JonDMiller
Publisher/Founder
Q: Are there any areas that need more work than others?
Kirk Ferentz: It’s pretty much everywhere..Our kicking game was representative of where we are as a team. There is potential there, but not a lot of consistency. We are still trying to evaluate to see who our best one, two and three are at each position and then we have to figure it out. It’s like anytime in camp, we have a lot of work to do.
Q: There were several guys who didn’t practice today. Are any of those injuries serious?
Ferentz: the major thing we announced was Shane DiBona. We haven’t had many Achilles injuries. It seems unusual for a college student, and as my experience with those injuries, it was not a dramatic movement, it just happened. It will be full strength and they repair well, but it takes a lot of time. I don’t think it’s realistic for him to be back in the regular season.
Q: Matt Tobin, what has he done to be with the starters?
Ferentz: We have an injury or two there on the line, but since the day he got here he competes, he works hard, he has a lot of pride...if we were playing today or tomorrow, he would be the guy. I would not rule him out. He is working hard and he competes hard.
Q: Do you have a feel for how many freshmen you are going to play?
Ferentz: Not yet, maybe in a another week or so. We are wide open, as you saw today we had a lot of first year guys working at a lot of different positions. That number may rise in the next week because we will start to focus more on some of those guys this week
Q: How have things looked at quarterback?
Ferentz: James has done a nice job for the most part during camp, and after that it’s a tossup with everyone. That is a position over the next two weeks that we will have to get some clarity at. You can only practice so many guys at quarterback. We will have to draw some conclusions in the next six or seven days
Q: Can you forsee playing two true freshmen running backs?
Ferentz: Yeah, most definitely. I hope not three, but I could see two. Never say never.
Q: McCall has drawn some oohs and ahhs...
Ferentz: He goes hard. He had a good summer here. Reports were good from his boss, he was always on time, stayed until the end and worked hard and its been the same way with us. He has a good attitude and a very likable guy who works hard. So far so good. That being said, he has a lot to learn. It’s all new to him
Q: Coker out today...
Ferentz: He got bumped a little bit too. Nothing major. If we had a game he could have played. We are not going to do that.
Q: How is Micah looking at safety?
Ferentz: Not bad. He continues to improve. That is one that will go a while...that whole picture back there. We will let that go for a while.
Q: How has the defensive line looked? Is there room for Cooper?
Ferentz: Daniels looks pretty good. Big surprise. The two oldest guys look like the most experienced, but after that there are a bunch of guys that are working hard. There is good competition there and we will see how it goes. We will probably play six to eight. Cooper might be in that mix. He has done some good things.
Q: Louis Trinca-Pasat flashed today...
Ferentz: That is how camp has been. He has flashed, then disappeared other times. he is a young player, and the task for young guys is consistency. He has four years. Sooner the better though.
Q: Would Colin Sleeper start today if you had a game?
Ferentz: I will reserve judgment on that because there are so many moving parts in the secondary. Bernstine has had his best set of practices. There is good competition there, the corners are competing too.
Q: Is Jonny Mullings hurt? He was not out here today.
Ferentz: No, he is not in camp. He should be here the first day of school.
Q: Reason?
Ferentz: Right now if we were playing, Wienke would be our #2 punter.
Q: James Morris didn’t practice today. Is he OK?
Ferentz: He is fine. I don’t know how many we had that were not dressed out. Minor injuries. He will be back midweek I would imagine. Shane’s injury is the only thing significant. The guys that came in with injuries are nursing their way back too. This is the normal stuff you get in camp.
Q: The sprints you ran at the end of practice, were those for disciplinary reasons?
Ferentz: Not that I know of, no. We try to get a little edge conditioning wise. The guys are in good shape. As bad as July was, you couldn’t purchase a better weather week than we had this past week. It was like living in San Diego.
Q: Is the kicking job open?
Ferentz: I think everything is open right now. Guthrie is our #1 punter right now, that is clear. The place kickers, we were not consistent, but they are all showing good signs, all three guys are showing good signs. Now the challenge is to find out who is most consistent.
Q: How do you decide on ‘that guy’?
Ferentz: How they practice. I am pretty sure it was last year, all year, it was bad. This camp, all three guys are competing well with each other. I think we are healthier there.
Q: If you played today, would Micah be returning punts?
Ferentz: Probably Micah or Marvin. We will let that ride. the good news if we stay healthy, we have more candidates and that is the key, to stay healthy. That has been our issue over the years.
Q: The last few years, the defense seemed ahead of the offense at this time, but today the offense looked like they had the edge.
Ferentz: You are fair with your description. We had our moments, but we had a lot of penalties on offense today. There were a few situations we didn’t handle well. But there were some good things and we made some big plays.
Q: You were barking a lot about tempo today. Is that normal for this time of year?
Ferentz: It is. You just push forward. I will predict there will be more of that next week. It gets old. We will have a big scrimage Friday night, then off next Saturday then work Sunday.
Q: When do you ‘break camp’?
Ferentz: They will move out of the hotel on Saturday but to me camp does not break until a week from Friday. We are in camp mode until game week.
Q: Are you hoping Wienke or Derby makes a big push to separate themselves?
Ferentz: We have to make a decision. You can’t split #2 reps at quarterback, there are not enough of them. We will watch and see how it progresses, but we will have to designate someone
Q: Does Jake Rudock have a shot at that job?
Ferentz: I am not ruling anything out right now. He has done a lot of good things. We will wait and see.
Q: Have you been surprised with how well he has handled the pace of things at this level?
Ferentz: Not a surprise. A lot of the freshmen are doing well as far as that part of it goes. Today was a big day for them. There was a crowd here, they were in Kinnick. That is good for them and they are handling it well as a group.
Q: Has Kevonte Martin-Manley solidified the #3 receiver spot?
Ferentz: It’s all wide open. The receiving group is like our secondary. We have some decisions to make there and a lot of evaluation to do and time to watch that.
Q: Some of the guys were upset with goal line defense, they said didn’t perform well...
Ferentz: Last couple times we have done that, it’s been the other way around. I don’t think we have had a running touchdown in camp yet...I guess that was good for the offense today.
Q: What are you looking for in general out of your team at this time of the year?
Ferentz: Today was another step because we tackled. We don’t tackle a lot in camp and we let them do a little bit of that today. That is still the best way to sort out who is who. One thing about it, over 25 days the picture becomes more clear in a lot of cases and we will let these 25 practices go on and see what happens.
Kirk Ferentz: It’s pretty much everywhere..Our kicking game was representative of where we are as a team. There is potential there, but not a lot of consistency. We are still trying to evaluate to see who our best one, two and three are at each position and then we have to figure it out. It’s like anytime in camp, we have a lot of work to do.
Q: There were several guys who didn’t practice today. Are any of those injuries serious?
Ferentz: the major thing we announced was Shane DiBona. We haven’t had many Achilles injuries. It seems unusual for a college student, and as my experience with those injuries, it was not a dramatic movement, it just happened. It will be full strength and they repair well, but it takes a lot of time. I don’t think it’s realistic for him to be back in the regular season.
Q: Matt Tobin, what has he done to be with the starters?
Ferentz: We have an injury or two there on the line, but since the day he got here he competes, he works hard, he has a lot of pride...if we were playing today or tomorrow, he would be the guy. I would not rule him out. He is working hard and he competes hard.
Q: Do you have a feel for how many freshmen you are going to play?
Ferentz: Not yet, maybe in a another week or so. We are wide open, as you saw today we had a lot of first year guys working at a lot of different positions. That number may rise in the next week because we will start to focus more on some of those guys this week
Q: How have things looked at quarterback?
Ferentz: James has done a nice job for the most part during camp, and after that it’s a tossup with everyone. That is a position over the next two weeks that we will have to get some clarity at. You can only practice so many guys at quarterback. We will have to draw some conclusions in the next six or seven days
Q: Can you forsee playing two true freshmen running backs?
Ferentz: Yeah, most definitely. I hope not three, but I could see two. Never say never.
Q: McCall has drawn some oohs and ahhs...
Ferentz: He goes hard. He had a good summer here. Reports were good from his boss, he was always on time, stayed until the end and worked hard and its been the same way with us. He has a good attitude and a very likable guy who works hard. So far so good. That being said, he has a lot to learn. It’s all new to him
Q: Coker out today...
Ferentz: He got bumped a little bit too. Nothing major. If we had a game he could have played. We are not going to do that.
Q: How is Micah looking at safety?
Ferentz: Not bad. He continues to improve. That is one that will go a while...that whole picture back there. We will let that go for a while.
Q: How has the defensive line looked? Is there room for Cooper?
Ferentz: Daniels looks pretty good. Big surprise. The two oldest guys look like the most experienced, but after that there are a bunch of guys that are working hard. There is good competition there and we will see how it goes. We will probably play six to eight. Cooper might be in that mix. He has done some good things.
Q: Louis Trinca-Pasat flashed today...
Ferentz: That is how camp has been. He has flashed, then disappeared other times. he is a young player, and the task for young guys is consistency. He has four years. Sooner the better though.
Q: Would Colin Sleeper start today if you had a game?
Ferentz: I will reserve judgment on that because there are so many moving parts in the secondary. Bernstine has had his best set of practices. There is good competition there, the corners are competing too.
Q: Is Jonny Mullings hurt? He was not out here today.
Ferentz: No, he is not in camp. He should be here the first day of school.
Q: Reason?
Ferentz: Right now if we were playing, Wienke would be our #2 punter.
Q: James Morris didn’t practice today. Is he OK?
Ferentz: He is fine. I don’t know how many we had that were not dressed out. Minor injuries. He will be back midweek I would imagine. Shane’s injury is the only thing significant. The guys that came in with injuries are nursing their way back too. This is the normal stuff you get in camp.
Q: The sprints you ran at the end of practice, were those for disciplinary reasons?
Ferentz: Not that I know of, no. We try to get a little edge conditioning wise. The guys are in good shape. As bad as July was, you couldn’t purchase a better weather week than we had this past week. It was like living in San Diego.
Q: Is the kicking job open?
Ferentz: I think everything is open right now. Guthrie is our #1 punter right now, that is clear. The place kickers, we were not consistent, but they are all showing good signs, all three guys are showing good signs. Now the challenge is to find out who is most consistent.
Q: How do you decide on ‘that guy’?
Ferentz: How they practice. I am pretty sure it was last year, all year, it was bad. This camp, all three guys are competing well with each other. I think we are healthier there.
Q: If you played today, would Micah be returning punts?
Ferentz: Probably Micah or Marvin. We will let that ride. the good news if we stay healthy, we have more candidates and that is the key, to stay healthy. That has been our issue over the years.
Q: The last few years, the defense seemed ahead of the offense at this time, but today the offense looked like they had the edge.
Ferentz: You are fair with your description. We had our moments, but we had a lot of penalties on offense today. There were a few situations we didn’t handle well. But there were some good things and we made some big plays.
Q: You were barking a lot about tempo today. Is that normal for this time of year?
Ferentz: It is. You just push forward. I will predict there will be more of that next week. It gets old. We will have a big scrimage Friday night, then off next Saturday then work Sunday.
Q: When do you ‘break camp’?
Ferentz: They will move out of the hotel on Saturday but to me camp does not break until a week from Friday. We are in camp mode until game week.
Q: Are you hoping Wienke or Derby makes a big push to separate themselves?
Ferentz: We have to make a decision. You can’t split #2 reps at quarterback, there are not enough of them. We will watch and see how it progresses, but we will have to designate someone
Q: Does Jake Rudock have a shot at that job?
Ferentz: I am not ruling anything out right now. He has done a lot of good things. We will wait and see.
Q: Have you been surprised with how well he has handled the pace of things at this level?
Ferentz: Not a surprise. A lot of the freshmen are doing well as far as that part of it goes. Today was a big day for them. There was a crowd here, they were in Kinnick. That is good for them and they are handling it well as a group.
Q: Has Kevonte Martin-Manley solidified the #3 receiver spot?
Ferentz: It’s all wide open. The receiving group is like our secondary. We have some decisions to make there and a lot of evaluation to do and time to watch that.
Q: Some of the guys were upset with goal line defense, they said didn’t perform well...
Ferentz: Last couple times we have done that, it’s been the other way around. I don’t think we have had a running touchdown in camp yet...I guess that was good for the offense today.
Q: What are you looking for in general out of your team at this time of the year?
Ferentz: Today was another step because we tackled. We don’t tackle a lot in camp and we let them do a little bit of that today. That is still the best way to sort out who is who. One thing about it, over 25 days the picture becomes more clear in a lot of cases and we will let these 25 practices go on and see what happens.
