Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - The Best Hawkeye NFL Prospects, Iowa women prepare for Colorado in the Sweet 16

Episode Date: March 22, 2023

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Iowa football has just wrapped up their pro day. We'll talk a little football today and give you who will become the best pro in the NFL. And the bracket has opened up for the Iowa women. Iowa now the top remaining seed in their region. A path to the Final Four. How good is it for the Hawkeyes? Today on Locked on Hawkeyes. Locked on Hawkeyes.

Your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked on Hawkeyes. Locked on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome into the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. I'm Trent Condon. And as always, thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen each and every day. Available wherever you get podcasts. You can also find us on YouTube. While you're there, hit that subscribe button.

It just takes a moment. It helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. Today's episode of Lockdown Hawkeyes is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, official sportsbook of Lockdown. Make every moment more. Visit FanDuel.com slash Lockdown today to get started. As we get started here today, on a Wednesday, last night, we saw a lot going on, of course, in college basketball.

The brackets are now set on the women's side of things after Monday evening. And it just goes from good to better here. We talked about what happened with Stanford earlier in the week. We see Louisville going out and beating Texas. And now, no Duke. It is Colorado that will be awaiting the Hawkeyes in the Sweet 16. We'll talk about that matchup and a little bit of the style of play that we anticipate to see Friday night, 6.30 in that one.

But today, Iowa did wrap up their football media, their pro day over in Iowa City. An opportunity for not just the top end guys, the Lucas Van Ness's, the Jack Campbell's, the Riley Moss's of the world. Not those guys that we saw at the NFL Draft Combine over in Indianapolis, but also the guys that didn't get that invite. the NFL Draft Combine over in Indianapolis, but also the guys that didn't get that invite. We got to see and hear a little bit from Seth Benson over there, who has an opportunity, I think, to maybe make a roster. John Wagner, who has slimmed down. So a couple of those other prospects also out there. Their last go around here and an opportunity to get in front of the Scouts.

All 32 teams were there. You know, and that's such a huge component to this. And we talk about it and we celebrate this Iowa football program and what we see you know in a week in week out year in year out base is just the number the sheer volume of guys that we see playing at the next level and something like this today so shows you just that that everybody even if they're maybe not in the market for a Van Ness or a Campbell that they're going to be there because they know that you're going to find good players that come through this Iowa program year in and year out. And certainly the depth of this team really showed out. So I had a question, who's going to be the best pro? Who is

going to be the best NFL player here? And I think there's no doubt about it. There's a slam dunk. Yes, there is a projected top 10, top 15 type of player, Lucas Van Ness. I think Riley Moss has got a chance to stick and make a long career. Same with Kayvon Merriweather. But the answer is very simple to me. It's Jack Campbell. Now, Jack Campbell in a different era, in a different age, Jack Campbell would be a top 10 pick. A middle linebacker used to be such an important position to the way that football was played that there is no doubt with his size, with his speed, with his tackling ability, with everything he does, and then you couple it with the intangibles that Jack Campbell has, there is no doubt that Jack Campbell would have been a first round draft

pick. Well, that's not the case anymore. Middle linebacker is not a coveted position. There are very few guys in the game today that are difference makers at that position. The NFL basically looks at it a lot like they look at the running back position here today. It's kind of a plug and play. You always feel like you're going to be able to find a guy. It's just not that need-based position. There's a Fred Warner of the world, guys like that. But again, those guys are few and far between in the NFL, and certainly in the 4-3 scheme, they feel like there's other things that you have to do. You have to be able to obviously defend in space a whole lot more than you did back in the day when you're playing in a phone booth right and you're worried about guys up the middle and it's ground-based attacks and

now as the evolution of football has trickled from the high school and the collegiate level and throwing the football now to the nfl and what we see here see year after year after year and just the passing numbers that go up, my middle linebacker spot is different, and people also treat it differently. They're not looking for the big hulking behemoth that we saw in the past in the middle of defenses, the days of the Jack Lamberts and the Mike Singletaries of the world. That's a different era of football, but Jack Campbell, he's a different kind of football player. First, he has the kind of size. He's 6'5", 249 pounds. But we saw in the agility drills over in Indianapolis, the way that he moves. He is a guy that puts up numbers that

are absolutely incredible. Top of the line, some of the highest numbers we've ever seen for a linebacker. And we're talking about a lot of times that are running these, you know, the position drills and getting through in the speed drills and agility. We're talking about smaller, undersized linebackers that usually are the guys that are putting up those kind of numbers. Not the case with Jack Campbell. But here's another component that I come back to time in and time out when we talk about this group of seniors is the leadership qualities. Now, Kirk Ferentz talks about leadership maybe more than any coach that I've ever heard before. I can't remember hearing a coach. Now, I've also listened to Kirk Ferentz more than any other coach in my life.

I mean, I've been doing this starting in the radio 20 years ago now. So I've been around for a long time. And during my whole career, Kirk Ferentz has been the coach. So yeah, there's been a lot of press conferences that I've listened to, many conversations that I've had personally with Kirk in the media space. And hear from him a lot. But he always goes back to leadership, right? It's such an important thing.

And the development of his program year in, year out, he feels like he needs that leadership from the players. And the glowing terms that he continually talks about Jack Campbell, he's had great leaders that have gone through that locker room. He has had people that are immensely talented of being a leader, along with being great football players. But there is something special there. And you can see that little gleam in his eye when he's talking about

Jack Campbell and what he's meant to this program over the years. Absolutely no doubt about it. Now, of course, you throw the caveats in there, right? Injuries aside, those kind of things. I don't think it matters where he's going to go. And Jack Campbell, you know, most mock drafts out there and most projections are second rounder, maybe third, he'll slip into something like that.

But he's going to hear his name called within the first, second, third round of the draft. He's not going to be a first rounder. It's just the chances of that are incredibly rare, but he is going to be a special talent. In fact, I think he has a chance to put up numbers because he's going to have huge tackle numbers. You know, he can make plays. He did that throughout his career, forcing turnovers, interceptions. He's not going to get to the

quarterback a ton. Middle linebackers don't. He's not going to be that kind of player, but in an era where middle linebacker is kind of going away, at least as we used to know them, I think there's a real chance of him not just becoming a perennial pro bowler. I think absolutely he has a chance to do that, but even a little bit more to him. And I don't throw those superlatives out very often. I don't like to be wide ranging on things about what it is. No doubt about it. Yes, Lucas Van Ness will be selected before him. I believe who's going to have the better career is Jack Campbell. And that's no knockout, Lucas Van Ness. His best football is still in front of him.

This is a guy that hasn't obviously started at the University of Iowa, but people look what he was out there and what he was able to do in the 40, 45 snaps a game that he was out there playing. He has an immense physical ability, the size that he has, the speed, agility, all those things, and being a pass rusher is something that's incredibly important in today's NFL, and that's why he's going to be a top 15 pick. He looks like Hulk out there, a hockey kid growing up, didn't play football until late, and people across the league are absolutely enamored.

And I hope Lucas Vianess also has a great career. But if I had to put money on it, if I had to make a bet, and I think you guys out there know I like to make some bets, absolutely, I would put my money on Jack Campbell. We'll talk a little bit more about what we heard. Seth Benson, I mentioned him, and John Wagner. Heard a couple of interviews with both of those guys, their thoughts and what the possibility of them is going to be here,

their name called in the NFL. What about Riley Moss, Sam Laporta, and a few others? We'll talk about that. Plus, we'll break down Colorado, Iowa's next opponent, in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 matchup for the Hawkeye women as they make their way out to Seattle. That's as we continue here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Today's episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast is brought to you by FanDuel.

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The money line, point scores, three-pointers hit in the game. Take a look at the matchups coming up this week. One that really jumps off the page. I love this Thursday slate that we're going to get for the NCAA tournament. You also, of course, have the Iowa women. Five and a half is the number there currently. Iowa five and a half point favorite against Colorado. On the men's side, two games that really jumped off to me that I like.

I like Florida Atlantic. I'm grabbing the points with them in their matchup against Tennessee. I think they are a live dog in that one, a real opportunity for them to pull off the upset. That'll be the third game of the evening on Thursday night. Another one that I really like, I like UConn. And UConn was my pick to come out of their region to get to the Final Four. Arkansas, I was there in person in Des Moines

and got to see them up close and personal. That UConn team, though, when they're clicking for my money, they're the best team in the country. When it's all clicking and all going right, they're that good and that talented. Plus, FanDuel even lets you combine your bets for a chance at a bigger payout with same-game parlay. So don't miss your chance to get your no-sweat first bet up to $1,000 in bonus bets

when you go to FanDuel.com slash LockedOn. That's FanDuel.com slash LockedOn to learn more. Make every moment more with FanDuel. Trent Conant back with you once again here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every single day. So we talked a little bit of football. Get into it. Spring football also starting for Iowa football.

We'll get into that deeper as the week continues here on Locked On Hawkeyes. A lot of storylines that we're going to be watching here. The evolution of the offense. What are we going to see out of Cade McNamara? So many questions and we will get into them as the coming weeks and month come our way. But back to the guys that went through pro day and mentioned Van Ness and Campbell. I mean, those are going to be the headliners, obviously out of this group of seniors. I am really interested to see though, that next tier guy, you know, Sam Laporta this tight end class there's

some absolute stars in there and though Sam Laporta is not going to be a high draft pick we're not talking about Noah Fant and TJ Hawkinson when they went in the first round we're not talking about that for Laporta but you think of the terrible quarterback play that he had in his career he just piled up numbers now were there times that we saw Petras just forcing it to him because maybe he didn't have confidence in the wide receivers or he just didn't know where else to go with the football? I think that's a real possibility. Were there inconsistency at times with Laporte?

I think there was. There were some drops in there that kind of left you scratching your head. But another guy with his athleticism, his size, blocking ability is going to be a question mark for him at the next level. At this point, we'll have to see what he does there. A little bit bigger, those kinds of things. And it's just a huge step up going from blocking in the collegiate game to the NFL and what that's going to mean and how often he can be on the field with the blocking responsibilities that he's going to have. But a really intriguing prospect,

third, fourth, fifth round, something like that for Laporta. Riley Moss, a guy that I saw a ton back in high school when he was up in Ankeny at Centennial, finishing up his career. And I'll tell you, it was a guy that I just never was sure about. And every single time you doubt the dude, he answers the bell. The questions about him being a white cornerback, something we don't see in today's NFL. And I think he answered all those questions at the Combine incredibly well, incredibly aptly. And he's just a football player. You know, he wants to go out there and he wants to prove that he can be a cornerback at the league. And he's going to, I think, prove the doubters wrong.

And Kayvon Merriweather. And we've talked about Kayvon a lot in the past about his leadership qualities. We've talked about that a ton at the top with Jack Campbell. Kayvon's another guy that you definitely have to throw kudos to. Seth Benson. Seth Benson's probably not going to be drafted. If it is, it'll be a flyer in the seventh round, but likely it's going to be a free agent. And many times being a free agent and getting that choice of opportunity of where you're going to go, it turns out to be a better case than being drafted in the

seventh round, just because you can look around, you can look at rosters, you can see who else is out there. Seth Benson, another guy that was probably underrated in his time at Iowa just because of the guy that he was playing next to. He played inside. He played out. He moved all over the place and depending on what Iowa had, he was that Swiss Army knife at doing different things. When Jack Campbell had Mono a couple years back, who was the guy that went to the middle, it was Seth Benson and then bouncing back outside. And then Justin Jacobs gets hurt. And that means more responsibilities coming his way and

playing both the outside linebacker positions in the Iowa defense. I mean, there's just so much that was put on his plate. He answered the bell every single time. He's not going to wow you. He's not going to run a 4-6-40. He's not going to be doing those kind of things. But a solid guy that's going to be around, stick on a roster, have an opportunity. And let's hope he finds the right home because I think

there's a chance for all of a sudden we're going to be looking up in four or five years. And Hey, look at that. Seth Benson's still on the league, still hanging on and still collecting that check. Those are the kinds of guys that are very easy to root for it. Another guy saw a ton here from central Iowa. And that's John Wagner played a Dowling Catholic. He was a big prospect coming out, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio state, some of the big-time offers that he had maybe never developed into the guy that he wanted. Unfortunately for John Wagner, he was a little bit of a tweener, right? He was the guy kind of stuck in between, should he get bigger and go inside? Should he be outside? Did they do the right things with him? That was always a question. Did he have

the speed to be a pass rush specialist? He really wasn't that kind of guy. Developed into a very solid football player. Maybe not the heights that people anticipated, but he'll be a guy that has slimmed down, down to 259 pounds now. People that were there said that you can definitely see it as well, that he's been putting in a ton of work and giving himself an opportunity. Going to be fun.

Make certainly NFL draft a whole lot better when we got the iowa hawkeye guys involved in it doesn't matter who you're a fan of you're like me and a bears fan if you're a vikings packers whoever it may be this nfl draft is going to be a fun one and and waiting to hear where vanessa is going to go where jack campbell's going to go on to have a hall of fame career possibly maybe shoot for the moon there i think there's a real chance. Going to be a really cool one and always fun to talk about that. We're going to wrap things up in our first look forward for Iowa basketball. As a women's team, the bracket has opened up. How much has it opened, though?

Maybe not as much as you think. That's as we continue on Locked on Hawkeyes. Trent Conner back with you one final time here on the Locked on Hawkeyes. Trent Conner back with you one final time here on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked on Hawkeyes your first listen every single day. Hey, tell a friend, tell an enemy, tell whoever about what we're doing here

on Locked on Hawkeyes. We're hoping to chase down Jace here in the coming week or so. Talk a little bit with him. Bounce off the end of the basketball season. We'll talk into that. LaShawn's going to be by. We'll obviously talk a lot of Iowa football with him.

Former Hawkeye running back LaShawn Daniels, who joins me during football season and off and on during the spring and into the summer as we get back into things. But right now, we're talking basketball. We're talking about the women's basketball team after winning two games, including the one against Georgia on Sunday.

Huge TV numbers for it. One of the biggest TV numbers that we've seen in a long while in women's basketball. Remember what they were also going up against at that time. Oh yeah, that was the men's tournament and the numbers that Caitlin Clark and this Iowa team delivered once again against Georgia. Game got chippy late. A tough, hard-earned victory. But I think more than anything now, the way this bracket

opened up, we see Stanford lose. We see Texas lose. We see Duke lose. Iowa, the only team in that region that hosted in the first and second round that even advances to the Sweet 16. So with those three teams out, I know you kind of fall into the trap of, all right, well, it's custom-made now. This is going to be easy to get to the Final Four. Well, first of all, remember, all the teams that got there, they beat the teams. Maybe we were a little bit nervous about going into the tournament, right, when the brackets came out, the Stanfords of the world, and the Texans with their size and their athleticism they play with, and Duke and one of the best defensive teams in the country.

So it's Colorado Friday night at 630. ESPN will have that one. Also love what they're doing with the Sweet 16. Those games will start in the afternoon. I believe the first game's at 130 that day, then a four o'clock game leading into the Iowa game. And it'll be Louisville Ole Miss. If Iowa wins, they'll get the winner of that one

in the Elite Eight. And that game will be the nightcap on Friday evening. So really cool setup there. Get that separation. No games overlapping like we'll actually see on the nightcap on Friday evening. So really cool set up there. Get that separation. No games overlapping like we'll actually see on the men's side of things. But one direction I certainly want to go with this. First of all, looking at the Colorado team. I watched the Colorado Duke game basically start to finish.

I mean, pretty much all of it. I was bouncing back and forth, watching a little bit of the World Baseball Classic. What was that? Two nights ago on Monday evening? That was Japan-Mexico. They all start to blend together. But I watched a ton of women's basketball, including that one on Monday night. And this Colorado team, they're built different.

And who are the teams that really, over the last three years, and you can probably talk about the last two decades, of Lisa Bluter, who are the teams that have given them the most trouble, those teams that defend, that'll grind, that'll grab you, hold you, do those kind of ugly parts of the game, too. You have that component of it, and you couple that with teams that have some size and athleticism, and that's certainly the case with this Colorado team. So Colorado this year, averaging 69 points a game, give up 58.5.

So another thing, if you've been listening to me throughout this basketball season, you know I'm a numbers guy, like analytics, and try to give them to you in a digestible form, not going too nerd. We're not going too nerdy on you. At least I hope that we're not. And I was able to track down some women's numbers here and give you a little bit of a scouting report on this Colorado team. First of all, offensive rating. So this is not just sheer how many points a game you score because teams play at different paces. This is about efficiency. In fact, these numbers, I was second in the

country in offensive efficiency. Number one, a team that plays a whole lot slower, South Carolina, the number one team in the country. They, Colorado though, 80th in offensive rating. They are not a fast team. In fact, one of the slower teams in the country. In terms of tempo and pace, they're 224th in the country. They're going to want to slow things down. They're going to grind it out. Going to make things a lot different there. 33rd in the country also in defensive efficiency. So this is a plus defensive team, certainly this season. 46 in rebounding rate. They play a couple of post players together a lot of times. They have Vonley, who's a 6'3 center, Arizona transfer. She averages 12 points, four and a half rebounds per game. Another one of their post players, though, she'll step out

and hit three pointers, and that's Quay Miller. Miller averages 13 points per game, has stepped out, hit 36 threes this year, 8.7 rebounds per game. So she could do a little bit of everything. So a couple of bigs there and that's going to make maybe the assignment a little bit more difficult for Warnock, you know, what she's going to do. Obviously the health of Hannah Stolke, a huge component here. And then we, of course we know, you know, Monica just can't get in foul trouble, right? So monica just can't get in foul trouble right so now you just can't afford it at this point against a team like this she's been incredibly good throughout her career uh playing very smart not having those and how about that performance against georgia not dribbling the ball once i mean what what a ridiculous number

uh that is and heard an interview with jan Jensen over with Andrew Downs on the Hawkeye Nation podcast. He did a great job there. It's great hearing from Jan as she was named assistant coach of the year nationally and what a well-deserved honor for her. And she's so humble, but such a great person. If you've ever had any interactions with Jan, nothing but great things to say about her and really everybody involved in that Iowa women's basketball program. But really cool to see. And she was talking a little bit about what she does working with the post players. And she doesn't like the dribble.

Go up there. Use angles. Use your body to control things. Going to be important in this one against a couple of 6-3 team players out there. Excuse me, for the Colorado team. Tana Jones, she starts 6-1 Georgetown's transfer. Doesn't score much. In fact, she's six on the team in minutes, though she's a starter.

She doesn't quite play starter minutes. Who you're looking for off the bench is Kendall Weta, a freshman guard, 5'9", averages 5.5 points per game, second on the team in both assists and steals. So Weta will be the one that you'll be looking at a 37 three-point shooter as well a couple other starters out there their point guard jaylen charade excellent defender leads the team in steals averages 11 points per game this colorado team four different players average double figures so very much a balanced attack for colorado and the final starter is free to Foreman, a 5'11 guard from Denmark. She averages 11.7 points per game. Leads the team with 71 three-pointers on the air, shooting nearly 40%

from behind the stripe and 91% at the foul line. Somebody they definitely got to cover up. Brianna McLeod, another freshman that's out there. Sadler plays a little bit. Basically, an eight-player team. That's what we're looking at here with this Colorado group. basically an eight-player team. That's what we're looking at here with this Colorado group. And we finally finish up with, you know, scheme. How this game's going to be called, it's going to be an important component. Look, if Iowa goes to the free throw line 30 times, I think they cruise.

I think they cover the five-and-a-half number. I think this is a big victory for Iowa if the game is called tightly. But if they're letting them play, much like in that Duke-Colorado game, they were letting them play, this becomes a little bit-Colorado game, they were letting them play, this becomes a little bit more difficult. You know, talk about the bracket opening up, and it did. The one, two, and three seeds,

the one, three, and four seeds, excuse me, are out, the two seed Iowa still in there. But all three of the teams that remain in their region all play a defensive physical style something that has given Iowa trouble in the past and that's what still leads me a little bit concerned I mean how cool it'd be to be able to make the drive down I-35 down to Dallas or catch a flight down there and watch a Final Four game if they can get there and win these next two games and punch their ticket to the Final Four for the first time since 1993 got Got some fun numbers also later in the week. I'll look back at that team if you have those memories.

I was, well, 13 at the time. And remember that team incredibly well and how cool that was. But just how different women's basketball was at that time. We'll talk about that a little bit later in the week. But these games are not going to be easy. They're going to be teams that are playing incredibly well. Colorado, they took Stanford to overtime earlier this year. They have a lot of good wins on their resume this season. 11 quad one victories. Pac-12 was solid this year in women's basketball. So

it's not going to be an easy task, no doubt about it. Physical team, tough team. They're going to want to play a grinded out style. I was going to want to get out and run. I was giving up some size. They're giving up some different parts out there. They're giving up a little bit of girth as well. So you got both those components going to be a contrast of styles coming up Friday night for the Iowa women. Well, that'll do it for today. We still got a lot more coming your way here this week on lockdown Hawkeyes,

plenty of Hawkeye football talk as we get ready for spring practice. More breakdown of this Iowa-Colorado game. We'll also take a peek ahead, take a look at Ole Miss and Louisville in the top half of the bracket. If Iowa wins, then we'll get the winner of that game. We'll talk about both those teams, and that game would be played on Sunday out in Seattle. That'll do it for today.

Thanks, as always, for making Locked on Hawkeyes your first listen every single day. For your second, let's check out our brand-new podcast. It's Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every single day. For your second list, check out our brand new podcast. It's Locked On College Basketball. Our experts Isaac Schottie and Andy Patton bring you everything you need to know on and off the floor. Plus, you can hear from the big name

experts, coaches, and players of the college basketball landscape. Locked On College Basketball. Available on YouTube and wherever you get podcasts. Have a great day. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. And go Hawks.