Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Mekhi Sargent balled out + other observations from the win over Miami (OH)

Episode Date: September 2, 2019

Reactions and analysis to Iowa's season-opening win over Miami (OH). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices ...

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 I thank God I was born on the good arms of the Midwest, and not on the battlefields of the U.S. It's a time of panic, and it's intercepted! It's picked off right away! Intercepted by Marty Hooker! Pick six! Eight seconds into the game! Buffen sets up deep in the pocket, goes down the field for Smith!
Starting point is 00:00:21 Oh! He's got it! Smith! Touchdown. 85 yards. High on. Touchdown, 10. Taking a shot in the end zone.
Starting point is 00:00:32 It is caught. No offense. Touchdown. That's either one or you have it. Go ahead and three. Yes. Two-point lead for the Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes. It is a beautiful Monday morning.
Starting point is 00:01:17 I am one of your co-hosts, Andrew Wade, and I am joined here by my other co-host, Zach Cohen. Zach, how are you doing today, buddy? Doing well. How are you doing? Doing great, man. That was a fun game. We are recording this on Sunday afternoon, so my voice might sound a little raspy. I'm a little tired. I'll be honest, I'm a little hungover because yesterday I celebrated the hell out of that win.
Starting point is 00:01:39 I know it was Miami of Ohio, but it felt real good to have football back, man. Oh, yeah, I completely agree. I was getting a little nervous in the beginning, Miami of Ohio but it felt real good to have football back man oh yeah I completely agree I was getting a little nervous in the beginning but uh anytime we get a Hawkeye win at least more convincingly like we did it's a good day and you can drink definitely man yeah I think everyone's getting a little worried about that first half but to be honest anyone who watched Iowa football the last 10 years probably knew that that first half was gonna suck and I think the nice thing to take take away from that first half was going to suck. And I think the nice thing to take away from that first half
Starting point is 00:02:05 was just the fact that Iowa was doing well. I mean, they were moving the ball well. They were playing solid defense for the most part. There was a few unfortunate timing type of things. They just couldn't get it done when they needed to. But you could tell they're the more superior team, so I was at least happy with that. Yeah, no, I completely agree.
Starting point is 00:02:22 I think it was kind of everyone was getting their legs underneath them. It's the first half, you know, they haven't played for a while. And I think that the team we saw in the second half was going to be the team we're going to see most of the year, which is really exciting to look forward to. I sure hope so, man, because that was, that second half was a lot of fun to watch. But we are going to be covering all of that on today's episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. I want to take care of a few quick housekeeping items. Just a quick reminder, we are doing an interview with Jordan Canzeri that is dropping tomorrow morning. So make sure to tune in on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast tomorrow morning.
Starting point is 00:02:55 If you are not already subscribed to the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast, please do that. Like, review, and subscribe wherever you download this podcast at, whether that is Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or the brand new Himalaya Podcast app. like review and subscribe wherever you download this podcast at, whether that is Google podcasts, Apple podcasts, Spotify, or the brand new Himalaya podcast app. And make sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram this week,
Starting point is 00:03:12 especially we're going to be doing a few new things with Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, doing some live videos, doing some reactions to a couple of things, that sort of stuff. So make sure you are following us there. We also have a great giveaway coming up.
Starting point is 00:03:23 We're going to be announcing some of the details of that over the next couple of days, possibly the next week or so. So stay tuned for that as well. For today's show, we're basically going to be giving you our reactions and our observations from Saturday's game against Miami of Ohio. And then we're going to end the show by giving out our game balls to who we think really performed the best from the Iowa game. And hopefully, I'll be able to make it through this entire 20-minute episode
Starting point is 00:03:47 without my voice cracking too much, but it sounds like it's about to do it. So, Zach, let's jump into it, man. Quick reactions to the game. Are you happy overall with the outcome of the game? Yeah, so going into it, I knew that we should beat them. We're a superior team. I think a couple touchdowns. I mean, like we saw in the articles before we were giving.
Starting point is 00:04:07 Actually, so it started at 21.5 point spread, which I thought was a little high, and then went to 22.5. And then yesterday before the game, I looked at it, and it went to 25. So the betting public and everyone out there obviously thought Iowa was going to destroy Miami. I mean, like we said earlier, I think the first half everyone was kind of getting their legs underneath them. I think that our defense looked a little shaky. I think that the unit that we had out there,
Starting point is 00:04:33 it wasn't really used to playing with each other. There wasn't a whole lot of it just didn't seem everyone was in sync, I guess. So. Iowa S though, to start that way. Yeah. And I knew it wasn't going to be, it wasn't going to be a shootout Oklahoma type. I know we are going to be throwing deep balls right away and running spread. So, but I mean, just right away for like not getting too much into it.
Starting point is 00:04:55 I'm really happy with it. I think that our offense looks different. I think we have some new plays incorporated. I love how we're using the receivers. And I think the second half showed that our defense was going to be one of those top defenses in the big 10 West. So that was really good to see. Absolutely, man. I, I'm going to ask the first half. I was a little frustrated, but I also, like I said, I knew that was going to happen. I just,
Starting point is 00:05:16 I had a feeling they were going to start out slow, but for some reason, unlike other games where I was down a couple of points or whatever, I really felt like I was going to turn it on in the second half and they absolutely did it was an exciting game to watch in that second half and you saw a lot of really good pieces kind of come together um let's kind of start with maybe the the key guy at the top of it nate stanley he had in my opinion a fantastic performance i believe he went 21 of 30 for 252 yards and three touchdowns. Outside of the stat line, though, I thought Stanley had an outstanding performance, man. I really liked watching him play yesterday or on Saturday, excuse me.
Starting point is 00:05:54 I thought his touch was great. He really dropped a few of those balls in those fade routes. I don't really typically like fade routes, but I thought Stanley handled that really well. What were your thoughts coming away from that? Because I saw on Twitter some people were a little bit kind of ragging on Nate Stanley and I'm definitely I've definitely been there before but I thought he had a pretty darn good game for the first game of the year yeah I think that this is going to be a little more pressure on him this game because we did use the wide receiver so much I think a lot of guys got
Starting point is 00:06:24 touches I think it was around 10 guys caught a ball yesterday, which is – Yep, it was 10. Yeah, so he was throwing the ball around a lot. I mean, I think that our offense this year is already – you could see it's kind of – we are running the ball a lot, but we're also incorporating a lot of three-receiver sets, which we haven't really seen a whole lot. But we see it once in a while, but, yeah, last year we did like to use
Starting point is 00:06:44 the two tight end set so it's kind of a little different for nate this year but i think he did i think he did really well i think that minimizing the errors um he didn't take stupid sacks or and he didn't throw any interceptions which was really nice to see wasn't forcing anything and i think that um some of the drops or incompletions we did have i mean mean, some of them were on the other receivers. I know he had a wide open. It could have been like a 40-yard pass to Smith-Marset. He had tons of green in front of him,
Starting point is 00:07:14 and Smith-Marset just dropped it on a third down. And like you said earlier, the fade routes were – I know Brandon Smith caught, I think, a fade route, and so did Oliver Martin. And I think that those are really, really hard to throw because you're going to have to elevate it in a way that's over the DB's head, but also the receiver can make a play over it. And I think that both those passes were dropped in perfectly. I am very critical of Nate Stanley, but I think yesterday he did play really well
Starting point is 00:07:39 and I really don't have much to critique him on. Yeah, I think you said that. You summed that up perfectly, especially those fade routes. You know, you only have a, you know, a quick drop. You don't even really have a lot of time to make other reads kind of make it, you know, prior to the snap. So being able to do all that and drop the ball and perfectly, I think that, you know, that, that was really impressive.
Starting point is 00:07:57 It kind of also ties into another point. You brought up Brandon Smith and we've heard for the last three years about Brandon Smith and how well he has been doing in terms of you know jump balls getting those kind of things there was a stat that pro football focus put out about Brandon Smith saying that he was one of the most elite jump ball receivers in the nation and in the Big Ten and we saw that you know on Saturday night as he kind of manhandled some Miami of Ohio defenders he had two catches in the end zone. The fade routes outjumped the cornerback.
Starting point is 00:08:27 The first one in the corner did a pretty good job of pushing him out. The second one Brandon Smith was able to come down with. But were you excited about Iowa going to Brandon Smith more and kind of feeding him the ball in the red zone? Yeah, I mean, Oliver Martin's not the biggest guy. Smith-Marset's more of a speed, finesse, open field type guy. So I think that Brandon Smith is going to be our big end zone target. Obviously, you saw the athleticism.
Starting point is 00:08:50 He has really good hands. He positions himself really well, too, against the DBs. If you notice, he kind of almost – it's almost kind of like a basketball. He can box them on out, and you kind of get position. And he knows where the ball is going to land, so he knows how to position his body in a way that, you know, he's gonna be able to come up with it. But I mean, it's a new luck offense because Iowa never really had like a big Calvin Johnson type, you know, Keenan Allen, like throw it up in the end zone, Mike Evans will catch
Starting point is 00:09:18 it like type jump ball receiver. We've kind of gotten used to throwing the tight ends, Noah Phan, Hawkinson, doing a lot of stuff like that in the end zone. So I'm really happy because I was a little nervous because, you know, Oliver Martin's a good open field, like I said, Smith-Marset. But we need a big ball, jump ball receiver, and obviously Brandon Smith isn't huge. He isn't 6'5". But as you can see with his frame and crazy athleticism, I mean, he plays like he's 6'5".
Starting point is 00:09:43 So I was really impressed with that, like you said. I completely agree. Yeah, the passing game, I left the game thinking, holy hell, this passing attack is going to be awesome this year. And I'm really excited to see it continue to develop. The fact, like you said, Stanley got the ball to 10 receivers. They were throwing fade routes. Brandon Smith was coming down with that.
Starting point is 00:10:03 I like the fact that Nate Stanley has the confidence to throw those routes to Smith. I felt like it didn't happen nearly enough last year, so I like seeing that this year. Those are some great points. We do have some other things to cover, though. We're going to take a quick break, but we are going to cover on segment number two, probably talk a little bit about Oliver Martin, because that's
Starting point is 00:10:20 something we just have to do. I want to talk about Sargent and his awesome game that he had, and also maybe talk about the A.J. Epinesa stuff. Really kind of had a quiet statistical game. But what was he able to do outside of the stat sheet? But real quick, before we do that, Zach, I have a question for you. Do you play fantasy football or do you play fantasy sports? Yes, I do.
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Starting point is 00:12:01 your ability to participate in paid contests, but if you are able to, make sure to do that right now it is an absolute blast all right we are back with segment number two again just kind of going through our observations and reactions to the Iowa football games performance you know playing Miami of Ohio a great win for the Iowa football team to get that you know first victory of the season before we Before we left and had a couple messages from our sponsors, we were talking about the passing attack. I want to make sure we do talk about Oliver Martin.
Starting point is 00:12:32 Kind of a quiet performance, didn't get into the game until the second half. But, man, that touchdown, I want to hear kind of how you respond to that because that touchdown for me, I lost my crap. I was jumping up and down and yelling. And I don't know why I can't tell if I was just pissed off the NCAA. I couldn't tell if I was mad at Michigan. I couldn't tell if I was excited about Oliver Martin. I don't know what the hell was going through my mind, but I was just so pumped. Um, what were your thoughts when you saw Oliver Martin catch that touchdown pass? Yeah. So I was watching the game. Um, and the,
Starting point is 00:13:02 even the whole, all the people around me i kept saying you know we have this stud receiver alvar martin he's gonna play he's so good he's so good and he didn't play a lot you know nico regan he got a lot tyrone tracy and then i remember seeing that uh number five was on the field and i saw him go up when he threw the fade route and i clicked in my head and right when i clicked in my head that it was him is when he called it. And then I just went absolutely nuts. I was like, that's him. Like I find like, I don't look stupid. Like he's a good receiver. Like he's, he's a playmaker. And then also simultaneously the Michigan game was on the TV next to it.
Starting point is 00:13:36 So I thought it was very poetic. I was so excited about that. So I'm really excited about that. I mean, I think he looks good. They got him the ball twice at two catches. They didn't do anything too crazy. Um, I'm still, I mean, as you've seen, they're kind of rotating and Tyrone, Tracy, Nico and Oliver. Um, and usually like, I'm kind of like, I love Oliver Martin. So I'd make any case for him to get more playing time, but I was actually really impressed between Tracy and he's especially Nico
Starting point is 00:14:03 Reganey. Same. So, I mean, I, I'm, time but i was actually really impressed between tracy and he's especially nico reganey same so i mean i i'm i think nico impressed me the most with his with his kick and punt returning and then his uh his 45 yard catch but i mean i'm telling you it's kind of like an embarrassment of riches as i said before having these three slot receivers who actually really impressed me yeah i'm it's just a weird thing it's a weird situation to be in for the Iowa Hawkeyes. You have five wide receivers and we're not even talking about Max Cooper who played the last year a bit and has been injured. I mean,
Starting point is 00:14:31 this wide receiver core is absolutely fantastic. It was a blasting. I think we're going to see potentially more four and five wide receiver sets this season than we have ever in the past. We also saw Stanley operating from the shotgun and Holy hell. Did you see that read option well i mean i i didn't know what was going on i looked i looked at him and saw him running i'm like oh play must have broken down and then i saw him read like the dn and pull it and i was
Starting point is 00:14:55 like holy crap like he's actually like this is a design and i think it's awesome because uh even i think urban meyer one of the commentators after the game i was was watching the postgame, and they said that, you know, even if you can even have Stanley get in the open field a little and, like, be able to run and be a little athletic, the defense, like, that's another thing that the game planned for. And even when they used to play Iowa, it was like, he's going to stay in the pocket, he's not going to move, so we don't really need to have a spy on him at all.
Starting point is 00:15:20 And like you said, if we start running more of these four-receiver, five-receiver spread type sets, that's going to leave a lot of open room. As you can see in like a lot of the big 12 games, like the Kyler Murray's, when they have all those receivers spread out, you kind of have not as many guys in the middle linebackers kind of cheat to one side. And if you can run the ball and play breaks down, that's the opportunity to get those, you know, 10, 15 yard runs from those quarterbacks.
Starting point is 00:15:44 So if Nate Stanley can do that and opportunity to get those, you know, 10, 15-yard runs from those quarterbacks. So if Nate Stanley can do that and be a little athletic, I mean, that's just another dimension. As you brought up with the receivers, it's not mentioned that Nate Weeding was the starter on the depth chart. That's who we heard about. But Sean Bayer last night was three for 30, which, I mean, 10 yards per catch, like I will take that, like we said. And I think that is another surprising factor.
Starting point is 00:16:04 I didn't know how you thought about that either yeah I mean I the tight end thing I was paying close attention to I thought it was interesting that Drew Cook didn't seem like he got in the field very much um Sean Byer the fact that he got you know three catches I'll take like you said I'll take it I mean if the tight end position can get even like let's say combined 35 catches on the season I think that's fine the fact the wide receiver group did so well though makes me not nearly as worried about the tight end position and honestly i think and just like with the read option i think it makes the iowa offense that much more dynamic because not only do you account for the tight end because iowa does have solid tight
Starting point is 00:16:39 ends sean byer is an athletic guy who can get open but now they have yeah like he looked great and like they have five wide receivers. You know, Nate didn't get an opportunity to really show his pass-catching ability. But so much talent, like I said, an embarrassment of riches. Another one I want to talk about, though, you mentioned kind of opening some lanes potentially for, you know, Sargent. I thought he had a great game. And statistically it was fantastic.
Starting point is 00:17:03 But I loved his vision and patience there was one run where he kind of sidestepped into the line let the linebacker close in and then juked around him and I lost it and my buddy he's a Nebraska guy was at the bar with us and he was like wow that was one of the most impressive runs he'd ever seen you know not just Iowa not college football just ever in his life that was what he did to manipulate the linebacker was uh truly remarkable I want to get your thoughts on you know on Sargent's day yeah wow I mean I didn't expect I knew Sargent was a good runner but the receiving was out of nowhere I mean yeah I he had from from scrimmage he had over 100 yards receiving and rushing in the
Starting point is 00:17:45 first half like i think that's like i didn't expect an iowa guy to have that because usually you usually have these iowa guys like a you have like a wadley lashawn daniels type where one guy can get 100 yards on the ground and one guy can get you know like 70 yards through the air right like for receiving but having a guy like mckay be able to do both um and then like having like the thunder and lightning with Torn Young like being able to like like bully through the line and like he's a good downhill runner I mean Makai Sargent actually is it was probably I think I was more impressed with Makai Sargent than Nate Stanley Nate really well but I did not expect him to come into this role like this and I also read a post-game interview with him and he said that this year he put a lot more work in because he felt like last year he was
Starting point is 00:18:30 kind of relying on his athleticism during the games but this year he said he studied the playbook a lot knows his reads know where to go like knows the defense so I mean combining his crazy athleticism with the smartness or the more intelligence he has with the offense and the schemes and kind of where the defense is going to be, I think that he will be a scary side for the Big Ten teams we'll play. Yeah, man, if I'm a Big Ten opponent, if I'm Rutgers next week, I'm a lot more worried about Iowa's running game than I was before. Speaking of the running game, though,
Starting point is 00:19:02 one thing we have to cover is the Alaric Jackson injury. It was unfortunate. You never want to see an injury, and you never want to see an injury to one of your best players. He went down with an apparent knee injury, saw him on crutches at the end of the game. We're waiting on him to get word back on this, and we'll probably do maybe an Instagram Live feed based on what we hear back from the Larrick Jackson knee injury. Sounds like he's getting an MRI. Could be a sprain, could be a tear. That's a big difference in this season. And if he is unable to go, that's a huge blow to the Hawkeyes' offensive line.
Starting point is 00:19:37 But I do think in the game, they played pretty well. Mark Kallenberger did a great job of filling in for Jackson. Tristan Wirth moved over to the left side. Do you have any quick thoughts on that? Yeah, I mean, obviously it sucks. Like, he is, you know, coming into the year, the top three draft prospect. He's going to be a late first round, second round pick. Him and Wirth were supposed to be the two big boys on our offensive line. We're supposed to kind of be the anchors for offensive line, you know.
Starting point is 00:20:04 Because Iowa, you know, they always are known for having good linemen. You know, we need that for trying to get the running game. If we want to protect Stanley, like that was – those two guys felt like a very unfair advantage we had over a lot of teams. And I felt like that put us in a good spot, just having the confidence with our offensive line. But, I mean, when he went down, I was really upset.
Starting point is 00:20:25 But I was even more impressed, I guess, how we didn't even skip a beat offensively. And, like, I literally think we scored more points after he went out of the game, which could be accredited to a multitude of things. But, I mean, it also was Miami of Ohio, so we have to take that into consideration. But, I mean, I think we look pretty good without him. Obviously, we need him and we want him. But, I mean, it's kind of the next man up mentality, right?
Starting point is 00:20:50 So I think that just shows that Iowa does such a good job of grooming these guys to, hey, be ready regardless no matter what. Because I think the guy that stepped in, like you said, did really well. Yeah, you made a good point, you know, the next man up mentality. And the next man up is not some Joe Schmo. Mark Kallenberger was a top 400 recruit, four-star recruit out of bettendorf he's a redshirt sophomore he's been groomed for this the only reason why he's not getting on the freaking field is because you have two first round tackles there so kallenberger is a good player i bet he could
Starting point is 00:21:19 probably start for the majority of big 10 teams even though he's a backup on the iowa hawkeyes the last thing i want to cover though before we jump into some, you know, messages from our sponsors and go into segment number three, though, is A.J. Epinesa. One of the things I was really excited about coming into this game was how well the defensive line would do. And I think as a unit, they performed very well. A.J. Epinesa did a great job as well.
Starting point is 00:21:42 Statistically, he had just one tackle in his assisted tackle but i think what i wanted to kind of cover here is just letting our listeners know that don't read too much into that he was getting double teamed triple teamed chip blocked i mean he never had an opportunity to just have free reign at the passer but because of that he was able to open up other opportunities like amani jones sack so um it's it's one of those interesting things i think iowa needs to do a better job maybe he was able to open up other opportunities like Imani Jones sack so it's it's one of those interesting things I think Iowa needs to do a better job maybe scheming AJ Epinesa into
Starting point is 00:22:09 some better matchups but his presence on the field is very evident by how well everyone else can do their job basically yeah I mean look coming into the game, the biggest factor is for Shai, even Joel Klatt, he did a breakdown of his top five Big Ten players, and he had A.J. at number five. And he even expressed – he said in his diagnostic about it that he knows A.J. Epinesa is a huge talent. He's very good. But he was just curious to see how he would do this year being in that starter role
Starting point is 00:22:45 when you are the center of attention teams are scheming towards you. You're getting the double teams. You're seeing a lot more of the attention. So, I mean, I'm not going to, I think everyone overreacting needs to take it easy. I mean,
Starting point is 00:23:01 first game. Relax. Yeah, like they're smart enough. These coaches are a million times smarter than us and the average fan watching that they know. It's not new to them that A.J. Epinesa had assisted tackle. That's it. They know they're going to have to scheme them. They're going to have to move them around.
Starting point is 00:23:16 They're going to have to pull up some different sets in order to make the most out of him. But, you know what I'm saying, he was a role player last year who no one really knew about and he is athletically and talently has an advantage over 95 percent of anyone they've played so this year when he gets the double team it's a little different it's kind of like in the NBA when you have a six man coming off the bench so you don't really scheme for him and he drops 25 points and then he becomes a starter it's a little different because now
Starting point is 00:23:42 you're getting the full attention so I think everyone needs to relax they'll they'll figure it out they're smart obviously obviously iowa phil parker and the the whole defensive coordinators they know what they're gonna have to do so i'm not worried about that at all couldn't agree more man well hey real quick we're gonna jump into and do our game balls here before um in segment number three before we jump to the break though i want to remind our listeners about No House Advantage. Like we were talking about before we jumped into segment number two, No House Advantage is taking an exciting new spin on daily fantasy sports. Instead of salary cap drafting,
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Starting point is 00:25:47 We're back with segment number three. We're going to hand out our game balls and then close out the show. Zach, I figured we'd each do two game balls and just kind of give a quick rundown of why we're handing out those game balls. We might have the same. We might not. Would you like to go first or do you want me to go first? I can start it off. So my first game ball, I'm going to go first uh i could start it off so um my first game ball um i'm gonna go towards the
Starting point is 00:26:07 defensive side um well yeah so i was really impressed with our linebackers i think they did a really good job um i think we racked a lot of tackles that game but my game wasn't to go to colbert uh he was all over the place eight total eight tackles, six – no, eight total tackles, six solo. He had a tackle for a loss, a pass defense. He was all over the field. I was really impressed with his unit and Colbert in general. Even Welch did a really good job as well. I was nervous going into the year.
Starting point is 00:26:39 We don't have those big-time names like the Josie Jewels and things like that. But it just shows you, like I said before it is the next man up every year these guys are getting groomed they're practicing they're practicing against great Iowa talent with our offensive line and our offense so they're just getting better and better and it's kind of iron iron iron sharpening iron in the sense where they're going against one of the best offensive lines um in the Big Ten so they're just getting better and better and we show that they showed at this game I think Colbert had a great game he's playing like he had his head cut off he was a wild man um i loved it um and he's definitely my defensive player of the game i love man well i'm gonna stick i'm gonna
Starting point is 00:27:13 give out my two game balls and then give you the last say on this i'm going offensive on both of these i think sergeant you know i loved his game as we've talked about already i don't need to go too much into it, but man, the guy had 14 carries for 91 yards, a 6.5 yard per carry clip, a touchdown on that four receptions for 65 yards. I loved his game. My second game ball is going to Nate Stanley. And I think this might just be me kind of overcompensating for how much I kind of got pissed off at Nate Stanley last year.
Starting point is 00:27:41 I think Nate Stanley has a lot of talent, but there's just so many things that really frustrated me like one or two plays every single game that just pissed me off um and just like the accuracy was always bugging me but dude he had a great game 70 completion percentage that's the second highest in a single game of his career the only other time he did higher was against northern iowa so a not even a aBS school. And, you know, did a great job. 21 or 30, 252 yards, three touchdowns, a QBR of 82.8. He also had 20 yards on the ground, had that 16 yard scramble on that read option. I, but most of all what impressed me was his poise in the pocket,
Starting point is 00:28:19 his ability to kind of move around in the pocket. The fact that he added another element to his game, that little, you know, that rushing was fantastic. He's not, you know, he's not going to be Kyler Murray out there, but like you said, just getting some of those yards was huge. But I actually really liked his touch. I thought his touch throughout the game was great. He could have even had a better day had some of his guys caught some balls,
Starting point is 00:28:38 as you alluded to earlier. But I thought he did a great job of commanding the offense, and it got me really pumped for this year. It basically showed me that it looked like he actually has been working on and improving some of his weak areas. So it'll be a good thing to keep monitoring as we continue throughout the season. Zach, who was your final game ball, though? Yeah, so as we talked about in NARVA, this whole podcast, the guy's urgent.
Starting point is 00:29:02 I mean, everything you said is the exact reason. I mean, having a dual threat running back like him being able to run the ball, run between the tackles, make defenders miss, and also catch it out of the backfield, it's so hard. I mean, Jonathan Taylor, the running back for Wisconsin, this year, as you could see last year, he was an amazing running back and needed most of his work out of the backfield, didn't catch many passes but this uh when i will play it i'm pretty sure not i will wisconsin just played usf on saturday um i'm pretty i was on friday night on friday night
Starting point is 00:29:34 when they played usf i'm pretty sure he caught two touchdowns and when when you're running back is it not you don't have to have the game plan for him receiving the ball and you have to kind of shadow him and have a guy on him at all times that brings such another dimension to your offense and just takes another defender out of the picture and just has another person they're focusing their attention on so having a guy being able to do both and having over 150 yards uh combined receiving and rushing is awesome it's huge i mean i'm used to iowa having the one back who's kind of shifty that catches the ball and the one back that um can kind of ground and pound which Torn Young can ground and pound he had a great game but there's Makai Sargent being able to do both and kind of do
Starting point is 00:30:12 everything is just something that I think is going to be very valuable as our team and I think it's gonna be really hard to uh game plan against for any defense couldn't agree more man um but that does it for our show today that was again it was just a great great weekend Iowa Hawkeye football is back which is just exciting we're going to be covering Iowa Hawkeye football the rest of the week as well getting you prepared for the Rutgers game we do have the interview with Jordan Canzeri tomorrow and it'll kick off our Rutgers coverage after that if you did like what you heard today make sure to like review and subscribe wherever you download this podcast at and follow us on Twitter Facebook and, and Instagram. We're going to be debuting some live video type of stuff as some news comes out this
Starting point is 00:30:48 week, the Larrick Jackson injury and other things like that. We appreciate you all tuning in on this beautiful Monday morning episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Have a fantastic day, Hawkeye Nation, and go Hawks. One and O, baby. 1-0 baby

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