Mark Gronowski Is A Hawkeye | WUW 567

All things Mark Gronowski and the upcoming CFP Semifinal games!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The iowahw guys have their quarterbacks, South Dakota State transfer
Mark Gronowski. Is he the savior for this dire multi
year slide at the quarterback position for the Hawkeys. We're
gonna find out. But there's a lot of excitement right now,
a lot of hype. The first half of this episode
is all about Granowski. After that we get into some
college football playoff.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
You know what it is. Let's have a day, let's go.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
We won't we won't give the we won't give any
reasons out to Grant, He's run down, he's I'm tired,
He's yeah, you hit that adult world, Grant, and it
just man, have your bones started.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
To feel creaky?

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yet? Twenty two years old, you're starting to.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Feel a little, oh creaky. I don't know. I will
say I had a kidding, but I think I talked
about it on here. I had heartburn for the first
time ever, really recently, and it was the weirdest experience ever, because,
like I mean, you imagine heartburn to be like a
burn in your chest, and it's just it's just not
it's just not what it feels like at all. I

(01:25):
was literally, like I was sending to does it feels
like to you, Well, it's it's so you know what
I'm talking. Have you've had heartburn before?

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Right? Yeah? Any any division any Division one football player
that has to eat massive amounts of food has had
heartburn before. Right.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
So it's it's not like your whole chest is burning.
It's like a smaller segment and it's kind of like
no one tells you, Like I had to look it
up because I thought like someone was really wrong because
it gets a little bit tight. Yeah, and no one
tells you that whenever you try and bend over to
pick something up, your chest explodes pressure.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, Like it's the worst feeling ever. Literally just laying
in my dead just googling at like eleven O'clockick, Am
I dying?

Speaker 1 (02:03):
Am I Am?

Speaker 2 (02:04):
I gonna make it? And the Internet I just tells you, yeah,
you are dying.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
But I think that's the worst thing that Google, that
that are widespread information at our fingertips is probably that's
the downfall, right there is the fact that now you
can get like medical answers. Welcome into the show, by
the way, Grant and I just we like to bounce
into these things. It's gonna be a fun show tonight.
It was gonna be a really fun show. Some guy

(02:27):
named Drake Kolik said, you know what, I'm jumping on tonight,
and then he cucked us and he said, just kidding.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
I'm not I'm working I'm working on I've said a
million times I'm I'm working on it. He's gonna like
everyone thinks he's he's gone forever. That's just I don't
believe that. First. I would never.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
I would never put all the chips on the table
on the gone forever.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Uh, this is like every he's It's like every time
a boxer says they're retired, it's like, yeah, he's get
out of here. Dude. How many times Floyd Mayweather is retired?
Like seven? All Right, No, I've.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Heard Connor McGregor is done doing any kind of thing
for several years now. All of a sudden, the money's
the money's big enough, and I think him and Logan
Paul are doing something.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
So who knows.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
Not that we're gonna pay Drake a dime to come
back on the show, but I would have. I'd comment
said Drake for a full time back, Well he would
get what he was getting before. I'm not gonna pay
him any extra, all right, but the value what he gets,
what he gets paid in, is friendship and memories. And
that's really weird and that's really what it's about.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
It.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
This is a friendship podcast.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
You can't You cannot put a press on friendship. Cannot
do that, you really can't.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
Yeah, so we're gonna we're gonna bounce in tonight.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Obviously.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
This is being recorded Wednesday night, January eighth. If this
is the first time you're joining us, maybe you didn't
catch that first episode a couple days ago on Monday,
the kickoff the New year podcast, Welcome in My Name
is Tyler Kluers is the wash up walk Ons. Kevin
Ward usually joins us. Got a text around noon today

(03:59):
that he had to work late tonight. Now, how much
do I believe Kevin when he says he has to work?
And I don't alete, what.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
Do you mean? You think people just don't need ankles
past four o'clock? Uh?

Speaker 1 (04:12):
Like, what what do you mean? I'll leave it up
for speculation.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
He works. He works in the medical industry, and medical
is twenty four to seven.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
You're right, You're right, And I do believe that sometimes
he's worked I just think that's sometimes there. I think
there have been occasions where he's not feeling it, or
he's going to get back home from something right around
the time that we're recording, and he'd rather just eat
dinner and you know, have a night to himself. And
you know, he's like, well, I know Clover will do it.
Clover's gonna do the podcast anyway, so I'll just take

(04:41):
tonight off and that's okay. We keep him around. I
like Kevin, might have to replace him with somebody. I
have somebody in might not replace Kevin, but might might
have to get somebody else to come in here and
fill in on nights when it's just me and Gary,
because you know, maybe some of the hardcore listeners don't
love of just the being Gary show three times a

(05:01):
week if it happens to be that. Regardless, we have
some fun info for him.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
Sure, okay, let's here, well, I mean Portal Kirk. Oh yeah,
he's back. He's Portal Kirk is here. This is uh, well,
I don't know if is it Portal Kirk or is
it a portal Brad? Is it portal Lester.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
It's a good question.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
I don't know. We don't get me wrong. I think
Kirk is getting Kirk gets credit, but I don't know
if is it. Do you even think Kirk would give
himself one hundred percent of the credit?

Speaker 1 (05:31):
No, I mean Kirk would never give him a hundred
percent of the credit on anything, But it is an
interesting question. I don't know how it works another fan
basis because I'm not a part of but it is
intriguing to me that Brad is so forward facing as
a collective, Like he is active on Twitter, he comes

(05:52):
on this show, he goes on the local Des Moines
radio shows, he goes on. Yeah, I think the Swarm
itself does its own you know, meetings with Brad. I
know him and Tyler Barnes have had like a monthly
like little podcast show that they do for like Swarming
or at one point there was something like that going on. Yeah,
very forward facing and he's very honest, like pretty as

(06:16):
much as he can be.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
He's very for like, uh transparent. Yeah, well, I mean
thinking with like this like Brad pre nil pre Swarm,
successful businessman, quite quite successful. Yeah that's understatement. And in
any business setting right, transparency honesty is like the best

(06:37):
thing that a customer can feel sure, and when you
look at Nil and kind of this whole thing and
it's like, hey, just please give us money and you
might get a quarterback. We don't know. Yeah, it kind
of sounds like a I don't want to say scam,
but it's not the best bit like this small ever,
so like with seeing someone that's like, hey, we're transparent.

(06:58):
You know, he's very open about like what they're trying
to do and like how swarm all works and stuff.
That's huge to like, I think, incentivize people that maybe
are on the fence about donating to actually get them
to donate.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
I would agree. I think it's great. It's awesome for
us because we get to have him on. People have
asked like, hey, let's have Brad on for another update.
I plan on Brad being a recurring guest until he
no longer has involvement or no longer wants to do
our show. It seems like every time I ask him,
he's like, absolutely, let's do it. And when he's come on,
he's provided great answers, great content, and I think truly

(07:35):
after two or three years of them doing this, now
I really believe he is the kind of guy, the
guy for you know to lead our collective. I don't
know the influence or I don't think he has any
decisional making power. I don't know why he would. That's
not his job. As far as like, hey, Brad, do
you think we should go after Gronowski? Like, no, that

(07:56):
is within the coaching staff Tyler Barnes recruiting that that
all falls on them. After that, it would be interesting
to know how much back and forth like Brad and
Gronowski have had.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
I would be stunned if they have never spoken, stunned,
agreed like they had talked in some capacity.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
Right, Like he has to be involved in those conversations.
The number uh that Gronowski Mark Gronowski committed dial by
the way, we buried the lead there. But everyone kind
of knows. At this point, we're at day behind because
we were quarter. This happened on Tuesday, and supposedly happened
actually Monday Night wasn't released until Tuesday. If you're on

(08:36):
the Patreon podcast, Grant and I actually live reacted to this.
We were the first ones we were on air when
it was happening. Only ones we were.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
On air for the announcement of the announcement. We were
on air for the he's expected to announce announcement and
the actual.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
Announce and the announcement.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
So and if if you know anything about if you
know anything about the taglines exclud so Patreon podcast resolutions
this year, it's to break news. We're actually a news
breaking podcast.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
Now, which it would be if for our one designated
Iowa athlete who we just get to break all the
news about them. Yeah, it would be very very funny
if it was Mark Kanowski.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
Wouldn't it been?

Speaker 2 (09:16):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (09:17):
What if we were what if we were approached by
Mark and he's like, hey, you know, I've been doing
my due diligence on iowhawk guys, the fan base, the ecosystem.
See you guys do a podcast. Love it, great content.
I think everybody should listen to it. I'd love for
you guys to announce my committee. You know how big
that would have been for our brand.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
Well, I mean, I don't know if what the South
Dakota state media circuit is like, I'm just being totally honest,
but I would assume that any player, potentially it would
be a maybe welcoming thing that hey, like this guy,
these guys they played football like they're not gonna do
you dirty?

Speaker 1 (09:53):
You know, Oh, and I think that's yeah. I think
that's one thing we can hang our hat on too,
is like I can't name it single, and we've really
done a good job of sort of navigating potential guests
where we would get into the weeds on something like that.
I can name a couple of names off the top
of my head that we've thought about bringing on. We've

(10:13):
had conversations and it's like, you know, Kevin or Drake
in most instances, or like I don't want that guy
in the show.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
By the way, time out real quick. Well we said
we're breaking news or whatever for where this guy's the
moment it's not positive or like if it's like actual
real news, I'm out.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
Yeah, we're out.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
I'm out.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
We're only in on news that doesn't matter or could
or is or is theoretical.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
So that I want. It has to be cool, it
has to be positive or funny. But if it's those three,
like if it's like so and so arrested at a local,
I say, yeah, I'm not breaking that.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
I'm yeah, we don't want any of that.

Speaker 2 (10:51):
I don't. I was unaware.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
In fact, I will will actively participate as a brand
in burying that we'll try to bury any story that
goes against some of the players. I do think that,
you know, with this whole eighty five scholarship thing, one
o five roster limit, there's gonna be twenty guys at
all times now who are getting paid, Like we're gonna
get into revs share here in a few episodes. I
know that's I'm putting together a ten questions for the

(11:14):
off season that I think is gonna be a really
good episode, uh Grant and I will go through it.
Who knows if Kevin will be there, but one of
those questions is going to revolve around the rev share.
One of those questions is going to revolve around how
this roster gets down to one oh five. And I
do believe that the twenty guys who aren't on official
scholarship we should get like rights, we should we should

(11:36):
get rights to their breaking news because they're they're like,
they're like the walk Ons now right, because you know,
because it's it's like a pseudo walk on it's not real,
because they're still gonna get paid. Yeah, it's named the
walk On T shirt coming soon by the way.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
Yeah, if you're if you're a parent of a of
a Iowa football player, you know, an io a football
player who wants an exclusive. Yeah, we will break your news.
And well if you just you just think it'll be
fun and.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
We'll make it funny. We'll make it. Yeah, absolutely, where
your guys. We kind of did it on the show yesterday,
but that's for a smaller audience.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
Grant your reaction to the Hawk guys getting Mark Ronowski.

Speaker 1 (12:17):
I think it's huge supposedly the number four quarterback in
the portal of this offseason.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
So here's my thing with that too. I do not
care about obviously if you're ranked like three fifth like
like I'd obviously rather have like ranked ten versus like
two thousandths right rankings, it doesn't mean a ton to me.
I'm gonna be honest, the like, there's guys who are
really good, and there's you know, there's also guys in
the portal that I feel like are unanimously everyone knows,

(12:43):
like how good really is this guy? Sure ranked up high? Like,
so the number is not really a big deal to me,
I don't think. But no, Mark is a proven good
player at the fts level. Who I mean are that
is the champion of FC is gonna beat the champion
of FBS. No, but has NFL players like there are
there's really good talent there and they do grab a

(13:04):
lot of wins they do, so I think I think
it'll work well. I also just think it's good for
in terms of if you're looking towards the future, right
what Lester is starting to kind of get his guys
in and build. I think it's helped them, you know,
like I'm gonna like before, like when Prabula was visiting,
right Like, part of me was just like, this is
a win that we're even in the conversation for this

(13:25):
right now.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
I agree on that, Yeah, like is he gonna come here?

Speaker 2 (13:29):
It would be really cool if he does, and I
want to do like participation trophy or whatever. But I was
like the fact that we're in the conversation right now
for really good quarterbacks and they're visiting their comedy campus.

Speaker 3 (13:39):
They're considering it is good And I actually think that's
a good a fun topic to bring up because a
lot of people like to discuss oh the stigma, right, Like,
I always got this stink on them.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
They've they've they've just run their offense into the ground.
There the National laughing stock, what offensive player whatever, even
can sitter coming to the University of Iowa. That's the joke.
I get it, you're on Twitter. Make the jokes right.
The issue is as these players are smart, and it's
not an issue. It's a good thing for the Hawks

(14:12):
and people who like to be positive us. There's a
lot to really get excited about in Iowa City. I'm
talking like even in a year that is what we've
called words like underwhelming, a disappointment, didn't meet expectations, eight
and five, lost a ball game, lost to our in
state rival. I'm just saying, this is about as down

(14:35):
a year as you could have. Sure, when you're looking
at the Iowawk guys and there is still I'm telling
you that black and gold, that Tiger Hawk, the reputation
that Iowa has with their defense, with their special teams
and how they can make things happen, it is. It
is appealing, It is intriguing to other players. That is

(14:56):
why Tribula is like, let me t take a look, right,
let me take a visit. And that's why Gronowski's like,
maybe I don't go to the NFL, Like if this
deal is sweet enough, I'm in because here's the other
thing about athletes, especially like high performing quarterback type A guys,

(15:18):
they're the solution in their brain. A lot of times, Hey,
I'm the guy. Sure, I'm the one who turns this
thing around. And there can be some negatives to that,
like sometimes if you're a little ahead of yourself, like
that might get a little bit eh, But to a
certain extent, like that is what you want in your
quarterback and your offensive leader, the guy who's running the show.

(15:40):
You need him to believe I am the answer. I'm
gonna get it done when it needs to get done.
And that's why Iowa, it doesn't matter. It doesn't like
I don't know how we could be in any worse
hole after the last three years offensively, like as reputation wise,
Like yeah it is. I'm not saying it doesn't affect
us at all. I'm just saying we got some Chattanooga

(16:03):
receiver that's supposedly like so here.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
And that's the other thing I want to add to
is when you add a piece a quarterback, it helps
other players be more intrigued in coming as well. So
like obviously it would have been nicer if we got
this on December eighth, instead of sure now right, but
like you saw immediately when he commit, not prebula, sorry
when Granowski too many quarterbacks going on with so interesting list,

(16:29):
so many When Granowski commits twenty minutes later, you get
like the projected like, hey, now we think Phillips is
gonna go to Iowa. And that's also by the way,
this is my other and we talked about this later
and if this if you're up so for repeating information,
I'm sorry, but I cannot stand with the portal world
right now. These the graphics that I'm getting because like,

(16:51):
there is no reason we should see a big committed
in bull letters and like faded logo, bright new logo,
new school for fifty five five percent confidence? What fifty
five percent? Like that's a caption reads expected to this
should just say I don't know, like to save the

(17:12):
info man, like sure put like hey, if this is
where I ranked these guys fifty five percent confident, that's fine,
but like to put committed up.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
You don't throw the committed on there.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
Like if Sam Phillips isn't a hawkkey, now I'm gonna
be furious. After I read that and we talked, we
talked about it might not be because it was fifty
five percent.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
Yeah, it's basically just leaning that way, and who knows
you could have.

Speaker 2 (17:34):
Had the same You have the same amount of confidence
for a graphic that says not.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
Committed, Yeah, do the same thing, like you're not a
hawk gy forty five percent?

Speaker 2 (17:44):
Yeah, Like, what's stopping me from putting a graphic up
this is committed for I don't know who's someone that
just entered the portal, any player and it's fifteen percent confidence.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
In the time.

Speaker 2 (17:55):
Why do you think it's in size forefont in the
corner and it's white over yet so no one can
see it. And this is gaslighting.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
This is gaslighting non tech savvy individuals, non social media
savvy individuals intore thinking, Oh, like it's guaranteed. It says
right there, committed.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Like what especially too, I mean, we're not like someone
said the other day, they're right, Grant, aren't you the
big media?

Speaker 1 (18:17):
And I was like, dude, I saw that comment on
your Twitter, and I think they were joking.

Speaker 2 (18:21):
I think it is joke too, but I was like,
I'm not. I would not consider myself the big media.

Speaker 1 (18:25):
Are we in media? Yes?

Speaker 2 (18:26):
Should you take anything I say super seriously? Me personally
like Cluver and Kevin maybe Drake sometimes but me, like,
I don't know, I joke around a lot, all right,
Like sometimes people like didn't you say this?

Speaker 1 (18:38):
I'm like, really, by the way, coming out of your
camp lately, the amount of Mark Gronowski propaganda has been fantastic,
the amount of clips that you've been posting, the amount
of highlights like, oh my god, I can't.

Speaker 2 (18:50):
If I like it's part of me that if we
just if we say it in any times, He's just
gonna look at this phe and be like, maybe Mark
Gronowski is OK. I don't know, but and who knows.

Speaker 1 (18:58):
Maybe we had something to do with that, maybe we contributed.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
But anyways, going back to what I said, like, could
you imagine if like the let's any of the news
out Let's Foxy and It or whatever put up a
graphic of like past or whatever, like a bill passed
and lucky, and it's like in the corner, it's like,
we're fifty five confidence that happens. What you can't do
that in any other field, you can't like.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
Well, it gets back to the whole thing of of
the breaking news jokes we were making earlier is like
these these you know on three two four set, all
these sites, all these reporters, these beat writers, these uh
college football analysts, recruiting analysts, whatever you want to give
the title. Like, they're in the game of clicks, and
so if they can just like I don't know what

(19:42):
their personal standards are. They obviously very person to person.
But if you have just enough to put out a
graphic and be the first one to have your article read,
be the first one for someone to click on your
on your tweet, on your little video, it's like that's there,
that's them winning. It's like it's tough. It's a tough
place to be out there.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
Get that like part of the games, you gotta be
first information. So yeah, but then also don't admit to
fifty five percent confidence.

Speaker 1 (20:07):
That's tough. I what it needs to be like eighty
or better, I think in my world, but.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
I want crystal balls are like one hundred percent ninety
nine percent confidence. What happened to the crystal balls?

Speaker 1 (20:17):
Yeah, oh, the crystal balls are just shattered all over.

Speaker 2 (20:19):
It was like it used to be like a point
of pride on the crystal balls of like, hey, I'm
I'm like fifty five for fifty six on my crystal balls. Yeah,
now they're just screw it, fifty percent?

Speaker 1 (20:28):
Why not? Now they're just like, yeah, the tarot cards
are telling me fifty two percent.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
So yeah, what uh?

Speaker 1 (20:34):
Now now I want to I want to go back
to something real quick that we again a little bit
of a tongue in cheek joking around, but when we
talk about the idea that hey, if we just say
it enough, it'll happen, right, there isn't zero percent chance
or zero percent possibility that that that there's something to that. Like,

(20:54):
I truly believe that if you're a commit or if
you're if you're Mark Ronowski and you entered the portal
grant and now an entire fan base Iowa specifically because
they're the ones that are like projected to get you.
That's who everything everybody thinks you're gonna go. I think
you read some of that rhetoric. Do you think Mark
Gronowski just completely avoided the Internet for the last week.

(21:15):
There's no way.

Speaker 2 (21:16):
I mean, I don't know, I don't know what he
does in his free time, but no, I will say
I can say confidently that and positively the Iowa Twitter base,
the Iowa are are strong, strong group of Burners out there,
you know, the Iowa Twitter base fans among us are
No one is working harder to get commits in US

(21:36):
and hitting the replies, hitting the retweets, posting the highlights.
No one's working harder.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
I mean people are doing it for every school.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
I saw a.

Speaker 1 (21:48):
I saw one of the Nebraska Burners. There was some
kid who was like, I don't know if he was
a transfer, he was just a recruit out of high school.
And like it was like so and so has taken
a visit to Nebraska or something, or they've expressed interest
in the Cornhusker And one of the Burners responded to
his tweet that he was going on a on a
visit and said, hey man, we got the best snow

(22:11):
bunnies around. Come liked it, liked the reply, like and
then and then the Nebraska ecosystem was like, boys, we
got him, I got him, Like we have a white
girls up here for you, Like what, like, what are
we doing? What is Twitter? I'm so confused.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
It's funny, but no, coming back to us on a
serious note.

Speaker 1 (22:34):
Mark Ronowski, he's six three, two thirty guys, bodied up.
I mean he is here's the other thing I really
like about him. And this could be I'm sure there's
he's had dings and stuff, but you know, I go
to his stats here, I'm on ESPN, you know twenty
twenty Sure, what did he Well, here's something what happened
in twenty twenty one? Because there's no twenty twenty one

(22:55):
on there? So did he miss a season for injury?
I don't know, But it looks like he's pretty sturdy. Yeah,
Like he looks like he's pretty like And I got
a knock on wood here because I don't want Grant
to like go clip this in eight months when if
he gets injured or something. I don't want that to happen.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
No, don't you dare.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
But like, he feels like a kind of guy, and
this is going to be a thing, right because we
just spent two billion dollars on Kid McNamara and then
this is already.

Speaker 2 (23:23):
I'm I need to gotta stop here, worry. I know
what you're about to say. He's going to jinx this
so bad. No, I can't even I have to stop
you right now.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
You just can't be a part of this.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
I don't want like, because I just don't want to be.
I don't know. I don't want us to even consider
jinks in him.

Speaker 1 (23:38):
No, but is this is this something to It looks
nice to have a guy who like doesn't have a
significant caid coming into Iowa, was coming off of a
major knee surgery.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
I thought you're gonna say something else. Okay, no, no, no, no, yeah, no,
I think that's that's totally reasonable.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
Yeah, Like it feels good. Like he's sturdy. He's six three,
two thirty. That is an absolute body out there. Guy
can run someone over if he needs to. And supposedly
this guy. Oh, by the way, someone tweeted at I
think you and I and said Gronowski actually has four
career punts.

Speaker 2 (24:07):
Also, Hey, it's like, you know, being able to punt
is like, you know, it's like going on a gun.
Rather have one and not need it, then need it
and not have one. I'd rather have a QB who
can punt, yeah, than one who can't and just we Hey,
if we never use in a punt like Reese, I'm
pretty sure job security right now is fine.

Speaker 1 (24:26):
I'm looking at it. I'm looking at it right here.
In each of his in each of his starting seasons
at South Dakota State. He had one punt a year,
one punt in each year. One of those went for
forty eight.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
He could punt at any moment. You have no idea.

Speaker 1 (24:40):
Some other fun stats about him. He had a he
has a tackle maybe off of an interception. He has
one one career tackle. He's got five receptions in his career.

Speaker 2 (24:53):
I saw they were running the by the way, and
I don't care how exciting they are. Someone was showing that.
I saw some plays. He had a double pass that
they ran and he ran, and I think he might
have gotten a first nun of squad. I don't care
how much they work touchdowns or whatever. Patriots running them
all the time, Lions. I the double passes scare me.
I don't want anything to do with them.

Speaker 1 (25:14):
You don't like that. No more importantly, this is a
guy who is said to be a guy who can run,
but isn't a run first guy.

Speaker 4 (25:22):
He is.

Speaker 1 (25:23):
He is the guy supposedly that tim Lester is looking for,
and I want to get I want to get into
Tim Lester and the quarterbacks that he has sort of
crafted this quarterback room into, or the guys he's gotten
into the quarterback room since he's been here, which, by
the way, is I think something like eleven months, maybe
ten months?

Speaker 2 (25:43):
How long Lester's been there? Yeah, yes, what's called eleven.

Speaker 1 (25:46):
Let's call it eleven months. It's less than a calendar
year year. Calendar year, Gronowski had a total of almost
eighteen hundred.

Speaker 2 (25:55):
Rushing yards long thirty seven rushing touchdowns. It's good amount, dude.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
Now this is a guy with Logan Jones at center,
going to be a senior. He's coming back for another year.
Does the Iowa quarterback sneak return to its glory that
it once was?

Speaker 2 (26:16):
At six sixty three? We got who's who's playing fullback
next year? Is that Elion Miller?

Speaker 1 (26:22):
Maybe?

Speaker 2 (26:23):
I don't I don't know, I don't know, Valle Christian Lake. Well,
here's the here's the thing. Here's the thing.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
Is the fullback even a thing anymore with one hundred
and five guys on the roster? Or is it just
a backup tight end?

Speaker 2 (26:32):
Ooh, good question. Well, to say it's not a thing
might be disrespectful to the fullback position. But is it
a like Swiss army knife player who just can fall
back as well? Sure it will be the better thing.
I don't know because I don't know, because what Hayden
there's just rufal respect Hayden Larch. There's just no chance
he has eligibility left.

Speaker 1 (26:52):
Right, I don't think. So I really want to get
Hayden Large on the podcast. Yeah, yeah, if he wants to,
if anybody knows him or or or he listens, hey,
hit us up. I'm gonna hit you up anyway. But
you know, we'd love to get you on the show
if all things go right. By the way, first, uh,
first outgoing senior guest of the twenty twenty five year

(27:12):
coming up either probably in the next couple of weeks,
so we're excited about that. But thirty seven rushing touchdowns
through for ninety three against only twenty interceptions.

Speaker 2 (27:25):
Yeah, I mean, look, I do. I watch every South
Cosa State game.

Speaker 1 (27:28):
No, will you now that we have Mark Gronowski, Yes,
you'll retroactively go back and watch everyone.

Speaker 2 (27:35):
I'm gonna go back and watch it a little bit.
But whenever I did watch South Coast State play, he
was an impressive player. I never felt like he was
like that. I didn't think the team wasn't quite as
good as they were in the two national championship years
this year, but I still thought, you know they did.
He had moments where you look good man, like, yeah,
I think he's a solid player. You know, other other

(27:55):
teams one of them, and I think the uh, that's
for a reason. I think he was considering the NFL
four or a reason. It wasn't just he had no shot.
So yeah, I'm excited to have him. I think he's promising.
And also you saw like NFL draft guys we're quote
tween his commitment and be like, wow, this is the
best quarterback get for I went a long time.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yeah, what's that guy's name, Matt Miller. I think Matt
Miller works in the NFL. He's he has some connection Iowa.
He might have played.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (28:22):
He's a quarterback. I think he like grades and scouts
quarterbacks and maybe does some some media stuff as well.
And he said that he's the one who put that
out there, like the best quarterback in a long time.

Speaker 2 (28:33):
And again remember too that like he doesn't have to
be cam Ward this year where he's single handedly making
Miami from two and ten to ten and two this year, right,
like we.

Speaker 1 (28:45):
Don't need we don't need anything crazy and he isn't.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
He doesn't have to be even great. No, he would
love I would love for him to be great. If
he wants to go be a the first team All
Big ten quarterback, I'm not stopping you. No, we're allowed
to do that.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
Sure we don't.

Speaker 2 (28:58):
He doesn't have to like even insane like generational talent
to really contribute and help out this team.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
And I think part of this is going to be
it's very exciting right now. Right Like this is like
we just had Christmas. We just went through Christmas. Everybody
got a present. This is like the present under the
tree that like, oh there's one more. Actually we didn't
see it, but here it is, Jimmy. You push it
forward and it's like, oh my god, it's a transfer
portal quarterback.

Speaker 2 (29:24):
Yay, And it's somebody that's good.

Speaker 1 (29:27):
We're not getting Josh Allen, Okay, Like I do think
we need to set the expectation because I get a
little bit worried.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
Well, it's not I if Wyoming could be Josh, why
can we.

Speaker 1 (29:38):
Well I'm just name it. We're not getting Tom Brady here,
lego whatever quarterback that is the most polished. We're not
getting a bow Nix from the Broncos this year, right Like, well,
I don't know, as some prominent Twitter account posted a
lookalike photo both of them next to each other, seemed
seems similar. Player comp Well, you're a bow leaver and
you're a grow leaver.

Speaker 2 (29:58):
I know, we got to find something better for Grenowski.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
We're working on my names.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
Yeah, I got I got eight months to figure that out.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
I do want to I do want to manage the expectations.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
Though.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
As as a fake media or new media or alternate media,
we're definitely not real media.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
The alternative media, So we're not Here's why I say
we're not the big media or small media. The big
is like the uh, ESPN, CBS's of the world. Sure,
talking heads, Paul Fine bombs. We're the you know, we're
I don't know, we're not underground, but we're local media
support local media. Shout out to lowercase lowercase jay journalism.

Speaker 1 (30:32):
Right. I want to do my part to help steady
the tide of expectation, because what the Twitter mob will
inevitably do is they're going to build this guy up
to be the prince that was promised, the savior, the savior, right, Like,
we're gonna like you already see some of the dumb

(30:54):
like oh and and most of its jokes. Most of
it's just you know, they're just being fun. But I
I think some people truly believe out there, like oh,
we got a good guy, like we should be like
are we now? Are we going to make the Natty now?
Or like are we going to be in the playoff?
Like let's slower role, let's just slow down. But he
is a good player. And I think that all.

Speaker 2 (31:16):
Things win probability against When you got Penn State and
Oregon coming up next year, your win probability against them
isn't shifting over to like eighty five percent now, but
no significantly better.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
But it might come up from there like that, it
might come up from thirty to forty or even just
of like securing your trophies games absolutely, stuff like that,
which is going to be huge because we've got three
of them. We lost a very important one. And that's
a staple of what I would does. Let's talk a
little bit quickly about again. I want to go back

(31:47):
to how Lester's tenure not even a calendar year, and
we've basically got six guys coming into the room now
at quarterback position. That are all Lester's guys. I would
say one of them is not fully Lester. Jimmy Sullivan,
the recruit for the upcoming class, was a Brian Farren's

(32:09):
previous staff before Lester. It was a pre Lester whatever
you want to call it. They identified him. But Lester
didn't make a change, Like he didn't pull the scholarship
offer from Jimmy Sullivan. He went, he's he's okay with
him coming in, Like that's a guy that Lester has
said he's he's excited about. Brendan Sullivan was a guy

(32:31):
that came in last year in June. That was a
Lester guy. Stratton Lester guy, Mark Gronowski. I think they're
you're seeing stuff all over the place where if a
quarterback gets in a room and talks with Tim Lester,
they start to like what they're hearing.

Speaker 2 (32:46):
Yeah, that was the quote came out right.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
So Gronowski Lester guy, Fitzgerald's son walk on like three
star quarterback or something like maybe who knows what he
ends up playing, who knows if he does anything? He's
he's quarterback in the room, Leicester guy. And then I
think we have one more in there, So who am
I forgetting.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
Uh, the room should be about sixty Okay, let's two. Okay,
let's work, let's work through it all right. We got
Gronowski Sullivan, Oh, Hank Okay, yeah, Hanky, Leicester guy, Leicester guy.
He's really the most lester guy from came.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
Over for McDonald's bags full of McDonald's.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
I think we have two Neighborville, Illinois qbs now, so there,
actually we have multiple Leicester, big time lester guys. But
oh yeah, but speaking of the QB room, I just
want to make this point clear as well. This is
the been thirty minutes of Gronowski love right, which is
warranted in my opinion. We also really need Brendan Sullivan
and still stick around absolutely, that is also still very important.

Speaker 1 (33:51):
We want we want Soul to be here and push
and and we want him to we want him to
to push Gronowski for the starting role. That would be great, right,
And then we'd love to have Sullivan as a great
two option, develop Hank Brown as a number three or
or or Jimmy Sullivan. Is that his name, fucking Jimmy Sullivan.
I think it is.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
It's Brendan Brennan and Jimmy.

Speaker 1 (34:13):
Okay, have great options that are that are building that
they're they're evolving, they're getting better, they're they're you know,
they are expanding their ability at the quarterback position. Over
the next couple of years, we might be digging ourselves
out of a hole here. We We've been saying it
all year basically since ly let Lester cook, let him

(34:35):
get his guys in the room, let him get his
offense in there. We're cooking with fire. The only bad
thing about Gronowski is that he's got one year.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
Yeah, but that's this is called ghost like the way
and not that it wasn't always this way before. I
think we kind of got lucky where Stanley played like
eight years as a starter. It felt like, so that
was nice. But I feel like a lot of and
I could just be totally wrong about this as well,
like a lot of Iowa quarterbacks in the future, it's

(35:06):
like you got two years usually sure one that must
like there's never been a freshman starter for Parance to
my knowledge, No, I don't think so. So Like it's
not like we've been like, oh yeah, we have five
like five year quarterback so and so.

Speaker 1 (35:20):
But this was the picture. Sean back tweeted this. This
is twenty nineteen Mark Grenowzi coming out of high school
on a visit recruiting visit to Iowa with the with
the best background kind of I don't know what you
want to call it logo, the it's the Ohio state.
I like connecting eyes, gray backgrounds, photo drop. Obviously he

(35:43):
looks like a high school can in this picture, but
he says comes it comes full circle circa twenty nineteen,
and he's he's quote tweeting his commitment.

Speaker 2 (35:52):
Sometimes sometimes you got to go back to go forward. It.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
It is really cool. It's a cool story. I'm very
excited to I'm very excited to see. I mean, there's
there's gonna be a lot of Gronowski talks as we
move forward here.

Speaker 2 (36:06):
Oh, I'm definitely I'm gonna be And this is what
I love the summertime of college football and like the
NFL because it is just like two highlights will push
your team's win total up. Oh yeah, four games in
your head. Yeah, which I love. And you know it
hurts a little bit too. Sometimes that doesn't happen like
very Uh there's only like maybe one or two teams

(36:27):
a year that that actually works. For you know, so
there is that, but it's definitely gonna happen, like I'm
gonna be and I think it's just under like you'd
have to make a pretty compelling argument to me that
it's not gonna help Iowa. There is no doubt.

Speaker 1 (36:45):
You bring this guy in and like he is your starter. Again,
It's it's not that it's not that he's automatically like
the guy can't just go out there and start being
terrible in practice? Why would he?

Speaker 2 (36:58):
But like if he like, well, this up into boys
State this year was that they had QB and then
they brought in Malki Nelson was there big getting the portal.
And then in what was it like two weeks before
game one, they announced that Maddox Madison was going to
start over this five star they brought in, and I

(37:18):
was like, are you kidding me? Like he's like what happened?
It was like you just beat him out.

Speaker 1 (37:23):
He was better and that's why you always have a competition. Yeah,
but when you're recruiting this guy, you're telling Gronowski and
the number grant, I don't know, this is the one
that's being thrown around one point two million dollars that's
a lot to do. We went and paid one point
two and then you're sitting there and you're like, wow,
it really feels like they had to like really convince.
Gernowski is like, it really feels like we just had

(37:44):
to find a way to be okay with giving him
seven figures.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
Like it's probably just hey, can you give me a
number that's bigger than an NFL sure rookie minimum. Yeah,
contract that I was going to.

Speaker 1 (37:56):
Get because he could, because there's a decent chance that
he goes and he finds a way to be a
third string or a or a practice squad guy. And
he's like I need I mean a kid is he's
twenty three years old? Yeah, so he's gonna be you know,
in a year, he's gonna be twenty four, Like.

Speaker 2 (38:10):
He's there's not a Here's the thing too that I
think also we're in a different age of like QB
age for drafts, Like look at the they just got.
They took in the top fifteen or ten or whatever
it was. Michael Pennix. Now he looks like he's the
guy moving forward for the Falcons, right that I think

(38:31):
part of what could be appealing for Gronowski depending on
his risk, is that could he have ended up on
a squad in some shape or form in the NFL
this year? Yes. If he now goes to Iowa, plays
a big ten competition, balls out, plays great as a
fantastic year for Iowa's offense, right, makes him look great,

(38:52):
it's probably gonna help us stock.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
It would rock at his draft. Yeah, yeah, not that.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
I mean we've seen FCS quarterbacks get drafted high before,
but like it didn't seem like he was going to
be one of them this year.

Speaker 1 (39:03):
One of those big questions for Gronowski, for the Iowawk
guys that I am going to have in that Ten
Questions episode is going to be revolving around, uh, you know, weapons,
So who do we get?

Speaker 2 (39:16):
Right?

Speaker 1 (39:16):
Who do we get? We got this Chase Phillips kid,
we have, we have Jacob Gale, Sam Phillips whatever.

Speaker 2 (39:21):
And I stand by to we He's got to commit
still too, Like that would help tremendously. He's he's he's
a good play Is it good?

Speaker 1 (39:26):
I haven't seen anything about him good?

Speaker 2 (39:28):
Yeah, Chattanooga solid player. I mean he's I think people's
knock on him is that he's not that tall, but
he's quick. He makes good catches. Anyone who do we
have that's tall anyway, right, Like, I mean maybe sixty
three and allegie you can catch them all.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
So maybe maybe we play him in slowly.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
At the same time, you were, well all I'm saying,
I would like to see one play. It doesn't they
don't even got to snap it. What if like uh,
Gronowski's lined out wide and Sullivan is a uh snaps
the ball one time.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
I mean they put Scataboo out there and threw him
a sixty yard pass while yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:01):
Throw something word up there. They don't even got to
snap it, just like do just make the defense think
for a second.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
Let Lester cook a little bit, Let him get the
whole thing in this offseason. You never know he.

Speaker 2 (40:10):
Does there he has some trickeration. I do want to
bring up the point with the I saw it going
around today that I think fifteen of the eighteen quarterbacks
now projected starters next year in the Big Ten have
all transferred, and like nine of them are fresh transfers
this year.

Speaker 1 (40:29):
Yep, Yeah, I saw that as well.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
It's a new age.

Speaker 1 (40:32):
It's crazy, and that you can look at that two ways.
You can look at that and try to just be
in a vacuum and be like, man, this sucks like
what college football has turned into, or you could just
move on because you're not going to change it. And
that's the way things are going to be now, I
think at this point, and there's still going to be

(40:53):
like you know, half of the Big Ten, who has
somebody that they've developed and they're like, oh no, like
we recruited this guy, he turned out to be who
he thought he was or who he thought he could be.
And he does start for three years, right, assuming you
can keep him, and he's like not crazy good in
his first or second year, and then somebody like Texas
or Alabama comes and poaches him. But yeah, you're still

(41:14):
going to find that. It's just not going to be
as often because we're in a prove it and get
paid market now because that was because the rules allow
for that.

Speaker 2 (41:24):
So and I always stand by two people. I feel
like the blame of all the nil stuff is in
the wrong direction. Like I think the players deserve mine absolutely,
Like they generate so much money for the university. Some
of them, their image is so big that they're like
it's still bad. I mean, he took money anyway, but like,
could you imagine how much money like man a guy
like Manziel missed out on in college, or like how

(41:46):
much Tebow missed out on in college. Not that they're
both's not doing well now, but like it's crazy how
much attention these guys have. And I understand when well,
I think like Teddy Roosevelt actually created the NCAA. I'm
sure when he created he never imagined how pop people
who these college athletes could be, right, but sure they
deserve money. It's up to the NCAA has got it,
finally needs to do something productive, the na has. It's

(42:10):
not Queen Your's fault or arch Manning's fault that the
NCAA is horrible at moderating this.

Speaker 1 (42:16):
Yeah, they've the NCUBLEA, which is the governing body. Let
the market get away from them as far as regulation
and popularity, and yeah, they they they fucked that up
completely basically, and it is what it is. I do
want to say one last thing about Granowski. I know
we've done forty minutes on him, forty more, Yeah, we'll

(42:37):
do We'll do.

Speaker 2 (42:38):
Four thousand more.

Speaker 1 (42:39):
I'm sure this offseason because it all it's all about
a hype in the off season. I can already I
can already picture like a spring game, like, oh yeah,
Grenowsi's coming out there. We're going to get to see
him in action, see him in the Tiger Hawk. From
the beginning, my opinion was, do we go get a
guy that's like a big time you know, we try
and go spend now Unfortunately we kind of combined the

(42:59):
two options. My whole thing was like, can we get
a guy from the FCS, I literally said the FCS
or the MAC or the Sun Belt, someone who's got
a lot of promise, but like maybe he isn't gonna
get as much of the hype. Can we pay a
little less for him or are we going to have
to pay a Pribula or somebody like that over a
million dollars. Well, we got the guy from the right spot.

(43:21):
We just ended up having to pay the same amount
of money. I'm fine with that. I think I think
this is the kind of guy you want, though, A
guy that's coming up a level. He's now going to
play in front of seventy thousand, that's appealing all the
good things. That's all I have to say. Anything left
for you.

Speaker 2 (43:34):
On that, go look at like Indiana's roster this year
was basically JMO right, and they won eleven to one
in the Big Ten and they were in the playoffs,
so ju dukes, they were JMU and a Canadian quarterback.
So all that, Like it's there's good guys out there
at all levels. Like that's why I encourage people to go,
like go turn on a G five game, Go turn

(43:54):
on an FCS game, like when the Dakota Maker is
on ESPN, ABC, South Dakota State, North Coast State. Like
it's good football, good there's good players at every level.
And obviously there's like there's the D one, like the
Big Ten is going to be stronger than as a
whole than the Missouri Valley or like whatever conference North
Central at Division three plays and but there's like that

(44:17):
doesn't mean there's like every I mean there's good players
at every level.

Speaker 1 (44:20):
So yeah, I have two connecting little segue points to
get to, not one, not really, but I do want
your your thoughts. As a Big MAC guy on the
news that Northern Illinois will join the UH It's West, I'm.

Speaker 2 (44:35):
Way more upset about that than any thing else because
that's like the.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
MAC has officially been poached.

Speaker 2 (44:41):
It was the tried and true and also and I
was a successful team in the MAC. They were consistently
competing for conference championships. They were bringing there in terms
of I would guess in terms of money, they got
to be up there. Oh yeah, they're up there for
sure for the MAC at least. And you know, also
the MAC now to my no school in Illinois in

(45:01):
the MAC anymore.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
Yeah, I mean they beat title title contender Notre Dame.

Speaker 2 (45:07):
Yeah. No, they were like they I in Northern Illinois.
They had my favorite, one of my favorite college football
players ever, mister Rocky Lombardi. He played there for what
felt like aegis in legend fourteen years, the Blonde Bullet.

Speaker 1 (45:19):
No, I think him on the show. He's from like
twenty minutes away.

Speaker 2 (45:22):
Yeah, I don't think. I don't blame NIU, Like these
TV contracts and stuff aren't.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
Oh yeah, they have to take the money for the school.

Speaker 2 (45:29):
I really, I don't blame it all. Now they're going
to be able to again pay there's good players on
NIU that deserve money. Now they can hopefully whatever their
nil thing is can help them out more. Yeah, but
it just thinks that it was like I like change
to an extent, but also I love the tradition of
college sports, and like with the Big Ten now we

(45:49):
added UCLA. I'm watching play Michigan last night. I'm like,
you know what, I like the UCLA's in the Big
Ten now. Yeah, like, I like that I get to
watch this game. Well, I actually have.

Speaker 1 (45:58):
That is an incredible segue, because look look what I
have here. I have a little Mick cronin.

Speaker 2 (46:04):
Okay, hold on, before we do the clip, can I
finish my point?

Speaker 1 (46:07):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (46:07):
Okay, It's stinks that the MAC was the most like
consistent conference. Breaking it up stinks. I don't I'd almost
I'm almost okay, more with losing a team than gaining
one in a way, like if we add sure, what's it,
I mean, name a pick of school, and like if
Eastern Illinois now goes to actually that'd be kind of cool.

Speaker 1 (46:28):
But Western Illinois leathernecks. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:31):
If it's almost hard to join the party than is
to leave it. So I'm bummed out about that. I
hope they're okay. I don't really love the new Mountain
West is the new PAC twelve is fun or wherever
they're going, But it's a it's it's it's a tough time.
I still I'll respect n Iu, but I won't love
him as much any more. Pitious the fact.

Speaker 1 (46:52):
You mentioned UCLA. We're going to do a very quick
basketball tangent because I saw this, this clip, a one
minute clip of Mick who if he grew a beard,
we might look similar. And they lost to Michigan, yeah
last night, and.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
That was a game they probably needed to.

Speaker 1 (47:10):
And this is unbelievable. I mean, just listening on this.

Speaker 4 (47:14):
But we don't play. We're soft. So don't tell me
you want to win. Like, just don't tell me you
want to win. So don't just don't tell me you
want to win. It's crazy, you know. And it's every day.
I'm tired of it. It's every day I have the
most energy of all of anybody at practice. Every day
I'm upset with everybody in that locker room, my assistant

(47:37):
coaches and my players.

Speaker 2 (47:38):
I mean, I don't need to do anything else.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
I almost got five hundred wins.

Speaker 4 (47:41):
I'm only fifty three.

Speaker 2 (47:43):
I mean, it's a joke. It's a joke.

Speaker 4 (47:45):
But yet I come in and I have more passion
and energy and pride than everybody, and that's the problem.
So what the truth of it has been, it's really
hard to coach people that are delusional. The hungry dog
gets the bomb. We got guys that think they're way
better than they are. They're nice kids, they're completely delusional

(48:09):
about who they are.

Speaker 1 (48:11):
But we don't play unbelievable clip there. I part of
me loves this because I like when coaches don't coach speak.
I like when that's part of this show. We bring
the coaches on and they still got their little, you know,
coaching tone to them. But we get LeVar Woods on here,
we get coach Wallace, they start to they throw a
couple f bombs. You know, they're they're they're hanging out

(48:32):
with former players. This guy Nick Croney, he's talking to
the media. He's a little he's a little blameish. He's
he's not taking a lot of the credit there, because ultimately,
as a head coach, you are responsible for all of
those staff and players. So if they're not part of me.

Speaker 2 (48:49):
It's like, you know, he's like, yeah, I mean, I
can't believe these players or whatever. These coaches like, uh,
hey man, you brought them.

Speaker 1 (48:55):
You're the one who recruited them.

Speaker 2 (48:56):
Yeah, like you, you brought him here, that was you.
That's on you, man, And that's okay. It's okay.

Speaker 1 (49:03):
It's okay for all of those things to be true.
It's okay to be upset with your staff and players.
And maybe what we miss in this clip because it's
a sixty second social media clip, maybe he has tried
to address it. Maybe he's gone to the staff and
the players and said, hey, you fucking pussies are soft.
We gotta get better.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
I don't have a problem with him saying like we
were soft today, that's fine because I think, like, you know,
a lot of the players probably know that too. But
then just being like I'm my coaches like I I
that comes off a lot as everyone's wrong but me, Yeah,
I do.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
I kind of like the humble brag, like I'm fifty three,
I got five hundred wins? What else do I need
to do?

Speaker 4 (49:41):
Like that?

Speaker 1 (49:41):
Kind I don't need to be here.

Speaker 2 (49:43):
There's a difference between like honesty and reflectionary program, and
then there's also being like honest but then still of
woidning any blame for it. Yeah, Like if he's like
says all that, and he's like and it starts with me.
I have to fix it because I'm the coach and
ultimately I'm called the decisions and it's perfect, then it's
like fine, because I remember there was a quote like

(50:04):
this last year where Rick Patino was kind of getting
it because he like was literally like name of the ports.
He was like so and so moved slow laterally, Okay,
we have to do it, Like he was saying the
specific things, and someone asked him like a couple of
days later, like hey, coach, like what was that? And
he was like, look, this is how I like, I
know these players well and I brought them here because
they can handle me. This is how I motivate my players.

(50:24):
And then they went and smacked like sat like Villanova
is something by forty the next game and everyone just
kind of moved on there little bit. And he's also
Rick Patino, so he kind of gets to write that
stuff more. But so I understand that in a sense,
but he also kind of took it a little bit
more with a little bit more humility than mister coach
Cronin did there where he's like I can never be wrong,

(50:46):
you know, like Rick. Rick's always like when Rick put
He's like, I got to figure it out. I got
to figure out how to make I can't remember the
guy's name not move slow laterally right, But it's just
and it and also too Rick and that's in. And
that instance could have been like, oh, this is my
first year and these aren't my guys, dude, you've been
here forever. Now. Yeah, in basketball since like you you

(51:08):
can't blame the staff and the people when you brought
them here, like you could have changed it. We'll shift
over to football.

Speaker 1 (51:15):
There are some big games as you listen today. That
one's all Wait.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
If we're on the topic of basketball real quick, I'm sorry.
Did you see the men's game last night?

Speaker 1 (51:25):
I went to bet you're gonna love this. Well, First
of all, it was on like Peacock or something.

Speaker 4 (51:31):
Was it.

Speaker 2 (51:31):
It was on Peacock yet.

Speaker 1 (51:32):
So I didn't I couldn't have watched any of it anyway,
but I was Peacock.

Speaker 2 (51:35):
No. I was following on.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
The Google like just like the updated like you search
Iowa basketball and it shows the score at the top
of the search results.

Speaker 2 (51:42):
And I saw it go to seventy what.

Speaker 1 (51:44):
Was it, seventy six, seventy three whatever, seventy four, seventy
seventy seven seventy fourth, they were up three, so right
after it was right before they just hit the three
at the end, I said, okay, perfect, they were up one.
I saw them go up three. I'm like, okay, cool,
as long as they don't hit a three at the buzzer.
I'm gonna wake up and the Hawks want a basketball
game tomorrow morning. No, first thing I do, I literally

(52:06):
closed my phone from that tab, went to sleep. First
thing I did when I woke up, grabbed the phone,
opened that tab, refreshed, saw it was ninety seven eighty seven,
and I said, oh no, oh yes, but oh no,
they let them go to overtime, like wow, and then
obviously I saw all of what transpired.

Speaker 2 (52:24):
Crazy. Yeah, No, it was an awesome game, fantastic I
wish if I mean, don't get wrong, I love overtime
chaos like that was a very exciting win. I wish
we would just handled them the whole game, like we
had to come back from I think now like fifteen
or seventeen points. That wasn't great. But no, Dude's like,
I mean this just Dix man.

Speaker 1 (52:46):
All you need is a little Dixon.

Speaker 2 (52:47):
You He's He's incredible. He's a great player, And I
don't know that was a big win for a team
because we need our net. In terms of net, our
quad wan record is not very good, so we need
to be beating these teams that are kind of level
with us at a very minimum. Sure, and we're just
we're flowing around the bubble right now. We're We're gonna
be floating around there, I'm sure all year.

Speaker 1 (53:07):
So that win some games.

Speaker 2 (53:09):
Yeah, and I think this will age one. Like the
Nebraska squad is solid, so that'll I think that'll be nice.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
We're gonna shift very quickly into the upcome. There's not
a lot to say. It's not like I know these
teams front back. We've gotten to see him play in
the playoffs. There's two games left, it's the semi finals
grant of the College Football inaugural twelve team Playoff. Yep,
and your Notre Dame fighting irish. In fact, I'll retract
that statement. It's not your Notre Dame and it's not
even my Notre Dame.

Speaker 2 (53:33):
It's definitely not my Notre Dame. We'll be taking on
Penn State.

Speaker 1 (53:38):
Notre Dame is a one and a half point favorite
as I look right now at seven to sixteen PM
on Wednesday night. Sure that over under total sitting currently
at forty four and a half. And Friday, so as
you listen to this on Thursday, that game is tonight
at six thirty. Tomorrow Friday night at six thirty, the
Ohio State Buckeyes will take on Texas and that is

(54:01):
Ohio State minus six with an over understitting at fifty
three and a half. What excites you, Grant Allen about
the two games left for this college football season. Well,
there's one more effort that obviously the championship.

Speaker 2 (54:13):
But well, I think it is well one, first of all,
now that we're in the Semis, we are guaranteed a
coach who has never won before will win a championship
this year. That's cool. That is cool. So I think
in terms of the argument of like, oh, it's the
same people dominating over and over and over again, it's
slowly whittled in a way. And I think the expanded

(54:34):
playoff helps out a ton. I think, and I all
hope that a ton. There's a lot of things that
are contributing to that. I think that's really cool. I love, love,
love love that we got the Big ten representation going
on right now, because I look at these teams and
I think a lot of people would make the argument
that the two strongest right now are out of the
Big Ten. So as a conference pride guy, I love

(54:56):
that I.

Speaker 1 (54:57):
Could have an all Big Ten national championship.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
And I'm not jigson it or anything, but it like
could have happened. Yeah, math wise, there's a chance. Could
it also be zero in the championship? Yeah, sure that
could easily happen too, But I just like the prospect
of that, I think. But when I look at some
of these games, I look at let's start with Penn
State Notre Dame. Right, these are two programs I feel
like are very very similar where it's like, you look

(55:22):
at Penn State, what's the narrative with James Franklin, the
guy can't win a bigger game? When was the last
time he won a big game? Notre Dame over the
past fifteen years, what's the narrative with them? Why do
they don't win big games?

Speaker 1 (55:33):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (55:34):
So I don't know if I'm gonna you know what,
this could be controversial. Oh, go as far to say this,
I think the semi final of the College Football Playoff
is a big game. So I'm gonna I'm breaking news. Yeah,
I'm gonna. I'm gonna be get controversial here. I think
one of these guys is gonna be forced to win
a big game. And it's kind of funny where you
look at it, right, just a big thing when I

(55:56):
like to predict games that visualize it might look like
for a team to win. Can you can you yourself
visualize Penn State with James Franklin in the National Championship It.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
Makes me want to close your eyes.

Speaker 2 (56:10):
Can you visualize it? It's kind of tough for me
to visualize that, but at the same time, close your
eyes and visualize it. Can you visualize a team that
lost to Northern Illinois this season? It's not that they
lost to them in nineteen forty, it is they lost
to them this year in the National Championship game. It's

(56:32):
it's tough. I will say it's tough to do, but
I will say.

Speaker 1 (56:36):
Has been they I don't know. They must have been
out to lunch that day. I will say this, And
it was a whole thing, like, oh, should Notre Dame
be in like they're great? They played good down the stretch.
They're hot like they are hot?

Speaker 2 (56:48):
No, they're playing significantly better football right now, that's not
even an argument, right, But I do you have to
remember that's the same team still, like that's just as
much in them as beating Georgia is. And I think
with Notre Dame, I don't. There's a little bit of
a thing where I think the score against Georgia came

(57:10):
off bigger than I think the game realistically was. Like
I think they were like three plays away from that
being like a field goal game. Parker Jones, who again,
like I said, I'm kind of Parker Jones defender. I
think the're referring into him, if I'm being honest. But
that's a whole different discussion that you can go on
packground and listen to. But I'm excited for that game.
You go to the other side of the bracket, Ohio State,

(57:32):
Texas big big time stuff.

Speaker 1 (57:35):
That's a big time game. That is that is college
football right there.

Speaker 2 (57:38):
Oh. I think in terms of just if you wanted
like fresh, a mix of fresh and also classic, you
might have gotten the best you could get. Oh yeah, Texas,
Ohio State. You have on one side Ryan Day, who
has gone from the most hated man in the sport
potentially to all of a sudden like is he going

(57:59):
to win the national champ? Is this the best team ever? Crazy?
And then also you have Texas, who, just being Texas
is always in the spot of they got a win
national title to be back quote unquote, but they've gotten
to the semis now at least two years in a row,
and they're playing two They've played two really good teams
both times. There's definitely some pressure there of like, and

(58:20):
when you're the coach of Texas, you don't want to
be the guy who's like, oh, he can't get past
the semi, right, we have to go move on to
someone else. I think that'd be stupid. But let's say
Ohio State blows them out like they blow out Oregon
and Tennessee. There's definitely going to be some people like,
is Sark really are long term guy? If we've seen
them losing the big stage bunch of times? True, I
don't know. And I think that's going to be an

(58:42):
interesting game for sure. Because here's the other thing of
Ohio State, and you can answer this question. I think
it's a good like former player question for it. I
think we saw the malicious beatdown of Tennessee in part
because of what Michigan did to them. Like, I think
they were so angry and so mad. They read for
weeks about how they sucked, about how they weren't a

(59:03):
good team, about how this was the biggest nil mistake ever,
and they went out there and proved that they were
worth more than that. Right is now we're two games
into this, now where all of a sudden the narrative
is flipped to is this the greatest team ever? How
much are they going to be Texas by These guys
are so good that just give them the national championship? Now?
Is there a chance that it's flipped already to back

(59:26):
to where it was of like we're the press clippings
now are too good and they're kind of feeling they
don't prove everyone wrong as much anymore.

Speaker 1 (59:35):
I don't think they've lost the fire, but I do
think that after two blowout victories over what we're perceived
to be pretty dang good teams, especially the Oregon one, it's.

Speaker 2 (59:46):
The playoff now, these are all good teams.

Speaker 1 (59:48):
I would say, well the Tennessee, well, yeah, that was
the first round of the playoff. I it's I think
as a player, you have to try to avoid getting
a little bit tight, not necessar nessarly not caring, but
caring too much that now you're gonna play tight.

Speaker 2 (01:00:04):
And sure there could be a.

Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
Little bit of that, right like, and there's and a
little bit of that too. Is also understanding like, hey,
we're going up again, Like we cannot overestimate our ability
even though we're crushing teams, Like Texas is a good
football team. You play this game one hundred times, Texas
wins some of those times, right, Yeah, And I don't
know if we see another blowout. I think we see

(01:00:27):
Ohio State win. But it is one interesting situation where
like it feels like they could win a national championship
and they're like okay, but also Ryan Day like.

Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
And look a lot of this is me playing Devil's advocate, right,
So I understand.

Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
I understand the same.

Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
Thing with Arizona State and Boys State and every other team,
because I don't want to just come on here and
be like we're just going, chuck, we're picking the bet,
We're just going, oh, shocker, they picked Ohio State, who's
now like minus five hundred win the whole thing. Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:00:55):
Yeah, they actually on DraftKings have odds of all four
potential matchups for the championship, like if Ohio State wins,
Notre Dame wins, if Penn State wins, if Texas the biggest,
the biggest.

Speaker 2 (01:01:07):
What is Texas versus Penn State in the championship.

Speaker 1 (01:01:10):
That it would be the second closest spread like theoretical
spread of a three point Texas minus three.

Speaker 2 (01:01:18):
I love Penn State.

Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
There. The closest spread is if Notre Dame in Texas
were to win, that's Texas minus two and a half.

Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
Who what is okay? Hold on? What is Ohio State
in Notre Dame.

Speaker 1 (01:01:32):
That's minus seven and a half Ohio State.

Speaker 2 (01:01:34):
Wow? See and this is where I think and Ohio
State Penn State minus eight and a half Ohio State.
So here's the issue is that with both teams that
could potentially play Ohio State are just They are not
chuck it down field. Teams like Ohio State can go fast,
they can score.

Speaker 1 (01:01:52):
Quickly, they can go damn fast.

Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
The games that Penn State and Notre Dame want to
play is running the ball through your face like Chunk
yard A can throw it, play defense, Riley Learning can
throw it, but they don't want to have to throw
it forty five yards downfield every single play correct. They
want a methodical, low scoring game is what they want.
So I think that that's interesting that all of a
sudden it blows up like, Yeah, how State could absolutely
torch these guys. Yeah, in theory they could. But also

(01:02:18):
I don't know. I just as much as I can,
I have to criticize Notre Dame for being like, that's
the same team I lost to, and I you they
have that in them. Oh, host also Austin Michigan like
they have that in them as well too, which I'm
worried that's going to come back out after we've It
would almost be too college football, Like as soon as
we started awarding this team for being really good, they

(01:02:41):
just went back to themselves.

Speaker 1 (01:02:44):
You're right, Uh, do you want to make some picks?

Speaker 2 (01:02:47):
We can make some picks. Sure, I'm gonna make three picks.
I hate all these they all stink. I hate all
this already. I'm gonna have anything to read this down.

Speaker 1 (01:02:58):
I will go first, and then I'll read Kevin's and
then you can you could finish. I'm gonna take Penn
State at the current plus one and a half line
over Notre Dame don't. I don't necessarily like either of
these teams in the national championship or seeing them succeed,
But I do feel like Penn State's been playing well
and I'd love to see an all Big ten national championship.

(01:03:18):
I'll take Penn State plus one and a half. I'm
also gonna take that game to go over forty four
and a half.

Speaker 2 (01:03:25):
Oh okay, okay.

Speaker 1 (01:03:28):
And then in the Ohio State game, I'm gonna take
Ohio State minus six. Do I make a pick? Do
I make four picks?

Speaker 2 (01:03:38):
I'm gonna say.

Speaker 1 (01:03:40):
I'm gonna say that game goes over as well, fifty
three and a half. I'm gonna say over on both games.
Kevin Awards Winners is the segment, By the way, Kevin's
picks is Penn State Notre Dame under he got it
at forty five and a half and Ohio State minus
five and a half.

Speaker 2 (01:04:00):
So he Yeah, he's got the better lines he did
in theory. So I guess if you wanted to, if
you you went opposite, you went over, So I guess
you got a better line there. Uh. If I'm doing
picks here, uh, I hate that. I can't do just
a million picks right now. We didn't even recap the
the other picks I got. I don't even know what
my record was. I either had like eight games pending

(01:04:21):
in the bulldos.

Speaker 1 (01:04:22):
I don't remember either.

Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
I think it was going okay, if I remember correctly,
we'll have no idea how it went.

Speaker 1 (01:04:28):
I lost the Iowa bet I know that.

Speaker 2 (01:04:31):
Did you even pick Iowa? I don't even think he did. Oh, okay,
do we need to go back? Do we need a receipt?

Speaker 1 (01:04:35):
No, we don't need to. We don't seats right now?

Speaker 2 (01:04:38):
What? Okay? What my picks? I didn't really I didn't
really rent the ton of stuff down. I'm going to
take the under penn State Not Dame. I I like that.
I just think both teams are gonna run the ball's
two and up clock. I also, again, they both want
low scoring. They both I like their defenses. I don't
really I think if Notre Dame gets to twenty points,
like the game is like there is there is there
enough time left, like I think, and like I mentioned

(01:05:02):
earlier with that note Dame game versus Georgia three points
like three plays go differently, and that game is a
lot more low scoring than it seemed like think of
it as the they had the fumble that turned into
a touchdown, like last minute in the first half, Like
that game went from six to three Georgia to all
of a sudden George's first drive with like ten seconds

(01:05:22):
into the second half, They're on twenty to six. Yeah,
I know, so I think that might be a little
bit inflated. I'm also gonna take Penn State for the
same reasons. I think a Note Dame might be a
little overvalued right now, and I think just everyone's hopping
on Notre Dame right now, So I'm gonna do it
as I'm gonna hop off a Notre Dame. I'll take

(01:05:42):
Penn State there. I just I struggle taking Ohio State
a little bit, just because I think they're the most
Like everyone in their mother is gonna take Ohio State now, sure, yeah,
like they've you somehow went from like Tennessee. Everyone was like,
Ohio State stinks, We're all going to take Tennessee to
now just a few weeks later, everyone's like, oh, you
have to take a Wio State. But my thing is

(01:06:03):
with the playoff this year is that a lot of
it has just been everyone's taking this one team and
they're just right. Yeah yeah, like everyone's like I was
still works. I was like, oh my gosh, like eighty
five percent of bets around Penn State, like against SMU
the stinks and just hey, you know what, maybe eighty
five percent of people were just right.

Speaker 1 (01:06:21):
Occasionally the occasionally the public gets it right because it's
just it just is obviously.

Speaker 2 (01:06:25):
So I hate it. I'm gonna take did you you
took issue as well? Right? I can't. Can't all take
a issue?

Speaker 1 (01:06:30):
Well you could?

Speaker 2 (01:06:31):
This is a bad setup. Could This is why I
need more games, so we don't all take the same games. Yea,
so this this stinks. I guess I'm gonna take the
Broncos post nine and a half. Then is the way
that I have to do it against Let's go look
at no one's expecting it. No one would. I saw
someone did like they like, I want to sprinkle some
money line on there. The plastic helmets pick, and the

(01:06:53):
plastic helmets pick the Broncos. So that's all I need
to see. Uh No, We'll just do Ohio State. It screwed, okay,
So I have Penn State, the Penn State under and
Ohio States six and the Broncos. Plus, are you gonna
let me do the NFL? You can?

Speaker 1 (01:07:07):
Absolutely?

Speaker 2 (01:07:08):
Yeah? Well all right, hold on, do we just do
we we might have to cut this out now. Do
we just want to pull up the NFL lines as well?
Do we just want to go a wild card weekend?
Is that what you want? You want to get crazy
with this?

Speaker 1 (01:07:18):
Not really?

Speaker 2 (01:07:19):
Okay, No, we don't have to. All right, I'll keep
those of you. We'll keep it simple. How's that I
like it?

Speaker 1 (01:07:26):
College football continues to wind down, only three games left.
Iowa grabs Mark Gronowski and the Portal and the walk
Guns are off and running for twenty twenty five. We're
happier here. We're happy to have MG as QB one
theoretically probably, and we are excited to do more episodes

(01:07:48):
coming soon that we'll have guests on them. But we
also have some themed episodes. Like I said the ten Questions,
I've got a couple other lined up. Lima and I
Colt are going to be coming back on for their
monthly appearance. Going to get them monthly in the off season.
We have a lot coming down the pipe. Thanks for
being with us, Grant and Clove out, See you next time.

Speaker 2 (01:08:09):
Hey, thanks for listening to the show.

Speaker 1 (01:08:10):
If you want more, you can check us out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,
and YouTube by searching Washed Up walk Ons. And if
you're interested in supporting the show, head over to patreon
dot com slash washed Up walk Ons, where you can
find bonus podcasts, merchandise, and other cool perks.

Speaker 2 (01:08:25):
Best part, half of your subscription benefits.

Speaker 1 (01:08:27):
The kids at UI Children's Hospital. We'll see you next time.
Hawks buy a million