University of Iowa Football

Media Conference
Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Kirk Ferentz
KIRK FERENTZ: Just to follow up with what Steve just
said, really happy for Jordan to be recognized. He had
a great game and has been really playing well for us all
season long, as have all of our seniors, so really happy
for him, and then also great to learn about the
recognition for the special teams, the return specialist
by the Big Ten, and to have Tim Dwight be recognized
for that is fantastic. He joins two other pretty good Iowa
football players, Nile Kinnick and Dallas Clark, so that's
really select company and quite an honor for him and
well-deserved.
Saturday's win, again, really good effort by our football
team, and again, I just wanted to compliment all the
people that made the gameday experience possible.
The field was in great condition. The crew worked all
through the night, as I was told, in really tough
conditions, so we appreciate their efforts and the
efforts to make the stadium accessible to the fans. I
don't know how many people were there on Saturday,
really doesn't matter. It was a great crowd and they
were really into it just like they've been all season. Very,
very appreciative of that.
And then, again, pertaining to the game, it was a
tough, hard-fought game. It's Big Ten football. Certainly
in our conference there's no easy days, and we
expected that. Purdue has been playing hard. They
certainly did Saturday.
We were happy to get the victory and certainly happy
for our seniors to win their last football game in Kinnick,
and finish undefeated in there. Just very, very happy
for them.
Captain-wise this week we've got the same four guys;
we've got Drew Ott, Jordan Lomax, Austin Blythe and
CJ Beathard. Health-wise this is probably about as
good a shape as we've been in all season long. Got
some guys with nicks and bumps and bruises, those
types of things, but that's par for the course. I think we'll
have everybody available outside of the guys that have
had surgery.
We go over to Nebraska, and typical of Nebraska,
they've got a lot of good football players. They're a very
good football team. They've got an excellent coaching
staff, and I think probably the big thing right now is that
they're meshing. The new staff got there whenever

Rev #2 by #177 at 2015-11-24 21:30:00 GMT

they got in place, it takes a while for things to come

together typically, and I think we're witnessing that.
They had some very difficult losses, close losses early
in the season, but they were playing well but just
couldn't quite finish things, and they're coming off two
very, very impressive victories now, beating Michigan
State a couple weeks back, and most recently Rutgers.
They're a good football team, good offensively, good
defensively, two excellent specialists, and good core
guys on the special teams.
A good football team. It's going to be a hostile
environment. We know that. Anytime you travel in the
Big Ten it's going to be tough to go into someone else's
stadium. That's an added challenge, and we're playing
them on their senior day, as well. We've got a tall list of
things that we're going to have to get prepared for, and
the bottom line is it's like every other game week; our
guys are going to have to really prepare well, and then,
most importantly, we're going to have to be ready to go
at kickoff on Friday.
And then the last thing, just want to recognize both HyVee and American Red Cross for, again, the concept of
this Heroes Game. I think it's a wonderful concept and
certainly happy for the honorees this year and in past
years, as well, but I just think the concept is first rate,
and our association with Hy-Vee has been first rate, as
well. It's a tremendous Iowa company and great
leadership, and it's been a tradition there, and certainly
Randy and all the folks there continue that on. So
we're just thrilled to have that association with our
program and them.
On top of that, we get a special treat tonight. They'll be
here to feed our guys, and I can just tell you from
experience, it's the best meal of the year that we ever
have, so we really appreciate that, as well. They're
very kind to come and just extend that hospitality.
That being said, I'll throw it out for any questions.
Q. It seems like the league made a concerted effort
to make sure that this series would be a rivalry
right off the bat, but it seems like what has
happened on the field in recent years has made
this a rivalry anyways. Would you agree with that?
KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, I think there's a lot of stuff that
didn't make sense logistically when we expanded, and

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we've had that discussion a million times. It's hard to

make everything work. But at least this became a yearto-year game, and really the chore has been for us to
get involved. My historical experience in this series
goes back to '81, and during that four-year stretch it
wasn't real kind to the University. My first game as an
assistant was against them. That had a happy
outcome, not so good the next year.
My first game as a head coach in 1999 was against
Nebraska, also, and we had a very high mountain to
climb at that point. And I would go back, whatever our
first year was this time, I think 2011, I think the
mountain was a little bit higher than we could mount.
Our job is to be able to play with those guys, go out
and compete with them. They recruit well. They've had
great teams in the past, and they've got a really good
football team this year. Our challenge is to be ready for
them on Friday.
Q. Last year's game seemed to serve almost as a
catalyst for this off-season. You've referenced it
several times in the spring, in the off-season, about
walking off the field not liking the way things
certainly happened to you. Do you feel like that
was kind of a momentum change in the program to
some extent?
KIRK FERENTZ: You know, again, that's just kind of
like the centerpiece, I guess, for the discussion, but as I
said the other day, it's nothing against them. They did
what they're supposed to do, we didn't, and that's our
responsibility.
So it's all about us taking ownership. That game is a
centerpiece for it, but there were signs along the way;
we lost way too many close games, something we
didn't do as a team very well last year. There's a lot of
things we didn't do well; you can go right down the list,
but that word "finish," it gets thrown out all the time in
sports. You can take it game-by-game or you can take
it as a season. It just so happens that was our last
regular scheduled football game.
We didn't close out the season in strong fashion last
year. We certainly didn't close that game out in strong
fashion, losing in overtime, but again, if you look
through and dissect that game, just there were a lot of
examples of things that we had to address and were
going to have to remedy if we wanted to be competitive
the way we want to be competitive.
We've had other years like that, but that just was the
last game coincidentally. It's not like this game has got
any special significance that way, but it does have
special significance in that it's our 12th game, and just
like the other 11, it's really important.

Rev #2 by #177 at 2015-11-24 21:30:00 GMT

Q. You guys always talk about one game at a time,

focus one week at a time. Has that focus become
more important this year as the wins pile up?
KIRK FERENTZ: I think so. I made the point to our
players yesterday, that Illinois State game was really
important to us, as well. Right, wrong or indifferent,
I've never been one to circle games or red letter them
or whatever those terms may be, because I think that
just kind of belittles the other games on your schedule,
and to me, if you're going to go compete and if you're
going to do something like this, you'd better treat every
opportunity like it's important, and if you don't, chances
are you have outcomes like we did last year too many
times.
I'm not saying we didn't respect the people we were
playing. It wasn't that case. But you've got to respect
the preparation that goes into it and what's required to
compete successfully.
That to me is the downside of pointing too much to one
game, and I think so far this team has done a good job.
We've shown up pretty well prepared week in and week
out, and that's only half the battle, but at least I think
we've done a decent job there.
Q. Is it fair to say that some teams do a better job
of taking it one game at a time?
KIRK FERENTZ: Absolutely. Good teams do it. But you
can't say in April, like I couldn't have told you in April
that this team is going to be one of those teams that
just kind of takes care of business. A big part of that is
leadership, and as I've said many times, our
leadership, I'm not sure where it was at in April, but I
can tell you now, it's been growing pretty rapidly ever
since August, and it's really been -- any good team,
any team that's doing well, typically they have really
good leadership, or else they've got just the best
players, and that's not realistic too often.
Q. When you look at the stats, the yardage you've
given up defensively in the last three games versus
the first eight, is there any alarm there? You said
something to the effect of just suck it up, we've just
got a game or two to go.
KIRK FERENTZ: Somebody said that was kind of out
there a little bit this morning on social media or
whatever. I have people that actually tell me stuff that's
going on in the real world. You know, it's football, and
we've played a couple good offensive football teams.
Name anybody that has shut out Indiana this year. Let
me know who it is and we're going to look at that film
real closely because we've got a challenge there.
Minnesota is playing good football, and Purdue is a
good football team.

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You know, the obvious difference right now in my mind

is that we don't have Drew Ott, but I would counter that
by saying we played pretty good defense against
Purdue, played pretty good up in Wisconsin, and that
was without Drew, and Drew is not coming back. Sorry
to say it, but we all realize that.
So we've got to find a way, and we will. We have got
good guys and they're working hard and they'll
respond, but this is going to be a big challenge, too.
This is a really good offensive football team, you know.
Q. Drew said that he might apply for a sixth year.
KIRK FERENTZ: It's actually a fifth year, yeah.
Absolutely, we'd be crazy not to try it. I think there's a
fair case to be heard. I don't know how the NCAA rules
on things. I really don't pretend to be an expert in that
regard, but I think if you listen to the whole case, it's
worth at least presenting, and we'll see where it takes
us.
Q. Were you surprised that he said he was coming
back?
KIRK FERENTZ: Oh, no, not at all. I mean, we're with
these guys day by day, and you know, the injury gutted
him. It gutted all of us. It's just a hard thing because
he's put so much into it. He clearly is one of our strong
leaders and has been and still is. So yeah, he wants to
finish this up. He wants to have a good senior year.
That's what he wants, like most players.
Q. Is it a case of what's best for the student in his
case because he's probably going to miss the
combine?
KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot -- I
won't get into it now, maybe in the out-of-season, but
there's a lot of details in there that I think would be -- to
me a rational person would sit down and listen to it and
say, this guy's got a case. But I just watch this stuff; I
don't know how they rule on stuff half the time.
Q. Purdue attempted eight 4th downs, they faked a
punt, Minnesota went into their bag of tricks. How
difficult is it to prepare for teams whenever they're
playing with nothing to lose?
KIRK FERENTZ: You know, that's an added degree of
difficulty, but that's football, and that's going to happen.
You deal with it, and we knew that coming in. They
were going to come in trying to win and play very
aggressively, and they did, and to their credit, they
made it really hard on us. That's just the way it goes,
and that's part of the territory, part of the terrain, and it
wasn't like it surprised us. We knew they were going to
get after us, and Minnesota the same way, so you just
have to deal with that and hopefully you're prepared for
it.

Rev #2 by #177 at 2015-11-24 21:30:00 GMT

Q. Do you guys suspect Nebraska may come out

and try to surprise you a time or two?
KIRK FERENTZ: I think part of good coaching is to
have a couple wrinkles, and they've had a little time to
develop a few, too, maybe, so I'm sure they'll have
something for us, and it really gets down to playing
good, sound fundamental football. That's how you stop
those types of things, and if you don't, if you leave the
door open a little bit, you can victimized by those, and
we have in the last couple weeks.
Q. How remarkable do you think it is that your team
hasn't trailed since the first half of against Illinois?
KIRK FERENTZ: That is remarkable. I wasn't aware of
that quite frankly. It doesn't feel like that on the sideline,
I can tell you that. We're winning by 20 and I'm just
churning. You never feel comfortable.
But it's a credit to our players. We've done a pretty
good job in the second half and closed games out
pretty well. But I wasn't really aware of that until it kind
of came up the other day.
Q. You guys have a short week. Nebraska had a
bye week. Is that a scheduling quirk that you're
comfortable with?
KIRK FERENTZ: You don't have any choice. I think in
the future, hopefully both teams have the same
opportunity, whenever it may be, but to have something
to do with the lunar eclipse and all that other stuff, it's
just one of those freak things. At the end of the day, it
won't decide the game. We both have had a bye week
this year. We've both played 11 games, so I think we're
on the same page. This is as healthy as we've been.
We're not looking for excuses. We're going to go over
there and play well, and hopefully we're going to play
really well because we're going to need to because
that's what it's going to take here.
Q. The Sports Illustrated cover I think is still an
iconic thing, and you're on at least a regional cover
this week. Do you have any feelings about that?
KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, I just heard that one this
morning and wasn't quite prepared for that. I did speak
to a reporter last week, so knew there was an
opportunity, but I'm a little behind, so we're going to
have to do a little research and prove that there is no
jinx. That's been thrown out there before. We've
already done some things nobody has ever done here
before, so maybe we can -- last time we couldn't
survive -- I think we lost that next week, right? I think
we did, so maybe we can break that one, too. That's
one more thing we can put up on the board and try to
shoot for.
Q. Going off of that, do you feel sort of vindicated

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with all the success you've had this year after all
the critics from last season?
KIRK FERENTZ: No, it's never been about that. We've
tried to look forward, and that's what we encouraged
our players to do back in January. I've said this many
times, if you're going to compete as a player, as a
coach, you'd better be able to take the heat as well as
all the other stuff that comes with winning.
That's part of the terrain, and really rather than worry
about all the emotional stuff that gets involved with that,
probably the better course is to try to figure out what
you have to do to get better, and I'm really proud of the
staff. They've done a good job of that, and our players
have really been committed, and you know, what else
can you ask for. I come to work every day with a great
group of coaches and get to work with a great group of
players. I feel good about that. I feel very appreciative
of that.
Q. You guys have been pretty great on 1st down as
far as being efficient and getting what you need to
get. I think the players have said that it's sort of the
emphasis during the off-season; you guys had
competitions set up in practice to get that -KIRK FERENTZ: I'm not a big stat person, period, and
then offensively, defensively, we have a couple different
parameters. But offensively it's always been since
Greg has gotten here, and Ken, I think it's just kind of
football 101. First down success is as important and
plays into third down success a lot of times. So we
chart it weekly and we always discuss that.
But yeah, we had a couple things that we built into
practice, and again, that was just us brainstorming a
little bit, hey, maybe we integrate this, integrate that,
and we found a menu maybe that would work for us a
little bit differently than maybe some other people we
talked with, but nevertheless maybe stemmed from
some of the discussions we had with other folks.
Q. Has that come to fruition? The stats are there.
KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, I would not just point to one
thing, but I would say the accumulation of things has
been -- looks like it's been helpful, so far at least. I said
back in October I was waiting for that other shoe to
drop. It may drop and hit me right in the head on
Friday, we'll see. You just never know. But I think
we've got enough evidence right now that some of the
stuff we've done has been pretty good.
Q. How much are you selling the opportunites to
your players, finishing an undefeated season with
the potential to advance to a playoff?
KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, we're trying not to focus on
that. I've said this before: These guys are in college.
They're smart. Every one of them. They may not have

Rev #2 by #177 at 2015-11-24 21:30:00 GMT

a car, they may not have clothes, but they've all got a
phone and technology. It's an essential in life anymore.
They get more information than they need probably, so
I don't think I have to remind them about those kinds of
things, but to me the reminder is how do we get to
here. How do we get to this point thus far, and that's
really the secret. And again, you talk about it every
year, but it's how it's received and then how it's acted
out, and so far the guys have done a good job. But the
altitude gets a little bit harder the more you do things
well, and if you can handle that altitude -- go back to
our first trip to Miami, we didn't handle it too well there.
Just making a comparison. Next time down there, we
did better.
But you've got to be able to handle it. The better things
get, the more distractions there are out there for
everybody to take them off course of what makes you
successful. I think that's really the challenge that we're
trying to deal with right now.
Q. Darian Cooper got in the last play of the game,
and he went through a two-year ordeal that most
people probably would have just said forget it and
moved on with their life. What does that say about
his perseverance and maybe his craziness, the fact
that he's still with the team?
KIRK FERENTZ: Check and check, perseverance, and
he is a little bit goofy, in a good way, strictly in a good
way. You've got to be to be a defensive lineman,
especially in the interior, but he's fought hard, he's
worked hard, and he's not 100 percent, and I'm sure he
probably told you that today if you talked to him. But
he has worked extremely hard, and it was really
important to get him in. We were trying like crazy to
give him an opportunity to play, and it just worked out.
So really glad about that. He's not going to be 100
percent between now and the bowl. It just isn't going to
happen.
But the good news is he's a great young guy who's
going to graduate. He's got a tremendous personality,
and if he puts it to use in the right way, he could go
really far. It could be a real attribute, could be a
disadvantage sometimes, too. But I think he gets it;
he's really done a great job. He's a first-class guy and
I'm really happy for him.
Q. It's clear that he's not what he was two years
ago, never will be probably after what he went
through. Does he have the potential to help you?
Is it more of a practice type player that helps you,
or can you have him on the field?
KIRK FERENTZ: He's been out there in practice the
last couple weeks, and we started him out in the kiddie
pool and then shallow end, and let him in the deep end

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a little bit last week. But to me we did that because

he's earned that, and it was all about us paying him
back a little bit. He's run the whole race. He's gone
through a lot of tough stuff, and I talk about that all the
time when you talk about guys that go through injuries.
People don't understand just how lonely it is and how
hard it is to fight back from that, so that was like the
least that we could do for him. He wanted to try to do
it, so I was so happy.
I can't document this, or prove it, but he would have
been a really good football player for us. He's got a
good spirit to him. But that happens. It's really hard,
and if Drew doesn't get to come back and finish out his
career -- it's reality, though. We all know that, coaches
know that going out there coaching, and players know
that going out there and playing, but that is the other
side of this whole thing. Not everybody gets to be
Player of the Week like Jordan, not that he hasn't paid
his dues, too. So yeah, it's the humanistic side of
things, and Darian is just a great young guy, and at the
end of the day, not many guys are going to play in the
NFL for two years, let alone 10. It's really about who
you are and what you are once you get out of here and
you're 35 years old and bring your kids through the
building. That's what's important.
Q. With the holiday this week, is there anything that
stands out to you that you're really thankful for this
season?
KIRK FERENTZ: I'll probably get around to that
tomorrow with our team, try to brief them on what the
holidays mean since we seem to work through a lot of
them. But yeah, we'll talk about that. I've been
fortunate my entire career in that I've been able to do
what I like doing. I'm allowed to do that. And then the
other part, I've been around great people every stop.
I've never had a bad job and I've never been around
bad people. Not everybody can say that, and I really
feel fortunate about that for sure.
Q. You're in the coaches' ballot for All-Big Ten.
You've seen eight opposing quarterbacks; you
know the Michigan quarterback, Michigan State
quarterback is hurt, Ohio State is kind of -- would
CJ Beathard be your first team vote?
KIRK FERENTZ: We're allowed to vote for our guys? I
am asking, I guess. I think he's pretty good. But I'm not
politicking, even though we're in Iowa. I don't have a
blue shirt and red tie on right now, so I'm not getting
into political mode. I think he's pretty good. I'm glad
he's our quarterback, I know that. I'd vote for him.
Q. Are people kind of sleeping on how good he is
maybe?
KIRK FERENTZ: Possibly, except maybe the teams
that play him. The guy is a good player. He's a really

Rev #2 by #177 at 2015-11-24 21:30:00 GMT

good player.
Q. Last year after the Nebraska game they fired
their coach and their AD said they had to measure
where Iowa was, that where Iowa was was where
Nebraska wanted to be. Did that resonate at all?
KIRK FERENTZ: Not really. I don't think he was the
only guy that said that. It seemed like there was a lot
of company on that front. All of us have been looking
forward since January. What happened, happened. We
take ownership. Anybody that was there, we take
ownership, and the good news is we got to swing the
bat again and things are working out a little bit better
right now. But it's temporary parking, just like all the
rankings and all that stuff.
Q. As Austin Blythe's career comes down to its last
two or three games, what has he meant to the
program in his time here?
KIRK FERENTZ: He fits a lot of things we've just talked
about. He played a lot as a freshman, and that's
unusual, a redshirt freshman I guess it would have
been. But he played a lot of snaps, got an ankle hurt,
came back, but that was really valuable time for him.
And then each step along the way, he's just gotten
better and better, and the thing that jumped out at me
right away, the first time he did anything on campus he
did it pretty well, whether it was playing guard, center.
So I'm not saying it's easy for him, but he's really got
good ability, I think rare ability as a lineman.
But the bigger thing is the growth of him as a football
player and then most recently as a leader, so those two
things this year are the things that we're really seeing.
He played well last year. I'm not diminishing that, but
he's really stepped it up, and talking about allconference, I'm sure there are other guys really good,
too, but I wouldn't trade him for anybody.
This guy is a really good football player, and he's a
really good leader. We're getting a lot of that from a lot
of guys that are seniors, but Austin is a tremendous
young man.
Q. You mentioned James being a guy whose
redshirt freshman year that kind of brought him
along. What did you see from that relationship?
KIRK FERENTZ: Well, we're very fortunate. We've had
a lot of that at a lot of positions, not just in the offensive
line. I go back to -- a couple things impacted me when I
got here in the early '80s, and it was fascinating to me
because, like the school I played at, we weren't very
good at UConn, quite frankly, and University of Iowa
hadn't been very good.
I was fascinated with the way former players came
back here and the way they felt about the program and

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the University. That kind of puzzled me quite frankly,

and I was fascinated to observe that, and then the
other thing that hit me right off the bat was the way the
older guys accepted the younger guys, and I've got a
couple theories on that, I won't bore you. I think it's
unique to our program and our geography maybe, but
I've gotten to witness that 26 years as a coach, just the
way the older guys embrace younger guys here.
There's no hazing, rookie treatment, all that stuff, that
little league stuff. They treat guys well and they want
them to be part of the team.
So I'd like to think that's a tradition that's been ongoing
here. It's not like we started it, but we've had a lot of
older guys be really good with younger players, and the
key is will the younger player listen to the older guy.
The ones that do are a little smarter than the ones that
don't. It's a little funny how that turns out.

Q. Nebraska has a pretty good run defense,

particularly the defensive tackles, Maliek Collins
may be as good of an athlete as they've ever had
there, and Valentine, the big guy. What kind of
challenges do they present to your interior?
KIRK FERENTZ: They've got an NFL defensive line,
period, and those two guys inside, if anybody has got a
better combination nationally -- first thing I think of is
the LSU group that we played two years ago. Those
two guys were pretty good, too, and LSU in '04 had -these guys are both excellent football players, but
they've got a lot of other guys, too; safety is really
good, a lot of other guys that are really good players,
good athletes, so that's going to be a good match-up,
tough match-up for us because their ends are big and
physical guys, too, and good players, active. They've
done a really good job against the run, so something is
going to have to give probably.

Q. Do you think that's something that's emblematic

with the state of Iowa, good core Iowa players,
being Iowan, they kind of welcome people and
welcome strangers?
KIRK FERENTZ: I think we're kind of a melting pot of
football. Most guys, not all guys but a lot of guys have
stories that end up getting here. They weren't the first
choice at the dance and all that stuff, so I think there's
a little bit of a unique chemistry. And again, I go back
to the '80s, not just the last 16 years, but I wasn't
thinking about it in the '80s but I thought a lot about it in
the '90s, why did that work; why is it such a good place
to be; and why were those players so good to work
with. And I think there's a little something unique about
this whole thing, which is fun.

Q. Your pass rush the last couple games, I think

you've had three sacks in three games. You've
also gone against, at least the last two games,
mobile quarterbacks at times. Was that by design
to try to keep them in the pocket?
KIRK FERENTZ: Our design is to keep people under
17 points, and if we do that, then we're really happy,
however it gets done. And if we don't, then we don't
achieve that goal. Some games it's got to be less than
that because -- Wisconsin, that wouldn't have cut it.
Bottom line is try to get less -- let them have less than
what we've got, so play it week by week, but these
guys present some challenges because they're
balanced. The quarterback is an excellent football
player, very dangerous, as we saw last year.

Q. Austin said to start the season he talked to his

family about wanting to be on a team that Coach
Ferentz talked about in the future, like you
referenced 2002, 2004, 2009, those teams. Is this
team going to be in that conversation as you go
down the road?
KIRK FERENTZ: They're off to a heck of a start. Who
knows what's going to happen. We have a really tough
game Friday. Every game after that is going to be
tough no matter how many there are or how few.
Where it all goes, who knows, but what these guys
have already established and what they've already
accomplished is very impressive, and more so the way
they've done it. That's what's impressed me. I'm
speaking for all the coaches now, not just me.

Q. Do you have to kind of manufacture a pass rush

with Armstrong?
KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, if you can do it, great. We're
looking for ways.

They've been hard-working. They're fun to be around.

They're fun to coach. We have to get after them every
now and then. That's just like your kids at home. But
you do that and they make their beds. They've been
really good that way, so it's all good.

Q. How do you think the natural perception coming

in, how do you think the state of your program here
compares to the national perception entering the
season?
KIRK FERENTZ: I've said it before, I'm not real big on
national perception, anybody's perception, other than

Rev #2 by #177 at 2015-11-24 21:30:00 GMT

Q. Is it better to attack him or -KIRK FERENTZ: You don't want him outside. That's
not a good thing. When he improvises and gets out -in the last play of the game last year we let him out of
the pocket and we paid for it. That's usually not a good
thing, and he makes good decisions when he gets
outside. Some guys don't. He keeps his eyes down
the field. He'll find a guy that's open. He did it a couple
times against us last year, but he can hit them out of
the pocket, too. It's feast or famine on that stuff.

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there's a handful of teams every year that you can go

out and say, these guys are going to be pretty good
probably, and you'd be right almost 100 percent of the
time. A couple surprises in there. But to me that's the
beauty of college football. Afterwards you just never
know who's going to do what and what's going to
materialize, et cetera.
It really gets down to the people involved, and then a
lot of circumstances that happen.
We've certainly had our share of hardship this year
injury-wise, et cetera, where maybe people would have
thought, hey, if they'd lost here, I could see why. But
that's the interesting part about college athletics or
athletics in general, and we try not to get too bogged
down on that stuff, just like the College Playoff rankings
that have been going on a couple weeks now. Right
now they really don't mean a lot. It's really about the
competition and what's going on on the field. We're
just going to try to keep our eyes on what's in front of
us here, and see where it all takes us at the end.

Rev #2 by #177 at 2015-11-24 21:30:00 GMT

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