Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Where does Iowa go from here | Record predictions for remaining six games | Leave the players alone!

Episode Date: October 16, 2019

Zach Cohen goes solo today giving his thoughts on the loss to Penn State and where the Iowa football team goes from here. He also covers some of the ridiculous takes on Twitter, provides a nice message to fans, and predicts Iowa's record the rest of the season. 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. Hello everyone and welcome to today's episode of the Lockdown Iowa podcast. If you don't hear Andrew Wade's sultry voice, it's because he is not able to make it.

And today the show will be hosted by me, Zach Cohen. Hope you guys are doing well. Thank you again. If you want to find us, this is your first time listening to the Locked in Iowa podcast. You can find us anywhere podcasts are provided, whether that's Stitcher, Himalaya, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Feel free to rate, review, and subscribe to us. We want everyone's feedback. We love everyone kind of giving their feedback and everything and how to make the show better and what people like to see

and what they don't like to see. We just actually started a hotline as well, so we'll be collecting phone calls from there as well and answering you guys' questions and picking the ones to air on our podcast. And you can also find us on social media, whether that's Instagram or Twitter. You can find us on Lockdown Iowa on both of those. Every week, you know, we try to interact with all of our followers and also have a great videographer, Iowa Addict, who puts together all of our great Iowa montages and all of our

good hype videos. So make sure to follow us there, but you can find that. And then if we ever have giveaways or any type of events, that's where to find that as well. So if this is your first time listening, welcome. If not, thank you guys for coming back. I'm sure that last episode, Andrew kind of walked through his thoughts on the game. He gave his kind of rundown and opinion on everything in that sense. So I figured to maybe change it up, I'm going to give you guys my opinion on everything, what I kind of thought happened during the game, and basically what to do from here.

You know, how are things going to happen moving forward? So the game. I was actually at the game, so a lot of this was really stunk for me as well too because being there in person, it's just to set the scene, guys. I mean, it was amazing. Went back to Iowa City this weekend, and it was amazing uh went back to iowa city this weekend and there's a great uh number of fans there and there's a ton of penn state fans there too it was awesome man um the crowd was electric i mean seeing the whole strike black

and gold and the crowd was amazing and it was just something that um it's hard to experience you know it's it's it's hard to explain the experience of a kinnick night game because there's so many things happening it's such a good spectacle um but i mean everything was awesome the 2019 was out there they had the fighter jets flying over um the crowd was rocking it was really truly amazing the jerseys looked awesome um and here's to the part you know which wasn't so awesome um obviously everyone knows the outcome of the game. Iowa ended up losing 17-12. So like I said, I'm kind of giving you inside Zach's brain what happened, what things we can fix, and how we can improve to be able to move on to Purdue and have a convincing win or just win it all.

So here is the thing, guys. So obviously, there's a lot of things that went wrong. I'm going to kind of go by what I think went wrong and what kind of was the aspects of the game that kind of led to the ultimate loss against Penn State. The first one being, so Nate Stanley is one of the facets. I don't think that he's the full reason why. I think he's kind of 1B, but I'll touch on 1A.

Kind of the main reason is, I think in my opinion, is the offensive line. Obviously, we have some great talent, and we're blessed to have the talent with O'Leary Jackson. I mean, not so much the Michigan game, but we have two guys, him and Tristan Wirfs, that are two quote-unquote big-time tackles who we were lucky to have protecting the outside. machine game but we have two guys him and tristan werfsteader two um you know quote unquote big time tackles who you know we were lucky to have uh protecting the outside and especially the blind side of nate stanley but as the last two weeks have proven our offensive line is not the top offensive line that we once had um not the award-winning line we've had not the line that you know protected our quarterbacks and I

think that it's in due to um the line in general but also the guard play you know we also uh you know we suffered some injuries and everything in that sense and I feel like just the offensive line is not playing as a whole they're not playing as a team they're not this um synonymous line they're not playing as one and it's just kind of it's playing as one, and it's just kind of, it's really unfortunate to see, and it's just, they weren't, Stanley was not getting any time. Listen, I know that Nate Stanley's not the most mobile quarterback, and he can't get out of the pocket, and you know, he's not very elusive when the pocket does collapse, and I think that that goes against him, but it's also the offensive line has to kind of know that you have a guy back there that's not

going to break any tackles. He's not going to be too elusive. And the fact that you just need to give him a clean pocket for at least five seconds or four seconds or however many seconds it may be to complete the reads. So on that end, the offensive line really let us down. One of the strong parts, one of the things that Iowa really based its pride on, unfortunately, was not the thing that he could hang her hat on for that game.

Which leads me to the second part, Nate Stanley. So I've been seeing a lot of things online, a lot of talk about Nate Stanley, and I'm not standing here, I'm not going to sit here and I'm not going to tell you what the media wants you to hear, I'm not going to tell you the PC thing to say, you know, he's just a kid and everything like that. He has bad games and he'll get it back started. I think there's just a multitude of things. I think that one, yes, these guys are kids. At the end of the day, obviously I've said before that they go through the work. They do the two days. They do the blunts, the bruises,

they bleed. They go through all the stress and everything that comes with playing in the games. So I think, as I said before, we do have a right as a fan, as fans to criticize and everything in that sense. But I think there's also a middle ground of, you know, kind of knowing both sides of it, of the argument, or both seeing both sides of you know um was it stanley's fault um is he the worst quarterback ever and i think there's a middle ground for that um so with that i just think that listen guys iowa has never been the program to have really the elusive quarterbacks and that's kind of a reason why peyton manziel um who a lot of people thought was going to be the protege to nate stanley he's probably going to transfer next year i mean they're definitely

gonna have a quarterback battle with spencer pet, but it's looking like Spencer Petras is going to be the second along the lines of six-foot-one-plus quarterbacks who aren't too mobile but are good pocket passers and can stand in the pocket. And whether we like it or not, that's just the type of game plan that Iowa has been used in the past, and that's kind of what we're hanging our hats on. So I just think that it's just that we know what we had.

Defensive line didn't make it easy. Stanley, obviously, when you don't score points, you look at the quarterback just like you look at the coach. The quarterback's on the field. He's making the plays. He's one of the reasons, but guys there just, I know it's frustrating. I know it stinks. But trust me, these guys on the field are going through 100% worse

than what we're going through. We're lucky and blessed enough to be having a fan base and root for a team that has had a good team in the historic. And listen, I, if anyone, had big expectations for them as well. But, you know, I think that there is some potential and some positive things moving forward and I will be able to talk about that later after a message from our sponsors.

All right, guys. Well, thank you from that, from our sponsors. We have a lot of great companies and great organizations sponsoring us. Make sure to check them out. A lot of great things happening in that sense. So back to the football team where everyone is here to listen to the game, reactions. I'm not going to beat a dead horse.

You know, I was going to talk about Brian Ferentz and things like that, but I'm going to kind of talk about it all in one area. So Ferencz, a lot of people kind of just going off of Twitter and things I've been reading a lot of individuals. Being an Iowa fan and being on Iowa Twitter, you kind of know what's the tone with everyone. Obviously, Iowa doesn't have a professional football team, so in a sense

uh this team is the professional team all their hopes all of um the energy is um exhausted on this football team and in in a sense that's awesome it's great for these football players and everything like that but also um at the end of the day um these guys aren't professional athletes um no matter obviously people want them to get paid or there's rumblings to pay them for their name and everything but at the end of the day they're not um you know i i was able to be lucky enough to go to the university of iowa and um go through the courses and everything like that and it's grueling and it's hard to prioritize that and have a good social life and things like that. It takes work. It's not too

easy and obviously it's not the easiest thing to do and being able to do that is tough. I just can't imagine these football players, their whole schedule and everything they have to do, not only are they a football player, but they're a student, they're a son, they're a friend, there could be a boyfriend. There's a lot of things going on in their personal lives that it's a lot to balance with. And I just think that on Twitter, I think that sometimes it's good to take a step back, put the phone down, go for a walk, talk to your family, talk to your friends, listen to music, watch a funny movie. I just think that at the end of the day, this loss sucks. Obviously, it does suck. I mean, I paid to get my butt all the way out to Iowa City. I paid for tickets,

a whole day, blah, blah, blah. But at the end of the day, it did suck. But those guys, like I said, are feeling it worse. On Twitter, I just think that a lot of people kind of don't think before they speak and it's really easy to do hiding behind a phone um on twitter and no one's kind of there to you know necessarily be like hey don't say that and obviously twitter is freedom of speech basically you can say whatever you want it's the wild west not so much as it was before but um still you can voice your opinions and i think that we kind of got to the stage, guys, where I think that we have people who are like, let's stick with it. You know, it happens. Like, it's A, B, and C's fault, but it doesn't mean at the end of the day

we're a terrible team. It doesn't mean that Ference needs to be fired. It doesn't mean that Stanley needs to be replaced by Petras. It just means that those games happen, and we need to figure out and keep our heads up and keep moving forward instead of, you know, sulking in the past, which I do agree on. Obviously, everyone has hot takes. Everyone's mad after the game, but I just think that, listen, at the end of the day, I know everyone's upset with Ference.

I've seen a lot of stats on Twitter with points scored, how many 20-plus points scored games they've had. And Ferentz is definitely, I saw that he was lower at the list. And that's really frustrating, guys. I get it. At the end of the day, the coach, yes, he's making the calls, but he's also not throwing the ball, right? He's not the one that is executing the plays. He's not the one blocking for Stanley. So at the end of the day, it's not completely his fault. So I'm going to go ahead and defend Brian Ferenc. I know that our offense hasn't been

looking great, but it's also just a product of our offensive line not looking great. Stanley not having protection, him getting anxious, not making maybe the right reads, him getting nervous that he's going to get sacked all the time and end up on the ground, that he's throwing quick passes, not really thinking, and he's throwing in the interception like what happened against Penn State that ended up being pretty costly to the results of the game. So just wanted to give a PSA to everyone who's listening. Take it for what it's worth. You don't have to listen to me. You don't have to take what I say into consideration but you know just when you're online and talking about

these guys it's okay to voice your opinion things like that but just kind of know that these are guys out there they have families these are real people these coaches are supporting themselves or anything like that so listen they know it they're getting it worse than you know anyone on twitter could be giving it they know what's going on so at the end of the day i always think that it's okay to criticize people but just kind of have an open mind with everything and know that you know it's not the end of the world it does stink because everyone got their hopes up but um like i said it's just it's not the end of the world so what kind of uh we're at the moment where it's what's next right um we have two losses we you know had dreams of sugar plums and lollipops and uh going undefeated or maybe having one loss being

attended to 11 and one um any multitude of those records um and at least um in my mind i thought that if we could win two out of the three big games, meaning Penn State, Wisconsin, and Michigan, that we'd be in good shape. I didn't expect us to win all of them, but I said before to Andrew on one of the previous podcasts, I do think that these games are ramping up in difficulty level. Obviously, I thought we matched the best up against Michigan, and I also thought that we, you know, should have beat them in Penn State. Obviously, the game was in our hands, and we made a lot of mental mistakes and ended up losing that. I think Wisconsin's going to be the

toughest game. I think they're a top four team that it will eventually, I think they'll get there, at least be top five top six um and after the break i'll kind of explain to you guys what's next what can their expectations be the season's not completely lost um and uh kind of break that down after a word from our sponsors all right guys i'm back um so like i said before the break, what's next, right? What can Iowa expect? What can we expect as fans? What's realistic, I guess you could say, in a sense, too?

What can the rest of the season have in store for Iowa football that's not another 8 and four type season. So I'm going to kind of break that down. So we have coming up are, in my opinion, I think two of the, well, first of all, I think that one of the toughest games we had or the toughest game, obviously we have left, is Wisconsin, right? And I think that they're going to be playing on the road at Camp Randall, and Wisconsin's a powerhouse, and I think that they're going to be very, very tough to play against, and obviously everyone knows that.

Anyone who's watched a Wisconsin game can tell that they are no joke. They pitched a shutout against Michigan State and made their top 10 run defense look like little third graders out there. And it's just, like I said before, I wish we could have had this game to be like, I hope we win, but at the end of the day, it's not going to hurt us in the Big Ten West. But here's the thing, guys. We have some games coming up. And right now, obviously, Wisconsin is leading in the big time West, and Minnesota is up there as well.

They're actually ranked 20 this week ahead of Iowa, which I know a lot of Iowa fans are going to be upset about. But listen, they earned it. I know the games they've won have been narrow. But listen, we have lost games narrowly, and they have won games narrowly. And at the end of the day, you are what your record says you are. And them being undefeated, I i i would give them um respect to be up

there so i think that realistically um we do play minnesota but we play them at home so i do think we can win that game i think that's a game that you know if minnesota could be ranked even a little higher things like that i think that they can come a little down to earth and they're also playing itself a schedule as well um going into the ending the season so i think that they may face some roadblocks as well but we've lost two games and we realistically can only lose two games to win the big 10 west have you seen wisconsin play and this is me going off of um uh what i've seen of ohio state and what i've seen in wisconsin i think that ohio state can beat wisconsin I think that Ohio State can beat Wisconsin.

I think that will be chalked up as a loss. Nothing against Wisconsin, but Ohio State is a top-four team. They look unstoppable. They just look like no one can stop them. And I think that, and it tracked me, and I think that they'll be able to outpace Wisconsin's offense. So what's that mean, guys? That means that if we have any chance of winning the Big Ten West,

what do we have to do? We have to go undefeated, and that if we have any chance of winning the big 10 west what do we have to do we have to go undefeated and that means we have to beat wisconsin we have to be and meet minnesota at home and the big one wisconsin on the road um i know a lot of people kind of thrown the towel and been like they're gonna blow out iowa everything like that i mean a lot of fans have a negative attitude i mean after what we've seen, it looks like we could lose by 50. But the good thing is that we have a game against Purdue next week for homecoming. We have Northwestern after that. And I think that those games could be good games for Iowa. I really think that, you know, hopefully if things can start clicking,

we really, really need those two games to be able to not necessarily prep us for that game or not necessarily be at practice, but we need some games to get our mojo back. And the Purdue game in Northwestern was perfect. Purdue is obviously they had a good showing last week, but I do think that we have more talent than Purdue and we can beat them. And obviously I think we can beat Northwestern, who has been a big disappointment this year as well. So I think that um the good thing is we have two games we have basically three weeks to get our stuff together um you know to be

able to uh go out there and kind of refine the things we have to get healthy um I know this seems like a lofty goal and I know that you know trying to beat Wisconsin is gonna be really really tough but listen um they've done some other incredible things. We beat the Ohio States. We've done that. And I think that even in the Michigan game and in the Penn State game, it was obvious that our defense is the real deal. It's just unfortunate that our offense is not up to pace.

So I believe that if our defense can play as well as it's playing and really be very, very good against the run, and that's what obviously Wisconsin thrives on, and make Jack Cohen throw the ball, that game could be a coin toss, but obviously leading up to it, all the announcers are going to pick Wisconsin and pick them to win. Spread's probably going to be like 14 or something in 17. It's going to be something disrespectful to Iowa,

and that's just what it's going to be. But we have those two games to prepare for it but realistically what do I think is going to happen at the end of the year you know in 12 games what is our record going to be um I usually have a pessimistic outlook on everything and if we did win one of those Penn State games if we won the Michigan or heck even won both um I would have pretty good expectations but i i mean i could see this team going nine and three um which unfortunately is going to be a letdown from everyone i know everyone's sick of the eight and fours the nine and threes and things like that um they kind of

want another 2012 year and you know we came with a lot of expectations oliver martin and everything and this just kind of hasn't come to fruition. So we're just really hoping for the best. Hopefully we can get some mojo back before we play the ranked Wisconsin Badgers at home. As we've seen, Michigan going in there, they're very tough to play, but we have two weeks to get ripe. And if you know anything about this Iowa team and Ferentz and these guys, is they're not going to fold under pressure, and they're not going to just give up. They're not going to lay down.

So they're going to work their ass off, and they're not going to just give up they're not going to lay down so they're going to work their ass off and they're going to be out there and as a fan base we can only support them and give our utmost uh cheering to them and uh fanhood to them and just kind of root them on and hope for the best hope they can shock the world at wisconsin which would truly be a shock but that's an opinion from an optimistic hawkeyes fan but um thank you guys though i think that butt wraps up our show. Thank you for hearing me vent. Thank you for hearing me give my opinion on the issues, kind of the results of last game,

kind of the outcry of the fans and everything like that. Hopefully we can get our stuff together, and at the end of the day, we are one. We are a Hawkeye family. We are a strong fan base, and we root for a great team, and through the good and the bad, get to stick with them and at the end of the day, give our best respect for those guys who went out

there and busted their ass. So thank you again for listening. This has been the Lockdown iOS podcast. You will get back to a regularly scheduled program probably Wednesday or Thursday depending on when this airs. Have a good night guys and go Hawks.