Latest / The Lunch Rush with Trent Condon / Eliot Clough talks Hawkeyes, Bill Bender on College Football & Trent's Picks presented by Circa Sports

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Eliot Clough talks Hawkeyes, Bill Bender on College Football & Trent's Picks presented by Circa Sports · The Lunch Rush with Trent Condon

0:00
Melanie Congan Welcome back Iowa Sports Radio Network One hour to
0:03
go before we turn things over. Off the bench.
0:06
They will come. Sean Roberts Lucas train 2 until
0:09
5. Overtime Iowa 5 until 6 O clock.
0:12
Bill Bender Sporting News More college football talk at the
0:15
bottom of the hour right now. Elliot Clef.
0:18
He's between press conferences. Players will give way.
0:21
Kirk Ferris will take the podium here in about 45 minutes to
0:25
opine on Psy Hawk. Elliot Clef 24/7 Sports Hot Guy
0:29
Insider dot com Hello Elliot Trenton Ken, thank you for
0:32
coming on. How are you?
0:34
I'm good. How are you guys doing?
0:35
Doing well, I guess. I saw Gronowski and some photos
0:38
with some media around him, so I'm guessing he was the one of
0:41
that, was one of the guys that was available today.
0:44
Your take away from listening to what he had to say?
0:47
Obviously he knows he didn't play well.
0:50
I would hope that he realized he did not have a good game.
0:53
Did he allude to what he thought was behind it and how he will
0:56
fix it in advance of Saturday, LA, any of those things?
1:00
He did. He mainly mentioned, well, he
1:03
mentioned a few things. First thing that really stuck
1:05
out is he said, you know, sometimes you just kind of have
1:08
that, have to have that and I quote screw it mentality where
1:12
you got to swing the ball around a little bit, play looser.
1:15
And he said that way they'll have, you know, having fun is
1:18
more or less what he was getting at.
1:19
And that way they'll have more completion than and be able to
1:22
get the ball downfield a little bit.
1:24
He'll be able to pass the ball more effectively.
1:27
So that was that was the main thing.
1:28
Other than that, it was also the reference time at at South
1:32
Dakota State is, you know, they, they said things like you want
1:37
to be at a certain number throughout the day.
1:39
One is absolutely calm. 10 is amped as you can be.
1:42
And he said, you know, I need to focus more so on on being a one
1:45
before the game or, or a lower number before the game and then
1:48
really letting it go when I play instead of doing it all day.
1:52
So that, and you know, he sat down and he watched film with,
1:56
with Tim Lester and talked a little bit with coach Ference
1:58
and they were like, look, you've made these throws a million
2:00
times and he knows that too. So mainly I think for him it's,
2:04
it's entering the game on Saturday with a, with a
2:06
different mentality and being a little bit, I think we can all
2:10
agree that he he, he would say he needs to be a little bit more
2:13
calm on the football field. So that's that's going to be the
2:16
way that he approaches the Seihawk game on Saturday.
2:19
How concerned were you coming out of Saturday?
2:21
I think we there's plenty of angst out there. 44 yards
2:24
passing. It's very difficult to paint a
2:27
bright picture of it. I know you rewatched it again,
2:29
Elliott, After seeing it a second time and going through
2:32
and and looking at what you saw. How concerned are you about the
2:34
quarterback play? Honestly like.
2:38
It's it's a. Step in that direction.
2:41
I would not say I've been anywhere near to the panic
2:44
button at this point in time. You could tell all the way at
2:48
the tippy top of of the press box in Kinnock Stadium that Mark
2:51
was nervous that he was jittery that that he had happy feet in
2:55
the pocket. I, I could tell that and I think
2:57
a lot of people could tell that from from the very first snap
3:00
this last weekend. So, you know, I I think you have
3:05
to you have to take that into account, right?
3:06
I've seen mark play for for several years now, having
3:10
previously covered you and I and I mean, he carved up the UNI
3:14
defense. I fairly I'm pretty confident
3:16
he's going to get back to at least plan, you know, maybe not
3:19
quite to that level because FCS it's different, but but playing
3:23
at a much better level than he did on Saturday.
3:26
So if it happens again against Iowa State, you know, then you
3:30
start working more towards being a little bit more concerned and
3:33
then U mass in Indiana. I I'm not going to be at a point
3:36
where, Oh my gosh, the season's over Concern, concerns, concern,
3:39
panic button, panic button, panic button until he's done it
3:42
for multiple games. So I I think it it was a myriad
3:45
of things. We also saw some encouraging
3:47
things that that throw to Jacob Gill, that 13 yard gain across
3:50
his body to the opposite side of the field was encouraging.
3:54
His mobility is encouraging. And and something that that
3:57
David I called and I said on on swarm cast this weekend is just
4:00
like he's just done it so many times before.
4:03
This is the 50th game that he's won in his college football
4:05
career. So I'm not anywhere near the
4:08
panic button. I mean, on a scale of 1 to 10,
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maybe like a 2 1/2, It's it's he's just done too much and
4:14
accomplished too much to and earn the benefit of the doubt to
4:18
the point where I'm not, I'm not there yet.
4:21
Has he tried to alter his throwing style with the shoulder
4:23
injury or anything like that? Is he is that is that changed
4:27
from when he had his success to South Dakota?
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Might that be a part of it? Not that I know of.
4:33
As far as I know, he's, he said he's 100% and that, that that's
4:38
good to go, that that would probably be be something that,
4:41
that we, we should look into a little bit more.
4:43
I haven't thought about that, but he did say he's 100%.
4:46
As far as I can tell, the throwing motion is as it was 2-3
4:51
years ago. So, so no, I don't, I really
4:53
don't think that's part of it. It's a good question, but I
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don't think that's part of it. No Kumari Moulton.
4:57
He is out for the game, at least according to the depth chart.
4:59
We'll see if we get a little bit more on that from Kurt coming up
5:01
here a little bit later on. How does the running back
5:05
carries divvy up? If you had to kind of put it
5:07
together, maybe percentages for 3 or 4 running packs.
5:10
How do you think it's going to look on Saturday with no Bolton?
5:14
If I had to guess, it'd probably be similar to what we saw
5:16
against Albany, maybe minus Nathan McNeil, just because of
5:19
the fact that he is a true freshman and this is such a big
5:21
game. But if I had to guess, probably,
5:24
I don't know, 4040, TJ Washington, Xavier William and
5:28
then Spatter in Jazzy and Patterson in there, maybe Nathan
5:33
McNeil. I wouldn't completely rule it,
5:34
rule him out just because what we saw was encouraging last week
5:37
and what we've continued to hear is encouraging around him.
5:40
But I mean, with the way Xavier Williams played last week, if,
5:44
if that, if that continues, he might be Iowa's lead back going
5:48
forward. I mean, I, we heard people say
5:50
it in the press box. You take everything that you
5:52
hear from Twitter with a grain of salt.
5:54
But I mean, I, and I even said this when, when I saw his film,
5:57
when Ira offered him whatever it was two or three years ago, he
6:01
kind of looks like Sean Green. Like, I mean, I don't think
6:04
that's super hyperbolic. Like the way he navigates space,
6:07
the fact that he's so difficult to tackle.
6:10
He's not, you know, elite breakaway speed like like Caleb
6:12
Johnson had. But man, he is, he is really
6:16
tough to tackle, really good at navigating space, really good at
6:19
finding the crevice. I, I, I've loved his game since
6:22
I, I saw him on, on his huddle out of high school.
6:25
And that, you know, I think I shared it with you guys, a
6:28
little bit of the hype I said I was hearing out of camp.
6:30
Two, he's he's good. Man, like I I really like him.
6:33
And then and then TJ Washington, man, I thought he was one missed
6:37
tackle away from a score, unlike several carries from this last
6:41
weekend. So I think he's he's he's
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working his way to to being an every down back type of player
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too. Obviously losing Kumari Holt,
6:48
Kumari Moulton hurts, but this group is, I mean, they call
6:51
themselves the stable for a reason.
6:53
They got a bunch of talent back there.
6:54
Yeah, I think Neil's going to be fitted for a red shirt, I really
6:57
do. The way it goes with Moulton,
6:59
the way he comes back, the way Williams looked, I would be
7:02
shocked if he plays any more than four games.
7:05
But obviously injuries will go a long way to deciding that.
7:08
What about the defensive side of the ball?
7:10
Who kind of surprised some of the coaches, some of the players
7:13
afterwards that you spoke to? I thought Merriweather had a
7:16
really good game. I mean, you know, he didn't play
7:20
a ton, I don't think, but when I saw him on the field, I saw him
7:22
making a couple plays. Who stood out defensively for
7:25
you? Yeah, that that's definitely one
7:29
that that stood out to me. Honestly, it was really hard to
7:32
have much of A take away from this.
7:35
This first game, no turnovers, only two sacks, I think 1 Hubie
7:39
Hurry, and that was Kenneth Merryweather.
7:42
I really don't feel like we learned a whole lot.
7:44
About the defense last week. Obviously the defense wasn't on
7:48
the field near as much also because Iowa was just running
7:51
the ball so much. So I wouldn't say that I
7:54
necessarily had a huge take away.
7:56
Anything in particular stood out.
7:57
I really did like Zach Blotmer. I mean, I I think I we just have
8:01
continued to see more of what he is and and that's how he played
8:04
last year. He's a guy that's really in
8:06
constant pursuit of the ball. Filled a gap that on a design QB
8:10
run and then pursued the quarterback through the
8:12
backfield and still made the tackle for a loss.
8:15
So I guess that there was one thing that really stood out that
8:17
I thought was positive. That'd be Zach Lutmer's play at
8:20
cash. He was good.
8:22
He's just really consistent and going to do his job and and
8:25
going to do it well. And I'm fully expecting that to
8:28
continue and and to maybe make a few splash plays throughout the
8:31
season. If there was one play that stood
8:33
out to me last week, it was that one.
8:34
I think that was in either first or the second quarter.
8:37
But yeah, his, his ball pursuit is is is really good.
8:41
You mentioned before we came on the air, you talked to a couple
8:44
of the offensive lineman. They were Pro Football focuses,
8:47
offensive line of the week. Yeah, I'll put it together.
8:50
I believe of their rankings, their top six players
8:53
offensively were offensive lineman and I have a football
8:55
for you. All right there, what the big
8:57
guys up front have to say to you this afternoon?
9:00
Largely happy with with the way they performed, you know,
9:04
talking talking to Jennings dunker.
9:06
He is very matter of fact and said, you know, block the down
9:08
guy like OK, all right, that makes sense.
9:11
But but Trevor Lauch was really happy with his initial
9:15
performance. It sounds like that competition
9:17
at left tackle is going to continue going to continue
9:19
between he and Jack Dosler. But but Lauk is is and was happy
9:24
with the way he performed. You know, mentioned a few
9:27
technical things that they need to work on, but they definitely,
9:30
definitely got some push against that Albany defensive front.
9:33
So, yeah, I'm really happy with the way they performed.
9:36
Jennings pointed to Kate Peeper as a guy who didn't really have
9:40
any egregious mistakes either. And to have that in your first
9:42
start at right tack or, excuse me, right guard is impressive.
9:45
And to to get some praise from from Jennings, who who likes to
9:48
give Kate a hard time. It was it was that was that was
9:53
notable to me. I mean, I, you know, we've heard
9:54
a little bit about Kate being kind of a freak athlete, the
9:58
fact that he fell through the cracks and somehow Iowa was able
10:01
to to scoop him up in the recruiting process.
10:03
But yeah, they were all pretty much collectively happy with
10:07
their performance. Jennings and Trevor, as far as I
10:09
know. I know Jennings didn't know it,
10:12
but Jennings had no idea that they were the number one
10:13
offensive line in college football according to PFF.
10:16
So and that's that's on brand for those guys too.
10:19
I don't know that Jennings, I think Jennings has social media.
10:22
I don't know the last time he checked it, but but yeah, that's
10:24
classic Jennings dunker right there.
10:26
Did any of them have anything to say about I know ferrets, will,
10:29
about Iowa State? Did any of the the players you
10:32
spoke, you spoke to have anything to say about this
10:35
week's opponent? Yeah, you know, Zach Lutmer was
10:40
was very he praised the way Rocco back has has played is
10:43
very decisive, can put the ball where he wants to.
10:47
That's that's the big thing. A lot of the guys were talking
10:49
about the uniqueness of the 335 and and Mark mentioned that, you
10:52
know, when when you're planning at the 3/4, when you're planning
10:55
at the four three, typically you see 6-7 guys drop into coverage
11:00
and against the 335 you're going to see 8.
11:02
So it's going to make it a little unique in terms of
11:05
finding the open guys. But but facing that three down
11:08
lineman defensive front should give him a little bit more time
11:12
in the passing game too. But yeah, that and you know, we
11:15
were asking a little bit of the out of state guys what they know
11:18
about the rivalry and how intense it is.
11:19
And of course, again, this is a classic Iowa thing.
11:23
That's just another game. It's another opponent.
11:25
We're focused on this one because the next one, but yeah,
11:28
I mean, especially the N State kid, they, they know that this
11:32
one matters. The bragging rights for an
11:34
entire 365. I mean, from growing up in
11:37
northwest Iowa, I can tell you it matters just as much up there
11:40
as it does in Ames and in in Iowa City.
11:43
So. So this one's definitely going
11:44
to matter whether whether they want to put the weight to it or
11:47
not. It definitely does.
11:50
Elliot, he also talked to Drew Stevens, who had that 55 yarder
11:53
that looked like it had been good for maybe 65.
11:56
He absolutely nailed that one. What's his range, do you think
12:00
and sound like? He had a fun conversation on the
12:02
sidelines with his former specialist mate Tori Taylor.
12:06
Oh, was he there? I didn't know that, Yeah.
12:08
Tori was there on Saturday. He he was on the sideline.
12:12
I tried to grab a picture of him.
12:13
I did tweet 1. He did not want me to tweet the
12:16
picture. I can tell you that.
12:18
He was dipping his head to cover up his face, but whatever.
12:20
Anyway, yeah, they were talking about a little bit.
12:23
And Drew said, yeah, you know, he's pretty confident that he
12:26
can hit from 60 plus and that if they give him a chance to do
12:30
that, he wants every bit of it. And Drew's a confident guy.
12:33
And you can tell talking to him about, you know, the intricacies
12:37
of kicking that he is like that. He lives and breathe.
12:40
Kick him, you know, football. So he is definitely excited if
12:45
he gets an opportunity to do that.
12:46
I mean, that one, that kick on on Saturday looks like it
12:49
probably could have been good from 65, if not further.
12:52
So that that's all the confidence I'm sure he needs.
12:56
And then, yeah, when he hit it, it was a career long 55 on
12:59
Saturday. And he trots over to the
13:01
sideline. Everybody's happy, everybody's
13:02
congratulating him. And Tori looks at him and says.
13:05
Well. Kyle Conradi hit a 63 yarder
13:07
today. Love it.
13:11
Yeah. Oh, that's really good.
13:13
Yeah. 2 kickers with long range seemingly in their repertoire
13:18
coming up. Coming up this week, Stevens.
13:20
Been so good. I mean, I was been so spoiled
13:22
with special teams, right. Both the the place kicker and
13:25
the punter over the last little while.
13:27
We'll see. What's the key to this game in
13:28
your mind, Elliot? Man, that's, that's a good
13:32
question. It's always, I mean, it's got to
13:34
be the trenches, right? Like I, I think I was going to
13:37
be able to establish a run game this weekend and and that's
13:41
where it's going to start. But then again, you know, Rocco,
13:44
Rocco knows how to win these close games.
13:47
And then he's a big reason why I picked Iowa State to win this in
13:50
our pre season picks. I don't know how I'm feeling
13:53
right now. I mean, it's the Cyhawk game,
13:55
right? It could go either way.
13:56
But but but Rocco, Rocco is special, man.
14:00
Like he's he's in that Brock Purdy air, or at least he's
14:03
getting close to it. And in the Iowa State lore of
14:06
quarterbacks, he's he's special, like his ability to find out how
14:10
to win close games and and to stay poised and stay calm in
14:13
those situations. Make the right play.
14:16
I mean he's Taylor Mauser clearly has all the the
14:18
confidence in the world to him. So it's it's the trenches
14:22
obviously just given the context of the fact that is the Cyhawk
14:25
game. But it's also Iowa past defense
14:28
like you. You just can't have drives like
14:31
he gave up to to Albany part way through.
14:33
I think it was the second quarter, first or second quarter
14:36
of of this game this last weekend.
14:38
You just you can't have those sloppy drives.
14:40
You can't you can't allow those big plays.
14:42
Those two explosive plays against the Iowa defense last
14:45
year is what got him and Kenneth so explosive plays run game
14:49
because if Iowa can can possess the ball and really, really run
14:54
it and maybe not like they did this last weekend, but close,
14:57
they can set up the play action packs marker.
14:59
Now he can hit those deep balls, assuming he doesn't have that
15:02
those jitters like he did this last weekend.
15:05
So those are the things that definitely stick out to me going
15:07
into Saturday. Elliot Clef 24/7 Sports
15:10
hawkeyeinsider.com Elliot, thanks for taking time.
15:13
I know you got one more press conference to get to.
15:15
We'll run you down next week if your schedule allows.
15:18
Thanks for doing this, Elliot. Appreciate it.
15:20
Absolutely. Thanks guys.
15:21
Good to talk to you, Elliot Clef, as we check in on the
15:24
Hawks and Kranowski says, I guess what you want to hear.
15:28
I mean, what else are you going to?
15:30
Say I'm awful and I'm going to be awful the rest of the year.
15:32
You're not going to say that. Right, the thing last week was
15:34
bad. What did you see this week?
15:36
So, Speaking of Drew Stevens, Yep, Robin 2A year ago we all
15:40
remember Canardy. Yep.
15:43
But right after that there was still sex.
15:44
Sex Trent. They should.
15:45
Have let him kick the ball. Region with the return to the 49
15:50
yard. Yep, the Iowa State 49 yard.
15:52
That's right, with a 7 yard snap, that is a 66 yard.
15:57
Field goal. They should have let him try it.
15:58
And we saw noodle arm couldn't. Get it?
16:00
No, it couldn't get it to. Came back to me.
16:01
I got it about the yard. Light, I was going to say 10.
16:03
So was it the eighth? Okay.
16:05
It was right in that range. They should have let Drew
16:07
Stevens. Not saying he makes it.
16:09
No, no. But they should have let him
16:11
try. That's better than what they got
16:13
as Porter. I'm watching the highlight right
16:15
now. Here's the ball in the air to
16:17
what, the seven? OK, we shortchanged him.
16:21
I got him by three. You gave me from midfield.
16:24
I know it. From midfield.
16:27
Out. Yeah.
16:28
Drew Stevens should have got a chance to kick it.
16:30
We didn't set him up. Set him up.
16:34
And that was a weird they they didn't squib it, they kicked it.
16:37
But short in the air, Ouijian came up that sideline.
16:40
And he was in full flight boys. Good.
16:43
You know what, when we were talking about position by
16:45
position and I ultimately jumped to Ouijian as the, you know, the
16:49
difference maker in the special teams of the returning game,
16:52
even floor man. Yes, absolutely.
16:54
You know he. Goes back-to-back, returns.
16:56
Unbelievable. And I'm I'm excited to see more
17:00
of him. Special teams as a whole.
17:02
We talked about this with Bill Seals yesterday, yesterday.
17:05
Special teams have improved immensely.
17:07
At Iowa State, OH, night and day.
17:11
It wasn't lip service. That's not fair.
17:14
But when Campbell had, well, we just have all our our position
17:17
coaches, they all help out special teams.
17:20
It did feel like at times an afterthought and it looked like
17:23
an afterthought. Lots of times that's not the
17:25
case anymore. They're very buttoned up and
17:28
though they still don't have your dedicated guy with all the
17:31
analysts that they have, they have a specialist coach that is
17:34
one of the analysts. When you have those kind of
17:36
things, I think it's showing up at a big time, way further.
17:38
Yeah, I wonder who's going to kick off.
17:40
I mean, Jace Gilbert, remember his first kick off of the year?
17:42
Why not a bouncer anyways? And he's hurt, apparently, Yeah.
17:48
Dealing with an injury. Yeah, so it would be the
17:50
freshman from from the Easter, from eastern Iowa.
17:53
I can't think of where he's from.
17:54
Cedar Falls, maybe Cedar Rapids, one of the two.
17:56
We'll see where it goes. But this game, I I don't know.
18:03
You don't. We've seen it the opposite way
18:06
so many times where Iowa State looks like crap in Week 1, yes.
18:11
Welcome back to last year right a whole.
18:13
Hum 21 three win against North Dakota.
18:16
Here comes Iowa. And then after the Kate
18:20
interception, the game completely flipped.
18:22
Huge. It all beats Wampa.
18:24
Yep, and it's ball game. Rocco backed got going.
18:26
He got going after looking awful after looking.
18:30
You know what the seemingly plays his best football.
18:33
Back against the wall. It's kind of right, yeah.
18:37
He's way better than I thought he was going to.
18:38
Be Oh, absolutely way, way, coming on the heels of Brock
18:41
Purdy. With with 100 deckers in between
18:43
that. Yes.
18:47
Is he going to play in the Is he going to be?
18:49
Is he an NFL quarterback? Well, we had dumb conversations
18:53
about this with Brock. Purdy Yeah, No, he's going to
18:54
play. No Which?
18:55
Never seen the field. He'd like to make a practice
18:58
squad for a year. Yes, then go sell shirts.
19:01
He'll do very well at it. He's very personable, $50
19:04
million. Contract law.
19:07
In a Super Bowl appearance, and maybe should have been another
19:09
if he wouldn't have got hurt against the Eagles.
19:11
And it's the same kind of thing. He doesn't have elite arm
19:14
talent. He doesn't, but.
19:15
Neither does Brock. Purdy.
19:16
It's between the years, I think, for Brocco Beck's a gamer.
19:19
Yes. Absolutely.
19:20
He's a gamer. This game, God, I love this
19:22
game. I'm going to miss this game.
19:25
I'm going to. Watch you, You're still going to
19:26
watch. You think Bill Bender on college
19:31
football I'm going to miss this week is what I'm going to miss.
19:35
Bill Bender on college football coming up, we will talk to Bill
19:38
on the other side. Trends Plays of the day, one and
19:40
one yesterday. Your Phillies got home.
19:42
Yes, it was plus money, so that shouldn't.
19:45
Let's put a little bit in the wind.
19:46
Hell yeah. We need your North Carolina
19:48
pick. Look good after the first drive.
19:49
First drive. How much money?
19:52
What were the splits on that game?
19:53
Any idea? Did North Carolina take a bunch
19:55
of money? Did they a bunch of public
19:58
money? Probably Belichick.
20:00
Yeah. Give me that all day long.
20:02
Bill Bender next. Miller and Condon, Iowa Sports
20:04
Radio Network. Miller and Condon 130, welcome
20:07
back, Iowa Sports Radio Network. You're loving it wherever you're
20:11
listening in the state of Iowa. Grateful that you are.
20:13
Bill Bender joins us Transplays of the day coming up next,
20:16
Circus sports sponsor those right now, Bill Bender on
20:19
college football. Bill, good to speak with you.
20:22
A lot of ground to cover with you.
20:23
If you had to name a team of the week.
20:27
What? Team, out of all of them, I know
20:29
you were in person for Ohio State and Texas.
20:32
What team would be your college football team of the week?
20:37
They not only won the game, they won it with the old Florida
20:41
State arrogance they've left. Alabama.
20:43
In shambles, right? Like Alabama's in shambles
20:46
today. And I think the way that they
20:51
won that re established themselves.
20:52
I mean, look where they are. And the AP poll was just
20:54
released. The AP pool agrees, putting them
20:59
all the way up at #14 So I'm going to go Seminoles.
21:01
And hey, Thomas Castellanos, if you're going to tell my kids all
21:06
the time, talk the talk. You got to walk the walk.
21:09
And he did. Yep, he absolutely did.
21:11
Let's talk about the number one team in the AP poll.
21:14
Didn't make the same kind of jump because there's only a
21:17
couple spots up for them to go. Ohio State, you were there in
21:19
person. Give us your takeaways.
21:22
It was kind of a boring game. I know the box scores ours out
21:25
there. Well, you know, Texas won the
21:27
box score. You can see Ohio State, they got
21:29
a 14. Nothing.
21:30
They put that thing in the lock box and we're just holding on
21:32
for the victory. What'd you see from the Buckeyes
21:34
in your take away from Texas? It's not boring if you love
21:38
defense, you know, and I'll say it this way, Trent defense that
21:41
was it wasn't like the offenses were inept.
21:44
These defenses are nasty, both of them.
21:46
Ohio State with Matt Patricia and Texas obviously, you know,
21:49
held there Amiah Smith in check. I think obviously Matt
21:53
Patricia's impact is intangible. The atmosphere that for that
21:58
game was incredible pregame build up.
22:02
You know, I was about 5 feet away from Matthew McConaughey
22:04
and my sister texted me, give me his number, please.
22:08
And I said, come on, Lindsay, what are we doing?
22:12
Yeah. Yeah.
22:13
Then I was joking with her husband about it yesterday.
22:15
So we had some fun with that. But I mean, the Buckeyes really
22:19
played well. And, you know, getting to see.
22:21
I did share this. Lee Corso made that final pick
22:26
and everybody in the press box was silent painted.
22:29
Really it was. It was so moving because you
22:32
know how it is in the press box, guys.
22:34
Everybody's doing their own thing.
22:36
Amazing moving moment. Amazing way to go out for him
22:39
just to know. No, he was unbelievable.
22:42
Your thoughts on Arch Manning? Obviously, Matt Patricia's game
22:45
plan for some of the best quarterbacks in the world.
22:49
Your thoughts on Arch Manning, what he needs to do going
22:51
forward? Just be him rough start,
22:54
obviously inaccurate and points. And I mean, but again, I'm
22:58
trying to weigh that against, you know, first full time start,
23:03
maybe the nation's best defense. He played well late.
23:07
I thought when they went to tempo, he made a couple good
23:09
throws. He did miss on some and as rough
23:14
as that debut is, look who they play the next couple weeks.
23:16
You know San Jose State, Sam Houston State, he just got to
23:20
get back on track. I went back and looked at Peyton
23:22
Manning's first game against the top ten team and he struggled
23:26
against Alabama that day and threw 2 picks.
23:28
And if we had Twitter, we probably would have said he was
23:30
overrated too. And it worked out for him.
23:32
Yeah, I'll say this is from the bear, Chris Falika.
23:35
For the first time since 2619 years, the AP poll has a top 15,
23:40
including Florida State, Florida Ed Miami How?
23:44
About that baby. Florida is back.
23:46
Well, the you might be back to the win against Notre Dame.
23:49
Your takeaways from that one? And Carson Beck didn't love him
23:52
in Georgia. Maybe the glitz of South Beach
23:54
works a little bit better for his personality.
23:58
You know what, I thought a couple things.
24:00
One, we talked about Florida State, but Miami, you know,
24:03
offensive line, Mullen, it's got great tackles.
24:08
Now we go he needs the Packers uniform so he can block Parsons
24:11
and practice. I had to sneak that in, sure,
24:14
but you know, they they were good.
24:18
Reuben Baines, really good. Carson Beck, like said, Trent
24:21
settled in, didn't didn't turn the ball over.
24:23
I thought CJ Carr played well. You know, I'm fair about evals
24:27
like that. Like he made some brilliant
24:28
plays for a first time starter to go down in that environment.
24:32
They tied the game. Great stuff.
24:34
By the way, I read about that over the weekend, that Miami and
24:38
Florida State in particular, that's who the ACC needs.
24:43
They need them to be great. Yep, no doubt about it.
24:46
LS LSU needed to win week one? They finally did.
24:49
Being a good Clemson team, I still think Clemson's going to
24:51
be a factor in this thing. Can can LSU win a national
24:55
championship from what you saw this past weekend?
25:00
Nasty. They're linebackers are nasty
25:02
wit Weeks and Harold Perkins, BK wins big game and get off his
25:06
you know what? He has a right to kind of snipe
25:09
at us a little bit this week because we all spent all summer
25:12
saying he can't win a big game. And you know, good for BK.
25:16
They have a national championship defense.
25:18
They've got a steady hand at quarterback.
25:20
And I kept saying this all day, defense won the weekend, you
25:23
know, 7 points there. Clemson had 10, Notre Dame had
25:28
24. So you're looking at like 13.7
25:30
points per game between those three top 10.
25:33
So if you give up 14 points or less, you're going to be pretty
25:36
good. Really impressed with LSU.
25:38
Let's go to the other side, Clemson still the favorite to
25:41
win the ACC, but Miami, FL State can have something to certainly
25:44
say about that. A ton of top end talent, a
25:47
quarterback that you like in club Nick, the defense, but
25:50
there were just times he looked like club Nick struggled and
25:53
he's been so inconsistent throughout his career.
25:55
What's your take away on Clemson?
25:57
Do you still consider them the favor of the ACC?
26:00
Do, but I'm going to be really interested to see how they
26:02
respond when they play Georgia Tech in a couple weeks.
26:05
Georgia Tech tough team. Is there a player who is more
26:09
valuable to their team? No Haynes King, no in this
26:13
country, like he's unbelievably. He really is.
26:17
And that's going to be a fun game.
26:18
So the pressure's on Clemson because I don't coming into the
26:24
season, here's something I was wrong about.
26:26
I thought they were head and shoulders better than everybody
26:28
else in the conference. But Florida State, Miami,
26:31
Georgia Tech and SMUSMU has got a big one this weekend against
26:35
Baylor. Didn't realize they'd lost 13 in
26:38
a row to the Bears. So there's some parity there
26:42
with that top five. I want to ask you about the
26:45
Saturday night game. ABC help me out with Oklahoma
26:49
and Michigan. Underwood looked really good.
26:50
I mean, Speaking of backing it up, when he said last week that
26:53
the college football's never seen a freshman like me.
26:56
Well, I mean, he's got a chance to prove that on a national
26:59
stage for the first time coming up on Saturday.
27:01
But material looked good for Oklahoma, Oklahoma, Michigan's.
27:05
I think, I'm not saying it's underrated.
27:07
I mean, game day is going to be there.
27:09
That's getting the love. But man, this is a this is a
27:11
bigger game than maybe on the surface than some what would
27:15
have thought to. Talk about defense.
27:16
Here we go. Mater, who is that the next
27:20
coming of Baker Mayfield. He's good.
27:22
He's really good. He's mobile.
27:23
He had 390 passing yards, got them going.
27:26
I know the competition, whatever.
27:28
Bryce Underwood has an absolute cannon.
27:30
He'll have to rein it in in that game.
27:32
And Michigan, man, that Jay Sean Barum ejection on the targeting
27:37
call was a ridiculously bad call, but he's nasty.
27:41
So how do they do that for 1/2 without him?
27:44
But just anytime you have Justice Haynes doing what he's
27:47
doing. But to answer your question
27:48
about under what I was thinking about this today, I think he's
27:52
better than Riola was last year. I don't think he's Trevor
27:55
Lawrence as a freshman. But if he wins against Oklahoma,
28:00
there, we'll start. He's the real deal.
28:05
Bill, as we're taking a peek forward to Michigan, Oklahoma,
28:08
let's do the same inside of our state and get your perspective
28:11
as a national columnist. Iowa, Iowa State, it's in Jack
28:14
Trice. What do you expect to see on
28:16
Saturday with the big neuter on Fox?
28:19
Well, we dropped our early Week 2 picks.
28:21
I picked Iowa. I don't, you know what?
28:23
I missed this joke. Every year you'd probably go
28:25
back and audit me. I'm pretty sure I've never got
28:28
this game right. I always miss it.
28:32
But we pick it with it, you know, I pick it close, which is
28:34
always close, but I always pick the wrong team.
28:37
So if you're an Iowa State fan, you're probably happy to hear
28:39
him and say that right now. I defence, you know, I will
28:43
really get the running game going and we'll see.
28:46
Gronowski is going to have to make a handful of play and Rocco
28:49
back is continuing to do that for Iowa State.
28:52
Fun game. Glad they have the big name
28:54
Spotlight editors in Iowa. Grad Elliot he I'm not kissing
28:59
up to him, but I took the Hawkeyes to win a close.
29:03
Big, Big 12. Did you see enough from Utah
29:06
that maybe elevates them as far as their chances in your mind to
29:10
win a conference championship? Ben Dan Pierre was my Heisman
29:14
sleeper. That's one I'm going to pay
29:16
myself on the back on if he gets to New York because he adds a
29:20
running element to them. They smashed UCLA, they smashed
29:25
them and they and they played really good defense on top of
29:28
it. So if you look at that Big 12
29:30
where Arizona State's got an interesting test at Mississippi
29:33
State this weekend, BYU looked pretty good.
29:36
BYU tall be fun. And you know, I thought, you
29:39
know what, I'm going to be honest, I thought Colorado, they
29:43
don't have the star power, but they got a little bit of
29:45
toughness tone, even though they lost that game.
29:47
So they're not big. 12 is going to be a fun race to find out.
29:51
I didn't didn't understand the time outs or keep not calling
29:55
time out at the end. Dion, what are you thinking?
29:57
2 left in the back pocket. Not a good look for Dion.
29:59
Speaking of that, you mentioned Arizona State going to the
30:02
cowbells and seeing Mississippi State in Starke Vegas this
30:05
weekend. You know, if things don't go
30:07
very well for the Big 12 this weekend, you got that game.
30:10
Of course, Iowa, Iowa State, you know, there's another one in
30:13
there very quickly, Kansas, Missouri and it's at Missouri.
30:16
But still, if they kind of go over this weekend and those big
30:20
sub pot light matchups are are they already sell digging
30:22
themselves a hole where it's going to become a one bid league
30:25
once again? Yeah.
30:27
And the perception is important in those games.
30:29
I have a spreadsheet where I'm tracking like each conference
30:31
versus each conference and didn't go well.
30:33
Cincinnati easily could have stole that game from Nebraska.
30:36
They got really late and that hurt them.
30:38
And to your point about that Kansas, Missouri game, what, you
30:42
know, Bo Pyrbiola looked really good.
30:44
She really did. Tigers, Jalen Daniels has looked
30:47
fantastic. So what?
30:48
I never, you know what my publisher told me years ago,
30:50
guys, you can never say this weekend's boring.
30:53
Never, because you always find something to get excited about.
30:57
And I'm very excited about that matchup between Kansas and
31:00
Missouri. Bill Bender from The Sporting
31:02
News, sportingnews.com. Bill writes on college football.
31:05
He does it a lot. Couple of pieces each and every
31:07
day, minimum. Bill.
31:08
Thank you, buddy. I appreciate what we'll run you
31:11
down next week. Thank you, Bill.
31:13
Anytime guys. Thanks a lot.
31:14
Good to talk to you Bill Bender Sporting News on college
31:17
football Big 12 how many games? How many games matter?
31:23
Yeah, how many games that matter?
31:25
Kansas at Missouri. That's huge.
31:26
And what's the number in that game do?
31:28
You 6 1/2. Missouri's favorite 6 1/2.
31:31
You have well, Oklahoma State's got to go to Oregon.
31:34
Yeah, that's good. They have no shot.
31:35
That's not going. To go.
31:36
That shouldn't count. Baylor goes to SMU.
31:39
That's big. That's an important one.
31:41
What did Bill say? Baylor's won this game.
31:42
How many times in a row did he say?
31:44
Nine? Yeah.
31:44
Bunch. Yeah.
31:48
Kansas State, Army got beat by Charlton.
31:51
Yeah, still Army win. Yeah, Don't lose that, right?
31:54
Don't lose that. Houston's got to go to Rice now
31:57
it's in Houston. Houston was one of those teams
32:00
that didn't. You like Houston?
32:02
I did. They were my, my deep.
32:03
Dark ones, yeah, I think they were.
32:05
OK. Well, take care of business.
32:07
Take care of business. That's right.
32:09
And then Arizona State at Mississippi.
32:10
If Arizona State loses to Mississippi State, and maybe
32:13
that almost alone, like if Kansas gets beat by Missouri,
32:16
Fine, right? Yeah.
32:17
Missouri's a top 25 team. Yeah, and that's a border
32:19
battle. But if Arizona State loses to
32:22
what is considered maybe the worst SEC team, it's going to be
32:26
a terrible look for the conference.
32:27
Although it didn't miss. I don't know who they play, but
32:29
didn't Mississippi State win their week one game?
32:32
Probably didn't come across my back.
32:36
We didn't bring it up yesterday. Arizona State's practicing.
32:39
They've got a bunch of students on the field.
32:42
The cowbells. Oh, really?
32:44
Yeah. Trying to trying to get the muse
32:46
for what they're walking into, and I didn't.
32:48
I don't understand that. What do you call tradition?
32:50
Yeah. The cowbells.
32:52
Really. Yeah, it was literally because
32:54
there was a cow there. There's something.
32:56
How long ago? Oh.
32:58
Is this like way back? Yeah, yeah.
33:00
Back in like the 40s or something like that, yeah.
33:03
Yeah, Utah plays nobody. West Virginia plays Ohio.
33:08
Don't lose that one, though, West Virginia.
33:09
Yeah, that's true too. That's another one you got to go
33:11
on the road to Ohio, the Bobcats.
33:14
What's Oregon favoured by over the Cowboys By like 4 touches?
33:18
Is it that bad? Yeah.
33:20
Oklahoma State lost a quarterback.
33:21
I know it well. How do you say his name?
33:24
Hensley or something? QB1QB1QB1.
33:28
And and Missouri lost their quarterback in the on the first
33:31
play of the game and help me out with both Probiula.
33:34
What was his story with Iowa? So that's Iowa was involved very
33:39
quickly with him, right. But did were they close?
33:41
I remember yeah. It was down to Missouri or Iowa.
33:43
And he chose Mizzou, right? And two years ago?
33:46
No, they're just the past before Karnowski was in the portal.
33:48
Yeah, that was kind of the 1st. And what do you do?
33:53
You do you recall Hawk fans salivating this you got to get
33:56
this guy? Absolutely, yeah.
33:57
Take him over, Gronowski. Well, yeah, I'd take Deacon.
34:03
Over Gronow, I would No, no, no, no, no, you don't watch that
34:07
slob back out there, sling it and turn it over the.
34:10
Deacon Hill era. Knock it off.
34:12
Lisi passed for more than 44 freaking not.
34:15
Always. Most games.
34:18
Some games. Mr. Deacon Hill era.
34:21
No, you don't. We'll come back Trent's plays of
34:24
the day coming off a winning day.
34:26
Miller and Condon, Iowa Sports Radio Network.
34:29
I'm Miller and Condon. Welcome back Iowa Sports Radio
34:31
Network. Tomorrow, if you like the NFL,
34:33
Frank Schwab, who covers it for yahoosports.com, will join Trent
34:37
Tonight, 1:30, He'll follow Cappy got.
34:40
A little something for you in the NFL.
34:41
OK, so every once in a while be listening, usually Visa and
34:45
something like that and you hear something and you're doing other
34:49
things not really paying attention and it cuts your ears.
34:52
So I heard this one and so I dug a little bit deeper.
34:54
I'm like, well, did I hear that wrong?
34:56
Do they have their number wrong? It is the winningest teams in
35:01
the NFL since 2020 and most wins just regular season.
35:07
Most wins got. To be chiefs.
35:09
Right, yes. So this was talking about though
35:11
the NFC since 2020. Who was the winningest team in
35:15
the NFC? 'Cause my guess was number.
35:20
Two, your guess was 2, so you took Tampa Bay.
35:23
No Tampa's third on that list, which was also a surprise to me.
35:29
OK, not Detroit. Nope.
35:33
The Eagles have won a lot of games.
35:35
That was my guess. And they were second.
35:37
They're second. So we're, so we neither one of
35:40
us guessed the team that had the most wins, Niners.
35:43
Nope. San Francisco, in fact, is 11th
35:46
overall since 2020 and wins. It's not the When did the Rams
35:52
play for a Super Bowl? Not too late.
35:55
I'm not. I'm not guessing the Rams, OK,
35:57
Not guessing them. Not the Cowboys, not the Giants,
36:00
not the Commanders. And Detroit had a really good
36:03
year last year. Who is it?
36:07
The Green Bay Packers. I'll be damned.
36:09
The Green Bay Packers have the most wins in the NFC since 2020.
36:13
You just don't think about it because they haven't had that
36:15
breakthrough moment. You don't.
36:17
And without that, your mind doesn't go there.
36:19
Tampa also surprised me because of course they had the Brady
36:21
Super Bowl, but they've won that division.
36:25
It just it always for years and years was so topsy term, right,
36:28
year after year. And they kind of solidified
36:30
things there. Do you like Tampa long term?
36:33
This. Year this year, yeah.
36:34
I think I picked them to win the South, Yes I did.
36:38
But can they do more than that? There's money in the South, I
36:41
mean. Yes, I think they can.
36:43
That's the Big 12 N That's the Big 10 W Let's slow down at
36:46
winning the NFC South. What what I will say is I I
36:51
think they can I I think they're good.
36:53
Obviously is worse back close OK, close.
36:57
I I don't know if Baker Baker Mayfield needs to do what he did
37:00
again last year. I I thought the market could
37:03
totally overreacted with the Mike Parsons news.
37:06
The betting market, sure. I mean, it's not a quarterback.
37:09
Right. Yeah, that caused the market to
37:10
move that much. He's a rush in.
37:12
He's. Good.
37:13
And even if he is the best Russian or the best defensive
37:16
player, the best defensive player in terms of point spread,
37:18
it's worth a point and a half. That's the absolute.
37:20
That's TJ Watkin. That's where as you whiten his
37:23
peak, right? And I don't even know Michael
37:24
Parsons is that. He's not great against the run.
37:26
He's great. Get to the quarterback.
37:28
All right, you've got to make some picks.
37:29
That was awful winning day. Let's see if you can put him
37:31
back-to-back 1:00 and 1:00. But you had the juice go in your
37:34
favorites, right? So let's do it again.
37:36
All right, let's put a couple in the win column.
37:38
We got 3 picks for you today. 2IN baseball, one in the WNBA.
37:42
In fact. Let's start there.
37:43
That league's still going. They're still playing games and
37:46
they're still allowing you to bet on them.
37:47
So I'm going to, because you got the Valkyries fighting for a
37:50
playoff spot against the Liberty, who never cover, and
37:55
I'm getting 6 1/2 in San Fran, Gabby, Golden State, plus the
37:58
six and a hook with pick #1 To baseball we go.
38:03
I'm almost surprised how low this number is.
38:05
The Dodgers at La -157 at the Pirates.
38:10
I'll jump up. What's the pitching match?
38:12
It's Kershaw. Kershaw.
38:13
'S on the mount. He's been he's.
38:15
Been good. Yes -157 by the.
38:17
Way Verlander, did you see his start the other day 42 one of
38:21
the like one of three more over 40 years old to strike out
38:26
tenant again. Oh, I did see that.
38:27
Yeah, he was really good. You're trying to get them to be
38:30
cut. No, retire.
38:31
Don't cut them. Retire.
38:33
Get them out. Yeah, anyway. -157 on the
38:35
Dodgers at Circa other shops -170 jeez.
38:39
Bet at circa. Finally, we're going to grab the
38:42
Reds now. It's supposed to be Ladolo
38:44
against your Blue Jays tonight. You know, I've never been a big
38:46
Brios fan. And because of that.
38:49
I'm not a big bullpen fan. I'm going to go with Barlow
38:51
though. He gets the start here.
38:52
He's been OK. So we'll take the Reds plus
38:54
money again. You'll get plus 112.
38:56
Look around the market, they'll be laying put and prices in
38:58
other places. Not it, Sir.
39:01
Nope. They 9 times out of 10, you're
39:04
going to get the best price there, whether you're whether
39:07
you're betting in Iowa or in Illinois.
39:10
Or in Nevada. Or Nevada.
39:11
Let's get a return trip. Yeah, but they're not listening
39:13
to us in Nevada right now. They are in Illinois and Iowa.
39:15
That's true. That's it for us.
39:17
Appreciate you being with us. Lucas and Sean coming off the
39:21
bench next. They'll take you until 5.
39:23
Milan Condon with you Monday through Friday, noon until 2.
39:26
Thanks for being with us. You've been listening to the
39:28
Iowa Sports Radio Network.