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KIRK FERENTZ: Good afternoon to everybody. Certainly good to get going. This is always the best time of year, quite frankly, if you like college football, and I think one thing about it, the excitement of a new season never gets old. Certainly on Saturday being in the tunnel right before the swarm, that's a special moment.Looking forward to that.Probably like most people involved in college football, too, it's time to play a game. We've been practicing against each other for about four weeks at this point, and I'm sure everybody in the country feels like it's time to line up and play somebody else and kind of find out where you're at and learn a little bit more about your team, and that will go on all season long for sure.It's been interesting here. We had a chance to transition last week into a school year. Still kind of in a camp mode, if you will, or preseason mode, but got the transition going, and this is our first game week, like most teams in the country, so that's a little bit of a transition, too, and it's really where your older players https://www.bearsglintshop.com/Tom-Waddle-Jersey , your more experienced players help our younger guys get through that.But we still have a lot of guys this is all new to, and it's always interesting to see how that's going to go and how they'll respond as we go along.One thing I always remind our team, there's nothing easy about winning football games, especially in college football, and there never has been, never will be. It's kind of the way it goes. But that's something our guys need to understand.It's paramount in competition, https://www.bearsglintshop.com/Adam-Shaheen-Jersey you're trying to do something succe sful, it's certainly not easy. There's no easy route to it, period. If you're not involved in it, then maybe it's a little bit easier, but if you're one of the teams out there competing, that's a little different story.That's certainly the case for us. We're playing a really good football team and a good football program in South Dakota State. First thing that jumps out at you when you look at their film in any phase is they're well-coached and they really play hard, and that's what good teams do.Beyond that, you do a little research and learn about their program, there's a great tradition of succe s up there. Certainly they have a coaching staff that knows what it takes to be succe sful, and they've done a great job with that. They do have an identity. They have good players, they compete hard, and any tape you look at, any segment, I know they feel like they've had as good a skill players as they've had offensively at any one time, and that's over a couple of decades of coaching there. They also have veteran linemen, so they have a really good offensive unit.It's interesting you think about a quarterback that got drafted, you think about an offensive running back that got drafted and then they have two other guys coming in, kind of a unique situation where arguably the new quarterback may be better, new/old, he's coming in off a year injury, and then they have the other running back who's a really good player, as well.As I said, on defense, well-coached. They really play hard and they present some problems for you. They have good movement, guys that play very aggre sively. Overall it's going to be a tough challenge for us, and the other thing you look at in recent years here, two years ago or whenever it would have been, fall of '19, opener of '19, they went up https://www.bearsglintshop.com/Eddie-Jackson-Jersey to Minnesota and played them right off their feet. I think it was a 28-21 lo s.And then last year, and that's what I was referencing, when we were getting ready for Colorado State, when you watched that film of them playing South Dakota State, that was not a fluke win by any stretch by South Dakota State. They outplayed Colorado State in all three phases, and that got my attention right then knowing we had them down the road.Bottom line is they're a top quality opponent and they have our full attention, and it's going to take that for us to be succe sful.As far as us, we wrapped up, I gue s it's been four weeks now. Overall pleased with the growth and development of our football team. They've had a good attitude. They've worked hard.We've had to work through some injury situations. That's typical of any camp, and certainly not an exception this year. Depth-wise we're fluid in some spots. We'll see where all things play out. Then there's some other spots where it's pretty much a given that our three linebackers will be the same three guys you saw last year: Riley Mo s and Kaevon in the back end. Pretty safe to say they'll be playing. LaPorta at tight end and Petras as our quarterback. Those things are set in stone right now. Some other things we're working through, but again, overall just pleased with the competition.I think our guys have improved, gotten better, and hopefully that will show up on Saturday.Last note on the roster, Jackson Ritter and Justin Britt will not be able to play this year, medical reasons, and David Davidkov will be in that group, as well. I'm sorry to say he won't be able to play. That's kind of where our roster is right now.Last two points here, just want to give recognition to Eli Belzer. He'll be the honorary captain this week. He's a young guy from Elkader, so he'll be with us on the sideline on Saturday.It's going to be great to be in Kinnick Stadium, we've been there for fan day, which was kids' day. It was a good opportunity https://www.bearsglintshop.com/David-Montgomery-Jersey . I've already told the players, especially the younger guys, a little bit different when it's 70,000 in there, and an enthusiastic crowd, so we appreciate our fan support.It's great that the season tickets are already sold out. All the games are in good shape that way, and it's our job to come and try to match the enthusiasm that our fans will have, and it'll be a great environment, so hopefully we'll play up to that level and look like a good football team.Lastly, our captains this week are QB Spencer Petras, TE Sam LaPorta, DB Riley Mo s and DB Kaevon Merriweather. I'll throw it out for questions.Q. Going back to the spring and even after the off-season, you considered it a competition at quarterback. What did Spencer do that enabled him to continue to be the starting quarterback at Iowa?KIRK FERENTZ: It's a long evaluation, and we evaluate everything, we tell our guys starting in January. Obviously we're not doing football stuff, and both Spencer and https://www.bearsglintshop.com/Danny-Trevathan-Jersey Alex are both quality guys, but just the time on the field, I think Spencer has out-performed Alex a little bit at this point. He's further ahead and gives us a better chance to be succe sful. That's not to diminish what Alex has done. Both have improved.Now the thing is can we put this whole thing together and be a little bit more productive offensively. Both guys have done a good job. Spencer has continued to climb.Q. Injury-wise, what's the latest on Nico Ragaini and how quickly do you think he can get back?KIRK FERENTZ: He has a medical i sue right now. It's going
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