QUOTING COACH FERENTZ
“Obviously disappointed to lose the football game today. We knew coming in we were playing a top-ranked team, and very talented team. We knew we would have to play flawlessly, execute, take advantage of any opportunities that might be there, do a good job with ball security, excel on special teams, and do well on penalties. Really didn’t do much to check any of those boxes today, unfortunately so. Didn’t give ourselves much of a chance, credit our opponent also on that.
Defensively I thought the guys really good out there. Good energy, and they came up with some big plays. Obviously, the spark play by Joe right off the bat, I thought they competed well and did a lot of good things throughout the game. Just on the field too long, and then the hill got a little bit high to climb.
Offensively, had protection issues right off the bat in the first quarter. Turnovers are tough to overcome, no matter who you are playing. Weren’t able to establish any consistency. Made a quarterback change at halftime, not sure it is real fair to assess that whole thing right now, just based on the overall play. We will go about that tomorrow, we just thought at the time it was the best thing to do for all parties involved.
Special teams, Drew hit the good field goal. Good to see that, but otherwise didn’t do much to help ourselves, especially in the first half. Playing a team like this its going to be tough to come out on top playing that way.
We will go back to Iowa, regroup like we do after every football game, reassess things tomorrow and then we will turn our focus to the next game. Big picture, we’ve got five left on the schedule and that is our plan.”