Angerer anxious to get the season started

Pat Angerer cannot wait until Saturday. After a month of hitting his teammates in practice, the senior linebacker is looking forward to popping more than few opponents starting this weekend. Angerer talks about how camp went this year for the linebackers, how ready he is for the start of the season, a few practice fights in recent weeks, plus much more.

Q: You ready to get going this season?

ANGERER: Yeah, it is about that time. We are getting pretty sick of each other and we need to start playing somebody else.

Q: Tony Moeaki said he was tired of you hitting him.

ANGERER: (laugh) I'm tired of trying to guard him. He is too big and too fast.

Q: Do you know some of the guys from the UNI team since they have a lot of in-state guys?

ANGERER: I know a few guys. One of the guys is from Clinton, but I really don't know a lot of their guys. I do know that they have a bunch of hard working Iowa guys on the team. You can't go wrong when you have that.

Q: How is the defense coming along?

ANGERER: Good. Everyone worked hard during the fall camp and we continued to improve steadily each day. We will see how it shakes out on Saturday.

Q: How is life different with Ballard in front of you?

ANGERER: Everyone brings a lot of intensity and it is nice when you have a 300 pound guy that can run in front of you. It gives you a lot of confidence.

Q: How is the chemistry at linebacker developing and working together?

ANGERER: We are working really well. A lot of the talk has been about A.J. and I, but Jeremiha has had a great camp and he is making plays every day. He has been real fun to watch and to play with.

Q: Has practice ramped up in the last week or so?

ANGERER: Yeah. (laugh) We have had a lot more fights. I think every other play we were hitting each other. (laugh) We have been getting sick of each other and it is nice that we can finally focus on ourselves and get a lot of that excess energy out on Saturday.

Q: You said that and you smiled. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

ANGERER: It's a good thing. It always happens. It's a part of football. You can punch someone in the head out on the practice field, but once you get back in the locker room it's not a big deal.

Q: You haven't been involved in any of those fights have you?

ANGERER: No absolutely not. (laugh) I'm not going to fight anyone with a helmet on.

Q: When you talk about the intensity, has the speed picked up as well?

ANGERER: Yeah, I think so. We did a little scout team work on Sunday and the speed of the scout team was the fastest that I have seen. The offensive line did an unbelievable job and that helps us out.

Q: Is there a little bit of a sense of urgency with you right now heading into your senior year?

ANGERER: I am excited for every year and every game. I feel a lot different going into this year than I did before. I don't know why, but I guess there is a lot more excitement for me. I have been having trouble sleeping, so maybe I need to relax a little bit.