OPENING STATEMENT
Good afternoon. Just a couple quick words going backwards, Indiana recap. Certainly it was good to get the victory for us. Really pleased about getting two victories on the road, Big Ten conference games, that's always a good thing. Hopefully that will help our players gain some confidence.
I think also one thing they saw, when we execute and really focus, we have a chance to have a good football team. But that being said, there's still a lot of things we need to clean up and improve upon. That's really in all three areas. That challenge doesn't ever stop.
One obvious thing coming out of Saturday, way too many penalties. We have to do a better job there, clean up our play there.
Moving forward to the Maryland game, our captains this week will be Parker Hesse, Nate Stanley, Keegan Render and Jake Gervase, four guys going out for the toss. Third straight homecoming, unusual, at least this one is ours. Good to be back at home, be playing in Kinnick and hosting a homecoming game.
Really want to express our appreciation to the fans. Our fans have been great all season long. I know we will have a great crowd out on Saturday and we appreciate that.
That being said, our fans aren't going to win the game for us. We know that. We have to go out and play well. That's certainly going to be the case against Maryland. They're a really good football team, 4-2 record, 2-1 like us in the Big Ten.
As we look at them, first thing that stands out, a little bit like last week, we don't have a lot of familiarity with them, haven't played them since '15. Only played them in a two-game series. Almost like starting over again, a non-league game in some ways.
What we have found is they're a really good football team. They've got a lot of really good players, very talented. They've got good size, good speed, good athleticism. They can do a lot of things very, very well I think in all three phases.
The special teams, they play hard. Have a lot of guys that present problems for you, good return guy on the kick team, their runningback is a very dangerous return guy. Just a bunch of guys that play well on core. A lot of guys that have play roles on core, special teams, they're very aggressive, very well-coached. That's first and foremost.
You move into the defense, they play a three-man front up front. Again, they've got big, physical guys in their front seven. Good secondary, those guys play well. Our focus is going to have to be really good and preparation is going to have to be good there.
Flipping over on offense, it's not like playing Georgia Tech exactly, but there's some parallels, primarily their strength is in running the football. When they throw it, they tend to be real big plays. I think the parallel to Georgia Tech is there's just a lot of things going on.
It's a really important week for us mentally. It's a different preparation than we're used to. Do a lot of shifts, a lot of motions, a lot of things to different sets to catch you off guard.
The thing that jumps out at you is how many big plays come out of it. If our guys aren't on the same page, communicating well, you open the door for some really big plays. That's a big danger of playing these guys.
Obviously they have good players, big physical veteran line, probably as big as we'll see. Several runningbacks. Quarterback is a very dangerous player. They play two of them actually. It's going to be a big challenge for us. That's really kind of where we're at at this point.
It's going to take a good week of preparation on our part. We've got to finish the week out. Again, we don't know a lot about Maryland, haven't played them in quite some time. We really have to do a good job of making sure we know all we can. I'm sure they're trying to do the same thing. Go from there.
Injuries real quick. Brady left the game the other day, Brady Ross. He'll be out this game, probably a couple. We will see how that goes. It's going to take a couple weeks at least to heal.
I mentioned Jack, doesn't look good. I guess doubtful is the right term. I would not count on him being back with us.
On the positive side, Ivory started practicing yesterday morning with us. Nick Niemann the same way. I think both those guys will be ready to go on Saturday, bearing the week.
Q. The physical nature of play that they have, particularly in the run game, does that limit your opportunities in the personnel versus the base 4-3?
KIRK FERENTZ: Not necessarily. They still play some three-wide stuff, all that. They are a physical group. We'll just see what their personnel dictates.
We'll keep that door open. I'm sure there will be some situations where we'll have an opportunity to do that. But having Nick back obviously helps us a little bit, gives us a little bit more experience. We consider him to be one of our better players.
Yeah, that's the decision we'll make there on that, even if the opportunity presents itself, which personnel group we want to go with. In that case, we're talking about two guys that we have a lot of confidence in.
Q. Is there one thing you can point to in particular, the passing yards game is as good as it’s been since ’05, is that just a matter of things coming together at once?
KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, me personally, I just think we're a little bit more experienced than we were. We were really inexperienced last year at the receiver position, tight end position, quarterback position. Other than that, we were doing okay (laughter). We had backs that had some experience.
I think just kind of a combination of those guys being more experienced. I'd throw our tackles in, too. Those guys are both freshmen, when Boone and Ike went down, that was pretty early in the season. Just had a lot of young players last year on offense. I think it showed at times. We were very inconsistent. Sometimes we looked really good. At least right now we're a little bit more consistent. We certainly can improve in that area. I think we just have a little bit better balance now, better experience.
Q. Obviously the passing game stole the show Saturday. Your runningbacks both averaged over five yards per carry. Seemed like from the beginning you established tempo in the running game. How important is that for your offense?
KIRK FERENTZ: It sure helps. As you know, we want to be balanced in a perfect world. If that opportunity is there, hopefully we can get that established. You can take one thing or another away if you choose to. You can take the run away if you need to.
Saturday I thought we did a good job of being balanced. One of the better plays we ran, third-and-12, whatever there, going to the right of our bench where we hit just a little run in there for whatever it was, 13. Got the first down on it.
If we can play that way, it makes us a better football team. Sometimes you can. It's more fun when you can. But that's not always easy to do.
Good afternoon. Just a couple quick words going backwards, Indiana recap. Certainly it was good to get the victory for us. Really pleased about getting two victories on the road, Big Ten conference games, that's always a good thing. Hopefully that will help our players gain some confidence.
I think also one thing they saw, when we execute and really focus, we have a chance to have a good football team. But that being said, there's still a lot of things we need to clean up and improve upon. That's really in all three areas. That challenge doesn't ever stop.
One obvious thing coming out of Saturday, way too many penalties. We have to do a better job there, clean up our play there.
Moving forward to the Maryland game, our captains this week will be Parker Hesse, Nate Stanley, Keegan Render and Jake Gervase, four guys going out for the toss. Third straight homecoming, unusual, at least this one is ours. Good to be back at home, be playing in Kinnick and hosting a homecoming game.
Really want to express our appreciation to the fans. Our fans have been great all season long. I know we will have a great crowd out on Saturday and we appreciate that.
That being said, our fans aren't going to win the game for us. We know that. We have to go out and play well. That's certainly going to be the case against Maryland. They're a really good football team, 4-2 record, 2-1 like us in the Big Ten.
As we look at them, first thing that stands out, a little bit like last week, we don't have a lot of familiarity with them, haven't played them since '15. Only played them in a two-game series. Almost like starting over again, a non-league game in some ways.
What we have found is they're a really good football team. They've got a lot of really good players, very talented. They've got good size, good speed, good athleticism. They can do a lot of things very, very well I think in all three phases.
The special teams, they play hard. Have a lot of guys that present problems for you, good return guy on the kick team, their runningback is a very dangerous return guy. Just a bunch of guys that play well on core. A lot of guys that have play roles on core, special teams, they're very aggressive, very well-coached. That's first and foremost.
You move into the defense, they play a three-man front up front. Again, they've got big, physical guys in their front seven. Good secondary, those guys play well. Our focus is going to have to be really good and preparation is going to have to be good there.
Flipping over on offense, it's not like playing Georgia Tech exactly, but there's some parallels, primarily their strength is in running the football. When they throw it, they tend to be real big plays. I think the parallel to Georgia Tech is there's just a lot of things going on.
It's a really important week for us mentally. It's a different preparation than we're used to. Do a lot of shifts, a lot of motions, a lot of things to different sets to catch you off guard.
The thing that jumps out at you is how many big plays come out of it. If our guys aren't on the same page, communicating well, you open the door for some really big plays. That's a big danger of playing these guys.
Obviously they have good players, big physical veteran line, probably as big as we'll see. Several runningbacks. Quarterback is a very dangerous player. They play two of them actually. It's going to be a big challenge for us. That's really kind of where we're at at this point.
It's going to take a good week of preparation on our part. We've got to finish the week out. Again, we don't know a lot about Maryland, haven't played them in quite some time. We really have to do a good job of making sure we know all we can. I'm sure they're trying to do the same thing. Go from there.
Injuries real quick. Brady left the game the other day, Brady Ross. He'll be out this game, probably a couple. We will see how that goes. It's going to take a couple weeks at least to heal.
I mentioned Jack, doesn't look good. I guess doubtful is the right term. I would not count on him being back with us.
On the positive side, Ivory started practicing yesterday morning with us. Nick Niemann the same way. I think both those guys will be ready to go on Saturday, bearing the week.
Q. The physical nature of play that they have, particularly in the run game, does that limit your opportunities in the personnel versus the base 4-3?
KIRK FERENTZ: Not necessarily. They still play some three-wide stuff, all that. They are a physical group. We'll just see what their personnel dictates.
We'll keep that door open. I'm sure there will be some situations where we'll have an opportunity to do that. But having Nick back obviously helps us a little bit, gives us a little bit more experience. We consider him to be one of our better players.
Yeah, that's the decision we'll make there on that, even if the opportunity presents itself, which personnel group we want to go with. In that case, we're talking about two guys that we have a lot of confidence in.
Q. Is there one thing you can point to in particular, the passing yards game is as good as it’s been since ’05, is that just a matter of things coming together at once?
KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, me personally, I just think we're a little bit more experienced than we were. We were really inexperienced last year at the receiver position, tight end position, quarterback position. Other than that, we were doing okay (laughter). We had backs that had some experience.
I think just kind of a combination of those guys being more experienced. I'd throw our tackles in, too. Those guys are both freshmen, when Boone and Ike went down, that was pretty early in the season. Just had a lot of young players last year on offense. I think it showed at times. We were very inconsistent. Sometimes we looked really good. At least right now we're a little bit more consistent. We certainly can improve in that area. I think we just have a little bit better balance now, better experience.
Q. Obviously the passing game stole the show Saturday. Your runningbacks both averaged over five yards per carry. Seemed like from the beginning you established tempo in the running game. How important is that for your offense?
KIRK FERENTZ: It sure helps. As you know, we want to be balanced in a perfect world. If that opportunity is there, hopefully we can get that established. You can take one thing or another away if you choose to. You can take the run away if you need to.
Saturday I thought we did a good job of being balanced. One of the better plays we ran, third-and-12, whatever there, going to the right of our bench where we hit just a little run in there for whatever it was, 13. Got the first down on it.
If we can play that way, it makes us a better football team. Sometimes you can. It's more fun when you can. But that's not always easy to do.