These are rough quotes and notes from Kirk Ferentz's press conference in Iowa City this afternoon.
Opening Statement
Certainly a tough, hard fought football game on Saturday in a tough environment at Wisconsin, so very proud of our team to come out of there with a win and happy for our players. Happy for Desmond King to get recognized by the Big Ten for his play. That's our third to be recognized this season - one on offense, defense, and special teams - so just shows it's a team effort.
Captains are the same four this week - Drew Ott, Jordan Lomax, CJ Beathard, and Austin Blythe.
Medically, we'll be without Tevaun Smith this week and next week. Then the other two guys that didn't travel to Wisconsin, Boone Myers and Derrick Mitchell, they're both kind of day to day. We'll see how that progresses as the week goes on. Wouldn't want to speculate at this point.
Have to turn our attention to our next opponent quickly. Illinois comes in with a 4-1 record and 1-0 in the conference. New coach, Bill Cubit, is an excellent coach. Players playing with great effort. Doing a lot of things well defensively. What you saw on Saturday was a team that believes in themselves and came back to win Saturday. Offensively, have a big quarterback that can really throw and good skill players. Offensive line is much improved this year. Defensively, playing same scheme, but improved and playing well. Special teams, they've blocked two punts for touchdowns and had a couple big returns. So that's kind of s thumbnail of their team. We've got a lot of respect for them and we'll have to be ready to go on Saturday.
Q: Jim Reid.... KF: I wish I had Jim's energy. I think I met Jim in 1978. Ken O'Keefe and I went over to UMASS to watch them practice. Jim was a young LB coach at that time. I remember going to spring ball and watching those guys. When I went to Maine, he was the head coach at UMASS. He left that job on principle and ended up taking assistant job and then head job at Richmond. When I was doing some checking on Jim, it was all positive and really excited to have him on our staff.
Q: Nate Meier kind of show how recruiting is an inexact science? KF: Yeah, he was certainly the small guy out there on Saturday, but he has a big heart. I'm not saying he's Matt Roth, but Nate is kind of the same story. He looked like John Riggins playing RB in high school. Wasn't sure where he would end up, but really liked him as a football player.
Q: Defensive game take pressure and focus off of CJ a little bit? KF: Yeah, that's football. Offense made the plays to put us in position to win against Pittsburgh, defense did against Wisconsin. That's CJ's 5th or 6th start and we'll have more of those games down the road. That was a tough defense we faced. One thing that was consistent with him was his poise. It wasn't his best game, but he'll bounce back for sure.
Q: New coach at Illinois.... KF: All the reasons for that are out of my level, but I have a lot of respect for Bill Cubit and have for a long time. He came in here and beat our butts in '07. It's a real credit to him the way they have started the season. They're playing well. Better team than they were last November.
Opening Statement
Certainly a tough, hard fought football game on Saturday in a tough environment at Wisconsin, so very proud of our team to come out of there with a win and happy for our players. Happy for Desmond King to get recognized by the Big Ten for his play. That's our third to be recognized this season - one on offense, defense, and special teams - so just shows it's a team effort.
Captains are the same four this week - Drew Ott, Jordan Lomax, CJ Beathard, and Austin Blythe.
Medically, we'll be without Tevaun Smith this week and next week. Then the other two guys that didn't travel to Wisconsin, Boone Myers and Derrick Mitchell, they're both kind of day to day. We'll see how that progresses as the week goes on. Wouldn't want to speculate at this point.
Have to turn our attention to our next opponent quickly. Illinois comes in with a 4-1 record and 1-0 in the conference. New coach, Bill Cubit, is an excellent coach. Players playing with great effort. Doing a lot of things well defensively. What you saw on Saturday was a team that believes in themselves and came back to win Saturday. Offensively, have a big quarterback that can really throw and good skill players. Offensive line is much improved this year. Defensively, playing same scheme, but improved and playing well. Special teams, they've blocked two punts for touchdowns and had a couple big returns. So that's kind of s thumbnail of their team. We've got a lot of respect for them and we'll have to be ready to go on Saturday.
Q: Jim Reid.... KF: I wish I had Jim's energy. I think I met Jim in 1978. Ken O'Keefe and I went over to UMASS to watch them practice. Jim was a young LB coach at that time. I remember going to spring ball and watching those guys. When I went to Maine, he was the head coach at UMASS. He left that job on principle and ended up taking assistant job and then head job at Richmond. When I was doing some checking on Jim, it was all positive and really excited to have him on our staff.
Q: Nate Meier kind of show how recruiting is an inexact science? KF: Yeah, he was certainly the small guy out there on Saturday, but he has a big heart. I'm not saying he's Matt Roth, but Nate is kind of the same story. He looked like John Riggins playing RB in high school. Wasn't sure where he would end up, but really liked him as a football player.
Q: Defensive game take pressure and focus off of CJ a little bit? KF: Yeah, that's football. Offense made the plays to put us in position to win against Pittsburgh, defense did against Wisconsin. That's CJ's 5th or 6th start and we'll have more of those games down the road. That was a tough defense we faced. One thing that was consistent with him was his poise. It wasn't his best game, but he'll bounce back for sure.
Q: New coach at Illinois.... KF: All the reasons for that are out of my level, but I have a lot of respect for Bill Cubit and have for a long time. He came in here and beat our butts in '07. It's a real credit to him the way they have started the season. They're playing well. Better team than they were last November.
