Well folks, we’re back! Not that we ever really left, since we heard from the coordinators last week, but we’re back to the Kirk Ferentz grind! And you know it’s going to be a good one, because we have ANOTHER INJURY, THIS TIME AT QUARTERBACK! AND IT PROBABLY COST US THE WIN AGAINST INDIANA!
EVERYTHING IS GREAT!
But this week is an opportunity to get right against a really bad Wisconsin team. I’ll say it now that if we can’t win this game, the rest of the season is a lost cause and Kirk’s seat, which
currently has the buttwarmer turned on its lowest setting, would suddenly be piping hot to the point where you’d be concerned if you were sitting on it. So let’s see what he’s cooking up to prevent that! Full transcript here, and some snarky responses below.
Let’s start with injuries:
KIRK FERENTZ: Injury-wise, we don’t see Jaz coming back (Saturday). I don’t think that’s going to be a possibility. Then T.J. Washington probably won’t make it either.
Jaden (Harrell) came out of the game last time we played. Don’t see him being back either. Pretty sure those guys will all be out.
Positive side, looks like (Reece) Vander Zee is going to have a chance to get back, if he can make it through the week. The same thing with Xavier Williams. Looks like he’s healthy after two days. We’ll see what this looks like.
Regarding Mark, so far so good. It’s been encouraging. He’s gotten some good work in. A week ago, I wasn’t so optimistic. We’ll take it as it goes this week.
Right now, we’re working all three of the guys. He worked well today, so we’ll see how it all goes along as we move along here.
Great news about Vander Zee, Williams and possibly Gronowski here. I think it’s good that the staff is preparing all 3 quarterbacks (the OR on the depth chart at backup QB was a welcome site to me yesterday), because if I were the staff, I don’t think I would rush Gronowski back in what (should) be a very winnable game, even with a backup quarterback. A healthy run game should do the trick.
Q. Can you describe what the last week or so has been for Mark in terms of his rehab, recovery? Was he a full go today or just kind of slowly working back?
KIRK FERENTZ: He basically practiced. We weren’t running quarterback runs or anything like that. He had a normal day. I don’t know if his car is out there right now, but I see it out there a lot. At least I have the last nine days. He’s in the building an awful lot. He’s wearing out the training staff.
Testing came back positive. That’s the most important thing.
Basically it’s what he can do, how fast he can progress. I know he’s doing every bit he can from that standpoint. The medical staff’s doing a great job working with him. Pleasantly surprised, quite frankly. Not saying I wasn’t going to be optimistic, but you’re always concerned when a guy has an injury.
This is a good sign! I would guess that ideally, if we do see Gronowski, it would be for a few drives to get out to an early lead, and then the backups could cruise the rest of the way, but this is Iowa Football we’re talking about, and things are never easy, so that’s obviously wishful thinking on my part.
Q. The change at the backup position with the either/or kind of for Hank and Hecklinski. What have you seen from Hecklinski? What initiated that change in the status there?
KIRK FERENTZ: As you can imagine, last week Mark didn’t do anything with football. He didn’t get any snaps. We took all the reps that we did have and divided up those two guys. We’re going to let those guys compete. Really with all three of them now, it’s who looks best by Friday, that’s who will start the game. It’s a pretty open competition. Hank has done a really nice job. Jeremy has been impressive. In season it’s tough to give three guys reps. It’s hard to do.
With the bye week, that gave us a chance for all the guys to compete. I think both guys look good. They’re different quarterbacks. They have different strengths. You just never know.
We’ll see how it all shakes out.
I’m going to come out and say it right now that I am not a fan of what I’ve seen so far from Hank Brown. Yes, he was thrust into an extremely difficult situation against Indiana, but even when he came in to close out the first game I wasn’t impressed. It’s different when you get the week full of reps for sure, but I’m certainly not going to be upset if we get a chance to see what Hecklinski can do, either. If I had to bet money on it right now, I’d say that Iowa will once again be looking for a one year rental at quarterback again in the portal this offseason, and we’ll be having this same conversation about backup quarterbacks in next year’s first bye-week when that QB inevitably get injured, too.
Q. Regarding Reece, has he been a full go this week? Is it kind of wait and make sure he’s healthy by the end of the week? How important is it to get him back?
KIRK FERENTZ: I’m not expecting him to light the world on fire this week, if he does play. Basically it’s been a gradual, slow-gradual process. Type of injury he had just required flat-out rest. He was in a walking boot for I don’t know how long. Seemed like forever. That is what it is. You have to be patient there.
Last week he was able to do running on ground, worked with the strength staff, that type of thing. Nothing football-wise really. Then this week he’s starting to work back a little bit. His volume of work right now, he’s missed a lot of time, so he couldn’t go out there and play meaningful snaps.
At least if we can start to work him in now, he looked fine today. Now he has to start building a base and getting back. The good news is he was in great shape when he got pulled out. It’s not like you’re starting from ground zero necessarily. Nonetheless, got to be smart with him and think big picture.
The “if he does play” mention in here is interesting to me. I get that he’s definitely trying to get his sea legs back, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t play, particularly if Gronowski doesn’t at all, but I think his return would still be welcome in either scenario.
Q. Is that fair to say that Mark is medically cleared to play?
KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, pretty much was last week. The best way I can stay it is, the testing was positive. Now it’s a matter of what can he do effectively and efficiently and confidently.
Q. Is it more of he needs to strengthen around the knee and rehab, or is it more just pain tolerance?
KIRK FERENTZ: Anytime I talk about medical stuff, I always qualify it that I’m not a doctor. Look at my résumé or transcript, I guess, I stayed the hell away from chemistry, physics, all those things.
I’ve sat in medical meetings for a long time now. It was like a sprain, I guess, more than anything else. It was a stable joint, which is first and foremost. Then the testing has to confirm things.
It’s a matter of what he can do effectively. I just threw in that word ‘confidence’. That’s going to be the number one conversation at the end of the week, that you can go out there and play well, play effectively, not be thinking about it, not trying to protect yourself, that type of deal. That doesn’t do anybody any good.
That’s what the week is at right now. It’s work through it and see what he looks like. Looks like he’s fine today. Who knows tomorrow. He may be sore, he may be swollen. We don’t know. We’ll take it a day at a time and see what it looks like.
He has to feel good. Obviously there’s got to be medical clearance. None of this would have happened without the medical clearance.
Ah ok, so a bad knee sprain of some time. Got it. So like we said last week, probably a less running-focused Gronowski if we do see him. Considering our run game should continue to be pretty healthy, that should be fine this week if he does end up playing. Let’s hope the signs continue to be positive, but at least it doesn’t sound as severe as we might have initially thought.
Q. To clarify, the medical team says Mark is cleared, but the final decision as to whether or not he starts will be made by him and you on Friday or Saturday?
KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, I mean, for clarification, too, nothing happens if the medical team says no. It all starts there. They’re the ones who give us the license to let him do this, let him do that. At some point he’s clear to go.
All that being said, any position, if a player, once he’s cleared and he’s out there working, you as a coach evaluate him. If he can’t function, sprained ankle is probably a better example. Some positions you can get by with it a little bit better than you can others. Tough to be a running back with a sprained ankle.
As you watch a guy practice and compete a little bit, if he can’t, A, be safe, or more importantly perform at a level, it’s going to be what you’re looking for, what he’s looking for, you’re really hitting your head on the wall. That’s not smart. We may hold a guy back a little bit.
Part of that’s confidence, yeah. The player’s got to have confidence in his ability to play and perform. Yeah, ultimately that will be part of the conversation: How are you feeling about things? You don’t want him going out there looking over his shoulder. That’s not a good thing.
Nothing really major to add here except that this thought process makes sense to me…but I wonder if this conversation about Mark possibly not playing would still be happening if we were playing Penn State this week instead of Wisconsin. Not that I think the Hawkeyes should overlook this, because losing this game would be almost as bad as Penn State losing to UCLA, but in general, you feel more comfortable with a backup if needed in this kind of situation (on paper).
Q. Coaches always like to deal with known things. Are you preparing this week as if Mark is your starter or preparing if he is not your starter?
KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, I mean, I guess that’s a good question ’cause we just got done planning for the last couple guys. I guess it started last week.
Yeah, no, we put the game plan up there and just kind of ties in with the last question. Depending on who’s in the game will dictate where you lean a little bit.
Offense looks like the offense pretty much. Just kind of go in the direction with whatever that particular player’s skill set may be and try to emphasize that if that player’s in the game.
I mean, if Mark starts again, it’s like last week: there’s no guarantee he’ll finish, or any player. You have to have that flexibility.
We’re not banking on anything. We’ve had nothing but unknowns. Today I would say was the most positive stuff that we’ve had in terms of, Okay, maybe this is realistic. But we still got a lot of water to get over here before we get there.
This seems positive so we’ll end on this! Hopefully we see a healthy Mark Gronowski on Saturday who stays healthy the entire game and everything is hunky dory again. I really hope that’s the case.
GO HAWKS!
