FanPost

The Best of the Ferentz pregame presser . . . Arizona edition

Kluginator posted a link to Ferentz's presser today in another thread. I have important things to do at work today, so naturally I followed the link and read my first ever coach's pregame press conference transcript. Here are some of the highlights for those of you who are more diligent than me at doing your actual jobs.

For the full transcript, click here.

Q. Was there a key to slowing Grigsby down last year?
COACH FERENTZ: It’s easier said than done. Everybody has to be in the right spot. Can’t let him get started. I didn’t say it publicly last year; wouldn’t have been appropriate. But I’ll say it now, I was hoping he would come out in the draft after our game. Kind of made a mental note of that one. Didn’t happen. Now we get to see him again.

That doesn’t sound like typical — “they’re a good team with good players” coachspeak. I really think KF thought after last year’s game: “I really hope that Grigsby kid declares for the draft.”

Q. How do you adjust or do you adjust practice this week to prepare for a night game?
COACH FERENTZ: No. We’ll treat this like the Penn State trip last year. I know we’re going in a different direction, but I did take geography in the fifth grade and got an A in it. Proud of that.

El-Oh-El

About the Offensive Line:

. . . [T]he good news is that group will continue to get better. I think dramatically, as we go along. And, we’ll know more in a couple of weeks where we’re at. But, at least I think they’re on the right path.

Is anyone else excited that our preseason weakness is fast becoming a strength? He also said that we basically had three starting tackles and five starting defensive lineman. What a great problem to have.

About the Arizona State game that people should just shut the fuck up about:

. . . as I recall we didn’t even swarm properly. There’s a picture, you probably look it up on the Internet, where we were just all over the joint with our swarm.

I could find no such picture.

Regarding our chances if we go into the game mentally unprepared:

When you play a good team that’s thinking right and you’re not, that’s not good. If we do that this week we’ll be beaten by 60. It will be ugly.

When asked about Ricky’s zero interceptions on the year:

I hadn’t realized that. As a head coach I should probably know stuff like that.
I think this shows he’s really a big-picture coach. Not that he doesn’t pay attention to team specifics. But he’s very interested in performance, not just results. It would probably come as no surprise to him that Stanzi has thrown some questionable passes. Whether or not they were picked off isn’t the issue. The fact that they were thrown is. Some of Stanzi’s passes would have been intercepted by tougher defenses we’ll face as the year progresses (starting Saturday).

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