Raw Chicago: Kirk Ferentz Part 8

Stuff on recruiting services, a little bit on recruiting stories, Hayden Fry, Marvin McNutt, Kyle Spading, Nebraska recruiting and the new celebration rule.

INTERVIEWER: …is that something you use? And what's the benefit of that? Do you cross-check names?

COACH FERENTZ: You know, our biggest thing has been to procure information on paper and the most important thing is to get the film tape. But it's, and I don't have a lot of experience in that area until it came up nationally and we talked about this earlier a little bit, but you know, it's kind of like anything else. Common sense really should prevail. And you know, if something should cost $5, and the guy's charging $100, you know, you might want to ask a couple questions and again, it's like the housing industry. If something looks too good to be true, it probably is. And that's why there are a lot of houses for sale in Las Vegas and Florida right now. And I don't know much about this except what you read in the papers a little bit. But anyway, we talked about mentors, too, this concept of mentors.

I had a conversation this winter with a guy and it was just curious to me, the list of people that I was aware of. I know two people this guy mentored and neither one of them were 5'3” and weighed 115. So it was kind of an interesting. It's a very public service he was doing. But it was just interesting. And even more interesting were these two players, so, you know. A lot of it is just kind of common sense.

INTERVIEWER: … [Paying recruiting services]

COACH FERENTZ: Yeah, I think so. It's, we all have to get film, but I think you pay market value for it. And we all get information the same way. And you pay market value. So it should be a pretty still process.

INTERVIEWER: Do you watch film on You Tube.

COACH FERENTZ: I don't. But our guys, our guys will look at it sometimes. That's what we … Trying to get more … Just like highlight films are a big deal.

INTERVIEWER: So let's talk about the … Big Ten. They actually … What do you feel like are the most important for any Big Ten sport, specifically Iowa. [Recruiting territories]

COACH FERENTZ: You know, when I first got there, one of the big differences, when I left in '89, everybody on the staff could recruit and be on the road. When I came back, that rule was different. So, on our first year, we actually tried to go everywhere. And what I learned was that we were trying to do way too much and there was no way we could do what we were doing. And so we pretty much condensed our recruiting base to Big Ten areas and we'll do a little in Texas because Coach Fry had connections and established relationships there with a lot of folks, and then in Florida, we've delved in there a little bit. And we'll show up here and there if we have a good reason. But pretty much it's Big Ten, Texas, Florida. And you know, we're just cherry-picking everywhere we go basically. We're never the home school typically. And so it's, you do what you can do.

INTERVIEWER: …D-line . . . reload after losing three starters?

COACH FERENTZ: The biggest thing is, I think we'll probably be more of a group effort this year. In the last couple of years we've played, basically it was five guys who got most of the snaps accounted. And I really kind of see us playing six, seven, eight guys playing during the course of the year and it will be more of a group effort. Because we don't have three NFL linemen right now and I know that. And the last years we've had, it's unusual. It won't happen again. It was just one of those deals, but I think we'll be okay. Based on what I saw in the spring, I think we'll have a chance to be okay. We've got two guys to start with, with Mike and Broderick and I think we've got some pretty good players. We've seen them play well against Big Ten teams. So that helps.

INTERVIEWER: …How long after … [Hayden Fry question]

COACH FERENTZ: You know, I never really tried to worry about that. One thing, I had the luxury of working forCoach Fry. So at least with my nine years at Iowa, I felt that I knew the culture. And obviously great respect for what Coach Fry established and what he built with the program. Fortunately, I got there after all the heavy lifting had been done. I got there the year that good things started to happen. So I felt at home. Coach Fry has been a mentor to me. So he was, it was an easy transition, but the responsibility of just being a head coach at Iowa, that was fond in my thoughts. You know, just like anything else, you don't want to look bad, but it was a little bit personal too, because of all the respect I had for Coach Fry. But at the end of the day, you really can't be looking backwards. You have to look forward and do what you think is the best for the program. You can't, I told people, I'm not replacing coach Fry. I'm following him. Like from a distance. A real distance.

INTERVIEWER: Coach, do you remember the day that one of your coaches went and told Marvin … [the move from QB].

COACH FERENTZ: Not specifically, but when we recruited Marvin, and we thought he was a developmental guy. The credit goes to his high school coach. Marvin may have told you, he's really more of a baseball, I think baseball is his first love. And he played basketball. His high school coach is a smart guy and recruited him to play football. And they ended up doing very, very well. So we thought he had a lot of up side when we recruited him and he is in contention for the job just like everybody else.

But when Ricky finally emerged, I think we kind of had an understanding through recruitment, I think Marvin's deal was he wanted to play. So he was agreeable to slipping out to the receiver position. He just learned it on the fly. He didn't really know what he was doing that year. But if you look at us, that's kind of been the history of our program. The guys that, my sister could tell you of great high school players, and receivers, that for the most part, go to School A, B and C. Most of our guys have been more like Kevin Kasper, the walk-on. Or they're guys that have come from other positions, places. I thought he would be a free safety. And we got a couple of guys that threw him over and never came away.

Well, CJ Jones was a receiver. That's a different story in itself. It wasn't like, Texas wasn't recruiting him, or Florida. Most of our guys are kind of moved around from other positions. So now Keenan Davis comes along and he's the guy, but he was in-state. If he had been in another state we probably never would have gotten him. But he's got a great attitude. I think it's been fun for us to just watch him improve. And he was making plays in 09, but he was a lot better receiver last year than he was in 09. And he knows more. And he was making plays last year too, but he's better at the position and to me he's just a very young player at that position, if you will. So he could get a lot better. And that's something we're excited about.

INTERVIEWER: He says he's faster. [Marvin]

COACH FERENTZ: I always chuckle. Because I think anybody that's over 6'1” tends to get branded as a possession guy. It's just funny how it works. I just listen a little bit. It's like you hear that from a lot of guys. And then I don't see them catch them a lot of times. Even in the Bowl games. I remember a huge play in the Bowl game. It was early in that game when we threw it down that right side line. It was a huge play. Because they were going to try to, that was their deal. They were going to try to keep everybody in there, and then cover our guys one-on-one out there. And that tempered that a little bit. That was a big play. But he got behind a pretty fast guy on that. So I wouldn't describe him as slow.

INTERVIEWER: Did you see him transform his body when you made him …

COACH FERENTZ: Yeah. He can run three routes…without needing even a ten minute break. He was a quarterback. Those guys don't do anything. He ran three routes and … Yeah, he's in shape.

INTERVIEWER: … What does that say about Marvin? …

COACH FERENTZ: You know, it's admirable. Marvin's a great guy. He's always been a great guy. He was a high school quarterback. He was a leader there. And I don't know… We've had two very close calls in the last couple moths. Three if you add up … So it's amazing since the start of the year. But Marvin is a tremendous guy. Good teammate. And it's interesting when he lines up against Prater. Nobody talks more than Shaun Prater. But both of these guys are just great guys. Good team guys. They care about each other and they care about the team. And that's a nice thing.

INTERVIEWER: Marvin was saying you guys would never be where you are without guys like [Kyle Spading, a former walk-on tight end from Belle Plaine who was seriously injured in an automobile accident a while back]…

COACH FERENTZ: I think that's the great thing about football. And we talk to our players about that all the time. Every guy's got a role. And you know, some roles aren't real glamorous. Kyle never started a game at Iowa and yet I think it was a meaningful thing just for him to be on the team and be part of the program. We want that. We need guys that aren't sackers. We need guys that are going to find a role and how to accept that and we've had a lot of guys like that and right on through. We've had a lot of guys in the program and occasionally guys come out of that and they're pretty good players, too. But that's one of the neat things about football is there are so many different individuals that are working and doing a lot of positive things for the team, but never really become apparent to anybody in the public. But the most important thing, it means a lot to those players in life. It's one of the things I was alluding to after the things back in January. You know, we got a lot of notes and letters from fellows that never started a game, but just how meaningful it was to be in the program. Those are thing that carry into their adult lives. Their jobs, their families. Those kinds of things. So that's the beauty of the game, really. I know we value wins and losses, but that's really the beauty of what happens.

INTERVIEWER: Maybe had … [the three car accidents -- Spading, Dan Heiar and Josh Koeppel -- Iowa has had in the last year]

COACH FERENTZ: Oh, I don't know what you do. You know, it just, the other one's pretty obvious. It's just a process. And those are all three examples of how quickly things can change. How our lives change really fast.

INTERVIEWER: Do you prepare your team any differently for a night game than a day game?

COACH FERENTZ: Yeah, you know, we played three of them in 09. So, yeah, we started in camp. Started in the spring, I guess. We adjusted some practice time, things like that. It's all mental. You address that and go from there.

INTERVIEWER: Who was the kid that played … [from Nebraska to play at Iowa]

COACH FERENTZ: We've been lucky. We've been over there. We kind of cherry-pick everywhere outside our state. And the reality is, we took guys that aren't offered in Nebraska. That's basically the guys that we get, for the most part. And sometimes you're lucky, sometimes you're not. But certainly in Shaun's case it's worked out beautifully. And Jeff Tarpanian might be the best player to ever play at Iowa. You know, I really believe that. I think he had over twenty teams trying to get him to come as a free agent. I'm not sure why nobody, somebody should have pulled the trigger and sent him around, it would have been a lot easier. But I think he's got a chance, if he's got a ten-year …, it wouldn't surprise me. But he had a lot of injuries that really held him back. But what a great kid.

But those guys weren't obvious choices necessarily. Jeff was a quarterback, but we converted a linebacker. So we'll try to get a little creative. In Shaun's case, I'm sure his size is a deterrent. But we're not a big sized team. We can't afford to worry about that.

INTERVIEWER: … [Nebraska high school football question]

COACH FERENTZ: Well, we do. I mean, schools are great. The football there is outstanding. You know, coaches want opportunities for their players. So it's a choice. And it's a choice if Nebraska's involved. At least it's a choice. And we don't expect to beat them very often. We usually don't beat the home state schools a lot when we go recruiting. That's kind of the way it is.

INTERVIEWER: What are your thoughts on the …[new celebration rule]?

COACH FERENTZ: I think in theory it's great. My concern, I think we all have that Kodak moment. The Washington-BYU game. There's a gray area in there. And if I were an official, I think I'd probably say, you know, I wish it were a little bit more black and white. I just hope we don't go overboard. I don't think we've had a real major issue in our conference at least. Sportsmanship-wise. We've had some incidents. I think they've been addressed and cleaned up pretty prudently and promptly. But you know, you worry about, you don't want to over-coach, and I don't think you want to over-officiate. And you worry about that possibly being a, I have no problem with that, making it a wide ball judge, that's fine. But what is taunt and what isn't? And what is celebration and what isn't?

INTERVIEWER: …Who was the kid -- [Kellen Lewis is the answer]

COACH FERENTZ: I remember an Indiana guy doing it … [Kellen Lewis, told you]

INTERVIEWER: Trey Stross . . . celebration penalty.

COACH FERENTZ: See, I've never been a big one for that. It's just, you know, apparently what Bill [Carrollo, Big Ten director of officials] said yesterday. I caught him last night on TV. You know, do it on your bench. I'm not a big one for, you know, it ought to be, things ought to happen spontaneously on the field. And you know, the guys have to be under control a little bit. What they do in the locker room and on the bench, that's fine. But you know, not in the end zones. That's not the place for it. So I'm okay with the intent, but it's going to be, it's tough we're on the cautious side of enforcement.