Kirk Ferentz News Conference Transcript | Sept. 1

KIRK FERENTZ: Good afternoon. Good to see everybody. Excited to get started. Like most teams, good to kick the season off and get out and start playing, learn more about our football team.

I'll go right to the depth chart. That's probably the biggest item of interest right now. We released one yesterday. As we tell the players, it's pretty much up in the air right now, a lot of spots, a lot of different positions.

Quarterback is the position that certainly draws the most attention. Again, we weren't trying to be coy or cute on that thing, but that's really where it's at right now. We haven't decided on a starter yet.

I think we listed them by numerical order, but the bottom line is we don't know who will start the game. Somebody is going to do that, but it's safe to say both guys will play during the course of the game, and then we'll just play it out from there. I'll get back to that a little bit later on.

We have a lot of positions right now that are really like that. The kicking, punting situation, were in a really close contest as well. We have named starters on both those, but I think as close as the competition was, you can see either of the guys play at both those two positions. So we'll see how that all goes.

Then, going back to the quarterback thing, it is, was, is close statistically, close from a feel standpoint I think. At this point after however many practices we've had, 21, 22, there's no right way to make a decision at this point. So we'll figure that out between now and Saturday.

I think we probably need more evidence, and the next step is see how guys play in ball games. We've been in that situation before, so we'll let that play out as it goes. Hard to predict how it's going to go. We'll wait and see.

Looking across our team overall, it's kind of representative of the way it is. We have some positions like running back where we've got a bunch of guys that I think we feel we've seen them play and compete.

Add LJ to that, a guy that we've seen at the FCS level, and feel pretty good about that room. Certainly feel good about the tight end room. Again, guys that have played and demonstrated they can compete at a pretty successful level.

Then you flip it over, probably the opposite right now is our defensive line. We're not overly experienced in that position. A lot of guys competed well during camp. I think we're going to have to see them on the field, too, to really know who they are, what it looks like.

So it's kind of a lot of moving parts like a lot of teams right now this time of year. It's not unusual in September, I don't think. Eager to see the guys get out there and see what they do and see how they compete.

I think we got a bunch of guys that are certainly capable, but we need to see them in game action and see how they respond to things that do take place in ball games. So we'll answer questions about that later.

Captains this week will be Jayden Montgomery, Zach Lutmer, Deshaun Lee, and Addison Ostrenga.

Injury-wise, Tyler Brown will not be ready this week. We'll play that one week by week. And I don't see Trent Wilson making it by Saturday, so hopefully get him back next week as well.

Moving on to Northern Illinois. Certainly traditionally it's been a good program. We played them my first year here back in '99. Coach Novak did a great job with it. They have a new coach right now. Coach Harley was there last year as the defensive coordinator. He's taken over.

Looks like he'll call the defenses. I think we have some ideas at least what they like to do schematically.

They have a new offensive coordinator, Coach Petersen, who we've played against when he was at Iowa State and Minnesota and now most recently was at Illinois State. Excellent coach. The special teams coach is back there, as well.

Know a little bit about the schemes, at least we think we do. But it's kind of reflective of the new world in college sports. They've got a lot of new players on the resource. We have to fill in from all kinds of places trying just to get a feeling for personnel. It's always one of the challenges of early-season football, whether it's coaching changes or personnel changes.

But the way college football is going right now, this time of the season, it's really interesting to try to piece things together, but we're doing our best there to try to have a good cohesive plan.

Any game, regardless, you always have to be ready, because there's no way to predict exactly what this year's team is going to look like or what their approach is going to be. So bottom line is we need to make sure we're prepared, and we need to be sound, alert, and be flexible.

Kid Captain this week -- and great to have the program back in action -- is 6-year-old Harlow Taube. She's from Orion, Illinois, hometown of Logan Lee. Coincidentally, I got to visit with her and her family in August. Just a tremendous young girl, who has been through some ordeals and doing well in elementary school now and doing really well.

She's wants to be a paleontologist.

Last but not least, really excited to have Sedrick Shaw back. Congratulations to all the former athletes that are going to be honored in our Hall of Fame this weekend. It's a huge honor to be recognized where you really grew and a big part of your career.

Certainly Sedrick is representative of that. I got to meet him back in 2012, I think, when he was back. Tremendous young guy and what a great football player. It's a big deal to rush for 1,000 yards. He did it three times. He's a leading all-time attempter and 4,100 yards rushing.

A great football player and was a really great guy to visit with. So we're excited to have him back, too, back on campus. Obviously congratulations to him for a well-deserved recognition.

Q. Kirk, I wanted to ask you about Saturday and do you have kind of a plan for the quarterback position? Is one guy going to go two series or three series and then you switch it up, or how are you going to operate that?

KIRK FERENTZ: We've talked about it. We haven't really put a pen to it yet, but it's probably I think fair to say something like that. Pitch count, if you will.

So if you have a three-and-out, try to give a guy an opportunity to get his feet on the ground and play a little bit. I could envision something like that where we script something out and keep everything flexible, but just see how it all plays out as we go.

Q. If I remember right, when we talked to you last week, you talked about the importance of getting a pecking order for quarterback, and you wanted one guy to take the majority of reps this week. I guess what made you decide to kind of continue to split the reps? If we're talking about next week, do you want to have a pecking order solidified by next week, or is this something that could linger on past this?

KIRK FERENTZ: Basically, the answer is the evidence. If things had shaped out that way, we would have done it weeks ago if somebody took, but it's been back and forth. Most of it's positive, which is the good news.

Both guys are clearly better than they were a year ago, and that's what you hope with all the players in the program. Pleased with their progress and their improvement. It's been really close.

To really say one is this far in front of the other, it's not fair at this point. We'll probably have more evidence after Saturday, but I think we probably want to keep an open mind, too, and let things play out. If it's obvious, it's obvious. If not, we'll just keep riding with it.

I did look it up. Back in '08, I keep talking about that reference, and both guys had equal number of starts after four games. Then we finally made the decision to go with Ricky. Lo and behold, he lost the next two weeks. We lost, okay, with him starting at quarterback. I think we averaged 15 points a game.

Nonetheless, we stuck with him, and it worked out. It was as the evidence mounted, we made a decision and went with it.

I did out of curiosity go back and look at 1987. Took a couple of games, but then Chuck Hartlieb, who was No. 3, and we were all clear he was No. 3 going in at the start of camp that year. He ended up being the guy that emerged and led the league in passing that year in passing efficiency.

You just never know how it's all going to play out, and we're going to try to let it play out on the field. That's the next step.

Q. I wanted to ask you a little bit about the responses after Kids' Day practice in the stadium in front of fans. Hank obviously did not have a good day. He didn't have a good day really against Indiana, which a lot of quarterbacks didn't have good days against them last year. How did he respond the next day? Could you tell? Did he respond well, or did he have issues that maybe you had to talk through? Likewise with Jeremy Hecklinski, who could not have thrown better in an open practice. There was nobody there, and did he fall off the next couple of days, and is that why it's more of an even competition?

KIRK FERENTZ: That was our ninth practice. As I tried to say afterwards, we've seen nine. Everybody else saw one. We try to weigh them all. Not equally, but you try to look at the body of work, and it's been the same thing since. Fair to assume that it's been pretty level. There's no question Jeremy had a better day that day.

But whatever it's been now, 21 days, 22 days, it's been pretty even. It's just where it is. No dramatic news to report there.

I would interject, too, and I know that comes up, it's pertinent, in my mind at least any past evidence, guys being on the field last year, two years ago, whatever it may be, really is irrelevant in my mind right now, because I think both the two guys we're talking about are way better than they were a year ago. Again, we see them every day.

I'd say the same thing about Jimmy Sullivan. Right now he's really doing some good things out there, too. I can envision him having a good career.

I'm not trying to drop any secret information out there, but I think we have a good room of three guys right now that are really functioning. And Tradon and Fitz are doing a good job, too. They're not at that level yet.

All you can do is evaluate what you see in practice. Kids' Day did count. As I told our team yesterday, it was good to be out there that day, but that's nothing compared to game day Saturdays. So it's going to be a whole different environment for everybody on Saturday. We have a lot of guys that haven't played much college football, so it will be interesting to see how they respond.

Q. In regards to who gets the start between the two, do you have a time frame for when you want to make that decision? Are you looking for anything this week when you do end up making that decision?

KIRK FERENTZ: Tomorrow is a big workday for us, and we'll get through tomorrow and then start talking about it in the afternoon. I think in a perfect world there's certainly Friday morning when we practice would be good for the guys to -- at least we'll get the batting order straight. Again, not that it's written in ink, but at least, yeah, get it going.

Q. Anthony Hawkins starting in place of Tyler Brown this week. He told me that his biggest strength is his range going from sideline to sideline. How have you seen that ability kind of play out so far in camp?

KIRK FERENTZ: He's been impressive. He's an impressive young guy and did a good job last year at his previous stop, and we were intrigued when he showed up here in January. He's been good every phase of the way.

Still learning; still growing. There's a lot to learn back there, especially at the safety position. There's a lot of thought process and what have you. It helps he's got a guy like Lutmer back there helping him.

No, he's done a really good job, and he does have good range. He's a big, tall guy. Probably one of the taller safeties I've ever seen, at least since we've been here. Eager to see him play. He's done a good job in practice.

Q. When you guys ultimately decide who does get the first snaps. How much weight are you weighing on whoever gets that first at-bat? I'm only asking because of how even it's been, as you have described.

KIRK FERENTZ: The psychology, is it better to be the first guy or better to be the second guy? We may have to factor that in. Whoever the first guy is, maybe we'll give him the choice (laughter).

Anyway, so these are all the crazy things you start thinking about. The bottom line is really I don't know. We wouldn't have been to this point if it weren't that close. It's probably going to be inconsequential who starts the game, but it's what is going to be more important is what happens once these games start and once the guys actually are out there playing.

Again, not trying to predict bad things, but I just understand that, like all of us understand, first-time players are maybe not going to look great for a while, and then it takes a while to get going. Next thing you know, you'll see.

Probably I alluded to the 2008 season. It took a while to figure it out and sift it out and, same thing back in '87. We won ten games that year. Turned out it was a happy ending both years. They were both really good seasons, but it took a while to get it right.

I think the most important thing out of all is getting it right, and that's what we're going to try to do.

Q. The last time you played NIU eight years ago, you passed Hayden Frye as the all-time winningest coach in program history.

KIRK FERENTZ: That's good trivia. I didn't know that.

Q. I'm curious what memories you still have from that day eight years later?

KIRK FERENTZ: Absolutely none, I'm sorry to say. It was a good occasion in that way and I think I have the game ball back in my office in a display. I've kind of moved on since that one.

I've had a lot of good memories and a lot that weren't so good. Thanks for bringing up something positive. I like that. That's a good day.

Q. Thinking back to when you've chosen starting quarterbacks in the past, do you remember if there was a moment or something that you saw that made it obvious? Then maybe how does that apply to this quarterback battle?

KIRK FERENTZ: The most recent one, at least the ones I'm alluding to, certainly remember the Pittsburgh game. Stanzi came off the bench and gave us a spark and moved us.

It was kind of the feeling coming out of there. We chose to stick with Ricky after that, and it paid off pretty well. But no, I think we'd all probably prefer to know who is 1, who is 2, who is 3 at all positions, but all that being said, you never know until you start playing seasons. As I alluded to, the most important thing is trying to get it right and realizing it is a fluid process.

Sometimes those gaps are pretty clear and pretty easy to see, and then other times they're not. You just have to go with your gut sometimes, too. That doesn't mean it's always going to be right. You're never 100% right when you're making personnel decisions.

Q. A special teams question: I know you said the kicker and punter battle is both close, but what has Caden done to separate himself there? Also, Boston, both of those guys had less game or no game experience than the guys they were competing against.

KIRK FERENTZ: Basically it's a slight consistency edge. The good news is they both had really good days today. All the specialists, all four of them. That's good news. That's a good point, too.

Talking about consistency, my experience is there that with specialists, young specialists, you're going to have some ups and downs, too. I think you have to try to be patient there, hope they're preparing well, doing a good job in practice, and then being as patient as you can in game competition.

I'm not saying Jason Baker wasn't a great punter in '99, but he sure was in 2000. With every step of a good player's career, they usually get more consistent and their abilities tend to become a little bit more apparent. Jason was just unbelievable in 2000 and then played for however many years in the NFL.

There were some ups and downs early with him, too. That's just most players are like that.

Q. If George Barnett were up here, I know you're an offensive line expert yourself, but what is it about Cael Winter that sort of made that decision so clear that he was going to be your center, and how does he help you play like the best with those five guys?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, I think the easy answer is consistency, just as we were kind of talking about. He flashed a couple of years ago even before he was probably physically ready to play at this stage, but you know, we saw some good things with him. We saw good things in high school, too.

He was doing some good things, and now his consistency is really -- two things: I think his consistency has really improved, and then his belief in himself. Part of that's hard work and maturity, too.

He's a different guy than he was three years ago physically, but he's had a really good, steady, productive spring. Looked like he was maturing into a Big Ten football player. Then he's done the same thing in camp.

In terms of the position flexibility, we have two guys there that are both capable of playing center. Then Mike Myslinski has had a good camp, too. Not to throw him out of the equation. You have three guys that are doing a pretty good job.

I feel like Cael is probably a little better at center and right now more comfortable at center than he is at guard. Pieper is obviously very comfortable at guard. We felt like that gave us our best combination. Mike is in that equation, also. Probably put him at center right now if we were to put him in the game.

We have some flexibility up front a little bit. Pleased with the way we've seen some growth and development with those guys.

Q. Hayden Large is a player you spoke positively about a lot last year. What do you think it says about him going from Division III at Dordt to making the Bears' roster? He's since been placed on injured reserve, but making the roster. Do you have a player that's going to fill that fullback, H-back role on your roster right now?

KIRK FERENTZ: I think we have a good group there that they're capable of doing that. I was talking to Ray Braithwaite last night just after our medical meeting. We were talking about Hayden, actually, and what a great story he is.

I remember him sitting in with his dad a couple of winters ago trying to figure out how he even ended up in my office. There's a Dordt-Van Kekerix connection there. Anyway, that's how he got here. I figured he had an Iowa tie because the name Hayden, but no, none at all. He's from Grand Rapids, and they had none at all that way.

He was an OK player when he got here. Great kid; OK player. Then he became a solid player, and then last year he was a really good player. He had an unreal attitude and was a detail guy. Everything about him, he's a coach's dream.

So to watch him progress, and give credit to Chicago because I don't know who did it, but somebody saw something in him, and I know they had a real interest in him back at draft time, free agency, and made a real effort to get him there as a free agent. Certainly he lived up to his end of the bargain, too.

I just really thrilled for Hayden. It's a good story and perseverance. It's a good story. Paying attention to the little things right and then believing in yourself a little bit and seeing improvement. I am really happy for him. It's outstanding. He's with a good place in a good place.

Q. Continuing the conversation about Cael, we were talking with him earlier about being a preferred walk-on and now being the center, and it's not the first time that a walk-on has then become a starter for you in your program. How have you over the years balanced walk-ons so that they are ready to compete for a starting role and then in Cael's case actually take over the starting role?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, probably goes before my time here, but being back, but ever since we've been here, if are you on the team, you're on the team. That's always been our approach and philosophy. Whether you're the 100th guy or the -- old days, 125th, now it's 105 -- you know, whoever you are on the team, if you want to be coached, we're going to coach you. As long as you do your part, we're going to try to do our part.

So everybody has an opportunity. Football is one of the last places existing, I think, where people have an equal chance to really compete and do whatever they want.

Then in his case when we talk about a guy like Hayden, you know, they may not come in ready to go, but if a guy sticks in the program and works hard, there's no guarantees they're going to be at that level, but at least they give themselves a chance, and that's a commonality with both those guys. They gave themselves a chance to see how good they can become.

I say everything is equal. The old days it wasn't because we couldn't feed walk-ons meals. They had to pay double or whatever it is to eat a training table meal and all that stuff. We got all that stuff out of the way I guess in '14.

Once guys walk in the building, they're all on the same tier that way. It's an opportunity to go play, see what you can do, and he's done a great job with it. Credit goes to him.

Q. At safety Vitti and Styles both on the two deeps as backups. What have they brought since they got to campus in January?

KIRK FERENTZ: Hawkins, too, is in that same tier, those three guys. Hawkins got here a year ago and was injured most of the year. We saw very little of him until last spring. We started to see some things there.

Vitti is obviously coming out of high school, and then you have Xavier coming out of a different school.

So they've all been playing. Not catch-up, but they've all got a level there where they've got to move up, and they've just all daily gotten better. They work hard and have good attitudes. All a little different discussion, but I think all three of those guys right now are in the thick of things for playing time, and they're playing on special teams, that type of deal.

The question with them is how quickly can they pick things up? They've done a good job in practice, but now you get into game competition, and safeties have to make some calls, recognition stuff, all that. It's a full day's work.

But good to get them out there and get them started in the process and see where they're at, but pleased with all three of them. Good progress.

Q. Today LJ was one of the more entertaining players, I would say, to talk to. What can you say his attitude brings to your offense this season? He's obviously an entertaining player, entertaining to talk to, but how does that enhance your offense?

KIRK FERENTZ: I haven't seen the entertaining part yet, but he's very personable. Yeah, he's a tremendous young guy.

I think I mentioned -- I can't remember who I've talked to anymore, but I actually saw South Dakota play in a playoff game two years ago, and they had two running backs both run really well, really well. LJ wasn't one of them. So it's kind of interesting. It wasn't that long ago. Then both those running backs were gone last year. He did a great job for them.

First time I got to meet him in January, he came down with his dad and brother-in-law. Just a great family, unbelievable family. He's got a really great personality. It's easy to like him. He's got a good energy to him.

Then more importantly, when it comes to the football part of it, you get him on the field, and he really likes playing. He's got a good feel for it and just brings a good personality to the team, to the room, and to the huddle when he's in there and plays with a good energy. Eager to see him get out there and compete.

You know, football is football. Whether you FCS level or Big Ten, football is football, and I think he's going to do really well. Really good to have him here.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports