An Interview With:
COACH KIRK FERENTZ
KIRK FERENTZ: Welcome. Good to see everybody. It's good for us to be out there and get started again. We're excited to be back on the field.
A couple announcements, and I'm sure not if I gave you this update or not, but just one personnel move. Jameer Outsey has moved from the linebacker position over to the tight end, so he's been working there. Three practices into it now.
And then the only other real announcement to give you right now regarding today, LeShun Daniels got nicked up this morning in practice, so he will not participate during the media day. He will do a team picture later on, and we'll make sure to make him available a week from Saturday for Kids' Day. We'll have him out there for any questions at that time and kind of go from there.
Just a couple comments to start out with, first and foremost, I just wanted to restate that we're totally committed to being a Big Ten Championship caliber football team. That's been our goal since 1999 when we got started, and things haven't changed on that front. I believe we have a strong foundation in place right now, and I feel very good about the adjustments that we've made since January. Some things that we had talked about a couple times during the off-season, just things regarding our facilities, obviously moving into a brand-new facility. I'll address that later. The staff changes that we made, and certainly some decisions we made regarding our players and recruiting. I think things are really on a positive mode that way, and we're excited about pushing forward there.
You know, in football and in life, anything you do, all you can do is ask for opportunities, and when the calendar changed over in January, the thing we tried to communicate to our players was it's a new opportunity. We've all been very excited about that and the work that's gone into it, and I think most importantly we're eager to continue that work, that important work, as we try to prepare for the season.
Things really haven't changed. Our focus remains on the fundamentals, the basics, the things that make teams successful, whether it's on the football field, in the classroom, or their citizenship, those things really haven't changed an awful lot over the years and we'll stay focused on those.
Regarding our fans, they've long been the best I've ever been around, I can say that. Getting here in 1981, I've said it many times, how memorable it was for me to walk into Kinnick after 19 straight losing seasons and being just a great, great environment. In my 25-year association with this program, our fans have been just absolutely fantastic.
They deserve a good football team. That's always been the goal. I'm fully aware of that. I understand that, our staff understands and our players do, too. We're working hard to provide them what they deserve from our perspective.
Next up on the list is the Hansen Performance Center. I've talked about that before, but as you go along, you just realize how important it is and was to have that project completed. It's really injected a lot of enthusiasm in our program on a bunch of different levels, whether it be the recruiting, obviously, the strength and conditioning work that's gone on, the development that our players go through, and for our staff to work in just a great, great environment. We're awfully excited about that.
I think it's easily one of the best in the country, pro or college, and I think it's something everybody can be very, very proud of. Our staff, our players and our fans can all take pride in that thing.
Saturdays in Kinnick have always been very special things, and the news that came through this week that we'll continue to look to improve Kinnick stadium, to me that's an exciting news point. To me that's just going to help us to continue to provide a great environment for our fans. It's going to be a great from a revenue standpoint, certainly for recruiting, but I think most of all, the fan experience is going to continue to improve, and that's something we're really thrilled about.
Last but not least, basically we're heading into camp now. We're three practices into it. Today is the first day with shoulder pads so we really got to practice the way we want to. Bottom line, it's always been a very, very important phase of a team's development. Everything we've done up until now has been critical. This is a really important two-week window, and then school starts. We still have another week of camp mode, so a three-week window where our team has a chance to really develop. Our goal continues to be preparing our players to do a good job out there on the field, academically and citizenship-wise. Going back to 1999, our No. 1 goal was always to have well-rounded players. So our goal is to have them excel on game days, have them excel in the classroom and graduate, and then be prepared for a great life beyond.
That's the work that we're doing right now. It's been great to get back at it working with our players and the staff. I'll open it up for questions.
Q. Jordan Lomax, when you look at his development and maturity, is he like a perfect example of what you're trying to bring to the table with every player you bring in?
KIRK FERENTZ: It's interesting even going back to his recruiting; he wasn't first and foremost on our radar when I went into the school, whatever year that would have been. I just happened to meet him. The coach introduced me to him, and he was just such an impressive guy from meeting him in a brief visit there, we came back and reevaluated him, and fortunately in our case he was interested in coming here.
He's just been a phenomenal young guy in our program. Like a lot of our guys, he's got some great stories. He's gone through hardship and disappointment. You know, he looked like he was going to be a starter a couple years ago and had an injury off the bat which was disappointing and lost his starting position. Battled through that, and I didn't know until I read a report coming out of Chicago he thought about leaving. He never shared that with me. But that's really something most of our players go through, and he's persevered. He's worked hard, and he's done an exemplary job in the classroom.
His last spring here he spoke in front of our entire athletic department. Gary invited him over. There's a student-athlete speaker at every athletic department meeting and just did a phenomenal job. We're extremely proud of him, and I think he's primed to have a really good senior year.
Q. You said in the spring a lot of our twos are threes were developing right now. Do you feel like in the last few months you've improved in those areas?
KIRK FERENTZ: We do feel better right now. I feel better after watching one practice in pads. The retention was impressive the first two workouts, but one practice in pads, I think we're a little bit more mature than we were in April, and that's a key thing in college football. If you're not improving weekly and daily, you're going to be in trouble, especially in our program.
We need guys to be climbing the ladder. I think it's a reflection of what they've done over the last couple months, the hard work they've put in with the strength and conditioning part of things, and they've been in tune football-wise, too. Yeah, everybody has got to continue to move forward. It's too early to have good stories at this point, but hopefully by the end of August we'll have some to share with you.
COACH KIRK FERENTZ
KIRK FERENTZ: Welcome. Good to see everybody. It's good for us to be out there and get started again. We're excited to be back on the field.
A couple announcements, and I'm sure not if I gave you this update or not, but just one personnel move. Jameer Outsey has moved from the linebacker position over to the tight end, so he's been working there. Three practices into it now.
And then the only other real announcement to give you right now regarding today, LeShun Daniels got nicked up this morning in practice, so he will not participate during the media day. He will do a team picture later on, and we'll make sure to make him available a week from Saturday for Kids' Day. We'll have him out there for any questions at that time and kind of go from there.
Just a couple comments to start out with, first and foremost, I just wanted to restate that we're totally committed to being a Big Ten Championship caliber football team. That's been our goal since 1999 when we got started, and things haven't changed on that front. I believe we have a strong foundation in place right now, and I feel very good about the adjustments that we've made since January. Some things that we had talked about a couple times during the off-season, just things regarding our facilities, obviously moving into a brand-new facility. I'll address that later. The staff changes that we made, and certainly some decisions we made regarding our players and recruiting. I think things are really on a positive mode that way, and we're excited about pushing forward there.
You know, in football and in life, anything you do, all you can do is ask for opportunities, and when the calendar changed over in January, the thing we tried to communicate to our players was it's a new opportunity. We've all been very excited about that and the work that's gone into it, and I think most importantly we're eager to continue that work, that important work, as we try to prepare for the season.
Things really haven't changed. Our focus remains on the fundamentals, the basics, the things that make teams successful, whether it's on the football field, in the classroom, or their citizenship, those things really haven't changed an awful lot over the years and we'll stay focused on those.
Regarding our fans, they've long been the best I've ever been around, I can say that. Getting here in 1981, I've said it many times, how memorable it was for me to walk into Kinnick after 19 straight losing seasons and being just a great, great environment. In my 25-year association with this program, our fans have been just absolutely fantastic.
They deserve a good football team. That's always been the goal. I'm fully aware of that. I understand that, our staff understands and our players do, too. We're working hard to provide them what they deserve from our perspective.
Next up on the list is the Hansen Performance Center. I've talked about that before, but as you go along, you just realize how important it is and was to have that project completed. It's really injected a lot of enthusiasm in our program on a bunch of different levels, whether it be the recruiting, obviously, the strength and conditioning work that's gone on, the development that our players go through, and for our staff to work in just a great, great environment. We're awfully excited about that.
I think it's easily one of the best in the country, pro or college, and I think it's something everybody can be very, very proud of. Our staff, our players and our fans can all take pride in that thing.
Saturdays in Kinnick have always been very special things, and the news that came through this week that we'll continue to look to improve Kinnick stadium, to me that's an exciting news point. To me that's just going to help us to continue to provide a great environment for our fans. It's going to be a great from a revenue standpoint, certainly for recruiting, but I think most of all, the fan experience is going to continue to improve, and that's something we're really thrilled about.
Last but not least, basically we're heading into camp now. We're three practices into it. Today is the first day with shoulder pads so we really got to practice the way we want to. Bottom line, it's always been a very, very important phase of a team's development. Everything we've done up until now has been critical. This is a really important two-week window, and then school starts. We still have another week of camp mode, so a three-week window where our team has a chance to really develop. Our goal continues to be preparing our players to do a good job out there on the field, academically and citizenship-wise. Going back to 1999, our No. 1 goal was always to have well-rounded players. So our goal is to have them excel on game days, have them excel in the classroom and graduate, and then be prepared for a great life beyond.
That's the work that we're doing right now. It's been great to get back at it working with our players and the staff. I'll open it up for questions.
Q. Jordan Lomax, when you look at his development and maturity, is he like a perfect example of what you're trying to bring to the table with every player you bring in?
KIRK FERENTZ: It's interesting even going back to his recruiting; he wasn't first and foremost on our radar when I went into the school, whatever year that would have been. I just happened to meet him. The coach introduced me to him, and he was just such an impressive guy from meeting him in a brief visit there, we came back and reevaluated him, and fortunately in our case he was interested in coming here.
He's just been a phenomenal young guy in our program. Like a lot of our guys, he's got some great stories. He's gone through hardship and disappointment. You know, he looked like he was going to be a starter a couple years ago and had an injury off the bat which was disappointing and lost his starting position. Battled through that, and I didn't know until I read a report coming out of Chicago he thought about leaving. He never shared that with me. But that's really something most of our players go through, and he's persevered. He's worked hard, and he's done an exemplary job in the classroom.
His last spring here he spoke in front of our entire athletic department. Gary invited him over. There's a student-athlete speaker at every athletic department meeting and just did a phenomenal job. We're extremely proud of him, and I think he's primed to have a really good senior year.
Q. You said in the spring a lot of our twos are threes were developing right now. Do you feel like in the last few months you've improved in those areas?
KIRK FERENTZ: We do feel better right now. I feel better after watching one practice in pads. The retention was impressive the first two workouts, but one practice in pads, I think we're a little bit more mature than we were in April, and that's a key thing in college football. If you're not improving weekly and daily, you're going to be in trouble, especially in our program.
We need guys to be climbing the ladder. I think it's a reflection of what they've done over the last couple months, the hard work they've put in with the strength and conditioning part of things, and they've been in tune football-wise, too. Yeah, everybody has got to continue to move forward. It's too early to have good stories at this point, but hopefully by the end of August we'll have some to share with you.
