Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Rapid Reaction - Iowa walks off Nebraska again 13-10, Hand Shakes, Cultures and False Bravado

Starting point is 00:00:00 I don't know how, but I would did it once again. Another comeback victory against the Huskers on Black Friday. We react today. Locked on Hawkeyes. You are locked on Hawkeyes. Your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. While you're there, make sure you hit the subscribe button. Helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. Today's episode is brought to you by GameTime.

Starting point is 00:00:49 Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKDOWNCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. It was cold. It was brutal. It was another Iowa win. Iowa finds a way to get it done. 13-10 over Nebraska. Another Black Friday victory as Iowa now has won nine of the last 10 in this series and yet another game where at times it felt hopeless at times during the course of the game I wouldn't have an answer 20 yards of total offense in the football

Starting point is 00:01:20 game five first downs all game not the first half Only had 20 yards. No, no, no, no. Five total first downs in the game. You're doubled up in yardage. You get 115 yards passing in the game from Jackson Stratton. However, 72 of them came on a swing pass out to Caleb Johnson. Your defense at times was getting manhandled up front. And the final score, Iowa 13, Nebraska 10. Now there's so many angles to go into here throughout the course of this one.

Starting point is 00:01:58 We're going to talk about the handshake. We're going to talk about disrespect. We're going to talk about culture. We got a lot of different angles, but let's start at the top and give credit to the guys that absolutely deserve it and start with potentially for the final time, Caleb Johnson, certainly for the final time in Kinnick Stadium, a young man that had certainly an up and down career, brought it up a lot before freshman campaign,

Starting point is 00:02:29 had the lightning delay game against Nevada, had just an incredible run in that one, had what, two touchdowns in that game. But there was the mile per hour measure that was out there. And I brought it up a ton because it just shows you this guy's big, but there was wheels. And he had a great freshman campaign. And then last year wasn't great.

Starting point is 00:02:47 And there was a myriad of different reasons. A, he was banged up. But secondly, there were other things that were happening. And maybe not doing all the things that you're responsible for to be an Iowa football player. Good practice habits. Just doing all the right things. It's not for everybody, as we know. And it started up this season and people didn't want to believe that Caleb Johnson was going to begin the season out there. And he didn't. He was

Starting point is 00:03:17 suspended for the first half, but oh, he comes out in the second half and puts together just an absolutely tremendous season. This is certainly not a year that I think anybody could have anticipated coming into the season, right? To put up 1,500 yards, a combined 23 touchdowns, 21 of them on the ground, put the team on his back, game in and game out. Without him, where's his football team? There ain't four teams with him. Are they a bowl team?

Starting point is 00:03:52 It's a question. At the very least, it's a question, but that's for another day. Caleb, stud, got to bring him up. Continuing on, other guys we got to talk about. And we got to go next to the captain, to Jay Higgins. So many different levels. And we'll get to the handshake and we'll get all that. We're going to get there. Don't worry. But just on the football field, what a stud. This guy, he was under-recruited.

Starting point is 00:04:22 Iowa was his only power four offer. Makes his way here. Does a good job on special teams. But when he was out there playing defensively late in games, there were a couple injuries where he was thrusted in the lineup early in his career as a registered freshman, as a sophomore. He was fine. Adequate.

Starting point is 00:04:44 Below average. You saw a little something right before he became a starter, but nothing that you thought was going to turn into this. And what he has piled up the last two years, the All-American honors and the All-Big Ten honors, and there should be more honors. Sadly, he won't get all of them.

Starting point is 00:05:04 But not just as a football player. There's so much more. And to have that kind of leader on the football team, Jay Higgins is going to be one of my all-time favorites. Yeah, a part of it is also his dad and the goofiness he gets with that. And the hawk, hawk, hawk.

Starting point is 00:05:19 And how about that? Running out there and they have hawk, hawk, hawk up on the big screen for the senior day festivities. But missed it all of it. Dude's a great football player. Played on a bad hamstring. When most people in today's day and age wouldn't be playing. In today's day and age,

Starting point is 00:05:40 most of these guys wouldn't make it to these last two seasons. They'd be elsewhere. They'd be somewhere else. Not Jay Higgins. And that's why he moves up mightily in my book. And finally, are the guys that we have to give kind of their own mention to. Drew Stevens. Absolute nails, hit in the game winner.

Starting point is 00:06:03 Terrible condition. Matter. They try condition. Matter. They tried to ice him. Now his first kick was better than his second one. And Matt Rule, looking like an idiot, whining over there. But there's more reasons than that that Matt Rule looked like an idiot. We'll get to that. Drew Stevens.

Starting point is 00:06:20 And now for the fourth time in the last seven years, Iowa not only wins this football game against Nebraska, they do it on walk-off fashion. They do it with a game-winning field goal. Four different guys, Marshall Meter a year ago. And that's what makes this one extra special. Drew Stevens, it's never been a talent question with Drew Stevens. When he showed up, he was a skinny little kid from North Carolina. All right, what's this going to be, right? Oh, this dude's got a leg. Okay. All right, let's see. Let's see what this turns into. And you can see right away,

Starting point is 00:06:54 talent is not an issue. But last season, about the midpoint, a couple missed kicks, and started to snowball. And it was getting worse and worse and worse until eventually it all came to a head in the Black Friday game. Not only is he missing kicks, he can't even get a kickoff inbounds. That's how mentally broken he was at that point. He couldn't keep the ball inbounds on a kickoff. And he got benched for a game winner with a kid that had never kicked a football in a football game for Iowa. A senior from Central Michigan, Marshall Meter, who walks on

Starting point is 00:07:32 thinking he will likely never kick. And he does. And Drew Stevens doesn't get to have that moment until on Black Friday this year. In a game where Iowa looked absolutely defeated for long stretches, looked like there was no hope, and we played that game a ton, he's the one that hits the game winner. The redemption from a year ago, an incredible story.

Starting point is 00:07:58 And that's what you get with this football team. That's what you get with this football program. You get incredible stories. You get time in and time out. These guys, they're going up teams a lot of times more talented. They're going up against teams that top to bottom have more

Starting point is 00:08:14 talent, more guys that might move on, more guys that had more accolades, more guys that make some more NIL money. But when it comes down to it, Iowa can compete with this level team. Top level, that's a different conversation. But when it comes down to it, Iowa can compete with this level team. Top level, that's a different conversation. But with their peers, with the foes that they normally play, Iowa's right there. And that's why you look at the series here over the last decade,

Starting point is 00:08:37 9-10 against Nebraska. You look as the worm continues to turn against Wisconsin, against Minnesota, even against Iowa State, this year's frustrations aside. Yes, Iowa is struggling to compete with the Ohio States and the Michigans and the Penn States of the world. In the ever-changing environment of the Big Ten, now you throw Oregon in the mix. You look to the future and what potentially down the road USC can turn into.

Starting point is 00:09:03 But the here and now, it's pretty good to be a Hawkeye. A disappointing year is 8-4. A lot of expectations. They fell short of those expectations. But even a frustrating year, when your frustrating years end 8-4, it's a pretty good place to be. That doesn't mean anything for the future. And we'll have plenty of future conversation.

Starting point is 00:09:29 But let's keep it to the Nebraska game. And let's talk about handshakes. Let's talk about culture. Let's talk about respect. We'll do that as we continue. This is Locked On Hawkeyes. We'll do that as we continue. This is Locked on Hawkeyes.

Starting point is 00:09:51 Today's episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast is brought to you by GameTime. Look, there's just something that is extra special about watching a game in person. Now, with the weather, certainly Hawkeye fans, you felt it out there, but being able to be part of the action, the sight, the sound, the smell, it all goes together with a great experience. And GameTime has a new feature called GameTime Picks. That makes getting tickets to see your favorite teams play live even easier. GameTime Picks filters out the fluff to show you only incredible deals on great seats,

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Starting point is 00:11:01 L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N-C-O-L-L-E-G-E for $20 off. Download GameTime today. What time is it? GameTime. Trey Conniff back with you once again here. Rapid reaction to Iowa's 13-10 walk-off win against Nebraska as Iowa finish up the regular season at 8-4. They await their bowl destination.

Starting point is 00:11:28 Likely Tampa appears to be that, but still a lot to be sorted out on that front. Going into the final Saturday of college football, what exactly that is going to entail and the way everything plays out. Upsets, a college football playoff, a lot of things still to be determined on that front that, again, looks like Tampa is the most likely destination, but nothing official on that front. And when we reconvene on Sunday night, Monday, we'll talk a little bit more about that as we'll have a better picture

Starting point is 00:11:58 of the way that's looking and potentially the way things are going to sort out with the Big Ten championship game, with the college football playoff, and then the trickle-down effect that happens for the Iowa football team. All right, let's get into it. Handshakes, disrespect. So, let's start at the top. And the excuses that are being made on both sides, but more on Nebraska. So, if you haven't seen it by now, as the captains made their way out for the opening coin toss, the Nebraska players did not shake the hands of the Iowa captains.

Starting point is 00:12:33 Four guys on both sides. The Nebraska guys were already standing there. As Jay Higgins, Quinn Schulte, and the rest of the crew walked up, Ed Miles was the honorary captain who had a smirk on his face. They put out their hand. The Hawkeye players did. And the Nebraska players did not reciprocate. You can find it on social media.

Starting point is 00:12:55 It's everywhere. It doesn't take much. Just search Iowa-Nebraska handshake. You'll find the video of it. It's an awful, awful look for Nebraska. And it shouldn't be a surprise what this program is and what it's morphed into. More on that momentarily. But here is the justification.

Starting point is 00:13:15 And that's all this is. That is being used from the Nebraska side. It is because, the theory goes, they were not allowed to pray on the Iowa logo. They were not allowed to take over midfield for the prayer circle. I didn't know, personally as a Christian, that the only way God can hear you if you're doing it on a logo. Oh, that's just it. That's not true. If you're praying before a football game though you can only do it no no that's not true either you can do it not at the 50 you could do it at the 40 or the 30 hell you could do it probably at the 20 or the 10 or the even the

Starting point is 00:14:00 end zone or you can do it in your locker room so it's not performative. It's actually the Christian way. Let's not get into a religious debate here. Look, it's a joke. This was performative BS from a program that that's what they've given us. It's the fake tough guy, right? It's not toughness for toughness sake. Look, Nebraska was the more physical football team on Friday night.

Starting point is 00:14:34 Nebraska was the tougher team on the football field. But this kind of garbage sets your program back. And Matt Rule, a guy that I thought finally they got it right. He's a football guy. And guess guess what he's falling for the trap he's falling for the same garbage that has hit this program for the last quarter century the fake tough guy the bravado it's absolutely incredible and a guy that I believed in as a football coach in Matt Rule, he's falling for it too. He's walking around trying to be Tommy Tough Guy, walking through Iowa as they're warming up before the football game. What is going on here?

Starting point is 00:15:14 Matt Rule, this is not how you did things at Temple. This isn't how you did things at Baylor. He got to work and got it done. This performative BS. Wow. I did not anticipate that. And lost a lot of respect for him in the process. My favorite part of the whole thing, though, and a lot of it is silliness.

Starting point is 00:15:35 In the grand scheme of things, it means nothing. Iowa's got scoreboard. Nebraska has talent. And in the end, we go our separate ways history at least recent history semi well to some people ancient history back in the 90s advantage nebraska got that i want to go back to the 50s does that work advantage iowa 60s at least in early portions, advantage Iowa. Again, different conversation. But this program and the way that it has swallowed up

Starting point is 00:16:10 yet another in Matt Rule and it doesn't matter the coach, it doesn't matter what is being said or the way they're being built, these are the kind of things that continually happen to a loser program. And when you do things like this, call it karma, look at the football gods, whatever it is, these are the things that continually

Starting point is 00:16:33 happen. And then on the other side, there's Iowa. And it's easy to poke holes in the Iowa football program. It's easy to scoff, to laugh, to say, how do they do this? But they do. Culture. Culture is a word in terms of football that can mean a lot of different things for a lot of different people. But us as Hawkeye fans, we know it when we see it. We know what good football culture is. Is Iowa the most talented team? No, not even close. Should Iowa be possibly the fifth best team in terms of record this year in the Big Ten? No, probably not. Yet here they are. Here they are with another chance to be the top third of the league, One of the top teams in terms of wins as they continue to stack it up year after year after year. Quarterback play that has been as bad as Iowa football is seen now over these last, what, five years now?

Starting point is 00:17:36 As bad as Iowa's seen in my 44 years of living during a five-year period, it's never been anything close to this. And yet here they are, just winning games. Good culture. Kirk Ferentz does some things that drives me absolutely nuts. And if you're an everydayer, you know about many of those things. It goes with the territory. There's going to be things, and it doesn't matter who the coach is. You watch a coach for long enough, even if you absolutely love it,

Starting point is 00:18:05 there's going to be things that drive you crazy. And that's the case here. But in terms of culture, program building, belief, real football tough guys, Kirk Ferentz does an incredible job of it. I've maintained for a long time his greatest skill back against the wall, but this is another one. Kind of that disrespect card. He's able to pull it out pretty well. And when programs, when teams are doing those kind of things, Iowa, they always got to push back. Full circle, Jay Higgins.

Starting point is 00:18:49 We'll talk about him as we roll through here. It's a rapid reaction podcast. After Iowa wins it again, 13-10 over Nebraska. We're back with more in a moment. Today's episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Get ready to tackle NFL action with FanDuel. It's America's number one sportsbook. Because right now, new customers, you can bet $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if you win.

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Starting point is 00:19:53 Trent Conner back with you one final time as we are wrapping things up and wrapping up a big victory for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Win number eight of the season as the regular season finishes up at eight and four. Maybe you're playing around on the FanDuel eight of the season as a regular season finishes up at eight and four maybe you're playing around on the fan duel app before the season as I were hopefully you jumped in early in the summer when that number was seven and a half because you're over cashed that's my did that felt good all right let's get back into the game uh back to Jay Higgins we talked about kind of the three stars of the game, I guess, stealing a hockey term, right? Jay Higgins amongst them, Drew Stevens, Caleb Johnson. And there was a lot more. I mean, I didn't bring up Max Llewellyn. I didn't bring up the defensive end pass rush that he got. And

Starting point is 00:20:37 of course, what turned out to be the game winner as he forces the fumble, Iowa gets back, gets the field goal and wins it there. Just how well that defensive front played at times, though. There was also some rough ones out there. I thought Aaron Graves had a good game. Ethan Hercut early on. A lot of guys that you have to throw mention of. How about Sebastian Castro? Maybe one of the best games of the season that he played.

Starting point is 00:21:00 Really liked the way that we saw him finally flying around a little bit. And what turned into the love affair that a lot of people had with him a season ago that was stepping up in a big time way but back to Jay Higgins so we mentioned the handshake and then after the game to not only chase down Matt Rule to then relay the story of the way this played out because if Josie Jewell was the middle linebacker, another Hawkeye great, I don't know if we even get the story about exactly what was going on here.

Starting point is 00:21:34 If Jack Campbell was the guy, probably not. We had some soft-spoken guys. Even Abdul Hodge was more in that realm. But not the case with Jay. Jay will talk. And he was ready to go right away in the press conference, talking to a couple of the beat guys afterwards, and they mentioned that he let them know,

Starting point is 00:22:00 hey, I got something. You're going to want to hear this. And it was about the disrespect from Nebraska, the decision not to shake the hands. But then to take it another step further, we're talking about Matt Rule and the respect that I lost for him and the Tommy Tough Guy routine, trying to walk through Iowa as they're warming things up,

Starting point is 00:22:19 and teams that do that in general just don't like it. That aside, what Jay higgins relays is the truth and i have no reason to believe that it's not because of the character of jay higgins and the way that pretty straight shooter um that early in the game, after Nebraska made the decision not to shake hands and that's what it was. It was a choice that they made. After a tackle over on the sideline

Starting point is 00:22:56 in Nebraska, he just little chirping towards Rule. And Rule asked who he was. Dude, come on. This is all Big Ten player. This is an All-American. There's disrespect.

Starting point is 00:23:12 The who are you? That's rough. That's a bad look. That is a bad, bad look for Matt Rule. And with all this, if that's true, to play that card, we've talked a lot about disrespect today. That is as disrespectful in the world of sport that you can have. The who are you? That, short of what, spitting in somebody's face, that in terms of verbiage,

Starting point is 00:23:40 not using profanity, just saying that, that is the most disrespectful. And Jay Higgins got the last laugh. So he went after the game and found him. Gave him a handshake, and Matt Rule looked like he had saw a ghost. And maybe he did. He went around to some other players and some assistant coaches and shook their hand because, jeez, man, going to miss him, absolutely.

Starting point is 00:24:04 Going to miss a lot of these Iowa football players because the times, they are changing. And this roster is going to go through an overhaul. 23 seniors were honored, or is it 22? Cade McNamara did not go through the festivities, and that's a conversation we will have at some point this week. A different conversation. And a guy that did not live up to the Iowa football culture.

Starting point is 00:24:31 I don't think that's a big leap. And certainly no hot take. Again, conversation for a different day. Let's enjoy this one. Let's enjoy the weekend. Watch the rest of the slate of college football. And then we will go from there, taking a look at the conference championship games coming up next week.

Starting point is 00:24:49 Of course, Oregon, they're in the Big Ten already. And we will have all the conference championship games set up for next week. And with it then, the following Sunday, we'll find out exactly where Iowa is going for their bowl game. Thanks for being with us, and thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes

Starting point is 00:25:06 your first listen every day. We are with you every day. You can check us out on YouTube. If you're there, just hit subscribe. We'll let you know whenever we go live, whenever we have a new episode coming your way and helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. If you're just listening on the audio side

Starting point is 00:25:21 with you every single day there. Also hit us up with a five-star review. Really helps those numbers, those metrics. I mean, the analytics go over my head, and I like numbers, but yeah, exactly. Five-star review helps us out and just takes you a moment. Really do appreciate each and every one of you out there for helping us out and doing that.

Starting point is 00:25:39 We will be with you late Sunday night, Monday morning, and kind of a chance to regroup a little bit, take a deep breath and get back into it. We got basketball to get into. We got so many things going on in this crossover time of the season. Recruiting, portal's going to be open enough. There is a lot to talk about, and we got you covered each and every day here with Locked On Hawkeyes. And not just Locked On Hawkeyes, Locked On Big Ten, Locked On College Football, Locked on Hawkeyes. And not just locked on Hawkeyes, locked on Big Ten. Locked on college football. Locked on college basketball. Your favorite pro team. Maybe you're a long-suffering Bears fan.

Starting point is 00:26:09 Sorry on Thanksgiving, Bears fans. Like myself, that was not fun. Or you're a Lions fan. Or a Vikings. Or a Packers. Or Chiefs. Or Jaguars. It doesn't matter.

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Starting point is 00:26:28 we'll talk to you again on Monday until then, Go Hawks!

Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Rapid Reaction - Iowa walks off Nebraska again 13-10, Hand Shakes, Cultures and False Bravado

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