Kirk Ferentz Quotations

What he did last year was amazing when we basically had no running attack,

Mistakes like that, those are tough to overcome. It wasn't the start we needed at all.

Now the big challenge probably is to make sure he doesn't feel like he has to do too much, just has to play his position but doesn't have to be the hero every play or every game. We don't want any of our guys thinking that.

I'm a little biased. It looked a lot onside to me.

He hits it hard. That's the best thing he does.

He embodies what we like to be about. You know every Saturday what you're going to get from him, or every Monday or every Tuesday. ... He's a great role model for everybody.

He looked a lot onside to me. But I'm biased.

I thought we were onside, but I'm a little biased.

I still maintain the best thing about (Hodge and Greenway) is it's not what they do on the field, which is significant, it's all the things they contribute off the field in terms of leadership, work ethic, attitude. They're so different and yet so similar in terms of the contributions they make.

I think once in at least 13 years I can think of. I wasn't out there so I can't tell you if it happened or didn't happen.

It'd probably be hard to find a college game with better linebackers on the field at one time. It ought to be exciting. Tough on the offenses - but it should really be exciting for the fans to watch.

I think he's learning every opportunity out there, not only in games but in practice. Mitch is a tough, high-energy player. I think he really has a good future in that defensive line. That being said, I think we're going to really need to keep our rotation alive just to give the guys a chance to come along the way they need to.

I suppose you can try to punt the ball out of bounds, but that's risky business, too. It's going to take a real team effort to try and contain (Ginn). We're really going to have to be exacting with what we do.

Maybe one of the marquee schools can operate a little differently. But to me, it's a great advantage to have consistency with your coaching staff.

Maybe if we were a more veteran football team, or felt like we had a chance to really run the table, maybe you'd talk about things like that. (But) we're not even close. We have so many areas right now we're trying to work on ... Believe me, we have more than our hands full this week.

That was a huge call and a huge play in the game. You know it takes a lot of courage, a lot of confidence in your defense to make that call, and most important to execute it.

You just don't have any choice. You can use it as a crutch or you can try to play through it. We try to encourage our guys not to have crutches in any regard. We're accountable for what we do, and injuries are part of the game. You can cry about it or you can keep playing. We try to keep playing, (and) it gives somebody else an opportunity.

We had two choices after the ballgame in Chicago. We could dwell on what happened the previous game or previous games, or we could look forward to what was in front of us and try to make something of that opportunity. That's what our guys chose to do.

Usually when you see a stat like that, at least for a team like us, that's an indicator you're coming from behind and you've got a lot of work to do. But you've got to give our opponent a lot of credit. They played a great game.

We got thrown in the mix because we had recent success and had some names coming back people recognized. But people on the outside typically don't know a lot about the team at a given university. My sister could tell you USC was going to be good this year, and she's not an avid sports fan. After some obvious choices, people are just throwing darts.

We're not sure where everybody is going to end up. The good news is, we really like what we see.

We're kind of looking at the clock right now. There's not much else to say.

When you do things that are uncharacteristic, we had to play well on special teams, and we didn't do that. When you do things that are not characteristic, even subtle things, you have to give your opponents a lot of credit.

We were talking about that the other day. He has quietly kind of slipped with Albert (Young's) emergence.

We were surprised only in the sense that they haven't run the ball this well all year. It was a good strategy. They executed very well. One year ago, the offensive line was very young, but now they are veterans and played like it.

To me, it's all about performance. It's about how you do things on a day-to-day basis. The attitude you take, the approach you take, being consistent and realizing that whether you win one week or lose the next, if you're doing things right over the long haul, things are going to work out.

We did a lot of things, especially in the first half, that were pretty uncharacteristic of our football team. We knew coming in that we couldn't make a lot of mistakes, but we did.

I've never come into any season assuming anything. I know a lot of people got carried away, perhaps, about our potential. But potential is potential. You can look it up in the dictionary (and see) what it means. What we do on the field is what counts, and it takes all 11 guys. We're not there yet.

Any concerns they may have had offensively coming in, it looks like they cured them today.

Ball security and pass protection -- two things we really needed last year -- he gave us.

You see guys playing in games and the picture becomes a little more clear. Plus, everybody has a little different role in the backfield and each of the guys we have has some different strengths and weaknesses so we'll try to get them in a position that works for them.

They played their best football at the end of the season. If you're playing better at the end of the season, that's something you can build on. They're going to come in here ... and it can be a one game season.

There were so many plays ... where we really made it tough on ourselves. We're the kind of outfit that can't make a costly error, or too many of them. When you have several of them it kind of compounds the problem.

There's a reason they made him a quarterback, and it wasn't because he was a great thrower, I don't think, ... They made him a quarterback, and they won the state championship.

It starts with protection, route running, I mean, you name it, throwing the football. But we have certainly not looked like a cohesive, smooth running group when we're throwing the football. We have at times, but not consistently.

It's going to be a battle of the inexperienced groups. We're going to be young up front, no doubt about that. But there is a lot of pride in that group. They don't want to be the reason we don't do well this year.

It's hard to gang up one, ... when there are two that are pretty good.

It sounds like right now they're committed to Troy Smith but it wouldn't shock me to see both in a game. That's a luxury you have when you have two guys like that.

I've had discussions about that the last couple of years. I'm still here, aren't I?

It was pretty much a one-sided football game both ways.

It took a lot of courage and confidence to make that call in that situation and they executed it well. They made some huge plays in the game.

It takes a lot of courage and confidence in your defense to make that call and most importantly, they executed. It looked initially like we had them stopped, but it was a great individual effort. He refused to go down, and it was a huge play in the game.

They looked like a legitimate top 10 team today. I don't see a lot of weaknesses on their football team.

I mean this with all due respect, but it's not really on my laundry list right now. I've got other things that have moved in front of it.

By the end of the season, we're going to need all of those guys. That's part of the decision to not redshirt Ryan Bain and Alex -- we realize over the long haul of the season we're going to need a real group effort.

The early commitments, early recruiting, that had changed. The whole clock is pushed ahead and you have to make decisions earlier about who to and who not to recruit. Is that a good thing I'm not sure, but it is reality.

Getting to the linebackers is difficult. Blocking them is another challenge.

A balanced offense will make Drew Tate a more effective and dangerous quarterback, ... If he can lean on a good, consistent running game, that'll be a real plus for us.

Bob Sanders wasn't the biggest guy coming out of Erie, Pa., but I don't think anybody would dispute that he was a pretty good player for us.

Brandon Wegher left camp to deal with some personal things. We hope he can return in the very near future

The bottom line is, as the season goes on, everybody becomes more comfortable. For a quarterback, it's more than just him. It's everybody else doing things. Offense is all about how things work as a unit. It's everybody being comfortable.

Like a lot of people who get into coaching, I was impacted by the people in my life. Certainly my father (John) who coached me in youth league baseball, and my high school coach, Joe Moore, were mentors and major influences.

I learned a long time ago that at the end of the day, the only stat that counts is points, The other ones are significant, but I'd much rather have the right score on the board. At the end of the day, that's what we're worried about.

I've never had a five-year plan or a three-year plan, or whatever, ... We had an idea philosophically of what we were going to do and how we were going to do it.

Recruiting at Iowa has never been easy, and I don't think it ever will be. Our biggest challenge has always been to get people to visit our campus. If we can get them here, I feel like we give ourselves a chance because we do have a lot to offer.

I was fortunate to be around a couple of coaches who took me under their wing and taught me how to train, how to work and how to prepare myself for a game. They gave me so much, and I saw the passion they had for the game and for teaching it. What I learned from them led me to want to become a teacher and coach.

I have no problem with two teams claiming to be national champions at the end of the year. But that's our society. We're dying to know who the champion is. Heaven forbid we have two. That would be socialist, right?

You can point to one game but it's a dangerous practice,

The first and most obvious thing is just turnovers,

The last two years we've gotten the punt block for six. But today it went the other way.