Everything Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz said after the loss at Ohio State
When it was all said and done, it just wasn’t pretty for Iowa (3-4, 1-3 Big Ten) in its 54-10 blowout loss at No. 2 Ohio State (7-0, 4-0 Big Ten).
Fans suffered through a wide range of emotions, and the reality started to settle in that there just might not be an offensive fix for the Hawkeyes in 2022. The chorus is starting to grow louder that Iowa is rapidly getting left behind in an evolving world of college football.
After the latest offensive slopfest, Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz met with the media where he was asked about the quarterback switch from Spencer Petras to Alex Padilla, the offense’s continued struggles and his ongoing evaluation of offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Brian Ferentz.
Here was everything Kirk Ferentz had to say following the Hawkeyes’ third consecutive loss.
Opening statement
Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK
“So, obviously disappointed to lose the football game today. We knew coming in, you know, you’re playing a top-ranked team. Very talented team, so we knew that we’d have to play flawlessly basically. Execute and take advantage of any opportunities that might be there. Do a good job in ball security, excel in special teams and do well in penalties and really didn’t do much, you know, to check any of those boxes unfortunately, so never gave ourselves much of a chance. Credit to our opponent on that also.
“Defensively, I thought the guys played with really good effort, good energy and came up with some big plays. Obviously, the spark play by Joe (Evans) right off the bat, but I thought they really competed well and did a lot of good things all the way through the game. Just on the field too long and then the hill got a little bit high to climb.
“Offensively, protection issues right off the bat in that first quarter and turnovers are tough to overcome again no matter who you’re playing. So, weren’t able to establish anything consistent and, you know, made a quarterback change at halftime. As I said about that situation early, I’m not so sure it’s, you know, real fair to assess that whole thing right now either just based on the overall play, but we’ll go about that tomorrow. Just thought at that time it was the best thing to do for all parties involved.
“Then, special teams, Drew hit the good field goal. Good to see that, but otherwise really didn’t really do much to help us, help ourselves, especially in the first half. You know, play a team like this, it’s going to be tough to come out on top playing that way.
“We’ll go back to Iowa regroup like we do after every football game. Reassess things tomorrow and then we’ll turn our focus to the next game. Big picture wise, you know, we’ve got five left, five on the schedule and that’s our plan just like it was a week ago to play these six games out. Needless to say, we’re not where we want to be right now, but we’re going to keep pushing forward. And, I’ll throw it out for questions,” Ferentz said.
On what went into the decision to make the quarterback change to Alex Padilla
Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK
“Just, yeah, cumulative. I just think at that point it was the best thing to do and, you know, but, again, it was a tough situation for either quarterback probably for an assessment,” Ferentz said.
On the pair of early turnovers for Padilla to start the second half
Joseph Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports
“Well, you know, the snap thing, I’m a line coach. So, you know, everywhere I worked, they always blame the center, but I blame both guys. You can’t win games if you can’t get the center exchange. I know it was practiced at halftime, those two guys, and they practiced in practice. And then, the other one, there’s nothing you can do there. I mean, nothing Alex can do. But, again, it was a series of issues today. Not just those two plays
If he or Brian Ferentz spoke to Padilla after the turnovers to start the second half
Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK
“Yeah, oh yeah. Just keep playing. I mean, you got to. That’s all you can do is keep playing,” Ferentz said.
Why Iowa has seven offensive touchdowns through seven games
Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK
“Well, we’re not playing well enough. I can’t give you an answer. If I had that answer, you probably would have seen something today. Part of the credit goes to our opponent today. They’re a really good defensive football team. Much improved. I don’t want to say much improved. Much improved statistically, but they’re a good defensive football team. We felt that coming in watching their tape and feel that way now after seeing them in person. So, I don’t have the answer or we would have scored more points today and we’ll just keep pushing forward and trying to find a better solution,” Ferentz said.
Success keeping Ohio State out of the end zone early and what happened after that
Joseph Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports
“Well, I mean, you play so long against, they’ve got a very talented offensive team. I assume you cover them, and you probably notice they’ve got some good players out there, so it’s hard to find a weakness to keep them short of the end zone. That was a positive certainly, but it doesn’t matter if you can’t match points at some point. They’re tough to defend. They’ve got four really outstanding receivers. They had one rejoin today and two outstanding running backs and just one person’s opinion, I think their offensive line is playing at a really high level, too, so, and the quarterback’s an outstanding player. So, it’s a tough team to defense against and I thought our guys really competed well, but, you know, too high of a hill for us,” Ferentz said.
How to explain to the defensive players that they are 3-4 after how well they've played
Barbara J. Perenic/Columbus Dispatch
“You know, that’s football and—I got in trouble for saying that. What year was that? Let me retract that statement, but that’s how football can play out sometimes. I’ve got a long history at our school going back to the 80’s as well, and, you know, been through all kinds of years where, you know, you’re really strong on one area and maybe not so strong in another area. You know, that type of deal, so, at least here that’s how it works out. You try to play the hand you’re dealt as well as you can, and try to improve in the areas where you’re not playing at as high of a level as you’d like.
“I think the one consistent thing, whether it was in the 80’s or the last 20-plus years, we’ve had high-caliber guys. I’m not surprised with the feedback they’re giving you, because that’s how they are and they know how hard the guys are working. Everybody’s working hard. We all train the same, we all practice the same way and they know guys are working hard and I think they support each other. We’re going to just keep pushing forward and see what we can do with this season. That’s our plan,” Ferentz said.
How they evaluate whether or not they would make a change at offensive coordinator
Joseph Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports
“Yeah, well, so I answered that question two weeks ago. I’ve never done that in my career. I don’t plan on starting right now. Our approach has always been to address what’s out there and see what we can do to improve and it’s been pretty consistent for 24 years, almost 24 years now and that’s the plan moving forward. It’s been fairly successful,” Ferentz said.
If there's something Brian Ferentz isn't doing that he would like him to be doing or if he's doing everything he's looking for
Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK
“Well, nobody has everything perfect. You know, I’ve never been in that situation. Certainly you never play perfect, you never coach perfect, but I think we’ve got a good offensive staff. I think we’ve got good leadership and we’re going to keep pushing forward,” Ferentz said.
If Iowa made any offensive improvement over the past two weeks
Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK
“You know, it depends where you’re looking, but it certainly hasn’t been in the form of consistency. That part. The game two games ago was tough to evaluate and that team’s been playing pretty good defense. They continue to play (good defense). Where I did think we made improvement was against Michigan, three games ago. Not quite sure how to quantify it right now, but certainly it’s not good enough and that’s really the bottom line. When you can’t score points, it’s going to be tough to win,” Ferentz said.
How Alex Padilla handled himself following his two early turnovers
Brooke LaValley/Columbus Dispatch
“Well, you know, I thought both quarterbacks tried to compete and do their best out there, and so we’ll look at the tape tomorrow and see what we can do, but Alex as I’ve said has practiced well and he’s totally invested. Just like Spencer is. Again, it was a tough situation for him to enter the game, so we’ll just take a look at it tomorrow and see what we think,” Ferentz said.
Given it's been hard to assess the quarterbacks so far, how will they determine the starter now?
Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK
“Well, we’ll talk about that tomorrow, but again this is a tough assessment, too. Tough opponent and things weren’t going real well. You’re looking up at a score that’s a little bit lopsided. That makes it even that much tougher. We’ll see what the film looks like and go from there,” Ferentz said.
How they keep confidence high for everybody that's part of the offense right now
Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK
“Sure. Well, again, I’ll go back to what I said earlier. We have really good people to work with. I think we have good coaches on our staff and most importantly good players and that has been a commonality 30-plus years during my career at our place so it starts there. And there’s no magic formula. You just keep banging along and you’re never sure when things are going to break through.
“I’m standing here right now just thinking about going to Penn State in 2000. I don’t think anybody would have called that shot, but that was really the first time we played collectively like a winning football team, a winning Big Ten football team. We didn’t do anything magical during that course leading up to that game other than just try to, you just try to practice well and try to get better each and every time out there. I don’t think that formula ever changes in sports. I know more football than I do anything else, but, you know, so that’s the course we’ll stay on and we’ll see where it all takes us,” Ferentz said.
What Spencer Petras' mindset is right now and the interception to start being the absolute last thing he wanted
Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK
“Oh absolutely. I mean, you always worry about players’ confidence and he wasn’t the only guy out there today. That’s part of the deal. He’s a resilient guy. He’s a mentally tough guy. That’s a big component right now, maybe as big as anything for our football team. We’re going to find out how mentally tough we are to push forward, because, again, we’ve got five games in front of us. We’ve got all kinds of opportunity. Clearly we have areas we need to improve in. To that point earlier, I mean, we never know when that’s going to come. We’ve just got to be pushing, working intelligently, and staying focused on improvement. I’m confident our guys will do that,” Ferentz said.
Tory Taylor's decision to run the fake punt
Brooke LaValley/Columbus Dispatch
“Well, yeah, I’m not sure what he saw, and we didn’t have a discussion. I just know that wasn’t part of our plan, and, in a moment of levity, we did the same thing the last time we played this opponent in our own stadium. Maybe it’s got something to do with playing Ohio State. I don’t know, but it was not a sanctioned play,” Ferentz said.
On keeping this from snowballing on them and if he believes it's possible for Iowa to get this back in the right direction
(Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images)
“Well, that part’s easy. Yeah, I not only think it’s possible, I believe it is possible and I believe it’s going to happen, but it’s up to us to make it happen. So, yeah, absolutely, no doubt, I believe it’s possible and that’s our job, that’s our goal. That’s what you try to do any time you compete is get yourself in a position where you can go out and be successful. We weren’t able to do it today, but, we’re going to keep pushing hard and again we’ve got quality people. That’s a big part of it, big component of this whole thing,” Ferentz said.
On what the most important factor will be when evaluating which quarterback will start
Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK
“You know, let’s talk about that Tuesday. I mean, we’ll just, we’ll watch the film like we always do and try to make a smart evaluation,” Ferentz said.
Why Iowa is willing to change quarterbacks in season but not offensive coordinators
Ron Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
“Well, I think you’re talking about two separate job descriptions and two separate areas of responsibility. I know people do it. I know it’s been done. It’s been done this year. Again, it’s just not my preference. My preference has been to play it out, and there’s evidence to show that it’s worked pretty well in the past, so we’ll play it out and then we’ll do our assessments and our evaluations when everything’s over. The season’s not over, so, when the season’s over, we’ll make an evaluation I think is best for our program,” Ferentz said.
If he's putting the Iowa program in a bad spot with one of the least productive offenses nationally that's run by one of his family members
(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
“It’s got no bearing on who the person is, alright, and it’s just a matter of who is coaching our football team. Okay, the guys on our staff are guys I think that have demonstrated success. They’re good people and we’re going to keep pushing forward. I don’t feel like we’re doing anything wrong,” Ferentz said.
If his evaluation of Brian Ferentz will be any different as compared to other assistant coaches at the end of the year
(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
“We’ve, I’ve tried to treat everybody with consistency on our staff past and present. Same thing with players. I’ve had three family members play as well in our program, and, you know, they’ve got to earn everything they get. Just like coaches do,” Ferentz said.
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