Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - URGENT: Kirk Ferentz's Retirement LOOMS | Who Will LEAD Iowa's Football FUTURE?

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

Can the Iowa Hawkeyes football team pull off a stunning upset this season? With potential coaching changes on the horizon, the Hawkeyes are poised for a transformative year. Dive into the latest buzz around Iowa's football scene, where names like Kirk Ferentz, Tim Lester, and Chris Kleiman are making waves. Explore the basketball prospects for the 2025-2026 season under new coach Ben McCollum, with Bennett Stirtz leading the charge. The episode also covers the Iowa baseball team's challenging path to the NCAA tournament, highlighting their upcoming clash with UCLA.Get ready for an engaging discussion on Iowa's sports landscape, filled with insights and predictions. Tune in to discover how the Hawkeyes are gearing up for a season of surprises and potential triumphs.Follow Trent Condon on X: https://twitter.com/trentcondonLISTEN TO THE PODCAST: APPLE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-hawkeyes-daily-podcast-on-iowa-hawkeyes-football/id1441592240SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/0GTyz5ygevcGXdTF6QSoEoYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LockedOnHawkeyesSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

Male bag, it's a male bag edition of Locked On Hawkeyes. I'll tell you who should be Iowa's next head football coach after Kurt Ferentz retires and just how high is the upside for Iowa Hoops? 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 Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.

I've been covering the Iowa Hawkeyes for over 20 years on the radio here in the great state of Iowa, including currently, you can hear me on the Iowa Sports Radio Network, border to border, we have stations in Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, the Quad City, Sioux City, and our flagship 106.3 KXNO in Des Moines. You can hear me each weekday from Newtotel 2. I'm talking the world of

sports including a lot of Hawkeyes. Today's episode of Lockdown Hawkeyes is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. We got Iowa baseball to get into. Pool Play has finished up. Iowa falls at Indiana. But as we talked about, they've already punched their ticket in to the semifinal round of the Big Ten tournament where big bad UCLA awaits Iowa. Gonna have an opportunity to pull off a big upset. We'll talk about that a little bit later on. and still the path that is in front of the Iowa baseball team. We're getting back to the NCAA

tournament. It's male bag. We're going to talk some basketball both men's and women's basketball including the upside of this year's men's team. One of the questions that came in, but we begin today's conversation on this male bag edition of Lockdown Hawkeyes with a look at the football program and that's how we're going to sort things out here. We're going to go through anddown Hawkeyes with a look at the football program. That's how we're gonna sort things out here. We're gonna go through and we're going to take a look at your questions that you've sent in. You can hit me up on

Twitter at Trent Condon at Lockdown Iowa. If you're on that side of things, I'll have a Facebook page. Don't do a great job of updating that. We'll continue to work a little bit harder on that front. You can find me over there. And of course, you can hit us on the comment part of our YouTube page here if you're watching there. Hey, if you're watching on YouTube, hit subscribe. Just takes a moment and helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. If you're on the audio side, five star reviews, it really does help us and help those algorithms pointing our way. Let's get into it and start with the big question that is

out there. The big question that I received in so many different ways. And the reason that my wheels got turning a little bit and my mind started to go back to this was a question that I received a couple of weeks ago on the comment section on YouTube where the question was posed about Tim Lester. And if there was a realistic path for Tim Lester to become next, I was next head coach. And at first I dismissed it, but then I thought a little bit more. You start with the guy that's done it, and that's Tim Lester. He certainly has the background of what he was able to do at Western Michigan, both as a player and as a coach, the successes that he had there.

But I think it's what's happening right now. And if there's a real opportunity for him to continue to build this offense up in a way where we are talking about that, where suddenly the conversation about Iowa being a destination, conversation that he had on the i-Club circuit earlier in the week, that was in the Des Moines Register talking about the Shanahan offense and being the only collegiate program that's doing it and his hope is building it into this is where quarterbacks want to come. This is where quarterbacks want to go to learn an offense that a ton of teams in the NFL are running. Learning the verbiage that goes along with it, where you can step in there. And Tim Lester mentioned that. He talked about Baker Mayfield.

Now getting traded and being able to play on a Tuesday and being able to play on a Sunday. And that's what you hope. But with Tim Lester, yeah, late, it fell apart, right? Fell apart for him. But that happens all the time at Western Michigan. Had plenty of successes there. Taken over from PJ Fleck and went to a bowl game,

three out of his six years. Never hit high water marks, but that's okay. I love the way that he explains the game. I love the way that he comes off. And if it is suddenly, if he's the guy that can fix Iowa's offense, and last year, you just look at the score, the numbers that they put up on the ground and scoring, it was an immense improvement.

And able to take that final step, I don't think it's crazy. He's not your typical guy that we talk about off the tree, but it's not a wild thought. Tim Lester, still work to be done. And we also have to put that out there. So who else is on that list? And one thing I want to put out before we dive a little bit deeper into a few more names that certainly would make more

sense once Kirk hangs it up is this. I know at times us as a fan base, us as a Hawkeye fan base, we have that feeling that we're little old Iowa. When we look at the Michigans and the Ohio states and the Penn states of the world, their successes, the money that they have. That's true. They play at a different level. They financially are able to do things that Iowa can't do. But it's also, don't make it so short-sighted that you forget also I was placed in the pecking order of college football and college athletics. This is

a top 25 athletic department. This is a program that is part of the big two. Yes there are deficiencies. Yes there are issues that crop up that don't at other places but this is still a great job. And another big component in coaching circles is what Iowa's maintained over the last, now, 47 years of having two coaches. That goes a long way. When Kirk retires, this will be a coveted job. The Iowa basketball job was not the same.

When that job came open, first of all, go back to 15 years ago, where Fray McCaffrey took that job. Iowa was incredibly lucky to get a coach even of the stature of Fray McCaffrey because you look at some of the other candidates that were out there, it was hideous. That job looked to be a dead end. And people in the coaching industry

and basketball, the national front, told me just that back after Licklider was fired. There was no facility, a very difficult place to recruit to, don't have a home recruiting profile at the same level as some of the other jobs are out there. Iowa, that's one of the few credits I'll give to Gary Barnett. Getting Fran there at that time was important. This will be different. Iowa invests in football. Iowa will do everything that they can in order to be in the top half of the Big Ten financially. You don't have to worry about that part of it. Facilities, investment inside the program, that is gonna be there for

football. But having two coaches over 46, seven, maybe 50 years by the time we get there, whenever Kirk hangs it up, that is going to be a big selling point for this job. Remember where we are. That doesn't mean that you're going to go out there and get the A candidate. And in today's environment of college coaching, remember we see so many programs, programs of higher stature than Iowa, not able to get their guy because the money is great everywhere. And it's not like it once was where those big pay bumps, the difference between $6 million and $8 million is pretty negligible in the grand scheme of things. But back when we're talking about 40

years ago, going from making $80,000 a year to making $150,000, that was a huge change. That was a huge difference that we saw. And that's why you saw a lot of guys jumping. Just remember that when it comes in. So who else? What other names, excuse me, should be on the list? Now, when I start this list, I always talk about Chris Climen. Chris Climen at Kansas State. Now, this is one that I believe you kind of look at his background, his connection to the state of Iowa, a Waterloo guy, 57 years old. There's been a lot of murmurs that he is not exactly infatuated with the way college football is going, and that's okay.

I know some people look at the age, a guy getting into his late 50s now and say, but that's okay. Look, if he's the best candidate, and even if it is a 7, 8, 10 year, we don't have to have coaches for a quarter century. I know we've had it, but that doesn't mean that's the way it has to be. We can't look at a big term. If he is the best candidate, I think Chris Kleinman absolutely needs to be out there. Another part of it, people love the connections to Iowa, that have coached there,

that have played there. If that has to be a prerequisite, I will say that doesn't have to be there. But back to the original point, Tim Lester, I think that's a guy that definitely has to be a part of the conversation. If you had told me not too long ago about that, I would have called you absolutely crazy. One more football here before we get into some basketball mailbag edition of Lockdown Hawkeyes. This comes from Paul. He says, Iowa represents itself as a developmental program. Yet last year we only had 20 high school recruits. This year we had just 16. Other schools

typically have 20 or more Notre Dame planning on 25. Even in this transfer era, can Iowa have success with so few high school recruits? Good question there Paul and one thing I think we first have to remember about this is we're going through this new roster crunch and And the cut down to 105, or maybe that's gonna be opening back up, but Iowa was operating with the intention that their roster coming up here in August of 2025

had to be 105 athletes, period. That they had to cut down to that number. And because of that, there was the roster crunch that happened a year ago, and only 16 guys signing here in the class of 2025. I think that is a part of it. They're still going to recruit at the high school level. There are some programs that will not recruit

at the level that I would does anymore. They're gonna be looking at the portal. And one thing we've learned with Kirk Farrantz is he's not the portal king. He's not Len Kiffin, but he also understands that you need to augment. You need to supplement your program and your roster with guys in the Transfer Portal.

I think you're gonna continue to see this and what we've seen the last couple of years. I don't see what we're seeing currently, these last couple of recruiting cycles as some kind of big change. Just the numbers are gonna look different. The numbers are going to look different going forward, A, because of the transfer portal and being able

to get go out every year and get six eight ten guys that are going to help out your roster. But secondly this cut down to the roster. So I don't think it's anything philosophically that is changing. I think more than anything that roster change is what has to do with that. We got more of your questions here. Lockdown Hawkeyes the upside of the Iowa basketball program. How good can Ben McCollum's first team be? Wide range of opinions on that. I'll give you mine.

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$5 bet. If it wins, you'll get $200 in bonus bets. Make every moment more with FanDuel, official sports betting partner of the NBA. Welcome back, Lockdown Hawkeyes, your team every day. Thanks to everybody out there watching and listening. And a shout out to our every dayers who are with us each and every day. A big thank you to you. Hit subscribe if you're watching this on YouTube or a five star review. Alright, let's get back into the mail bag. Jump over to a little bit of basketball for you. Couple of things that came in, including this one that came in on

TwitterX. How big is the upside for Iowa basketball in 2025-26? So this is one that I find interesting because I think there's a wide range of opinions. And we talked about the addition of Ashton Williams yesterday, a point guard that's going to be the backup point guard behind Bennett Sturtz. That's where it begins for me. Bennett Sturtz, if he turns out to be the guy that a lot of people on the national level believe he's going to be all-American candidate, one of the best guards in the Big Ten, if he delivers on that, took the step up from D2, took it to another level of Drake last year. If he takes yet another step forward

and is able to do it at the power conference level, I don't think we can put a real low ceiling on this team. I believe that at minimum, they are going to be an NCAA tournament team. I believe that much in Ben McCollum. Watching him up close this year at Drake, watching him throughout the course of the year, I think that he is a guy that just, he is going to have an advantage of what he is doing in a lot of games. The other part that I think that I was going to be able to hit the ground running of this year and get off to a good start is this. Most of these guys have played together and in today's environment of college basketball and what we're seeing in the landscape and the way that it's changed and shifted,

how different it looks out there. When I go through and I look at this and I see what is happening in college basketball where there are in any given year, 75-80% of teams at the power conference rosters have flipped over two- thirds, maybe 75%. I mean, that's kind of roster turnover that you're seeing. And yes, it's also happening at Iowa, I get that. But because so many of these guys played together at Drake,

because so many of these guys played for Ben McCollum a year ago, I think that is gonna be a huge advantage for Iowa. And here are the next couple of weeks when they get started with their off-season workouts. That advantage that they're going to have is going to go a really long way. I think this team is a tournament team, but not just that. And I don't want to put a expectation that they should be a Sweet 16 team because the NCAA tournament is fickle. The NCAA tournament is you never know.

And we go back to the last time that Iowa had the bracket open up and actually played a lower seeded team than what they should have. An upset happened before them in the next round. It was back in the 1980s. There haven't been upsets for Iowa that have happened around them in the bracket. The one time that it did happen,

as Frayn's first tournament team when they went to the first four, that bracket opened up after Mercer beat Duke. Iowa lost in overtime though to Tennessee. Those things can happen. They just haven't happened for Iowa. Maybe Iowa is a 7 seed. They get by in the first round, but that 2 is upset by a 15. These things happen. They just don't happen. I, but that two is upset by a 15. These things happen.

They just don't happen. I don't want to put a ceiling on it. My floor though, at minimum, I think they're going to be a tournament team. The questions inside. Manoit, he's going to surprise you just how solid he is. Only six foot eight, but he can man the five. He can play the four. Him and Fulgaris together, I think are going to be a really nice punch inside. They have enough on the outside. A house that's an elite scorer on the perimeter, a guy that can shoot the ball incredibly well, but it goes back to where we started. Bennett Sturtz, just how good that he is and what he's going to be able to do this season.

More mailbags for you, this one coming in from Paul. Which game do you think is the best opportunity for Iowa to pull off and upset this fall? Indiana, Penn State, or Oregon? Paul says, my gut says Indiana, but my heart says Oregon, Go Hawks. Thanks for the question, Paul. And one that has been bouncing around in my mind. So you go through, you look at the preseason projections. All of these teams are preseason top 20 teams. Both Penn State and Oregon are going to be in everybody's top 10, maybe even top five by the time that we get to the season. I think on the surface Indiana is the easy answer. Indiana flash in the pan. Is it just that from a year ago we've seen those pockets of success, those out of nowhere seasons for Indiana a couple of times, including in 2020, and then they fall right back to the mat. And because of that, even as signetti is talking as junk

and doing his trash and doing all those things, that would be the one between Penn State and Oregon though, Paul says something, my heart says Oregon. They're just something about that game that I continue to look through. And maybe it's because our Oregon guy here on locked on, he's a loud mouth. And maybe it's because our Oregon guy here on locked on, he's a loud mouth and maybe it's because of that. And I would just absolutely love to see it. But that game in early November, Iowa coming off a bye week back at home, it'll be their third consecutive home game. They should be well rested, rare to go for November. Kirk Farrance's success that they've had in the month of November,

that I think the Ducks could be in trouble. Now, again, it's Oregon, and at the pace that they play, and when things start to roll downhill, there's just no stopping it. But that one intrigues me. That one leaves, we saw last year year an Oregon team that ran rough shot through the Big Ten dominating and outside of the game or the two games against Ohio State the tight one that they had in the regular season that they pulled off in Austin and then the one of course that got away from them in the Rose Bowl during the college football playoff. Oregon was great almost every single game they played in the

elite level except for one game against Wisconsin. When they went into Wisconsin, that Wisconsin team, as we know, they stunk and the Badgers were there. That was a winnable game for Wisconsin in Camp Randall towards the back half of the season. That's the one that I continue to think. Penn State, boy, they're good. Penn State, Drew Aller, there's still more for him to figure out, being able to do it in big moments. I'll take my shot against James Franklin, one of the most unlikable figures in college football, and the whining and the complaining, and that fan

base, and even their media. Going to Big Ten Media Days, I will tell you, that is something completely different. But all that being said, I'm with you there. I think that there is something with that Oregon GamePall. I think that there is more there that leaves you saying, you know what, this could be a little bit different. This goes back to our conversation and Caitlin Clark. As far as the allegations against the fever, this comes from Retro Sports Vision. Angel Reese has already has what she wants. She wanted to get this narrative out to the public. True or untrue, people can't unhear what she has already said. You know, here's the part about Caitlin versus Angel that drives me crazy. We're a game into

the season, right? We're one game into the year, and this narrative's already out there. And it turns into just this negativity, this ugliness that comes along with it. For me, I want to talk about the games. Yes, if there's controversy, we'll mention it. But I like talking about games. I don't like the controversy. I don't like what it turns into, the narratives that are out there, and the things that are just patently false, because people have their different agendas.

People have their different viewpoints, and they want to get it out there. And then it gets into politics. And if you know me, I will not be talking politics, certainly on this platform, on the radio platform. That's not what I do. If we know each other, want to have a conversation, sure, that's what I do. I'm not comfortable doing that in front of a microphone, in front of a camera. That's not me. And that's a lot of times what this comes into. It becomes political, it becomes about race, it becomes about more than what's happening between the lines. And that's what I enjoy talking about. That's why I enjoy taking a look at analytical looks at things that in the grand scheme of things might not mean anything. It might mean absolutely nothing. That's what we do. Thanks for your

questions. I know there's a bunch more out there. We'll start to sprinkle them in as we're getting into the off season here. Iowa baseball wrapping up. It's a great display at track and field for the Iowa track and field programs but as we're coming to the end of the season, we're looking for these kind of things. Your questions. So, set them in at any time. We'll hit them up from time to time as well and get your thoughts in here as well on Locked on Hawkeyes. We continue and a look at that Iowa baseball team.

Iowa baseball two wins away from the NCAA tournament It's not gonna be an easy path, but perhaps that path opened up just a little bit We'll tell you why when we come back locked on Hawkeyes Back with you one final time at the lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. I'm Trent Conda. Thanks for being with us as always and making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen of the day. For more on the Hawkeyes, make sure you subscribe to Lockdown Hawkeyes wherever you get your podcasts or here on YouTube. Just click that button. Just takes a minute. So last night, late into the evening, stayed up way too late watching a game that meant absolutely nothing as Iowa falls at the hands of Indiana. So the Hoosiers, their

season comes to a close. The real possibility also in the Big Ten that that could be very successful as it pertains to what we're going to get with baseball and the number of teams getting in to the NCAA tournament. So Iowa falls to number 73 in the RPI. As we talked about leading into this, I thought the only path for Iowa was for them to win the Big Ten tournament. And now that absolutely is the case. They'll get UCLA on Saturday. Saturday night, six o'clock against the Bruins. UCLA is like Oregon, like Oregon State. This is a team that plays at an incredibly high level and we've seen that gap but this is also a one-off game. A one-off game. So you go through and you look at this UCLA squad. They come in an RPI number 13.

They're 41 and 15 overall. 22 and 8 in conference play this year. They're hot. They're playing well down the stretch. Of course, come into this one after getting the series win against Northwestern, had a sweep against Illinois. There's been some close calls in there. Illinois, back in the opening round of the Big Ten tournament, felt like they could have got them.

This is going to be a tall task though. The good news is, Iowa's rested. Iowa got guys off their feet yesterday, didn't have to play everybody, get a few of bats, get some new guys out there, get their eyes on live pitching. They were able to do that. But most importantly, Ben Dutte, he got the start. And after Dutte, they threw a bunch of bullpen arms out there. Now you got Savory. Now you got Buter. Now you got the full complement of guys. And on top of it, if Iowa can get to Sunday, if they can pull this upset off against UCLA, Katie Obermuller is not going to be able to give them a full start. But can he get 50, 60 pitches out of them? Can he get two, three innings? I think that's

something that can be there. And as we await the winner of Nebraska-Oregon, and that'll be the fourth of the semifinalists, Penn State's already there. And with Penn State already being there, they were the number nine team in the Big Ten. They were the ninth seed coming in, they tied for eighth place. They are a team kind of like Iowa.

And again, it's baseball. One upset can completely change things, and that's now the case for Penn State Come down to it Penn State plays well beat Xavier their final series of the regular season a good Big East team Beat Washington beat USC and if they pull off one more upset That's who Iowa could face in the Big Ten championship game a lot to be done We'll talk a little bit more about that matchup against UCLA and just how

difficult it is going to be. We'll do that on tomorrow's show. Your team every day. That's what we do here on the Lockdown Network. I got you covered on the Hawkeye Front. Talking all things Hawkeyes each and every day. Thanks for being with us and thanks again to all of your questions. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Tom Kaker from HawkeyeReport.com. He'll stop by and talk with us.

Until then, go Hawks.