Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - OVERRATED?: Iowa Hawkeyes’ Top 25 Ranking SPARKS Debate, Jeremy Hecklinski Must DELIVER

Starting point is 00:00:00 Iowa starts the season ranked to the preseason top 25, but staying there takes more than a ranking. The Hawkeyes need key players and position groups to step up, deliver consistent production, and prove this team belongs among the nation's best. You are Locked on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. Come in, I'm Trent Condon, and this is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. daily Iowa Hawkeye podcast. Coming up later on, Davian Banks potentially has found a new home.

Starting point is 00:00:42 The former Hawkeye moving on in these new portal environment for his fifth year of eligibility, what that means and what it says about Iowa basketball a little bit later on. We'll be joined by Elliott Clough from Hawkeye Insider.com. We'll get the latest on the Hawkeye football program after Elliot, like myself, was over in Iowa City Friday and Saturday for the Media Day on Friday and Kids Day on Saturday. his thoughts of the quarterback battle, what is happening there? But we begin today as the AP top 25 came out on Monday and with it, once again, just like the coaches poll, the Iowa Hawkeyes check in at number 22.

Starting point is 00:01:19 I said it when the coaches poll came out and I still believe it. I don't see this team currently as constructed as a preseason top 25 team. If I was a ranker, even as much as I love by Hawkeyes, I would not have them currently there. And because the question marks that surround this team. We think we get an answer at the quarterback spot with the performance out of Jeremy Hecklinsky, chucking the ball around the yard, throwing for over 200 yards, five touchdowns in the practice on Saturday. That gets us excited.

Starting point is 00:01:48 Still, it is a quarterback battle. And we continue to hear that from Kirk Varence and the rest of the coaches that this thing is not over, and that leads to a lot of concerns. You also have the question marks up front along the defensive line and specifically at defensive tackle. We'll see what kind of step forward. Rice Hawthorne has this season. For me, one of the most important players of this Iowa football team this year is the defensive tackle in his second year in Iowa City after starting at South Dakota State.

Starting point is 00:02:17 We saw good signs from him a year ago. Now he needs to take it a step further and then help out that young group, whoever it is. Now, there's veterans around, but they're former walk-ons and guys like Will Hubert and Lou Gaffney, some of the other young players that we've talked about a ton. Still, it is a big concern up front because if Iowa can't stop the run, we know how ugly things can get overall. There's still question marks, obviously, in the defensive backfield. And what is going to happen there and what they're going to do with the injury to Tyler

Starting point is 00:02:46 Brown, the moving around and the adjustments that are happening, how that's going to look up. But maybe the most important component is the special teams. And after what we saw on Saturday, the inconsistency, both in the punting and the kicking game coupled with, of course, what you have, long snapping, something that rarely comes up until it does. like the Oregon game a year ago, a game that Iowa eventually loses by two points. Two of those points given away.

Starting point is 00:03:11 A snap over Reese Dakin's head into the end zone for a safety. When he lose 1816 and he give away two points like that, yeah, those are things that are going to come back and absolutely sting in the end. And Iowa cannot afford to be even mediocre in special teams if this is going to be a preseason top 25 team and an end of season, most importantly, top 25 team. A lot of questions, not a whole lot of senior. years on this team. They went into the portal and didn't get a bunch of splash big name guys. Tony Diaz, that's certainly the headliner because I would beat Alabama for him. And that's

Starting point is 00:03:44 the reason that there's been so much hype. And definitely Tony Diaz has lived up to that hype to this point. Now we'll see if it's going to translate to Saturdays during the fall. The question marks that surround this team, that's why I don't have them currently as a preseason top 25 team. However, they can get there. In order to get there at minimum, they probably have to be 8 and 4 this year. And it has to be the right mix of teams and games. Look, if Iowa gets off to what we expect, a 3-0 start in the non-conference. They beat Northern Illinois, they knock off Iowa State at Kinnock Stadium and finally end the losing streak in Kinnick against the cyclones and they bet you and I, and even do it in decisive fashion. That's not going to matter very much

Starting point is 00:04:24 if they go out there and lose the next three or even four games on the schedule to kick off the Big 10th slate at Michigan, home for Ohio State, at Washington. You get a buy week. Then you go to Minnesota after that. Even if Iowa is an 8 and 4 team, you start 3 and 4, talk about digging yourself out of a hole. And what is going to be the resume builder in the back end of that schedule after that Minnesota game? What is going to be the one that you're going to hang your hat on to say, yes, this team should be a top 25 team. That's going to be the difficult component as well. In order for this all to happen, probably 8 and 4, it has to be the right mix, as I mentioned, of 8 and 4 to get to a top 25 team by the end of the regular season,

Starting point is 00:05:06 you're going to have to likely beat one of the heavy heads at the top. And no, I'm not talking about Minnesota, either Michigan, Washington, out the road, or that home game against Ohio State. Those kind of victories go a long, long way in the voters' mind in order to make you a top 25 team. And that's certainly an area that has to get to. So why do they get their trend? That's what you're asking right now.

Starting point is 00:05:27 How do we get to that point where at the end of the season, I was a top 25 team? of just the wins. Well, a lot of those position groups that we mentioned. And when you look at specific players, I think this offense has a chance to be dynamic. And I might be kicking myself very early in the season if that doesn't come to fruition, but not just the performance of Jeremy Heklinsky. We talked about that a ton yesterday. If you missed it, a real deep dive into what we saw over a kid's day on Saturday. But taking that a step further, the one thing that steps up is just the whole wide range of playmakers that they have on the offensive side of the football, and it's all over the place.

Starting point is 00:06:03 It's not just one specific group. We've seen that plenty of times in the past where they have a really good running back room, or you know the tight ends are going to be good, or you have a dominant offensive line. It's all three phases of this offense that I think have a chance to do that and have a chance to put together as good of an offensive season as we've seen in a long time. Now, if it proves that Jeremy Hecklinsky doesn't have it, that what we saw on Saturday was just a mirage, It was just going up against a defleaded defense from Iowa, and that was the reason that we saw that. So be it, then this prediction is going to be absolutely sunk.

Starting point is 00:06:37 But from the running back room, you know what you have in Kamari Moulton, at minimum, a very good, solid Big Ten running back. L.J. Phillips, who I absolutely love, and I think he is going to be a dynamic guy for this offense this year, a guy that can get the tough yards for you, but there's a little bit more to his game on top of it. The smoothness of Nathan McNeil. Xavier Williams has already showed. And then you go even deeper than that with guys like Braden Jackson and Brevin Dahl and the upside that those guys provide in the running back room. You go over to wide receiver.

Starting point is 00:07:07 We came in thinking that Dayton Howard was going to be a big piece of this offense this year, now an upperclassman, a veteran of this group. I'm not so sure anymore. With the young dynamic playmakers that they brought in in the portal with Tony Diaz, coupled with Evan James, both of those guys looked apart. They got speed. they add an element that this offense has been searching for the last couple of years under Tim Lester. He's mentioned it many times before.

Starting point is 00:07:33 Got to get faster. And it looks like they definitely got faster. But then you have Reese Vander Z on the outside. We've talked about Jerry at Bowie and what he's going to provide coming up this year. The young freshman continue to be talked about and turning heads. Again, it's the depth at the wide receiver room, something that we haven't seen in a real long time at that spot. And then finally, the offensive line. I think the offensive line is going to be good once again.

Starting point is 00:07:56 Will there be a step back from the Joe Moore Award winning offensive line a year ago? Yeah, definitely. I don't think it's a stretch to say that by any means, but they're going to be there. It is going to be a year. If I was going to end up as a top 25 team, the offense, yes, the offense is going to have to carry them this season. Now, that doesn't mean that I think the defense is going to be bad. Is it going to be what we're used to under Phil Parker? Is it going to be a top 10 defense in all of college football?

Starting point is 00:08:25 I don't think so. I don't think with the question marks they have inside that you can expect them to have that. You got a new middle linebacker. You got Zach Lutmer, your best playmaker there, back at the free safety spot. And maybe not able to make the same kind of plays he does when he was at the cash position a year ago. You're still going to have a new cornerback out there. Even with the guy that we've seen in the past, there's a lot of new faces, a lot of differences here. They'll be good.

Starting point is 00:08:49 They'll be solid because that's what Phil Parker does every single year. He's going to put a decent product on the few. field, maybe just not the product that we're used to for the Iowa defense. And then those concerns I mentioned with the special teams. I mean, you put all that together. This has the feeling. If Iowa gets to eight and four, even a nine and three type of year on the edge of a college football playoff berth, depending if they can get a nice victory early on in the season.

Starting point is 00:09:14 If that all comes out and that happens this year, I think it's going to be a whole lot of games where Iowa wins it, 27, 24, 38, 30. Those kind of performances, that's what I think it's going to have to be at least a couple of times and certainly against some of the better opponents that they're going to see coming up this season to be that top 25 team. We come back and we look back to Saturday and Kids Day. We'll get Elliott's Clough's predictions and projections of what he saw on Saturday and what it means for this Iowa team going forward.

Starting point is 00:09:44 Was the defense quite as bad or concerning as I thought on Saturday? We'll ask Elliot about that. And a whole lot more. Stay right there. This is their daily Iowa Hawkins. podcast, Locked on Hawkeyes. Baseball fans, if you think you know who's hitting a homer today, Fanduals giving you a free chance to call your shot with Daily Dingers.

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Starting point is 00:11:33 Dot com. So I'm over in Iowa City on both Friday and Saturday. Elliot, good to see you once again, a busy couple of days. But now we got everything figured out, right? Easy to go. We're ready for the start of the season. How you doing? I'm good, Trent. How are you?

Starting point is 00:11:47 Doing very well. Well, of course, talked quarterback already. Everybody's going to be talking quarterback and what we saw. It was a blowout in terms of the competition on this one practice. And that's what Kirk fans talked about afterwards. It's just one of nine practices so far. He was not ready to name a start or anything like that coming on, the performance that we saw from Jeremy Hicklinsky. Just your takeaway and hearing from Kirk on Saturday, your thoughts overall, a quarterback race that from us in the media, and I think for the fan base feels over, but it's not over inside that locker.

Starting point is 00:12:19 It's definitely over for the fan base. That's for sure. I don't think anybody is clamoring for Hank Brown at this point in time in the fan base. Yeah, you know, I, I'm like everybody else right now. After that open practice, you have to lean Hekensky, right? Like, he just, you said it, blew him out of the water in terms of the performance. And I'm actually in the middle of my rewatch right now. I'll have an article up for our VIPs, my Monday morning quarterback.

Starting point is 00:12:47 But Hank, I mean, in this second watch, I'm in the middle of it right now. I already finished watching Hecklensky. Hecklinski, I would say, missed on maybe a couple. throws, but he didn't have any turnover worthy plays, whereas Brown just is flat out missing guys. What I said in our postgame pod between myself and David Eichol is just that Hank looked like he had anxiety throwing the football. It's like he was nervous. I mean, I learned about this in a biomechanics class in college. If your eye movement's off due to anxiety, you're going to miss targets, whether it's putting in golf, shooting basketball, or throwing a football, or

Starting point is 00:13:27 or throwing a football. And there were several times yesterday where Hank had guys wide open. The play worked perfectly, and he just either airmilled it or just flat out missed the throw. And you can't have that from your starting quarterback, especially in an offense that is designed to be advantageous towards your quarterback in terms of setting some things up, making sure these things get open, these receivers get open in a timely manner. You get rid of the ball on time. and Hank just wasn't doing that on Saturday, whereas Jeremy Heklitsky was. So Heklitsky making quick decisions, smart decisions, getting rid of the football, putting it on target, like really good ball placement. So a lot of things that just feels like heck is the guy.

Starting point is 00:14:15 I mean, after watch, you can't unsee what we all saw on Saturday, right? Can't fan base won't Indiana game coupled with it. It feels like a decisive one, but we will wait and see. when the official determination comes down for QB1 for the Hawkeyes. Elliot, a lot more than that, though. A couple takeaways, this offense, man, they got some dudes out there. From Tony Diaz, who we've talked about a ton during the off season. Evan James, I talked to Bud Meyer, as you did Friday, you know, bounced around to the different coaches,

Starting point is 00:14:45 seven, eight minutes with him, 10 minutes with Lester. And both times with both of those coaches, Evan James Speed came up. Jared Bowie, back healthy. That's a guy with elite level athleticism. them you got van der z you got dayton howard who's got a lot of reps already am i crazy to say they're actually deep at wide receiver oh trend you know i uh i i just i i still am a little weary of that little wary of that i i see the vision i'll say that how's that like because those guys have their respective talent and i feel i would feel better about that now than i would have you know

Starting point is 00:15:25 a long month ago after seeing what Evan James was able to do this weekend, made some tough catches, made some catches where previous receivers, at least in the last few years, might have gotten their hand on the ball, but probably wouldn't have reeled it in. And James went up and got it and held on. And like I said, wouldn't have been able to say that about quite a few receivers in recent memory,

Starting point is 00:15:46 able to get open, able to make tough catches. Diaz is a guy that you can get the ball to in space and let him make things happen to. you can say the same thing about KJ Parker. He's made some tough catches in his time at Iowa that we've seen in these open practices. And Jerry, we did too. I mean,

Starting point is 00:16:04 Reese Vandorsey made the play of the day on Saturday, too, with that toe tap catch on the sideline, went up and got it. It's kind of a duck of a ball, but Heck, Winsky recognized the one-on-one coverage between he and Alex Moda and goes up and snags that gets the toe tap.

Starting point is 00:16:20 Like, Reese Vandersey is NFL at this point. I mean, I think we've seen flashes of it in his career on the field, at least in actual games, but, and especially in that catch that he made against Vandermelt in the quarter of the end zone before halftime. And then you go to plays like this. It's just like to do the big receiver who can get open and make tough catches. And that was really impressive.

Starting point is 00:16:43 So the makings are there. I'm still in wait and see mode. I'll believe it when I see it when these receivers make plays against Michigan, Ohio State, in Washington. If that happens, even against like Illinois down the road in the season, if that happens, then you'll get me on board. But right now, I would call it flashes and I would call it intriguing and maybe the potentials there. We'll say that. We know that DJ Vonami is going to be a big part of this offense. And you wonder with the Shanahan offense, how it's going to translate. You know, the usage for the tight ends is not at the level. We've seen some past years,

Starting point is 00:17:20 but you got to do like this. And the way he came out at the end of last season, a couple of outstanding plays that he made in the game, showing that athleticism that he has. Tidend appears to be in a really good spot. And Addison Estringo, there was one play that really stands out from Saturday to me. He was lined up in the left slot, came around and type of kind of a wheel route kind of back,

Starting point is 00:17:39 came behind the other receiver. And you can see just lumbering a little bit where you can tell. That is a guy that is working his way back off in Achilles entry, which is one of the more significant injuries that you can come back from. But Thomas Meyer, that dude's coming on strong and he looks the part. He does. And right before, I think it was right before HEC's last touchdown or maybe it was a different, I don't know, he threw five of them. It was after, right before a different touchdown. But he hit Meyer on two consecutive routes. One was down and away from the, the defensive back

Starting point is 00:18:14 that was in coverage and Meyer made the grab. And then the one after that was just a simple route and Meyer was there. It was on time and on target. I mean, the blocking is there. I think he's sort of that H-back role that we saw Hayden Large play in last year, but also with the ability to get open on a route. So he's got that athleticism and that speed that I think Hayden Large didn't have, but he's got the size and the physicality and the strength that Large did have in terms of blocking. So there were a couple plays, I think it was the first touchdown pass that DJ Benami caught where it was 12 personnel. Meyer lined up on the outside with Venami to his inside. And Vanami ran a corner fade and Meyer actually ran a crosser and just took the DB with him,

Starting point is 00:19:03 put Jack Loughlin a walk-on linebacker on Denami. And I mean, you go to that every time if you're Hekleski. That's exactly what he did, dropped it in his breadbap, didn't at the touchdown. So Meyer more than just a blocker and a catcher. I mean, he can serve as a decoy in this offense too, especially as other teams start to key in on DJ Benami, but recognize what Myers capable of to. Talk with Elliott Kluf from hawkeye insider.com. Elliot, let's jump over to the defense because as good as the offense was and Heck Linsky was with the five touchdowns, that means, well, maybe there's some struggles out of the

Starting point is 00:19:37 other side. We're just so used to having the defense dominate these open practices. Doesn't matter if it's spring. It doesn't matter if it's this August one we get every year. The defense normally dominate. That was not the case, albeit without three anticipated starters. No Kenneth Meriwether. We didn't get to see Tyler Brown as he's banged up right now.

Starting point is 00:19:55 And Zach Lutber really barely played throughout the course of this one. With that caveat, how concerned did you walk away from the defense after what you saw on Saturday? Not really, Trent. I mean, like you said, we've seen them dominate over and over again. Your best player barely played. Tyler Brown will be probably one of the better players on the defense too. and then you look at Kenneth Meriwether, and he's probably going to be, if not your best pass rusher, your second or third best pass rusher. And Drew Campbell filled in for him with the ones and was really good.

Starting point is 00:20:25 So that's something of note. Played really well against Jack Dostler, put him on his ass once or twice, and then got him with a side swipe move and would have gotten a sack if it was live. So Campbell, I think, is a name to watch amongst that group. So getting back to your original question, honestly, I'm not concerned. probably at all. There's three weeks yet, a little less than three weeks until that first game against Northern Illinois, not worried about Iowa State, and then a UNI before heading to the big house and playing Michigan. So this group, I think they're going to be fine. Lots of rotating pieces, too. There was a mixture of ones and twos out there,

Starting point is 00:21:05 or what we believe to be ones and twos with the defense. So I'm not leaving this thing upset. I can tell you, though, I did hear from a source this morning that, The staff ripped the defense a new one in the following the following day in practice. They were not happy or watching films and meetings and stuff like that. They were not happy. Staff was not happy about how they performed in that open practice. So I think there will be some adjustments going forward and some corrections being made. No surprise on that one.

Starting point is 00:21:35 Yeah, I can imagine Phil Parker, not exactly pleased in the rest of the staff with that kind of performance. And given up five touchdowns, even in a practice environment. That's definitely going to sting just a little bit. bit. Mention the injuries. That was some updates that we saw. When you go back and you kind of look at it, anything that is overly concerning, I guess Tyler Brown's kind of the headliner on that front,

Starting point is 00:21:55 kind of what you heard about his return and anything else injury-wise for the hawk. Yeah, I don't believe there's a timeline for Tyler Brown at this point in time. I don't think it's like major concern. Oh, he's likely to miss however many weeks. You haven't even heard that, oh, he's expected to miss week one or anything like that. So not too concerned on that front. Emmanuel Olaq Bajou didn't participate either on Saturday. I don't, I haven't heard anything about him missing or being expected to miss time when the season comes around.

Starting point is 00:22:25 So not a huge concern there unless he's missing multiple practices. If you're Olaq Bajou right now, you can't be missing stuff because he is a new guy that is just really still trying to figure some things out at Iowa. The only other one that comes to mind off the top of my head that we did hear about, Kelvin Bell did tell a scrum of us media that Lance Engle. will be out until about mid-season, Northern Illinois, transfer defensive end slash de-tackle. He could probably play both, be one of those guys who's a bit of a tweener. But I didn't necessarily look at him as a guy that I expected to be a key part of the defensive line this coming year. Big body, maybe special teams in terms of a guy that you throw out there and try to block

Starting point is 00:23:07 some kicks or something like that. But other than that, I mean, of course, there's going to be some bumps and bruises throughout camp but I think I think they're going to be fine and we did hear about the season ending injuries for Lance being bigley or uh bigley from from SMU the transfer and then as well as as Tyler Gerardi but nothing that you know you makes makes you worry about the season ahead give us a takeaway or two talking to the players the coaches from Friday anything that stood out to you anything that you're filing away as we get ready for the start of the season and our opportunity to talk with the players and the assistant coaching.

Starting point is 00:23:46 Two things actually stick out right off the top of my head. First is Trade Investinger. I just really felt like there was no tampering down of excitement regarding him and what he's going to be capable of Iowa. Four-star quarterback out of Utah, top 200 prospect in the country, number 12 quarterback in the 2026 class for us at 24-7 sports. and I mean talking to whether it was Billy Vandemert or Kirk Farrant or any of his teammates, it was just all positive.

Starting point is 00:24:19 Of course, he's figuring some things out, but especially within this offense. And, you know, he wasn't phenomenal on Saturday by any means. But the physical, the body type is absolutely there. You can see some of the arm strength, some of the arm's talent and the little bit that we did get to see and we did hear about that peeking through. Man, if Heklinsky looks like he did on Saturday, I wouldn't talk about him potentially being in the conversation or Bethinger being in the conversation for QB1 next year. But I think that's going to be something we start talking about sooner rather than later.

Starting point is 00:24:55 Oh, go ahead, Elliot. Oh, I was going to say second thing would be Jalen Watson talking to him about that cornerback position and his competition there. Do I think he's guaranteed to be the starter? I don't. I think he's the favorite, though. And after the new five-for-five ruling, that offers some sort of freedom for him. He doesn't have necessarily, well, he doesn't have two years left now.

Starting point is 00:25:18 He has three years left. And even though he's approaching it as such, I mean, he believes he's going to the NFL. And this is a first year where it really starts to, you know, he's got to put some things together before that starts to becoming a real viable possibility, at least externally. But he sees that for himself. He said, to me and I quote, I'll go to the. NFL for sure. I see myself going to the NFL for sure. So that's something to keep tabs on. He wants to be involved in the punt return game too. So probably not going to take over Lutmer's

Starting point is 00:25:49 spot, but he's a guy that can be a claymaker with a ball on his hand. So I would say those two were the biggest thing off the top of my head anyway from media day. Wrapping up with you, Elliot, and let's jump to special teams, a pretty uneven performance, not a dominating performance by any means out of the specialist, the kickers, the punters. and throw a long snapper in there too because there was issues on that front. Special teams, always such a big, big part of Iowa football, a little shaky there on Saturday. Yeah, I wouldn't call myself confident in that group going into the season between Eli Ozek and Kaden Burr on kick, Burr struggled. Ozick didn't look like the All-American.

Starting point is 00:26:27 He was the FCS ranks. I think punters were good, both Boston Everett and Tanner Philpott. both looked like they could be some really good punters for the hawks this season. I lean Philpott just because of the experience, but then you go to long snapper, and it doesn't sound like it's settled yet. I would have thought it would be Ike's belts 100% ready to go going into the season, but it sounds like it's actually a bit of a competition between he and Maddie McLaughlin from the high school ranks.

Starting point is 00:26:56 He's a four and a half star long snapper out of high school ranked by Coles. So competition there too. And I just don't think it's over at any of those key spots on special teams. Elliot Kloff, Hawkeye Insider. Elliot, last 30 seconds here. What do you guys have cooking over at Hawkeye Insider? And we get ready for football season, always something going on over there. Yeah, like I said, I'm working on Monday morning quarterback.

Starting point is 00:27:21 I'm going back and watching every single throw from Hecklenklincky and Hank Brown. So that'll be up hopefully close within the next hour on Hawkeye Insider for our VIPs. And we'll have another shared intel drop. from myself, Sean and Dave. That is worth your money in and of itself right there for us at Hawkeye Insider. You can join us at Hawkeye Insider for 60% off Hawkeye 60, code Hawkeye 60 to join us. And you'll get your first year for 60% off. And it's well worth it, folks.

Starting point is 00:27:50 Sean and Dave have been crushing it. And I think we're really just getting started. So plenty to come. Hawkeye Insider.com, the place to go. Elliot Cluff. A big thank you to Elliot for joining us as we talk. some Hawkeyes and his reaction to what he saw over the weekend. Coming back on the other side, Tabian Banks has potentially a new home.

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Starting point is 00:29:39 Download the GameTime app today. Trent, kind of back with you one final time here, Lockdown Hawkeyes. Thanks for being with us and making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Make sure you hit subscribe if you're watching us on YouTube. If you listen on the podcast side, five-star reviews, all that helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. As we roll through here, Lockdown Hawkeyes, wrapping up with Tavion Banks and kind of a sad end to things as we knew going back to the end of his season and what looked like it was going to be the end of his career is he also put his name in to the portal. And with that, that has given him an opportunity with the injunction

Starting point is 00:30:19 that was granted by a judge and an opportunity for him to get an opportunity to play at the next level. The decision was made by Ben McCollum and the rest of the staff instead of waiting, hoping they were going to turn the page. And if it got to this point, they were going to help him in finding a new home. I don't think there's any doubt about that and just the way that the staff is, the closeness that you see, the camaraderie, the team building, all those elements are definitely there for Iowa basketball. But Tavion Banks, this is a report from 24-7 and Deshawn London said after receiving his injunction on Friday, Iowa transfer Tavion Banks is focused on a short list of schools. Sources tell 24-7 sports. They are Gonzaga, LSU, Mississippi State, and Oklahoma. The Florida native looking mostly down south outside of that Gonzaga.

Starting point is 00:31:08 Gonzaga, of course, was hit hard as their top player coming back next season, decided to go back to Europe and is going to play over there next season. LSU would make a ton of sense, and a lot of people maybe believe that LSU is the frontrunner for his services. A program, Will Wade going back there, got in trouble for this strong-ass offer, and then after that had to go to NC State. Now he's back. Yeah, well, those components.

Starting point is 00:31:31 They do not have a very deep roster right now. So a lot of opportunities if Tavian chooses the Tigers to go down to Baton Rouge to complete his eligibility. But we do know, sadly, it will not be with the Iowa Hawkeyes. Out of time for today, back with you tomorrow on your daily Iowa Hawkeye podcast. It is Lockdown Hawkeyes. Again, hit subscribe if you're watching on YouTube and a big thank you to our everydayers out there with us each and every day. Have a great day. We'll talk to you again tomorrow.

Starting point is 00:31:57 Until then, go Hawks.

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