Iowa Football
Head Coach Kirk Ferentz
Postgame Press Conference
vs. Penn State – October 27, 2018
Opening Statement
Coming in we knew this would be a challenging game. I think we all knew that at the start of the week. We were playing a good team in a tough environment. So we were fully aware of what we were walking into. To lose is always frustrating and this certainly was, and you have to credit Penn State as well. We did a lot of good things out there, obviously left the door open on some things and we wasted some field position, especially in the first half. I'm sure there are other things we can improve upon. They made it tough on us, they did a good job of keeping us from getting an offensive rhythm at all up until the end of the game. It was somewhat of an unusual game in some ways too. It was a little unconventional in the first half with some of those plays on special teams. Bottom line is we weren't able to make the plays you need to make to be successful against a good football team. With all of that being said, I'm really proud of our football team. I thought they had a great week of preparation. I thought they fought hard, they played hard, we just didn't play hard enough tonight and Penn State did and to their credit they did a good job. This one's going to hurt but we'll get back up on our feet tomorrow and get back to work on Monday.
Q: Nate [Stanley] was pretty inconsistent there for a while, are you waiting for the point where there's less of a ...
A: I thought he played pretty well last week. I think he's played pretty well for the most part this season. He's a really good football player. He didn't have his best night tonight though. But good players have tough times sometimes. Good teams do too. I thought he gave us a chance at the end there. He did everything he could on the last couple of possessions, it just didn't work out.
Q: On that first and goal with the discombobulation, it looked like you were trying to call a timeout. What happened?
A: Well there was discombobulation, to use your word, I think that's accurate. I was also worried about getting the ball snapped [since] the clock was running down. It looked like he wasn't going to get it off. In retrospect, it would've been nice if I had gotten [the timeout] in there. There was some traffic there that we weren't anticipating, so it was a tough play for sure.
Q: At the end of the first half, can you walk through the thinking of the 'big man look' play?
A: Basically we were taking another shot. We were trying to take a shot down the left hashmark, basically wasn't there. It didn't turn out the way we would've hoped obviously. But we were taking a shot for another score.
Q: Overall, any reason in your opinion why the offense seemed to - I mean no offensive touchdowns today - being so inconsistent?
A: I think overall from my vantage point, if you step back, it was just two pretty good defensive teams playing. Some games there is a flow offensively. I thought it was pretty tough for both teams to move the ball. They made a big play certainly with the quarterback keeper for the long play. But it wasn't like anybody was just driving the ball down the field. Sometimes games get like that. I don't know if the weather conditions add to it or don't but both teams defensively I thought played really well. They certainly made it hard on us, those guys played well, they got great players. I don't know if they played their best game today. They were pretty good against Michigan State too, just didn't have it at the end like they did tonight.
Q: Is it hard to keep Trace McSorley in front of you as the defense? There are so many things that go on, you go out to cover and there he goes.
A: We knew that. We've seen him three years now. He's really a tough guy to get out because he throws the ball well, he's a dangerous runner and I think the biggest thing he gives them is the leadership. I don't coach them, I'm not on the other sideline, but when you see him across the field on the other sideline it seems like everyone trusts him, everyone believes in him when he's in there and he makes big plays. He's pretty much done it his whole career.
