Harty: It was a typical media day except for one thing
IOWA CITY, Iowa – College football teams all look and sound the same on media day.
Physically imposing, filled with hope and driven by optimism, the 2016 Iowa football team is all of those things, as were all of the previous Iowa teams on media day.
Media day marks an unveiling of a new team and a new season, but the attitude rarely changes.
You always leave media day feeling upbeat because it’s mostly a feel-good event in which players, coaches and reporters interact under positive circumstances.
The only difference about Saturday’s media day besides the typical roster changes that happen from one season to the next was the absence of radio legend Bob Brooks.
It just wasn’t the same without Brooksie wearing his blue blazer and fedora while lugging around his giant tape recorder.
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz began Saturday’s press conference in predictable fashion by paying tribute to Brooks, who died on June 25 at the age of 89.
It would’ve been a huge shock if Ferentz hadn’t started the press conference by mentioning Brooks. Ferentz treats everybody with kindness and respect, but with Brooks, we’re talking about a radio legend who covered Hawkeyes sports for nearly seven decades and who rarely, if ever, picked Iowa to lose.
“Certainly, this year is going to be very, very different without Bob Brooks sitting front and center and having his recorder here,” Ferentz said to a room full of reporters at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. “I think as all of us know, all of us have been around Bob and worked with Bob, what a special human being he was. Certainly he had a great love for his profession, and did it extremely well.
“I think that love is only exceeded by his love of the University and Iowa in general, and most importantly the teams that he covered, the people that he worked with, I think that’s really what made Bob so special. Just want to, again, recognize his work, and what a span of great work that was. We’re all going to miss Bob, and I know all of you feel the same way.”
Ferentz then shifted to football where he is entering his 18th season as the Iowa head coach. There is reason to be optimistic with Iowa coming off a historical 12-2 season, but each teams ultimately stands alone.
For now, the 2016 Hawkeye squad is benefiting from last season’s success, largely because more than half of the starters from that team are back this season, including arguably the three most impactful players: quarterback C.J. Beathard, cornerback Desmond King and linebacker Josey Jewell.
“Back in January, as I’ve said many times already, now that we turned the page on last year, we moved on to a new year, and with that comes new opportunities and new challenges,” Ferentz said. “Some of those things we’ve already faced, some things that are ahead of us right now, and I think the most important thing right now, we’ve done a lot of quality work. We’ve got a lot of good work in the bank thus far as we start preseason practice.”
Ferentz’s son, Brian Ferentz, stressed the importance of moving on from last season while speaking with reporters on Saturday.
He talked about how each season presents different challenges and that each team is different in how they respond to those challenges.
But the process of building and shaping a team never changes despite what happened during the previous season.
Or, at least it’s not supposed to change from season to season.
“You want it to be the same,” said Brian Ferentz, who coaches the Iowa offensive line in addition to being the running game coordinator. “I think the danger is if it is different every year. What is really hard to get everybody to understand, and it’s human nature and we all fall into this trap, what happened last year is last year. And just like what happened two years ago was two years ago and three years ago was three years ago.
“You could go on each and every year, good and bad. What we’re trying to do is make sure we maintain a level of excellence, that we maintain a level of performance. We’re trying to do that each and every day. But the trick is you can’t get caught up in past success and you really can’t get caught up in past failure because all that matters is what we do on the field this fall.”
The 2016 Iowa football team will be defined and remembered by what happens on 12 Saturdays during the fall.
“Last year is gone,” said Iowa offensive coordinator Greg Davis. “We’re zero and zero. But there are a lot of players back that understood how we had the 12-2 year and what did it take."
Injuries certainly could alter the script, but that’s the risk of playing any sport, especially one as violent as football.
The good news is that Beathard is fully recovered from the injuries that hampered him for most of last season.
Beathard said he was only healthy for the first 2 ½ games last season, and yet, he still made second-team all-Big Ten.
“It’s very exciting to have him healthy,” Davis said. “And he’s excited because he can do things with his feet. We can call some quarterback draws. We can call some things to take advantage of that.
“We really shied away from that last year because we didn’t want to get him hit.”
The current Iowa team, which is ranked No. 15 in the Coaches Preseason poll, has a nice balance of inspiration and motivation from last season.
A season in which Iowa won 12 games for the first time ever ended with back-to-back losses, including a 45-16 beat-down against Stanford in the Rose Bowl. The Cardinal scored on the first play from scrimmage and then never looked back.
“Yeah, we had a great regular season last year, but in the postseason we finished 0-2,” said senior running back LeShun Daniels. “So we know that we have to be better in all phases to improve on that, or especially to get back to that point because each team is going to give us their best shot because of what we did last year.”
King also should expect to get the best shot from opponents after what he accomplished last season. The senior from Detroit is the first Jim Thorpe Award winner to return to college.
King considered skipping his senior season to enter the NFL draft before choosing to stay at Iowa where defensive coordinator Phil Parker is ready to challenge him.
"I told him when he first was trying to make the decision that it’s going to be lot tougher coming back because I’m going to expect more out of him," Parker said. "Once you’ve done something like he has done and has played very well, there are a lot of things that he can improve in his game.
"And I think that’s one of the challenges that is going to be for him is to come out and do it and lead and show by example what he does."
King sort of mirrors the team for whom he plays. Both are coming off historical seasons, but neither can afford to get complacent.
Because to borrow a line from Brian Ferentz, last season was last season.