Snippets I like from the Ken O'Keefe/Norm Parker press conferences

Normally, I can think of a few things I'd rather do on a warm April afternoon than listen to coordinators talk football.  I'd rather let everything have its season, and not much more, but that's not living in the real world.  To me, football in the spring is like basketball in the summer. But if you like it year-round, that's great. It helps me that you do, actually.

Nonetheless, I always feel like I learn at least a little bit whenever I listen to Iowa's coordinators, Ken O'Keefe and Norm Parker. Maybe it's because there are only a few chances per year to do so. But mostly because they just seem like regular guys who love what they're doing and have a sense of humor about themselves and the world.

Here are my favorite snippets from their Wednesday sessions with the press:

Q. Did you hold your breath a little bit when Marvin (McNutt) was thinking NFL?

COACH O'KEEFE: You know, it's just like everything else. Not that I'm an a total Novocaine drip or anything, but whether it's guys getting hurt or guys going to the NFL, you just keep on doing. I don't spend much time over thinking things to be perfectly honest with you.

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Q. Do you envision being on the field in the fall or are you going to coach from the press box again?

COACH PARKER: I don't know, if a crowd started coming my way real fast, if I could get out of the way. I remember one time when I was at Michigan State and I got hit by Nick Bell out there. He knocked my ass off. I wanted to cry but I didn't want to cry in front of the players. I think I would be a hazard, not only to myself but to somebody else out there if I couldn't move around, if I had to get out of the way. Even with my cane.

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O'Keefe on players watching film to help themselves get better:

It's no different than a concert pianist or great actor. You don't get good by accident. You get good by practicing. And there's never enough time to really get great at what you want to do, just in a two hour practice, or in a two hour rehearsal, two hour recital, whatever it may be. Just you've got to do more. It kind of like, what was it, Gladwell's 10,000 hour rule or whatever it may be. There's a lot of sense to that. There's no natural talents. It's just who put their 10,000 hours in; did you do it like Tiger Woods, start when you were four, finished when you were 14? Or did you do it like who know's who, but somebody that took him later in life. And really that's what it's all about and our guys seem to understand that and that's kind of what's helped us the past 12 years.

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Q. Do you have some goals that you want to reach health-wise, because last two years, you've had a hard time making it through the whole season. I know that's probably a concern for you, and you probably want to have a good feeling going into the season that you're going to make it through.

COACH PARKER: I'd like to be alive when the season is over. I feel pretty good. I feel pretty good. I just want to get to where I can be more mobile. You know, learning how to walk and I can go across flat surfaces, but if something's real bumpy, I'd start to get a little wiggly.

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Q. Your first comments when you came in here were about Norm. You've worked with him for a long time. How important is he to the success of this program? What does he do for this program? And how much did it mean just to have him back in December?

COACH O'KEEFE: Well, that's why I said tough. He's the model, the example of the toughness that we want to have in every aspect of our program. And Norm, he provides a lot of tremendous wisdom, as you guys experienced as you've experienced from time to time.

And he provides that same wisdom to us as a program, whether it's in meetings or, you know, out on the field or with our players, whatever it may be. He's a guy who has been around for a long time, worked for a lot of different people. Has great perspective on what's going on in life, period, in that there are things bigger than just, you know, just this; which is hard to believe, isn't it.

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Q. During the off-season, do you cross-check each other, the coaches? Do you give your opinions of the offensive players and they give you their opinions of the defensive players? Does it that ever happen?

COACH PARKER: Yeah, we do a little bit, but it's like if all of us in this room, I gave you my opinion of your kids and you give me your opinion of my kids, you've got to be careful, because everybody thinks their daughter is prettier than the other guy's daughter.