Latest / The Lunch Rush with Trent Condon / Cyclone analyst Eric Heft, Hawkeye analyst Pat Angerer, Steven M. Sipple on the Huskers & Trent's Picks presented by Circa Sports

Transcript

Cyclone analyst Eric Heft, Hawkeye analyst Pat Angerer, Steven M. Sipple on the Huskers & Trent's Picks presented by Circa Sports · The Lunch Rush with Trent Condon

0:04
I'm Mary Condon, Welcome back, Iowa Sports Radio Network.
0:07
Trent Condon and Ken Miller, wherever you're listening in the
0:10
state of IO. Grateful that you are.
0:12
We take you until 2:00. At that time, Sean Roberts,
0:15
Lucas Strain, they come off the bench and take you until 5.
0:19
Still to come this hour, hear from Mitch Holtis, the voice of
0:22
the Chiefs. He couldn't join us live this
0:23
week, but send along some recorded piece.
0:26
Pat Angerer, the color analyst for with football and Stephen M
0:31
Siple on the Huskers. As we look back, not for because
0:35
this is going to be a laugh for this week.
0:37
Right now, though, he is the analyst for the Cyclone Radio
0:41
Network, both men's basketball and, of course, football.
0:44
He's Eric Heft, and he joins us. How are you Eric Heft?
0:49
I'm doing well. Beautiful day.
0:50
Looks like a great football, weather it.
0:53
Feels like it too, doesn't it? Absolutely love it, really do.
0:56
Hey, obviously this game, it's, it means so much.
1:00
I, I, I love it more than anything in the state.
1:02
I really do. You know what I like maybe most
1:04
about it, Eric is since 1998 and that's when it turned.
1:09
I have no idea who's going to win the game.
1:11
And most years when I do go on record, which is every year,
1:14
most of the time I'm wrong. There's just something about
1:16
this. This truly is a rivalry.
1:18
And I hate the cliche, you know, throw out the records.
1:21
But you kind of do, don't you, when these two schools play.
1:25
Question, I mean, especially starting with that 1998 game,
1:30
huge underdog and a big win snapped 15 losing streak.
1:35
Since then, it's been it's been a dog fight and it's been a lot
1:38
of I've really enjoyed it and look forward to it every year.
1:42
And, you know, it's kind of fun see what the narratives are
1:45
heading into the game and knowing that for at least one
1:48
team, the narratives will all change, you know, Saturday
1:51
night. It is, and Iowa State one of the
1:54
few times they were favored back in 2021.
1:56
But they're in the favorite role, not a place that they've
1:59
been very often in this game. Does does that make it feel a
2:02
little bit different to you that the the Iowa State Cyclones this
2:05
time are the haunted as opposed to the hunter?
2:09
No, not really. I mean, it didn't go well in
2:12
2021. A couple of bad things happened
2:15
in that game, which, you know, sometimes those are the things
2:19
that happened in this game that really make it so unpredictable.
2:22
But no, I think you have to really just for everything
2:27
that's happened in the past, these guys, the players on the
2:29
team, they don't really pay any attention to that.
2:32
They are living in the present. They're.
2:34
They like where? Are in the present and their
2:38
only thing on their mind right was hey, they know it's a big
2:41
game and they got to find a way to execute and not make mistakes
2:45
and come away with a win. You know, usually going into
2:48
this game, one of those areas that you talked about that the
2:51
narratives is the tight ends for Iowa.
2:53
How are they going to cover them?
2:54
And they still got good players over there, don't get me wrong.
2:56
But I have a state I think this group, Eric is is even better
3:01
than the the saner Kohler Allen era.
3:04
And those are obviously three really good players.
3:07
Kohler still playing and might win a Super Bowl this year with
3:09
the Ravens. Their team is favored to do so.
3:12
But this group of tight ends that Mauser his, you know, being
3:17
able to work with and to and to game plan with what a group of
3:21
tight ends again at Iowa State. You know, last year when Bramer
3:26
got hurt, it kind of said Iowa State back a little bit while,
3:29
but what it really allowed for was the emergence of Gabe Burkle
3:33
to become not just a blocker, which is kind of what he had
3:36
been up to that point and waiting for him to take that
3:39
next step. And man, he has taken it in a
3:41
big and he's a tremendous player.
3:44
Bramer is a tremendous player. The size they have, the hands
3:48
they have and their knowledge of the system maybe as much as
3:52
anything, I think it's it's just the the relationship they have
3:58
and the trust they have and each other between rock and those
4:01
guys in particular. And throw Tyler Moore in there
4:04
as well. I mean, all those guys are on
4:06
the same page. And then if you teams play and
4:10
I've watched a ton of college football already this year, you
4:13
can see some quarterbacks, especially new quarterbacks, you
4:16
know, aren't always on the page with their receivers.
4:19
And and while I was David still working on in that it was wide
4:23
receiver room. I think the tight ends and, and
4:26
Rocco are definitely on the same page.
4:28
And what a safety blanket for Rocco.
4:31
A year ago, Iowa State got the win.
4:33
They did it with Rocco. Tremendous in the second-half,
4:36
didn't run it real well. Do they have to run the ball
4:39
well in order to win this football game?
4:41
The old, you know, adage, you got to be able to run it and
4:43
throw it? Or can this be another game
4:45
where Rocco puts the team on his back and if need be he can win
4:48
the football game just by chucking it around?
4:51
Oh, they're going to have to run it some.
4:53
You know, how successful. I think so much depends on how
4:56
what Iowa likes to do and how effective that really talented
5:00
defensive front for Iowa is. They play against Iowa State's
5:04
offensive line. But, you know, I think that's
5:07
part of the maturation of Tyler Mauser, you know, as the as the
5:13
offensive coordinator, he's done such a good job of first of all,
5:17
he's a guy who will admit his mistakes in his past
5:20
shortcomings and he's just looking forward.
5:22
I think he's, I think he's become maybe more into his own
5:27
personality, if you will, because he's kind of a, a, a go
5:32
for it kind of guy by nature. And last year maybe he wasn't so
5:35
much, especially early in the season.
5:38
And the other thing, too, is that once again, the trust he
5:40
has in Rocco to make the plays and the receivers to make the
5:43
plays, you know, so, yes, I think being able to run the
5:47
football would be tremendous. But the number one thing is
5:49
you'd have to find a way to move the ball, to move the chains, to
5:52
establish field position throughout the game.
5:55
You know, Iowa State's played at a deficit in field position
5:58
seemingly every year against Iowa, whether it be because of
6:01
great putting, great defense, inability to move the football.
6:04
I think the number one thing is you've got to be able to
6:07
establish field position for yourself and you do that however
6:11
however you need to. Did not see Townsend and so well
6:15
in Dublin. Got a good look at Townsend last
6:17
weekend. What do they have there in him?
6:19
Obviously he's going to one would assume become a bigger, a
6:23
bigger part of this game plan going forward.
6:26
But what we saw and the shake that this guy's got, it looks as
6:30
though they may have found a Jalen Noel.
6:32
Let me not clone, but some guy that's going to pick up some of
6:35
that slack. Yeah, tremendous top end speed.
6:39
He's got the swerve, I said after the game last week as I
6:44
thought maybe my biggest single take away from that game going
6:49
forward. Obviously Iowa State played
6:51
well, Rocco was great, but it was Xavier Townsend getting on
6:55
the same page with Rocco. I mean, he missed a lot of the
6:59
spring, most of the fall. So he's still, you know, it's
7:03
taking him a little bit longer, but we saw flashes of him when I
7:06
saw him at the spring practice before pre injury.
7:11
I, I said, man, we got to find a way to get the ball to #4
7:15
because he is a big play waiting to happen.
7:17
So I think that's big. And I think the other thing too
7:20
is Chase Sowell is a really big time receiver who's had the same
7:24
kind of injury issues and very limited practice.
7:28
But he's a guy. I think once he and Rocco get on
7:31
the same page, that'll give two guys of the wide receivers to go
7:34
with the tight ends. Not to mention, you know, Overby
7:36
and Eskelsen, who's done a really nice job so far.
7:39
Yeah, really big step forward there.
7:41
Dominic Orange, She was on the freaks list again from Bruce
7:44
Feldman before the season began. He is a monster of a man.
7:47
I saw him against K State, taken on a triple team and holding his
7:50
own because that's what he does. What makes Dom Orange so good?
7:54
And the importance of what he does in the middle of to help
7:56
the other 10 guys out. Well, the importance is just
8:01
what you said. He commands typically a double
8:04
team as you mentioned, sometimes a triple team.
8:06
But his ability to get up field, the explosive nature of his 325
8:13
lbs, I mean, he can get upfield and disrupt, redirect the
8:17
running back if you will, collapse the pocket on the
8:20
quarterback a number of different ways.
8:22
I mean, it's super important. And I think you look at that
8:26
match up between Center for Iowa.
8:29
I mean, obviously Logan Jones is really good too.
8:31
I think that's going to be a real key match up in this game
8:34
and how much extra they have to help Logan Jones to keep Orange
8:37
out of the backfield. I know Hunter Deckers came
8:40
between them, but what when you think of of Brock Purdy and now
8:44
think of Rock Go back, what do they do similar?
8:46
What do what do they do alike? Or are they Eric the simulated
8:50
between the years? They are, but what?
8:52
What else? I think that's the biggest thing
8:54
between the years. I think they both have just a
8:57
fundamental understanding of how to play winning football.
9:00
I think that's great. I think they both have good arm
9:03
strength. I think Rocco's arm is maybe a
9:05
little bit stronger. I mean it sometimes it doesn't
9:08
look that way, but when you see him rifle in those, you know,
9:12
little curls into coverage. I mean, he he's got a really
9:16
strong arm. I just think I think both of
9:19
them have a role winning mentality.
9:21
And I will say this about Rocco. I don't think we've ever had a
9:26
player who has the a better clutch gene than Rocco's had.
9:31
I think the challenge for him is going to be to be good in the
9:34
1st 50 minutes of the game and you know, rather than great at
9:39
the very end. But if he can avoid the costly
9:42
turnovers, which he has so far, once again part of his
9:45
maturation process, I'm sure, then he gives Iowa State a
9:49
chance to win every time out. Special teams were great 63 yard
9:53
field goal Aiden Flora nearly a impossible rate 99 yard point
9:58
return that he had that he had a so out of bounds in that one
10:02
special teams boy. It just feels a whole lot
10:04
different over a names what they've done now the last year
10:06
plus in the special teams game. No question.
10:09
Great punter too. Tyler Perkins has had a terrific
10:12
season, although I should say games because he didn't punt
10:15
last week. But he has had a terrific season
10:20
and our coverage units are better.
10:21
I just think as a whole, you know, Kyle Conradi has made
10:25
clutch kicks and who knows? It could come down to that
10:29
again, you know which again, I think I would, I would stay
10:32
mirror each other in special teams because I think they're
10:35
both exceptional. Yeah, no doubt about it.
10:38
Fascinating to watch. Flora like Trent said was a was
10:41
a whisker away. Eric, great stuff.
10:45
Appreciate you coming on as always, enjoy speaking with you.
10:48
Won't be long till you're double dipping with the little hoops
10:51
going on as well. I think TJ is going to have
10:54
another pretty solid squad, don't you?
10:56
I do. I've, I've seen them.
10:59
I like the pieces and the, you know, I think they're going to
11:02
come together real well. It's going to be another
11:04
exciting year in hoops as well as football.
11:06
Absolutely, Eric, thanks for jumping on.
11:08
Appreciate. We'll talk to you down the road.
11:09
Eric Keff, thank you. All right.
11:11
Thanks for having me. Good to talk to Eric Heft, the
11:13
color analyst for Iowa State and a good dude.
11:17
Never forgot to ask him how the golf game was.
11:18
Well, he's probably. It's always good.
11:20
Yeah, he's got lots of practice in the summer months.
11:22
It's not grandkids, it's golf. Good for him.
11:24
But I was surprised this winter when they went down to Arizona.
11:27
I She was shocked, right? Absolutely.
11:29
Didn't take the clubs and he had the the the Tempeh Tucson double
11:33
dip with a day in between. Right, it was a work trip, but
11:36
there's a day in between. Yes, thought it was just set up
11:40
perfectly. For him, upset of the year.
11:42
It kind of was, wasn't it? If we were well, we both were
11:45
sitting on chairs and we almost fell off our chairs when we
11:48
heard that. All right, so Mitch Holtis, he
11:50
was going to join us every week on Thursdays during the during
11:54
the the NFL season, with the exception when the chiefs have a
11:58
bye week. Of course, this week is a little
12:00
bit differently. Did you by the way, did you see
12:02
the plane that the Hunt family charger?
12:04
For no I didn't. Oh my God, what a what a great.
12:07
I mean, is it 11 hour trip or 1311 11?
12:09
Yes. So it's it's, it's essentially,
12:12
I don't know how to describe it. Have you seen those little
12:15
compartments or cubicles and some of the, oh, what's the
12:19
Dubai airline anyway? Oh yeah, yeah.
12:21
Right there, whatever it is, the like the real upper first class,
12:26
we don't have a person beside you got your own space.
12:29
The whole plane was like that and the NFL was sending them
12:33
something I'm sure was nice. But the Hunt family, who's the
12:36
second, I think richest family ownership in the NFL.
12:39
Not a bad place to be. Do you know who's number one?
12:42
No, the Super Bowl champions this year?
12:45
Super Bowl 62. With that Walmart money, the
12:48
Walmart. Money goes a long way with the
12:51
with the Walton. Family, I was going to say The
12:53
Jets with the Johnson and Johnson.
12:54
That's a pretty got to be pretty high in the list as well.
12:57
Yeah, that's pretty high on the list as well.
12:58
Anyway, so Mitch sent along this recorded piece as he kind of
13:03
sets the scene what we can expect to see Friday night.
13:05
But she's week one game against the Chargers.
13:07
Ken, you're going to love this one.
13:09
Here's a crazy stat that shows the Uber competitiveness of the
13:12
AFC West. It's the fact that the four head
13:15
coaches in the division, Andy Reid, Jim Harbaugh, Sean Payton
13:18
and Pete Carroll, have combined for 668 regular season wins and
13:23
53 playoff wins. That's the most entering a
13:27
season by a division group of coaches in NFL history.
13:31
Oh, and by the way, it's the oldest group of coaches ever in
13:34
a single division to start a season in NFL history with an
13:37
average age of 66 years and 72 days.
13:41
One thing's apparent to me, Jim Harbaugh's trying to make the
13:44
Chargers the Ravens of the AFC West.
13:46
Now Jim's a lot different than his brother John, the coach of
13:49
the Ravens, but their football philosophy is the same
13:52
offensively to be physical. Hence they go get Steeler
13:56
running back Najee Harris in the offseason, four straight 1000
13:59
yard seasons and they drafted the second best power running
14:02
back in the draft in Omarion Hampton of North Carolina and
14:06
their play action passing game. The Chargers are like the
14:09
Ravens. The Chargers were second in the
14:11
NFL last year with a 76% completion percentage on play
14:15
action passes and nearly 1600 passing yards and 12 touchdowns
14:20
off play action. The Chiefs have got to mitigate
14:23
the run again and then be wary of Justin Herbert's play action
14:27
passing game, especially when Ladd Mcconkey, the second year
14:31
receiver, is the intended target.
14:33
The Chargers want to be physical on defense as well.
14:35
They just want to beat you up. Last year the Chargers had 11
14:38
quarterback hits on Patrick Mahomes in the first half in
14:42
that narrow doinkoff 19 to 17 win in Week 13 and the Chargers
14:47
were sixth in the NFL in sacks. They no longer have Joey Bosa,
14:50
but the Bolts have Khalil Mack and an emerging young star,
14:54
Thule Tui Pelotu, whose brother is on the Chiefs roster.
14:57
By the way, the Chiefs need to meet or exceed the physical play
15:01
of the Chargers Friday night, and the red run defense will be
15:04
tested, as will the secondary on those play action passes.
15:08
Also, can the Chiefs show the explosiveness they exhibited in
15:10
the preseason, both on plays designed to be so, but also on
15:15
plays that turn into big plays because of the increased speed
15:18
on this Chiefs team? Finally, both the Chiefs and
15:21
Chargers are excellent special teams for kickers.
15:24
The Chiefs have Harrison Bucker and of course the Bulls have
15:27
Dicker, the kicker Cameron Dicker, who's now the most
15:30
accurate kicker in National Football League history.
15:33
And both the Chiefs and Chargers are proud of the return teams
15:36
and coverage units. Charger Darius Davis has been
15:38
the NF LS best punt returner over a two year period, while
15:41
the Chiefs have seemed to use the tweaked dynamic kickoff rule
15:45
to their advantage. It's Friday night fellas.
15:48
Perfect to order some Papa John's pizza.
15:51
Two large, one topping pizzas, 999 each.
15:55
Sounds like a plan. Go to papajohns.com.
15:58
I'll sign off in English because my Portuguese is lousy in the
16:02
air headed to Brazil. I'm Mitch Holtis, voice of the
16:04
Chiefs. All right, there he is, the
16:06
voice of the Kansas City Chiefs. They've arrived.
16:08
They're doing press conferences. Meant to play that yesterday,
16:11
but well, my bad. But got it here today.
16:14
And again, thank you to Papa John's for making Mitch possible
16:18
for us every single week, and he was with us all throughout
16:21
August. Lee Sterling Like the like the
16:24
Chargers. Yeah, I think it's going to be a
16:27
good game. Yeah, we've seen this game even
16:29
when the Chargers aren't very good.
16:30
Seems like there's plenty of good games between these two
16:33
teams. I heard something yesterday
16:36
from, oh, the the nerdy guy. That's now what NFL Network and
16:40
he moved over to ESPNI can't think of his name any nerdy guy
16:43
he Peter Schrager, Yeah, that guy he mentioned about Mahomes
16:51
from the people inside the organization he's talked to.
16:54
This has been an offseason locked in every single thing is
17:00
about we're not going to let what happened in the Super Bowl
17:03
happened to us again. It's as lacked in as people in
17:06
the organization have seen Patrick Mahomes in years.
17:09
But it's going to hurt even worse.
17:12
You you are setting yourself up for failure for the ninth
17:14
straight year. This from somebody that covers
17:18
the NFL. The Chiefs are handling Brazil
17:20
much better than the Eagles did last year.
17:22
Well, there's no doubt that's another reason that I like
17:25
Kansas City is because of our conversations with Mitch when he
17:28
talks about every single detail, what Andy Reid and this
17:32
organization do. Let's not screw around time.
17:35
We're not going to be hula dancing with.
17:36
No, they're going to have things buttoned up and I think probably
17:40
buttoned up in the way the Chargers organization will as a
17:43
whole, even with our bod there. Another reason I like Kansas
17:45
City. Pat Anger coming up next.
17:47
Miller and Condon talking sports with you.
17:49
Appreciate you being with us on the Iowa Sports Radio Network.
18:02
I'm Millary Condon, welcome back Iowa Sports Radio Network.
18:06
Appreciate you being with us here wherever you're listening
18:08
in the great state of Iowa. We're driving across the great
18:11
state of Iowa is our next guest. He's the color analyst football
18:15
radio wise, Gary Dolphins partner.
18:17
He's Pat Angerer and he joins us as he makes his way to Des
18:21
Moines. Some kind of an event at Big
18:24
Grove tonight. Pat anger, is that what Trent
18:26
tells me? Good to talk to you.
18:27
First of all, what are you on your way to the state capital
18:31
for? Yeah, I appreciate you guys
18:33
having me. Now.
18:34
We're having a little midweek pep rally up a big Grove in Des
18:36
Moines for Iowa fans to get to. And yeah, it should be a good
18:39
time. Me and Gary will be there and
18:41
Gary obviously will be carrying it just like he carries most of
18:45
most of the games. And then Beth will be there and
18:47
yeah, it should be a good time are.
18:48
You enjoying what you're doing now?
18:51
It's the best man. It really is.
18:53
I it's good for like, it's just good for my soul to be around it
18:57
again and be there with Gary and it's I can't tell you how much I
19:02
love it. That's awesome.
19:03
And my wife likes it too because I'm out of the house.
19:05
Yeah, really something to be said for that.
19:07
Hey, before we get into the nuts and bolts, just it's just your
19:10
your memories, You were you were came out on the winning end in
19:14
this series in your Iowa career, right?
19:17
Five games. So you played in how many?
19:18
Three or four of them. But during your time in Iowa,
19:23
Iowa had the series lead in your five years, correct?
19:27
Oh, I mean, absolutely. Is there any question there?
19:30
I, every game I played in, we won.
19:33
I will tell you that games I didn't play in, we lost.
19:36
I don't know if there's a correlation there.
19:38
Might be similar to the correlation that when I got to
19:40
the Colts, they were really good before I got there and then not
19:42
as good when I got there. Got a little bit of opposite
19:45
deal there. So this matchup now you're for
19:48
the Quad Cities and I try to explain we're.
19:51
On in the Quad Cities. As we are, yes, of course,
19:53
across the Iowa Sports Radio Network, that this rivalry is
19:56
much different here in central Iowa than it is in other pockets
20:00
of the state. For you guys in the Quad Cities,
20:02
you growing up, I know there's a lot of Illini fans over there.
20:05
What was the Iowa Iowa State rivalry for you, at least
20:08
growing up until you became a part of it as a player?
20:12
Yeah, I guess to start, I don't think there's Illini fans
20:15
anywhere, to be honest with you. The only the only reason they
20:18
got good is because they hired an Iowa guy.
20:21
Let's start there. But no, it was it was a big
20:24
rivalry here. I mean, it was really here.
20:27
You're either Iowa or Iowa State.
20:29
And yeah, you know, when I knew exactly how big the game was, I
20:33
knew the rivalry and all that as soon as I got to Iowa.
20:36
So that wasn't, that wasn't a hard adjustment for me.
20:38
For some guys that aren't from the area or don't really
20:41
understand it, they get to that game the first time they're
20:43
like, oh gosh, this is nuts. We're like, yeah, yeah, it's the
20:46
real deal. It really is.
20:48
So I want to obviously we'll get to Gronowski, etcetera, but I
20:51
want to I'm guessing that, you know, when the defense is on the
20:54
field, when the Hawks are on the field, you're, you know, keeping
20:57
a closer look maybe at the at the linebacker position.
21:00
Obviously I was been spoiled with the linebackers that have
21:03
come through there. What about this group?
21:05
Obviously they had to wait their turn.
21:07
Lot of buzz around Shire. I thought Lootmer played very
21:11
well in the football game. What did you see when you were
21:14
looking at this new group of linebackers?
21:15
Pat Anger. What you know, it's just kind of
21:19
what I saw all camp is they were hungry.
21:22
Like it's a really hungry group. There's guys now they haven't
21:26
had a lot of real game experience, but they've been
21:28
behind Jay Higgins, Jack Campbell, two of the best ever
21:31
do it in Iowa. Like these guys, they may not be
21:34
experienced on the field, but they're experienced with what
21:35
they know and watching them play, granted, it was a kind of
21:38
a different offense, little bit of a different game.
21:40
They don't really have a lot, a lot of time to kind of show what
21:42
they do, but I thought they did tremendously well.
21:44
They ran the ball, they played hard.
21:46
They played just like an Iowa linebacker should play.
21:49
Taking it a step further now, this week you're going up
21:51
against an Iowa State team, Couple of good running backs,
21:54
different styles. Hanson the bruiser, Abu Sam,
21:57
obviously the speedster, and then that tight end position.
22:00
When you're talking about the light and the linebacker
22:03
position, you got a crazy athletic guy in Braemer.
22:06
You got Burkle, who's looked outstanding.
22:08
It's deep. What do you have to do as a
22:10
linebacker when he going up and gets a tight end group?
22:12
That's not just one guy. There's a bunch of guys you got
22:14
to figure out. Yeah, and it sounds cliche.
22:18
You've got to do your job. You know, watching, watching
22:21
them on tape, You know, the thing that stands out for their
22:24
tight ends is not only can they block tremendously well, but
22:26
they're really good receiving tight ends.
22:28
I know the Berkel family. I know his uncle.
22:31
And I really wanted him to get to Iowa.
22:32
But, you know, unfortunately, Iowa staked out him.
22:34
But they are they're fun to watch on tape.
22:37
They play very, very physical. And what's interesting is they
22:40
they do a lot of things that Iowa wants to do.
22:41
Like that's kind of what Iowa's bread and butter as well, too.
22:44
And, and they're both playing kind of a similar style of
22:46
football. What they do a good job too with
22:47
these tight ends is, is they'll shift and no motion in position
22:50
to where they have the angles to block.
22:52
And then they'll show like they're blocking on the rope for
22:54
a pass. Like these guys are extremely
22:56
talented in both facets facets of the game.
23:00
How much pressure is on Mark Gronowski this week in your
23:02
mind, Pat? I mean, really, there shouldn't
23:05
be any, you know, and I know he had kind of said, you know, he's
23:08
a little bit nervous and, you know, felt some pressure and
23:11
stuff. And, you know, I think it's a
23:13
lot harder on kids nowadays. Everybody knows or they think
23:16
they know what a guy's getting paid.
23:18
You've got social media, you've got all this stuff.
23:20
And yeah, I think it was everything, kind of the nerves,
23:23
everything was that he put on himself.
23:24
And, you know, I always look back to an interview with Aaron
23:29
Rodgers, and I want to say it was McAfee.
23:31
I'm going to say McAfee whether it was or not, just because
23:33
that's a good friend and I love him.
23:35
But yeah, yeah, yeah. Pat asked him.
23:39
He said, hey, you know what changed for you?
23:40
What made you great And and Aaron goes my my give a crap
23:45
meter. Use a different words that my
23:46
give a crap meter went to zero. And you have to have that like
23:49
you have to really, it's a fine line.
23:51
You have to care a lot about some things and care 0 about
23:55
other things. So you care, you care about your
23:58
preparation, you care about your game prep you you care about
24:01
everything leading up to the game.
24:02
When the game happens, you just got to play and react and and
24:05
hopefully he does that. And the quarterback that I
24:08
played with who who did that better than anybody, and it
24:11
might have made people upset was Rick Fancy.
24:13
Rick did not care. He was our Rocky.
24:15
He was, if he got knocked down, he was going to get back up.
24:17
And, and, and knowing, you know, knowing the team dynamic that
24:21
they have, the culture is that, hey, we're behind you, Mark,
24:24
we're with it. You go out there, you do your
24:26
thing, we'll have your back. And really, at the end of the
24:29
day, we shouldn't have to pass for 200 yards to beat Albany.
24:32
You know, I mean, it shouldn't have to, it shouldn't happen and
24:35
it didn't have to happen. So I'm, I'm excited to see him.
24:38
He's a good kid. He works really hard.
24:41
And hey man, get that, give a crap meter to 0 and go out there
24:45
and play. The running back spots going to
24:47
look a little different this week after Bolton got injured
24:49
early in the game for Iowa. Xavier Williams, he comes in
24:54
there and just he looked tremendous.
24:55
He looked like a guy that was on the roster back when you were
24:58
there a little bit with Sean Green.
25:00
He has that that look, that big body guy, but he just was
25:03
gliding out there. How do you expect things to look
25:05
this weekend at the running back spot?
25:07
And Xavier Williams last week was his first career playing
25:10
time and now his first Rd. game. What's that look like for him
25:13
and the young guys in general? Plus the running game.
25:16
Yeah, the obviously, you know, a lot of it will depend on how the
25:18
game goes. You know, I think both teams are
25:20
going to try to run the ball. Obviously like Iowa State, the
25:22
last two games ran the ball over 40 times.
25:25
Obviously the first games because of the rain, second game
25:27
probably because they were they were winning by so much.
25:29
But both teams want to dominate the line of scrimmage and these
25:32
guys are going to have opportunities to run.
25:34
I love watching Xavier Williams, 510-220-5230 pound guy.
25:39
It's a you have to make a business decision when you want
25:42
to tackle him. Like, hey, do I want to have
25:44
ringing in my ear the rest of the game or do I want to live to
25:46
fight another day? And you can kind of see that.
25:49
And then you've got TJ Washington, who's quick
25:53
athletic, you know, fast out the backfield.
25:55
And then Jazz Patterson, who's very patient.
25:58
But then when he finds a hole, he goes and he goes really hard.
26:01
Another guy that didn't get a lot of time was our true
26:03
freshman named McNeil, who's extremely athletic, very shifty.
26:07
I, I really like the guys. What really impressed me the
26:10
most and the reason why they had so much success was due to the
26:13
fact that our old lineman played extremely violent.
26:15
And I'm I'm going to love to see how they go up against this Okie
26:18
front that Iowa State plays so well with.
26:21
Yeah, Dom Orange in the middle, who's a difference maker as you
26:24
know if you watch them, who are some of those guys that that
26:27
wood forest you to make a business decision.
26:29
I know the decision you made, but who were some of those guys?
26:33
Oh. Everybody I think, but I was too
26:36
dumb to make the right decision. I kind of put my head in there.
26:39
You know, Maurice Jones, Drew, he was, he was a tough guy to
26:42
tackle. He was like 3 feet tall and had
26:45
like like a treat drunk. He went high on him to get ran
26:48
over. He went low on him to get ran
26:49
over. And you know, you'd think you
26:51
think you'd have a good game to have a bunch of tackles, but
26:53
he'd have like 250 yards. He was he was a tough guy and
26:57
having to play him twice, twice a year wasn't wasn't ideal.
27:01
I got a question for you. Schematically.
27:03
We kind of talked about the linebackers against the tight
27:05
ends. We know how buttoned up Iowa is
27:07
defensively. When you look at Phil Parker,
27:09
the evolution over the last five years with the cash position and
27:12
what they've done, people really like to simplify what Iowa does
27:17
and hear analysts on TV. When you look at the Iowa
27:20
defense, is it as simple as it kind of looks to, you know, us
27:24
people that don't know the intricacies of football?
27:27
How simple is the Iowa defense and what Phil Parker does each
27:30
and every week? What's funny is they do, they do
27:34
a lot more than what we did when I was there.
27:36
When I was there, we ran really one defense.
27:38
He ran under 8 locks. So if they they come out in
27:40
regular formation, we'd we'd run cover 1/4, quarter, half and
27:43
they come out in a flock. We'd run, we'd run cover 3 and
27:46
sometimes we'd run cover one. To us, that was really all that
27:49
we did. We never really blitzed.
27:51
He does a lot. He's got, he's got a lot of
27:53
moving parts. A lot of guys moving around
27:55
didn't really get to see that much against Albany, but I'm
27:58
assuming hopefully we can get Rocco in 3rd and long to where
28:01
we have have the opportunity to blitz and show different things.
28:05
But it really is. It's not as simple as it was,
28:08
and we had, but he's got the guys playing so fast and so
28:11
strong in their position that it looks like it's super easy.
28:14
It'll either happen this week or certainly next week, but your
28:17
head coach is about to set a record.
28:19
Become college football's all time winning as coach.
28:21
What will that mean? Knowing that you are part of
28:23
some of those wins, Pat. If I think probably, if I was at
28:27
Iowa, he probably to reach that a little bit sooner.
28:31
But it's, it's awesome. It says so much about him and
28:35
and just so much about his staff.
28:37
He is the best of the best. I'm so honored for him.
28:40
And the The funny thing is, if he's not going to want to talk
28:43
about it, he's not going to want any of the attention because
28:45
that's just who he is. It's never about him, but really
28:48
it's always been about him because without him, Iowa
28:51
football is nothing. No, without a doubt.
28:53
And last thing for me, I'll let Trent finish up it.
28:55
Back to your Colts career. Jim Mercy sadly passed away.
28:58
What was he like as an owner? What were some of when you would
29:01
cross paths with the guy that would sign your checks?
29:04
Jim Mercy. Jim was a great man.
29:07
You know, it's kind of unfortunate.
29:09
You know, Jim had Jim had some issues that were very public,
29:12
but Jim never shield away from it.
29:15
He was always open. He was always kind.
29:17
And there's at least on two or three occasions when there were
29:20
guys that I knew on staff or players that he could have got
29:25
rid of. But instead he paid out of his
29:27
pocket for them to go to rehab, took care of them, helped them
29:30
rehabilitate themselves back, gave him a job when they got
29:32
done. And that's stuff that nobody
29:33
hears about. You know, there's so many people
29:37
just by him walking down the street.
29:38
He changed their lives and he's a, it's a huge loss for the, for
29:43
Indianapolis and and the state of Indiana.
29:45
The whole he Jim was a good man and he was, he was a really good
29:49
owner. One final thing, heard earlier
29:53
this week during press conferences that Gronowski had a
29:56
talk with Lester and had a talk with Kirk and Kirk brought him
29:59
to the side or maybe called him into the office.
30:01
Now we know your visits in the office probably were a little
30:04
bit different than what Gronowski went, but certainly
30:08
bad. We know your affinity for Coach
30:10
Ference. What are those conversations
30:12
like, those one on ones, the things that we never get to see
30:16
and rarely hear about? What's it like when not the bad,
30:19
the good times that Kirk's trying to talk to you?
30:21
What are those meetings like? Even the good and bad, you go in
30:27
there and right away you know you're there because he loves
30:30
you and he cares about you. And whatever the conversation is
30:34
about the fact that you know as a player that the guy on top the
30:38
face that runs the place loves you and would do anything for
30:41
you, makes you want to run through a wall for him and
30:44
completely, you know, kind of kind of dedicate your life to
30:47
him and Iowa football. And I'm assuming it was an
30:50
amazing conversation. And basically, I would assume
30:53
that the go said, hey, we're with you, we're behind you, we
30:57
got your back and we love you. Big Grove Brewery tonight.
30:59
What time does it start, Pat? What you said.
31:02
What time does the Big Grove event start tonight?
31:05
530, me and Gary will get on there I think around 6615 or so.
31:09
Good stuff to hear his his beautiful voice.
31:11
Yeah, we heard it yesterday. He joined us during the show
31:13
yesterday. Hey, thanks for jumping on, Pat
31:15
Happy for your success and we'll talk down the road.
31:18
Thank you, Pat. Anger.
31:20
Thank you guys, you're the best. Yeah, good to talk to you, Pat
31:21
Anger as we check in on Hawkeye football.
31:24
All right, Nebraska football next.
31:26
Stephen M Simple for a few minutes.
31:28
We'll look back with SIP regular Thursday guest Miller and Condon
31:31
Iowa Sports Radio Network. Hi Millory Condon welcome back
31:43
Iowa Sports Radio Network Trent Condon, Ken Miller our final
31:46
segment Stephen M simple momentarily on three media
31:50
Husker illustrated. We're going to look back as much
31:52
as anything with sip if we were able to run him down.
31:55
They got a laugh for this week. Got a high school team Houston
31:59
Christian or something next week.
32:00
So but Michigan was on the horizon for those Huskers.
32:04
That will certainly be a big one.
32:07
Let's get to him. Stephen M simple joins us for a
32:10
couple of minutes Sip. But thanks for your flexibility
32:13
here this week. Pretty good big game in the
32:15
state as you well know with the with side hawk this week.
32:18
So when do they play Nebraska State?
32:20
They don't have such a thing. Let's go back to last week's
32:23
zip. Arrowhead stayed and you were
32:26
right, it was 95 to 5. As far as fan base that might
32:29
be. 98 Two. Might have been, yeah, might
32:31
have been giving him credit. Just what was your take away
32:34
from watching Nebraska against the Cincinnati squad?
32:38
I was pretty much black. It was.
32:41
Almost. I really expected that type of
32:44
game, except I thought it might be a tad.
32:47
I knew it was going to be close. I didn't know it was going to be
32:50
that close. So I was 1.
32:54
I think I said on your show I anticipated a tough game and it
32:59
was. And the last thing I'd say, I
33:03
know we don't have much time to. I'm not going to ramble.
33:06
I just thought and the vulnerabilities that I expected
33:10
were there main mainly Nebraska's D line.
33:14
I didn't anticipate that the secondary might be the strongest
33:17
part of the team. That was a big step forward.
33:21
So take us to that final drive and and then Speaking of that
33:24
defensive backfield with a great interception in the end zone.
33:28
But you have seen this show, I don't know, dozens of times over
33:33
the last 15 years as they're driving down the field, a field
33:36
goal ties that, a touchdown wins it.
33:38
Was there ever that thought? Oh no, here we go again?
33:41
Another close loss, yeah. Was there that thought, hell
33:44
yeah. I think they're going to lose
33:47
the game. Yeah, I, I did.
33:47
It wasn't even it wasn't necessarily because of the past.
33:51
I I don't do that, you know, I'm, I'm in the moment, I'm that
33:55
person. But I just thought in the
33:57
moment, forget the past. He's thought he's driving it.
34:02
I mean, they got him on Nebraska.
34:03
They've had Nebraska since they had Nebraska and healed a lot of
34:07
fourth quarter. They went tempo in it.
34:10
The tempo temple really plummeted Nebraska.
34:15
So no, I thought they're going to I thought they're going to
34:17
drive it down and go in. That's what I thought.
34:19
Now source be threw a ball. He hasn't.
34:22
You know, if you look last year, he's kind of stopped throwing it
34:26
down field late last well, the second-half of last year, and
34:31
maybe you saw why. I mean, he tried.
34:34
He tried to go fairly deep and that's.
34:38
Hey there, SIP. Yeah, I'm here.
34:43
OK, yeah, we broke up for a second.
34:45
So I want to ask you about Emma Johnson.
34:47
He goes over a hundo. It looks as though.
34:49
Is he going to be the guy? He's been there a couple of
34:52
years now. I think it's his third year at
34:54
Nebraska. Does it look like he is going to
34:56
be RB-1? Yeah, Kenny, you got me.
35:02
Yep, Yep. Yeah.
35:04
He played 69 of 78 offensive. Yeah, it looks like the guy that
35:11
is back the conversation here, one of the main talking points
35:15
here was, is that too much for him to carry it 25 times and
35:20
catch 7 passes? That's that's been and they've
35:24
said they the coaches, we got to get more guys going and they
35:29
will this week. And you got time to do it in the
35:31
next two weeks. Akron your favored by what 35
35:34
points in that one? Houston Baptist next week before
35:37
of course the Wolverines come to town.
35:39
So in these two tune UPS before Michigan comes to Lincoln, what
35:43
needs to be seen? What do you need to see out of
35:45
this squad these next couple of weeks?
35:49
Well, first of all, I just started that running back.
35:51
You want to see the Makai Nelson's probably the number one
35:55
backup at running back. He's a red shirt freshman.
35:59
And then you might want to see him go to another guy, be it
36:03
Quinton Ives or a kid named Isaiah Mosey.
36:06
And then you got it, the defensive line.
36:09
It's been a topic all offseason because they lost so much from
36:14
last year, namely Ty Robinson. I mean, he's the one that people
36:18
are most recognized, but they lost three other guys and they
36:24
were given pretty good. And now that's, hey, listen,
36:28
what happened? I've been hearing all offseason,
36:32
particularly in August during camp, it wasn't it didn't look
36:35
great at camp. And I thought, OK, maybe maybe
36:39
it'll surprise me. It did.
36:41
They weren't very good. They got it.
36:43
They got an issue up front. It looked like it.
36:45
Now maybe maybe they can change some personnel a little bit,
36:51
alter snap. There's not much you can do
36:54
schematically with that. So I I have a feeling that'll be
36:59
an ongoing conversation. Simply have about 30 seconds
37:02
left and I know that you had an opportunity Saturday with
37:05
Nebraska playing Thursday. Watch football.
37:07
Guessing you saw some of the Michigan game.
37:10
If you did, what did you think of Underwood?
37:12
And then knowing what he's walking into, obviously you've
37:15
been to Norman a bunch to see games there.
37:18
What do you think Underwood and Michigan will do this week as
37:20
they take on Oklahoma Saturday night?
37:23
I mean, he looked, I did watch some of that game against New
37:26
Mexico. He looks really poised.
37:28
That's what that's what struck you in command.
37:31
I mean, hit, I mean, is accurate with his throwing.
37:35
Hey, they only asked me to run twice, which was curious to me
37:38
because he can run poised, though.
37:41
Now you guys have been to Dorman.
37:44
I think I've been there plenty of times, a lot of times really
37:49
hard to play at night there. I mean, it's a hard, it'll be,
37:52
it'll really test anybody, let alone a true freshman because
37:55
it, because it's so I mean, for one thing, there's not much
37:59
sideline, you know? Kind of like Anya, yeah.
38:03
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just like that.
38:06
Now you mention it and it's just it's really rough at night.
38:10
It's not, it's not a picnic during the day.
38:13
It's one of those stadiums that that turn really wicked at
38:18
night. I've seen it with Nebraska.
38:20
It it whoa. So it no, it'll be rough.
38:23
I like Oklahoma. SIP.
38:25
Good stuff, brother. Thanks for being flexible.
38:27
We'll call. We'll get you in a normal spot
38:29
next week. Thank you SIP.
38:31
Thank you guys. Good to talk to Stephen M
38:33
Simple, all right? Circus sponsors, you play today,
38:35
anything, you're going to take the Cowboys, you said.
38:38
Yep, got the points. Got the Cowboys in the points
38:40
tonight. Got the Minnesota Lynx lane 2IN
38:42
Vegas in the WNBA, taking Sabalinka to cruise against
38:47
Pegula in the women's semifinal at the US Open to give me the
38:50
Dodgers to. Tennis.
38:51
Well, you know, I'm I'm known as Mr. I mean, Jimmy B can't be the
38:55
only people in radio in Iowa talking about tennis.
38:58
I think you're you want to know in tennis, place one in one, one
39:02
in. One, this is the decider, this
39:04
will be it. Well, I got a couple of nice
39:05
tickets on both Sinner and Alcaraz, so we're in good shape
39:08
on the men's side. Good stuff.
39:10
The off the bench comes up well in about 5 minutes.
39:13
We appreciate you being here with us.
39:15
Trent and I talk sports to do every Monday through Friday from
39:18
noon until two. It's Miller and Condon.
39:19
Thanks for being with us on the Iowa Sports Radio Network.