Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - The Iowa Hawkeye's offense is about to explode vs Colorado State and other takeaways from Kirk Ferentz's press conference

Episode Date: September 22, 2021

Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz and Iowa basketball coach Fran McCaffery both spoke to the media this week. Kirk spoke glowingly about Connor Colby and the rest of his youthful offensive line while also providing a tidbit in regards to where this offense is to this point. Fran McCaffery shed some light on what lineup rotations could look like and gave some news that Iowa Hawkeye basketball fans will be excited about in that there is a renewed emphasis on a fast, uptempo defense that should help Iowa remain competitive next year in a loaded Big Ten lineup.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!SweatBlockGet it today for 20% off at SweatBlock.com with promo code LockedOn, or at Amazon and CVS.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. 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 Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back Hawkeye Nation to another episode of the Lockdown 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. Excited to be back for another episode on this beautiful Wednesday morning. We are three days away from another Iowa Hawkeyes football game. As they get set to take on Colorado State.

Monday, we talked with LaShawn Daniels. We talked about the game versus Kent State, what went right, what went wrong. Yesterday, we broke down the analytics of that game. And today we are discussing the press conference from Kirk Ferentz. What did we learn from Kirk? And also we heard from Fran McCaffrey as well. What are we excited about for this Iowa basketball team? That is all coming up on today's episode as we break down the quotes of what they said and what it means going forward. Also a reminder that on tomorrow's show, we're going to be breaking down Colorado State. And on Friday's show, we are going to give you our storylines, keys to winning the game, and our predictions.

I also want to remind you that there is no better place to get Big Ten news than the Locked On Big Ten podcast with Nate Dickinson. Follow the Locked On Big Ten podcast on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast app. All right, y'all. Let's get into it, though. Let's kick it off. It is Wednesday morning and I want to talk about the press conference from Kirk Ferentz. He said a lot of interesting things and gave some good information. We also heard from several Iowa Hawkeye players. So we're going to talk about all that on the show today. Let's kick it off with injuries because that is arguably the thing that people are most concerned about at this point. Obviously, I think there's concerns about quarterback play from some people.

There's concerns about offensive line play. There's concern about the defensive line. And there's general concern about Riley Moss, depending on the week, which I don't agree with. Nevertheless, here we are. Injuries, though, are also a big part of it. And as we mostly know, unless you don't know, Kyler Schott was out the first two weeks. Kyler Schott came back against Kent State and played, I believe, 19 snaps. So the goal was to get him a little bit more acclimated.

He is currently not in 100% game shape though. He even said as much. Kyler Schott spoke with the media and he said, I'm pretty solid. I just got to work on conditioning. He also mentioned at one point that he was interested in using his sixth year, but playing this year like it is his last, kind of seeing how things progress. Let's start with the conditioning piece. That makes sense. We knew this. I talked about this on the show last week.

When Kirk said Kyler was going to get into the game, I knew it was going to be several games before Kyler had an opportunity to really play. And to be honest, Iowa is doing fine without Kyler. Now having Kyler in the lineup is definitely advantageous. Having Kyler for Penn State is the most important thing though. Iowa's offensive lineman can handle a Colorado State, a Colorado State 4-3 defense line I had. Iowa's offensive line can handle a Maryland defensive line. So getting Kyler 19 to 20, 25 snaps, these next two games will be really important. So he can go full bore against Penn State.

That's going to be the biggest thing. But Kirk said on the injury front, Kyler came out the game pretty good, and he's not in great shape yet, playing shape. But at least he's moving in the right direction, so he will be back. Again, no injuries, no setbacks, nothing wrong. Played a pretty solid game, had a 71 PFF grade. So that was solid and all around play. Again, expecting to get about 19 to 20 snaps in this game as they continue to rotate guys in and out. Kirk also said a little bit more about the offensive line rotation, which we'll get to here in a second. Another guy that did get injured. And we mentioned

this on the show. Ethan Hercut went out in the fourth quarter. It sounds like he incurred an injury that will keep him out for quite some time. So Ethan Hercut might be done for the season is kind of how I'm reading the tea leaves. It sounds like it's a lower body injury, which is an unfortunate blow to the defensive line nonetheless. As far as Kyler goes, he did say it's going to take him a while to get back to where he can play a full game, but it's good to have him in the mix. In the meantime, we're getting a lot of other guys that are getting really valuable experience, and that's a positive too. And it starts with Connor Colby. So coming into this season, Connor Colby, Justin Britt, were not expected to get as much playing time. Yes, you're going to sprinkle them in here and

there, get them five to 10 snaps a game, but they were not expected to play 50, 60 snaps a game, and we've seen Justin Britt and Connor Colby get up to those snap numbers in just three games. Connor Colby, a true freshman, Justin Britt, a former three-star out of Indianapolis, a guy who has performed pretty darn well to this point, has struggled a little bit this season, but overall has been just superb for a young guy coming into this program. We're seeing a lot of these younger guys really stepping up. Mason Richmond has taken advantage of the opportunity at left tackle. Again, Connor Colby. We've even seen Michael Maslinski in there a little bit. Justin Britt. We've seen Tyler Ellsbury. He's been on the depth chart. Even Nick DeYoung's a young

guy. I mean, we've seen a lot of younger guys step up and be able to play this offensive line spot. And in regards to that rotation, Kirk had to say this, we'll figure that out. But the good news is I think we have some guys that can play in a month ago. I wasn't sure, or two months ago, for sure. You just wondered about a lot of things. And at that point, Kyler got hurt, or before Kyler got hurt, you think, you know, you basically have Linderbaum and Kyler you can count on. Felt like we had a pretty good idea of how they would respond. So we have a lot more evidence now. If there's a blessing about somebody being out of the mix,

it gives other guys an opportunity to prove that they belong and do some things. And again, we're seeing some improvements in practice. It makes me feel better. I think all of us feel better when we watch the film and understand these guys, you know, certain guys are starting to play faster. Certain guys are starting to play better. I think that's a direct correlation to how Connor Colby and how Mason Richmond have played so far to this point.

Again, the offensive line rotation, we talked about it a couple times this year. We've talked about it a couple times this week even. I believe it's going to be Mason Richmond on the left side, Cody Ince, Tyler Linderbaum, Kyler Schott, and I think we could see Connor Colby. I think it's going to be a battle between Nick DeYoung and Connor Colby at that right tackle spot. Connor's been rotating in and out, mostly playing guard, but he, you know, Kirk feels okay about Connor playing that tackle spot. He even mentioned a little bit about moving him around. He talked specifically about Connor Colby and said, it's kind of like the two first-year freshmen in Arlen and Keegan.

Since they've been here, they seem to fit. They act like they belong. They don't seem overwhelmed, and they've done a really good job. And Connor has kind of been that same way. It's unusual for an offensive lineman, as we all know, but he's done a pretty good job of it. And we move him around, tackle and guard. Doesn't seem to bother him left, right. So he's a little bit of a non flappable guy and that's a good thing. And it doesn't seem too big for him. That's what you

want to hear about your young offensive lineman. And you better believe if they feel like they can move them around the garden tackle spot, and they've been impressed with him at that guard spot, Nick DeYoung might not have a spot as long, or we might see him rotate a lot more with Connor Colby because Kyler Schott's a guy who should be in the game 90% of the time when he's healthy. Cody Ince has proven he should be in the game 90% of the time. And Mason Richmond has been locking down that left tackle spot and has been playing all the snaps.

So clearly he has that locked in as well. I think Connor Colby is going to get snaps for Nick DeYoung. I think Connor Colby might be the starting tackle by the end of the season. That's really where his more natural position is, but just given the strengths and weaknesses of the offensive line, the injuries, it makes sense for him to kind of move him inside a little bit. Kirk was also pretty funny. He talked a little bit about the fake punt. He said, yeah, it's called bad coaching right here. I'll take that one. It was dumb, dumb. That's really dumb. That was a dumb sequence. He said, there's only one positive to that. It's on film now. So people are going to think, okay, maybe they're going to

fake a punt. In that case, they'll probably say, I hope they do in that situation. Now we actually talked about this with the Sean Daniels. Didn't make a lot of sense. You take the penalty and now you throw a fake punt in there and you throw a fake punt that the throw wasn't even to the, to the, to the line, right? I mean, we were still six, five, six yards behind the first down marker. That is not a first down play you want or a fake punt you want to have happen. The one positive that we saw that Torrey Taylor can throw the football. It wasn't the best pass, but it will do. And he was unafraid to make that pass and execute it. We're probably not going to see that fake punt for a while. Let's be honest here.

But the fact that Iowa can do it does give me hope. What I would actually think would be really interesting to see is if we see a fake punt with Torrey Taylor running the ball. Sometimes you look at punt coverages, they just drop every guy back. Torrey Taylor can take off and just run for it. He's an athletic guy. He played rugby over in Australia. This is not a guy who can't run. He can move a little bit.

So that will be interesting to see if Iowa does work or incorporate other fake punt opportunities into it, especially now that it is a little bit on tape, hopefully keeping the special teams, the defensive special teams a little bit honest on that side going forward. He also mentioned that the offense took some strides. He said, we are a little more detailed. And I thought today was probably our best offensive practice this year, which maybe coincides with fall. It just felt like fall. I think this is the first day of fall, but it looked, we just seemed a more cohesive unit out there and a little better with their execution, that type of thing.

And I want to talk about that because that is a very, not ominous. It's very foretelling or forth telling forthcoming. You get what I'm saying? It's telling what's going to happen with this offense come against Colorado state. And I want to tell you why I believe that we're going to talk about that all on segment two of the lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Before we get into that though, I want to tell you about betonline.ag because they are back and they are better than ever.

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Head over to their website or use your mobile device today. You can sign up and receive a 100% welcome bonus when you use the promo code LOCKEDON. That's L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N. From football, basketball, boxing, right to your favorite Vegas casino games, don't wait to take advantage of the amazing offers available for the 2021 season. BetOnline, the fastest and the easiest way to bet on all of your favorite sports action. BetOnline.ag, your online sportsbook experts. Right, y'all, before we took a break, we were talking about the offense, and Kirk said this

is the crispest the offense has looked this season. And I said, that's kind of telling about where this offense could be at. To this point, against Indiana, Iowa didn't need to showcase a lot for two reasons. Indiana's defense, pretty darn good. Also, Iowa, a lot of turnovers and several touchdowns off those turnovers. They jumped out to a lead so quickly, it didn't matter.

They didn't need to show a lot. Against Iowa State, Iowa State's defense is really good. Also, Iowa had to be very cautious about the momentum. The first quarter, Iowa State is usually pretty slow. It's usually these teams feeling each other out, understanding where and what they can do at any given time. You might not like a play call in the first quarter versus Iowa State, but a lot of that is simply Iowa trying to figure out how are they going to respond to some of these things. They put the Wildcat in, I think, early in the first quarter against Iowa State.

Iowa State stuffed it. It gave them an opportunity to see how does Iowa State line up against that Wildcat so we know whether or not we can go back to it. That's what happens in the Iowa-Iowa State game. The first quarter is always filling things out. What is more telling is that second quarter drive by the Iowa Hawkeye offense to give Iowa a bigger lead, followed by that amazing throw or finish with that amazing throw to Charlie Jones.

I'm telling you this because this gives you context. In the third, fourth quarter, Iowa gets a lead. They don't need to do anything dangerous with the football. They don't need to do anything dangerous with the football. They don't need to do anything crazy. They just need to protect the football, which is exactly what Spencer Petras did. It has not been 100% amazing. It has not been 100% perfect.

Run blocking needs some improvement at times. The running game in general has needed some improvement. Now, against Kent State, we made strides. But again, Kent State, one of the worst run defenses in the league. So I would hope that Iowa can run the ball a little bit better against them. Now we get, well, let's start back with Kent State. Iowa put together some really nice drives. When we talked to LaShawn after the Iowa State game, he said he wanted to see sustained drives from the University of Iowa Hawkeyes. We saw that against Colorado State. So continuing to make improvement. We got some of

our playmakers involved in the game, like Tyrone Tracy Jr., Nico Reganey had a lot of targets as well. Sam Laporta had a fantastic day catching the football, which is always good to see. Now going into Colorado State, this is an opportunity for Iowa to continue to expand on what they've been doing. It's sustaining drives. It's getting out to a faster start offensively. It's starting to open it up and go a little deeper with the football, putting those things on tape. Because when we get into Big Ten play,

Iowa is going to need to be more explosive. Iowa is not known for being an explosive football team. Any analyst that says Iowa is not good because they are not explosive has not watched Iowa football. So if you're listening to any national analysts who clearly don't watch a lot of Iowa football or have not followed Kirk Ferentz, they are going to say Iowa does not have explosive plays. So they're not a good football team. That is not accurate. This is how Iowa plays football. However, we do need more explosive plays. That's not wrong. We are not going to be the Ohio States of the world with

10 explosive plays every single game. What I would like to see against Colorado State, Iowa is probably going to go vertical a little bit more. Now, Kent State, again, their defense, not great, but their corners, very good ball hawks. Their safety is pretty darn good in coverage. So I expect Iowa to get a little bit more creative in the passing game, open up the playbook a little bit more, might see a little bit more deeper throws as Iowa does not have to be as concerned with that turnover perspective. Again, we want Spencer Petras to protect the football. There will be a time where he will

throw an interception this season. It will come. I promise you that. But this game is not as concerning of an interception game as a game against Penn State, for example. And when Kirk says this offense has been as crisp as he's seen this year, the best two days, and even Spencer has talked about a little bit. So Spencer spoke to the media as well, and he said we have a, wait, what did he say on here? Let me pull it up. Yeah, he said, I'm only talking about Colorado State today.

We've had a good two days of prep. That goes along with what we've heard from several other guys, including, again, Kirk saying this offense looked very good. I expect Iowa's offense to have a heyday. I expect them to put up 40 points at least against Colorado State. Yes, Colorado State played well against Toledo. They have a solid coach Iowa is familiar with, a guy who coached over at Boston College.

But I think this is really going to be the breakout party of Iowa's offense as they get ready for Big Ten play. We've got to see them put it all together. And I think that's going to happen in this game. We also heard from several other Iowa football players, Ivory Kelly Martin, a guy who kudos to him for getting up against the media after having two fumbles in that game.

They asked him, what did Coach Liddell Best tell him? And he said, continue to look forward. He also mentioned the fact that he's lucky. He's been able to play some really good football in the past and to keep his confidence up. Kirk also said, Ivory Kelly Martin is going to be back in the game plan. I can appreciate that. I want to see Ivory Kelly Martin again, protect the football, but Ivory Kelly Martin, people forget, used to be the starter. He is a good running back.

If he can hold onto the football, he is a fantastic guy to come in and replace a Tyler Goodson. Ivory Kelly Martin has some phenomenal speed that he can use as breakaway speed. John Wagner also mentioned a little bit about Colorado State, which we'll talk about on tomorrow's show, but he said, we see a big, or we see big thing with Colorado State. They have a 12, a lot of 12, 13, and 14 personnel. Now I'm going to get into what 12, 13, 14 personnel means tomorrow in a lot more detail, but basically they play big, they play big 10 style football. They are going to be lining up and going right up against Iowa in the trenches, and honestly, that bodes very well for the Iowa Hawkeyes.

I'm excited to see that. It might mean we see a lot more 4-3. I'm really curious of what it means for Dane Belton as well because Iowa in that 4-2-5 has Dane Belton playing that slot, but now if they have to play a lot of 4-3 given the personnel, we might not see a lot of Dane Belton in this game against Colorado State, but that's a storyline we're going to talk about probably on Friday. And then finally, the wonder kid, the guy that everyone has been talking about these last couple games, Justin Jacobs. He said on tape, we see a big physical team. They have a

big tight end. He's been a problem for many teams this year. Well, Justin, that tight end is going to be your problem this week, and I think Justin Jacobs is up for the challenge. And again, we're going to talk about all that on tomorrow's show and on Friday's show. Colorado State, not a team that should give Iowa trouble. And honestly, the way they play football kind of bodes well for Iowa. They know what to expect from a Colorado State. Spencer even mentioned it. On the 4-3, he said it makes preparation a bit easier

because you don't have to train your eyes to see something foreign. Now, reminder, Iowa has gone up against a 3-3-5 defense the last couple weeks. That is unique, something that's not typically going to be seen in the Big Ten and not something that Spencer Petras sees on a daily basis. So, again, expect some improvements from this Iowa offense. I think this is going to be Iowa's breakout game. I think it's going to be similar to what we saw against, I believe it was Middle Tennessee State a couple years ago

when they won 48-3. I project something like that in this game. Coming up on segment three, we're going to listen to Fran McCaffrey or more or less talk about what Fran McCaffrey said. We're not listening to him. We're going to talk about what Fran McCaffrey said and what that means for the Iowa basketball team. So stay tuned after a few messages from our sponsors for that.

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PrizePix's daily fantasy made easy. All right, y'all. We have talked about Kirk Ferentz's press conference. We talked about some of the players that have spoken to the media as well. Now we're getting into Fran McCaffery. He spoke to the media about this Iowa basketball team. This is an Iowa basketball team that some people are not excited about, especially from a national media perspective, but I am actually really excited about this Iowa basketball team. I think there's several factors that could

make this team a Cinderella story this year in college basketball. And here's why. Let's start with the thing that Kirk said later on in the press conference. We're going to talk about some of the other things, but let's talk about the last thing he said. In regards to figuring out the starting lineup, he said, we're still figuring it out, what the rotations are going to look like. We're going to be an up-tempo defense, which will require more substitutions. It could be a good thing, but it could also be disruptive if guys aren't settled down. What he realizes is that we have a lot of good athletes on this team.

We have a lot of depth on this team. Whereas last year we had some big star power, right? Joe Wieskamp, Luka Garza, even CJ Frederick. Those are guys you needed. Jordan Bohannon, you needed those guys on the court at all times. We didn't have a huge bench that Iowa wanted

to turn to significantly. And honestly, when Iowa was struggling in defense, Kirk, not Kirk, Fran would just rotate and substitute his entire second string unit in. Well, CJ's gone. Luka's gone. Joe's gone. Know what that means?

It means we are going to be seeing that second string unit play a lot more on the first team. And that second string unit that is very strong in defense, starting with our point guards, is going to be a very good defensive basketball team now. Iowa has struggled with defense a lot lately, but offensively they've been excellent. Offensively, we're probably going to take a step back, but defensively, we might be one of the better teams in the nation. And it starts up front with Aaron Ulis and also Joe Toussaint. And Fran said, Joe and Aaron have been playing extremely well. I

expected that. Aaron has really come on lately. They go against each other a lot. And sometimes we put them together, which I like because of their speed. Aaron has been shooting well, and Joe's decision-making has been great. I'm counting on these guys to be like veterans, I'm counting on these guys to be like veterans and they both defend. Why that's important. Joe has been a guy who, when he is making smart decisions, is a truly dynamic playmaker for the Iowa Hawkeye basketball squad. He is one of, if not the most athletic guy on the court when he's on the court. He is the most explosive player on any given

rotation for the Iowa Hawkeyes. When he's not making good decisions though, that explosiveness is negated. He might drive to the basket and then he doesn't panic but just throws the ball away or throws it to someone who's not looking or throws it to someone who isn't open. Seeing Joe have good decision making will be a huge factor in the success of this offense this year, especially because one of Joe's main responsibilities is to hit Jordan Bohannon coming off of screens. And Fran talked about that a little bit more. He said, Joe Jordan has been playing exclusively at the shooting guard role. He's running around screens and firing at will. We're going to see a different Jordan Bohannon.

Jordan Bohannon, honestly, should have always been in that shooting guard spot. He's not a bad point guard, but he's not athletic enough to hang with some of the top point guards in the nation. But from a shooting guard perspective, he doesn't have to create his shot. Shots are being created for him.

All he has to do is drain those. Imagine now Jordan Bohannon has done a good job of making attested shots, making shots with people in his face. Imagine Jordan Bohannon getting CJ Frederick type of looks, coming off the screens, design plays to get him open looks behind the three-point line. I expect Jordan Bohannon to have his best season shooting, especially if Joe and Aaron can get him the ball.

Now we've all been talking about where some of those pieces are going to be filling in at. We know Keegan Murray is going to be a huge factor in this offense, a guy who's been projected to be a first round pick. And on Keegan, Fran said he just plays the game the right way. His role will change this year. He's got to be more aggressive. He has to be smart with that. He's tried to execute that as well as he can. He's a team guy. He's an unselfish guy. He's shooting the ball well. We'll see him more outside.

He got the green light. He has the green light to take it coast to coast. And he also mentioned he can play to three, four, or five. So I think what we've seen the past couple years, there hasn't been as much positional flexibility at that center role because we have Luka Garza there. We didn't want Luka Garza out of the game because Luka Garza is phenomenal.

We've had some solid forwards. But this year we're going to have a smaller team, which honestly kind of fits the mold of what college basketball teams are doing this year. Look at what Oregon did to Iowa with no one taller than 6'6 on the floor. The good thing is Iowa has the ability to play small and be very athletic because they have a Keegan. They have a Chris Murray. They got a Patrick McCaffrey, Phillip Abracha. I mean, these are guys who can play those spots and kind of

rotate in a couple of different areas, areas, but I will also has Joshua Gundelay and Riley Moldy. And with Riley, Brandon had to say, he's coming around. He really can run for a guy that is seven foot tall. He's put on a bit more weight and he expects him and Peyton to be used this year. Riley Mulvey is a guy who reclassified to be a freshman this year. He should, he should still be a senior in high school and we might see him get some playing time.

Big things are coming for Riley Mulvey and Peyton Sanford. And I'm really excited about that. My biggest takeaway from all this from Fran McCaffrey is that we're going to see a different Iowa basketball team this year than we have seen in the past couple years. That's neither good nor bad, but it is exciting. For those of you who like defense, we're going to see a very good defensive team.

For those of you who want to see a lot more rotations, we're going to see that. We're going to see a lot of guys getting involved. And I think what we're going to find is that Iowa has positioned themselves very well because of the positional flexibility they have with their 6'6 to 6'8 guys. Patrick, Chris, Keegan, even Phillip can be thrown in there a little bit too. These are guys who can play a lot of different positions,

which gives Iowa a ton of flexibility against almost every single team in the country. So I'm really excited for Iowa basketball. If you can't tell, I think Fran McCaffrey, this could be a very good and surprising season. A lot of folks have Iowa projected as an eight or nine seed. I think Iowa could be a four or five seed. That's how good I think Iowa could be this year. If they can find their offensive shooting stroke, I think defensively, they're going to be able to hang with any team and the league and in the big 10, you need that.

That does do it for our show today. As a reminder, we will be back tomorrow. So stay tuned for that. We're going to be breaking down everything to expect from Colorado state on Friday. We're going to be doing our predictions, key storylines,

et cetera. All that's coming on Friday. And if you want more Locked On content, betting on your team doesn't have to be a guessing game anymore. If you listen to the new Locked On Bets podcast, hosted by your boy Q and handicapping expert, Lee Sterling. Get daily picks, blowout specials, wrong team favorite picks, and Lee Sterling's lock of the day.

Follow the Locked On Bets podcast brought to you by betonline.ag, wherever you get your podcast app. And again, that does do it for our show today. Appreciate you all tuning in. Appreciate your love, support, and listenership. Have a phenomenal Wednesday. And as always, Hawkeye Nation, let's go Hawks.