Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - We're back! | Big Ten media day thoughts | Depth chart reactions | Watch lists are overrated

Episode Date: July 23, 2019

After a three-week hiatus we are finally back and we have an action-packed episode for you all covering the recent preseason award watch lists (sorry Mekhi Sargent, we didn't talk about you and the Doak Walker), thoughts on Big Ten media days, and our reactions to the depth chart release.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are listening to the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering the Iowa Hawkeyes for the Locked On Sports Network, hosted by Andrew Wade, editor at DearOldGold.com. Hey everybody, welcome to this glorious Tuesday morning episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. I am your host, Andrew Wade, editor over at DearOldGold.com, where you can get daily information on your Iowa Hawkeyes as part of the Fan Sighted Network, a fantastic website, so make sure to check that out, DearOldGold.com. And we are finally back.

We took about a two- to three-week hiatus, so I appreciate you kind of sticking with us. Wanted to take that time. Obviously, lots of stuff going on personally and professionally, but wanted to take that time to really get a good understanding of how I wanted to refocus the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast and kind of shift what we're going to be doing on this show as we get ready for the Hawkeyes football season. Lots of great stuff that're going to be doing on this show as we get ready for the Hawkeyes football season. Lots of great stuff that's going to be coming up.

A lot of stuff that's been kind of going on. It's been kind of a slower month in terms of real news, but what we've been getting is a lot of those preseason watch lists, some of those preseason awards, preseason rankings, all those sorts of things. So I want to talk a lot about that. We are going to give you three episodes this week, and we're going to be doing three episodes until the end of August. Once we get into football season,

we're going to be coming out with five episodes a week every single day, an episode of the Iowa Hawkeyes, talking obviously daily content, 20 to 25 minutes, giving you a great ton of stuff to listen to for the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. So I appreciate you tuning in. I appreciate you sticking with us, and I appreciate all the love and support going forward. Make sure to follow us on Twitter at Locked on Iowa and Facebook at Locked on Hawkeyes.

Also, if you haven't subscribed to this podcast, please like and subscribe wherever you download this podcast out, whether that is Apple podcast, Google podcast, Spotify, or the Himalaya podcast app. We have some awesome stuff coming up as well. Like I said, I wanted to kind of shift our focus of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. We're going to be trying to do some standard weekly segments with a few great Iowa Hawkeye players. Trying to get some people coming on every single week to talk about Iowa football in the future. So you're going to love that stuff.

We have some great giveaways coming up as well, some t-shirt stuff. in the future, so you're going to love that stuff. We have some great giveaways coming up as well, some t-shirt stuff. We also are going to be actually this week at the basketball tournament interviewing and talking with some of the Iowa United players and covering that, so make sure to tune into that as well on ESPN. They're going to be playing

Thursday night, 8pm Central Time against the Aftershocks, the Wichita State Alumni team, but we're going to be covering that. We'll be on site for the game, hopefully getting some great player interviews after that. We're also going to be having Matthew Crawford on after that weekend to talk about the Iowa United hopefully talking about what the upcoming games are going to look like if not we're going to be talking about kind of what the future holds for the Iowa United team it is their first year in existence he wants to make this an annual thing

so I want to talk to him about what the direction is going to be of this team. For today's show, though, we have three great pieces to cover. I want to talk about the watch list. Nate Stanley is on the Davey O'Brien Award watch list, the Maxwell Award watch list, AJ Penez is on the Beneric Award watch list, and Nate Whiting is on the Mackey Award watch list. I want to talk about that. We're also going to be talking about the stuff that went down during Big Ten Media Days. You've likely seen a lot of the content come out from some of the great coverage people,

whether that is the guys from The Athletic, The Gazette, 24-7 Sports, lots of great stuff they brought out to you, trying to cover the Iowa Hawkeyes at Big Ten Media Days. I was not able to make it out, unfortunately, but they did provide a lot of great stuff. And obviously, Kirk Ferens' interviews were aired, so that was fantastic to listen to. So we're going to be talking about what went on during Big Time Media Days. And then finally, the kind of breaking news for the Iowa Hawkeyes, the depth chart was

released, the preseason depth chart going into camp. I want to talk about some of our reactions to that as well. So we're going to get to that on segment number three so let's jump right into it though with segment number one the watch list like i said nate stanley was on the davey o'brien in the maxwell award watch list the one thing i want to caution people with this is it feels like everyone gets on these watch lists it's kind of like participation trophies there could be 20 people in the event 16 people are getting a freaking participation trophy. I think that's garbage. Honestly, I don't know how they kind of formulate these lists, but it really feels like they just kind of take anyone who started last year and put them on this

list this year. So Nate Stanley being on this list doesn't really mean much in the grand scheme of things. At the end of the day, anyone can kind of jump up and take that spot, even if they weren't on that watch list. What really matters is once you get into the semifinalist list and the finalist list and whether or not Stanley's going to be on there. A good example, though, is Brad Banks was certainly not on anyone's watch list going into that 2002 season. He ended up winning a few awards. So a lot of things can change from here until then. I honestly don't look too much into it with Nate Stanley. Not a big deal.

I don't honestly think he's going to win either of those awards. That being said, if he were to win, it would take an impressive effort. He would need to break a few records from the Iowa Hawkeyes, including Chuck Long's season record, potentially break the career record for passing yards, which would be quite an effort for Nate Stanley. That would be a 4,000, 5,000-yard passing season. The Iowa Hawkeyes would have to go to the

College Bowl playoffs. I just don't, you know, if they win 10 games, I don't think Stanley's on that list. He does have the potential though, right? He does have a lot of those skills that you would like to see. He has a big arm. He can shake defenders off. He makes some pretty throws occasionally, but I don't see him take any risk. I also

don't like his accuracy. A lot of big concerns there as well. So, you know, this year could be a big year for him. It could be like a Brad Banks type of year. It could be a CJ Bethard type of year where we saw him kind of just regress in his senior year. Not a lot of great statistical production from him. So it'll be interesting to see kind of how that all plays out. AJ Paneza and the, you know, Baderic. I'm going to keep butchering that all day. I'm going to keep checking on that real quick so I don't keep butchering that. And apparently Google kind of sucks for finding out how the hell to say this word.

So if you are listening to the show and you're getting annoyed by the fact that I keep butchering the Baderic Award, you know, kind of name, let me know. Happy to hear about it. Want to get that fixed. I just can't for the life of me pronounce it very well today. But anyways, the point of that whole piece is AJ Epinesa is on that watch list. Again, just like Nate Stanley, they basically include everyone and their grandmother. It doesn't really matter to be on that watch list. I do, however, think AJ Epinesa does have a good chance of winning it. All right, it goes to the nation's best defensive player. He does have some good competition. I

would say Chase Young out of Ohio State. Grant Delpit out of LSU. Dylan Moses out of Alabama. Those are some big name guys who could put up some big time production. And potentially be in the running for that award. Epinesa though. I think if he puts up 15 to 17 sacks. Maybe 20 to 25 tackles for loss. A couple big highlight plays like he had last year against Illinois.

Maybe pushing a few Big Ten offensive tackles on their butts. That kind of stuff is going to get him some of that recognition to potentially win that award. And the other guy, Nate Whiting, on the John Mackey Award. Honestly, this is just kind of one of those things where you expect an Iowa tight end to do well, so just include him by default. We've had some great tight ends in the past. The Iowa Hawkeyes are the leading team to win the John

Mackey Award. I believe they're tied with one other team and I think it is Arkansas. But in terms of production-wise, Iowa is great at producing tight ends. Last year obviously having two first-round tight ends in T.J. Hawkinson and Noah Fant. Nate Whiting is included by default, and it makes

sense. But again, this award is kind of garbage as well. We'll see how it all plays out. Nate Whiting is included by default, and it makes sense. But again, this award's kind of garbage as well. We'll see how it all plays out. Nate Whiting might not even be the starter. He could just be kind of a big blocking tight end, maybe get 10 to 15 catches in the year. I'm really excited to see what Sean Byer does, though, as tight end for the Iowa Hawkeyes. That covers it, though, for the watch list. Again, just kind of an interesting thing. As you get those watch lists, it goes on their record. You see it on the Iowa Hawkeye roster. There's a description about them. But it really means absolutely nothing right now.

So we'll keep you posted as we get into those finalist lists, those semi-finalist lists, and see if any other Iowa Hawkeyes make these lists. But for right now, it's just kind of an interesting thing to keep us interested and busy before football season actually begins. So we're going to take a quick break, give you a few messages from our sponsors, and then we're going to jump into Big Ten Media Days and some of the stuff that went on during that. We are back with segment number two for the day,

talking to you about Big Ten Media Days. And a lot of things I want to cover, a couple comments from Kirk Ferenc, I want to make sure we touch on some big-time topics. Obviously, Oliver Martin was a big topic for both Michigan and Iowa, Big Ten realignment. So we're going to cover all that stuff on segment number two, starting with Amir Smith-Marset. Kirk Ferentz made a really interesting comment that he was in the doghouse. He could do better. He needs to kind of pick it up.

And you kind of saw that from his freshman year to his sophomore year. They really tried getting him the ball a lot of times. And he kind of struggled his freshman year holding onto the ball, making a little bit of maybe some bad reads. In his sophomore season, he did a fantastic job in the return game but still wasn't able to get as involved as we would have liked to see in

the offensive attack, the aerial attack. Hopefully that is fixed going into this season. One of the writers for Dear Old Gold, Ryan Sykes, made a good comparison to Akron Wadley, a guy who was really in the doghouse early in his career for fumbles. And then he picked it up and he ended up being one of the most exciting players in Iowa football history. So hopefully that's the same thing with Amir Smith-Marset. Also kind of interesting, he followed me on Daryl Gold,

which I thought was kind of weird because they're not supposed to be having Twitter, but we'll see how that all plays out as well. That was a really interesting thing to see that he's still on Twitter a little bit. Maybe, maybe, maybe not. Maybe there's someone else on his account. I don't know, but I thought that was really interesting and some really weird timing with the Kirk Ferentz news. Nate Stanley also, one of the things that Kirk Ferentz said was that he needed to loosen up and joke and smile a little bit.

I think one of the big takeaways here is that we forget that these kids are college kids, but it's basically a job slash a career for them. And Stanley's under a lot of pressure. He's been on the microscope as expected to be this big-time quarterback for the Iowa Hawkeyes. And I think no matter what he does, he just can't live up to those expectations to Iowa football fans. People expect him to be the boy savior, boy genius of the Iowa Hawkeyes football team, being that quarterback who can lead them to the promised land. So this year will be really huge for his kind of legacy as an Iowa Hawkeye quarterback. If he's able to lead Iowa to a 10-2 record, 11-1 record, a Big Ten West title, even a Big Ten title, you could

see Iowa football fans kind of forget about some of the things they questioned him on over the previous seasons. Another funny thing I kind of heard was Michael Ojemudia. Basically, they asked him what kind of prep he did for Big Ten media days, and he said, I was told to not say anything stupid. And he did a pretty good job of that. Another guy, Torin Young, was also there. That was the three players there, Nate Stanley, Ojemudia, and Torin Young. And one of the big comments I took away from his interview was the fact that he said,

you know, all the running backs need to really embody the idea of selflessness. And that's a huge thing, as we've seen over the past couple years. Even when Akron Wadley was the guy there, James Butler was getting a lot of carries. Iowa likes to split it up between a few guys, really likes to have that power and that speed combination. McKee Sargent's really that starter right now. Iowa likes to split it up between a few guys, really likes to have that power and that speed combination. McKee Sargent's really that starter right now, but Torin Young's expecting to get some good carries per game and likely be that bulldozing, kind of ramming running back at the end of the game to wear down defenses. And then obviously Ivory Kelly-Martin is a speedster, a guy who can hit the home run

every single time he touches the ball. So I bet they're going to spell him a little bit in there as well. But I thought that selfless comment really hit home with how they're going to be rotating those backs in. The two big topics, though, of the Big Ten media days, at least from an Iowa perspective, was the Big Ten realignment. And the fact that people are not happy with how the conferences are divided right now between the West and the East. Personally, I love the geographical division between the two. I think it makes a lot of sense it also saves money for these college football teams not having to travel as far

it allows fans to be able to go to these events a little bit easier right if i was in a division with maryland or ruckers i first of all i wouldn't go to those games anyways because ruckers sucks and i hate baltimore and that whole general state of Maryland but we're not going to those games. It's a lot easier to go to a game in Nebraska or Minnesota or Wisconsin or Northwestern Illinois those games are all five hours or less away so a lot easier for Iowa

Hawkeye fans to make it to those games which I think is really important in terms of the Big Ten structure. The other thing too though is people are getting pissed off that the East has so much talent there. I think you're forgetting that this is not a short-term decision. You don't make decisions because three years were down years. Teams are getting better.

Nebraska, as much as I hate to say it, is going to be a better team. Wisconsin is typically a pretty solid team. Northwestern is building a team very similar to Iowa in the sense of being able to really compete every few years and always being a tough out. And then Minnesota, I'll believe it when I see it, but they do have a lot of talent on that team under P.J. Fleck. So really the idea of realigning the conferences or the divisions makes no sense from a long-term perspective. I love the geographical proximity that each of the divisions kind of give you. I also like the fact that the Big Ten West is going to be good in a few years.

These teams are really building to something else later on. Nebraska is going to be solid. Wisconsin's already solid. Iowa's there. You know, this is going to be a lot better division than we've seen in the past. The other thing I would think, if they were to make a change, and I did read about this, I thought it was really interesting, is the fact that when they were trying to divide up the divisions,

they actually were split between Michigan State and Purdue and where to put those teams at. Both those teams are kind of right by each other on what division they should play in. If you really wanted to make a change, put Michigan State on the west side and that will at least make some fans a little bit happier. Purdue is not historically as good as Michigan State. So you put Michigan State on our side, make sure they are protected rivalry with Michigan. I think that still makes it a pretty even division split. So maybe that's kind of what the next step is with that Big Ten realignment. The other big thing out of Big Ten media days was Oliver Martin. Jim Harbaugh had some comments to say about him. He basically made the comment that Oliver Martin was going to be the top of the depth chart. I saw some people get

pissed off about that, thinking maybe he's trying to hurt Oliver Martin's chances. I truly think he was just being honest. Maybe that's just me being a good person and wanting to think the best of people, but I think he was truly surprised to see Oliver Martin leave, even though he was the starter. He did make a couple mentions that I thought was interesting about mental health and that kind of thing,

so maybe there's some other things that he knows about that we don't, that also could actually play in favor of Oliver Martin. Kirk Ferentz also talked about the fact that they did hire a lawyer to help out with that situation. Anytime you hire a lawyer, it's going to be a little bit more helpful. Mark Morehouse of the Gazette actually posted something pretty interesting as well, that the longer this plays out, the better chance it is for Oliver Martin. They're not making a quick decision, which means they're actually considering it. So that'd be a huge, huge, huge, huge get for the Hawks to be able to get Oliver Martin this season. He's a big time receiver. He's a guy who's been

there, done that. He started a game last year for Michigan. He'd be a great guy to have as a trio with Brandon Smith and Amir Smith-Marset. So lots of interesting stuff there. We'll be covering that as that news continues to come out and breaks out. That'll do it for segment number two, covering what went down at Big Ten Media Days. On segment number three, we're going to cover the

depth chart reactions and go into that piece of the puzzle and that awesome news that was breaking last week. There's a lot of questions that popped up from seeing that initial depth chart reactions and kind of go into that piece of the puzzle and kind of that awesome news that was breaking last week. There's a lot of questions that kind of popped up from seeing that initial depth chart that we want to cover on segment number three. So stay tuned after a few messages from our sponsors. All right, we are back with segment number three, the final segment of today's Locked On Hawkeyes show.

We are going to be talking about Tyda and Nate Whiting and the fact that he is currently number one on the depth chart right in front of Sean Byer. We're also going to be talking about the defensive tackle battle between Davian Nixon and Austin Schulte. We're also going to be covering Nick Neiman not being a starter right now and the secondary depth, quarterback depth,

and the punter depth. So let's start with tight end Nate Whiting. He is currently listed as the number one tight end. I don't think, I'm not going to think too much into that just because the Hawks do play two and three tight ends quite a bit. Drew Cook not being on there obviously means that he is not close to winning that battle. I would like to think that Sean Byer recovering from the injury is going to get better as the camp progresses. But a lot of good news coming out of camp with Nate Whiting. It sounds like he was injured the past couple years.

Could be a breakout player that we're not expecting. You know, a lot of people are sleeping on him, not thinking he's going to be the main guy, but, you know, he's still number one on the tight end chart. He actually started in the Outback Bowl, so maybe we should be paying attention right now. Interestingly enough, Davian Nixon and Austin Schulte were listed as an or on the depth chart for the second team. I think that's interesting because the Hawks do things intentionally.

They don't just put things out there. They wouldn't put an or for no reason. They did that because these two guys truly are locked in a battle. Whoever wins that job is going to get some playing time. Phil Parker likes to rotate out his defensive linemen, especially the defensive tackle position. Davian Nixon was a guy who was looking to transfer. Looks like he's back in the good graces of the Iowa Hawkeye coaching staff. Austin Schulte, a guy who's been in the program for a few years, battling with Nixon.

So it'll be interesting to see what that all plays out like. If Schulte doesn't get that job, does he transfer? Does he stay? What happens there? What will Nixon do? Does he transfer? I mean, he was looking at transferring earlier this year, put his self or put his name in the transfer portal. So what happens, depending on who wins that job, also kind of impacts playing time and their future with the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Nick Neiman not being a starter was interesting to me as well. I thought he played pretty well last year. I really liked how quickly he went to the ball. It seemed like he was around every play. He did make a mistake in the Wisconsin game, not really getting his hands up very well on pass coverage, but I really thought he was one of the better pro prospects from a linebacker perspective.

He's also a junior, too, so he's actually getting beat out by a sophomore. I'm really shocked to see him as the second string there. It may just be that they really like the athleticism of some of the other guys, but I was very shocked to see him on the second string spot. And then I'll see Dylan Doyle at the middle linebacker spot at number two. Secondary depth, we got a little bit of clarification here. Michael Ojemudia is listed at the number two corner spot. Julius Brentz is still on the second string.

DJ Johnson is at the cash roll. And Kayvon Merriweather is at the free safety roll. That's kind of what we've been hearing, but seeing it on paper is another thing. I really thought Ojemudia might push for that cash role. He was a linebacker in high school. He's a little bit bigger guy. He's a great tackler. I really thought he could be a cash role

in putting Brents at that number two corner spot. I think you have to get your best talent on the field. Maybe that's what they think that is right now. That is their most talented players, but I really thought Julius Brents can make a huge impact on the field right away as a sophomore. Peyton Manziel is currently listed at the number two spot for quarterback.

This camp battle is going to be heated, and really this could be kind of the out for a few guys. Depending on who wins that camp battle could determine if we're going to see any transfers at the end of the season. So Peyton Manziel has been the frontrunner for a while. I really think Spencer Petras could make a big play. I don't foresee Alex Padilla doing much this year to separate himself or put himself in that running,

but I really think it's a two-man battle between Manziel and Spencer Petras, and it'll be interesting to see who ultimately wins that. And then finally, the punters. You know you don't have a lot of holes or questions on a team when people see a def chart and freak out about the punter situation. Or that could just mean how bad the punting situation was. And believe me, it was atrocious. One of the worst in the entire nation last year

with Colton Rastetter just struggling as a punter doing that rugby-style kick. We did bring in Michael Sleep Dalton. And the one thing to note is just because he wasn't listed does not mean Colton Rastetter won. It means he came a little bit late as a transfer student. And they don't put transfer students or late transfer students on the depth chart. So I expect to see that change over the course of the next month. I expect to see Michael Sleep Dalton as the punter. But for now, we're going to deal with the fact that Colton Rastetter is the number one punter on the list, but it is just more of

a tomato-tomato thing, not a big deal right now. But that kind of covers it for our depth chart reactions. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. I'm back. I'm excited to be back. I'm glad we can start getting back into some of these things, and we do have some great interviews coming up with some former Iowa Hawkeyes football players. We also, like I said, we're going to be covering the Iowa United as they join the TBT tournament

they're taking on Wichita State another Iowa Hawkeyes actually actually I think two Iowa Hawkeyes have been added since we've talked last on the show Mel Sambasabi and Matt Gatins two former Hawkeyes also Cyrus Tate is on the team so a lot of Iowa representation there we're going to be covering all that this week in Wichita. So make sure you tune in to the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. We'll be tweeting from our Twitter account, Locked on Iowa. Also be providing some Facebook updates at Locked on Hawkeyes. So if we aren't able to give you the instant coverage,

we'll be posting videos and whatnot to our Twitter and our Facebook accounts as we cover the Iowa United in the TBT tournament. So make sure to tune in to that as well. I appreciate you all jumping on the show today. This Tuesday morning show. Like I said we're already giving you three episodes a week. Until football season begins. And then we'll jump into five episodes a week.

Likely doing episodes Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. I'll try to get to a Monday, Wednesday, Friday kind of rhythm. But it's a little bit more difficult. I have a lot of weddings on weekends. Not exactly easy to record when you're busy all weekend. So deal with it. I'll try to let you know what's going on on our Twitter account. Again, I appreciate you all jumping on.

Make sure to like and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast out, whether that was Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or the Himalaya Podcast app. That's how we get rated. That's how we get seen and heard. So much appreciation if you can go and do that. It would be awesome for all of you great listeners of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast to spread the great word of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast.

That being said, though, I hope you have a fantastic Tuesday morning, and I will talk to you all tomorrow. Have a great day, Hawkeye Nation, and go Hawks! We'll be you next time.