Hawkeye Football: COACH FERENTZ
COACH FERENTZ: Welcome.
Congratulations
to Bruce Nelson, a tremendous guy, who will be a tremendous
representative of the ANF award and is following some really
outstanding players. Bruce was certainly not only an outstanding player
here but a great story in our program, and we're really proud of him.
It will be great to have him back on campus.
Just
updates medically as we released this morning with LeShun Daniels,
unfortunately, he's going to be out probably six weeks. So that kind of
rules him out of playing time. Derek Willies came to me last night and
expressed some interest in transferring. His dad has had some medical
issues and he's interested in getting closer to home. If that's the
case, we'll certainly support him as he moves forward.
That
being said, coming off a bye week, we have a big challenge on our
hands. We’re playing a very good Northwestern team. They've played well
probably albeit one quarter of Big Ten play and have a very good
football team. So it's typically very much like the teams that they've
had.
They are well-coached, play hard, and work extremely
well, so we're going to have to be at our best certainly and expect a
tough contest.
Q. Did you know that Derrick Willies’ father was going through health issues?
COACH
FERENTZ: I think he's fine. He's got some issues that have been
concerning, and my understanding is the prognosis is good, so that's
just something that's important to Derek at this point.
Q.
Is there a chance he could come not counting on it. It kind of came out
of thin air last night. Derrick's had some health issues himself that
have kept him off the field for a significant amount of time this year,
but we'll see how it goes. He's a young person, and we'll certainly
honor his wishes if he chooses to leave.
Q. Has he expressed any kind of dissatisfaction with his playing time at all this year?
COACH FERENTZ: Not to me, no.
Q. Is he okay?
COACH FERENTZ: I think so, yes
Q. Have you finalized Spearman’s suspension?
COACH FERENTZ: He'll be sitting out this and next week, a two-game suspension, and then he'll be back in good standing.
Q. What can you realistically expect from Josey Jewell?
COACH
FERENTZ: On the topic of injuries, he broke a bone in his hand. He
missed the first two games. It was pretty much a dead heat between
Josey and Reggie in camp, and then obviously the injury kind of pushed
Reggie forward on that one. We're here to see him play. He's played
well when he's been out there and doing a good job on special teams.
This will increase Cole Fisher's role on the whole deal. And Travis
Perry's a guy that we can put around there too. I wouldn't be shocked
if all three guys played at some point.
Q. Willies’ upbringing included a guardian. Did you deal more with the guardian than the father?
COACH
FERENTZ: Absolutely. The guardian was, in effect, the parent at that
point. Great people, very supportive people, and his high school coach
is a great person too.
Q. Did that make it more unusual that he wanted to be closer to somebody that wasn't a part of the process?
COACH
FERENTZ: I don't think so. It's his biological dad, and there is
nothing unusual. Typically most people have strong feelings towards
their parents. I don't think that's an unusual circumstance at all.
Q.
During a bye week you typically get a chance to recharge yourself for
the stretch run, but now you’ve had some distractions.
COACH
FERENTZ: I'm laughing because distractions are part of what we do. A
bye week sometimes we think it's going to be sit around and drink tea
and eat crumpets, it doesn't quite work that way. But with recruiting
and football and all that stuff, it's almost like you need a break from
your break. At least in season there is a routine, so it's good to be
back in a game-week routine, quite frankly.
Q. Looking
at Northwestern, I know you always say the next game is the biggest
game, but when you look at this game and what is ahead after that, it
really magnifies the importance of this game, doesn't it?
COACH FERENTZ: How so? What do you mean?
Q. As far as getting the win and getting some momentum going into the game.
COACH
FERENTZ: Well, we're both coming off a loss, so that adds a little
something to it. The bottom line is it's a conference game and they're
all really important. All I know is when you look at these guys,
they've played extremely well in Big Ten play. Going back to the opener
at Penn State, they went in there and basically dominated the game and
then came back and beat Wisconsin. So you're looking at a team that's
really well-coached.
I look at it from an historical
perspective. Randy Walker and I both got our jobs at the same time.
They beat us at the end of the game in '99, and the next year they're
in the Big Ten Championship. They won a co-championship. They've done a
wonderful job there. They're an outstanding program. I don't think they
get the respect they deserve by a lot of people.
You go back
to the '80s, and it was no comparison. But if you look at what was
going on since 1999, actually you go a little bit before that, they've
done a wonderful job. They've got an excellent football team. All I
know is these guys play hard and they play well.
Q. You were pretty frank in your assessment of your team after the Maryland game. How do they respond to that?
COACH
FERENTZ: We'll know more this week and the weeks ahead. I just know
moving forward if we don't tackle well and don't protect the football,
it's going to be tough to win. It's tough to win in this conference
doing that. That is the bottom line. We have to play better. We can't
turn the ball over. We have to tackle on defense.
Q.
Offensively, Northwestern didn't jump out like we’re used to seeing.
What have you seen from them in the sense of can their offense be
effective?
COACH FERENTZ: They find ways to win. That's
what good teams do. I don't know what their stats were at Penn State,
but it was a pretty one-sided score on the Wisconsin ballgame; the
stats were probably toward Wisconsin, but 4-0 in turnovers. So they're
playing winning football. They gave up a kick at Minnesota, otherwise
that's a different story there. That's conference football.
No matter what your style is, whatever your personality is, it's about playing good football and playing clean football.
Q. Defense has allowed a lot of rushing yards the last two games. What have you seen there?
COACH
FERENTZ: A lot of little technique things and angles, those types of
things. But just in general terms. Even if you let a run outside the
tackles -- six, seven, eight-yard gains aren't going to kill you. But
if they go beyond that, those things really take their toll. In
comparison, the first ballgame, we gave up a free pass of over 200
yards and Indiana gave us three rushes of over 200 yards. That's just a
big hole to climb out of. It puts a lot of pressure on your football
team.
Bottom line is we have to play better
fundamentally, and in conference play, if you can't do that, it's going
to be a tough one. Everybody plays the comparative score game. If you
look around the conference, there are just no days off. So you better
be ready to play your team each and every week.
Q. You
talked about you wanted to keep Mark Weisman fresh. With five games
left, does your approach kind of change a little bit? He's only got
five games in his college career. Does that lean toward using him more
now maybe?
COACH FERENTZ: We're going to do whatever we
think gives us the best chance to win. There is no pitch count right
now for anybody, and that includes special teams. Whoever can help us
win football games, that's what we've really got to be focused on.
Q. You were here when Reggie Roby was kicking off, is Marshall in that league?
COACH
FERENTZ: Boy, you're testing my memory there, although I remember when
Reggie kicked the ball, you heard it, be it a punt or a kickoff. And
Marshall's done a great job. Struggled early with the field goals, but
I think his confidence level is really starting to rise now because
he's fought through it. Like most players, you go through some tough
times, but he's done a really nice job there, and his kickoffs have
been great, certainly. There is going to come a time when they're going
to come out. Either you return them or you kick them with wind and that
type of One of my fears is we put our guard down and everybody's going
to say he's going to kick it out, and it's not that easy. We have to be
ready when that time does come.
Q. You said at Maryland that C.J. Beathard may not go. Is he fully functional this week and in the plans at all?
COACH
FERENTZ: Yeah, I think we have a handful of guys we'll still wait and
see on this week. But I think he's fine, and Jake's fine, so we'll let
them both go.
Q. Where are you at with the punter situation?
COACH
FERENTZ: At Maryland we did the plus-50 punting with Connor, and Dillon
handled the rest of it. It's still very close competition.
Q. Will you proceed that way?
COACH FERENTZ: We'll decide this week. We'll decide this week when we see how practice looks.
Q.
How do you assess Jake's performance at Maryland? He threw a lot of
passes that's unlike you guys. I think a lot of those sacks were part
of it. You're going to have sacks.
COACH FERENTZ: Yeah,
I did read that we set a record during my time here. I'm just guessing
the record we broke was a loss too. I'm guessing we ended up throwing
the ball. If you're built like we are, if you throw the ball 50-some
times, it usually means you're chasing somebody from behind. It wasn't
by design, but that's sometimes the bottom line if we get in that
situation again, we're going to have to find a way to be more
successful than we were that day.
Q. You watched the film on the offensive line. On the sacks, was it technique? Was it too long pulling the ball?
COACH
FERENTZ: It's typically a little bit of everything. Sometimes it's an
individual getting beat. Sometimes it's not getting the ball out on
time, whatever that means. I mean, if the quarterback's got the ball,
you have to protect so it doesn't give anybody an out. Sometimes it may
be a misinterpretation of a route, what a break should be, that type of
thing.
Q. Is Jordan Canzeri one of those guys that's a little dinged up?
COACH
FERENTZ: He's a little dicey. We'll see where it's at. Like I said, if
we played Saturday, it's probably a handful of guys out. But that's
October. October, November, it's going to be that way.
Q. Where does that leave your running back situation with LeShun out?
COACH FERENTZ: Yeah, whoever is healthy has a chance to play, basically, is what it comes down to.
Q. Are Wadley and Parker on that next level?
COACH FERENTZ: Yeah, they're the only two guys left, I think. You've got Mark and Damon, obviously,
experienced players, and you have Jonathan who has been getting some
playing time and we've worked Akrum in a little bit on special teams,
so at least he's getting his feet wet out there as a player. We'll have
to have everybody available because we're running out of guys.
Q. Do you anticipate Austin going back to center this week?
COACH
FERENTZ: Yeah, we'll make that decision this week. I think the good
thing is with Tommy going in a couple weeks ago, we functioned pretty
well, and I think he did a nice job last time out as well. So we've
added to the pool of flexibility. We didn't have much going into it. At
least we weren't sure what it was. So I think right now we've got six
viable guys that can play and play pretty well and that's a good thing.
Boettger got thrown in when Brandon got hurt back early in the season,
so those right now are our seven guys, and we'll probably utilize all
the guys. Hopefully not Ike, hopefully we won't have to go that way
only because I want to keep our tackles out there,
Q. How important is it to improve the running game?
COACH
FERENTZ: You know, it's important. It's important for us to play
cohesively, so that's part of what we do. It would be really great to
come up with a couple big plays in the run game, but you just keep
chipping away and working at it.
Q. That turnover last
Saturday or two Saturdays ago, kind of uncharacteristic. You guys
hadn't had fumble problems all year?
COACH FERENTZ:
Yeah, typically we've done pretty well, but we had two of them that
day. Both two fumbles that were costly and a pick six. That's usually
not a good thing either. Like getting a punt blocked is not a good
deal. So there are certain things in football that are tough to
overcome. We still had a chance to overcome them, but we didn't get it
done.
Q. How rewarding are coaching stories like Bruce Nelson?
COACH
FERENTZ: Yeah, you have them every year, but his is pretty dramatic
only because -- part of it is circumstantial. We were defining the
offensive line at that given time, and we just saw some things in him
at tight end that we felt were maybe he could help us a little bit, and
Eric Steinbach soon thereafter followed, and Gallery was after that.
But
here's a guy who is a walk-on, really kind of unknown to anybody at
that time, and we switched him over and he ended up starting his first
year at left tackle, as you know. With each year, he gained confidence,
and ended up being just one heck of a football player. But beyond that,
he's just such a good guy. He's a really humble guy, hard-working guy,
and he was back a couple years ago as a captain, and I thought it was a
really meaningful and powerful message with our football team.
But
that's how he thinks. That's how he's wired. When you understood him
talk you understood exactly how things happened back in '99 and 2000
for him because he thinks right and thinks about the right things. He's
not afraid of hard work either. He's just one of those guys. He has his
challenges too. He had some injuries and things like that, and he got
worked a little bit early in his career like most players do. But he
was having fun at the end certainly.
Q. Is it hard to find players like that now?
COACH
FERENTZ: I don't think so. To think that you're going to have a lot of
those kinds of stories -- if he had come here in 2000 or 2002 or 2003
he probably wouldn't have been a four-year starter. So it was just a
perfect time for him to be here and be part of that thing. But when you
have special things that take place, it takes special people to be
involved and he's certainly one of them.
Q. What makes Northwestern's defense go? What makes them pretty formidable?
COACH
FERENTZ: Yeah, it sounds pretty basic, but it's just they're very
well-coached. They don't try, in my opinion to do too much. They play
with really good technique. They're very well-coached at all positions.
You'll have a hard time finding safeties tackle any better anywhere in
college football. In my opinion, it's been that way for quite some
time.
To me, just stepping back as an observer since
2008, they've really played well on defense, and they've got a system.
They believe in in it, their players believe in it, and they just play
extremely hard. They play hard. No matter who is in there, they're
going at you. If you drop your guard at all, you're going to be in
trouble. Even if you're playing at your best, it's not going to be
So
they're very well-coached, and it's not all coaching. Their players do
a great job. They just believe in what they do, and they do it very
Q.
They talked yesterday when Pat Fitzgerald talked, he talked a lot about
Iowa and Northwestern being a rivalry. And I think everybody in the Big
Ten has a rival with everybody in the Big Ten. But the spirit of this
game has really stepped up. Last year when you guys won in overtime,
your players rushed the field, obviously felt something.
COACH FERENTZ: I mean, it was an overtime game. Happy as heck to win the game.
Q. Is there something else there? Is there another spark?
COACH
FERENTZ: I've read the story about Gary Barnett and Coach Fry, and Gary
Barnett did a wonderful job there, and Pat played on that football
team, so it's got to be very personal to him, I'm sure. But bottom
line, as you're aware, in the '80s that wasn't much of a series. That's
well-documented. Since I've been back, it's been a really tough series.
They've had excellent football teams. If you look at even last year,
which was a disappointing year, how close they were going back to the
Ohio State game.
So I just look at it, and since Pat's
taken over, they've played really well. They've had good teams and
played well in bowl games, even in games they've lost. They beat
Mississippi State two years ago, and I think we're all seeing how that
program's going.
I think a lot of people make the
mistake of maybe living in the past. I mean, since '95 these guys have
been really good. They've got a proud tradition, and they play like
they have a proud tradition, so they're a good program, excellent
program.
Q. They've got a running back too that you
recruited pretty hard in Jackson. He's held his profile in the running
game. Did you anticipate this type of a player when you were looking at
him?
COACH FERENTZ: Yeah, we thought he was a really
good player, high school player, and he's proving that right now. He's
a good football player, very dangerous.
Q. Between the
tackles, he seems to always find a way to get an extra yard. Just he's
quick in a tight spot or whatever, what is it?
COACH
FERENTZ: He's just an excellent player. He could have been a good
defensive player too. That wasn't our intention. Obviously, it wasn't
Northwestern's, but he's an excellent football player.
Q. Will LeShun Daniels have an opportunity for a red-shirt? I'm a little foggy on that?
COACH
FERENTZ: Probably not, but we'll appeal and take a shot at it. He's had
two injuries this year. But I think he's played in four games, and
we're past the 50 percent. So it just depends on how the committees
look at it. I would not want to try to predict that.
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