Goin' One-on-One with Kirk Ferentz

Jan. 29, 2014

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IOWA CITY, Iowa — “The message is that this is a new season, just like last year, and there is no guarantee in sports,” Kirk Ferentz told UI Athletics Department staffer Darren Miller recently in an exclusive one-on-one interview that will appear in next edition of Hawk Talk Monthly, the UI’s monthly e-magazine.

“There is no guarantee that we’re going to get back in the neighborhood where we wanted to be in last year. And there is no guarantee that you can’t go backwards, too. It’s determined by the work and focus the team exhibits.”

Ferentz and Miller sat down shortly after the Hawkeyes’ return from Tampa and the 2014 Outback Bowl, a game that completed a 2013 season in which Ferentz’s squad doubled its win total from the 2012, won three of four of the Hawkeyes’ “Trophy Games” – all three on the road, in fact – and put Iowa back in Raymond James Stadium on New Year’s Day for the fourth time under the direction of the current dean of head football coaches in the Big Ten Conference, who will begin his 16th season as head coach of the Hawkeyes on Aug. 30 when Iowa opens in season against Northern Iowa inside historic Kinnick Stadium.

“The key thing now is, `Hey, we’re looking forward again’ and what do we have to do to shore up our weaknesses, what do we have to do to settle competition, figure out who our starters are going to be. Learn what stories are going to emerge and all those things that make it so fun and enjoyable,” Ferentz continued.

“It’s a clean slate and this team that will start off the 2014 season has an opportunity to do anything they want to do and that’s the key thing and the most important thing is the work that we’re going to do daily work that we do to try to position ourselves.”

Ferentz also talks about the “to do list” for the current off-season, once again having continuity on his staff, the linebackers who have completed their careers as Hawkeyes and those ready to fill those very big shoes, the importance of the practices that come with a bowl game, and much more in an exclusive one-on-one interview that will appear in the February 2014 edition of Hawk Talk Monthly presented by Transamerica.

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