Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Week 3 AP Poll reactions | Breaking down the injury report and the lack of depth in the secondary | Beginning the unpacking of the CyHawk game

Episode Date: September 11, 2019

We start today's episode breaking down our reactions to the Week 3 AP Poll and the movement that happened there before examining the injury report and how it has impacted Iowa's defensive strategy. We finish up by unpacking some of the Iowa-Iowa State rivalry stuff before our two big episodes in the next two days.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I thank God I was born on the good arms of the Midwest, and not on the battlefields of the U.S. It's a time of panic, and it's intercepted! It's picked off right away! Intercepted by Marty Hooker! Pick six! Eight seconds into the game! Buffen sets up deep in the pocket, goes down the field for Smith!

Oh! He's got it! Smith! Touchdown. 85 yards. High on. Touchdown, 10. Taking a shot in the end zone.

It is caught. No offense. Touchdown. That's either one or you have it. Go ahead and three. Yes. Two-point lead for the Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Lockdown Sports Network.

As always, I am one of your hosts, Andrew Wade, editor over at dearoldgold.com. I am unfortunately not joined here today by my co-host Zach Cohen, mostly because of my own fault. I was not feeling well last night. We were unable to record, so I'm trying to get you some content out this Wednesday morning as we are getting very close to the hated rivalry with Iowa and Iowa State. Want to make sure we're covering some of those news and tidbits that we can get you this Wednesday morning. We're going to be having a show for you Thursday and Friday morning as well, covering some of the matchups you should be aware of, giving our game predictions, that sort of thing.

So make sure to tune in to those episodes going forward. If you do like what you hear today, or if you like what you heard in the past and you haven't done this already, make sure to like, review, and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast at, whether that is Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or the brand new Himalaya Podcast app. And make sure if you do have social media to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. We have some great giveaways coming up once we hit 1,000 followers on Twitter. That's going to include autographed merchandise from your former favorite Hawkeyes. All right, so for today's show, we are going to be covering our AP poll thoughts.

Obviously, some good movement on the AP poll. Some of the teams we didn't want in the AP poll are finally out. Want to cover that. On segment number two, we're going to be talking about the injury report and kind of what it means for the Iowa Hawkeyes going forward. And then finally, on segment number three, we're going to start kind of peeling back that onion of the Iowa-Iowa State matchup. We are not going to get into the big, big pieces of that matchup until tomorrow, but want to start just kind of, like I said,

uncovering a few little things here and there on segment number three, get you prepped for the game this Saturday. So let's jump right into it with segment number one, the AP poll. If you did get a chance to see the ESPN AP poll, two teams that you probably are very aware of dropped out. Iowa State is no longer in the AP poll, and neither is Nebraska. Nebraska was definitely expected after they blew a 17-7 lead over Colorado in the fourth quarter. They lost on a missed field goal in double overtime, I believe. And it's one of those things where I think we should always be rooting for Big Ten teams and non-conference schedules, except for Nebraska.

I mean, Wisconsin go win. Northwestern, I was rooting for you against Stanford. Nebraska, I hope you crap the bed every single game. I think it's just kind of come to that at this point. I cannot stand Nebraska fans on Twitter they are I would say I would put a claim in for the worst fan base on Twitter yet just absolutely terrible atrocious just so delusional about what their team can do the fact that they lost to Colorado I still think they're a good team I think they just still have a lot of weaknesses they need

to figure out and I think that's what makes them vulnerable I've been saying it for a while I don't think they are a 10-win team I don't think they are a team that wins the Big Ten West I still think that's firmly between Iowa and Wisconsin I think they are more of a you know a 7 and 6 team once they win their postseason game or maybe a an 8 and 5 team I just I just don't see them winning every single game they do have a relatively easy schedule but I think this just goes to show you there's still a lot of work to be done in the Scott Frost era. Again, I think Adrian Martinez is a good quarterback, will be a good quarterback. I think Scott Frost is a good coach, will be a coach once he gets the right players in place and also learns how to discipline someone for the first time, which is a little bit ridiculous, but I won't get into that today.

But that's kind of my thoughts on that. Iowa State also dropped out. Kind of an interesting time to drop out. I think it was less of them doing something wrong considering they did not even play this past weekend and more of a few teams doing some good things. USC had a commanding victory 45-20 I believe this past weekend. Virginia won as well. Their 2-0 moved into the rankings. Maryland was the big riser. After kicking the crap out of Howard, a team that really doesn't matter and isn't good, they took care of Syracuse. Ranked Syracuse, 21 overall Syracuse.

They beat them by 40 points. And that was huge for Iowa to get ESPN's game day. So I was obviously rooting for Maryland, but they jumped up to 21st in the rankings. I actually don't believe Maryland is that good. Every year they have a really good upset early in the season, but their offense right now looks pretty explosive. So I got to give them some credit at this point. Looking good so far for the Maryland Terrapins. Iowa also moved up one spot to 19th. Again, not a lot of movement. Wasn't expecting a ton of movement. I do think if and when they beat Iowa State this weekend, they are going to jump up possibly to 18th, 17th, 16th, those areas,

also depending on what teams lose right there. We have Michigan State right in front of Iowa just barely, and UCF just barely in front of Michigan State. Texas A&M was dropping a bit, but obviously they lost to Alabama, so can't expect a ton there. On the coaches' pool side, Iowa did move up one spot to 18th. They actually jumped Michigan State over there. Maryland came in at 25th, so not as much love from the coaches' pool, which I totally get for the Maryland side. I just don't think they're that good, but I do like, obviously, the beat Syracuse. But that'll do it though for our covering of the AP poll. Obviously this poll doesn't ultimately matter a ton. It is going to give you a little bit of an idea of

what's going to happen when we have the college football playoff rankings come out, but this is not what they base it off of. It's just a good idea of where Iowa is going to fall, but obviously the fact that Iowa is in the poll in general, is moving up, is going to be huge, especially if they can take care of business of some of these big games they have coming up. The Iowa States, the Michigans, the Penn States. A lot of opportunity for movement for Iowa. One thing I didn't cover that I do want to cover is the Michigan State, not the Michigan State game, the Michigan game.

The fact that it took them a while to beat Army. Not an overly impressive performance. Army isn't a bad team, but not an overly impressive performance. They dropped three spots in the poll to 10 Army. Not an overly impressive performance. Army isn't a bad team, but not an overly impressive performance. They dropped three spots in the poll to 10th. Jim Harbaugh teams just don't really scare me. Just got to be honest here. So I do think there's, obviously going to

Ann Arbor is going to be tough, but I think there's an opportunity for Iowa to go in and maybe steal that game in Ann Arbor in a few weeks. But that'll cover it for segment number one of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. We're going to be coming back after a few messages from our sponsors. But first, before I do that, I do have a message for you, the listener, because I do care about you all and I want you to know about some great deals we have coming up from the Locked

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Enter KICKOFF on your next Vivid Seat purchase and save up to $100. With those savings, you might be able to make it to the next Iowa game after all. We are back with segment number two of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes. And as we talked about before the show, we're going to be covering the injury breakdown for the Iowa Hawkeyes on this segment. Lots of stuff kind of going on. The two big ones that I really want to call out, obviously, Larrick Jackson, still not a lot of word on when he's going to be back. Knowing the Iowa Hawkeyes, they're going to hold those cards close to their chest. I think they're really targeting that Michigan game,

though. Let them sit out the Iowa State game. Let them sit out the Middle Tennessee State game. Let them sit out the bye and have them play in Michigan. I think that's kind of where they're heading with this right now. I think this makes sense, right? You don't want to get a Larrick Jackson back too early, possibly have him re-aggravate himself. Also, they're doing a really good job of kind of working the offensive line and reshuffling and getting players involved. This past weekend against Rutgers, Tristan Wirfs played, almost split it entirely down the middle. Six series at left tackle, five series at right tackle, I believe, with Mark Kallenberger coming in at that left tackle spot. So I love seeing that they're getting a lot of younger guys involved in the game. Kind of jumps into one of the injury pieces.

Cole Bamworth's been injured throughout kind of the camp. Hasn't played the last two games. We thought he might be a go going into the game against Rutgers. I didn't see him on the field. I didn't hear any reports of him getting any snaps. But it does sound like he is a go for this weekend. Right now he is listed as the backup center, which I think is kind of an interesting spot. He kind of, you know, he was listed as the, you know, kind of the or at right guard, but no longer there. Again, Iowa does a good job of holding some of these things close to their

chest and you can kind of read the tea leaves of what they want to do. It kind of depends on, I'll be interested to see how much he actually plays in this game and where his rotations are. It sounds like, you know, Kirk does want to get him in the game at some point. They're obviously not afraid to have him in game time, but at this point, if the players are playing well, Kyler Shaw is playing well, you don't want to disrupt that by putting Cole Bamwer in there right now. But as you've seen with the Larrick Jackson injury, all it takes is one person to go down before you need someone to absolutely be ready. In addition to the injury to Cole Bamwer, one of the big injuries I want to cover is the Matt Hankins undisclosed injury.

Sounds like he got a little banged up in the game against Rutgers. And that is really taking a toll on our cornerback depth. Going into this season, if you had to pick the top four corners, you'd have Matt Hankins, Michael Ojemudia, Julius Brents, and Riley Moss. Right now, our top four corners are none of those guys besides Ojemudia, Julius Brentz, and Riley Moss. Right now, our top four corners are none of those guys besides Ojemudia.

So if Hankins is unable to go, my guess is it's going to be DJ Johnson coming in to take the start. He is technically listed as the cash player, but part of the reason why Iowa has not played nearly as much 4-2-5 is because they have no depth at corner. This would be a great opportunity for DJ Johnson to get some time to play at that cornerback position and just get into the game in general. But right now, I mean, they really can't afford to have another injury. We have Terry Roberts as the third string corner.

Also at the safety position, Geno Stone was a little bit banged up but is able to play this week. Kind of limped off the field after kind of later in the game last week, but sounds like he's good to go. Kayvon Merriweather is not playing. He's still hurt from his foot injury he suffered last week. Jack Corner, the walk-on, is going to be playing. So overall, that secondary is just, it's really banged up. Iowa State, fortunately, doesn't have a Hakeem Butler this year. They do have some talented receivers and obviously a relatively potent passing attack with Brock Purdy. But this would be a good test for them against a Division I team that can throw the ball,

but without having the Michigan wide receiver group with the Donovan Peoples-Jones and those guys who could really tear apart a weaker secondary. So hopefully we can kind of get back in the swing of things and the secondary can be healthy and ready to go for some of the later games in the Big Ten. Obviously, hopefully Hankins can go this week, but it sounds like if he cannot, it's going to be DJ Johnson stepping in and taking over that spot with Michael Ojemudia playing on the other side. And Ojemudia is kind of an underrated guy who's had a really big year so far. Two interceptions, is kind of an underrated guy who's had a really big year so far. Two interceptions.

I've heard some talks about, you know, could Ojemudia possibly be the next, you know, Josh Jackson? Could he be the next Desmond King? I think maybe some of those things are getting a little ahead of themselves, but every year it seems like someone comes out and just starts picking out the ball left and right. Ojemudia has two so far, which is absolutely fantastic. So hopefully be relying on him to step up and have a big game this weekend. Again, like I said, a lot of people are wondering where the hell is that 4-2-5 at?

And right now you just can't do it if you don't have the personnel. And the big reason why they went to the 4-2-5 last year was just so they could get the most talented players on the field. We've talked about this before from a linebacker perspective, a little bit weaker last year. Geno Stone was emerging. They wanted to get him on the field. And Monty Hooker had the skill set to come down and play that kind of dimebacker role. And that's why they moved to that defense.

They obviously loved the conversion to it. They loved being able to play it. But if they don't have the personnel to do it, you're going to see Iowa being in a 4-3 a lot more often than you're going to see that 4-2-5. Also, Nick Neiman's been playing fantastic at that Leo spot, and then Jamon Colbert has been great, just absolutely fantastic playing that weak side linebacker. I really have loved seeing him do that. So just like I said, I mean, it's all going to be dictated by personnel, but we'll cover that obviously more as we get more information on the Matt Hankins injury and kind of the evolution of the 403 to the 425 on future episodes, future segments, that kind of thing.

We're going to jump into a few messages from our sponsors. Before we do that, though, I just want to make sure you remind you about the Vivid Seats app because you have the opportunity to make a memory that lasts a lifetime and let Vivid Seats app help you. They can get you to your favorite live event. All you need to do is enter promo code KICKOFF at checkout to receive a discount of up to $100. It's literally a great deal. Why would you not do that if you want to go to a sporting event or your next concert?

Just check out the Vivid Seeds app today. We are back with segment number three, our final segment of the day's show of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Wanted to kind of unbuckle some of the Iowa, Iowa State stuff. This is hate week. You're going to get a lot of crap on Twitter, Facebook, from your friends, people wearing Iowa shirts, Iowa State shirts everywhere they go. It is just the nature of the beast and it is a fantastic beast. And now that, you know, game day is coming to Ames or Lames as we'd like to call it. It is just an

interesting situation in general. You have, you literally have Iowa and Iowa State fans bickering back and forth about who brought game day to Ames. And I just want to clear this up. It is Iowa. game day to Ames. And I just want to clear this up. It is Iowa. Obviously, I think the rivalry itself is a lot of it. But if Iowa wasn't ranked, you're not going to see this game coming to Ames. Obviously, it would have been great had Iowa State managed to not, you know, crap the bed against Northern Iowa to have both teams ranked in this game. But neither here nor there at this point. I think it's just such an Iowa thing to do to bicker about who's getting college game day, right? Or who brought college game day.

Also, you hear Iowa State fans complaining or giving Iowa fans crap about the record in game day and the fact that Iowa's 1-6. Let me just start by saying we actually have been at game day. It's harder, you know, at least we have a win at game day. Iowa State's never even gotten a game day visit or been at a game where there's a game day. They haven't even been in a way team. So let's just kind of squash that. One of the things I did want to point out, you know, obviously there is a guest picker,

kind of a guest picker from the state for game day. Lots of kind of clamoring and trying to get people's names out there to see who could be that guest picker. It sounds like ESPN is going to be taking full control of that. But if I had to pick one person who I think should be the guest picker for ESPN's College Game Day, 100%, my vote goes to Laura Vandenberg, Matt Vandenberg's wife. Matt's been on the show, a fantastic guest, a great guy to talk to. I know his wife is really involved with Iowa Hawkeye Athletics. They kind of created a position for her to do some of the coverage of the Iowa Hawkeyes. So I think she'd be a great pick.

Obviously, the fact that it's an Ames means that is almost assuredly not going to happen. As far as other stuff with this game, like I said, we want to uncover some of the Iowa-Iowa State stuff. We're going to dig a lot deeper into this tomorrow. Just a few kind of tidbits about Iowa State in general. You know, a lot of talk about their offense now with few kind of tidbits about Iowa State in general. You know, a lot of talk about their offense now with Brock Purdy. I think what I'm more worried about, though, is their defense. Their defense has some outstanding players on it. Ray Lima, Greg Eyesworth, Brian Peavy, who feels like he's freaking been there forever.

You know, these are some talented guys. Peavy wasn't even named preseason All-Big 12. Four other Iowa State Cyclones were, including Marcel Spears. I can't remember their linebacker's name, and I'll get that for you. But he was included on that as well. Greg Eyesworth and then obviously Ray Lima. So a lot of big-time players they have on that defense. Keeping in mind that Big 12 is, in general, not exactly a great defensive conference. But Iowa State has really built their program kind of like a true blue blood like an Iowa or Wisconsin you know wanting to focus on running the ball wanting to focus on

playing good defense and having a good quarterback who's smart intellectual and can make all the right throws as far as this game goes you know this is the 67th meeting between these two teams this is a historic rivalry but the one thing I will say is that it's kind of weird. This isn't a very long rivalry considering Iowa's other series. They played more games against seven other schools. Ohio State's even one of them. Obviously, Minnesota, Wisconsin, those kind of teams. But it's just kind of interesting to think about the fact that, you know,

there was like a 40-year gap between the series. I'm glad it got renewed back in the 70s. And obviously, it's been a fantastic series ever since. Iowa at this point is 44-22 against Iowa State. They've won their last four. But in Kirk Behrens' time, they are 11-9 against the Iowa State Cyclones. And I think part of that is, actually, one of our contributors at DRL Gold did a really good job of kind of summing this up.

But one of the things you'll notice is when Iowa State beats Iowa, every year Iowa fans are like, oh my gosh, we just lost to Iowa State. Well, actually, it's usually that Iowa just didn't put out a very good team that season. And you know, you kind of chicken or the egg thing, right? Is it a loss to Iowa State that causes Iowa to spiral? Or is it Iowa just not having a team that causes Iowa State to actually win a game but in most of the seasons that Iowa State has beat Iowa they have gone on to have one of their worst worst seasons I know it's not a word but one of their seasons that isn't very good they've

averaged only seven wins and in you know seasons where Iowa has beaten Iowa State they've went on to win nine games on average so this is kind of a nice predictor of what we can expect from this Iowa team and I think Iowa fans are gonna be really excited to see what Iowa puts on the field games on average. So this is kind of a nice predictor of what we can expect from this Iowa team. And I think Iowa fans are gonna be really excited to see what Iowa puts on the field. Again, they've had, you know, a fantastic start so far. Obviously, the first half of that Miami of Ohio game was a little bit slow, but they got it kind of figured out as they went into the second half. I really love the offense. I love the passing attack. I like the fact that we have four running backs capable of carrying the ball. And honestly, I would like to see Tyler Goodson get the ball a little bit more.

I know Ivory Kelly Martin is technically listed as third on the depth chart, but I would like to see Tyler Goodson get the ball a little bit more. I loved his open field vision. I loved his ability to run that zone scheme, attack one cut, and then from there do his own thing in the open field. And had it not been for a shoestring grab from Rutgers, you know, he could have been off for the, you know, off to the races in the end zone last week. So I would love to see some of those guys get some playing time. But I do think this

is, you know, probably the best Iowa team, the Iowa State groups ever going to face. I know there's been talks about the 2002 team that barely lost to a Seneca Wallace led Iowa State team. There's also the 2019, but, and there's a lot of games to go, but this team definitely has the talent and the kind of talents at the highest ceiling they've ever had. They have the ability to be the best Iowa team in the last 21, 22 years. So I'm really excited to see how they come out and perform at Jack Trice Stadium at Iowa State.

It's going to be a big, packed house. If you are planning on being on ESPN's College Game Day, if you haven't checked it out, go to Iowa United's Twitter, the basketball tournament's Iowa team comprised of all four of the schools from Iowa, UNI, Drake, Iowa, and Iowa State. They are doing a great giveaway for someone who gets their sign on ESPN's College Game Day that says, bring TBT to Des Moines. If you haven't heard about it, there are some interesting talks and conversations happening that Des Moines might get a TBT tournament. And that would be huge for the Iowa United.

I went to my first TBT game this past summer watching the Iowa United and the atmosphere was absolutely electric. I would love to see the state just pack the well or something along those lines. I would love to see the state just pack the well or something along those lines. Yeah, sorry, not the well, but just pack the arena and have a fantastic atmosphere for our beloved four schools and play in the TBT tournament. So make sure to get a sign out there. Make sure to check out their Twitter account. I believe it's Iowa TBT.

They have some details about how to get into that giveaway. But that'll do it for our segment number three of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. I appreciate you all joining the show today. Obviously, love to have Zach back tomorrow. You know, obviously running it solo is a little bit differently, especially since I've had Zach as a co-host. So if you didn't like what you heard today, my bad. Suck it up. I still gave you some great stuff.

If you did like what you heard today, make sure to like, review, and subscribe wherever you download this podcast out, whether that is Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or the brand new Himalaya Podcast app. We'll be back tomorrow and Friday morning, really uncovering and breaking down some of these Iowa-Iowa State matchups and talking about some of the things that we're really interested in seeing in these games. Again, I appreciate you all tuning in to the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast this Wednesday morning episode.

Have a fantastic day, Hawkeye Nation, and go Hawks!