Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Which Iowa Hawkeye can replace Tyler Linderbaum plus the latest on Kirk Ferentz

Episode Date: January 18, 2022

With Tyler Linderbaum declaring for the NFL Draft, who is next in line to replace him for the Iowa Hawkeyes? We run through all the options currently on the Iowa football roster plus one guy currently in the transfer portal.We also have some updates on Kirk Ferentz restricting the advisory board after committee chair David Porter spoke on the radio yesterday and said some interesting comments.We wrap up the show by looking ahead to next year to see which Iowa football players might be heading to the NFL.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 “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.NetSuiteOver twenty-seven thousand businesses already use NetSuite and RIGHT NOW through the end of the year NetSuite is offering a one-of-a-kind financing program to those ready to upgrade at NetSuite.com/LOCKEDONNCAA. 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 Podcast Network. As always, I am your host. Excited to be back for another show today. On today's show, we have a lot of Hawkeye news to cover, starting with the continued storyline of the advisory committee and Kirk Behrens' decision to restructure that advisory committee

and the report or the interesting story that came from the Gazette. There are more details on that. We're going to be covering that on today's show. We're also in continuing our coverage of the Tyler Linderbaum declaration for the NFL decision. Who can replace Tyler Linderbaum? And also, looking ahead to next year, who could be gone? We're going to be covering all that on the show today, so be on the lookout for that.

But first, I want to thank you all for making the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast your first listen every single day. You can find the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast for free wherever you get podcasts at and also on YouTube by searching Locked on Hawkeyes. And today's episode is brought to you by Sonos. Experience the game like never before with Sonos Arc, the premium start soundbar for TVs, movie, music, gaming, and more. Visit Sonos.com to learn more. And as you might be able to tell,

if you are watching this on YouTube, we have a new setup. I finally got my office set up, which was probably way too long from when it should have been set up, but we have a new setup, a new camera angle. We're working through a whole new process. So let me know your feedback on this. If you have any feedback on it, would very much appreciate that. Let's get into it. The Kirk Ferentz news. As we talked about on yesterday's show, the report by the Gazette was a little bit one-sided.

It basically said Kirk Ferentz disbanded. That's actually what the verbiage of the article said at the very beginning of the title, said Kirk Ferentz disbanded the advisory committee that was in place to kind of give advice and guidance on how to turn the program around from the 2020 racial bias allegations. Before we get into the details of that, I want to quickly remind you all, I had an episode right after that, the 2020 racial bias allegations, where I talked very deeply about the thoughts and feelings that went into that. And I supported it then. I support it now. I think the change that has happened within the program that we can see externally has been pretty cool to see.

Obviously much needed. I think Kirk took that stuff to heart and he has been trying to make the appropriate changes. I think when you also look at the fact that Iowa has the least amount of transfers in the Big Ten this year, you have to factor in that that's probably a good sign of things are turning around, things are changing. And you look at the guys who are transferring, we had three wide receivers transfer and a backup quarterback who wasn't going to play anytime soon. three wide receivers transfer and a backup quarterback who wasn't going to play anytime soon. So you start thinking about those things and it looks good to have so many people want to stay and be, be Iowa Hawkeyes for multiple years to come. So as we talked about on yesterday's show, the Gazette came out the article saying Kirk disbanded the advisory committee and that it came after David Porter, a former Iowa Hawkeye offensive lineman, wanted to remove Kirk Behrens,

Gary Barta, and the entire coaching staff from the Iowa Hawkeye football team. He basically wanted Kirk to retire. He said that was the right choice to protect his legacy. And the way that the Gazette worded the article made it seem like the Iowa Hawkeyes had not done anything to improve the program since the racial bias allegations. Well, thankfully, David Porter went on the news or went on the radio today with Pat Hardy talking about what had happened. And there's a few things that really stood out from his conversation that really point

paint a different picture he said i quote not pro i actually that probably i don't want to quote this but this is exactly this is what he said the program did all recommended things to the committee except basically entirely answered the question that he proposed or posed in October, which was, how do you, and what is your role in diversity, inclusion, and equity? How can you, or what is your role to make the environment diverse, equitable, and inclusive? And coaches didn't come with the best answer. Sounds like a few didn't come prepared, et cetera. Now I don't want to sit here and say that's okay. Right. As a coach, as an assistant coach, as an assistant at all within the Iowa football program,

you should understand what your role is now. And it shouldn't be that hard to come up with an answer. So I understand some frustrations there, but that does not mean that the program is not moving in the right direction. And when he says they have done literally all the recommended things from the committee, except for answer that question perfectly after Kirk Ferentz said, Hey,

can we move this meeting back? We're coming off a rough week. We've been playing football for the last seven weeks. I would like to give my team, my staff some time off. That was after that. So you can understand why there might be some frustrations again. I'm not saying it's okay that they couldn't answer that question, but for that to be the only reason is a little bit ridiculous.

Now, the advisory board's rule is not to hire and fire coaches. It's not to recommend the hiring and firing of coaches. Again, it's there to guide Kirk Ferentz. Until when they make a recommendation to leave or to make Kirk Ferentz leave I'd be very frustrated about that as well it's ridiculous I wouldn't want that committee to be a part of my program either now it's important to note that it was just one guy who said that we have not heard the story of any other committee members And that is really where the Gazette went wrong and where Pat Hardy went wrong as well on his article until he did correct some of the pieces. To be fair, he did correct some of the pieces later on, but that is really where they went

wrong. They did not give you both sides. They gave you one side. And to me at this point, this is a non-issue and let's move on. Kirk is going to restructure the advisory board. I think it's important that he acts now. He acts swiftly and has a plan because the longer he waits to have this plan, the worse off this is going to be and the worse off from an optic perspective this is going to be. But I'm feeling a little bit better about where we are than I did 24 hours ago.

It's frustrating that there are media members who do want to jump on things like this when there are other media members like Scott Dockerman, who does a phenomenal job of tracking down multiple sources and providing an unbiased opinion on the matter. And again, my opinion is they should be able to answer that question. They should have been able to answer that question in October about how they create a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment. But that is not a reason to say that they are not doing anything appropriate, especially after David Porter went on the news or went on the radio and said that they were, that they'd done,

and they've implemented every recommendation that they've already provided. Furthermore, not to discredit David Porter, I do truly believe that his heart might have been, was trying to be in the right place. And he does care deeply about this Iowa football program. I don't think his actions that he carried out were appropriate he also went on to say that basically 17 to 22 year olds are basically idiots so really not a good look on the radio show yesterday but again I don't think David Porter was doing this stuff maliciously I just think the way he handled it was incredibly inappropriate and maybe did not realize what

his role truly was on the committee or chose to ignore what his role on the committee was. Nevertheless, again, Kirk Ferentz needs to act quickly to redesign or reorganize and develop what the guidelines of that committee is. Otherwise, you're going to have some of those people out there who are going to continue to point out potentially bad optics. But to me at this point, this is a non-story going forward until Kirk does decide to tell us what the plan is for the committee going forward. It's ridiculous that paid media members tried to run a story like this without even gathering the sources, sources from both sides of the story or even sources from other people on the committee.

I think it's ridiculous that they probably did twist and turn some words as well, but then David gets on that radio show and I think all kind of settled in pretty nicely. Everyone kind of has an understanding of what actually was happening with this, with this new news article coming up, we are going to talk a little bit about Tyler Linderbaum before we get to

that though. I do want to give a quick rundown of what happened over Iowa sports news the last couple days. The women's basketball team is finally back in the top 25. The men's basketball team is right on the cusp of being ranked in the top 25 as well. And true freshmen, Connor Colby and Lucas Van Ness, both freshmen were named to the freshman All-American team. Definitely some positives for that football team moving forward,

having such young guys. Connor Colby, when you see what he looks like, I mean, this kid has for that football team moving forward, having such young guys. Connor Colby, when you see what he looks like, I mean, this kid has some weight to gain as well, potentially. It seems like he still has a bit to put on his frame. Only 18 years old, playing Big Ten football and playing pretty well. I'm really excited to see what his future holds for him going forward on this Iowa football team. Again, coming up, we're going to talk a little bit about Tyler Linderbaum and then get into who could be gone next year. Before we get to that though, BetOnline would like to wish you a

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BetOnline is the fastest and the easiest way to bet on other favorite sports. BetOnline.ag where and the easiest way to bet on all your favorite sports. BetOnline.ag, where the game starts. And again, thank you for making the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast your first listen every single day. Again, you can find us wherever you get podcasts at and also on YouTube by searching Locked On Hawkeyes. And kind of some exciting news, we do have our recruiting series coming out. We're going to be breaking down every new commit to the Iowa Hawkeyes going forward. So class of 2023 and beyond right on the podcast, we're going to be having a little section on YouTube. We're giving one minute breakdowns of each commit in the Iowa class. And as we do interviews with some of these commits, we'll make sure to give you some of those brief clips as well. So be on the lookout for that. But the big news coming out of this weekend

that was a bit overshadowed was Tyler Linderbaum did declare for the NFL draft as we all expected him to. We were hoping maybe he came back, hoping there was maybe a chance that he came back, but ultimately making the right decision for himself as he should. He has a lot of money on the table there. So who's going to replace Tyler Linderbaum? That is the big question. And right now everyone wants to take the popular pick of Michael Maslinski, a three-star guy out of Florida, has NFL pedigree. He redshirted this year. And people want to look at him and say, could he be the starting center?

That's what everyone's pointing at. Now, I don't doubt that he is very much in the running to be the guy. He was practicing with the twos towards the end of the season. But nevertheless, Michael Maslinski is not the only guy fighting and battling for a spot in this starting lineup. It's also worth not counting out Michael Fagan, a former walk-on who was listed as the number two center throughout preseason, or throughout the time camp was going on,

or throughout the season. Wow, excuse me. Michael Fagan is a guy to not just disregard entirely. We've seen Iowa be willing to put in backups or former backups and walk-ons in at those starting interior spots quite often. Look at Kyler Schott, a former walk-on as well. So Michael Fagan is a guy to watch out for. A kind of under the radar guy is Tyler Ellsbury. A former four-star tackle has not gotten an opportunity to take snaps at the tackle spot.

He's been listed on the two deeps a couple of times, but there's a lot of competition at tackle. He did get some snaps at the Citrus Bowl or in practice leading up to the Citrus Bowl at that center position. You also can't cut out Cody Ince or Justin Britt. Both guys, Cody Ince can play all five positions. Kirk Ferentz has talked about that agnosium. And Justin Britt has backed up that center position before. But to me, I think their goal is to keep Justin Britt at guard, hopefully keep Cody Ence at guard, and see what you have with a Michael Moslinski or a Michael Fagan

or even a Tyler Ellsbury. The point of the matter is, though, going into camp, this is going to be a huge battle as Iowa tries to figure out who is going to be leading their offense at that center position for the next couple of years. Another guy to watch out for is Hunter Norzad. Cornell tackle who wants to play inside. That's where his future is at. He has a top five. Iowa's on it. He's visiting Iowa this month. If he were to join Iowa and be inserted at that center position, you'd have to feel pretty good about where this position is. Now, it's not ever going to get to that Tyler Linderbaum level.

It is unlikely that we see that for quite some time. It's just hard to replace a Tyler Linderbaum, a guy who could be the highest center ever taken in the NFL draft. But you have to feel pretty happy about what you have in these options. Michael Moslinski, again, a guy with a year under his belt in the offensive scheme who came here to play center to back up Tyler Linderbaum to take the starting role. Michael Fagan, a guy who has backed up Tyler Linderbaum and has worked his butt off. I would

honestly, if you take out Hunter Norzad, I'd put it at 50-50 between those, actually 40-40 between those two and 20% a chance to either Tyler Elsberry, Cody Ince, or Justin Britt plays. and 20% a chance to either Tyler Elsberry, Cody Ince, or Justin Britt plays. If Hunter Norzad comes to the Iowa Hawkeyes, I would put it more at 70-30 Hunter Norzad, 30 to the rest of the team playing that center position. At the end of the day, this Iowa Hawkeyes squad, they just want to do what is best for this offensive line.

They want to play the best possible players at the offensive line. The best five will play. That's why you see a Connor Colby who's probably better off at right tackle playing guard because they needed to get their best guys in there when they could. Now, if I were looking at this offensive line, I would love to see if Connor Colby is able to have him slide to that right tackle spot or have a David Davikoff win that right tackle spot and have Connor Colby stay at the guard spot. You have, obviously, Cody Ince around. You have Justin Britt.

Guys who have had starter-level experience. Mason Richmond will be at that left tackle spot. There are guys that can kind of fill under these roles. And then, obviously, you have some four-stars behind both those guys as Tyler Ellsbury as, as a tackle could also get some playing time too. So Iowa has a lot of talent. It is going to be very inexperienced going into this year,

but you have to be pretty happy with the young, the depth and the youngsters they have and where they're going to be filling those guys in. So it's going to be a battle that we continue to watch over the course of spring and into the summer practices. And as we get more information, as we get our initial 2Ds, we'll obviously be overanalyzing the heck out of that. At this point, though, with the current roster, I would say Michael Moslinski, 40%, Michael Fagan, 40%, 20%, Tyler Ellsbury, Cody Ince, Justin Britt. If Hunter Norzad comes, 70% Hunter Norzad, 30% the rest of of the crew that does do it for our quick discussion on

tyler linderbaum coming up we're going to look at next year's team who could be gone from next year's team that is a question we're gonna have to answer sooner rather than later coming up in the next year or so so we're gonna be talking about that here in a few short moments but first with the new year that means new year's. If yours is about getting fit or eating healthier, make sure you include Bilt Bar in your plan. Bilt Bar is the protein bar that tastes just like a candy bar, maybe even better than a candy bar. And it makes it so easy to track and stick to your New Year's resolutions because it tastes so freaking good. You're going to want to eat it, unlike all those other protein bars, which can be chalky, waxy, or taste like a chemical spill. You want to be healthy, but it gets so boring. So grab yourself a Built Bar. They're covered in 100% chocolate

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Now we're turning our direction to who could be leaving next year. The obvious candidates for this are the guys who we weren't sure if they were coming back this year. And it starts with Sam Laporta. He's probably gone. I'd be shocked if Sam Laporta came back he's projected as a fourth round pick I think if he tested well he could have gotten up to that third round status most draft scouts will say scout the player not the helmet but I think when you have an Iowa Hawkeye tight end who you like on tape and they

have an Iowa Hawkeye emblem on their helmet you have to be pretty darn excited and have a chance of maybe overdrafting per what your scouting would say because you want to get your chance to grab a guy like that. Just like George Kittle who went in the fifth round, see what he turned out to be. You want to take a chance on that when you have a pedigree like the Iowa Hawkeyes do at developing the tight end position. So Sam Laporta, my guess, is 100% gone next year,

especially if he puts up a big season. He could put himself into that first round, second round draft conversation. Behind him, it's Luke Lachey. It's Luke Lachey's time after that. Elijah Yelverton, a guy who's had some issues staying healthy. Expect him to be there. You also have backing up both those guys, Addison Ostringa and Cale Vanderbush,

both talented guys who have a lot of raw, untapped potential. So be on the lookout for those four guys to fill the tight end position after Sam Laporta leaves. Riley Moss is also gone as well. He has no eligibility left, so he is definitely gone. We're going to see who's replacing Matt Hankins this year. My guess is it's going to be either Terry Roberts or Jamari Harris. But with another year under the belts,

be on the lookout for both Terry, Jamari Harris. But with another year under the belts, be on the lookout for both Terry, Jamari, Brendan Dees-Fernandez, and A.J. Lawson maybe, and or T.J. Hall, a guy who is enrolling early. We've seen young guys get playing time early on in their career. That's why Riley Moss, as a gray shirt, came in and started as a freshman. Julius Brents, who is now with Kansas State,

got starts as a freshman. So be on the watch for those guys. Jack Campbell is probably gone. I'd be surprised if he came back, but Jack Campbell probably gone at this point. The best chance to replace him really depends on who else is left in that linebacker group. We could see Seth Benson slide over. We could see Justin Jacobs slide over, although I like Justin Jacobs in an outside linebacker spot. Or we could see a Jay Higgins step up. And Jay Higgins was a tackling machine back in Indiana. Really excited to see what he can do as well. He's been on the two deeps behind Jack Campbell. Charlie Jones is also gone.

He's gone to this point. We could see the Iowa Western transfer come in and take his spot. Charlie Jones in the actual offense, not that he's not going to be easy to replace. You want to have that speedster there. But Iowa, after this year, is going to have a more traditional wide receiver trios. You want to have a wide receiver group that kind of plays like a basketball team, right? You want kind of a quick, stripty kind of guy, like a point guard as your slot. You want a small forward as one of your outside guys. And you want kind of a power forward center kind of guy

who can go up and get the ball as one of your fours or fives. That is Iowa, but Iowa doesn't have that big guy. Now you can see a Jacob Bostic who's coming in this year. You could see a Brody Breck. Jackson Ritter got some snaps last year. We could also see if Iowa is able to land a Kyler Casper, he could step up and take those spots. But for now, Charlie Jones offensively, not as big of a concern.

Iowa has a lot of those guys at a very similar position and skill set as Charlie Jones. We could see, though, on the return game that Iowa Western transfer, I'm blanking on his name right now as I'm just kind of going off the cusp here, but we could see him take over that spot. I wouldn't be surprised to maybe see a Cooper DeGene even take some returns. Arlen Bruce would be really interesting to get involved as well, so be on the lookout for that. Who has decisions next year, though?

When you look across the defensive line, not an explosive group that really stepped up this year from the older guys. Joe Evans had a nice statistical season john wagner had a very quiet statistical season but kind of held down the edge there noah shannon played solid football on the interior all three of those guys are technically going to be out of eligibility but they have a coveted year so they have an extra year after that so the redshirt seniors but they have an extra year on top of that they have decisions to make although at this point i don't see any of those three heading out unless they have just an absolute breakthrough year, right?

It's not like a Chauncey Golsan who maybe he was a little quiet from a statistical perspective, but you could see his dominance on tape. We haven't been able to see all of that. Joe Evans, not even really sure what his role looks like, right? He probably is going to be more of a 3-4 outside linebacker in the NFL, is my guess. John Wagner is a more traditional 4-3 defensive end. Noah Shannon is an interior kind of guy, a little bit shorter though,

so would be interesting to see what their draft stock looks like, but they all three have the opportunity to come back after next year. Speaking of Jack Campbell earlier on, Seth Benton will have a decision as he is technically out of eligibility, but again, having that COVID year, he has an interesting skill set,

but kind of struggles at tackling at times and struggles a bit in coverage. So it will be fun to see kind of what his decision is and if he decides to come back. Iowa has a pretty loaded linebacker group behind those guys. But my guess is Jack will leave and Seth does ultimately return. Kayvon Merriweather is another guy to watch out for. Again, with that COVID year of eligibility, Kayvon Merriweather is another guy to watch out for. Again, with that COVID year of eligibility, Kayvon Merriweather has an opportunity to take that next step this year and really step up.

He has a lot of game film too. So when you're looking at like a Jack Kerner who decided to go to the NFL, which I think makes sense for Jack, he had a lot of game film. What more was he going to gain by coming back? I think Kayvon Merriweather could be in a similar position, especially if he has a very strong year this year as the second guy behind Riley Moss in the secondary kind of leading this unit. Nico Reganey, another guy with eligibility that will be kind of expiring but has the COVID

year. I don't see Nico Reganey being an NFL caliber wide receiver at this point. So it kind of just depends on if he wants to try his hand at the NFL and just kind of go into retirement, or if he wants to stick around for another year and enjoy that college football scene. And then Torrey Taylor, he's going to be a really interesting one. So he has said and gone on record that he wants to get his degree. He also has the ability to go to the NFL at any time. He is still working on a lot of fundamentals from a punting perspective, especially the U.S. way of punting. Had a few issues this past year.

Punts getting blocked. Wasn't able to down as many punts inside the 20. They were kind of rolling forward. So still figuring out some of the spin on that. If he does figure it out this year, though, it would be tempting to go to the NFL and get your money. But Tori Taylor, again, has said he wanted to get his degree. But it'll be interesting to watch how that all plays out.

Again, Tori Taylor had a down year this year, but it was as he was trying to learn how to do United States football rules punting, not Australian rules punting, trying to get that all figured out and work on that. He still has a lot of development to go despite already being very, very good at this point. That does do it for our show today.

On tomorrow's show, we're going to be giving you a preview of Iowa versus Rutgers. We're also going to be talking about Tyler Linderbaum and where does he fall on this Mount Rushmore of Iowa offensive linemen and is Kirk Ferentz a Hall of Fame coach? It might seem kind of weird to be talking about that

given the interesting storylines coming out in the last couple of days, but I do believe it is a conversation worth having, especially after Kirk Ferentz signs a deal that'll keep him in Iowa City for another couple more years on top of his already still current deal. So we're going to be talking about all that on tomorrow's show. Just a reminder, if you are looking for some betting advice, I highly recommend you check out the Locked On Bets podcast hosted by your boy Q and handicapping expert Lee Sterling of Paramount Sports. They do a great job of picking three to

four games each and every day and dropping that for you so you can bet at betonline.ag and put a little money in your pocket. So again, take a listen to them. Tune in to tomorrow's episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. As always, Hawkeye Nation, I appreciate you all tuning in. I appreciate you listening to today's episode. Have a fantastic Tuesday, and let's go Hawks.