Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - No Hawkeye Quarterback Change, How important is practice for Iowa football?

Episode Date: September 13, 2022

Trent Condon is joined by former Iowa Hawkeye running back LeShun Daniels for the latest episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes Podcast.LeShun gives his thoughts on what is going wrong with the Hawkeyes offense and what he saw in the Hawkeyes 10-7 loss to Iowa State.They then talk about the insular nature of the Iowa football program. What it's like for a football players and how the program keeps the noise out of the complex. What social media means and can do to different players and what they are dealing with right now.Finally, Trent poses the question to LeShun; is practice more important at Iowa than most other football programs.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at Linkedin.com/lockedoncollege Terms and conditions apply.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!UpsideDownload the FREE Upside App and use promo code Locked to get $5 or more cash back on your first purchase of $10 or more.Underdog FantasySign up on underdogfantasy.com with the promo code LOCKED ON and get your first deposit doubled up to $100! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The decision is in Iowa. We'll remain with Spencer Petras at quarterback this week, at least according to the depth chart and Spencer Petras earlier today. Myself and LaShawn Daniels will talk about that, the broken Iowa offense, what can change, and a whole lot more. It's all coming up on today's Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. podcast. I'm Trent Condon.

He is LaShawn Daniels. And this is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen each and every day. Available wherever you find podcasts. You can also find us on YouTube. And trying to get to that 1,000 subscribers, just click the subscribe button right now and help us out as we approach that number. LaShawn, on the heels of a tough loss to Iowa State 10-7, the final. We talk here on a Tuesday. This is press conference day. This is the day that we get to hear from the players. And a little bit later this afternoon, we'll get to hear from Kirk Ferentz, but certainly an interesting

one. Before we get into all that and a look forward to what it's going to be, let's take a look back in a disappointing effort against Iowa State. 150 yards of total offense, a bunch of that came in that ridiculous, crazy final drive of the game after the opening possession where they got the short field after the block punt, scored on two plays. That was it. Didn't score another point the rest of the way. The final 57 minutes and change, they were shut out. Where do you go, LaShawn? What can you do? Takeaways from Saturday.

Whoa, where'd that come from? So, yeah, it's tough to say. It really, really, really is tough to say. I mean, like early in the game, we thought things were going to go well. Obviously, the first opportunity on offense that we had, able to move the ball very, very well. Offensive line was getting an excellent push up front, right, creating massive holes, right, made it really easy for offense going

and put it in the end zone for for touchdown which was great um and then like after that like like that was it right you couldn't put together anything else um offensively um run game still isn't there where it needs to be and in the past game again we we still can't complete a bunch of, you know, our day one install stuff. And, you know, we had all those opportunities on a short field and frankly just didn't take advantage of it. So right now it's really tough to say. Again, it's back to the drawing board again and looking at taking a long, hard look at, you know, everyone. Everyone needs to take a long, long, hard look in the mirror like, hey, where can where can we be better?

Right. All the way from, you know, offensive line to the skill positions that are out there to quarterback to OCA to the head man. Right. Everyone's got um take a look at themselves and figure out where to go because see right now offense as a whole is just struggling struggling struggling struggling and it put the defense in a really really tough spot i mean i think iowa state had almost 40 minutes of uh time of possession which is is very, very tough on defense. And granted, a bunch of that time of possession came on that 99-yard, like, 12-minute drive. Again, credit to Iowa State, right? They played – they didn't play a clean game,

but they made the plays when it did matter. So, offensively, yeah, it's tough. It's really, really hard to watch right now because all the other phases are making plays pretty much all the way throughout the field. I see kicking situation right now still isn't, it's not the best as it's been in years past and as far as field goal kicking goes but that said the other phases they're really they really are holding up their end of the bargain and a defense holding a team to 10 points should be more than enough for um a team like i would be able to get a victory yeah that's the frustration is now you got to l there and you know i thought this would be maybe what pushed it over the edge what leads into a possible change. It's been so much

at the quarterback position, but well, Sean, you said it, this goes around to the whole offense. This isn't just one guy that is struggling. This is an offense as a whole. And, you know, going back and rewatching the South Dakota state game, I came away, maybe more upset at Spencer after watching it, as opposed to Brian Ferentz. I thought he called a decent game, at least for his standards against South Dakota state. That was not the case at all against Iowa state. I thought Brian had one of his worst game calls that he has had putting the team in just in tough situations late in the game. You get that second down on yard. After finally picking up nine yards on a run, you go to the jet sweep that gets hit with the loss. You're looking at a third and six after that. It just, it didn't make sense. And this goes into putting together an offense. Look, you're working

right now in the new college football game for EA sports, right? I grew up playing that. I grew up playing bad. We all think if you played those games, you'd think, you know, how to be a coordinator. It's not just picking plays out of, you know, a design sheet of a hundred coordinating an offense. There's so much more into it. And that's the part that I think, Brian, there's more to it. Ken O'Keefe, I remember the way that he would set things up in a different way. And he would be doing things early to set up something later on. I don't get that we're doing that with Brian Ferenczi.

Even Greg Davis, who did it for a number of years, and you played under Greg. It seemed like at least there was a theory about what they're trying to do. We could complain about things and not going its way, but there was at least a theory behind it right now. What's the theory? What what are what is this Iowa offense under Brian Ference? What are they trying to do? I can't wrap my mind around it. Yeah. Honestly, I'm really kind of right there with you at this point in time. I mean, we've seen the offense over the past five years, right?

And usually in years past, right, before Brian became the OC, for the most part, there was a pretty solid identity offensively, right? You could see from the Hawkeyes, right? You knew that, that right they were going to run um zone zone run game power and they were going to try to stay ahead of the change and on third downs right complete uh quick passes right to be able to move the football and obviously take advantage of you know our tight ends um which have been fantastic throughout the years like i feel like right now it's just kind of there's nothing, right? There's nothing there, right?

The run game for the past few years hasn't been great. And we've had some really, really good running backs over the past few years, right? And even offensive line play hasn't been the way as it should be and has been in the past, right, really over the past couple of years, even with Tyler Linderbaum, you know, leading the charge last year. So right now there's no identity, I feel like, for this Hawkeye offense. And it shows on Saturdays, right, because now when things, when the going gets tough, right, and we need a play from the offense, like, there's nothing where I feel like watching it currently as a fan where it's like, this is what they're going to do.

This is what they're going to do in the situation because they've done this so well in the past. And we expect them to convert on this. Like, right now, like, I feel like there's nothing, right? I mean, whether it be, again, on that second and short, right, you call reverse. And I'm all for taking like a shot or something on a second and short because, right, you anticipate, right, we're still going to have third and short if we don't get it. But again, like there's no identity, like to the point, like now we're trying to trick plays on second and short. And then we're on the goal line.

And although I love my fullbacks, right, I'm never going to bad talk my fullbacks. But, like, we're on the goal line. We're at the one-yard line. That's typically a spot where we're handing off to a running back, right, running some type of basically slant play right into the end zone, right, that we convert a bunch of times or we're just quarterback sneaking it. right into the end zone, right. That we convert a bunch of times or we're just quarterback sneaking it. And right now in the run game, like we're not like, there's no identity there. So we're not doing that.

And then the past game, we already know the past game has been talking about more than enough times, right? Like not only can we, we can't even complete like our short, short game. Right. And those easy passes, like we can't even think about taking shots because we can, we can't even complete the basic stuff. So I feel like right now offensively, there's no identity with this, with the Hawkeye team. The offense looks very, very different in a sense,

as it's been in years past where it's like, we can look at the offense and know like, Hey, they're not going to be spectacular, but they're not going to be bad and we know that like what's going to come and they're going to be pretty successful at it like right now i feel like we're not getting any of that can't make the makeables and that makes it incredibly difficult when your program like iowa well we're going to talk about that program go inside back when the shaw was playing a few years back what was like when things were going rough? It's rough right now, yet hearing the guys earlier today,

the players from Spencer Petras to Riley Moss and a few others, you're in lockdown. Fort Kinnick, that's what we always joked and called it. The walls were up, and it's hard to get inside it. We'll go to a player's perspective when we come back. This is LeSean Daniels along with Trent Condon on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Well, speaking of Locked On Hawkeyes,

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It's that easy, and you get paid. Upside users are earning more than a million dollars each and every week. Download the free Upside app, use promo code LOCKEDON, and get $5 or more cash back on your first purchase of $10 or more. Again, $5 or more cash back on your first purchase of $10 or more again, $5 or more cash back on your first purchase of $10 or more using that promo code locked. Thanks to upside being with us here today. All right, LaShawn. Now we roll through here. And one place I wanted to go is I've been in the media now for two decades. I've been talking about Hawkeye on the radio

going back, I think 2003 is when I began my radio career. So I've been doing it for a long time. And the insular nature of Hawkeye football, it's very interesting talking to some of my friends that went through the program that were walk-ons going through it. Some people that I met Some of my friends that went through the program that were walk-ons going through it, some people that I met afterwards that played inside the program. So coming to you, we always hear about, you know, we are, it's about the teamwork and the camaraderie and building this brotherhood and all these different things. It's just baffling to me when I hear some of the things like today. Well, we don't really hear what's going on on the outside. In today's world of social media media how do you guys not hear or is that just again like we've talked about before that's just something more you guys are coached to say uh i mean it's it's definitely a little

both right um it's definitely a little both uh we are are coached to say, to block out the noise and all that stuff. In general, we block out the noise. When we're in meetings and stuff like that, we don't talk about what's happening really outside the building. We don't talk about things that people are saying in the media, people are saying on social media, like those aren't things that we talk about in meetings. And really it doesn't even, it never even gets brought up whether it's by players or by the coaches, right? It's just not something that we do. So we keep that part of it like locked down. Like obviously, like after that though, and I mean mean especially now with the guys now be a little bit more active on social media now right there's not really like that but that kind of

block that we had when i was in and not when i was in school um they probably hear a little bit more of it but big thing is like when we're in those meetings when we're getting interviewed like we don't we don't even want to talk about that stuff anyway so a bunch of the conversations ends up coming back to yeah like we tune out that noise like we don't pay attention to really what you guys are saying or you know what fans are saying on social media right basically all that stuff gets gets locked out and um i'm sure the players like they see they see it um um a bunch i'm sure right people are always tweeting at players are in the game right or commenting on their instagram or whatever right and people like we do see this stuff right like we know it's not it's no secret right it's i mean uh you basically have to be and we'd have to be in

the complex like 24 7 lockdown right basically with no access to our phones besides uh texting and calling right so uh we do see we do see it see that stuff but we do also realize like again that stuff doesn't matter right in the grand scheme of things. Like, yeah, obviously, we would much rather everyone be talking great about us, right, because it's much better, right? It tells you that you're obviously in a better situation than them talking bad about certain players or certain situations. But, like, we know that that stuff doesn't matter, right? And focusing on what we can actually control and actually do like within the building

within the day-to-day is really the stuff that matters so yeah i would say that we are a bunch we are definitely our coach to say that we are block blocking out the noise um and we do hear it but we do also realize like and the what to accomplish the goals that we're trying to get to, like listening to that stuff and feeding into that type of energy does the team really no good. Social media, when you were around Twitter was not allowed. I'm sure there were a few guys that worked around that one way or the other. I, there's, there's no doubt about that. Instagram maybe has grown into a much bigger thing. I'm trying to remember back now. Facebook was a thing. Now that's an old person thing.

That's changed. It's always evolving, right? It's always changing. We got TikTok now. It's something that's always kind of a moving target there. But ultimately, if you want to hear things, you want to see things, you can go there and you can set up notifications to block things

and you don't have to see it if you don't want to. The one I always wonder about, and maybe this is because this became a bigger thing when I was in college, is message boards. Message boards are something that I'm sure, or at least when you were playing were a thing because social media maybe is not even at the level it is here today.

We're not going back very far, but also when you're first being recruited, right? You're getting calls from rivals and scouting 24-7 in these places and they're talking to you and hey, you want to see your picture up there on the front of the website and you go there and hey what are they saying about me those types of things message board did you guys when you're inside the complex when you're playing for the hawkeyes did you go on them did you start rumors on there did you have fun what was it about you guys and message boards was there any kind of connection once you got to the campus uh i would say for the most part

no like for the most part we didn't check like the message boards and stuff uh like i know like per me personally i would every now and again because i mean my dad my dad i mean being obviously a buckeye right like they're big on the message boards and stuff so like i've had an idea of like okay obviously like stuff gets talked about so like what are they talking about on the high on the iowa uh message boards and whatnot so every now and again i would check it out um see what stuff they're actually talking about see what stuff actually makes sense and what stuff is completely out of left field which was a bunch of stuff uh but for the most part like the message boards don't get looked at as much and i didn't like

when i was playing like we didn't really pay attention to it as much um because like once you like once you got into like once you got to Iowa, like, it was, like, message boards kind of stuff, like, really wasn't as important at that point anymore. Because, like, obviously, like, now you're already at the school, right? Like, it's not like fans are going to be hyping up now, like, talking about, like, yeah, we want to get this kid here or whatever. But, yeah, I feel like it wasn't a thing as much. um yeah i feel like it wasn't as wasn't a thing as much like if we were gonna get like here outside noise or anything like that it was definitely gonna come from twitter or like like because i mean like so like when we were in school like we couldn't tweet but we a lot of players still had like their twitters from high school or whatever like obviously like if you got tweeted at like you

would see it right you? You get the notification. Or a lot of times, right? People would comment. A lot of times, like if you were going to hear noise, you were going to get it, see it from your Instagram comments or people DMing you on Instagram. So like, that's a lot of times like where, like a lot of that, that noise and outside stuff was going to come from. Interesting. Well, it is a world that is continually evolving.

It's a different place certainly here today and spencer petrus well i'm sure he was dinged a time or two in that notification here over the first couple of games we're going to wrap things up talking about just that spencer petrus getting ready he is going to get the start once again at least the latest from the university of iowa in the football complex that's as we continue here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. All right, final segment here on a Tuesday. Locked On Hawkeyes, Trent Condon, LaShawn Daniels with you. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen each and every day.

And of course, you can find us on YouTube. Make sure to hit that subscribe button. LaShawn, talking about the quarterback spot. We opened the show today talking about, hey, there's a lot of reasons for their struggles. A run game needs to be better. Offensive line needs to make strides. You have to get some kind of help at wide receiver. But the decision to continue to trot out Spencer Petras once again. The Boo Birds were out for the second straight week. Much deserved. Arlen Bruce, the only scholarship wide receiver that played any significant minutes. He was targeted 11 times. He had one catch, one drop, one catch, and nine other targets in the game. The passes were off base. The coordinating was not very good,

but ultimately it comes down to the most important position in sports. When you see your quarterback, your leader, your captain, your guy, that i think everybody wants to rally around on offense and he's struggling like this how difficult is that and and how difficult do you think this is right now for these iowa players dealing with the guy and spencer petras that just is not right yeah i mean it's it's definitely a tough spot to be in right for sure right because obviously everyone talks about spencer and how great of a kid he is and all those different things right and knowing that he's your teammate and he's he's been the guy for a while like it's and especially i mean as a senior you're like well like we want to rally behind this guy like we want like we want him to play well right we want

to go ahead and hear people saying good things about him right and putting us in positions to win football games and when he's struggling you know really as much as he has been really feel like over the last 12 months to be honest like um it it puts the players in a tough spot right because i'm sure they're sure they're going to class and stuff, and people are talking about, yeah, defense is fantastic, but that Petras guy, he really sucks or whatever, right? I'm sure that's stuff that happens all the time, because heck, it happened. I was in school, and Rudak was the quarterback, right?

Right. So it puts everyone in a tough position, because it's something that another thing that they have to focus on things that they have to talk about. Right. Because, I mean, there's guys on the field that were on the field on Saturday that were doing phenomenal things that were just flying around, especially on the defensive end. Right. Making a bunch of plays. But that stuff of gets minimized and not talked about because again all the conversations end up coming about coming back to back to the quarterback right so it puts it really puts everyone in a tough spot because you want to see him do well you want to see your teammates do well and when a guy is struggling so much and you want to help him, right? But the only way really as your teammate that you can help him is by making

sure that you're obviously doing your job right in practice on the field, on the film room, weight room and on game days. And then just trying to encourage Spencer as much as possible. And obviously not, not talking bad behind his back or anything like that so it's a frustrating spot I'm sure for for everyone um on the team especially Spencer right I'm sure no one's more upset about their play than Spencer is um but yeah I'm sure the teammates are all teammates are really really in a tough spot right now, just trying to focus on their jobs and things that they have to do while trying to encourage Spencer. And making sure that, hey, I'm doing my job.

Make sure that the group I'm with, whether it's the running backs or linebackers or DBs or whatever, we're focused on doing our jobs. And let the quarterbacks and the coaches kind of take care of that. Final thing. So earlier this week, I had a contact in the athletic department and was told one of the reasons that the coaches are so much higher on Petras is of course practice, which we've heard.

I mean, Kirk has mentioned that. He also said after the game last week, and you guys just see Saturday, we see all throughout the week. But the thing that I heard is that Petras puts in a lot more time inside of breaking down film, doing those things, and he doesn't take the chances on the practice field that Alex Padilla does,

and that's what makes him a better quarterback in the mind of the coaches, and especially Kirk, is because of those two things. The practice part of it, how important at Iowa compared to the levels you played at? You're in the NFL, you were in camps there. Of course, you played high level high school football as well. Is practice more important at Iowa than it is you think at some other places? That is a really, really good question. Hmm. That is a really, really good question. Really good question. I've actually never been asked before. And thinking about that, I would say, I would say yes. I would say yes. Maybe the only place where it's very, very similar was probably New England.

Yep. where it's very very similar was probably new england yep um right like obviously like in practice like you got to be you got to be on it right like every practice um whether it's at iowa um or in the nfl especially in new england right especially like if you're in pads right and you're one of the people that are that are hidden right like it's basically like you're treating it like a game right so you've got to go out there you've got to make sure that you're, you're on the ball, right? And you're making, you're making plays, you know, when those opportunities come up. So my guess is that Spencer in practice is probably back there looking like a diet Peyton Manning, right? I'm sure like dissecting defense, calling out blitzes, making sure that the lines going to the right spot, running backs going to the right spot.

And then making sure making the right reads, right. You know, passing the football and making the right right audibles and things of that nature. So, yeah, I would say that practice was definitely very, very important at Iowa. And it didn't matter. It really didn't matter how talented you were. I mean, you I mean, a bunch of you guys have seen it throughout the years. Right. Where you guys are like, well, why wasn't this guy playing, you know, X years before? Right. And you're like, well, he didn't really learn how to practice very well until, you know, this past year. Right. And that's something that the coaches take very, very important.

Because, again, you know that the Iowa program in general, right, when it comes to football, right, they're very, very conservative. And where defensively, right, the objective is to, hey, limit the big plays, make the offense drive down the field to beat you. And then offensively, right, making sure that we don't make mistakes right don't turn over the football and you know we're able to uh sustain drives right by using the run game and using the short um quick game in the past so when you when you get that uh especially knowing Kirk, Coach Ferentz has been doing that for the past 24 years, it's like, well, okay, especially in conference play, of putting a guy out there that hasn't shown consistent practice habits and consistent performance in practice. It's crazy.

Well, that's where we are right now. The gamers, the guys that play better in games at the Iowa program, doesn't sound like they get much of a shot. Well, we got plenty more to come here on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. LaShawn, we will talk to you again on Friday. We'll make some picks. I think I got you last week. We'll have to take a look back at the numbers.

I think I got you by a game last week, but we'll make our picks presented by BetOnline. We'll have some fun with that, and we'll see. We're going to hear from Kirk Ferentz later today. We will hear officially what the decision is at the quarterback position. And is it over? Is this week over and it's just going to be Petrus? Is it open this week? We'll find out a whole lot.

Talk to you on Friday, LaShawn. Yep, for sure. Go Hawks, as always. Go Hawks, as always. This has been the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. We'll talk to you again tomorrow.