Oct. 23, 2003
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz took questions from Hawkeye fans from across the country in his Wednesday night Hawk Talk radio broadcast at Carlos O’Kelly’s Mexican Caf? in Iowa City.
Hawk Talk, a 90 minute program hosted by Gary Dolphin, is broadcast live to more than 40 Hawkeye Radio Network stations across the state and worldwide on hawkeyesports.com.
Here is some of what the coach had to say.
(on the week) “It’s been a good week so far. We’re doing OK.”
(on Iowa’s receiving corps) “It’s certainly a concern of ours. I don’t think Ed is going to be able to play on Saturday. He couldn’t practice (Tuesday) or (Wednesday). And James (Townsend) is in the same situation. We’re getting thinner. We were thin to start with and it doesn’t help. Calvin’s (Davis) a little nicked-up. We’re hardly at full strength. It’s one of those things. Unfortunately, injuries tend to be those things that kind of run in one position, and it seems that’s what we’re going through right now.”
(on running back Jermelle Lewis) “We’re hoping to get him more playing time as the weeks continue. He certainly got his feet wet last week. We didn’t know what the best scenario was to start him off, and we got him in a little bit and hopefully this week we’ll get him in more and gradually build through the rest of the season.”
(on wide receiver Maurice Brown’s recovery) “Mo’s getting closer. I don’t think this week is going to be it. The last two weeks have been really aggressive for his rehab. He was able to run last week, and he’s doing some things this week. I think we’re really on the brink of getting him back, but I really can’t tell you how soon or what the percentage is. Probably the best example I could give you is with Bob Sanders. It was sputtering, sputtering and then boom, he just started going. And that’s what we’re hoping with Mo.”
(on center Eric Rothwell) “I know Reese (Morgan) does a good job talking with those guys. I think the problems we incurred on the offensive side were anticipated. You always hope you’ll get through totally smoothly, but that wasn’t going to be the case. It’s a tough place to play, and we knew that. It about panned out the way we expected from that perspective. He’ll do a great job, I’m sure. There’s always a big difference between game one and game two anytime you move into a new position. We’ll see those guys make real strides this week.”
(on the break-downs in plays against Ohio State) “On the shot-gun, it wasn’t a problem with where Nate was lined-up. Crowd noise was pretty deafening and with a new center, that’s a tough situation. We flat out blew it. We’ve seen that before unfortunately and we saw it on Saturday. On the two quarterback exchanges from underneath center, one of them occurred on an audible situation and I think crowd noise was a factor in that one, and the other we just a complete muff. We could have been able to execute that one given the circumstance, but we couldn’t get it done. On the punt block, there was a major seam that opened up and basically there was break-up with two guys who have done that many times with great success. So, that part is a little frustrating, but that’s what makes the game interesting. People don’t always execute the way you would think, and that’s what keeps us up late sometimes. There’s nothing you can do about that. The big thing is how we bounce back. Those things happen, but now what’s important are those things that lie ahead of us.”