Coordinators News Conference Transcript | Oct. 13

TIM LESTER: Obviously we're halfway done, so six weeks in, I think our guys offensively they've competed hard, learned a lot. I think we've done a good job thus far of finding balance, which is something we've been searching for. We've had some like four just under 400 play calls. I think I'm 191 run and 179 pass right now. We've got about 1,200 yards rushing, 1,200 yards throwing. We've thrown the ball about 180 times with only two interceptions and five sacks. The guys have done a good job of trying to find a way to be a balanced offense. That's one of the things we've got a long way to go, but we're working on.

The one group that I want to call out because I think they've done an unbelievable job, anytime you're trying to have a great season, your returners and your great players have to play great, not just good, great. It's a common thing. Coach talks about it all time, but you got Kade Pieper, DJ, Addy, Ortwerth, and Kamari, guys that have played that are playing great right now. They're playing at a high level. What that does it's a great example for the new guys. We had three offensive linemen that started the first six games, have never started before; two quarterbacks, Tony and Evan, are new. But our veterans have done a really good job of playing well. Even though DJ got hurt and came back, he's done a really good job.

It really allows the offense to go when your best players are having great years. Those guys are doing a heck of a job and kind of leading the pack. We've gotten better, practicing every single week. Today was another really good practice. Obviously, from the quarterback situation, Hank started, did a great job. He had a great two-minute drill at Michigan. He got banged up at Ohio State. Heck came in, finished that game well. Obviously, played well against Washington as well.

Coach has said it a couple times up here to you, I think we have two guys that can help us win games, and they're both competing and doing a really good job. As far as who will play against Wisconsin, I don't know. I don't have to know right now because we're on bye week. We got a little bit of time to figure it out. Hank actually practiced today. He wasn't on the sheet of paper, he wasn't 100 percent practicing everything, but we weren't really doing everything, but he was out there throwing it around today, which was fun to see him throw the ball again.

I think it's safe to say they're both going to play meaningful snaps in the second half of this season to help us win games. One of the things that I'm most proud of is Hank did everything in his power to be available for our football team last Friday night. That was not easy. He was banged up and did everything. He probably knew the best thing he could be is the emergency, but he did, and he was available. That was an impressive thing. On the other side, Heck, I don't know which one of you asked him the question after the game, but started to ask about this, that, and the other thing, and I loved his comment of "If Iowa wins, I'm happy," because that's what they're about. They're good teammates, they're both competing, they're both getting better, they're both being efficient. I think they have the exact same completion percentage or something crazy like that.

I'm really proud of those guys. I think the biggest key is us building a system that can be executed. It's all over the NFL, but I look at the 49ers a lot. You had Sam Darnold, who was a backup a couple years ago, and Mac Jones goes in and goes 4-0, I think. Sam Darnold went 5-0, and Brock Purdy goes in there and executes, and that's what we're trying to build—a system that guys can go in there, do their job, we can win games. So, I'm proud of the way they've handled the first half. Obviously, we're 5-1, we're in a good position. We have to continue to get better, continue to find our identity and the things we do well, and then I got to make sure I put us in those situations as much as possible. So far so good, a lot of work to do, and excited for the second half of the season.

Q. Wanted to ask you a little bit about Kamari Moulton. It seems like a guy that's always upbeat, having a good time. How does his personality and character kind of help him on the field as well as off the field?

TIM LESTER: I think the one thing -- he's a great story, just because when I got here, he was always upbeat, which helped him get through some of the hard times when he wasn't seeing, at least in our run scheme, he wasn't seeing holes. I want to say his first ball I handed him, he ran right into Connor Colby, like right into the behind of our right guard, and fell down.

And now the young kids are doing that, and he's the one that's putting his foot in the ground and finding it, and then breaking tackles and taking the next step. You really don't have to say anything after watching the determination that he ran with, you know.

When you're going through the ups and downs where I think he started as the starter before Kaleb came in, that had to be hard, and his mindset and approach every single day helps him get through that and allows him to earn kind of where he's at right now, where he's making positive plays, play after play after play. He's an all-down back. And I think it gains confidence. He's the one that breaks us down a lot of times, him and Addy, and I think he's in a really good group and it's great for the young guys to see that. Some of them weren't here two years ago when he was still learning this whole thing. But it's fun when he can kind of show them the way of how to be a great back and how to run hard, but also try to be explosive at the same time, and he's great in pass pro, so it's been fun to watch him battle back from his little injury he had, getting banged up a little bit. Was that game one? One or two? It was game two. And he bounces right back like a pro. So, I'm really happy for him because he's put a lot of work into this thing.

Q. Going back to quarterbacks here for a second, you mentioned you're really proud of how both of them have developed and that they're going to see some meaningful snaps through this back half. How do you as a coaching staff make a decision of who gets meaningful snaps at what point during which game, and are we looking at a situation where it's almost back to a first-at-bat thing like you described earlier this year, or is it more developed at this point?

TIM LESTER: We haven't had that discussion yet. It's a good question. Haven't had that discussion yet. Just Hank's still getting healthy. It was great to see him throw the ball today, even though he was going to only do a couple things and it was coming out of his hand. But that will be a discussion we'll have as we know we eventually officially have both of them ready to go.

We're going to have to figure out which one's going to get the first at-bat. We have two guys that have proven they can be efficient and help us win games. And it's the greatest thing for quarterbacks. I'm telling you, I mean, I was a four-year starter, and my backup quarterback was really good. He was really good, and I knew it. When I got hurt, I got healthy fast or I was going to lose my job. And I tell people in 1999 we went to the Mac Championship game and then I graduated, and Jeff Welsh, that was his name, like they went to the Mac Championship game in 2001, too, because they were good, and he was good. So, it's good that they're pushing each other to get better. And so, it's good to have options. It's great when no one plays great every single week. So, having options is a really unique thing, and we'll have to have that discussion when the time comes on who gets the first at-bat or how we do it. Someone told me Utah's playing two guys at the same time? I don't watch any football really, other than whoever we're playing, but that's crazy. I've never even heard of that. So, you never know.

Q. I have kind of a two-fold question. I noticed Scott Chandler sitting next to you in the booth. How is he kind of helping you in the game? And then with the use of motion, it seems like you're really moving, especially Diaz, around, and it's creating some gravity on the other side of the ball, particularly Friday night. Is that something you've noticed too, that teams are really keen in on Diaz as he's in motion?

TIM LESTER: So, I met Scott actually in this room at our coaches' clinic my first spring here, and he was actually my high school kids' coach. But he started talking about his time in the NFL, right? I mean, we are definitely 100% an NFL offensive system. And I was shocked by my kids' high school football coach that knows football at a very high level. And so, when he decided that he wanted to get into either college or pro coaching, it was a no-brainer for me having already had a relationship with him.

But it's great to have someone else in the building that understands what we're doing and how we're doing it, and actually he's done it. Like we put in a new play called Chan, and we're talking about how you dive down and how you wrap the Mike linebacker, and sure enough, he brought up his old film. He's like, "This is the only time I scored," he's like, "I know this play forwards and backwards." So, there we watched him score three times. So, it's a really unique thing, so it's fun to have next to me, and he's been a head coach. We do a lot of things up there when you're talking about third and fourth downs; he's helping us a little bit with the time management of what part of the field we're going to be aggressive in and stuff like that.

So, he's talking with Coach and me at the same time. That's what Billy did last year. Billy's obviously on the field now. As far as the motions go, it's a huge part of what we do. You have to have great eye discipline when you play defense, and when you're moving players around—much less players that demand attention like Tony, or even DJ—it changes their gaps.

The hardest thing, I think, about all the motion is our offensive line being comfortable with the moving targets, right? And that's why a lot of people don't do what we do is because their line can't handle changing pitcher right before the snap. They just want to line them up, point their fingers, like, "Here's the target, and go at them," right? And our guys are really comfortable with it after—they've been getting more and more comfortable with it over year after year. So, it does—you can't press a guy in motion. I can tell you that, I've never seen it. So, it definitely does have some advantages; motioning helps us in the run game, helps us in the play-pass game, and it helps get guys some better matchups sometimes. Are they going to rock and roll, are they going to run across, are they going to bump? We can tell man-zone on a lot of those things, too.

So, it's definitely—it helps us at so many levels that you just have to do it. That was the first thing in my first spring here, we just started doing it and said you're going to learn on the run. I'm not just going to line them up. We're going to make sure their eyes are looking at all the different things we're showing them. The other thing that it does is it slows up fits, like the linebackers—first of all, they don't know their gap. Hopefully, I can change it two or three times before every snap, so they're not coming downhill as hard, which allows us to sustain the double teams longer. So, there's a lot of advantages to it, but obviously getting him not pressed and at number two really quickly from number one week to number two strong or whatever it is, definitely helps us get the ball in his space to him and let him go do his thing.

Q. Back to Western Michigan quarterback talk. I think it was ‘18 that Wassink starts the first half of the season, he gets hurt, Caleb comes in and played great. I don't think he played in 19, though, and John played the whole season there. How did having two ones in a room and learning how to manage that now help with Heck and Hank, and knowing that I've got two guys I trust, there's one football, and just understanding that you've got a dude that can go out there that everybody trusts that can get the job done, but he's not going to get his shot maybe for another year, at least in Caleb's case? How did that experience help you here?

TIM LESTER: Yeah, it was definitely interesting. Wassink broke his collarbone. Maxx Crosby. He almost did it the next year, too. I had two guys on Maxx Crosby, like we're double-teaming this dude, he already broke his collarbone once, split the double-team, threw John in the ground, and I was like, two collarbones in two years, and luckily John got up the second time. But Maxx Crosby is a hell of a player, side note. But, it was good. I mean, that was an easy year because obviously one was out, the other came in and played well. Once he came back, it was great to have two ready to go, and if John was struggling or if John got banged up, I mean, it's one of those things that playing the quarterback position is so difficult and it takes so much of your mind, body, and soul that you have to just focus on you and getting better at what you're doing. Whenever our guys are out there, when they're struggling, they should know they're struggling, right? I mean, I watch it today because a lot of our young guys are getting reps today, and they make a mistake and they turn and look at you like, "Did I make a mistake?" They should already know. That's how you can tell the difference. When they turn to you and tell you what they did wrong—I talked about Gronowski all the time last year, he'd turn and he'd answer the question, he'd be like, "I got to throw that outside." You're like, "Oh, yeah, that's what I was about to say," and we go on to the next thing. And so, I think both guys are so focused on becoming better themselves, because they don't have time to think about anything else, and that was the same thing with John and Caleb. It takes all of that because you don't have time where it's too hard of a position to play if you're taking any rep and looking at anyone else other than yourself, you will regress. And they've all seen that at different times, and they really both are in a good place right now.

Q. Is there an update on LJ Phillips? I know he left the game with an injury.

TIM LESTER: I do not have that. I wish I did. I think he's going to be fine. It's bye week anyway. He seems like in a good place. But you'll have to ask Coach that next week. I wish I had a better answer.

Q. Not so much about who starts at Minnesota, but just kind of your process about grading a quarterback and trying to make the decision of who gets the first at-bat. I mean, it looked like Jeremy Hecklinski, even his incompletions were good decisions. With the first throw that you threw in the dirt when the screen got botched, took some chances down field, completed the last 12 passes. I guess, when you are grading a guy, how much of it is, okay, well, the run game was working, so that opened it up a little bit more. These are wide-open throws versus you look at Hank's situation, for example, the run game wasn't exactly there, he made some tough throws. So, will you go about—how do you go about your process of comparing the two and ultimately making the decision? I'm not asking for a decision, but just the process of grading it.

TIM LESTER: Sure, the process of it. I do think that matters in every game, right? I mean, I played games in my college career, I never hit the ground. I didn't have a grass stain on me. Those were easier games than the games that I got hit a lot. But I really—I just do—I literally graded—and this is a geeky math thing now. I mean, I get into every run decision, every pass decision, and I put percentages with it: were you on the right path? And I thought, like obviously when guys are wide open, sometimes that's hard. Sometimes the hardest is when they're wide open because you don't want to pull the string, you don't—I almost rather have a guy running right behind him because then I feel like I can locate the ball. But I can't fault him for hitting the wide-open guy. But there were a couple of things. I mean, his first throw could have been, or his first throw I think he could have completed, but he was smart with it when he decided not to pull the trigger. He mentally autoed, but didn't actually do the auto, it was a really weird thing. On a throw to Addy over the middle that he probably should have probably gone somewhere else. And then he went 12 for 12, which is hard to do.

So, you grade by percentages of are they thinking the way you want them to think, right? And that's always the biggest thing because you're going to be out there in all different situations when things are going good or bad, I expect you to still make the next right decision, whether it's a checkdown or whether it's a throwaway. Don't let one thing compound into the—it kind of happened with Hank at the end of the Ohio State game and we had plenty of checkdowns, and he's been great with checkdowns, and he was getting aggressive and we had guys underneath and he would sit here and tell you the same thing. That's the first time he had shown that. He also got hit a lot by a really good defense. So, I really go by play-by-play and I put percentages on are you doing the right thing whether you got hit or not.

So, kudos to the O-line and everybody for giving letting Hank have—I don't want to say it, no days ever easy, but a less hard day. But he still has plenty of things. There are a couple run checks he needs to fix. I was losing my mind up in the booth a couple times, and then he got them fixed in the second half. So, he showed growth, so I think that will be the biggest thing is going back, which we have time this week to recruit and go back and watch those six games.

I had never even looked at any of these stats when I started reading them to you this morning. I literally printed this this morning. I was like, "Hey, we got about 1,200 yards in both run and pass. That's good." But we'll go back and watch and evaluate each and every decision and figure out which guy gives us the best chance and the other one has to be ready because this is Division I college football. It's happening everywhere now. I mean, guys are going down left and right and in the NFL like week one I felt like half of the quarterbacks were gone. So I feel very fortunate to have the guys we have.

Q. The first two Big Ten games plus the Iowa game, the run game was just struggling to get going. I guess was there something that flipped or switched before Washington where it's like, or clicked, before Washington where it's like, okay, we're ready for a big day, or was that just natural progression?

TIM LESTER: I was ready for a big day all those days personally. No, obviously, you have to give a lot of credit to the teams we played. We played a couple of really good, number three and number five ranked defenses in the country, which makes it hard. Depending on how the game's going –- you have to call it differently if we're trying to stay in it or play conservative, which you play both those teams differently.

Ohio State scores a ton of points, so you have to keep up with them. Michigan, you can just hang around, so you can play it a little bit safer. And so, I think we could have been way better in the run game in both those games. I could have run the ball more in both those games. I need to do a good job of continuing to figure out what's the groove spot of our offensive line? What's their fastball? Because this group reminds me more of two years ago as far as the plays that they're—man, they're good at. I could call it into the worst front possible and they just find a way to get positive yards. And George helps me with that a lot. He's trying to figure out what is this group's go-to that I'm going to call on that big down. I could tell you what it was last year, we could run quarterback sneak all the way down the field. They were great at that play, right? So, I have to be better in that, because they really when they come off the ball and they work together, they can run, they're athletic. There's no new guys anymore. Everyone's got six starts under their belt, even the three new guys. And it was good to just see them set their pads and run a little bit last Friday, and we have to continue to do that to have success.

Q. As far as quarterback reps this week, is it Jimmy and Tradon and Ryan, who's getting the reps? Can you maybe just speak to what you've seen from the quarterbacks behind Jeremy and Hank?

TIM LESTER: Jimmy has gotten most of the ones today—at least the first ones today. And then it's a split between Fitz and Tradon, and so we kind of have an early on like walk-through individual try to just keep our guys fresh, throwing routes on air. I want the quarterbacks and Tony and Reece and they got to keep going. And it might be on air, but it's still going to be fun. It's seven on seven. But most of it was trying to get Jimmy ready.

Jimmy's had a couple of really good weeks in a row. Like the games starting to slow down for him. Having Hank get hurt and having kind of thrust into reps last week was a tough week for him because all of a sudden it was real, you weren't going against the scout defense anymore. You weren't going against Phil Parker's defense because you get really comfortable with whatever defense you face. It could be the old Iowa State defense. If you face it all the time for two years straight, you get pretty comfortable.

And so, we go into last week and all of a sudden he's seeing three safeties and he's seeing a new defense, and it was great for him to go through all the ups and downs of—you have to be a two before you're a one, so he got all the two reps last week. Now obviously, or we assume Hank's going to be back, so he's really going to be back with the threes. But he'll get a ton of reps this week, and he's really developing. He's got tons of talent. He can run, he can throw. He just has to get through the mental side of the timing of it; when he starts thinking too much, his feet slow down, that's never a good thing. And so, we're working on that with him. Tradon's coming along. They've been down on the other end, so I haven't got to see him. I got to see him today for the first time in a couple weeks, so it's fun. He threw a couple of really good balls out there. Fitz does a great job of working the pocket and understanding the whole thing top to bottom. We brought Fitz to Washington with us, just in case. He can operate. He's a super smart football player and can get us in and out of plays and can always make sure we're in the right one. So, it'll be fun. This is what this week is about, really. I mean, it's continuing to stay sharp offensively and to keep our timing, but it's really about developing those young guys. So that's kind of the order that they're going in. Tradon and Fitz kind of flip back and forth, but Jimmy always goes first, and normally gets 60% and then we do the other 20 and 20 with the other two.

Q. I wanted to ask you about kind of the luxury of having probably four Big Ten-caliber starting tight ends. Right? And how do you specifically game plan for their strengths, whereas if maybe you had two, you'd just let them run the traditional offense, whereas if you have somebody who's a little bit better at this and that? And then also kind of that—it was almost like an old wing-T type of motion that you have where they kind of go back and then cut up. Exactly wing-T. Yeah. I played it a billion years ago. Yeah. How did you decide to go with that, and how effective is it? What are you looking for out of that type of a play?

TIM LESTER: So, the first one is like it's what a luxury, right? Problems of privilege, like our tight end room. So, we kind of game plan by person, really for DJ, you know, if there's plays that we know anybody can run those plays, but if we have certain plays, we'll tag him in the personnel call. So, it'll be 12 DJ, 11 DJ. But if I don't tag those, anybody could be in there because they're all super talented. When we get into more unique situations and we get into like 13x Trojan, like some real long ones that we'll put the exact person where we want for this block and that block, and that's the lot of short-yardage red-zone stuff, but it's great to have that many, you know, that 13 is not a crazy thing to say on the headset, which normally people rarely say that.

So, we do game plan for the guys for their certain skill sets, and we have a unique play. Getting empty, you're going to make sure every tight end is exactly where you want them for the route that they're going to run on that play because they're really good at that route, right? So that is definitely a luxury. When we got him 13 last week, we threw it, which was by design. And then the other question is the motion. So, I took it straight from the 49ers. Juszczyk checks the best at it. Obviously, Connor Colby's there. And the couple plays we put—I mean the amount of things we started in the spring against Coach Parker, and it was awesome, really for DJ.

DJ is a lot like Juszczyk and Ort. They both can do it. Mason Woods can do it. I mean, we got three guys—but you don't want to show them you're in two back, right? Everything's gapped down, so you just want to give them your normal set, and all of a sudden being strong, weak, it's just like getting in two back, but they just don't get to see it, and they have to make the adjustment on the fly, and that's you talk about getting their eyes messed up with the fly, it's the same thing. And they might be going across, they might be coming back, and the amount of stuff you can do is limitless as long as you have that player. You can't just take any player into—we've tried some of our other tight ends to do it, it's not—it doesn't look the same as when DJ and Ort and Mason do it. But it's a huge addition. I try not to do—we kind of fell in love with it in the spring and I was overdoing it. I was wondering how many yards they were just running and motioning, so I tried to calm it down and have like six to eight of those a day, some play pass, some boots, some runs, but you can definitely increase angles for our blocking scheme, and the play pass off of it is really good. It was a great addition. It was just one of those off-season studies, and then the experimental spring ball, which I love spring ball because you get to try things and you can always just throw it out if you don't like it. And we happen to be really good at it, and probably a couple games that I didn't think I had enough of it in, because you're trying to figure out what they're going to do. You have no clue what they're going to do to it. I mean, in the NFL, you see it, they bump a lot. We have some guys trying to run with it, but it's been a cool addition, and I think our guys understand it, and now we have some cadences wrapped around it as well. And hopefully, it continues to grow, because I do think it gives us a slight advantage. And I always tell the guys, my job is to try to design plays that hopefully make your job of executing better. But you still have to execute. If I can give you one extra step or a little bit better of an angle, like that's why I do all the stuff I do to try to make your job as easy as humanly possible, but if you don't execute, it doesn't really matter. So it's little things like that that hopefully can give us a slight advantage. I love it though. I'm a fan, I'm a huge fan of it. It's kind of fun. Little wing-T.

Q. Is there any credence to the idea that the running game looked a little bit better against Washington because of Hecklinski and his willingness to push the ball down the field a little bit more?

TIM LESTER: No, I don't believe that and I didn't call it any different. As far as the shots down the field and taking one-on-one third down, our plan was if we got a one-on-one matchup, we were taking a shot, no matter who was in there, right? And then the run game—I mean, the holes were there, we're coming off the ball, I don't know if we maybe ran—I had a couple things, the only things I changed, a couple of the plays, changing them from under to gun. Didn't add RPOs to them, had the same RPOs on for both.

But there's a couple of things that Heck's more comfortable with out of gun than under. It's one of those it's like six-one half a dozen the other. I ask the guy, you like it from under better? Yeah, cool. Well, if you're in, I'll call it out of gun. But those were really the only things we really changed, and I give—I mean, he did a great job of getting us into running the right run play most of the time, not every time, a couple times he missed. But those guys up front, the tight ends, I mean, they made the whole thing go. It was awesome.

CHRIS POLIZZI: Good afternoon, everyone. Good to see you.

First, thanks for being here. I appreciate what you do covering our program. I know our players appreciate it as well.

Back in April, I talked about the standard that's established by first Coach Ferentz and then some of the other players and coaches that have come before us, our responsibility to continue to carry that forward through six games. We've had some exciting moments and some pretty good stories to tell.

Behind those plays really goes into the daily work, the blocking, the protection, covering of kicks, players earning their teammates' trust. I think that's a big one. I want to make sure that those guys get recognized. Also, the staff that I have is tremendous: Brock Sherman, Stetson McIlravy, Kevin Spencer do a tremendous job behind the scenes working with the players not only on the field in team capacities, but in the meeting room and one-on-one.

Proud of the accomplishments of the group, the specialists, and also special teams. Having said that, we have plenty of room for improvement. Our priorities remain the same: securing the football on the transition, scoring points when needed, executing the details and being ready when our numbers called, and just essentially the emphasis of this week as well is just growing daily.

Q. What have you seen from Boston Everitt through the first half of the year? I know he and Tanner were right next to each other throughout fall camp, but I think Coach Ferentz called him naive to football to some extent, and that's probably helped him. But I think he said three straight games of pinning the opponent inside the 3-yard line. How have you seen him continue to ascend regardless of whether he's in Kinnick Stadium or elsewhere?

CHRIS POLIZZI: Boston's a great story. Somebody that is as green to the game of football, not only college football, not only Big Ten punting here at Iowa. But naive, I think, is an appropriate word, and he'd be the first one to admit that, "Hey, why are we -- why is it called that? Why are we doing that? Why are we..."

But I think in the improvement that you see in Boston is just his willingness to learn. He is a sponge. He tries to soak it up as much as possible. I think he has great practice habits. I think he does a great job moving forward with a bad practice or a bad rep. He does as good a job of anybody of compartmentalizing it. What did I make the mistake on and how do I move forward with that? And just his overall maturity. He's not a young kid that gets too down on himself. He's not a guy that, you know, he's hit like 17 of his 27 punts have been inside the 20, and I don't even know how many landed at the one. And he kind of jogs off and he's like, "Pretty good, right?" I'm like, "Yeah, that's excellent. That's really good."

So, not a guy that gets too high and too low, and he's enjoying it. He is someone you enjoy as a coach working with a guy that appreciates the simple zeal of excelling in football.

Q. Caden was a little quiet the first time we talked to him after the NIU game and then after the Iowa State game, maybe a little bit more open, a little bit more talkative with us. What's he like off the field? And do you also call him the iceman now after the Iowa State kick?

CHRIS POLIZZI: I have never and will never call him the iceman (laughter). Caden’s a great kid, and I emphasize the kid. He is a young guy, and he wears his emotions on his sleeve. If it's a good day and he's hitting all his kicks, you know what I mean, he's great, he's talkative. If he's struggling or it's a wind day or something, he's more reserved because he's not necessarily down.

And he's a big student of himself. He's a big student of the game. He watches a lot of other kickers and, what's their aiming? What's their toe placement, you know what I mean? But he knows especially now what works for Caden.

So, as he hits more kicks and he gets more experience out there, another great story. A guy misses his first PAT, you know what I mean? And the world is falling, you know, to go out and -- I think he's eight of eight under 50 yards. And I think his first field goal was a 53-yarder missed, which is hard to do.

So then to see him come out in Washington, and hit a 51-yarder that he buried, was great. He's one of the guys you can point to has growth, and he still has a long way to go, just like a lot of the guys in the locker room. Long way to go in their growth and development, but he's one that you can point to as somebody that's consistent in their work and their practice habits, which it shows up on the field.

Q. It was well-documented this offseason just how different the special teams, you know, just the nuts and bolts, the roster of it looked. So why do you think that the special teams unit has still had so much success so far this season despite all the changes?

CHRIS POLIZZI: I think with any person when you set a standard and you can show them, "This is the way we operate from the second you wake up to the second you go to sleep, in the meetings, in the weight room, in practice. These are your habits. These are how we take notes."

And you have a guy like Coach Ferentz that can point to so many different individuals. You can bring individuals back, Drew Stevens, Ty Nissen’s back here with us. Nate Kaeding has come by, Jason Baker, Tory Taylor, all these guys that can help these guys out in the sense of, "Hey, I put on that helmet when I walked in that locker room." That's a tremendous resource for the players.

I still don't think we've hit that era of a Tory Taylor, a Kaden Wetjen, a Nate Kaeding, a Drew Stevens, but I think these guys are working towards it. And again, I point to the culture that Coach Ferentz sets and, you know, between the strength staff and athletic training and the assistance that we have here, it's everything's simpler because they -- they've walked that before.

Q. I wanted to ask a little bit about the return game, both punt and kick return. Braeden Jackson getting his opportunity, goes out against Michigan untouched, um, for the kickoff return for a touchdown. And then you have Evan James back there. We've seen Rian Wanjiku back there for punts. What have you made of how that trio and a few others maybe we haven't seen get opportunities on the field in a game just yet and how they're developing?

CHRIS POLIZZI: You know, it’s a fun group to work with. When Braeden broke that one, there was a lot of unsung heroes in there like Xavier Williams made an unbelievable block and, Chubs made a great double-team move there and, you could point to almost nine hats-on-hats of great blocking. So many guys that were working extra effort with trust in, Braeden he was going to get that thing done, and he made a great move on the kicker and then turned on the jets.

So those are exciting things that you can point to of a guy that just quietly has been working, you know what I mean? And -- wasn't anything anybody ever talked about previously, "Hey, how are you going to get, you know, B-Jack the ball and get him going on kickoff return?" But just continued to work at his craft, continued to catch off jugs, continuing when his opportunity came, made the most of it along with the opportunity from his teammates.

Reece Vander Zee’s done great job and is as reliable there is, and he's had a ton of success. I don't know that we win the Iowa State game if it's not for his reliability in not only fielding the punts, but gaining extra yards. And then Evans's another one you can point to is just, and I say a quiet guy, Evan's very soft-spoken, but he has a confidence, especially with the ball in his hands. He's going to go make a play.

That's one of the things we can point to as something that we've made an emphasis on as a staff in the last two weeks. Boy, we have to get the return game going. There's so much meat on the bone on that one. And you saw Evan kind of hit that 30-yarder where, boy, if he just keeps his feet a little bit, you know, we might split them. So, it's not just Evan, it's the guys that work around them, that are doing the blocking and, and we get a great look from our scouts, the young guys wearing beanies and stuff. They're all trying to attack Evan James.

I'm happy with where we are up to this point, but I think there's more there from both the return standpoint.

Q. I'm no Australian football expert, but I think it's a little different punting the ball over there. Um, what about that experience for Boston has been translatable to American football and what has worked so well?

CHRIS POLIZZI: Sure. So, over there they call it "footy" and those kids just like how I think you can grab any young kid in Iowa and he'll know how to shoot a basketball or swing a baseball bat… it's just part of their culture. So for him, everything with them is passing the ball left and right, with their feet, with accuracy. With a ball that's very similar to a football.

There's a comfortability there with Boston. I think also you have to point a little bit to his upbringing and his dad's a pretty famous, former player there. With that is great because there's some notoriety there, but there's also an extreme amount of pressure being the son of a pretty famous guy, hey, this guy should ascend.

So, he's had to deal with some media. He's had to deal with some pressure and some scrutiny and stuff like that. And he obviously has athletic ability. So, some of those things that translate there not only from playing the game of footy, but the environment that he grew up in.

And again, he's a pretty even-keeled kid, which is great when you get six specialists in the room. They're all different and they all feed off each other. I talk about with the guys, you're the summation of the five people you hang around, and it's a good group to hang around. They get along with each other. It’s fun.

Q. Kind of curious with the jersey stuff that you guys have to do all the time, who manages that? How do you manage that? I mean, I'm thinking about like -- um, Van Kekerix -- I've made Brevin Doll basically change his number and Weisskphf and Braeden Jackson, but also with the new rules, with you have to have certain numbers and everything, how have you managed that?

CHRIS POLIZZI: The jersey exception is something that we as coaches fought tooth and nail in the spring and there's still some rudimentary things we're working with there that don't make a whole lot of sense for what we have to do.

But, essentially why we do the jersey swap is it allows us to be multiple in the formations that we want to use in punt. If you're stationary, versus a defense, they're going to find leaks and they're going to send the house and I think you've seen in some of the games, blocks that, you can't lengthen the edge, you can't shift, you can't, once you do that, you're locked in.

So that's the reason that we do that. Credit to K4 and his staff. Credit to Stetson McIIravey who is great reminding everyone, "Hey, we got to be in this jersey, we got to be in this jersey." It's something we have to spend extra time on. So, it's not only in the punt, but also when we go on kickoff return. Weisskopf is 22 and B-Jack is 22. So, Weiskopf has to wear a different jersey. We have to communicate that to the refs or else it's a penalty.

So, the kids have done a great job embracing it. It is a pain to take your helmet off in between series, put that thing on because as soon as our team goes on offense -- what I call them, the law firm of Weisskopf, Van Kekerix, Ries, DeLong, and Delong, they all go and put the jersey swaps on.

So, even if they get called, when we have turnover, hey, we got to do something, or they got to rip the thing off, so it is a pain, but they handle it. They just know, "Hey, this is how we have to operate." This allows us, this affords us the opportunity to be in multiple positions and really get great coverage down the field with a young punter, that's not hitting Tory Taylor 60, 70-yard punts, well, we got to be great in coverage, and I think that leads to some of the other questions you got asked, like, how has this group been able to come together?

Q. Evan James, it seems like he's got wonderful potential as Coach Ferentz has highlighted, but it does seem like he's had a couple of instances where he's maybe he took his eyes off the ball this past week with the muffed punt, and then a great recovery. He's had some issues tracking the ball, it appears. Why have you guys stuck with him as opposed to maybe getting a more sure-fielder in like RVZ? And then second part of that is Lutmer -- I know he's been dinged up and that was kind of the reason early, is there any plans to get him involved in the return game at all this season?

CHRIS POLIZZI: So, with Evan, I think one of the things that you appreciate about him is when you see his practice habits, he's one of the first guys out there to catch jugs. He stays late, he meets with our coaching staff here -- on his own time to come watch not only his returns, but also, get some tips off the punter. Hey, this guy rolls out, hey, when he shifted this way, the ball's going to go this way.

So, he's working at it. And again, we're still early in the season we feel our development and growth as a unit, and Evan has shown tremendous improvement from when he really started catching off the jugs to, to now. So it's somebody that we trust as this guy's got game-breaking ability, and you can see the way guys block for him, they trust him to go and make plays.

If we can get 10 more yards, boy, that's a first down. To get a 30-yarder versus Washington that's huge. The ability to get kind of those chunk plays. You like Reece in there with that, he doesn't have quite the same wiggle, and you also worry sometimes, Reece took some shots. When you're a punt returner, kickoff return's a little different.

You can get a head start (in kickoff), you can kind of run away from some guys. Punt, as soon as you catch it, you're getting live bullets. Reece took a couple shots there in Iowa State that you're like, I don't know if that's good for the Hawkeyes.

With Evan right now, I just feel very comfortable and we've had packages where we put Lutmer and Evan back there at the same time. The situation just hasn't kind of arisen for us to use that yet, but one of the things that we're excited about Evan is his work ethic and his development, I think gives us the best opportunity to break a big one and also secure the ball.

Q. Two of the younger guys on special teams, Julian Manson, Darion Jones, what has allowed them to, to carve out that role on special teams and, and what have you just kind of seen from them so far?

CHRIS POLIZZI: Two great young men that were heavily recruited, and two guys that have come in here and -- we almost have to kick Julian out sometimes of our one-on-one deals there, because he's in there every day studying the tape. So he's got a determination to be on special teams. He has the size, he has the speed. He's learning how to move around in -- in this big body that he has. But he's somebody that when you tell him to do it once, he does it.

And he figures it out, and he's one of those guys, like Tim alluded to, he knows the mistake, he can turn around and tell you, "Ah, I messed that up. I should have. I should have gone up and under there, I should have been long arm on that one." But he does the things that you're asking him to do.

Darion is a great kid. He is a live wire, he's stopped the one punt in between his legs at the 1-yard line, not the technique that we teach, but he'll regurgitate what you say back to him we use the term, pooches for playmakers.

That's the first thing he said coming off, "Coach, pooches for playmakers." I was like, "Not like that, but not at all like that." But great job. And Brevin Doll, who kind of got dinged up and is a difference maker on our special teams because of the speed and the physicality that he brings on kickoff and on our coverage. He's standing right down there. So even if Darion makes a hiccup of a mistake, Brevin’s able to secure it. So young guys, Julian and Darion, they have the athleticism and the speed and the work ethic that you trust them in those situations.

PHIL PARKER: Well, I hope some of you made it out to the West Coast. Obviously, it was a short week for our guys, and I think our guys handled that pretty well. Hopefully, you enjoyed the trip.

Now we are coming back into the bye week. Can we handle the bye week and take advantage of the opportunity with the time that we have to improve some things that we need to improve on and get some guys fresh again, and start the second half of the season? Obviously, we're happy to be 5-1 right now. I'd like to be 6-0, but we're 5-1, and now we've have to take care of the second half of the season. Obviously, Minnesota will be the first one in about a week and a half.

Q. Entering the season we talked a lot about the defensive line and all the production that you guys lost. It seems like Bryce Hawthorn is a guy who continues to get better and better each week. How have you seen him continue to ascend here since the beginning of the season, and how has he embraced emerging as a leader across the defensive line?

PHIL PARKER: We showed a clip a couple days ago of Bryce actually making a great effort play on the sideline. We had a missed tackle in the flat right in front of our bench, and you saw Bryce start running after him. It was the way he's grown a little bit, the effort that he was putting in, and the leadership. He's hard to block, as you see, and he's very active. When somebody does that, it establishes that leadership role. That kid is playing very hard and going full speed all the time, and people respect that. I think he's really done a good job getting back healthy and playing well.

Q. I wanted to ask about the secondary. With Tyler Brown being out with his injury, you've had Anthony Hawkins—who you talked about in the preseason as someone who stepped up—and then we saw Xavier Styles at Washington. Where have you seen the strong safety position evolve with Brown's absence? How do you feel that group is continuing to show improvement from what you've seen, and what do they need to continue working on?

PHIL PARKER: When you bring new guys into your program—and all three guys have played: Tyler, Hawkins, and Styles—the communication has to be there. I think Tyler Brown was very excellent when he first started; he had command of knowing what was going on. Now you have Xavier and Anthony Hawkins learning our system, and communication is a big part of that. They are growing every day. What I saw last week with the way Xavier Styles moved around, he made some plays and is very active. He just needs to be a little bit more vocal. Lutmer is trying to help him along, and Tyler Brown helps him out by communicating what we need from him. Good communication is very important because for everything people do to us on offense, we have slight adjustments, and everybody has to be on the same page. If you're not on the same page, there's going to be a mistake. They've been growing, and I like to see it. They just need to be a little bit more vocal out on the field and show more confidence.

Q.  I've got two completely different questions. One is, it seems like you've brought back the Raider package in some ways. What is it about the unique characteristics of some of your young defensive linemen that allowed that to grow? And my second question: you played against Anthony Carter, you've coached against Ray Lewis, you've seen many of the greatest receivers in Big Ten history—where does Jeremiah Smith rank in that category?

PHIL PARKER: I'll start with him. He's a good wide receiver; he's unique. There were times we had him triple-covered, and he still catches the ball. A guy like that, how he handles himself—the one thing I respect out of him is that he produces. I think he ranks pretty high. I played against Anthony Carter and those guys, and they are very, very good. Matter of fact, I talked to the offensive coordinator after the game and said he should probably be picked first in the draft. He probably thought he was top five in the NFL right now, which is a pretty good sign of a good player. He showed it, and I think he keeps doing that. The way he handles himself makes him a real good pro, whether he's in college or the NFL.

To go back to the Raider package: going into it, we were looking at playing against quarterbacks who can move around a little bit. I think that helps us and gives us a chance to put Preston Ries back on the field a little bit. He's a guy who can not only chase them down, but he can catch them, and I think that's proven. It's an opportunity for us to get guys on the field who can help us in different areas, especially on third downs. We've been putting in different packages, and hopefully we keep adding things we can do within that package. I think it's been a benefit, but we'll see how it goes. When you take a guy off the field and there is a change of possession, or they get a first down, you have to be able to operate very quickly if someone wants to go fast on you. So you have to be able to play your basic defense within the Raider package. We've been working on that and will continue to build on it all the way through the rest of the season.

Q. About Washington, can you walk through the game plan in place to make Demond Williams uncomfortable? It seemed like you collapsed the pocket a lot, and the linebackers were making life difficult for him. On the flip side, is it just scouting the backup quarterback? Elijah Brown was really efficient in that second half. How did you evaluate that when you looked at it?

PHIL PARKER: When you go back and look at it, it's a totally different situation. Obviously, he didn't have too many reps on the offensive side with the ones when he was at Washington; they were practicing, and he supposedly only had two reps with them. So it's a change-up, but I think we started looking at how we played, and we really played fast. I thought the biggest thing for us going into that game was starting fast and making sure we were on top. When you look at the first and second quarters, there were probably two drives in the first half that we weren't really pleased with. Coming in at halftime, how did we respond to that, knowing the quarterback got knocked out, didn't come back and play? Are there major differences we're going to make call-wise? Probably not. I just think it was more about us than about him, and he got the ball out quick. The other kid was good, but he couldn't see downfield a little bit, so that was helping us. But this guy came out and threw the ball well. You look at it and ask why it happened. We gave up a 15-play drive and then another 15-play drive at the end, and I heard about that when I got home at 6:30 in the morning from my wife.

So, I get it. We get frustrated. It's not like we try to give these things up. We're trying to play our best, and we're going to continue to try to do that even this week—practice the best we can, prepare, and every time we go out, play our best. Can you play your best and push these guys to that level? I think there's a great deal of leadership within our team that looks very positive, but you have to continue to do it every day. You can't go out there and let up. For whatever reason it was—lack of communication, missed tackles, pass interferences—we had five or six pass penalties in the second half. We didn't have any penalties in the first half. That added to their drives, and you can't do that. You have to be smart about it, whether it's pass interference, holding, or whatever it is. You can't miss tackles; if you miss tackles, they get an explosive play on you. You just keep working on it daily, and that's the way we look at things: evaluate it and figure out what we can do better.

Q.  I wanted to ask about Cam Buffington and his development. What have you seen from him as he matures into one of the leaders of the defense?

PHIL PARKER: Great leadership, a great communicator. There are a lot of different adjustments up front that he and Jaylen Montgomery have to make—they are both in it together. To see him grow... he's a quiet kid, he's not going to say very much, but he plays the way he plays. He makes a statement as far as how tough he is, how he sees things, and he plays fast. The only way that happens is with preparation, the dedication he has, and the sense that this is important to them. You only play college football for four or five years at most, and it's a very short time, so you better make sure you take advantage of it. Our guys work at it, believe in what they're doing, and spend extra time. Some guys don't understand it because they think you go to class and go back, but these guys are usually coming back here watching film together after our meetings. I think it's a real positive, and he's really grown. He still has a little bit more upside to him, and he loves the game.

Q. What have you seen from Kamari Brown so far this year?

PHIL PARKER: He's really done a good job. He was in a situation as a new guy coming in, but he had that little burst and he goes hard every day. That shows me the way he goes about his work. You see it in practice, and then it shows up on the field. He hasn't been here very long, so those are things you have to deal with, but he's bought into what we believe in and how you have to go about your business, and he's doing it. I'm very pleased with him.

Q. I was checking, you guys have had one turnover caused against power conference opponents at this point of the season. Last year, that number was six. I know interceptions are a stat you care about, but they're glamour stats that fans really care about. How do you try to get that number up a little bit while still leaning on the platitude that Riley Moss once told me, which is just don't try to do too much, just do your job and the interceptions will come?

PHIL PARKER: It's an interesting fact because we talk about it as a staff and with your players, and sometimes guys go in there and say, "I have to make this play, I have to make an interception, or I have to cause a fumble." The best thing—and actually it was on Sunday morning, I was walking in and I called Tom Morrell and talked to him a little bit, and he goes, "You know, just go ahead and keep doing what you're doing, and the plays will come to you." Don't try to force it. I think some guys sit there and start talking about it so much that everyone tries to take a chance.

The best way you can look at it—and I went back and looked at it too—is takeaways are nice to get and nice to score off of, but it's also nice to get off the field in three and out. I think there were a couple of series at the beginning of that game where we had minus-nine yards, and they had 12 yards and three-and-out. It worked in our favor that we were getting the ball back to give to our offense to give them an opportunity to take it down and score. Sometimes it's really weird because we're working just as much as we always have about takeaways, and sometimes you just don't get them. Also, the more press coverage you play and press on receivers, it's harder to see the ball if you're not playing a whole bunch of zone defense. If you're playing structurally defensive zone, you get to see the ball a lot more, and guys are looking, can see it, and can react to it. I'd like to get more three-and-outs, and hopefully we can score on a turnover and keep that record going a bit. But we're always talking about getting the ball back one way or the other—whether you stop them in three and out and let the punt returner take it down and still have good field position.

Q. I wanted to ask about Marcello Vitti, but before I do that, does your wife usually give you an assessment after the game on how the defense did?

PHIL PARKER: Better stop there. She gives me evaluations on everything. How I cut the grass, how I clean the bathrooms at home, all that stuff.

Q. So, Marcello, he was on the depth chart going into the year with Tyler out. As a freshman, what did he show that got him so highly thought of on the team at that point, having just had a fall camp with the program?

PHIL PARKER: He's only been here a short time like everybody else. His commitment to understanding what he needed to do... we kind of knew that in recruiting based on the background of the family and what it was all about. He probably spent a lot more time in the summer here than I did. He's two and a half, three hours in the room studying the game of football, learning, and trying to get the whole system down and knowing what he's supposed to be looking at. He's put in a lot of time. Anyone who comes in and has a chance to do that has to invest. Investing means sometimes you might not see exactly what you want, but you build up that interest, and I think that's what he's done. You can rely on him, he knows what's going on, he asks the right questions in meetings, and his effort and toughness all come into it. That's what made him who he is. If you see him over here, he'll be in the film room watching it, bringing other coaches in, or bringing my son Tyler in to sit for two hours watching film and explaining what's going on. That's how you become good and keep going: investing the time that you have.

Q. Wanted to ask you about Jacob Wallace, obviously being in that cash position—a spot where you put a lot of trust in guys to take over. How have you seen him take on that role, being a guy who came in with a little less experience?

PHIL PARKER: I think he's done a good job. He's done some things inside. I remember last year against Nebraska he kind of popped up and we said, "Well, this kid has something to him." I saw that when we recruited him as a basketball player playing in a game—I think he was really good, competitive, very level, and flat-line as far as emotional things, but he just knows the game a little bit. Obviously, his brother plays for the Rams, so it's in his background, but I love the way the guy goes about it and competes. Sometimes he gets stuck in the box a little bit and they motion, and he was playing against—I remember it might be the first or second play, and they had a big 300-pounder just grabbing him and tackling him and laying on him. Probably should have been a penalty because you know you can't land on the quarterbacks, well, he just took him and dumped him and landed on him, so he might be a little bit banged up. But I just like the way he competes. He's a good athlete, a smart kid, and understands the game of football.

Q. Do you have any sense of when Tyler Brown could be back?

PHIL PARKER: I didn't take any medical classes; I didn't go to medical school or anything like that. No, I'm just joking about that, I probably should have.

No, I think in due time. I think you don't know exactly what's going on—I don't know exactly what's going on because I don't. But I think when he's ready, mentally he's staying into it, so he knows when he is ready to go that he has a chance to get back, compete, and get on the field. It's kind of an unknown, I don't know.

Q. The last couple games, there's been a few times the defensive line has been standing up at the time of the snap and almost walking towards the line of scrimmage. Could you explain the origins of that and what you're trying to accomplish by doing that?

PHIL PARKER: It came up years ago—we used to do it too, and we brought it back. Sometimes it gives a little bit of energy to the guys. It might be a passing situation, so it's nice sometimes when they can get up and see exactly where they're going and move around. It messes around with the offensive line a little bit in terms of who is rushing, who is dropping into coverage, who is blitzing and who is not. We brought it back up, and I think the kids like it a little bit. It's usually done in a passing situation, so we try to expand that. After a while, when you bring pressure, maybe we just play coverage. Maybe we play three-deep, two-deep, or man, and we can keep adding to what we have. As long as we can do that, it's going to help us take advantage and keep offenses guessing where the blitz is coming from—and it might not even be a blitz. Today I dropped 11 guys on fourth and two, just to make sure practice went in quicker.