Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - NFL Draft Scout Matt Miller joins the show to talk about Iowa draft prospects, his love of Brad Banks, and why Casey's is the best

Episode Date: January 17, 2021

We are honored to be joined by NFL Draft Scout Matt Miller, formerly of Bleacher Report and now with his own website TheDraftScout.com, to talk about the Iowa Hawkeyes. We discuss Daviyon Nixon's rise and how Miller first heard about the former Juco product, why you always need to evaluate any tight end, offensive lineman, and linebacker that comes from Iowa, and why Brad Banks is one of the most underrated players of all-time in college football. We wrap up with some lighthearted discussion on Casey's pizza and Busch Light.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus. 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 your bonus 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 if you tuned in to our Friday morning episode, you know what's coming today. We are honored to be joined by Matt Miller for our show today, and I wanted to give this to you because we missed out on a couple episodes last week.

We're a little delayed on the Monday episode. We weren't able to put together a Thursday episode as the Iowa-Michigan State game got postponed, and I didn't have any other content to cover at that late in the game. And didn't want to put together something poor for you all. So here we are. We have Matt Miller on the show today. Before we get into that. Please make sure to like, review, and subscribe.

Wherever you downloaded this podcast at. Give us that five star review if you like it. Let us know what you love about it. If you don't like it. Also let us know that as well. And follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can find us at LockedOnIowa on Twitter and obviously LockedOnHawkeyes everywhere else.

With that being said, I don't want to delay this anymore. Let's hop into this fantastic draft episode, talking to Matt Miller, formerly of Bleacher Report and Stick to Football, now of the Draft Scout and Two Guys, A Girl, and a Pod. Matt Miller, one of the best in the game, is joining us right now. Alright, I'm honored, and a Pod. Matt Miller, one of the best in the game, is joining us right now.

All right, I'm honored to be joined here by Matt Miller, formerly of Bleacher Report and the Stick to Football podcast. Now he hosts Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pod, and also has his own website that you can subscribe to for $7 every single month or $70 a year, thedraftscout.com. And you have some awesome stuff going for that. But Matt, first off and first and foremost, how are you doing today? I'm doing great, man. I appreciate you making time for me. I always have to give love to those

Iowa Hawkeyes because I spent so many years with Matt Bowen attached at the hip, basically traveling for Bleacher Report. So I've watched more Iowa football than any non-Iowa fan in the world, thanks to that guy. That's what I love to hear. I think you probably realize this with Matt, but anyone who's an Iowa fan or went to Iowa or was an athlete at Iowa, they absolutely love their Iowa Hawkeyes more so than I feel like a lot of other players love their school. Oh, absolutely. And there's such a culture there of, you know, offensive linemen and tight ends and just smash mouth old school football. As Bowen would say, just, you know, drinking Bud Heavies and playing old school football. ball, as Bowen would say, just drinking Bud Heavies and playing old school football. So I do.

Being a Missouri guy, very, very close to what y'all have done up there in Iowa. And it's been fun to watch for sure. Absolutely. And you actually get into my first point of this is you always talk about scouting the player, not the helmet. However, with Iowa, they have a penchant for developing tight ends and offensive linemen and even some tight ends and offensive linemen, and even some tight offensive linemen who may be our UDFA type prospects. When you see a tight end that's graduating from Iowa or an offensive lineman that's graduating from Iowa, not named Tristan Wirfs, Noah Phan, et cetera, do you typically take a second look at those guys just to see,

is there something that I'm missing or have they developed a little more than maybe we realize? Yeah, I think so. You're right. One of my, I think, catchphrases is scout the player, not the helmet. And that's more so don't expect Justin Fields to be Dwayne Haskins, right? Or don't say Michigan's never produced a quarterback. Forget this Tom Brady guy, right? You have to, you have to get away from some of the stereotypes of the school. Some stereotypes exist for a reason. And I think with Iowa, one of those is that you are going to get well-coached, highly developed, technically proficient players. And that's a credit to Kirk Behrens. It's a credit to the coaching staff that's been there for so long. And so that's what I look at and say, OK, with an Iowa player, you can assume some things about that player.

And I still have to do the work to double check it. But with an Iowa player on the offensive line, you can assume they're well-coached. Their technique's going to be great. Their strength and conditioning is going to be where you want it to be. They're not going to be deficient in any of those areas. So you do, again, you have to do the work. But a lot of times, and it's the same for other schools, you know, an Alabama corner, you're going to expect that corner to be able to do certain things because they've been coached by Nick Saban. An Oklahoma quarterback, you're going to expect certain things

because of Lincoln Riley. And so I think with Iowa, you guys do have a couple standout positions. And I would even say linebackers in there as well over the past decade where it's offensive line, tight end and linebacker. You have to really, you have to give those guys almost a bump because you know, they're going to be well coached. You know, they're going to play hard. They're going to be, they're going to be selfless players. And, you know, I was still way too low on George Kittle back in the day, but I was pretty high on George Kittle compared to where the rest of the league wasn't. And that was one reason was because here's a,

he was a player who was an elite athlete and he was coming from a program that is known for developing that position. So I feel like we should maybe take a closer look at this guy who's really, uh, maybe, you know, from a production standpoint, didn't shine, but he had everything else going for him. Absolutely. And so you talk about the tight end position, offensive line and linebacker. Another position I might want to consider there is defensive back, but actually for the opposite reason. So we've had a lot of success

from a defensive back perspective at the college level. Desmond King, Josh Jackson, Amani Hooker, help Gino Stone, and even Michael Ojemudia all have made it to the NFL, but every single time they go out,

there's always question marks about their speed and what kind of coverage they're playing, which is typically their eyes are facing the quarterback. They're not really doing a lot of man coverage. Is that also a concern from a defensive back perspective with some of those Iowa defensive backs? It is, and that's not just an Iowa thing. That's not unique to the Hawkeyes.

That's any school that's playing a lot of zone coverage in college. You knock those guys a little bit. Last year with Jeff Okuda coming out of Ohio state, it was the same thing was, well, he hasn't played a lot of man. Does he have the speed to do it? And then on the other side of that, you get schools like Florida who they get a bump because they play so much man coverage. So some of it is just, you know, it's cyclical. The NFL goes through trends of what they want, what they don't want. You know, when, when the Seattle defense is what's trendy, everybody wants that big Michael Ojemudia zone corner type, right? When it's not, when it's all about man coverage and Jalen Ramsey,

well, we'd rather have a guy who runs a 4-3 and a 6-1-2-0-5. Needless to say, there aren't many of those, right? It's harder to find. So it is just kind of a cycle. And I do think with Iowa, you could say – I mean, outside of quarterback probably, you could say this about Iowa is that a lot of those day three players, and you mentioned several there, they are just really well-developed in college.

So while they might not hit those athletic markers where you say, okay, I'm Monty Hooker, he's not even a second or third-round pick, but now he's starting in the NFL. And Michael Ojemudia had a really good rookie year for the Denver Broncos. I was at a game against the Chiefs where he was making every tackle. And so even while he has struggled a little bit in coverage against Tyree Kill, who hasn't, you know, I think there's a bright future for players like that where, and it's because that foundation that they established at Iowa where, okay, you're not coming in having to learn

how to be a professional. You're not having to learn how to lift weights. You're not having to learn how to break down film. You can pull that player in and get them up to speed a little faster. Absolutely. Just talking to all the bonus points about drafting an Iowa Hawkeye. So let's, let's focus on Michael Ojemudia there for a second. Cause he was at the senior bowl last year, kind of a late invite. I don't, I'm, I'm assuming you're a lot closer to the situation, but I'm assuming he wasn't on the initial invite list. A couple people dropped out. Ojemudia shows up and maybe this is me being biased but I thought he played pretty well given the fact that corners aren't really in a position of power at the senior bowl doing a lot of one-on-one drills um did Michael Ojemudia stand out to you at all during

the senior bowl he did and it was from a ability to press it was that he was very physical last year's wide receiver group of the senior bowl was very fast you know it was a lot of quick guys and that was one thing that stood out you know I have a small group and we all travel and scout together and that was the thing number one the Iowa helmet stands out because again Matt Bowen's usually sitting there yelling at you to watch the Iowa guys uh and with Ojemudia it's it's okay uh you're getting a one-on-one because corners at the senior bowl you're just you're that's what you do there's no zone coverage right it's just let's go evaluate you as an athlete and so with Ojemudia I think that was the first time that he

stood out was, you know, watching him against some of those faster receivers on breaking routes. It's like, okay, he's physical enough. He's coming through the route. He's attacking the ball. He uses his length really well. And I do, I mean, I remember doing a video for Bleacher Report at the time talking about him as a stock up player. So he definitely made himself some money last year at at the senior bowl and that's why that event is so great because maybe you're a guy who's been asked to play zone coverage for three years and it's not you can't play man you just haven't been asked to do it and so it allows you to to get on a level playing field and show all the things that you're able to do when you know even with college film you can watch three or four years of it sometimes you're just not asked to do things and that doesn't mean that you can't do

them absolutely so another guy who's going to be at the senior bowl this year aleric jackson has a and you can watch three or four years of it, sometimes you're just not asked to do things. And that doesn't mean that you can't do it. Absolutely. So another guy who's going to be at the Senior Bowl this year, Alaric Jackson has a ton of film. I think when we talk about the pandemic and people maybe sitting out versus not sitting out, you always worry about how much tape you have on a player. But Alaric Jackson's exactly the opposite, where he's been starting for four years on the offensive line.

Last year had a bit of a struggle, which is why I think he returned. Ankle injury really just didn't get himself going. but he's going to the senior bowl this year um how much have you evaluated him and what are you looking for him to show out um when he goes to senior bowl in mobile all right I need to quickly pause that conversation with Matt I know you all are enjoying it as much as I did when we were talking specifically to Matt but I do have a message for you because there's only one place that has you covered and one place that I trust for all of my betting needs. And that is betonline.ag.

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If you're betting this year and want more wins, listen to locked on bets with your boy Q and Lee Sterling of Paramount Sports. They are picking college basketball, football, NHL, and NBA locks all winter long. Subscribe to Locked On Bets wherever you get podcasted at. Let's get back into the show with Matt Miller right now. Yeah, you know, I've had a chance to watch him a lot in 2019 because of Tristan Wirfs. And there was, you know, early in that process, there was a lot of talk that they might both bolt for the NFL. You had to watch both because if you're watching the right tackle, you're going to watch the left tackle.

Watching him last year and then seeing him this year, I think the biggest thing that he needs to show us down there is the quickness and agility to be able to really protect out on the edge. Again, technically, he's proficient. His timing is pretty good. His strength is good. It's just going to come down to athleticism. Is he quick enough to really protect that corner? And this is, again, it's a great event for that because you're going to be isolated in some of those one-on-ones. We've seen offensive tackles go to mobile before and really make money. Eric Fisher probably being the most famous guy who became the number one overall pick because of a good week down there. So I think that's where Jackson's not going to have that kind of climb, obviously. But he has an opportunity to move up, I think, several rounds with a good week down there. So I think that's where Jackson's not going to have that kind of climb, obviously, but he has an opportunity to move up, I think,

several rounds with a good week. And, again, showing a little bit better knee bend, a little bit better quickness. I know there's been talk about, is he going to play left tackle, is he going to play right tackle? This event is also great because he's going to do both down there, and that's going to give you a really clean look at the type of player he is all around.

Absolutely. So just one thing to note, I think what a lot of people have heard coming out of the Iowa program with Aleric is the fact that the reason why Tristan Wurfs was playing right tackle is because Aleric couldn't play right tackle. So it'll be interesting to see him and see how it is. It's a big switch. It's completely switching up your footwork. Clearly, Iowa felt more comfortable at Tristan at right tackle, despite the fact that we've

seen Tristan be a fantastic tackle all around in the NFL this year, which has been crazy. Another tackle that Iowa has that just entered the draft a couple days ago, Coy Cronk, former Indiana tackle for three years, broke his ankle, shattered it, decided to transfer to Iowa for his final season, and really just never got going in Iowa. Coming into his senior season in Indiana, I believe he was projected by different sites as maybe a day two pick, early day three pick. What are you, have you, have you evaluated Quay Cronk at all? I was actually just pulling, I was pulling my notes up and I actually haven't.

I think he was one of those players early in the process. I, so I'm normally at the NFL PA game and then the senior bowl. And so you, you get a chance to see these guys somewhere along the way, but he is not someone that came up on my list uh that i kind of curate over the summer of these are my priority guys to watch players like that will normally if they don't get a senior bowl or a shrine there's no shrine game this year so that that affects things that's normally the type of player you would want to see in an all-star game like okay well now i need to go back and watch more of your film because if you don't stand out while i'm watching someone like while you're watching the Larrick Jackson, if somebody else stands out, okay, well, you're going to make a note to watch them as well.

So I think that's where a guy like that, where if they don't pop during that time period, you hope they get to an all-star game so that you can then go back and revisit it. Absolutely. So let's stick along the offensive line. Larrick Jackson, Tristan Wirfs, you had to have noticed Tyler Linderbaum a couple of times, right? Pretty easy to. Yeah, absolutely. And I actually, he is my top ranked Iowa offensive lineman. I, I really thought that he played exceptionally well this year. And I mean, whether the NFL, like the, I see him as a center. I mean, that's where he played for y'all. I think he's going to be a center at the next level, but yeah, he is really impressive. And it's that

quickness to be able to get to the second level, his ability to get down the line and scrape it. And the Iowa run game is so NFL like in that way, where with Linderbaum it's, you can look at teams running a zone scheme in the NFL and it's just, it's such a plug and play for him because of the movement that he's asked to do. So I'm a big fan of his. I actually put a round three grade on him. I don't know where that compares to some of the other draft analysts and, and, you know, with teams,

you kind of got to get a little bit farther down the road, but I liked this film enough to think that he's a top 100 player. I love it. Yeah. I'm glad he came back. It was a huge gift for Iowa for him to come back. Sounds like he just doesn't have, he has some unfinished business in Iowa. And also he's only played center for two years. He was a defensive tackle prior to that. So big things are coming for him. You mentioned the running game. I know you're not scouting people for next year, probably at

this point, but on tape, just real quick, does Tyler Goodson look like an NFL back to you? Yeah, he does. He does to me. Now I think, you know, there's a reason you asked that question. It's probably closer to, you know, late round than early round at this point, but man, we've seen so many guys improve their stock at the running back position by coming back for another year. Najee Harris is a big one who, again, that's maybe an extreme of a player who improved their stock so much. But I do think that there's an NFL future there.

And again, with that one cut, get downhill, and he definitely has the body type that the NFL is looking for right now. So I do think that another good year is going to help, but to me, he does look like somebody that's going to be a Sunday running back at some point very soon. Absolutely. So one guy I know you've talked about, or you scouted at least at this point is Davian Nixon. But my first question is,

did you actually have him on your board coming into the season as a guy you need to watch? I didn't, I'll be completely honest with you. I did not. And even when the first area scout who hit me up and was like you need to watch this Iowa D tackle it's like Iowa D tackle it's like they gotta be wrong like what like Iowa D tackle and so then it's like uh you know go through and it's like oh the Juco kid I was like okay okay yeah I'll watch him and so I sit down and I you know turn the film on from uh it was early in year. And it's just the quickness is the first thing you notice.

I mean, he's so fast off the snap. And so then you have to, I do this trick where I pause the play. And then I just barely let it run before I just play and then pause again. And I like to see who the first guy off the ball is. And he is every time he's the first guy off the ball. So it's not just anticipating the snap. It's just that he's really, really quick and he's the first guy off the ball so it's not just anticipating the snap it's just that he's really really quick and he's really agile and but then he also has I mean it's it looks like Gerald McCoy from a body type standpoint you know he's 6'3 305 it's exactly what you want

but he plays stout against the run you don't expect that for a guy when you see him he looks like oh he's just gonna be a gap shooter this is what and and that's okay that's really really valuable but he was so much stouter against the run than I expected. And no disrespect to Iowa. I mean, on a defense that does not have the high caliber draftable prospects that we normally see on an Iowa defense. So he stands out in a big, big way. And I loved A.J. Epinesa last year. And so it's just like, okay, here comes another one.

Here comes another Iowa D lineman. It's impressive. I mean, the last couple of years, Iowa at this point has lost seven starters over the last two years. This year, they're going to lose three more, which is, I mean, that's tough to continue to replace. And then somehow Phil Parker manages to put together an impressive defense every single

year. So very happy Phil Parker's in Iowa City. Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think it goes to that development, like you said, where you do have to, you know, they're like Alabama's offensive line. You got a peak of that depth chart, you know, a couple of times a year and be like, okay, is there anyone I missed? And I think, you know, Ohio State, their defensive line is definitely that way. And now Iowa has that pipeline where, you know, we've seen three years in a row where there's been a highly touted defensive lineman coming out of that program. And that's, I mean, you start to get that reputation at D line, like you have at tight end and offensive line, then it starts to become a priority, you know, for, for scouts when they get out on the road, it's like, okay, well,

I got to have Iowa pretty early in the season because they have so many players. And, and I think, you know, even looking ahead to next year, like this is a pretty young team and I'm actually a pretty big fan of the wide receiver. You guys have to Smith Marquette. I thought he was Smith Marquette, excuse me. I like him quite a bit as well. And so I know there's, I think there's some background that has to be vetted out there that I haven't got through yet, but I mean, he, he definitely shows up on tape.

Yeah. You actually took my, I was gonna ask you, is there any other players that are drawing your attention from Iowa and specifically kind of geared towards Amir Smith, Marced and even Brandon Smith? I think Amir Smith-Marset, where his value potentially is, is as a returner and a wide receiver, he can bring that dynamic aspect in the return game. And then Brandon Smith plays a lot bigger than what he is. I'll be really interested to see how fast he runs though, because there wasn't a lot of times where you saw him truly utilize that speed. But basically there's a 50-50 ball. It was 70-30 brandon smith so i'm not sure if you got a chance to evaluate him either but kind of impressive coming out of iowa city you're not usually expecting to see wide receivers stand out

right time two of them it's really surprising for you guys i think what brandon smith like you said is that it goes to the body type of being able to attack 50 50 i've been calling it a post-up body because we're seeing so many receivers do that now where they just, they can win on, you know, on routes where you're transitioning. So slant routes, comebacks, posts, wherever they can get that body position, they're able to win. And so I have Brandon as a late round UDFA type grade. Smith-Marset, you know, some things pending. I had a round three grade on. It's a pretty good wide receiver class, so that could float a little bit either way.

But I definitely liked watching him on Saturdays. Yeah, that's impressive. I wasn't expecting the round three grade on. It's a pretty good wide receiver class, so that could float a little bit either way. But I definitely liked watching him on Saturdays. Yeah, that's impressive. I wasn't expecting the round three grade. That's awesome to hear from Amir Smith-Marset. Are there any other players that you want to call out on the Iowa Hawkeye offense or defense that have stood out to you? You know, I think those are the ones I have

that we kind of ran through. Chauncey Golston at edge was a player that I had on my list for this year. And then, you know, Brandon Smith was going to be my sleeper if you had asked that I was ready for it. So, you know, and again, I think it's a, it's a roster where, you know, it's, there's been a little bit of a transition with some of those guys, you know,

over the past two years, been a lot of Iowa players drafted. So I think, you know, looking ahead to next year, like I said, Tyler Lenderbaum coming back for his junior year, it's going to be huge. And then just kind of waiting to see who shows up next. Sam Laporta at tight end is definitely somebody who's caught my eye, someone I've been paying attention to. And hopefully the skill positions start to round out a little bit more there and that offense takes the next step.

Absolutely. Yeah, no, definitely some exciting times in Iowa City, ranked 15th by some of the early way too early 2021 polls. I want to touch on a few other things, maybe not so football related, but one last question is a while back on Stick to Football, you mentioned that Brad Banks was the most one of the most underrated college players of all time. What did you love about Brad Banks? March Madness is a few months away, but the future of the NBA is on display right now. Get a head start on next year's draft analysis by subscribing to Chad Ford's NBA Big Board Podcast. Draft guru Chad Ford has his first big board of the year out with profiles of Cade Cunningham, Jalen Suggs, Evan Mobley, and more.

Subscribe to Chad Ford's NBA Big Board Podcast wherever you get podcasts at. And let's get back to our third segment and our final segment of our show with Matt Miller. Yeah, that's just showing my age, right? Talking about that era of Iowa football. So I know I actually love the early dual threat nature of his game. And growing up in southwest Missouri, we had a lot of Iowa football on TVs on Saturday here. And so that year where he was a runner for the Heisman, which is fantastic. And really, I think paved the way for a lot of what we're seeing in college football right now.

And even some of what we're seeing in the NFL, like guys like Troy Smith don't happen without Brad Banks. And I think you could say that about, you know, run down the list, you know, that era, you know, and Michael Vick was certainly pretty influential during that time as well. But, you know, Banks was right there as a dual threat player who showed that you could win a lot of games with that, you know, a shorter athletic quarterback at a time where that wasn't really the thing in college football. So, yeah, I loved watching him play.

I was like 18 at that point. So it was kind of my – like that's the heyday of college football for me is that time period. And he was phenomenal. I think all the time, I wish guys like that were coming out now, you know, whether it's Tommy Frazier, Brad Banks, whatever, whoever it might be. I wish we had another shot to watch those guys play and what the NFL looks

like right now. Yeah. Cause I mean, he really didn't get much of a shot at the NFL. I think he signed a UDFA deal and got cut after training camp and that was pretty much the end of it, but he will forever be a hero in Iowa Hawkeye history. also kind of interesting that Iowa went from bad banks to Drew Tate who was actually kind of a scrambling quarterback especially in the CFL definitely got the the running game going and then slowly just got bigger taller and slower and now they're with Nate Stanley and Spencer Petras I mean that's about the exact opposite of Brad Bakes yeah maybe

I don't know if Ference is gonna you know wake up and realize that college football has gotten a lot faster and you know that maybe you want to maybe you want to add a couple of those guys I know that they can recruit up there for sure but it is tough because you just try to you try to play into what the NFL wants you try to play into what works against the opponents you have but I would think seeing Ohio State and you know even Nebraska with Martinez, it's a lot of running quarterbacks in the big 10 right now. And, and I, I mean, that's the future of the game as a quarterback who could score multiple ways.

Yeah. I mean, Iowa struggles to defend the running quarterback. That's why one of the reasons why Nebraska actually keeps that game close. I'm a, I hate Nebraska. They're my least favorite team. So I don't want to, I want to give them too much airtime. You are a big proponent of Casey's pizza though. Casey's in general. But have you also tried Come and Go before? I'm assuming you have. Yeah. So, yeah.

And, you know, this is one of my passions, bourbon and gas stations, because I spend so much time on the road that, you know, my friends are sitting in the office, hopefully at least pretending to laugh right now. But they know, like, when we go road trips, I'm really picky about what gas station we're going to stop at. And so it's like Come and and go quick trip at Casey's. That's it. If it's not one of those, or if you get deep enough in the South, you can go to a Bucky's

outside of that. It's like, nah, guys, we're, we're, we're going to a restaurant. We're not stopping it. You know, we're not stopping at a BP or a shell station or anything like that. So, um, yeah, so I grew up in a town of 700 people and the Casey's general store was the, it was the gas station, the grocery store and the restaurant in town. It was, it was one stop shopping. So you get addicted to that pizza real damn quick. in Casey's pizza, but then I left the state and it is the first thing I get. I'm three, I'm two hours and 58 minutes away from a Casey's on my road trip from Denver back to Des Moines.

And I got to stop and get a pizza every single Casey's from there on into Des Moines. So I definitely, yeah, definitely. Yeah. And anytime I'm away from home for too long, it's definitely one of those things you got to make sure I used to fly to New York almost every weekend for work. And I would fly back into Northwest Arkansas and there was a Casey's right by the airport. There were a lot of like 1am stops where I hadn't eaten all day. And it was like, I'm definitely stopping at that Casey's by, by X and a, uh, for people who've flown out of there, they know where it's at. I love it. So, um, pizza's obviously fantastic there. The donuts are also delicious. If you haven't had them, what is your most under the radar item at Casey's? Oh man. So, I mean, the taco pizza is legendary. I think, I think it's a, they have

that at all Casey's, but like that was always for us growing up. It's like, oh, we don't really want pizza tonight. So yeah. But what about taco pizza? Because then it's not, you know, it's not just a pepperoni slice. Um, so that's definitely a go-to. Um, you know, I also, this is a weird thing, but I really liked that. I can get like a decent breakfast there. Like they usually have fresh fruit and they have protein bars. And so like, you don't feel like a complete monster, you know, eating three donuts and chugging a monster, driving down the interstate. Like it's always, I've always enjoyed that. I can at least pretend to eat healthy while I'm in there. Absolutely. So, um, obviously you're a proponent of, of alcoholic beverages. You love bourbon,

but you also drink a lot of beer, at least. Wellellow does. And you're always around Mellow too. I know, I know you guys do like light beers and Iowa. The go-to is Bush Light on the scale of light beers. Where is Bush Light on that ranking for you? For me, it's probably number three. If I'm going to drink a light beer, it's a Michelob Ultra. Next would be Coors Light. Bush Light's right there though and it was one of those things I experienced late in life I was actually helping some people on a farm and this like weathered farmer it's like you want a beer and he opens a cooler in the back of his truck

and tosses me a Bush Light and it's changed my life so I apologize I came to it way too late with the last name Miller growing I'm sorry once you're 21 the last name Miller you just drink Miller Light

because like oh this is cool and I hate it so if it's a light beer, it's usually Michelob ultra, but there's something about a bush light in a can on a really hot Missouri day. That's pretty good. Yeah. I never understood the idea of drinking not to get drunk. And that sounds really terrible, but, um, when you know you're right, but like, yeah, I did concrete for one summer. And after the first week I was like, I need a beer. And it wasn't like, I want to get drunk. It was, I need one really ice cold beer. Granted I was 19. So I had to, you know, finagle a few things, not show my parents, but yeah. So definitely understand that. All right, Matt. Um, last thing, I know you're doing some awesome stuff. Can you tell everyone where

they can find all your stuff coming out now? We're thinking the podcast, all that stuff at. Yeah. So like you said, after 10 years of Bleacher Report, I've launched my own thing. It's the draftscout.com. And a lot of people miss stick to football. And unfortunately that was part of me leaving Bleacher Report. It went away, but we've launched a new podcast. You mentioned Mello and also with Paige Kuhn, who's amazing.

It's called Two Guys That Grow on a Podcast. It's very lighthearted, but there's a lot of draft information, a lot of NFL coverage as well as college football and, and kind of dipping into some other sports as well. So a lot of the things that everybody loved from stick to football are still big elements that we're trying to improve upon. And then the website, like you mentioned, the draft scout.com it's already launched articles. We'll start rolling out there. February 11th was a seven round mock draft.

So draft fans will definitely enjoy that. Absolutely love it. The Discord is quite active already. Very active. I know it's over here on my, one of my other screens and it's just constantly rolling. So it's been fun and I'm enjoying the things like that. You know, we're going to do a happy hour

on Monday the 18th. We're doing a live mock draft February 1st. So some of those little perks are pretty fun so far. Yeah, they're pretty cool. I'm looking forward to seeing some of the scouting stuff and obviously getting your content. Clearly, I've already subscribed. I'm on the discord and all that stuff. So I really appreciate what you're doing, man. And thank you so much for coming on. And I'll probably see you down in Mobile. I'll be down at one of the draft picks tap rooms. Let's do it. Yeah. And we're actually bringing some

Boulevard to Mobile because they don't they don't have it there. We're taking some Kansas City beer to Mobile because I can't drink yingling for a week. I'll throw up. So we're going bringing some Boulevard to Mobile cause they don't, they don't have it there. So we're taking some Kansas city beer to Mobile because I can't drink yingling for a week. I'll throw up. So we're, we're going to get some good beer in Mobile this year. I love how your relationship with draft picks has become so good that you can just bring your own beer to the right. I don't, I didn't ever expect this to happen in my life, but I'm not upset about it. Pretty awesome. Pretty awesome. Humble brag there. Well, Matt, thank you so much for coming on. Really appreciate your time. Any last words for the show? No, man, I appreciate

you guys having me on. And, uh, again, that's my buddy bone would say go Hawkeyes. All right, y'all. And that concludes our episode. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did when we were recording. Matt is a phenomenal guy. If you aren't following his work already, please make sure you do so. I've already subscribed to his, his, you know, his website, $7 a month, $70 for a full year. If you don't want to pay monthly and he's going to be pumping out a ton of awesome content. He's also got some scouting clinics, a happy hour. I mean, you name it, he's doing it. And he is a phenomenal guy to talk through in a business. Um, I've just really enjoyed listening to him the last couple of years and learning as much as I possibly can from the analysis he does.

And just really an awesome guy. I met him down in Mobile last year and was super nice to everyone, just really appreciative of the people who support him and his fans. Even when we were on the show, I said, I've subscribed. And he said, well, thank you so much for subscribing. So he really means it. Awesome guy. I hope you all go check him out at thedraftscout.com. And also make sure to follow him on Twitter and Instagram as well. Make sure to go subscribe to Two Guys, A Girl, and a Pod with him, Mello, and Paige Kuhn. They do a fantastic job of covering a wide range of topics, but also focusing a little bit on the NFL draft as well. Thank you all again for tuning in. Subscribe wherever you download this podcast app.

Give us that five-star review. And have a fantastic Sunday, the fantastic rest of your weekend, and we'll be back tomorrow for another show of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Let's go Hawks!