Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - When Iowa should be considered a playoff contender | Our take on the new Iowa vs ISU drama | What teams could replace ISU

Episode Date: September 25, 2019

A few ESPN analysts have been naming Iowa as a CFB playoff contender. We break down if they could be a contender and if so, when it would be time to take them serious before going all-in on the Iowa vs Iowa State drama the last two weeks. Spoiler alert: We don't like Jamie Pollard or Gary Barta for their handling of this situation. After wrapping up our thoughts on that, we give you a few non-conference teams we would like to see the Hawks play if the Iowa State game goes away. 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! Welcome to our Wednesday morning edition of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast,

your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I'm Andrew Wade and I'm joined here by Zach Cohen. Zach, what is going on, my man? Nothing much, just excited. Got Iowa game week. It's nice to have some Iowa football back. Last week was a much-needed stress reliever, but I'm excited to get back in the swing of things and get the season started again. Hell yeah, man. I mean, we got a pretty big stretch ahead of us. Middle Tennessee State, nothing too crazy, but then we got Michigan and Penn State, so lots of fun coming up over the next couple weeks for Iowa football.

Michigan, and Penn State. So lots of fun coming up over the next couple weeks for Iowa football. Yeah, exactly. We'll dive into the Middle Tennessee game, but like you said, a lot of exciting Big Ten matchups going on, a lot of games that are kind of going to decide our future and kind of put the puzzle pieces together slowly at the Big Ten. Absolutely, man. So before we get started, just to cover a few quick housekeeping items,

make sure to like, review, and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast at. And also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. On today's show, we're going to be covering a few kind of topics that have been pretty prevalent in the last couple days. Is Iowa a college football playoff contender? And then we're going to cover the Iowa versus Iowa State drama and talk about some of the potential replacement games. We can maybe see if the Iowa State game is lost.

So lots of kind of relevant news that we want to cover on today's episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. On tomorrow's episode, we're going to be covering Middle Tennessee State, giving you a full breakdown of their team. And then finally on Friday, we're going to be doing our Big Ten recap, kind of preview type of stuff, recapping what we expect is going to happen for Saturday. All right, man. Let's jump into it, man. It's lots of stuff going on.

Iowa is 3-0. College Bowl playoff landscape. You know, the CFP committee has not came out with the rankings yet. It's going to be another couple weeks. But right now at 14th, Iowa's kind of sitting pretty for an opportunity to be a sleeper pick for the College Bowl playoff. At this point, do you think they're actually a contender um so even though obviously we're both homers um i i don't think uh i don't think they're contenders yet just because i think it's kind of they're kind of getting the i'm giving them the wisconsin treatment before the michigan game i

think that um you know we played three teams that were pretty solid but nothing too crazy. Like Wisconsin played the three teams that had the 110 point differential or something coming into that game, and then everyone was kind of hesitant to see, you know, are they legit? Can they beat a Michigan team? They went out there and smoked them. And I'm just kind of waiting for Iowa's challenge like that.

I think if we can go out and play Michigan and Penn State we play Michigan first correct that is correct yeah and we play in Ann Arbor yeah so I feel like I think we can go out to Ann Arbor and pull out a win there I think all things set aside I know the Michigan just lost and they kind of went down in the rankings but still being able to go to the big house and be able to pull out and upset or actually no we'll be actually well we could actually go into that game being ranked higher than them which i never would expect i mean i was definitely not going to be favored in that game though there's no way yes which is gonna be weird because you're gonna yeah but yeah like so it could be an upset so i think we go out there pull out and upset i think we can can show what we're really about and the potential we have

and the skills and have our offense and defense come together as kind of one unit and play effectively as well as special teams. I think that we can be in the talks, but right now, I just don't think that Miami of Ohio, Rutgers, and why am I blanking? Iowa State. Iowa State, of course. I think Iowa State was a good win, actually. I don't know, dude.

I mean, I think depending where you look at it and how you view Iowa State, you could think of that as a good road win. I mean, I do think it's a good road win, but I'm just waiting for that Big Ten grinded-out game, you know, defense against defense, offensive line against defensive line, you know, some of the best linemen in college football going against each other. I think if we can beat a Michigan team, I think we should be in talks about it, but I don't know about you.

I think it's kind of a little too premature to put us in those talks. So you basically – if we beat Michigan, you think Iowa is a solid contender for the college football playoff? Yeah, yeah. All right, I'll take that. I mean, I think if they beat Michigan and I think if they take care of business against Penn State. Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, at that point, beat Michigan, and I think if they take care of business against Penn State. Oh, yeah, yeah.

I mean, at that point, Iowa's probably going to be ranked in the top ten. Yeah, they have to be. There's going to be one of those teams, a couple teams have got to lose by that point. Obviously, beating Penn State will drop them down. I think if they beat Michigan and Penn State, I would firmly consider them in that college football playoff hunt. That being said, talent-wise, team-wise,

I think I've seen enough to say I think Iowa is a legitimate contender for the college football playoffs. I think it's absolutely not crazy to call them a sleeper pick for it. And yes, they only played Rutgers. They only played Miami of Ohio. I do think the Iowa State game is a big win for them. Going on the road, it was a hostile environment. It really was, surprisingly, a lot of red, right? And, I mean, I didn't really feel like there was as many Iowa fans as I would have typically expected at that game. I do think Iowa State is a good team.

So, for me, I think talent-wise, they're definitely a sleeper pick. I think for me to really start getting my hopes up, they have to beat Michigan and Penn State. Yeah, I think that. So, I think it kind of breaks it down to the point where it's kind of like um if you beat penn state we beat michigan um and then we go into wisconsin and so i think that if we beat penn state beat michigan i think that we beat michigan it's like tears if you beat michigan you start getting the consideration as like a legitimate dark horse contender you beat

penn state you are a contender and then the tough thing is um you go into what you play Wisconsin and you go to Camp Randall um they're a very very good team obviously but I think if you win all those three games I think you I think it's kind of like a level of boss right you kind of got to think of it you beat Michigan you go into the next level Penn State's next level I think Wisconsin ultimately right now is one of the top three teams in the Big Ten in general next to Ohio State and whether you want to throw us in there or however you want to look at it with Penn State but I think that you know each of those games is kind of going to be a tier and the more games we win the higher we're going to be held national regards and then I think at

that point Michigan and Penn State are very important games. And it's also that Wisconsin game is going to be huge too, because that could decide the Big Ten West. So I feel like there's, you know, getting nationally ranked and getting talked about the college football playoffs is the Michigan-Penn State game, but also the Wisconsin game. You don't want to look too far ahead, but that game will decide the Big Ten West potentially. So it's kind of a lot of things going on, right? Absolutely, man. Yeah. I mean, the Wisconsin game is eight games in the season. If, if Iowa at that point, isn't being talked about as a college ball playoff contender,

I'd be a little bit shocked that they are seven and O going into Wisconsin and not being talked to the CFB contender. I'd be shocked if Wisconsin has, doesn't have already a loss, they go to Ohio state. So that's going to be kind of a tough game for them. So it'll be kind of interesting to see what the thoughts are on Wisconsin after the Ohio State game, seeing who comes out of that contest alive. Yeah. I wonder, yeah, I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, but yeah, I mean, Wisconsin schedule isn't, isn't tech.

I wouldn't say necessarily easy because they are playing against the Michigan State team that although is not the offensive juggernaut like Wisconsin showing there, they also have a very, very solid defense. And they don't give up any rush yards. So, I mean, I guess our best case is we want Michigan State to beat Wisconsin. And if they get a loss to Michigan State and Ohio State, I mean, that could be huge for Iowa. So those are also games we should keep an eye on.

Absolutely, man. And we're going to be covering all that on future episodes as we get to those weeks. Before we jump into a few messages from our sponsors, make a memory that lasts a lifetime and let the Vivid Seats app help you get to your favorite live event. Enter promo code KICKOFF at checkout to receive a discount of up to $100. All right, we are back. We're going to be covering the iowa versus iowa state drama i'm just

going to give a quick rundown of what happened in my mind basically there was some assault allegations being uh portrayed from the iowa band from you know iowa state fans some different things happened some different reports have come out. I think both athletic directors have kind of handled it pretty poorly, both presidents and whatnot from Iowa State and Iowa, really giving some pretty crappy, conflicting, and confusing guidelines about what actually happened and kind of some reports. So it's been interesting, but I think the big thing,

the big takeaway from this is there's a lot of fans calling for this game to just end because of the perceived violence that has happened at the game. And I want to talk about that a lot, kind of dive deep into that on segment two and segment three of today's show. For me personally, I think if you can't keep players safe, you can't keep fans safe, and you can't keep the students safe, then you shouldn't be having that game. And honestly, it's pretty pathetic and disappointing for the state of Iowa to see behavior like that in general. Yeah, I mean, no one obviously wants to see that. It's one thing when there's fans going to the game.

And even being in Iowa, I've even just seen people, you know, fans, fans give fans crap. I mean, it happens. I mean, you talk crap or whatever, and, you know, trash talk is just part of the rivalry but I think that this whole situation is just a mess I just think that it's just it's such an odd predicament to be in and it's kind of not really being resolved and it's already been you know almost two weeks after it's happened and I just think that I mean I think it's kind of a scapegoat to say you know as a result

we're just not going to play um with we're not going to play the Cyhawk game anymore I think that I listened to Bruce Harold's comments and it just kind of seemed a little like someone wrote it for him a little cheesy just a little, not really saying what's going to change. He just kind of talked about meeting with the president or athletic director of Iowa state and UNI because we played not in football, but I don't think that they played here for basketball and things like that. So just kind of picking their mind about how actions work there. But I just kind of think to be like, you know what, just because of this

actions, we're going to cancel the game. I think it's a little scapegoat or something. It's kind of cowardly. Like you said, I think it takes more of an effort to figure out things that imply and things to implement, things to implement moving forward to make sure these type of actions and these type of situations don't happen. You know, I think I've just read so many conflicting things, whether it's the band not going through the right area or going through by the fans and they were told not to. I feel like there's going to be he said, she said. Obviously, Iowa State doesn't want to look like their fans

are these monsters and, like, are beating the crap out of these bands, these individuals in the band. And also, Iowa wants to make them take accountability for you know if they are doing this Iowa State has to take accountability for their fans at the end of the day they are they all are all representing the same team in school but I mean I mean at the end of the day is is not having the rivalry is that really going to solve anything you know what I mean is that kind of a scapegoat way out what do you think um I mean I don't know if you can't keep the players or the fans or the athletes or the students safe excuse me then you shouldn't have the game I think um people took it to another level when you ruin a

good thing you ruin a good thing um I don't necessarily think as a scapegoat I do think you're right like I think it may be the easy way out but the first step to taking action is to have accountability and I think Jamie Pollard from Iowa state is the worst example of accountability to put the blame back on the Iowa band and say, they did this wrong. They did this wrong. Yes. They go out the wrong.

They got the wrong exit. Yes. Did they go out for the wrong time? Maybe I wasn't, I wasn't freaking there. So I don't know that part, but they didn't blame them. We are talking about potentially sexual assault that is a huge allegation to make and that should

not be taken lightly and to put the blame back on the band that is just a pathetic absolutely pathetic and disgraceful attempt at you know not taking accountability for your fans actions I think I would have at least preferred him to say you you know what, we have a couple bad apples. That is ridiculous. We're going to look back and try to see if we can figure out what fans maybe did that and make sure there's some repercussions for that. But instead, blaming it back on Iowa I think is just absolutely pathetic. And if we're going to be working with people like that,

then I don't want to have a game with those kind of guys. Yeah, I mean, it's definitely, you know, this hasn't really ever happened with Iowa. It's kind of pinning. I want, I want, so it's kind of Iowa is prides itself, obviously on, you know, they have you and I, they have Drake, they have Iowa, they have Iowa state. And obviously at the end of the day, everyone talked about the Iowa, Iowa state game's great. It's great. There was on game day. It's great. That's benefiting the state win or lose.

It's great that both these teams got national attention it's helping the state of Iowa in general so I just think that I just don't who's going to be more affected I mean do I know this is a terrible situation and everything but like you said I feel like just I guess I'm kind of agreeing with you as well and seeing kind of combining both our points. If you can't take accountability and there's no actions, yes, I agree that at the end of the day, we probably shouldn't work with them. We probably can't trust them to be in a partnership and protect our players, bands, fans,

and things like that. Also, this rivalry has been going on for years and years and years. So it kind of surprised me. This is the first time anything like this has ever happened, whether being documented or not. So I don't know, is it a one strike and you're out type of rule? I do think Pollard is a piece of crap. I think he's kind of a scumbag for what he's doing. Obviously he is not a fit for this position. He can't handle it.

He doesn't know how to go about the situation in a way that he does take accountability. Like you said, at the end of the day it is very um almost childish to kind of be like well it's your fault it's not my fault uh you know um you all the thing is because your fault they went out the wrong way so whatever happens is on them which doesn't make sense at all but i mean who's gonna i mean do you think that the state of iowa is gonna suffer more of it do you think it's one of those games we could just be like all right we're done we're not gonna have it do you think it's gonna of those games we could just be like all right we're done we're not going to have it do you think it's going to kind of ruin this prestige and kind of rivalry and things we've had at iowa i know the allegations are bad i know all that thing is bad

i think that people should be punished for that obviously but at the end of the day do you think canceling this matchup and canceling this game is going to hurt the state of iowa more than it benefits it you know like i mean in a perfect world people get held accountable things happen people get repercussions things happen people get repercussions and obviously people are paid for or not paid but like obviously things are made right but I mean do you think this could really hurt Iowa and Iowa football in general like the state of Iowa is that something you just you're okay with kind of just living with yeah I mean I'm gonna cover that in a quick second we're gonna take a quick break and jump to a few messages

from our sponsors and I'll get into my detailed response on those questions here in a second. All right, yeah, so we were talking about the Iowa-Iowa State game, and I think, you know, you posed a couple questions there. Is canceling this game hurting the state more than it's helping the state? in this game hurting the state more than it's helping the state. I'm a pretty firm believer in violence deserves kind of a zero, you know, one strike policy, you're out, or at least put in measures to make sure this crap doesn't happen again. I don't care what the state thinks. If you're going to – if people are going to be harmed – and just be fair, if this happened to Iowa,

you would not see me sticking up for Iowa either. I think regardless of where it happened, I don't care. It happened, though, and it's not fair to anyone who was involved. So from a state perspective, I don't care if it hurts the state. It shouldn't have happened, and a few bad apples do ruin it sometimes. And unless they can put in measures to make sure this crap doesn't happen, then I'm totally fine with letting the state miss out on the Cyhawk rivalry game. I do think it is a fantastic game. It's one of the most underrated rivalries in the country, but

if they can't figure it out, and I do think they can, but if they can't figure it out, I don't think we should have the game at all. Do you think it's fair just kind of not taking the W not being the devil's advocate, but kind of just for the sake of argument, do you think that it's unfair if you're an Iowa State fan that these select group of fans out of the 30,000, 40,000 people that go to that school are representing Iowa? Because I'm sure there's tons of other Iowa State fans out there and that are being respectful, are treating the game with respect.

And whether they win or lose, obviously they're not going to those extremes that happen. If you were an Iowa state fan, do you think it's kind of unfair? And you kind of be, you could see a reason to be pissed off at these little select group of people and their dumb ass athletic director or president. What is he that athletic director or president? Athletic director, I believe I'll check.

Yeah, but I think it's the athletic director. I think so. So do you think that just the results of a, of a couple of people and the fans and then the athletic director, like, would. So do you think that just the results of a couple people and the fans and then the athletic director, would you be pissed off you're an Iowa State fan? I mean, I'd be pissed off at the stupid fans. I wouldn't be necessarily pissed off at the actions per se. I would actually be – if I'm an Iowa State fan, even if I'm an Iowa fan, I would be pissed at the comment said from Jamie Pollard,

the fact that he felt like it was okay to put blame on Iowa State. I also, for the record, think Gary Barta handled the situation terribly. Yeah, I was going to say, it's kind of like the Pac-1, the kettle black, right? Yeah, he seems to be mincing his words. I mean, oh, we ceded the investigation. We're done with the investigation. Oh, we never said that. Oh, I never said that.

We're still investigating this. Dude, get your freaking story straight if you're going to be talking crap too back to Iowa State. But I think at the end of the day, it all comes down to the fact that people got hurt. There needs to be better measures in place. Also, as a state of Iowa, grow the hell up and behave. It is okay to be talking crap to people, but it's not okay to be insulting, to be rude, to be physically harming people, that is absolutely not okay. Yeah, I mean, I agree. I think that at the end of the day, safety of the fans

and safety of the people attending these games are more important than a rivalry that, by the way, at this point, it should be the Iowa rivalry, the University of Iowa rivalry by the minute games are just winning. So maybe a spin maybe, you know, spin zone, maybe it's a, it's a, you know, a good thing to skies. It's a silver lining for Iowa state fans that they don't have to be embarrassed anymore on a Saturday. So maybe that's a, maybe Iowa state fans actually want this. I don't know.

Yeah. I mean, it would definitely make Twitter a lot nicer in September because Holy crap, that got annoying real quick before we wrap up the show though. If the Iowa versus Iowa state game goes away, are there any teams you would love to see Iowa play? I wouldn't mind. I I'm kind of the perspective of, I wouldn't mind playing an ACC team. Kind of like a bowling,

not one not playing in Boston college or University of Virginia or any teams like that. I mean, I would be interested in playing or even like a North Carolina or something. I think that when we play those bowl games, when we play like the Floridas, when we play the Tennessees, the Mississippi States and Boston Colleges, I like that. I kind of like that we kind of convince another opponent. I'm not asking to play Clemson, all right?

I'm not asking to play Alabama or any of those, you know, top tier teams, but it wouldn't hurt to play a Boston College or a Wake Forest or shoot, even North Carolina, I think would be kind of cool. Or even, I guess we could play another big 12 team. I wouldn't hurt, whether that being a TCU, like a, or a Purdue did and something like that. I mean, I think kind of playing those other schools and seeing those different offenses, it's kind of refreshing for Iowa fans. I mean, I don't really want to play another Big Ten East team because those are probably better than a lot of other of those Power Five teams. But what do you think?

Yeah, I mean, I doubt that we'd actually add another conference game because that would actually throw out the schedule. It would need to be something that was approved by, you know, all the universities, which would make it real tough to have 10 conference games. But I do think, from my perspective, I would like to see maybe Missouri. They're not that far away. They're a couple hours away. An SEC school gives you a little bit of notoriety playing an SEC school

and a school that's, again, not that far away from Iowa. I would actually like to see Iowa play Notre Dame. I feel like those are two pretty tradition-rich programs who had a lot of good traditions back in the early 20s, especially considering Iowa knocked off the great Notre Dame back then with Niall Kinnick. So I would like to see maybe those two teams. I do agree an ACC team would be interesting.

I just don't think – a lot of those ACC teams aren't very good right now. And obviously that changes, but I feel like we're getting back into an Iowa State situation where, you know, is this game really going to help us that much? So those are two teams I think I'd really want to see is maybe Missouri or Notre Dame. Yeah, I mean, I agree. I think Missouri would be a good game. Hell, Notre Dame. Notre Dame is a juggernaut usually every year. I mean, if we could play Notre Dame and not play Penn State or something, that I would be up to that. But could you imagine this year if we had to play Wisconsin, Michigan,

Penn State, and Notre Dame? Yeah, but, I mean, if we survived it, it would be pretty sweet. But, I mean, we got kind of dealt a crappy hand this year. I don't know. I think Notre Dame is also relatively overrated most seasons. So, it would give us notoriety of beating Notre Dame without having to play a team that's actually as talented of what their ranking warrants.

I'm sure Colin Coward would love that schedule. Maybe it will be not the fake ID anymore, so maybe he'd like that. I'm sure he'd find a way to hate on Iowa, as he always does, but that concludes this show for today. I obviously wanted to talk about all the news that's kind of happening, the Iowa-Iowa State band drama.

Let us know your thoughts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or in an iTunes review. Want to get your thoughts as well. Maybe we'll share some of that on a future episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Again, make sure to follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. And if you liked what you heard today, make sure to give us a five-star review wherever you downloaded this episode

at. We appreciate you all tuning into the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Have a fantastic day, Hawkeye Nation, and go Hawks. And quick note, Andrew, I loved your go Hawks. I don't want to interrupt it. It was said perfectly. But if you guys want to comment on the episode, this episode that we tweet out,

comment who you want to see Iowa play and comment why. It would be interesting to kind of see the other Iowa fans' perspectives on, you know, if we did drop this game, who we tweet out. Comment who you want to see Iowa play and comment why. It would be interesting to kind of see the other Iowa fans' perspectives on if we did drop this game, who we would play. Sorry for interrupting you. Go Hawks. I love Matt. Go Hawks. We'll see you next time.