Kirk Ferentz News Conference Transcript | Sept. 8

KIRK FERENTZ: Good afternoon, everybody. Appreciate you being here. I want to start out on a sad note and talk about one of the members of the Hawkeye Marching Band. All of us were heartbroken to learn about the passing of Derek Phillips. He was a third-year member of the band and became ill Saturday at the game. His family posted on social media that he suffered a sudden cardiac arrest and was rushed to the hospital and then, unfortunately, passed away this morning.

On behalf of everybody associated with our program we want to offer our thoughts, our condolences to his family, his friends, and all the people that he impacted in his life. It's just a really, really, very, very sad thing.

Hate to start out with that. Again, our thoughts are with his entire family. I can't imagine going through something like that.

Talking about last week's game or this week's game kind of pales in comparison to that, but we'll go ahead and move forward.

Saturday was a positive start for our football team. Pleased with the effort overall and always good to look at the film. A day later there are always a lot of things that need to be addressed, certainly details that can be cleaned up. Penalty situation wasn't great. We had a turnover that probably could have been avoided.

As I mentioned Saturday, we weren't great in the short yardage and goal-line area. So those are areas that need to be worked on a little bit.

Special teams-wise, some really good things there. The punting game and punt return game was positive. And field goal execution, I think once we settled down we were okay in that regard as well.

So bottom line is right now we're a team in transition. Will be for a while probably. A little bit of youth and inexperience. Every opportunity is an opportunity to grow and learn. At least it was a positive first step, and we need to do a good job right now of making sure we're preparing day in and day out and trying to get ready here for a tough competitive game in front of us.

Captains this week are Montgomery, Lee, Lutmer, and Ostrenga.

Injury-wise, Tyler Brown won't make it again this week. That was anticipated. Then LJ will not be able to make it either. Hopefully that won't last too long, but those are the basically two takeaways from the game.

Iowa State basically has a new staff and basically a new team in a lot of regards. A lot of new players, new faces certainly.

Coach Rogers has done a great job everywhere he's been. He was outstanding defensive coordinator at South Dakota State and then took over and did a really wonderful job there, and did an impressive job last year at Washington State last year.

You watch them on film. They were very impressive. A little bit like last week, a lot of new faces to try to piece together, looking at their roster, and a little bit like last weekend that at least from a schematic standpoint I think we have a decent feel for what to expect -- although it's still early season, so you never know 100% what it's going to look like.

There's a lot of similarities between what they're doing now defensively and what they were doing when we played South Dakota State out here. Looking at what they did at Washington State, it was very impressive, very good defensive football team. I think that's what you're seeing on last week. Certainly the same thing there.

The offensive side of the ball -- the coordinator was in the NFL last year, but a little bit of remnants of when he was at Iowa State and also at North Dakota State. You see some familiarities there.

Special teams-wise, the coordinator has been in the program at Iowa State now for multiple years, and they did a really nice job on special teams last year. Same thing right now. They have a really good kicker and excellent return game. They added another returner on top of the one that they brought back.

So a lot of things to get ready for there.

Then just overview a little bit, really for 20-plus years it's been a really competitive, tight series. You look at the last six games and it's basically 3-3, and the games have been decided by roughly four and a half points.

I think that's really what you can expect again Saturday. The two teams get together, and it is a really hotly contested game. I can't imagine that being any different this week. We'll see what that looks like.

I still think it's probably underappreciated a little bit on a national front just the football that gets played here for a state of our size, our population. You have two Power 4 programs that have been really good this past decade. You have two other Division I programs that have done very well historically. We have excellent Division III football here. And Grand View has probably done better than anybody: 72 straight wins. Tough to beat that.

So a lot of good football being played here. It's a compliment certainly to all the coaching that gets done in-state and the programs that have emerged there.

So just kudos to that, and it will be great for the game to be on a national spotlight on Saturday night.

Kid Captain this week is Charlie Price, an 11-year-old from Cedar Rapids. Really glad to have him with us here. When he was 4 years old, he had bruising issues. They diagnosed a very rare blood disorder and had to go through chemo, radiation before he could get a bone marrow transport. They found a donor, a perfect match, who was in Germany. How they do that, I don't know.

Anyway, he's done really well since that time. A great young guy. Had the transplant in 2020 and has done really well. Then I'm told has a Night Watch Charity Run which they've started years ago, so his way of giving back. Last year they raised $14,000 for the Children's Hospital there.

So impressive young guy. It will be great to have him with us. I know the crowd will be great on Saturday, so we'll look forward to getting on the field here eventually.

Q. Coach, do you have a timeline on LJ Phillips, or is it still too early?

KIRK FERENTZ: It will be week to week, but definitely not this week.

Q. As far as the plan for running backs go, I know you talked about Kamari Moulton's confidence and he's faster and looking for explosive. Is he capable enough now physically to be able to handle 25-plus carries this weekend? I know Xavier Williams and Nathan McNeil probably didn't have the showing you'd like, but saw enough good things last year. Talk through the approach when it comes to running back without LJ?

KIRK FERENTZ: I think it's a good group and LJ was a great addition. Really pleased to get him and he's just a tremendous young guy.

To your point, Kamari, that's as good as we've seen him. It's funny, Jay and I were talking about that in the locker room after practice today. As much as anything, it's just confidence and experience. You've heard me say it a million times: You can't hand experience to anybody.

He's more confident, seeing things better. That's the beauty of experience and playing. I thought he was as fast, as quick, and decisive as we've seen him look. He's done good things prior, but I think that's just part of the process.

Happy about that.

And then you transition into Xavier and Nathan. I think that's just what they need more of. Probably more exposure out there, more work. Both of them have practiced well.

I would say Saturday didn't translate -- I think there was one run, I think it was Nathan, who got a little ahead of his feet and his mind was down there and feet were back here. That didn't have a good outcome, but that's just part of not playing enough probably.

I think that will work itself out as we continue to move forward.

Q. I wanted to ask about quarterback. If you have a plan set for this weekend and maybe if we should expect to see two quarterbacks again?

KIRK FERENTZ: I'll start backwards there. Yeah, probably. We haven't really talked it out yet, but I thought we saw a lot of good things from both guys. Encouraging things, a good start, a positive start. Both of them a couple of plays they'd like to have back, like everybody on the team, but thought it was a positive start for both guys.

We'll keep pushing forward here. I can say this, yesterday and today we've split the reps just like we did last week. We haven't sat down and talked about what the plan is or the strategy at this point, but pleased with both guys. We'll just keep pushing forward.

Q. Last week you said from both Caden and Boston you weren't expecting necessarily perfection from two young specialists. Caden had the PAT that was missed, and then he missed the long field goal but came back and made his final field goal, final four PATs. What do you like about how he responded to early adversity?

KIRK FERENTZ: Just like you said, bad things are going to happen. Not that we predicted or want to see things happen, but you can assume things are not going to go quite the way you want them to.

Caden's situation couldn't have got off to a worse start, but then he got his feet right back on the ground. When and you fall back on your fundamentals, that's probably the best thing you can do any time the wheels come off a little bit.

I think he did that, and he's certainly capable. We've seen him do a lot good things in practice. It's a consistency factor for every player that really matters.

Then flipping over to Boston, I thought for the first time out he really impressive. He seemed poised. Seemed under control. Part of it works to his advantage in that like he's totally naive to college football right now, and that's probably a good thing in some ways.

You know, I don't think he felt overwhelmed by things. That first plus-50 punt gave us a good chance. Would have been nice to see us nail that thing, but we didn't.

But, yeah, he did a good job out there, and we'll just keep pushing through. I'm sure we're not out of the woods there either yet.

Q. What's the challenge of preparing for a team that has so many new faces?

KIRK FERENTZ: It's early-season football, modern day football, early season. Two things: We have a game film to look at, which is really nice. Didn't have that last week, so that's at least better. Once we get to October, that won't be an issue anymore.

Then the other thing, the other good thing, is there's a lot of carry-over. A lot of the guys on the roster now that we're playing Saturday were playing at Washington State, so at least you get to watch them in operation and the schemes that they'll be playing in.

They have some really good young guys. Defensive end is a really good football player. This guy is jumping out. Young middle linebackers did a bad job. I think he was a true freshman year ago. And some big defensive tackles that have done a good job.

At least you're seeing some guys that -- you're seeing them in the schemes playing, so it's not perfect, but at least it's better than last week.

Q. You said probably both quarterbacks would play. You said expect a really hotly-contested game. Do you envision a situation where it's probably going to be hot hand type continues once you kind of establish each guy getting some series in?

KIRK FERENTZ: At some point --

Q. How do you go through that process?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, at some point that will probably be a consideration, for sure. Yeah, the bottom line is it's kind of like I said a week ago, we weren't trying to be coy; the competition is really good. I'd still say it hasn't changed an awful lot.

Right now we got confidence in both guys. We wouldn't put anybody out there right now that we thought was going to tilt the field the other direction.

We'll just kind of let this whole thing work itself out. I wish I had a blueprint or a formula, but I'm not sure there is one. We're just going to play it as we go.

But the good news is, again, I think we all walked away from Saturday feeling like, hey, that was a positive day.

Q. What about having Reece Vander Zee at punt return is advantageous for you guys? And then how does him and Evan James kind of work together to have their spots on the depth chart this year?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, that's another question that we will discuss here during the course of the week. You've got Lutmer would have been our guy last week at punt return, but he missed some time in camp, so we wanted to be careful with his pitch count not knowing how many plays he would get on defense.

Then Reece is a guy we trust back there. And Evan, it was great we got him in the game. I think we all had a chance to see some of the things that he can do, but he's still a young guy, too, and hasn't had a lot of experience.

A lot of things to consider. We'll see how it all shakes out, but at least I think there's the potential to have maybe a pool of guys that we can trust back there, and that's a lot better than the other way. We've been in both camps, and this is the better one. We'll see how it goes.

Q. There was a few third downs where you guys went to 3-3-5 defensively. What was just the process of installing that? I guess what are you trying to accomplish when you go to that personnel grouping?

KIRK FERENTZ: Pulled that one out of the closet, or wherever they've been keeping it. We've used that over the years, that package. It gives you a little variety.

I think it fits our personnel a little bit.

Again, probably our least experienced position right now is the defensive line, so it takes a little pressure off. It takes one guy off the field ask gives you a chance to use different body types also up front.

You know, it's something we've tinkered with in camp a little bit and tinkered with on Saturday. I'm sure we'll keep it in the package. To what extent we'll use it we'll see, but it's not uncommon. A lot of people are doing that, you know, some form of that.

So I think it probably has a place for us this year. Last couple of years we really haven't had to have it.

Q. I wanted to ask you about kind of scouting for this, especially on the defensive side, considering you have a quarterback that was from Arkansas State, you have a coach who has been at two different places in two years, the offensive coordinator is from North Dakota State, and even looking at last week's game, I imagine there's a lot that they did not show. How are you putting everything together, and how are you putting together a game plan defensively to kind of go against what they have?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, watch your screen, watch the draw, hell, watch everything, right? One of those deals.

So that's how it goes. That's what it goes down to, and that's a great question. It's probably the biggest challenge right now.

You have one game of all of them playing together. To your point, I'm guessing we probably saw a percentage of what they've been doing and what they are doing.

Then if you look at the coordinators' background, it's pretty diverse, being up there with Detroit, an excellent offensive football team. Certainly what they did at Iowa State during his time there, again, very impressive.

And then same thing at North Dakota State.

Walked in the other night, and Phil was watching our game I believe it was from whatever year that was, '17 I think. I mean, you are trying to cover all your bases. Now preparing the plans and putting the scripts together, that's a little bigger challenge. You can watch tape in the office, but then trying to figuring out, okay, what are we really going to work on.

A couple of things. The other day, it's clear he'll throw the ball down the field. That's very obvious. They made some big plays in the game, various guys making some big plays. We got to expect that.

You better stay in your contained lanes too. I think one of the opponents on Saturday took a bad angle, and he stepped right out of that. That could get dangerous as it gets to be a little bit exciting when that happens.

We're going to have to play good disciplined football and then try to figure out what the plan is as we go.

Q. How would you describe Tony Diaz's character maybe off the field, and how does that translate to his success on the field?

KIRK FERENTZ: I was just going to say, he seemed like a fairly quiet guy, but the way they are around us and then what happens when they're all together. I remember Jordan Walsh always seemed like he was the quietest guy in the world, and then we heard he's not so quiet with the rest of his buddies, and that's fine. That's good.

He's just got a good demeanor. We were talking about him this morning, too. I was saying to somebody, he just really enjoys playing football. I mean, there's a youthful exuberance.

He's aggressive to the football. He has been since he's shown up, which is a really good trait for a receiver. It sounds kind of silly you would say that, but he is really aggressive to catching footballs and sometimes puts himself in a little bit of risk. But, boy, that's a great temperament. It's fun.

Then he can run pretty well too, so he's a really delightful young guy. He's been a really good teammate, and we're really glad he's here with us.

Q. I'd say outside the facility it feels like Cy-Hawk week, whereas inside the facility it doesn't necessarily feel like that, talking to players. Is that by design because of all the hoopla that can come with that matchup?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, I know there's other places where they do it, and they've had a lot of success. I've never really quite bought into the one game or circling dates or red letters. You know, whatever they do for all that stuff. I think it's a slippery slope.

Really what you are trying to do is get a team to understand it's important to compete every week. I totally understand we have 12 opponents, and I understand every game matters, conference games really matter, intrastate rivals really matter. I get all of that.

Just trying to turn things on and off, that's a really risky game to play in my opinion. We just tried to get our guys -- really the race is us against time. That's the race we're running right now. We've got 11 more chances to play.

Whenever Sunday comes around, whoever we're playing that week, that's all that really matters. That's where we try to keep it, just right there.

We may do extra work or, whatever, you got projects and stuff like that, but as far as getting the players distracted with something that maybe -- it's going to get down -- you could come up with a million stories for this series, this game. I've been through a lot of them now since '81.

But the bottom line is this is the first time this 2026 team is going to meet their 2026 team. It happens to be here this year, but it's really going to get down to what happens out there at 6:36. That's what matters and what can we do to get ready for it when that time comes.

Q. What's resonated with you from last game that you are taking into this week?

KIRK FERENTZ: I was pleased with the way our guys showed up Saturday. I thought they were ready to go. Kind of ties into the last question.

I thought they were ready to go, and I think all you have to do is look around prior to our game and then after our game and find examples of maybe teams that weren't quite ready. It's never a given. It's never a given.

You just have to start there and hopefully you do your work during the week, so when it comes time to compete, you compete at your best. If you do that and lose, then you live with it.

But boy, when you know after a game, maybe we weren't as serious as we should have been or didn't have the proper respect for our opponent or take the respect of the challenge to heart, those are the things that are tough to live with as a coach.

We're 1 for 1. That's the good news. We have another challenge this week, so hopefully we learned a good lesson last week and carry it over to this one.

Q. You mentioned how the D-line is the least experienced group. They didn't look like it. They didn't play like that. What stood out to you with their performance with a lot of those guys really getting their first real playing time, and do you see them -- that unit as maybe being the strength of your defense moving forward?

KIRK FERENTZ: It would be great if it was, if it turns out that way. It would not be a prediction I would have made a week ago or whatever.

To your point, I thought they held their own, more than held their own, and did a lot of good things, and the tape verifies it. Line play you really have to see the film afterwards typically to really know.

A lot of good things there. And the good news is there's a lot of things we can improve upon. For as many first-time guys as was out there, really pleased. So it's a good positive start. Hopefully we can build off of that. I mean, the honest truth is I had no idea what it was going to look like. You just don't know. Youdon't know how your opponent is going to be. You don't know how you're going to be.

At least, again, we have one in the bank where it looked like that's something we can build off of and build a defensive around, but it really helps if you can do some good things up front on both sides of the ball. That allows you to maybe have a chance. Yeah.

Q. We've talked about this a little bit, but you had 27 seniors last year. This year you have, like, six to eight fifth-year seniors. Are you curious or do you have a vibe of how this team is going to handle the week-to-week? You probably had a better feel last year with a veteran team. How is that maybe more challenging, I guess is what I'm asking, this year with a bit of a less experienced team?

KIRK FERENTZ: I would say this, though, too. I've been in situations where it works both ways where you have a veteran team that might be too veteran. That can happen. Then sometimes the beauty of maybe not being as veteran is you don't know any better. Like you should be -- hey, we should be a little bit more worried about this week, but sometimes the guys are oblivious to that.

My encouragement to them is no self-imposed ceilings. We acknowledge what we are and who we are, but don't put a limit on yourself because of that, because that's not the whole story.

Be aware of it, be cognizant, and then also know because of that there's areas we got to really make up for it in other areas.

So far so good. I think you heard me say a year ago, I know you did because you were here -- a year ago I felt really good about the leadership pretty early on. This year I've been curious to see how it's going to go, and it's still a dynamic process here.

We looked like a team that had good leadership Saturday. Coaches help get a team ready, but that's not the whole story. Players get themselves ready. I thought they did a good job with that, but that's only one down, so we'll see.

To your point, with each week it gets interesting. This week is always an interesting week in our state. It's another challenge to deal with here.

Q. There was a clock issue this weekend involving a Big Ten team. Not to ask you to comment on that situation directly, but was there anything -- any kind of directive sent out by the Big Ten related to the clock? Were you aware that there were different clocks, whether it was on the field versus in the Big Ten replay booth in Rosemont? Any kind of conversations you've had in the last few days regarding the type of situation?

KIRK FERENTZ: Really none, and to answer your question, I haven't received anything. That doesn't mean there isn't something in there, but if I have, I haven't looked at it and it hasn't gone on my desk.

Pretty much no to all your questions. I wasn't aware of different clocks. That was new to me too. I've only kind of, like, heard it on the radio being talked about every time I'm in the car it seems like.

I don't know what to think about it other than -- I can't imagine how heartbroken the team that lost. Yeah, it's one of those crazy things.

I'm sure I'll learn more about the mechanics of it all as we go along, but it was interesting, to say the least.

Q. With the red zone kind of goal-line offense, that was an area that could have used improvement from the first game. Two seasons ago you kind of used Brendan Sullivan in those type of situations; last season with Mark's running ability. Are there any adjustment you see? I know it's a small sample size, but ways that maybe put you guys in a better position around that red zone goal line area moving forward?

KIRK FERENTZ: I think that's probably a discussion we'll have. Coincidentally it's going to be this afternoon after this. We're going to be in the red zone and goal line in this afternoon's meeting. So yeah, we'll probably talk about all the possibilities, right personnel groups, wrong personnel groups, all those types of things.

But, again, you don't want to I don't think rush off to a decision. Some of this stuff is correctible, teachable from the film, so we've got to execute a little bit better. Things that can be repaired.

If it becomes an issue, then yes, certainly we'll have an open mind to however you want to do it, whether it's -- there's a multitude of things you could do, but in a perfect world you like to kind of settle in and start developing something from early in the season. We'll be looking at it. Hopefully we'll have a better report Saturday night.