Raw Chicago: Ferentz Part 3

This is on recruiting for 2012.

Ferentz says he expects a class in the high teens. Ferentz said Iowa will sign a QB in this class.

INTERVIEWER: What kind of numbers are you guys looking at? [for the 2012 recruiting class]

COACH FERENTZ: Oh, probably high teens would be my guess, yeah. High teens.

INTERVIEWER: And how are things going for this [recruiting] season?

COACH FERENTZ: I think well. It's almost surreal recruiting right now, this time of year, in my mind. Because really all you know is what they share with you. And you know, we really don't, it's hard to communicate with players other than Facebook. You know, moving forward, in the old days you used to hire coaches based on communication skills, what they know about coaching football and football and all that kind of thing. Now the number one requisite is Facebook. If a guy can't Facebook, you can't coach. Sad, sad commentary on our-- It's a great invention, I know. A great social media.

INTERVIEWER: Do you have your [Facebook] page filled out?

COACH FERENTZ: No, not yet. But I'm working on it. And so anyway, the information that comes our way is what is chosen to come our way. So it's really hard to know where you're at most of the time. But we feel good about where we think we're at. We're not sure where we're at, but we think we know where we think we're at. And I think things are perceived okay. You know, based on the last couple three years. That's all you can compare it to in my mind. Recruiting is so much different than it was five years ago, certainly ten years ago. So you just have to try and look how's it look compared to the last couple of years. And I think we're comfortable and I think there are enough good players that we think are good that have an interest in us right now as far as we can tell. You know, they're coming to campus and doing those types of things, so.

And I just have to remind out staff, you know, there are gonna be a lot of good players out there in December, too, so it's not, basically, let's feel really good about something. If we're kind of iffy, then let's just tread water and I don't know how many players … were in the Super Bowl for the Steelers and Green Bay. There's an article in the USA Today about there were a lot of good players in the back. Just talked about Welker. Welker got the last scholarship at Texas Tech. … There was a Sports Illustrated article this past year. Aaron Rodgers, you know, wasn't recruited. He went to Butte. Is it Butte Community College? Because his neighbor had some connection with…, or something like that. And then I think it's still DeKalb the next year. So you've just got to be patient. You know, we don't get all the guys here. They don't sign up at our door. So we just gotta take our time and make sure we're doing the right thing. At least what we think is the right thing.

INTERVIEWER: Do you answer some of the rhabdo questions …

COACH FERENTZ: Kind of more so during the months through March, April. I haven't had one question until the last circuit yesterday, and the little merry-go-round thing they do. And 98% of their questions, I swear to God in every station was about Nebraska. So everybody else wants to get pumped up… I don't know if those were all Nebraska guys, but it was just … But it was great. But the last station, somebody brought it up about, you know. It really hasn't been very common.

INTERVIEWER: And I know I talked to some new recruits and they said their parents came and talked to you and after that everything was fine [more rhabdo] …

COACH FERENTZ: We just try to be proactive about it. Nobody's hiding anything. Nobody, there's no, it's just one of those things, really, to just say nobody can explain. Everybody's fine. Nobody's transferred despite one of the national columnist who chose to write a very dramatic, interesting story, and, hey, we've all moved on. It's all behind us.

INTERVIEWER: What's the focus positionally for recruiting?

COACH FERENTZ: Well, the first thing that just jumps out at me, if you look at it over the last two years, last year and this year combined, and we had five senior defensive linemen. Right now we obviously had three guys try-out last spring. And last year we had about four or five upper-class receivers and we have Marvin this year. So those two positions really come to mind right off the bat.

INTERVIEWER: Are you gonna take a quarterback?

COACH FERENTZ: Yeah, we're gonna take one every year. I can't imagine, we might get a situation where we don't, but you know, we definitely will.

INTERVIEWER: …Do you guys still go through that evaluation process there?

COACH FERENTZ: For quarterbacks? Yeah, definitely. There are a couple of guys we really have high interest in that are mutual. So we're going to, yeah, we might do something early season, but my sense would probably be end of the year type thing, before we really decide who we like.

INTERVIEWER: How flexible are you guys? What skills do they have to have?

COACH FERENTZ: You know, we just want the best guy. And Brad's a great example, Brad Banks. I talked to him yesterday. You know, we really didn't want to recruit Brad, quite frankly. This was back whatever year that would have been. But you know, my goal there was a good high school quarterback and all the guys we liked didn't like us, so Brad was the best guy on our board. That's how we ended up recruiting Brad. But, I'd like to tell you it was our master plan, but it wasn't. And probably one of the best players we've ever had, almost wasn't going to come. And it was pretty easy courtship. Because he had us, we had him and that was it. We were the only school that liked him and he was the only one that liked us. So it was, that's what happened.

Our master plan is to get a high school quarterback and try to bring him along behind Colin. It worked out okay. So we'll take whatever is out there and we'll wait and see and we're curious to see what happens. And part of the equation, too, is to see what the guys on campus do through August and September. See how they come along. And we'll know better about what we have in all positions, certainly about October 1st, I think.

INTERVIEWER: [Rudock redshirt?]

COACH FERENTZ: In a perfect world, yeah, you'd like to do that. But we want to win, too, so we'll do whatever. See what he does. Brad will be like James. A little time in the weight room and the training table won't hurt him.

INTERVIEWER: [Rudock's body?]

COACH FERENTZ: He's long and skinny, too, just for the record. I remember it was my first year at Iowa. It was his first year. I remember when he came up in sweats, he looked like a kid in pajamas, NFL pajamas, you know? A little skinny guy. He's a big man. He was a big man by the time he finished.

INTERVIEWER: Is it difficult to fill up quarterback positions specifically? You've got …, you've got … against national teams, a national championship team … other quarterbacks. There's a star player in Iowa. Is that kind of a challenge?

COACH FERENTZ: I think that's probably factored into it with a couple guys that we were interested in. And I didn't ask them, but I'm sure. To me, quarterbacks, it's a little bit like recruiting a basketball player. A point guard. Or a center. They look at the roster and you know, there's only one point guard on a basketball team. So, you know. And then there are some guys who don't care. They just don't care what's going on. Cause they think they're gonna come in and be able to play.

INTERVIEWER: In your experience, without naming names, those guys, have they risen to the top?

COACH FERENTZ: It's usually a good trait when any player thinks that, you know? That's impressive. McCall, the running back, was like that. You know, I mean, he kind of started our courtship. He got warm with us in December, I guess it was, and then Marcus had a pretty healthy Bowl game and then … And that's impressive when you see that. I think that's what you want, you want guys like him.

INTERVIEWER: [Question on tight end recruiting]

COACH FERENTZ: Yeah, I think we may feel a little bit this year. That's just my sense. We'll see. There's a guy we're interested in right now and I think we'll probably lose him, maybe, like we lost the last guy. I don't know. And I think that's factored in to it. But what are you gonna do about it, so.