Hawkeye Report Podcast

The college football season is inching closer and that means it's time for our annual over/under podcast. We specifically focus on the Big Ten and Tom Kakert and Matt Randazzo are joined by Chad Leistikow from the Des Moines Register to give our thoughts on the over/under win totals for the entire conference.

We start with Illinois and wrap up with the Hawkeyes and give our thoughts on each team and their schedule. Which teams are going to be going over their betting win total? Who will struggle to reach their victory betting mark? Did the guys have an agreements on the Big Ten teams and how they would do? Who do they think will win the Big Ten title this year?

We also look at Iowa football this season. What are our predictions for the Hawkeyes? Who are some of the players that will emerge this year and what areas are question marks?

Happy 4th of July to everyone. Please enjoy the day with family and friends! One of the silly traditions that we started over two decades ago was picking Iowa football games for the season on July 4th.

So, here we are once again and with a podcast, we decided to also discuss it here. Not fully, but we give you the nuts and bolts of what was predicted. What record will the Hawkeyes have in 2025? Will there be any surprises along the way. both good and bad? What bowl game is being predicted?

Also as a companion, we give some names to watch this season. Players on the Iowa roster who are on the rise and should make significant contributions on the field this season. Then we also have our "bold" predictions for the 2025 Iowa football season. Individual players and what they will do this season. Crazy stats that the Hawkeyes haven't hit in over five years that I think they will achieve this season.

But, before we get to football today, there is big news brewing on the men's basketball recruiting front. 2026 forward Trey Thompson might be on the cusp of reclassifying to be a 2025 recruit and join the Iowa basketball roster this season. How did this happen? More importantly, is this going to happen? What would Thompson bring to the Hawkeyes if he decided to come to Iowa and when will he officially make a decision?

It's what we like to call a housekeeping edition of the Hawkeye Report Podcast. Since we have been interview heavy most of this month we haven't caught up on a lot of news that been popping up for Iowa athletics.

Tom Kakert, Kyle Huesmann, and Tanner Lafever are on the podcast talking all things Hawkeyes. But, we open talking about the change that's coming to On3, the home for our site, once we officially bring our old home of Rivals on board on Tuesday.

After that we have a great discussion with Tanner about the state of Iowa wrestling and the Hawkeyes having their top recruit, Beau Bassett de-commit. It was a significant blow to Iowa wrestling and potentially to the future of the program. We dive into the possible/rumored reasons for Bassett moving on why Tom and Terry Brands are likely not going anywhere.

Then we talk with Kyle about women's hoops. We were at practice last week and give our first thoughts on the new additions of Addie Deal and Emely Rodriguez, along with all the returning players and we discuss the potential starting lineups and why Kyle and Tom might disagree on one starter this year.

Kyle then updates us on Iowa baseball and the transfer portal. We talk about the huge portal return of Anthony Watts and how he will fit into the starting rotation next season. We also talk about the other portal additons and also turn our attention to the roster limitations that are coming and how it will impact Hawkeye baseball.

Finally we look at the betting odds for three Iowa football games and the fact that the Hawkeyes are underdogs in all three of them and if there are any we should be wagering on. We wrap up going in-depth on football recruiting. Several new commits and we look at all them and tell you about at least one commitment that's expected to happen this week.

It's a special edition of the Hawkeye Report Podcast. We are joined by Iowa men's basketball head coach Ben McCollum for pod talking all things Hawkeye basketball.

Of course we open the pod talking about the viral video clips from last week when Cooper DeJean played pickup ball with McCollum and his staff. It's a fun story about how the head coach might have stacked the deck that day on his team.

Then we start talking Iowa hoops and building a roster from the ground up for the second staight year. What was that like this time and did McCollum find it more challenging due to the inflated price tags on prospects?

We discuss a couple of the new faces on the roster who were not with him at Drake and what he has seen from them and the weight room workouts that his plays do all the time and how and why he runs things that way in that area, including having his staff in the there offering encouragement.

We discuss the plan ahead from Iowa on how they hope to get students back and more involved in Hawkeye men's basketball and potentially moving them closer to the court. We also talk about the recruiting and his philosophy on that front and how this era is harder from a planning perspective. Then we wrap up discussing where he is at on the non-conference schedule this year and what he expects it to be moving forward.

We continue our coaches series this week with a fantastic new podcast interview with Tyler Barnes. These days Barnes is the General Manager and Chief of Staff for Iowa Football, which means he overseas not only the recruiting operation for the Hawkeyes, along with managing the NIL operation as far as making player payment decisions.

We open the pod talking about how a dead period doesn't actually mean dead period for someone in Barnes position. Then we dive into the new era of college football that begins on July 1st with schools paying players. He discusses how he came up with his payment formula based on NFL teams that were successful.

Then we dive into quite a few recruiting topics. Is a prospect asking about money out of the gate a red flag for Iowa football? What's negative recruiting look like today against the Hawkeyes? Will we see more high school players enroll early in January.

What does Barnes think about some of the NCAA proposals regarding recruiting, including being able to sign in August before your senior year? What about a single portal period in April? Then we talk about the 2026 recruiting cycle for Iowa. What has it been like? Are they thinking of changing their big recruiting weekend at the end of the month?

Our huge week of podcasts continues. Next up is special guest, Iowa offensive line coach George Barnett. We go in-depth about his job and the players that he works with on a daily basis. The conversation starts with how he and the linemen had to adjust starting last year in the new offense being installed by Tim Lester. What was that process like?

Then we move on to the veteran trio that will anchor this year's offensive line for the Hawkeyes. We start with a discussion of the value and leadership coming from the center position and Logan Jones. How important is he to what Iowa does up front? Then we discuss the development last year of Beau Stephens and the incredibly interesting and strong play from Gennings Dunker. We talk about Dunker turning down potentially opting for the NFL Draft and not taping his hands in games, which started last year.

We then look at the left tackle position and what Barnett sees as his options there. At the open guard position, what about the athletic freak that is Kade Pieper and how will he fit in to a potential starting five.

After that we discuss a wide variety of players who are younger and on the rise into the two deeps or will soon be in there like Leighton Jones, Cannon Leonard and others. Who is the backup center heading into the season?

In this edition of the Hawkeye Report Podcast we are joined by our regular football podcast partner, Chuck Long, as we spent more than an hour talking Iowa football with second year offensive coordinator Tim Lester. Both Long and Lester were raised in Wheaton, IL, so we open the show discussing growing up there and how the community has changed, plus which high school was really the blue collar school.

Then we dive into the Iowa offense and start with a look at the quarterback position. We get Lester's thoughts on Mark Gronowski and how he has progressed since the spring. We also get his thoughts on what he has seen from Hank Brown and the rest of the quarterback room, including the freshmen.

Lester gives his thoughts on the wide receiver room, which is much deeper and more talented than it was a year ago. He has a few players that seem to be on the rise heading into the summer months. We also talk about the entire running back room and Lester has some interesting comments about a couple of younger backs at Iowa. Finally we talk about the tight end group and how that group has a pretty good diversity of talent, starting with the veterans and a group of young talented veterans.

We gets Lester's thoughts on quarterback recruiting and retention in today's environment and how Iowa handles that and the impact of the use of development periods that can help. We discuss headset communications between coordinators and quarterbacks and building chemistry by using it. We also discuss why more college programs don't run the Shananhan offense and why it could be appealing to NFL teams since half the league seems to run that offense.

Finally we wrap up talking about Lester having a pair of senior analysts at his disposal and how that have already paid off for game prep moving forward and how they might be used during the season on game day with one potentially coaching on the sidelines.

A semi emergency podcast on a Monday night. Tom Kakert and Matt Randazzo hop on the pod to discuss the de-commitment of Iowa's three star quarterback commitment in the Class of 2026. On Monday afternoon, Cash Herrera announced that he was no longer committed to Iowa. What's the real story behind the scenes?

We discuss what really happened here and how this whole commitment and eventually parting of the ways was probably always going to happen due to different levels of confusion. What was the final straw in this relationship from Iowa's perspective?

Then we look at the big recruiting weekend coming up for the Hawkeyes. All of their current commitments in the Class of 2026 will be in town along with several uncommitted prospects. Which player will be the most wanted this weekend for the Hawkeyes? Which position group do they need to hit with on the big visit weekend?

Then we flip over to basketball recruiting with three prospects on campus this week, including a pair from the Class of 2026. Also, where does Iowa stand with one of their top targets, Colin Rice, who is currently on an official visit to Nebraska?

A wide ranging Hawkeye Report Podcast to begin the week. Tom Kakert and Kyle Huesmann open the show with an update on the Iowa baseball program. Huesmann runs down the latest from the NCAA transfer portal with a couple of players leaving and maybe a couple of potential players heading to Iowa and the crunch of the roster getting smaller also in play.

Then we turn to women's basketball and a look at the non-conference schedule for the squad this year. Will it be another challenging non-con schedule for the Hawkeyes? After that we update women's and men's Iowa basketball recruiting. We discuss the top targets and visitors coming to campus in the next few weeks for official visits.

Finally we have some fun draft of women's basketball players from the Lisa Bluder era. We pick eight person teams of players from the Lisa Bluder era of Iowa women's basketball. Tom and Kyle bounce back and forth with their picks and discuss the top players of an amazing era of basketball, including back to back trips to the national title game. How many players from that era were drafted? Who had the better team? We will let you be the judge.

Our string of podcasts during the month of June continues with a very special guest. We are joined by our great friend of the pod, Zach Johnson to talk golf, Iowa hoops, Hawkeye football, and the state of college athletics today.

We open talking about Johnson's upcoming event held at Elmcrest Country Club on Monday June 30th. It includes former Hawkeyes Cooper DeJean and Keegan Murray hitting the course at that event. More details here: https://zachjohnsongolf.com/zjf-classic/

Also, we discuss the upcoming John Deere Classic in early July and talk about Lisa Bluder and former Hawks Riley Moss and T.J. Hockenson playing at the event.

Then we dive into Iowa athletics talk. We discuss the Hawkeyes stealing a basketball coach away from Drake. Johnson is very close with the Drake program and he talks about what he saw last year from Ben McCollum and get his opinions on the change in leadership within the program.

After that we get Zach's thoughts on the new era of college athletics that is officially underway following the House settlement this past week. What will it mean for the future of college athletics? Will it move things back to the old days of cheating in college athletics?

Finally we wrap up talking a whole lot of Iowa football. We discuss the Hawkeyes season ahead and what Johnson things of the Iowa team in 2025. We also talk about Kirk Ferentz, who will be 70 in August, and how he keeps going with no end in sight and why he is able to continue to coach at a high level. We wrap up the show discussing the top games of the Ferentz era.