Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Which records can Stanley break? | Hawks miss on big-time transfer prospects | Men win B1G Track and Field title

Episode Date: May 13, 2019

What records could be broken in 2019 for the Iowa football team? The answer may surprise you. After discussing that and general football news, we transition over to basketball where we cover Isaiah Moss, Cordell Pemsl, and what Fran McCaffery is doing to make up for the departures. Segment number three has us doing our weekly Hawkeye roundup. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are listening to the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering the Iowa Hawkeyes for the Locked On Sports Network, hosted by Andrew Wade, editor at DearOldGold.com. Welcome to a beautiful Monday morning episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Wade, editor over at DearOldGold.com, and we're finally back with a more traditional episode. We've been kind of changing things up the last couple weeks. Obviously, been getting a lot of interviews on. We've been talking to a lot of the Iowa United players, So I've been giving you a lot of stuff like that.

Last week was Matt Tybee. The week before that, we actually interviewed Nicholas Bayer. So been doing a lot of interviews as of late, and that will continue going forward. Been getting a lot of great feedback and responses from you, the listeners over in the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, part of the Locked On Sports Network. So we have a lot of great interviews coming up. On today's show, though, we're going to get back, like I said, to a more traditional structure. We're going to do our three-part structure. On segment number one, we're going to be covering football. So a couple

different things have kind of popped up on the football landscape. We're going to be covering that on segment number one. On segment number two, we're going to be talking about basketball. A lot of things have popped up there as well. Cordell Pemzo was granted a medical hardship waiver. What does that mean for the Hawks? They've been looking to bring in some potential transfer targets, but those have kind of failed so far. So where do the Iowa Hawkeyes go from here? And what is the latest on Isaiah Moss?

We'll be covering all that on segment number two. And then finally, on segment number three, we're going to be doing kind of our Hawkeye roundup to an extent. We're going to be talking about the baseball team and the men's track and field team. They had a fantastic performance this weekend. So we're going to be covering that on segment number three. Before we jump into all of that, though, like I said, we have a lot of great interviews coming up. And we've been doing a lot of great interviews the past couple weeks.

So I want to make sure that you have the opportunity to check that stuff out. Real quick, on the Iowa United front, if you are not familiar with the Iowa United, which if you've been listening to the show at all the last couple weeks, you know what the Iowa United is. It is a team that's going to be playing in the $2 million winner-take-all, the basketball tournament. And it is going to be comprised, the Iowa United team is going to be comprised of the four major schools in the state of Iowa.

So we have Drake Bulldogs, Iowa Hawkeyes, Iowa State Cyclones, UNI Panthers, and we have Matt Tybee from UW-Milwaukee. So we're going to be doing sort of in conjunction with Iowa United, which you can follow them on Twitter, Iowa United TBT. You know, in conjunction with kind of their player previews they are doing each week, we're also going to be releasing interviews with each of those players. Two weeks ago, we did Nicholas Baer. Last week was a three-part series on Matt Tybee,

a great guy to talk to, lots of good information, so I wanted to make sure we broke that up in a feasible format. This week, we actually have number four overall draft pick in the NBA draft, former Iowa State Cyclone Marcus Fizer. And yes, I know this is the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast, but the summer months are kind of slow. Iowa United is going to be an awesome team to watch this summer, and it does include some of the Hawks.

So I want to make sure we're giving full coverage of that entire team. And I'm really excited for you all to listen to the Marcus Fizer interview. Great dude and had a great conversation with him. We also are going to be airing over the next couple weeks, we have interviews with all the former Drake players who are going to be on the Iowa United. That includes Nick McGlynn, the MVC Defensive Player of the Year.

Reed Timmer, who has currently just finished up his first season in the European Leagues. He was actually Newcomer of the Year in the German Premier A. And then Josh Young, Drake's former all-time point scorer before Reed Timmer actually broke that. We also have some great Iowa Hawkeyes coming up on the show.

Make sure you did tune in to the Nicholas Bayer interview and the Deuce Hogan interview that we had a few weeks ago. We also had Kevontae Martin-Manley on here. But in the coming weeks, we have Iowa quarterback Drew Tate, former Big Ten Player of the Year. And we also have Stansy the Manzy. Ricky Stansy is going to be on the show as well, talking to us about his career with the Iowa Hawkeyes and what he's up to now. So lots of fantastic stuff that you do not want to miss. And the last guy I want to make sure you all are aware of is Elijah Yelverton, the tight end commit in the class of 2020.

Had 36 offers, big time get for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Had a great conversation with him, talking to him about what he expects to do when he joins the Iowa Hawkeye football program. So lots of great interviews coming your way. And we'll try to keep you up on some of the other traditional covers that we typically provide on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. But just a lot of stuff I want to make sure I got out there so you knew what to expect

before we jump right into the show. If this is your first time listening to the show, make sure you do like or subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast at. That obviously helps us a ton. Make sure to also follow us on Twitter at Lockdown Iowa. You can follow us on Facebook at Lockdown Hawkeyes. And our Gmail account is LockdownHawkeyes at gmail.com. So if you have any questions, feedback, comments, suggestions, whatever it may be,

you can email me there as well. So let's jump right into it with segment number one. I'm talking a lot about football on this one. Segment number one, Nate Stanley was actually invited to the Manning Passing Academy. I think that kind of speaks volumes to where he is currently at in his career. I mean, this guy has the potential to go down as one of the best quarterbacks in Iowa history. He has the skill set. He just needs to put it all together. I think we've kind of seen, you know, some of the abilities that he has, the fact that he could be a great quarterback for Iowa. Obviously, the system is not as conducive

to displaying some of those quarterbacking skills as we see with some other big-time programs. But, you know, if he turns in a great season, he could be a first-rounder by the end of next year. I mean, at least that's what Todd McShay is projecting him as. I mean, look at the guy. He's 6'5", 245 pounds. He's got a quarterback frame that scouts drool over. He's got a great arm. It's just a matter of getting some of that accuracy down pat and also getting some of that mental mistakes down pat also getting some of that you know mental mistakes down pat

you kind of notice it there's pretty much once or twice every single game where he just makes one or two dumb throws the other 90 of his throws are fantastic rather than the money great throws but the other two are just not great so it'll be interesting to see kind of how he plays this season out but getting invited to the manning passing academy is huge for him obviously getting a chance to learn under two of the best quarterbacks in NFL history, and excuse me, arguably three, depending on how you classify Eli Manning in that conversation. Another thing to kind of watch out for Nate Stanley, though, is, you know, if he does put on a good season, he has the opportunity to break quite a few records in the Iowa Hawkeye record book, the first of which is the career passing touchdowns. That record is currently 70,

and it's held by Chuck Long, obviously a great quarterback in Iowa football history, a former first-round draft pick by the Detroit Lions. Nate Stanley is just 19 touchdowns away from breaking that record, though. You do the math here. Stanley has thrown 26 touchdowns each in the last two seasons. So if he just keeps up his average, he's going to break it pretty easily. I could see that number go down a little bit,

maybe throwing in the 21-22 touchdown range just because of how the running game should be better this year. Obviously, you have the two bookend tackles who can crush people. I think Iowa wants to get back to a running game. At the same time, a good running game opens up the field for Nate Stanley with that play-action pass, so there's a chance he could even throw more. I think he's starting to get a better wide receiver room. Amir Smith, Marcet, and Brandon Smith give him some great junior targets. Obviously, Nico Rangini and Tyrone Tracy have been displaying a lot of excellent receiver skills out of the slot position during spring camp, so we could see them kind of break out as well. This offense really could be

explosive, and if it is, Nate Stanley could easily break that record. If he has a great season passing, he could break the all-time passing record. That's going to take a lot of big-time throws, but that is a possibility. Some other guys, Amir Smith-Marset, we talked about him as a receiver, but as a return man, we saw what he could do last year, and it was freaking incredible. On 24 returns, he averaged 707 return yards which was good for a 29.5 yard return average you know if he if he just even gets remotely close on the returns if he gets maybe 30 um there's no reason to believe that he could not set the record which

was set by earl do do it i'm gonna butcher that name um Back in 1973, he had just under 900 yards. So I think it's just under 1,000 yards, excuse me. But he had 43 returns. So Amir Smith-Marsad, 24 last year, had a couple opportunities to actually break away for a touchdown but did not actually convert on those. I think he could do that. I think it's very possible that he's actually going to break one or two of those returns. And also, if he does that, he's going to set the record for return touchdowns in a season.

It's currently at one and held by numerous former Iowa football players. So a couple of touchdown and return records, I think Amir Smith-Marset could break. And the last record I really think Iowa should be watching out for is the single-season sack record. It's currently at 18 sacks, but A.J. Epinesa had 10.5 sacks last year as a backup. This guy is a beast. He's projected top 10 overall pick. He's destroyed draft picks from this year, just kind of putting them on their butt.

So I'm excited to see what he can do this year with another season under his belt, another year in the weight room with Chris Doyle. I think he could easily break that sack record. And not just because of his talent, but because teams aren't going to be able to double-team him. The defensive line, despite losing four starters, is actually a strength of the Iowa Hawkeyes, especially

with Chauncey Golsan on the other side. Watch out for him. I think he's going to take away some of that pressure from Epineza. He's going to still get some of those, maybe he's going to get chip-blocked here and there, but I think he'll be able to explode off the line and get that 18.5 sacks that he needs to break, that single-season sack record. So very excited to see what he can do with the Iowa football team this year. But that'll do it for segment number two, or segment number one, excuse me. On segment

number two, just a quick reminder, we're going to be talking about the basketball team, talking about Isaiah Moss, talking about the transfers that Iowa has lost out on, and the Hauser brothers that Iowa could have gotten but did not get. So we're going to be talking about that on segment number two. So stay tuned after a few messages from our sponsors. All right, we are back with segment number two, and we're going to be talking about the basketball team on segment number two. Again, getting back to that more traditional format that you are familiarized with,

the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. The big news here is Iowa just hasn't gotten a lot of good news as of lately. Obviously, Tyler Cook left for the NBA draft. Macy Daly decided to transfer to Akron. Kind of saw that coming. But then Isaiah Moss decided to transfer. I hate to admit that I did see that coming a little bit. He is a scorer.

He's not getting a lot of looks in the Iowa offense. And there's times where Fran McCaffrey just completely ignores the fact that he's a presence on the bench and he should be in the game. So it's interesting to see kind of how his playing time kind of fluctuates with the Iowa Hawkeyes, especially because he's one of their few true defensive guys who can actually lock down a defender. He also can shoot the ball incredibly well, shooting almost 40% from three. He's one of the few guys on the team who can actually create his own shot.

He's not a pop-and-shoot scorer. He can actually drive the basket. He can facilitate the ball. Interesting to see him obviously leaving. I think a lot of it, again, is the fact that he's not a number one option, not even a number two or three option on the Iowa Hawkeyes team. I thought that he would be more likely to go to a mid-major program where he could be a number one option on that team and maybe compete for an NCAA tournament birth maybe like a Loyola University maybe a University of Illinois Chicago maybe even a

DePaul but it sounds like as of right now he's actually looking at some Big 12 programs. He's taking a visit to Kansas. He's had some interest from Iowa State and Minnesota. Obviously, I would not like to see him play at Iowa State. We saw Adam Hlasko transfer back in the day, but I don't want to see Isaiah Moss go to Iowa State. That'd be a real interesting scenario for the Hawks having to play him if he were to go to Iowa State or even Minnesota if he stayed in the Big Ten I just don't want to play Isaiah Moss I don't care if he goes to Kansas you do you there I don't understand kind of what the allure is I mean obviously probably a better program up arguably but I just for him I thought it made a lot of sense to go to mid-major program

really interested to see kind of how this all plays out but getting a ton of interest from a lot of programs I think that kind of speaks volumes to what kind of player he is. I know some fans may be quick to judge him and kind of turn on him for transferring, but you've got to do what you've got to do. And ultimately the end goal is to play professional basketball. So whatever way you feel like is the best way to get there, you've got to do it.

If that means transferring from Iowa, so be it. I mean, it sucks. I want to see him play at the Iowa Hawkeyes, but it's just not going to happen anymore. The interesting thing about this is Isaiah Moss is the last guy from the class 2015 to finally leave the program. That was a class of six players. All of them are officially gone, never actually finished their career with the Iowa Hawkeyes. So kind of unfortunate, but you can see how that played out as far as the Iowa basketball team just not doing so hot

the last two years because they didn't get a lot of production from that class of 2014 or the class of 2015. With Isaiah Moss leaving, though, that does open up another roster opportunity, another scholarship spot, and Iowa was pursuing a few transfer students. So DJ Harvey, a former four-star guard from Notre Dame, he was looking at either Vanderbilt or Iowa. He actually took a visit to Iowa last week, ultimately decided to go down to Vanderbilt and play with Jerry Stackhouse. Big loss for the Hawks. He wasn't actually going to play next year, though. He's not eligible immediately, but it's still a

big loss because you never know if Joe Waiskamp is going to be leaving after his sophomore season. He's obviously in the NBA draft process right now, but he's likely to return. Could have used D.J. Harvey after that big-time guard slash wing player. The other two guys Iowa was pursuing, the Hauser brothers, their 2-3 punch up in Marquette. They were the second and third leading scorers. The brothers have a few years of eligibility left. They would not have been immediately eligible, though. But again, four-star recruits playing forward, they would have just bolstered that depth at Iowa even more. But it also would have created bolstered that depth at Iowa even more. But it also would have created somewhat of a logjam.

It kind of depends on what happens this season and next season. I mean, right now, Ryan Creener is going to be graduating, but we still have Luka Garza. Is he going to even look at going pro? Who knows there. We have a couple other guys down low. Cordell Pemzel. We got Jack down in the paint as well

joe weeskamp can kind of slide down if he really needs to be a small four lots of great guys that are going to be playing in that post spot so not really sure where those guys would have fit into that either and you also got to add in the fact that patrick mccaffrey if he's able to gain some weight could play that four spot as well and that kind of leads me into cordal pemzel's news the fact that he did get granted that medical hardship waiver, which was absolutely huge, much needed. If he would have only had one year remaining, it would have been tough to get on the court

with Luka Garza, Jack Nunge, and Ryan Creener playing in the post. But he's going to obviously get another time to play that second year as well. It depends on if Luka Garza leaves, whether or not he's going to get more playing time, but with Kreener gone, that'll spell a little bit more Pemzel time as well

in year two. So exciting news for him. Great to see that happen. Obviously, he struggled this year with some knee issues. Hopefully, he can get back and being healthy next year. He brings a lot of spark off the bench and a lot of explosiveness that I think Nicholas Bayer brought as a sixth man.

I think Cordell Pemzel can really fill that role, be that kind of emotional energy for the team. Obviously, I don't think he's a Nicholas Bayer type of player. They're not the same type of player. Nicholas Bayer is a great 3 and D type of guy, but Cordell Pemzel can be kind of a more of a force inside, maybe a better defender than Tyler Cook, a guy you bring off the bench for 10, 15 minutes

and shuts down the opposing team's four. So I think obviously that's huge for them to get him back as having two years of eligibility left on the Iowa basketball team. So really exciting stuff. That was kind of the first big good news Iowa's gotten in the last couple weeks. We'll obviously keep you posted on some of the other potential transfer options. We haven't heard anything so far. But I can only imagine they are exploring the transfer market just because they have a couple of scholarship spots open. It doesn't make sense to not get those out there.

As a big-time major program, you need to be able to take those spots and utilize them. I think the Hawks have a really good opportunity this year to go far in the NCAA tournament. You need to get some guys who could potentially make a big impact immediately. There are some great players still eligible and available on the market that they could be pursuing. But we'll keep you posted on all of that here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. That'll do it though for segment number two. Just a quick reminder that on segment number three, we're going to be covering the baseball

team and the track team doing a quick Hawkeye roundup for segment number three. So stay tuned for that after a few messages from our sponsors. that after a few messages from our sponsors. Alright, we are back with segment number three of the day for our Monday morning episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. And the big thing I wanted to cover is the baseball team took two out of three

games last week against number 19 UC Irvin. Obviously huge for them. They are now ranked in the top 25 for the first time in a few years, and they are kind of on a roll, except for this past weekend they obviously had a little bit of a frustrating experience playing Michigan State. Two games they lost to Michigan State and only got

one victory. They also lost on Senior Night. It is the first series they've lost in quite some time, and Michigan State is not a powerhouse in the Big Ten, one of the bottom feeder teams of the Big Ten. So not a very great weekend for the Iowa baseball team. But I think if anyone knows, if anyone here has actually played baseball, I have,

anything can happen on any given day. It's crazy how a bad team can beat a good team and vice versa. There's so much more that comes into play outside of just talent. So obviously frustrating to see Iowa lose two of those three games. They're still kind of firmly on the NCAA tournament bubble. Obviously a big weekend in the Big Ten tournament will be huge. They also get Western Illinois this Tuesday, and they play a three-game series against Maryland Thursday, Friday,

and Saturday this next week in Maryland. So if they could win all four of those games, that'll be good for the program. Losing any of those will look a little bit bad on them as they head into the Big Ten tournament. Obviously, a big run in the Big Ten tournament, either winning the tournament or winning a few games, will help them potentially secure that at-large bid in the NCAA tournament.

But we'll be keeping you posted right here on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast because that is the only sport that's really going on anymore. Now that men's track and field is starting to wind down, they just won the Big Ten track and field title, which is their first title in a few years in any sport, I believe since the baseball team won in 2017. And actually kind of interesting, they actually won pretty much before they even got to the last event, where they had the 4x400, but they did manage to win that as well and comfortably secure the Big Ten title. So big congratulations and shout out goes to the Big Ten track and field men's team. Awesome stuff bringing home the Big Ten title. So big congratulations and shout-out goes to the Big Ten track and field men's team.

Awesome stuff bringing home the Big Ten title. Love seeing that from the Iowa Hawkeye programs. And the baseball team, like I said, obviously a frustrating weekend, but they got a couple big games this week. Need to take home those. And they head on to the Big Ten tournament where kind of their dreams of an at-large bid or even a conference bid is where they're going to be able to secure that at. So lots of exciting stuff going on,

even though it's getting to become a little bit of a slower time period in Iowa Hawkeye athletics, and that's why we're doing a lot of those interviews. So that'll wrap it up, though, for segment number three. Just a quick reminder, make sure you're checking out all of our great stuff we've been putting out there on the Iowa United and also just all the great interviews we've been conducting with former Iowa Hawkeye players in all different sports over the last couple weeks.

Lots of great stuff coming up with Elijah Yelverton, a tight end recruit. We have the slew of Drake basketball guys for Iowa United, Nick McGlynn, Reed Timmer, Josh Young. We got Marcus Fizer of the former Iowa State Cyclones and Chicago Bulls also now going to be playing on the Iowa United. And we have the Iowa Hawkeye quarterbacks Drew Tate and Ricky Stanzi who are going to be joining the show as well. So lots of great stuff

coming right here on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. Make sure you are liking and subscribing to our podcast wherever you downloaded this at. If you did like it, if you didn't like it, let me know. Feel free to shoot me an email. LockedonHawkeyes at gmail.com. Love to get your feedback and what would make this show better for you and your listening pleasure.

So let me know what you think of the show. Let me know what I can improve on. Love to hear that as well. Feel free to leave a comment and feedback on wherever you are going to review this at as well. Love to get good and constructive feedback however we can. Again, thank you for joining us on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Make sure to follow us on Twitter at LockedOnIowa. Follow me on Twitter at Wade underscore Andrew. And follow us on Facebook at the the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Make sure to follow us on Twitter at Lockdown Iowa. Follow me on Twitter at Wade underscore Andrew.

And follow us on Facebook at the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. We have lots of great content coming up, and we appreciate you joining the show on this beautiful Monday morning. Have a great week, Hawkeye Nation, and go Hawks. guitar solo you