Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz on Cade McNamara and more ahead of 2024 season-opener

thanks for your time today coach uh the depth chart that just came out uh Kamari Molton at rb1 is probably the splashiest uh update there uh sort of how has he ascended to that spot and what are you looking to see from guys like lean and Caleb yeah I figured that might get everybody's attention but it's it's more by prodct what's going on uh two things really uh lean's missed some time he's had an injury that magged pretty much throughout Camp um so Kamar got a lot of work this this uh August and uh the other component there is Kamar has really done a nice job and I think I kind of mentioned that alluded to that back in December even he really started to to look comfortable and did a lot of good things did a good good job in the spring and um you know has really just been really consistent all the way through August so they're they're all going to play uh but he's really done a nice job uh lean's only been back you know maybe 8 10 days and it looks like he's good he's good to go but it was just uh get a really long nagging injury it was just took a while to get uh get work through but happy he's back U the other guys have done a good job too so really I feel pretty good about the group but uh anxious to see him play in Camari especi we haven't really seen him go in game activity Tyler and then John Kirk uh Tyler tashman with the deor register I think this off season you alluded to um Michael penx Jr in the context of Cade and like Michael penck was someone that had major like surgical repairs and came back and was not not that those two guys are exactly the same but but can you just kind of expand on maybe the context of how you see guys coming you know the ability to come back from multiple major injuries right yeah I'll put it in the context that you know I've sat in a lot of meetings acade or medical meetings and academic meetings but a lot of medical meetings since uh you know 26 years now uh we had one last night so I don't pretend to know anything about medicine but um you know you listen and you pay attention then also you witness things and I can go back just the you know contrast between the ' 80s 90s and now um you know the way all injuries are are different now certainly an ACL repair is much much different than it was 40 years ago uh laboral surgers have come a long way most of them are arthoscopic so uh the bottom line is this you know ACL repairs is our experience that you know it just takes time to get them back and Cohen came back uh entringer came back from his and record speed that's at one end of the spectrum sometimes they're slower I think they're different for every individual just like any injury and um but the bottom line is uh you know a player has to get confidence in his body and confidence that he can do what he has to do to perform whatever his position may be so you know it it uh it's I don't want to say routine nothing's routine medically but it's just it's it'd be really unusual for a player to be I think deterred uh from an injury like what Kate had it was a very clean repair uh again I'm no expert on medicine but you know it's always good when they say everything is clean you know really nice repair and that type of thing then it's just a matter of time uh for the physical component and then also you know where a player gets the confidence and I think was that open scrimmage was really the first time I saw him look like you he just kind of put it aside and then we've seen a lot of those pictures since then so I think he's he's more than ready to go and really confident in his in his body John see is that obviously a little different this week with you not being there on Saturday how do you kind of prepare for that and what's kind of your Approach at that wide receiv seater spot in terms of who's most that that yeah so a couple things the um you those are things we're working through this week and really haven't talked much about it we'll start that tomorrow and then Thursday's our day to really kind of you know talk about all those things I did think of one good thing about this at least I can blame if you know something happens saring just I don't know why they did that they stupid so maybe there was a positive appear in this whole deal uh but in all seriousness no I think I think we're it's not it's going to be pretty much business as you usual um you know Tim Tim would be the guy I go to to refer on you know what do you think about this this and this on offense Phil Lavar and uh you know Seth will do the same thing we talk about a lot of things on Thursdays about what we do you know fourth down for down territory all those kinds of things the situation that situation but the the only missing part is uh you know when you get in the game sometimes there's a feel that flies in the face of maybe what you decide on Thursday and sometimes you just got to make a call and go with a gut instinct so um you know that that'd be the case Seth will do a great job with that he will have the final say all that stuff but we'll we'll talk a lot of those things out and then the the receiver thing will work out internally uh as I said last week we got a really good staff and the guys young and old you know the full-time coaches but also the ga's part-time guys and um you we'll get it done we'll cover that David uh David I hawkey ins.com Kirk TJ Hall listed is quarterback two there's no doubt that John Nester is probably going to get some significant time and Deshawn Lee but what were maybe one or two things that ultimately gave TJ Hall kind of that maybe just that extra low Edge over the other two probably just a little bit of consistency and it's gone back and forth it's a little bit like the running back position uh difference is most of those guys have been available the Four Corners have been been competing in practicing so probably a little consistency thing but it's still really close we have a lot of positions right now where you know we got to start somewhere uh Saturday and start somewhere this week when we we practiced with our first team uh but I will say it won't surprise me especially in certain groups where it may take a month to figure out like where we're at uh and I say that in a positive way because I think we have a lot of young guys right now that you know we're going to learn a lot more about them John Nester is a good example you know he hasn't played an awful lot seen him on special teams so to see him in game action I think we'll learn a lot about him I think our receiver rooms a lot like that uh the back thing will probably sort itself up I think we've got guys that are capable um so that that's part of the process as we move forward just it'll be interesting to see see what it looks like here 6 weeks from now as opposed to just you know this Saturday to one register uh you've been at this for 25 years at Iowa 28 in total as a head coach uh in your opinion like what are the most important jobs for the head coach on Game Day itself uh and prob going to give a self-deprecating answer yeah but no what is SE like for Seth what does that what does he need to do the B I'm laugh cuz they're chuckling he gave me a report on what I do there's more there than I thought I guess uh cuz you just kind of you know you just kind of do it's natural in your position but um yeah I guess you know some of the decisions we talked about are part of it but if you think about over the course of 12 weeks there aren't that many decisions you make and uh that are really critical I don't think but you just try to keep things in an even flow you I think you I'll probably try to keep everybody's mood or approach in an even flow too and uh you know if we're getting a little bit higher here or down here you got to try to balance things out a little bit and just try to make sure everybody's for focused on what they do but you know really an all serious I don't mean this to to lowy it but it's probably what you do during the week is more important I think and then certainly during camp and just year long like just trying to um you know make sure everybody's kind of keeping their eyes on the target what we think is important and uh once you get to game day you I say this in all honesty the players do win the games like they the ones out there competing we can't do that there are times when we maybe do something that's helpful but overall it's how the players play it really is so you know they they they'll do great I mean we've got a good leadership group here and they'll do great but there's going to be some challenges there's no question about that and there going to be some things that we don't expect so we just got to you know kind of Stay Stay centered and just stay on course here see kgn um I saw that Kate peeper is the backup center right now he's a guy who's received a lot of Praise from his fellow offensive lineman is that where he's firmly entrenched now is just at Center or would we see him anywhere else on the o line yeah he can play anywhere on the interior and that's it's a good question because it kind of opens up a uh we do have some flexibility this year which is kind of kind of nice going into this we've trained him a lot or worked him a lot at the center position uh Logan's not going to be here forever so he's really done a good job there but you know to jumped in last year Ellsbury jumped in and did a really nice job tyers work all five positions and it's not often you can a guy can do that but I think he can do that pretty effectively he's got a lot of experience and practice well uh Nicki Young's got the capability of playing a couple spots so you know those would be our top eight guys with the five starters and um you know I think we probably have a little bit more versatility and flexibility than we've had in the past which is good and and we got some younger guys that are are are moving along and you know we're going to try to keep them uh keep them growing to but yeah those would be the top eight guys and yeah kade's been a he's quote unquote undersized when recruited him uh but he's you know he was just a lean guy and he's still lean but he's really done a good job and he's he's done a really nice job on the field uh John seers wh TV Kirk when you have a new offensive coordinator new offensive schemes what are some realistic expectations for you as the head coach as you end of game one it's like every game I mean you just want want things to go smoothly and you want the flow of things to be good um you know things that stop offenses or negative yardage plays on forced erors penalties you know fall starts those kinds of things alignment erors so just you know playing fundamentally sound that way would be a good starting point keeping the ball off the ground is always a good thing and then you regardless of what you're doing um you know there going to be some things are going to pop up and some things we're we're trying to get cleaned up in practice right now uh you know we had Saturday off uh Sunday we didn't didn't do any football stuff we just let the guys stretch and Jog a little bit so we got back in football again yesterday and you know we took two whole days off without helmets on and looked like we hadn't practiced in 6 weeks so it just it's all of a sudden you're right back to trying to get the guys in there plus you're trying to you know deal with some things that maybe you haven't seen so but you know all that being said I think just you know good effort obviously playing Fin and Melly sound and not doing things are going to beat us good starting point and if we can get a little momentum going and get you know hit a couple plays that's always a good thing too it's usually what it takes for offensive production Blake horn hkey headquarters coach good to see you um you know it feels like as far as level-headedness goes you have a unique approach to every single game you treat every single game the same whether it's an FCS team or say Georgia three years ago you guys treat every game as a unique challenge H how as a coaching step how do you uniquely motivate your players every single week to treat every single game the same I mean with all due respect I just explained to our guys like the people that think they know what's going to happen most of them don't have to go out and compete uh so you know I think whoever it was somebody said you know experts are people that aren't accountable to anybody and you so it's good to be an expert I guess but we're and we got a lot of invested everybody's got a lot invested and one thing I've learned you know 20 plus years of being back here and you know it's no different in the NFL although in the NFL B in the NFL but um you know if you everything starts with respecting your opponent in college football anything can happen last weekend already Illustrated that or at least two games I think that went you know opposite what people would have predicted so it's just the nature of college football and you we're talking about young people they got a lot on their minds and a lot that they got to deal with they do go to class they're trying to earn the degree and uh you know if you're not careful like you know you just you can get off the track and lose the concentration that's necessary to be good at this this level and you know winning is hard