Coordinators News Conference | Sept. 30

TIM LESTER: Thanks for coming out. Obviously, last week was a hard-fought game, physical, and guys competed hard. Several injuries. Mark (Gronowski) was one of them.

Three days after that, encouraging news that all those guys that are banged up are going into a bye week. We're all into a bye week, right? Today was bye week practice number one, and it was exciting for us to get out there with -- I think we ran 56 plays today with our guys, the twos and the devo guys and guys that haven't been in there a ton. It's been a lot of fun for us to get those guys out there. None of the ones got any reps today.

All injured players are working hard to get back. Don't know Mark's status yet. It's cloudy. We don't need to know, though, because it's a bye week. Next week, you'll have the head coach up here. He can tell you more about it as we find out more.

Excited to be into a bye week. We need it. Four weeks of camp, five games straight, some physical games, and we have been improving. Excited to get back and work with some of the twos and threes. As the season goes on, we're going to need those guys. They're going to be in prominent roles. So, it's a good week to take a breath and regroup.

Q. Where is your confidence level with Hank, especially having little experience? He did play this last weekend. I guess what did you think about how he played given that he was thrown in in a tough situation?

TIM LESTER: It's tough. I'm sure he would tell you he wished he played better. Everyone does. His feet were a little giddy. Made a couple of big throws. Missed a couple I'm sure he wants back.

He was going to the right places. We just got to get his feet underneath him. He has such great feet, calm feet. That's one of the reasons he had a pretty good spring and into fall camp, and -- everyone's feet, Mark's feet looked like that on Week 1 too, and Mark's feet have improved. The last three games, I feel as if I think he's like at 70% completion. He understands it. He's comfortable with it.

Any quarterback that goes in there for the first time -- they need to calm down and relax a little bit. I thought he did that. He made some good plays, but he has to improve.

Him and (Hecklinski) had a great day today. Heck hasn't been here very long, but he's getting for comfortable with what we're doing.

Back to this week, this is a fun week for me to have those guys take a ton of reps and see where they're at, and they both need them because they don't get as many. The other guys have been on the scout field. These guys are getting a ton of reps this week and just to see the improvement we're going to need if he's in the game.

Q. Regardless of who is at quarterback, yards per carry is down quite a bit this year. Obviously, the explosives aren't there. What do you attribute that to thus far, and how do you get that going in the second half of the season?

TIM LESTER: Yeah, we do. I didn't think it would be as explosive. Wanting some of those to come out of the pass game, we've had more explosive pass plays than last year, because every year is going to be different.

The inconsistency, to nobody's fault in the running back situation, has been interesting. They've all been working hard. We have had a different guy start, I think, every single game. We finished last game with only two that were healthy and one of those was Kamari, who was hurt early and didn't come back until game three.

So just getting the consistency with the O-line and running backs, I think that's going to help a ton, and as we become better at throwing the ball, it's going to take more pressure off the run game. I think points are up. All the stats, as I look at them, you really don't stop halfway and look at them, but this would be the one time to peek at them. You peek, and we're a little up in this, we're a little down in this, we're a little up in that. It's hard to judge other than we have to figure out which backs are going to stay healthy and have some consistency there.

They're all doing a good job. I felt like we played a really good football team last week, a team that was in the college football playoffs last year, and it was going to be a Jaz, an X, physical, but they were both hurt. So it was a little curve ball there, because it was just going to be a grind.

They're really good up front. I forget what they were ranked, maybe No. 2 in the country on defense. Yards were going to be there, but they were going to be hard to come by. Broken tackles, get the pile pushing forward. I thought Kamari did a really good job a couple of times pushing that pile. Jaz and X, kind of naturally that's their go-to.

We need more consistency in that. I think that will help us get more explosives in the run game.

Then, obviously, the pass side of things is helping the whole offense and the points part of it, which is up a little bit, because we can be more balanced, which is the goal.

Q. Has Reece Vander Zee gotten back out to practice with you guys? Do you expect him back for Wisconsin, and just kind of an overview of the receivers and how they have developed so far this year.

TIM LESTER: Right now -- and I'm proud of this, and we're nowhere near where I would like to eventually be, but we have I think 15 receivers -- running backs, receivers, tight ends that have two or more catches right now. We're spreading the ball fairly well.

Obviously, I would love Reece to be one of those guys. I think is going to start practicing next week. He's been doing more and more. I think they have him running a little bit right now.

He's close. None of the decisions have to be made during a bye week, but we're hopeful that he'll be back soon, and getting a big target like that on the back side -- he plays the X receiver, so he would be a huge advantage to us to have a guy like that.

But Sam is doing a great job in that spot, and he's getting better. I think you see the receivers as a whole, we still got a lot more to work on. I think we're running routes. Our depths are the proper depths. They're making plays.

I would like to see more run after catch. It's something we haven't seen yet, but it's something we're building to. It's always the last thing that comes, right?

So I'm proud of that room. That room has done a good job in creating some separation, making some plays. Obviously, Dayton the made the big play at the Rutgers game.

We also have to put them in situations to make those plays. We've had opportunities to take some shots down the field that we've checked down on, and I know Mark talked to you guys about I have to be more aggressive.

I'm trying to call it aggressive, but you have to make the decision and take that shot. He's starting to get more comfortable with that, and that's been fun to watch his growth as a passer. He's always a good manager. He's a great runner, but to his feet and what they did the last couple of weeks, you know, just to continue to develop him as a passer, it's been fun, because he's a great kid.

He works hard. He wants to learn. So it's been fun to see what he's been able to do and just continue to put them in spots to be playmakers, because if the ball is not thrown to you, you really can't be a playmaker.

Q. I'm curious, because Mark's legs have been such a dynamic part of his game this year, how much changes with what you're able to do with when Hank comes in, and when he comes in, you got a little experience with it last year, how much are you balancing what I want to do with the offense right now and what he's comfortable with and the plays I know he likes to go to?

TIM LESTER: Yeah, it's a good question, because it's different when you have a week to prepare and when it happens in the middle of a game. When you have a week to prepare -- I have each player, each quarterback, one, two, and three, fill out a form of their favorite plays.

I make my call sheet look like the starting quarterback, but I always keep them in a file. I hope I don't ever have to open up that file, but I had to last week. I had to open it up and take Hank's out just to see what his favorites were on the sheet.

So you try to call a game to make the kid comfortable. Hank is way more athletic than you think. I think he's a different style of runner. He's more on the edge guy than up the middle. Sully was more of an edge guy than up the middle guy.

Mark is unique in that he does a good job keeping his shoulders square and working the A gaps, which Tebow could do. Not a lot of guys can work the A gaps. Quarterbacks, at least.

So, and then in the game you really are just thinking, where is he at mentally, and how can I make him comfortable? He ran some short passing game, some screens just to try to get him calmed down.

I used to not calm down until I got hit when I played. I needed to get hit by somebody and then get up, relax, and start playing when I was a quarterback.

During a game, you really don't change much of what you're doing. You just are trying to keep him comfortable. Then we got into two-minute situation. At that point you got to go. There's only one way to go. I thought did he a good job. Missed a couple of things, but I'm sure he's going to learn from it.

He also got us a couple of first downs, got us across the 50. We just got to finish that drive. We had a couple of chances. Sailed the last one a little high. The one before that he got a little bit confused. I wanted him to take a shot, and he didn't, but that's learning, right? It's the first time in there, and he's hungry, and it's been good to see him out there today throwing it again.

Q. I wanted to follow up with the running backs a little bit and just the fact that you guys haven't really had the opportunity to stick with one starting running back every game this year. How does that adjust when you kind of get the word, like, okay, we're not going to get Kamari this week, we're not getting him this week, okay, and this week we're also not going to have X and Patterson. How does that change your approach?

TIM LESTER: It's difficult, right, because they each have their fast ball, right? Like this is what he does best, because you always try to put guys in the position that they do best. We try it with receivers. I need a field post. I know who I want on that route, and I can move that position there, you know.

It's made it very intriguing personnel-wise, because we've added words to the end to make sure I'm getting the right people in for that play. Some guys are better on the edge. Some guys are better in the A gaps.

The good thing about our running back room is I feel like they all can do everything, but you still want to keep them in their fast ball.

Like I just said about last week, we really didn't have a grinder, A-gap runner, that that's his bread and butter. We were playing a team that we kind of needed that. Mark was probably our best big back last week, and we didn't run him. We didn't want to run him much in there, but he did. He scored on one.

It does, it makes it difficult. Coach Young, our new running back coach, has done a great job at just shuffling them around trying to keep them comfortable. One of them is a true freshman. Nate the Great, he is rolling. He is super talented. He's just young. Trying to keep him comfortable and not put him in too many situations that get him out of his comfort zone. It's difficult.

The great part is you have a great group, right, that most teams if they got to their fourth and fifth, would be in huge trouble, and our guys are still able to execute.

That's the silver line, but it is difficult, and it just takes a little bit more planning on the front end. Then a guy gets hurt in the middle of the game, and all that planning goes out the window quick. Those guys really have done a good job.

Kamari coming back from his first injury, he's really starting to get comfortable. I felt like at the end of the Rutgers game he started feeling like he was back. Not afraid of the shoulder anymore, running hard, and did a good job in the game against a really good front. So we were really happy to have that guy of all of them back.

Q. I was curious, the play called, the third and five. Hank was in the game. It was a play right before Drew missed the 42-yarder. Can you just walk through -- I think it was a screen pass. Just kind of the thought process behind that.

TIM LESTER: Oh, it was there. It was a touchdown if we executed it. We went back and forth.

You know, his last throw down the field was picked. That went through my head. We were already in field goal range, so I was trying to think what kind of safe call can I have for the quarterback since we're already in field goal range? We went with kind of a three-step screen combination, we which we had ran all game and hit it. I think we hit it three times. We never hit the stick. We hit the hitch twice and threw the screen once to Kamari.

I forget whose suggestion it was when we were talking about it, but it was the best aggressive, give us a chance to get the first down and end the game as opposed to dropping him back and trying to read coverage and split two safeties or something simple that still gives us a legit shot.

We got lucky. They covered the three-step. They stunted the back side end, which actually gave us a clean lane for the throw. We had two linemen out on the will, and there's really nobody left over there. He just kind of fell away, and the ball got away from him, and he missed the throw.

You know, but that was -- because we had a lot of discussion. I don't know what happened. There was a stoppage of the clock before that, so we had a chance to talk about whether we were going to put him in a position to have to go make a third-and-ten-yard throw.

Running it, we hadn't been super explosive, so what's the happy medium of if they give us a quick throw to Wetj out there, we'll take it. If not, we'll give a chance to a play that was hit three times. Man, with the stunt it actually made the throw a little bit easier. We didn't complete it, so we had to kick.

That was the discussion that went through before making that call.

Q. DJ Vonnahme had seven catches this last weekend. Just about the most by a tight end since you've been here. Has he emerged as maybe, with the absence of Ostrenga, as maybe the favorite tight end in that room or a guy who has built a good connection with Mark?

TIM LESTER: Yeah, just watching him get better on a daily basis has been a lot of fun. High school quarterback, you know, and came in here, never had played. Kind of like Reece Vander Zee. They're just learning a new position.

So the level of growth that a guy like that have can have, and you have seen it. He had to put the weight on first. He had to learn how to block, and let me tell you, quarterbacks don't naturally do that, but he is learning how to do it. Then, obviously, we got the screen pass in his hands against Rutgers, and he got in space a little bit.

You know, what happened in camp, Ort got banged up at some point during camp, which really forced DJ to get a ton of reps and really speed up his growth. You got to see that he was ready.

He had one drop. He came out, and that thing was humming. Mark threw it right on time, and he turned. He's never too high. He's never too low. He's a tough kid. He's young. He's going to have a really bright future. We trust him, you know.

So when we're making play calls to get a guy, Ort can really run after the catch, but DJ just has a great ability with the ball in his hands.

Coach Hodge gets to choose when I call the play which guy he wants to put there, and on that middle screen against Rutgers he chose DJ and gave us all a chance to see what he can do. We have to continue to find ways to get him in space because he's really good.

Q. Before my follow-up, is it fair to say Gronowski has a shot to play against Wisconsin?

TIM LESTER: I hope so. It's cloudy, but he's rehabbing. They're all rehabbing.

Q. It looked bad at first. Okay, regarding the quarterbacks, what are you trying to get out of this week with those two guys, because you might have to play one next week or both?

TIM LESTER: Or both, right? It's a huge week. I can tell you this about Hank. Hank at the end of spring ball was really humming. You know, started a little bit slow this camp, and then really started pushing Mark at one point once his feet got back to comfortable again.

Heck is a great little player now. He's tough. He's got a little swagger to him. He reminds me of when I played, like a little gun slinger. He's aggressive, you know.

But he just wasn't here very long, and now he's been here. So it's fun to have two guys that have a ton of talent, that don't have a ton of experience, but they have a ton of talent. They just need to be around it and hear it.

So today was a lot of fun for both of them to be out there, because as the third stringer, you get no reps. It's just the way it is. So to see Heck out there today -- Hank got a ton of reps too, obviously -- but it was fun because I think he is a very talented kid.

It's going to be a huge week for us just to let those guys get the reps. Unfortunately, because of the situation we're in, Jimmy and Ryan aren't getting a ton this week. They're getting a ton on the scout team. Every day they're down there. They were with the Mendoza brothers last week, both of them. So they're playing a ton.

For us it's so much fun to see some of these guys. There were some huge plays made out there today. Some that were on the scout team. Some that have been kind of rotators on offense and pretty much the backup O-line and getting to run the things full speed.

Heck and Hank have done a great job of learning from watching Mark, but there's only one way to know if you really have learned it. You have to get out there and do it. That's what this week is for.

Like I said, we ran a lot of plays today. I think we're going to run a lot more really for those two guys just to get them comfortable no matter what happens.

It's fun to have numbers and guys, so it was a good day today. That's the fun part about, one, a developmental program, but especially during bye week is a huge weekend for a lot of guys to move up because they're all going to -- we're going to need them as we go through the stretch.

LEVAR WOODS: I appreciate everyone being here today. Obviously, it's a beautiful day outside. Got a good bike ride in today, so I know it's beautiful out there. You could be doing a lot of stuff going on, and there's a lot going on in the world right now, but I appreciate you being here and your interest in Iowa and Iowa special teams.

To start off, we've had some really good moments, and on special teams some electric moments. You guys probably witnessed some of those in person. We've had some really amazing things done, and then some plays that are, like, Man, what the heck is going on? So, some inconsistency. Those are things that we're striving to try and improve here throughout the bye week and keep pushing forward.

I feel good about some things, and some things we have to keep address and keep pushing forward and keep improving on.

First and foremost, I love this team. I've been around enough football at different levels and college and pro and seen some really good players and some maybe not so good players, some teams that started off really hot and then kind of fizzled out.

I think right now what we have in this football team is amazing human beings and some guys that are really connected. They're working really hard that believe in each other and have great work ethic, great toughness, great effort, energy every single day.

So we're seeing some of that out here and getting a chance to be a part of that is pretty fun. Coming to work every day is a lot of fun with this group.

I kind of mentioned this the other day on Monday, after the game, and pointed out a couple of things when you watch the tape. When you watch Iowa football -- and this is important to me as a special teams coordinator that when you watch Iowa, what do you see? You turn on the tape, and you watch.

You can judge a football team based on their kickoff coverage unit and their field goal blocking. That's an old adage in coaching, because typically you'll see, hey, is it going to be a touchback? What do people do? Do they back off? Do they slow down? It's going to be a touchback. I don't think you see that when you watch us.

You see our guys flying through the goal line all working to the returner. They are fighting each other to go get the ball to bring it back to the ref. Those seem like little things that ticky-tack things, but those are things I think when you really watch and you really know football, you watch those things, and you see those, and you see a team that's hungry, a team that's trying to get down there.

When you watch a field goal block unit, okay, it's another thing in coaching. If you look at it, you can kind of see as a team, how are they really playing throughout a game because it's a response unit, right, a field goal blocking. Either got scored on and you are playing for a point and a PAT or, hey, we have to get a stop and keep points off the board in a field goal.

I think you've seen that from our units. If you watch, how these guys operate, how they take the field and have gotten our hands on the ball, field goal block a couple of others are really close. I think you're seeing guys fight and scrap and clawing for every single point, every single inch out there.

I think that's what we have on this football team overall, and it's fun to watch and fun to coach and being a part of.

I'll open it up for questions.

Q. I'm curious, Drew has missed a field goal in three straight games. After the UMass game, he said that he was focusing on driving his kickoffs, and that's maybe what led to the field goal miss against them. I haven't talked to him since the last two games, but what do you think is going into the field goal operation not being perfect?

LEVAR WOODS: First off, it's a unit, so it's not just one person. Drew is the kicker, so everyone looks at him. It's sort of like the quarterback. Everyone looks at the quarterback. Did he make the pass? Did he not make the pass? But there's ten other guys out there. There's ten other things, ten other layers that go into that in regards to any play in football, particularly in field goal.

Yeah, not the kicks he wanted to make and didn't go through the uprights. I've seen Drew make plenty of kicks that have gone through the uprights. That's another thing we saw. We saw a career long field goal from Drew in Week 1.

We see it every day here in practice, right? We see him every day. Look at this kick. It's unbelievable. Also, over the course of his career he's gone on and has made big kicks for this football team. Just didn't get it done in the most recent game, but that to me is a one-off. That's not Drew Stevens. That's not the guy I know, a guy that I've watched work and grow over the last four years.

To me I attribute it to didn't get it done, didn't go in the way he wanted to, and continue to work on it and continue to improve.

Q. Regarding the Rutgers field goal kick specifically, I know you mentioned it's not just one player. How much of that is snap? I know you've got a first-time snapper that isn't Luke Elkin for the first time in a while. How much of that factors into maybe not that specifically, but other misses, issues that maybe you've had otherwise on special teams?

LEVAR WOODS: I think it's more operation. Again, there's 11 guys on the field. One guy gets to kick it. Hopefully only one guy kicks it on one single play. Otherwise, it would be really weird, but I've seen things happen (smiling).

Again, it's operation, right? When you talk about operation, it's not just one, two, or even three guys. It's 11 guys. Need a cleaner snap, need a cleaner hold, need a better kick. That's the bottom line.

Also, I think also still as a group still gelling together and working together. Whether you are talking about whoever is snapping the ball over whatever, it's three guys that haven't been together nearly as long as Luke to Ty to Drew. There's some of that still working through as well.

I have all the confidence in the world in the guys we put on the football field. I have all the confidence in the world in Drew Stevens. I actually had a conversation with him today. I've seen him grow and mature as a human being exponentially.

To me we are human beings regardless of what we all think when we send someone out there. People have money on games and things like that. You think it's just some machine, and it's just supposed to happen because some guy set the line at some point, but man, they're human beings. We're all human beings.

Man, it's unbelievable the growth Drew has made, and the amount of confidence I have in this guy and the stuff I've seen him do on the football field, it's unbelievable. We've all seen it. We've all watched. The guy has made three game-winning kicks for the Iowa Hawkeyes. He didn't get one the other day. It sucks. It frickin' stinks.

If you are a competitor like Drew is, he has to sit here not only for one week, but he has to sit here two weeks thinking about it for the next opportunity. So that stuff eats at you as a competitor.

To me I think it's more just more didn't get the job done. That happens from time to time. There are percentages. If you look at numbers, you're not going to make 100% every time, which is unfortunate, and as a competitor, that stinks, right? It sucks. But, again, you have to live with it, and you have deal with it, and you have to keep moving forward and trust your process.

Q. Something that Kaden Wetjen told me a couple of months ago is that when you were recruiting him from over at Iowa Western, that you told him that he reminded him of Tim Dwight? What did you see in him that made you make that comparison, because that's a name holds a special place in Hawkeye and Iowa high school sports lore?

LEVAR WOODS: I think initially the stature and how he runs. Tim is not the tallest guys. Tim is blazing fast. Kaden, again, not the tallest guy, but super fast. Kaden has really good balance, really good lower body strength.

It's very unique to have a guy that can do kick returns and punt returns and still -- he has a speed of a wide receiver and probably the build of a running back. I think it's a very unique build that he has physically.

Now there's the fearlessness part, okay, because Tim was fearless. When you watch him, you go look. I had to pull up these YouTube clips, because believe it or not, they didn't have the video digitized from back then.

So we're looking at YouTube clips late at night during training camp one year and watching Tim out here this end zone. Man, it was Arizona. I think I was a true freshman. Yeah, I was a true freshman. Tim came down as a gunner and just tattooed this guy as a punt gunner.

I was, like, Watch this, this could be you. Going through all the things going through all of his returns. Kaden Wetjen is pretty dang good. I think Tim would tell you the same thing.

He's a competitor just like I mentioned Drew is a competitor, a guy that wants to make plays, a guy that is trying to do right for his team. Again, it goes back to the makeup of this football team.

He's a really talented young man, but I'll go back to he's really talented. He'll be the first to tell you, he didn't get touched against Rutgers. Didn't get touched until he had to touch his off returner at the 5 yard line.

So there's a lot of other guys working for him and trying to help him, and they believe in him too. That's the other thing about this team, man. These guys really believe in one another, and they want to work for one another. Sure, he scores the touchdown. There's ten other guys running all over the place getting excited and getting hyped for Kaden because of the success that he had, so...

Q. Teams have gotten really smart against you guys in just fair catching kickoffs because your kick coverage is so good. How do you adjust to that now that you have a bye week? Can you adjust? I know it would require a bouncing kick, right, for them not to fair catch it? How can you adjust to that?

LEVAR WOODS: I think situation dictates some of that, and I think you are right. People watch and they see. Again, this is something that's coached too, right? How do you cover every play? Are you covering through the goal line? Does a coach look you and are like, Yeah, we can get a return against these guys, or does he look at you like, Yeah, I don't want to return against them?

That's part of being a competitor. You want to put that out there on tape. When someone watches you, man, they don't want to return against you.

It's up to them, do they decide to fair catch or not? We're able to force a situation at Iowa State where we tried to force them to return, and the ball ended up on the ground. They were trying to fair catch it, and we get on the 4 yard line. So there's that element of it as well, but you know, it's their choice. We just have to be ready if they try to bring it out.

Q. The guys on special teams, who has kind of jumped out this year, coverage guys, that maybe you were thinking about and then they have gotten out there and performed well?

LEVAR WOODS: So coverage, I'll kind of hit overall just the core players. Obviously you know about Lutmer. You know Entringer. Right, they're the gunners. They're flying down the field.

Okay, there are some other guys. I think Preston Ries has shown up, especially early in the game. He had two tackles, two big tackles, inside the 20. Blocked a punt in his first game. Teams have definitely found him (smiling). They definitely have game plans for him right now.

Derek Weisskopf has shown up as a young guy. Nolan DeLong has shown up more so on punt return and kick return. Done a really good job. Same thing with Landyn Van Kekerix. Chubs is what we call him. Man, he's quietly a really good football player, and he's really helped.

You go back and watch Kaden's touchdown against Rutgers, which I encourage you guys to do. He knocked a guy down three times. Like, boom, knocked him down. No, excuse me. Knocked one guy and another guy. That's two knock-downs. The guy gets back up. Boom, knocks him down again.

Everyone is, like, Wow, how is he so untouched? This guy kicked the crap out of that guy. Chubs kicked the crap out of two guys. That's how you score touchdowns like that.

So go back and watch that and look at it. Those are the kind of guys that to me are unheralded, maybe they don't get the recognition. To your point about everyone wants to go make a tackle and kickoff, but you can't always do that based off what the opponent does, but those are some guys that are really showing up right now.

Q. Year two for Rhys punting, just if you could evaluate him five games into his sophomore year.

LEVAR WOODS: Rhys, a really talented young man. Still young player. Talk about being a human being and things you see at practice versus games, but really talented.

This kid, really like how he works every day. Very diligent, very focused, accountable. You can coach him. There's no pushback. There's no, Well, coach, I don't think this. You don't see that at all from Rhys.

A couple of things we're still working on, ironing out. We're still trying to build some of that consistency between snapper to punter, but what he's done so far, been happy with. He hasn't had as many opportunities, which is good for us, right, because it's less times -- I think he is averaging two punts a game, maybe three. You know better than I do.

I thought he played his best game last week as far as 47-yard punt, fair caught. One inside the 5. Another one had a chance inside the 10. Bounced back. I think he is really starting to come along. Still a thing, looking for consistency, right, with what we're doing.

Q. The blocked punt last week, what's your diagnosis of that was and what happened there?

LEVAR WOODS: Again, going back to consistency in operation. So snap location, getting the punter pulled off his line, not great. So that definitely doesn't help.

Again, those are some of the things, consistency, that we're looking for and we need to improve upon. Again, I don't attribute it really to anything really other than that. I wasn't overly upset, because it's, like, man, we just have to be better. It's just hard for me to not be upset about those things, but I'm trying hard. Trying to keep that blood pressure down a little bit.

In regards to that, again, just we need to be better than that. I expect us to be better, but I don't see anything, like, oh, it's Rhys's fault or this's fault, the snap's fault. I don't see that.

We're a unit. We have to just be better, be cleaner.

PHIL PARKER: Welcome, everybody. I wanted to say a couple of things about our team, where we're at. Our record is 3-2, but you can't really tell that by the way our kids have been putting the effort in, the time and the practice.

I've been really pleased for the last five weeks the way they've been practicing and the way they go about their business. You can go all the way back to camp and the four weeks that we were in the camp. I'm pleased where we're at.

We have a lot of young guys that are growing in their positions, and they're learning on the run. I think this is a good break over here to re-evaluate some of our players and some of our schemes and then move on to the next one against Wisconsin.

Q. You've been blitzing it seems like more, especially the last couple of weeks in big games. Why is that, and what's that done for you?

PHIL PARKER: You look at different situations. It's depending on who you're sending on a blitzer. That's one. Norm Parker also used to say, It's not about the blitz, it's about the guys that you are sending.

We have probably brought more blitzes on different situations on second down, maybe, that I haven't really done in the past, but I think it's helped us a little bit and keep the quarterbacks a little bit off balance and uncomfortable, but when you blitz, you have to make sure that you cover guys. Sometimes it can get you. If you blitz, sometimes it can hit you one play like it did last week, but you have to live with that. You have to live with it and say, hey, the success that you had, we blitz on a couple of fourth downs and one, and we won a couple of those. I think it was three of them.

So, there's a trade-off, you know what I mean? The same thing with coverages in the back end. If you want to play press coverage or if you want to play two high in a shell, what do you want to do? Do you want to let them move the ball down slowly or four, five plays and then all of a sudden they hit a big play, and then hopefully you can hold them to a field goal.

So the philosophy hasn't changed about the explosive plays. We've probably given up too many explosive plays so far (25 yards or more). So we're still working on that and trying to make sure that everything is important, every play is important, and kids got to understand that.

Q. I wanted to piggyback off of that. The call on the third and 10 from the Iowa 49 and decided to bring a pressure. I know that generated Zach's pick earlier in the game, but can you just kind of walk through the decision-making process and bringing pressure in that situation?

PHIL PARKER: It's usually a feel in the game of how we're going about things. I did bring the pressure on the other one. Got the interception on it.

It was a time where, hey, it's either they were getting a little bit close to kick a field goal, the time is starting to run a little bit down. I thought we had to hurry up and make a decision on, hey, put a little bit of pressure on the quarterback, see if he can get it out. Are they going to punt it after that?

It was just a little bit. That's the way those things are. I wouldn't say all or nothing, but you have to make sure you're perfect. You can always go back and second guess yourself like that.

I just remember one time and said, hey, we can go the other way and play two-man and play two over the top, and I did that probably, two years ago and did that, and all of a sudden it went for a straight touchdown over the top. I said, well, why didn't I bring the blitz? You know what I mean? Everybody is really good after the conversation on the headsets or whether it's in the newspaper or whatever. It's always, hey, second guess, you know what I mean?

That was my thought process. Like, hey, let's put some pressure on them. This is a good quarterback. I think we had them rattled a little bit as far as what he does. We held them to 20 points and 200 some yards. I think they were averaging 300 yards rushing and 280 in the passing game, but that isn't anything. We lost the game, so that's the only score that really matters, but that was my thought process about it.

Q. Back to general blitz philosophies there, how do you decide -- basically you're mixing and matching who is going to be the fifth or sixth rusher? We've seen Jaden Harrell come from the field side or Jaden Harrell up the middle, Xavier blitzing, Koen blitzing. What's the rhyme and reason behind that?

PHIL PARKER: Obviously, we spend some time in this building preparing for that, and we're always looking for answers like, hey, how can we get some pressure on these guys to make sure that in certain down and distance we break it down all the way to the third downs and then the second downs. What we try to do is figure out how can we put pressure on them, and how can we get there?

Some of the pressures that we call sometimes might not get there, and you have to adjust. We worked on that during the week. We have a set plan of, hey, the ideas that come in with our staff, and everybody is involved that's in our staff, and we talk about it. So we have a plan to go through it.

Later in the week as you are going through and preparing, you try to see what ones that you feel is the best ones, and that's when you call them. I guess I don't go in there and say, Hey, I want to call a bad blitz, but usually what happens, though, we're pretty good about adjusting those blitz.

You could call something, and it could check to another thing or the pattern could change. So there's a lot of different things that can change based on the way they line up and who is where.

Q. I wanted to ask about the three linebackers, Jaden Harrell maybe specifically, but are you happy, satisfied, with the way they've played so far this season? I know Jayden Montgomery got in and sent him on a blitz right away. What were you thinking about his play in the little bit that he's able to see the field?

PHIL PARKER: He's been doing a good job. Montgomery has been doing a great job in practice, and he knows the system, and he's a hard worker. His dad is a coach. His dad played here. He has all the buy-ins as a player on defense. You really like and enjoy that.

When Harrell went down, he has been doing a great job of understanding what we have to do and making sure that the frontage adjusts the way it should be. I think he's again doing a good job.

Karson, I think he's really done some good things for us too at the wheel backer. All those guys, you know, they're growing. They're still young, and there's not a lot of playing time as far as like a full-time when it's meaningful during the game. I think they've done a great job, and Seth has obviously got them in the right direction.

Q. Just going off that, with the new linebacking core filling the game that Yahya leaves, and Koen getting an expanded role, Xavier moving over. The five games, the defense as an entire unit, are they on schedule in terms of expectation? Just evaluate them overall of where they are, considering there's a lot of new variables.

PHIL PARKER: Like I said earlier, I'm really pleased the way they're going about their business and the work ethic that they do in practice, the preparation in the building here, what they do. It's all been positive. That's the thing you really enjoy.

I've seen growth already in the first five games, and I expect more as we go through it. As they play more, obviously they see things more. Even the last game, they come back, and they can see things like this. Hey, Coach, now I know what you are talking about, I can see it.

The more reps they get, it's hard. When you are pursuing to the ball, the angle changes all the time. We missed some tackles, and we've been trying to work on that, and that's not easy to try to tackle. There were good running backs. Being more consistent of how you get there, the sense of urgency, the angles that you take, and make sure that you eliminate those missed tackles or explosive plays.

Q. I wanted to ask a little bit about the turnovers. Getting back-to-back turnovers in the last two games. I know there were four games where there wasn't a turnover generated. What would you see if you saw a switch between those first four games without a turnover and then these two back-to-back games with an interception?

PHIL PARKER: Yeah, it's very interesting. You talk about when you play a little bit more man coverage and a little bit more press coverage, you get less eyes on the ball.

You know, we probably are playing a little bit more press, a little bit more man at times. When you do that, you are not looking at the ball. When you play more zone, you've got more guys looking at the ball. You can see it and have better opportunities for interceptions.

When you are playing bump-and-run or whether you are playing some type of man-to-man, it's usually you're still playing tight coverage that you might get more pass breakups, but not more turnovers. So that's kind of a thing we've been working on, but we always have been working on the turnover circuit that we have at the beginning of practice.

I think eventually what it is, them turnovers come as you gradually -- they'll come to you if you are doing what you're supposed to do. Yeah, obviously we want more takeaways, but you stop somebody sometime on fourth down, that's like a takeaway as I look at it. There's different ways to look at it and different philosophies, but obviously I think we're low in takeaways too.

Q. You brought up the tackling. How do you work on that during the season, because it seems like it's really limited in terms of time. Is that a bye week focus this week for your team?

PHIL PARKER: No, we do it every day. We go through a tackling circuit during practice every day, but it's not like we're taking these guys down to the ground, and it's just basic you're doing the fundamental things of how to attack, how to strike, how to wrap up.

I think our guys, they've been doing it for a long time. I guess you start going back and the cutting down into the guys that you have on your team, the things have changed how we're starting our practice a little bit. We can't be as aggressive probably on -- we probably need to be more aggressive in the spring time of making sure that these guys are on task and do more live stuff, but I don't know if that's the answer either.

I think it all comes down to guys processing usually the play faster and knowing the right angles how they have to go to the ball. I think everybody has -- there's always a guy that's supposed to be an outside support guy, and there's always going to be an inside guy, and there's always going to be a guy running in the alley, and there's always got to be a run-pass guy.

Those structures haven't changed in the 27 years that I'm going on, you know, or 26 I've been here. I don't know, five, six weeks. They've all been the same philosophy as far as what we're looking to. It all starts with your eyes and seeing things, whether it's a reverse or something, how to leverage things.

Lutmer over here, we're giving him a missed tackle on the sideline over here. He's on this side over here, but he runs the guy out somewhere like 35 yards on the other side. He doesn't really tackle him, but he forces him out of bounds, and he has a missed tackle. I don't know if it's a missed tackle. If he wasn't there, the guy would still be running.

There's a kind of decision whether you are saying is that a missed tackle? If you don't get there to have an opportunity to not wrap a guy up, how can you say that's a missed tackle? You just didn't get to the right spot. So our whole idea is make sure you get to where the ball is.

Simple game. My dad used to say, Tackle the guy with the ball. It's that simple. That's what you do. Everybody has played backyard football before, and you tackle. You play three-on-three. Everybody is going to leverage the ball and tackle the guy that has the ball. It's that simple. Hard to do, you know, so...

Q. Koen Entringer came up with two big fourth-down stops against Indiana. What have you seen from him so far this year?

PHIL PARKER: Oh, he's a great kid. He started his high school years as a soccer player and then turned over to more of a football player. He's really young and experienced.

I was talking about being a -- you know, has he been playing for so many years? It's new for him. All this stuff is new, and the leadership, I think he's doing a great job in that. Obviously there's two good fourth-down stops that he had, but you know, there's going to be some times even when you talk to him, he's going to say, Hey, I could have done better. That's the guys that you want, and I think everybody on our team is like that.

They don't worry about the plays they make. They worry about the plays they didn't make. When you get into that frame of mind of thinking and making sure, hey, I'm humble enough to understand the game of football, it's very hard to do. It could humble anybody.

You sit and watch the NFL guys, and they're giving up 40 points a game. I don't know what I would do with that. I would probably be taking more blood pressure pills. Obviously I'm starting to run out.

Q. I'm going back to Koen's stops on fourth down and Zach's third and short stop, the play before Koen's first fourth-down stop. How much are those short yardage situations what you're scheming up or what you're telling the guys to do, and how much of that is just incredible individual effort for the 11 guys that are on the field?

PHIL PARKER: I think it's both. When you start going through it, there's always some thought process how you want to play the things. When you got to have it, what do you want to do? Whether it's you want to blitz on third and down. You got to have it. Let's go, let's get it done right now. Or it's on short yardage, whatever it is. If we don't stop them here, then the game could be over. There's sometimes you have to make a decision and say, Hey, you got to put more risk out there, but there is a risk and reward.

We turned out to be all right on the first three -- the third down and shorts, but not so lucky on the third down and 10. There's a trade-off in that, but you know, I think it was good. I think we practiced it a lot. I don't know if we called it a ton yet, you know, and the execution was obviously pretty good at what they did.

Now, you go back and look at it, there's a couple of guys that weren't perfect. It's hard to be perfect. You know, you try to teach these guys to be perfect in practice, you know, just so you have a chance to compete on game day. It's hard. It's hard for everybody to do that on every play.

Just like anything else you guys do, you guys write articles, you guys do that. Are you giving your best every day? Sometimes when you put your effort out there, sometimes you go back and grade yourself or do you have in public where somebody sees it and actually grades, you know what I mean?

Like, Hey, God, what's my résumé like that? How many stories did I have that were perfect, and boy, I didn't miss anything on that, you know? Sometimes it's easier. It's nice when nobody is evaluating, you know what I mean?

I'm not trying to be funny or anything. I'm just saying it's hard. It's hard. Football is a hard game. It's fun. It's a kid's game, and I'm very fortunate to be part of a game that we're playing. Love it, and I'm glad to see the kids.

You see the development and being around these kids, that's what makes it fun. It's not about anything else besides seeing the way the kids work as a team, and that's the best... offense, defense, special teams.

Q. Speaking of kids, I know you guys are really high on Buffington, Ries, and Weisskopf as prospects. I know they're not on the depth chart now, but is this bye week a chance to really give them a look? Is there any way they could crack into the actual rotation barring an injury this year?

PHIL PARKER: Oh, yeah, they're right on the edge there. We're trying to making sure we get a lot of reps with those guys. I'm sitting there looking at the practice today. I said, there's a lot of reps for these guys to improve.

They've been doing really well during camp, and we know they're on their way and on the verge, but the other guys are a little bit ahead knowledge-wise, but these guys are coming along. They've been sitting here for five weeks, and they see what's going on. They have a chance to get in there and help us, whether it's a series, whether it's two series or something like that.

I think all three of them have a chance. Obviously they work on the special teams, so they've been in games already. We're pleased with the way they're working.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports