Iowa Football Winning Formula: More Defense, No Offense; Penn State White Out Announced

it's probably G to be more of the same for Iowa football this year solid defense poor offense but that might not be all that bad after all they won 10 games in 2023 how will they do in 2024 not bad lockdown Big 10 starts right now you are locked on big 10 your daily podcast on the Big 10 conference part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day welcome to lock on Big 10 I'm Craig shiman coming up on 40 years as a sports talk show host and play byplay announcer and I want to thank you for making us your first listen each and every day we're free and available weever you get your podcast and on YouTube part of the lockdown podcast Network your team every day and today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel make every moment more and this summer FanDuel is hooking up all customers with a boost or a bonus daily that's right there's something for everyone every day all summer long visit fanduel.com and get started so Kirk fence and the Iowa hawkey more the same this year I think and it might not be that bad we'll play the win loss game with their schedule that doesn't look too bad either and we'll see if they can get back up to 10 wins plus we got news of the pennstate white out game right before we took to the airwaves we'll share that with you and speaking of very vocal stadiums like Beaver Stadium or KCK Stadium or your Stadium we're going to power rank the Big 10 stadiums with atmosphere that's all coming up here been talking about the Iowa Hawkeyes a lot last year this year uh I love talking about the Iowa Hawkeyes there's the team I can't look away from and you know last year at this time I predicted a big year for them and I got laugh at by a lot of people because of their willful offense 10 wins later and an appearance of the Big 10 Championship my prophecy came true Pat me on the back a little bit there but what about this year sure they have a new offensive coordinator um but I really don't see any new infusion of Talent on that offense we can talk about Kade magnam and his return at quarterback in a minute but I think it's going to be the same formula for the Hawkeyes this year for better for worse you know it's going to be a team that relies on sound defense and that defense will keep the Hawkeyes close in all these games low scoring games really low scoring games sound familiar yeah just like last year wash rinse repeat I watched every Hawkeyes game last year because while the offense was a point of contention with fans regarding offensive coordinator and coach's son Brian fence it quickly do you notice how quickly kind of became a badge of honor about a third of the way through the season you you know his job was on the line if the offense didn't hit enough points and it was clear early they weren't going to hit enough points but they kept winning football games and they were doing it scoring scoring virtually no points they just kept winning so later on when you watch the Hawkeyes it almost became a badge of honor if you will but the backdrop of the whole thing with Kirk fence's own son and his job on the line big storyline must see TV each and every week and but you know you you remember if you're a Hawkeyes fan winning without scoring I'm not kidding I'm not exaggerating there was the 107 win against Northwestern there was the 156 win over Wisconsin there was the 1513 win over Illinois they were all good because you know what a win is a win what I found remarkable is that about halfway through the season the point totals that Vegas was putting out for Iowa games in the over under you know it' be like 32 points lowest point total ever in the history of college football not involving an Army Navy game and then they would hit the under and the week below it was it was a low number get 30 I'm like no way do they come back with it with a point spread point total in the 20s sure enough what was it 28 29 point and they kept hitting the under and winning it's unbelievable I thought it was a fun season I really do so how will the offense look this year under new offensive coordinator Tim Lester you know he only has what he has to work with look Kirk baren says that Lester will be similar to him in a lot of ways but that Lester will bring A New Perspective so what does that mean probably gonna be kind of button down a little bit just try not to make mistakes and hang around for till the fourth quarter each day Lester says the Hawkeyes will be disciplined and aggressive I don't know what aggressive means for Iowa football we'll find out together again I don't know if they have the weapons to be aggressive you know we could look at his resume lesters when he was at Western Michigan his offense ranked in the top 35 nationally during his Four Seasons there he was the quarterback coach at Purdue in 2016 where he was the coach of NFL backup David Blau in his two years as the offensive coordinator at Syracuse not very remarkable the orange offense ranked 13th out of 14 teams in the ACC not awesome not awesome at all Kade magnam will eventually come back from the season ending knee injury that he suffered last year and reass assume his role as the starting quarterback for the Hawkeyes now as you remember couple years ago he came from Michigan got to the Wolverines got the Wolverines to their first of their three straight playoff appearances but he lost his job to JJ McCarthy never got off the ground last year had surgery before taking a snap last year a limited spring last year then came to camp in the summer suffered a quad injury early in the year didn't get a lot of reps last summer at all and then the season started never really looked totally comfortable and then of course he tore his ACL in the Michigan State game out for the year that injury took place on September 30th he didn't do much in Spring ball this year either because he you still Limited however word is he should be is ready to go for things in August so that's good news for Hawkeyes fans now if that doesn't work out because Kate mcnamar is not gonna complete 70% of his passes he's not GNA throw for 350 yards a game and uh whether he stays healthy or not I don't forget Northwestern transfer Brandon Sullivan is there he's got some experience made a decision late after Spring ball so you know what I'm not staying here at Northwestern I'm up for grabs Iowa grab them because Deacon Hill transferred out as well good thing about him unlike most transfers he's got two years of Eligibility left so I'm not sure what his mindset is did he come here to Iowa you know to learn the system be the Ready Steady quarterback in Waiting take a year to kind of learn things and then boom take over next year because Kade magnam will be long gone or given magnum's history with his health and the fact that he really doesn't like the world up on fire offensively maybe maybe he's uh coming in here to to gun for the starting job maybe this summer will be interesting at quarterback for Iowa we'll see he's got his eyes on the starting job so uh this team has a few pieces that are interesting of course the team will lean on Luke Lee at tight end coming off the surgery from the broken leg last year uh I do like running back lesea Williams I think he's a tough kid tough Runner we're gonna have to take a wait and see approach on these receivers of course transfer Caleb Brown transfer from two years ago arrived the previous year from Ohio State last year just 22 catches in 11 games and Seth Anderson came in a couple of years ago from Charleston Southern caught 11 balls in 14 years so H you know Tim Lester says he wants a more aggressive offense I mean that to I I interpret that to be vertical football downfield you got uh guys that have caught 33 C matches combined in the past year those are your top two receivers coming back I'm not sure the offensive line has had it's been okay it's been okay um you know it's too bad they couldn't keep Kaden Proctor who's from De Mo went to Alabama played as a freshman said I'm coming to Iowa was here for about three minutes and then decided to go back to Alabama the rest of the line the good news is there's some experience here there's a half a dozen guys that have starting experience but they haven't been awesome at the offensive line position so maybe a year better a year stronger maybe they'll be better we could hope uh the Iowa defense was nothing short of great last year I know that the top three in the Big 10 with Michigan Ohio State Penn State got all the attention you know that next tier right there that Iowa defense was pretty good and it should be as good this year maybe even better you got linebackers Jay Higgins and Nick Jackson coming back they combined for 281 tackles last year so they're back and ready to go um of course I think the most exciting Iowa football player a long time Cooper Dee it's sad that he's gone he's not in the secondary anymore they'll miss him a lot both on special teams and on the defense of course he's with the Philadelphia Eagles right now the Hawkeyes do return some people in the secondary like Xavier wona and Quinn schy so some experience at safety in the secondary will be good so again you know despite a new uh offensive coordinator or whatever I do uh I don't expect an offensive explosion this year with the changes at coordinator I expect more of the same and we'll see together how Kade mcnamer does if he does improve things you know my whole thing last year when I came on the scene and said hey look they're you're going to get a little bit of improvement at quarterback from Kade magnam and with the defense they can win a lot of games they didn't really see much of Kade mnam last year they had great defense and they won a lot of games we'll see if he can come in as an experienced guy and step it up a little bit we'll see last year proved you really didn't need to but um you know I expect more the same kind of just just a tough uh offense where you're just he punt baby punt is what they say right they keep that defense out there and and help us out maybe special teams makes a play anyway uh I think they are good enough here this year the defense to deliver the Hawkeyes some close low-scoring wins this year how many that remains to be seen we'll look at the schedule here in a minute it is favorable in spots so we will look at that in the meantime Hawkeyes fans if you want to get some swag shirts t-shirts hats pennants coffee mugs for your 2024 season get them at our website talk big 10 that's the number 10 talkig 10.com all our podcasts go there as well uh and they're grouped chronologically and by team or school so uh this one we're focus on the Hawkeyes go into the Hawkeye section tell your friends about it it's right there easy to find in the meantime always invite you to uh subscribe and follow locked on Big 10 wherever you get your podcast that way you get the latest episode of this podcast as soon as becomes available each and every morning and uh always love to love to have you the uh the audio versions if you listen on Apple or what whatever you listen to comes out at uh 400 a.m 4 amm eastern time every day and then the video on YouTube comes out at 6 am every day so uh get yourself subscrib just hit the Subscribe button it's free doesn't cost you anything we're making our push to 10,000 subscribers we're getting close you can help us out get us over the top appreciate that we will navigate the Hawkeye schedule coming up next plus we just got some 10 State scheduling news who is the opponent going to be for the annual white out they've decided we'll let you know it's all coming up next right here on lock on Big 10 we love sports we love sports all throughout the year right now it's different sports schedule calendar here in the middle of summertime a lot of baseball so we got you covered with FanDuel FanDuel can help you out have more fun during the summer keeps you sporting whenever you want you just uh open up the app dream up bets any time when you're in the mood this summer FanDuel is hooking up all customers with a boost or a bonus daily that's right there's something for everyone every day all summer long so head on over to fanduel.com lockon and uh start making uh the most out of your summer again that's a fan du.com vuel the official sports betting partner of Major League Baseball we're in a bit of a lull here in the middle of the week with the All-Star game so and All-Star break so let's look ahead to Friday real quick there's some on you can Circle here on the scy Phillies over the Pirates on Friday I still take the raise over the Yankees even though I think that this break came out a good time for the Yankees because they've been stinking lately the Tigers have won 10 of 14 going into the break will the break cool them off or they will continue I'll take them over the Blue Jays and the O's are hot take them over the Rangers or parlay some of those together so check it out uh go to fanduel.com FanDuel the official sports betting partner of Major League Baseball want to thank everybody for making lockdown big 10 your first listen every day especially you every dayers you know who you are tell your friends about us let's get get more people in the loop here meanwhile be sure to subscribe speaking of being in the loop on YouTube Share follow and like locked on big 10 your team every day don't forget to check out our website get your Iowa merchandise and your fan wear and uh Big 10 tickets at talk big 10 number 10 talk big 10.com all right speaking of the schedule let's see if we can find 10 wins and match last year's record for Kirk ference and the Iowa Hawkeyes and uh you know remember with expansion and realignment new teams coming there's no West Division this year for the Hawkeyes so they're on their own it's each man for himself top two teams make it to the conference Championship season starts out on August 31st against Illinois State that's a noon game on the Big 10 Network we expect them to win that game and then week two the uh instate rivalry it's always a great game against Iowa State the Cyclones that's a 330 game on CBS that's a home game that's at kennick so I give the Hawkeyes the advantage there even though I think that's a coin flip game and I think it should be tight we'll let the Hawkeyes Prevail here because it's a home game two and0 they got Troy week three three and0 at Minnesota uh we're going to cover the gold Golden Gophers pretty soon out of all the teams in the Big 10 I have heard the least amount of news behind the scenes with PJ Fleck and Minnesota I don't know what's going on over there because they were kind of the IT guy uh you know a couple years ago winning nine games a year and all that stuff I think the Hawkeyes can uh win this game it's on the road that that's a 4 and0 start by the way and then they're at Ohio State nobody's beating Ohio State they might even be undefeated all season long uh then another game against Washington and I don't know what every time I have Washington coming up on a on a big team a big 10 schedule I I don't know what to do with them I really don't I know they're going to be big and strong might be a grinder game a little bit being at Iowa um I don't know how I feel about it just for argument sake let's give Washington the win here so the Hawkeyes are sitting at 4 and two going into an October 19th game against Michigan State at Michigan State I think the Hawkeyes can win that one again this is a building year for Michigan State so now we're looking at five and two take on Northwestern that's a coin flip game it's going to be a low-scoring game it's a grinder but if you win it it's six and two take it on Wisconsin I think that's a coin flip game it's at home if you win that you're seven and two if not six and three at UCLA that's a winnable game UCLA is in a rebuild it's at UCLA though that could be tough then you take on uh at Maryland another 5050 game being on the road I think it'll be tough but it is winnable and then close out the season against Nebraska I said yesterday I think Nebraska wins that game I'm I'm big I'm bullish on Nebraska this year so uh anyway let's rack up the wins the 4-0 start the loss to Ohio State and Washington then you got at Michigan State that's five wins Northwestern and w Wisconsin 5050 games let's split those there's six wins to go one and one I don't know which one they can win UCLA that's seven you beat Maryland that's eight wins lose to Nebraska there you go uh an eight and four season I maybe you pick up that extra game against either Northwestern or Wisconsin and go two and 0 there there's nine wins so you know eight or nine wins just right on the tail of the Hawkeyes did last year with a 10- win season um maybe you win the Washington game because we don't we can't figure out Washington just yet we'll preview them next week by the way so that's the path to 10 if you get the Washington game and you beat both Northwest or Wisconsin you can get to 10 we'll call it eight or nine maybe 10 best case scenario but another great scenario here there's no Michigan there's no Penn State on this schedule there's no uh Southern Cal this is a very uh this a very good schedule for the Iowa Hawkeyes this year so let me know what you think Hawkeye fans are we in the right ballpark here hit me up on Twitter or X at talk big 10 number 10 uh comments on YouTube and of course our website talkig 10.com speaking of scheduling so Penn State we previewed them last week we looked at their schedule and uh we did not know which one of the games they were going to do with uh with the white out game because uh first of all you know it's got to be a night game and obviously be a home game you know they were looking early on at the Illinois game J uh James Franklin wanted to be the Ohio State game uh but that's in November but it turns out it's going to be November 9th against the Washington Huskies okay welcome to the Big 10 Washington they're gonna they're going to what that's all about um I just told you I don't really don't know what to expect about Washington this year well they they're not going to know what to expect when they go see what a white out is like up close in person um the week before I mentioned that Franklin wanted it to be the Ohio State game but again that's uh that's a fox big noon game it's a daytime G you can't have a white out in a daytime of course not so um by the way the Ohio State game will feature the helmet stripe game that they do where everybody dresses in white except the people what in the middle sections big old blue stripe they'll do that for nationally televised game that'll be cool so uh that's the L with Penn State so mark it down Washington huskys at Penn State November 9th kind of late in the year be nice and cold be a white out game for Penn State hey uh I don't know what you watch in the daytime I don't if you watch Fox Sports ESPN all the Talking Heads I'm gonna give you another option here it's called lockdown sports today it's a free 247 sports streaming Channel program for you every day with the biggest Sports stories of the year without all the screaming and talking over each other and the arguing and the nonsense lockdown sports today brings you can't miss analysis opinions and news streaming 247 on YouTube or the free Amazon Fire TV channels app part of lockdown podcast Network your team every day all right since we're talking about crazy fan atmospheres at Penn State for a white out or kinnick Stadium we talked about today I love at the end of the third quarter fourth quarter waving up to the kids in the children's hospital some of the greatest atmospheres in college sports since we like to rank things and do Power Rankings on Wednesdays we're going to power rank Big 10 stadiums the top 10 big 10 stadiums as far as fan atmosphere goes see where your team made the list if it made the list at all we didn't do all 18 we just did the top 10 that's coming up in one minute right here on lockdown Big 10 all right it's time for one of our power rankings and we're going to power rank football stadium atmospheres in the Big 10 since we spent so much time talking about Iowa and Penn State great home atmospheres for the fans there I'm G to put it on screen if you are one of the people that listen to uh audio only for your podcast we'll describe it if you're on video on YouTube you can check it out but I'll uh put it here full screen here they are the top 10 uh by me it's my decision so uh you can agree or disagree uh I put Penn State's Beaver Stadium as the number one option speaking because of the white out I think when they do a white out game nighttime National TV I think that's the most awesome atmosphere in college football and maybe the country but certainly the Big 10 I'll put uh Michigan Stadium in there at number two at the big house over 106,000 people always going to be on the top end of any kind of list of atmosphere uh I'm going to put Oregon in Aon Stadium at number three you know they're new to the Big 10 maybe you don't watch a lot of uh Oregon games if you're you're not an Oregon fan uh but you will be I think the it's a little smaller Aon Stadium it's around 60,000 but man it is loud and crazy you if you're not familiar if you don't watch a lot of Iowa or a lot of Oregon games you're going to love it there uh I love watching those atmospheres um Ohio State Ohio stateum got at number four certainly you can argue that they need to be higher I won't fight you on that Ohio State fan is going to know what Oregon Aon stadium is like when they go there in October and everything I hear Ohio state is traveling for that game that is a tough ticket to get Airlines have added extra flights from Ohio to Oregon for that weekend because Ohio State fans are coming it's gon be a great game also newcomer Washington Husky Stadium uh Husky Stadium uh right on the water and it's got those two angled roofs that hang over each of the grand stands and it just forces all the sound right back down onto the football field great atmosphere there at number six we got Wisconsin at Camp Randall jump around right that's one of the greatest atmospheres no doubt about it I mentioned Iowa and kinnick stadium and all the tradition there you know I Iowa's um kinnick stadium is good on any given Saturday but I like kenck Stadium When the Sun Goes Down night game out there if you're an opponent you don't want a piece of that I don't know why they don't schedule more night games other than then it probably gets cold later in the year but let's not forget about Nebraska's Memorial Stadium it's big it's old it's traditional that's awesome making the top eight put uh Southern Cal and La Memorial Kum on there only when it's full for like a big game it can tend to get a little lack but uh a lot of people and if they're there for a big game like Notre Dame or whatever it's a pretty good atmosphere then we'll close it out with the top 10 with with Purdue Ross a stadium you know they made a lot of Renovations there last year that's another one when it's a night game out there at Ross a everybody's all in black and it's all dark and uh it's pretty pretty good atmosphere for Purdue football at Ross a stadium so those are our top 10 big 10 Stadium atmospheres on game day let me know what you think hit me up on Twitter at X at talk big1 also comments on YouTube and don't forget our website talk b101.com you can check that out you get a hold of me at all those places as well and before you go if you don't mind do me a favor go ahead and subscribe if you haven't already we're over 9,000 we're making our big push for 10,000 subscribers on YouTube before the start of the Season subscribe it's free and then you and I are in the same Big 10 Loop every day and you can follow this podcast right now on your favorite podcast app and you'll get the latest episode of lock on Big 10 as soon as it becomes available each and every day uh love to have you and watch another episode go check out yesterday's if you missed it um add another one to the rotation maybe one more than you normally do we're growing fast you could be part of it tell your friends about us as well when you're done with us and done subscribing we also have friends over at lock on at lockon sports today 247 covering the top sports stories of the day with the local Experts of lock on plus our national shows covering every single league so go to lockdown sports today on YouTube and subscribe to the first ever National Sports 247 streaming Channel all right that'll do it we gonna feature a couple more teams here at the end of the week and next week we have big 10 media days coming up can't wait for that the coaches some players all talking about what they think about the upcoming season we'll be all over that that's always a lot of fun a lot of great stuff to talk about coming out of that so that'll do it uh thank you for your visit here today we never take that for granted we always love it when you spend some time with us and we already can't wait until our visit tomorrow thanks for checking us out I'm Craig sheman for lockdown Big 10