Hawkeye Report Podcast

It's the post game podcast with Tom Kakert and Matt Randazzo. We breakdown the Hawkeyes dominating win over the Golden Gophers, which was a victory from beginning to end.

Iowa dominated Minnesota from the start of the game, scoring on a the first drive of the game and building a 31-0 lead at the halftime break. We discuss the Hawkeyes scoring in just about every way possible. They scored on a traditional touchdown on offense, a pick six (for the 18th straight year) and also a punt return by Kaden Wetjen.

We breakdown all those key plays that helped builid that lead. Also we are talking about Mark Gronowski and his performance. All he does is win and keep Iowa moving in the right direction. Then we discuss the Iowa defense and their improved play, particularly when it comes to tackling and creating turnovers in the last couple of weeks.

Then we look ahead to the rest of hte season. There are four games left in the regular season and plenty to play for this year for the Hawkeyes. Why do Ferentz teams get better as the season goes along and which games remaining are the toughest on the schedule.

It's a special edition of the Hawkeye Report Podcast as Tom Kakert and Tanner Lafever are joined by Mark Bader from FloWrestling to discuss his outstanding documentary on Iowa women's wrestling and their first year of competition. By the way, Bader and FloWrestling got the finish that they hoped for as Iowa won the national championship.

We discuss how this project came together heading into their first season of team competition and how he had to convince Iowa women's wrestling head coach Clarissa Chun that she should allow them into the wrestling room to chronicle that season.

Bader discusses what the challenges were for the project and who some of the stars of the documentary were from a wrestling perspective and how he was able to tell their stories. He also talked about how he had a breakthrough moment with Coach Chun and what that fairytale ending came together perfectly for the project.

You can watch the three part documentary for FREE at this link:

https://www.flowrestling.org/collections/14591286-hawkeyes-first-season-with-iowa-womens-wrestling/video?playing=14623693

https://www.flowrestling.org/collections/14591286-hawkeyes-first-season-with-iowa-womens-wrestling/video?playing=14657580

Part three is released next week.

It's getting to that very busy time of the year for Iowa athletics and the Hawkeye Report Podcast has you covered on all the fronts. Tom Kakert and Kyle Huesmann are on the podcast to review what we have learned this week and preview a busy weekend ahead.

We open with a quick look back at the win over Penn State and some last notes on what we learned from that game. Then we move on to this week and what we have learned in our press conference with Kirk Ferentz and talking to the Iowa players. What will happen this week at middle linebacker for the Hawkeyes? Who will Iowa be getting back from injury this week and how do they fit into the plans?

Then we preview the game this weekend against Minnesota. While PJ Fleck is the anti-Ferentz in terms of his personality, he's built a program that mirrors Iowa in a lot of ways as far as how they go about winning football games. We discuss the Gophers and what we have learned about them heading into the game and how they match-up with the Hawkeyes on Saturday afternoon.

We also talk about a potential busy weekend for Iowa football recruiting before moving on to Iowa men's basketball where the Hawkeyes will host Texas Tech in a secret scrimmage on Friday. What should Iowa fans be looking to learn from that scrimmage this week?

We then move on to talking Iowa baseball, which wrapped up their fall ball this past week. Also, we talk some field hockey as they host two big contests in Iowa City this weekend. Then we wrap up by picking some college football games, including the Minnesota/Iowa contest.

This week on the Chuck Long Podcast, we open discussing the fact that it was 40 yards ago this past weekend that Iowa and Michigan matched up in a #1 vs. #2 game at Kinnick Stadium. We get Chuck's memories of that historic game.

We take a long look back at the Hawkeyes win over Penn State. We start with the performance by Mark Gronowski, who had runs of 67 and 38 yards in the game against the Nittany Lions. What did Long think of his performance as he ran for 130 yard in the contest.

We get Long's thoughts on the overall play of the Hawkeye rushing attack. How underrated is Kamari Moulton as a running back? How well is the Iowa offensive line playing right now? On the other side, what can be done to get the Iowa passing attack moving?

Also we talk about the Iowa defense, which continues to get better with each passing game. This was potentially the best game of the career of Xavier Nwankpa. We look at his performance and the fact that Iowa is really using the blitz more this season and it's been very effective, particulaly late in the game.

Then we preview the game against Minnesota and discuss whether P.J. Fleck is trying to build a program that looks almost exactly like Iowa under Kirk Ferentz. What will be the keys to that battle for Floyd of Rosedale?

Finally, we wrap up picking games this week, including the win of Minnesota vs. Iowa.

It's the post game Hawkeye Report/Off the Air combo podcast with Matt Randazzo and Tom Kakert. We have a whole lot of ground to cover following the Hawkeyes come from behind victory over Penn State on Saturday evening.

It was a wild rollercoaster ride for the Hawkeyes, who fell behind by more than ten points in the second half of the game before rallying to win by one point at Kinnick Stadium. We discuss the early mistake by the Hawkeye offense and how the Nittany Lions cashed in. How Iowa rebounded more than once on Saturday evening?

We talk about the play of Mark Gronowski. Was this the Mark Gronowski game? How did he win this game with his legs? What were our thoughts on Kirk Ferentz going for two points earlier in the game? What do we think of the response to post game question about a 66 yard field goal that was blocked and returned for a score?

We also take a quick look ahead to next week when the Hawkeyes and the Gophers renew their rivalry for Floyd of Rosedale.

It's been a very busy week for those of us who cover Iowa athletics. That means it's a great time to fire up the Hawkeye Report Podcast to discuss everything we have learned and preview upcoming events.

Tom Kakert and Kyle Huesmann open the show talking hoops. We have had back to back media days for the Iowa women's basketball team and then the men's team on Wednesday. We open with the Iowa women and dive into a deep discussion on the 21st ranked Hawkeyes and the potential starting lineup, the potential concerns involving shooting, what we think are the keys for this team and most of them involve Hannah Stuelke, and a whole lot more.

Then we move over to the Iowa men's team, who had their media day on Wednesday. We discuss what we learned at media day this week and thoughts on the overall roster. We look at how good point guard Bennett Stritz is at controlling the game and why Iowa fans shouldn't be concerned with the rumored results from the secret scrimmage last weekend in St. Louis. Really interesting coversation regarding both basketball teams.

After that we slide over to Iowa football as they host Penn State this weekend. Really more of our discussion involves the wild week that it has been for the Nittany Lions following the firing of James Franklin. What do we expect from Penn State this weekend? We also discuss the story that most aren't paying attention to and that is the Nittany Lions will be starting a backup quarterback on Saturday night at Kinnick Stadium.

We then wrap up by picking several huge games in college football, including the Penn State/Iowa game.

This week on the Chuck Long Podcast, we are talking a whole lot of Iowa football, along with the latest news in the Big Ten.

We open the show reviewing the Hawkeyes one-sided victory over Wisconsin. Long discusses just how poorly the Badgers performed and how stunning that was to him given how the program was so strong for so long under recent coaches.

Also, we talk about the strong performance of the Iowa offense and defense. We go in-depth on what Long saw from Iowa quarterback Mark Gronowski. How did he perform coming off his knee injury? Did he look good throwing the football? What about running and did they limit that in the game plan?

We discusses the key to the game, which was the Iowa ground game and how the Hawkeyes won the game up front and on the other side the Hawkeye defensive line intercepting a pair of passes and controlling the line of scrimmage.

Then we move on to this week and the stunning firing of Penn State head coach James Franklin. How does Long think that will impact the Nittany Lions this week? Will they play for the new coach or have they basically checked out on this season?

Finally, we pick several games involving Big Ten teams this weekend.

It's a later than normal post game podcast. Tom Kakert and Kyle Huesmann look back at Iowa's win over Wisconsin on Saturday night.

We discuss the Hawkeye dominant win over the Badgers and what we learned from it. What did we think of Mark Gronowski's performance coming off his knee issue. Did it impact what he could do running or throwing? What do we make of the change with the backup quarterback position? What does that tell us about Jeremy Hecklinski and Hank Brown why did he jump to the second spot during the bye week?

We also look at the Iowa defense and what we saw from their performance. The impressive interception by a pair of defensive tackles, particularly by Aaron Graves, who looked like he got in for a touchdown. We talk about some of our disputes with the grades from Pro Football Focus this week and more.

Then we wrap up looking ahead to the Penn State game with the news on Sunday that head coach James Franklin has been fired. Iowa plays the Nittany Lions this week and what impact will this have on the game? What about the season ending injury to Drew Allar and what that means for the quarterback position? Will this team rally around the replacement coach or is this Penn State team kind of done this year?

We are approaching what we like to call crossover season for Iowa athletics. That is when Hawkeye football and basketball are both front and center in the mind of Iowa fans on the court and on the field.

This week was Big Ten Media Days in Chicago for the Iowa men's and women's basketball team and we were front and center with plenty of coverage. We open this show talking about the Iowa women's basketball team and what we learned from Iowa head coach Jan Jansen, along with Hawkeye players Hannah Stuelke and Kylie Feuerbach. How is Stuelke doing in her quest to become an outside shooter? What did Jensen say about the recruiting efforts in 2025? Who will be the backup point guard and what do the Iowa players have to say about Chit Chat Wright?

Then we move over the Iowa men's team, who were represented by head coach Ben McCollum along with Cam Manyawu and Bennett Stirtz. They had plenty to say about the strength and conditioning improvements that they have made and impact it will have on their games in the Big Ten. They talk about several of the players on the roster and what they have seen from them and the particular emphasis on playing defense. We also get McCollum's view of secret scrimmages, like the one that they will play this weekend. What does he like to work on in those events?

Finally we talk Iowa football and get the latest on the status of Iowa quarterback Mark Gronowski for Saturday's game at Wisconsin. Will he play against the Badgers? Will he be limited at all? Who will be his backup in this game? Will it be Hank Brown or Jeremy Hecklinski? What are our predictions for the Iowa/Wisconsin game and several other Big Ten games?

It's a mega podcast this week with Tom Kakert, Kyle Huesmann, and Tanner Lafever coming together to discuss the latest in Iowa Hawkeye athletics. This week we open the podcast with huge news on the Iowa women's basketball recruiting front.

Iowa picked up a commitment from five star forward McKenna Woliczko. Kyle Huesmann has all the details of the commitment from the talented 2026 prospect and what led her to pick Iowa. We we also discuss how she fits into the Iowa roster next year and what the potential is for her to bring along a couple other four or five star players in the Class of 2026.

Then we do a bit of women's hoops projections for this fall. What do we think the starting lineup and rotation will be this winter? After that we side over to the Iowa men's basketball team and what their starting lineup could be this winter.

Then we move over to the sport of wrestling and Tanner Lafever discusses a women's meet against Oklahoma State. After that he goes weight by weight for the Iowa women and who might be in the starting spots. Following rundown of the women, he flips over to the Iowa men's wrestling squad and what their starting lineup might be this season.

After that we update the injury status of Mark Gronowski. With Iowa on a bye this week, is it possible for him to be back for the Wisconsin game? Could his injury keep him out longer than many think? We discuss it and other things that the three Hawkeye coordinators had to say this week.

Finally, we pick some games today, with the lines provided by BETMGM.