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 wit...
Jun 30, 2025•1 hr 13 min
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 yea...
Jun 26, 2025•28 min
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 t...
Jun 26, 2025•46 min
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 leadersh...
Jun 24, 2025•37 min
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 L...
Jun 23, 2025•1 hr 19 min
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 fi...
Jun 17, 2025•35 min
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 schedu...
Jun 16, 2025•54 min
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 t...
Jun 12, 2025•54 min
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...
Jun 10, 2025•28 min
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 th...
Jun 10, 2025•35 min
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 o...
Jun 05, 2025•32 min
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 footbal...
Jun 02, 2025•45 min
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 ju...
May 28, 2025•42 min
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 ...
May 27, 2025•28 min
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 coa...
May 22, 2025•52 min
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...
May 19, 2025•1 hr 7 min
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 impa...
May 13, 2025•39 min
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 t...
May 13, 2025•38 min
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 e...
May 07, 2025•51 min
It's another special edition of the Hawkeye Report Podcast. We continue our series with the new Iowa men's basketball assistant coaches. This time we are joined by new assistant coach Connor Wheeler, who is in his second year with Ben McCollum after joining his staff at Drake. We talk to Wheeler about growing up as the son of a coach in the Carbondale, Illinois area. The influence of his dad, who was a Hall of Fame coach and also his mom, who coaches softball at the high school level. We look ba...
May 01, 2025•30 min
The Hawkeye Report Podcast is back and we have a lot of things to cover this week from football to basketball recruiting, along with the NFL Draft. We open promoting the Chuck Long Charity Auction, which benefits the Children's Therapy Center of the Quad Cities. Bidding is open until 8 pm on Saturday, May 3rd. You can get a look at the items up for bid and place your bids at this link. https://www.ctcqc.org/chuck-long-charity-auction Then we officially open the podcast discussing what we saw and...
Apr 29, 2025•41 min
It's another jam packed edition of the Hawkeye Report Podcast. Tom Kakert, Kyle Huesmann, and special guest John Evans talk Iowa baseball, men's and women's hoops, and a little Iowa football ahead of the final spring practice on Saturday. We open with Iowa baseball where the Big Ten leading Hawkeyes host Indiana this weekend. Evans, who calls the Hawkeye games on radio, gives his thoughts on this remarkable season thus far and how they have bounced back this year after high expectations last sea...
Apr 25, 2025•1 hr 12 min
It's a special edition of the Hawkeye Report Podcast. We are joined by new assistant basketball coach Bryston Williams. He has a long history with new head coach Ben McCollum, going back to when he was his first recruit at Northwest Missouri State. We open discussing being McCollum's first recruit and a great story on how he landed him, with credit to Williams father. We talk about McCollum as a coach and the process so far of building the roster. What did they learn last year at Drake that help...
Apr 22, 2025•36 min
The portal news never seems to stop and we try to get you updated on the Hawkeye Report Podcast. Tom Kakert and Matt Randazzo fire up the podcast machine to give you the very latest on the Iowa basketball team and where things stand on the roster building front. We have the latest on three prospects, two from the portal and one from the high school ranks that are down to Iowa and another school. Which players do we think are most important for Iowa to land? Which players do we think that Ben McC...
Apr 18, 2025•34 min
It's a special edition of the Hawkeye Report Podcast as we are joined by Payton Sandfort. It's a nearly 45 minute conversation with the former Iowa great about his career, this past season, his injuries, his brother transferring to Nebraska, and a whole lot more. We open the podcast with the end and Sandfort discusses being named the winner of the Chris Street Award this year and what it means to him. He also discusses being able to meet Street's parents and getting to know them over the years. ...
Apr 14, 2025•42 min
It's a special weekend edition of the Hawkeye Report podcast talking about one of our favorite events of the year. We are joined by our good friend former Iowa great Chuck Long and Angie Peterson from the Children's Therapy Center of the Quad Cities to discuss the upcoming Chuck Long Charity Auction. This will be the 28th edition of this great event that benefits the Children's Therapy Center of the Quad Cities and is their biggest fundraiser each and every year. Iowa fans, specificially Hawkeye...
Apr 13, 2025•32 min
A lot of topics to cover in early April on the Hawkeye Report Podcast. In this edition it's Tom Kakert and Kyle Huesmann with plenty of news on several very important fronts. We open with some Iowa baseball talk. The Hawkeyes host rival Nebraska this weekend for a huge three game series. We dive into the matchup and look at how Rick Heller's club has gotten off to such a great start in Big Ten play and what it could mean for the Big Ten Tournament and Iowa's NCAA Tournament chances. Then we move...
Apr 11, 2025•1 hr 7 min
The news just keeps on coming on the Iowa basketball front and we have plenty to cover in our latest podcast. Tom Kakert and Matt Randazzo break down all the latest roster news. Iowa continues to add players from the Drake roster that played for Ben McCollum. Meanwhile, the rumor mill is churning out plenty of talk about the potential portal destinations for Josh Dix and Pryce Sandfort. Is there a chance that one or both players will end up returning to Iowa? What do we make of the wild rumors r...
Apr 04, 2025•34 min
The edition of the Hawkeye Report Podcast is a jam packed one. Tom Kakert, Tanner Lafever, and Kyle Huesmann are talking hoops, wrestling, football, and baseball for the Hawkeyes on this show. We open by updating the latest on Iowa basketball and what is happening in the transfer portal with new head coach Ben McCollum. A couple of Drake players entered the portal today and we assess where things stand with Iowa players who could be considering staying with the Hawkeyes. Plus, we react to Owen F...
Mar 27, 2025•1 hr 20 min
The Iowa Hawkeyes have a new men's basketball coach. His name is Ben McCollum and he was actually born in Iowa City and grew up worshiping Iowa basketball. Tuesday afternoon was his introductory press conference at Carver-Hawkeye Arena and Tom Kakert was there for full coverage. He and Matt Randazzo break down everything we learned in the press conference from Iowa athletic director Beth Goetz and the new head coach, Ben McCollum. We get the details on the contract and some basic ideas on the st...
Mar 26, 2025•41 min
