Iowa OC Brian Ferentz and center Logan Jones preview Vols in Citrus Bowl | Tennessee Football

right you guys ready coach take be ready sure well it's good to be here this morning and um you know just want to start by saying how excited we are to be uh down here in Orlando for this game we're here two years AG going and just have to say what a tremendous job this bowl committee does U and really you know go kind of going out of their way to make us feel welcome and take care of us from from the top to the bottom so we're excited to come back down here excited about playing Tennessee uh obviously really good opponent um known coach Banks going back to his time in Illinois so have some experience with with their defensive system and what they do but been excited for that challenge and U I think the players have been working hard have had a good uh good month of preparation and just like I said we're we're excited to be here and get going there questions raise your hand we'll get a good mic to you we'll start with Scott here on the left to the right Brian how you doing good good um I guess I want to ask you what have the last two months been like for you coaching how have you been able to kind of compartmentalize your future versus the task in hand and how challenging was it in the beginning and how the challenging is it potentially today well I I think the answer is very simple right I made a commitment um to this football team in this football program and like I said in my statement I I intended to honor that commitment feel like I've done that uh and fully anticipate doing that for the next three four days whatever it is and then you know cross the other bridge when I get there but you know this this place is important to me the University of Iowa was important to me the football program is important to me um and it so was important that I you know I finished the right way and did my job go to the right hi Brian hope you're doing well um going back to October was it something that you were anticipating was there dialogue leading what was kind of dialogue leading up to the the decision that Beth made I'm I'm not sure I understand that question John in terms of were their conversations ahead of time how did you find out what was kind of the process of that count I would direct those questions to Beth um you know like I said my my focus has been on our football team and our players and and doing my job in getting them ready to play football games and trying to help them be in position to be successful and win games so that's where I kept my focus during the season that's where I've kept my focus since October that's where I intend to keep my focus for the coming days any question for hey Brian um Kirk uh talked to yesterday about how you just appreciated you know everything you put into the program um what uh you know what does it mean for you to finish it out with him here in Orlando um I know it was seemed to be emotional to the ill game walking out of K with a win just wondering how special that was to you what do it mean to win this game uh well you know I think the the emotion of the Illinois game was quite simply that uh you know These Guys these players they set a goal at the beginning of the season and that was to win the Big 10 you know unfortunately we came up short in that regard uh but but the best we could do at the time was win the Big 10 West and give ourselves a chance to do that uh in order to to do that we need to beat Illinois when we won that game um I think the emotion that you saw with everyone on the sideline was you saw a bunch of players that have worked really hard and accomplish their goals and you know quite frankly um probably what I resent the most about this situation is that the focus has come off of our football players who have really accomplished some tremendous things this year um and it's gone on to things that just quite simply don't matter they're trivial and silly um in my opinion and you know for whatever reason the focus has gone there instead on of on a bunch of players who worked really hard overcome a lot of adversity and dealt with a lot of nonsense to win 10 football games and put themselves into position to win the 11th which I think would be the fourth time in the history of the school that that's happened so um you I quite frankly I think that's where the focus should be that's where I'd like it to be um I can't control what what you guys do or what other people say um but but I think we're really missing something that's that's pretty special that's going on go to the right here and I'll come up from to the left Lo ask you a question is there Sense on the team is there sense among the guys on especially on the offensive side to win one for Brian f um I wouldn't say our goals to win it for Brian I think it's just to win it for our team you know that's what we came here to do we have a great opportunity to do that against a good Tennessee team you know obviously it's going to be emotional you know you get to play for a guy like coach Ryan it means a lot I mean you got a coach who who who stop by and say hi to your mom you know have a conversation with her you know she'll come to me after the game and say how much that means to her so you know you have a guy like coach Brian who gets to come in and do that and just the type of man he is that means a lot to me I know it means a lot to my mom too I bet he does it with every you know player on the offensive side defensive side of the ball it just says a lot about him so yeah I think it's going to be a very emotional game for us and you know we're going to go out there and try and play our best football this is for both of you all um when you look at Tennessee specifically James Pierce what what stands out about what he gets done then Logan start yeah I mean you look at these guys they they're in you know they got a lot of talent you know they're a talented group and you know we're going to do our best to out there and try to play our best football cuz we have yet to do so and you know that's our goal um you know they're big strong talented guys probably five star guys right you know we don't have guys like that so it's just a great opportunity for our guys up front you know our offense to go out there and you know like I said just try and play our best football I'll piggy back that just talk about their their whole defense right I think you know everything for them starts with their front they at those big guys right and um you know I think our leads change a little bit we've seen some more defenses like that as time's gone on right with some of the bigger guys up front uh especially in the interior but I think what makes these guys interesting is you know they got the big guys up front they got the the the two backers they're really pretty good players and then they're playing with those DBS they can be a little bit fluid uh with what they're showing you and uh I think a Real Testament to them you know just structurally um and and I mean this as a as a huge compliment they they change week to week they can present different looks uh based on the game based on the team they're playing you know they can choose to play a couple different ways they can change the front they can change the coverage structure they're really fluid in those things and they do a nice job of it uh they can really create some challenges with you for the pictures you're seeing up front um or in the back end with the coverage so I think one of the big challenges for us this week uh is going to be trying to identify very early on you know what their game plan is against us uh because I think it'll look different than maybe what we've seen on tape week to week there's obviously going to be elements of it uh but this has been a tough preparation because you can't just say hey uh it's not like playing our defense where it's like hey this is what they're going to do we know that they're going to match it up against what we are but it's going to look like this on game day now we got to beat it um there's an element of hey look these guys have some really good players but then there's a structural component that's a little bit of question mark right now um and we probably won't know until about 8 nine 10 plays into that first quarter exactly what it's going to look like and then make sure we're dialed in and seeing those pictures clearly and attacking them the way that we want to attack them back to right with John and then black Tom then Ryan specifically with this game how much does this mean how much would a win mean considering that this is your last game at a place that you've spent a lot of hours in yeah I mean I just go back to Tom's question like I think that narrative is ridiculous like I told you um if if I've shared one thing with these players in my time here I think that this program is not about one person it never has been and it never will be right so I just feel fortunate that I've been a part of this place and I've been around the people that I've been around and had a chance to work with those people on a dayto day to coach players like Logan and a lot of guys that came before him to play with guys that came before him um it's not about one game about winning it for anybody it's about doing doing things right doing them for Iowa football and that's where my focus is going to stay on Monday I'll go back to the right and then we he's got Brian just a question for you um you've had the opportunity to coach with your dad for for over a decade here at Iowa um what do that meant to you and what are your kind of memories that you'll share moving forward yeah you know I mean I think it's special that um I've gotten a coach with my father got to know know professionally right you know I think growing up you know you see your parents as I don't know what the right word is they're just they're your parents they're not real people um they don't have emotions they don't have feelings they don't have bad days they don't have good days they don't have hopes and dreams they just have you and you know it's Mom and Dad and then as you get older um you meet your parents as people and obviously I think everyone has that opportunity for the most part um sometimes what you find is maybe doesn't live up to what your idea of what your parents uh was right because you see them as actual human beings and we're all flawed uh but I I had a chance to get to know my father professionally which I don't know that every son does um and that's been pretty special you know he's lived up to everything that that I imagined to be um so I've enjoyed every minute of working with him um and you know I don't know specific memories anything like that I'll remember my time fing it was it was a lot of fun it was kind another right I apologize L I know going to ask you a couple questions here but I did want to ask Brian um about kind of the challenges of working through this season not personally but professionally when you bring in a quarterback as talented as Kate mcam and he has an ACL you have two NFL caliber tight ends and they both go out with season ending injuries you guys up front have had to deal with a lot of ups and downs even in the back field you had several running backs out early in the season and yet you managed to persevere you guys have won games what kind of challenges as that put on you and and your players to try to execute when you know you're limited you know and and there's a reason why some te players are first team and some are second team yeah I just I think that's part of football right um I think it was you asked me a question this summer about dealing with adversity um if you don't expect adversity to happen I don't I just think you're a fool um so we knew there were going to be challenges you don't know exactly what they going to be um you don't know how many there will be you don't you know sometimes you don't deal with as many and if you don't deal with any then terrific great smooth sailing but you know that those things are going to happen and one thing that I know in my experience is that the games will still get played uh they will still get kicked off at that scheduled time there's certainly too much money and and media attention on those things to not get played so you have to find a way to be competitive and try to win football games that's the ultimate goal so uh you know in my estimation I think it it really comes down to the players and how they respond and we've been fortunate but it starts with leadership starts with guys like Logan um you know who who unfortunately did miss some time but but I I'm here to tell you he played a lot too when he wasn't feeling great um and when you have that going on your team you have selfless guys that are willing to do whatever it takes to help the football team win and put the team first then then it's just a lot of fun and you know dealing with those challenges I think that's the fun part of coaching right every week you got to figure out you you know what do we have available what are we going against um and how do we give our football team the best opportunity to win the game and then you see if you can go out there and do that on Saturday and sometimes it goes your way sometimes it doesn't but I think if you do things the right way you're probably going to win more than you lose and you know I feel like we've done that for for quite a long time the University of b we'll take a couple more we got one on the back and we'll come back in the future hey Logan you're in the back what would it mean for this program to win this game 2022 against Kentucky come up a little bit short so to end this year with an 11th win what would that mean for you in this program and a BIG full game here yeah you know like Coach Bryan talked about you know we have an opportunity to get our 11th win which is I think the fourth time in program history so you know just to be a part of the team like that I think it's something special too especially with all the adversity and the guys that haven't been able to you know go out there and compete you got guys like Luke Le Eric all K MC you know who worked so hard in the offseason you know gab their all just to play this season they won't have that opportunity now but you know we do have that opportunity for guys that are healthy to go out there and play and get an 11th win you know to get that 11th win for the coach bars too I think it would be really cool because you know it's only happen four times so I think this game you know it's a great opportunity for us to go out there you know try and play our bestest football and get that one we'll take one right one more here hey Bri uh right thanks uh for all the time you gave us over the years I appreciate that um mark looked like Marco maybe elevated to number two at some point I think maybe four Northwestern game um what kind of went into that decision would there be any chance we might see him outside of an injury performance on Monday like a package of plays or anything like that no you know I mean look we're going to make decisions every week that we think are best for the football team uh I felt like Marco had had elevated above Joe at that time so we put uh you know we want to invest the Reps into the guys that we think the football team win that's why we made that decision but deacons the starting quarterback deacons played really good football for us deacons let this football team do a lot of wins um and we expect Deacon to go the distance on on Monday what more left coach you talked about uh you you played center guard offensive line it's a difficult transition to jump over from the defensive front to the offens in front let alone play center make the calls talk about Logan's development the last two years and Logan transitionally what's been the the most uh the biggest challenge for you despite other than staying healthy I I'll start that I'll let you finish um right when you're valuing players you're you're always valuing traits um and when you talk about the center position especially at the University of Iowa you just think about the running guys that we've had um going back I mean you go back all the way but but if you just want to talk about s like 2012 right you get my brother uh you know then that transitions over Austin ble becomes that guy goes on to a really good NFL career U I wouldn't call my brother's NFL career good but it was long uh is long um you you got Austin right and then you just keep transitioning uh Keegan render played really good football for us James Daniels at times played really good football for us at times at the center position um then you get to Tyler Linder bomb obviously having a tremendous career he looked pretty good the other night um and then you know you're always looking for that next guy right so at one time it was always those guys and what are the traits you're looking for you're looking for a guy that number one is tough um tough and competitive it's the type of person that that maybe hates losing a little bit more than they enjoy winning um somebody that that is tough to the point of willing to do anything physically to play the game of football um and then athleticism obviously really important um but intelligence and Leadership th those things critical at the center position so as as Tyler's time's winding down right we're looking at our roster and uh just didn't feel like maybe that guy was in the in the offensive line room at the time but kept looking at this guy playing defensive line and boy it sure seemed like he had all those things in in a very similar manner to to lindbom early in his career um we waited a little little bit longer to switch Logan but it just seems so obvious so so transition him over in the really that was bow prep right when we started or was it spring spring Bowl was your first yeah so we got him going in the off season um and what I can't say enough about about Logan is you know I I don't think people understand how difficult what he did last season was right to go from being a firsttime offensive lineman let alone the center in Spring ball to go and going in the distance starting you know 13 games for us at the position and and really playing pretty pretty well uh considering but also watching him play that year and seeing a lot of really bright spots and a a lot of really good things and getting excited knowing that his best football was in front of him uh and he's done that he's continued to grow as a football player as a leader it's all those things the greatest compliment I can give him is I don't know that we have a football player on offense who works harder who practices harder who's tougher who's more committed to the football team um you know Logan's not always the most vocal player on our football team but I think his example Shines on a daily basis and when you have somebody like that playing that position um it really elevates the guys around him and and ultimately that's what you're looking for out of that player you know I think the best centers that I've been around they're guys that that the four or five guys playing around them you know sometimes even that tight end position a lot of times the quarterback also they play a little bit better uh when that guy's in the game um and I think that's true about Logan so he he's been a joy to coach I would just finish with this I think his best football still in front of him um and I'm excited to see that I'll be watching carefully yeah um you asked about the transition um obviously you know coach M came and talk to me right away and I was like yeah like I'll do it you know I knew Tyler did it but he gave me a week to think about it talk to Tyler and everything I was like this is absolutely what I want to do you know I think it it was a great challenge uh for me you know last year you know there were some ugly plays but you know that's part of it and it was an opportunity for me to grow and I think that's just the hardest thing is you know realizing you know you weren going to be perfect and that's just part of the game right it's an imperfect game so you're never going to go out there and be perfect that's just unrealistic but you know um we always talk about in the o line room and Coach Barnett always says this you know don't don't be a flincher don't be a guy that shiv away from challenges you know that kind of defines who you are as a you going to know take a head on or you going to shy away and you know um that that was probably just the hardest thing for me initially is just you know going towards the challenge and realizing you know you're going to get beat you might give up a sack you know you might give up penetration here or there but you know just realizing you know that's part of the game you know everybody does it um at some point in their careers and they're just learning from those mistakes and going through those obstacles and I think the really cool thing is you know you got four other guys on that offensive line who you know I consider my best friends you know I go out there every single you know day and practice with them they make it fun right and they're pushing me you know I'm pushing them you know it's kind of like a give give thing and it's just it's just really cool to see the development of the the guys in the line room and you know they pushed me and theyve made me a better player on the offens of the line and we got everybody coming back uh so I'm really excited for for this room and this team um and what's uh next for us gentlemen thank you for your time we appreciate you being here we'll have a coach Parker and Jay in a all right thank you thank you guys