Hawkeye Report Podcast

Happy 4th of July to everyone. Please enjoy the day with family and friends! One of the silly traditions that we started over two decades ago was picking Iowa football games for the season on July 4th.  So, here we are once again and with a podcast, we decided to also discuss it here. Not fully, but we give you the nuts and bolts of what was predicted. What record will the Hawkeyes have in 2025? Will there be any surprises along the way. both good and bad? What bowl game is being predicted? Also as a companion, we give some names to watch this season. Players on the Iowa roster who are on the rise and should make significant contributions on the field this season. Then we also have our "bold" predictions for the 2025 Iowa football season. Individual players and what they will do this season. Crazy stats that the Hawkeyes haven't hit in over five years that I think they will achieve this season.  But, before we get to football today, there is big news brewing on the men's basketball recruiting front. 2026 forw

It's what we like to call a housekeeping edition of the Hawkeye Report Podcast. Since we have been interview heavy most of this month we haven't caught up on a lot of news that been popping up for Iowa athletics.  Tom Kakert, Kyle Huesmann, and Tanner Lafever are on the podcast talking all things Hawkeyes. But, we open talking about the change that's coming to On3, the home for our site, once we officially bring our old home of Rivals on board on Tuesday.  After that we have a great discussion with Tanner about the state of Iowa wrestling and the Hawkeyes having their top recruit, Beau Bassett de-commit. It was a significant blow to Iowa wrestling and potentially to the future of the program. We dive into the possible/rumored reasons for Bassett moving on why Tom and Terry Brands are likely not going anywhere.  Then we talk with Kyle about women's hoops. We were at practice last week and give our first thoughts on the new additions of Addie Deal and Emely Rodriguez, along with all the returning players and we

It's a special edition of the Hawkeye Report Podcast. We are joined by Iowa men's basketball head coach Ben McCollum for pod talking all things Hawkeye basketball.  Of course we open the pod talking about the viral video clips from last week when Cooper DeJean played pickup ball with McCollum and his staff. It's a fun story about how the head coach might have stacked the deck that day on his team.  Then we start talking Iowa hoops and building a roster from the ground up for the second staight year. What was that like this time and did McCollum find it more challenging due to the inflated price tags on prospects? We discuss a couple of the new faces on the roster who were not with him at Drake and what he has seen from them and the weight room workouts that his plays do all the time and how and why he runs things that way in that area, including having his staff in the there offering encouragement.  We discuss the plan ahead from Iowa on how they hope to get students back and more involved in Hawkeye men's ba

We continue our coaches series this week with a fantastic new podcast interview with Tyler Barnes. These days Barnes is the General Manager and Chief of Staff for Iowa Football, which means he overseas not only the recruiting operation for the Hawkeyes, along with managing the NIL operation as far as making player payment decisions.  We open the pod talking about how a dead period doesn't actually mean dead period for someone in Barnes position. Then we dive into the new era of college football that begins on July 1st with schools paying players. He discusses how he came up with his payment formula based on NFL teams that were successful.  Then we dive into quite a few recruiting topics. Is a prospect asking about money out of the gate a red flag for Iowa football? What's negative recruiting look like today against the Hawkeyes? Will we see more high school players enroll early in January.  What does Barnes think about some of the NCAA proposals regarding recruiting, including being able to sign in August bef

Our huge week of podcasts continues. Next up is special guest, Iowa offensive line coach George Barnett. We go in-depth about his job and the players that he works with on a daily basis. The conversation starts with how he and the linemen had to adjust starting last year in the new offense being installed by Tim Lester. What was that process like? Then we move on to the veteran trio that will anchor this year's offensive line for the Hawkeyes. We start with a discussion of the value and leadership coming from the center position and Logan Jones. How important is he to what Iowa does up front? Then we discuss the development last year of Beau Stephens and the incredibly interesting and strong play from Gennings Dunker. We talk about Dunker turning down potentially opting for the NFL Draft and not taping his hands in games, which started last year.  We then look at the left tackle position and what Barnett sees as his options there. At the open guard position, what about the athletic freak that is Kade Pieper a

In this edition of the Hawkeye Report Podcast we are joined by our regular football podcast partner, Chuck Long, as we spent more than an hour talking Iowa football with second year offensive coordinator Tim Lester. Both Long and Lester were raised in Wheaton, IL, so we open the show discussing growing up there and how the community has changed, plus which high school was really the blue collar school. Then we dive into the Iowa offense and start with a look at the quarterback position. We get Lester's thoughts on Mark Gronowski and how he has progressed since the spring. We also get his thoughts on what he has seen from Hank Brown and the rest of the quarterback room, including the freshmen. Lester gives his thoughts on the wide receiver room, which is much deeper and more talented than it was a year ago. He has a few players that seem to be on the rise heading into the summer months. We also talk about the entire running back room and Lester has some interesting comments about a couple of younger backs at I

A semi emergency podcast on a Monday night. Tom Kakert and Matt Randazzo hop on the pod to discuss the de-commitment of Iowa's three star quarterback commitment in the Class of 2026. On Monday afternoon, Cash Herrera announced that he was no longer committed to Iowa. What's the real story behind the scenes?  We discuss what really happened here and how this whole commitment and eventually parting of the ways was probably always going to happen due to different levels of confusion. What was the final straw in this relationship from Iowa's perspective? Then we look at the big recruiting weekend coming up for the Hawkeyes. All of their current commitments in the Class of 2026 will be in town along with several uncommitted prospects. Which player will be the most wanted this weekend for the Hawkeyes? Which position group do they need to hit with on the big visit weekend?  Then we flip over to basketball recruiting with three prospects on campus this week, including a pair from the Class of 2026. Also, where does

A wide ranging Hawkeye Report Podcast to begin the week. Tom Kakert and Kyle Huesmann open the show with an update on the Iowa baseball program. Huesmann runs down the latest from the NCAA transfer portal with a couple of players leaving and maybe a couple of potential players heading to Iowa and the crunch of the roster getting smaller also in play.  Then we turn to women's basketball and a look at the non-conference schedule for the squad this year. Will it be another challenging non-con schedule for the Hawkeyes? After that we update women's and men's Iowa basketball recruiting. We discuss the top targets and visitors coming to campus in the next few weeks for official visits.  Finally we have some fun draft of women's basketball players from the Lisa Bluder era. We pick eight person teams of players from the Lisa Bluder era of Iowa women's basketball. Tom and Kyle bounce back and forth with their picks and discuss the top players of an amazing era of basketball, including back to back trips to the nationa

Our string of podcasts during the month of June continues with a very special guest. We are joined by our great friend of the pod, Zach Johnson to talk golf, Iowa hoops, Hawkeye football, and the state of college athletics today.  We open talking about Johnson's upcoming event held at Elmcrest Country Club on Monday June 30th. It includes former Hawkeyes Cooper DeJean and Keegan Murray hitting the course at that event. More details here: https://zachjohnsongolf.com/zjf-classic/ Also, we discuss the upcoming John Deere Classic in early July and talk about Lisa Bluder and former Hawks Riley Moss and T.J. Hockenson playing at the event.  Then we dive into Iowa athletics talk. We discuss the Hawkeyes stealing a basketball coach away from Drake. Johnson is very close with the Drake program and he talks about what he saw last year from Ben McCollum and get his opinions on the change in leadership within the program.  After that we get Zach's thoughts on the new era of college athletics that is officially underway f

It's another special edition of the Hawkeye Report Podcast during our summer run of shows. We are pleased to be joined by former Iowa women's basketball coach Lisa Bluder. It's been 13 months since Bluder retired from coaching, we catch up with the legendary head coach and find out what she has been doing.  We look back at Bluder's amazing coaching career, starting with her time at St. Ambrose back in 1984 fresh out of college and a great story on how she ended up landing the job leading the Bees program. Then we talk about landing the Drake job and then finally when Dr. Grant from Iowa called her to offer Bluder the Hawkeye job.  We talk about developing a culture in a program and how she was able to do that during her career. Did she ever consult with or talk about culture and team development with Kirk Ferentz during their tenures?  One topic that was also talk is Bluder's ever expanding coaching tree. It's growing year after year with former players and assistant coaches entering the coaching profession.

Our summer of podcasts continue with one of, if not the best special teams coordinators in the country in LeVar Woods. We hit on quite a few topics on the podcast, but open with him being a parent this past weekend and dropping off his son, Mason, who will play football at Iowa, at the dorms on Sunday. What was that like as a parent? We also talk about Mason rooming with Iose Epenesa and the long time relationship that Woods has with the family, having played a role in recruiting all three of the Epenesa boys to the Hawkeye football program. Also, we discuss on the podcast if Woods asked Kirk Ferentz for advice on coaching his son and what he expects it to be like this year and beyond. He also shares a great story about being in a team meeting yesterday and writing down notes from Ferentz and see his son do the same thing in the same meeting.  We then discuss growing up in the northwest corner of Iowa and the incredible influence of his high school coaches in his life and how they helped prepare him for being

We continue our summer series of podcasts catching up with former Hawkeyes and this time it's one of the best players in Iowa basketball history, Aaron White.  We talk to White about his recent journey playing in Japan and what that has been like. We look back at his Iowa career and deciding to be a Hawkeye and how he was able to help lead Iowa to their first win in the NCAA Tournament in over a decade. We discuss that 2014-15 season and how White put that team on his back in the last six games of the regular season to not only make the tournament, but win a game and what that meant to the program.  We discuss his coach, Fran McCaffery being let go recently by Iowa and how that felt for him, a sa former player. He talks about his relationship with McCaffery and how they always kept in touch over the years and how he appreciated that he had faith in him out of high school.  Then we talk about White and his family living overseas while he continued to play after college all over the world. What has that been li

We get the week started with a fun and entertaining new Hawkeye Report Podcast. This one opens with the start of workouts for Iowa men's basketball coming up on Monday and what we are looking to see in the coming weeks from the new look Iowa squad.  We talk about the Iowa roster and if Ben McCollum is done building it or could they continue to add players? How are they going to approach the next week with regard to figuring out what they might need as far as a roster?  Then we jump over to football for a few minutes and talk start times that were released last week along with when the Hawkeye football players will start to report to campus next week for summer workouts.  Finally the biggest portion of the podcast is Tom Kakert and Matt Randazzo doing the Fran McCaffery era draft. We pick nine players each in a snake draft format from the McCaffery era and see who had the best draft of the two of us? Give us your thoughts on if Tom or Matt had the better player draft.   

We continue our new assistant basketball coaches series with a name that will be familiar to Iowa fans joining us. Josh Sash, who is the older brother of former Iowa football standout Tyler Sash, joins the pod. He joined Ben McCollum's staff last year at Drake and is now continuing as an assistant coach at Iowa.  Starting the podcast, we talk about his journey in coaching. He discusses his start at William Penn and then being a video coordinator at Providence and then assistant coaching at the junior college level and then eventually being the head coach at Indian Hills Junior College. What did those experiences teach him over the years? How did it prepare him for the current environment in college basketball?  We discuss how he ended up on Ben McCollum's staff and we dive into several of the players that are coming over from Drake and what he has seen in their develop. We get his thoughts on the pace that Bennett Stirtz plays at, the new addition of Joey Matteoni and what he brings to the Iowa roster. Plus,

We start your week with a special edition of the Hawkeye Report Podcast. Tom Kakert and Kyle Huesmann are joined by the new women's basketball assistant coach Lasondra Barrett.  The podcast opens with getting to know more about the coach and the hiring process with Jan Jensen. How did they connect and what was the process like to land a job in Iowa City? What are her initial thoughts on the job and what were her perceptions of the program given the success that it has enjoyed in the four or five years? We get Barrett's thoughts on the two portal additions for the Iowa women's team in Chit Chat Wright, who she coached at Georgia Tech and Emely Rodriguez, who she knew about as a recruit coming out of high school.  Also, we discuss her coaching influences and the input and thoughts she has given to head coach Jan Jensen and how she thinks they will play this season. What has it been like for Barrett to be on the road recruiting with the Iowa logo on her shirt and what's the reaction that she gets from prospects

It's another special edition of the Hawkeye Report Podcast as we get to know the new coaches for the University of Iowa men's basketball team. This week we are pleased to be joined by Xavier Kurth. He is the new player development coach for the basketball program and we have a great conversation with him about his daily work.  We open talking about his early years in basketball starting at the high school level in St. Joseph, MO and the influence his high school coaches had on his playing and coaching career. We talk about playing with the Mo Kan program in AAU basketball as well and what that experience was like for him.  Then we discuss his college career and playing for Ben McCollum. What was it like to be part of his program. What about the impact that that he has had on him. Then getting into coaching and what a player development coach has to do on a daily basis. We dive his workouts with Cooper Koch and what he has seen from him this spring and how he can help Iowa hoops this year. We talk about a new

It's another very busy edition of the Hawkeye Report Podcast. We have Tom Kakert and Kyle Huesmann breaking it all down to start your week. We open the with Iowa Baseball and the Hawkeyes getting swept by a red hot Oregon Ducks squad. The Hawkeyes had one chance on Friday to win and get a share of the Big Ten title, but let it slip away in the final three innings.  We get Kyle's view on the what happened in the last three games and the end of the regular season. Did the Hawkeyes simply run out of gas? Did a couple of injuries compound Iowa coming up short in their chase for the Big Ten title? Will they regret a couple of losses this season that got away late? We also look at what Iowa needs to do this week in Omaha in a new look Big Ten Tournament to possible get into the NCAA Tournament. Do they need to win the tournament to get in or could a trip to the championship game be enough?  Then we talk some Iowa women's basketball and the latest on the recruitment of portal prospect Emely Rodriguez. She looked lik

The biggest Iowa baseball series in the last 35 years is taking place at Banks Field starting on Thursday evening. It's Iowa hosting Oregon and there is a chance that the Hawkeyes could win an outright or share a Big Ten title for the first time since 1990.  Kyle Huesmann and Tom Kakert spend just over 30 minutes on some breaking down the series and some breaking news for the Iowa baseball team that suggests that they will be without a key hitter this weekend against the Ducks. What will the impact be of this potential loss and who will have to step in? What will it do to impact the batting order? Then we look at the overall Big Ten race and what Iowa needs to do in the three team race for the top spot with UCLA right behind the Hawkeyes and Oregon also in the mix. We also discuss the unique format for the Big Ten Tourament and some interesting decisions that coaches of the higher seeded teams could potentially have to make to conserve pitching later in the week. Finally, we also discuss if Iowa is still in t

We continue our series of interviews with the new Iowa men's basketball assistant coaches by visiting with Luke Barnwell. He's one of the assistant coaches that was not with Ben McCollum when was at Drake, but they have a long history together, going back to when Barnwell was coached by him when he was in college. First we open by talking about how he came to Iowa from Texas Tech and the decision that Barnwell had to make to join McCollum's staff after the Red Raiders had ended their season in the NCAA Tournament. Barnwell also had the scout for the second round game against Drake. What did he see from the Drake game and what stood out to him about their squad? We talk about his journey had a coach, starting with coaching at Sunrise Christian and also coaching in the MoKan AAU program as well and what those experiences taught him. As the son of a pair of coaches, basketball was always going to be in his future, as was coaching. We discuss his coaching career as a whole and eventually moving to the college lev

Sunday was a very special day in Iowa City as the great Caitlin Clark returned to Carver-Hawkeye Arena with her Indiana Fever teammates to play the Brazilan National team. It was a one-sided result in favor of the Fever. Tom Kakert and Kyle Huesmann were there and look back at what was a special day for Iowa women's hoops.  We look back at Clark's performance and even in a blowout, she made it into a special game, particularly when she drilled a three from beyond her 22 spot on the floor at the end of the third quarter. We also talk about how she takes time to sign autographs for all the boys and girls that she can and also, this Fever team could be a threat to win the WNBA title.  Then we flip over to Iowa baseball. The Hawkeyes are coming off a tough weekend, losing 2 of 3 at Washington and likely letting one game get away from them. Huesmann discusses what happened with the Hawkeyes this weekend and shared Rick Heller's thoughts from the game. Then we look ahead to a huge series this weekend in Des Moines