Video, Transcript: Kirk Ferentz 10-29-24

Iowa Sports Information 

KIRK FERENTZ: Good Afternoon, everybody. Appreciate you being here.

To start out, obviously pleased with Saturday's performance, especially in the second half. I thought the team really hung together and did a good job in all three phases. We expected it to be a tough game and it was. Pleased to get the victory. All that being said, we still have plenty to work on; consistency in terms of our execution, our operation in general and I think the other two things are being a more detailed outfit and we have to do a better job of turning the page and getting on to the next week. We didn't do too well a couple weeks ago with that. Hopefully we are learning as we go along and as you enter November as it's going to be critical because things are going to happen fast right now. It's all Big Ten play now, and again, just being consistent in operation in all three phases and being prepared. That's what it's going to take to be successful. Unique time of the year for sure.

Our captains this week will be the same four guys: Jay Higgins, Quinn Schulte, Luke Lachey and Cade McNamara.

Injury-wise, Cade McNamara will not be playing. He's not going to be able to make it. Vander Zee, Ostrenga and Nestor will not make it. Those will be probably be through the bye, I'm guessing.

On the positive side, Kyler Fisher was able to come back. He was fine yesterday. A little bit weak but doing fine. Practiced today. Then Beau Stephens worked today, and I think he's has a chance to play if he can get through the week, so we'll see what that looks like and go from there.

Going back to Cade, he took a really tough shot there in the second quarter, and he's still feeling that. Unfortunately, he's going to be out. Feel badly for him because it's been a tough stretch really for about two and a half years.

I've said it before and you guys have heard me say it a million times, the worst thing about coaching is dealing with injuries. It's something nobody wants to deal with, and certainly he's had his tough share of bad luck here. I feel bad about that, but hopefully we'll get him back soon, get him back on his feet.

Shifting to Brendan, I thought he did a really good job out there. Played with poise. Was productive. He's practicing well so far this week, so off to a good start.

We're going to need each and every guy to be doing that because we play a tough opponent in Wisconsin. Rivalry game, Heartland Trophy, and it's been a series that's been back and forth. One thing that's been consistent, they're always good. They're big. They're athletic. Second year for Coach Fickell and his staff, so they've settled in. They look good and are playing really good football.

Had an impressive three-game stretch there prior to Saturday's game and then played a top-5 opponent and played them basically right until the end. Tough opponent, and we're going to have to be at our best to have a chance to be competitive, but it should be a good environment. A night game in Kinnick, something to get excited about, and we need to be at our best certainly to have a chance in this ballgame.

Last but not least, the Kid Captain this week is Hunter Nicholson, and if that name sounds familiar, John played here for us 20 plus years ago. He and his wife Brooke are parents of Hunter and three other guys, so a family of four, and Hunter was born with a rare kidney disorder that really affected him when he was a newborn. Initially they thought he was just colicky, upset baby, but bottom line is what they did, they diagnosed it, and it's called nephrogenic diabetes insipidus, and I guess it afflicts one out of every 2.3 million people, so it's a very rare thing.

Good thing is they've learned how to manage it. He's doing great. He's a nine year old, doing really well. It'll be great to have him with us on Saturday.

Q. You were saying a really tough shot for Cade McNamara. Does that mean it's a head injury and are you able to comment at all on the severity of it?

KIRK FERENTZ: Well, it's a concussion, so he's been ruled out. Hasn't been able to phase back in at all yet. That's number one. He's sore in other places, too. He hit the turf pretty hard.

It's part of playing that position. It's a tough position to play.

As far as the severity and all that, my experience, and I'm certainly not qualified medically other than I listen to a lot of things and watch, seems like each and every one is a different discussion, so with some luck hopefully he'll start turning the corner. I think he's going to go to class today and give that a try. Hopefully he'll be back next week, we'll see.

Q. I wanted to ask a little bit about Brendan and his journey getting here in June and now being named your starter. What stood out to you about him personality-wise when he was in the portal? He seems like a quiet guy but also beloved by the team and a fiery guy on Saturday. What are your thoughts on his growth, personality-wise also as a football player getting here in June and now being your starter?

KIRK FERENTZ: When we were doing the evaluations, it would have been fairly late spring, you watch his tape and there were some good things. I recalled us getting ready for Northwestern ironically a year ago, they played Maryland the week before, and I find ways to really get over-nervous about games, and that was part of -- it was a good game. Both teams were going back and forth in that game, and Brendan did a nice job really moving their team and was in a real good rhythm. It was a really good football game.

I vaguely remembered that. Obviously didn't know we were going to be looking at him in a different vein back whenever it would have been, April or May.

But that game really stood out. He had others where it was okay, but that type of thing, it was kind of up and down a little bit with the team and with his performance, but when we got to meet him, he was very impressive, and probably the most important thing that kind of answers your question, at least from my perspective, when he got here in June, one thing I'm really impressed with is the fact that he got here that late and was able to learn, has been able to learn as quickly as he did. That's part of the benefit of being an older guy, too, and he's a smart guy.

He works hard. You watch the guys in the summer program, and he's leading the group in sprints, those types of things. Basically anything you're doing, he's going full speed and really getting after it and doing a great job. To your point, not overly boisterous, but he's a guy who commands respect for performance.

I think it seems very apparent the players really like him. They support him. Obviously same thing with Cade; he was a captain. So you know you've got two guys there that are really working at it and doing a good job.

He got his opportunity, a bigger opportunity Saturday, and did a really good job with that. But every week is an adventure, just like all of our guys, just like all of us. But I'm confident he'll do a great job.

Q. Looked like a bounce-back day for the secondary against Northwestern, especially after their Michigan State performance. What was it like to have Deshaun Lee back in the starting lineup and really see the unit be as productive as they usually are?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, I said after the MSU game that hopefully it was uncharacteristic, but that's talk; you have to go out and prove it. Based on this past Saturday, maybe we'll be able to look back and say it is uncharacteristic.

But we looked a lot better. We looked like a team that had maybe practiced and was doing things a lot more fundamentally sound.

We're going to have a hard time against anyone if we don't tackle well. I'm not discrediting what Michigan State did; they played really well. But it's our job to try to match tempo, and if a guy has got a ball you've got to tackle him somehow.

I'm encouraged, certainly, and it felt more like us out there on the field. I thought our tempo was better. I thought everybody was where they should have been. Didn't see a lot of guys reaching or on the ground, those kinds of things, which are really a bad sign defensively.

Q. It seems like no matter what happens, Wisconsin always finds a way to run the football and finds really outstanding running backs. As far as the rivalry goes, what separates Iowa and Wisconsin from maybe some other Big Ten rivalries, because it does seem like it's one of the more physical Big Ten games in a season.

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, it's interesting, I go way back when I got here, I remember we knocked them out of the Rose Bowl actually in '81. I remember that. It was a tough game. I can't tell you who the quarterback was. The only thing I remember from that game, they had run a bounce pass, quarterback throws it off the turf to a receiver, catches it behind the line and chucks it down there. We must have practiced it 30 times and they hit it for a touchdown against us, so practice doesn't always make perfect. I'll never forget that. It's a hard play to defend. Everybody wants to come forward for obvious reasons.

Then it was interesting, when that thing tailed off there at the late '80s before I left here, their program had really gone to a place I don't think anybody would have envisioned, and then Barry was hired in '90. And up they went. Since I got back here in '99, they've been nothing but strong. Impressive in all regards.

We're a lot alike. They have more population, I guess, a lot of in-state players on both teams. I think Barry and I had some similarities philosophically about what it should look like, that type of deal. He certainly did it to a high level, Rose Bowls, Rose Bowl victories, and when we got here in '99 they were the ones we were looking at.

The only good thing about us going up there in '99 and getting beaten for them to clinch the Rose Bowl, it gave us an exposure to all of the people in our organization, myself included, hey, this is what it looks like; this is where you've got to try to get. So it kind of set the bar for us.

But they've been a good football team as long as I can remember, and it's always a tough contest. It's typically going to be a physical contest, good defenses, and hopefully both teams are trying to run the ball a little bit and that type of thing. They're doing a nice job.

Q. It looked like Cade took that shot on the 3rd and 10 that was a roughing the passer. Why did you feel he was able to go back out on to the field, and at what point did you decide we need to pull him because of the possible head injury?

KIRK FERENTZ: He wasn't feeling great, but it wasn't like he was incoherent by any stretch. But as I said Saturday, we had already planned a rotation going into the game, and it just so happens that was the time coincidentally, if you will, and we were going to do that regardless, unless the ball was like on the 1-inch line and we had 99 yards to go. Not fair to throw a guy in there cold doing that.

But it wasn't like any symptoms really presented themselves other than he was sore and shook up, certainly, but then at halftime they diagnosed it and held him out. I'm not sure when they diagnosed the concussion actually, but he just wasn't fit to play at halftime.

Q. With Beau potentially coming back, do you see a rotation there to continue at that position about either Elsbury or Kade Pieper?

KIRK FERENTZ: It's possible. We haven't really talked about it, and we'll have to get through the week to make sure Beau is going to be back and then we'll worry about that. That's easy. But today all three of them were playing at that position, both first, second team, so we had however many snaps, 10 or 12 to divide up with three guys. We'll try to just ease him back. I don't think he's ready to play a full game conditioning-wise. But he's a really good football player and playing well, so it'll be nice to get him back into the mix, that's for sure.

Q. Obviously backup quarterback again in the spotlight. Is Marco Lainez available this week, and would it be him or Jackson Stratton? Is that where the pecking order is right now?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, that's really who's left. But we're basically out of guys. James Resar has moved to receiver and unfortunately he sustained an injury last week, so it's a little bit ironic that all of a sudden it's a thin pool. But we'll go with the guys we have and find a way.

Q. You preach November football and playing your best in that month. You're 18-2 the last five years in November and that's handling injuries and the ebbs and flows of a season. What have you learned about your teams any month of November but particularly these last five where every obstacle seemed to be in the way one year or another and 18 out of 20 is pretty good?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, we've had some interesting circumstances, certainly, in November the last half decade. But that's football, too. It's interesting if you look at our conference right now, 5-3, 3-5, almost everybody is in that bunch outside of maybe three, four teams. You can look it up exactly. It's kind of -- it's a little bit like the NFL. The NFL it used to be December and maybe it's December and January now with the extra game, but that's really where things kind of get decided and separated.

Again, I go back to the consistency, the details. The better a team understands that, the better off you're going to be in this type of year. It's going to be a lot of close games would be my guess, so you just never know what little thing is going to lead to a win. It might be something you did on Tuesday in practice or corrected, that type of thing, during the course of the week.

We've been fortunate we've had guys that have understood that and really paid attention and tried to do a good job that way to put ourselves in position at least to come out on top.

But all that being said, it's tough, and it's fun in a way, but it's exhausting in a way, too, and I guess that's how it's supposed to be.

Q. Special teams with kicker and punter, it is a unique position where guys as freshmen are asked to come in and start and play a big role immediately. With Rhys, he seemed to get into a good rhythm on Saturday with a couple punts inside the 10. Is there a quality that stands out to you in terms of his ability to work through inconsistencies in his first year and now find a groove here in November?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, he's really been impressive, and I'll throw in Saturday. That was huge, his role, and then certainly Wetjen just did an unbelievable job, and congratulations to him, too, being recognized by the Big Ten. So deserved. He's trying to do things every time he gets his hands on the ball.

Rhys, I was thinking about that in the shower this morning… I don't know why, I think of weird things in the shower all the time. But I was thinking about what he was doing and some other options we might have had as a punter, and you never know. Now you're talking about Australia, which has been good to us but that doesn't mean every guy that grew up in Australia is going to pay off.

I think the thing I've been most impressed with with him is just his maturity and his ability to really practice well, which for young guys is not usually that easy, but he's really serious out there on the field. He works at it. He's not happy when he hits a bad one. He'll occasionally do that. He hit a couple this morning.

But it upsets him a little bit, but he gets on to the next one. He doesn't dwell on it and act like a baby.

I think his focus and his ability to prepare for a young guy, it's been impressive. I don't think I've ever been around where a guy put four 6-yard liners, and I'm not sure some of those got spotted correctly. A couple of them might have been 5 or 4. Nonetheless, you get the idea. That's four really good punts. That's just a huge swing in the game in terms of field position.

It's exciting to think that he can get better, and I think he will.

Q. The play that Brendan passed and then ended up being one of the lead blockers, what was your reaction to seeing that?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, it wasn't an official race, but you could probably say he's faster than Pascuzzi. I guess that was the takeaway. But it says something about his personality, too, him wanting to get down there and help the play.

He could have stood there and been a spectator, but he threw the ball and then he started basically trucking down the field. That to me was being a good teammate. His block was OK. His guy came off.