Good news: Head coach of the Hawkeyes Kirk James Ferentz vows to maintain the strength of the Lowa brand.

Head coach of the Hawkeyes Kirk James Ferentz vows to maintain the strength of the Lowa brand.

Iowa travels to Illinois to take on the Fighting Illini come Saturday night in prime time at 6:30 p.m. CT on the Big Ten Network. After a tough home loss versus No. 4 Michigan, the Hawkeyes are hoping to get back into the winner’s column.

Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz broke Bret Bielema’s Illinois Fighting Illini and touched on a number of topics in his weekly press conference. Here was everything Ferentz had to say ahead of the road battle against the Fighting Illini.

Shelley finished with 23 points and five assists, while Alexis Markowski added 15 points, 11 rebounds and four assists. Logan Nissley also scored 15 points and Natalie Potts chipped in 14 points.

“Good afternoon. Thanks to everybody for being here. I’ll say a couple words about Saturday and then look forward to this week’s game. As I said after the game, disappointed with the outcome, but certainly but not the effort. Our guys gave good effort and competed hard. Coming off the field, I felt that way, and the tape verified that.

“We knew going in that execution was going to be paramount, and then taking advantage of any opportunities or creating opportunities, and you play a team like that, the margin for wiggle room is pretty slim. A quick example, in that first half we were having a hard time getting off the field defensively, and then offensively we had two early possessions where it didn’t make what I thought was a convertible 3rd and 3, and the next possession we missed a pass that would have given us probably 2nd and 2, maybe a 1st down, that type of thing.

“Those are illustrations that we have to be able to do if we’re going to be able to continue to sustain a drive, and then in a game like that, that’s critical because it’s a two-way street as far as that time of possession. Both sides have ownership. And then also, special teams-wise, we didn’t impact the game. We had a great respect for their specialists, but we never really influenced the game or impacted the game any way on special teams. I thought it was better in the second half. Saw some progress there. Our guys fought hard and overcame some tough circumstances, too, and fought until the end.

“Some positives came out of the game. Looked at the tape on Sunday, made the corrections that needed to be made, and we have shifted our focus forward. Heading into this week against Illinois, same four captains. Jack, Sam, Kaevon and Riley.

“Injury-wise, not a lot to report other than it looks like Terry Roberts is doing better. He was pretty limited last week. Didn’t play much in the game. He’s having a better week of practice right now, so that’s encouraging. Hopefully we’ll get him back this week and that’ll help our depth a little bit in the back end.