Kirk Ferentz back in charge, ready for Iowa State

It was an odd and strange feeling for Kirk Ferentz this past weekend. He was suspended for the opening game of the season due to a recruiting violation, which forced him to watch the Hawkeyes play at home. He detailed what that was like for him and he looks ahead to the annual Cy-Hawk game on Saturday.

KIRK FERENTZ OPENING STATEMENT

Good afternoon to everybody. I’ll just say a couple words about last week and then look forward to this Saturday’s game.

Last Saturday was certainly a unique experience, and the bottom line is I was happy for our team to win the game, obviously, and see a great performance by our guys.

I thought they did a really good job, staff, players, everybody involved. Always good to get the win. It was a team effort and all three phases contributed. A lot of good things, a lot of things to teach off of off that tape, like every week.

Certainly, it was very different not being there, and it was a little bit of a unique experience.

Illinois State is very well-coached. We knew that. I thought they competed hard and made it tough on us in a lot of areas.

First half, our defense did a great job, special teams did a nice job, and the offense worked through some things, especially early in the first quarter. Bottom line is they worked through that. The penalties in the first half were a major factor. I think we had 6 for 45.

It’s not so much the yardage as it is just how the penalties impact things, and one of those was on special teams, really costly, as well. That was like a flashback right to our Kids’ Day practice at Kinnick, the ninth or tenth practice.

But almost like a direct correlation. That certainly was a better situation in the second half. We had one for five yards and played a lot cleaner. That helped.

Good to see the offensive execution in the second half. Looked a lot better. Defense kept playing; special teams did a good job. Good to be back in the facility Sunday and see everybody in person and have a chance to congratulate them on their effort and just playing through the bumps and going the full 60, doing a good job there.

Moving forward to this week, we have the same four captains: Jay Higgins, Quinn Schulte, Luke Lachey and Cade McNamara. It’s the same four guys there.

Injury-wise, we’re pretty clean. Looked like we came out of it in pretty good shape. Hopefully we make it throughout the week without any issues.

This game, obviously, is a big game. It’s a rivalry game. Certainly it’s been intense for a long time. It’s my 34th experience, I’ve seen a lot of different things throughout the course of that time. But bottom line is it’s a good game for our state. It’s good for everybody if they’re involved in football and like football.

On top of it, It’s probably a little bit underappreciated outside of our state in terms of the intensity of the rivalry and the way the players go after it each and every time.

It’s really a good football game.

Talking about Iowa State. They are a good football program and a good football team. I have a lot of admiration for their staff. They have a really good coaching staff. They’ve done a great job since Coach Campbell arrived. They have a veteran football team. They’ve recruited well, they coach their guys well, and each and every year there’s a good program and a good team.

Look at the last six years, I think it’s a five-point whatever differential between the two teams, so I would expect the same thing Saturday. Another tough competitive hard-fought game. That’s what we’re looking at there.

Kid Captain this week is eight year old Atlas Coleman from West Des Moines. Atlas they discovered in a tumor in Atlas’ lung a year and a half. They had to take that out and then found a really rare form of cancer that they had to work through, and glad to say he’s doing really well.

He’s in school and like every other kid having a good time. Apparently he has a good sense of humor, tells jokes and just a great young guy. It’ll be good to have him and his family here with us. Look forward to that.

Again, a big game here, big rivalry, and we turned the page yesterday, moved on towards our preparation here, and a big challenge right now is getting through this week and just doing a great job with our preparation knowing it’s going to be a tough game on Saturday.

Q. What can you tell us about your experience on Saturday. Were you like a coach? Were you more like a fan? Did you have a little tailgate —

KIRK FERENTZ: There was no tailgate (laughter).

Q. Describe as much as you can.

KIRK FERENTZ: Actually I had a grandson in the house, so got up, had two scrambled eggs, nothing too dramatic.

But when the game started, it’s different watching it on TV. It’s really different. You can see better. That’s one thing. I had a nice surface to write on, which was the second thing. So I guess those are two upgrades.

But outside of that, there wasn’t much good about it. It’s sterile, and you’re pretty much helpless. Not that I do a lot during games anyway, I’m not playing, but you have a total feeling of disconnection, so it was really strange.

Q. In the second half there was six offensive possessions; scored a touchdown on five of them. What’s going through your head as you see that unfold?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, it felt a lot better watching, from where I was watching. Life was a lot better in the second half.

Again, that’s the study in offense. Execution is a huge part of the game. It takes a lot of concentration, a lot of detail.

I think one thing for sure, the penalty situation did impact us in the first half. Second thing, we didn’t really throw or catch. The throws weren’t always accurate. Then we made some of those throws in the second half, and we caught the ball well.

It gives you a chance to get going. Then the run game was a little cleaner and crisper.

Those are things you go through. We’re going to go through a series of things over the course of the season. As much as you try in camp and you try to put the guys in pressure situations and create things and all that, it’s not the same as playing the game.

Until you get in the game, you don’t know how individuals are going to perform or how they’re going to play, and then the other component is just the same thing to be said about your team, you just don’t know how they’re going to respond to those situations. We’ll have a bunch of them here in the next 11 games out there. You just don’t know what they are.

But the biggest takeaway for me was the guy our guys stuck together. They kept a good attitude. I’m not so sure how many adjustments got made at halftime, but we just made a little cleaner in that second half.

Then when you do that, you give yourself a chance for some success.

Q. Cade, like the rest of the offense, had a really strong second half. I know a lot of what we’ve talked about here is the fact that he hasn’t been healthy, and now we got to see him play healthy. Just your thoughts. Were you impressed with what he did in the second half —

KIRK FERENTZ: Absolutely.

Q. Are you feeling more confident going into this second week? Where are you with Cade and his performance?

KIRK FERENTZ: I’ve been saying it pretty consistently. You can’t quantify this. It’s just going off experience.

But I think to me, at least, one of his biggest challenges, firstly, getting through the injury was his first challenge, first and foremost. I will say this after watching TV: If I hear one more thing about ACL repairs — this is 2024. There’s a lot of guys playing college football and pro football that have had ACL repairs, so to me it’s so far in the rearview mirror right now. But nonetheless, it was the reality it was a reality certainly this last year to deal with it.

But more importantly it was getting back into football shape, if you will, and playing in a team environment, not a 7-on-7 environment, which he hasn’t really done for two years as a healthy player.

To see him keep his attitude positive and keep working through it — he was much cleaner in the second half, and that’s what you hope a guy is going to do.

He has game experience. That’s in his pocket. That’s a good thing for him. But that two-year gap is something that he’s had to work through.

It was good to see him. He looked relaxed, looked confident, and that was in the second half, and those are positive things. You can’t hand that to a player. They have to go out and experience it and earn it.

Q. I don’t remember seeing Jaziun Patterson out there on Saturday. Can you kind of comment on his status, and do you have a sense of how quickly Seth Anderson could get back on the field?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, so Jaz, that was a coach’s decision to keep him out. He was back with us yesterday, and we expect him to be ready to roll this week. Great young guy. Just something we decided to do.

Seth, his injury is not as bad maybe as we thought initially, but nonetheless, I guess it was last Wednesday — I think we met Tuesday, so the next day, of course. It doesn’t look as bad right now. We’ll probably know more by the end of the week, but it won’t be this week. Hopefully we’re talking about a week or two, not multiple weeks.

Q. I thought a great stat that came out of the game last Saturday was Reece Vander Zee was the first true freshman wide out for Iowa to score a touchdown in the season opener since 2006. He obviously had two in the game, the first freshman to do that since 2017. When was it, if there was a moment, that you saw in practice that this was the type of guy who could make an impact at such a young age, and if it wasn’t a moment, what did you see that gave you confidence in him?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, I’ll go back to recruiting him. We were excited about him. I saw him two years ago. I saw Zach Lutmer playing basketball, and he was out there playing, and I got to go out there and see him during our bye week last week; saw a couple games that night.

Just liked that he was playing quarterback; just liked kind the way he handles himself, carries himself. And then it was frustrating during the summer because he had a multitude of things that kind of held him back from the summer program, just general training. He missed a lot of time that way. Fortunately he was able to get back and get going.

Since we’ve been in practice he just carries himself well. I don’t know how well you know him. I don’t want to say he’s expressionless, but he doesn’t get real demonstrative, just very steady, focused and mature for his age and his experience level. He just continues to grow, continues to do a good job with whatever we throw at him, and as we went on, just became apparent to us that he’s probably the guy to have in there.

I thought, again, just watching on it TV, it looked like he performed well the other day. I am not on the sidelines seeing him and all those things, but he just seemed to handle things in stride.

It’s not too big for him, and he certainly likes to compete, and it was good to see him go up with his hands and catch balls and make some plays for us.

Q. I know you guys have had camp and scrimmage with helmet comms and tablets but what have you heard about how that worked out on Saturday and the advantage it can bring to get instant feedback?

KIRK FERENTZ: It seems like all the feedback was really good. I was curious about that Sunday morning. Yeah, seemed like it really went pretty smoothly. No major delays. I guess they were a little bit behind with the tablets, but no, it sounded like it was really good. I think everybody thought there was a benefit to it for sure.

Q. Last year when you guys played Iowa State, probably didn’t know a lot about Rocco Becht. That was only the second start of his career. Now you’ve had a chance to see a lot more of him. Will as you look at him this week? What are some challenges that he particularly presents to your defense?

KIRK FERENTZ: When I talked about them being a veteran team, veteran in the key parts, and that’s one of the positions I was referencing. He’s not an old guy, but he’s played enough now where I think he’s a very confident guy, very poised, and does a good job running their offense, and they’ve got a really talented group of receivers. Tight end Brahmer is a good receiver, so they have guys they can get the ball to, and I’m sure they will. He’s done a nice job leading their football team, and I’m guessing his best football is still ahead of him.

Q. Wanted to ask about Kaleb and Kaleb. Johnson obviously was out in the first half. Is there anything he needs to be doing better to be in good standing with you guys, et cetera, and then also Brown, how has he looked coming back this week? Will he be a part of your plans on Saturday?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, both those guys have looked good. Anything that happens along the way — our deal is like we deal with it and then my encouragement for everybody is we’re looking forward. We’re not looking back unless there’s a reason to.

Kaleb Johnson has practiced well. He’s been practicing well and did a good job. When he went in there, I wasn’t surprised. That’s how he’s been practicing. Really focused and hit the holes hard and all those types of things. Good to see that. That’s probably as well as I’ve seen him run the football since he’s been here. Great young guy. Got a great attitude.

Then Kaleb Brown — it’s going to be good to get him back, too. The deal was last week he worked on the scout team against our defense, and Phil and those guys did a great job, and that’s what you want to hear. He had a great attitude about it. He’s back in the rotation now and he’ll be out there Saturday. I don’t know how much, but he’ll be out there.

Q. I think maybe some people wondered if the passing game would come along, and the first new system, obviously Cade coming off an injury; but to see the success that it had in the first game of the season, is that a pretty encouraging sign moving forward?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, it’s encouraging. It’s a combination of a lot of things. I think the line, we’re a little bit more veteran up there. I thought the guys overall protected pretty well. It didn’t seem like that was an issue at all for us, so that was helpful.

Cade working through his leave of absence for a while, going through that, and now he’s on a little bit of a sabbatical, medical sabbatical, so working through. And then the receivers did a good job for the most part going and getting the ball, running good routes, things like that.

So good combination, and some of those plays that Cade made were under duress, not necessarily because of a breakdown, but those guys blitzed a lot, had free rushers come. I thought he handled that situation well, too. We got plenty of blitz practice on Saturday, no question.

Q. Kirk, how would you evaluate Kamari Moulton getting that start in that sort of odd situation? How do you think he did that with opportunity that he got?

KIRK FERENTZ: We talked about Reece, and same thing. Kamari has been here for a year, but he’s a young player. He really doesn’t have much game experience. I thought he did a lot of good things and he handled it well. He’s a steady guy. Every day is pretty much the same with him. It’s a good day, and he works hard.

Again, you can’t simulate things, game experience, and for players like that, the younger guys that haven’t played this is a good experience for them to be out there in competition, tough competition, and having to perform.

Those are two guys right there that haven’t done much for us, but certainly have a chance to help our football team a lot when you talk about him or Reece Vander Zee.

Q. We were just talking to TJ Hall and it sounded like he took the Nebraska game pretty hard, the one two seasons ago when he got thrown into it. How have you seen him grow from that moment to where he is now?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, name a player or coach who hasn’t had that. That’s part of the journey, if you will. That’s kind of what I was referencing with teams. You’re going to go through hard times, and we went through it Saturday. Offensively we were up against it a little bit, and the guys just kept pushing forward.

A player like TJ, he’s probably being a little too hard on himself, talking about that one specific incident. That’s part of playing football, whether you’re a first-year guy like that or could be a senior. What’s your response going to be; that’s the major thing in sports. He’s done nothing but good things.

He missed a lot of time due to injury, which was unfortunate. That slows development, but this spring he looked good and has had a nice camp. It’s good to see him in the fray like he is. He’s doing a good job.

He’s got a lot of football in front of him.

Q. Kirk, to revert back to Cade a little bit, can you tell a difference in maybe his confidence or the way he’s carried himself, maybe not even from Saturday but from camp? Because again, what we saw Saturday was something we haven’t seen from Cade in black and gold.

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, you just hoped it was coming, but there was no guarantees on that one. He’s always been confident and I think he knows what to do, all those types of things, but at some point you have to do it, and then you have to sample some success or taste it a little bit and experience it.

You can’t hand that to a player. They have to go out and do it and work through it. It hasn’t always been easy on a couple levels. Credit to him for sticking with it and fighting through that first half that didn’t go perfect for us, obviously, but came back and just did some really good things in the second half.

Hopefully with each day, practice or game, experience, he’s going to keep getting more confidence in himself. He’s moving around, he’s throwing the ball, and just looks a lot more relaxed out there. That’s an easy thing for me to say, hey, relax, enjoy the game, all that stuff. Good luck. Now here’s the ball; go do it. Whole different story. Credit goes to him on that one.

Q. Jeremiah Pittman got some extra on Saturday; doesn’t have a whole lot of starts in his career, but how valuable is the patience that he has to have to sit behind in the depth chart, and also, what is his potential?

KIRK FERENTZ: Well, his potential remains to be seen, but he’s improved with every step of the way. We have some guys talking about a couple young guys who played Saturday, but most of our guys or the majority of our newcomers this year are going to be redshirting, it looks like.

You never know what’s going to happen, but it looks like that, and that’s kind of been the way in our program for quite some time.

When you get behind good players, we have two pretty good defensive tackles right now, so for him to start may not be realistic at this given point, but it’s all in front of him right now, and he’s working hard every day, and he’s a much better player than he was a year ago at this time and it’s great to see. It’s not a surprise because he’s got a great attitude and works hard.

There’s more of a process for most players. Not all, but most players have to kind of work at it, and when they get their turn, go in there and play well. It was good to see Jeremiah — I’m not surprised, but it was good to see him do a good job out there.

Q. Last time I’m going to ask about watching from home, but from your perspective as a football coach and having to watch a game on TV, not to disparage your TV partners or anything like that, but what from your perspective do you feel like you were missing the most versus being able to watch the game on the sideline?

KIRK FERENTZ: It’s just a totally different experience. You feel totally disconnected.

I thought about that a little bit. Like if I were retired, the difference is you’re not invested the way you are if you work here every day or are with the guys every day.

The closest thing would be like one of our kids’ games. You’re kind of invested, you’re a parent, but it’s still not the same as when you coach and work with people on a daily basis in a really intimate environment. And that’s what we get to enjoy, and that’s the best part of coaching is just that — at times when we get to shut the door and just do what we do or practice and all those kinds of things.

When you have that, then it’s really strange to be disconnected. It was code of silence on Saturday. Left the hotel Friday night, which was strange, and then sleep in your own bed that night, that’s strange. And then basically wasn’t sure what to do all morning, and then the game came, and then I really wasn’t sure what to do at halftime. It was kind of interesting.

But it all worked out. Then it’s even stranger after the game because either it’s a really good time emotionally or a bad time, and those highs and lows make it really special, so you miss out on all those things.

It wasn’t the same seeing everybody on Sunday. It’s just that time gap in there that’s a little bit different.

It’s over, and hopefully something I’ll never experience again. We’ll see how it all goes.

Q. Not to take you back home again, but you mentioned watching on TV —

KIRK FERENTZ: It’s a nice place to hang out. Mary has built a nice house.

Q. You mentioned TV; did you listen to the radio at all? And if you did, your thoughts on the new color commentator in the booth and how he did —

KIRK FERENTZ: I saw Pat at the Hall of Fame luncheon on Friday, and that was enough right there. No, I’m joking.

But first of all, it was great to see both Adrian and Shonn go in, and great to have them back and their families back. That was outstanding. Adrian’s high school coach was back, also, which was really neat. He came up from St. Louis. That was great.

Pat did a great job at the luncheon. As you know, Pat gives you that crazy demeanor and all that stuff, but he’s a pretty deep thinker. He knows what’s going on. I’m guessing — I haven’t heard any reviews, but I’m guessing he did pretty well. My prediction is he will do really well in the future. He followed a great guy in Ed Podolak, certainly.

Q. Last three years you’re averaging 186 yards a game against Iowa State. I know there’s a lot of factors in that, but what makes the Iowa State defense so difficult to move the ball against for you guys, and what can you do this week?

KIRK FERENTZ: You know, one person’s opinion. They’ve done a lot of things well there since Coach Campbell got there. That league was not exactly, like, known for defense, and ours is probably a little bit more so that way, at least that’s kind of been the trend.

I think Coach Heacock, he’s an outstanding coach, great person. He came in with a vision. I’m not sure where all it got incubated or where it got hatched, but they’ve been good on defense basically after that first year was a year of adjustment.

But from my vantage point, they’ve been good on defense all the way through, and they’ve been good on offense, too. They’ve changed subtly, but they’ve got an identity and a system that works really well for them. I think that’s why they’ve been so successful. They run the ball, control the ball. They pass it well, too.

But they’re balanced on offense, and then defensively they’ve been really good.

To me, that put them in the mix with the other teams in that conference, including beating Oklahoma. Twice? Was it twice?

That’s not supposed to happen according to the experts, but they’ve done a good job, and that’s a big component of it.

I think you know how I feel. Just growing up, it just seems like if you played defense in any sport, you’ve got a chance. You can’t win if you don’t have a chance. Real credit to them.

But they’ve been tough on a lot of people. You look back, it’s hard to find how many games where they gave up a lot of yards or points. Really hard.

Q. Was Mary able to ask any questions during the game?

KIRK FERENTZ: We talked civilly. We were very civil with each other. She gave me a little distance at halftime. I walked around at halftime, came back, and then I gave a, yeah, or whatever when we made a play. She was sitting about 20 yards away from me.

We got along fine. No problems.

Q. In terms of a guy that you beat Iowa State and pretty much everyone else in the free world on the recruiting trail was Xavier, 15 starts now I think it’s been for him. What’s stood out to you about his progression?

KIRK FERENTZ: He’s a quality young guy, and just like we’ve talked about with a lot of these young guys, it’s been a step at a time. You know, he’s at the other end, like he was right here recruiting-wise and some guys weren’t. But it’s still an adjustment when it comes to college. For most players it’s an adjustment. It takes times. We’ve had some pretty good players back there, too. But he’s done a really good job, takes coaching really well. He’s had a great attitude from day one.

Like most players, it starts at home. He’s just a great young guy to work with. He’s got really good size, and he’s got a good feel for the game back there, so we’re glad he’s on our team.