Hawkeye Report Podcast

Week one of the Iowa football season is in the books and we catch up with the great Chuck Long to get his thoughts on what he saw from the Hawkeye offense. After a slow start, Long breaks down what Iowa did to snap out of their early funk.

We look at how Tim Lester called the game and what he thought of the performance of the Iowa offensive coordinator in his first game leading the Hawkeye offense. We also dive into all aspects of the play of Cade McNamara. What did he do well in the opener? What were some of the key plays in the game? Which throw did Long beleive was his best of the game?

Then we dive into the Iowa State contest. The Cyclones present a tough defensive team. How do you attack their 3-4 defense that's aggressive and how can Iowa attack it with their ground game and have success?

Then we talk Big Ten football in week one and pick several key games coming up this weekend in college football.

The Iowa Hawkeye football team started slow, but came on in the second half to post a convincing 40-0 win over Illinois State. Tom Kakert and Matt Randazzo do a post game podcast breaking down what we saw at Kinnick Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

We start with the struggles in the first half and then dive into what exactly occured in the second half of the game where Cade McNamara catches fire and Reece Vander Zee, a true freshman, caught everythign in sight. What do we make of both performances and what about the ground game, particularly Kaleb Johnson, who came off the bench in the second half to lead Iowa in rushing.

Then on the other side of the equation, we look at the Iowa defense. How strong was Iowa up front? What do we think of Aaron Graves and his three sack performance? Iowa was focused on creating more turnovers and they did just that in teh season opener at home.

Iowa fans, we made it! It's week one of the Hawkeye football season and we have your full preview podcast of the opening game against Illinois State. We start by discussing what Kirk Ferentz had to say at his press conference and how little he really talked about being suspended for it.

Then we dive into the game itself and the new depth chart, that included Kamari Moulton starting at running back. What will that look like in terms of a share of carries at running back this week? We also discuss TJ Hall starting at corner ahead of John Nestor.

We should mention that we have a new subscriber special running this week only! 50% off a yearly subscription. Come join our great coverage and community. Hit the link and sign up using the code Kickoff24. https://www.on3.com/teams/iowa-hawkeyes/join/

After discussing the game we look at the first round of NFL cuts. Are the Detroit Lions now Iowa's team? How many Hawkeyes ended up making the roster of NFL teams to start the season? Were there any surprise cuts? Any players who got cut that were surprising?

We talk hoops recruiting with a couple of huge weekends ahead for the Fran McCaffery and the Hawkeyes. Then we wrap up picking several college football games, including Iowa's game against Illinois State.

Plenty of news to discuss this week on the Chuck Long Podcast. We visit with Chuck about the big news of late last week that Kirk Ferentz has been suspended for the first game of the season. We get Chuck's thoughts on how that will impact Iowa in the first game of the season and what the rest of the Iowa staff might move around because of hte suspension of Ferentz and wide receiver coach Jon Budmayr.

We get Chuck's thoughts on the decision to start Cade McNamara at quarterback. What does it mean for the Hawkeyes and McNamara. What about week one and if he struggles. Who would be making playing time decisions and a potential switch. We also dive into offensive coordinators communicating directly with quarterbacks and what that is like because this will be the first year where it will be allowed in by the NCAA. Also how effective is it to have players being able to look at replays on ipads on the sidelines and talking to their coaches about it.

Then we pick some games this week, including if Iowa will be able to cover an over three touchdown spread.

In what can only be termed stunning and surprising news, Kirk Ferentz has been suspended for the first game of the season against Illinois State for a recruiting violation that took place in late 2022.

On the podcast we go into detail about what happened to get Ferentz in trouble with the NCAA and why they decided to go ahead and offer up a one game suspension instead of battling the NCAA. We look at home Ferentz owned up to his mistake with great leadership as opposed to other coaches who have blamed and battled the NCAA for their mistakes.

Finally we look at the actual team updates that Ferentz offered up today. He basically said Cade McNamara is the starting quarterback for the opening game of the season, but is there going to be a quick hook if he struggles? Are there any other injuries of note heading into the opening game?

Thanks for listening to the podcast!

A really fun podcast the week before the start of the Iowa football season. Of course we discuss the Hawkeye football season as Matt Randazzo and Tom Kakert are joined by The CEO of the Iowa Swarm, Brad Heinrichs.

You can contribute to the Iowa Swarm Collective at IowaSwarm.com.

Heinrichs was at Iowa football practice twice last weekend and we discuss what he saw while he was there and who he thinks will be the starting quarterback? Will it be Cade McNamara or Brendan Sullivan? He also goes into great detail about how Iowa fans can contribute to the Iowa Swarm today.

Then we are joined by sophomore Iowa golfer Noah Kent. This past weekend he finished second at the U.S. Amateur, which may be the greatest moment ever for Iowa golf. He also has a strong connection to Heinrichs, as both are from Naples, FL. How did Kent end up at Iowa? What was it like to play so much golf in a relatively short period of time and how special this run was for him. Plus some of the great golfers that he has heard from since the win and who he might play practice rounds with at The Masters.

Breaking news that was big enough that we had to fire up the podcast machine. Iose Epenesa has verbally committed to the Iowa football program. He is a five star prospect and the son of Epenesa Epenesa and brother of A.J. and Eric, who have both played at Iowa.

What's the impact of the commitment from Iose Epenesa? For a while it looked like he might be headed either Miami, Utah, or Penn State. Who were the final two schools for Epenesa what was his older brother's pitch to him when it came to his decision>

We look at the very promising future of Iowa's defensive line, which now has back to back very intriguing prospects in them.

Then it's some Iowa football chatter. Has the quarterback controversy calmed down? We discuss what practice has revealed since Saturday and highlight a couple of freshmen to watch in fall camp that could play this season.

It's a very special Hawkeye Report Podcast this week. Matt Randazzo and Tom Kakert and joined by former Hawkeye and WWE Champion Ettore Ewen (Big E) for wide ranging conversation. We open discussing how he was discovered by Iowa. It's an amazing story of being in the right place at the right time in the spring of 2004.

We look back at how that process played out of being seen in the weight room at his high school by Phil Parker and then making a visit to Iowa and committing to the Hawkeyes. Then we discuss how he battled injuries in his Iowa career and the physical and more importantly, mental toll that it took on him and everyone in Iowa City helped in through those tough times.

Next we talk about the support he received from Iowa and how it led to being discovered by the WWE, which turned out to be a life changing experience. He discusses his path to success in the WWE and what that was like for him to rise up the ranks.

Finally we wrap up talking about his current health and recovery from a serious neck injury and how doing TV commentary work for the WWE at their Premium Live Events all over the world.

There might be a quarterback controversy in Iowa City. After a lackluster performance on Saturday, we launch the new season of the Chuck Long Podcast to get the former Hawkeye quarterbacks view of what he saw on film from Cade McNamara and Brendan Sullivan.

We get his thoughts on the overall offense and why he really likes what Tim Lester is showing in terms of presnap motion and the design of the plays. However, there is a concern about McNamara throwing the football after completing just 8 of 26 passes on the day. Is that simply rust from a quarterback who hasn't played much the last two years?

Long discusses if there should be an open competition at the quarterback position for the next two weeks to see if McNamara or Sullivan can raise their level of play under center. When should they look at installing the game plan for the first game of the year? Should Lester decided to dial back some of the offense this week?

A whole lot of good information on the pod this week.

We are almost there. The Iowa football season is nearly back! In the last two days in Iowa City we have had Iowa football media day and then the Kids Day practice. Tom Kakert flies solo on the Saturday night podcast to discuss all the hot topics coming out of it.

As you might expect, there's a huge discussion about what we thought of Cade McNamara's peformance on Saturday? Is it time to hit the panic button and look at potential options. How much longer will Kirk Ferentz play things out and what do we think of Brendan Sullivan.

We also discuss an improved ground game and better offensive line play, he nice stable of running backs and the hard hitters on defense that will leave a mark, and we look at and give a status report on some of the true freshmen.