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13 T he University of Iowa football team was at its peak for the 2014 Outback Bowl, but that might not have appeared obvious because of the strength of Louisiana State University, Hawkeye head coach Kirk Ferentz said Jan. 14 in an exclusive interview. "Our whole football team improved during the course of December," Ferentz said. "I'm not sure how much it showed because we played a team that was extremely talented in LSU. But our team improved, and behind the scenes we had a lot of younger guys make dramatic improvement." e Hawkeyes won their final three regular season games — two on the road — to finish second in the Big Ten Conference Legends Division with eight wins. ey were defeated by No. 14 LSU, 21-14, on New Year's Day in Tampa, Fla. e period between a 38-17 victory at Nebraska on Nov. 29 and the bowl game 32 days later provided the coaching staff an opportunity to work with several younger players who will see more prominent roles in 2014. "You have that level of guys that will be competing for starting jobs replacing the seniors we lost, and then beyond some younger guys that were playing on the scout team during the course of the fall, we had a chance to watch them in our offensive and defensive system," Ferentz said. "It was almost like a minispring where you get a chance to get those guys moving forward. e aim is when we start spring practice, those guys should be further along than they would have been." Ferentz talks about the development of the quarterback position, staff continuity, who will step in at linebacker, and much more: Ferentz Flips the Page to 2014 By Darren Miller Q: When camp opened in the summer, did you feel this was a team with Outback Bowl potential, or did that develop as the year progressed? One thing about football and every year is unique, you're never quite sure what's going to happen or how things are going to materialize, but the one thing that was consistent about this football team, going back to the end of last year — late November — ever since our first meeting, they have been really focused, they have worked hard on the proper things. ey had good priorities and worked hard to try to achieve those things. at part was consistent, so out of season we had a good spring, we had a good summer conditioning from all accounts, the same thing once we started the preseason. e team handled the month of August well. When the season began at least we put ourselves in position to have success, but you are never quite sure how things are going to materialize or what injuries are going to take place — all those things you can't control. Q: You ended the 2012 season with six losses. What was morale like aer the season opener against Northern Illinois? How did your team grow from that loss? e end of the 2012 season was disappointing, much like the 2006 season. We kind of went down the hill the last several games. e difference is in '06 we still had a chance to go play another ballgame, we played Texas in the Alamo Bowl. Had a month to regroup and refocus and the guys did a great job back then. Our encouragement at the end of last year was the same thing. Last year was last year and when the final game ended we put that one to bed. Our whole focus starting at the end of November was to look forward, so when we did begin the season this year we were going to take each game as they came. We going to try to prepare as well as we could and then