Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - SNUBBED: Iowa Hawkeyes DENIED Top 25 Ranking | Will SHOCKING Oversight FUEL Playoff Push?

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's time to rank your Iowa Hawkeyes. Look at why Iowa should be ranked in this week's top 25 and what the pollsters miss. You are Locked on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, welcome in. I'm Trent Condon, and this is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Lockedown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. I've been cover of the Hawkeyes for 20 years on the radio.

Starting point is 00:00:36 You can hear me currently on the Iowa Sports Radio Network each weekday from noon to tune. Talk to the world of sports and lots of Hawkeyes with you with stations in Des Moines, Sioux City, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, and the Quad Cities. Today's episode of Lockdown Hawkeyes is brought to you by Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code Lockdown College for $20 off your first purchase. Today, we are going to take a look at this squad and what they have done, what they've accomplished to this point in time, setting up a huge matchup as they face off against Oregon. What college football is about in 2025, it is the playoff, and Iowa's got a chance as we go to November. Plus, we'll look back at the win against Minnesota and give out the grades that were handed out by pro football focus.

Starting point is 00:01:20 But we begin today's program with a look at the rankings. As Sunday afternoon, the AP Top 25 came out, and once again, the Iowa Hawkeyes were not ranked in the top 25. It was a swing and a miss from the pollsters, and outside of two voters, one of them right here in the state of Iowa. Michaeloss having the Hawkeyes 18th, another noter that has Notre Dame ties, there wasn't a whole lot there. In fact, Iowa receives just 27 votes in the poll. If you had them in that 24, 25 range. The problem when you go through and you look at this and what I'm sure people are missing about this Iowa team and the Big Ten as a whole. I mean, this is a big picture conversation about the Big Ten and about Iowa.

Starting point is 00:02:06 As the Hawkeyes sit at five and two and we can be frustrated about the lost Iowa state. We can be obviously disappointed what happened against Indiana and the woulda shoulda, completing a screen pass and how different things could look. But alas, you are what you are. And as you look through the bottom tier of the top 25, you get through. through, you know, those top-level teams, and you get into that range, starting at number 18. And this is where really the frustration begins. You have Oklahoma, Missouri, and Texas. And all those teams certainly have wards.

Starting point is 00:02:38 I mean, you look at this Missouri squad. They're six and two. What have they done? What is the accomplishments that you say, yes, Missouri needs to be in there? Remember, this is a team that didn't leave the confines of their season until basically halfway through the year. They played at home for the beginning half of the season. You couple that with wins against Central Arkansas, a four-and-four Kansas team, Louisiana, not LSU, Louisiana,

Starting point is 00:03:04 South Carolina, who's one in five in the SEC, UMass, well, we saw them, at Auburn, who's one and four in the SEC. That's their resume. Ah, but they have that moniker. In fact, when you look at the AP Top 25 website, right next to their name, Missouri, 6 and 2, Southeastern, as in the Southeastern Conference. Up next to Texas Longhorns, what if they accomplished? Outside being ranked early and playing in the SEC, nothing.

Starting point is 00:03:37 And maybe the biggest one is Oklahoma. I mean, that Oklahoma team does not look like the same team that we saw early in the season. The win against Michigan's nice. That's a nice win. But the depth of the resume isn't there. And maybe the most egregious out of the SEC is a team that is well above them. The 14th ranked Tennessee volunteers. They say, well, Tennessee, that was a playoff team a year ago.

Starting point is 00:03:59 It's not about last year. What have they done this year to make them believe, make you believe, that they should be the 14th ranked team in the country? It's not to say that Iowa should be 14th in the country. That's not what this argument is. But when you look at the group thing that starts to fall in, and when you have these preseason polls, and then after those preseason polls, which I'm fine with. But if you're going to have polls early in the season, you've got to dig a little bit deeper. You've got to put in the work.

Starting point is 00:04:25 And unfortunately, enough people don't do the work. Tennessee is in the top 15 with wins against Syracuse, who's 3 and 5. East Tennessee State. UAB, who just fired their coach. Mississippi State, who hasn't won a conference game. Arkansas, who hasn't won a conference game. Kentucky, stop me if you've heard this, has not won a conference game. And that's the 14th best team in the country?

Starting point is 00:04:53 Why? They're ranked to the preseason. They beat who they're supposed to. But they don't have anything of substance on their resume. Iowa's got work to do. And this will all sort itself out. As we've talked about, Iowa, if they went out, they are in the college football playoff at 10 and 2.

Starting point is 00:05:13 They're in. Simple as that. That's not easy. Oregon, road trip to USC, home for Sparty before the road trip on Black Friday on a short week against Nebraska. Still, it's all still there in front of them. They control their destiny to get in. It's going to happen if they went out. Easier said than done.

Starting point is 00:05:35 But when you look at this Iowa squad and what they're doing and you look at the resume as a whole and not just winning games, but dominating, the dominating performance against your rivals, against Minnesota, against Wisconsin. That has to be eye-opening. There has to be more to it. And in fact, the computers do just that. When you look at the computer ranking systems out there, one of my favorites is S&P Plus with ESPN.

Starting point is 00:06:06 And with S&P Plus, you have Iowa up to 17th in the country, right? 17th. also has metrics for the offense up to 47 and what an accomplishment that is as we've seen so many poor offenses here over the last six years of what they've turned into the six best defense and this is not just total yards i was second in the country in that that is also taking excuse me taking into the fact how many plays you're going up against it is more than just style of play it takes a look at the substance and the 39th best best best special teams. But that's just one ranking system. Yet, it's not alone. I was 17th in the Sagaring ratings. 18th in the Massey ratings. These computer models are doing a better job of understanding that this Iowa football team is good. Top 20 good. The pollsters, they're missing. Now we'll see what happens this week. You got plenty of games this week that definitely could knock teams out. USC's ranked 23rd. They go to Nebraska. USA's a favorite in that game still. Utah

Starting point is 00:07:08 ranked 24th. They got Cincinnati coming in. Cincinnati team, by the way, that since their loss to Nebraska to open up the season has been ripping off victories nonstop throughout the course of the year. Memphis, you just got a huge win last week. They go to a tricky spot against Rice this week, and their quarterbacks banged up that we played last week against South Florida. There will be opportunities for Iowa to move up. There will be teams that lose.

Starting point is 00:07:34 That is the greatness of college football. But here's somebody that, I think, put it even more eloquently. This is Jake Butt, former Michigan tight end, and an analyst for the Big Ten Network and Fox. This is what Jake Butt had to say. This is not a guy wearing a Hawkeye hat like me. This is Jake Butt. The case for Iowa to be ranked is also quite clear. Aside from their record, which includes a number of flat-out dominant victories,

Starting point is 00:08:01 including playing clean football in all three phases, Iowa has two losses. One early in the season, road loss to the rival, but the real tragedy to not rank them, since the SEC loves to talk about quality losses and hypotheticals, is their loss to number two, Indiana. Iowa proved themselves to be by far the toughest opponent the Hoosiers have seen this year. Iowa nearly beat them, and here's the hypothetical, they likely would have beaten them

Starting point is 00:08:25 at their starting quarterback, not getting injured in the game. Absolutely. Iowa beat Wisconsin better than Oregon. They beat both Wisconsin and Minnesota in similar fashes as the number one ranked Buckeyes. They have, once again, one of the more disciplined and sound defenses in all of college football. They have one of the best special teams in all of college football,

Starting point is 00:08:43 but offensively, they have relative firepower. The run game is dominant, led by dominant offensive line. Grinowski's legs give them complimenting layers that teams have to account for, and at times he's even made throws that we've only seen a handful of times from Iowa quarterbacks in last decade. It is, once again, a travesty to not have the Hawkeyes rank, both by resume and I test, they are deserving. The only explanation is bias and or disrespect.

Starting point is 00:09:11 It's inexcusable. The only positive that could come from his future conference crossover games in the regular season. To remove bias, we need more real data. We need to see these teams play one another during the regular season. In a perfect world, it wouldn't just be one time either. It would be two or three crossover games for each of these competing playoff bubble teams. Rank the Hawkeyes, else has ranked the Huskies, Washington in there as well. Jake Butt.

Starting point is 00:09:36 you absolutely nailed it it's time to rank the hawkeyes we got time before we get to the matchup against oregon we will break that down with the by week this week for the hawkies coming up next a final look back at the win against minnesota the grades from pro football focus how did the hawkeyes grade out in this one we'll take a look at the offense we'll take a look at the defense we roll on this is locked on hawkeyes college football is here and well we all we all We couldn't be more excited. The tailgates, the rivalries, energy in the stands. There's nothing like college football.

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Starting point is 00:11:42 We are your daily Iowa Hawkeye podcast and our everydayers couldn't do it without your support. Make sure you're hitting subscribe if you're watching us on YouTube, five-star reviews. Need some more of those over on the podcast side. All that helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. Let's take a look back of the dominating win against Minnesota. Hawkeyes win it 41 to 3. oh boy how good that feels let's go through and let's start with the offense and the grades that were handed out by pro football focus now once iwa jumped out to even that 17 nothing lead it was just game over right it was so dominant and you knew you weren't going to see a ton out of iowa they weren't going to be you know running all kinds of crazy plays it was going to be very simplified um here's the first thing though mark grunowski he grades out a 67.3 grade very good on that one but he was not the top rank quarterback no So Jeremy Hecklinsky, who came in in the fourth quarter, a 70.7 rating, got to see a little bit more out of him, which was great to see him going out there and getting a little bit more.

Starting point is 00:12:42 In the end, he finished up the football game, playing the final six snaps offensively of the game. Of course, had the rushing touchdown in there and excited, certainly about his future for this Iowa team and what he was able to do. When you look at Grinowski, he played well, ran the ball well, did all the things were used to, and it still feels like there's even more upside to this passing game. Camari Moulton is your top rated running back, a 67.2. Man, Kamari Moulton just runs so hard and I thought he was excellent in the game. Good pass blocking grade also from Moulton in this one. Good to see Jazzy on Patterson back out there once again.

Starting point is 00:13:20 He finishes with a 62.4 grade, solid grade out of him. Nathan McNeil is 60.4 and Xavier Williams. with a 51 when you look at the snap count at the running back position 30 snaps for Kamari Moulton he is your eight number one guy now Patterson with 11 Williams with 11 and four for Nathan McNeil and we finish up out of the skill positions over at wide receiver kaden weechin they're using him a lot of different ways every day as you know we talked about that a little bit more and how he is becoming a bigger focal point of what they're doing offensively, a 74.6 grade for Caden Weechin.

Starting point is 00:13:55 Reese Van der Zee, next up, 68.3. Of course, had the big catch in the end zone for the touchdown, the 29-yarder. Jacob Gill with a 63.9. K.J. Parker, 59. Sam Phillips of 57 got him involved early and Seth Anderson with a 47 in terms of snap count in the game. Seth Anderson, he led the way he had 36 snaps. Gil with 31, both those guys, pretty solid blockers. Gil with the 31, as mentioned, Reese Van der Zee, with 26. want to see that number push it up a little bit more and with the organ game on tap need van der zee out there want to see that 26 number probably approaching 40 i'd guess in the matchup against the ducks sam phillips with 24 18 for weegean and k j parker with five and then we wrap things up over with the big guys

Starting point is 00:14:38 let's start with the tight end position in this one not a lot again out of the tight end spot ortworth with a 58 grade, Hayden Large with a 51.7, Michael Burt, with a 41 with no DJ Vonamy in the lineup. And then finally the offensive line, and boy, we saw a ton of them. Trevor Locke is your best, a rated guy. Lout goes with a 76.2 grade. Jennings Dunker is 73, Piper is 72, Logan Jones is 71, all these grades, good grades on their scale. Leighton Jones, who had to come in with the injury to both Stevens, he graded out well as also a 68.9 for him. 68 for Stevens.

Starting point is 00:15:15 We need to get him healthy, though, and ready to go for that Oregon game. And then the reserves come in, 67 for Dotsler. Good to see Bryce George out there, a 66. Mizlinsky is 64. Caden Leonard, big dude, 60.9 for him. Cale Winter with the 60 and Brody McCasky also with a 60. And when you look at the snap count in the game, 50 snaps for your top guys with Logan Jones and Cade Piper. 45 for Lalk, Dunker with 42, Jones with 40, Dotsler 18.

Starting point is 00:15:43 Stevens with that entry. with 15 Mizlinski, George Leonard, all with six snaps and one each for Winter and McCaslin. So that's a look at the offense of the grades from pro football focus. Let's jump over to the defensive side of the football. Iowa, great once again there and just had the gophers on skates all game long. Your top rank guy on the defensive line was Max Llewellyn. How about this, an 87.9 elite number for Llewellyn. his pass rush grade, a 86.8

Starting point is 00:16:14 and elite number there out of him. Bryce Hawthorne was solid, a 71.5, a very good run defense grade for Bryce Hawthorne. Devin Kennedy, who we got to see late in the game and excited about his upside, him, Yosea Pinesa. Yeah, those guys are going to be good in the future. Jonah Pace with the 69. Aaron Graves with the 66.

Starting point is 00:16:32 Hubert came in there. He got a 58.9. Good to see him back out on the field. Ethan Hercit with the 57. Pittman of 52, Joseph Anderson. talking about upside. He's got that going forward, a 50.9. Brian Allen with a 50.7, and Kenneth Meriweather had the lowest grade out of the defensive line with a 46.9 and had a bad penalty in there. And don't be doing that.

Starting point is 00:16:54 Don't be doing that at all. But the defensive line played great against Minnesota. Your top-rated linebacker, Cam Buffington, had the interception. And dude, that guy, we've talked a ton about Preston Reese. We've talked about Derek Weissgoff, but Cam Buffington, He looked apart. Speaking of Preston Reese, he grades out well, a 74.2 for him. Rex Roth, out of the regulars, if you will, a 71, Landon Van Kekreck, 69, 68 for Weisskopf. Dylan DeLong is 65. You're two lowest rated guys, or your two starters, Carson Shire with a 65 and a 62 out of Jaden Montgomery.

Starting point is 00:17:31 Cam Buffington. Might not be this year, but in the future, get excited about him, get excited about Preston Reese. And they're even deeper at that young line. backer's spot. Finally, defensive back, Zach Lutmer with an 84. Of course, had the pick six. His coverage grade was the top in 86.2 for Lutmer. Deshaun Lee continues to play at a high level, a 78. T.J. Hall also with an interception. He grades out with the 75. Wampa is 66. His tackle grade, and that has changed for Xavier Wampa continues to go up. So a bunch of other guys out there. Jalen Watson, Alex Moda, Rashad Godfrey, some of those youngsters getting in there and seeing some playing time.

Starting point is 00:18:10 entering her with the 63.9 and Hawkeye fans, are we happy that he didn't get that targeting call? Because, boy, how different the first half, maybe could be without entering her out there overall. Look at the snap counts as well. Aaron Graves led the way with 30. Llewellyn had 27 out of the reserves, though. Good to see Epinessa, Joseph Anderson, both those guys with 14 snaps in the game. Good to see those guys out there. At the linebacker spot, Carson Shire led the way

Starting point is 00:18:37 with 37 snaps. Montgomery with 35. Buffington played 15 snaps in the game. Something to keep an eye on. Reese with four snaps late in the game. And finally in the defensive backfield, Coed Enterger led the way. He had 40 snaps, 37 for Lutmer, 37 for Hall and Wampa. 33 for Deshaunee.

Starting point is 00:18:54 That's kind of been the rotation that we've seen. And then a bunch of the reserves getting out there, Calerick, Watson, Gerardi, Barros, Godfrey, and Moda, all out there on the field. Add it all up, 41-3, dominating performance for Iowa in the win against Minnesota. So those are the grades from pro football focus. They match up with what you look at.

Starting point is 00:19:14 That's what we like to look at every single week. We got some news for you. Iowa, Oregon, we've talked about it a ton already. Kickoff time, when's it going to be? I know it's the big question out there. Plus, what college football is about? I was playing for it. We'll do that as we roll through Locked on Hawkeyes.

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Starting point is 00:20:33 As always, thanks for being with us and making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. kickoff time for Iowa, Oregon. We don't know yet. And I know that sucks for a lot of people traveling in. I know this was a game that was circled in a lot of people's calendars, something that they wanted to see, Oregon making their first trip to Iowa City since the early 1990s, and things didn't go very well in those matchups as Oregon was finally starting to ascend as a program at that time. But the Ducks will come in.

Starting point is 00:21:02 It will be either an 11 a.m. kickoff or 230. 11 will be on Big Fox. That will be the big noon kickoff. They'll have the whole crew that'll come in town for that one. Or it'll be in the CBS game at 2.30. Those are the two likely destinations for this one. Now, we do know that Iowa and Oregon is going to be a big matchup. I mean, determining pecking order, Big Ten.

Starting point is 00:21:27 Oregon's not out of things yet for getting into the Big Ten championship game, though it seems unlikely with Ohio State and Indiana still have. remaining on their schedule. There is speculation out there that if Indiana takes care of business this week on the road at Maryland as a 21 and a half point favorite, that Fox is going to select the Hoosiers, Indiana going on the road to Penn State. No, we know Penn State is obviously diminished from what their preseason expectations. That would be the direction that they would go and it would lead to a 230 kickoff then for Iowa,

Starting point is 00:22:00 Oregon, if that plays out. They have announced a couple of games in the Big Ten. There's a Friday night game that week as well. It'll be a noon kickoff weird for Ohio State at Purdue and a 130 kickoff, another weird one for Maryland and Rutgers on FS1. So those are the two that we know right now, but we'll lock and load as they await the availability of some of the others. I know a lot of people would love to see that 230 kickoff for tailgating purposes,

Starting point is 00:22:25 and for the tailgating purposes, I'm right there with you. But that 11 a.m. kickoff, sleepy spot, 9 a.m. body clock game for Oregon. are the worst things, let's have it be a little bit miserable. Slow down that Oregon team just a little bit. I think that'd be a good thing to say. And, you know, as we wrap up here today, this is what it's all about. And as we've built from, well, the old days of the bowl system, into the BCS and the top two teams playing for a national championship, morphing into the four-team playoff and where we are today in the 12-team version, we're waiting for this moment.

Starting point is 00:23:01 Now you go back to 2015, and Iowa with a win against Michigan State, they would have been in at the Big Ten championship game. If they would have won that game against Spartans, they would have been playing Alabama in the college football playoff. We saw how it went both for Michigan State against Alabama, not good, and Iowa also that year in the Rose Bowl against Stanford is, yeah, I think we all remember that one. Still, that aside, I know, with this 12-team playoff, is it going to be an every year occurrence? No. Is it going to be likely more times than not that I was going to be in the hunt for a playoff? No. So let's enjoy this.

Starting point is 00:23:40 Let's enjoy what we're going to be going through here over the next 12 days and enjoy the build-up that's going to build to crescendo at Kinnick Stadium and be ready to go and be fired up and do just everything. that you hope for as a Hawkeye fan. Now you can be disappointed in the losses. But let's get this thing going. I was going to go to their first game in November with the chance of getting into the college football playoff. It's not a high chance. It's not overly likely that this is going to happen.

Starting point is 00:24:14 In fact, the odds at Fandwell right now have it very unlikely. 13 to 1 that Iowa makes the college football playoff. Those are the odds that are out there. yet even with that there are six teams listed to make the college football playoff out of the big ten Ohio state since they're basically a shoe in not even listed here but Indiana Iowa Michigan Oregon USC and Washington are the teams that are listed I was amongst that group it's all in front of them I mean you put together a parley a four team roll it over parley with Iowa to win each game I don't know if you get better odds than you win the 13 of one that is out there still it's there

Starting point is 00:24:52 and Iowa is in the conversation. And it's great to listen to the national people and they're talking about Iowa and that we are part of the conversation. It's what you hope for. We're here. Enjoy it, Hawkeye fans. That'll do it for today.

Starting point is 00:25:07 As always, thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. For your second listen, make sure you check out Lockdown Big Ten. Craig Sheeman breaks down the most exciting conference in college sports from the rivalries, the championship, and everything in between. You can find Lockdown Big Ten on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Starting point is 00:25:27 All part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. We'll be back with you tomorrow as we do each and every day. Thanks for being with us as always. We'll talk to you again. Go Hawks.

Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - SNUBBED: Iowa Hawkeyes DENIED Top 25 Ranking | Will SHOCKING Oversight FUEL Playoff Push?

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