IOWA CITY, Iowa – Kirk Ferentz’s Ohio State post-game press conference transcript:

KIRK FERENTZ: First of all, just congratulate, give credit to Ohio State. They have a good football team and played a really good game. We knew it was going to be a challenge going in, and unfortunately, we couldn’t meet that challenge.

If you’re going to beat a team like that, you’ve got to play clean and really be smart in terms of that. If you’re going to give yourself a chance to win, you have to do that, and we came up short today. Various times it really kind of hurt us there.

Just from where I was standing, two biggest things that happened early: obviously the turnover early. First, we had a false start before that, I think we were second-and-2, second-and-3, put ourselves in a predictable situation, and then had the sack and fumble.

So that started out, and I thought then at the end of the half, we’re moving the ball, converted a third down, and get called for an illegal formation. So that took the first down off the board, ended up punting, and then we couldn’t get a stop after that. I thought those were two big plays that really impacted that first half.

We’ll never know what the second half would have been, but again, if you’re going to win a game like this, you really have to be able to execute that way.

Single those two things out, and then I thought our effort, our investment was good in the game. We couldn’t match up there in the second half. So, credit to them. It hurts to lose anytime you do anything, especially when you’ve got a bunch of guys that are invested, so I know how they’re all feeling.

That’s how it’s going to be tonight, and it’ll be that way tomorrow, and then we’re going to move on. We’ll look at the film, learn from it like we always do.

It’s imperative this week especially, you’ve got to move on, you’ve got to move on faster because we’ve got a six-day week. So that’ll be the message tomorrow. Proud of our guys. It’s a good group of guys, and we’re just going to keep pushing forward.

Q. You guys against power conference competition have really struggled to run the ball. The passing game has had some good moments; today wasn’t one of those. What can you count on offensively at this point on a game-to-game basis, because it doesn’t seem like there’s been a lot of consistency in power conference games?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, I don’t know what to tell you other than we’re just going to keep playing. We’ll keep playing like we always do, we’ll keep working on it. We work on every segment, run, pass, and things either go together or they don’t. Game situations have a lot to do with that to and dictate that.

Over time, it’s kind of like statistics and rankings, we’ll all know more here in Week 7, Week 8. If it’s a panic situation, I’ll let you know. But right now we’re not where we want to be, I’m not denying that at all.

Q. Wanted to ask about the injuries. Hank, Lutmer, Deshaun, and the challenge with those guys banged up on a short week?

KIRK FERENTZ: I don’t think it’s anything too major. We’ll know more probably about Hank. It’s a mild sprain. So, we’ll know more probably tomorrow and then as the week goes on.

The other guys, it’s more cramping, at least that was my understanding, for one player involved IV. So that should be able to bounce back from that. I don’t think that’s going to keep anybody out, but we’ll know more here in a couple days.

Q. Kirk, you’ve played three Power 5 opponents: Iowa State, your rival, Michigan, and Ohio State. Is it too early to kind of gauge where you are as a team, competing against that type of competition? Do you feel like you’re in that category where you can compete with the best in the country, or you’ve got a long way to go?

KIRK FERENTZ: I think it was a conference talking about the Big Ten, and we’ve been playing nine conference games. This was a conference that doesn’t play nine, and then we play a Power 4 school, we play Iowa State every year. I was kind of curious like where all that stuff’s coming from. I’m not that focused on that, I’m totally on a tangent here.

Here’s all I would say: I’ve known this team since mid-January. So that’s almost nine months, nine weeks now in-season—four of camp and then five in-season—and we’re still a work in progress, we knew that coming in. I don’t think anybody would have predicted us to be 4-0, probably not, maybe they would have.

The reality is, just like in July or June, we’ll know more in a couple weeks here when things really get going. One thing I do know is in this conference, every game’s tough, every game’s hard.

Take Ohio State, 17 games now, they’ve had two close games. When I say close, one was a touchdown last year, when they played Texas this year it was one point. Otherwise, they really haven’t had a competitive game in-season, regular season.

They’re a good team and they’ve been that way for a long time. I would say this about our conference: I bet a lot of wrong predictions have already been made going into Week 3 next week. You just don’t know. You find out on the field, and it’s week to week.

Instead of worrying about all that stuff, for us, our focus right now is simply, just like I encouraged the players back in August, this is a six-week block. We take it a week at a time, that means we’ve got six days left and then we’ll figure all that other stuff out.

The reality is even during our bye week we won’t know. All we can do is worry about getting better, and that’s our focus, and hopefully we’ll stay that way.

Q. Jaden was in here and said, “The Michigan game doesn’t define us, this game doesn’t define us.” What gives you confidence that this team can make the quick turn and bounce back in six days? I know you emphasize the blocks, and it always seems to be a driving point. How does that help you, too?

KIRK FERENTZ: I think all of us can fall victim to starting thinking globally. It’s a bad thing to do in sports, a really bad thing to do if you’re really trying to do anything that’s hard to do. Because it can get you off track either direction.

All I know is in sports, you worry about what’s in front of you. But what makes me feel good about our team is, again, just as I said, I’ve had a chance to work with these guys pretty intimately now since mid-January.

These guys are working hard, they’re trying to please, and they are pleasing for the most part. They improved in one area this week during the week, which was impressive. So at least they’re hearing and they’re trying to get better. That’s all you can ask an athlete to do or anybody to do.

They have pride, they care, they have a good work ethic. We’ll learn more about can we run the ball this year or not, can we do this or that, we’ll find out as the season goes on.

The reality is, and you guys have been covering most of you have covered our team for a while, we usually get better if we’re doing things right. I bank on that, that’s something I’ve always banked on. As long as the attitude’s there, work ethic’s there, and you have to have talent, too, and some ability. I think have that, we just need a little bit more experience.

Today can be a real positive if we let it, or it can be a negative, and we can’t let it be a negative. We have to learn and move on.

Q. Kind of going off of that, young, inexperienced team coming into the season, now you have the game experience, but facing a week after your first loss, how do you lead a young team through that?

KIRK FERENTZ: Like we always do, it’s just you go back to work and it’s day by day.

I’m going on a limb, I’m guessing right now, but I don’t know this: I’m guessing the next seven teams, any one of them could beat us, and I’m guessing we’ll have a chance to beat them. That’s all you can ask for. So it’s just a matter of going out there week by week and not worrying about what’s out there in October or beyond that. I guess we are in October now, but you get the picture.

After this next game, we’ll figure that out later on, but right now we just need to worry about getting ready for this next one. Which means looking at the tape, learning from it, and that’s going to be the key part. Then try to do a little better in those areas where we didn’t measure up, whether it be the run game, the penalties, unforced errors, that type of thing.

Q. Colin Davies, KCRG. Jeremiah Smith over 200 yards today. What made him so effective, and how does he compare to other players that you’ve played over the course of the years?

KIRK FERENTZ: I think I said during the week, Saquon Barkley’s probably the only—I mean, there’s been a lot of great players we’ve played against. I’m probably minimizing somebody, but Barkley, whatever year it was out there, it was pretty impressive.

We gave him everything we had, and he was still pretty effective, and the same thing today. He’s got great size, great competitiveness, and just great ability for a receiver.

All you can do is do your best and try to be as smart as you can playing him, but he’s a great player. With a little bit of luck, we won’t see him again during my career, so that’d be okay. We’ll move on, I’m sure somebody else is coming.

Okay, thank you. We’ll see you guys Tuesday. Thank you.