Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - NFL moves have big impacts on Tristan Wirfs draft projections | Men's basketball should be top-10 next year | Hawkeye football March Madness unveil

Episode Date: March 17, 2020

Free agent signings and trades have big impacts on Hawkeye draft prospects and we are already seeing 2020-2021 NCAA Men's preseason rankings. Should Iowa be ranked top-10? We wrap up the show with an introduction of what is to come with our Hawkeye football March Madness brackets! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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!

Oh! He's got it! Smith! Touchdown. 85 yards. High on. Touchdown, 10. Taking a shot in the end zone.

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 on the Locked On Sports Network.

As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, excited to be back for another episode of the show today. And as I promised you, just because the sports world has essentially stopped outside of the NFL free agency period, we are not stopping the content coming at you on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. If you are tuning in for the first time today and you ultimately love what you end up hearing on the show today, and I hope you certainly do, please make sure to like, review, and subscribe

wherever you downloaded this podcast at to ensure that you are getting every single episode downloaded directly to your phone each and every day. We have an episode coming out every single day of the week during the week, not Saturdays and Sundays. I said that in a really terrible way, but you got what I'm saying. Also make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We have a really fun contest that I'm gonna be talking about on segment number three coming out. And I think you're going to really enjoy it. Basically ranking all the great Iowa football teams to ultimately come down to the winner here in about a month

as we go through a March Madness style bracket of the Iowa Hawkeye football team. So that'll be coming up. We're going to be talking about that on segment number three. On today's show, though, we're going to be talking about the men's football team, the basketball team, talking a little bit about the draft and some of the news that came out today. Also talking about the men's basketball team and can they be a top 10 team next year. We talked a bit about it on yesterday's show.

Want to continue that discussion on today's show. First, though, let's jump right into it with football talk. continue that discussion on today's show. First though, let's jump right into it with football talk. Today's news, Christian Kirksey signed with Green Bay for two years, $16 million, essentially a $5 million deal on the first day or on the first year of his contract, followed by additional money in the second year after being released by the Cleveland Browns. Green Bay needs a linebacker. I think this is, you know, a lot of Green Bay fans are kind of up and down on this one. I think it's a good signing for that money in the first year, at least. Kirksey is an athletic linebacker who is at least better and more athletic than Blake Martinez. So there's a slight upgrade there if Packer fans want to take solace in knowing that.

Brian Bulaga is another free agent from former Iowa Hawkeye who is looking to get a deal. Sounds like he is in the market for a $12-ish million deal. But to me, that kind of might have changed a little bit when Jack Conklin got three years, $40 million earlier yesterday. But Brian Bulaga is coming off a good season in a relatively weak tackle market. I think he's kind of waiting to see what tackles sign on the first day of free agency before kind of making his move there. But whoever gets him is going to get a good tackle as a good, you know, solid three to four years left in him coming off a really good season at the age of 30. Going into some of the draft talk, though,

lots of draft news that came up in yesterday's world of college football and the NFL. The first one, I think this is the most important one. Iowa is going to be holding a pro day after all. So after canceling their pro day with the scouts and obviously the NFL kind of basically eliminating people being able to visit college prospects and bringing them in the Iowa Hawkeye football team, according to Gil Brant is going to be holding his Pro Day on March 23rd, but will do it as a closed-door session. They will be taping everything and sending it to all 32 clubs. It's not ideal, but I think this is a really great move by Iowa, and I could see a lot

of teams following suit with this approach. And the reason why is Pro Days are a fantastic time for the guys who might not have been invited to the Combine to show what they can do. Otherwise, you don't have some of that positional testing to base some of your grades off of. A guy like Christian Welch, a guy like Nate Weeding, those are guys who, or Cedric Lattimore even, those are guys who project as potential late round draft picks or undrafted free agents. late round draft picks or undrafted free agents. And to not be able to go through a pro day,

and it's going to be huge. It's a huge thing for them, and it's a huge loss for them and for the NFL teams who are not going to be able to see them. With how many great, talented prospects Iowa has at the top of the draft with Tristan Wirfs, with A.J. Paneza, with the curiosity surrounding Nate Stanley, Michael Ojemudia, and Geno Stone, they're going to be bringing 32 clubs to that pro day. And that's a really great opportunity for guys like Welch and Lattimore and Reif and Weeding and even Torin Young to get an opportunity to show what they can do and to show that

they belong in the NFL. So I think it's a great move by the Hawks. I think it's something that a lot of teams or a lot of college programs who haven't had their pro day yet are going to be doing as well. And I think one of the guys who really probably benefits the most from this is A.J. Paneza and actually probably Geno Stone too, although I don't think Geno Stone could improve his testing too much, if at all. I think A.J.

Paneza, though, coming off a disappointing combine performance, as we talked about on the show yesterday, as we talked about with Nick Kendall, as we talked about with Benjamin Solak from the Draft Network and locked on NFL Draft. AJ Poneza's combine performance did hurt him a little bit because it hurts him with the teams that do have measurement thresholds that he did not meet in a certain scheme. So it kind of limits the schemes and the teams that he could possibly fit into, which is why I think if he can get a pro day and maybe test just a little bit better, we could see him maybe rise a bit in the draft

or put to bed some of those concerns that teams have on A. Gepineza. So definitely an interesting tidbit of information that came out yesterday from Gil Brandt that they are going to be doing this. I'm excited. Hopefully, I doubt that fans will be able to have an opportunity to watch that, but that would be great if they were actually posting it on a YouTube or whatever so we could take a look at that and see just how some of these guys are performing. I'm also interested to see how Nate Stanley performs.

Struggled a bit at the combine throwing the ball. So it would be interesting to see how he does with a scripted passing set, how he does with improved mechanics, a little bit more improved and a little bit more time getting comfortable with those mechanics and throwing to his guys. My guess is he's likely throwing to a few of the juniors and also probably a Matt Vandenberg as well. So it would be interesting to see if he can put together a nice performance for that

and maybe improve his draft stock a bit to move up earlier parts of day three. And on that draft news, Benjamin Solak, you know, again, guy who I really respect. He co-host of the lockdown NFL draft podcast.

If you haven't checked it out, make sure you do also came on the show last week. He came out with a mock draft this or yesterday, excuse draft yesterday prior to some of the free agency things happening. He had Tristan Wirfs going at 7 to the Jets. Right now it's looking better and better by the minute because the Jets don't have a lot of offensive linemen in general. They have needs all over the board there. One of the popular picks was Tristan Wirth to the Cleveland Browns at 10. And with the signing of Jack Conklin,

I would like to imagine that the Browns are out on a tackle, which definitely hurts the Tristan Wirth's sweepstakes. That being said, the Arizona Cardinals did just trade for DeAndre Hopkins, which means the opportunity to take a wide receiver at that pick in the top 10 is definitely less now. Now that they have DeAndre Hopkins, Andy Isabella, Larry Fitzgerald, those guys, that means I think they're more likely in the tackle market now. So Wirfs is a guy who could project to go to the Arizona Cardinals.

So make sure to watch out for that. Epineza, he did have Epineza at 28 to the Ravens. And I think that is as good as gone now. They traded for Kalias Campbell, and they just signed Michael Brockers. I would say AJ Epineza is likely not heading to the Ravens. So again, looking at maybe the Patriots, depending on what they do in free agency, I think that could be a good fit for him. As we talked about, even the Lions, if he does fall to the second round, could be a good fit for him.

But it's interesting always, the NFL draft, you have all these projections, and then based on what teams do in free agency, it could really change where these teams are looking to go in the NFL draft. Also, in Benjamin Solak's three-round mock draft, he had Michael Ojemudia at 89 to Minnesota-round mock draft, he had Michael Ojemudia at 89 to Minnesota. Again, just another indication that Michael Ojemudia, I feel like, is definitely moving up the boards after a strong combine performance, what I consider also a strong performance at the Senior Bowl, doing well in man coverage. So interesting to see Michael Ojemudia

start rising up the board, a guy who wasn't talked about as much early on in the draft process, but definitely has been impressing folks as he has moved throughout the draft process and all-star games. And Jim Nagy actually had a really interesting tweet about the NFL draft and how that actually could help a guy like Michael Ojemudia. So coming up on segment number two, we're going to be covering that before jumping into a bit of basketball talk. We are back with segment number two of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. And as I said before we left for a quick break, Jim Nagy, the

guy who runs the Senior Bowl, he's done an awesome job with the Senior Bowl. He had an interesting tweet. He's a former scout and he does obviously very invested in the game as his team does a great job of scouting players prior to the Senior Bowl, making sure they're getting guys that NFL teams want. And he put out a tweet that basically said he spoke to a few NFL front office guys. And with the cancellation of pro days and the 30 visits that teams get with players, that obviously will have an impact on the NFL draft. And the way it impacts the NFL draft is that less smaller schools, less small school guys could be

drafted without those test numbers, which is why, as we talked about, having a virtual pro day could be kind of the trend for some of these schools. Participants in both All-Star and Combine, in the Combine, will get a boost because people have had the opportunity to see them multiple times now. So a guy like Michael Ojemudia could be rising on the board simply because people have had the opportunity to see him play in multiple things. They saw him play at the Senior Bowl. They saw him at the Combine test well. That could bode well for him as opposed to a guy who might not have been invited to either of those. Some of the junior prospects who don't get invited to the All-Star Games and might not have tested at the Combine,

that could actually hurt them and maybe raise the stock of a guy like Michael Ojemudia. And then it also allows, you know, kind of makes players with flags, with red flags, whether it's behavior or whatever it may be, those guys could potentially fall because of the inability to have these visits. There's a lot of stories out there where a player might have a significant amount of red flags, but he goes on a visit to a program or to an NFL team and puts on a fantastic performance for those, you know, for those execs and those execs fall in love with them. And they ultimately decided to draft them regardless of the flags

that they are aware of. So again, not having as much information actually helps guys who have more tape, guys who have been more visible, guys like Michael Ojemudia, even a Nate Weeding who had the opportunity to play, I believe, at the NFL PA Bowl after the season. That helps a guy like him who had the opportunity to play in front of scouts. I think he's kind of limited athletically, but he is a guy who could be a good blocker at the next level and could be a, I would say a below average pass catcher, but a guy who could go out, you know, and, you know, out of the backfield and catch the ball if he did want to play like an H back position as well. So again, a guy like that, who got to play in a all-star game that will really help him as well. So it's interesting

to see kind of how these big changes are really impacting these players. Another and kind of the final change that I think is important to talk about is the fact that the NFL draft is proceeding as normal. It will be a televised event, but it will not be, sounds like it will not be held in Vegas and it will not be kind of the big glamorous event that it has been in past years with fans out there watching, with the players walking up on stage, that kind of stuff. It will be a virtual event as fans out there watching, with the players walking up on stage, that kind of stuff. It will be a virtual event as well. And unfortunately, obviously, Tristan Wirfs, potentially AJ Paneza, robbed of an opportunity to be able to be there. I think it's unfortunate for those guys, but I still think it's great that the NFL is continuing to move on with the NFL draft.

These kind of things, they can still continue despite the outbreak of coronavirus happening right now. So I think having, having that as a great opportunity. And I know personally without sports going on, all I really have to look forward to is from a sports perspective is the NFL having free agency still happening and the NFL draft and whatnot. So expect a lot of talk about that as well, because that is really the only thing that continues to change day in and day out. That being said, though, I do want to transition over to the basketball team.

With March Madness not happening, folks are kind of left scrambling for content and left scrambling to kind of figure out what to do with a lot of time that they were expecting to be filled with March Madness. So there are early, early, early rankings coming out and I've seen some rankings that had the Iowa Hawkeyes ranked as a top 10 team in 2020 and the 2021 season and ranked as the highest big 10 team. And I just really wanted to give my quick opinions on that. I completely agree. If Iowa returns all the guys that are underclassmen right now, they have a devastating lineup that I think could compete with any team in the nation. And we talked about the potential lineup combinations on yesterday's show, but I do want to talk about the Big Ten and why this is important for Iowa. Michigan State's losing Cassius Winston, a guy who is a true leader, a guy who you need to watch out for anytime he's on the court. Michigan State has a

ton of talent, but they don't have a guy like Winston right now. And losing him because he is graduating is a huge loss for them. That opens up a hole as well. Maryland, they could be losing Jalen Smith, a former five-star recruit who is up for the Naismith Award. And then they're also losing Anthony Cowan, a guy who is similar to Winston in the sense that you need to watch out for him every time he's on the court because he could have a huge impact on the game at any time, and that really hurt Iowa in their second game against Maryland. And then finally, Illinois is likely losing former five-star recruit and star player Io DeSumo, a guy who torched Iowa down the stretch

in that final game of the season. Not torched, but he did a great job of really sealing the deal for Illinois and taking care of business against Iowa. So the teams that Iowa is behind right now or would have been behind in the Big Ten tournament this year, they are losing a lot more players. Wisconsin not losing as much, but I still think Wisconsin's honestly not as good of a team.

I don't think they're as talented. They play good team basketball, but I think Iowa can definitely compete with them. And so you can see the door is definitely wide open for the Big Ten and for Iowa to make a move and win a Big Ten title and compete for a national championship next year. So you have to love this. Obviously, we're kind of waiting on pins and needles right now to see what happens with Luka Garza. And whether or not he does decide to declare for the NBA draft, I don't think he will, but you just never know after a season

like that. Also, Joe Wieskamp, I can't imagine he declares, but I also thought Tyler Cook should have came back. So we'll see kind of what happens. But if Iowa does return their core group of players outside of Ryan Creener and Barkari Evelyn, this could be a team that is a worrisome team for other opponents and a team that could be a top 10 team throughout the season next year. Coming up though on the third and final segment of the day, I want to introduce to you a pretty fun concept that we're putting together right here on the lockdown Hawkeyes podcast to give you something to do while the sports world essentially stops in the middle of the season.

So I want to talk about that on segment number three, and that'll be coming up in just a few short seconds. All right, we are back with our third and final segment of today. And as I've been teasing throughout the show, we have an awesome thing coming at you. If you are on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, you're already probably aware of this, but if you're not, make sure to follow us on one of those three mediums, because we are going to be doing our own little March Madness bracket. Instead of doing it with basketball teams, instead of doing it with other opponents, we are doing it with the top 64 Iowa football teams of all time. And yes, I know what you're thinking. Does Iowa have 64 great football teams? To be fair, no, there's a, the bottom of the barrel is, you know,

a six and five team, a six and six team, but that makes this fun. I want to see what you all think as we ultimately vote on these, these teams and these games to see who is claimed or who takes the crown as the number one football team in Iowa Hawkeye history, according to the fans. So what I did was I basically took a 64 team bracket. I seeded 64 teams from Iowa and how I took these teams was I thought about doing it and putting a little bit more personalized thought into it, right? Like taking, taking, you know, some consideration to the fact that the 1920s teams wouldn't be able to compete with a team in 2005, right? But I would, I think you really need to think about how these teams were in those years.

So all things even, right? If the 2010 team was, or 2019 team was electric and really great, fantastic. But all things equal, were they as good of a team as the Niall Kinnick-led team, right? So that's what we're going to ultimately be trying to figure out from you, the fans, and we're going to be hosting basically this, this kind of bracket for over the, for, you know, the course of the next month as the sports world is essentially stalled out. So, like I said, I, I broke this up into four regions, just like March madness. I seated every single team and how I did this was through winning

percentage to make it a little bit easier so I basically took the winning percentage of each team and used that to seed the teams when I got to the bottom of the teams I definitely put a little bit more emphasis on some of the more recent teams because I feel like that'll be a little bit easier for the fans to have a gauge on where that team stands in Iowa Hawkeye history. So lots of fun coming at you. We're going to be doing two surveys every single day or two polls every single day on two games. And I want the fans to vote. It'll be a 24-hour poll. What we're going to do then is talk about that on the show the following day

and break down the next day's games. So it's going to be kind of a fun segment. I hope you enjoy it. Definitely give me some feedback if you like it or not. I'm on today's show though, on today's segment, we are dropping it today. We are starting with the first two games today and you want to know who is going to be doing it? Well, let me tell you. Our first matchup for the Iowa Hawkeye football team, March Madness bracket. It's going to be the overall number one seed versus the worst seed in the entire tournament.

We have the 1956 Rose Bowl winning Iowa Hawkeye football team that went 9-1 going up against the 1993 Alabama Bowl losing 6-6 Iowa Hawkeye football team. So who do you think deserves to win that? Who do you think is the best team out of these two teams? Obviously, it's always open to upsets depending on how the fans vote. But just keep in mind, when I put out a list of the top 30 players in Iowa Hawkeye football history, two of these guys were on this first team, this 1956 team,

Ken Plone and Randy Duncan, guys who were Heisman candidates. This team rolled through their schedule en route to their first Rose Bowl win in Iowa Hawkeye football history. And in the process, really starting a tradition with Iowa Hawkeye fans and something that everyone looks forward to. I think Iowa Hawkeye fans are almost okay if they win the Rose Bowl versus going to a college football playoff game in a sense, right? Like obviously anyone would want to be able to do that. But in this season, they started off by beating Indiana 27-0, taking down Oregon State 14-13, beating Wisconsin 13-7, taking care of Hawaii 34-0, taking down Purdue 21-20. Their lone loss was to No. 17, Michigan 14-17, before they knocked off No. 6, Minnesota, No. 6, Ohio State,

Notre Dame 48-8, before beating No. 10, Oregon State, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, January 1, 1957. This team is going up, like I said, against the 1993 Alamo Bowl losing Iowa Hawkeyes, coached by the legendary Hayden Fry. This team struggled a bit. So coming into the season, not exactly high expectations, not a ranked team coming into the season. Started off strong with two wins over Tulsa and Iowa State

before dropping five state, including losses to Penn State, Michigan, Indiana over Tulsa and Iowa State before dropping five state, including losses to Penn State, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan State. They finished the season strong, beating Purdue, Northern Illinois, Northwestern, and Minnesota to be bowl eligible before getting creamed by California 37-3. So make sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. We'll be dropping polls there. Make sure to vote to which team you think is the better team out of those two teams. The number one versus the number 16 seed.

The other game we're going to be dropping today is number eight, 19-10, Iowa Hawkeye football team that went 5-2 versus the number nine seed, the 2018 Nate Stanley-led Iowa Hawkeye team that went 9-4. Who do you think is better? I have a pretty good inkling that this nine seat is probably going to be the winner of this matchup. That team, I definitely thought it was a team that had a lot more potential and they were very close to being, you know, to being a national title contender as well. The Wisconsin game they lost, they shouldn't have lost. They were winning that

game, which is a few minutes to go. Penn State, the Nate Stanley interception, the goal line, that cost them there. Purdue, they just let that game slip out of their hands. Purdue always plays Iowa well. And then losing to Northwestern, I thought Northwestern had a really great game plan. But again, none of these games were games that blew out Iowa. Iowa was in that game until the very end of the game in each of the fourth quarters. They had to go and stack up against the 19-10 team that went 5-2,

coached by Jesse Hawley, first-year head coach in that season. Their conference record was only 1-1, playing in what is the now-defunct Western Conference. They beat Morningside. Imagine that, Morningside 12-0 before losing to Northwestern 5-10. What a terrible score. Losing to Missouri 0-5 and then beating Purdue 16-0, Iowa State 2-0 in what would be probably a terrible game to watch.

They beat Drake 21-0 back when Drake actually mattered in football. And then they beat Washington 38-0. So definitely a different era. I'm curious to see how you fans vote on these games. Who do you think is ultimately going to win? I have a feeling the number one 1959 team will take care of business against the number 16 seeded 1993 team. And I have a feeling the 2018 team is going to upset or not upset. I guess upset needs to be three seeds or more difference. But I think that 2018 team will take care of business against the 1910 team. And I think the 2018 team,

honestly, is kind of a sleeper pick to go a little bit far because they are such a talented team and they're kind of fresh in our minds. They're a team that we all knew had the potential, just wasn't able to make it happen. So I hope you all participate. Again, make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram so you can vote. And we'll be talking about these games each day for the next month. And let me know your feedback. Let me know what your thoughts are. We'd love to hear your thoughts. And as you vote, feel free to tell me why you voted. I'll share some of the best responses on the show tomorrow. So want to see the interaction as you all are kind of reeling from not having sports to watch, tune into our March Madness bracket

of the Iowa Hawkeye football team and the history of the program. So hope you all enjoyed that. But that'll do it for our show today. I do appreciate you all listening. If you liked what you heard today, make sure to like, review, and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast at. You know, follow us there. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or the brand new Himalaya Podcast

app. Whatever you need to do to listen to our podcast, make sure you do it. And follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram so you can join us in these fantastic polls that we are going to be doing every single morning for the next month. So make sure to vote on those. Voting will end probably around 7, 8 p.m. I want to make sure I can get a show out to you each morning the following morning. So I want to make sure I have plenty of time to record those

episodes. And if you are loving the draft talk we have and you want more draft talk as you try to figure out opportunities to listen to more sports talk, make sure to follow our one of our, you know, sister sister company sister shows the Locked on NFL Draft podcast hosted by Trevor Sikama and Benjamin Solak.

Make sure to check them out. They do a fantastic job there over on the Lockdown NFL Draft podcast. So thank you all again for tuning in to today's episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. I hope you all have a fantastic Tuesday. Stay safe out there, Hawkeye Nation, and let's go Hawks. We'll see you next time.