Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - PORTAL WATCH: Iowa Hawkeyes FACE Major QB Transfer Question as Hank Brown, Jeremy Hecklinski COMPETE

Starting point is 00:00:00 Todd Bromelcamp joins us today as we dissect the Iowa quarterback situation. The Hawkeyes, is it time to go portal shopping? Are they good with the two transfers at Glinski and Hank Brown? You are Locked on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. And I'm Trent Condon. That's Todd Bromelcamp, and this is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast, your daily Iowa Hawkeye podcast. Thanks for making Lockdown, Hawkeyes, your first listen of the day. Now number one for the sports podcast network. Lockdown, your team every day. We've been covering the Hawkeyes for almost 50 years combined between the two of us. You can hear me currently on the Iowa Sports Radio Network with stations all across the great state of Iowa. Today's episode is brought to you by Fandul. If you want to be right in middle of the action this season, visit fanduil.com and place your NFL live bets all season. Today, we're going to take a look at the quarterback situation.

Starting point is 00:01:06 Mark Garnowski, his eligibility has been exhausted to transfers from a year ago. And Hank Brown and Jeremy Hecklinsky, does Iowa good in that spot? What if there's some movement? Does Iowa need to go portal shopping? We will get into that. Also talk a little bit about the bowl game and the more vitriol going the way of Diego Pavia. I think there's going to be a lot of Hawkeye fans. not just the black and gold-clad ones rooting for Iowa come a New Year's Eve.

Starting point is 00:01:32 We'll also talk some basketball, starting with the Emily Rodriguez situation. What's happening there and maybe the first major issue in the women's program under Jan Jensen. We'll talk about men's basketball and they're upside as they wrap up their non-conference play. Two more games to go, including Saturday in Des Moines against Bucknell. Todd, good to see you once again. Thanks for joining us today. Absolutely. Countdown the days to Christmas.

Starting point is 00:01:55 Absolutely. A week away. And as we do the countdown, I will have to figure out plans. And it's such a difficult time. I mean, there's so much going on. I got travel happening all over the place. You're a little closer to your family. Do you have much travel plans for Christmas time?

Starting point is 00:02:11 No, just we're about an hour away. So both families live close enough that we can see everybody and make everybody happy. I got Sioux City coming up this weekend for my wife's side of the family. Christmas Eve, we always go. So we have lately at least gone up to Osage, where I grew up, and we do everything with my mom's side of the family there, come home because one of the things I said when my kids were born, my kids will sleep in their bed Christmas Eve. And though that's led to a lot of windshield time throughout the years, making way back, definitely something that I love them waking up at their own house every single time. But then the following weekend, then we got to go back to my parents' place. And that's about three hours away up in New Hampton.

Starting point is 00:02:51 So we're going to be all over the map, all over Iowa. but you can hear me on the Iowa Sports Radio Network at different times there across the state. Todd, with that, we get ready for Christmas, presence under the tree, maybe a new quarterback for Iowa. I know there's a lot of speculation about that position. After Mark Grunowski put together an outstanding year, certainly running the football, you know, when we look back upon it, I still think that the passing game, it certainly wasn't close to what a lot of people thought. Bernowski was much better than a runner that I anticipated this year, but definitely left something to be desired. You know, the anticipation we saw different times this year. He was not certainly

Starting point is 00:03:29 an elite passer this year. And I guess maybe still has that glimmer of hope that the passing game next season can finally break through in year number three of Tim Lester. Yeah. And, you know, you move on from Mark Grinowski, and we've talked so much this year about what he did for the Hawkeyes as far as carrying the football, his rushing totals, his rushing touchdowns. And I think you've got to figure out what you want out of your quarterback. If you want to make that, continue to make that part of your game plan, you know, I'm sure there's some guys out there that maybe fit the bill. They may, they may even have one in-house that sort of fits the bill there. But that's the concern for me is, if you take away what he was able to do rushing the ball

Starting point is 00:04:12 this year and go with a more traditional quarterback next year, that Iowa offense is going to look a little bit different. So they've got to figure out what direction they want to go in at the quarterback position. You know, it was so interesting. Hank Brown, he comes in. He'd been the backup. And I think everybody thought he would be the backup coming into the season. I know there was some Jackson Stratt in Love after what he did a year ago and maybe

Starting point is 00:04:31 hopeful that he was going to be able to go. He was also banged up before the season began. I think that put him behind the eight ball. But hangs the backup. He comes in after the injury against Indiana, misses the screen pass. Iowa has the by week. It looked like, though, it wasn't going to be Grinowski for quite a while, at least for the Wisconsin game.

Starting point is 00:04:50 he's eventually able to play in that game. But the depth chart comes out and all of a sudden, the number two quarterback is Jeremy Hecklinsky. It's just such a rare thing to see that at the quarterback position, that kind of movement there. It is very uncirk-like. Now, it's not the starter and we know how much Kirk struggles to make a change at the quarterback spot, at least at the top spot.

Starting point is 00:05:09 But even to see that as a backup, you wonder how much influence Tim Lester had on that. Yeah, and the depth chart has been so meaningless for Kirk Ference that it was really interesting to see that change made. And when the depth chart gets tinkered with, especially at backup positions where there's no guarantee that you would have seen the backup quarterback at all this year. So it would have been a really, I don't want to say a secret,

Starting point is 00:05:35 but they could have kept that under wraps if they wanted to. I think maybe there was a little bit of a message being sent there. And we've talked about this. I think Holinsky is probably the guy moving forward. I think a lot of people, fans and maybe even the media in general, sort of fell in love with Hank Brown just because of where he was coming from. He was an Auburn guy, SEC, and people tend to give credence to that. I always think, you know, makes you stop and think that if somebody's leaving a program and

Starting point is 00:06:08 going somewhere else, they're usually doing so for a reason. And maybe it's not always on their own. Maybe it's the previous program that's helping usher them out the door. So stop and ask yourself why maybe some of these guys are available in the transfer portal. I think people fell in love with Hank Brown right away because of his age and the idea that, well, we're going to have this guy for a really long time and he's coming from Auburn. And it is interesting that they made that switch sort of halfway through the season. And again, I think maybe there's some tea leaves to read here.

Starting point is 00:06:44 But you know as well as I do that in the last year, year, year and a half with college football, trying to predict something on a Thursday is pretty pointless because Friday can look a whole lot different. You know, you look at Jeremy Heklinsky, and after he got that backup role and played a little bit in a couple of blowouts, we got to see him. He's not a big guy by any means, but he can move around. And, you know, with what we've seen, certainly the last two seasons, going back to the emergence of Brennan Sullivan, what he was able to do, even with his limitations as a thrower, you know, just that athleticism, that ability to move. What we saw,

Starting point is 00:07:18 obviously this year, running the ball with Grinowski, I think to unlock everything with the Iowa offense, you want to have a guy. That's not to say that Hank Brown, no, he's not a statue back there, but he's certainly not the kind of athlete that the aforementioned guys are running the ball. And because of that, I think if Hecklinsky maybe has a leg up, still, heklinsky's little. And we don't know what's going to happen with Hank Brown. Remember, we just have this one portal window, which I think is bad for the players, but it shouldn't be a surprise.

Starting point is 00:07:43 I mean, the NCAA and the coaches will try to do anything bad for the players. with that portal window, Hank Brown, I don't want to see he sees the writing on the wall, opportunity to compete. He's going to have all those things. But still, if he makes a decision to enter the portal and go a different direction, at minimum, you have to be shopping for a backup. I mean, you have to go out there and find a guy like Jackson Stratt, a guy like Brennan Sullivan, who came in with the thought that probably he was going

Starting point is 00:08:09 to be the backup to Cade McNamara. At minimum, I think Iowa needs to go that direction just with the understanding that the possibility is out there. And it sounds like at minimum, I was making some calls. Yeah, and they're out there. We've talked about this in the past that, you know, just because somebody didn't work out at one program doesn't mean that they're not going to work out at another program. Or if they were good at one program, it doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be as good at another program.

Starting point is 00:08:35 But in this DNA, I just, I wish we could get like a five-year window where they didn't change anything. And we could, we could get used to the way that college football works now. It just seems like every year, you know, we're analyzing this year's portal, but we're using the previous data from the previous windows. It is going to be interesting to see with this very narrow, one-time, limited window, what things will look like this year, whether that's going to lead guys to maybe staying where they were, where last year maybe they would have considered transferring.

Starting point is 00:09:09 But at the end of the day, like you said, I think, you know, the reports are out there that Iowa is at least calling around and sniffing around, And, you know, you've got to do your due diligence and give Kirk Ferrence and the staff credit for that for at least kicking the tires on some of these guys. And you never know. You may find somebody that you weren't necessarily thinking about and you realize that they might be a good fit for the program and get them in there. But as we've discussed numerous times in the past, you can never have too much depth in the quarterback room. You, speaking of that depth, have two guys that registered this year, Jimmy Sullivan that came in from Indiana. Now, he was committed to the previous OC, but obviously Tim Lester got a look at him, had a chance to kind of evaluate him, still liked what they saw and kept him aboard.

Starting point is 00:09:56 And then Ryan Fitzgerald, who is the son of Pat Fitzgerald, now the Michigan State coach, many people wondering if he's going to be there. I had somebody mentioned to me the other day that they think there is a decent chance that Fitzgerald is going to stick around in Iowa City. To me, that still seems like a little bit of a stretch there. But still, this is a guy that came in as a walk on as Sullivan's a guy. And the other guy we got to mention is Trayden Bessinger, who comes in really high accolades. You know, he was committed to Boise State, yet you look at a lot of the recruiting services. This guy looks to be, at least in terms of, you know, where he's ranked in terms of quarterbacks, in terms of the top 300 list, things like that.

Starting point is 00:10:35 Looks like his offer list should have been a bit better than what actually was. Yeah, and to me it's kind of a, he's kind of a retro Iowa fine. You know, you go back to the days where they were pulling Bob Sanders out of the mid-American conference and Jovan Johnson, all those guys that only had Mac offers, and then they would get to Iowa and turned out to be key contributors. Kind of reminds me of, you know, the way things were 20 plus years ago with Kirk Ferrence, so maybe finding a diamond in the rough there. Fitzgerald, to me, is interesting because he is a walk-on. You know, if he was a scholarship guy and not getting an opportunity, maybe he does bounce. But, you know, with a walk-on, I think maybe it's a

Starting point is 00:11:16 to his benefit to stick with the program and not every player wants to go play with their dad. But, you know, look at the recent examples of the McCaffrey kids and John Licklider and that they increased attention that you get when you share the same last name as the head coach. And, well, a certain offensive coordinator comes to mind a couple years ago. It's just, it's not what every, every guy wants necessarily. So maybe Fitzpatrick wants to try to make a name for himself out of his dad's shadow. I'm still interested to see how that goes at East Lansing, too. I just, that to me strikes me as something like Illinois was doing with the Lovie Smith and the Ron Zook hires where, hey, people know the name Pat Fitzgerald.

Starting point is 00:12:07 So we're going to go out and bring him into the pro. It doesn't necessarily mean it's going to translate to wins and success. Absolutely. And just the way the college football has changed in the 40 years that he's been away. I mean, think of the evolution that we've seen from this sport. And it's a different era, even than it was just a couple of years ago. And he's going to have to kind of learn on the fly. And I don't know if Fitz is a guy that exactly learns on the fly.

Starting point is 00:12:29 He kind of does things his way. And we'll see. I think it's going to be tough for him. You know, I'll give Michigan State credit. They're kind of leaning into. They're a program that has had culture problems. And so just lean into it and bring in a guy that's had problems. at his last year. Maybe they

Starting point is 00:12:43 maybe they could be like the Rick Flair of the Big Ten moving forward. Just embrace the bad guy of the heel attitude. But we'll see how that works out moving forward for him. Well, we continue and there is still one more game before we have to worry about that quarterback spot and all the

Starting point is 00:13:00 spots. Yes, it is the Ruea Quest Bowl. We're going to talk about the matchup and Diego Pavion on Saturday made of assing himself. Now, his family's been doing that all season long and he's got some old own skeletons in the We're going to talk a little bit about the matchup on what it's going to look like. We'll talk about the bowl game.

Starting point is 00:13:16 Plus, we got basketball coming away as we continue. This is Locked on Hawkeyes. NFL Sundays move fast. One big play. Suddenly, everything feels different. That's what makes live betting with Fanduel so exciting. You're not just watching the game. You're reacting to it in real time.

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Starting point is 00:14:11 you can jump in with a whole lot on Fanduel. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit Fanduel.com and place your NFL live bets all season. Fanduel, the game moves fast and so can you. Trent, Todd, back with you again here, Lockdown Hawkeyes. Thanks for being with us and making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. As we count down to the bowl game, Todd. Vandy, I think it's a difficult matchup in a couple of different aspects.

Starting point is 00:14:40 one thing that I did like if you watch Vanderbilt this year they pull a bunch of different guys that's actually one thing that Phil Parker's defense has been good against and getting tackles for loss something I think they're going to have to do in this game is against pulling guards pulling centers even pulling tackles I was one of the best in the country and making tackles for loss in that one and I think they're going to have to make Vanderbilt play behind the chains but before we kind of good to the game I want to get your perspective on Diego Pavia doesn't win the Heisman does some ridiculous things he's out party well fine i mean he's in new york i mean think of this guy this guy was a high school wrestler you know out there went to the new what new mexico institute a juco program for a couple of

Starting point is 00:15:21 years was that new mexico state pissing on the logo of new mexico where they played there in albuquerque just he's got a lot there's a lot there but definitely going to be a lot of casual fans i think it'll be rooting for the hawk eyes after what we saw saturday yeah you know he kind of reminds me a little bit of Johnny Mansell, a guy who, you know, had his own Heisman history. And I, first of all, I think the voters got it right. I think Fernando Mendoza was, was worthy. And it's not just because I'm a big 10 guy. I know the numbers, you know, maybe favored Pavia, but Fernando Mendoza led one of the worst football programs in history to the number one ranking in the country. Give that guy the Heisman trophy. But I think this.

Starting point is 00:16:08 can go one and two ways with Diego Pavia. Either he can use that Heisman runner-up as motivation and go out and show the world that he was wronged, or he's going to crash out and burn long before they take the field at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. My money would be on him being very motivated to go out and win that game. But we'll see. He certainly is an interesting character. to say the least. But you've got to separate, I think, the off-the-field stuff from the on-the-field stuff. Because if you just get wrapped up with all of the headlines that he's made off the field, I think you're forgetting just how dangerous he is when he does have a ball in his hands.

Starting point is 00:16:53 Yeah, 800 yards rushing this year, nine touchdowns go long with what he did in the passing game this year, 27 touchdowns through the year and threw for almost 3,200 yards this season. This Vandy team, you look around, they got a bunch of solid guys. their best player might be another New Mexico state transfer. They're tight and stowers. We'll see about his availability for that one. A lot of people speculating if there would be a guy that would sit out of this game, opt out of the bowl game.

Starting point is 00:17:19 He might be towards the top of the list. But 11th in country and total offense defensively, not quite as good, but where they're most vulnerable is through the air. Can I would take advantage? Well, Iowa hasn't been able to take advantage against past defenses, bad past defenses all season long. So it's going to have to be another Iowa style kind of. yeah you know it reminds me of a big fan of arrested development and there's that scene where

Starting point is 00:17:45 david cross's character tobias is talking with lindsay his ex-wife about i think it was therapy and you know it's never worked for any of those other people but you know maybe it'll work for us this time and so that's my approach to iowa go under the air in this bog you know they haven't really had success with it all season long but maybe it's going to work in the bowl game i i you know we'll see. We'll see, Trent. The bowl games have been such a mixed bag in recent years. And like you said, we don't know who's playing in this game. Who's going to opt out. It's just, you know, what is it? We're two weeks away. And it feels like, you know, anything can happen between now and then. But I think the Hawkeyes that we see in Tampa are going to be pretty similar to the Hawkeyes that we've seen all season long.

Starting point is 00:18:36 Yes. There's not going to be a whole thing. lot of change, a whole lot of differences. Speaking, going back to the beginning of our conversation, I would absolutely love it. And I know it's not going to happen. Not that you're going to play Jeremy Hecklinsky. He's going to be the starter for this game. That's not how Kirk uses bowl games.

Starting point is 00:18:53 And it's not going to change. We know that. But can you give them a couple of drives? Hey, you're going to get the fourth drive of the game and the seventh drive of the game, something like that. Wherever they fall and we're going to put together a package of plays, here's a dozen plays we'll put together for you. And then the rest of the playbook, if it comes to that,

Starting point is 00:19:08 just to see Hecklinsky in a real environment against a real team like that, not a blowout, but to see what you have there. But, and again, that's my Christmas wish. It's not going to happen, is it? It's not Kirk's M.O., but I think the longer that we go into this new era of college football, the bowl games are going to essentially be more like scrimmages to me. And there will be coaches. Kirk is not going to be one of them, but there are going to be some coaches that make that shift

Starting point is 00:19:38 in philosophy about bowl games and started to use it as sort of the springboard into the next year. So I think you'll see, you know, college football is a game of copycats, right? So somebody's going to do it. And if it works well and they get a bump next year. So I have a hard time saying that playing a kid in one game in December or January is going to be the sole thing responsible for them being a different player the next year. but it's going to happen at some point in time and then the rest of the college football world is going to follow along with it.

Starting point is 00:20:12 Five years from now, we could be talking about these bowl games as if they are the spring game, the kickoff to the next season where you're playing the freshman and throwing them out there and getting a look at him. But we know one coach who is going to be dragged, kicking, and screaming into that era if he's still around.

Starting point is 00:20:30 And at this point, I have no reason to believe that he won't be. Absolutely. That's Kirkin. He is our coach for a long time. We continue here, Lockdown Hawkeyes. We're going to talk some basketball when we come back, both the women and the men. Two blowout wins over the weekend, not so much that. It is a look. Maybe the first major hurdle of the Jan Jensen era, what she's dealing with right now with Emily Rodriguez,

Starting point is 00:20:51 trying to figure out what's happening there. And what is the upside for Iowa men's basketball? We'll do that as we continue, Lockdown, Hawkeyes. But first, what to tell you right now about our Everydayer Club. Thanks for being with us, as always. It's time to take it up a level and you can go ad free on Locked on Hawkeyes. Join the Everyday Club today and get Locked on Hawkeyes with no interruptions, members only Discord access, and more, all for just $5 a month or you can pay up front for the whole year for $50.

Starting point is 00:21:20 Go to Lockdownhawkeyes. Dot supercast.com. Lockedon hawkeyes. com. Also, you can find in the show links at the bottom of the show a little bit more information on what's happening there. The holidays are here and whether you're hosting family, planning the perfect gift,

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Starting point is 00:23:00 as a whole, hasn't had to deal with. And what we're speaking of is Emily Rodriguez, a very cryptic response by Jan during her press conference as they get ready for Yukon this weekend about her availability. I thought a really good follow-up question by Kyle Huesman. Is she a part of the program? As of right now, yes, to paraphrase what she said there. So it's, we saw last year they had that five-game losing streak.

Starting point is 00:23:22 We're able to pull themselves out of it, got a win against Washington. As they kind of were left out there in the West Coast, it was their second game of their West Coast swing. and really turned around the season. But that's just, hey, you're going through a rough stretch of basketball. This is different. And a lot of speculation about the reasoning behind it. Regardless of that, Todd, this is something that Jan just hasn't had to deal with.

Starting point is 00:23:42 It doesn't feel like. Yeah, and I don't want to say an unforced error there, but when you say as of right now, that's just, you know, it's an indication that maybe there is something brewing there behind the scenes. And with transfers, you never know. Is she unhappy with playing time or if she have second thoughts in the back of her head? This is also the time of year where you start looking at finals and is it a grade situation, what's going on and a lot of rampant speculation that, you know, when you're in the media,

Starting point is 00:24:18 you're really careful about it. And when you're a guy that helps sell used cars, maybe you can shoot from the hip a little bit more comfortably. But whatever the situation is, if you're an Iowa fan, I think you just hope that you know eventually everything smooths over and and you find resolution in this but it is it is sort of the first challenge like you said for jan because uh everything has kind of been on uh cruise control for her for the most part you know she's been doing really well recruiting and and there just haven't been off court issues and this really is the first time where there's some headlines uh with the you know question marks about a player in the program. So it's intriguing, certainly. I was intrigued when

Starting point is 00:25:03 she announced her transfer. I thought she was going to be an integral part of the team this year, and I still think she can be. Maybe it's just a matter of needing more time to get her footing in the program, and what minutes you're playing in November and December, not necessarily indicative of the minutes that you may be playing in January or February. So, So if it's a situation where she's unhappy with the program, you know, things can change. But I'm not inside of her mind and I'm not inside of Jan Jensen's mind. So, yeah, speculation galore. We'll find out whether there's smoke to this or not at some point.

Starting point is 00:25:43 But it certainly is interesting. Again, going back to the response, anytime that a coach says that, it opens the door for people to wonder what's going on there. But I don't know how else, you know, I went back and listened, I don't know how else he answer the question. Because if you play coy and, you know, then it leads to more speculation because is, is she lying? Does she know more than she's saying?

Starting point is 00:26:08 So it's really one of those situations when you're a coach and you're dealing with the media, you know that no matter what direction you choose, you know, there's going to be consequences for what you say. That coupled with what they have coming up, Yukon, number one in the country, far and away. Number one, they have absolutely obliterated most everybody that they face this year. This team is absolutely loaded. And Gino, he didn't forget what happened a couple of years ago when these two teams faced off in the final four, the moving screen. So be ready. Strap it on. And everybody's got to be ready because this is a behemoth. They're going to be facing Saturday, 1230 central time at Barclay Center.

Starting point is 00:26:45 Iowa is still the new kid on the block relatively in terms of women's college basketball. And we all know Gino Oriama. He's been around a long time. He's basically, I view him sort of as the Tom Izzo of the women's game, you know, just a guy that everybody sort of turns to that northern light for women's college basketball. I'm not a huge fan of him by any stretch of the imagination, but you're absolutely right. He's got a long memory, and he's not going to be one to let off the gas if Yukon can win that game and win that game handily. But, you know, I think some Iowa fans have been spoiled recently going back to the Caitlin Clark era and the back-to-back national championship runs. And now it's like any time Iowa loses a game, you know, the sky is falling. And, you know, that's a darn good Iowa state basketball team that beat them.

Starting point is 00:27:39 And Yukon is no slouch either. So if they struggle in that game, you know, name me a team in the country that wouldn't struggle against Yukon. Yeah, it's going to be, I mean, there are. minus favorite right now at Fanduel. There are minus, I think, 180 to win the national championship. That shows you the domination that they are. Well, we go from Jan Jensen's program, who handled the Iowa state loss one way, you know, said positive things about our team.

Starting point is 00:28:02 Ben McCollum, he wasn't talking about moral victories. On the men's team, it's something that I've talked about coming into the season a lot, Todd, is I didn't want to put a cap on this team. I didn't want to say, I just make the tournament it's a successful year. Because though we haven't seen it in Iowa, the NCAA tournament is. a crapshoot. No, Iowa hasn't had a bracket open up. They haven't placed a faced a lower seeded team since I believe the 1980s that a team pulled an upset the round before them that they faced the following round. You don't know. Iowa could get in as a seventh seed to win that first

Starting point is 00:28:33 game. Fifteenths of upset too. Iowa hasn't had that happen, but I don't want to put a cap on them because of that, because it is. But I do think that a tournament team, the upside, though, of this everything goes well. How good can this team be in a big 10 that has your top flight? teams. Michigan looks like the best team in the country. Purdue, Michigan State, we know we're very good. But then after that, it's a whole lot of teams looking similar, unless you consider Nebraska part of that top tier. What is the upside in your mind for this men's team? I'm going to say this out loud, and I'm going to instantly regret saying it, Trent, but I'm going to feed into your basketball fandom and your homerism a little bit when it comes to men's

Starting point is 00:29:14 basketball. I think this team, you laid it out. If they can get into the tournament and get some luck on their side, I think they could get to the sweet 16. I really do. You hit the one, you know, and it's, we've discussed this in the media for a long time. Iowa has gotten to the, when they do get to the instability tournament, they don't get very lucky. You know, the other team on the other side of the bracket, it's never, hardly ever an upset. They're always playing the team that they're supposed to be playing. You never get any of those wild, crazy upsets that maybe open the door for a team to sneak into the Sweet 16. I think the Iowa State game proved it.

Starting point is 00:29:59 The Iowa State game proved that Iowa can take a team that is far superior to them and drag them down into the mud a little bit and make a game. last week I remember being with you and saying that I had no expectations for that game. I wasn't expecting them to be within 15 points of Iowa State. The game was in Hilton Coliseum. I thought they were going to run Iowa out of the building. And I think they would have in previous years under the previous regime, that game would have been close. There's something about Ben McCollum.

Starting point is 00:30:34 He's able to get his team to, you know, drag a T.J. Otselberger team down to their level. And that's what happens in the incidentally tournament. If you get a team that is forced to play a different style of basketball, that's when you get those 56 to 53 upsets, you know, in the round, the first round or the second round and get into the sweet 16. So keep Bennett Sturt's healthy. Keep those guys getting used to what it's going to take to play Big Ten basketball, I'll finish 8th, 7th in the league, and then go to the NCAA tournament and see what happens. I'm all on board. Maybe it's because I'm talking with you once a week here on the podcast.

Starting point is 00:31:20 But going back to the beginning of the season, I felt really good about this team. I didn't want to set the bar. Gosh, dang it. We've been seeing them out for a month, and they look like a team that could be there at the end of the year, breaking that way too long drought for a sweet suit. Again, I immediately regret speaking this out loud. And you can come back and hold it against me in the end at the end of the season when it doesn't happen.

Starting point is 00:31:47 But I'm right there with you. I have been so impressed. I was telling a couple friends last week at work, Ben McCombs, the real deal. There's just something about this guy. If he can recruit at Iowa, he's going to win. He's a winner. And he's been a winner everywhere that he has been.

Starting point is 00:32:05 I'm right there with you. It's going to be a fun season. And I think an important stretch coming up after these two non-conference games to begin Big Ten play, home for UCLA, a team that is in the tier of Iowa right now, a good team, not an elite team. You get them at home. And then a road trip to Minnesota, that's a road game you have to win. Suddenly, you win those two games and your two non-conference, you're 13 to two going into the Illinois matchup. And we go into the NFL playoff round with that one maybe as a precursor to a game on Fox.

Starting point is 00:32:33 That could be some big kind of stuff over at Carver. Todd, out of time for today. Always good catching up with you. Have a great Christmas. We'll track you down soon. It's going to be a weird couple of weeks here with the holiday and everything, but we'll figure things out. We'll be talking real soon.

Starting point is 00:32:47 All right. I hope so, Trent. That's Todd Bromacam, joining us here. Locked on Hawkeyes, as he has here throughout the football season. Before we go, I want to tell you one more time about what we have going on with our brand new every day or club. Add free episodes of Lockdown Hawkeyes. you also get exclusive discord server access and a whole lot more fun over there you want to stay away from the cesspool that is social media the discord server is a place we're going to have some great conversations subscriptions can also be gifted through our link it is locked on hawkeyes dot supercast dot com that's where you can find the link to get our everydayer club for those of you on video we're also going to send you the first ever 24-7 national lockdown podcast network youtube channel on audio make sure you make lock

Starting point is 00:33:34 on college football, your second listen of the day, Spencer and the crew doing great work over there. We will talk to you again tomorrow, breaking things down, everything Hawkeye, and get ready for that Iowa-UCon matchup. We'll talk to you then.

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