Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - RAPID REACTION: Ferentz BREAKS Big Ten Wins Record | Can Iowa's Passing Game SUSTAIN Momentum?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Rapid reaction after Iowa pulls off the win against UMass 477, Kirk Farrant sets the Big Ten wins record and the passing game, actually showing signs of life. You are Locked-on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, welcome in. I'm Trent Condon, and this is a rapid reaction to the Iowa win 47-7 over UMass on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes, your first listen every day. I've been covering the Hawkeyes for over 20 years on the radio here in the state of Iowa.

Starting point is 00:00:46 I'm glad to have you here with us today. We will take a look at the passing game. Yes, showing signs of life and some encouragement of what we saw from Mark Grunowski and company and a little bit out of Hank Brown late in the football game. We'll talk about the Iowa defense. to play in this one, an outstanding effort on that side of the ball, and Kirk Farrant's setting a Big Ten record for most career victories. And really when we talk about this game, that will be the memory, I'm sure, for a lot of people. As we remember this game, that will be a big part

Starting point is 00:01:17 of it. Cade Weegean going off and having a monster performance, including a 95-yard touchdown return in the punt return game. He had a touchdown also on a rush on it end around. It looked really good on that play. That's going to be a part of it. Mark Grinowski, maybe some signs of life in the passing game, but what we'll remember most is Kirk Farrants. And I get it. For many people out there, they're ready to move on. They're ready to see something different. They're ready for Iowa to turn the page with Kirk Farrants and get ready for whatever the next generation looks like with Iowa football.

Starting point is 00:01:49 But for what we saw on Saturday night, a chance to also reflect on what a career it has been and the accomplishments that he has. the winningest coach in Big Ten history, passing Woody Hayes to do it at Kinnock Stadium, to do it with Anthony Herron in the booth for the game. And then the postgame reaction that we had with him down on the field and interviewing Kirk and that going and blaring across the PA across Kinnick Stadium. It was a cool moment. And yes, we all loved, would have loved to have it happen against Iowa State. As Kirk said, he would have loved it happened a couple of years before.

Starting point is 00:02:23 And there is, yes, that part of it. And what could have been and what could have gone different maybe with this program. But that conversation is down the line. For the here and now, let's celebrate a man that is a person that is to be a mire, a person that has done a lot for our football program, for our university, for the team that we cheer for, whatever it is, your alma mater, whatever it is, and the reason that you're a Hawkeye fan. For a majority of you, you're here because you're a huge Hawkeye fan.

Starting point is 00:02:55 And Kirk Farrants has delivered in so many great memories. So many positives with this football team in the program. And the consistency needs to be celebrated. Down the road, that's for another day. For today, it is about what has happened. And you just look back year after year after year, the consistency of winning, which is not easy to do. I get it.

Starting point is 00:03:18 For most of us, we want more. You want to see more wins. You want to see better efforts. and what's happened recently against ranked teams. We want those close wins to start to go Iowa's way. We want all those things to happen. But when you look at Kirk Farrants and be able to do this year in and year out in college football, as it's changed, as it's evolved, as it looks completely different

Starting point is 00:03:40 than when he started a head coach at Iowa back in 1999. And look at all the different things that have happened. And yet one constant is there. The dude wins football games. He gets it done. year after year after year. That's to be celebrated. Congratulations to Kirk Farrant's.

Starting point is 00:03:58 Congratulations to the Iowa football program. A really fun night of football. To the passing game. And early on, they went to it. The game plan was throw, throw, throw. And what we talked about all last week here on Lockdown Hawkeyes, and you every day, or as you know it, this is what we wanted to see.

Starting point is 00:04:16 This was a game that you knew. You could roll out of bed, give a D effort, and win the game convincingly. UMass is bad. The ass in UMass is apropos because that's a bad football team. And speaking of consistency, you're in a, you're out. That's a bad football team. But I would did it what it needed to do.

Starting point is 00:04:37 And it showed that there is something there, down the field passing, taking shots up the field, going up the scene, the things that are the positive that we needed to see as Big Ten play begins on Friday. The matchup against UMass Friday night on a short week. We will get into that throughout the course of the week. Then after that, the matchup with Indiana. Kirk said after the game, when they looked at it, this five-week block, five games before they get to their first buy week of the season. It's important.

Starting point is 00:05:06 And it's important Iowa now to build on what we've seen. And we saw growth. We saw a quarterback that continues to become more comfortable in what I was trying to do. Mark Renowski finishes 16 to 24, 179 yards. two touchdowns, no interceptions. And on the surface, it's not great. It's not celebrate and throw a parade, but it's better than what we've seen. And a big part of that was going down the field and making plays, including Sam Phillips.

Starting point is 00:05:34 You know, we've talked a lot about Sam. And coming in from Chattanooga, a guy that was accomplished at the FCS level, has good speed, and just knows what he's doing on the football field as a wide receiver. Now, has that growth, that understanding throughout the. years of what he is and what he can be for this team. And I think we saw plenty of that. So that was incredibly important to see is getting Sam Phillips involved. A couple of touchdowns for Seth Anderson in the receiving game and two different concepts, which was nice. Now, is Iowa fixed in the passing game? No, we can't go there. But it's growth. It's improvement

Starting point is 00:06:10 because they're going to have to be able to throw the football in order to win games with the schedule this season. I think we saw enough of that. Speaking of the passing game, He also got to see a little bit of Hank Brown. Now he missed on his first throw. That would have been a touchdown to KJ Parker. Found him later for the two-yard touchdown pass. But ball comes out of his hand smooth. You can see that there's armed talent, certainly there, with Hank Brown.

Starting point is 00:06:34 And I think he'd get excited about what his future can be in this Iowa system. The running game didn't need a ton. Didn't really do a ton. Mention Wichin, and that's going to be a big part of that. So, Cain Wichin finishes this game with a bunch of different records. When you look at the return yardage, so here's some notes from Iowa football. The 95-yard punt return for a touchdown in the third quarter ties a Big Ten and Iowa

Starting point is 00:06:59 record for the longest and is the longest put return in Kiddick history besting Bob Longley way back in 1949. Congratulations. You've remember, Bob Longley, bringing one back against Oregon in 1949. Second career punt return for a touchdown, third career touchdown, two punt and one kickoff. Weegean is now tied for second in school history with two punt return touchdowns with Kvon Martin Manley and Khalil Hill. Regent and Tim Dwight are the only players in school history with multiple 80 plus yard punt returns in history. It is also believed that he is the first player in Iowa history to have a rushing, receiving punt and kickoff return touchdown in his career.

Starting point is 00:07:45 After last week's bad performance, as he admitted after the game, after he played poorly in the game against Iowa State to bounce back, get those good vibes. This guy won returner of the year a season ago. We know he's incredibly talented, and it felt like everything was clicking certainly with him on Saturday night, which was much needed for this team. They need to be great at special teams. Now, there were some issues in the kicking game. I missed extra point, a miss fuel goal, Drew Stevens.

Starting point is 00:08:15 It looks like the snaps were struggling getting back there. There was a lot off in that part. And that needs to be fixed again. Iowa cannot afford to lead points on the field. And after what happened at the end of the season two years ago, it does, I think, lead to a little bit of concern in that one. Still, knocked in another 50-plus yarder in the field goal game for Drew Stevens. We know our leg talent certainly is not an issue with Drew Stevens.

Starting point is 00:08:39 He certainly has that. So a lot of good things, a lot of positivity, a lot of, good takeaways from this one. We'll be back with you on Sunday night into Monday morning with a full recap of everything that we saw, a big breakdown of everything and dive a little bit deeper into this football game. I'll get a second. We'll kind of dive in a little bit deeper into the passing game.

Starting point is 00:09:01 Overall, what happened, what went on for Iowa football. Kirk gets the record. Iowa football moves to two and one. And now it is time for Big Ten play and an important one. Friday night, short turnaround as we will continue to break it down. Thanks to you every dayers with us each and every day As we get you a little something here after the Iowa win against UMass 477 Iowa gets the victory again full recap coming up on sunday evening into

Starting point is 00:09:26 monday morning we'll have it for you in your feed make sure you hit subscribe if you're watching us on youtube or if you're on the podcast side five star reviews hit that subscribe on there as well we'll be in your feed each and every day locked on hawkeyes your team every day i got you covered on the hawkeye front we'll talk to you again later on Sunday until then go hawks

Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - RAPID REACTION: Ferentz BREAKS Big Ten Wins Record | Can Iowa's Passing Game SUSTAIN Momentum?

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.