https://soundcloud.com/annyayne/pregame-podcast-6-flyin-high

The following is an excerpt from the DI’s Pregame Podcast. A new episode can be found on our Soundcloud page every Wednesday.

On special teams:
Danny Payne, Pregame editor: Guys, what were your biggest takeaways from the Iowa State game?
Ryan Rodriguez, football reporter: First half was cause for concern about how the team can come out flat and start games not on the right foot. The second half should’ve at least been reassurance that they’re mature enough to handle it and rebound in a positive way.

Jordan Hansen, football reporter: We were kind of talking about this the other day, that C.J. is a baller and C.J. can be that guy. It just really seemed like in that game that he does have that clutch gene. You look at a lot of great quarterbacks and what separates the average from the good and the good from the great are the questions, Are they clutch? Can they step up when the team really needs them? And C.J. did that.

Payne: One guy that I don’t think got enough credit was punter Dillon Kidd. That second half especially was all field position; it was a field-position defensive battle. Kidd had a great game.

Rodriguez: It’s one of those things that you kind of take for granted. No one ever really thinks of punters having any kind of significant effect on the game. But when it was as bad or at least as wildly inconsistent as it was last year for Iowa, that’s an enormous difference on a drive.

On Jordan Canzeri:

Hansen: Canzeri’s a pretty short guy, he’s listed at 5-9, but he looks like he’s 5-7, and he’s not even 200 pounds. So I don’t really think you want to run him that much. Canzeri is best when you get him into space, and when you get him into space, you have to stretch the defense to make sure there aren’t 10 guys in the box. Simply for his health, you don’t want him running between the tackles or between the guards.

Rodriguez: I wonder if we see any Macon Plewa or Adam Cox getting carries. Going back to the well for Kirk and his fullbacks. Like you said, you’re not optimizing his talents if you’re running him in between the tackles

Hansen: I’m really on board with giving fullbacks five carries a game, though.

Payne: You are?

Hansen: It worked in Madden.

Payne: Exactly my point.

On Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi:

Payne: How much do you think that Big Ten familiarity will help Narduzzi and the Panthers?

Rodriguez: I think you’re going to notice it just in the way they play and the style they play … I don’t know how much difference one coach can make in the six or eight months he’s been there. But I think even just going forward with him, it’ll be kind of a shift in philosophy and kind of a melding of the skill that they’ve been able to recruit that you usually see in the ACC with more of the Big Ten size in the trenches and kind of that hard-nosed, pound-the-ball-style football.