what do you you've learned about the rivalry at this point what uh what do you think about it um yeah it's fun I mean it's two teams that compete uh two teams that you know love football and um we're just preparing like any other game and going in there you know to play our game is that is it really like every other game or do you do you find that some guys you know obviously do kind of care about a little more about this one yeah obviously there's going to be emotions with the game just because of it being the Rivalry and in state and there are guys that you know probably will have more emotion than others and so for us it's just keeping a level-headed minded and uh you know staying consistent and po throughout the whole game when you reviewed um Saturday uh what kind of stuck out in in hindsight about about the performance yeah there's just a couple areas where you know we thought that we could have continue drives and uh we're going to need to do that this week and uh just with the limited amount of drives that we might have again uh we got to stay consistent um and you know stay p within each other uh and you know continue to have long drives not just you know three and outs you're going against one of the top defenses in in the game um obviously you've done it before what's your impression of what they're able to do on defense yeah I mean coach Fon you know their DC they do a good job of you know just staying disciplined with what their details are on the defense and they've been doing it for uh how how many um I don't even know how many years now but they've been you know they've been the one of the best defenses in the country and uh all props to them they they make it hard for us and so we're going to have to come up with a good game plan and uh go in there and you know continue to just do our jobs what do you remember about what it was like to play against that unit last year yeah uh there was there wasn't a lot of mistakes on defense on their end it was kind of just finding the you know the little holes to get the ball in and uh just with the offensive line just trying to continue to get vertical on that defense of line and get get to the linebackers because that's the only way we can you know run the ball and so uh there's Tight Windows everywhere and so I I I'm going to need to be sharp on Saturday how do you handle looking back at the tape obviously you guys started pretty well uh with the touch on on the second play of the Season what was it like to kind of get the ends on that quickly uh it was exhilarating it was great uh the fans were going crazy um and then just that's just we what we wanted to do you know come out quick uh put points on the board and just show that we can be explosive on offense when you look at Iowa's defense what do they what do they do well the makes of chall to do yeah I think uh their defense is um very organized they know what they're doing they do it at a very high level um they have great players all over the field um the biggest thing for us is just to be consistent on what we do uh make sure we're meticulous on the small details what areas can you attack where do you feel like they may be most vulnerable um I wouldn't say any spe specific area that they're vulnerable just um you know we just got to play have a good game plan and just do what we do honestly you had an opportunity to play against them last year they play pretty unique coverage how important is your experience against their defensive schemes um as you enter your second year against them yeah I think it's uh it's really important uh they have a great defensive coordinator so he's going to change up things you know do the same things from last year so you really never know honestly but um yeah uh seeing fam familiarity familiarity with those guys you know it' be good going into the game what about the crowd noise what kind of issues does that you guys yeah I've never been there before so I don't I don't know how loud it gets but U I heard it gets really loud so we're practicing things like that and um you know we got certain cadences and things like that for for that so what are you doing the compensated practice I mean was it loud music crowd noise yeah we uh we have a radio and it it plays Cloud noise so it's it's really loud so it keeps us uh focused on the field yeah how confident are you with like hand signals and that sort of I feel like we're very confident you know we've been doing it since last year so yeah dire the place we need it in the in the open field um you know it's nice to have that switch up especially knowing you kind of have those punters that can specialize so it's it's really nice and it helps our special teams a lot and you're also more involved in the defense now what has kind of been some of maybe a little difference in preparation if there is any but uh what is kind of some of the differences this year versus Your Role last year I mean I I've always prepared to be ready to play CU it's in football you know anything can kind of happen injury-wise or whatever may happen but um now just being able to handle playing you know 30 40 50 snaps on defense along with whatever I may do on special teams you know it's been the biggest so it's more of a physical preparation as opposed to a mental one you're in your sixth year so you've been to K many times and you know exactly what that environment's all about what are the keys to handling it well uh you know obviously not feeding into the moment too much like everyone recognizes it's a big game but it's also the next game and if you want if we want to accomplish things we haven't done here before we have to win them all so you know not get too invested in it but also realizing that you're going into a opponent and a place that you know they don't want they don't like you and they don't want you to win so being able to handle the noise and you know focus on what we're doing and focus on like what we have to do to win the game is the most important where do you guys feel like you need to improve most from week one to week two um you know being able to stop the run for sure on defense and just as a team you know kind of playing complimentary football you know there are times in the game against North Dakota where you know the offense goes down and scores defense gets off the field offense punts and then you know the 22 three play 22 play drive that North Dakota ends up going on you know it's just there's no flow for us in the game so being able to play a complimentary football on all three phases this is important on that drive in particular a tackle here or tackle there and the drive is over um do you feel like tackling is something that typically improves the most from week one to week two absolutely you know it's the first you know first like live action against a different team so uh it's going to be a little rusty but you know we're taking steps forward in that department and I feel like our tacking will be much better come week week two come this weekend so looking forward to it I think I think it really really huge um I think I mean just playing at Iowa like I said it's really it's a fun environment to play in so just uh finishing with a win there would be huge and then I think it would catapult us into oh uh we got Arkansas State but then into Big 12 play that would be a huge win um cuz you know you got some hostile environments in the Big 12 um so Iowa was a really good test to see how we do in hostile environments so you mentioned this being able to kind of Vault you guys forward you're able to get a win on Saturday um with the cfp expanding the 12 teams do this win and an opportunity of getting a win you know kind of increase the the awareness of what it could do uh I don't think it increases the awareness cuz I think that's just our goal all offseason um you know focusing on ourselves and you know we'll be right where we want to be um first you got to get to a big 12 championship before we even think about the college football playoffs so um just winning each game each week circling each team and you know after that week is done then going back back to the drawing board so along those lines you're representing the Big 12 they're representing the Big 10 we know the come first week in December there's going to be all kinds of arguments and games like like this do matter you know depending on where you end up where they end up and then the leagues and themselves is that something that has entered your mind at all or is it just a narrow Focus that uh no I don't really look at the big picture of things cuz I feel like if you look at the big picture of things that's when you miss some a detail that you really needed to hone into that week um so I just focus on the team that's at hand the schematics that they do how their online plays what the QB does best and you really just go from there and then you know after that week week is over you take a deep breath and then you go back into the next into the next week that's how you're going be well yeah I mean they run the ball uh really well um you know their defense plays really well um to put their offense um on the plus side of the field so they can play on the plus side they have great kickers uh they play hard special teams um so you know just trying to get them to Third and long and uh hopefully when we get them to Third and long we can rush the passer um but they you know they do have a great old line so we got to come prepared the success that North Dakota had on the ground how how much has that been affected like your focus and practice since you guys yeah yeah I mean it's just honestly just comes down to detail being in your Gap in responsibility that's all it was it wasn't anything crazy that happened out there um if we just do that and we play physical we play Fast we'll be right where we want to be how much did fundamentals play a role maybe not necessarily for you but just for everybody Collective yeah I mean fundamentals is always huge it doesn't matter if you're a true freshman or you're a fifth year senior um so you know today I mean we went back to drawing board we went back uh under the shoots and you know just staying low driving our feet and shooting our hands you know basic fundamentals that you learn day one so it definitely is huge to have fundamentals [Music] oh