• last year
Iowa student-athletes on offense
Transcript
00:00 I have the utmost confidence in myself and the other receivers.
00:03 And when the opportunity comes, I know we'll make the plays,
00:06 along with everyone else on the offense as well.
00:08 I think that we're all capable of being
00:10 the offense we want to be.
00:12 So just continuing to push and continuing
00:14 to put our best football, play our best football,
00:17 is all you can look forward to.
00:20 It's like we see the plays, and we
00:22 see what coverages they're going to run.
00:23 And some plays are for us.
00:25 Some plays are for them.
00:27 And I don't know.
00:28 I've never seen a play that was for me that I didn't like.
00:32 So I pretty much--
00:34 I guess I do just shut up and like every single play that
00:36 comes my way.
00:37 You know what I'm saying?
00:39 Yeah, that's pretty much it.
00:43 I mean, there's always communication.
00:44 There's communication between us and the quarterbacks.
00:46 If we run a route a certain way, and they
00:48 think we should run it another way, they voice their opinion.
00:51 And we do the same thing with Kate.
00:54 If we like it one way, it's just getting more reps
00:57 continually over and over to get on the same page,
00:59 stuff like that.
01:00 So yeah, there's lots of communication between us all.
01:02 Besides coming back because you wanted to,
01:05 what were your goals for yourself and for the team?
01:09 Or not goals, but expectations.
01:13 My expectations for this team was
01:15 to win the Big Ten Championship.
01:17 And I don't know.
01:20 All the outside noise is when you start
01:23 to make it like individual goals.
01:25 But the main goal is it's got to be continuing to win.
01:29 And even if that's catching one ball a game
01:33 for the rest of the year, I'll continually
01:35 do it if that means that we'll win.
01:36 So our goal is still up on the table.
01:39 We're three and one.
01:40 We're getting a Big Ten play.
01:42 Just played our first Big Ten game.
01:44 And I feel like we'll find a lot out about this team
01:46 after this week coming off of a butt kicking
01:50 that we just came off of last week.
01:51 And that's really it.
01:54 I think one of the best parts about Coach Ferrence
01:58 is he has so much experience.
01:59 And every Monday and Wednesday, we
02:01 have team meetings where Coach Ferrence just
02:03 gets up there and talks.
02:04 And sometimes it can be like he's rambling.
02:06 But if you really listen to him, he's
02:08 spitting some serious knowledge.
02:10 And he'll be talking to me like, in 1983,
02:16 we played USC in this game.
02:18 And we got smoked by 31.
02:20 And the next game, we came back and did all this stuff.
02:23 And he's constantly spitting stuff like that.
02:26 And I think it's just the way he instills in us
02:29 to continually fight and grow to get--
02:32 strive to get better is one thing
02:34 that he does a really good job of.
02:36 Last year, when we were pretty down in the dumps
02:39 after we beat Ohio State, I think
02:41 it was three losses in a row.
02:43 And I don't know.
02:44 Who wants to be a part of a team that gets their beat three
02:47 times during, you know what I'm saying?
02:48 But then we came back and fought and almost ended up
02:51 in the Big Ten Championship again
02:53 and lost Nebraska last game.
02:55 But the way we turned that whole season around,
02:58 it was looking at a season that you
03:00 want to forget to a season that we could really
03:02 be proud of ourselves.
03:03 So we're really putting our foot in the ground
03:06 and getting back to work, you know what I'm saying?
03:08 So hats off to Coach Ferentz for instilling that into us.
03:12 We have a 24-hour rule.
03:14 And so I took the entire day Sunday to feel that loss.
03:18 And then we're moving on.
03:20 So in terms of how it is inside the building,
03:23 it's a beginner's mentality in terms
03:26 of how we come into the practice field
03:28 and willing to just do the hard work
03:30 and get things done to be able to push it forward.
03:33 Appreciate it.
03:34 What was the film review like from Saturday,
03:44 offensive line-wide?
03:46 It was a good session, a lot of good things to learn from.
03:50 Obviously, things we'd like to do better.
03:52 And the nice thing about that is it's
03:57 really easy to come out to the field then
03:59 and know exactly what you've got to work on
04:00 to be able to come out the next time and perform better.
04:04 What do you feel like are still the biggest areas for you guys?
04:07 Is it consistency?
04:09 It seems like you guys play well at times.
04:10 And then sometimes things don't go well.
04:13 Yeah, I mean, certainly that's one thing
04:15 that you're always trying to chase is consistency.
04:18 But like I've been saying, it's really just the base
04:22 fundamentals and doing what we know how to do.
04:24 And yeah, just doing them over and over again week in
04:27 and week out.
04:28 Are teams doing anything differently
04:30 than you're seeing on film, surprising you guys with things?
04:34 Or is it--
04:34 No, I wouldn't say so.
04:37 For the most part, we're getting what we're seeing.
04:41 Obviously, week to week, that can change depending
04:43 on the team.
04:44 But for the most part, yeah, we're
04:46 getting mostly what we're expecting.
04:49 Played up against a lot of good defenses in your time here.
04:52 Where's that Penn State one Saturday rank?
04:55 Yeah, it's certainly a good defense.
04:57 And they played really well.
04:59 Obviously, kudos to them.
05:02 They're a really good team.
05:04 But obviously, now we're--
05:07 like I said, we got a good Michigan State team coming in
05:09 that's looking to beat us too.
05:11 And so can't stay too focused on last week.
05:15 Is it an easy game to flush?
05:16 I know that was kind of mentality to flush,
05:18 but you can get out of it.
05:19 Right.
05:20 I don't know if I'd say it's easy to flush.
05:23 Win or lose, it can be a challenge at times
05:27 to kind of give yourself that 24 hours to soak it in.
05:30 But especially during a loss, it's
05:32 almost good to just take that whole day
05:34 and feel that sting from that loss.
05:37 Because it can give you extra motivation
05:40 if you use the right way.
05:41 How much time?
05:42 No, things started to--
05:43 yeah, we were out there.
05:44 We were making movement.
05:45 We got past the 50-yard line.
05:46 Things felt good.
05:48 But then execution just wasn't where it should have been.
05:51 We were getting three now, 10 there.
05:53 But that's just part of football.
05:56 Rhythm is rhythm.
05:57 I think you just got to go out there and complete
05:59 every single snap.
06:00 You don't really need rhythm.
06:01 But yeah, that's all I can say on that.
06:04 How much of an environment switch
06:06 is this going to be in the way?
06:07 Go from a white out to a black out, road, home.
06:10 You get the night home game now.
06:12 Yeah.
06:13 There's nothing-- night games are probably my favorite,
06:16 especially in Kinnick.
06:17 And it's blackout, too, which is really cool.
06:19 It's probably one of my favorite games to play in.
06:21 Being able to play in front of our fans,
06:23 there's just nothing like it.
06:24 Our fans have our backs, I feel like, most of the game.
06:27 And just being able to play in front of them
06:28 is just probably the most fun thing for me.
06:31 What's the attitude to practice two days here?
06:35 Monday, Tuesday.
06:36 How's it been?
06:37 How would you describe it?
06:39 Just to improve.
06:40 We have a growth mindset and things like that.
06:42 We're going to learn from this past game.
06:44 We're going to grow from that and see things on film
06:46 that we lacked.
06:47 And we're going to try and improve on them this coming
06:49 week.
06:50 Just continue to do that throughout the season, really.
06:53 Just make sure we go into this game more prepared, more
06:56 confident than we have been.
07:00 Where do you feel like the offensive line is, just
07:02 in terms of--
07:03 you talked about development.
07:04 Kind of where you guys are at through a third of the season.
07:08 It's kind of hard to say exactly where we're at.
07:10 But I can tell you that we're going
07:11 to continue to get better.
07:12 I think we have gotten better as the season's gone on.
07:15 There's going to be challenges in the road.
07:17 Everything's not going to be perfect.
07:18 That's just not realistic.
07:20 They're going to get us.
07:21 We're going to get them.
07:22 That's just how football is.
07:23 But each week, we're going to get better.
07:26 Is it consistency?
07:27 It seems like you guys have been--
07:28 played at a high level at times, but then struggled at times
07:31 as well.
07:32 Yeah, I mean, that's just football.
07:33 I mean, you can see that on any team.
07:34 People play at high level.
07:35 And sometimes people play--
07:36 they play down here.
07:37 And that's just the way it is.
07:38 But if you can even that out and play at a consistent level,
07:41 that's what we're striving for.
07:42 We strive to be the best we can be and be perfect.
07:45 But that's just not the way it is.
07:46 There's good players out there that
07:48 are going to challenge us in each game.
07:49 But we're going to go out there and give them our best.
07:52 Did you get a chance to hear what
07:53 Kate said after the game, talking about--
07:56 did you or no?
07:57 No, I didn't.
07:58 No.
07:58 Just about how this offense will get better.
08:01 It's going to be--
08:02 this won't define us.
08:04 He sees signs that this is going to get a lot better.
08:06 So do you share that opinion?
08:08 Yeah, he talked to us in the locker room after this.
08:11 He's like-- I think--
08:12 he's a-- I mean, he's probably one of the best leaders I've
08:15 been around, just the way he approaches things and things
08:17 like that.
08:18 He understands this was just one game.
08:20 Everybody's going to get punched in the mouth sometimes.
08:22 And that's what happened this past week.
08:23 But we're going to make sure that doesn't happen again.
08:25 We're going to learn from this past game.
08:28 I think that's the biggest thing from this--
08:30 learn, grow, and just continue to work
08:33 on these things in practice.
08:34 I think that's the coolest thing about it,
08:36 is just Coach Farrin's continues.
08:37 He didn't make it a big deal.
08:38 I mean, he understands it's a loss.
08:40 But we're going to come into practice, we're going to continue to get better.