University of Iowa Football

Media Conference
Saturday, November 12, 2016

Kirk Ferentz
COACH FERENTZ: First of all, just really proud of our
football players, our team and our staff. A week ago at
this time none of us were having much fun. Certainly it
was a long ride home from State College.

the extra guy down, the way they play defense, they
typically get an extra guy to the ball because of their
ability to cover outside.

I think the first thing is it really took a lot of guts for our
guys to get off the mat on Sunday and find a way to
turn the page on that game. It was a tough game
certainly.

And sometimes he made something out of nothing

there, too. I can't remember him having a negative
play or a negative loss, and that was big in the game.
He's just done a really good job for us, tough
competitor.

And then moving forward, we're playing an opponent

that's as outstanding as Michigan is, you look at the
statistics, they're impressive. Their film's even more
impressive. Took a great week of preparation. Guys
did a great job of really detailing and investing extra
time on it.
And I think the most important things, once we got to
game time, it's just a matter of our players believing in
themselves, believing in their teammates and most
importantly playing with the heart it takes to compete
every snap. And that's what it took tonight is back and
forth, a lot of little close calls, tightly contested plays.
They don't leave you much room for anything.
And just a lot of really good efforts, and factor on top of
that some guys stepping in and the next man up, you
know, Manny Rugamba jumping in there, Anthony Gair
coming in during the course of the game, early in the
game, came in basically played the entire game at
strong safety.
A lot of efforts that way. Really proud of our guys,
really happy for them. I also want to thank our fans.
What an environment. Kinnick at night has always
been special. We've had a lot of great moments in
there. And I can't remember any being much better
than that.
The fans were into it all night long, supported the team.
We feed off that and we sure appreciate that. Really
good football team, and really proud for them.
Q. Can you talk about Akrum's performance?
COACH FERENTZ: Yeah, he came up with a lot of big
plays. And Akrum is a slippery guy. He's got good
feel. The way they play defense there's not much
wiggle room in there. He got away once or twice from
those guys. And also a couple of plays where they got

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Q. That sack, seemed to maybe trigger

momentum?
COACH FERENTZ: No question. We got off to a rough
start in certain areas. You think about Ron Coluzzi, he
had a big night, too. Some of the punts that he had. I
wasn't sure he was going to make it to the second
quarter physically, the way it started. So he hung
tough and Jaleel coming up on that play, it was a really
big play, starts with the field position, and having a long
field to go. And defense came up with a big play
against a big, physical offensive line that they've got.
And they've really been proficient all season long.
So outside of Jaleel, we're outweighed everywhere up
there. That gave us a big spark certainly and then get
the ball back from there.
Q. Talk about a freshman placekicker delivering in
that environment?
COACH FERENTZ: That's still Gary and Ed on the
radio. That looked a little better than the one in
Wisconsin. The first Wisconsin kick he had that kind of
just, shoosh, took the air out of the stadium.
But that's what happens with younger guys any place.
Everybody has their ups and downs certainly, but a
young player, he was going along so well. That was a
tough play for him. Not that you like it, but you know it's
going to happen at some point. But to his credit, just
the way he practices, the way he's bounced back and
keeps on going.
And I guess you can call that a pressure moment right
there. They take the timeout, all that stuff. But his
mindset was right and did a great job there.
Q. On that final drive, his field goal, two attempts
presuming you got in that position, or was there a
certain yard line?

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COACH FERENTZ: Depends on the distance. We've

got a line of demarcation. If it was Miguel's trip, we
would have put him out there. I have every bit of
confidence. Same thing, he's been really practicing
well. I think he caught his toe a little bit on the first one.
I'm not sure the hold was perfect.

But it was there.

But you've gotta believe in what you see and what they
do in practice, if they're doing it consistently. And
nobody was worse than Miguel. Let me just prefacing
it by saying nobody was worse than him in August. He
was just awful. But to his credit he fought back and
he's really been doing a good job. And if it had been
him, I have the confidence he would have done it, too.

And Greg's a heck of a football coach, heck of a

person. And same thing on that front. I mean,
criticism is going to come with anything you do, if you
do something. Now if you don't do anything, nobody's
going to criticize you.

Q. What did you guys not crater after last

Saturday? Why and how did they pop back?
COACH FERENTZ: Really simply you've only got two
options. You surrender and mope and feel sorry for
yourself, or you do something about it. But easier said
than done and just so happens we're playing these
guys next week.
Don't think that we weren't thinking about that on
Saturday night coming home. But it's more about just
the way we operate and what our response is going to
be. And we knew this was going to be a tough task, a
tall task tonight.
And that was realistic just by watching film. And they're
a very well-coached team, very talented. They've got it
all. But you have to focus more so on what you're
doing and what your approach is going to be and what
is your response.
So I said on Tuesday, I think I said, at least, if you do
this long enough, if you're a player or coach, you're
going to get nailed. It happens and it's not much fun.
But when you do it, you go back to work. And that's
what we did in '04 after the Arizona State game.
Purdue got us in '03 pretty good. And there wasn't
much we could do about it. But you just keep playing.

It was a really well-conceived play. And we just didn't

execute it. But the quarterback draw to finish with,
yeah, huge call. Great call. Put the ball right in
position.

But if you try to do something and you fail, that's going

to come with it. You better just keep doing what you
think is best. Not that you don't reevaluate. But you
better do what you think is best.
Q. Do you remember the last quarterback draw you
all ran this year?
COACH FERENTZ: Yeah, we've run several of them.
None looked very good. I was really glad that worked
out well. That worked out pretty well.
Q. Do you call your kicker Duncan Donut?
COACH FERENTZ: I don't, me personally. But a lot of
guys do. I don't. I swear I've never said that. I call him
Dunc. I do know his first name is Keith. But I call him
Dunc.
Q. Have any flashbacks to 1985 Iowa/Michigan
game?
COACH FERENTZ: I told those guys first thing I think
about is a holding penalty they called on us in that
drive, which I can pull the film out right now and show
you, it wasn't on there. But we still overcame that.
But it's the wrong end zone, we were at the wrong end
zone at the end. That was a great football team. It
certainly was too.

And so I'm really proud of our guys getting off that mat.

And the electricity in Kinnick that date in '85, late

kickoff, it was special just like tonight. And both teams,
both years, '85 and this one, both teams really
competed tooth and nail.

Q. You and your offensive coordinator, quite

frankly, have taken some criticism -COACH FERENTZ: Haven't heard much about that,
but anyway go ahead. Is that right? Seriously?
(Laughter).

Q. Talk about what goes through your head as that

(indiscernible).
COACH FERENTZ: I mean, you hope the mechanics
are good. That's the first thing. Snap, hold, kick.
Starts with those three things. But protection.

Q. The quarterback draw, there's a little vindication

that maybe -COACH FERENTZ: I think Greg made a lot of good
calls tonight, really did. Starting with the touchdown to
our left down there. And we missed the two-point play.

But ultimately, you know, it's like everything: You just

have to have faith in your guys that they're going to get
it done and the ball's in good position. So that was a
plus for us. And then it just gets down to execution.

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Q. Chaos there in the field?

COACH FERENTZ: I told those guys afterwards, yeah,
I wish we could have used all of them during the game,
because they blocked very well. It was quite a wedge
we had going there, about five guys.
Q. It was like 2002-ish people were -- I think that
might have been the last time?
COACH FERENTZ: You know, that's why you do this.
And whether it was in Kinnick or a parking lot
somewhere, just the feeling that everybody had tonight
in the locker room of achievement.
The feeling of doing something really significant during
the course of the week and having it show up on the
field. That's all I saw about it, because everybody gets
knocked down. You get stepped on every now and
then, those types of things. But what are you going to
do in response?
But to have 70,000 of our best friends with us, that was
fantastic. Absolutely. National television, can't beat
that.
Q. People will look at this as one great win, great
upset for the University of Iowa. But are the
players at your level of expectation and
performance, I mean, that you expected this
season?
COACH FERENTZ: You hope teams develop. And
they're progressing, they go back, sometimes you're up
and down a little bit during the course of the season.
But the challenge every week is to do your best,
starting with your preparation and then competing. So
that's the whole challenge.
And I told our guys during the week it's ironic a little bit
last year we went 12-0 in the regular season and yet I
probably got more compliments about our football team
from people that watched the championship game than
I did any of our 12 wins. It's more about the way you
compete. If you do things well enough, long enough,
then you might have a chance to have some success.
Hopefully you go out and play as well as you can and
see where the chips fall.

And if it had been whatever it was like last week, it's

hard. That's a hard situation. But we just kept doing
some good things out there.
It was back and forth, both teams really competing
hard. And yards are hard to get in games like that for
both sides. But I think the longer it went the more our
guys felt, hey, maybe we can do something. They just
kept believing in themselves and trusting each other.
Q. Michigan did some redecorating in the visitor's
locker room. Were you aware of that, and did you
address it at all?
COACH FERENTZ: I didn't say a word to our team. I
heard about it when we came in. It's a Coach Fry story
right from '85 where Coach Schembechler had done
that and Coach Fry told them we gotcha and all that
kind of stuff. I wish it was that easy. I would have
wallpapered the place if that would have done it.
Q. When you look at Akrum, the way he played
tonight, he's been capable of this.
COACH FERENTZ: He did a great job. And I'll tell you,
if we can get him over 190, I'll be really happy with him.
But he shows up; he practices hard. He's competing
well, competing really well. And he's a tough-minded
guy.
So he's a delightful guy. You guys have been around
him. He's really a good person, a good teammate and
that type of thing.
And in games like this, there was nothing easy out
there. If you're the guy with the ball in hand against
that defense, they are going to try to kill you. He knew
that coming in. I think he really rose to the occasion
and did a great job for us.

Q. In a game like this, against a tough opponent

like this, there's a level of belief, but sometimes
that belief has to turn into reality when you're
sitting there playing. Was there a point in this
game where you went, okay, not only are we
hanging with these guys?
COACH FERENTZ: Belief can disappear fast. That's
not really belief or faith, I guess. But, I mean, you have
to give yourself a chance.

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