Iowa Hawkeyes College Football Pregame Quote, 12/05/2021

Coach, if we could ask you to open up with an opening statement, looking forward to having you down here. Certainly a memorable ending last time you were in Orlando. Congratulations on a successful season. How are you and your team feeling about the game?

KIRK FERENTZ: First of all, we’re just really excited to have this opportunity. I’m one of the few people around here, I guess, that remembers the trip. It was such a great experience for everybody involved with most of our team, obviously. Everybody there had a great time in Orlando. You guys did a great job hosting an event. We’re thrilled to be back there. It’s been quite a while.

Also on that opportunity to play against a team like Kentucky, an outstanding SEC program. Mark Stoops has just been done unbelievable job with that program for quite some time now. We do have some connectivity between the Stoops family.

Bob Stoops, who played here, was a senior in ’82, is going in the College Football Hall of Fame this next week actually. Was with us last night. He was doing the game. Mike had a tremendous career here as well. Then Mark was the last one to play here, and he and I were, as I was leaving here in ’89, it was the end of Mark’s career.

All three Stoops are just tremendous players, all three of them outstanding coaches, and Mark’s done just a phenomenal job with the program there. So a little personal aspect to it.

But it’s going to be a great thrill for us to have a chance to compete against their football team. We’ll have our hands full, I’m sure of that.

We, as a team, are certainly anxious to get back on the field. We had a tough game last night and played an outstanding opponent. Just didn’t play well enough in really any of the three areas to expect to win that football game. I know our team is excited about getting back to it and having an opportunity to play in a great bowl game. It was just a great thrill.

We talk to our guys all the time about handling adversity, and that will be the task this coming month for us. First and foremost, I think our players right now just need some rest, not only physically, but also emotionally. Just mentally get away from things a little bit. So we’ll try to be very mindful about that. They’re going to finish up their schoolwork. This is our last week of class. They’ll be in finals next week, and then we’ll transition into our game prep.

Just tell you we’re really excited about this opportunity, thrilled to be coming to Orlando. And we’re looking forward to the challenges at hand. I’ll throw it out for questions.

You mentioned the Stoops family obviously had a connection with Iowa, and you mentioned Mark’s time there. What do you recall of his time as a player? What did you think at the time ‚Äì I know you weren’t his position coach. What did you think of him as a player? Did you ever think he’d wind up being a head coach someday?

KIRK FERENTZ: I don’t know about head coach, but coaching, he had no choice. It seems to be in the Stoops blood. All of the boys are coaches. The oldest one Ron was a high school coach in Ohio. Then Bob came and Mike and certainly Mark. It’s just a great family. Their dad, Ron Sr., was a tremendous high school football coach also.

I remember distinctly when I got here watching Bob Stoops play, there was no question in my mind that he was going to be one of those guys that would go into coaching. That’s just how he played. He played smart. He was really tough-minded but also played really smart and was very much into the mental aspect of the game.

It’s funny with Mark, one of my first memories, our coordinator during the ’80s was a guy named Bill Brashier. Bill is one of the best people and best coaches I’ve ever worked with. I think, if you asked any of the Stoops, they’d tell you the same. I’ll never forget, when Mark was in on his visit, and I walked by Bill’s office and he was talking to Mark. Later on we had a staff meeting after the recruiting weekend, and Bill made the comment, he goes, ‘You know, if this wasn’t a Stoops, I would have sworn there’s no way this guy is going to be a college football player.’

His point was that Mark at that time probably looked like he was 15, just a really young-looking high school senior. Coach had his mind made up on that one already. Certainly it panned out. All three of the boys had tremendous careers here, not just good careers, but tremendous careers. So not surprised at all. Mark’s done a wonderful job there with Kentucky’s program.

Speaking of that, Coach, what do you remember about Mark as a player? I know you were on the offensive side of the ball. I know he was a defensive player at the time. What do you think stood out? Some memories about his playing style.

KIRK FERENTZ: The guy that I know the best and who had the deepest relationship with would be Bob. Bob played here in ’82 and stayed on as a grad assistant. That’s what they call volunteer assistants. Bob was here for several years after his playing career. So I got to know him as a player and also on a professional level. We had a lot of fun together.

The thing I would say, all three of them were all cut from the same cloth. They wore the same number, 41. Cut from the same cloth. They just looked at football a little differently, and most college football players do. Again, it was in the blood. I think that’s something they grew up with. They were also very good house painters on the side. They did that in the summertime with their dad.

They’re a football family. Mark gets along with people. He’s a great teammate, great leader on our football team. Again, just his approach to football is probably a little different than the average guys.

Kirk, talking about Stoops’ approach, a lot of people kind of for a while, at least, described his team at Kentucky, the way he’s built the program, sort of compare them a lot to a Big Ten team. Do you see that in this? I know you’re playing a lot on Saturdays, but from what you’ve seen of Kentucky just over the years, how would you evaluate what they’ve done?

KIRK FERENTZ: I’ve got to be brutally honest. Outside of Big Ten football, I don’t know how much I’ve seen of a lot of other teams to comment in that regard. I’ll know a lot more here in about three weeks.

Just knowing the way Mark approaches things, and looking from afar, my sense is he started out by building a great foundation and wasn’t trying to do a quick fix. I personally think that’s the way to go about it. You’re trying to build something that’s going to last. It seems like and appears from a distance he’s had great support from the administration.

I’ve had friends, actually a friend that worked at Kentucky probably 18 years ago, somewhere in that ballpark. It sounds like the administration was really committed to getting a really solid football program built. They certainly selected the right person with Mark. You think about experience with his two brothers, great, great people to pick their brains and get advice from. Just have tremendous respect and admiration for all three of the guys who are just outstanding people and outstanding coaches.

Mark’s done just a wonderful job building that thing, like I said, brick by brick.

Two quick ones. Do you know any more about the severity of Spencer’s injury and how it might impact his status for the game?

KIRK FERENTZ: He had a tough night last night, discomfort. As far as I understand right now, there’s really ‚Äì nothing’s in danger, no organs, anything like that. He took a pretty good shot. It wasn’t to the head. He took a shot. At least he strained some stuff in his abdominal area.

So he’s going to be fine, but he’s in discomfort here and probably will be for a while.

And then the Holiday Bowl was such a short prep two years ago. Then you lost your prep last year for bowls. Do you envision trying to emphasize, I don’t know, like development in this period at all? Now you’ve also got a little bit of a shorter window with the championship. I guess how do you view that?

KIRK FERENTZ: It’s kind of interesting, Chad. I can’t tell you why. A couple of weeks ago I was thinking about 2015. I was thinking about our bowl prep that year. I can’t document this or prove it, but I really think both teams that played in that game in ’15 probably went into their next games a little tired, and neither of us had good results.

I can’t tell you why I was thinking about that a couple weeks ago because I don’t think anybody would predict we’d be in Indy. I made a mental note of that, just really being careful where our boys were at, probably emotionally as well as physically. With that in mind, as you know, I’d love to do a lot of developmental work, but I don’t know if it’s in our best interests.

We’ll look at it. I’ve kind of been giving it some general thoughts, but we’ll start fine detailing it this week. We’ll work our younger guys. I just want to really be mindful of our guys that have been playing. They’ve really spent everything they’ve got, I think. For us to get 10 wins, it took everything. I can’t say how appreciative I am of all of our players’ commitment, their dedication, the efforts they’ve put out.

I think it’s only fitting for this team to have another performance where they go out and play their best. That will be the goal. We’ll try to be mindful, and maybe here in a week or two, I have a little better idea of what we’re going to do.

Do you expect any players to opt-out in terms of going to the NFL, or is that something that isn’t quite a conversation yet?

KIRK FERENTZ: We’ll start having those conversations this week. We just touched base with some guys back during our bye week. Really there’s really no sense of urgency for anybody right now. It doesn’t mean they won’t do it. Really the players don’t have to make any formal decisions till mid-January. They’ve got plenty of time to think about things.

Ultimately, you just want players to do what’s in their best interests. One thing I’d love to have all of our guys back, quite frankly, but I also know too you don’t want somebody to stay if their heart’s not in it. It’s not good for either party.

So, yeah, we’ll start having those conversations. I’m hopeful that we won’t have that kind of transition. In the world we live in today, that seems to be a trend. We’ll see how it all plays out.

I want to ask about kind of the next 10-day block. It’s probably ‚Äì recruiting, I’m sure, is probably the top of the list by far and away for you and your staff. Your time and your players, how much time do they get off? Are they going to go and basically stretch and run around for a few days and that’s it? What’s kind of the schedule for the next week to 10 days?

KIRK FERENTZ: They’re off until Tuesday morning. We’ll bring them in and have a brief meeting and a light workout just to stretch and move around a little bit like they would on a Sunday. They’ll get two lifts in this week and do light work over the weekend.

Next week we’re in finals. So really these next two weeks, this week by design and next week by necessity, we’ll really try to rest the guys as much as we can physically, and we’ll turn in earnest to the game planning. For our staff, we’re a week behind in terms of travel, and believe me, we’d rather have been a week behind. We’d never make that trade.

So we’ll be moving around today or tomorrow and getting where we got to get and doing what we have to do. Then we host a handful of recruits this coming weekend. We’ll start digging deep into game preparation next Sunday or Monday.

You mentioned earlier you hadn’t looked much at Kentucky yet, but the quarterback, Will Levis, is a guy that played in the Big Ten. I was wondering had you had a matchup with him or seen anything of him on tape from his time at Penn State?

KIRK FERENTZ: I can tell you what we think of Will. I think this is correct. We were the first Power 5 school to offer him. We offered him a couple Junes ago. He came to camp. He was a guy our quarterback coach, Ken O’Keefe really liked. He came out, came to camp. There was no question in our mind he was going to be a good college football player.

Unfortunately, another school came in that was a little more prestigious than us a couple weeks later. That was the end of that relationship. We did get to see him a little bit. Will is a tremendous football player. He’s done a great job. I hadn’t seen film but just followed and reading articles and that type of thing. I know he’s done a great job for Kentucky. I’m not surprised. He’s a first-class young man.

Does this add a kind of excitement when you didn’t have a bowl game to play in in 2020 when the Music City Bowl got cancelled?

KIRK FERENTZ: As we all know, last year was such a ‚Äì just an unusual year, a lot of weird things. To get the bowl game cancelled ‚Äì I think that was on a Sunday. Does that sound right? I don’t know. It doesn’t really matter. We were a couple days into preparation, and then the plug got pulled on it.

Last year is just a season of strangeness in a lot of regards. Every step of the way this year to operate in semi-normalcy, starting with even our training, weight training with just having a normal routine that way and having a normal spring practice, pretty normal summer. So it’s all been good.

Now to have a bowl opportunity, it’s really exciting. I’m just so proud of our team, the way they played this year, what they’ve been able to do, and how they’ve maximized their ability. To play in this bowl like the Citrus Bowl, it’s such a great reward for our players. Really happy.

Again, it’s been almost 20 years since I’ve been there, but I can tell you from that experience, it was first class. I’m just so pleased for our players and really happy for this opportunity.

I wanted to ask kind of about their mental outlook. I remember in 2015 after the tough loss and then got to go to the Rose Bowl. The players themselves still seemed really down because of the result, and understandably so. What are you trying to do to get them not to worry about Kentucky and the Citrus Bowl and just worry about going and being a human being for a couple of days. How do you kind of manage that, massage that, so they can get back in the frame of mind to play football in a couple weeks?

KIRK FERENTZ: That’s kind of what I was alluding to. I can’t tell you why I was thinking about that three weeks ago or whatever it was. I guess I was starting to pull some stuff together in general prep, thoughts. That was one clear take-away from ’15. We weren’t where we needed to be mentally or emotionally in that ball game. I’m not so sure as much physically, but I think mentally and emotionally.

We’ve got to do a better job as coaches. That being said, at that point we didn’t know how last night was going to go. Obviously, it was a disappointing night for us. But the good news is right now we’ll put a good plan together, and more importantly, we’ve got a group that’s already proved this year how resilient they are. They’ve gotten back up off the turf a couple times already this year. I have full confidence we’ll do it again. We’ve got great leadership on this football team. They’re exceptional young guys.

Hopefully we’ll do our part. I know they’ll do their part. It’s a good team effort for sure.

Dane, thank you for joining us. We appreciate you taking the time. How are you feeling about your bowl trip this season? Looking forward to your trip to Orlando?

DANE BELTON: Definitely. Being able to go home, close to home, is a good opportunity. I felt like we got a good bowl based on how good our season was. This is a good opportunity for our team.

Dane, when you were at Jesuit, did you ever have a chance to play a championship game at Camping World Stadium?

DANE BELTON: I didn’t. I went to the semifinal three times in my four years there, and we didn’t quite get that far. Actually right now, they just won two nights ago, so they’ll be going to the state championship. I know it’s not there anymore, but it’s good for my high school for sure.

Dane, I’m wondering if you could remember much about facing Wan’Dale Robinson, Kentucky’s top receiver, when he was at Nebraska. Obviously, he did a lot of different things for them. What do you remember about him as a player?

DANE BELTON: Definitely. He was very elusive. He got a lot of quick passes. He’d get in open space and make something happen. He’s a great player. That’s probably what I remember most from him is we had to be good at tackling, our coverage, and all of the above.

How do you kind of mentally adjust from having a disappointing loss yesterday to having still one more game to play for this season?

DANE BELTON: I feel like that’s what you have to do as a football player. You have a short-term memory. We have a 24-hour rule where you look back on the game, evaluate yourself, evaluate how we played, and after that, we move on. I feel like right now we’re in the 24-hour rule. Once that’s over, we’re looking forward to our next opportunity.

We have a great opportunity coming up to finish out the season as this group of guys. Last game we’ll ever play together, and I feel like that’s what we do. We’ll go hit the practice field and get back to working.

Have you had a chance to look back at last night’s video yet? Are you guys just kind of moving on for a few days just to not worry about football specifically right now?

DANE BELTON: We get a couple of days off as a team to regroup, recover. I looked at the film by myself, and I know a lot of players have as well. But we haven’t watched it together as a team.

On a side note, I wanted to ask you about, just getting back to Florida, you guys had a bowl game canceled in Tennessee last year. Your first year you played in California. Now getting, what, probably two hours from home, something like that, how does that make you feel? Are you already getting hit up for ticket requests?

DANE BELTON: It’s a great opportunity, being able to play anywhere close to home. It’s like an hour and a half in Orlando, very close. I definitely have been getting hit up. My mom talked to me about it this morning right when she landed back home from Indiana. She was just talking about how a lot of people are trying to come so be ready for that.

We’ll handle that when the time comes. For now, they just told me to recover and just relax. It’s definitely a great opportunity to be close to home and have a lot of family come to the games. Just to be so far away from home in Iowa. Just to play close is great.

I wanted to ask you, as a third-year player, a junior, you could explore the NFL option, at least get the feedback. Is that something you’re going to do here in the coming weeks? How are you approaching that, if you are?

DANE BELTON: To be honest, I haven’t really given it much thought. I was just focused on the season. If I have an opportunity to see the evaluation, I might explore that. It can’t hurt. At the end of the day, my focus is on this last game we have together as a team. That’s just what I’m thinking right now.

That time will come. There’s a time and place for everything. I feel like right now we have a great opportunity at our hands, and to capitalize on that is what my mind is on.

I remember you came down to Tampa to watch a bowl practice back when you were a senior in high school, is that right?

DANE BELTON: Yes, sir.

Of course Iowa was playing an SEC team then. You have never played an SEC team. Is that something that gives you a little excitement, I guess, going into this game?

DANE BELTON: It gives a little excitement. But at the end of the day, whoever we play is going to be a good competition and a good opportunity. It could be SEC, Big Ten, or Big 12 or Pac-12 or anybody. I feel like the bowl game we’re in is a great bowl, and we’re going to have good competition no matter who it is.

Kentucky is a great team as well. We have to bring our A-game and prepare regardless. I definitely think it’s a good opportunity.

You played Will Levis last year at Penn State. What do you remember about that preparation, and what type of player was he? You guys seemed to do pretty well against him.

DANE BELTON: He was a tough guy. They used him in the run game a lot. Little scheme plays and things like that. We’ll have to be ready for that. He commands the offense well. He can toss the ball around a little bit. He runs and has an extra blocker. We’ll have to be physical, like we pride ourselves on, and just go from there.

I feel like we might incorporate a lot of things that we did against him at Penn State. Also, he has a new coordinator, so we’ll have to do some new things as well. Overall, he’s a great player.

Is there an added meaning to getting to play in a bowl game after not having a game in 2020? Is there kind of added meaning more than what Citrus Bowl would otherwise mean to you?

DANE BELTON: I wouldn’t say added meaning. I feel like any time we have the opportunity to go to a bowl game, it’s just a reflection on how we played during the season. So we have good competition, and we’ll be ready as a team.

It kind of is just not being able to go to a bowl last year, you see the banner up there in our indoor, and it doesn’t say champions even though we didn’t get to play in it. We want to go out there this year and get a banner that says champions, so we see that as extra motivation.

I feel like we’re going to go out and give it our all as an opportunity together. One more time to play one last game, so I feel like we’re going to be ready.

Tyler, I wanted to ask you just kind of about what’s the next week to ten days going to be like for you? I think you’re probably going to have to go to a couple of banquets around the country. How are you going to be able to kind of rest yourself body-wise, just to get yourself back to kind of normal after a long football season so far?

TYLER LINDERBAUM: We’ll have a few days off here with the team getting some time to rest our bodies. Obviously, I’m headed to a banquet this week for the [Rotary Lombardi Award]. I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be a cool experience.

Yeah, this time’s kind of to let your body rest, let your mind rest, and then obviously we’re in a great bowl game. I know the team’s excited for that to try to get our 11th win of the year.

Tyler, I take it by your presence you’re not opting out of the game?

TYLER LINDERBAUM: Yeah, dumb question, Chad.

Just wanted to get it on the record. I guess how much do you want to get back out there given ‚Äì we didn’t get to talk to you last night, but I’m sure it was pretty frustrating for you.

TYLER LINDERBAUM: It was a tough experience to obviously get the opportunity to play in a Big Ten Championship Game. Obviously, we didn’t perform the way we wanted to perform. You’ve got to move on, take these two days, rest your mind, rest your body, recover.

We’ve got an opportunity to play in a great bowl against a great Kentucky team and try to get our 11th win of the season. I think that’s going to be our big focus moving on.

Do you know anything at all about Kentucky? Have you watched him play occasionally or anything this season at all?

TYLER LINDERBAUM: I remember watching a few games. If we’re waiting in the hotel, watching some clips of them. Obviously, it’s a great team. I know they’ve got some good defensive players. Obviously, I haven’t watched enough to tell you about their whole scheme and whatnot. Obviously, they’re in the SEC. I think they maybe finished second behind Georgia in their [division], which is pretty impressive.

We’re going to have to be ready to go. It’s going to be a great team, great competition, and we’re going to be excited for the opportunity.

You’ve noted the 11th win a few times you’ve been up there. Ten wins obviously was a huge accomplishment for this program. To get that 11th win is another step of rarified air. What would it mean for this team considering everything that you all have been through this year?

TYLER LINDERBAUM: It’s going to mean a lot. It’s not going to be easy, that’s for sure. Obviously, 11-3 sounds a lot better than 10-4. That’s going to be our goal. It doesn’t happen often around here, 11 wins in this program. Our team’s been through a lot this year. To get that 11th win is going to mean a lot to us. We’re going to have to work hard and prepare our butts off for this game.

I know you’re close with Spencer. How frustrating is it that he gets hurt and has to come out of the game?

TYLER LINDERBAUM: It was a rough night last night for us. Just poor execution all the way around. We had some opportunities to put some points up on the board and get in the end zone, and we just couldn’t execute.

Spencer’s a guy that he’s trying to give everything for his team. Obviously, it sucks that he’s getting injured, but that also falls back on us. We’ve got to protect him better. It’s a game of football. It’s a physical game. Stuff like that happens. It’s kind of the next man in mentality.

Tyler, I know you haven’t met as a team. Have you individually looked at the film from yesterday’s game, or are you just trying to get that behind you.

TYLER LINDERBAUM: No, I haven’t looked at it yet. I didn’t get much sleep last night, so I’ve been sleeping today. I’ll probably take a look at it tonight. I can already anticipate what it’s going to look like. Not a lot of good things on film, a lot to learn from. It’s just stuff you can learn from going into this Kentucky game. We’re going to have to move forward with it.

Tyler, Kirk mentioned he felt like you guys expended a lot of emotion and energy into this season. How would you characterize that? Do you kind of feel like you need a little bit of a mental break? That’s what he kind of referenced.

TYLER LINDERBAUM: Absolutely. I think guys have given it their all this season. Obviously, Big Ten West champs, that doesn’t come easy. We’ve been through a lot of tough, hard-fought games, especially in that month of November, every game coming down to the wire. Obviously, we played against a great Michigan team.

It kind of hurt. It hurts a lot, not being able to win in Indy, but now a couple days off is going to feel nice mentally and physically. Then it will be time to move on.

Tyler, this is a big month for you. You graduate from college. This is a big deal. Kind of your thoughts on that. Secondly, after you graduate, are you looking for a job? How are you going to evaluate the next few weeks? Your name is getting linked to a lot of NFL clubs already.

TYLER LINDERBAUM: First off, graduated from the University of Iowa. That’s important to me, getting a degree from here. I’ve had a lot of people help me along the way to get that accomplished in 3 1/2 years.

Also, I’m not really looking too far ahead. When the time comes, the time will come. I’m just more focused on our game coming up. I’ll talk to the right people, get some insight from the coaches, family members, and people close to me. When a decision has to be made, it will be made. We’ll worry about that later.

Tyler, wondering, you’ve been through a couple of these bowls. Just these 15 practices that you guys get as a team ‚Äì obviously, you’re an older guy. How do you kind of use them, of these extra 15 bowl practices, obviously, developing for the game but further on afterward?

TYLER LINDERBAUM: I think this bowl prep is huge. I remember all my practices, especially from a younger guy’s perspective. We get a lot of younger guys who get a lot of work in. Also, it’s time to get better, work on your craft fundamentals, stuff like that. It’s not as hard as a fall camp, but it definitely has a fall camp mentality to it, to where you just focus on Iowa football getting better.

I think this has a lot of good things to it. Just 15 practices are a lot of practices to improve your craft.