Kirk Ferentz talks Wisconsin, updates injuries

Iowa will play host to Wisconsin on Saturday evening at Kinnick Stadium. Kirk Ferentz discusses the match-up with the Badgers and he gives everyone an update on Cade McNamara and other injured Iowa players.

KIRK FERENTZ OPENING STATEMENT

Good Afternoon, everybody. Appreciate you being here.

To start out, obviously pleased with Saturday’s performance, especially in the second half. I thought the team really hung together and did a good job in all three phases. We expected it to be a tough game and it was. Pleased to get the victory. All that being said, we still have plenty to work on; consistency in terms of our execution, our operation in general and I think the other two things are being a more detailed outfit and we have to do a better job of turning the page and getting on to the next week. We didn’t do too well a couple weeks ago with that. Hopefully we are learning as we go along and as you enter November as it’s going to be critical because things are going to happen fast right now. It’s all Big Ten play now, and again, just being consistent in operation in all three phases and being prepared. That’s what it’s going to take to be successful. Unique time of the year for sure.

Our captains this week will be the same four guys: Jay Higgins, Quinn Schulte, Luke Lachey and Cade McNamara.

Injury-wise, Cade McNamara will not be playing. He’s not going to be able to make it. Vander Zee, Ostrenga and Nestor will not make it. Those will be probably be through the bye, I’m guessing.

On the positive side, Kyler Fisher was able to come back. He was fine yesterday. A little bit weak but doing fine. Practiced today. Then Beau Stephens worked today, and I think he’s has a chance to play if he can get through the week, so we’ll see what that looks like and go from there.

Going back to Cade, he took a really tough shot there in the second quarter, and he’s still feeling that. Unfortunately, he’s going to be out. Feel badly for him because it’s been a tough stretch really for about two and a half years.

I’ve said it before and you guys have heard me say it a million times, the worst thing about coaching is dealing with injuries. It’s something nobody wants to deal with, and certainly he’s had his tough share of bad luck here. I feel bad about that, but hopefully we’ll get him back soon, get him back on his feet.

Shifting to Brendan, I thought he did a really good job out there. Played with poise. Was productive. He’s practicing well so far this week, so off to a good start.

We’re going to need each and every guy to be doing that because we play a tough opponent in Wisconsin. Rivalry game, Heartland Trophy, and it’s been a series that’s been back and forth. One thing that’s been consistent, they’re always good. They’re big. They’re athletic. Second year for Coach Fickell and his staff, so they’ve settled in. They look good and are playing really good football.

Had an impressive three-game stretch there prior to Saturday’s game and then played a top-5 opponent and played them basically right until the end. Tough opponent, and we’re going to have to be at our best to have a chance to be competitive, but it should be a good environment. A night game in Kinnick, something to get excited about, and we need to be at our best certainly to have a chance in this ballgame.

Last but not least, the Kid Captain this week is Hunter Nicholson, and if that name sounds familiar, John played here for us 20 plus years ago. He and his wife Brooke are parents of Hunter and three other guys, so a family of four, and Hunter was born with a rare kidney disorder that really affected him when he was a newborn. Initially they thought he was just colicky, upset baby, but bottom line is what they did, they diagnosed it, and it’s called nephrogenic diabetes insipidus, and I guess it afflicts one out of every 2.3 million people, so it’s a very rare thing.

Good thing is they’ve learned how to manage it. He’s doing great. He’s a nine year old, doing really well. It’ll be great to have him with us on Saturday.

Q. You were saying a really tough shot for Cade McNamara. Does that mean it’s a head injury and are you able to comment at all on the severity of it?

KIRK FERENTZ: Well, it’s a concussion, so he’s been ruled out. Hasn’t been able to phase back in at all yet. That’s number one. He’s sore in other places, too. He hit the turf pretty hard.

It’s part of playing that position. It’s a tough position to play.

As far as the severity and all that, my experience, and I’m certainly not qualified medically other than I listen to a lot of things and watch, seems like each and every one is a different discussion, so with some luck hopefully he’ll start turning the corner. I think he’s going to go to class today and give that a try. Hopefully he’ll be back next week, we’ll see.

Q. I wanted to ask a little bit about Brendan and his journey getting here in June and now being named your starter. What stood out to you about him personality-wise when he was in the portal? He seems like a quiet guy but also beloved by the team and a fiery guy on Saturday. What are your thoughts on his growth, personality-wise also as a football player getting here in June and now being your starter?

KIRK FERENTZ: When we were doing the evaluations, it would have been fairly late spring, you watch his tape and there were some good things. I recalled us getting ready for Northwestern ironically a year ago, they played Maryland the week before, and I find ways to really get over-nervous about games, and that was part of — it was a good game. Both teams were going back and forth in that game, and Brendan did a nice job really moving their team and was in a real good rhythm. It was a really good football game.

I vaguely remembered that. Obviously didn’t know we were going to be looking at him in a different vein back whenever it would have been, April or May.

But that game really stood out. He had others where it was okay, but that type of thing, it was kind of up and down a little bit with the team and with his performance, but when we got to meet him, he was very impressive, and probably the most important thing that kind of answers your question, at least from my perspective, when he got here in June, one thing I’m really impressed with is the fact that he got here that late and was able to learn, has been able to learn as quickly as he did. That’s part of the benefit of being an older guy, too, and he’s a smart guy.

He works hard. You watch the guys in the summer program, and he’s leading the group in sprints, those types of things. Basically anything you’re doing, he’s going full speed and really getting after it and doing a great job. To your point, not overly boisterous, but he’s a guy who commands respect for performance.

I think it seems very apparent the players really like him. They support him. Obviously same thing with Cade; he was a captain. So you know you’ve got two guys there that are really working at it and doing a good job.

He got his opportunity, a bigger opportunity Saturday, and did a really good job with that. But every week is an adventure, just like all of our guys, just like all of us. But I’m confident he’ll do a great job.

Q. Looked like a bounce-back day for the secondary against Northwestern, especially after their Michigan State performance. What was it like to have Deshaun Lee back in the starting lineup and really see the unit be as productive as they usually are?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, I said after the MSU game that hopefully it was uncharacteristic, but that’s talk; you have to go out and prove it. Based on this past Saturday, maybe we’ll be able to look back and say it is uncharacteristic.

But we looked a lot better. We looked like a team that had maybe practiced and was doing things a lot more fundamentally sound.

We’re going to have a hard time against anyone if we don’t tackle well. I’m not discrediting what Michigan State did; they played really well. But it’s our job to try to match tempo, and if a guy has got a ball you’ve got to tackle him somehow.

I’m encouraged, certainly, and it felt more like us out there on the field. I thought our tempo was better. I thought everybody was where they should have been. Didn’t see a lot of guys reaching or on the ground, those kinds of things, which are really a bad sign defensively.

Q. It seems like no matter what happens, Wisconsin always finds a way to run the football and finds really outstanding running backs. As far as the rivalry goes, what separates Iowa and Wisconsin from maybe some other Big Ten rivalries, because it does seem like it’s one of the more physical Big Ten games in a season.

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, it’s interesting, I go way back when I got here, I remember we knocked them out of the Rose Bowl actually in ’81. I remember that. It was a tough game. I can’t tell you who the quarterback was. The only thing I remember from that game, they had run a bounce pass, quarterback throws it off the turf to a receiver, catches it behind the line and chucks it down there. We must have practiced it 30 times and they hit it for a touchdown against us, so practice doesn’t always make perfect. I’ll never forget that. It’s a hard play to defend. Everybody wants to come forward for obvious reasons.

Then it was interesting, when that thing tailed off there at the late ’80s before I left here, their program had really gone to a place I don’t think anybody would have envisioned, and then Barry was hired in ’90. And up they went. Since I got back here in ’99, they’ve been nothing but strong. Impressive in all regards.

We’re a lot alike. They have more population, I guess, a lot of in-state players on both teams. I think Barry and I had some similarities philosophically about what it should look like, that type of deal. He certainly did it to a high level, Rose Bowls, Rose Bowl victories, and when we got here in ’99 they were the ones we were looking at.

The only good thing about us going up there in ’99 and getting beaten for them to clinch the Rose Bowl, it gave us an exposure to all of the people in our organization, myself included, hey, this is what it looks like; this is where you’ve got to try to get. So it kind of set the bar for us.

But they’ve been a good football team as long as I can remember, and it’s always a tough contest. It’s typically going to be a physical contest, good defenses, and hopefully both teams are trying to run the ball a little bit and that type of thing. They’re doing a nice job.

Q. It looked like Cade took that shot on the 3rd and 10 that was a roughing the passer. Why did you feel he was able to go back out on to the field, and at what point did you decide we need to pull him because of the possible head injury?

KIRK FERENTZ: He wasn’t feeling great, but it wasn’t like he was incoherent by any stretch. But as I said Saturday, we had already planned a rotation going into the game, and it just so happens that was the time coincidentally, if you will, and we were going to do that regardless, unless the ball was like on the 1-inch line and we had 99 yards to go. Not fair to throw a guy in there cold doing that.

But it wasn’t like any symptoms really presented themselves other than he was sore and shook up, certainly, but then at halftime they diagnosed it and held him out. I’m not sure when they diagnosed the concussion actually, but he just wasn’t fit to play at halftime.

Q. With Beau potentially coming back, do you see a rotation there to continue at that position about either Elsbury or Kade Pieper?

KIRK FERENTZ: It’s possible. We haven’t really talked about it, and we’ll have to get through the week to make sure Beau is going to be back and then we’ll worry about that. That’s easy. But today all three of them were playing at that position, both first, second team, so we had however many snaps, 10 or 12 to divide up with three guys. We’ll try to just ease him back. I don’t think he’s ready to play a full game conditioning-wise. But he’s a really good football player and playing well, so it’ll be nice to get him back into the mix, that’s for sure.

Q. Obviously backup quarterback again in the spotlight. Is Marco Lainez available this week, and would it be him or Jackson Stratton? Is that where the pecking order is right now?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, that’s really who’s left. But we’re basically out of guys. James Resar has moved to receiver and unfortunately he sustained an injury last week, so it’s a little bit ironic that all of a sudden it’s a thin pool. But we’ll go with the guys we have and find a way.

Q. You preach November football and playing your best in that month. You’re 18-2 the last five years in November and that’s handling injuries and the ebbs and flows of a season. What have you learned about your teams any month of November but particularly these last five where every obstacle seemed to be in the way one year or another and 18 out of 20 is pretty good?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, we’ve had some interesting circumstances, certainly, in November the last half decade. But that’s football, too. It’s interesting if you look at our conference right now, 5-3, 3-5, almost everybody is in that bunch outside of maybe three, four teams. You can look it up exactly. It’s kind of — it’s a little bit like the NFL. The NFL it used to be December and maybe it’s December and January now with the extra game, but that’s really where things kind of get decided and separated.

Again, I go back to the consistency, the details. The better a team understands that, the better off you’re going to be in this type of year. It’s going to be a lot of close games would be my guess, so you just never know what little thing is going to lead to a win. It might be something you did on Tuesday in practice or corrected, that type of thing, during the course of the week.

We’ve been fortunate we’ve had guys that have understood that and really paid attention and tried to do a good job that way to put ourselves in position at least to come out on top.

But all that being said, it’s tough, and it’s fun in a way, but it’s exhausting in a way, too, and I guess that’s how it’s supposed to be.

Q. Special teams with kicker and punter, it is a unique position where guys as freshmen are asked to come in and start and play a big role immediately. With Rhys, he seemed to get into a good rhythm on Saturday with a couple punts inside the 10. Is there a quality that stands out to you in terms of his ability to work through inconsistencies in his first year and now find a groove here in November?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, he’s really been impressive, and I’ll throw in Saturday. That was huge, his role, and then certainly Wetjen just did an unbelievable job, and congratulations to him, too, being recognized by the Big Ten. So deserved. He’s trying to do things every time he gets his hands on the ball.

Rhys, I was thinking about that in the shower this morning… I don’t know why, I think of weird things in the shower all the time. But I was thinking about what he was doing and some other options we might have had as a punter, and you never know. Now you’re talking about Australia, which has been good to us but that doesn’t mean every guy that grew up in Australia is going to pay off.

I think the thing I’ve been most impressed with with him is just his maturity and his ability to really practice well, which for young guys is not usually that easy, but he’s really serious out there on the field. He works at it. He’s not happy when he hits a bad one. He’ll occasionally do that. He hit a couple this morning.

But it upsets him a little bit, but he gets on to the next one. He doesn’t dwell on it and act like a baby.

I think his focus and his ability to prepare for a young guy, it’s been impressive. I don’t think I’ve ever been around where a guy put four 6-yard liners, and I’m not sure some of those got spotted correctly. A couple of them might have been 5 or 4. Nonetheless, you get the idea. That’s four really good punts. That’s just a huge swing in the game in terms of field position.

It’s exciting to think that he can get better, and I think he will.

Q. The play that Brendan passed and then ended up being one of the lead blockers, what was your reaction to seeing that?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, it wasn’t an official race, but you could probably say he’s faster than Pascuzzi. I guess that was the takeaway. But it says something about his personality, too, him wanting to get down there and help the play.

He could have stood there and been a spectator, but he threw the ball and then he started basically trucking down the field. That to me was being a good teammate. His block was OK. His guy came off.

But nonetheless, just had effort, but that’s kind of who he is. He works hard, and that’s kind of what I was referring to back in the summer program. We need to watch those guys compete during conditioning and stuff. He goes hard. He goes one speed. He acts like a football player, a total football player, not a specialist.

Q. I’d like to know just as an offensive line guy, any critiques on the block from Brendan? Anything that you think you look at and you tell him maybe work on this?

KIRK FERENTZ: I wasn’t happy but I was really happy to see him go down there. On the other hand I’m OK if you don’t get too close to the fray. We certainly don’t want him leading with his head. That’s first of all, getting out there.

Yeah, not too excuse the quarterbacks, but I’d rather them not be too physical anytime they do anything. If they want to hip check a guy or something like that, great, but that’s kind of like the guy in the NFL that’s just coming back right now. He had a 1st down made and he led with his head going for more yardage, and I’m not sure I understood that move. It’s not always the smartest. I guess that’s wisdom in age.

Q. With James Resar moving to wide receiver, what prompted that, and speaking of wide receivers and your punt returner with Kaden Wetjen, what’s stood out to you over these last few years with them ever since you got them from Iowa Western?

KIRK FERENTZ: I’ll start with that. He’s got a good energy, too. That’s never been an issue with him. Consistency has been an issue, and not in a bad way, but he goes. He goes and he sometimes is a ready, fire, aim guy.

I don’t mind telling you going into the season I was a little worried about him, judgment, fielding balls. I’ll say that; I’ll admit it now. But he’s certainly earned my trust. He’s doing a really good job back there.

I’ll say this, too. People don’t realize how hard a job that is. I think that’s one of the hardest jobs on the football field maybe outside of playing quarterback is obviously really tough and challenging. But making good judgments back there and keeping the ball from hitting the ground, all those kinds of things, just start there. If you just field balls clean, you’re ahead of the game typically in the punt return game, and then he’s doing that plus I think I said he’s trying to get somewhere every time. He’s got the ball, he wants to score.

His teammates did a really nice job, too, but to have a good returner who’s got an aggressive attitude like that, that’s a big part of being successful, so I can’t say enough about what he’s playing right now, and I think he’s having a lot of fun doing it, too, which is neat to see.

With James, we looked at things and kind of felt like that might be his best avenue to the field. He’s a good athlete, good-sized guy, and was doing a good job unfortunately until he got injured. It’s another knee injury where there was no contact at all, which just teams to be a trend. It’s kind of weird. Anyway, we’ll deal with it.

Q. With Cade out, backup quarterback situation maybe not where you want it at this point, and you just said Brendan is a full-speed type of guy, so do you feel like you need to give him any caution lessons this week or do you just let him play and play like he normally does?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, I’d be fine if he slides. If he’s going to run the ball, slide. I’m fine with that. If we had 10 quarterbacks I’d still ask him to do that. There’s a difference between running backs, fullbacks and quarterbacks in my mind when they run the football, and sometimes you’ve just got to do what you’ve got to do, too. It’s situational.

But yeah, just ask him to be smart, but you don’t want to harness the guy back or throttle him down too much. But yeah, hopefully he’s old enough now to have good judgment when to do what you’ve got to do.

But you can’t play scared, either. You’ve got to go out and play and play the way you play. We’ll probably — we’re not going to be reckless with our play calling, put it that way, and just have him carry the ball 40 times. That’s not part of the plan.

Q. I was curious as to what your conversations have been like with Brendan after coming in and stepping up and leading you guys to that victory. What have those conversations been like? I think I had heard that Tim Lester just walked up to him and said, man, I’m so proud of you. I was curious what your conversations with him have been like.

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, conversations are personal, but just in general, like he played well, and he expected him to play well, so we’re happy for everybody. We’re happy for our entire team. That’s the good thing about after a win because it’s hard after a loss. You’re really worried about where everybody is mentally and emotionally. This is an emotional experience, what we do.

I worry about that. But he on the practice field, he’s the same guy he has been, at least since he’s been here every day. Doesn’t seem to go too high or too low. But he likes to practice, he likes to play. Obviously I was really happy for him. I can’t remember what I said to him specifically on Saturday, but it was certainly positive and just it was a good moment because he had a lot to be proud of, just like our whole team did, but he certainly did. Anytime a guy comes off the bench, the next man in deal, that’s a really good thing, and that’s what it takes to be successful as a football team.

Yeah, just happy to see his work pay off for him.

Q. I just wondered about Cade and Brendan’s relationship. What has his advice been to Brendan? It sounds like those two are close. What are some things you’ve heard him impart to Brendan this week?

KIRK FERENTZ: I’m not privy to any of them, but I know all three of those guys have a good time together and they relate very well. They go back and forth all the time. As I said, Cade tried to sit through meetings yesterday and just couldn’t make it, wasn’t able to focus and all that stuff, which is not uncommon.

But no, they all care about each other. They pull for each other. It’s been that way all season long, even when we started rotating Brendan in. All three of them, they’ve got a really good vibe.

That’s what you hope for. You hope you have that kind of thing. It was funny, I was driving in this morning, they were talking about Russell Wilson and Fields and the chemistry they have, and I guess on TV last night they were showing those guys on the sideline talking and conversing, and it was Bill Polian and Solomon Wilcox just talking about what a good relationship. That’s what good teams have.

Everybody wants to compete and everybody wants to win the job. That’s what you want every player to want. But also only one person is going to win it typically. Some positions you rotate. But you hope in each and every group and then groups across the way are good with each other. I think that’s a trademark of a good team. Not that you love everybody; that’s not realistic. But everybody has got a respect and they get along.

In the quarterback room, that’s a really healthy thing. They compete against each other all the time, but they’re all together, which is great. It’s fun.