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We will be hearing from Brian Ferentz, Kelvin Bell, and Seth Wallace today.
These are rough quotes and notes. Not a full transcript.
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Brian Ferentz
Opening Statement
It's good to be with you guys. We're getting a little bit closer to normalcy. Nice to be back in Kinnick Stadium this past weekend with fans. Definitely a step in the right direction. Feel very fortunate to be vaccinated a couple weeks ago and hopeful we can all be back together by the fall. As far as the spring goes, as a coach, this is the best time of the year. You have a lot of guys at different stages and different areas of development. We have guys that have played a lot of good football for us that are further ahead and then you have guys that were in high school a couple months ago. That range presents some unique challenges throughout the spring. Trying to engage the older guys and then trying to get other guys to walk before they can run. As a coach, it's a lot of fun. You see a lot of improvement, a lot of growth this time of year. Through three weeks, not quite where we want to be in terms of playing a game, but very pleased with progress. Looking forward to next five practices and cleaning things up as we go into the summer.
Q: Looking at the running game, it was at 3.9 ypc first two years, last year up to 4.6 ypc. Was misdirection a key in helping that part of the game grow? What else helped it improve?
BF: There's a lot of factors. You bring up one of them, which is misdirection. Threatening the whole field really, which part of that is misdirection. You have counter game, zone counters, and fly and jet stuff. We like to put the ball on the perimeter a couple different ways and that's one of them. Some of the zone read became a different package with us with the Wildcat look. You like that because you're running two plays at the same time. Threatening the entirety of the field creates some conflicts and play action does as well. I think we've expanded there. I thought our naked game improved as well, which certainly helps when you put run/pass conflict on a defender. Ultimately, I thought our line played really well last year and tight ends and fullbacks as well. Monte Pottebaum did a lot of good things for us. Running backs did a really good job too. Tyler Goodson and Mekhi Sargent ran the ball well. You put all that together and you get some improvement. Now we're looking at slight tweaks to help along with individual growth for players. It's all a process. We want to continue misdirection and threatening the whole field, but ultimately comes down to blocking.
Q: Talking to Spencer, one of the topics he seemed to focus on was his accuracy especially on short throws. How can that work in your eyes?
BF: I hope he's focused on that because that's something we can control. We're going to throw the ball short, intermediate, and deep. We'd like to stretch the field when it's available. But accuracy on a deep ball is easier said than done. We're not playing Madden. Throwing and catching deep balls is a lot more difficult than it appears. Sometimes a desire for accuracy can hinder a QB's ability to throw the ball downfield. Sometimes you just have to trust your guys to make a place. But on those short and intermediate throws, the level of difficulty is not quite as high. If you think about a simple throw like an out route, the reason that ball is going there is there's no flat defender. If you put that ball outside and allow your receiver to catch the ball on the run, he's catching it going away from the tackler. You make a bad throw and you're looking at a 5 yard play instead of a 10 or 15 yard play. We need to constantly evolve and improve and find the details where we can get better. I've seen Spencer work on those and very pleased with that, but still some work to do.
Q: New additions on offense, coaching wise you have Ladell Betts and George Barnett. How involved with hiring and what you have seen from them? Then you have some key freshmen with Arland Bruce and Keagan Johnson.
BF: It's difficult anytime you go through a change as a coaching staff. We've been together for 3-4 years and you grow close to people. Ultimately, we're all professionals, but we develop friendships so difficult to see them go but happy to see them advance. The minute you have an opening on a staff, you start thinking about the opportunity. George was a guy that we knew pretty well through a network, but did not know him personally. Very impressed with him throughout the process and interviewed well. Very apparent he was going to be a good fit. He's done a really good job with those guys so far. Very pleased to have him on the staff. With Ladell, you want to open the search up, but talking to Ladell he's a quality person and a lot of experience working with young people and he's passionate about running back play like Derrick was. Ladell has lived it for the majority of his life and the passion he has for playing the position and the vision he has for it, I thought was remarkable.
Q: And the freshmen?
BF: Sorry, not trying to dodge that one. Very pleased with all the freshmen that are here early. You think about how far that transition is to come from high school to college in this situation is extra difficult, but all four have joined the team and held their own and handled their business. On the field, we've seen good things. The challenge right now is we lost some very good players at the receiver position and we're looking for help. Both those guys have seized those opportunities and improved. Key now is to continue to improve between now and the fall. Not quite sure they're ready to do everything right now, but certainly trending in the right direction and like the way they're working.
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