ReliaQuest Bowl Pregame News Conference Transcript

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, everyone, for being here. We're very, very excited about this year with the ReliaQuest Bowl, especially because it's our 40th anniversary of the bowl game here in Tampa. We've been called a few things, but we have a tremendous title sponsor locally born here in Tampa, ReliaQuest, global security company, that has titled it now for the fourth year.

We're going to have a great day of weather tomorrow, football weather. Chilly for us in Florida, but great for football.

This morning we have not only two tremendous teams here that are going to put on a great show tomorrow, two very talented teams, top-25 teams, but also we have two of the best coaches in the college game.

Coach Ferentz, as most of you know, set a record for most wins ever by a Big Ten coach. He's also I think 27 years at Iowa. Longest tenured coach at one location, which speaks a lot not only to the university but to his success.

We also have Coach Lea here, who is the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year. Tremendous résumé, as well.

Just the fact that we have two fantastic coaches leading these two terrific programs, we're very excited to have them here today.

I'll ask each of the coaches to make a brief opening statement on their week here, about their preparation, then open it up to questions.

As the designated home team, Coach Lea, Vanderbilt Commodores, we'll let you go first.

CLARK LEA: Thank you. It's such an honor to be with you guys this afternoon. I appreciate it.

I want to start just by saying what an honor it is to share a stage with Coach Ferentz. I think there's a few guys in our profession that are considered to be the highest level. Certainly Coach is a part of that group.

What he's been able to build at Iowa is honestly everything that we want to build at Vanderbilt, including the long-term stability and sustained success.

We know we have a really tough opponent tomorrow. I think that makes it such an exciting game. I think there's similar DNA strands in both programs.

But I just have such a respect for Coach, how he's done it for as long as he's done it, as high a level as he's done it, and done it the right way, too.

Our team is really excited to be here. This is a great next step for our program. We are grateful to the ReliaQuest Bowl, Jim and the ReliaQuest Bowl staff. This has been an incredible experience for our team.

We talk about relatedness being our edge, which means we create a sense of belonging and community as a team. To have a week here, spend this time together, has been so meaningful to us.

This is team five, my fifth team at Vanderbilt. This has been a really special one. This has been a record-setting team for us, an historic team. Tomorrow is our final climb. There will be some sadness in that, just like there are with all endings. It will be a great way to celebrate the accomplishments this team has had and the time we spent together.

This week in Tampa has been certainly been foundational to that celebration. We're excited for the opportunity to play one last time.

We're healthy. We're excited. Obviously with the exception of Eli Stowers, which we talked about earlier in the week. We expect everyone to be there ready to go. We've had a good week of prep.

Again, I think what makes this most exciting to us is the opponent we're playing against and how tough and challenging the game will be. We know we need to be at our best tomorrow. We expect to be at our best. Again, excited to share the field with Iowa and Coach Ferentz.

Thanks again for having me. Know how grateful Vanderbilt is to be here. Thankful to the ReliaQuest Bowl for including us. Hopefully we play at a level that represents how grateful and appreciative we are to be here.

THE MODERATOR: Coach Ferentz.

KIRK FERENTZ: First of all, good afternoon. Really excited to be here, like Clark. It is a great opportunity for both our teams. I think we're well aware of that.

Our first trip was after the '03 season. A lot of things have changed in college football certainly. One thing that hasn't changed is just the experience here. It's been first class all the way. Jim and his staff do a great job, folks at ReliaQuest have just continued a great tradition.

On a personal note, it's kind of exciting for me, not a player on our team had been here before. We weren't here since the '18 season. It was kind of fun coming down here knowing that our players were going to have a great experience. Everyone I've talked to has thoroughly enjoyed it. Appreciative of that. Kudos to everybody involved with that.

A word to say about changes. More and more with each year, you talk about the values of bowls, how much does this game mean, all that kind of stuff. It just makes me shudder a little bit in that I still think it is special. Maybe I'm outdated a little bit.

Every opportunity a team has to compete is special. When you get the chance to play in a bowl game where you're together for another month as a team, you get one more chance to compete together and stay in a really nice city, really nice place, get treated really well, I don't see how it's a bad deal.

If you enjoy competition, which I think college football is all about, it's hard to minimize the importance of these games. We're absolutely thrilled to be here.

As much as the Playoff system continues to change, I'm pretty sure at the end of the day, there's going to be only one champion, no matter how many teams we invite to the dance. It's your sole goal. We all start that way obviously. There's a lot more going on in football than that.

To that point, again, really excited to be here.

The game itself, Clark talked about that, I think we both see it the same way. My sense is both teams are really excited to be here. Very few people opting out of this game, which is also another trend.

I go back a couple years ago. Our best player Sa LaPorta oping in, coming off a knee surgery. Had a scope late in the season. He fought his ass off to get back in, play in the Music City Bowl. I think that's more of the type of player we have, is guys that like to play and want to get out there and compete.

I think you're looking at two teams that are really going to work hard, have worked hard, they've earned their way here.

When you look at Vanderbilt, you look at what they've done. Clark has built that thing, as an outsider looking in, built it internally, complemented the team with the portal, which is today's football.

When you watch them play, it's hard to find them not playing hard in any game they've competed in this year. They've had a great season. You don't luck into a 10-win season. There's no way to do that. It's a real compliment to Clark, his staff and players.

Obviously offensively they're an explosive football team, score a lot of points. The quarterback is their feature player. They're quarterback-driven. It is a lot more than that. That is an oversimplification.

They have a great offensive line. Receivers that are really good. Tight end, I know though lost one, they have another guy that's really dangerous. A couple good running backs. Their entire lineup, a team effort by all those guys. The quarterback certainly a wild card.

Defensively they make it tough to run. They don't give up a lot of points. Just 23 points. To me that's the only stat in football is points scored, points allowed.

You watch special teams, their players see the value in special teams, have bought in. That's very, very clear, too.

Bottom line, we're going to have to be at our best to have a chance to be competitive in this game. That's what we've been trying to work for.

Bowl games are interesting. Different than anything you do during the season. You have that period where you know you're playing, you don't know who you're playing. Then you figure out where you're playing, who you're playing. Still you have a lot of time for practice and trying to stay in football shape a little bit. At some point you turn your attention to the opponent, game prep. It's a long month from that standpoint.

What it boils down to is once you get to the game week, having the players focused. Any time you play in the season, first game, last game, respect the opportunity to compete and respecting what it takes to be successful. Teams that understand that tend to do better. Certainly our opponent has done a great job of that.

Should be a great game tomorrow. We're looking forward to the challenge.

Q. Coach Lea, you have a familiarity with Tim Lester, Syracuse. Probably faced him a lot in practice I'm guessing. Any good stories about Coach Lester? What dynamic does that play in this game, if anything?

CLARK LEA: I have a lot of great stories about Timmy. If you spent time with him, you know there's a lot of stories there, too.

Tim is a great guy. A great family. That was a fun time for us together in Syracuse. At the time when Tim took over, honestly what he was doing with kind of multiple tight ends off the ball, multiple motions, in some ways there are strands of that offense in what we do at Vanderbilt. It was so cutting edge at the time.

One of the most challenging parts was preparing for it in the spring. You're watching Elmhurst College film, which was a little different. Always creative, outside-the-box thinker. Taking risks.

It's been fun to watch him obviously through his time at Western Michigan. The year spent in the NFL I think was formative. What I see on film now has some of the creative aspects of what I knew him to be at Syracuse, but also you see a real emphasis on the stretch run game, some of those NFL kind of elements that have come to define that game.

This is a world class person and a really good football mind. I'm so happy for him and his success.

Q. Kirk, I know you're focused on the game tomorrow. The portal switch comes right after that. How prepared do you feel like you are for when that's happening, the legwork you have done in the last couple weeks?

KIRK FERENTZ: Honest answer is who the hell knows, right? This has been so bizarre. As I mentioned, we were sequestered to the barracks this past month. We were actually like football coaches, coaching our players, talking to our players, not running in and running out and sneak a practice in. It has been kind of neat that way, December.

I typically after a bowl game take a couple days to get their acts together, recharge a little bit. We're going to have to meet the day after the game I guess, day after we travel, that's Friday, just to kind of state of the union because it changes every day.

We have people working on that. I haven't given it a hell of a lot of thought in the last five days. It's just the way it is.

We'll adjust to it and we'll handle it. We're certainly going to be active in the portal. To what extent... I think the most important is the guys we do get, making sure we get guys that are going to fit in the program and hopefully move us forward.

We've been lucky that way to have guys join us that have been good additions to our team, help build it, fortify it. That's what we've been trying to do.

Q. Kirk, we haven't had a chance to talk to you in person since your offensive line won the Joe Moore Award. What did that mean for that opportunity? Coach Clark, what challenges does this offensive line present just beyond receiving that honor?

KIRK FERENTZ: I'll start with the bad news. The guys told me that historically the teams that win the award play crappy in their post-season game afterwards (smiling). That's a little bit of a challenge for us right now. But hopefully we won't let that affect us.

It's kind of like the Heisman. The guy that wins the Heisman ends up going on the banquet tour, doesn't show up for the bowl game. That's been the tradition over the years.

It meant a lot. Happiest for our players (tearing up). George Barnett has done a great job. People in our area know there were some bumps in that offensive line a couple years, transition, injuries. We have we've been through it. Guys that you were counting on didn't play quite the way you want. That's football. Happens at all positions.

The way they've all stuck to it. You look at our seniors, they have good stories, all three of the guys that are doing that. The two guys that graduated last year both playing on NFL rosters right now, Mason and Colby. It was pretty a good group last year. They took it another step with Pieper and Locke jumping in there.

We're going to have another challenge Friday. To me it is Friday. Tomorrow's game day, so... Got myself brainwashed there (smiling). Anyway, it's going to be a hell of a challenge for us. We have to play well. These guys make it tough on you.

Q. A little bit of a lighter question. There's a plethora of sports movies out there. A bunch of actors playing real-life coaches. If someone had to play you, Coach Ferentz I'm seeing Tommy Lee Jones, and Coach Lea, I'm seeing Billy Bob Thornton.

KIRK FERENTZ: I do know who they both are. I haven't watched a movie in a long time, except ones that are really old-time movies.

I haven't given thought to that. I'll leave that to the people that do that to figure that out.

CLARK LEA: I was thinking Brad Pitt, honestly. When I look in the mirror, that's what I see. You see Billy Bob Thornton. I don't know how to take that (smiling).

I want to come back to the offensive line question. I want to be respectful of the second part there. Just to say it doesn't matter what league you play in. I believe this to be true in the SEC, and I believe it to be true in the Big Ten. You win up front. You can't expect to play winning football unless you can win on both sides of the line of scrimmage.

We all talk about the culture of our program is built in the offensive line room. Even though I'm a defensive coach, the thing I know to be true is our program will go as that offensive line goes.

First of all, Coach, I appreciate you bringing up the history of the award. I didn't know that. That gives me some hope in the game tomorrow, too (smiling).

I expect that offensive line is going to show up and play hard. That's what they've done all year. What a great honor for that group. A well-deserved honor.

Also, too, to know we have a proud offensive line group, too. We have a group that really wants to make a statement tomorrow as well.

I think what makes me most excited about the game tomorrow is the battle in the trenches. I think you're going to see really a traditional football game played fighting for every blade of grass on that field on both sides. Certainly we see on film and have a ton of respect for the Iowa offensive line and the accomplishments they've had this year.

Q. Clark, you talked about the longevity of Coach, how you'd like to have that at Vanderbilt. When you have success, it gets attention from other schools. Has it meant something different for you to do what you've done where you've done it and be able to do it at your alma mater?

CLARK LEA: Help me understand. Just in terms of the attention it's gotten or...

Q. The pride you take in what you've been able to do.

CLARK LEA: I think one of the greatest parts of this for me, and you've been there, you've seen it at its lowest points, anyone who was around the program in 2021, 2020, before I got there, pandemic year, knows kind of the depths of where this program existed.

I don't know. This is my fifth year. I feel like I've aged 50 during this time. I'm grateful for the fact that coming into this, I was naïve enough to think I was good enough to do it. There's this thought process that I could communicate my way into getting this group of players aligned and on board to play winning football.

What I realized quickly is that maybe I can do it, but I can't do it on my own. It's going to take a lot of people around me supporting the vision for success.

Obviously that starts with the chancellor, Candice Lee. We've talked a lot about her leadership. It extends into every ancillary part of our program that impacts winning.

To have experienced, to have lived through two 2-10 seasons, with a 5-7 season sandwiched in between, and to recognize the love and investment we put into that place. It still hasn't changed much physically. Obviously this football stadium feels different now, which is so cool.

This is a human story. It's a story about a group of people that came together, that were willing to see what was possible and willing to bleed into it and work hard for it.

We've lost people along the way. That's painful, too. I look at it now and say that's necessary. It has to be about the ones that have the belief.

You ask about the sense of pride I have in that. I think I'm so humbled and grateful to have been a part of it, to realize that there is still room for a team that puts a fence around the building, ignores the external perception, focuses on the internal investment, and cares about one another. Over time that can give way to results. There's a lot of I guess pride in that.

Again, I'm grateful to have been a part of it. I'm excited for this to be the beginning of it. To your point about Coach's tenure, I'm excited about what the future can hold for us.

The future won't be there unless we stay true to the DNA, the soul that we have as a program that has allowed us to get to this point.

Q. Kirk, what is about Diego Pavia that makes him so special, that will be the most difficult for y'all to defend tomorrow?

KIRK FERENTZ: Couple obvious things. First of all, when you evaluate a quarterback in my mind, it is all about does he lead the team, move the team, ultimately put the ball in the end zone, score points.

My experience is quarterbacks come in all sizes, shapes. When you coach at Iowa, you coach at Vanderbilt, I don't want to speak for Clark, maybe your guy is not always going to be 6'4" and run a 4.8 40 or 4.6 40, first round draft picks. Winning quarterbacks are winning quarterbacks.

We had Brad Banks in 2002, first year starting. APP Player of the Year, runner-up to the Heisman, the whole nine yards. Prototypical NFL guy. Our team believed in him and followed him. To me it starts with that.

He can do just about anything. I think he's probably most dangerous, what he's averaging a carry, 4.8, 4.6, whatever it may be. It's respectable. When he scrambles and pulls it down, that number doubles.

Trying to contain him is the challenge. I think it gets down to great team defense. We've played some good quarterbacks this year. Indiana is pretty good. Oregon isn't bad. SC had a guy that was unbelievable, too. It is a challenge, because every play the pressure is on. If you make a mistake, it might really cost you. It's easier said than done to defend that.

Q. You've faced a lot of top-shelf quarterbacks this season. Pavia can hurt you in the run game, as well. What is the challenge if you look at the passing game, getting the ball downfield?

KIRK FERENTZ: Pick your poison. He can throw the football. If there's one disadvantage he has is maybe trying to throw over the line, those situations where he's trying to get the ball maybe in the middle.

He's elusive, on the move. When he breaks contain, those kind of things, typically bad things are going to happen. You try to be aggressive against the guy, but you also have to be really careful. Again, it's like walking on ice in some ways. It's just really tough to navigate and negotiate against a player like that.

Again, any play that he is involved in could end up badly for you defensively. You just got to stay with your coverage and stay with the rules of the defense.

Q. When I sit here, I look at legendary coaches, future and established. How do you see each other when you look at your success, turning around the programs, being able to recruit quality young men that go out into the world and be more productive? What I'm saying is we have a young, up-and-coming coach, then a seasoned coach. How do you see each other similarities? Is it the secret sauces that you have great tight ends that come to your schools?

CLARK LEA: Well, one of the things, I think every place is a little different, every coach is a little different. It's important as a coach to stay within your personality. The coaches I have the most respect for are the ones that have a commitment to the foundational aspects of good football, what it looks like to play good football. There's an intensity, there's a physicality to that.

I'll never be Coach Ferentz because we can only be who we are. But, boy, do I admire the identity that his program plays with.

I think obviously the tight end position becomes important at both places, has been featured in both places. Yet what I believe to be true about sustaining and building a winning environment is when you have identity and you stay true to that, it serves as filtration for the people that want to come into your program.

I think if you look at our rosters, there is a difference in how we built our teams. I do believe there's a common thread in the fact that both teams play with spirit and identity. To me, that starts with a commitment to being true to who I am, making sure that in the recruiting process it's less about trying to convince someone to come be a part of it, it's more about being authentically who we are, being genuinely who we are, and allowing that to either draw someone in or communicate to them that they need to go somewhere else.

Again, when I watch Kirk's team play, when I think about it, again, this starts with looking at his coaching staff. I mean, the first day I sat down and looked at the years invested at Iowa among his staff, I thought my God, is this different. This looks different than any other program in the country.

Then you look at their team. You realize how many of their players have been developed through three, four and five years in that program. That looks different.

What you see in results then is a commitment to exactly who they are, an awareness of what their identity is. I believe that they let that speak for itself. It draws the right people in.

I hope the same will be said about Vanderbilt as we continue to search for consistency and results.

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, the tight ends, on that topic, I'll start there. Our local folks know this. But my wife in the '80s, anytime we lost a game, I'd come home, she said, You didn't throw the ball to the tight ends enough. The sad part is she was usually right. She says she doesn't know football. She knows it pretty well.

For whatever reason it's been part of my DNA from my time going back to 1981.

If you study it, too, to follow up on what Clark is talking about in terms of recruiting, think about Dallas Clark who was a walk-on on at Iowa. George Kittle was going to Weber State. We recruited him only because I coached his dad in 1981. His mom was a great basketball player. That's where the athletic genes come from. He developed later after he got drafted, fifth round. That's about what he was, but he's obviously grown since that time.

Sam LaPorta, we almost didn't take. That is how smart we were. T.J. Hockenson was on the scout team the first year, the entire year. Then after two more seasons was the eighth pick in the draft. Noah Fant was heavily recruited. Don't get many guys that could run like that back then. Runs really well.

There's a lot of different stories with other guys, but it's about getting the right guys in your program. I think that's how we have to recruit. We can't have mandated like 6'5", whatever, because all those guys go to Michigan, Ohio State. We'd be playing with nobody. You have to try to look beyond.

Just talking about Clark. Again, I'm an outsider looking in, just like he's looking at our stuff. One thing I really admire, he referenced he went through a couple two-win seasons. I know our first 20 games, it was like a body count every time we lost a game. Hawkeyes are now 2-19 under Ferentz, 2-20. That's what we were for the first 20-some games.

Unfortunately I'm the old guy in the room. Going back to who should play me. I was thinking maybe about Clint Eastwood in The Mule. Was he 97 in that movie? That could be me.

He said in that movie, the best line, You know the only people that won't live to be a hundred are the people that are 99. Hopefully I can identify with that someday. We'll see (smiling).

It takes time to build a program. I'm looking around right now, I'm horrified in what I see in terms of decision making. It's not going to change. I'm not naïve, I get that. I feel bad. I have three boys in the family business. I worry about the world in front.

What can end up happening is you start chasing the wrong things. That's a shame. It's a shame. It takes an administration, it takes people that understand. It takes time to build things that are going to be sustained and last.

The other part of that equation, not every day is going to be a good day. Not every season is going to be a great season. Can you weather that and correct problems instead of throwing everything out and trying to start over again.

I mean, you talk about old-fashioned thinking, that's what it is. But I'm stubborn. That's one of my better qualities, probably.

Q. Kirk, we normally talk to you four days before a game. We catch you here 24 hours before a game. You said whether you sleep well on Friday depends on how you practice. Do you feel like the way you prepared for this particular game you're going to sleep well tonight?

KIRK FERENTZ: Put me on the hot seat (smiling).

Yeah. The bowl game month is weird. You're happy some of the time, you're not happy some of the time. Coming off our first, like, real workday, Tuesday practice this week, I just felt miserable quite frankly. You get back and you watch the tape. It's one of those old axioms: Never as bad, never as good. It actually was a good workout. We got better the next day.

Today everything was pretty clean. All that doesn't matter if you don't show up with the right mindset. We're going to need that tomorrow because of the game we're in.

I feel okay. I think we're fairly healthy. You're always afraid to feel too good because you know eight million things that can go wrong all too well.

Q. You want to be one of those 12 in the College Football Playoff. If you can't be, is there a better place to be on New Year's Eve than Tampa at noon in the ReliaQuest Bowl?

CLARK LEA: Well, no (smiling). I'm going to mess this up. I think this is the second time that Vanderbilt has played in a Florida bowl game. I'm almost certain that's true.

To have a New Year's Eve game, Kirk mentioned this earlier, his opening remarks, there's so much going on right now in the national conversation around bowl games and Playoff. I'm sure it's going to be on off-season to remember it that way.

But I believe (indiscernible) the mistakes. I think our team strived to be one of those 12. That was a goal of ours obviously. I think to start the year, we may have been the only ones that believed we could do it. As the year went on, we brought more people on board to believe in that belief. That was a fun experience. We didn't do enough. We lost two games on the road that we needed to find a way to win. There's growth for us in that.

But the celebration that was when we found out we were going to be in this game. Honestly, too, I fought to be in this game. Anyone that would listen to me, including Jim and I had a call, I fought to be here because I wanted the opportunity for our team to experience the ReliaQuest Bowl. This always had such a great respect among my peers for the quality of game, how first class they are in the operation.

I said this before. It's a great next step for our program to be here New Year's Eve bowl game in a great city.

The other thing that was so appealing to me about the this game was the opponent. At the time when this was all being settled, it was projected Iowa was going to be here, too. This is what college football is about. Look, if I wasn't coaching it, I'd be a fan of it. This is the kind of game I want to watch.

You have an established program that's had decades of success, but plays a certain brand of football. You have an up-and-comer that is very similar in DNA.

Longwinded, but we're very happy to be here. Tomorrow is going to be such a celebration. The outcome is going to be the outcome. Two teams are going to fight really hard. This has been an incredible experience for us. It's something that we're going to be able to build on as we turn the page and focus on next season.

KIRK FERENTZ: I mean, ditto that. Bill Brashier was Coach Fry's long-time defensive coordinator. He said all bowls are good bowls, some are better than others.

You want to play in the best bowl possible. We all have goals at the beginning of the season to win a conference championship. The reality is not everyone is going to do that. You trickle on down.

You have a great city, people that really understand how to run a great bowl game. Again, I have an extensive history now, 20-plus years. One of the things I really appreciate about Jim and the people that work with him, they listen to what players like and don't like. They're eager for feedback. Every year it's a little bit different. It's really designed well for the players.

Great city. Everything about it is A plus. As Clark said, typically you got a good matchup of two really good teams. I think that's the case. I'm a little biased, but I think is going to be one of the more interesting matchups that is. You have two really good quarterbacks. Both seniors have been impactful with their programs. But two really good teams just competing.

Q. Kirk, throughout the season you've talked about how proud you are of this team to continue to push forward amid some of these tough losses. For you personally, what would it mean for you to see a team get a win over a ranked team and get over the hump?

KIRK FERENTZ: It would be great. First of all, there's no bad thing about winning your last game, all right? Playing in a bowl game and winning, it's night and day.

I told our guys at the front end of the month, I've been to a lot of bowl games in my career. Really what it gets down to, if you win it's great, if you lose, it's stink. Simple as that. My wife pointed that out about 35 years ago. That's how football is. That's what it boils down to.

It would be a fitting end for our team. I'm not saying we're the most deserving because that's not accurate. Our guys are deserving. I know Clark feels the same way about his group. That's because of the way they approached the season. I think both these teams have just played really well all year long. That's why it will probably be a really hard-fought contest, a lot of variables that go into it.

It will be really meaningful to win. I'd be happy for our seniors. We both have strong senior classes that way, too. You want them to leave on a really positive note.

Q. Coach Lea, what is about Iowa's play on the field that makes them unique from other opponents?

CLARK LEA: It's three phases, so you got three phases interlocked. All three complement one another. So the style of offense, the style of defense, style of special teams. It's clear that there's a plan to win. Each three of the phases are doing their part in that plan to win.

The patience they play with, the field position game they play, it's almost like the slow constricting that you see on a boa constrictor, just squeezing the field position battle out, finding ways to shorten the field. When they get the ball in the red zone offensively, they're among the best in the country. It's very intentional, the design, that way. That's really hard.

A lot of times you play teams that have very specific strengths and also very specific weaknesses. It seems that the team is designed and the game plan is designed to maximize the strengths and then obviously complement the weak parts. All that's great.

I think the thing that stands out most to me when I watch the film is how hard they play. That's all three phases. These guys care a lot.

Again, I talk identity as a program, those DNA strands that I think are similar. I hope that when people watch us play, they see a team that plays hard in all three phases.

What I see on Iowa's film is unique. You have a really smart design, a complement design, then you have a group of players that really care a lot about what they're playing for. That shines through when you watch them.