Latest / The Lunch Rush with Trent Condon / John Walters talks Cyclones, Steven M. Sipple on the Huskers loss & Trent's Picks presented by Circa Sports
Transcript
- 0:07Our number 2 welcome back Miller and Condon.
- 0:09Iowa Sports Radio Network bottom in the hour, Stephen M Sipple.
- 0:13We'll catch up on Nebraska as they go into there by week picks
- 0:16up spraying on the Big 10. Look forward to doing that.
- 0:18Trent's plays of the day, Circus sports will sponsor those NFC
- 0:23West tilt tonight, Thursday Night Football and some baseball
- 0:27as well. But right now, let's get to the
- 0:28voice of Iowa State. He's John Walters and he joins
- 0:32us. John, your Cubs finally won a
- 0:33game after they clinched their playoff spot.
- 0:36How are you? John Walters?
- 0:37Good to talk to you. I'm doing well and I am glad to
- 0:41see that they're back on track and hopefully can hold off the
- 0:44Padres and get some home field advantage in the playoffs.
- 0:48Yeah, no doubt about it. What would you do at the top of
- 0:50that pitching rotation, John? If you're a council and it was
- 0:53set up where any of them could start game one, who would your
- 0:55guy be? I mean, it'd have to be Horton.
- 0:58I think I'm with healthy. Yeah, I just, I mean, I'd start
- 1:02him game one and game two if I could in.
- 1:04Game three, I mean. Yeah, he's clearly become the
- 1:08ace. That staff, although they've had
- 1:10some good years from other guys, sure.
- 1:11But yeah, the way he's been in the second-half of the season
- 1:15has been incredible. So hopefully he's healthy.
- 1:17I would definitely have him game one and then available as soon
- 1:20as possible for his second start.
- 1:21Absolutely. What can we start with?
- 1:23Hoops. Is that all right?
- 1:23TC Yeah, the schedule comes out, John.
- 1:26And just, I mean, the month of February, that's an all timer,
- 1:29right? It is so daunting.
- 1:30It's going to be so much fun as a fan to just watch how this all
- 1:34unfolds because we think Iowa State's going to have another
- 1:36really good team, but there's a lot of really good teams in this
- 1:40conference. I mean, the schedule used to
- 1:42come on you. Well, where's Kansas on the
- 1:43schedule? But it's so much more than that
- 1:45now, John. It is, it is, and the Big 12
- 1:49continues to be a monster and men's basketball.
- 1:51And you know, when you think about your Valentine's Day
- 1:54weekend, if you were had any romantic inclinations, I think
- 1:58scrap it all now, because on February 14th, Kansas comes in
- 2:02to Hilton Coliseum on a Saturday.
- 2:04And then two days later on Monday night, Big Monday,
- 2:07Houston comes in. I mean, my goodness, talk about
- 2:10an electric three days in Hilton Coliseum.
- 2:13That's going to be unbelievable. And so, you know, Texas Tech
- 2:16comes in, Iowa comes in, it's a really attractive home schedule.
- 2:21And then the road games are a beast.
- 2:22You know, going to BYU is going to be really tough right in that
- 2:26stretch that you're talking about.
- 2:27And man, it's, it is tough, but I, I agree with you.
- 2:32I think Iowa State's going to be really good.
- 2:33I think they'll be built to handle it.
- 2:35Hopefully Tayman whoopsie is back 100% going by that time of
- 2:38the year and, and the team's at full strength because I think if
- 2:42Tayman's healthy, this could be one of the best guard course
- 2:45defensively that Iowa State's ever had with Tayman and Killian
- 2:49Torre, who's an absolute beast. And then Jamie Jamarian Bateman,
- 2:54who is a relentless defensive player as well, those guys that
- 2:59will be a relentless defensive backcourt which will force
- 3:031,000,000 turnovers and get some run outs and it's going to be a
- 3:07really fun team to watch if they can have all hands on deck.
- 3:11You know, just just one more and I'm sorry to do this to you.
- 3:14Is there any chance that Kansas game, I know that it's to be
- 3:17determined. We won't know the tip times yet
- 3:19with with Iowa State scheduled to play on a Monday, Would they
- 3:22put them on maybe an ESPN on a Saturday night?
- 3:26Boy, I'd love to see Kansas and Iowa State at night, wouldn't
- 3:29you? I would.
- 3:31I would think that'd be a really attractive game.
- 3:33I mean, I would think that's probably a top 15 type of
- 3:36matchup nationally, I would guess, at that point of the
- 3:40season. And yeah, I would think that
- 3:42would be a very attractive game that one of the networks is
- 3:45going to be all over. But yeah, I would think
- 3:47whichever one has the first priority is probably going to
- 3:50jump on that game. I'd be shocked if they didn't.
- 3:52Kind of a two-part question that deals with the same thing with
- 3:55Lipsy and another injury. You just feel awful for him.
- 3:58Talked about that yesterday. Who is the backup point guard?
- 4:01You mentioned Tori and that one definitely I had by ears perk up
- 4:04when you brought up the freshman there.
- 4:06We saw a little bit of Kate Kelderman a season ago.
- 4:08Who is the backup in? If there would be another, you
- 4:11know, long range an injury for Lipsy, is it kind of a different
- 4:15equation? Couple minutes spelling them,
- 4:17you know, 4 minutes 1/2 is one thing.
- 4:19If it's a couple weeks different, well, how would you
- 4:21look at that backup point guard? Yeah, I think Tory's probably
- 4:25the guy, although you're right, Calderman certainly has proven
- 4:28himself to be worthy of some minutes.
- 4:29And if he, you know, if it ends up where Tayman's out and
- 4:32hopefully Tayman won't miss a lot of time, but you know, maybe
- 4:34the first game or two, you've got Tori and Calderman basically
- 4:38split, splitting the position. I don't know what other options
- 4:42TJ really has. I think with Torre, the one
- 4:45thing, if he does start, he's going to have to be aggressive
- 4:49still defensively, but tone it down just a little bit because
- 4:51I'm afraid he's the guy that might fall out of a few games.
- 4:53He just it reminds me of when DeAndre came, came in and just
- 4:58terrorized Monte Morris when Monte was a freshman.
- 5:02Now this is kind of the opposite.
- 5:04Torre's the freshman, same as the senior, but I guarantee you
- 5:06Taman was sick of facing Torre and Bateman and practice because
- 5:10those guys really get after it. And so I, I think, I think it's
- 5:14probably Torre as the starter, but we'll have to wait and see.
- 5:19I don't, I don't think there's a lot of other options.
- 5:20The one great thing for TJ, though, in that situation is
- 5:24you've got Joshua Jefferson, who's kind of a point forward
- 5:27anyway, and he can take off some of that pressure and ball
- 5:30handling ability to kind of ease that for the guards, whoever
- 5:34they might be. Football in a minute, just one,
- 5:36one more in basketball. Let's just got a follow up.
- 5:38Do you know, John, that the exhibition games, Creighton and
- 5:41Northwestern, A, will you and Eric be working and B, will they
- 5:45be, will they be streamed anywhere?
- 5:47I'm not sure network would pick them up.
- 5:49Would be nice if they did, but they're exhibition.
- 5:51Are you and Eric working those games?
- 5:52And then do you have any ATV information?
- 5:56I don't have any TV information yet, but I wouldn't be surprised
- 5:58if if at least the Creighton game ended up on TV somewhere.
- 6:02You never know. Some of those exhibition games
- 6:05in the past, I remember Arkansas, Kansas was on TV last
- 6:08year. There's been a few that have
- 6:10gotten their way onto TV if it's a slow day for some of those
- 6:13networks, so I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of
- 6:16them got on TV. As far as radio, yes, we will be
- 6:19doing games. I will not be doing the game
- 6:21against Creighton on October 17th.
- 6:24Picked that date for my daughter's wedding.
- 6:26My God, there's no conflict there.
- 6:28It's a football bye week. What could possibly come up?
- 6:31And then they put a basketball game that night.
- 6:32So Noah Wolf and and Eric will be doing that game.
- 6:36And then and then I'll be doing the Northwestern game with Eric.
- 6:39But yes, they will be on the radio.
- 6:41Good stuff. Let's get into football after
- 6:43the bye week. A chance to heal up, get healthy
- 6:45and get ready after just that ridiculous schedule from Ireland
- 6:49back home, rivalry game and then of course the road trip down to
- 6:52Arkansas. A week off?
- 6:54Did you? Could you feel, you know, inside
- 6:56the locker room? Talk to the players, talk to the
- 6:57coaches? Did they need that bye week?
- 7:00No question they did. I think they kind of were
- 7:03starting to hit a wall with that Arkansas State game.
- 7:06They looked a little bit tired and weary and I think their
- 7:10batteries are completely recharged, you know, and that
- 7:12that couldn't have come at a better time.
- 7:14This football schedule is awesome with three bye weeks
- 7:17split the way they are. Four games than a bye, three
- 7:19games than a bye, three games than a bye, then hopefully at
- 7:22least three more games, you know?
- 7:23And So what a way to divide it up and try to keep your team
- 7:27healthy throughout the season. And I can just sense from
- 7:30talking to Matt and the players when they came in on Tuesday
- 7:34that this is a Recharge revitalized team.
- 7:36Not that they were down and weren't going to be ready to
- 7:38play, but I just feel the energy is back, almost like it's a
- 7:41season opener all over again. That'll be fascinating.
- 7:46Obviously the Conradi injury is, it is unfortunate.
- 7:50We'll we'll see how long he's able to be able to compound that
- 7:52with Chase Gilbert. Now you got a kicker coming in
- 7:55here. He's kicked some extra points,
- 7:56but he's never been asked to kick a field goal as as much
- 8:00parody as we think there is in this conference.
- 8:02I'll be nice for Conrad to get back out there.
- 8:04Sounds like it'll be a couple of weeks.
- 8:06What can you tell us, John, about Chase Smith?
- 8:11Not a lot, you know? The funny thing is, Chase was on
- 8:15the sidelines in street clothes. He wasn't dressed for the South
- 8:18Dakota Game. And.
- 8:21Then all of a sudden it was like, it's like somebody send
- 8:23him in and get him in uniform, you know, because we're going to
- 8:26need him to kick some. And he did.
- 8:28He came back out and kicked off and and participated in that
- 8:32game. I think kicked an extra point or
- 8:33two in that one. And ever since, you know, he's
- 8:36been in uniform ready to go. But he's a guy that wouldn't be
- 8:39even on the team if they didn't change the, the, the
- 8:43interpretation of the court. They, you know, we're going to
- 8:46extend the, extend the rosters back out because they would have
- 8:51had to, you know, not brought them in.
- 8:53And so it's, it's crazy. And I think it's something that
- 8:57has to be readdressed. But you don't expect 2 kickers
- 9:00to get hurt, right? I mean, you just, it's not
- 9:03something, but it's, it's set up where Chase is going to get his
- 9:06opportunity. He's a true freshman from
- 9:08Eldridge, IA, played at North Scott High School and he was not
- 9:12just the kicker, he was the quarterback and stuff.
- 9:14So a little bit of an athlete, but they have a lot of
- 9:18confidence in them. But I think at the same time
- 9:20they have even more confidence in Rocco back.
- 9:23And so if it gets in situations where you can go it on, go for
- 9:26it in maybe inside the 40 yard line, you probably do a little
- 9:30bit more than you would have. Speaking of that, inside the 40
- 9:35talking about range now extra points, you got to see couple of
- 9:38kickoffs and I can't remember them now and I wish I went back
- 9:41and. Actually about being in street
- 9:42clothes. Absolutely crazy.
- 9:45So do you have a range? I know Campbell was asked about
- 9:47it. He didn't want to go there.
- 9:49He kind of quickly changed the subject.
- 9:51Inside of 45, inside of 40. What would you kind of ballpark
- 9:55is the range right now for the youngster?
- 9:57Well, and I've only seen him take a little bit, but it
- 10:01doesn't appear that he has the strongest leg.
- 10:04I mean, I would think that you wouldn't want to try something
- 10:07much deeper than 45 to start out.
- 10:10I'll have to watch him kick and warm up this week and just see,
- 10:13you know, see how he hits it. If his kickoffs are an
- 10:16indication, he's kicked off 9 times.
- 10:18None of them have been touchbacks.
- 10:20Now, some of that's by design. I think a lot of times, you
- 10:24know, you get caught up in these touchbacks.
- 10:26Sometimes you just want to kick it to the right spot and make
- 10:29sure your coverage unit can get down there.
- 10:30And a lot of times when they do kick it short teams try to
- 10:34return it. They don't get to the 25 or they
- 10:35get a penalty and they get backed up and they're inside
- 10:38their own 15. And so it's not necessarily a
- 10:40bad thing if you don't get touchbacks.
- 10:42It depends how dangerous the return guy is, but yeah I I
- 10:46don't think Chase from what I've seen has a super strong leg so
- 10:50my guess would be 45 on hand. What do you know about Arizona,
- 10:53John? Obviously they beat Hawaii
- 10:55Hawaii plates a week 0 when I was stay was in Dublin.
- 10:57They were over in No, they were no, they Hawaii played Stanford
- 11:01and then Hawaii came to era to Tucson.
- 11:05The K state went on Friday night.
- 11:07We're not sure what K state is. What do you know about Arizona?
- 11:11Well, what I thought they were based on the final game of last
- 11:15season when I watched him play Arizona State, was I was
- 11:17preparing for the Big 12 championship game.
- 11:20They looked like a team that was totally disinterested.
- 11:22They looked like a bunch of guys that were ready to transfer.
- 11:25They they had totally checked out.
- 11:27OK. And that was Coach Brennan's
- 11:29first year. When I watch him now, it's the
- 11:32exact opposite. You know, they're completely
- 11:34energized. They're they're really engaged.
- 11:37And obviously they lost a lot of guys to the portal after that
- 11:40game and brought in a lot of new guys in the portal and maybe
- 11:42found some of the right kind of guys.
- 11:44But obviously when you're winning, things are going good.
- 11:46They've played three home games. They've won them all, but they
- 11:48feel really good about themselves right now.
- 11:50And Noah Fafita is playing like the guy that was the PAC 12
- 11:53Freshman of the year, the same year that Rocco back was the Big
- 11:5712 freshman of the year. I mean, there's a 2-3 year
- 11:59starting quarterbacks. He's throwing a beautiful ball
- 12:02right now and he's cut down on his interceptions.
- 12:05They've been able to create turnovers as a defense.
- 12:08They're really aggressive defensively.
- 12:11I just expect a wild game. I think there's going to be a
- 12:14lot of big plays on both sides. I think you'll see a really
- 12:18explosive plays and I think a game that's going to be highly
- 12:21entertaining in front of a great crowd on the White Out.
- 12:24It's it's going to be one of the more entertaining games, I think
- 12:27of the college football weekend. I want to talk about Marcus
- 12:32Neal, who Dom Orange is there, the linebackers with Caleb in
- 12:36the middle, big Hale Bacon are tremendous.
- 12:38But but I think he can make an argument that Marcus Neal might
- 12:40be the best player on this defense.
- 12:42He is just so impactful, can do so many different things,
- 12:46coverage, tackle, come on up, blitz.
- 12:48He's just an incredible player. What is it about the safety
- 12:51position of just finding guys and and they're all playmakers
- 12:54when they get out there? Yeah, that spot in John
- 12:57Haycock's defense is going to be a playmaker, and Bo Freehler was
- 13:01that for sure. And it's great that Bo's still
- 13:03around. He's on the staff helping out
- 13:05with the linebackers, and just having him still around has to
- 13:08be a real blessing for Marcus Neal.
- 13:10But Marcus, there's a guy who loves football, comes from a
- 13:15great family and he came in just, he brings so much energy
- 13:20to the field and he's not afraid to hit.
- 13:22He will fly up there and run support.
- 13:24And Genesis Smith, the guy from Arizona, is the exact same way.
- 13:27These are two of the better middle safeties and they play
- 13:30that three safety look at Arizona too.
- 13:32These are two of the better middle safeties that you're
- 13:35going to find in the Big 12 Conference.
- 13:36So, yeah, I agree with you. Marcus is having an all Big 12
- 13:39kind of season. The way he flies up and runs
- 13:42support is incredible and Matt Campbell thinks he might end up
- 13:46being the best ever play that position at Iowa State.
- 13:48And that's saying something when you've had both freezer because
- 13:50we know how highly he thinks of them.
- 13:52Yeah, players. True freshman.
- 13:53Terrific player, no doubt about it.
- 13:56And Gabe Burkle is back. That certainly doesn't hurt
- 13:58John. Yeah, when Berkel and Bramer are
- 14:01healthy, that 12 personnel package that Iowa State has is
- 14:05really hard for teams to deal with.
- 14:07And I think they're going to be especially big this week as
- 14:10safety valves for Rocco back, who's going to face some
- 14:13pressure. He's probably going to get
- 14:14stacked a couple times. He's probably going to be some
- 14:17tackles for loss because Arizona is going to be Uber aggressive.
- 14:21But you know, the alternate to that, the way to combat it is
- 14:24those quick hitters to those tight ends and maybe you break a
- 14:26tackle and turn them into big plays or maybe deep shots down
- 14:30the if you can protect well enough.
- 14:31But again, I look for explosive plays and I certainly expect
- 14:35Berkel and Bramer to be a part of that and bribery state to
- 14:38really lean on those tight ends this week.
- 14:41So a lot of times during a bye week, and this one's a little
- 14:43bit different because it's earlier in the season, but
- 14:46chance for guys to heal up, they definitely needed that, as you
- 14:48talked about, John. But we also start to hear about
- 14:51some young guys, some young guys at Flash maybe getting a few
- 14:54more reps even with the second or third team.
- 14:56But is there a name or two maybe to keep an eye on, a name that
- 14:59you've heard here in the last week or so out of the young guys
- 15:02now that's going to come in and become a starter by any means,
- 15:04but maybe turn some heads during the bye week?
- 15:07Well, we've seen say Robinson, you know, return, not that he's
- 15:11had a chance to return 1 yet, but they feel like he's going to
- 15:13be a tremendous football player and we'll see if he gets beyond
- 15:17four games or if they try to preserve that red shirt with
- 15:19him. But he but he's a young guy to
- 15:22definitely keep an eye on. I think, you know, this is not a
- 15:26new name, but Carson Willa coming back and being healthy
- 15:29this week is certainly going to help Iowa State.
- 15:31One more young guy to definitely keep an eye on this week is Trey
- 15:34Bourdon. You know, Tomatola McDonough
- 15:36didn't play a lot against Arkansas State.
- 15:39Bourdon is an excellent pass rusher.
- 15:41He's a true freshman. He's Malik Bourdon's brother.
- 15:44And I wouldn't be surprised to see him some in pass rush
- 15:47situations this week as well. So keep an eye out for him.
- 15:50But yeah, there's a lot of good young players in the program
- 15:53that they're really excited about.
- 15:54And good thing is now they don't have to force those guys onto
- 15:56the field as early. So maybe you don't hear as much
- 15:59about them until the following year.
- 16:00But we just talked about Marcus Neal and you know, those are the
- 16:04kind of guys that are developing within this developmental
- 16:07program where a year later or two years later, all of a sudden
- 16:11you, hey, this guy's pretty good.
- 16:12Well, they knew he was good. They just didn't put him out
- 16:15there too early. And I think I would say has a
- 16:17lot of those type of players in their program right now.
- 16:19Have a good call Saturday night, John Walters.
- 16:21Appreciate you coming on. We'll talk to you down the thank
- 16:25you, John. All right.
- 16:26Thanks guys. Yep.
- 16:27Good to talk to John Walters on basketball and on football as we
- 16:30catch up with the voice of Iowa State.
- 16:32Yeah, I saw McDonough on the availability report that came
- 16:35out last night. I think is he questionable?
- 16:37I think that's it was his status, the one that was
- 16:41released, Obviously, it was probably, I don't know, maybe
- 16:45six or seven guys that were already declared out on it.
- 16:49But yeah, I think McDonough was listed as questionable and he'd
- 16:52been catching Haycock's eye. He brought up it a couple of
- 16:55times, couple of the post game press conferences.
- 16:58So that's certainly something to watch and we'll do so on that.
- 17:01This can be a tough game. Oh, no doubt.
- 17:03Yeah, Tough spot. The white out.
- 17:06What's Arizona going to wear? They can wear their Blues.
- 17:08They can wear their Reds. You gotta wear your Blues,
- 17:12right? Yeah, yeah.
- 17:13Don't want to wear red? At Iowa State.
- 17:15No, it's good to have options though.
- 17:18It is absolutely good to have options.
- 17:21Yeah, I mean, I was thinking when's this?
- 17:23They go to five and O think about that.
- 17:26Crazy. It is.
- 17:27You had a moment 3. No, I didn't.
- 17:31I said I could make AI have a one and two.
- 17:33We are actually on record. You did have.
- 17:36A what to do? I did have well, I had them
- 17:38losing to K State and I had them losing to the Hawks.
- 17:41Then they get. Cincinnati on Cincinnati and
- 17:44then at Colorado. Yes, back-to-back, then a by
- 17:47right. Yep.
- 17:48Then another one before BYU comes to town.
- 17:51Now I had this one. Locked and loaded to BYU.
- 17:54It's not, is it? You like the Bear, don't you,
- 17:57Buck? Meyer's decent.
- 17:58He's OK. He's better than I thought I
- 18:00would that he would be at this point.
- 18:02And that defense is for real. As I mentioned, I I've watched a
- 18:06lot of their game against East Carolina.
- 18:08I walked away impressed. Are they a sneaky Big 12
- 18:10contender or no? I would put them above Arizona
- 18:13State. You would, I would.
- 18:16Arizona State just went into Waco and won.
- 18:18I. Don't know how good that Baylor
- 18:19team is. That's a quarterback.
- 18:21Got a quarterback. Need more than that.
- 18:24I don't. I don't love that Baylor team.
- 18:26What's Iowa State's trickiest Rd. game left?
- 18:29Oh, the answer's the yeah, the answer's the easiest TCU.
- 18:32Hoover's so good. Yes, he's so good.
- 18:34I think he's the best quarterback in the conference.
- 18:36Strong case. Absolutely.
- 18:38Yeah, I think, I think he's an NFL player.
- 18:40Yeah. Kansas Senior Day.
- 18:44Is there any trickiness to the Cincinnati road trip next week?
- 18:48You know you've been bringing that up a few times.
- 18:50I, I think of the two Rd. games and I said that this summer
- 18:53Cincinnati's more difficult than Colorado.
- 18:57Colorado's not very good. Cincinnati, I don't think it's
- 19:00very good either. And just because I don't know
- 19:04their style of play get you in the muck, Ugly it up.
- 19:09You know what Colorado, maybe their most impressive game of
- 19:13the year was the first game of the year when they lost against
- 19:17Georgia Tech. Because Georgia Tech's pretty
- 19:20damn good, in fact, that I'm not sure they're going to lose a
- 19:23game until they're they play Georgia the final week of the
- 19:27regular season, right? They normally do.
- 19:32I think Georgia Tech's good. That might be Colorado's best
- 19:36man. It's right in the throes of it
- 19:37now, are we not? Arizona's wearing all Reds.
- 19:40They are. How did you find that?
- 19:42Troy just texted tweeted at us. Really.
- 19:44So they're going with the red lids, red jerseys and red pants.
- 19:49Bad decision. You don't like it?
- 19:51It's gonna, it's gonna bite them.
- 19:52How many points does that? Cost at least three your.
- 19:55Handicap. 3 1/2 right there, wrong jerseys.
- 19:58Wrong jerseys. We'll talk to Simple next.
- 20:01What did they do wrong last week?
- 20:02They wrong uniform. Wrong team on the other side of
- 20:05the field. They didn't deliver they.
- 20:08Had a chance to what? Up or shut up?
- 20:10You know what? And you said that.
- 20:13Was there time watching that game?
- 20:14You thought you know what Brass was going to get him?
- 20:17No. Me neither.
- 20:18No. I'm with even with the asinine
- 20:21Hail Mary. Yeah, at the end with the idiot,
- 20:23which was just ridiculous coaching.
- 20:25Time management. You see why BIFF failed?
- 20:28Really all the time out you don't get you that that plays
- 20:30never run but. God forbid you actually suspend
- 20:35a guy for the first two games of the year, but he wouldn't be
- 20:38able to go back to his alma mater.
- 20:39What's more important, a non conference game or a conference
- 20:42game? Now Michigan got away with it.
- 20:44If they would have lost, and certainly if that hailed Mary,
- 20:47you know they would have been hearing about that one show more
- 20:50too selfish, cared more about himself than the team.
- 20:54I got to give it to Jay Scott. He he tweeted at us before Troy
- 20:58did. It was almost a time.
- 20:59Oh wow, by a minute. Jay Scott got in there.
- 21:02I see the red uniforms. You can find us on Twitter at
- 21:04Miller and Con. You can you can find Ken at IM
- 21:08Ken Miller. No, I'm up.
- 21:10I'm up. What is my what is my handle?
- 21:12It's I am Ken Miller. You're right.
- 21:14I am. Yeah, not my emails.
- 21:16I'm AI, the letter I, the letter M, then Ken Miller because
- 21:20there's a lot of Ken Miller's luckily for being that there's
- 21:23not many Tran continents. You know, somebody called me
- 21:25today from Alabama. Oh really?
- 21:27And and are you the Ken Miller that worked at Fair Play?
- 21:29So where is there a a database of Ken Miller's that somehow I'm
- 21:34in? They're apparently there must be
- 21:37that, right? Yeah.
- 21:38They can find you and. They've well, they didn't find
- 21:40their didn't find the right Ken Miller at this time.
- 21:42He's he's still on the loose. Simple joins us next.
- 21:46It's 125. We're on the Iowa Sports Radio
- 21:49Network. It's time for sin.
- 21:55Stephen M Simple talks with myself and Ken on Nebraska
- 21:58football. I mean, I have a radio show, we
- 22:00have callers. I pay attention to my Twitter
- 22:03notifications and all that. There's definitely some
- 22:06frustration. We talk corn Huskers and you
- 22:09never know what else is going to come up with 30 years on the
- 22:15Nebraska beat. Here's Stephen M Simple.
- 22:17As long as they're paying me to talk, I'm just going to keep
- 22:19doing it. Hi, Mary Congan, welcome back
- 22:23Highway Sports Radio Network. Stephen M Simple as regular spot
- 22:26joins us every Thursday during college football.
- 22:30Huskers off this week. They will.
- 22:32They got Michigan State. Simple.
- 22:34Good to talk to you. Where is that game?
- 22:35You guys aren't travelling or sitting at home waiting for
- 22:37them. Lincoln, Lincoln.
- 22:40Good stuff. Well, let's go back to last week
- 22:43before we go forward, then I want to pick your brain on what
- 22:45you've seen so far in the Big 10 to to me, the story of the game
- 22:51Sip And there were a number of them.
- 22:52Obviously may be unfair to just limit it to one, but just the
- 22:56number of times they were able to get to Rayola seemingly had
- 23:01wait the offensive line and and Nebraska gave up way too many
- 23:05sacks in that game, if memory serves.
- 23:07How about that one to start? Yeah, 7 sacks.
- 23:10That's what it was. Wow, Yeah. 7 sacks he was
- 23:13pressured on. Dylan Rayola was pressured on it
- 23:18was 24 of 49 drop backs. So yeah, that's what Wink
- 23:25Martindale, the defensive coordinator for Michigan does.
- 23:28He's a pressure, you know, guy that's his MO.
- 23:32And they brought it and Nebraska didn't handle it.
- 23:35And I didn't envision, I didn't talk about it on the show with
- 23:37you guys. I didn't think that would be
- 23:38such a major problem. But there's a problem from the
- 23:41first series on. Nebraska went down the field
- 23:45that first series. But if you look at it, Dylan
- 23:48Royola had to kind of scramble around, make some off schedule
- 23:52throws. So it was not good not.
- 23:56Good. Got the Hail Mary at the end of
- 23:58the half, maybe excited a little bit of life in there.
- 24:01But what's it been like this week?
- 24:04Has it been Yeah, may still not there, you know, the hope that
- 24:07this was going to have a chance to that building block and maybe
- 24:10they're just a ways away. What has it been like is it
- 24:13reality hit them? We're just not good enough.
- 24:15What give us take us inside the psyche of Husker Nation?
- 24:20As usual, it's kind of complicated.
- 24:23It is. It's not.
- 24:24No, no, there's not an all hope is lost feeling.
- 24:28It was 3027, right as a final. It wasn't, you know, it wasn't
- 24:33like it was a few years ago when it was 45 to 7.
- 24:38I think it was 45 to 7 when Harbaugh came here.
- 24:43So it wasn't, it's not like that.
- 24:45It's complicated there. Are.
- 24:48I mean, people naturally want to be hopeful, you know, they want,
- 24:54they want this to work. So there's there's, you know,
- 24:58they're not going to give up at 3:00 and 1:00 with a great
- 25:01chance to be 4 and one and a great chance to be 5 and one and
- 25:03a great chance to be 6 and one. And you know, like the next four
- 25:06are very manageable games. So there's there's still quite a
- 25:10bit of quite a bit of optimism, but the energy level took a hit.
- 25:15And I'm not going to ramble on. I'm just going to tell you the
- 25:18main reason. And that is they got whipped up
- 25:21front, all right? They got whipped up front on
- 25:25both sides. And I know there's a lot of
- 25:29people here that don't want to acknowledge it, but that's a
- 25:34problem. And I guess the best, the things
- 25:37that I hear combat that, you know, the sort of quell people
- 25:43quell their anxieties in different ways.
- 25:46And the way they do it here, I'm hearing a lot of, well, you're
- 25:49not going to play Michigan every week.
- 25:52All right, that's great. That's not that's not.
- 25:54You can see how far Nebraska's falling.
- 25:57I mean, it's now it's sort of depended on who you play.
- 26:02So, yeah, remember when it used to just be we're going to do
- 26:06what we do and and you, you deal with it.
- 26:09It's not that now. Now nobody expects it to be.
- 26:13It's we're still it's early. It's relatively early in rules
- 26:18tenure. Sip a couple of things.
- 26:21I want to get to Justin Tay's in a moment because you warned us
- 26:23about him and you thought he was the key to the game.
- 26:25But back to the fact that they got whipped.
- 26:28That was your concern when they joined the Big 10?
- 26:30Or maybe not when they joined, but after the first year of
- 26:33playing the Big 10. You've been telling us for since
- 26:36that period of time, they've got to get better in the trenches.
- 26:39The Big 10 is different that way.
- 26:42Well, I mean, it's not just, I mean, if you just look in
- 26:46college football who wins the championships, It's teams that
- 26:51it's, it's not teams that you say pass first.
- 26:56Oh, this is a great passing team.
- 26:58That's what they that's it's a great passing program.
- 27:00That's what they do. I don't think you'll find, I
- 27:03mean, you might find an outlier somewhere, but but if you just
- 27:07look down the line, it's teams that can run it.
- 27:10Not, not just running teams. I don't, I don't want to don't,
- 27:13don't be confused. Balanced, Yeah, but real
- 27:17balance, you know and and I've taken I don't want to go into
- 27:23the depths of scheme, but like gap scheme teams like Michigan
- 27:28comes at you, they run they run gap schemes and counters and
- 27:32they they come at you. It's not a zone blocking team.
- 27:36So I I mean, that's my concern right now with Nebraska.
- 27:41Is there a pass? They're definitely a pass first
- 27:43team and everybody knows that now.
- 27:46I thought they would be able to run the ball better.
- 27:49Maybe that'll get better as the season evolves.
- 27:52But you know, yeah, they but the getting back to your question,
- 27:57they absolutely. Hey, man, we talked about the
- 28:00defensive line being a vulnerability.
- 28:02We've been talking about that for five months in this market
- 28:05and it's been a vulnerability. The The surprise on Saturday was
- 28:11the offensive line deficiencies that tackle.
- 28:15Justice Haynes ran wild sip. You said he was going to.
- 28:18That was your biggest concern about this game going into it.
- 28:20Boy, you were spot on. And he had some help too,
- 28:23because Marshall was pretty good.
- 28:25Those guys are good. Both.
- 28:26Of them are, yeah. I'm an agent who said that
- 28:30Justice Haynes will be the 4th or 5th running back off the
- 28:34board. He's good.
- 28:36He's good. He's not.
- 28:36He's not tremendous. We've we've both, we've all seen
- 28:39a lot better, but he's good. Physical, tough Michigan coming
- 28:45in there. I want to go to quarterback and
- 28:47Rayola, who had a tremendous game, statistically over 300
- 28:51yards passing. When he had time, he was
- 28:52tremendous. But they go hand in hand.
- 28:55As we go into year #2 of FOMA Holmes, where do you feel he is?
- 28:59And is it at a point now where they're just kind of throw their
- 29:03hands up and say, as Dylan goes, we go and it just becomes what
- 29:07you talked about there and the run, if it's not there against
- 29:10good teams, he's got to win US the football games, Yeah.
- 29:13That's what I think, Trent. Yeah, that's what looks like me
- 29:16now. I it doesn't, you know, they're
- 29:22not, they don't have a great running back.
- 29:24They have a good one, decent one and Emmett Johnson, but they're
- 29:28the big, you know, one of the stories here this week is who's
- 29:31number 2? Matt Rules says he's going to a
- 29:33staff. He went to a staff early this
- 29:37week and said, give me a number 2.
- 29:40Now it's four games in. We need a number 2.
- 29:43That really that that person hasn't established himself.
- 29:47So that's got to happen. But I listen, they're not great
- 29:51running back, all right? They're not.
- 29:54I mean, I, I, I, I come off kind of bad.
- 29:57I know Nebraska fans get kind of mad at me, but they're not.
- 30:00They're just not. So yeah, the answer to your
- 30:04question is this thing. Dylan, once again, the Nebraska
- 30:08quarterback has a lot of pressure on it.
- 30:11Adrian Martinez was that they didn't put enough around Adrian.
- 30:14I always thought Adrian was really good.
- 30:17It was. He became polarizing because of
- 30:20that discussion, because he's not.
- 30:22He's a vanilla guy. I mean, he wasn't wasn't a
- 30:24polarizing personality in any way, shape or form, but the
- 30:28conversation was always, you know, basically, is it Adrian's
- 30:31issue or there's not enough around him and I came down hard.
- 30:34I'm not enough around him. I'm afraid we're looking at that
- 30:37again, Not that. Listen, I think Nebraska still
- 30:40went eight or nine. Hell, I talked to Denardo today
- 30:43and he he thinks they can win 10.
- 30:46But I, I, I don't know. I don't know that I think
- 30:49they're going to have to. They'd have to beat USC to do
- 30:51that. Easier said than done, and.
- 30:55Then, and you know, and I don't mean I hate to say it that way,
- 30:58because Nebraska has lost five straight to Minnesota, They
- 31:02never beat Iowa. I mean like I'm not assuming
- 31:05victories on the other games but but USC is the toughest 1.
- 31:10It's a phenomenal weekend in the conference, scheduling wise.
- 31:13Sip. You mentioned USC, they've got
- 31:15Illinois, of course. Ohio State goes to Washington,
- 31:18Oregon, Penn State, Indiana, Iowa.
- 31:21I mean, what a what a weekend in this conference.
- 31:23You have the day off. Will you just be bouncing around
- 31:26from window to window? Yeah, I will.
- 31:29I'm going to make damn sure of it.
- 31:31I'm writing my column, my Sunday column tomorrow.
- 31:35Yeah, that those games you you listed off are too good to miss,
- 31:39right? I am incredibly.
- 31:43I'd love to just to drive over to.
- 31:45I would say I don't think I will because I'd miss too much, but
- 31:48I'd love to see that game. I want to see.
- 31:50I mean, that's going to show me if Indiana is real, which I
- 31:52think they are by the. Way I do too.
- 31:53I don't. Yeah, I don't in Denardo.
- 31:55Again, I'm dropping names, but Denardo, I think that he's doing
- 31:59it the right way. He's trying to get really good
- 32:02up front. Now.
- 32:03He would tell you they're not great up front yet.
- 32:05They're not where he wants to be, but he's doing it the right
- 32:08way. So I'm now it's interesting if
- 32:13Indiana goes in there and wins by three points, that suggests
- 32:16to me they're real. Just win the game.
- 32:19And I will say that's real. They're real.
- 32:22Stephen M Siple on Three Media huskerillustrated.com Morning
- 32:25radio over in Lincoln. Sip Thanks for doing this,
- 32:29brother. We will talk to you in advance
- 32:30of next week's party and child's come to Lincoln.
- 32:34We'll talk about that game with you.
- 32:35SIP Thank you, pal. Enjoy your bye week.
- 32:37Enjoy all the football. We'll talk to you in seven days.
- 32:39Yeah, I'll be thinking of you. I'll be thinking of you and and
- 32:42we'll see what the Hawk guys do. See you later.
- 32:44All right, see you, buddy. Good to talk to you, Stephen M
- 32:45Siple, as we take a look back and depends who.
- 32:48They don't play Michigan every week, how they've fallen over
- 32:51there. Oh, man, what?
- 32:53So their toughest game? They get Penn State right?
- 32:56They do at the right before the Iowa game.
- 32:58That's right. I mean, their October is about
- 33:00as nice of a schedule as you could.
- 33:01Have but it's but SIP just said them them beat Minnesota in the
- 33:04last five games. Would you pick them to beat
- 33:06Minnesota right now? Is Darius Taylor's healthy
- 33:09Quinflip in Minnesota? Yeah.
- 33:12Probably Minnesota short week Gophers will be favored.
- 33:14And also remember, they go to Maryland.
- 33:17Who knows if Maryland is checked in yet at that point.
- 33:20Sometimes that happens later. In the year quarterback.
- 33:21Man they do. Then short week another road
- 33:25trip up to Minnesota. It's not like it's a daunting
- 33:27road trip, but it's back-to-back Rd. games with AI.
- 33:30Take Minnesota right now, sight unseen.
- 33:31Give me the Gophers straight up in that game.
- 33:34Northwestern, there's a win. Michigan State State can put
- 33:37points up. Not just depends when you when
- 33:39you're watching the game is what your opinion will be because you
- 33:43watch one man thing. Oh my God, this guy's really
- 33:44good. But then you flip the channel,
- 33:46you come back and you see the stats the next day and Oh my
- 33:48God, he must have been awful. They should beat UCLA.
- 33:52Still a road trip out West still.
- 33:54A road trip out West. They should.
- 33:55They host Northwestern. So there's two that gets them to
- 33:58five. It's going to be tough.
- 33:59I'm with you. I'm with you.
- 34:01It's a fun conference. And they'll come down to a field
- 34:04goal on Black Friday and I will kick it.
- 34:07Drew Stevens, Yeah. Another walk off.
- 34:11Has he been there before? Been pretty good.
- 34:15In but in Lincoln, though. That one didn't go very well.
- 34:18Went well for Iowa. He did go well for Iowa.
- 34:20Absolutely, Marshall. Meter.
- 34:22Marshall Meter. Whatever happened to him?
- 34:24He was, he was around on campus for like 3 months.
- 34:26It's unreal. I the the the story we heard
- 34:31from John Walsh's on Chase Smith.
- 34:33I can't get over that kind of feeling, but I kind of find
- 34:35myself rooting. For him, absolutely.
- 34:37South Dakota Game, He's in street close.
- 34:40Put out of your uniform, Katie, You might.
- 34:41Need you and they do need them. Cyclone Nation needs them.
- 34:47Cool story Miller and Condon, but back with Trent's plays of
- 34:50the day. Circus sports sponsor those,
- 34:52it's the Iowa Sports Radio Network.
- 34:54I'm Miller and Condon. Welcome back.
- 34:55Final couple of minutes here on a Thursday turn things
- 35:00overcoming up to off the bench. The boys will come on in here,
- 35:04Lucas and Sean, they will take you right up until 5:00
- 35:08overtime, Iowa at that time. All right, we got a Thursday
- 35:12Night Football game tonight. Robin Harrison, junior, What
- 35:16kind of star does he had? Would you call it disappointing,
- 35:19Underwhelming. Yeah.
- 35:20Shaky. Yeah, there's, I really have.
- 35:24I don't watch him a ton. Right, lot of concerns though
- 35:26you're, you continue to hear that that maybe not the.
- 35:29Whole we thought he was Can't miss right Better than the old
- 35:31man yes, old man's Hall of. Famer that's hard to surpass,
- 35:35right? And doesn't look like that's
- 35:36going to be happening in the early returns that we had from
- 35:40Junior. Well, we are playing that game.
- 35:42We're playing another football game along with three baseball
- 35:45games. We're already off to an awful
- 35:46start as Byron Buxton is homered as the Twins jump out to A1.
- 35:50Nothing lead against old friend Tyler Malley and the Texas
- 35:53Rangers, but for our purposes, we got 5 picks for you.
- 35:56Let's start in baseball, right? Back to the well again with the
- 35:59Guardians, right? Don't you have to?
- 36:00Got to, I think. Yeah, that.
- 36:02Tigers team looks tight. How far are they ahead in the
- 36:07final wild card? Let me look at that.
- 36:09Are they like it's close? It is.
- 36:12Houston's one game back, Trent Detroit might not make the
- 36:15playoffs. Isn't that, I mean, unthinkable?
- 36:17It's unthinkable. And yet, we're on the precipice
- 36:20of just that happening -143 tonight with the Guardians.
- 36:24I'm going to do the same with a team that looks incredibly
- 36:26tight. You're Blue Jays.
- 36:27Oh, they really are. And they're going bullpen game
- 36:30with Louis Varlins starting it out.
- 36:32I'll grab the bow socks. Give me them.
- 36:34Plus 1/22 the number there at Circa Sports.
- 36:38One more I like the Cubs plus one O 5 and the streak.
- 36:42Imanaga on the bump, his final tune up before the playoffs.
- 36:44Give me the Cubbies plus one O 5.
- 36:46Other markets you got to lay juice.
- 36:48Not the case at Circle. Could we?
- 36:50Could we? We didn't talk about the Cubs
- 36:51news, apparently. Jesse Rogers from ESPN, he
- 36:55writes for the Cubs. This was his tweet regarding
- 36:58Kate Horton. The chatter definitely isn't
- 37:01positive. I can say that period.
- 37:03But not reporting anything yet. Don't like that?
- 37:09It's ominous. Incredibly, yeah.
- 37:13We'll see where it goes, but it it doesn't sound good.
- 37:15I'm gonna grab the Cubs up plus one O 5 Great.
- 37:18Up by parade. All right, 2 football.
- 37:20Yeah, we talked about at the top.
- 37:21I do like Seattle tonight. Injuries really the biggest
- 37:23concern for Arizona. I just haven't been impressed by
- 37:25Kyler. I will.
- 37:27I'll lay the 1 1/2 with the Seahawks in that spot.
- 37:30And I'm going back to the well again with East Carolina.
- 37:32My Pirates let me down against BYU.
- 37:33Army, right? Yeah, yeah, they got Army
- 37:35tonight. So looking forward to that 1630
- 37:37kickoff. Army's just fun to watch.
- 37:40I'm going back watching the old school football.
- 37:42So a good evening of sports viewing tonight. 5 bets for you
- 37:46Guardians, Red Sox, Cubs, East Carolina and the.
- 37:50Seahawks Alright, that will do it for us.
- 37:54Start our weekend. Boy, it's a great weekend of
- 37:56sports. It'll culminate with a double
- 37:58dip on Monday Night Football, Ryder Cup, NFL college football.
- 38:01Buckle up, that will do it for us off the bench.
- 38:04Coming up next, we're Miller and Condon.
- 38:06Trenton. I talk sports with you Monday
- 38:08through Friday, noon to two on Des Moines Sports Station One O
- 38:106.3 in the Iowa Sports Radio Network.