OPENING STATEMENT
Welcome to everybody. As Steve just alluded to, we're all getting adjusted to a new schedule, so hopefully this will all workout pretty well. Just in general terms the entire staff, I think we're very pleased with the progress the team has made during the last three-and-a-half weeks. I think a lot of good things have taken place during the preseason, certainly practice in the Hansen Practice Facility here has been a big advantage for us and a big help, so that's been great.
I think beyond that certainly the team's made progress on the field throughout practice. Part of that is we've remained fairly healthy, and it's hard to get better if you're not out there working. Then the other thing, just having last week be the first week of school (and) not being a game week was a good break for us to get adjusted to the new schedule. Those are all positives for us.
I think like every football team in America we're eager to play and get out on the field. You get to the point where you have to get out and see how things are going to go on game day competition. Our veteran players have done a good job. They've improved out there and developed good leadership for us. We have a lot of newcomers like every year and like every team, and we're eager to see what they do. They've practiced, I think well.
Both older guys and younger guys have stepped up and done a good job. Now it's just time to see what they do out on the field, so looking forward to that. Captains for this week, and the leadership group selects those guys weekly,we have Drew Ott, Jordan Lomax on the defensive side, and on the offensive side, Austin Blythe and C.J. Beathard. Those four guys will represent the football team.
Injury-wise, as I alluded to a minute ago, we've been pretty clean there. Nobody in the two-deep is expected to miss any time.
Regarding Illinois State, if you look at FCS football, to me there are three teams last year that were just really at the highest level of football you could get, and that would obviously be North Dakota State who was the eventual champion, Illinois State lost to them in one heck of a championship game last year.
It was a very exciting game, two quality teams, and that had to include UNI too. We have some familiarity with UNI through the years. You watch Illinois State and the way they competed the last year, they played great football, and North Dakota State the same thing. Brock Spack has done a wonderful job. He did a great job as a player at Purdue, was an outstanding defensive coordinator for a long time, and he's built Illinois State into quite a program right now, and to me that puts him on the same level as the other two schools I've mentioned.
He and his staff have done a great job and they have some outstanding players back from last year starting with the quarterback and running back. But they've got a lot of other good players too. They're very veteran up front on the defensive side, and they're going to be a really big challenge for us.
So all that being said, we're looking forward to getting started, and we've got great respect for them, look forward to getting out there and starting to compete.
Q. Your conference commissioner wants these FCS games done away with. What are your feelings about that when you consider the teams you just ticked off?
COACH FERENTZ: Might have been a good job to start that last year based on the way we've scheduled. We had UNI last year, Illinois State and then North Dakota State coming up. So all three of those teams, you watch them on film, they're outstanding football teams. They've played well against no matter who they played or who they've scheduled.
Just I would cite that championship game last year, you had two of the better quarterbacks I would argue in the country last year playing against each other. Both made a lot of big plays. You know, but I also understand Commissioner Delany's desires and we'll abide by those certainly.
Q. What side of Tevaun Smith - there seem to be question marks at wide receiver. How has that unit progressed throughout camp?
COACH FERENTZ: Tevaun's a guy that three years ago we made the decision to play him as a freshman. It was a calculated decision. We're glad we did that. And I think the rest of the story is I think that group has really improved. We've got four players right now we've got great confidence in. Matt VandeBerg has done a really nice job, and he did a good job last year. I think he's really improved since January. And then Jake Hillyer is probably one of our more underrated players on our entire team, not just the receiver corps. I think Jake's a really good football player, and McCarron has taken a big step for this year, and even from the spring.
So those four guys give us, I think, a good group to build around. Beyond that I didn't mention freshmen that are going to play, but Jerminic Smith will be one of the guys, one of the true freshmen that will play, he and James Daniels. Jerminic is in the mix at receiver, and we have several other guys competing for the sixth position.
Q. What did you see from Jerminic to move him into the depth chart?
COACH FERENTZ: He's just ascended. It's interesting with the first year guys especially. Though James (Daniels) was here last spring, so we had an opportunity to get a 15-day window on him. But a lot of the guys have been here, most of the guys have been here since June and had a chance to watch them train, but that's not really like playing football. And he's really just kind of handled the transition with ease, if you will.
Not that he knows everything right now and he's going to make mistakes certainly if he gets in there, but he's handled the adjustment pretty well from high school to college and seems to compete well out there, and we're really excited about his potential.
Q. Is Jay Scheel healthy?
COACH FERENTZ: Yeah, he was nicked up a little bit, but he's back this week practicing. That certainly didn't help his progress, but he's still a young player. He's got a great future.
Q. What other true freshmen might play this year?
COACH FERENTZ: Those are the only two we've made a decision on. We've got a handful of other guys. We'll wait to see what happens in terms of their development and how things materialize with our guys.
Welcome to everybody. As Steve just alluded to, we're all getting adjusted to a new schedule, so hopefully this will all workout pretty well. Just in general terms the entire staff, I think we're very pleased with the progress the team has made during the last three-and-a-half weeks. I think a lot of good things have taken place during the preseason, certainly practice in the Hansen Practice Facility here has been a big advantage for us and a big help, so that's been great.
I think beyond that certainly the team's made progress on the field throughout practice. Part of that is we've remained fairly healthy, and it's hard to get better if you're not out there working. Then the other thing, just having last week be the first week of school (and) not being a game week was a good break for us to get adjusted to the new schedule. Those are all positives for us.
I think like every football team in America we're eager to play and get out on the field. You get to the point where you have to get out and see how things are going to go on game day competition. Our veteran players have done a good job. They've improved out there and developed good leadership for us. We have a lot of newcomers like every year and like every team, and we're eager to see what they do. They've practiced, I think well.
Both older guys and younger guys have stepped up and done a good job. Now it's just time to see what they do out on the field, so looking forward to that. Captains for this week, and the leadership group selects those guys weekly,we have Drew Ott, Jordan Lomax on the defensive side, and on the offensive side, Austin Blythe and C.J. Beathard. Those four guys will represent the football team.
Injury-wise, as I alluded to a minute ago, we've been pretty clean there. Nobody in the two-deep is expected to miss any time.
Regarding Illinois State, if you look at FCS football, to me there are three teams last year that were just really at the highest level of football you could get, and that would obviously be North Dakota State who was the eventual champion, Illinois State lost to them in one heck of a championship game last year.
It was a very exciting game, two quality teams, and that had to include UNI too. We have some familiarity with UNI through the years. You watch Illinois State and the way they competed the last year, they played great football, and North Dakota State the same thing. Brock Spack has done a wonderful job. He did a great job as a player at Purdue, was an outstanding defensive coordinator for a long time, and he's built Illinois State into quite a program right now, and to me that puts him on the same level as the other two schools I've mentioned.
He and his staff have done a great job and they have some outstanding players back from last year starting with the quarterback and running back. But they've got a lot of other good players too. They're very veteran up front on the defensive side, and they're going to be a really big challenge for us.
So all that being said, we're looking forward to getting started, and we've got great respect for them, look forward to getting out there and starting to compete.
Q. Your conference commissioner wants these FCS games done away with. What are your feelings about that when you consider the teams you just ticked off?
COACH FERENTZ: Might have been a good job to start that last year based on the way we've scheduled. We had UNI last year, Illinois State and then North Dakota State coming up. So all three of those teams, you watch them on film, they're outstanding football teams. They've played well against no matter who they played or who they've scheduled.
Just I would cite that championship game last year, you had two of the better quarterbacks I would argue in the country last year playing against each other. Both made a lot of big plays. You know, but I also understand Commissioner Delany's desires and we'll abide by those certainly.
Q. What side of Tevaun Smith - there seem to be question marks at wide receiver. How has that unit progressed throughout camp?
COACH FERENTZ: Tevaun's a guy that three years ago we made the decision to play him as a freshman. It was a calculated decision. We're glad we did that. And I think the rest of the story is I think that group has really improved. We've got four players right now we've got great confidence in. Matt VandeBerg has done a really nice job, and he did a good job last year. I think he's really improved since January. And then Jake Hillyer is probably one of our more underrated players on our entire team, not just the receiver corps. I think Jake's a really good football player, and McCarron has taken a big step for this year, and even from the spring.
So those four guys give us, I think, a good group to build around. Beyond that I didn't mention freshmen that are going to play, but Jerminic Smith will be one of the guys, one of the true freshmen that will play, he and James Daniels. Jerminic is in the mix at receiver, and we have several other guys competing for the sixth position.
Q. What did you see from Jerminic to move him into the depth chart?
COACH FERENTZ: He's just ascended. It's interesting with the first year guys especially. Though James (Daniels) was here last spring, so we had an opportunity to get a 15-day window on him. But a lot of the guys have been here, most of the guys have been here since June and had a chance to watch them train, but that's not really like playing football. And he's really just kind of handled the transition with ease, if you will.
Not that he knows everything right now and he's going to make mistakes certainly if he gets in there, but he's handled the adjustment pretty well from high school to college and seems to compete well out there, and we're really excited about his potential.
Q. Is Jay Scheel healthy?
COACH FERENTZ: Yeah, he was nicked up a little bit, but he's back this week practicing. That certainly didn't help his progress, but he's still a young player. He's got a great future.
Q. What other true freshmen might play this year?
COACH FERENTZ: Those are the only two we've made a decision on. We've got a handful of other guys. We'll wait to see what happens in terms of their development and how things materialize with our guys.
