Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - REVEALED: Hawkeyes SHATTER Expectations with Aggressive Transfer Approach | Big Ten on Notice

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Iowa Hawkeyes are starting to adjust to the transfer portal and adding more key pieces. Will it be enough for Iowa to make another run towards the top of the Big Ten this year? And who's the freshman to watch out for? Locked On presents The Portal, the daily podcast covering college football recruiting and everything NIL. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. Welcome back into the Portal podcast where you get your daily transfer, portal recruiting and NIL information. I am your host, Brian Smith. Thank you for coming in today.

Starting point is 00:00:42 Check it out. We're going to be talking to all things Iowa Hawkeyes. The Hawkeyes have a very interesting trend going on with the portal. And we're going to get into that here in a minute with Trent Condon. But first, today's show is brought to you by our friends over at Amazon Fire TV stick. Turn any TV into your Xbox, no console is needed. Head to amazon.com forward slash fire TV lock on to learn more. Let's talk about the Hawkeyes and Trent. We've got some portal. I have the surprise that I've been waiting for, and that's Iowa being a little more aggressive. I'm shocked by it, but happily so.

Starting point is 00:01:15 Who'd they lose? How's that going to impact their win total this year? Going to talk about impact transfers and possibly some freshmen that Iowa fans, Big 10 fans should know about. So right out of the gate, man, were you surprised that Iowa was at least a little bit more aggressive in the transfer? I'm not saying they're going Ole Miss or anything, but are you surprised at all? I'm not really surprised just because I know a lot of people, the latest is the greatest,

Starting point is 00:01:44 that's kind of where our memories go. And you look back to last Portal season and they didn't do a whole lot. Well, there was a reason for that. They didn't have a ton of scholarships. And the year previous, they went out there and they were incredibly aggressive. That was the year that they brought in Kate McNamara and they brought in Eric All and they went out there and brought in 12 different transfer Portal candidates on that season. So it was something different two years ago. Then they kind of took a step back last year. And I don't think it was because anything changed in order of plugging holes.

Starting point is 00:02:10 They just thought that they were in good shape at a lot of different positions and that they had so much veteran experience coming back that they didn't need to plug the holes that they did the year previous. This year is different because those guys that came back for the bonus season, you look at the guys like Jay Higgins that came back for his bonus COVID year. A guy like Sebastian Castro. That's mostly what they use kind of their portal money on, was bringing those guys back for their fifth and at times even their sixth year last season. So I wasn't surprised at all. And it's good because Kirk Ferentz, I know there's a lot of people that look at him and they see this old guy on the sidelines, the longest tenure coach in college football and think that there's no adaptability. Now it's not fast, that's not to do it, but he has adapted and he has made the change.

Starting point is 00:02:55 So maybe not as quick as people want, but we see Kirk Farris, he is willing to evolve and that's the reason that he's been around for 26 years. Mark Gronowski comes in at quarterback, Sam Phillips, receiver. They had some guys walk out the door, but they did pretty well overall, like adding offensive pieces has been obviously Iowa's concern. Which guys from the spring window make the biggest impact? And if you want to talk a little bit about the winter window as well, fire away. Yeah, Mark Gronowski, I mean the conversation starts right there. This is a guy that very quickly they identified in the portal. There were people here talking about him even before he

Starting point is 00:03:34 entered the portal and you know Mark Gronowski very well if he was healthy would have been you know fifth, sixth, seventh round draft pick. A lot of people believe that coming off his final season there at South Dakota State but he also had to have that shoulder cleaned up. I had that he was back throwing at the end of spring practice and that was a great thing to see because a lot of the initial reports that he wasn't going to be back throwing until June or July and seeing him out there here in late April already doing that was a good thing to see. But it starts with Grodowski and the thing that I love about him I mean you watch the film and and you can definitely see this as well better than I can, Brian, but I see a guy that can make throws,

Starting point is 00:04:08 but the physicality that he plays with, the toughness of watching him out there in single degree temperatures in South Dakota State in a playoff game and those offensive linemen are out there with no sleeves and he goes out there with no sleeves. It's not the leadership qualities that we had in the previous quarterback with Cade McNamara, which felt like a lot of false bravado, right? He was there. He was tough. He was arrogant. But it didn't seem absolutely true. You go back to Spencer Peters, he had the leadership qualities. The problem, he didn't have the talent qualities to go along with it. Now I think Iowa quarterback for the first time in six years has the full package. A guy that can lead a guy that people want to follow and it's not false. And secondly, a guy that can make plays, gonna put his nose down. Mark Grunowski is a difference maker and I think it starts there.

Starting point is 00:04:55 Well, that that certainly helps. And you brought up something about lineman a second ago. So I'll just go to one of Iowa's traditional strengths. You and I talked before the show. Bryce George is coming in, offensive lineman, where he plays is still to be determined. He comes over from Ferris State. Why don't you give your take on Bryce George?

Starting point is 00:05:14 So you look at what they have coming back on offensive line. They got two all-American candidates up front, one at center and another guy in Jones that very well would have been probably a late round selection, an athletic freak at the center position. You've seen him grow at right tackle Jennings Dunker, but he is just a right tackle. He's not a guy that you can flip flop. He said before he's not comfortable on the left side. They're going to leave him

Starting point is 00:05:36 there. You got an all American at right tackle. Yeah, you love to be at left, but you got an all American there. You're going to leave him over there. Uh, Kate Peeper is another guy that they're excited about at the guard position, and there's a bunch of other guys that have some experience, but the question mark was left tackled coming into the spring. There were two guys vying for the job, and the younger of the two, Trevor Lau, the guy with the ton of upside for people in the recruiting world. You'll remember Trevor Lau from a

Starting point is 00:05:58 couple years ago. He was one of those upper Midwest stars, right? A guy from Indianapolis that everybody was after. The Notre Dames, the Ohio State of Michigan's all had interests, He was one of those upper Midwest stars, right? A guy from Indianapolis that everybody was after. The Notre Dames, the Ohio States, the Michigan's all had interests, and then it was the Illinois, the Wisconsin's, the Iowa's, the Nebraska's all after him. And he chose the Hawkeyes. Iowa doesn't win a ton of those recruiting battles.

Starting point is 00:06:15 He doesn't have experience, but he's certainly a talented kid, and that has showed up right away when he showed up on campus. If Bryce George cannot play left tackle, then it's going to be Trevor Lough. But I think their hope is that he will be able to do that. Bryce George at minimum can do it. The other component though is also depth of tackle because outside of Jennings Dunker,

Starting point is 00:06:35 outside of Lough, they don't really have many tackles on the roster. And you've seen this, Brian. I think a lot of times at offensive Line, those guys transitioning up, maybe they're not ready to be a starter and play 650 snaps a year, but they can be a backup or reserve role and maybe kick inside. I think they're just going to have to figure that out with Bryce George. Well, offensive line is always their bread and butter. Do they have a running back or is it going to be by committee? Like, what's the situation at tailback? So running back is an interesting one because of course, Caleb Johnson last

Starting point is 00:07:07 year, he wasn't even the starter coming in. He was suspended for the first half of the first game for some off season. It was a little late to a couple of meetings during the summertime. So he didn't even get out there until the second half. And we saw the all American season that he was able to put together. But coming into the year, there are a lot of people that believed in fact, he was the starter in that first game that that Kamari Moulton, the kid from down in your neck of the woods down in Florida, that Kamari Moulton was going to be the guy. I think you saw from him last year, he had a couple of big plays against Maryland, had

Starting point is 00:07:35 a bunch of big plays, but it wasn't the consistency that you're wanting. It wasn't the ability that you saw Caleb Johnson reading in the zone scheme where those cuts were. You see the talent and Kamari Moulton certainly has the talent but as the year went on even as Caleb Johnson was taking over you saw the Moulton is waiting. So you start there another Florida kid, Jazzy on Patterson, he'll be the backup. They got a couple of young kids they're excited about. Brevin Dahl from ADM, he sat out this spring as he was dealing with the hamstring injury. He's got Speed to burn Xavier Williams, but the newest name is one that I got to get your thoughts on Brian, because another Florida kid, what's up with Iowa in these Florida running backs lately? Well,

Starting point is 00:08:13 Liddell Betts, the former running back coach, he coached in high school. So that's probably where it comes from. But Nathan McNeil, now you look at the recruiting services, nobody wanted Nathan McNeil. And all of a sudden this kid shows up early, should be going to prom right now. Instead, he's going through spring football. And this dude, one of our, the guy that runs the rival side here in Iowa, Hawkeye Beacon, he was described as lightning in a bottle. Nathan McNeil, but nobody wanted him.

Starting point is 00:08:39 And here he shows up in Iowa and he's already making heads turn as a true freshman. Wiregrass Ranch is a high school just outside of Tampa. It's a really nice area, very popular school. It's hard to get your kid even in there. And they've had some players, ironically, the starting quarterback at Iowa state also went to that high school, irony all over the place. But yeah, that's how I know the program. So I used to go see him and some other kids they had, there's a receiver at Ohio State from that school. So it's got some players, but it's not top of the board.

Starting point is 00:09:10 I used to live in Tampa. It's not one of the five or six programs. If you're a head coach or whatever, somebody recruiting coordinator, you're seeing your guys out. That isn't the first stop in Tampa by any means, but they've always got a couple of guys. So to that point, where he ends up

Starting point is 00:09:26 this year, we'll probably come down to some of the things that Kirk always likes ball security, pass protection, consistency, does he play, you know, I gotta see it. But another Florida kid that's under the radar making it at Iowa would not surprise me in the least. Not at all. Um, next up, when you look at the portal, you awesome guys too. Did anybody leave Iowa? Did you like, yeah, this is a little rough. What are we going to do about it? Well, there's two that jump to mind.

Starting point is 00:09:54 I think the easiest one is Brendan Sullivan. Starter last year for a few games. He brought some juice. Finally saw a guy that could run around first time in a long time. We've seen a quarterback that could move a little bit, and that excited the Hawkeye fan base. He also saw his limitations as a passer. You know, he is not a guy that you can, I think trust over the course of a 12 game season that's going to be able to deliver throwing the football, but he's an exciting player. I end to have a guy like that. If he was willing to stay in a backup

Starting point is 00:10:19 role behind Grunowski, I mean, now you're cooking Mark Grunowski and him. You don't have to change much of what you're doing offensively. That is one. The other one though I was a little bit disappointed was Joey VanWetsinghe. Now very young, in fact he didn't even really get here on campus. He was an early enrollee but because of the scholarship crunch, the roster crunch now with 105 and we'll actually see how that ultimately plays out. But Iowa was at the forefront, letting the W-Ons know, letting the guys deeper down, hey, we're not going to have a spot for you in August, trying to help them find holes. And of course, Iowa trying to do things right, might end up biting them in the butt. But his older brother was a Walk-On fullback. Well, they wanted to play together. They wanted to play together for his final

Starting point is 00:11:00 season of eligibility. So Joey went into the portal, his brother ended up at a Mac school at central Michigan. He went there. He's a developmental piece. He was down the line, you know, two, three years down the line, but I think he was going to be a big piece, either defensive tackle or offensive line at the guard position or center that they were really counting on. So I think that one kind of big picture is very impactful. And then one final name to pass along to you. And that was Khalil Tate. Uh, Khalil Tate is a guy that another big recruit for Iowa. Look at some of the teams that they beat out and it just never clicked. I don't know what the reason was it and why

Starting point is 00:11:34 it never happened for him. He's still looking for a home, but him, John Nestor, a couple of defensive backs that they're accounting on and it just never completely clicked for both of those guys. When we come back, we're going to talk more with Trent about the Portal, WinTotal, and some more recruiting. That is next here on this crossover with Locked On Hawkeyes and the Portal podcast. The NBA playoffs are almost here,

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Starting point is 00:13:10 NFL that's insane so I'm always curious about Iowa's corner room. You know you look back at last season and you look at the step back that they had defensively and you point to different things but you look Jay Higgins was back and Castro was back and the defensive line for the most part was back and you go to different things. But you look, Jay Higgins was back and Castro was back and the defensive line for the most part was back. And you go on and on and on. The one thing that they really struggled was at the quarterback spot. And we're just not used to that in Iowa City

Starting point is 00:13:32 because of Phil Parker, what he does, the defensive coordinator, he began his career as a defensive back coach. Every single year is so well-schooled and it wasn't last year. You go back to their game against Troy as Troy was hanging around in Iowa City and it was given up big plays. It is so un-Iowa like what we saw a season ago and there was some blame at the safeties, but there was a lot

Starting point is 00:13:54 of the blame at cornerback. Now, one of the guys that returns sounds like he made the leap and you go back through the last 25 years of Iowa football and you look at the guys that boy looked really bad early in their career. I think of Bradley Fletcher, I think of guys like Riley Moss, the both those guys now have put together long NFL careers. Bradley Fletcher had a decade. Riley Moss is going into year number four, but he looked early in their career. They were terrible. And by the end they were at elite level. I think TJ hall is going to do that. I think he's going to make the leap. He made a couple of just incredible plays. Sometimes it just takes longer, right? That cornerback spot, you got to build up a lot of scar tissue and he's got plenty of it, but it feels like

Starting point is 00:14:33 he's the guy that's going to make the leap. On the other side, Deshaun Lee's played a lot the last couple of years, started a number of games. I don't think it's quite there. And that's why they were looking in the portal for cornerback and they got Shahid Barrows out of South Dakota. The great thing is South Dakota and Iowa, their scheme defensively is very similar. So this is not going to be alerting something completely different going in right away because he's not going to show up for another well until June, basically camp starts. So he's finishing things up his studies in South Dakota. He's not going to be a guy that obviously went through spring practice, but if Barrows can pick things up,. So he's finishing things up his studies in South Dakota. He's not gonna be a guy that obviously went through spring practice but if Barrows can pick things up I think he's gonna be a guy probably starting on the

Starting point is 00:15:10 other side and then you look at the depth of that position and Iowa it does feel like they're building up that position. You told us about a Rashad Godfrey kid out of Florida that redshirted this past season. There's been a lot of buzz about him. A couple other guys on the young group at cornerbacks. So Iowa appears to be in good shape. One thing though, Phil Parker, he is very willing to play young guys too. At that cornerback spot, he is willing to put guys in there right away. So if it's not happening with Lee, if it's not happening with Hall this year, he'll put those young guys out there and learn on the go as they go at the cornerback spot. Well, Barrow's

Starting point is 00:15:45 is an interesting piece because he's big enough to play safety. He's 190, 195 pounds. He's a pretty good tackler, but his grades for coverage while he was at South Dakota weren't great. They were 60.8, but I'm just going to go ahead and say it. There aren't any DB coaches that I trust more than Phil and cover too. And if that's what they're going to run and he's used to running it, they'll find a little niche somewhere to find him a little bit of playing time. And maybe even like, again, he's got good size to start. So I think that's important. And any kid out of Florida, I'll take their ability to develop them.

Starting point is 00:16:22 I was done it before. So I'm betting that Iowa's DB room is a little better than what some people think I know that won't shock you but feels he's just a great DB coach there's no way around it. All right, here's another thing that I think is or how much they normally spend. Do you think they spend enough based on NIL to kind of fill needs beyond when they got a quarterback so they had to pay some there because I'm sure he had other offers. Did they spend enough to kind of satisfy what they needed? You know, in fact, I think they went a little bit further

Starting point is 00:16:58 than I was anticipating. Yeah, I really do. Now, again, Iowa, a big part of what they're doing with their collective and something that Kirk Barron wants to be is the guys that stay, you're going to be rewarded, right? This is not gonna be Ole Miss where it's the new guys coming in.

Starting point is 00:17:14 It's a developmental program. And in order to be a developmental program, you have to have, I think, that incentive for guys to stick around and be able to see the fruits of that labor in year three, year four, year five, at times. You have to be able to do that. So they're not going to have the money as some of the other Big Ten programs. I know what I've heard in general, they're top 20ish in the country. They're not in bad shape. They're not at the elite level by any means. But compared to their Big Ten brethrens, once you get past the Michigans and the Ohio States

Starting point is 00:17:41 and Penn States and Oregon's of the world. They're right there in that next tier that they're doing okay. And it's, I think we can argue about it, but it's just the way that Kirk Barron's wants to build this program. It's not going to be the backbone. The backbone is still going to be high school recruiting, developmental, and then filling in the gaps. And I think they did a pretty good job of filling in those gaps this season. And you're right, Grunowski, some of the numbers that were thrown out there for Grunowski and some of the other programs that were looking, I know Miami sniffed around right away

Starting point is 00:18:09 when he entered the portal. We know the U's got somebody down there. That Grunowski certainly, maybe Iowa got a little bit of a discount for keeping a kid close to home. For those who don't know, Miami's major booster is the guy that owns the South Florida Soccer team, professional team.

Starting point is 00:18:25 I mean, that kind of money is just must be nice. Must be nice. Yeah, that's that's a different animal all to itself. Transfer regardless of position that you think, whether or not he's a dominant player is up to you. But that will surprise and Iowa fans are going to be like, Oh, I didn't really think he could do that. Is there anybody you think is going to have a little quicker adjustment and make a play or is it

Starting point is 00:18:47 just like by committee? So it's a little bit deeper down the list, but we've talked about Grunowski, another South Dakota state kid in Bryce Hawthorne. So Hawthorne just going to be a regular freshman. He's a defensive tackle and look at the numbers didn't have a ton this past season. You looked at this. All right. This is a developmental a ton this past season. You looked at this, all right, this is a developmental piece, right? They kind of looked at that defensive tackle room. They feel like they're a little bit light. They'll bring in a guy that's got a little bit of college experience, but it's going to have three years of eligibility and

Starting point is 00:19:14 kind of go from there. What I heard this spring, Bryce Hawthorne is going to help out this year. Not a starter, but he's going to be a guy that's going to be in the rotation at defensive tackle. And you look at Iowa when they're their best upfront, it's when they have depth on the defensive line. I go back to, I think it's almost 15 years ago. Iowa was really good in 2009 won the orange bowl against Georgia tech, had a ton of guys coming back 2010. They lost a ton of close games. Why? Cause they were tired. That defensive line was tired. Their top four was as good as anybody in college football. The problem is they didn't have anybody in spots five through eight. That has changed. And that is one thing that Phil Parker and the rest of the defensive staff

Starting point is 00:19:52 has worked incredibly hard now these last 15 years of every single year having depth. They didn't have that at defensive tackle. Now I think they do. They bring in pace the kid from central Michigan. He'll probably be a starter alongside Aaron Graves, but Hawthorne, he's going to play this year. And that's one when he committed, I didn't think was going to be the case. So put Bryce Hawthorne on your list there, kid out of the Minneapolis suburbs. When was record?

Starting point is 00:20:15 Do you think the portal has really kind of changed it? I don't know what FanDuel has him. I'm guessing around eight wins somewhere around there is what my projection would be if I was to guess. And let's just use Trent, you know better than the people in Vegas because this program you've followed your whole life. Did they win more than eight games this year? If for now, I mean, that's the key. If you don't win at quarterback, like Iowa fans have groaned about quarterback and right way so forever, if he makes the transition, can this be a nine win team? Maybe even 10 if they

Starting point is 00:20:43 pull off a couple of surprises. So kind of going step by step when before the over under total came out, it's seven and a half right now at Fandual. Before it came out in the season and before everything really started, right after we finished up in January, the college football season, I said Iowa with the schedule that they have and what they had returning, I thought six and a half would be a fair number, which is well under what they normally are.

Starting point is 00:21:06 It's almost every year seven and a half for Iowa football. Grunowski, I think changes that equation. I really do. But that's scheduled this year. Brian, think of this. If this would have been a summer conversation or spring conversation we had in the past, a Big 10 team that doesn't have to play Michigan or Ohio State, their schedule is incredibly

Starting point is 00:21:26 easy, right? Well, that's the case for Iowa this year. They don't have to play Ohio State or Michigan. That's good. However, they have to play Penn State, Oregon, go to USC, Nebraska on the road, Wisconsin, Indiana playoff team from a year ago. Oh, by the way, they also play Iowa State who played in the big 12 championship game a year ago. Even minus Michigan and Ohio State, this schedule is incredibly difficult. I do think that they get there, and I wouldn't have said that back in January, that they get over the seven and a half,

Starting point is 00:21:54 but I think that number is spot on. I think this is gonna be a team that's eight and four, and if Grunowski turns into a star, that's when we start talking about this passing game improvement that we saw in the spring, even without him, that suddenly we're talking about nine, 10 games and maybe back door on your way into a big 10 championship game. That's kind of what I was thinking like the quarterback plays the one step. Like, you

Starting point is 00:22:15 know, Phil's going to scheme it up. The headlines got a couple of guys that can be drafted possible all Americans. They got good running backs. So if they can throw the ball, that changes your window. I mean, we, you got to find out what he could do against FBS competition week after week. But Grunowski is a pretty darn good player. So when we come back, we're going to talk to Trent about the overall Big 10 and what's next for the Hawkeyes. That is next here on Locked on Hawkeyes and Locked on the Pool. There's nothing like the atmosphere of an NBA playoff game. Every bucket, every defensive stop, every moment feels huge. It's electric in the arena and with game time, you can be a part of it without the stress

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Starting point is 00:24:05 Nope, got them last season beat them in Kinnick. Okay, but you've got Oregon, you've got an opportunity to play Penn State, etc. Penn State might be the best team in the country this year, they're certainly in the top 10 somewhere, whatever you want to rank them. But do you think that they have the ability to at their minimal knock off one of those teams that says Oregon on its Jersey, Penn State, somebody like that with the players they have now? And again, this is, in my opinion, Grunowski is going to have to help them in a different way. So my question to that, I've got a follow up, but do you think just overall talent Iowa, if they have a good day, can beat one of those teams? I do only because we've seen it so often under Kirk Ferentz. And when you match each of these teams up, heads up, you look at Oregon. Yeah, Iowa's not more talented and they're not even on the same level. But what Kirk Ferentz can do, we call him the

Starting point is 00:24:59 Ferentz specials, right? Those kind of things. And he's been so good at that in the past of having teams play their kind of style. Same thing with Penn State. And you think of the upset that Iowa's had against Penn State throughout the years. And there's been a ton of them throughout the year. So yeah, Iowa can, but it has to be kind of the right circumstances. And maybe the difference can be this year, if we see this offense taking the step forward, we saw it just in terms of points scored a year ago. The running game certainly improved immensely. Now that passing game comes along with it,

Starting point is 00:25:30 not winning 14-13 when they beat Michigan a few years back, not winning those games 20 to 17. Can they win a game 34-30? Can they win one of those types of games to pull an upset? Obviously the offense has to come along with it. That's been a rarity in the era, but that's I think the exciting level that they can do it. And mention Oregon, I can't wait for the Ducks to come waddling in November 8th to Kinnick Stadium. Hopefully that's a night game because we've seen a lot of seasons die in Kinnick Stadium in November

Starting point is 00:25:58 at night. That should be a pretty cool atmosphere. Iowa fans do a great job. They're very supportive, always have been. It's one of the cooler scenes, I think, in the Big Ten and college football. Oregon won't be afraid of anything, but they lost a lot. This won't be as good an Oregon team by any account that I've spoken to anybody. They're not a top five team, but they're top 12 conservatively. So if they're healthy, you're right, they'll have more talent. It's just a different animal when you play on the road in the big 10 late in the year, your depth is challenged, you'll find out.

Starting point is 00:26:30 Some of those guys we talked about today coming in from the transfer portal for Iowa, they have to be ready for that game. They gotta be healthy to beat those kinds of teams. Here's my follow-up. Now we've talked about Grunowski. Yeah. This is the question that gets a lot of moans from Iowa fans.

Starting point is 00:26:46 Who's the receiver or receivers that like are money guys? Can they go against NFL talent? Like Oregon's gonna have some NFL DBs. Can they handle that? So I will say this. This is as deep of a wide receiver room that I was had in a decade. Now it's not saying much. I get that. But they have guys. You look through what they did during spring. So Sam Phillips comes in. He is absolutely a speed burner from Chattanooga. Not a big dude by any means. In fact, he's going to look tiny out there. But Iowa hasn't had that kind of speed. Speaking of speed, Caden Weechin, who was the All-American kick returner a year ago, they used him a little bit in gadget plays. They've been getting him a little bit more involved. And then strictly at the wide receiver position, Jared Bowie, who we saw pop a couple of times last year. Seth Anderson,

Starting point is 00:27:28 the son of Flipper Anderson. He is finally healthy after being injured for two straight years in Iowa City. He looked really good on Saturday. They got guys that at minimum are going to be competent. And I think there's even more upside with a lot of these guys. Just Iowa hasn't had that. They haven't had guys that you feel like you can count on. They haven't had guys that you feel like you can count on. They haven't had guys that you feel like you can count on. They

Starting point is 00:27:44 haven't had guys that you feel like you can count on. They a lot of these guys. Just Iowa hasn't had that. They haven't had guys that you feel like you can count on but secondly the kind of depth to push each other where you know in the past Terrence Smith who's coming in in June a true freshman like oh he's gotta play right he's gotta play because they don't have any other wide receivers. That's actually not the case for once. Out of this group who's gonna pop? That's what I don't know. But I'm excited about the depth of wide receiver.

Starting point is 00:28:08 That's the thing. Like when you go against one of these teams that you know, they're going to drop 20 some point even against Iowa's defense. They're going to score in the mid twenties at least because they just got so many explosive players. Even Georgia has transitioned. I mean, of all of it and Kirby is about as crusty as Kirk. I mean, he doesn't like, he doesn't like it, but you have to score. Teams are gonna throw the ball on you. That's the last step for Iowa. And they got a real quarterback.

Starting point is 00:28:32 I mean, he's gonna play in this thing they call the National Football League. But if he doesn't have a number one or at least a good number two, it still leaves him really limited because you roll coverage to their main guy and then they're just gonna man up. So I'm curious to see if Iowa

Starting point is 00:28:46 that. I think they're goin nine game because I trust quarterback. Yeah, but lik Okay, which one of these r to be that main guy. That' question I still have for anything else in regards t to see a position like a

Starting point is 00:29:03 be the dude or is it just kind of a team ball deal, which Iowa usually is? The final guy that I throw your name is one that you certainly know very well, Xavier Wampa. And Xavier was wanted by everybody in the country. So he finally this season moves over to free safety. And from all the reports, and he didn't play in the final spring open practice, but from all the reports, this is the spot for him. This is where he's going to be able to play his best, be that center fielder. Brian, I've told you before, I call a lot of high school football called a ton

Starting point is 00:29:32 of his games. I have never seen a kid even close to the closing ability that he had at the high school level. It was just other worldly. And I think moving over to free safety fits his skillset a whole lot more. And that's another one where though he's played a ton he's also been benched a couple of times you don't see many five stars against bench but that was the case with Xavier Wampa and he stuck around for his final season. I think you're going to see that growth and I think you're going to see a really nice senior season at free safety now for Xavier Wampa. Trent tell everybody where they can find your work my friend. You can hear me each and every day on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast.

Starting point is 00:30:06 We are rolling through spring football. We're recapping everything there. Portal is open for basketball as well, so we're talking plenty about that. The Iowa baseball team in front of all those newbies from the Pac-12, so we got a lot going there each and every day with Lockdown Hawkeyes. And also, I host a radio show in central Iowa and across the state of Iowa on the Iowa Sports Radio Network from noon to two each Weekday so busy always talking a lot of Hawkeyes

Starting point is 00:30:30 Absolutely sounds good my friend you can find the portal podcasts on YouTube Spotify Apple pod meet anywhere You get your pods check us out like and subscribe and give us a five-star review. We'll see you again soon on the portal podcast

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