COACH
FERENTZ: Welcome. I'll start off with injuries real quickly.
Not a lot to report, other than it looks like Troy Johnson probably
won't make it. He's got a muscle strain, that's probably going
to keep him out. And then Tony Moeaki, that's the under; it's
probably not the right way to say it. But anyway, I don't think
his chances are great. We'll see what this week brings.
But other than that we'll be okay.
Captains
will be the same four guys as we've had the last couple weeks, Rob Bruggeman,
Shonn Greene, Mitch King and Matt Kroul. Those guys are doing
a great job certainly.
I'll
just deviate for one second and just reclarify. I mentioned last
week about the assistant coaches being interviewed and what have you,
and just so everybody is clear on it, if anybody has any angst or problems
with it, don't be mad at our assistant coaches. That's my policy,
okay?
I'll
give you an explanation on how I do things. First and foremost,
when I hire a coach, the number one thing I'm looking for are good people;
secondly, guys that are good teachers; thirdly, and it kind of goes
along with teaching, I think we want people that really do a nice job
with young people and care about young people and really are coaching
for those reasons, looking out for the best interest of their players.
And
not at all on my criteria list is media savvy. I just don't even
rank that. But that being said, Norm and Ken would do a far better
job at these Tuesdays with the media outings than I would. I promise
you'd enjoy those guys a lot more. And I think that's probably
true of most of our staff.
Anyway,
that's kind of shaped the way I was raised, I guess. I got into
coaching because I really loved coaching. I love the people I
work with, and that's why I do it.
I
didn't get into coaching to be interviewed, to go to press conferences,
and that's just it. So the way I look at it is it's not part of
the job requirement for our assistant coaches. I'll never make
it part of the job requirement for them. I'm a lot more interested
in them doing their jobs, and that is a part of the job requirement,
and that's where I want their focus and energy to go.
I
understand how important it is to have media relations. I think
I try to do my best, and I understand it's important. So I'm not
saying that. But for assistant coaches, it's way down my list.
I want our guys to be invested in their players and at this time of
year really invested on getting our team ready to perform as well as
possible Saturday.
My
vision is not real wide. That's just kind of how I look at the
world.
The
other thing, too, I'll just throw this out there, and I don't mean it
in a disrespectful way, but I've always -- how do I say this? Just
coaches work really hard, I'll put it that way. Our coaches’
work, particularly Sunday through Thursday night, is extensive.
There aren't a lot of breaks, there's not much family time, so that's
that. I've never complained about that, and I've never talked
about hours that I work or anybody else works because I fully realize
there are a lot of people that work two jobs to provide for their families,
put their kids through school. In our state, I'll tell you, nobody
works harder than farmers. When it's time to go, it's time to
go.
I've
always kind of been cautious of coaches that talk about how hard they
work. But the reality is Sunday through Thursday night is pretty
extensive, and again, as a head coach my feelings are what coaches ought
to be doing is worrying about the game plan, our players, getting them
ready. If they've got time to see their families at all, that's
great. So why would they take 15 minutes to do an interview?
If they want to do that, that's fine.
I
hope you can appreciate that. That's kind of how it looks.
I wouldn't do five, either, if I was an assistant, but I'm here because
I'm not an assistant. So anyway, here I am. That's how I
look at the world. Anyway, it gives me something to talk about
at least. That's good.
Now,
Wisconsin. Obviously we've got a big challenge this week.
That's really what's important. We're playing a very good football
team. They're very talented. They're coming off a tough
portion of their schedule, but don't let what's happened the last couple
weeks fool you. This is an excellent team coming in. They're
very strong, very veteran, and they're very physical, and they've got
some very good players and they're well coached.
We've
got a challenge ahead for us, and the challenge for us right now is
to maximize our time, including our assistants maximizing their time,
and hopefully we'll be ready to go on Saturday. It will be good
to be back in Kinnick and we're looking forward to it. It ought
to be a real good Big Ten football game.
Q.
Reviewing Indiana, this obviously is the best game the team has played
to date?
COACH
FERENTZ: Yeah, in a lot of ways. The thing we talked about
obviously was taking care of the football. We hadn't done a good
job of taking care of the football and it made a world of difference
Saturday. I'm really happy. Our players have been playing
hard each and every week. They've been competing hard, and we
had to Saturday. I think that score was not representative of
the kind of game it was I don't think.
Just
hopefully we've learned a little bit about the value of taking better
care of the ball. We did a better job of it a year ago.
And if we can do that, that'll certainly help us. But it was a
positive step for us, and it was great to win. We needed a win.
Q.
Is Tony done for the year?
COACH
FERENTZ: I hope not. There's a chance he could make it Saturday,
but I'm not optimistic. We'll see. Just because it's a muscle,
and if we're not smart, then he could be done for the year. We're
going to be cautious. If it's close at all, we'll hold him back
just so we don't lose him for the year. The good thing is we've
got a bye week coming up. I mean, he's close right now, so I'd
like to think here in another seven days we'll be ready to go and then
we can rest him further.
Q.
How about Clayborn and Shonn's ankles?
COACH
FERENTZ: They should be fine.
Q.
Mike Daniel?
COACH
FERENTZ: He's fine. They ran some more tests this morning,
but there's nothing dangerous, no red alerts, just making sure that
there is nothing else. He was fine coming home, some kind of a
breathing -- shortness of breath. They ruled out asthma, ruled out
a lot of things. Maybe they can find something today.
Q.
Scary, wasn't it?
COACH
FERENTZ: It was, yeah. It was just strange because he's
been through camp, he's played in hotter games and played -- he's played
this year. It was strange in that regard. The weather was
a little bit unseasonable; maybe that was part of it. Maybe he
was all excited because we won, I don't know. I'm only making
jokes about it because he's fine. As far as I know, he's fine.
But it was scary. Anytime a player goes down, you worry about
that.
Q.
What about Paki?
COACH
FERENTZ: He's fine. He could have played Saturday.
Just given the situation, we just felt like it was better to get him
one more week of rest, so he should be full speed now.
Q.
Did last week's performance reinforce the notion that things were moving
in the right direction despite those three losses, especially with the
players?
COACH
FERENTZ: I think our players and probably coaches have been more
realistic than people outside the program. I think we see the
film every week, we watch our guys practice, and I said a week ago,
I wasn't discouraged at all with our football team. I was disappointed,
but all of us were.
It
gets down to -- in conference play, when you're in competitive play, it
gets down to the things that gets you beat, turnovers, special teams,
penalties. It's very cliché, but most clichés are pretty true,
and certainly true in football.
Q.
Ryan Donahue's numbers have dropped quite a bit, probably happily so
for your case. He's down to second lowest number of punts in the
Big Ten. Is that something that you're aware of?
COACH
FERENTZ: No, but we're moving the ball better than we were a year ago.
I was painfully aware of the fact that we punted a lot last year.
And punts aren't a bad thing. This could be a game where punting is
not a dirty word.
That
being said, he's performing really well. We thought he really
matured and developed last year. And you bring up that topic,
one thing I hope, whenever -- it's early in the game and all that, but
when you evaluate players, statistics are usually part of the equation,
but to really appreciate a good punter, you have to watch him punt,
and he's done some great things. I have no idea what his net punting
is, but I know he's done a great job of putting the ball down where
we have a chance to get field position, getting hang time. He
hasn't been perfect but he's been fairly consistent.
And
when you have a good punter, that gives you a chance to have an edge
in the kicking game a little bit.
Q.
Is the key to slowing down Wisconsin putting guys in the box and slowing
the run game?
COACH
FERENTZ: Choose your poison because you start with Beckum in the
passing game. I don't know if we've defended him very well career-wise,
nor have many other people. The guy is really an excellent football
player there. Gilreath is a great speed player and a big-time player.
Jefferson has got good size, he can run. So they've got guys that
can hurt you in the passing game. It gets down to playing good
team defense once again because obviously these guys are very strong,
very experienced, very big up front, and both of their running backs
can probably be playing center or guard if they played for us, they're
so big. I don't know if our guys are that strong. But Clay
and Hill are both big, big strong guys.
Q.
Getting back to your defense again, Iowa has slowed some of the nation's
top running backs this season?
COACH
FERENTZ: Yeah, our guys are playing good defense right now, and
it's going to be a heck of a challenge again. Going back to the
Pittsburgh game, we've seen pretty good running backs each and every
week. Thigpen was a little bit different last week because he
had great speed, but when you go through Sutton, Ringer, McCoy, those
three guys are excellent, and now we're seeing two more guys.
Zach Brown is a good back, also, so they've got three guys that are
very dangerous. We haven't seen a line quite like this one.
Maybe we can get the police to arrest them for violating weight quotas
or whatever coming across the border. But these guys are big,
and they're good.
Q.
Surprised to see that score last week, Penn State 48, Wisconsin 7?
COACH
FERENTZ: Phil and I were just talking about that a little while
ago. You get into games, sometimes things happen. It happens
to good football teams, too. It's just that's part of the deal.
And then the other part of the equation is Penn State has done that
to a lot of pretty good football teams this year, and they're probably
going to do it to some more. They're playing extremely well right
now, they're extremely veteran and they are playing like a veteran team.
Probably the only guy that's not a veteran for them is Clark that's
doing a great job, and he looks like he's been playing for three years.
So it's a scary outfit. To judge a team against Penn State right
now is probably not a fair evaluator.
Q.
Is this about as healthy as you've had a team at this point?
COACH
FERENTZ: I'd rather not talk about that, with all due respect.
I'm not trying to be anti-media here and non-media friendly, but it is.
And that's part of success, too. Things can change fast when a
couple guys -- wrong guys get hurt. Knock on wood, we've been lucky
there so far for the most part.
Q.
On paper Mitch King, Matt Kroul, big tackles really shouldn't work,
should it? 275-pound guys?
COACH
FERENTZ: That's just how we play. They've worked extremely
hard in a couple areas, strength and conditioning a fair amount.
And then they understand technique. They really understand it,
and they work at it. Technique is something that can fade.
It's like hitting a baseball or shooting a basketball. I mean,
you've got to work at it and practice it routinely. They're very
well-coached. We've had great line coaching from Rick and Ron Aiken,
also, but that's kind of the way we are.
I
mean, we tend to be a smaller group up front; both sides of the football
historically has been that way. If you compare us size-wise to
other teams around the Big Ten, either line, usually we're somewhere
in the middle or in the bottom. That's just how we've played.
Q.
Something you look for in those guys?
COACH
FERENTZ: Yeah, there are a couple things we look for. They're
good football players. It starts with that. Both Matt and
Mitch were tough, productive players in high school. I don't think
we were sure in either case what they would be. Matt is probably
a little bit more like Mike Elgin. We weren't sure what Mike Elgin
would be, but we thought he'd be something. Mitch we thought would
be a linebacker. We thought that even in the spring of 2005.
But
it got a little tough to watch our front. We just weren't good
up there, so we approached him about moving, and Matt has really taken
off and done a good job with it.
Q.
Are you ever even surprised by what they're able to do against the 330-pounders
in the world?
COACH
FERENTZ: No, I go back to Jonathan Babineaux -- I'll interject this.
I have a snapshot moment of one time I saw Jonathan get physically knocked
off the football, and it was at Arizona State during that massacre game.
I mean, I got a snapshot. Watching the tape the next day, I was
like, whoa, and it was because Jonathan abandoned his technique.
It was later in the game and there were some circumstances there probably.
But
for the most part Jonathan was just wired into what he was supposed
to do, and despite his size, it was tough to move him. So that's
the key to our defense is everybody playing their position, playing
it well, and those two guys are like the poster children for that, that
mantra.
Q.
When did you get a good feeling about this offensive line?
COACH
FERENTZ: Oh, in camp probably. I think we started -- it was
going slow, progress was slow in the spring. But I think in camp
things started to pick up a little bit, and they've been working hard.
I wouldn't minimize -- a guy like Bruggeman, who we all took him for granted
in one sense because -- main game was his first ballgame plan. We
just all looked at him as like a third-year guy, but with the knee injury,
that kind of knocked him out of last year -- not kind of, it did, it knocked
him out last year. But he's got the maturity of a fifth-year guy
and some very quiet leadership capabilities or attributes that are very
important.
It
starts with him a little bit, and Seth. Those two guys -- Seth didn't
have a good spring. That hurt us. He was out most of the
spring.
Anyway,
we've been pretty healthy for the most part. It started at camp,
and competition has been good. It's still pretty good. We
still have some guys battling for playing time, and you get guys -- they've
got some guys that are improving right now behind the scenes that are
backup, so I think those guys are moving in the right direction.
They're doing a good job. A lot of that is maturation, though.
Q.
What would be Bruggeman’s strength, is it footwork?
COACH
FERENTZ: Yeah, he's a good football player. He's a 335-,
340-pound guy out of Wash High five years ago who's worked extremely
hard, and he's gotten his body now where he's given himself a chance
to compete against good players. But he's got a great attitude.
He's a very smart person and he's a very smart player, too.
He's
pretty wired, kind of like the discussion with Matt and Mitch.
He's wired in with technique, which you have to be if you're going to
compete at that weight. Chris Doyle was talking about Steinie
last night playing; looks like he's about 265 Chris thought. But
he's athletic, he's tough, he's smart, and he understands leverage.
Those attributes are more important than size, I think.
Q.
Is this his true last year? Is it possible to apply for a sixth
year?
COACH
FERENTZ: I don't think so, because I think you typically have
to have two season-ending injuries, and I don't think that's the case.
He'll get a chance to play somewhere next year. Hopefully it'll
work out for him.
Q.
To what would you attribute the closeness of this rivalry? I read
going back many years, I think it's the closest series in the history
of the Big Ten, but in the last three or four years I think 17 points
separated the last three or four games?
COACH
FERENTZ: It's a little bit reminiscent -- when I was here in the
'80s, seemed like when we played Michigan State it was always a four-quarter
ballgame, 59-plus, just would always go down to the last minute.
For whatever reason, I can't explain why that was, but that's how it
worked.
We
were probably similar problems, too, in that time frame. We looked
forward to playing Wisconsin in the '80s. At the end of the '80s,
not early in the '80s, but things tailed off there a little bit.
But when Barry went there that all changed. He's done a great
job and Bret has done a great job of keeping that program running, maybe
even taking it higher. They've really had it going. They've
done a nice job. It's been a competitive series. It's been
fun to be involved in the game, most of the time.
Q.
Does familiarity play any role in that?
COACH
FERENTZ: Perhaps, yeah, perhaps. Coaching-wise, you mean?
Q.
You know what they want to do and they know what you want to do.
COACH
FERENTZ: Perhaps, but you can build that argument with anybody
in our conference probably, so I don't know.
Q.
Do you think Shonn Greene ought to be in the Heisman Trophy discussions?
COACH
FERENTZ: I'm not worldly enough to talk about that. I just
know he's playing pretty well for Iowa, I know that, and I'm happy about
that. I don't know where he ranks with everybody else, but he's
playing pretty well -- not pretty well, very well.
Q.
Given the performance you got from Jewel Hampton on Saturday, how much
easier is it for you to run your offense when you can have a second
back like him as well as Shonn Greene to go to?
COACH
FERENTZ: Well, it was great to see and it was important to see
because Paki has been nicked up here the last couple weeks. So
our next-man-in list is getting a little shorter. But we've seen
him grow every week. He's done a nice job on special teams, he's
practicing well. He really doesn't act like a first-year guy except
when he's trying to put the ball out there. That's a little scary.
But
other than that, that's an aggressive mistake, but he's gaining ground
and that was very valuable for him the other day, to play against good
competition. He did a good job.
But
I go back to -- he ran a play in front of Northwestern's bench that was
as good a run and as an important run for him. It was a tough
run, he made like seven yards I think it was. So we're seeing
him grow every week, so that's good, because you like to have a couple
guys ready. I think Paki is back with us, too, so that's encouraging.
Q.
Improvement is such a subjective term. Typically your good teams
have improved week by week throughout the season. Are you seeing
that?
COACH
FERENTZ: Yeah, we have been every week, outside of the turnovers.
That's been disheartening. But outside of that, no, I think this
team has been improving weekly. That's what I was referring to
last week when I said they've really been a fun team to be around.
Part of being a fun team is practicing the way you're supposed to practice,
and coming to the field focused, prepared and energetic. These
guys have done that. They've really done a nice job.
Sometimes
it doesn't always show up in your record, which right now we're a .500
ball club. But you know, it's how you work at it, and hopefully
in time, you know, it shows up.
Q.
One of the guys that got knocked out from last year's game was Andy
Brodell. Talk a little bit about the season he's having and the
comeback he's had from that injury.
COACH
FERENTZ: Sure can. It's been a long, hard road. I
don't think people, again -- why would you, but just the length of time
it took him to rehab and get back. I'm not sure if he's still
full strength. I think he's pretty close if he's not. But
he wasn't in the spring and he wasn't in camp. He's been progressively
working at it, and he's been very proactive. He's healed right
now, but he's proactive to keep it that way.
That's
the first experience I've ever had with an injury like that where they've
had to surgically repair a muscle tear. It's every bit as tough
as coming off an ACL, maybe even tougher. You really respect a
guy who's done that, who's worked as hard as he has. And it was
a little tough because he was really climbing the hill there back in
2006, and then to get hurt that early.
But
he's making the most out of every opportunity. He's really been
working hard, and obviously he's done a real nice job for us, so we're
thrilled.
Q.
Are his hands as good as they seem to be?
COACH
FERENTZ: He's playing pretty well. He was doing a good job
in 2006 returning those punts, too. He had some shoulder issues
early in that season. But it's been -- that's part of the fun of
coaching is to watch guys grow, develop, and then in his case have to
overcome some real tough adversity, as well. I really respect
people that do that.
Q.
You touched on King and Kroul. Could you talk a little bit about
Mitch King and what makes him so special? Obviously he was first
team Big Ten last year.
COACH
FERENTZ: Yeah, as you know, they're different personality guys.
I guess Mitch is probably a little bit more like Norm. Can you
envision Norm with that hair? Can you see that? And I'm
more like Matt probably, not a good interview and all that stuff.
But
Mitch has some flair. He's got a spark. He's that way.
He's a fun guy. We got to sit next to each other on the plane
ride the other day. I don't know who he made mad, but they put
him right next to me down in back. He's a good guy, good student.
He adds some juice to the team out there on the field. Players
do that.
Roth
did that in a different way. I'm not saying he's Matt Roth, but
some guys have that, and Mitch certainly does. He sparks the team
with some of his plays.
Q.
How do you see King and his NFL potential?
COACH
FERENTZ: He's an excellent football player. I can't imagine
there are a lot of them that are better than him in college football.
I've had a lot of other coaches say that to me. Those aren't my
words. But he's a heck of a football player. It's going
to be a matter of finding the right fit. He'll never be a 330-pound
run stopper like some of the guys you see. But not every team
abides by that philosophy; people have different styles of playing defense,
too. I'm sure he'll find a home.
Q.
How much did you need a game like Saturday, not only to win but to put
up the amount of points they did, especially in the red zone?
COACH
FERENTZ: Yeah, I think two things that were important, protecting
the ball better, and then the other part was getting into the red zone,
which we've been doing that and then just being frustrated down there.
To finish out drives, to get points on the board, that was really big
for us, and we needed that.
That's
part of football, and we're hardly out of the woods right now.
But at least we got to experience some success, so hopefully we can
build on that. You know, it's as simple as you hope players -- this
is a lot more fun than getting stopped, that kind of thing. So
that's a good reason to work even harder.
Q.
When somebody gets hurt as badly as Marshall
Yanda did on Sunday, do you reach out to them, or do you wait to see
if they contact you?
COACH
FERENTZ: I mean, it depends. But I coincidentally spoke
to him this morning. A friend of mine from Baltimore tipped me
off that he had been hurt. You know, just his spirits are great.
We were talking about Mitch King and other guys who are up beat and
positive as Marshal. I've never met anybody tougher than him.
But
it's a tough injury, tough one for him. It's unfortunate.
He was really playing well. He's got a great future ahead, and
this is going to be a one-year delay unfortunately, but he'll bounce
back.
They'll
repair it and -- Champ Davis I guess would be a guy I would refer to.
Champ went through something like that. It's not easy. It's
not an easy recovery, but Champ made it back. If anybody can do
it, Marshal can. He's a really determined guy.