University of Iowa Football

Media Conference
Saturday, November 14, 2015

Kirk Ferentz
COACH FERENTZ: We're certainly really excited to get
the victory tonight for obvious reasons. We talked to
our guys about staying humble and staying hungry all
week long, and really that just gets right to the point of
being prepared. Working on their preparation and
keeping the right things in focus.
I can't compliment our players and our staff, especially
our players, enough for doing that. They just did a
great job this week. We expected this to be a tough,
hard-fought football game. It was. It was a physical
football game, and at the end of the day it was just a
great team victory for us. The guys played off each
other, complimented each other, and it did a lot of great
things out there.
So as we move forward right now, that puts us one step
closer to doing some good things. Makes us 2-0 in
November, which obviously we're thrilled about. And
my son-in-law was kind enough to share a little history
with me about this series yesterday, and it's interesting.
We're almost to the day, 76 years ago was the first time
The University of Iowa actually won the trophy for the
Rosedale Trophy, and that was 1939, coincidentally a
pretty good football team. So it was a great outing all
in all. Really proud of our guys.
Just want to comment about the environment. The
fans were fantastic. Sold out, black-out crowd, and the
energy was present from the time we came up
pregame. Just an electric atmosphere. To be involved
in this program 26 years now, these are the things our
players will remember their entire lives. So just want to
compliment our fans and thank them. Hope I see all
70-plus thousand of them next Saturday to send these
seniors off.
We have a great senior class getting ready to play their
last game at Kinnick Stadium.
Q. You guys had some grind-out wins and now
some crafty high-scoring games. Does it surprise
you how this team has adapted to the contrasting
style?
COACH FERENTZ: One thing about college football is
you just never know what's going to happen and how
the game's going to play out and what the momentum
may be. Today we gave up some big plays that were
uncharacteristic, and we've done a really good job of

Rev #2 by #177 at 2015-11-15 05:42:00 GMT

limiting those this year, relative to last year. We'll go

back to work on that tomorrow.
When something did happen, the offense really
responded, and to Steve's point about the 30 points,
four times in a row or whatever it may be, the guys
have really responded. Nothing seems to get our guys
down. They come back and take the next possession
and go and try to do something with it. So really proud
of the guys there.
Q. Is this more of the change that everyone's talked
about, about you just taking elastic off the bank
roll?
COACH FERENTZ: I don't know. The one possession
there we got the ball right before the half, and our first
goal was just to get it out of there. Advance it to a
decent position and then not give it back to them, that
would be the second goal, if possible, but first thing
was get it out at that position. When it came out of
there, we had a chance to get offensive with it, and that
to me was just a result of what happens. Some big
plays and our guys came up with a lot of big plays
today, and that gives you a chance to sustain drives.
Q. The play there on third down?
COACH FERENTZ: Yeah, just keeps performing at a
really high rate. The thing that's most pleasing for all of
us, looks like he's starting to get healthy again, which a
couple weeks ago, even going back to the game in
Chicago, that was probably him at the lowest point
health-wise, and I can't explain it, but it seems that
we're gaining ground now. He looked better last week
from a mobility standpoint. But today almost looked
like the opening ballgame, so that's a really good thing.
Little shot there at the end of the game, we got a quick
call on quarterback sneak, and reminded me we had
one last year too against Indiana. So that might be a
play we have to take out of the play book. But he's
playing his tail off.
Q. Taking out the naked boot leg?
COACH FERENTZ: Well, no, we're not taking it out. I
think it's back in now. If he can run it, we're going to
call it, believe me. But the sneaks might be off the
board.
Q. Talk about LeShun's play?

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COACH FERENTZ: Speaking of guys that looked

healthy again. We tried to get him back for the week or
two there, and that wasn't LeShun. He was running
okay. But last week I thought he looked a lot better,
and tonight he looked really good, especially on that
last touchdown. That was quite a run.
He's just a quiet humble guy and works really hard.
The backs in general, I want to compliment the whole
group. It seems whoever is healthy does a nice job.
Jordan's working his way back in, Akrum could have
played but I'm glad we could keep him out. Derrick
Mitchell didn't play a huge role tonight, but he did some
really good things. Had a blitz pick-up that was critical
on a big play for us and those are the kind of things
that go unnoticed. So really happy about the whole
group. They're doing a good job, and the fullbacks
continue to play.
Q. Do you play the hot back or how will you handle
it?
COACH FERENTZ: Hopefully we have that problem
down the road. That would be great. Hopefully they're
all healthy and hot. That would be really good.
Q. Everybody's talking about the environment.
Part of the environment is being 10-0 for the first
time ever. But is that part of what you want your
players to soak in, doing something nobody's ever
done before?
COACH FERENTZ: Yeah, they should feel proud of
that. That's significant. There is no question about
that. It was significant last week. They go 9-0 and
match that 2009 team. And coincidentally we had Tony
with us as honorary captain.
We had to push it to 10-0. I think it feels pretty good.
We're also focused on the moment, quite frankly, that it
will sink in. And all of those things are things you relish
a little more now. I think right now we're just kind of
thinking about where we're at today and where we're
heading tomorrow, and at some point we'll sit back and
look at it bigger picture.

this one and hopefully we'll get things ahead.

Q. Two of your scoring drives were more than 90
yards. How fulfilling is that for your offense, and
on the other side, what's that do to your opposing
defense?
COACH FERENTZ: It's demoralizing when you're on
the opposite sideline, no question. Anytime somebody
moves a ball like that for that length of the field, on our
side it means somebody made a couple big plays,
typically. Though the one drive was in the teens, right?
One of our drives was. That was pretty impressive.
I've got to tell you.
But some guys came up with some sparks. Big third
down catches, and George came up and he's starting
to really come alive here too. So a lot of good things
going on.
Q. How would you talk about how much fun it's
been for you to do this, and are you starting to feel
pressure?
COACH FERENTZ: That's funny you should bring that
up. That was a headline in one of the papers today.
And our Friday night meeting for a night game was on
Saturday. So I brought that up to our players. You
know, really, the only pressure, it's funny, there was a
different headline early in the season about pressure. I
won't go down that road right now.
But anyway, the only pressure any of us feel is to not
let each other down. So we're all trying to work as
hard as we can, be as prepared as we can, and do
what we can to help the team win. That's all I want the
players feeling because that's how it should be. It's all
about what we do for each other and it's the beauty of
football.
In any sport you do things because you're teammates
and the people involved. That's really all that counts at
the end of the day. So just feel really good about that
and I'm really happy for our players again.

But it feels good to win. It feels really good to get Floyd

back home. That's even better.
Q. You have an opportunity to clinch a division title
here on Senior Day at Kinnick. What do you think
about that?
COACH FERENTZ: We want to win it outright. That's
our goal. But to win the game next week and clinch a
bid, that would be fantastic. So that will be our goal
tomorrow. We'll turn our sights on our next opponent.
There is nothing easy in the conference. I know that.
But we'll worry about that tomorrow. Tonight we'll enjoy

Rev #2 by #177 at 2015-11-15 05:42:00 GMT

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