IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Iowa football team defeated Northern Illinois 40-0 in the season opener on Saturday at Kinnick Stadium.

Here is Kirk Ferentz’s post-game press conference transcript:

KIRK FERENTZ: So, starting out, really pleased and proud of the team. Pleased about the outcome and then certainly proud of the team. I think they really did a good job today. Certainly showed up and played hard and they competed, but they handled the heat, and that was pretty extensive out there, just like you guys had to deal with it as well.

The bigger picture: I thought they did a good job with the preparation all week, and that showed up today. We had heat to deal with all week, too. That wasn’t so good on Tuesday, but they bounced back, came back Wednesday, and put a good day out there. I think that showed up today, so happy about that.

It is good to get the win. Every game, that’s the goal. We don’t talk a lot about it, but why would you put the work in if you’re not trying to do that? I think it’s just really, overall, a very positive first step for us, considering our team right now and the makeup of our team.

So, for me, going into it, the biggest curiosity and the biggest interest was just how were the new guys going to handle things. You look at our guys, our four captains, all are guys that have experience that we feel pretty good about. We know what they’re going to do, how they’re going to show up, know their proven leadership and doing things right. But boy, we have a lot of guys that really haven’t been out there in conditions where they’re starting and being counted on to be a productive force.

So, I thought that was a positive force, and that’s basically all three phases: offense, defense, special teams. A lot of new faces, some a little bit more prominent than others. So, I thought that was a really positive thing.

Thought both quarterbacks were productive. It was a good first start for both of them. Like I said earlier, whatever they’ve done prior to this, in my mind, doesn’t count. Erase that from the memory bank; it’s what they’re going to do this season with our team. I thought both of them did some good things, so really pleased for both of those guys.

Then just thinking about offense, I think our overall execution for the first game was pretty decent. I will make special mention of Kamari [Moulton]; he just looked faster, quicker, more confident than I’ve seen him. He’s an experienced football player, one of the guys we’re definitely counting on, but I thought he really looked the best we’ve seen him. So, that’s part of maturity and just development, I think, and really good to see that.

Defensively is where we have a lot of new faces. Thought they responded really well today, too. Played hard, didn’t make any major issues until we got in that fourth quarter. We had a few things that were a little bit interesting, but for the most part, guys were doing what they’re supposed to be doing and doing it pretty hard. Happy about that.

On special teams, had a few bumps early. Missed an opportunity on a plus-50 punt, missed a field goal. It was kind of a bad sequence in there where Deshaun got the pick and then couldn’t do anything with the field position, which was kind of disappointing not to get any points out of it. But, you know, a lot of good things there, too. I thought our kickoff coverage was excellent, and it was good to see the specialists, you know, Boston did a good job with the punting for the most part there. The plus-50 one was a close miss.

So, a lot of positives there, but the guys were playing hard and they were going hard. Good about that, and just, again, good to get off to a positive start. Happy about that.

Lastly, just want to thank the fans. If it’s hot on the field, it’s hotter in the stands, I know that. So, really give them credit for showing up and then being supportive throughout the game. It’s always good to be on the field, and again, all these new guys are going to figure that out. It’s a pretty good environment down there. So, happy about that.

1. Kirk, before my question, Cael Winter, Kade Pieper and LJ Phillips—do you have an update on them injury-wise?

KIRK FERENTZ: I think we’ll know more tomorrow. LJ, probably tomorrow or the next couple of days. He had a little bit of a lower leg deal. But the rest of the guys were just heat issues and they’re fine. They’re going to be good to go.

1. Dayton Howard came out of the gate with three catches, drew that pass interference to keep the drive alive. Was that reflective of what you’ve seen of him since he got on campus, and how has he earned the trust from Jeremy [Hecklinski] and Hank [Brown] to be that go-to guy?

KIRK FERENTZ: If he’s out there healthy, that’s what he does. He got banged up a little bit in the spring, but he just plays hard. He plays fast, also. He is fast and plays fast. As dumb as this sounds, he’s aggressive catching footballs. That does sound dumb and kind of silly in some ways—you hope a receiver’s that way—but he really enjoys catching footballs. He tries hard to do it, sometimes to his own detriment with the injury stuff. But he’s just got a great attitude, and he’s been a good addition for us.

1. Kirk, I wanted to dive in maybe a little bit on the process you went through to decide to give Hank the first snaps, and your thoughts on the fast start that he got off to as quarterback?

KIRK FERENTZ: First thing, I wouldn’t read into it too deeply. But I think the obvious, one obvious answer there is that, we’ve been saying this for quite some time now, that it’s back and forth.

So, it was hardly a decisive… we haven’t been sitting on this for three weeks or anything like that. It’s been really close, and I think it just continues to be that way. So, it’s good, it’s healthy.

But you have to pick somebody. So that’s who we picked, and that’s not to mean in any disrespectful way to the other guys. It’s somebody in a positive way, at least based on what we’ve seen thus far.

And so now we’ll just keep pushing forward and see how it all goes. But good for both of them to get out there and get some meaningful snaps. Talking about all the new guys that haven’t played, I would say they both fit in that category, too.

1. You talked a little bit about Kamari’s performance today. He talked about how he’s gained a lot of confidence since the start of this off-season, particularly when Coach Lester was hired. How have you seen their relationship kind of develop into Kamari having the confidence that he feels like he has now to be able to have that performance as a leading rusher?

KIRK FERENTZ: If you get to know Tim a little bit, or just briefly in your interactions, it’s hard not to. Tim’s just a really people-oriented person. He’s been an excellent coach throughout his entire career, and really, I mean, just fell in our lap. We were fortunate in that regard on a lot of levels.

He has a great relationship with his players. Not that anybody previously hasn’t. And I would also say in Kamari’s case, again, that’s the beauty of being in a program and maturation. You’ve got to have the right guys. You have to have guys that really like football, and Kamari’s just a good young guy. I mean, I’ve never seen him have a bad day. And he’s had some reasons to have bad days, but I’ve just never seen him—he’s always eager and ready to go and likes playing football.

Just that experience factor, it makes a difference, I think, at every position. There’s a lot more to being a good running back than just taking the ball and going, which he does that pretty well and has done it. But he’s getting smarter with each and every experience out there.

1. There’s some people that might say taking a quarterback competition into the season might be a bad thing. Why do you feel like it might actually be a good thing for you guys?

KIRK FERENTZ: To me, it’s the only right thing to do. When it becomes clear-cut, then we’ll start… We’ve done that at most positions, but that’s one thing about football, too, is you’re competing week-in and week-out. You don’t want to go back and forth at every position, I get that. But it’s competition. We all get evaluated on what we’re doing in the moment.

I think it’s been good for both of them. It’s good for our entire team to be competing. I am pleased both guys got off to a good start.

You certainly don’t want to do anything that’s detrimental to your team, but I think making a bad decision could be worse for a team than not being sure yet, that type of thing.

1. Obviously, the only two things we’ve seen are Kids’ Day and today. Offensive passing game looks more explosive. How would you say maybe that has helped the defense get better? Because the defense obviously to us looked pretty sharp today.

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, it’s good for everybody.

So, year-to-year, week-to-week, all that stuff, circumstances dictate how things are going to go. But if we can stay healthy—and part of the thing today was the line played pretty well and they were pretty productive.

So, if you can block a little bit, and then you have some positions where — it’s not just one position where maybe you have some ability — I think that gives you a reasonable chance maybe to do some things you want to do.

The receiver room’s better, certainly.  Reece is a better player than he was last year, the year before. Dayton Howard’s a better player. Tony (Diaz) has given us some juice out there; he’s a good player.

You’re watching guys grow a little bit. If we can spread the ball around, we have good tight ends, good running backs, try to make it where it’s tough on everybody. To your point, too, it’s good for the defense, too, to get that work during the course of preseason and certainly back in spring.

1978. I wanted to ask about your tight ends. You played a lot early, a lot of rotation. Seems like some of your younger ones are really coming along like Thomas Meyer. Wanted to see how that impacted your game plan. And the second thing I wanted to ask you about that was you’re almost bringing back an old like tilted wingback stance, which is like 1978. But how does that impact what you’re doing and what do you like about that alignment?

KIRK FERENTZ: Like everything in football, to the tilt thing, everything’s copied, right? There’s nothing really original.

We copied it. San Francisco, a couple of teams are doing it, Seattle. But anyway, Tom Moore nailed it. He goes, “It’s a Wing-T.” Which, by the way, was very prevalent here in the ’50s. When I got here in 1981, trying to figure out why does every high school run the Wing-T in Iowa? Like what’s the story behind that?

Actually, Eddie Robinson told me the story, because Grambling ran it, too, probably in the ’70s, I don’t know. But I met him at a clinic somewhere in the ’80s and I asked him about that. I said, “Coach, Ihave to ask you…” You guys are all young, but Grambling used to have highlights on Sunday, and I’d watch that. But I was curious about the Wing-T.

He said, “I learned that at Iowa when I was a graduate student there,” because he was a grad assistant under Evashevski. So, that’s how it got to Grambling.

That’s all it is. I played against it when I was in college because we played Delaware every year. So, it’s just a wrinkle, but I mean, everything’s copycat.

That and then the tight ends – I think we were all pretty confident probably in the spring that we had a really good group there. Getting Addison [Ostrenga] back is big, not only in terms of he’s a good player, but he’s just such a strong leader, so respected. So have him, and Zach [Ortwerth]’s done a good job, and obviously DJ [Vonnahme] and Thomas, good young guys. So, it’s a good room.

1. You guys went 6-for-14 on third down, 0-for-3 on fourth. Any concerns there? What are we thinking, and do you think it’s just shaking off the rust from the off-season, rather?

KIRK FERENTZ: That has to be better. We hope it’ll be better. I’d throw in our short yardage goal line. We didn’t look really good there either. So, those are things we’ll talk about. Every week you have things to work on, but those things, probably short yardage goal line, would be at the top right now, you have to address that right away.