There was a solid ‘story’ today from ESPN.com from Adam Rittenberg who spent some time with Kirk Ferentz.  You can read it here.

A few things worth noting…

-Karl Klug received high praise from Norm Parker at Tuesday’s press conference, when he said they look at him in the same mold as Matt Roth, Mitch King and Matt Kroul.  That’s some pretty good company to be mentioned in.  If I could have cut up an MVP vote for the 2010 Orange Bowl, I would have given half to Adrian Clayborn and another half to Klug, and I wrote that the night of the game in our live chat.

Prior to the game, in my writings here on the site and then in the Chalk Talk sessions I gave down in Miami, I felt Iowa’s defensive tackles were going to be the key to the game.  Getting interior disruption against an option offense is so important, because it takes a lot away from an offense.  Klug and Ballard did that, and I was especially pleased with Klug.  Sure, it helps playing along side one of the best defensive ends in school history in Clayborn, but Klug did his part.  And it sounds like he could be a monster in his own right this year, as both Parker and Ferentz have now singled him out.

Having listened to or been at more than 90% of the Ferentz era press conferences, when Kirk does this, you need to take note….

Ferentz told Rittenberg that the Iowa quarterback group on campus right now is the strongest it’s been since he has been at Iowa.  Stanzi will be just the second third year starter of the Ferentz era…Stanzi is 14-0 in the last 14 games he has started and finished.  We all saw what James Vandenberg did against Ohio State in the Shoe, and Ferentz and Ken O’Keefe singled out John Wienke for his improvement this spring.  O’Keefe also said on Thursday that A.J. Derby had as much thrown on his plate at this juncture of his career of any Ferentz era quarterback outside of Drew Tate, and given that Derby is a spring semester enrollee, he likely will have had the most to digest.  They aren’t doing that because he can’t handle it, either.  Each quarterback is different and can handle so much at certain points in time.  It’s encouraging to hear that Derby has been given a lot to digest, because it means they believe he can handle it…either that, or they are trying to make his head spin so that he will be more receptive to a position change, but I don’t believe they roll like that at all.

-If the season started tomorrow, Jeff Tarpinian would be your starting MLB, with Jeremiha Hunter and Tyler Neilsen at WILL and LEO. Ferentz said Hunter has really taken steps forward, too.

-TE Brad Herman has emerged as the #2 option at TE, and Ferentz repeated to Rittenberg what he told the Iowa media in late March, that CJ Fiedorowicz will have a shot to earn early time if he can digest things in August.

-When talking about health of the RB’s this spring, he reiterated that Jewel Hampton was “absolutely fine” but they are not going to hit him.  Then, Ferentz offered a line that I have never heard him say in 11 years:  “My name is Tucker, not sucker, so we are not going to have him get hit this spring.”  I am going to ask him in the green room at the Polk County I-Club football banquet on 4/21 where he pulled that one from…sounds like a grade school playground comeback…I like it.

Another link for you, in case you missed it on the boards and you dont follow us on twitter (which you should:  twitter.com/hawkeyenation)  It’s a bit of an aggregate look at some early preseason college football polls...as expected, the Hawks are not going to sneak up on anyone:  CLICK HERE>

Here is one more for you, from the Des Moines Register, where national football writers Stewart Mandel of SI and Dennis Dodd of CBS talk about Iowa’s upcoming season in glowing terms:  CLICK HERE

Tags: hawkeye football, Hawkeye Nation, hawkeyenation.com, Iowa football, iowa hawkeyes, Kirk Ferentz