These are rough quotes and notes from Kirk Ferentz during his 8 minutes on the Big Ten Teleconference with the national media this morning.
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Opening Statement
We were very pleased to get the win last week in our opener and to do it on the road was really special in obviously a tough place to compete. So we enjoyed the victory on Saturday and then turned our attention to Illinois on Sunday. They came from behind in their game to get a big win on Saturday and we'll have our hands full getting ready for them this week.
Q: Desmond King had another great performance. Can you talk about the impact he is making this year?
KF: He's really doing a great job in a couple areas for us. He got thrown into the mix as a true freshman two years ago and played well. Last year, it's not that he played badly, but he didn't take a major step forward. Now he has taken that step and he's playing at a much different level. He knows how to study the game better now and he's made some big plays for us on defense and added to his game working on returns this year. He's really done a good job. If we're going to have a good team, we need our veteran guys to play well and Desmond is certainly doing that right now.
Q: What is the key to being the only team not to allow a rushing touchdown this year?
KF: I don't know if there was a master plan to not allow a rushing touchdown, but our run defense was definitely on our list of things to improve from last year. We didn't stop the run the way we wanted to last season. We're only five games into this thing, but I think our guys are doing a good job and making a real effort for us to be a better football team against the run.
Q: Your red zone defense has also been good. Was that another point of emphasis in the off-season?
KF: It was, both offensively and defensively, and another thing was finishing games. Those are critical areas for determining success for a football team.
Q: The Kirk Ferentz of previous years, would he have passed up that field goal on Saturday and gone for it on fourth down deep in your own territory?
KF: This legend of the new Kirk this year -- We've gone for it more on fourth down the last couple of years, not just this year. But I think we're all in agreement going into the game about how we're going to handle certain situations and we share that with our players beforehand so we're all on the same page.
Q: There's been some talk that Brian Ferentz has contributed a lot to the legend of the new Kirk Ferentz. Did he have a lot of input in the off-season?
KF: As it pertains to him, he's been very opinionated for some time now, so that's nothing new. Even when he was in New England, he wasn't hesitant to let us know something. But it's been an entire staff effort. We went through a real regeneration of our program. We were lucky enough to go 13 years with the same coordinators, Norm Parker and Ken O'Keefe, and now we're 3 years in with Phil Parker and Greg Davis. It took a little bit for us to gel. Back in the winter time, when we were looking at things to improve, everybody made a contribution and everybody's opinion was important. Any adjustments we made were as a staff, not just me or any one person dictating things.
---
Opening Statement
We were very pleased to get the win last week in our opener and to do it on the road was really special in obviously a tough place to compete. So we enjoyed the victory on Saturday and then turned our attention to Illinois on Sunday. They came from behind in their game to get a big win on Saturday and we'll have our hands full getting ready for them this week.
Q: Desmond King had another great performance. Can you talk about the impact he is making this year?
KF: He's really doing a great job in a couple areas for us. He got thrown into the mix as a true freshman two years ago and played well. Last year, it's not that he played badly, but he didn't take a major step forward. Now he has taken that step and he's playing at a much different level. He knows how to study the game better now and he's made some big plays for us on defense and added to his game working on returns this year. He's really done a good job. If we're going to have a good team, we need our veteran guys to play well and Desmond is certainly doing that right now.
Q: What is the key to being the only team not to allow a rushing touchdown this year?
KF: I don't know if there was a master plan to not allow a rushing touchdown, but our run defense was definitely on our list of things to improve from last year. We didn't stop the run the way we wanted to last season. We're only five games into this thing, but I think our guys are doing a good job and making a real effort for us to be a better football team against the run.
Q: Your red zone defense has also been good. Was that another point of emphasis in the off-season?
KF: It was, both offensively and defensively, and another thing was finishing games. Those are critical areas for determining success for a football team.
Q: The Kirk Ferentz of previous years, would he have passed up that field goal on Saturday and gone for it on fourth down deep in your own territory?
KF: This legend of the new Kirk this year -- We've gone for it more on fourth down the last couple of years, not just this year. But I think we're all in agreement going into the game about how we're going to handle certain situations and we share that with our players beforehand so we're all on the same page.
Q: There's been some talk that Brian Ferentz has contributed a lot to the legend of the new Kirk Ferentz. Did he have a lot of input in the off-season?
KF: As it pertains to him, he's been very opinionated for some time now, so that's nothing new. Even when he was in New England, he wasn't hesitant to let us know something. But it's been an entire staff effort. We went through a real regeneration of our program. We were lucky enough to go 13 years with the same coordinators, Norm Parker and Ken O'Keefe, and now we're 3 years in with Phil Parker and Greg Davis. It took a little bit for us to gel. Back in the winter time, when we were looking at things to improve, everybody made a contribution and everybody's opinion was important. Any adjustments we made were as a staff, not just me or any one person dictating things.
