The Quickest Slant -- No Hawkeye the Lab

Here's some quick and dirty transcription from the "walk-off" portion of KF interview (thanks to Scott Doctherman for this):

ON MCCALL

He's missed a lot of practice time so it's kind of like Brad Rogers working back in there. Last week was the first week he was fully engaged. Good luck finding a spot to put him in in a game like that. It will be that way for the rest of the way

Now he's a couple of weeks into it so we'll feel a little bit better I think about him.

ON STOOPS

Dan McCarney's not available?

We actually have a former receiver [DJK?], I was thinking about getting him maybe to come back and be a staff member. I hadn't thinking about that one. I don't respond to that stuff.

Somebody said last week and I said the same thing. You mean Dan McCarney's not available? Wasn't that rumor eight years ago? I lose track of all that stuff.

WILL KEENAN PLAY

(compared his situation to Canzieri's)

Today will be the first day he really was with us and not strictly the trainers. I don't know if he'll be good enough to play Big Ten football Saturday, so we'll see how the week goes.

I think Keenan's the only one really dragging or lagging behind. I think Nardo and Hitchens didn't play the other day, but I think now hopefully they're closer. We held James (Morris) out whatever game it would have been (Northwestern) and the next week we were able to get him out there.

The longer you can keep a guy from being under duress, the better chance he has, 90 percent or above.

ON THE NO-HUDDLE

We haven't been no-huddle, basically, in a couple of weeks so I don't know. It just hasn't fit with where we're at and what we're doing right now.

WHO PLAYS DENARD IN PRACTICE?

It's a Randle-El discussion again, so I don't know what they're going to do, how they're going to do that one.

WHO'S FASTER: DENARD OR RANDLE-EL?

Is a Mazzeratti faster than whatever … ?

CAN THE D-LINE IMPROVE

My feeling is, it's kind of like the offensive line last year. I felt like if we were healthy and able to keep the same group together and improve weekly, sometimes it's two steps forward and one step back, I still think that's going to happen. I'm an optimist. I think we'll get better.

No Hawkeye on Saturday, Iowa sources strongly indicated.

The family of Jon Tumilson, the Navy SEAL who was killed was killed in Afghanistan when his Chinook helicopter was hit by enemy fire on Aug. 6, didn't want the focus to be solely on their family or Hawkeye (check this link and get ready to tear up), Tumilson's loyal Labrador retriever who seemed to express a sense of loss at Tumilson's funeral. Tumilson was a native of Rockford.

Iowa is planning to recognize veterans on Saturday. Here's a release from the UI:

IOWA FOOTBALL TO OBSERVE VETERANS DAY

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- The University of Iowa Athletics Department will be celebrating Veteran's Day prior to its football game against Michigan this Saturday. Veterans Day is a week from Friday (Nov. 11th), but the Hawkeyes will observe it during pre-game ceremonies this week.

A public address announcement honoring all veterans, and current members of our armed services, will be read to a sold out (70,585) Kinnick Stadium crowd. The veterans will be cited for their dedication and service to our country. This will be followed by a special Hawkvision recognition for the nine Iowa service personnel who have lost their lives over the past year. There will also be a military fly-over during the National Anthem.

Fans are encouraged to be in their seats between 10:30 and 10:45 a.m., so that they may be a part of this fitting tribute to our Veterans.

“Veterans Day is a special occasion for all of us,” said Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta. “We're hoping our pre-game message lets all of those veterans, who have and continue to serve our country, know how much we appreciate what they've done, and continue to do, in order to keep all of us out of harm's way.”

Summary of Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz's 10 minutes on the Big Ten teleconference Tuesday morning:

Opening -- Tough weekend. Minnesota played a really good game. Went back to work on Sunday. Moving forward. Playing excellent UM team playing well. Hands full in all phases.

On Michigan -- One common theme is they have really good players. They've had that every year. Well coached. Playing together in all phases. Got a few difference makers. Put that together, got a good football team.

Division question, opportunity Iowa still has -- Every Sunday we talk about it. We're 5-3 and 2-2. Everybody talks conference races, but what you do each week is what counts. Still four games left and there would be a lot of benefit in winning Saturday.  -- Overall strength of Big Ten -- I can comment to Penn State. Great defense for 45 years, that hasn't changed. They ran the ball well against us. There's a lot of football left. The highlight of my weekend was Sunday night when I saw someone's pre-BCS ratings. I thought, boy, that 's interesting. We couldn't wait two hours to find out? I get that.

Michigan difference on defense -- They've gone from two different schools of thought. Playing system that is different. Not saying one is wrong or right, there are a lot of different ways to get things done. Bottom line, good players understand their roles and [coaches] fit players in roles. That's what good football is. How the 11 on the field translate what they learned or taught into production on field.

Second loss to Minnesota to shake off, big game after -- I can't remember any loss that didn't feel bad. Maybe in '99 and 2000, things were a little different. The reality of things was a little different, maybe, but it still hurt to lose and Saturday was no different. Whether it be two straight or 10 straight, there really is no fun in losing. I guess if you can accept it, it's probably time to do something else. Go collect stamps. It's true after every game, whether you win or lose, it's how you respond to what you did the week before and how you move forward. That's kind of been our philosophy for 13 years and we'll try to stick by that. We're playing an excellent football team, and I just know this, if we're not at our best, it won't be good. The challenge for us this week is to get back to playing our best kind of football possible.

Shortcuts D can take against Denard -- Not any that I know of. Please, send in if you've got one. When you play teams with dynamic performers, it's a real challenge. Can hurt in a lot of different ways, that's the challenge.

Areas Iowa has to get better at to play best football in November -- There are a lot of them. It changes week to week, typically. We were playing good red zone offense and defense and came up well short in both those areas Saturday. If you want the one thing that pops in my head from last week, that'd be it. But it's not like we've been void in that area during the season. The other thing is and it's good news, bad news -- well, it's all bad news, I guess -- we have to do a better job against the run. You can't play good defense if you can't stop the run. This team coming in, runs it extremely well. It's going to be a great, great challenge for our football team.

When asked about former Arizona coach Mike Stoops as possible future D-coordinator, Ferentz asked if he should bring back Dan McCarney, too. I'd say that closes the lid on that one.

No Hawkeye the Lab on Saturday, sources strongly indicated. Recognition is going toward the veterans.

Today is the day the state releases the salaries of state employees. Ferentz is at the top with $3.87 million. I talked to Iowa AD Gary Barta about that. Will post soon.

Watch for detailed breakdown from Jason White on the onside kick. He was in the middle of it. This will tell you something about it.

Ferentz took the blame for that, by the way.

Keenan Davis looks fine and says he'll play. It was a gametime decision last week. And, yes, he was frustrated watching on that last series.

I asked a lot of D-line questions. Watch for that post later this week. My theory is that there's attrition because it is a bleep learning how to play two-gap DL. Obviously, some recruiting misses ensued.

Talked to Vandenberg about blitzes. It all goes together. Young players on that last series had trouble with hot reads. A rollout was called and Vandenberg was forced to stop. That killed a few of those plays.

I asked Ferentz what the D-line could be like next year. He said come back in a year and I'll tell you. Well, I hope I can make it back next year. With newspapers going the way they're going, no promises.