Kirk Ferentz News Conference Transcript | Nov. 10

KIRK FERENTZ: Good afternoon. Good to see everyone. Just looking back real quick, we are pleased to get the win on Saturday. I thought we had a good week of practice, preparation, and then the guys handled the trip well. A night game, so a little bit of waiting around, that type of deal. It was good to get back here Sunday morning and turn our attention to Purdue.

Captains are the same four guys: Montgomery, Lutmer, Lee, and Ostrenga.

Injury-wise, really not a lot to report. Cannon Leonard, unfortunately, will be done for the year. He had an injury last week in practice. He's going to be done for the season, unfortunately, but on a good path. He was doing well and it will be good to get him back next semester.

Cael is probably the only guy really in doubt right now. We'll see how it goes. He's doing a little bit of work right now. Really not counting on him this week. We'll try to be smart with that, but we'll see how the week goes before we make a final decision.

Like every week, went through the tape on Sunday with the team, made corrections, and then we've turned our sights to Purdue. Purdue is in its second year with Coach Odom. He's done a wonderful job down at UNLV and they're off to a good start, building a foundation there.

It's interesting from my standpoint. They're doing a lot of good things schematically, but the players are playing hard. That's one constant. Every tape you watch, those guys are playing hard.

I think it's interesting, too, they have a lot of transfer players playing as starters. I think it's close to 16, 17 offensively, defensively, not to mention a couple of specialists. Two things that impressed me, their turnover take-away margin has been really good considering all the new faces and same thing with the penalties. A lot of times those things don't always match up, but they've done a good job of that, so the players are doing a good job there.

I think if you look at their schedule right now, they've had a couple of challenges the last few weeks, but prior to their bye week they had a three-game stretch where they beat Illinois, beat Minnesota convincingly, and then had a tough loss against Washington.

So they really hit a stride, and I think that's kind of emblematic of the type of team that they can be, and that's the challenge that we're looking at. If you go back earlier in the season, they lost a double-overtime game to Wake Forest, who has gone on, and they're having a good season. It just tells you a little bit about the firepower.

Good on special teams. Play really hard. The kicker and the punter are both transfers, doing a good job there. Then the return guys have done a good job too. They're capable. All their core guys do a good job, so that's one area that we're going to have to be really at our best with.

Offensively, been very impressed with them, and they have several 400-plus yard games, almost 500 yards. You look back. UCLA has got a good football team. The Wake Forest game. Minnesota, 464 yards. Then last week 424 yards.

It starts with the quarterback. He's a really good player. As we were getting ready for the Minnesota game, that really stood out. They really executed well. They're a dangerous team offensively.

Then defensively, they made a change with the coordinator spot, but they're playing hard there.

Bottom line is it's week-to-week in the Big Ten, and we need to be at our best and be ready.

Take a minute and just talk about the Kid Captain this week. We have an 8-year-old Beau Byers from right up the road here, Swisher, a young guy that's an active second-grader right now. Loves sports, baseball, basketball, soccer, so I'm told. Likes to fish, doing things like that. An active, young guy. Mom says he's a pretty social kid and good sense of humor, so good to hear that.

He's also a fighter and a survivor. When he was 3 years old they thought he had a stomach virus, and it turned out to be a cancerous tumor that was on his bladder and had to undergo a surgery and 42 weeks of chemotherapy, 33 radiation treatments, not to mention six months of just therapy.

He's been through an awful lot and has done very well. He's in remission now, and it's going to be great to have he and his family with us this weekend. Obviously be great to have him with us.

Then last thing, it will be good to be back in Kinnick. A night game in Kinnick, they're always special. It sounds like the weather is going to be decent, so great environment for a Big Ten football game. We try to close out the week here and be ready to go on Saturday.

Q. Coach, do you have an update on Jaylen Watson?

KIRK FERENTZ: I think he's going to be okay. He had a minor sprain, but it should be fine. His elbow is better, so I think we're moving forward.

Q. With Cam Buffington and Jayden Montgomery, what about the dynamic between those two guys that you feel like is allowing them to play at such a high level together?

KIRK FERENTZ: With all due respect to Cam, it starts with Jayden. I just can't say enough about him. I say it every year. For us to have a good team, we have to have great stories, and his story began well before this year, but he has a good story.

His high school coach was here last Friday at practice. Full disclosure, he said he wasn't sure Jayden would be a good enough player to play in the Big Ten level, and size is part of that.

You look at everything he does. It is such top-quality. Everything about him, it's just really impressive, and he plays that way. That's just how he plays. Luckily, you don't have to be 6'3" to be great linebacker, I don't think, and he's really played at a high level going back to last year, and all he's done is build on that certainly.

Does everything as a player -- I really hate that word instinctive, but he plays fast because he studies so hard. In fact, I was talking to somebody that coached here back in the '80s this morning. We were talking about Larry Station. Some of the parallels there just as far as the way they play, and a lot of that's just the preparation that they go through. He's really done great.

Then Cam is a different story in that it's his first year playing. He's playing really fast too. I think it's a credit to the players. There's some natural part to playing football I think, but also the hard work and the study that they put in has really, really been impressive. They really are playing off each other really well, so it's been a good tandem certainly. Fun to see.

Seems like whoever steps into that middle linebacker position has done pretty well the last five, six years, so pretty good deal.

Q. I know you're not a stat guy, but Iowa has had a 97-yard offensive touchdown drive in each of the last three games. The first team since 2015 to do that. I know with this group, I wouldn't call them young now that they've almost played a full season together, but what about this group makes them not flinch when they're pushed back against their own goal line? It seems like they aren't pressing. They're calm in the way they execute. I know you told Hank and the offense before they went out against Northwestern: Hey, you did this last week; just go out there and do it again. What makes them so composed?

KIRK FERENTZ: I wish it was that easy. Take a shot there. Sometimes they listen.

It's all about execution. I think I said Saturday night, the goal was just to get the ball out of there, so if you do have to punt, you can at least flip the field position a little bit. That's what you're hoping to do. The opponents are trying to keep you where they get the ball back midfield or less.

There's percentages with all that stuff, but I got to tell you, I've been impressed with that three straight weeks. I lost track about three weeks ago, but the other two I knew.

It's really impactful if you can do that certainly because, again, as a defensive team, you're thinking, okay, we have a chance to pin them down, get the ball back, and at minimum, get three points. If you can take that and then, flip it around the other way, that's a double bonus there.

I wish I could tell you what the magic formula is, but it's a real credit to the players just for sticking to it and doing the execution part of it.

Q. I don't mean to beat a dead horse here, but I know the fumbles have kind of continued. I know you said there's not exactly a perfect drill to maybe fix that or to work on it, but I guess is it just business as usual, or how do you address that?

KIRK FERENTZ: I mention it, and you're not beating a dead horse either. Believe me, we're on the same page. Twelve loose balls, that's way too many. Our interception rate could be better, but it's about average, I'd say, league-wide, and it's not alarming. But 12 loose balls, that's a lot for, like, three seasons, I'd say.

To me it's concentration. It's like tackling too. Some games we tackle better than others, but we tackled really, really well last week, but we pretty much do the same stuff routinely, whether it's ball security drills or tackling. I think a lot of it's just concentration.

Sometimes you can't explain what happens in a game, but a couple of weeks ago, eight loose balls, I mean, that's just ridiculous, quite frankly. It gets down to concentration, in my opinion.

Experience factors in there, but we're nine games into it, so everybody is a veteran at this at this point, unless you just got out there. I'd give you a hall pass there maybe, but we have to do a better job. I think we will, but we have to do it.

Q. What did you make after watching the film, how Michael Myslinski do in his first year official start, and it sounds like he's going to be called upon again this week. What are some things you want to expand on the expectations for him for?

KIRK FERENTZ: I thought he played really well, and we expected that. He jumped in two weeks ago and did a really nice job. Never even thought about it. Just jumped in there and went.

He played like a veteran player. He's been around a lot. He's missed a lot of time, significant time, but he's also been out there a lot too. Extremely conscientious, good player. As I said, I think last week it was really close as we were figuring out who our starters are going to be, and so in my mind, we considered him to be a starter. You could say the same thing about some of our linebackers that aren't starting right now.

Sometimes you have more than the actual number of guys, and Mike certainly has done that. He's really respected by everybody and well-liked, but more importantly, well-respected as a football player. He'll play great this Saturday too. I really expect that.

Q. Related to the ball security question, you're going to obviously mention it to the group, but is it something you maybe put on your assistant coaches to reemphasize, if you will, in meeting rooms? Hey, you're running here with the ball out like this. I guess that would be my first question.

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah. There was something we saw a week ago with a particular player about just some of the maybe technique that could have been changed, and I think that was addressed last week and really didn't show up Saturday. That's encouraging.

But, yeah, everybody has ownership, and then we talk about turnovers too. Sometimes it's somebody missing a block or not blocking well enough where a guy gets caught in a compromising position, so everybody has a hand in that.

Yeah, we continue to coach it, and we will continue to coach it and emphasize it. Those old adages are true. What you emphasize is usually what you get. There's a fine line too.

I'm thinking of a story. I worked with a guy who worked with another guy. I was coaching at Stanford and overdid it. They were playing Oregon State I think. They had buckets of water out there and the whole nine yards, and they went out there and proceeded to turn the ball over like seven times because they had the players just talked into it. You want to be careful about where that line is, that's for sure.

Q. Theor quarterback, Ryan Browne. He's an interesting story because he transferred away and then came back after a semester last. Last year was a real struggle for him. He's flashed quite a bit this year and taken ownership. In what ways do you see him and do you feel like he has taken steps forward in the last couple of years probably of watching film on him?

KIRK FERENTZ: Kind of similar to the quarterback we didn't face last Saturday but thought we were going to face. We played against him two years ago, and he was really good one week and maybe not as good the next week.

I think that's sticking with it, a player being in a system, but also just maturity and making better decisions. Especially that position as they get older. I think he was talented probably a couple of years ago as well, but the development that goes on. Credit to him because he stuck with it, and they're doing a good job with him accentuating what he's good at, which is multiple things. Makes it a challenge for us.

Q. Coach, regarding yesterday's news about the 24-team playoff, and this will be the last year of the Big Ten Championship. What was your reaction to that news?

KIRK FERENTZ: Honestly, I heard about it, but it's kind of like an old subject right now. I'm a little bit more focused on this weekend and this week's game than that stuff, but I'm in favor of it.

I was in favor of it back in May. I think there are a lot of positives to it. You know, it's been war and peace going back and forth here, but at least finally we have a little clarity on that. So worry about that next year, but yeah, that's a good thing.

Q. We got to talk to Michael today and learn more about his story with the injury and his brother battling cancer. What have you seen from Mike the last couple of years that's really spoken to his character?

KIRK FERENTZ: He's a first-class, young guy, and we felt that when we were recruiting him. We were excited to get him. I kind of knew his dad, but not in depth and what have you. But the more you learn about his family, just really impressed with folks.

His dad's career I'm familiar with and was impressed with that as well. Just a guy who had a great career and then took it professionally and did the same thing post-football.

Just a really good family, and Michael is a top-class person. Happy for him to get this opportunity and happier that he's playing so well.

Q. Another question about the postseason. A lot of us are going to watch the College Football Playoff Selection Show tonight. We're pretty sure you are not.

KIRK FERENTZ: Correct.

Q. In talking to the players, it seems like you have had the same mindset, and it's trickled down to all of them basically... don't look at the playoff, don't look two weeks ahead, don't even look a week ahead, just win today's practice. How do you get 100 guys, 18 to 24, to all buy into that?

KIRK FERENTZ: Repetition. I don't know. Yeah, it hard to bore me, so that part's good. It's part of the whole trick of this stuff is just being able to keep your focus where you need to.

I'm not against that show. I didn't mean to start a firestorm last week. I was not trying to give any commentary, conspiracy theories, or any of that stuff, but I was looking for the baseball score. That's legit. I was just curious why I couldn't find it.

But the bottom line is this: This is all entertainment, and I'm all for entertainment. Love to be entertained. Not this time of year necessarily, but I love to be entertained.

All this stuff is so speculative, and I mentioned last week about Northwestern's record versus Oregon's and how people would have said, boy, you got that mixed up, but that was reality. Then you see what happens this week, and Oregon is still a pretty good football team.

It shows you, it's all week-to-week, and if you look beyond what's in front of you, you're really going to miss an opportunity. At least chances are you will.

It's hard with professional players not to do that. With college guys, they have a lot more going on outside in their lives, so the better we can be focused football-wise. Plus, not many teams are that good. I know we're not. We need to be 100% wired into what's in front of us. We've won 7 games right now. Our goal is to win 12. We didn't make that, and that's not going to happen. So what's the next best number? It's double digits. You can't get there until you win 8.

You can't skip steps. You just can't do it. The better everybody understands that, the better chances we'll have at being successful. I do know this. If you start thinking about things that aren't pertinent to what's in front of you, you reduce the chances of being successful.

There are still no guarantees even if you're 100% locked in. That's just what we all need to understand. When I say "we," I'm talking about people in this building.

Q. I know all offseason we talked to you about the young defensive line that you had and everything you lost, a very talented linebacker corps. Maybe outside of Jayden, really have not been tested. You guys have 30 sacks. I think it's seventh in the country. How much of that is just execution, the different schematics by Seth or Phil? How much of them are coverage sacks? How have you been able to extract the best out of a young group that continues to gain experience by the week?

KIRK FERENTZ: I'm afraid to be too complimentary because you end up regretting it. A good friend of mine said, “Don't brag on anybody but dead folks.” A pretty good motto, actually.

That was an area of concern, that and our specialists were two big areas of concern, and probably the offensive line coming into the season just because of inexperience. To that point, I think we're doing okay up front there, and to me it's the whole front seven.

I didn’t lie, but cheated a little bit. We had a feeling that Cam Buffington was going to be a pretty good player. We knew Jayden was. We had that part locked down pretty good, but the development of what's going on up front has been really pleasing.

We were counting on Bryce to be an anchor and a leader up there, and he's done that. Hawthorne has done a really good job there.

Kenny didn't play that many snaps relative to the other guys last year, but he's a veteran guy with a great attitude, and he's adopted a good, strong leadership role, too, so that's helping in that room. Then everybody else is kind of doing what they can to catch up.

We're getting all we could ask for out of Luke and Will in their rotation. Kahmari Brown is starting to get comfortable in our defense and the way we do things, so that's good to see. Then you have Epenesa and Campbell, two young guys that are starting to gain a little confidence and getting the feel for what it is. Collectively it's more of a collective thing, to answer your question. Then you have Ries on the sub packages and Van Kekerix is playing really well.

It has been a collective thing. All the things you talked about are true. The schematics have been good, giving guys a chance to be in position where maybe they have opportunity. Then historically we have a fair number of coverage sacks where we'll be rushing four guys, but if you can make a quarterback hold the ball a little bit more than he wants to, that gives you a chance maybe to flush him and have something good happen. I think that's kind of been an understated strength for us over the years is if we can make it hard for them to have an easy throw, then maybe some good things will happen up front.

Q. This is the first game Purdue will have since they fired their defensive coordinator, so what's the process for you guys of trying to figure out exactly what they might be doing defensively with that change?

KIRK FERENTZ: You don't know 100%. It's a little bit like first games in some ways in that there's nothing on film. One nice thing about November is you have film to look at, and I just got done telling a couple of our guys coming off the field. You have a volume of film. Every player has got a personality. So if you as an offensive lineman or defensive lineman study those guys that you're going to be working against, you can get a little bit of an edge if you are smart about it.

But in this case, to that point, this is like Week 1. We really don't know. Then the bigger picture, too, is that Coach Odom is a defensive coach. He's a really good coach. He was a really good defensive coach. I can't imagine the structure is going to change a lot.

Now, the percentage of how they call things, that's probably going to be a little bit of a wildcard. Is it going to be zone? Is it going to be man? Is it pressure, drop-out, whatever?

When I played freshmen my first year in college was the last year of freshmen football, but our coach used to say, we'll scout them in the first half and then beat them in the second half. Part of that going to be true. We'll have to figure out what's going on there in that first half, for sure. Then they'll probably flip it around in the second half. We'll see.

Q. I know there was the mention of the 95-plus-yard drives. The game this last weekend there was a fair catch called on the 3 yard line. I was curious about your thoughts on coaching through that for a guy like Evan?

KIRK FERENTZ: I hope everybody understands we don't coach it that way. That's not an adjustment we have to make, but it's the case of a younger player maybe kind of losing sight of something he already knows.

That's part of the roller coaster you ride with younger players. I think he's made a substantial growth -- he obviously has potential. We've seen that. In general terms, he's a young player. It's his second year in college. He has a great attitude, great work ethic. He likes football. He's transitioned in our program really well, but sometimes you pay for youth a little bit. We want that.

I'm not suggesting he's the next Kaden Wetjen, but Wetjen was a little bit of a wild ride there a couple of years ago, too. Then after that, we fully trusted him. Sometimes you have to roll the dice a little bit and just understand there are going to be some highs and lows. To me as long as a player shows and demonstrates that he's working hard to get better and not make the same mistakes over, then, you know, you stay with him. I think we all feel that way about Evan.

He's a top-quality young guy. I doubt he'll make that mistake again.

Q. I know you said you're not worried about future College Football Playoff stuff years down the road, but is there maybe some sadness the loss of the Big Ten Championship game? I know that's been a pretty special event in the past.

KIRK FERENTZ: I have to tell you -- yes and no. I'm not feeling real collegiate anymore. If I was, we'd still be playing with 10 or 11 teams in the Big Ten. That stuff is all gone by the wayside.

The world has changed dramatically in this arena, so you have to roll with it. I don't want to dissertate too much about the playoff thing because it's already been said, but to me, when they went from two teams to four, my attitude at that point was the more the merrier. I really meant that. I would rather have it be two or 22 or in this case 24 because you're always going to have that argument, we should have been No. 4, not No. 5 and all that stuff.

As soon as we went to four, the bowl games -- it started to diminish the value of bowl games traditionally, which is unfortunate in my opinion. But, again, that's 20 years ago. All that stuff is kind of in the rearview mirror.

I think our Commissioner has kind of led the way on the 24 thing, and it made perfect sense. He talked about relevance of these games in November nationally, and you have to shift your mentality because that's really what it's all about. You know, here's the new world, and that one we'll deal with next year. Right now we're dealing with this year, and really none of it matters.

I don't dislike any of these shows, but they just don't mean anything to me right now because I know enough that the accuracy rate of what gets said tonight or last week or next week won't be real impressive. It's the way it goes.

Guess what, in a month we'll all know. We'll all know the answers. Suspense is killing me, I have to tell you.

Q. You've been mentioning so many players that have kind of figured things out at this point in the season, whether it's LJ, Myslinski, special teams, and Caden. When guys are finding a way to contribute and make an impact, especially complementary like that, at this point in the season, what does that do for your guys in terms of a morale standpoint when you're finding so many different pieces finding a way to help you guys and figure things out?

KIRK FERENTZ: It's all good. You mentioned LJ. I don't think I've ever been involved in a season where we have five backs that have had 100-yard games. That's hard to do. It may have happened in my career. I can't remember it at any level any time.

But to that point, it just talks about everybody stepping in and doing their job when they need to. I've said it forever. For us to have a successful year, our best guys have to play their best, and then we need some stories, and we got to handle the bumps. Those three things, you see some of those things happening.

We hit a big bump a couple of weeks ago. We've taken a couple of positive steps, but the season is not over, so we'll see what we learned, if we did learn. You hate to have bumps, but if you learn from them, then that can be a positive.

Then our best guys have been playing at a pretty high level, and then these stories, the things you alluded to, if we don't have those, we're dead. Like, we're just going to be an average team. If you get guys doing some things that maybe they didn't think they could, then all of a sudden you start to gain a little traction.

Mike jumping in there when he got called upon and he played really well last week, and no reason to think he won't do it again this week. Those are the things that have to happen if you are going to have a good season. We have a couple more games to see where it's all going to go, but at least we're on a positive track right now. The big thing right now is not us starting to get distracted with the things on the outside. We need to stay focused on what we're trying to do.

Sounds simple but it's a little trickier to do it actually, and that's the case in front of us, but looking forward to it. The guys have been really good, and I think they're enjoying. To your point, that brings guys closer together.

The veteran guys are really happy to see new guys have success, too, and that's because you have good camaraderie on your team. So good guys. It all starts with having good guys.

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