Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - What the Minnesota wins for the Hawkeyes season | Who is this Kirk? | The future of the Floyd of Rosedale rivalry game

Episode Date: November 16, 2020

We are joined by the host of Locked On Gophers to discuss this past Friday's game and what it means for these two programs going forward. We also talk more in depth on the timeout drama late in the game and how the last few minutes of the game could create a bit of fun before next year's game.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order.BuiltGoVisit BuiltGO.com and use promo code “LOCKED,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back, Hawkeye Nation, to another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, and today's episode is brought to you by Built Bar. Go to BuiltBar.com and use promo code LOCKEDON, L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N, and you'll get 20% off your next order.

And if you didn't get a chance to check it out, we already dropped that Monday morning recap with Matt Vandenberg. That's right, we're going to try to get that out early. You want to get that instant reaction to these games, we're going to try to get that to you as soon as we possibly can, as soon as Matt and I can record. We dropped that on Saturday. If you missed that, make sure to check that out.

45 minutes of awesome content as we break down the win over Minnesota from his perspective, with his insight into why they were doing certain things. On today's show, we're going to be doing a similar concept, but getting more into what this means going forward. So I am joined by Locked On Gophers host Nathan Dickinson. He's going to be talking to us about Minnesota. We're going to be talking about what this game means or meant for Minnesota versus Iowa and also kind of talking a little bit more about, you know, the three timeouts, the four timeout sequence where Kirk called those three timeouts

and PJ Flight called that one timeout, what that means for the future of this program. So we're talking a little bit about the game, doing a little bit of a recap, but mostly focusing on the future of these two programs on today's show. So let's hop into that conversation with Nathan Dickinson right now. You're listening back into the Locked On Golden Gophers podcast. I'm Nate Dickinson. We're joined here by Andrew Waite, the host of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. And we talked last week, but now he's got some bragging to do.

So he's back and we'll chat about exactly everything that happened in the battle for the bacon over the weekend. But Andrew, we talked last week about how, at least in my mind, the big battle was going to be what would Minnesota do against those running backs that Iowa has? And well, it was pretty much the story of the same that it's always been this season for Minnesota's defense. They weren't able to stop anything on the run. What did you take away from your team's performance on the ground? Yeah, I mean, our offensive line did a fantastic job, I thought,

of pulling and getting out in front of their block, you know, getting out in front of the running backs. Our running backs were being really patient as well. I mean, there was a couple times you didn't need to be patient because the holes were so freaking wide. But there's a couple times where I thought Minnesota had a good job of containing. And, you know, Makai Sargent, Tyler Goodson, they were very patient and letting the holes develop and kind of taking advantage of that. But, yeah, I mean, the running game couldn't have gone better, for my opinion, after watching Minnesota.

Minnesota, I mean, I don't know what the hell was going on with the rush defense, but it was just as bad as I had anticipated. Iowa's rushing attack has, you know, again, has been up and down. We talked about it on Friday. It's been a little bit up and down, and that was a really good confidence booster for me. We had two backup offensive linemen in there. I thought they did a really good job as well of, you know, again, putting pressure on that point of attack and getting the running backs some space. So I was pretty happy with the running attack, and I thought Minnesota has a huge hole they need to plug

because that's the game plan going forward. Spencer Petras didn't play that well of a game. You need to stop the run and force teams to pass if you're Minnesota. It really was exactly what I thought it would be. I didn't think Petras had had that much that he had shown that would suggest that he was going to win the game for Iowa. Minnesota's rush defense was terrible all season, and the running backs were able to take advantage of it yet again. Now, when we talked

last week, I didn't bring this up before, but really when I go into games, I think about like the four possible scenarios, either the blowout on either side, or you have a close win on either side. And the only option that I thought would not happen no matter what would be a Minnesota blowout. Either this is going to be a close game that someone would win or Iowa would end up taking it away. What do you feel like your team did so well, aside from just that run game, that allowed it to be so dominant throughout the entire game? There was really no stepping off the gas at all.

Yeah, I honestly thought the defense stepped up. I thought they put together a really nice blueprint for how to stop Minnesota. They basically said, we're going to stop the run and we're going to try to, you know, we're going to force you to throw the ball and hopefully to someone other than Rashad Bateman, but we're going to let Rashad. I mean, he's going to get his touches in his catches, but Minnesota, I mean, not Minnesota, Iowa manned up. They are predominantly zone coverage team.

They let everyone, everything stay in front of them. They don't like to get burnt deep. They played cover to man a lot throughout the game and repeatedly put different people on Rashad Bateman and like you said they're bracketing him I mean that's one of the things that teams have tried to do overshot Bateman is put two people over him bracketing him those kind of things right and Iowa did a fantastic job of that and they really forced Tanner Morgan to have to win the game by throwing the ball because the running game just wasn't getting going especially in the first half you get to the second half Iowa has a lead yeah they'll let you run for five six yards if you want to burn the clock I mean that that first possession in the fourth quarter Minnesota was

down 28 nothing and running the ball as if it was the first quarter I mean there was no urgency in that game plan and that's on Minnesota for not you know trying to go up tempo and try to get the passing and going but they really couldn't do that either. I thought I would just came out with a different defensive scheme that I'm typically used to seeing. And I thought they worked it to perfection. And we, I saw them working together perfectly. There was a specific play Rashad Bateman Tanner Morgan clearly wanted to go to him. It was a, it looked like a post corner and literally he transferred from three

different Iowa defensive backs. And at no point in that scenario, was he, was he open. And there was communication throughout that process. So I just thought, I mean, this isn't even against Minnesota. I just thought Iowa's defense played superb on Friday night. You mentioned a bit of a different scheme than what you were expecting. Could you go a little bit more into that? Maybe give some insight as to what they saw in that gopher offense

that they were able to exploit? Yeah, I mean, I think when you're playing a zone defense, obviously you're going to have holes in that zone, right? And the idea is that you want to limit the mismatch of your athleticism. If you're not an athletic team, you want to play zone so you can, you know, be smart, be in the right spots, right? Man coverage requires you to be manning up on that person and being a, you know, it is you versus that person.

Zone coverage can, you know, kind of hide some of those issues at times. Whereas the man coverage, you know, you're putting your person on an island, but when they do cover two men, and actually I just had a conversation with Matt Vandenberg. We, if you're listening to the show, definitely listen to our show yesterday as well. Cause Matt Vandenberg came on and talked a lot about this. But I went to the cover to man with the safeties over top,

which gives the corners a little bit of flexibility. If they do get burnt, the safety is going to pick them up. But if they stay on them, it limits the amount of weapons that Tanner Morgan can go to. And also it allows Iowa to put more pressure on him by blitzing, which they blitz a lot more in this game as well. So because they were coming from cover two man, that if you open defenders, we saw the safety blitz quite a bit more. I mean, I was not, I mean, they are a very, very vanilla defense, typically, right? Phil Parker does a great job of getting them in the right spots, but they don't typically do a lot of blitzing, especially from the defensive back position.

They hardly play any man. I mean, that's the knock on every Iowa corner coming out of Iowa is they have no, they have no tape on playing man coverage. But I was changing. And I love seeing that from Phil Parker. 20 years in the job, and he's still learning how to adjust and change. We saw a dollar look against Minnesota. I can't remember the last time I saw a 3-2 against Minnesota from Iowa's perspective. So I just thought, in general, Iowa did a good job of burying it up a little bit and mixing it up versus Tanner Morgan.

I need to quickly pause the conversation with Nathan because we do have a very important message for you. If you're anything like me, you're constantly on the go. You're constantly moving around. You're constantly doing things. Sometimes, you just need to take a second and chill. Or, in my case, I'm hiking up a 14er. You get to the top. You just need to take about 15-20 minutes to relax.

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Wade of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast joining us here on Locked On Golden Gophers after the matchup over on Friday. Andrew, this team right now is 2-2 again, and we talked about this last week too, about what this would mean before and after a win or a loss for this squad, but what exactly is the atmosphere right now? Because as you this last week too about what this would mean before and after a win or a loss for this squad but what exactly is the atmosphere right now because as you mentioned last week the team got the win they got back to even strength but it doesn't really feel like

there's any sort of shot at a big 10 uh championship appearance still and i don't know what what are you guys playing for still right now yeah i mean always played and you, you try to win every single game. If you go six and two and this, you know, in this, especially in this year with 2020 COVID, you don't know what the hell is going to happen. You're going to be ranked. You're going to be top 25. You might be top 15. I don't know how it's going to shake out with some of the teams that are doing pretty well. Right. But you're going to be in the rankings and you're going to get a decent bowl game. And I think given the struggles of the first two games, if Iowa were to win out, go 6-2, go to a bowl game, maybe go 7-2,

I think Iowa fans forget about those first two games. It's definitely going to be a what-if scenario. What if we would have won those two games, right? You're always going to play that in the back of your mind. But that's a solid season for Iowa, especially in what could be considered a rebuilding year. You have a new quarterback. You have a new quarterback. You have a brand new defensive line.

You lost a top 15 pick at offensive tackle. I mean, as much as Iowa returned, there is a lot of changes going on in this program, a lot of outside things that happened over the summer. I mean, I am pretty happy at this point sitting 2-2. I would prefer to be 4-0, obviously. I projected us to be 3-1, though, going into into this point from a long-term perspective, Iowa doesn't have a chance of winning the big 10 West. Northwestern beating Purdue yesterday was kind of the nail in the coffin. They have to lose three of their next four games and they have Wisconsin. All right.

You could count that a loss. Then you got Michigan State dumpster fire. You got Minnesota. No offense. I think Northwestern can their their attack is honestly more consistent than Iowa's from a running game perspective. And you got Illinois. Yeah, I mean, you theoretically could lose three games, but I think it's pretty unlikely at this point. So I was playing for a good bowl game. Sorry, that was a really long winded answer.

But what about I mean, what is Minnesota playing for? Do you I mean, what is the state of the nation in Minnesota you know for Minnesota Gophers right now what are you looking for next year are you I mean what what's going on there I I well yes I think the answer is yes I feel like after this loss you're kind of back where you were after the Maryland loss I mean Illinois gives you some confidence but I feel like everyone understood when you win that game that you beat Illinois. Illinois is a bottom-of-the-barrel Big Ten team, so it was still a question of, all right, what can this team do? Iowa served as like the next, or I guess first big test after the team had seemed to have regrouped a little bit as to, all right, how good have we actually gotten here?

And the answer was there hasn't been that much progress made at all so it's a situation where I feel like everybody's if not looking to next year already looking even further than that and trying to wonder what went wrong here and how does things get fixed there are some questions coming up with PJ Fleck as far as just I don't think his coaching but maybe his recruiting because he brought in early on some pretty highly rated classes. And now in his fourth year, this is the year where those guys are starting to get some regular minutes and playing time and all that. So I feel like that's the criticism on Fleck more so than the actual coaching and the play calling and all that. People are starting to wonder a little bit, why isn't this team able to turn over talent in the way that it seems like it should, or at least why isn't this team at least able to hold its own in the Big Ten right now in a season where it seems like everyone is able to surprise people?

And part of this has to do with 2020. I'm a firm believer that the teams that have a lot of experience coming back are benefiting a whole lot this season from all of that. And Minnesota has seven new starters on defense. So that works out but I'm still if you're a Minnesota Gopher fan I feel like you're right back in the dumpster that you were after the Maryland loss too with just how demoralizing this one was because even when you lose to Maryland you scored 44 points you were able to say all right well at least this was good

we fixed the defense and then we'll be okay. Against Iowa, it was all bad. And it really showed that this team in Minnesota doesn't know yet how to beat a team that's competent in the Big Ten. I don't know what will happen in the next week going forward. But as far as the evidence we have right now, Minnesota is not in any way, shape or form set to contend for any sort of wins against a team that's winning games in the Big Ten at all. Yeah, I mean, I was texting some buddies and some Minnesota fans, and I feel like they're almost getting fed up with P.J. Fleck. There's a very loud message he kind of exhibits.

He's a very vocal guy, very enthusiastic guy, but when you're losing, that message falls even harder than a message of a Kirk Ferens where it's kind of even-keeled. Right. So when you're, when you're PJ Fleck and you're always up and now you're losing, especially in a very important trophy game to an Iowa team that Minnesota, you know, Minnesota fans, Hey, that's a big freaking deal. I did want to touch on though, real quick with you. That last five minutes of the game was one of the most bizarre sequences I've

ever seen. And one of the most vindictive, almost like vengeful moments I've ever seen from Kirk Ferentz. I mean, that guy doesn't throw shade to anyone. He's a very even-keeled guy. I was very entertained by what was going on. Wanted to get your thoughts on P.J. Fleck keeping his ones in. That might have started it. I don't know.

I can understand why you keep them in. You want to get a touchdown, right? You want to have any sort of positivity coming out of that game. What was the decision there? And then we can kind of get into the challenge pass, the four timeouts in a row, that kind of thing. Yeah, as far as keeping the ones in, it's the same thing that you said. Yeah, you could have taken them out.

It wouldn't have really mattered at all. But get the guys some reps, especially on defense, where you got the new, obviously, players in there. But on offense, you could have easily taken Rashad Bateman out of that game or Ibrahim out of that game, especially he had, what, 30 carries again against Iowa. If he's going to get over 100 carries over three games, maybe give him a break.

But Fleck decided to keep him in, which is kind of along the way that P.J. Fleck's, I guess, culture kind of goes. As far as the timeouts and stuff at the end, I was really confused as my timer goes off for the chicken that I'm cooking right now. I was really confused as to, because like, I mean, maybe you know something I don't, but there's no beef between P.J. Fleck and Kirk Ferentz, is there? Like, there's no reason for him to have done that. And then he says what he said postgame about leaving the timeouts there and taking Floyd with him. It was just – it seemed like he was the one who wanted to start something.

Again, maybe putting the ones in and keeping them in was the one what ended up doing it, but it was civil at midfield after the game. We thought there might be a little something going on after all those timeouts happened. P.J. Fleck didn't say anything malicious postgame. He just said that he didn't know why Ferentz took all those timeouts. Now, he hadn't heard what Kirk had said in the postgame press conference before saying that. But I had no idea why that happened. It seems like Ferentz was the one who was trying to start something here.

I mean, it's a rivalry game, and Kirk's been around long enough to have been able to appreciate that rivalry, but it seems like he was ready to start something. I mean, you win the game six times in a row, you have the right to, kind of. All right, y'all, one more pause because I have another fantastic message for you. As you might know if you've listened to this show before, I love working out. I've been on Ironman. I've done multiple marathons. Big avid fan of working out. And when I work out, I need to also get my protein. And there's no better way to get your protein than grabbing a protein bar. And what a better protein bar to grab than one that tastes just like a candy bar.

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but I have a couple thoughts of why it might have happened. The first easy one was the fact that he did keep the ones in and he was trying to score on Iowa second team defense. Maybe that was it. I think that might be a little bit blown out of proportion. I've also heard rumors that PJ Fleck might have, you know, talked down on the Iowa program to recruits that I was heard about. That is another conspiracy theory. I'm not sure. I mean, I don't doubt that. And that's not on PJ Fleck. I don't doubt a lot of coaches talk bad on other programs, especially when those programs are having some issues like Iowa might have this summer. Right. So I kind of understand that, but there's also, if you go back

about 25, 30 years, the, I can't remember what the co who the coach was in Minnesota, but he was talking a lot of crap about, you know, Iowa being hillbillies and that kind of stuff. And Hayden Fry came out in a hillbilly outfit after they won and and talked some smack and Kirk Ferris is a part of that staff so maybe it has something to do with just there's some sort of natural hatred that Kirk has towards Minnesota um I don't know and then I think the other the kind of the more the biggest one that I kind of point to was the fact that PJ Fleck called a timeout first so PJ Fleck called a timeout to evaluate Iowa's defense and dude it's the fourth quarter you're losing 35 to nothing you're playing Iowa's twos and you have your starters in and you call timeout I think Kirk

were just like all right we can play this game and letting them get on the field set up each time and calling a timeout um yeah I that's those are kind of my four conspiracy theories I think the fourth one's probably the most realistic um as an iowa fan that you know sees kirk never show emotion ever um it was like this really passive very aggressive way of kind of sticking it to pj fleck and iowa fans were loving it man yeah yeah they definitely i think i feel like everyone was it'll be it'll make for a lot of talk leading up to next year's matchup no doubt about it but i think you're right too i think pj flex timeout might have been what at least triggered him. And then it ended up just being an overflow of what he ended up doing by giving up the three timeouts. But I do want to

ask, this is six wins in a row now for Iowa over Minnesota. Are people feeling like this is kind of a big brother, little brother situation now? Yeah. I have never to be fair and this is not against Minnesota I have respect for what PJ Fleck has done and to build that program but it's not as concerning of a rivalry to me as a Wisconsin is right like even Nebraska concerns me more where Iowa has been in the driver's seat of these games versus Minnesota for the most part last year Minnesota was able to come back, and that scared me. But even Nebraska has kept it really close in these games.

Wisconsin always beats us. So those are the games that I kind of fall to that are more concerning. But when you beat a team six times in a row, and I'll need to go back and look at the stats, I don't know any teams that Iowa has beaten six times in a row in the last six years i i i can't think of a single i mean maybe illinois northwestern perhaps i don't know no definitely not northwestern we can't beat them well you just lost to northwestern right yeah we

also we lose them every other year so yeah i mean um yeah i think it's definitely a big brother little brother thing and iowa fans just look at it as why do you hate us so much when, you know, Minnesota fans are chanting who hates Iowa. We hit Iowa at basketball games, football games, even if I was not playing. So I definitely think it's more of a big brother, little brother thing from an Iowa perspective to this point. Yeah. I mean, and why not with the way it's played out over the last however many years,

it's the same way with Minnesota. I feel like Iowa and Wisconsin are probably the two biggest rivalries. don't know which is one and which is two but I Minnesota obviously and definitely is more concerned about it going it like you mentioned Iowa's been able to have its way with Minnesota over the last few years Minnesota's definitely a lot more worried about it going into every single game yep 100% man yeah it's it and I think this like you said the PJ flag Kirk Ferris thing that the timeout thing is going to make next year's game even more fun. Minnesota returns Tanner Morgan. They don't return Rashad Bateman, but they're hopefully going to be building up. And again, I'm always a big fan of the big 10 being strong, the stronger

the big 10, the stronger our resume looks. If we win those games, you expect your team to be good. I want Minnesota to be at least above average, so it makes a better game for Iowa, but it'll be a lot of fun next year, man. Yeah, it'll be good no matter what. Andrew Wade here with the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Of course, just like here at the Gophers pod, if you want to stay up to date on everything going on

with the Hawkeyes every single weekday, he's got a half hour on everything going on down in Iowa. Thanks again for joining us for a couple of minutes. Andrew, I know we'll have you again at some point soon. Hopefully basketball season starts up at the end of this month and we can talk more hoops that time. Absolutely, man. I'm a big Drake fan as well, so I know a little bit about Liam Robbins, so I can talk a little bit more about that Minnesota team than I think you probably would expect me to. There you go. Well, then we'll have to get you on at some point soon to talk about him because I know he's someone

who everyone's really looking forward to and Minnesota's going to be leaning on to fill that Daniel Oturu-sized hole. Well, thanks again for coming on, man. We appreciate it, and again, we'll have you back on soon. Sounds good. Thanks, buddy. Alright, and that concludes our conversation today. Big shout-out to Nathan Dickinson

for hopping on the show. I've enjoyed doing some of these crossovers. Hope you're enjoying them as well. I like to get the insight of other teams and kind of what they're expecting from their program. Great to get a sense for what these two programs kind of have to play for going forward as well. We'll be back tomorrow as we are every single weekday. Every single day we have a Locked On Hawkeyes show. Under 30 minutes delivered directly to your smart device if you subscribe wherever you downloaded this at. But we'll be back tomorrow.

Breaking down the depth chart, covering a few other tidbits and notes on the Iowa Hawkeyes. And make sure to check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We have some really cool things coming along on the social media front. Put together a nice little plan I think you all are going to enjoy. Again, thank you all for tuning in. Hope you enjoyed your weekend. Had a fantastic time Friday night watching the Iowa win.

Check out the Monday morning recap on that. And have a fantastic Monday, y'all. And go Hawks.