On the interior, the changes made over the past week is more than many fans would ever think to see in a 40-year time span. Between morale, expression and unity, Iowa football is in a very different place than it was on Thursday, June 4th.

At Friday’s press conference outside the Hansen Football Complex, the word “change” was used again and again and again, but it was used for all the right reasons. Flanked by sophomore safety Kaevon Merriweather, junior running back Ivory Kelly-Martin and senior kicker Keith Duncan, Kirk Ferentz delivered an update on the state of the program.

“We spent Monday in meetings, instead of a workout. The players did most of the talking: it was raw, it was powerful and productive,” Ferentz said. “Everything was on the table, it got somewhat heated and somewhat emotional at times, and I think that’s good.”

The meetings on Monday came after the suspension of strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle, amid allegations that Doyle made racist and belittling comments to black student-athletes. Ferentz did not give a comment on Doyle in fairness to the ongoing investigation.

Many have called on Ferentz to take blame for what happened in his program, and he did so at Friday’s press conference.

“I’m responsible for anything that happens here, that’s my accountability and that’s my responsibility as head coach,” Ferentz said. “So anything that happens to be a failure lands on my desk.”

Another big topic was the nature of the tweet sent out by Kaevon Merriweather on Monday.

When asked about the nature of the tweet, Merriweather went into further explanation.

“The tweet was about the Iowa community, we wanted to let them know that our team is together as one and we expect our fans to be their with us every step of the way,” Merriweather said.

The tweet did result in some backlash as it appeared Merriweather indicated that the team would be kneeling for the national anthem this fall in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

While Merriweather clarified that the team had not made a decision on that matter, Kirk Ferentz said that the idea was not “hypothetical” and that while the team had not officially decided on it, it looks very like that the team will kneel for the national anthem this fall.

As for senior kicker Keith Duncan, as optimistic as he was about the future, he stated that not all of the blame was on the coaches for what had happened in the Iowa program.

“I would take complete blame as players, because a majority of the people in the building are players,” Duncan said. “We need to speak up more, if we see something, I would never put all the blame on Coach Ferentz, he is not able to see all these things, we see everything.”

While Duncan did take some of the blame as a leader, he stated that the unity of the team never wavered.

“I think the unity was always there, I think it was the communication was something that we could improve on,” Duncan said. “We’re a very tight group: players, coaches, it’s a family, it really is. I’m very excited to be on the team, we’re all excited to push forward and see what we can do.”

One of the many allegations made against the atmosphere in the Iowa program was that black student athletes felt like they were “walking on eggshells” whenever they were in the facility, junior running back Ivory Kelly-Martin went further in detail.

“Yes, it felt like that, it was an atmosphere where you did have to look out and watch your back and just had to be on your toes at times,” Kelly-Martin said. “But throughout this week there have been so many conversations had about change and these last couple days in the weight room and on the field, we can see a clear difference between how it is now and how it was before.”

The college football world has kept a keen eye on what’s happened in Iowa City over the last seven days, ideas split among those across the country whether this is something Kirk Ferentz should lose his job over. But, in a conversation with a new player, Ferentz stated that thought is not what’s in his player’s heads.

“I was talking to one of our new players this week, told him it was certainly a tough time to join the program coming in,” Ferentz said. “I was encouraged by his response, he said ‘Coach, I’m excited to be here, and we have a chance to set the bar for college football.'”

The word “change” has never had a bigger meaning for Iowa football than it does right now.

The post Press Conference Recap: “Change” more prevalent than ever in Iowa football appeared first on KRUI Radio.

With winds gusting up to 45 miles per hour, moving the ball through the air had to have been difficult, some had thought. While it was not the passing attack that worked for the Hawkeyes this week, it was the defense that came up with the big plays all throughout the course of the game.

The Iowa Hawkeyes (6-1, 3-1) defeated the Maryland Terrapins (4-3, 2-2) 23-0 in a defensive grudge match.

The Hawkeyes held Maryland’s offense to 47 passing yards and only 68 rushing yards on Saturday for a grand total of 115 yards. The output was the lowest yard total Maryland has had all season. The next closest was when it had a resounding 220 yards of total offense against Michigan.

The defense pitched its first shutout since 2016 when it blanked Illinois in November of 2016.

“They’ve (defense) have been playing really well overall and pretty consistently,” Head coach Kirk Ferentz said. “But today was a really unique challenge… but preparing well and then you have to play with really good discipline.”

One of the true stars of the defense was defensive end Parker Hesse. Hesse tallied five total tackles, one sack and two total tackles for loss.

“We definitely (wanted) keep the zero up there,” Hesse said. “That’s something that’s kind of a feather in your cap.”

Defensive lineman A.J. Epenesa had a sack of his own, and safety/outside linebacker Amani Hooker picked of an opposing quarterback for the second time this season.

Defensive Lineman Anthony Nelson also recovered a fumble in the endzone for a touchdown.

Offense was a different story for the Hawkeyes.

Quarterback Nate Stanley wasn’t his sharpest. He threw for only 86 yards on 22 attempts. He had a touchdown pass to Brandon Smith and an interception as well.

The rushing attack, though, proved to be the best, and easiest, way to move the pigskin against the Terrapins on Saturday.

Ivory Kelly-Martin led the way with 98 yards on 24 carries. Chipping in was Mekhi Sargent with 54 yards on ten carries and Toren Young with 21 yards of his own.

“When you’re in the Midwest, you’re going to have days like today where it’s windy and tough and all of that,” Ferentz said. “If one thing is not going well, you’ve got to find something else that’s going to kind of propel you forward.”

Iowa will head to State College next week for a top-25 tilt against Penn State. Coverage will start shortly after 2:00 p.m. central time. Listen to all of KRUI’s remote broadcast on the Mixlr page.

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They fought valiantly in their Big Ten opener, but unfortunately they fell short to Wisconsin (3-1, 1-0 in Big Ten) 28-17.

Ultimately, it was two big special team blunders and a long Badger drive that cost Iowa (3-1, 0-1 in Big Ten).

Both were fumbles, the first one was knocked out of Kyle Groeneweg’s hands the second came courtesy of Shaun Beyer’s foot inadvertently grazing the ball before being recovered by the Badgers.

It was the latter one that stung the most for the Hawkeyes as it set the Wisconsin offense up in the red zone and they capitalized with a touchdown.

“We made some critical errors,” coach Kirk Ferentz said. “If you’re going to win in the Big Ten you’ve got to play cleaner football than what we did tonight.”

The game started in the typical rough-and-tumble play that is to be expected when these two teams meet.

Both teams scored touchdowns in the second quarter, Wisconsin on a 6-yard pass and Iowa on a 20-yard pass from Nate Stanley to Noah Fant to make it a 7-7 tie going into half time.

It was Iowa who came out strong to start the second half, kicking a field goal on their first drive, then after Wisconsin put up 7, the offense rallied again once again on a Stanley to Fant connection that made it 17-14 heading into the fourth.

All game long the Hawkeye offense seemed to be grooving to the tune of the Kinnick faithful.

Stanley put up 256 yards with two touchdowns and only one pick, Ivory Kelly-Martin returned after missing the previous two games with 79 yards on 14 attempts, and T. J. Hockenson had a big night catching three passes for 125 yards.

But the grooving stopped I the fourth.

The same Iowa offense that had put up 332 yard in the first three quarters, managed just 72 in the fourth, 27 of those yards came on a meaningless last-second play.

Perhaps the most disappointing blunder for the Hawkeye offense came on their first drive of the fourth quarter, when Stanley missed a wide open  Hockenson on first down.

“I just missed that throw,” Stanley said. “I think that would’ve set the tone for a good drive because he would’ve caught it a ran for a while. That’s definitely one I want back.”

Instead of the drive starting out with a big gain, the Hawkeyes were forced into second and long, then a three-and-out.

That made way for the Badgers to do their damage, and they did just that.

With 5:40 to go Wisconsin got the ball on their own 12 and put together a steady drive which took them all the way down the field and ended with a 17-yard pass from Alex Hornibrook to A. J. Taylor to put Wisconsin up 21-17 with 57 seconds to go.

A Stanley interception and 33-yard touchdown run by Alec Ingold officially sealed Iowa’s fate.

“It hurts,” Safety Jake Gervase said of the loss. “When you play as hard as you can for sixty minutes it hurts. We got to play better. Credit to Wisconsin they played better tonight in all three phases.”

As always, Ferentz will allow the players 24-hours to get over this game and then its on to the next.

Iowa has a bye week next weekend, but they will travel to Minnesota on the 6th of October at TCF Bank Stadium.

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