Kirk Ferentz on watching Iowa football vs. Illinois State game from home, Cade McNamara and more

almost like a direct correlation and that certainly is a better better situation in the second half we had one for five yards and played a lot cleaner that that's certainly helps so good good to see the offensive execution in the second half looked a lot better defense kept playing special teams did a good job and uh you know good to be back in the facility Sunday and see everybody in person have a chance to congratulate just on their effort and just through playing playing through the bumps and you know going the full 60 doing a good job there so happy again for the football team uh moving forward to this week we have the same four captains you got Jay Higgins and uh Quinn schy on defense and then um Luke Lea and Kade mamir offensively it's the same four guys there I think injury-wise we pretty clean looks like U you know came out of in pretty good shape hopefully we make it through the week here without any issues and um you know the game obviously is a big big game it's a rivalry game uh certainly it's been intense for a long time it's my 34th experience see a lot of different things during the course of that time but uh bottom line it's just a really good game for our state I think uh you know it's just good for everybody if they're they're involved in football and L football and then on top of it I think you know it's probably a little bit underappreciated outside of our state in terms of the the intensity of the Rivalry and uh the way the players go after it each and every time so you know it's um it's really good football game uh talking about iow State real briefly obviously a really good football program and a good football team um you know got a lot of admiration for their staff they've got a really good coaching staff there they've done a great job since Coach Campbell arrived and they've got a veteran football team at least they're really veteran work counts and I've done a really nice job not not a big surprise they've recruited well they coach their guys well and uh each and every year you know there's a good program good team look at the last six years right now I think it's a five point whatever differential between the two teams so uh I would expect the same thing Saturday enough tough tough competitive hard football game and um it's we're looking at there so kid Captain this week is 8-year-old Atlas Coleman from West Mo uh Atlas they discovered a tumor in Alice's lung a year and a half they had to take that out and uh then found a really rare form of cancer that uh that they had work through and glad to say he's doing really well he's in school and just like every other kid having a good time apparently he's got a good sense of humor tells jokes and uh you know just a great young guy so it'll be good to have him and his family here with us look for to that and uh yeah just you know it's a really a big game here big rivalry and you know we turned the page yesterday uh mov on towards our preparation here and uh the Big Challenge right now is you know getting through this week and just doing a great job uh with our preparation known it's going to be a tough game on Saturday so I'll throw it out there for questions start Chad Mo register before we move on I would like can you what can you tell us about your experience on Saturday do you like like a coach more like a fan like you like a little tailgate I mean there's no tailgate yeah what was going through your like describe as much as you can um I actually had a grandson in the house so you know got up had a couple scrambled eggs two scrambled eggs and uh nothing too dramatic you know just kind of killed time and then uh did that more so with him uh but you know when the game started yeah it's just it's just different watching on TV is really different you can see better that's one thing on nice surface to write on which is the second thing so I guess those are two upgrades but outside of that there wasn't much good about it it just uh uh sterile there's really you're you're pretty much helpless not that I do a lot during games anyway on my plan but uh you just have a total feeling of disconnection so it was really really strange really strange Kirk Tyler tashman with the de Mo register I think there in the second half there was six offensive possessions you scored on scored a touchdown on five of them just like what's kind of going went through your head as as you see that unfold yeah yeah it felt a lot better watching from where I was watching that life was a lot better in the second half uh and again you know that's that's really the study in offense execution is a huge part of the game uh takes a lot of concentration a lot of detail and I think one thing for sure the penalty situation uh did impact Us in the first half second thing you we really didn't throw or catch uh the throws weren't always accurate and then we made some of those throws in the second half and we caught the ball well so gives you a chance to get going then the Run game was was certainly a little cleaner and crisper but um those are things you go through and you know we're going to go through a series of things over the course of the Season uh as much as you try and camp and you try to put the guys in pressure situations and create things and all that but it's not the same as playing a game until you get in a game you really don't know how individuals are going to perform or how they're going to play and then the other component is just the same thing to be said about your team you know you just don't know what they're going to how they're going to respond to those situation they're going to rise and we we'll have a bunch of them here in the next 11 games out there you just don't know what they are but I think the biggest takeaway for me was just the way our guys St stuck together they kept the good attitude and um I'm not so sure how many adjustments got made at halftime but we just played a little cleaner in that second half uh and then you know when you do that you give yourself a chance for some success oh yeah Kirk Elliot claw hackkey Beacon um Cade obviously like the rest of the offense had a really strong second half and I know a lot of what we've talked about here is the fact that he hasn't been healthy and and now we got to see him play Healthy um just your thoughts were you impressed with with what he did in the second half were you feeling more confident going into this second week where you at with with Kad and his performance on Saturday yeah I've been saying it pretty consistently I think I you know you can't quantify this and it's you know just going off experience but I think to me at least his one of his biggest challenges firstly you know getting through the the injury was his first challenge first and foremost and I will say this after watching TV and you know if I hear one more thing about ACL repairs uh this is 2024 there's a lot of guys playing college football and pro football that have had ACL repairs so to me that's so far in the in the rearview mirror right now uh but nonetheless it was a reality you know certainly this past year to deal with it um but more importantly I think it's just getting back into football shape if you will and playing in a in a team environment not a seven on seven environment uh which he hasn't really done for two years you know as a healthy player so um to see him keep his his attitude positive and keep working through it uh play he was much cleaner in the second half and that's you know that's what you hope hope a guy's going to do and he's he's got game experience that's in his pocket that's a good thing for him but he's you know that twoyear Gap I think is something that you know he's had to work through and uh it was good to see him he looked relaxed looked confident and that was in that second half and that's really those are positive things you can't hand that to a player they've got to go out and experience and earn it John John steach um I don't remember seeing jasine Patterson out there on Saturday can you kind of comment on his status and do you have a sense of how quickly Seth Anderson could get back on the field yeah so Jazz that was a coach's decision to keep him uh keep him out he'll be back was back with this yesterday and we expect him to be right roll this week and great young guy you know just uh something we decided to do uh Seth is it's not as bad maybe as we thought initially but nonetheless I guess it was last Wednesday that we met to Tuesday so the next day of course and um you know doesn't look as bad right now we'll probably know a little bit more here by the end of the week but it won't be this week it's you know hopefully we're talking about a week or two not not multiple weeks John from the back coach Jeff KCI Mo I thought a great stat that came out of the game last Saturday was ree vanders was the first true freshman white out for Iowa to score a touch up in the season over since 2006 you obviously had two in the game the first freshman to do that since 2017 when was it if there was a moment that you saw in practice that this was the type of guy who could make an impact at such a young age and if it wasn't a moment what did you see that I guess gave you confidence in in him too yeah I'll go back to recruiting him we were you know really excited about him and I saw him two years ago I guess I saw Zach playing basketball lmer and he was he was out there playing and uh I got to go up and see him turn our by week CL week uh saw a couple games that night and uh just like he was playing quarterback just like the way handles himself carries himself um and then it was frustrating the summer cuz he had a multitude of things that kind of held him back from the summer program uh just you know just general training and uh so you know he missed a lot of time that way fortunately he was able to get back and get going and uh since we've been in practice he just carries himself well uh I don't know how well you know him he's I want to say he's expressionist but he doesn't he doesn't get real uh you know the monster if he just really steady very focused and and mature for his age I think in his experience level so uh he just continues to grow continues to do a good job with whatever we throw at him and uh as we went on you know just became apparent to to us that you know he's probably the the guy to have in there and um you know I thought he you know again just watching on TV it looked like he really performed well the other day and I'm out on the sideline seeing him and all those things but he just seemed to handle things in stride so it's not too big for him and U you he's certainly likes to compete and it was good to see him go up with his hands and catch balls and you know make some plays for us mention right MIT KJ I know you guys have had camping scrimmage with helmet coms and tablets but what have you heard about how that worked out on Saturday and the advantage you can bring just give instant feedb yeah it seems like all the feedback is really good I was curious about that uh Sunday morning and yeah seemed like it really went pretty smoothly no major delays I guess you know they run a little bit behind with the tablets but uh it sound like it was really good I think everybody thought there was a benefit to it for sure Coen cing with kg and last year when you guys played Iowa State you probably didn't know a lot about Roco Beck that was the only time only his second start of his career now you had a chance to see a lot more of him a lot more game him as you look at him this week what are some challenges that he particularly presents to your defense yeah is when I talked about them being a veteran team veteran in the key parts and that's one of the ones positions as referencing well he's not an old guy but he's he's really played enough now where I think he's a very confident guy very very poised and just does a good job running their offense so they've got a really talented group of receivers uh tight end brahmer is a really good football player so they've got guys that they can get the ball to and I'm sure they will so he's he's not a really nice job leading their football team and uh I'm guessing his best football is still ahead of him Chad Chad nice to go again want to ask about Caleb and Caleb um Johnson obviously was out in the first half is it is there anything he needs to be doing better to be in like good standing with you guys etc etc and then also Caleb Brown how's he looked in coming back this week will he be a part of your plans on Saturday yeah he's looked good both both those guys and you know anything that that happens along the way you know we just our our deal is like we deal with it and then uh my encouragement for everybody is we're looking forward you know we're not looking back unless there's a reason to and uh Caleb is really practiced well um well I yeah Caleb Johnson let's start there the first guy you asked about he's really practicing well and did a good job and when he went in there I wasn't surprised like you know he just that's how he's been practicing really focused and and hit the holes hard and all those types of things so good to see that that's probably as good as well as I've seen him run the football since he's been here and uh great young guy got a great attitude and good and then Caleb uh it's going to be good to get him back too and um you know so last the week the deal was last week he worked on the scout team against our defense and uh Phil and those guys said he did a great job and that