Published Dec 16, 2020
Ferentz talks Iowa signing day success
Tom Kakert  •  Hawkeye Beacon
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As is the case with most college coaches, Kirk Ferentz was happy with the class of recruits he was able to sign today. Ferentz was especially happy that he could recruit a group early enough that they weren't significantly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ferentz met with the media on signing day to discuss his group of offensive linemen that he signed, the challenges during the pandemic, if the racial issues were part of the questions being asked by recruits and much more.

KIRK FERENTZ OPENING STATEMENT

Appreciate everybody joining us and appreciate your coverage of the team.

I'll make some broad-based comments about the class, the process, then Tyler Burns, who is in charge of our recruiting and has done a really wonderful job, can share some good detail with you, probably fill in some things for you.

Just in general this is the 22nd year of doing this, 22nd class. I think we're all excited about this group certainly. It's always an exciting just period for the staff, support staff, everybody that works so hard to pull a class together. It was a lot of work, a lot of detail that goes into that certainly. Just really excited about that in general.

Excited to introduce this class officially. Things have changed greatly as we all know in recruiting, it's almost anti-climactic, a lot of Hawkeye fans know more about these people than we do. Nonetheless, it's a really exciting day for everybody.

Like I said, 17 players, we're thrilled with each and every one of them. Really anxious to welcome them into the class, onto the team.

Recruiting, it's kind of an interesting process. Really I think there's more art to it than science as you go through it. That's true in a normal year. This past year has been anything but normal as we all realize, things getting shut down back in March. We haven't been able to have any personal contact, yet in some strange way it just seems like we almost know this class better than any class we've had because we weren't coaching the guys on our campus, we weren't working with them on a daily basis. As a result, we had a lot more time. It's a different way of communication. Certainly all of us in the country realize that and come to appreciate it.

It really afforded us an opportunity to really get to know our prospects maybe on a deeper level than normal. Same thing with their families. Really appreciative of that, appreciative of the prospects and families taking time to visit with us, ask questions, get their questions answered. Really happy about that.

As we move on right now, we're excited to get this process done. We'll go from there.

One thing I'd also mention, too, just about this class. I think it's been interesting, look at last year's class, they got on campus in June, the obstacles, challenges they've had to face to get to this point, to this mid-December date. It's been one of the biggest challenges for any first-year class that I can imagine. It's really commendable how they've handled that.

I would flip it around and say the same thing about this class, I think all of us do, about this recruiting class. We certainly had bumps back in March right on through. I can't say enough about the way the prospects handled it, about the way they actually delved into areas that they were concerned about or had questions about, asked good questions, both the prospects and families. Really they were digging for facts, not headlines. I can't say enough about that.

None of them flinched, none of them wavered. I feel really good. We've already learned a lot about these guys without seeing them on campus. That's certainly exciting.

This class is well represented. It's a pretty local class, as you know, all but one from Iowa or bordering states. You think about the pandemic, a lot of these prospects had ability to be on a campus before things shut down in March. More regional recruiting, if you will.

All that being said, we still feel great about it for this distance, Joey Labas coming from eastern Ohio. But Joey and several other prospects, they made the trip here, he and his family, made the trip during the summertime just to see Iowa City, experience it a little bit. We couldn't have any contact with him, but at least they were able to see it with their own eyes and ears.

Everything was outside in, standing outside the facility, getting a feel for Iowa City. That's a huge thing for us is getting prospects on campus, getting them into Iowa City, most importantly meeting the people here, interfacing with them. This year it's done in a little different way, but I think the results have been really good.

A couple other things about this class. We're looking for guys that are leaders, good football players, but leaders. 15 out of the 17 have been captains, multi-sport athletes. Think about Cooper DeJean, he probably sparked our interest, the most recent commit as well, sparked our interests through basketball prowess. The football part took care of itself. That's always been important to us, something we try to identify during the recruiting process.

Just last and not least, a really special time for all the prospects. That's all across the country. To receive a scholarship, to earn a scholarship, that's really significant. I always tell prospects, nobody gives them out, they get earned. Our prospects have had a lot of help and support along the way. It's exciting for everybody involved, the high school coaches, parents, family members. It's just a day of celebration, rightfully so. Scholarships are hard to earn. I commend them all for that.

When this is over, we'll start the transition forward at some point. A handful of guys come in January, hopefully in January, then June for everybody else. We'll look forward when the time is appropriate to get them on campus and have a chance to work with them. We're really excited about that.

Last couple things here. Just want to congratulate all of our guys that have received recognition. I know the offensive and defensive teams now have been released. Special salute to Daviyon Nixon to be the defensive player of the conference and also the defensive lineman of the conference, that's a tremendous accomplishment. Speaks to the improvement he's made over 12 months. Really worked hard, played an extremely high level. Just happy for him for that recognition.

Happy for each and every guy that has been recognized. That's really a special thing, too. We talked to the team last night, just kind of gave them a quick update. We want the guys to get a little rest, try to recharge their batteries a little bit. They're in finals week. This has been unprecedented. We're trying to practice, getting ready to get ready for a game during finals there. Good thing there, the guys can turn their attention to finals, finish strong that way. As much as anything, give a chance for everybody to get rest.

I heard that coming in on the college sports station, they talked about they had four head coaches on during the course of the week. All the coaches referenced that their teams were a little tired, worried about their teams and staffs being tired. This has been an unusual year. I think that's probably the most important thing right now, is our guys to finish their academics well and just rest, get some rest.

We'll figure out next week what's going to happen, what we're going to do. We eagerly await Sunday to learn our destination. After we do that, then we'll start at some point getting ready for our next game. We'll look forward to that.

Again, as I said yesterday, I am appreciative that we got to play eight games this year. It's been quite a deal. Hopefully we have one more in us, and hopefully we continue to improve as we go. Today is just a day to celebrate these recruits. We're thrilled to have them join our program.

I'll throw it out for questions.

Q. This is sort of a loaded question. With everything that's gone on as far as recruiting restrictions, how much did having arguably the deepest class in the state of Iowa high school talent-wise, how much of that helped you establish that foundation for the recruiting class? When did you know the in-state talent for this class was going to be deep and special?

KIRK FERENTZ: That's always a good thing for us obviously. That's one of the challenges at Iowa, is our population, a state that doesn't have eight to 10 million people in it. Common sense says there are less prospects.

You guys probably know this better than I, if you go back through the last 10 years, there's a lot more scholarship players playing in our program now going on to college. I think it really speaks to the coaching, in big programs and small, that our players and in-state players get to receive.

I've always felt the coaching in this state is outstanding. Football is important, as a general statement, in the state of Iowa to high school players. It's a real positive. Certainly helps if you don't have to cross state borders. No guarantees, but I think at least your odds go up a little bit. The familiarity with the program, ability to be on campus more, just follow the program a little closer I think is obvious.

I was remiss, we're really excited about the nine walk-ons that are committed to us. I think that's a really exciting group, really accomplished, good players. Again, all those things we just talked about, the character, the attributes, leadership.

When you think about a guy like Keith Duncan who is up for the Burlsworth Award. We awarded three scholarships last week to guys that are more than worthy, deserving. That's always been a big thing for us. We're excited to have them join the program, too.

Q. It's about to enter the wild, wild west phase, if it's not already there, when it comes to allowing players immediate eligibility, transfers. It could be a boom for you potentially or you could lose some players that way. How did that impact at all your recruitment throughout the fall? What is the next step come January? Are you going to be scouring, you don't live in the transfer portal, but scouring it for people, and your current seniors, those conversations?

KIRK FERENTZ: We always try to be as smart as we can, look for prospects that might be able to come in and help the football team. Think about Jack Heflin this year. What a perfect fit he was with our guys, with our team, our defense. He's done a really good job. That's part of the reason we have a good defensive team this year. Yeah, we'll always keep an eye to that.

Now we have a little time here in the next couple days to have some conversation. I was asked that last week. I said I haven't really given it that much thought. A year ago it was pretty obvious that there is a possibility Tristan or A.J. Epenesa might have decisions. My sister could figure that one out. I don't know if there's as many clear-cut cases.

As we project, try to manage our roster, you always keep in mind there are probably going to be a couple guys that want to test the waters in the NFL. That's certainly their prerogative. A bigger factor than it was four years ago.

Bottom line for our aspect is just players have to follow their heart. If that's what they want to do, that's the best thing we can do. There's no reason in being here if they don't have both feet here, fully committed to it. That time comes for everybody. They make the decision to go.

To your other point, with the free transfer stuff looming, all that, the game has changed a lot. Roster management has changed a lot. We'll just try to be diligent. We're never going to build the team in that market. That's just not our niche.

Q. You had one young man back off his commitment, talked about the racial bias as being part of the reason why he did so. How are you addressing that in recruiting? Are you trying to be proactive? Unfortunately there's negative recruiting in this business as you know. Have you heard it's being used against you? Are you trying to be proactive to counter that? How are you dealing with that?

KIRK FERENTZ: I'll share this with you, I won't share who. I know from a very good source one of the head coaches in our conference called his staff back in the spring, said if anybody even goes down that road at all, thinks about going down, they're going to be leaving, they're going to be out of there. To me, that says a lot about the caliber of some people in our conference. I'll let that remain unnamed.

The prospect that you referred to, he lives about three thousand miles from here. I mean, I just don't know where he's going to get accurate information. That's what I was alluding to earlier.

As you might imagine, we had a lot of guys with questions, good questions. I plugged them for asking those questions. We encourage that. Letting us answer those questions. They did homework besides that.

I think that's really what makes me feel good about this class and about this team, right? They could have packed it up after the first two games. Didn't do it. Same thing with the guys that were committed to us, really seriously looking at us. They looked at facts, not sensational headlines. They didn't get caught up in all the stuff. They were looking at things of substance. I think obviously they walked away feeling pretty good about things.

Despite some rumors, we have a pretty solid program here, a lot of good people, coaches, players. It's been that way a while, I'm really proud of that.

Q. How do you deal with that going forward with classes in the future?

KIRK FERENTZ: We're going to continue to deal with it the way we have dealt with it: straight on. Just answer questions, encourage people to get facts, not sensational headlines, all this stuff that got all the attention. Let's look at the facts.

The other obvious answer, I've said this many times, we're going to try to continue to work forward as a program. I'd venture to say we've probably done as much as anybody on that front over the last nine months. Talk to our players, talk to the people in the building that are living it day by day, ask some questions. Good answers go to those guys because they're the ones that live it. A lot of coaches say a lot of stuff. Backing it up is a whole different story. We back it up really well here. I think that's one thing we're really proud of. 22 years, we back it up. You may not like what we say, but we back it up.

Q. One of the names on here, a couple names caught my eye. You pick up three wide receivers. A young man with Nebraska ties. Give me a sense of how important it was to grab those three young men. I notice no running backs in the class. Is that something on the grad transfer you might look at?

KIRK FERENTZ: Potentially. If we can find another Mekhi Sargent, I would be thrilled. I've talked a lot about Chauncey, Mekhi. This guy is too good to be true. Just happened KB saw him in December. I can't remember who got hurt, somebody left, which happens in college football, guys leave, get hurt. We had an opening that spring. I circled back to KB, said tell me more about the guy you were impressed with. The rest is history. It was a lucky shot. I can't say enough about the kind of team member Mekhi is.

We'll keep an ear to the ground. We feel like we have a good group right now. I will share now, I was remiss yesterday not sharing this, Ivory, unfortunately, had an injury. You probably saw he wasn't dressed out on Saturday. Had an injury last Tuesday morning, non-contact. Unfortunately he's going to be a while. He has a serious injury. He'll be back for next fall. That was really disappointing and sad. But we'll be fine there.

To answer that point, this has been an unusual year. There are a lot of good players that have chosen not to sign in December. I wouldn't say it's a big number that we're actively recruiting, but a handful of guys we have serious interest in right now. We'll try to go through that, see what we can do to move forward there.

Q. I know you don't pay close attention to rankings, ratings of players. Was this the year maybe that the offensive line stuff kind of clicked together, the success you've had putting guys in the NFL drew the attention of some of those premium prospects?

KIRK FERENTZ: It's interesting. You would think on the surface that we wouldn't have a hard time recruiting linemen or backs, right? But you never know, right? You never know what's going to happen.

We're really thrilled. Some of the guys are highly recognized, I've been told. I did hear we were ranked higher than we have been in whatever amount of years -- only because on the Big Ten Network shared that with me. That's how I get my knowledge, right?

We don't worry about that. We worry about the guys. We evaluate them as we look at them, just make our own decisions. Most of the linemen were in camp with us. We got to see them work, their level of pride, mental toughness, all those kind of things. We're really excited about the group, feel really good about it.

Let me circle back, too, that last question. Talking about the prospects, mentioned Keagan Johnson, out-of-state player, whose dad played at a really high level in college, on outstanding teams.

Going back to Rob's question, as you might imagine, he had a few questions. I will tell you this, he has a deep appreciation of how things work on a football team, the level of commitment that's necessary, the work that has to go into it academically, football-wise, socially.

I think as much as anything, not that dads make decisions, that's he's approving of him coming here, I think that really speaks volumes. I'll just throw that one out there as a side.

Q. You look at this list, there are some serious physical size in this class. More of a product of the training regimen in high school now, more guys being prepared once they get on campus immediately?

KIRK FERENTZ: Kids are getting bigger every year, prospects are. The world has changed compared to 20 years, training. That being said, we have an eye for everybody, evaluate everybody, because it's still a game of quickness, still a game of aggression at all positions. The guy can't move, if he's really limited athletically, it's going to make it really tough to be successful at any position in the Big Ten.

We're not afraid. We can't be afraid of taking a lineman that might weigh 235, 240 in high school, then grows into a 290, 300 pound guy. We're not afraid to play with guys that aren't 320. Probably one of the smaller lines in our conference. We just have a little different philosophy on that stuff. We're just looking for football players, simple as I can say, that have enthusiasm and want to go play.