Opening Comments:
First and foremost, happy to be here to represent Iowa State athletics, our great university and really fortunate to come with four great representatives from our university. On the offensive side, David Montgomery, our junior running back; our senior quarterback Kyle Kempt. On the defensive side, Brian Peavy and our defensive lineman, Raymond Lima.
For myself, I was anxious to watch the response of our football team coming back in January from some of the lessons we learned from a year ago. And for the last seven months it's been fun - since January - to see where we are today to watch the leadership of our football team and the growth of our football program continue to grow in a positive direction. I know like every coach here we're excited to get to 2018 football season underway. But proud of our football team and any questions you may have from my end I look forward to answering.
On the offensive line and loss of Coach Tom Manning to the NFL:
Sure, first of all the offensive line position. One of the great challenges for our program in general to make a step forward has really been rebuilding that offensive line. For the last two years we've had to really rebuild it from the ground up and that's not a quick fix. One of the things that is neat for us is our four guys that have started football games: Bryce Meeker who started for us at right tackle; Josh Knipfel who started all 13 games at right guard; Julian Good-Jones who started all fourteen games at center and gives us flexibility across the board; and Sean Foster, who started six games at left and right tackle for us last year.
There are guys who have actually played for us, which is really big. It's the first time since I've been there that we've got this many guys that have experience and played and I do think you've got to play and get that experience and have some of those failures and successes so you can grow. I think that's a real positive for us, though I think it's a great challenge. This group has to prove that they've got to be willing to take the next step.
Coach Manning leaving was certainly kind of twofold. Number one, he played for me. He's been a part of my coaching staff since I've been an offensive coordinator. So really proud to be honest with you was my remark when he had the opportunity that came his way in Indianapolis. Tom is a bright young man. He's a coach that coaches his players with a lot of passion and energy. So I think for Tom his future is as bright as he wants it to be. In terms of what route does he want to do, does he want to become a position coach in the National Football League? Does he want to be a head coach down the road? I think he's positioned to do any of those things.
From an Iowa State standpoint we're fortunate that my background has never veered too far away from the offensive line position. Obviously that's where I was able to cut my teeth in coaching. Similar hire in terms of Jeff Myers in what we had when Tom Manning became the offensive line coach for us at Toledo - promoting a graduate assistant to that position with Tom being the offensive coordinator. The day-to-day operations fell on Jeff's shoulders. Jeff was a three-year starter at the University of Toledo, so he's been there, done that. He knows what expectations I have and what expectations are laid on that offensive line position and it's almost been a seamless transition that way. So it's great to have a guy in house that has the same core values and beliefs that I have of what that offensive line should look like and feel like.
On Kyle Kempt's opportunity and emergence last season into this year:
I think number one, for Kyle, you're talking a young man with four and a half years of college experience in three plays prior to that. San Jose State the year before he got a couple of reps in that game. And to be honest with you, what young man at quarterback is going to wait that long until he gets the opportunity to prove himself? I think that says everything we need to know about who Kyle is as a person. College football is about taking advantage of your opportunity, whenever it comes. And usually that's what defines success in the collegiate experience - when your opportunity comes are you prepared to take advantage of it? That's the one thing I've always admired about Kyle and to be honest with you it's the one thing that gave myself and our staff confidence moving forward. Kyle always prepared as if he was the starting quarterback. His preparation in detail was elite. I think that's why he had success as a stepped in as a starter and I think it's what has allowed him to continue to have success through the rest of the last season. I think that's also the reason for me that it was exciting to be able to get Kyle to come back that he was announced that he was going to get a sixth year knowing someone who represented the game of football the way Kyle does and how trusted he was by his teammates because of the work ethic that he does embody. I think that was huge for Iowa State football and for our program going forward.
On the significance of the win at Oklahoma in moving the program forward:
I said this about Iowa State football: year one we had to learn how to believe. What does real belief look like and feel like? And in year one you saw our kids grow, but they started to believe that they could win. In year two, we had to learn how to win. We learned that by obviously some successes in some football games that maybe we weren't picked to win. But you also saw it in some tough, gut-wrenching losses that we had throughout the year as well. Winning a game like we did against Oklahoma showed us and our kids that here is what it takes to be successful. These are what we're going to have to do at Iowa State to be really successful. The little things, winning in the margins. Those are truisms and if we continue to grow and to water those foundations then we're going to have a chance to continue to have success. But if we don't and if ego starts to creep in and we think we're going to win because we're better than everybody then it's going to be a tough row to hoe. I think what it did is showed us how to win and what it takes to win to be successful at Iowa State and I give our kids credit because they've bought into that and I think they understand that if we're going to push our program forward it's going to take winning in the margins for us to be successful.
First and foremost, happy to be here to represent Iowa State athletics, our great university and really fortunate to come with four great representatives from our university. On the offensive side, David Montgomery, our junior running back; our senior quarterback Kyle Kempt. On the defensive side, Brian Peavy and our defensive lineman, Raymond Lima.
For myself, I was anxious to watch the response of our football team coming back in January from some of the lessons we learned from a year ago. And for the last seven months it's been fun - since January - to see where we are today to watch the leadership of our football team and the growth of our football program continue to grow in a positive direction. I know like every coach here we're excited to get to 2018 football season underway. But proud of our football team and any questions you may have from my end I look forward to answering.
On the offensive line and loss of Coach Tom Manning to the NFL:
Sure, first of all the offensive line position. One of the great challenges for our program in general to make a step forward has really been rebuilding that offensive line. For the last two years we've had to really rebuild it from the ground up and that's not a quick fix. One of the things that is neat for us is our four guys that have started football games: Bryce Meeker who started for us at right tackle; Josh Knipfel who started all 13 games at right guard; Julian Good-Jones who started all fourteen games at center and gives us flexibility across the board; and Sean Foster, who started six games at left and right tackle for us last year.
There are guys who have actually played for us, which is really big. It's the first time since I've been there that we've got this many guys that have experience and played and I do think you've got to play and get that experience and have some of those failures and successes so you can grow. I think that's a real positive for us, though I think it's a great challenge. This group has to prove that they've got to be willing to take the next step.
Coach Manning leaving was certainly kind of twofold. Number one, he played for me. He's been a part of my coaching staff since I've been an offensive coordinator. So really proud to be honest with you was my remark when he had the opportunity that came his way in Indianapolis. Tom is a bright young man. He's a coach that coaches his players with a lot of passion and energy. So I think for Tom his future is as bright as he wants it to be. In terms of what route does he want to do, does he want to become a position coach in the National Football League? Does he want to be a head coach down the road? I think he's positioned to do any of those things.
From an Iowa State standpoint we're fortunate that my background has never veered too far away from the offensive line position. Obviously that's where I was able to cut my teeth in coaching. Similar hire in terms of Jeff Myers in what we had when Tom Manning became the offensive line coach for us at Toledo - promoting a graduate assistant to that position with Tom being the offensive coordinator. The day-to-day operations fell on Jeff's shoulders. Jeff was a three-year starter at the University of Toledo, so he's been there, done that. He knows what expectations I have and what expectations are laid on that offensive line position and it's almost been a seamless transition that way. So it's great to have a guy in house that has the same core values and beliefs that I have of what that offensive line should look like and feel like.
On Kyle Kempt's opportunity and emergence last season into this year:
I think number one, for Kyle, you're talking a young man with four and a half years of college experience in three plays prior to that. San Jose State the year before he got a couple of reps in that game. And to be honest with you, what young man at quarterback is going to wait that long until he gets the opportunity to prove himself? I think that says everything we need to know about who Kyle is as a person. College football is about taking advantage of your opportunity, whenever it comes. And usually that's what defines success in the collegiate experience - when your opportunity comes are you prepared to take advantage of it? That's the one thing I've always admired about Kyle and to be honest with you it's the one thing that gave myself and our staff confidence moving forward. Kyle always prepared as if he was the starting quarterback. His preparation in detail was elite. I think that's why he had success as a stepped in as a starter and I think it's what has allowed him to continue to have success through the rest of the last season. I think that's also the reason for me that it was exciting to be able to get Kyle to come back that he was announced that he was going to get a sixth year knowing someone who represented the game of football the way Kyle does and how trusted he was by his teammates because of the work ethic that he does embody. I think that was huge for Iowa State football and for our program going forward.
On the significance of the win at Oklahoma in moving the program forward:
I said this about Iowa State football: year one we had to learn how to believe. What does real belief look like and feel like? And in year one you saw our kids grow, but they started to believe that they could win. In year two, we had to learn how to win. We learned that by obviously some successes in some football games that maybe we weren't picked to win. But you also saw it in some tough, gut-wrenching losses that we had throughout the year as well. Winning a game like we did against Oklahoma showed us and our kids that here is what it takes to be successful. These are what we're going to have to do at Iowa State to be really successful. The little things, winning in the margins. Those are truisms and if we continue to grow and to water those foundations then we're going to have a chance to continue to have success. But if we don't and if ego starts to creep in and we think we're going to win because we're better than everybody then it's going to be a tough row to hoe. I think what it did is showed us how to win and what it takes to win to be successful at Iowa State and I give our kids credit because they've bought into that and I think they understand that if we're going to push our program forward it's going to take winning in the margins for us to be successful.
