Video, Transcript: Kirk Ferentz Media Day Presser

Iowa Coach Talks with Reporters at Hawkeyes' Annual Event

Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz previews the 2024 football season during a spring press conference Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Iowa City. / Julia Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK

KIRK FERENTZ: Thank you, and welcome to everybody. Good afternoon. First of all, just appreciate everybody being here and the interest all of you show in our program, and more importantly, just the commitment, the coverage that you give all year-round. I know our fans really appreciate that and enjoy that. Again, appreciate the work you put into it.

I'm told we have 22 days until game week, so I guess that makes sense, and 138th year of Hawkeye football in Kinnick Stadium, so pretty significant. Obviously not every year in this stadium.

But the great thing about new seasons, it's a new opportunity, it's a new year. That really began for us in January. (Indiscernible) as we get ready to move forward.

Just a couple observations about camp so far. We're eight days into it. I think the effort has been good, pretty consistent in that regard. Like anybody probably at this point, we're not where we need to be technique-wise, execution-wise, but like the effort, and as I've been saying pretty much on a steady basis, the leadership base on this team has been really impressive.

Part of that, you get eight guys back in January that maybe we weren't counting on. Certainly that's part of it.

But the older guys are really, I think, doing a good job of setting the pace, showing the younger guys how to work. We've got a couple tiers with the football team. That's just part of it.

This is to me just really where teams kind of get shaped and get molded. It's a great time, great opportunity. Basically the players get up in the morning, and they're either heading to a meeting, they're heading to a lift or heading to practice, and then they eat in between and find an opportunity to sleep, too. It's pretty simple. Not a lot of distraction.

If a guy will play it right and take their opportunity day-to-day they've really got the opportunity to grow and get better, and certainly that's important for our football team if we're going to be where we want to be when we get going here.

Things haven't changed much since last time we talked in terms of the makeup of our team. Defensively we're about as veteran as I can remember, and part of that, six guys coming back in January. Coaching staff is in place. We're pretty set there. Not a lot of change in that regard.

So far, again, guys are off to a good start. I think guys know what to do, and it's just a matter of doing it a little bit better, a little crisper, but moving forward there offensively, very different in a lot of ways. New system, new coordinator, and a couple new position changes with Tim and Jon Budmayr joining, taking the receivers. A little bit of change there.

But we are a little bit more veteran than we've been, and that's, I think, encouraging and is certainly going to help us. Probably as veteran up front as we've been in a couple years. I think that'll help a lot, too.

All in all, so far, so good. The guys have really worked hard. I think we're gaining ground now, and we'll need every rep between now and the first game just to have a chance to be ready. But I think the guys are doing a good job there.

Then special teams is a little bit of a mix, again, with Drew Stevens back, Luke Elkin, and Wetjen is back there returning punts, Kaleb Johnson returning kicks. But the punter part, it's a new moving piece. Reese is doing a good job thus far, and certainly LeVar has done a nice job with that group.

We're up and running right now. Still a lot of work to do.

Then just a couple things about the coaching staff. Phil Parker I don't think will be out there today. He did make an appearance this morning. I'm sorry to report that he had shoulder repair done yesterday. He got run into a couple weeks ago or a couple -- it feels like a couple weeks ago, maybe a week ago, less than a week, and long story short, I think he might have had some preexisting damage in there, but they had to address that. He had surgery yesterday. Did show up today for practice. I'm not sure if he was on the planet or not, but he was there and watching.

He's going to be a little bit more ornery than normal probably for the next couple weeks, but I don't think he'll be here this afternoon. We'll see tomorrow. Biggest thing right now is we've just got to keep him out of harm's way, try to keep him out of the way so he's not doing too much.

Seth Wallace, talked about his change in the out of season, and right now he'll oversee the defense, but things run pretty smoothly with or without Phil, and will be good to get him back full time.

The other announcement to make, Tyler Barnes has a new title. It's football chief of staff and general manager, which is kind of the vernacular, I guess, across the country now. Basically what it is, it's just a reflection of his changing jobs, the changing role, and I think probably bigger picture, it's just the changing of college football, the way things have changed.

We still play with 11 guys. I think it still takes the same amount of guys to coach, although we did add the extra coach a couple years ago. That was a smart move. Coaching is still coaching, but what has changed is the world of recruiting, and that was even a challenge 25 years ago. Pat Fleury was our recruiting coordinator and the first year he had a hard time getting out of the office with all the paperwork that has to be done, all the bureaucracy when it comes to recruiting. It was pretty obvious at that point we were going to have to change our approach, and we've done that and that's kind of evolved.

I never dreamt we'd have a social media department, but we do, and you have to, so I get that. It's the same thing going back to Tyler. Tyler basically is really helpful in overseeing our entire personnel group. Used to just be recruiting, now you've got NIL, you've got portal, there's all kinds of stuff, all kinds of moving pieces. Having him in place really allows me to do some of the things I want to be doing.

I think the other thing I would just mention, the recruiting calendar has changed a lot. Certainly different than 25 years ago. I would say different than five years ago.

With all these changes, the work that Tyler and his staff do is really critical because it allows our coaches to actually coach the guys that we recruit to come here, and when we do recruit players, we promise them and their families that we're going to try to coach them and try to move them forward. To do that, you have to be here, and you have to be present mentally and physically.

It's really interesting how things have shifted a little bit, and I think it's a bigger challenge now than ever. Really I want to give compliments to our personnel department. They're doing a good job, and it allows the coaches to do, I think, what they enjoy the most and hopefully what they do best.

Just in closing, new team, new time, new opportunity. We are a different team than we were in April. A lot has happened since then. Guys have matured, worked hard, and now the challenge is to get a little bit more cohesive, tighten down in execution. We've got a lot of work to do between now and game day. But again, I think we're on a good path.

Again, plenty of work to do, but I like the guys we've got. I'll throw it out and see if there are any questions.

Q. Now that you've gotten to see Cade McNamara on the practice field for the first time since his injury, is he looking how you need him to look at this point? Same question with Brendan Sullivan. First time you've got eyes on him. Those two guys in particular, what have you noticed from them thus far?

KIRK FERENTZ: I'll start with Brendan and just tell you this. I'll throw Jacob in there, too. Both guys that joined us, they've really done a nice job, and Cade Borud the same way. He's probably a little bit further away, but really good prospect. Jacob has done a really nice job. You can tell he's a veteran guy, he's been around a little bit, knows how to do things and carries himself really well, and Brendan the same way. He's done a really good job out there.

For him it is new. It started in June for him, so he's trying to catch up a little bit.

I would say the same with Cade. Not as much mentally but just playing-wise, and grabbed him the other day and just reminded him he's missed a lot of time. He hasn't played healthy here, unfortunately, since he's been here last year other than first eight, ten days, whatever it was here, before the first Saturday.

He's doing things. He's there mentally. It's just a matter of time, getting back used to playing again so he can be quick and decisive with his throws, all that type of thing.

Doing a good job, just we're not there yet, and every practice is going to be important pretty much for everybody.

Q. You were mentioning Seth with that assistant head coach role. Aside from stepping in for Phil, how do you see that role playing out throughout fall camp and through the season?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, I don't know if it's going to be a big dramatic difference. It really is kind of more of recognition, without going into too much detail. People were knocking on his door a little bit in the out of season, and I appreciate the fact that he chose to stay here. I really do. Credit to the people that were knocking on his door. It's smart. He's a really good coach and a good person. Pretty good in every aspect of his job. I don't see his role changing significantly. It was a way just to acknowledge the work that he has done here.

Q. Talking a little bit more about Brendan and Cade, quarterback situation, I know Brendan was third on the depth chart that you released or that was released when we were at Big Ten media days. Would you say he's moved into that second spot? Is he splitting maybe first-team reps with Cade? What does that look like?

KIRK FERENTZ: We're eight days into it right now, so not making any proclamations other than he's done a really great job. He's picked things up really quickly. Good prospect, and one advantage he has over Marco is he's played. He's been out there I think six starts, if I think correctly, if I know correctly. Played the week before us against Maryland and looked really good in that game.

I think he's a little further ahead from that regard. He's had that experience, a little bit more confidence and decisiveness in what he does.

I think probably the best way I can term it right now, it's like all positions, we'll make decisions here as we go along, but the room overall is a lot more competitive than it was certainly at the end of last year, last December, and that was the goal, try to get a room where you've got good competition. We want that at every position, and some positions are a little better than others that way.

Q. I wanted to ask you about your defense and kind of more holistically than narrowly this year, and that is since 2018 when you made the change to go to a Cash 4-2-5, the numbers speak for themselves as far as the growth and what the defense has been able to do. Has it surprised you that they've been so successful, especially against the run, considering you're running two gap and not necessarily filling every single gap with a safety and everything and just the way that they've been able to compete and compete at the highest level in the country?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, I mean, that question actually triggers -- going back to 2000 against Northwestern out here. 2000, yeah. Right? They were ranked, we weren't, obviously. I think we came off the Penn State win and played them. They had put up 54 or 56 - I'd have to look - again Michigan the week we were beating Penn State. I'll never forget leaving Norm's office that night. He and I watched that film together and were both like, oh, boy, better get a bigger boat.

I left that night and I just said, Norm, I'm guessing we're going to match up against these guys. They were a three-wide outfit; it was the greatest show on turf. They took some ideas from that.

Next morning I came in, and Norm said, we're going to play our defense. His thought was LeVar was our outside backer, and he felt like let's get our best 11 guys on the field and play our defense the way we know it. And it worked out beautifully.

So I learned a lesson. Not that I was second-guessing, but it's just, like, Norm knows what he's doing, leave him alone.

So over time you just keep looking at things, and we made that decision. If we can find the right guy, then we'll do that. It takes two things, I think. You have to have the right guy to be able to play that position. Sebastian is really good at it. Been fortunate there; Cooper could do it. Got a couple guys right now that are working there. Then the other guys have to be able to do what they have to do. I think we've been lucky that we've had both the combination of both.

It's really helped us. It's just kind of offenses have evolved typically of who we play week in and week out, and it's kind of like I mentioned with Tyler Barnes' thing, it's a whole different job than it was 20 years ago.

So I think you have to look at the game that way a little bit differently, too, and that's why I do chuckle a little bit about the new teams coming in, is it going to be a big adjustment. Well, college football has always been pretty diverse. Whether a guy is from the West Coast, middle America or East Coast, a three wide offense is a three wide offense, so is a four-wide offense. It's not that big a deal. Kind of went on a little bit of a ramble there, sorry.

Q. Last year late in the regular season, you used -- it was the Nebraska game, used a backup field goal kicker and it worked really well, and you won the game on a last-second kick. What is your backup field goal kicker this year, if you decide to use one for whoever reason, for Drew Stevens if you need a backup field goal kicker?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, right now it's Tripp Woody. We're hoping we don't have to do that. You never want to do that.

That day I just didn't have a good vibe. Drew was struggling a little bit. Keep in mind, he was a second-year guy. I think all players, the more they've done things, the more comfortable and confident they get. He's been a whole different person this semester, this past semester. Now we're moving into a new semester.

But just carrying himself a little bit differently. I don't mind telling you it was an item of curiosity for me just to see how he'd go through spring and now the summer, and he's kicking the ball well and kicking with confidence, so keep our fingers crossed there.

Q. Defensive line depth has a question mark coming into this. What have you seen from that group so far in terms of developing some of that depth in camp?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, I think I'd mentioned three guys. Jeremiah Pittman inside had a good spring. He's continuing to do well. So I think we have three guys that we feel pretty good about there. A couple candidates for that fourth spot, and they're competing at it.

Then the two outside guys, Max Llewellyn continues to get better, and then Brian Allen I think is really improved. Both of them have a lot to work to do, but they're getting a lot of work right now, and it's been good, too, because flipping it over, we're worried about that second line, that second non-senior group, if you will, and I think they've made real good strides.

But we're getting both those groups a lot of work because it's going to benefit them. We're going to need those guys this year.

Q. As you've coached offensive line, obviously, how would you describe what you expect the standard of offensive line play to be at Iowa, and what makes you optimistic it will be there this season?

KIRK FERENTZ: There's a certain tempo you hope guys will play at. There's no way to microwave it. It's just a process. It's something you've got to work at.

I'll flip back, when I went to Cleveland, I probably got hired because there was some work to do. They made a change, and I went in there and -- before I talk here a little bit, we had one veteran that was established, and outside of that, we were open to changes in a lot of spots.

Long story short, we ended up settling with some younger guys, and that's probably why I got hired was because I was a college coach and didn't mind coaching guys that weren't first-rounders.

Went in, did that, and what I do remember distinctly, it was week -- we were 7-2, so it was week 10. The next year, our playoff year, and that was the game where the line just started playing with the kind of tempo we were playing in Philly. They were 7-2. Why you remember stupid things like that, but you do. It was a big game, and our guys really played. They just took a step.

There was an air they had, just the way they played. They broke the huddle with a little bit more confidence, and most importantly with the ball snapped like they were humming, they were playing.

All you do is just keep chipping away. It's like everything in football, you just keep chipping away. But you've got to have the right people. Then they've just got to believe and keep pushing.

These guys have done that. We've had our share of challenging situations, but the guys have stayed -- they've hung tough. George has done a great job keeping them focused on the right things, and just starting to see that in practice. We're starting to see them play at a little better tempo than we have in the last couple years.

I said this in Indy: All I know about Iowa football, in my 35, 36 years here, when our line plays good and our quarterback plays good, we have a chance. We have a chance to have a good offense, and that's pretty much true of anybody, unless you're in one of those offenses where you don't worry about blocking guys. But you've got to have really good skill guys. It's always good to block people. That's kind of how I was raised, I guess.

Q. I think I caught this correctly at Big Ten media days. You mentioned with Brendan's skill set potentially having a package ready for him even if he doesn't win the job. Is that maybe some of the Tim Lester effect, that he kind of feels utilizing -- like you said earlier, your best players, could that come into play at quarterback with Brendan and potentially with Marco's skill set?

KIRK FERENTZ: Tim has done a great job. Let me say that right now. He's a great person, great coach, great enthusiasm. The players respond to him.

But we've had a lot -- I'd say this. We've had a lot of good people coaching here. I just think that's good football. If you've got a guy who can do something, then you maybe try and carve out a package or at least be ready.

Right now we'll just let everybody keep competing, see what happens. But whoever is in the game, hopefully you're going to steer things a little bit to accentuate what they do best. There's certain things that you may not want to do just because they don't do them well. So that's part of the package.

But yeah, he's off to a great start, and he's a good athlete and he's versatile. Seems to be really poised under pressure, and he's feeling some pressure. Like he's getting it from the defense. So it's good. Good to watch guys react.

Q. What about this offense makes you think they're going to be better than last season?

KIRK FERENTZ: I'll start with a couple questions ago, just talking about the line. I just think we're finally at a place maybe where we can play at the pace we would like to play. That's a good thing. At least it gives you a good start. For our quarterback, we'll make good decisions, which I'm confident we're going to be a little bit better off there, certainly than we were the last part of the season.

Then you've got to keep guys healthy and they've got to play up to their level of capability, which I think we're, again, a little bit healthier than we've been the last couple years. Pardon the pun there, but we've got the potential. We've got a couple good tight ends, good tight end room. The receiver room is young and I think promising. It's encouraging. We're not there yet by any stretch, and we've got a good group of backs that are capable.

If everybody will play and utilize the experience that they've gained, which is easier said than done sometimes, put it all together and if we're cohesive we'll have a chance to be okay.

Q. As you know, I know you don't give much thought into this, but the coaches' poll was released earlier this week and had the Hawkeyes at 25th. Do you think that's a fair assessment of your team?

KIRK FERENTZ: I have no idea. I'm pretty sure Ohio State is really good. Pretty sure Georgia is. I haven't seen the Georgia film in how many years. But outside of that, that's what's great about college football. Nobody really knows.

I just know this: I like the way our team is working. I think we have potential.

Ultimately what it all boils down to is what's going to happen in the 12 games that we're guaranteed; are we going to show up and are we going to compete and not beat ourselves. Those three things are really important.

That stuff is under our control. None of us knows who's going to be across the line of scrimmage whenever September, October, November come, and we're not sure who's going to be playing for us, either. It's just how you handle all those variables. Right now it's just worrying about what we can do and hopefully having a good practice tomorrow.

Q. You talk about bringing that veteran experience back to this roster and coming off a successful year. You've been able to establish one of the most consistent programs, not just in the Big Ten but in all of college football, and with that expanded playoff coming around now, it opens up a unique opportunity. Does that change the approach and the goals for this season and an expanded Big Ten that's just as competitive as ever?

KIRK FERENTZ: I guess do the goals change a little bit because now playoffs are a little bit more doable, if you will. But the goal is always just to play as good as we can the first time we're out there and then right on down the line for all 12 of them.

I will say this about the playoffs: I am excited about them. Excited is a strong word. But I'm happy about it. I thought it was not good for -- not necessarily healthy for college football to go to four. Last year is a good example. We were all who's four, who's five. Used to be we argued about who's two and three. But at least then -- I guess my problem with what we've been doing is whenever that stupid show comes on in October, the playoff show (laughter), if you're not in that top-10 decision then you're irrelevant. I just think we miss the boat in college football, me personally.

At least now I assume when that show comes on they'll talk about 20 teams instead of 10 teams. That's good. That's healthy. I think the more teams they talk about, the better, because there's so many good stories across the country.

So that was my problem with the four thing. I guess we're going to go to 14 or 16 next. If we're going to open it up, might as well open it up, and I'll give Tim Polasek a call and he can tell me about how he practiced during finals week and all that stuff. I'll get some tips from him and play 18 straight games. But hey, if we get a chance to play, nobody is going to complain, I promise you.

Q. I know you've only been practicing eight days, but pretty large freshman class came in. 21 was it, something like that, for this 2024 class. Have any of them stood out so far?

KIRK FERENTZ: They're doing a good job. They're playing catch-up. That brings up another little side discussion. But they're kind of playing catch-up right now and just trying to learn.

We're giving them opportunities. We carve them into our practice schedule where we let the guys that maybe aren't working the ones, twos, rotate through there, try to give them work every day just to -- if they make a mistake -- just go. Let's see what you can do.

So it's been helpful, and yeah, I think we see some things. It wouldn't shock me if at the end of camp I have something to tell you about that, but for right now you can judge them for yourself tomorrow.

That's funny, that came up, you just talked about the side effects of some of the things -- this road we're going to be going down with the proposed 105 roster. We have made a living on guys that are three-sport, four-sport athletes. I saw Pat Angerer back there. Outstanding soccer player, am I right? Only in Iowa can a guy play soccer and football. Mike Follett was the same way. But where I grew up, if you played soccer, you didn't play football. It was a fall sport.

Anyway, but my point is we've had guys that were heavyweight wrestler champions, basketball state champs, track champs, and in the new world we're entering, we're going to be negligent at our jobs if we're not to -- not force but really encourage the guys to come out at mid-term their senior year.

This thing about all this global stuff with football college, we forget about the trickle-down effect, and to me that ought to be part of the high school experience. I'm really torn on that. But I know this: If we don't win, then we're in trouble.

It's like -- forget about the high school stuff, buddy. The stuff five years ago we said was important, not so much now. It's one more complexity, one more little unintended consequence of this new world we're entering right now. It's kind of disappointing.

Q. You've got a pretty loaded backfield depth chart, and last season you guys sort of rode the hot hand whenever you had it. As you've seen practice go on this year, has anybody really started to stand out in that backfield, or is it just going to be a who's running the best week by week?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, I think they're all doing a good job right now. How far into this are we right now? Half hour, something like that? Nobody has asked about injuries. I'll bring it up. I'll volunteer it; how's that? So we've got four or five guys that have been out with soft tissue injuries and stuff like that, and unfortunately Leshon (Williams) is one of them, so you triggered a thought there.

We know who he is, and we've got total confidence in him, but he hasn't been able to go. Hopefully we'll get him moving here pretty quickly. But he's working through some stuff. Nothing long-term. A couple receivers out of that.

But to that point, the room got reduced by one, and then T.J. (Washington) has been working receiver, and he can do both.

As we go along, we'll figure this stuff out, but it's a good group of guys. They're a really good group, and they're all doing well, and we'll just see how things play out.

Q. Entringer, is he out this year? What's his prognosis?

KIRK FERENTZ: No.

Q. He's back?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, one thing about medicine, and I've sat in meetings for 26 years, I'm certainly not a doctor. You can look it up, I don't have a masters. But you learn a lot in medicine just sitting there and listening to smart people talk.

One thing I'm pretty sure of, everybody is different in terms of their healing capacities, pace, all that stuff. He's broken every record. He's practicing. We're not letting him tackle anybody or anything like that. But he's practicing. He did tweak his ankle this morning, so I don't know if he'll practice tomorrow or not, but doing a really good job.

We're going to try to be really smart because it takes -- what I also know or have learned, when guys get cleared, it takes a while for them to get their confidence back. He's really kind of running around like there's no problem, but try to protect him from himself a little bit.

Q. It seems like the past couple -- maybe I'm misremembering, you've been pretty injured this time of year the last couple years. Is this a healthier camp than you've had in a while?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, so far. The soft tissue stuff that takes time is frustrating, but you can't change it. I told somebody the other day, I woke up at 3:00 in the morning, this is probably about five days ago, just turned 69 and I'm waking up at 3:00 in the morning thinking about hamstrings. There's something wrong with that picture. It's just not how you want to be.

The golden years, right? Golden this.

Anyway, but it's part of football, unfortunately.

Q. I wanted to ask you about the new opening up of analysts being able to take on-field roles and kind of mixing and matching when it comes to recruiting. How many conversations have you had with that? Are your analysts now working with some of your position players, and what do you see for the short-term and long-term for that for the Hawkeyes?

KIRK FERENTZ: I think it's probably a good move. Coincidentally there's a guy who's been visiting here the last four years -- let me rephrase that: Two camps, two springs. A veteran guy that if I hadn't taken a job in San Diego -- I looked at a job in San Diego in 1996. He was on the staff with Bobby Ross. Anyway, we've known each other for quite some time. He's come up -- my point is I invited him to camp this year. He got hired at a university in the ACC as an analyst to come in and actually coach hands on.

I think we've got a good coaching staff. I don't think we have been deficient with the work that we do with our players. That's what I was alluding to with the recruiting staff. As long as we have what we need there, I'd prefer the coaches to do the coaching, and I don't mean that disrespectfully, but the guys that are here every day. The analysts that we do have, yeah, they're helping out, but they're not the primary coach.

I'm kind of a believer in there's responsibility, there's accountability, and if you coach a position, you coach them. One thing in coaching, I was a line coach by trade, and I got asked by someone I worked for at one point, would I be comfortable having a guard tackle or a guard center coach tight end tackles, and I told the coach, you're the head coach, you make the decisions. I said, my preference is I'd rather have those five guys. I just think it's really important that players hear a voice, a single voice, and they get consistent coaching.

Then in turn, as a head coach, I like to be able to go right to the scorer's tent and say, what are we doing here, what are we teaching, what's the communication, all those kinds of things.

To me the more people that get involved, the more of this stuff you've got going on or I thought I heard, all that stuff. It ain't that hard. There's still 11 guys out there, and it's still the same game.

What is hard is doing it -- like being a good tackler, good blocker. That's hard. But I think we can coach it.

Maybe I'm missing an opportunity here. We'll see. But we'll keep looking at it. But I wasn't eager to bring in five new guys.

Q. I wanted to ask you about Kaden Wetjen. I've heard good things about him. How far has he come and what can he do for your team this year?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, he's always been fast, and he's fearless, as you've seen. He has no fear out there.

As funny as it sounds, he's still learning to play football. He's getting it down and doing a really nice job. He's got a great attitude, everything you're looking for in a football player. I always say, for us to be successful, we need good stories, and it would be wonderful if this is his time to just kind of bust out and play with confidence. I would say he hasn't done that. He hasn't played with the kind of confidence -- that kind of sounds contradictory. He is fearless, but confidence in what he's doing and how to do things, how to set things up, so his abilities can show a little bit more. I do think he's learning to do that. It's been good. Yeah, it's great to have him on our team.