Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Recapping the huge win over Penn State with Matt VandeBerg

Episode Date: November 22, 2020

We are back for another Monday Morning Recap with Matt VandeBerg as we break down the win over Penn State. We talk Daviyon Nixon's touchdown, Spencer Petras, Phil Parker's barrage of blitzes, and answer a few fan questions.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order.BuiltGoVisit BuiltGO.com and use promo code “LOCKED,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back, Hawkeye Nation, to another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, and today's episode is brought to you by Bilt Bar. Go to BiltBar.com and use promo code LOCKEDON and you'll get 20% off your next order. And as we do every single week after an Iowa football game, we have Matt Vandenberg back on the show to do our Monday morning recap with Matt. So let's check in with him right now.

We are back with Matt Vandenberg for another Monday morning recap with Matt. Matt, how are you doing today, man? I'm peachy after a win on Saturday, so I'm excited to be here. Thanks for having me. Absolutely, man. Does it feel good just to beat Penn State? I mean, I looked it up and people talk about not beating Penn State in Happy Valley and how big of a deal that is. The fact that we just haven't beat Penn State, though, this decade. I mean, it has been seven games since we beat Penn State. We haven't beaten them since 2010. I mean, it just feels good to get a win.

Oh, absolutely. I mean, again, you only get so many opportunities. The fact that you're able to go out there and win is big. But I mean, the teams I was on never beat Penn State. We had the heartbreak in 2017 where Trace McTorley punted after beating an unranked Iowa team. But as far as that was concerned, so yeah, it feels good to get a win over Penn State. Couldn't agree more.

A couple of quick tidbits I wanted to make sure we covered before we got into the show. Rest in peace to Jack Nungi's father, Mark. Obviously, a very unfortunate circumstance there. He passed away. Obviously, our prayers and thoughts are with Jack and his family right now. On a happier note, Kirk Ferentz gets his 100th win in the Big Ten. I think that's absolutely phenomenal, awesome stuff. It really seems like the locker room is really backing Kirk,

as we expected, right? I mean, anyone on the outside probably thought, you know, Kirk doesn't have this locker room in hold. Things are going wrong on the outside. But anyone who really follows this program knows that these players love and respect Kirk. Anything you want to just kind of shout out real quick to the fact Kirk got his hundredth win. You were a part of a lot of those wins. So I wanted to get your thoughts on that real quick. First off, I will, I also want to share and give my condolences to really all of Hawkeye basketball, but for the Nungi family and then moving on to uh kirk uh kf it feels weird to call

him kirk like kf um 100 big 10 wins i mean obviously he's the fourth person to ever do that it's a pretty cool pretty cool thing but i mean we we all love and respect coach ference and we know that when you go to iowa you're not just trying to be a better football player obviously that's a byproduct but you're really there to become a better person, become a better contributing member of society. And when you do those little things right in the games and everything else kind of happens. And when, when he really shows a genuinely cares about you, you want to play hard for that guy. And so hats off to KF. Absolutely, man. And I think it's pretty interesting to see the fact that that hundredth win came against Penn state, which is also typically looked at as kind of the turning

point of the iowa football program under kirk when they got the initial win over penn state back in the early 2000s now you get the 100th win here iowa is on a three-game winning streak and we would just we can't not talk about one of probably the coolest plays i have seen this year homes in the backfield here it comes second and ten clifford had it picked off talk about one of probably the coolest plays I have seen this year. sealing the deal you would imagine for a jubilant Iowa bunch. That's a phenomenal play by Nixon. Davian Nixon running 70 yards, getting a pick six. I mean, the fact, hey, let's talk about the fact that he did get his hands up. He blocked the ball.

Didn't have to wear a thought to actually grab the ball, catch it, run, and then to actually do somewhat of a Eurostep, put the ball in his other hand as if he was actually trying to run the ball and taking it. I thought that was just one of the coolest plays. If you've listened to any of the press conferences the last couple of weeks, they've talked about David Nixon and the fact that he is a very energetic person. Phil Parker even told a story about him this week and that they needed a scout team quarterback. David Nixon said, I'll play scout team quarterback and chucked the ball pretty long through an interception, but just the fact that he wanted to do it, a 305 pound big man. What were your thoughts on that play? Uh, so from getting to know Davion a little bit, uh, he's a very eccentric person and he just

kind of exudes that positive energy. Um, and as far as that particular play, um, they had a mind up on the outside and he actually got his hands up on a few other ones that Chauncey picked off. I think he got the tip on that. Um,'s he's blocked a field goal this year so I mean there's a lot of different instances where he's getting his hands up and ready to go so the fact that he was able to do that now the ball security prior to the Eurostep was trash I mean it was like out here yeah now once the Eurostep happened then it was high and tight and he looked good going the rest of the way but um yeah, that's obviously a phenomenal play there. Absolutely.

And I look back in your playing days and who you played with. You played with Jaleel Johnson and Carl Davis, both NFL players. Davion Nixon, excuse me, is typically referred, I mean, he's been referenced as a potential first rounder, definitely a guy who could go high in the draft even this year. And anyone who watched the football program last year knew that there was a ton of potential with this kid. I mean, he wasn't starting last year, but he made a lot of high impact plays, especially on pass rushing downs. What are your thoughts on him compared to a Jaleel Johnson or Carl Davis, which you had the chance to play against? I think both guys, like both Carl and Jaleel move really well, but I don't

know if I've seen them move quite like Davion did on 74 yards. Now they'll, they'll dispute me for sure if they listen to this, but, but I think Davion moved moves a little bit better in terms of like just straight line speed. But I think all three are obviously phenomenal players. Make it in the NFL is not easy. And for them to be there for as long as they have number one is cool. And then Davion hopefully getting that opportunity here shortly. Absolutely, man. And we,

we cannot have a conversation where we talk about Iowa win without talking about Spencer Petras. It has been the topic of discussion every single week. I would love to eventually move on from talking about Spencer and whether or not he had a good or a bad game, but that is just the fact of the matter. Iowa is winning these games and I don't think they're necessarily doing it without Spencer, but it's not necessarily because of Spencer either. Again, he's a sophomore, didn't have the spring ball, all that stuff. But I actually thought he played a pretty solid game.

I mean, he missed a few throws. The deep ball to Amir Smith-Marset was just torturing to see that happen. I mean, just one more foot, he was so close. But overall, I thought Spencer played a pretty solid game. Let's go back to that throw to Amir Smith just one, one more foot. He was so close. Um, but overall I thought Spencer played a pretty solid game. Let's go back to that throw to Amir Smith, Marcello. So he's missed three of those this year. And I mean, all three, I would say relatively easy touchdowns. If you connect on that throw, um, is there anything unique about throwing the ball on like on the deep ball? He did have to, you know, move around in the pocket a little bit. Do you feel like it

just kind of sped up his processing? And so he got a little bit excited to chuck it you know chuck it a little bit too far or tell me a little bit about connecting on that deep ball and if there's any difficulties that maybe i don't know about so there might be other things so i saw the route that amir ran and i don't know if it was more of like just uh it looked like an inside seam or like a skinny post but a lot of times like i remember when I was playing, if you ran a post, you were supposed to give a stick or a rocker step or something there that tells the quarterback, Hey, throw the ball now. And so when the quarterback sees boom,

a stick and he sees a little head nod and then you take it, you know, vertical, he knows, okay, now I got to get rid of the ball. He's going to drive for, you know, know three four steps before he looks for it um and i didn't see a stick on that particular route now maybe they wasn't supposed to have one i mean that's possible too that they game plan you're just going to run right by them but i know a lot of times quarterbacks look for those kind of keys to know okay now is when i release the ball and again that goes back to reps whether you're doing routes on there whether you're doing one-on-ones, anything like that, being able to get that physical key of, okay, now I need to deliver. That's number one.

Number two, I can't remember off the top of my head how long Amir drove for, but again, because he didn't stick, it was just kind of him just running. So, I mean, a lot of times you can know if you stick and then, you know, you've got about three or four steps where you don't look for the ball, you know, it's in the air, but you can't look for it yet because you got to gain ground before you turn and try and find it. So, because I mean, as I mean, just logic, if you look forward, you're going to run faster than opposed to,

if you're running forward and your head's back because naturally your speed's going to go down. So those little things and those little, just my new details can, you know, either make a big player, make a, make a big play, not happen. I guess. Absolutely. It gets amplified the further you are away from the ball being thrown. Totally get that. Obviously that's why we have you on here to talk about the nuances of the game and kind

of what goes on with that. I did think though, I thought I saw one of the best, probably the best throw I've ever seen Spencer Peaches throw, the route to Sam Laporta at the goal line. Sam Laporta didn't get in for the touchdown, but there was three guys there. He chucked it. There was one spot it could go where it wasn't going to get picked,

tipped, or something bad happening, and he managed to drill it right there, perfectly placed. Anything you saw on that I mean just let's talk a little bit about Spencer in general did you see any improvements from him in this game because I really thought some of his throws were really crisp I mean he he missed a couple again but you're always going to have that with a college quarterback and the fact that we've had the last four weeks of talking about him any missed throw is going to be naturally amplified but overall I thought he played a fantastic game and that throw to Sam Laporta was just a thing of beauty. I need to quickly pause the conversation with Matt. I know

you're enjoying the content that, you know, we're putting out, having Matt on the show every single week. I've gotten a lot of great feedback, so I really appreciate that. But I do have a very important message for you because if you're anything like me, you're constantly on the go, whether it's work, hanging out with friends, hanging out with family, working out, whatever it may be, you're always on the go. It's nonstop hustle. But sometimes you just need to take a second and chill. And there's only one beer out there that's literally made to chill, and that is Coors Light.

Coors Light is cold lagered, cold filtered, and cold packaged. It's literally made to chill, and it's as crisp and refreshing as the Colorado Rockies. And I would know. I live here in Colorado. So Coors Light is the one I choose and I need to unwind. Thank you. As always, folks, remember to celebrate responsibly. This message is brought to you by Coors Light, a part of the Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado. All right, before we pop back into the conversation with Matt, I do want to remind you that tomorrow we have former Iowa basketball player Bakari Evelyn coming on the show.

We're going to be doing a two-part series with him as we break down this Iowa basketball team. Tomorrow we're going to be talking about the players, Fran McCaffrey, all those fun things. And then on episode two, coming out on Tuesday, we're going to be talking about the schedule and what the other Big Ten teams pose as far as concerns and what they bring to the table when Iowa is going to be playing them. That is dropping tomorrow, so make sure to tune into that as well as we do our preseason

basketball preview with former Iowa basketball player, Bakari Evelyn. With that being said, though, let's hop back into the conversation with well as we do our preseason basketball preview with former Iowa basketball player Bakari Evelyn. With that being said, though, let's hop back into the conversation with Matt as we continue breaking down yesterday's Iowa football game. So I agree that that ball was, I mean, that's a fantastic placement on that. Another fantastic ball was actually the one to Laporta going the other side where he kind of just put just enough air under it to get over the linebacker. Laporta only put out one hand. Potentially, if he puts out two, he gets a shot at it.

But I thought that ball was phenomenal because there was only one person that was going to make that catch. Now, again, I don't remember the full scheme of the play on that particular one if he had somebody else open. But as far as that particular ball, he made sure that his guy was the only guy that was going to make a play. And if his guy couldn't make a play then that was it um now you did say so with the ups coming to down so i think it was the first drive to the first driver second drive he's hitting laporta across the middle and he throws it behind him doesn't give him an opportunity to run for the

run for a few extra yards that one's tough um The other one that kind of sticks out in my mind, they played like a trap too. So what that means is normally in cover two, your corners are playing the flats. So they're about four or five yards off the ball and that's it. But in this particular instance, because we run a lot of bubbles, we run that type of thing. They were playing what's called a trap too, where the DBs actually come,

they step in toward the line in towards the tight end uh in a few yards than they normally would on the outside excuse me um and we ran double fades which is uh which could have been a site that happened so there are routes that we change based on the coverage uh like if we have a hitch and they come out in this particular coverage then we change it to this route or that route so it's all very cognitively ingrained in what you do but as far as like so we hit the hole shot because against cover two you're again your corners are flat and your safeties are playing usually just on the inside of the hash so they've got you know the entire half of the field. But between that, I think it was Tyrone Tracy that was onto his left.

We were on the TV. It was from left to right. And he threw it up a little bit. In a trap two or in a hole shot, it's got to be on a line right at about 18 to 22 yards. And that's where you're going to hit it. So that was the only one that, like, I was like, that's the one I want back because it was right there. Absolutely. He also missed – we did see a lot of bubble screams yesterday. one that like I I was like that's the one I want back because it was right there absolutely he also missed an we did see a lot of bubble screams yesterday um he did miss the one to Nico Regani

which could have been a pretty big pretty big round again that is a I will say that is a tough throw to make when you're trying to throw to the side of you and also having a guy running towards the line that is a tough throw again you expect to hit that if if you can obviously um I did think the receivers kind of stepped up as well though I mean there we've talked a lot about the touch that Spencer Petras has or has not been putting on his ball you know ball throws Brandon Smith came down with a few catches though I mean he had some fantastic hands I mean some of those throws were rocketed in there and in games previously those might have been drops or misses or interceptions and I thought the Iowa wide receivers did a pretty good job of coming down with some of those throws that maybe were in a little bit hotter than you would expect.

Did you see that as well? Well, yes. And they also helped him out with the with play calling. I mean, they're doing quick play action, quick slants, quick. I mean, just all of it. The first play of the game is a quick out to Brandon. I mean, it's one to out, you know, being able to a quick out to Brandon. I mean, it's one-two out. You know, being able to get him in that kind of rhythm versus a normal five to seven-step drop and a hitch and coming up, he doesn't have to worry about that. It's boom, boom, boom.

He had a quick – what Minnesota would call like an RPO where, you know, kind of run the play action and then boom, hit the quick slant to – well, Bateman's got like 9,000 of them by now. But Brandon Smith being able to come across and obviously strong hands and go get it so I mean those plays were able to help Spencer kind of get into the flow but then also easy completions I mean I think they had a graphic up that said I need to make the makeables yep and that's what Spencer had said last week and it's true I that's, that's how good teams become great because you make the plays you're supposed to make. Yeah. And so being able to do more of that this week,

I thought was, was good. Absolutely. So there's three things, three other things I want to touch on offensively. Let's finish up with the wide receivers though. Their downfield blocking has been superb. The running game has been really moving the last couple of weeks. Again, it helps Minnesota as a terrible rush defense. However, the the the offensive line has been getting a great push and then again the wide receivers have been contributing down the field and that is a staple in an Iowa offense

but I wanted to get your sense of when you're getting ready to play Iowa football and you are a wide receiver right obviously you want to focus on catching the ball you want to focus on the routes you're running but from a blocking, I just want the fans know, can you get on the field? If you can't block, if you're an Iowa football wide receiver, It's not as often, not as often, your role is going to be mitigated based on that and being able to go on. It turns. And even if it's just not a huge one,

like it turns an eight yard play into a 12 yard play, but you got an extra four yards and got the first down or it then you can spring and you know go from a 12 yard play to a 30 yard play but those little things I mean you can turn on the tape of anything and you're always of any Iowa football game and if there's a receiver if there's a running back breaking out there's some receiver trying to run chase him down pick somebody off and it happens every single time and uh you you know, that's, that's how, again, how good teams become great because guys all are in for the team versus, you know, what I want to do on this particular play. It's no, this is how we're going to move

forward. Yeah. And that's what makes Iowa successful. When you see any of those successful Iowa teams, it's the fact that they're playing team defense. They're playing team offense. Everyone's in it for each other, not for themselves. And that's one of my favorite things about Iowa football in general. Going to the rushing attack, again, a great rushing attack. I thought Makai Sargent had a fantastic game, did a great job of finding open holes. Tyler Goodson didn't have as much running room, but still found a few open holes.

What is the difference in styles between those two runners? For me, it seems like, and I'll just give my thoughts, Sargent is more of a patient runner and has the ability to kind of find and maneuver his way around Tyler Goodson is going to be more the electrifying back he's going to be able to be a little bit more elusive but maybe still working on some of that vision you know as he's still young in his career what are your thoughts though on both of those running backs and what makes them successful and why they're different. And I think they're both phenomenal. I think that's something that we should talk about right away.

But as far as like making them different, I think my guy is more of a downhill runner right now as opposed to good. But good. So it's not afraid to lower his pad level either. So it's not like it's not like they're stark different. Where had like, we had Akram and LaShawn. Like that's a pretty big difference. Very different.

Yeah. Very different running backs. But as far as these guys, like I'd say they're more similar, but Goodson obviously they put them at the wildcat. They ran a bubble to them at the two-point play against – was it against Minnesota? Wow. Last week.

I was trying to think. I was thinking Northwestern, and that's not right. Yeah, Minnesota last week being able to run the bubble. So, I mean, like there are a lot of different things they can do with Tyler Goodson, but Mackay is just as, I mean, no granted, really anybody you put behind the offensive line right now is probably going to play well, but, but obviously both those backs are, are, are really talented.

Yeah. And I love the wrinkle they incorporated with the wildcat. We've seen the wildcat the last couple of weeks, they're continuing to add to it. And that's what I love to see this week. We had ivory Kelly, Martin McKay, Sergeant and Tyler Goodson, all in the backfield.

I don't know if I've ever seen that as well. That was, that was definitely fun to see the quarterback sneak continues to be arguably the most effective third and one play I've ever seen. What, I mean, we've talked a little bit about it, but is it really just getting your pad level low and go,

you know, driving behind your center and getting that push from Tyler Linderbaum? Like, is there anything else to really add to that play? And why can't defenses stop it? I wouldn't want to be in the way of those guys. Not only that, I mean, so when Nate was there, I mean, he's 6'4", 6'5", 250. He's a big boy. Spencer, 6'5", 240.

I mean, just those guys being able to move forward. That's a lot to bring down. Yeah. Those are some big, big boys. All right. Let's move over to the defensive side of the ball. I thought overall they played pretty well. I wasn't expecting Will Levis to be the starting quarterback. I thought it was going to be Sean Clifford. Will Levis struggles. Sean Clifford comes in and then we start getting a little bit worried. Sean Clifford throws two touchdowns and two passes. Now all of a sudden, this this is a game Penn state's back in it. But one of the things I thought was really impressive.

And we talked about this last week, but I will play it a lot of cover to man last week as we talked about this week, not nearly as much as a lot more zone coverage, a little bit more off zone, but they were blitzing a lot out of those own coverages. And Dane Belton has been a fire plug or a spark plug not a fire plug spark plug in that pass rush game i thought he's made some really big impacts um again let's talk about the blitzing because this isn't a tradition this isn't a staple of phil parker defense usually he wants to get pressure with this defensive line a lot of everyone to drop back but um why do you think that seems to be so effective and why are they utilizing that more this season than they have in the past

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this isn't something that's normally characteristic of a, of a Phil Parker coach defense, but obviously their defensive line is really good. Davion Nixon's been playing well. Ben Balkenberg, three sacks last week. Chauncey Golston with a couple big hits this week. I mean, those guys up front give you an opportunity to not have to, but when you force running backs to have to, especially towards the end of the game,

we saw that Sean Clifford was just giving it to the running back like every other play on a quick on a you know quick flat or whatever and that's why Davion took it out because I mean that he's been doing that the past like nine plays so as far as um like that was concerned just making the making the running back give a little chip or something like that. Get them out of their comfort zone. They have to chip or they have to do something to help out with the blitz. I mean, that's obviously part of it. I did see us go a little bit more man on third and medium. So like third and four, third and five, we were in a two-man.

And they actually burned us on it because Will Levis was running pretty well. Different QB draws or different things of that nature um and then later on in the game we went like two man but kerner came down to spy um or it looked like it we'd call it cover one with a rat but essentially kerner would come down to linebacker depth and kind of play in that zone there just read nice um so i mean a lot of different guys can do a lot of different things and that helps when you have a guy like dane belton being able to put some off the edge but also have him cover absolutely you actually touched on the next point that i was going to talk about was the fact that penn state seemingly did

about 30 quarterback you know quarterback designed qb runs in a sense um and it seemed to be pretty effective early on in the game but it definitely slowed down now that we're talking about it i don't really remember seeing them burn us too much at the end. So that explains kind of what the changes they made with Jack Kerner. So I appreciate you kind of going into the details there from a defensive perspective. Otherwise I thought it was a pretty clean game. I thought the defensive line continued to do a great job as we talked about getting pressure, but also getting their hands up when they didn't, weren't able to get to the quarterback. That's why we saw the Chauncey Golsan interception just phenomenal play on the defensive line.

Overall, Penn state doesn't have a ton of playmakers, as many as they typically have had in the past. So that wasn't as big of a concern coming in. But is there anything else you saw from this defense that you want to touch on on the show? I just thought they played well. I mean, just a lot of guys. I mean, I saw Nick Neiman was just about on everything

in terms of tackling. That's absurd. So, I mean, just being able to fly all over the place. And that's Hawkeye football. Like I talked about, get 11 hats to the ball. And obviously Nick took that to heart and he was out there making sure he was around the ball all the time. Yeah, man, it's been a lot of fun watching this defense. And again, Iowa football, you're always going to be in every single game if you can have a solid defense.

We're also seeing that with Northwestern as well. I don't want to have this Northwestern show but Northwestern playing really phenomenal football as well because they're keeping games close beat Wisconsin yesterday which is unfortunate for Iowa's chances of winning a big 10 west title but there's still a lot to play for we're three and two we win three more games we go six and two we maybe get a matchup with Indiana you still potentially could finish this season. Top 15, top 10. And we've seen a lot of crazy things. Let's go over to the, the special teams though. Keith Duncan missed another field goal.

Again, that is a tough spot for him. 50 yarder a little bit, I would say out of his range. Are you seeing anything with this or just again, kind of pressing, trying to get as much in that, you know,

kick as possible, trying to make that kick. He is definitely, it seems like he is struggling though. Now this is starting to become a trend, right? We talk about one field goal is all right. Keith Duncan has a great mental attitude and fortitude for handling these things, but now we're seeing multiple missed field goals.

And personally, as a, as an Iowa fan, I'm looking at it thinking, I just don't feel like it's as automatic as it was last year, but also it's tough to, you know, it's a 50 yarder. So anything you're seeing from that standpoint? I mean, that's like we talked about just kind of on the cusp of his range I think he's more than capable of making that field goal I mean I don't think he's they wouldn't send him out there if they hadn't seen him do it multiple times or um you know I've heard that they go out there and get the kind of their line before we're like okay if we get i'm good from 52 anything over 52 i don't think i'm going to be able to get or something similar to that and so um it is unfortunate that

he missed those two he squeaked in the one yeah on the sideline kind of remind me a little bit of a michigan in 2016 where he's inside you upright um but as far as like i mean i think he still missed your consistency it's just being able to become more consistent at further ranges. You know, I mean, we have to understand that we don't have Marshall Cain who could kick a 57-yard game winner against Pitt. You know, it's just a different level. He had a big old leg. Right.

He also missed a lot of extra points that I scored touchdowns on, but that's neither here nor there. But as far as like, you know, I mean, that's a real weapon, being able to go out there and kick from 57, 58. But it's just a different kicker. And I think he's a little bit more consistent. He just needs to be able to, you know, become a little more consistent on the backend.

Now I love that passive aggressive shade you just threw at a, through a Marshall Torrey Taylor. He has been, you know, obviously a fantastic punter this year doing a really great job. What we did notice that Penn state was actually able to return some of those this week. And when you look at the analytics, he has been phenomenal, right? I mean, make nine is one return yards coming into this Penn State game, which ranks first in the nation. Fantastic from a net punt yard perspective.

And what we've talked about is the fact that he's been waiting for his coverage to get down the field before punting the ball. I feel like that might have hidden one of the issues we're kind of seeing in what we saw against Penn State, though. Wanted to get your sense if I'm on the right track here. His hang time hasn't really been all that great. Coming into the Penn State game, it was 3.9 seconds. He is punting the ball relatively quickly.

From your perspective, what is a good hang time? What are you shooting for from a punter perspective for a hang time? Anything over like a four six four six is like like you're probably not getting a return off that especially if you hold it um you know like we talked about before being able to hold it and things like that but i think like a four six is is enough time to where at least your guys are in position to to make a play but like you said i mean now you know kind of flipping it penn state kicked it really high. And they were like, we are not going to get beat by Charlie Jones.

This is not going to happen. They either punted it out of bounds or insanely high. And he even, we, we went after him one time. So Charlie's got no, I think they sent eight or nine. So he's got one, maybe two guys that are blocking for him. Everybody else is a free release because in college you can release right off the snap of the ball and uh he didn't fair catch it so I mean props to him for like trying to make a play but it's pump block just worry about getting

the ball and then go go from there but I noticed as well I was like oh my gosh you're getting a little ballsy out there like thank you thank you for securing that because I saw Terry Roberts run in to try to block I'm like oh crap that's usually the guy on the outside. They are going all for it. Yeah, and then he didn't fair catch it. So, I mean, he's got, you know, he's got the confidence with himself to make the play, and I love that. But just as long as we secure the ball and he doesn't get smacked back there. Absolutely.

Not to flip it, but yeah. So then from a Torrey, does he just need to get more hang time? I mean, because it didn't feel like Penn State was really bringing a lot of pressure on him either. Whereas we've seen against like Minnesota, for example, if they were only bringing one guy and we had three blockers, he was kind of just hanging out back there for a second. What felt like eternity, but it was more like, you know, half a second. But he didn't really do that, kind of sped it up this week.

Anything weird about that? He's still a freshman. I mean, this is a new environment for him in terms of being at now, granted, this isn't normal happy Valley in terms of playing in terms of fans and the, and the whiteout and all that stuff. But he's still a freshman. He's not going to have stupendous games every single time. That's he's young. He's played five games in his entire life. So the fact that we're even talking about him at this stage tells you

that he's already kind of set the expectation of what he's capable of but he's still going to have a little slump something like that I wouldn't I wouldn't sweat it absolutely I mean it's just crazy to think about the fact that we look at this game against Penn State and that would be his worst game he's played and it's still a pretty darn good game from a punting perspective I mean they didn't have any big returns uh the coverage could have been a little better I mean there's so many other things that could have went into stopping some of those punt returns. But again, fifth game, we can expect expectations are already very high, which tells you all

about the potential for him. Before we get into some fan questions, anything else you want to touch on for the game? Not really. You know, I mean, there was that little bit about like you talked about when Clifford came in, kind of gave him a little bit of a spark. And then we were able to go down, kick a field goal, at least keep the keep moving the ball and Davion put it away with his euro. So outside of that, you know, I thought that we closed the game a little bit better. Obviously, what's nice is coming out and putting points on the board right away.

I mean, you're never going to not like doing that. Yeah. So it's a matter of continuing that kind of that uh, that kind of production and then just bring it in, in the second half. Couldn't agree more. So we want to get into the fan questions. I put it out on Twitter and it kind of sparked from one of my, I was watching the game with the buddy and he actually had a question because we saw Joe Evans and, um, playing defensive end drop back into coverage. And I reminded them that Joe Evans was a walk-on quarterback from Ames and they're like well how the hell is he playing defensive end I'm like I don't know how they eventually you know envisioned him as a defensive end but I wanted to tee this up to you what is it

about Iowa and what they're I mean how do you look for players and try to find guys who probably don't play that same position then turn them into you know productive players at a different position I mean a quarterback walk-on playing defensive end as a redshirt sophomore. That's pretty darn impressive. Yeah, absolutely. And they've got this, I don't even know what to call it. They just have this weird way of being able to put guys in the right spot. KF always talks about Dallas Clark came in.

He was like a fourth string linebacker. And they were like, look, you're never going to play linebacker here. Just go over there and try it out. Try it out at tight end. Maybe it works out. Maybe it doesn't. We all know how that turned out. So, I mean, just little things like that of, no, go ahead and give it a shot.

When I actually got to Iowa, I was supposed to be a defensive back. I was going to wear number 38. I roomed with Tanner Miller my first year at camp. And I remember meeting with KF at his oh one of my visits excuse me and um he was like would you rather play offense or defense i was like well i'd rather play offense he's like all right we'll be prepared you know to switch just in case we have a shortage um and i was like all right and then i just tried to make sure that i never got went you know went to the dark side stayed on the good side but kind of did the reverse of Ed Hinkle so Ed Hinkle came in as a DB and they were like hey we're kind of short on receiver when you just go over there and then yeah obviously had a phenomenal career and had a stint in the NFL so I mean just being being able

to put guys in the right position is something that Iowa's done for a very long time yeah it's just so impressive and I think part of it might stem from the fact that Iowa, Iowa high school football in general, there's such small classes where you have eight man football, there's athletes on those fields, but they're not, they're never going to be playing the position. They probably should be playing. You can look at Cooper to Jean, a four-star recruit that we have coming in next year.

He's playing quarterback for I it's a bunch of numbers, a bunch of letters kind of combined O C I B GI-B-G-D-A or whatever. I apologize if I'm butchering that, but he's probably going to play safety at the next level. So that is something just I think Iowa does a fantastic job wanting to cover that. Before we get into the questions, on Twitter, IA underscore Cub wanted me to tell you that the next Bush Lights are on him. Apparently you moved in close to him, and he wanted to make sure you knew

that he was going to pay for your Bush Lights next. Hey, shout out. I appreciate it. he thought his work has been fantastic on here as everyone has thought as well so he wanted to make sure you gave him some bush lights so shout out to you shout out to ia underscore cub um from hockey lugans this is a hawking podcast all right is davian nixon big 10 defensive player of the year or am i just a homer is there somebody else balling out right now in the big Ten who I don't know about? Let's maybe just focus on the first part. Is Davian Nixon putting himself in the conversation for Big Ten Player of the Year with some of his things?

And obviously, you need some of those highlight reel plays as well to kind of stir the voter, the conversation up. I mean, the fact that he's continuing to get that many tackles for loss or that many tackles as an interior defensive lineman. Now, like we saw in the interception, they moved him outside because Iowa's got a way of moving guys around. to get that many tackles for loss or that many tackles as an interior defensive lineman now like we saw in the interception they moved him outside because i always got a way of moving guys around but you have to be capable of doing it right you can't just put them out there and be like i hope it works out you know like we just talked about you put guys in the position to be successful so davion nixon is capable of rushing as a defensive end at 305 picking it off and going 75 yards i mean that's a pretty special player in my opinion.

And it's not just because I went to Iowa, but being able to see that kind of stuff. I mean, that's, like I said, he's also got that kind of energy that boosts the play of those around him. And if he's going hard, we've talked about him week in and week out of going like 70 of the 75 snaps or whatever it is. And to continue to have that high motor in a fourth quarter going 75 back i mean i think that's a pretty good claim for a big time play of the year i love it man

all right from at jared starkey are we being blinded by a great defense and surging rush attack to cover up for a subpar passing attack is spencer still iowa's best bet i told you we had some spencer questions oh absolutely absolutely uh and like I talked about earlier in terms of play calling, they're kind of making sure that, you know, I don't want to call him a game manager, but it's something that you grow into in order to take over games. Ricky Stanton was a game manager. I mean, his first year.

And, you know, I've actually talked to Laura about this too, in terms of like CJ kind of how his charisma and his kind of fluidity being able to run the ball. I'm not going to call him agile, but the fact that he could make people miss still baffles me. And I don't understand how he did it. But so like his being his a little bit of athleticism and then Stanley's more of a pocket pastor. Spencer's more of a pocket pastor.

Ricky could take off if he needed to. It wasn't something that like, you know, he was going to click to, but in terms of he could take off if he wanted um you know those kind of differences between now you've got a pure pocket passer and spencer um and i i don't like i said i think they're helping him out in terms of the shorter passes being able to kind of set things up um we've seen he's got a cannon and uh like i said maybe it was a little bit on the key because he didn't get a stick or if he just overthrew it that's possible too but those kinds of things um i think they come with time and as far as you know if he's our best option i mean we have to go based off of what the coaches are saying and if and if right now he's the best option then he's the best option it's just a matter of we haven't seen you know know, the other guys yet. And if we've learned anything through quarterback changes,

like you talked about Ricky or, you know, CJ and Jake, if there's a, and I mean, we saw CJ day in and day out until he got his temporary opportunity. Rudolph goes out with a knee injury. CJ comes in or, you know, like against Western Michigan, CJ comes in and hits Damon Powell for like a 65 yard deep ball. I mean, just getting your opportunities and making the most of when you're in there, I think is really

what shows people what you can do. And we just haven't seen that yet from any, anybody else. Yeah. Two things I want to touch on that first. You're throwing a lot of some passive aggressive shade. I mean, throwing some shade at CJ as well. Not being very agile. I love it, man. And I know, I know you're not going to answer this question, but I got to ask you that anyways, personally, when CJ and Jake were kind of battling it out, did you want CJ or did you have any preference? I think we actually talked about this the very first time I interviewed you as well, but did you have any preference or were you happy either way? I know you're probably going to give a very nice answer on this, but I just, I had to ask it. So the main thing that I hated was having two different quarterbacks

because as a receiver, different quarterbacks throw the ball differently. As we talked about earlier, their cadence is different, which is why we had so many false starts in the first game. Like everything is different about different players. You know, CJ was obviously a little bit more athletic. He could sling it. He was really good with ball placement. Jake was more by the book, sort of, you know, textbook, as opposed to CJ was just kind of like, ah, whatever. And so, I mean, like the, the, the play style is different. The way they command the huddle is different. So in terms of like, which one I preferred,

obviously CJ and I had a lot more time together. I enjoyed my time with CJ. Jake threw me my first two passes against Missouri state when, when I was a true freshman. So, I mean, you know, I got a little, I'm not going to pick one or the other, but obviously CJ has been, I spent a lot more time with CJ and I enjoyed my time with him. Yeah. Okay. That was, that was all, that was, that was actually more than I anticipated getting out of that,

out of that question. You're welcome. We had another question from slater kinnick about about spencer but we don't need to touch on that um the last question though from ct huggins 07 is matt concerned about our lack of trust to take some shots chances on third and longs going forward we settled for many short outs and draw plays on third and eight plus today and it seemed like we just didn't trust petrus to make throws on those downs wanted to get your thoughts on that that's the last fan question of the day.

I remember I was watching and it was third and 13 and I kind of looked away. We were going right to left. I kind of looked away and I looked back and I was like, wait, did we just run a inside zone on third and 13? So like, I've also thought that. So I think there's a few things there.

One, when Torrey Taylor is playing as well as he has been, one thing that Iowa loves to win, and it helps them win football games, is field position. And if we can continue, I mean, we've seen Torrey Taylor pin teams inside the 10, 15, 5 consistently. And so I think on this particular one, we were on like our 25 or 30 yard line. Now, personally, again, I'm a receiver, sling it, you know, give us an opportunity to go.

But I think that's kind of the thought process there. But again, it's not, I don't know if it's that they don't trust him to throw it. I think that they're just trying to make the game a little bit slower for him. We've talked about his to make the game a little bit slower for him. We've talked about his decision-making has been a little bit quick in different games. So being able to have him kind of get into that rhythm where then he can make that, but he's, he's made some good decisions. I know there was one, there was a deep end against Nico.

It wasn't last week. It was against, or it wasn't this week. It was against Minnesota. And it kind of hit off Nico's arm or whatever it was, but like, he, he read the guy, he manipulated the safety. So it kind of hit off Nico's arm or whatever it was. But, like, he read the guy. He manipulated the safety. So it was a single high safety. He went to the left, kept the safety on the left.

Actually, I think it was double safety, but they both followed his eyes to the left. And then he was able to squeeze it into Nico on the right. Nico just didn't make the catch. So, I mean, he's more than capable. You know, like I said, the main thing I can think about is probably playing the field position game and knowing that if they punt it, their defense is going to hold them and then hopefully get the ball at the 40 and kind of go from there. Makes sense, man.

Matt, well, I really appreciate it. Again, you coming on the show, talking all about Iowa football. You're doing a lot of great stuff in the community. So is Laura. What are you guys doing? What are you two doing, I should say? And where can people find you at? Yes, Laura does a pregame show before every home game, uh, for a solid two hours. So, uh, and she teams up with Gary Dolphin,

Ned Podolak and everything. So everything Hawk. Fantastic content. Oh yeah. It's, it's, it's, it's a lot of good stuff. It's the Hawk walk that unfortunately we're missing right now, but we still get an opportunity to see it and all that kind of stuff. And as for myself, real estate agent at the Bales team at Urban Acres Real Estate. I actually got an open house today. It's exciting. I got a bunch of different things. Yeah.

So anytime anybody needs to buy or sell a home, we'd love to help you. But as far as that, otherwise just kind of enjoying Iowa right now. I love it, man. Well, you have an open house today, and you still managed to come on here, talk Iowa football, throw some shade, which is the most I've ever seen you do. A couple times we talked you through shade twice. That's two more than any other time. It's subtle. It's very subtle, but it's great.

It's great to see you, Matt. Well, Matt, I appreciate you coming on, though, man. We will talk next week after hopefully what is going to be another win over the Nebraska Cornhuskers. I am so tired of hearing them talk every freaking year. So I'm excited to see that happen. We'll be back next week. Thank you again for tuning in, Matt.

Have a good day, buddy. I appreciate it. One thing before we sign off, I think three things are guaranteed in life. Death, taxes, and Nebraska is going to be talking. I think those are all three things. That is the quote of the week. That is 100% going to go in some sort of meme I'm going to put out there. So I appreciate that.

Of course. You're welcome. Awesome. Thank you, Matt. I appreciate it. All right. And that concludes our conversation today. Again, a big shout out to Matt for always coming on the show.

He's been doing a fantastic job. Really appreciate what he's been doing for the show. And obviously, I've been getting a lot of feedback from you all that you love having Matt on. So again, thank you all for tuning in. Hope you enjoyed the show. And obviously I've been getting a lot of feedback from you all that you love having Matt on. So again, thank you all for tuning in. Hope you enjoyed the show. And if you want more content like this, please make sure to subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast out so you can get all of our episodes delivered directly to your smart device each and every day. That's right. We pump out an episode every single weekday. And just a reminder, we have Bakari Evelyn coming on the show tomorrow to talk about this Iowa basketball team and the high expectations

we have for this program and whether or not it's truly national, title, or bust. Thank you all for tuning in, though. Have a fantastic Sunday and the rest of your weekend. And as always, keep listening to Locked on Hawkeyes. Have a fantastic day, and let's go Hawks.