point is 00:14:49 four right now? And the other one is Devin Kennedy and Jimmy Kennedy's son who comes in with those NFL bloodlines. If he can be a guy, if he has built himself up to that level defensive tackle, it's incredibly difficult, much like offensive line to play early at Iowa because of what you have to do and the hand placement and just the leverage and all those small nuanced things that Kelvin Bell asked this group to do, the defensive line coach. It's tough and we'll see. This is going to be an important camp if Kennedy can jump up there and be one of those guys. Over to the linebacker spot. Another one of the huge question marks with this team and it's the old adage. Do you go

Starting point is 00:15:30 with the veterans, the guys that have waited their turn or do you just turn it over right now to the young linebacker group? You have, I think we know it's going to be the veterans right away. Jaden Harrell in the middle, Carson Shire, Rex Roth when they go 4-3, that the veterans are going to be the guys initially, maybe a little bit of Jaden Montgomery also going to be in there when you're talking about those guys that have been around and been in the program for a long time. But as I talked about the freaks list a little bit earlier, another guy that showed up Preston Reese, linebacker for Iowa. And it's him and it's Cam Buffington and it's Derek Weisskopf. And those three guys, redshirt freshmen coming

Starting point is 00:16:10 in together into this season, who's going to be the one that can get there? Who's going to be the first one that's going to see the field? Reese comes up all the time. And a lot of it, of course, is what he's done in the weight room. And that's the reason that he's on the freaks list. And that's the reason you see a ton of him. But with Preston Reese, with Weisskopf, with Buffington, all those guys, and it's about reps. Now I brought this up before and I got to go back and look at it because I brought it up a couple of times. Now I think it was the 2014 year when they had a bunch of injuries at linebacker. He saw James Morris. He was out there a ton early in his career. And you saw Anthony Hitchens was out there a ton. And when you see these guys at linebacker when they're young, it's just about reps, right? And I was having to be able to transition from Jack Campbell into Jay Higgins, who was a veteran. That was great and worked out incredibly well. Can you find that lightning in a battle again? Can, and it's not just about at linebackers, certainly at middle linebacker making the plays and having things funneled to you and

Starting point is 00:17:15 the way the Iowa defense is set up and making all those tackles. But the other part of it is making the calls, getting guys in the right spot, doing those things on the front end of the play, not the back end of the play when it actually starts, and being able to do that in a live game situation. That's different. That's different for everybody, and not everybody can handle that. And that's another one of the unknowns that we have with this Iowa football team. One more one we're talking about the important position battle groups that are happening right now and the battles that are happening on the field. And that is who's gonna start at cornerback

Starting point is 00:17:48 on the opposite side of TJ Hull. TJ Hull took the step in the spring. And when you're getting praise from Phil Parker, you know things are going pretty well. Phil is not a guy that throws out praise very easily. He's a guy, as we talk about a lot with Kirk, right? When you're listening to Kirk Farrant speak, when you're listening to those press conferences,

Starting point is 00:18:12 you have to sometimes read between the lines a little bit deeper. And Phil Parker takes that to another level. With Phil Parker, you really have to. And when he brought up TJ Hall, and you you could tell he feels like it's finally clicked, that it's finally all been there. And there's been a lot of trials and tribulations and there's been frustration during the first three years for TJ Hall that was put out there too early because of injury, who had bad moments on the field. But for a guy that has talent,

Starting point is 00:18:44 for a guy that certainly it's not a talent thing, it's I think also another one of those reps things and getting that confidence and he's got that now. So who's going to be on the other side? You got the Sean Lee who's also started a ton in his career and probably started too early at times. You know, you'd like that guy to be a little bit more veteran before he was thrust into lineup, but they didn't have that ability. So he was out there. The Sean Lee's not the biggest guy. I don't let the hairdo fool you. He's not the biggest guy out there. When he takes his helmet off, he looks bigger. But with Lee, he's another one that I wonder if there is another gear. He is just, he's a finished product, right? And he kind of is what he is at

Starting point is 00:19:21 this point, because the other guys are incredibly intriguing from Shahid Barrows, who comes in from South Dakota out of the transfer portal. Barrows, a guy that I don't think a lot of people would say is going to be the starter in game one. And if I had to put odds on it, he would be my choice. I think that's going to win that job, but you got Jalen Watson and he continues to come up in conversation. Jalen Watson, Jalen Watson, Jalen Watson. When you're talking defensive backs, when you're talking about guys that are gonna be that next group of guys that we're gonna be talking about, and that might be a fun topic here.

Starting point is 00:19:53 That next group of guys, certainly Jalen Watson is going to be on that mix. He's a guy that could have played receiver form. He can play defensive back. He's doing that right now. And we're looking about maybe the most upside currently out of this cornerback group. I think Jalen Watson certainly is that guy. Can he do enough here in camp without a whole lot of experience to win a job? That's another thing about Phil Parker. He is not scared of playing young guys. Speaking of young guys, here's a couple other names for you. Rashad Godfrey, who is out there in the mix. His name came up a couple of times in Vegas.

Starting point is 00:20:23 And finally, CJ Bell, who's a true freshman, comes in from the Northeast. It doesn't happen a ton, but if there is a position group that it does happen more often than not, certainly cornerback and defensive back. We've seen Phil Parker. If you're good enough, he's not scared to put young guys out there. So at least have to throw him into the mix out of that young crew. There it is. We got it all figured out, right? All right, we still got more work to do to get things figured out on what this Iowa football team is going to look like in the big position groups and the battles that are happening out there on the field. Floor, ceiling, how good can Iowa football be? How bad can Iowa football be?

Starting point is 00:21:02 We'll talk tackle that one next as we continue this is Locked On Hawkeyes. We've all been there logging on early waiting forever for concert tickets to go on sale only to lose your spot for a show you've been dying to see live music should be about making memories not dealing with the stress of ticket shopping. That's where Game Time comes in. Game Time makes getting concert tickets faster and easier than ever. Prices actually drop as it gets closer to showtime. And you can save, how about this, up to 60% off with their killer last minute deals. I absolutely love the ability to know where you're going to be before a concert, before a game, before an event. The app shows you a panoramic seat view. There's no surprises when

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Starting point is 00:22:34 being with us and making lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day we are with you every day here through the month of August into September and all the way through as we will take you through the basketball season, the wrestling season and everything in between. We are getting closer to game time and yes with the calendar this year we will get August football, Iowa's week two opponent of course Iowa State's going to open things up early as they'll be over in Ireland. So much to get excited about and talk about here in the coming weeks. We will be with you breaking it all down. Big Ten or Iowa, excuse me, media days on Friday, open practice on Saturday this week. And we'll continue to chug out the content to you here over the next few days on that front as there's going to be a ton to talk about

Starting point is 00:23:21 and a ton to look at with this Iowa football team and the expectations. Thanks to every dayers being with us each and every day as well. Couldn't do it with each and every one of you out there. Thank you to you every dayers. All right. So floor ceiling. We've gone around and around in this topic. And the one thing that I've mentioned and every dayers you know this is I think the variance of this team is as high as it's been in a really long time. The variance of the squad, which is normally like it's Iowa football, they're probably going to win seven, eight, nine games. That's what it's going to be is that the floor is always really high. I mean, when you put together

Starting point is 00:24:00 this many years of success and missed what one bowl game in the last how many years 18 years I mean that's that's incredible right it really is when you've had a season that didn't end with the bowl appearance when you have that kind of year that doesn't happen often in college football and outside of the the top tier teams and even then they miss bowl games a whole lot more often. So here we are with Iowa and on the top level, can this team win double digit games? I think they can. Now it's going to take Mark Gronowski absolutely hitting, hitting the ground running and having an incredible season. You can have that and left tackle figure out and basically all those position groups

Starting point is 00:24:45 and all the questions that we talked about earlier, they all hit. Absolutely. I think the talent is there. The schedule is there for this team to be ten and two. That means winning a bunch of coin flip games. That means going on the road to beat Iowa State, beating Wisconsin, either beating probably USC or Nebraska, at least one of those two, and then pull an upset somewhere. And that's upsetting Penn State or working at home. And that can be 10 and two. But I do think that's the high water mark is a 10 and two season.

Starting point is 00:25:16 On the floor though, you mentioned those games. So they're beating Albany, right? They're beating U.S. Okay, let's put those in the win column. We're feeling very confident that right? They're beating U.S. Okay, let's put those in the win column. We're feeling very confident that Iowa will get those two games. How confident do you feel about the Iowa State game? Betting spread and the game of the year look ahead lines

Starting point is 00:25:34 has Iowa State favorite in that game. It's at Jack Trice. They go out to Rutgers on a Friday night. Short week, never know. Gonna be a huge game for Rutgers who's likely gonna be undefeated. was been able to handle that before that's probably gonna be a close game Indiana Hawks gonna have to score against Cignati squad it meant does as a hell of a quarterback Wisconsin look it was a

Starting point is 00:25:57 disaster last year but they've been pointing to that game all year long Penn State a lot of people have them the number one team in the country Minnesota probably gonna be a close game. We've seen that a ton. Oregon, good luck. Talk about keeping up. The Oregon scores. I think they scored over 30 points in what, 20, what was it, 28 of the last 31 games.

Starting point is 00:26:17 They scored 30 or more. I would do that. At USC, it's Iowa on the road. Michigan State after that, they beat Iowa a year ago. Then that Nebraska game, they'll come down to a field goal. Like you go through and there is a scenario where it goes the other way. And suddenly this team is five and seven and misses a bowl for the first time in forever. That's something that very well could happen. The variance is large.

Starting point is 00:26:45 It's as varied as we've seen for Iowa football, I believe, in a really long time. Will it happen? That's why we're here, to speculate, to build, and we will see coming up this month. Thanks for being with us in making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day, with you each and every day throughout the course of the week. Again, Iowa football media day coming up on Friday, open practice on Saturday. We got a ton going on and our few glimpses of this Iowa football team. We got you covered here on Locked On Hawkeyes. Thanks for being with us. As always, I'm running out of little voice. We'll be back with you tomorrow. Until then, go Hawks.

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Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Linebacker Battle INTENSIFIES as Young Guns CHALLENGE Veterans | Will Preston Ries STEAL the Show?

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