IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Iowa football team kept its playoff hopes alive by defeating Purdue 28-7 on Saturday at Kinnick Stadium.

Iowa (8-2, 5-2 Big Ten) has now won three games in a row and 25 of its last 30 games in the month of November under veteran head coach Kirk Ferentz.

Up next for the Hawkeyes is Illinois next Saturday in Champaign, Illinois.

Illinois is coached by former Iowa defensive lineman and former Hawkeye assistant coach Bret Bielema.

Here is Ferentz’s entire post-game press conference transcript from Saturday:

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COACH FERENTZ: First of all, good to see everybody, and obviously, really happy for our players. Happy to get the win. I thought it was a really good performance by our guys. Certainly, some things to clean up, but talk about November football. It’s an important time for every football team, at least in college football. And really, just gets down to having good preparation, the players having a great attitude and preparing. It’s a little bit different than it is earlier in the season from a physical standpoint. Coaches have to give the guys a great plan, and then most importantly, you have to show up and play. I think our guys have done a really good job of that, so happy for them, and proud of them that way.

Offensively, started out a couple TD drives out of our first three possessions. That was good to see. They came back and got a score, and then we responded with that two-minute drive right before the halftime. And obviously, Braden Jackson, just another spark play. He’s done a great job all season long, and big spark play there right before the half. And good to come out second half, we haven’t been on offense very much to start the second half, and took the ball and drove it, and to that point, we’re doing a lot better I think coming out of halftime the last couple weeks, and then something we were kind of being lukewarm on. So that’s a good thing as well, but again, a good start to the whole deal.

And this is three straight weeks now I think where we’re playing a little better tempo, and happy to see that. Run game, certainly a little bit better today. LJ gave us a good boost there, and with Kamari being out, that’s certainly important. We always talk about the next man up, and also talk about good stories, and I think that group’s doing a good job. Good to see LJ running healthy, and doing that.

Defensively, felt like we gave up a million yards at certain parts of the game, but end of the day, we gave up 7 points, and if you do that, you’ve got a chance to win. So happy about that. Great kickoff coverage by our special teams, and then came up short in some other areas, and we’ll go back to work on that. But just overall, just happy with the team. November does go quick, we’re down to 13 days now, two games, 13 days, so it’s going to happen fast, and just about, right now, not getting distracted, not thinking about things we don’t need to think about, and really staying focused on what’s in front of us. But I told the players “Enjoy this one, they have earned it, do it smartly because again, the time’s, clock’s running right now.” Just really proud of our guys, and happy for them. Throw out for questions.

Q. I kind of have a two-fold question. The keys to your running game getting going the last couple weeks, what, what are they? And I know you’re big on social media and viral things that happen… you’ve gone viral with your tumble into the net. Did you know that? What happened?

COACH FERENTZ: Yeah, for it’s funny, about five weeks ago, I was wondering, “Why the heck they keep those kicking nets that close?” And Kinnick, you have no choice because there’s no room. But yeah, it was just, I have learned, painfully, to try to anticipate where the ball’s coming, and get the hell out of the way, and I was trying to get out of the way. And got caught in the net, felt like Charlie the Tuna back there. Got in the net, and it’s like “Jesus.” Fortunately, I think John pulled me out of there, but hips are okay and all that stuff. Still kind of wondering about the kicking net.

Q. And the run game?

COACH FERENTZ: Happy about that, obviously. I think we’re maturing as a team in some ways, and it’s the backs seeing well, and obviously, the guys up front have to do it. The front five guys get it started. Tight ends are big in run blocking, and then our receivers are doing a good job too getting involved. And all that being said, we missed a few today. I think we’re going to see that on film tomorrow. They’ve already seen them on the iPads that, if we’d hit a little bit better, we might have had a few more yards, and those are the things we have to get better at. We didn’t close this game well. So, we still got some things to work on, certainly.

Q. First off, how is Tony Diaz? I know he left the game, is he ok?

COACH FERENTZ: He has a little bit of a soft tissue issue, but I think he’ll be fine.

Q. And then, interesting storyline regarding Hank Brown’s progression as a runner? It seems like you guys are really being comfortable with allowing him to maybe some more power runs, quarterback draws, but can you just talk about his confidence as a runner because he does seem like he’s got some deceptive speed, and he’s made a few spark plays?

COACH FERENTZ: Yeah, he’s capable, it’s kind of deceptive to your point, but he is capable, and part of that is knowing when to, and when not to, and then when to get down also. So that’s something you just hope a player has some sense of, and you find out live, because we really don’t do much of it in practice where he gets hit. So, no, he’s done a really good job, and that is one thing if the quarterback is a threat, not that he’s going to be Mark Gronowski, but if he can threaten you a little bit on the ground, that’s a positive, certainly.

Q. Caden Buhr has been pretty consistent from distance since about Week 4, and this is the first time we’ve kind of seen him really struggle, especially kicking from distance. What instills you in his ability to be able to bounce back kind of like he did in the beginning of the year?

COACH FERENTZ: Basically, the way he practices. He really had a good week of practice, and Eli did too this week, actually. I thought he looked pretty good as well, almost like a toss-up. But Caden wasn’t as consistent last year, but this year he’s been pretty good, especially once we got into season, so you just kind of believe what you see out there, and sometimes this happens, it just didn’t go the way you wanted to and what have you, but he’ll work through that and I’m, I’m no doubt he’ll be back.

Q. You mentioned Purdue busing to the game. I’m just curious if there’s a memory you have from your coaching or playing career, busing to a game.

COACH FERENTZ: Yeah, coincidentally we bus to Purdue. I couldn’t remember the year, but guys in the office do, it was 2014. The flip side is that we probably found out at 3 p.m. or something like that. I remember we got there at 9:15 or something like that, that’s when we got to the hotel, but we played at 11 a.m. the next day, and it turned out fine, but so, that was when the tower in Chicago got knocked out for whatever reason. With Purdue, I think Barry made the call and I would have done the same thing, just you know you’re going to get there. They did have time to recover with the trip, hopefully they’re flying home, but yeah, remember that in ’14. Coincidentally, Purdue and Purdue.

My first game at Maine, we played Villanova, so we flew down there, and the charter airline, it was a bad sign because over the rearview mirror in the plane, there were those little dice hanging down, so I figured this is kind of a shaky deal. We got beat by Villanova and Kevin White, the athletic director, comes and says “We have a little problem.” I said “Yeah, we’re not good enough to win tonight.” He says “No, we can’t find the pilot. The guy slipped off to Atlantic City.” We had to borrow 500 bucks from the priest, took the team to McDonald’s and I think we got out of there about 5 or 6 a.m. the next morning. It’s going to be hard to top that one, that was my first gameas a head coach, yeah. We paid them back, too, we got the money back to them, and God only knows where that pilot ended up.

True story. Can’t make that up.

Q. You mentioned you don’t want them focusing on things they shouldn’t be focusing on, assuming you mean like scoreboard watching, that kind of thing. What is, there’s a lot of stuff kind of going on with potential for this team, what is your message to them as you reach this two-week mark, and you do have a playoff shot here?

COACH FERENTZ: Yeah, I mean we do, and I’ll probably have to, I’ll use the “p” word tomorrow. Phil actually used it today, when he closed up with the defense. It’s reality, and I semi-touched on it. I just told the guys earlier when we talk about November. The better you do, the stakes do change, and they rise a little bit, so that’s a reality, and these guys are in college, they’re not dumb, so we’ll address that a little bit. But one thing I have learned is if you have a better chance to do anything, if you just worry about what’s in front of you. That’s, that’s really hard for people to do, and so, to me, this is a mental toughness month, too, and you have to stay focused on what is important. I have no idea how many 10-2 teams there will be in December, and how they figure all that stuff out, I could care less because I have nothing to do with it anyway, all we can do is try to win games. I do know you can’t get to 10 if you don’t win 9, and you couldn’t do it if you didn’t get 8, so it’s one of those things, really simple and they should feel good about doing well, and maybe being in discussion, but if we start worrying about discussions, those are the teams that tend to get beat pretty quick.

Just gave away my talk for tomorrow too with the guys.

Q. I do want to ask you, did you have to take the bus from Villanova back to Maine, or when you got… did you fly back?

COACH FERENTZ: We, no, the next day they flew a guy from Florida. Don’t ask me why, I mean, this was not a high, high-budget airline. I can’t remember the name of it. That’s why I threw the dice in there, so, bad if you got a rearview mirror in your plane, that’s not good. I hope we had two pilots, I assume we did.

Q. I wanted to ask you about, traditionally, the last 7-8 years specifically, you guys have peaked in November, I think you’ve 25 and 3 or something like that since the middle of 2019. Is this team on the similar trajectory with the way they’re playing, results to the side, but the way they’re playing, similar to what you’ve had over that last those 7 or 8 years?

COACH FERENTZ: Yeah, we’ll find out, and one of the losses Cooper got knocked out early in the game, and then our quarterback got knocked out, and those were two, I think we still lost by two points. Last year, part of it is the competition we’re playing, too, and I thought we played really well in both those games and came up short. The biggest thing is to be a good team, in my mind, you have to show improvement. It’s not always the score, but it’s how you’re approaching and approaching it, and are you playing at your best? Kamari’s not coming back, we’re not going to get him back, so who’s going to do what, and can we fill that void? Those kinds of things, and as much as anything, is just how the team’s operating. Can they stay, to that point, can they stay focused on what is important? I’ll go back though, too, that last game I told this team earlier in the week this week, coach and staff, we all could have stayed home, probably the entire week that week, because those guys were on a mission at that point. That’s when you know things are going really well. We’re not there yet, but at least we’re on the right path. We’ll see.

Q. You mentioned not closing this game the way you wanted to. And I think Northwestern and Washington were probably kind of similar like that. And I know it’s nitpicky with double-digit wins, but what are the keys to maybe slamming the door shut on an opponent rather than just kind of getting to the finish line?

COACH FERENTZ: Yeah, it’s not major stuff, but it’s little things that kind of keep you from maybe finishing the way you want to. It’s good to be in those positions, I’ll start there with the positive, and then next thing is just how can we really close it down the way we want to and, preferably, you’re the one taking, like last week, you know, we had a chance, I don’t know if we could have done it, but I think we had the ball 7 minutes in that last possession, and we turn it over, and we had an opportunity, maybe have an 11-minute drive where we don’t even try to score, basically but just take the clock out. A lot of times it’s those little things, you see where it’s at but not drifting concentration-wise and staying on the trick you need to be in, and going from there. I was just talking to Tim in there about 1980 at Pitt.  We ended up 11-1. We coached a championship team down to a No. 2 team in the country. I swear I think we went home happy three times in the entire year. Penn State was one of them because they were Penn State and we were Pitt. The bowl game was really good, and there’s probably one more in there, but otherwise, we were always miserable. So, you know, No. 2 in the country, you’re miserable, so tells you coaches are sick. So anyway, we’ll see.

Okay, thank you guys.