hey Hawkeye fans Chad litico of the de Mo register with Tyler tashman of the de Mo register it is shawk week always a big week for us uh considering we're based in the central part of the state um at least I am Tyler's over here in Iowa City where kind of insulated am I Eastern right yeah yes you're Eastern Eastern okay Eastern I'm still I'm still getting down my Iowa geography because it's like you fly out of the Eastern Iowa airport right yeah well actually funn actually I have a funny story for that so like one of the first times I was flying out of that airport uh it was actually to go to the Penn State game the Penn State game oh yeah and it was like Eastern Iowa Airport I'm like that's not that's we were driving past it and I'm like and this was 5:00 a.m. by the way but we're driving past and I'm like it's not Eastern Iowa it's in Cedar Rapids like Eastern Iowa Airport that's something else and then I get I go all the way to Cedar Rapids and I'm like oh that I think that actually was the airport and so we had to turn around ended up making the flight but it was a who's we oh my dad was Dad he was going back to uh North Carolina but okay anyways I made it to Penn State and then that game ended up being terrible so yeah that was not worth the trip that was a brutal trip uh didn't we stay in Harrisburg is that right yeah and I mean we were driving back at like 2: a.m. or whatever it was after because we were staying so far away so what a miserable night that was a miserable memory and uh speaking of Kade mimer as a completely different man uh go what a segue yeah let's uh Inc we were GNA maybe start with with Kirk fence but let's do him second since you kind of let us right into Cade mcamera talk obviously a big storyline coming into this week is you know can the Iowa offense stick and I know you're writing a little bit about that uh we'll talk about that here and a big driver of that conversation obviously is Cade mcnamer and we heard from him after the game after the hot guys beat Illinois State 40 to nothing Tyler um got about 10 15 minutes with him today so a much more engaging interview than last week which is about four minutes of pretty short conversation ahead of the opener he just seems after two interviews since his performance now he just he seems so much more relaxed uh maybe get us give us a little give our listeners a little window into kind of some of the things he said today that I don't know shaped your opinion on how he's feeling yeah I'll pull up a quote something that he said um just about the performance vers Illinois State he said honestly it feels like a relief it's been a tough two years for me personally and for me to finally be out there and to feel like I played the way I think I should be able to play and the impact I feel like I can have on our offense that felt really good and for me to come back Sunday morning and not to have to go to the training room was a really good feeling so I think that pretty much described it pretty well and and it was and one of the big things about his performance is like we finally saw it we finally saw him put it together on the field in an Iowa uniform and like that's something we just hadn't seen he he hadn't had a game like that uh since his Michigan days and um to actually see him regardless of the fact that it was Illinois State like I know we have to put caveats in this that this was not against uh a defense like Iowa is going to face the rest of the season or on Saturday against Iowa State but the simple fact of just being able just knowing that he can do that again it's it's he's capable of doing it um I think for his mental like he said it's a relief just for him to know that he is capable of doing that um it that just felt like maybe one of the the biggest things to come out of it is that just seeing that not only Kade mcnamer but but I was offense is capable of having a day like that and now you hope on you know you hope that they can continue to build off of it against some better competition yeah the uh 251 passing yards uh was the most that Kade has had since November 20th 2021 when he threw was 21 of 28 for 259 at Maryland um when he was obviously the quarterback in Michigan when they were going you know on their way to the college football playoffs so um again you Circle back to those types of games and you know that's been a while it's been a long time and so yeah I it struck me how just I mean and that and when you say he's relieved I mean it's like he's describing the whole Hawkeye fan base right now too granted we're not saying okay he's gonna be great all 12 games this year we're not saying that at all but it was such a huge question and you can tell from his answers Tyler that he was questioning it right because he didn't know he didn't know if he'd be able to to show what he did on Saturday and so uh obviously that's a big storyline coming into this week and and kind of shapes how I feel about this game and just for the offense in general to like just have that positive kind of feel around like when when's the last time legitimately you have felt encouraged about Iowa's offense and possible and possibly the trajectory of it and like the other thing you know that maybe feeds into that is that this was Tim Lester's very first game as Iowa offensive coordinator like this was the first time truly the the we you know the kind of wheel their training wheels came off of the offense and to see what they were able to do and the fact that they were able to put up 40 points now my question kind of becomes is we've seen and this is just all across Sports in general that teams can have kind of they can look good for a half and they can look bad for half is that what I was going to end up being like wildly inconsistent or can they put together that on a more consistent basis is that just where maybe they're hit and miss and they do have a really good game on one week and another week it's not very good at all I mean that would still be an improvement from what it has been but if Iowa's offense wants to be what it says it wants to be you have to put together those two halves that seems like the next step for me is like you know because you might not be able to afford that if if you want any shot to beat Ohio state or stay in that game you're not going to be able to probably play an offensive half as poor as you did against in the first half against Illinois State yeah and I mean you could play the whatif game here but let's just do that real quick um toward the end of the first half uh you know Kade talked about a real confidence building Drive obviously they get three points out of it but one of the plays that occurred during that Drive Tyler actually late in that drive was a pass over the middle and it got I think I can't remember if it hit a helmet or a hand but it went way up in the air and it looked like it could have been picked off very easily um let's say that does just end up in a Illinois State player's arms you know you know how does our percept how does our perception change how do they go into halftime feeling uh that was kind of a I felt like a confidence building Drive even though they only got three points out of it because they moved the football you know he said you know he talked about making those throws to Lee and vandery on that drive today and then he had a uh you know I wrote in my DVR Monday how a couple of scrambles that he made one that didn't count one that did really I felt like kind of got him into the flow of the game almost and um I think that was probably encouraging to him as well so um you know how much does that change if that gets picked how much does it change if you know ree vandery doesn't pluck that one ball out of the air and instead it gets intercepted I mean I'm not saying you know you can't Rel legislate these plays they happened how they happened but maybe against Iowa State you know those are two interceptions instead of a touchdown and a field goal and then if you don't tack on a Caleb Johnson You Know Field T you know score at the end maybe the final score is 23 nothing or 233 and you're not feeling quite as good as you are today so you know little margins are part of this too and they win Iowa's way uh on Saturday but I think the the key is that the offense seem to gain gain a boost and it's just I me I just not to talking to everybody I mean especially Logan Jones I love talking to Logan Jones because he tells it like it is and and he said today he's like yeah this Tuesday practice was our best Tuesday practice you know because I asked him has that is the momentum real is it tangible I think it's on the video if you guys want to watch it and then someone followed up uh later I think it was Elliot asked Kade about the two because we talked to Kade a couple hours later you know how would you assess the Tuesday practice and he was like oh yeah like last Tuesday's practice was was horrible you know was like pretty miserable and this today uh was really good for the offense and remember they're going against the one offense so one defense I mean so to me you just you take these notes these are tangible signs that that progress is being made both in confidence with the offense now let's see him take it into the game on Saturday I was I thought it was notable that they were talking about how good the practice was uh Tuesday but then I was like I kind of was like all right I need to chill on this because I feel like people have heard so much about practice and what they've looked like in practice I was like all right I might just like kind ofing rain that in a little bit but I mean I no set this one out right yeah it was good to hear um but and and this kind of goes into you know Iowa state is just such a great opportunity for Iowa to validate what they showed offensively against Illinois state to show that it is replicable and this is you know you don't expect them to score 40 points but that this is the type offensive performance that Iowa can string together against a better opponent and you think back to like Iowa's very first offensive drive against Utah State last season Kade mcnamer hit Seth Anderson the offense has some juice and you're thinking like this could be something and now that that the rest of that game didn't turn out very well but it was still something you looked at in the moment like w this looks kind of promising but then you get the rest of the context of the season and you're like okay that was just that was kind of false hope that wasn't real that was an aberration that's what I'm curious to see how this plays out for Iowa is this one where eight weeks down the road we're looking back at the Illinois State game and like like oh wow we actually thought IA offense really had some significant momentum and that didn't pan out or is it or is it we look that you know six eight weeks down the road where that was a real indication that this Iowa offense has some steam to it so that's where I just feel like it's you know it's important to keep that in the back of your mind of like it was really good that Iowa showed that and to have that positive momentum around the offense but at the same time it's got to be sustained because if it's just a one off it that's not going to make a whole lot of a difference you know come game 11 12 yeah and I feel like the players that we talked to today you know said the right things I mean Jennings dunker is a great example I mean they're not they're not just spiking the football in the offense no one's just saying they've arrived anything like that uh they know they have things to work on they know they scored three points in their first six possessions um you know there this is this was still a work in progress yeah they got hot for a half that's great we haven't seen him get that hot in a half for a long long time uh so you know I think it's it's fine to feel positive but I think that the players have the right mentality and just circling back to Cade one more time I mean it just you just felt like this is a guy that you know confident in his health now that was a big hurdle that Kirk ference mentioned you know he's just got to be comfortable you know trust himself Lester talked about that as well just gotta you know get out it's easy to say get out there and play relaxed he said but to do it it was good to see so we'll keep tracking it obviously that's what we do you'll keep tracking it as well I know out there as fans but uh I think all in all I come out of Tuesday feeling like uh they're in the good head space offensively and like you said Tyler it's hard to imagine the last time really felt that about an Iowa offense certainly not the last two years for sure and probably go back to the middle of the 2021 season maybe going into that Penn State game the big Penn State game in 20121 so been a long time so you're right uh uh good to good to note uh our second topic today is the return of Kirk fence uh you know obviously we didn't see him saturday uh Seth Wallace had the postgame press conference but Kirk ference was back today Tyler um I spent the morning just picking the brains of the players like what does that mean blah blah blah they said like yeah it's cool like yeah we're excited to have him back and but it I didn't sense that there's any rallying cry for Kirk anything like that and and Kirk almost seemed more annoyed that he had to missed the game than anything I mean yes he he enjoyed having scrambled eggs with his grandson but other than that I think his Saturday was pretty uh sterile as he put it yeah it was interesting to hear what uh his Saturday was like like you mentioned he said he had scrambled eggs his grandson was there I'm just looking to kind of have a quote uh picked out of what he said but I mean he he said how different it was watching it on TV one of he said one of the good things was he had a nice surface to write on so I guess for his ingame leg Yeah Yeah but um just have to take in the game because obviously he's just so used to taking an intimate setting and the fact that he was saying how I mean the people these are people he works with for so much of his time that and he's so invested in it to be kind of just feel like you know you said disconnected basically from it um it would have been interesting to kind of be a fly on on the wall as Kirk fence watched the game it didn't sound like it was like too emotional maybe necessarily for him maybe the highs and lows of it which you you uh would expect from him but uh yeah it was just it was interesting to kind of hear his take on what that whole day was like and and having to experience like a lot of fans do I guess just kind of you know watching it through the through the TV yeah I retweeted somebody who said uh did Kirk uh I gotta find it actually I'll find it before I because I don't want to mess up the reading oh you talking about uh the dishwasher yeah unloading the dish yeah TJ T TJ TJ D Chico said did he try emptying the dishwasher during the first half to see if that would help the offense I love that so much you know let if he did then it worked so I guess get those clean dishes put back into place yeah he did say Mary fence is obviously his wife uh gave him some space at halftime you know we didn't you know who knows if he was steaming or you know I'm sure he wasn't but you know but I think what I wanted a sense of and I didn't know how to ask it exactly but uh you know would would this Taste of Home like being you know a relaxing on a Saturday would that kind of like appeal to Kirk frence like oh wow you know maybe maybe retirement wouldn't be so bad it seemed like the total opposite to me seemed like he hated it uh he he really missed being in the locker room after a win um or a loss he even said after a loss like you just those emotions after the game you can't replace it he said it just wasn't the same coming back on Sunday that's kind of the sense I got from the players too there wasn't some big you know moment Sunday where it was like you know swarming Kirk ference's office you know and a party I think it was just back to business and he just missed out so it's kind of like fear of missing out right fomo and uh yeah he I don't think he wants to do that again and so I don't know if you're thinking like this is Kirk's last year I still I find it hard to believe he's gonna walk away anytime soon but never know well one of the best details I thought he gave was him saying he didn't know what to do during halftime and I think that's just like such a like such something that you can relate to like as a college football fan of being like man you got to wait 15 minutes or whatever it is like before the second half starts and usually he's in there you know I'm sure talking with coaches and players and it's like he didn't really know what to do with his time like waiting for the second half to start so I know I know you saw that that oh man I gotta I wish I had it up I'm sorry I'm not going to be able to quote who said it but it like uh you know the tweet on Saturday about how Mary it was a joke tweet but like Mary called Kirk's sleep in the recliner Seth call whatever you want at half time and of course they go on to you know 34 points or whatever no it did seem to to your point about the like whole retirement thing of like whether this would give him you know maybe like a taste of it like he just you know I think there's a difference between maybe how old someone is and like just the energy behind them and he still seems like he has like it it doesn't seem like his energy is slowing down much you know I I don't know how if you see it in the same way but it just seems like you know age is age almost is at this point is still a number for him and he the passion and drive he has you know mentally and emotionally it still feels like it's it's there yeah it's okay so dargan found the tweet for me I want to give full credit so it's carollyn 1451 it's got like 280 retweets 118,000 views so yeah hey Seth it's Mary this is phone call to half she says hey Seth it's Mary if he fell asleep in the recliner you can run whatever you want now hasag Iowa Soh I love that people had fun with it obviously you know when you win 40 to nothing it's it's time to you know you can have a little levity with it uh but it seemed like uh it was you know a positive thing for everybody they learned that they can they survive without fence um it goes to show that the team is has great leadership coaching staff very Sol I mean really you really can't I don't even know if you can nitpick hardly anything can you of what happened Saturday I mean as well as you could hope yeah I think even the Seth Wallace going for it on fourth down is like you would agree with that like that was probably a good call good call at the point in time the last thing I'll uh add about it is I just man I wish that we could experience uh fence live tweeting the game I just wish I just wish someone would have put a phone in front of them with their Twitter account and have him live tweet because that would have been that would have been fun to watch oh yeah there's no way you ever would have done it but it would be something that would have been like a good like endorsement deal or something but maybe like part of a suspension you can't do that who knows um anything else on this topic or should we move on to the health health report no we can go on yeah uh so our third topic uh this afternoon is is basically you know Iowa's getting stronger while Iowa State uh is has is a little banged up uh Caleb bacon their their linebacker is had surgery and is is out for this game and and probably a very long time um they said it was a lower at Campbell saying it's a lower leg injury uh could be out you know a long time he says for a while he said so this is their their middle linebacker their top tackler um that's a big deal uh for the Cyclones uh to lose a player like that I mean just imagine the hawkey losing Jay Higgins like yeah you might maybe you be like I'm sure they have depth it's not like they're not gonna they're not gonna play with 10 but um it's it's a big deal to lose you know a fixture like that on your defense and so uh you know that's something I'm sure Iowa Iowa's offensive coaches are looking at this week and looking at what North OTA did and what cayb Bacon's replacement did in that game and trying to find weaknesses and someone else Kirk mentioned uh Seth Anderson I know that's someone that I mean just kind of been unknown with not really seeing him out on the field much um you know since the end of last season but so he said it doesn't it didn't look as bad as they initially thought he'd said they'll probably know more by the end of the week but he he's likely not going to play this week um he said hopefully they're talking about a week or two and not more so that's that's the update with Seth Anderson also we saw Logan Jones go out a little bit uh in the Illinois State game sounded like it was just cramps so he's that that wasn't any major issue or anything like that and then obviously um Caleb Brown that that wasn't an injury but a suspension one game suspension for Caleb Brown uh he comes back against Iowa State so uh that's another guy in the fold I guess you could you could look at as a potential playmaker and um and and just on the injury front in general like it it well it's encouraging first that Iowa got out of the game he like pretty healthy like very healthy I would say and um when we talk about Ken Iowa string together multiple games and can the offense kind of put it together in for an extended period health is a major major thing of that because just look at last season like last season they showed flashes and not to the agree that they did against Illinois state but the Eric all injury the Luke leay injury the Kade mcnamer injury those were just devastating because that offense it really took away any chance they had of of trying to kind of gain some positive momentum and like I wonder what I was offense would have looked like last season if you would had a healthy unit for the entire season maybe they they were able to they were going to be able to kind of put it together but if Iowa has those types of situations again this season like it it that's going to be be really hard to overcome again so you have to keep you know I feel like Caleb Johnson Luke Lea Kade mcamera um you know ree vanders these those are some of the guys that like you have to keep as healthy as possible to allow this offense to really start to build some momentum yeah you said it I mean I I really think those four names are the are the main four guys uh you got to keep healthy Gade mamir Caleb Johnson Luke Lee and yeah ree vandery I would put him at at the top of the list right now because that's that's actually a passing threat um so you weren't here on the beat in 2022 Tyler but two years ago at kinnick Stadium when Iowa State came to town Iowa had two scholarship receivers available in that game that was Arland Bruce the fourth and Brody bre the baseball player who just is a first or whatever second round draft pick of the Rockies so um that was it two years ago Iowa lost that game 10 to seven they had like no offense that game they gained 15 yards on that Saturday and the reason I bring that up is because it just feels so much different right now because the we're not saying the wide receivers room is is solved anything like that but You' you're you're seeing encouraging pieces U being developed you know you think back to cayb Brown's final month of last season well he's back this week Kirk fence said he had a strong week on the scout team that's what happens for those OWI guys uh they have to you know spend the week on the scout team and then like you know do community service during the game so that's kind of their punishment and that's what happened but sounds like he did everything he was supposed to do and is practicing well and will be on the field Saturday um so he is back in that rotation so I would expect uh you know they played vandery and Gil like heavy reps 68 for Gil 64 for vandery on the snap counts and then after that it was Kaden wein uh you know way down the list in snaps and then Jarrett buy had I think nine snaps and then Alex ikan had two snaps and that was it for receivers so now you you inject Caleb Brown into that equation and um that's just a positive I mean it's somebody you can do something with you know jet sweeps we saw him score a touchdown against records last year and that you know on on a run uh it's just a positive to have receiving you know options and then I I think about uh you know they've got three I wrote this in DVR Monday I mean they've got three tight ends you feel okay about I mean uh Zack gorth is a downfield option as their third tight end and Addison arranga had a really solid game as a number two tight end and obviously Luke Lee was the top receiver on the day even though he didn't have a touchdown he he had six catches so uh on eight targets so you you suddenly compared to two years ago in this game you feel so much better about Iowa's passing game than you did then and and you know it's basically a tossup type of matchup again to go back to vandery the sense that I've gotten just from talking to various guys on the team is like I hate to use the word like secret weapon but it's like it almost feels like that's the way Iowa kind of approached it because it they kept it pretty well under wraps leading up to the season like but they could only do so much because there's uh kids day he made like a really good catch and you kind of see him like legitimately in the rotation and it seemed like a real possibility that he was going to be a contributor but it wasn't like when we talked to guys in Camp and stuff it wasn't like Reese fers has just been incredible and like he's going to be this freshman Phenom it felt like they they almost kind of used that to their advantage a little bit of like Illinois state would probably have no idea who this kid was and um so it was just interesting to see how that is kind of about but he just seems like a uh Nick Jackson was thinking he just a guy that just continued to progress week after week uh during fall camp and really building momentum and the crazy thing about that is like he was dealing with an injury over the summer and the fact that he played ver virtually all of his snaps his senior year high school at quarterback because Zack lutmer uh who's a great ahead of him was a quarterback before at his high school he left so then vandery took over at quarterback so like he's barely really played any receiver the last couple years dealt with an injury over the summer is a true freshman and then comes in to uh receiving touchdowns in his first ever game so it's I mean it's just kind of an incredible story and and this really could just be the beginning of it for for Ree vandery and that was a huge recruiting win it was Iowa versus Iowa State for vandery so you know imagine if he has a big game here you know what a big decision uh that could end up being obviously we're a long ways away from something like that happening but it's certainly possible after we saw on Saturday so the last piece of the kind of the full strength report for the Hawkeyes is Caleb Johnson uh moves from the number three line and suspended as we reported in the first half against Illinois state to on the Cod number one line Tyler with Kamari Molton and so uh Caleb's been an interesting guy you know led the team in as a true freshman in rushing last year injuries regression there was one game he didn't even play coach's decision so he's been sort of I mean fents wouldn't say it but he has been in and out of favor a little bit among the coaches with some some things behind the scenes I don't think I don't think that's a big secret so uh it sound I asked Kirk about that today what does he have to do to be you know in really good standing um with the coaching staff going forward and it sounded to me Tyler that Caleb has practiced really well since whatever incident happened that happened and Kirk said when he saw him on you know running on TV he said he thought that was the best he had looked as a runner since he's been in Iowa and so whoa you know that a comment like that that gets your attention um because Kirk doesn't hand out praise like that too often uh and certainly it looked like that to us too I mean what a what a weapon in the Run game uh especially you know in a new scheme I mean could we be seeing potentially a really you know I think everyone figured Abu Sama might be the best running back in this game coming in but Iowa may have the best running back and Caleb Johnson I think the Illinois State game kind of confirmed maybe some suspicion leading into the season that like this could be Caleb Johnson's year and uh the the promise he showed as a freshman uh and like you said kind of a rocky sophomore season because there was legit expectations that he could be that guy going into the S his sophomore season things kind of went off the rails a little bit for him and then Leon Williams uh really emerges but uh I mean he just has so many physical attributes that he could that you could want his physicality his size um and I mean it's all there in front of him like it the opportunity is there for him and I think that the second half against Illinois State kind of maybe even reinforce that this could be kind of his breakout in the in the year that he could be really dominant for Iowa uh any more Personnel updates I guess jazzi and Patterson was the only other thing coach's decision uh last week we reported he was suspended uh for the first half um sounds like he's back in the fold this week but obviously they're loaded at that position so we'll see I mean but Jazz had a huge game against the Cyclones last year remember that he had the only touchdown for the offense and he had that ridiculous block where he like yeah right helicoptered two players down at the same time that had the bit like 59 yard run right ear game was it fourth down I think so who knows you know why not bring him back for for the shawk game so anything else uh no I don't think so I think we covered pretty well perfect half hour on the on the money um Chad Li too Tyler Tashan we'll be back with you for a hawk Central radio show tomorrow on kxn o and obviously uh if you missed our postgame podcast it's on our website Hawk central.com Hawk Central on YouTube um two words you can always catch our our podcast there and we'll have one for you again Saturday night after the Hawkeyes face Iowa State uh again for Chad for Tyler tashman I'm Chad Lio you can see that on the names there uh we'll talk to you next time