Following Iowa's first full padded practice of fall camp, Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz met with the media to discuss what he saw from the Hawkeyes at Kids Day. Ferentz updates the health of Kaevon Merriweather after a potential injury during practice, he talks about how the offense had a rare good day in this setting, and gives us some thoughts on the quarterbacks, and offensive and defensive lines.
Opening Statement
Clearly we still need a lot of work.
Some things look better than they actually have in the previous seven or eight days.
It was good to be outside and good to be at Kinnick and appreciate people showing up. I think the State Fair might have outdrawn us today. It was good to be back in this environment and it was a good day for football. It was a good way to end the week. The guys get a break tomorrow and we will get back to work on Monday.
I saw some positives out there and a lot of good teaching examples and we will get going on that tomorrow.
Q: Normally the defense is ahead of the offense when we have come to these in the past. Today the offense looked pretty good.
FERENTZ: Yeah, usually we can’t make a yard. (laugh) It’s been that way most of the preseason so far. Some holes opened up and the guys ran hard and ran well and we hit some passes too. That’s all encouraging, but it’s back and forth. To your point, the defense usually wins more in the preseason.
Q: Mason Richmarn was playing left tackle with the first unit all day. Assume you have been rotating, but how is he holding up out there?
FERENTZ: We played him there a little bit in the spring, but not a lot. Right now I wouldn’t want to guess who would be playing three weeks from now. It may be all four of the guys. We are keeping an open mind and we have some guys working left and right. Although Mason has stayed pretty much on the left side and could play left guard. Jack Plumb can flip back and forth and we have done a little bit of that with DeJong. We are trying to keep Connor Colby in one spot right now. We are just going to keep practicing and see what happens. It’s still wide open right now.
Q: You had some running backs have a good day today.
FERENTZ: As I alluded to yesterday, we knew what we had with Tyler Goodson and Ivory Kelly-Martin. We have seen what those guys can do and they have played a lot of good football. I think with Leshon Williams starting back in the spring, he plays better with pads on. He’s one of those guys that plays better at full speed. I think he has continued to improve and he’s really impressed us here in the first week and today he had a good day. Gavin has just been steady since he showed up a year ago. He didn’t get to have spring ball a year ago, but everything he has done has been consistent. I think all four guys are capable guys.
Q: How good is it to have a proven backup like Kelly-Martin?
FERENTZ: That’s a luxury. We look at him like he’s a starter, much like we did with Mekahi last year. He’s back healthy and it was a long journey back from his injury and even in the summer time he has some soreness from time to time, which is to be expected when you are trying to come back and pushing hard. He looks fully healthy right now and having he and Tyler out there gives you two guys that are really experienced and tremendous guys and players. That’s one position, I won’t say I am not worried about, but we have a pretty good pool of guys right now.
Q: Spencer seemed to be in command in practice. Is that what you have seen from him in camp?
FERENTZ: I would say what I said a minute ago, we have been up and down and sporadic on offense during the preseason. But, that is so typical and common. Usually we are lucky to run for a yard against our defense. That’s encouraging, but maybe we need to work on our defense a little more. (laugh)
It was a good day for him. It was the best he’s looked and was more confident in his command. Some guys made plays too and if we are going to have a good offense then guys have to make plays and help out. We got off to a slow start, but that’s ok too because guys have to learn to play with tempo. We are young at tackle no matter who is in there and they are going to have to learn the tempo because it is a little different. It’s not game day yet, but we are in the stadium going live so the tempo was a little bit better.
Q: Merriweather got dinged up?
FERENTZ: Yeah he’s going to be fine. Sounds pretty good.
Q: How would you assess the defensive line today?
FERENTZ: We are young. Noah Shannon isn’t out there and hopefully we will get him back out there this week. When we have Zach, Noah, John and Joe, that gives you four guys that are a little more veteran. We have to really work on our depth. We have seen improvement from those guys in the past eight or nine days. That’s like our offensive line, if you took Tyler out of that equation and Cody Ince has played, but we still have a lot of growth ahead of us. The good news is there’s potential to grow and we have to make that happen in the next couple of weeks.
Q: Terry Roberts made a couple of big plays today. What do you have to say about his play?
FERENTZ: He has really ascended on special teams. He has really played well there and last year his ability to play defense caught up to what he was doing on special teams. We have seen a lot of those cases in the last 20 plus years. In my mind he is following that path. Everything he has been doing going back to last year is at a much higher level than it was two years ago. He has really figured out how to play and he competes hard. He is a competitor and he has good skills and a good football player.
It’s a little bit like the running back situation. We have two cornerbacks that have played pretty well and we feel like Terry could jump in there and play on par with those guys and that’s a good thing.
Q: With regard to the play in the secondary today there were quite a few breakout runs and some deep passes. What was your grade on that group today?
FERENTZ: Especially the younger group it was interesting, I think they didn’t get the memo that we were playing live football. I’m not quite sure what they were thinking. They will go live here in a week when we aren’t going live, right? But, we have some areas to grow and piece it together. This will be good tape for us.
Q: Looks like Jestin Jacobs is seeing his potential grow into production. Is he showing that on a consistent basis?
FERENTZ: I really felt that last spring. We were just talking about Terry Roberts, last spring you could see him improving daily. He was a different player from the start of spring from a year ago. I really thought he had a good spring and he’s playing with confidence. He has always had good ability and he’s more physically mature and that’s a good thing. His confidence is now allowing him to play better. He has really good tools and he’s worked hard. When we finished spring practice I felt like we had three guys who could start at any of the three positions for us. Kind of the way I look at Ivory as a starter, I look at Jestin the same way. Technically he is, but if we are at two linebackers in the game then we can rotate those three guys and keep them fresh and that’s a healthy situation.
Q: Yahya Black looks the part out there, but he hasn’t played a lot. How is he coming along and what’s his trajectory?
FERENTZ: The biggest challenge is staying out there on the practice field. He has had some weird stuff happens. Legitimate stuff. One was he slipped in the shower and had a soft tissue issue. I mean, seriously? He had just gotten healthy off something else. He has had his share of bad luck. Hopefully we can keep him on the field because he has all kinds of potential. He has a great attitude. His biggest challenge right now is pad level, but that is so true with younger players. When you get started everyone is too high and that’s the battle he is fighting because he is still learning how to play. He has talent and skill, but if you stand up you can’t play well, so he has to learn to play and that just takes time.
Q: Your running backs did a good job of picking up blitzes today. How do you assess that?
FERENTZ: It’s funny, Norm Granger was officiating today. He has done that for our scrimmages for the last 20 plus years. He made that same observation that it was the best he has scene our blocks in a scrimmage situation so that’s encouraging. There were a couple where we need to tighten it down a little bit, but if you out of the field and you are a back, you need to be able to protect and you have to protect the football. That was Leshon worst play today. For the all the good things he did the ball came out. You better be rushing for 300 yards if you are putting the ball on the ground. That is youth and he will get that down. It was encouraging with the blocking.
