Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Michael Ojemudia continues stellar rookie season | Iowa releases Purdue depth chart | Can the Hawk's secondary contain Purdue's WRs?

Episode Date: October 21, 2020

Iowa Hawkeye rookies have big weeks in the NFL this week led by Michael Ojemudia who could be making a case for the NFL All-Rookie team this year. We also got the Purdue depth chart. What questions were answered and what questions remain from the depth chart situation and what the key matchups in the game vs Purdue. Can Iowa finally stop the Purdue wide receivers?Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order.BuiltGoVisit BuiltGO.com and use promo code “LOCKED,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back Hawkeye Nation to another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I am your host Andrew Wade, and I'm excited to be back again to talk to you about Iowa football. On yesterday's show, we did talk a lot about the lawsuit and kind of my thoughts on that. So if you're interested in that, make sure to check that out. On today's show, though, we're getting back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Obviously, as anything else comes out about the lawsuit, I'll make sure to cover that. And I have a special surprise for you because we are releasing two episodes a day. That's right, this one in the morning and an afternoon episode. On this morning show though, we're going to talk about the depth chart, the reaction to that. We're going to talk about the NFL and what games happened across the NFL and how the Iowa Hawkeyes did there. And then we're going to give you kind of a breakdown of what to expect from the show going forward. As I said, we're kind of putting in a new cadence for the show. I want to give you an idea of what to expect during football season so you can kind of have an idea there.

That will all be covered on today's show. The afternoon show, though, we're going to break down the press conference that happened yesterday with some of the Iowa football players and Kirk Ferentz, talk about the storylines heading into the game and some of the key matchups. On Thursday, we're giving you a crossover episode with a Purdue alum who covers college football. We're going to be talking to him about Purdue. And then finally on Friday, we're going to be giving you that game time information you

need, talking about betting odds and then giving our predictions. So let's jump into it though. Let's go to the NFL breakdown first because a lot of stuff happened across the weekend for Iowa football players. Broncos versus Patriots. James Ferentz not playing. He was on the COVID-19 list. Noah Fant injured. should be back next week

but Michael Ojemudia continues to show out for the Denver Broncos had a fantastic day graded out 88.6 for PFF, which was the best of all rookie corners this season, 7 tackles 2 forced fumbles, 1 pass defended and what really impressed me

was the fact that Denver is doing a lot of man coverage, and Michael Ojemudia wasn't strong in that area coming past defended. And what really impressed me was the fact that Denver is doing a lot of man coverage and Michael Ojemudia wasn't strong in that area coming into the NFL. He's getting better and you can see the defense thrive because of him. One of the reasons why the secondary did so well is because Michael Ojemudia has come into his own as a starter, as a third round cornerback. A lot of people weren't very happy about that selection, but he has been playing superb. I would honestly say he can maybe be on the all-rookie team at the end of this year. That's how well he's playing.

Josie Jewell also had a solid day with six tackles. The Chiefs versus Bills. Chiefs took down the Bills, but the Bills finally moved the ball a little bit better when Ike Bucker got on the offensive side of the ball, played nine snaps on offense, has been playing a little bit more the last two games, so maybe we're seeing a little bit of a transition there. Also, AJ Peneza, after getting benched last week for two false starts, got more playing time, 30% of the defensive snaps he took had one tackle. Ben Neiman, 18 snaps, three tackles. Anthony Hitchens, 35 snaps. Five tackles. One quarterback hit.

Rams vs. 49ers. Austin Blythe continues his fantastic season. Did allow a sack, but as always played 100% of the snaps. George Kittle, seven catches for 109 yards and one touchdown. And C.J. Beathard did not play despite false reports coming out from a lot of different sources. Jimmy G played. Had a pretty good game against the Rams. We could probably quiet that C.J. Beathard talk there. Packers vs. Bucs. Josh Jackson has been getting more playing time after not seeing hardly any playing time earlier on in the season.

Played every single defensive snap against the Bucs. Had six tackles, but did have a pretty crucial pass interference in the end zone. Just didn't even get his head around, so not playing well. He is currently grading out at a 43.3, which is well below average according to PFF. Christian Kirksey, still out. Anthony Nelson, 15 snaps, 2 tackles. And Tristan Wirfs had a fantastic day, graded out at 77 according to PFF. Another good game for the rookie. Zero hits allowed, zero quarterback pressures, zero quarterback hurries, no sacks.

Wirfs doing a fantastic job this season. Ravens vs. Eagles. Geno Stone did get released, as we talked about, but Christian Welch got activated to the active roster, had one tackle and 24 snaps on special teams. Love to see that happen for Christian Welch. A very much-deserved opportunity for him. Texans vs. Titans.

Imani Hooker, 16 snaps, one tackle. Continue having a solid season for a second-year player. I expect more from him next Texans vs. Titans Imani Hooker, 16 snaps, 1 tackle continue having a solid season for a second year player. I expect more from him next year though. And then moving on to the Falcons vs. Vikings, Riley Reif continues to put himself in that trade conversation as the Vikings suck and his stock keeps rising with a more

manageable cap hit. Jaleel Johnson, 48 snaps, finally got a sack, a half a sack, and 2 tackles. In the Washington football team's game versus the Giants, we finally saw Brandon Sheriff. He was activated from the IR, started at right guard, had an up-and-down game, all things considered, struggled a little bit in run blocking, but good to see him back on the field.

Lions versus Jaguars, TJ Hawkinson, two receptions, 17 yards, one touchdown. Only played 60% of the offensive snaps. I didn't get to watch a lot of this game. So I'm going to go back to the tape and see kind of what was going on there, why he wasn't in. The whole idea of drafting a tight end like TJ Hawkinson is that you get a blocking tight end who can catch the ball well. So why isn't he playing every single snap or at least close to every single snap? I think that's absolutely ridiculous and a bad use of your former top 10 tight end pick. But whatever, I'm not the coach of the Lions.

Browns versus Steelers, Adrian Claiborne graded out at a 60 according to PFF in 19 snaps and had no actual statistics recorded. So that's what happened across the NFL for the Iowa Hawkeye alums. Coming up on segment number two, we're going to hop into that depth chart. We finally got a depth chart. Seems like there were a few mistakes from the original one that was was released so we're going to break down that and what to expect from that on segment number two before we get into that though I want to remind you that the great folks at rockauto.com give you a much easier option for finding all the car part needs that you have because rockauto.com is a family

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responsibly. All right. We are back for segment number two of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast, breaking down that depth chart for the Iowa Hawkeyes podcast, breaking down that depth chart for the Iowa Hawkeyes. And the one thing I want to remind people is the depth chart does change week to week, and we're going to get that depth chart every single week. We're going to break down the changes there. To be honest, there were no real surprises on the

offensive side of the ball. The offensive line did get reshuffled a little bit from what it was originally put out as. That's okay. That's fine. Not a big deal. Honestly, what happened when it came out was what I actually expected to happen when they initially released it. It sounds like they made some mistakes on that depth chart, but great to see that. One of the big storylines for that offensive line, though, is Cole Bamwert, currently listed as a starter. He's battled with injuries.

He was a guy who I wasn't sure if he was going to get into that starting lineup as he was battling, you know, with a Mark Kallenberger, who is now listed as the backup to Coy Cronk. Also, Coy Cronk listed as that starting right tackle. Again, we lost Tristan Wirfs, but we have two fantastic tackles. Two guys with multiple years of starting level experience in the Big Ten. At right guard, we got Kyler Schott. Tyler Linderbaum, of course, takes that center spot. And as I said, Cole Banwer at left guard.

Across the board on the offensive side of the ball, though, no big changes. But on the defensive side of the ball, the defensive line got a little bit different. We have Chauncey Golsan at that left end position. Davia Nixon, of course, taking that left defensive tackle spot. Austin Schulte winning that right defensive tackle spot. And then Zach Van Valkenburg, a D2 transfer, won that right end spot. Joe Evans is listed as his backup. Obviously, the one thing to keep in mind here is that while those are the starters, Phil Parker does like to rotate guys in and out quite a bit. So any of those guys listed on the two deeps and probably a few others are going to

get playing time, especially early on in the season. So expect them to rotate quite a bit. So any of those guys listed on the two deeps and probably a few others are going to get playing time, especially early on in the season. So expect them to rotate quite a bit, especially seeing Jack Heflin, Noah Shannon, John Wagner. Those are guys I expect to see play quite a bit. And then Joe Evans in passing situations, which actually leads me to my next point. Right now, as we knew, the cash position only has one person

because they're listing it as a Leo slash cash. Barrington Wade as the Leo, Dane Belton as the cash, but Dane Belton is also listed as the starting safety. Well, Iowa is playing Purdue this week and Purdue likes to spread the ball out. They like to go three, four, five wide and chuck the ball all over the field. So unlike last year where we saw Iowa kind of work into a cash situation because they didn't really need to early on, we're going to see it happen right away. But what happens? Does Dane Belton play cash and we see Sebastian Castro take over that strong safety

position? Or do we see Dane Belton keep the safety position and then see a Riley Moss or a Julius Brents slide into the cash position. I honestly don't have an opinion either way. I'd be surprised, though, if you want to get your best players on the field. For me, from an experience standpoint, that's Julius Brents and Riley Moss. Riley Moss is listed as the starting corner, so we could see Riley or Julius slide into that cash role. Dane Belton stayed back at that strong safety role. Now you're getting your most experienced corners and defensive backs

on the field. Riley Moss is a guy who I've actually thought could probably play safety and probably should be at safety, but he's done well at corner. They're going to get a big test, though, this weekend playing Purdue, having to go against Rondell Moore and David Bell every year for the last three years. I mean, Purdue has just torched Iowa's defense. So that'll be interesting. And along with that

passing attack and how we match up against it, it moved into the linebacker spot where Jack Campbell won that middle linebacker spot, Nick Neiman at that weak side linebacker spot. But it sounds like Jack Campbell might be out heading into this weekend. So what happens here? Nick Neiman probably is going to slide over. It sounds like that based off his press conference, which leaves former four-star recruit Justin Jacobs, who could be getting a start. Keep in mind that linebacker position probably isn't going to be getting a lot of time just because they are going to spread the ball out quite a bit.

But Justin Jacobs, an athletic freak at that linebacker position, we could see him get some good playing time. It was mentioned as well during the press conference, which we'll obviously get to on our bonus episode for today, that it sounds like Justin Jacobs is definitely expected to be in the game, and we could also see true freshman Jay Higgins tackling machine. He could also be in the game as well, possibly on special teams. That linebacker position is definitely going to take some time to get that figured out.

We've seen that across the board the last couple of years. Where at linebacker, they're moving things around a little bit to figure out what makes the most sense. Definitely against Purdue, the biggest thing is going to be making sure they're making the right adjustments. Depending on what Purdue does, they are breaking in a new offensive coordinator. They're breaking in a new defensive coordinator. So it's a little bit more difficult to understand how their scheme is going to look. And with Jeff Brom having COVID and being out, he ends play calling duties over to Brian Brom.

How does that affect things? We're going to talk about that on our bonus episode today. But that really does impact what that depth chart looks like and what that rotation looks like for the secondary and the linebacker group. Defensive line should be about the same from week to week, but the secondary and linebacker group is going to be the hit the hardest this week, depending on what Purdue ultimately does. So that'll be one of the big storylines I'm honestly continuing to watch as we get closer and closer to game time. I'm just hoping at this point that our secondary can hold up against

Purdue's passing attack, which by the way, we don't know what quarterback is going to be at the helm for Purdue. Sounds like they're keeping that a secret. Want to have a competitive advantage. Do whatever you want, I guess. But that is the depth chart breakdown. Coming up on segment number three, we're

going to get into expectations going forward. What the cadence of the show is going to look like. So you have an idea of what to expect going forward for the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. We are back for our third and our final segment of our first episode today. As I said, bonus episode coming tomorrow or today, I should say, sorry, this afternoon, but what to expect going forward. We've been trying to pump out a lot of content for you on the show over the last couple of months,

despite not having a lot of things to talk about. I feel like we've done a pretty good job, but now with football season, we're going to get into a more regularly scheduled cadence that you can come to expect. So on Mondays, we're going to be breaking down the previous week's game and I'm still working on a surprise.

I might have a few former Iowa football players or one in particular be joining me every single Monday to give you that player reaction because I think that's really important to see not just what I see, but also what a former Iowa Hawkeye football player sees. That's one of the things we're going to be working on doing every single Monday. On Tuesdays, we're going to get that depth chart on Monday afternoon, so we're going to be breaking that down and dive into some of the things that this team needs to improve coming into the next week and then give you that NFL breakdown because every single Tuesday,

we want to break down what awesome stuff the Iowa Hawkeyes are doing across the NFL because there are a lot of that. Tuesday afternoons, Kirk Ferentz speaks to the media. So we're going to be doing that. We're going to talk about his press conference, talk about the injuries that we could see this week and how that impacts the game, and then also the main headlines. So what is happening?

That's kind of what we're doing today. Thursday, we're going to our crossover episodes. Every single Thursday, we're going to be talking to the host or an expert covering the team that we are playing. There's quite a few hosts on the Lockdown Big Ten Network. I say Lockdown Sports Network covering the Big Ten. So we're going to be talking to them. And if we don't have them on the show, we're going to be talking to another expert that we can get.

And then on Friday, we're giving you those game notes, the betting lines, the predictions. That's what you can expect from the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast coming forward. That's what's going to be happening on the show. And like I said, one of the big things I want to cover as far as headlines go into this game is what happens with Jeff Brom and his play calling. He has been very good about destroying Iowa's defense, mostly by just giving his offense plenty of opportunities, throwing the ball consistently. Iowa has had the most trouble stopping Purdue, which is ironic considering all the other teams they play across the Big Ten. Purdue is the one that gives them the most headaches. And this year, they have Rondell Moore and David Bell.

Last year, they torched Iowa with David Bell. They didn't do as good of a job, but Rondell Moore is a first-round pick at wide receiver. That is going to be a tough challenge for Iowa. So what does that play call look like? Do they continue to be pretty aggressive? And can Iowa's secondary stop that wide receiver group? That's a matchup we'll be talking about later today as well. From an Iowa standpoint, Iowa moves on from Nate Stanley.

You now have Spencer Petras coming in. What can he do? It sounds like Iowa's very high on Spencer Petras, a natural-born leader of what his teammates are calling him. I seem to agree based on what I've seen from him as well. He's had quite a bit of experience, despite only being a redshirt sophomore coming into the season. I'm excited to see him play. And one of the things that might be aiding him is the fact that Iowa is looking at expanding how their run game works. They've struggled to move the ball in the run game and that's how Iowa's

offense is set up. So what are they going to do? It seems like against USC, they were able to exploit the edges quite a bit and utilize their speed with Amir Smith-Marsfett it's not just him though that's an athletic phenomenon you could also there's a lot of things you can do with the amount of talent they have with that running back position and the wide receiver position you could have Tyler Goodson and

Makai Sargent line up in the backfield split out Tyler Goodson wide and then have him come around on the end of the round. You're getting that speed and elusiveness from the running back position and getting them in an interesting position from a defensive perspective. So those are some of the storylines I'm watching, especially that run game, because if Iowa can get defenses on their toes by creating an edge game to the running attack, that will open up the inside for a Tyler Goodson, for a Makai Sargent, for an Ivory Kelly Martin.

And it will also stop defenders, especially those defensive ends. If you're seeing an Amir Smith-Marset trying to do a jet sweep and Spencer Petras does a play action on that jet sweep, now you just froze the defensive end. That gives Spencer Petras more time to throw to a wide-open Iowa receiver, hopefully. So that is also one of the storylines I'm looking at. And then the last one is when does Iowa bust out the cash? How quickly do they get to that?

Do they just open up like that? Because I do believe Purdue is breaking in a new offensive coordinator, a new defensive coordinator, or I should say a new play caller at offense. It is going to be tough for them from an Iowa standpoint to know what to expect a new defensive coordinator, or I should say a new play caller at offense. It is going to be tough for them from an Iowa standpoint to know what to expect, but you've got to think they're going to come out throwing the ball. Iowa probably will open up the game in that 4-2-5 with that cash position. That's my expectations, although we've seen them take a little bit of time to get into that.

You saw it against Iowa State. They didn't play the cash position right away, even though Iowa State was spreading them out. So what does Iowa do? I think as long as they feel comfortable with it, they're going to obviously own that cash position quite quickly. But those are some of the headlines, the storylines for me that I'm looking at watching during the Iowa Hawkeye game against Purdue. Coming up on the bonus episode, we're going to be breaking down the news and notes from Kirk Ferentz's press conference and then getting into the key matchups in that game. We already talked a little bit about the wide receivers from Purdue against the secondary,

but did you know that one of the key matchups actually is in the kick return department? Can Rondell Moore out-duel Amir Smith-Marset? What about George Karlaftis, strong defensive end for the Purdue Boilermakers? How does he handle the Iowa tackles, The combo of tackles that has a combined, I mean, almost 70 starts in the Big Ten, which is pretty darn impressive. Those are the matchups I'm curious about as well. So we're going to talk about that later on today in our bonus episode. I hope you're tuning in for both.

I hope you appreciated the bonus episode. Again, I apologize for not getting you an episode Monday. I had some friends in town and then obviously had a really big day at work today when I'm recording on Tuesday afternoon. So I wasn't able to get all the episodes out that I wanted to, but we're going to give you two episodes today, starting with this morning one and then giving you a bonus one later today. So tune into that.

If you did tune in for the first time, you want to listen to that episode, just subscribe wherever you downloaded the podcast. So that was downloaded directly to your phone or your smart device or whatever it may be. And as always, Hawkeye Nation, have a fantastic Wednesday, and let's go Hawks.