Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Will the 2020 B1G football season be played? | What are impacts of either decision | Oliver Martin is gone after a year

Episode Date: August 11, 2020

News broke yesterday that the Big Ten was canceling the 2020 season, but then many players and coaches were quick to voice the support against it and it turns out that breaking news was false. What happened the last 48 hours, why is it happening, and where does this leave us? We break it all down on today's show before discussing the Oliver Martin transfer news. After just one year with the program, the Iowa City native has entered the transfer portal and another guy in the transfer portal, Xavior Williams is taking a long hard look at the University of Iowa for this upcoming season.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. 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 Hawkeye Nation, to another episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Lockdown Sports Network.

As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade. Excited to be back for another day of the show. Before we get into anything, I do want to wish everyone in the state of Iowa, obviously, I hope you all are doing well. I saw the damage throughout the state and throughout most of the central part of Iowa, and obviously, lots of damage throughout, lots of houses being damaged, crops and whatnot being destroyed. So obviously, crops and whatnot being destroyed. So obviously, first and foremost, I want to make sure that I do let you all know that I'm thinking about you, that Hawkeye Nation is there for you, and hopefully everyone can

get back on their feet soon. Power can be restored, all that stuff. So I wanted to make sure I quickly touched on that. That is the safety of everyone is more important than anything going on in college football. So I want to make sure I covered that. On today's show, though, we are going to be talking about college football and whether or not we're going to have it. Because honestly, at this point, who knows? Who actually knows that we're going to have college football?

The reports were all over the place yesterday. We're also going to touch a little bit on some of the transfer news. Oliver Martin is gone. The Northern Iowa cornerback Xavier Williams is looking to possibly transfer, and it seems like Iowa is possibly interested. So we're going to talk about that as well. But that will pretty much do it for our show today covering those two main items. Before we get into that, though, make sure to like, review, and subscribe wherever you

downloaded this podcast at. Give us that five-star review. If you like the show, let us know you like the show. If you don't like the show, that's fine, too. Let us know what you don't like about the show. Obviously, you can leave that in the feedback as well, but I would also love a follow-up email, if you could, letting us know kind of what you wish was improved. You can send that to us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or like I said, an email to the

LockedOnHawkeyes at gmail.com. That being said though, let's hop into the show. And like I said yesterday, we have a lot of great episodes this week, some great interviews coming up. So stay tuned throughout the week. Episodes coming potentially daily. Definitely have an episode Thursday and Friday, but I'll likely have one as well tomorrow, depending on the news. And I did want to try to wait until the last minute

to record this episode. So I'm actually recording this episode this morning, the day you're hearing it. 7 a.m. Central Time. Wanted to see if any news popped up. So that's why I'm recording this a little late. That's why you're getting this a little late. I didn't want to put out an episode that I recorded Monday night, and then the Big Ten finally made a freaking decision, but that's kind of where we're at. So I'm going to run down kind of what happened yesterday. I got a message saying that the Big Ten was going to be canceling their season, got that early in the morning, and that it sounds like there was a 12-2 vote. It sounds like Iowa and Nebraska were the two schools who voted against canceling the Big Ten season, which obviously I thought was shocking.

We saw Iowa and Nebraska fans come together, which is something we're not used to seeing, so that's pretty crazy too. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. If that saying was never more true, then I don't know what is. But that was the initial report, that it was 12-2, that the Big Ten presidents had voted they wanted to cancel the season. I have a couple things to say about that. It sounds like that report potentially was false, that they were never at a 12-2 vote. It also sounds like the fact that the athletic directors are not voting on this is a little bit ridiculous to me.

So I don't know how you could have the presidents be voting on this and not the athletic directors. Yet also these same presidents are having schools reopen and have classes in session and not have football. I just don't understand where the logic is coming at. The Big Ten released their new schedule this past week. We talked a little bit about it on last week's shows. We're going to be going in kind of an in-depth review of each game starting this week, but that's on hold for right now. But why go through the hassle of releasing a brand new schedule, a pretty schedule,

if I do say so myself, it was really well organized, especially compared to that crap you see in the ACC. Why go through that hassle if you're not going to have a Big Ten season, if all of a sudden you're going to do away with the Big Ten season? I think my biggest issue with this whole thing is I don't understand how things have changed so drastically in three days that we could possibly not have college football. They have had six months, five months, excuse me,

to figure this out, and we're waiting until August 11th. We're less than a month away from the first college football games. August 11th to start figuring out what in the heck are we going to do? Now, there are not, there's not news coming out that's pertinent to COVID that's going to, you know, I would say make a decision either way that should change it so drastically that we're trying to make this last second decision. I heard that there were some concerns about the long-term safety of, you know, for heart

conditions, um, with players. Maybe that's the thing, but that isn't something that we aren't aware of. I think with, with coronavirus, I think the big thing is we don't really know what the long-term impacts are, but we aren't going to know what the long-term impacts are for quite some time. We've seen programs across the country have positive tests within their program, and they are quarantining and handling that relatively well, I would say. I mean, especially, I think, within the Iowa football program, they're doing a very good job of trying to manage the coronavirus as much as they can. So it doesn't make sense to me why all of a sudden we're trying to cancel the season.

We saw the MAAC cancel their season. I thought that was quite interesting. quite interesting. You know, we're not, you know, we're starting to get some more big time conferences getting out of getting out of the football season. We saw other schools, though, basically go the exact opposite direction. I mean, the SEC is pushing forward. We saw the, you know, the the Sun Conference, you know, they're, they're pushing forward. And good for them, I guess. I mean, at least they're making a decision is my point. And what I find interesting, again, is the fact that all of a sudden the Big Ten wants to cancel football.

And a lot of schools appear to be for that within the Big Ten except for Iowa, Nebraska. You know, Iowa, makes sense. I think they've done a really good job of handling this as best as you could. They're looking at having students back on campus, so why can't we have football in that case? And the thing that's been most shocking to me is the outpouring of support, not from within the program, but from the outside of the program. You see parents, you know, parents of Iowa athletes that want to see their kids play, that want to see the kids play.

You see parents that are doctors that are on the front lines of this that want to see their kids play. Maurice Goodson, Tyler Goodson's dad, organized kind of a coalition of parents to write a letter through 24-7 Sports saying they wanted to see their kids play. So it's interesting to see the outpouring of support externally for these players to get a chance to play. And also seeing the outpouring of support internally to see these players play. These guys are speaking up on Twitter. They're speaking out using their voices to make a difference and try to extend the possibility of this season. So it's been quite a whirlwind of the last 48 hours. We still have a

bit more to cover with this news. So coming up on segment number two, I want to talk a bit about what the possibilities are, whether it's canceling the season, whether it is delaying the season. I also want to talk about what Kirk Ferens said. I want to talk about a little bit with the long-term impact of these possible decisions. If we decide to cancel the 2020 season,

what does that mean for these players? Who from the Iowa football squad does it hurt? It also sounds like if the season does go on, there's two Iowa football players that would be bowing out for this year. So want to touch on that as well. That'll all be coming up on segment number two. Before we get into that though,

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How did you hear about us, Box? So they know we sent you amazing selection, reliably low prices, all the parts your car will ever need, rockauto.com. All right, we are back for segment number two of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Lockdown Sports Network. And as I said before the break, wanted to talk about the players kind of coming together and saying they wanted to play, talking about what Kirk said.

I thought it was really interesting. And then talking a bit about what the possibilities are. So let's actually get into the things that have happened. The fact that Iowa actually did cancel Monday practices. They did weight lift, though, so that was good. But they did cancel Monday's practices in light of kind of what was happening right now with the uncertainty of having a football season that is happening. So that being said, I'm going to play you a quick clip from Kirk Ferentz,

kind of him addressing the team, and then we're going to, again, get into the nitty-gritty of kind of what this stuff means. So here is the clip right now. You guys have done a really good job. Being away from the building, coming back, talking about program improvements, training you've done, certainly the last couple weeks, walkthroughs, practices. So everybody's done a really good job there, and I appreciate that. It hasn't been easy, and it's tough, especially when you don't know what's in front of you. And that's kind of still where we're at, but talk about that. As I said this morning, my thing is really clear the players want to play, you guys all want to play

and I know as a coaching staff we want to coach it so that hasn't changed so it couldn't have been more clear the players want to play, the coaches want to coach and I think that's the thing we're missing in all of this is the fact that the NCAA is not looking at

what the players want to do they're not looking at what the players want to do. They're not looking at what the coaches want to do. They're making their own decisions, which I think there's some merit to that. That's the idea of the NCAA. But at the same time, the NCAA is garbage, and I think they have a lot of things to improve. And they really need to do a better job of listening to the people that they are sending out there. With the protections they put in place in regards to if you get sick and making sure you have medical coverage,

the protections in place of if you don't feel comfortable playing, you can opt out this season and still have your scholarship. I think at that point, you let the players play. And Trevor Lawrence spoke out. That's a huge name to be able to speak out on that kind of stuff and let people know that he can. I don't know. At this point, it just seems ridiculous to me that we're still kind of having these conversations and it's taken this long.

There was supposed to be a decision made last night by the Big Ten. Again, I waited up trying to hear that decision, but it never actually happened. I'm hoping we actually get a decision today. I think it's ridiculous that it's taking this long to deliberate about it. But what happens next? What are some of the options? So if the Big Ten cancels the season, it sounds like there are opportunities for some of these schools

to potentially go play in a different conference. To me, that means an Iowa, a Nebraska, maybe a Wisconsin, those kind of schools. Ohio State would be looking to go play in a different conference. Maybe the Big 12, maybe the SEC. Whatever it is, that would definitely make for a very interesting storyline this year. But hopefully, I'm hoping it doesn't come to that. If the season gets delayed, it sounds like that is also on the table, the season getting delayed a month or so.

season gets delayed. It sounds like that is also on the table, the season getting delayed a month or so. My issue with that is what changes in a month that makes you not want to cancel then? Do we think there's going to be a vaccine? No, there's not. Not in a month that's going to allow you to change and make a decision based on October. Even if we did, it wasn't going to be handed out. Are they hoping to basically get more information about how impactful this virus is? Maybe. Maybe that's why. But I think delaying doesn't really do much, just extends it out. I think the problem with that too is that as we've seen over the last five months about how the NCAA has handled this, they've done a piss poor job at doing that. So they might say they're delaying but are they

actually going to talk about these things in advance so that we don't get to September to October and say well we don't know what we're going to do again so uh I guess we're going to cancel now the other option on the table is to along with kind of the canceling this season is to moving it to spring and personally you know I've never really agreed with Scott Frost but he came out and said, that's even more dangerous for my players to be playing basically two full seasons in one year. And I couldn't agree more. Not necessarily that it's more dangerous than coronavirus, but that it is very dangerous and also a stupid thing to do. You cannot have these players playing

literally two full seasons. There's a reason why there's such a gap between those seasons. These players get beat up and broken down. They need that time to recover. They need that time to build up their skills. And to me, it's just unrealistic to expect players to play back-to-back seasons. Also, then you got to start taking into account what does that mean for the NFL draft? In the contract they have, they have to have the draft by June 2nd. What does that mean for football seasons? For players especially, if players are looking at going into the NFL draft, players like Amir Smith-Marset, they could be drafted, but they're not high on that radar of a first or second day kind of guy. Going into the NFL draft immediately after a college

football season would not be good for their stock. They don't have that opportunity to train and to develop for some of those position type drills for the three cone drill, for the 40 yard dash. And granted, Iowa does a good job of preparing players anyways to be able to handle some of those things, but it's still not very conducive to success for those guys. That also brings up another point. If the season is canceled altogether, that impacts a lot of players. Guys who want to be in the NFL who are now losing an extra year.

That is an extra year of potential income. Guys like Amir Smith-Marset, Brandon Smith, O'Laric Jackson, Coy Cronk, Nick Neiman, Matt Hankins. These guys are guys who have potential to play in the NFL. However, Chauncey Golsan, excuse me, another one, are guys who are not day one or day two picks right now. They are day three picks, UDFAs, who knows at this point. I think there's a lot of potential between that group to rise up

and make it into that day one, day two conversation, but they need a season to have that. And without that season, now they're going off of old tape and there's no opportunity to continue that growth there. So it is just, it's quite an interesting dilemma that schools are in right now with handling this decision with Big Ten conferences, with the NCAA, all that stuff. So that being said, as the news hopefully comes out today, we'll break down what that decision is and give even more details on that. But I wanted to cover kind of the stuff that was happening over the last 24 to 48 hours. Coming up on segment number three, we're going to talk about two transfers, one out of Iowa and one potentially in Iowa, and what that could look like for this Iowa football team.

So that'll be coming up in just a few short seconds. All right, we are back for our third and final segment of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast on this Tuesday morning. Again, if you are tuning into the show for the first time, I hope you like what you're hearing. And obviously, if you are from the state of Iowa, I hope all the best for you all. I know it is a tough time, especially after the storms that hit yesterday. So let's jump into it, though. Oliver Martin has transferred. And this is a sore subject among some Iowa fans. There's a population of Iowa fans who didn't like the idea of Oliver Martin coming to Iowa. They didn't like the idea that he spurned Iowa initially to go to Michigan and then came back to Iowa now.

Then there's a subset of fans who thought, oh my gosh, we're getting a four-star prospect who's a top 300 recruit. We better get Oliver Martin in the lineup immediately because this is our chance to win a big bowl and to go win 11, 12 games and all that stuff. I would say the latter group is definitely disappointed. Oliver Martin got in the four games last year, caught a touchdown pass. There was some solid expectations, but he just never rose on the depth chart. Despite even Brandon Smith being injured, we did not see Oliver Martin make an impact last year. We did not see Oliver Martin make an impact last year.

He got stuck behind what is possibly the deepest group of Iowa Hawkeye wide receivers that we've seen in the Kirk Ferens era. Rivaling, and possibly even better, in my opinion, from a depth perspective, than that 2008-2019. This squad is just fantastic. You got Brandon Smith and Amir Smith-Marset. Both are essentially going to be three-year starters. Tyrone Tracy came out of not nowhere, but expectations were kind of high coming in. He did a great job there. We also have Nico Reganey, who led the team in receptions.

Both those guys are freshmen. They're going to be sophomores this year, retro you know freshmen they're going to be sophomores this year retro sophomores but still going to be sophomores um right there that is that's four guys all martin is no no higher than fifth on that list um and he's going into his junior year next year he could be higher um right now he could be you know the third wide receiver going into his senior year depending on what happens and you know this year but it sounds like there were just issues with either him picking up the offense there obviously is some depth issues in general there's a lot of depth at the University of Iowa who knows how far down he actually was on this you know this wide receiver list and Iowa is not done picking up wide receivers. They have made it a mission of getting wide receivers in there every single year.

So it's not like he was going to be good and there wasn't going to be any issues with him starting or playing next year. Who knows at this point because they're bringing in some good guys. I mean, there's talks that 2021 recruit Keegan Johnson could be a guy to watch out for as a starter next year. I mean, when you start looking at it like that, then it becomes a little bit worrisome. Like, well, I'm on the outside looking in. Where am I going to be at? You have to look at Desmond Hudson, who got in a little bit as well.

They also have two other transfers, Charlie Jones, Jack Combs, who I guess could be buying for time. Looking at this class of 2020, let me check and see, just to make sure I'm not missing any names. But we do have Deontay Vines, a guy who probably looked pretty good, Quavon Matthews. So again, there's other wide receivers coming in that class. The next upcoming class, 2021, which would be his senior year.

We got, again, Keegan Johnson is a guy to watch out for, a guy who Nebraska was going for hard. We got Brody Brecht, another guy who Iowa fans really wanted, an Iowa guy. Freddie Brecht, another guy who Iowa fans really wanted, an Iowa guy. So it's important to be on the lookout for what is actually happening right now in this program. This wide receiver group is getting very deep. So Oliver Martin has decided to transfer. I wish him the best. I hope he figures out what he wants in a program.

I don't know what the issues are. But when you start transferring multiple times, it starts to become a little bit more difficult to actually get a spot, and you start losing the opportunities, and he's running out pretty quickly. He has only two more years left to make his impact in college football, and you'd hate to see that with a four-star recruit, a guy who came out of Iowa City and hasn't really had an opportunity to make an impact yet. Now, switching gears, there's another guy who is trying to transfer out of the University of Northern Iowa since games, you know, since they have canceled their 2020, you know, season. Xavier Williams, a guy out of Bettendorf, is looking to

transfer. He is not going to transfer, though, without a scholarship. It sounds like he has heard from multiple teams, though. Virginia Tech, Virginia, West Virginia, Iowa, Utah, and Illinois. Iowa's inclusion on there is interesting for a couple reasons. Iowa has a lot of depth, but they don't have a lot of guaranteed starters at this point. I would say right now it's looking like Riley Moss and Matt Hankins with Julius Brents behind them. There's a couple other guys as well that i want to make sure i call it but there still is an opportunity you know to come in there if you wanted to come in there and

possibly get a spot um i don't know if that's probably the best spot i'm sure i was just checking around and seeing because they could always use more depth as we've seen in the past couple years they've struggled with injuries um jamari harris is another guy to watch out for terry roberts is another guy to watch out for on this depth chart but iowa has struggled with with injuries um and i think they're just checking and doing their due diligence at this point i feel like they're just checking and seeing if he'd be willing to come there but if he's looking to start no xavier williams has had a good career at University of Northern Iowa. He is a guy who is an NFL prospect. He probably could come in and take a starting role potentially, but it's not going to be an easy battle,

especially considering that Iowa has been practicing the last month or so, and he would have to make some pretty big switches to get over. And as we've seen, Oliver Martin, that is not exactly the easiest switch to do kind of late in the season. So as news comes up with that, we'll obviously keep you posted right here on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. That'll do it, though, for our show today. Thank you all for tuning in to today's episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast.

As I said, we have some interviews coming up this later on the week. And as news breaks on the Big Ten schedule and whether or not they're going to have a season, we'll be covering that as well. So stay tuned the rest of the week right here on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Again, my name is Andrew Wade. I am your host every single day right here on our daily show. And if you want to follow along, make sure to give us that five-star review and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast at.

And follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Hawkeye Nation, if you are in the state of Iowa or in the Midwest, I hope you all are safe and doing well. I hope you can get power soon. And for all of Hawkeye Nation, as always, I'm going to end it with a Go Hawks! We'll see you next time.