Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - URGENT: Hawkeye Swarm Collective in LIMBO Amid NIL Changes? | Iowa Football LOSES Prized QB Commit

Starting point is 00:00:00 Iowa football loses its quarterback in the class of two thousand twenty six with the deep commitment of cash Herrera. What's next for Hawkeyes at the quarterback position plus the director of the Hawkeye collective Iowa Swarm Brad Heinrich joins us today. You are locked on Hawkeyes. Your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes Part of the locked on podcast network your team every day

Starting point is 00:00:32 Hey welcome in I'm Trent Condon and this is the locked on Hawkeyes podcast Thanks for making locked on Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We're available wherever you find podcasts You can also watch us on YouTube while you're there hit that subscribe button Just takes a moment and helps us get in front of more hawkeye fans Today's episode of the lockdown hawkeyes podcast is brought to you by monarch money Take control of your finances with monarch money use code locked on college at monarch money.com for 50 off Your first year. Well, i'm tr Connott. Thanks for being with us. I've been covering the Hawkeyes for 20 years,

Starting point is 00:01:07 including currently on the radio on the Iowa Sports Radio Network. You can hear me each day from noon to two, talking the world of sports and a lot of Hawkeyes over there. You can also hear me on stations in the Quad Cities, Sioux City, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, and our flagship 106.3 KXNO. Caitlin Clark, her return. These last two games have been eye opening, but the WNBA, they got a Caitlin Clark problem.

Starting point is 00:01:32 I will explain a little bit later on. Plus we'll be joined by Brad Heinrichs, the director of the Swarm Collective for the University of Iowa. And this new era of college athletics, what does it mean for Brad Heinrich's the Iowa swarm? We will get into that with him But we open today's program with a look at the news from yesterday cash Herrera

Starting point is 00:01:52 The three-star quarterback prospect from San Diego, California Has decommitted from the Iowa football program now there have been rumblings out there for a while about just this And this is gonna be happening This was going to be coming down So it shouldn't be a major surprise for people that are keeping their eyes and their ears open Watching social media looking at the message boards. This has been out there for a while. However It is frustrating. Um This is a guy that continues to command more respect and you kind of look at him in his offer list

Starting point is 00:02:26 It didn't have a deep offer list when he committed last fall to the Iowa program He had an offer from UCLA See Diego State a couple of local programs and then some other I kind of mid-tier type of programs that were out there I think the UCLA offer a lot of people said okay Wow, you're getting a kid from their backyard that they wanted. But remember, UCLA was also going through a coaching staff change and because of that, didn't have the same kind of relationship built up. Since then, there's been other programs that have gotten involved, Cal, Arizona, Indiana, amongst the many.

Starting point is 00:02:58 And from the sounds of it, Cash Herrera wanted the opportunity to look around. As we know, when you commit to Iowa and Kirk Farrans' program that is not something that they believe in. Are you getting married? Are we still dating? And that's kind of the way that Kirk Farrans lays it out and if you want to look around then you're going to decommit. Now it sounds like both sides are moving on and that there will not be any reinvolvement on either side to this one. There was also talk for a while that Iowa was going to go out there and look for a second quarterback in this class. Peyton Falzone, the kid from Pennsylvania,

Starting point is 00:03:32 Iowa was heavily involved with earlier this spring. He, after getting a Penn State offer, though quickly committed to them within a week. So no surprise, Pennsylvania kid wanting to go to Penn State, that shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody, obviously, in the way that that one played out. Now, here's also a change in the equation and the way things are. We're going to get into the quarterback room as it currently is constituted, is Jeremy Heklinski and his commitment coming in from Wake Forest. Now, if that change should change what Iowa was thinking about bringing in too.

Starting point is 00:04:01 Well, you got to get back to one before you can bring in two. And so I was going back to the drawing board. Cash Herrera will not be happening. Heard good things about him, saw some good things. And as we've talked about a ton here on Lockdown Hawkeyes, you know I believe in Tim Lester. Until he shows me that I shouldn't trust him, I'm going to trust his evaluation

Starting point is 00:04:21 at the quarterback position. And now as he has completely retooled this room, he has taken it to another level. We're going to see the fruits of those labors. He's run everybody out and brought in a whole new squad. What that's going to look like starting this year with Mark Grunowski and then going forward as we will dive into. There is one name though, that you do need to know after the decommitment to cash Herrera where Iowa is currently looking on that front as they go through and now try to find a quarterback for the class of 2026.

Starting point is 00:04:54 So right now they are looking at a ball state commitment. And I know that doesn't get very exciting, right? You can look through and say, you know, the last time that they went there, that was Joey labels that they're able to flip over from a max schooled Iowa, but also they're able to do with Ricky stansy. And that one worked out pretty well. Not all quarterbacks are made the same way. So Mason Atkins is his name.

Starting point is 00:05:18 Um, six, three, two 10. It looked at his highlight reel as junior highlights. Okay. I'm not an evaluator. I wasn't loud But again Tim Lester in Tim we will trust so speaking of that the quarterback room as its constituted so gone Is Cade McNamara? Brendan Sullivan Marco Lyon as James Rezar all those guys have moved on Now Brendan Sullivan ended up a nice program at Tulane,

Starting point is 00:05:47 very well could be the starter there. Let me look at the rest of the list. Matt DeMare is now at East Tennessee State. James Rezar ended up at D2 UNC Pembroke. Lyones is at Elon. And now you have a room comprised of Mark Gronowski, who won the Walter Payton Award, the Heisman Trophy of the FCS level. Jackson Stratton, who started games for you and won Big Ten games for you.

Starting point is 00:06:15 Hank Brown, who started at Auburn, pretty good program, as a redshirt freshman. Jimmy Sullivan. Jeremy heck Linsky awake force transfer and then what Ryan Fitzgerald a walk on. And the sun a pet Fitzgerald but think of that quarterback room and just the change that you have on that front. I do wonder about heck Linsky and this is a guy honestly, we haven't talked a whole lot about and I'm going to do a little bit bit more digging and try to find a little bit more background because I know there are a lot of people in a lot of different circles that like Hec Linsky and believe that it is him.

Starting point is 00:06:54 It's not the future going to be Hank Brown after this season or Jackson Stratton for his senior year or a youngster like Jimmy Sullivan. The heck Linsky is that guy. We'll have to see on that front and again I'll talk to a few more people and get a little bit more insight. Here's one final thing on this topic and Cash Herrera decommitting and it goes to what we see now at the quarterback position as you look through college football And I just saw a list the other day from 24-7 sports

Starting point is 00:07:23 It was the top 50 quarterbacks in college football for this upcoming season and after you get through the top tier guys Um, I just going through and thinking almost every one of these guys is a transfer number eight Carson Beck from Georgia to Miami Soya Robertson a Baylor started at Mississippi State John Matier at number 10 in Oklahoma He was at Washington State last year Luke Altmeyer at number 12 Guess where he was Ole Miss a couple years ago Diego Paveo Well traveled as he's at Vanderbilt after what he did in his career in New Mexico Fernando Mendoza guy that will learn a lot about this year at Indiana He comes in from Cal even Julian saying that Ohio State began at Alabama

Starting point is 00:08:04 This is the new reality. And for recruiting at the high school level, how many of these guys are actually going to be around by the time they are even redshirt sophomores? It's gonna be more and more rarity. And that's why the deep commitment of Cash Herrera, though it stings in the grand scheme of things, I don't think it matters,

Starting point is 00:08:22 because the likelihood that Cash Herrera was gonna come in Stick around wait his turn and be the quarterback in 2028 2029 it's just unlikely and certainly for a guy that's not from this area This is much to do about nothing. This is our new reality with recruiting quarterbacks That's where we are and because of heck Heklinski, because of Hank Brown, because of some of the other young names in the program, I can't just get that fired up about it.

Starting point is 00:08:51 We continue Lockdown Hawkeyes, the future of Iowa athletics, and what does the NIL space now look like? We'll talk with Brad Heinrichs, the head of the Swarm Collective. That's next, Lockdown Hawkeyes. Ever check your bank account wonder where do all my money go between dining out online shopping and entertainment? It's easy to lose track

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Starting point is 00:10:17 Let's get Brad Honeck in here, Hawkeye Swarm, as we get the latest on the lay of the land, what lies ahead for Brad and his work at the swarm. Brad, Trent and Ken, thanks for coming on, appreciate it. What's your role going forward now that seemingly the landscape has changed a little bit? Thanks for coming on, Brad. How do you see things going forward? Is it still business as usual at the Hawkeye Swarm?

Starting point is 00:10:41 Business as usual right now. I think there are still more questions than we have answers at this point. I think they just came out with some Q's and A's. I think maybe even yesterday, but I don't think that we're really going to know what the new world looks like for weeks, if not months from now. As you know, there's anybody that we sign to a deal now has to, it has to be cleared through this clearing house, where somebody, a third party tells us whether a student athletes deal is legit or not, or whether or not their market value is appropriate in the contract or not,

Starting point is 00:11:26 which just feels like a lawsuit waiting to happen. But yeah, we're telling our members that it's business as usual until the rules become a lot more clear and crystallized for everybody. So the university now will have their $20.5 million that they will disperse to student athletes that is separate than what you guys are. When we look past that $20.5 million and we hear Texas Tech, maybe a $55 million payroll

Starting point is 00:12:00 for their athletic department this year. Is there a number that Iowa Swarm needs to get to that you guys are looking at that to keep you guys competitive in the big 10 and nationally, is there a number now going forward knowing they got their 20 and a half that they're gonna be spinning that you guys need to hit? We haven't gotten any specific direction,

Starting point is 00:12:21 hey, Swarm, you need to come up with X million dollars to help polish this off. So, you know, that now those those conversations may be happening in the future. I do know, though, that at least if the if the if the other collective owners are being truthful, we're going to have at least four teams on our schedule this fall that have $30 million payrolls for football. And that's just incredible to think about. So and we will not, I'll just go ahead and say that we're not going to have $30 million tied up in football this fall. But I can't imagine Iowa State will either. But the landscape, you're

Starting point is 00:13:06 right, the landscape has changed. It's a very, I would still consider it to be mostly cloudy situation. Obviously, the House Settlement passing is certainly at least a step towards some clarity and maybe might help give us a path towards some answers. But we don't have all the answers yet. And so we're still... I talked to Beth Ketz just yesterday and, you know, and she was apprehensive to give a whole lot of directions because she's still trying to get guidance from the Big Ten and from the NCAA. And so I think we're in the same boat as probably Iowa State and many of the other collectives across country, still trying to wait to get some direction

Starting point is 00:13:52 and really understand what our new world looks like and how we can support our student athletes moving forward. You mentioned your conversation with Beth Getz. and I remember when she was, she got the job which was the absolute right hire in my opinion and it seemed like she was a breath of fresh air from you know from Gary Barta and his unwillingness seemingly to work with your group and Beth Getz embraced you and then did so publicly. Is she still as enthusiastic about the Hawkeye Swarm and what you guys will be able to do in conjunction with the House Settlement?

Starting point is 00:14:32 Yeah, I think Beth has been nothing but supportive of the Swarm and every place, every time that I every time that I saw her speak publicly last year as it pertains to student athletes and in the new world, she always was quick to prop up the swarm. And we really appreciate that and it shows that, yes, the Iowa Athletic Department has been very supportive of what we're trying to do. And yeah, Breath of Fresh Air is a fair characterization. She certainly has been a difference maker for Iowa athletics over the last couple of years. So when you look at what you guys did in the past, it was a lot of going out to different events around the community, helping in that direction. Is that going to be much

Starting point is 00:15:28 different now going forward? You know, those charity kind of events going to the Children's Hospital, those kind of things where guys are out there in the community and they're getting paid for their efforts to do that? Or is it strictly going to have to be guys doing a TV commercial and he's showing up and signing books? Is it are we moving more towards that part of it or is the charity aspect still going to be a big part of Iowa swarm? Well, I hope that the charity, the charitable aspect doesn't completely go away. Um, that's the first thing I'll say.

Starting point is 00:15:56 Um, but I think you're onto it. It, it, it's, it's, it feels like that the charitable component may be, you know, not moving away from front and center in everything that we're doing. But that's still a little cloudy as well at this point. So I'm a little apprehensive to say it's going away or it's going to be close to non-existent. I'd like for it to continue to be existent because I feel like our student athletes have done a lot of great things for charities around Eastern Iowa and even in the Western side of Iowa and in the Des Moines area. And I know that they've had a lot of impact on kids, for example, and other homebound people and folks that

Starting point is 00:16:42 really need help. So it'll be very disappointing if that part goes away. But as you know, the world's always changing and we've got to change with it. And so we'll be ready to take direction whenever we get it. We just, at this point, we're still a little bit in a holding pattern. You would think that once they pass that settlement, we would have a playbook, but that hasn't been provided yet. So we're still kind of awaiting that. Seth Davis wrote a piece today, and Seth Davis from CBS, the NCAA, coverage college of basketball, as you know. He kind of put out a, you know, an all points bulletin to athletes that in the future that, you know, when you see what one of your teammates is getting paid, that

Starting point is 00:17:33 there's pretty good likelihood that you get maybe get 10 or 20 percent of that value from your NIL going forward. Do you think that's going to be the case? I mean, I think, I think the one of the emphasis behind this was to get everybody running the same race, being, you know, kind of in the same financial ballpark and not having one school having this outlandish amount of money to throw at student athletes, and some of the have nots not being able to keep up. So on the surface, that seems like a really good idea. What's the likelihood that that's the case, that they are able to bring that level of financial compensation closer together for everyone? Or is that just Pollyanna's that there's no way in hell that's going to happen?

Starting point is 00:18:16 I wouldn't say no way in hell, but I'd come close to that. I don't have a lot of optimism in that regard. Just for example, if I was reading something today, we all read about this stuff, and the Big East, I think it might have been St. John's was talking about how they're going to spend their 20 and a half million bucks and they're going to split it amongst men's and women's basketball I think, or something like that. Micropoly, the invented vitamin water. Yeah, so, right. So, so they're going to, you know, the teams that don't have football,

Starting point is 00:18:54 well, they're not going to drop 15 million bucks on, on football. They don't have football. Right. They're going to go spend it on, we're going to go spend it on basketball. Well, you look at Iowa or Iowa State that have football teams There's absolutely no chance in the world that we're gonna be able to spend 15 million bucks on Or 20 million bucks on men's men's and women's basketball it's just it's just not gonna happen and so, you know your your your idea of potentially, maybe it's not your idea, but the idea of having a level playing

Starting point is 00:19:26 field, a la the NFL, where everybody has the same wallet to spend. The only way that I see that potentially happening is if we go the way of collective bargaining, where the student athletes voluntarily agree to a certain cap on salaries. I mean, if you look at that, you read the judge's ruling, at least my read of it, was that she didn't necessarily say that the 20.5 million doesn't violate antitrust law. She basically says that's for somebody else to decide. I'm just going to opine on everything else. Well, if you think about this, the Supreme Court said, you know, you can't prevent these student athletes from making money and colluding to make it so that none of them can make money, that violates

Starting point is 00:20:25 antitrust law, right? From my view, and again, I'm not an attorney, so we basically said that $0 violates antitrust law, which was just imposed upon these kids. Now we're going to say, now we're going to impose $20.5 million, which is an obviously, it's basically an arbitrary type number, right? Well, how does zero violates antitrust law? How does 20 and a half not violate antitrust law, right? It kind of feels to me like it's just a bigger number doing the exact same thing. And it would not surprise me if this whole thing is challenged again. And, you

Starting point is 00:21:02 know, unless there is collective bargaining, my guess is, is that the cap will eventually go away or get to a level that nobody even pays attention to it because it's so high. I just don't know how that doesn't violate antitrust. But that's, again, as an aside, you know, I don't don't see any chance that the schools, if you look at just even this last year, you know, you get schools like Creighton, that's in our neighborhood, right? How's Creighton's football team? Yeah, nonexistent.

Starting point is 00:21:36 Oh, so they, oh, so what does Creighton do? They spend all their money on basketball. Oh, we had a couple of, we had a couple of transfers from Iowa. They're pretty good players. Where did they go? Yep. They went west of us. Yeah. Right. They went west to you guys. They skipped right over Ames and went over to Creighton. You know, it's not just because they have a lot of people coming to their games. It's because they have a lot, they have a, they have a hell of a payroll over there. And, and so, um, you know, there's a perfect example of how, you know,

Starting point is 00:22:09 it's the teams in the Big East will become like the Yankees when it comes to college basketball. And I think it'll be the Big Ten in the SEC and certain teams in the big 10 in the SEC will be kind of, you know, be like the New York Yankees. Um, it's, unless they're, unless they voluntarily collectively bargain, I don't see any way that there's ever going to be a, um, any, you know, a level playing field. So to recap, as we finish up with you, Brad, I was swarm Hawkeye, swarm collective, not going anywhere, but we're in a bit of a holding pattern. Is that kind of a way to kind of tie it into a little bow here? Brad Sparrow I would say so until I'm told otherwise,

Starting point is 00:22:54 which could be tomorrow or anytime in the distant future. Chad Moses Good stuff. Well, I talked to Beth Gatz yesterday and she didn't give you your walking papers for now. Brad thanks for coming on man appreciate it is so much gray area out there sounds like even for you that are certainly closer to it than Trent and I are athletic department seemingly someone in the dark as well as you said there's no handbook been produced yet to what we can refer to. Brad thanks for jumping on appreciate you doing this man. Thank you and thanks to all your listeners who support the Iowa Swarm at iowaswarm.com.

Starting point is 00:23:29 Good stuff, thanks, Brad, appreciate it. Take care. Take care, Brad Heinrich. iowaswarm.com, that's where you go, and you can still make a difference here, helping these student athletes, and more importantly, helping the University of Iowa, the athletic department,

Starting point is 00:23:43 and what it's gonna be going forward certainly interesting times as we Navigate our way through we continue trying to navigate the mess that's happening to Caitlin Clark. We'll get into that next This is locked on Hawkeyes Trenkana back with you one final time on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for being with us and making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Alright, Caitlin Clark, she's returned. She's been great. No surprise there. She is incredible, right?

Starting point is 00:24:23 And as I watched the game unfold last night, and seeing just the weirdness, the goofiness, the the frustrating elements of it. And as it's unfolding, this thought crept into my mind. So a year ago, the first time I really watched the WNBA, yeah, and I flipped it on before, sure, but really was invested to watch a full 40 minute game to watch start to finish to watch more than just a game, maybe a championship game, but do more than that. My first takeaway 13 months ago was my God, this league is physical.

Starting point is 00:24:58 I mean, watching this level of basketball is not aesthetically pleasing. It's not the brand of basketball that I enjoy watching, but it was the reality. And as we go through year number two of Kaitlyn and how she has completely changed the game, as she did in the college game, as she will continue to do because she's that talented, she's that eye-opening, she is that kind of personality, everything put together that makes her one of one.

Starting point is 00:25:28 The WNBA needs to get a handle on this. And the garbage that was displayed again last night and Stephanie White, her coach with the Indiana Fever, having to call out the officials because once again, they're inept, they're in over their head. They cannot negate some situations. They allow the physicality of the league. I go back to last year, about halfway through the season, when offense was exploding at a level in the NBA,

Starting point is 00:25:52 unlike anything we'd seen in an incredibly long time. What did they do? They allowed physicality back into the game. I'm not calling for the WNBA to do the same, because the last thing that they need is more physicality in this game. They need to go the other way. We need to get freedom of movement back. We need to get this physicality, this clutching and grabbing, the Tom Izzo ball of the WNBA out of the game. You have a generational

Starting point is 00:26:20 star. You have a once-in-a-lifetime type of player in your league that is elevated to levels that have never been seen before Don't screw it up And if you continue to allow this level of physicality if you continue to allow the clutching the grabbing the holding to continue People are gonna start to turn our way The WNBA is gonna be morphing back into what it was, which was at best an afterthought in the sports viewing lineup. That'll do it for today. Thanks for being with us and making Lockdown Hawkeyes

Starting point is 00:26:54 your first listen every day. Hey, a shout out to you every dayers. Love the everyday listeners each and every day making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Couldn't do it with each and every one of you out there. Click and subscribe and giving us those five star reviews. For your second listen, check out the Portal show. Brian Smith has the latest rumors, Portal entries, and signings. It is recruiting season right now. You want to be up to date and you can do it right now with the

Starting point is 00:27:22 Portal and all things college football. find the portal on YouTube or wherever You listen to podcast we got a whole lot more coming up this week Mention that top 50 list of quarterbacks mark Grunowski's on there Not at the spot that you'd imagine we will talk about that Tom cake are set to join us a little bit later in the week We got a lot more coming your way during the offseason doesn't matter We don't take a break your team every day on the lockdown network and thanks for making locked on Hawkeyes your first listen every day We'll talk to you again tomorrow until then go Hawks

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