Kirk Speaks: Purdue

Alright. You might’ve heard Kirk had a press conference yesterday. He said some things. We’ll get to that. But first I’m going to make you eat your vegetables.

Let’s get this over with:

KF: On the injury front, mixed emotions. Not happy that Riley Moss injured, but the good news is I think we’ll get him back here a couple weeks. So there is no surgery involved. That’s always a good thing. Just to clarify further some confusion on that. The injury took place during the play. It seemed like somebody went off on a tangent there and that’s not correct. It did take place on the play.

So, no surgery for Moss. We’ll miss him against Purdue, but then Iowa gets a bye which hopefully is enough time for him to get back on the field. It sounds like Monte Pottebaum will be available for Purdue as well.

Q. You have had four meetings against Coach Brohm, you are 1-3, which is uncharacteristic.

KF: It’s not good.

Nope!

Q. What have you seen, as you look back on the matchup, why has it been a little bit of a difficult matchup?

KF: I think every game’s been a different story, but the common denominator is they play hard and they play well. As I alluded, the first thing you think about and if you follow Jeff’s career is that they have always been really good offensively, so it starts there. They challenge you in a lot of different ways, they make you defend a lot of different things. They have gadgets and trick plays on special teams and offense so they make it a tough preparation. And they have good players and they have had good players, they have hurt us with deep balls. And it sounds pretty basic, but a lot of people won’t try it that way and they have done a good job of that. So you really have to defend everything and that’s keeps pressure on you defensively and so we got a lot of respect for them and for obvious reasons, I’m well aware of that, believe me.

So yeah, this is obviously an uneasy game for us all. We’ve struggled mightily against Purdue in the Brohm era, we’re without a star cornerback and are still coming down from the emotional high of exposing Penn State on national television.

I am very glad this game is taking place in Kinnick, and am a believer in the momentum (not tempo) that Iowa is riding. Purdue will do some things against Iowa, it always does. But this team just seems to hit different.

Q. The secondary is called the Dough Boys, did you know that?

KF: I didn’t know that. No, so I’ll have to visit with him about that, but I’m all for it, if they keep playing like that, I’m all for it. But they’re going to get a workout this week, that’s for sure.

That is just fantastic.

A big-ass track!

Q. Is there something about this team that reminds you of your 2015 teams? Are there any pieces or guys in the locker room that remind you?

KF: Just what I’m talking about, just that general vibe. But the rest of the story is like that team ran the whole race and that’s the first team since whatever it was, ‘21 or ‘22, a hundred years ago, so you know just it shows you how hard that is to do that and we’re just at the halfway mark, I have no idea how many Kentucky Derby winners won that were leading at halftime or the first whatever, however many, whatever. They go, one lap, right? It’s a big-ass track, but you follow what I’m saying. So I don’t know what the stats are on that but there’s no prizes right now, we are bowl eligible, we’re happy about that but we didn’t get any prizes for being, having six wins right now and that’s really just like I said, the season’s long, games are long, it’s what you do the whole time and that’s we still got a lot in front of us, including this Saturday.

And here’s what you came here for:

Q. Do you have any thoughts on with the injuries, it’s been talked about out there, curious the other night if you noticed that?

KF: Yeah, heard a little bit. Football’s a hard competitive tough game and fans are into it just like everybody else is into it and, first of all, I know a couple players were legitimately hurt, I know that, I saw one sitting on the bench, for whatever reason, there was an opening and I saw him and I know he had an ice bag on his leg. Obviously the quarterback didn’t come back. So I hope those guys are well, I don’t know what their status is, nobody wants to see anybody get hurt. Nobody. But I think probably it’s a reaction to there were a couple guys that were down for the count and then were back a play or two later and our fans aren’t stupid, they’re watching, they know what’s going on. I’ve been here 23 years I think that’s only the second time we have seen that kind of stuff going on. I know it’s a topic nationally right now, it was one of the discussions of the rules, they don’t quite, nobody knows the answer to it, but it’s — and I also know for a fact that people — I’m not saying, I just, there are two people in our building that have been places where that was “scuba” or “dive” — no “scuba” and “turtle” were the code words. So it goes on, we don’t coach it, haven’t really been exposed to it and our fans, I thought they smelled a rat, I guess, I don’t know, so they responded the way they responded.

So let’s break it down:

Obviously the quarterback didn’t come back

Sorry about that!

So I hope those guys are well

That makes one of us.

I’ve been here 23 years I think that’s only the second time we have seen that kind of stuff going on.

Is that a long time?

there are two people in our building that have been places where that was “scuba” or “dive” — no “scuba” and “turtle” were the code words.

And there it is. The rat poison in the Kool-Aid, if you will.

If you recall, Tyler Barnes, Kirk’s son-in-law and Iowa’s director of recruiting, was also an assistant under James Franklin at Vanderbilt. Could he have been one of those two people in the Iowa football building? Is it possible that Franklin, who undoubtedly did a good job at cellar-dwelling Vandy, might’ve used some nefarious—but not explicitly illegal—tactics while coaching the Commodores to back-to-back nine win seasons? (He’s the only coach to ever accomplish such a feat in the history of Vanderbilt, for what it’s worth).

I’ll let you decide!