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ROSE BOWL GAME: IOWA VS STANFORD

December 27, 2015

Jordan Walsh

Pasadena, California

Q. It's been 25 years since Iowa has been here. Are you sort of aware of the weight of that?
JORDAN WALSH: Yeah, it's definitely been a long time, like you said. Coach Ferentz said -- he's definitely alluded to how long it's been since we've won it and how long it's been since we've been here, as well.

Q. 5-6 in the country coming into this game. Both teams come so close to the ultimate prize. Is there any disappointment or does being here sort of offset that for you guys?
JORDAN WALSH: Definitely when you lose a game it's disappointing, but we have to look forward -- look past that to the next game. The next game is the most important game, and this next important game is our postseason game and it's the Rose Bowl, so it's very important.

Q. What kind of game are you expecting?
JORDAN WALSH: I'm expecting a tough, physical, gritty football game. Stanford is a great team. They've got big, solid guys at every position. We know it's going to be a great battle.

Q. Your offensive line is a pretty big test, too, isn't it?
JORDAN WALSH: Oh, yeah, sure.

Q. Is that something you guys really pride yourselves on?
JORDAN WALSH: Definitely. I feel like as an offensive line we try to be as physical as we can, and this game will be no different, so we know Stanford's defensive line and defensive backs, their linebackers are big and tough and physical, too, so we'll have a great test.

Q. Tell me about your head coach. He seems like he's been there forever. Is he a bit of a institution in the state?
JORDAN WALSH: Yeah, since I met him in high school he's been the same guy. Just a good person who cares about you as a player, talks to you. If you bump into him in the hallway he'll talk to you about anything besides football, life, grades, how your family is, stuff like that. I definitely really like him for sure.

Q. Did you know him and his brother very well?
JORDAN WALSH: Yeah, we all played in high school together. I know the Caspers very well. I remember when I first started getting recruited by Iowa, Mr. Caspers, his dad, slid me a media guide of the Hawkeyes one time I think when we were outside just doing drills or running, something like that, and the media guide is like, hey, you look good in the black and gold. Going to Johnny's house, there was a lot of Iowa stuff in the basement, a lot of memorabilia, stuff like that, because both of his parents went to Iowa, the university, so they're big Hawkeye fans. The oldest, Will Caspers, went to Iowa, so he's also an alum, as well.

Q. That's got to be kind of funny and weird to be playing against him in the Rose Bowl when you were side by side in high school.
JORDAN WALSH: Definitely. It's going to be really weird, but I love Johnny. He's a great guy, and he's having a heck of a career at Stanford. I know he'll do good.

Q. Did he consider going to Iowa?
JORDAN WALSH: I'm not sure. I know he was getting recruited, but that's all I really know.

Q. It looks like you two both picked offensive line schools.
JORDAN WALSH: Yeah. I mean, you could definitely say that. I feel like both programs are definitely known for their offensive linemen for sure.

Q. In your high school, does it crank out a lot of college players?
JORDAN WALSH: A decent amount.

Q. How far did the team go when you were there?
JORDAN WALSH: My sophomore year we went to semifinals. The year after that we went to the state championship, lost in double or triple overtime, and then my last year we went to quarterfinals and lost to the same team.

Q. Wow, that state championship game must have been a gut wrencher.
JORDAN WALSH: Yeah, it was, definitely was. It was a close game.

Q. Who beat you?
JORDAN WALSH: Wheaton Warrenville South that year and my senior year, as well.

Q. What does Caspers dad do?
JORDAN WALSH: They're both teachers in a school in Glen Ellyn.

Q. Were they athletes to raise kids who were ball players?
JORDAN WALSH: I'm not sure what they did.

Q. I mean, is his dad a big guy?
JORDAN WALSH: Oh, his dad is very tall and he's pretty thick, yeah.

Q. And I see Johnny's majoring in -- Johnny spent his last summer studying worm compost. He's in agriculture or something like that, a guy from the Chicago suburbs.
JORDAN WALSH: Yeah, I didn't know that. That's really interesting, and funny, too.

Q. I talked to his mom. His mom is from Cedar Rapids so we had mutual friends, and she said that when he was back on break just a couple weeks ago, he goes over to the high school to see the coach, whose name I forgot but you know --
JORDAN WALSH: Coach Hetlet.

Q. And he bumps into Brian Ferentz.
JORDAN WALSH: Oh, yeah.

Q. So they talked for about 30 minutes in the hallway of the high school.
JORDAN WALSH: Yeah.

Q. That's crazy how these worlds intersect.
JORDAN WALSH: Yeah, it definitely is. Yeah, I know Brian has our area of recruiting for high schoolers.

Q. Your recruitment, who else did you seriously consider?
JORDAN WALSH: It came down to Iowa and Michigan.

Q. What tilted it?
JORDAN WALSH: Definitely a big tilt was the coaching staff at Michigan, I heard they weren't going to be staying that long. That definitely solidified my decision of coming to Iowa.

Q. And it turns out it was true.
JORDAN WALSH: Uh-huh.

Q. When athletes have their coach yanked away from them, it's not what they signed up for.
JORDAN WALSH: Yeah, definitely. It's unfortunate.

Q. If you wanted to go to play for Illinois in the middle of your career, it may punish you for doing that.
JORDAN WALSH: Uh-huh.

Q. The biggest difference with Stanford this year is they lost a lot of size up front. Where do you think this defensive front stacks up against other lines you've gone up against?
JORDAN WALSH: Well, when you watch tape, you definitely don't see that. These guys play pretty physical. If you didn't look at the roster, weight sheet, you wouldn't know he was -- I wouldn't say underweight, but definitely wouldn't be the size of a typical nose, but all their noses that they filter in are fast and skilled, and they like to hit.

Q. Schematically do you see them as being different from the other Big Ten defenses you've faced this season?
JORDAN WALSH: I'd say a little bit different. They play a couple different fronts, yeah.

Q. Going into a game like this, does your preparation really change at all for what Stanford's defense brings to the table?
JORDAN WALSH: We definitely had to change a lot of stuff at practice, going through different fronts that they play, different types of blitzes. It's definitely different than what we've seen in the Big Ten.

Q. Stanford linebacker Blake Martinez called you guys a well-oiled machine. If somebody makes a mistake somebody else is there to back them up and seal the hole. What's your reaction to that?
JORDAN WALSH: Definitely take pride in that. It's a really nice compliment. We just try to do little things, whether it's our staff's preparation. Just go out there and try to execute to the best of our ability.

Q. Do your eyes kind of light up when you see how Northwestern handled Stanford on both lines in week one?
JORDAN WALSH: It doesn't. That was week one. Stanford was a much different football team in week one, and I feel like hopefully we can look back and say we were different than week one, too, against Illinois State.

Q. I remember a couple years ago Stanford came out of nowhere to go to the Rose Bowl. It was the Wisconsin year, where everybody was expecting it to be Oregon. That kind of parallels your season where you guys came out of nowhere and surprised a lot of people making it to the Rose Bowl. What's it like to get that white whale?
JORDAN WALSH: Yeah, definitely, it's an honor to be here. This is a great, historically great venue, great game. I remember watching this when I was a young kid. I'm definitely happy to be here.

Q. When you found out you were coming here, did that really get your spirits back up?
JORDAN WALSH: You know, it was a disappointing loss. It was a tough loss, tough game. But just had to move past it, watch tape, get past it, but definitely -- I was kind of surprised at first that we got to the Rose Bowl, but looking at the rankings and stuff like that, I guess it would make sense.

Q. Were you guys nervous they were going to pick Ohio State?
JORDAN WALSH: Well, I don't think -- I don't know what everybody else thought collectively, but I didn't actually know what they would choose because, I mean, it could be -- rankings could change dramatically in one loss, so I had no idea.

Q. What was it like when you found out? Were you with your teammates?
JORDAN WALSH: I was honestly in my apartment with my roommates, and one of them said, hey, we're going to the Rose Bowl. I'm like, oh, dang, that's pretty cool.

Q. So far has it been everything that you thought it would be, Disneyland and --
JORDAN WALSH: Definitely. I've never been to California, number one. Disneyland, I've never been to any Disney in the world, so I thought that was pretty cool.

Q. Pretty mild winter back home, though, right?
JORDAN WALSH: Uh-huh.

Q. It's warmer here, but there are years when it's freezing out there. Has it kind of been --
JORDAN WALSH: Oh, yeah, it's great weather. I really like it, just wearing maybe some shorts and maybe like a long sleeve. It's really nice here.

Q. (Inaudible.)
JORDAN WALSH: Just been pretty cool. California is great weather. Practice has been going pretty well. The venues that we just went to, like Disneyland, was awesome. I've never been to Disneyland, so it was a pretty cool experience.

Q. Best ride?
JORDAN WALSH: I only went on one ride. The lines were really long. But I went to the Indiana Jones ride, which was pretty fun.

Q. But were all the O-linemen sticking together yesterday?
JORDAN WALSH: Everybody was kind of scattered around because a lot of people wanted to go on the Tower of Terror. I didn't really want to go on Terror of Tower because I don't think my stomach could have held up. I went with Henry, my roommate.

Q. I'm asking a lot about -- you have a big group of freshmen on the offensive line. Who's kind of jumped out at you and who's looked good to you?
JORDAN WALSH: Our group of freshmen?

Q. Yeah, James Daniels, pretty amazing what he's done.
JORDAN WALSH: Obviously James Daniels has been getting better and better each week he's practiced, but I would say Brett Waechter jumps out on the film when you see him. He's been working a lot. He's been getting better, too, with his pass pro and run blocking.

Q. You were in that redshirt before, bowl preps and stuff like that. How big is that for a freshman?
JORDAN WALSH: It's really big because that's where you get the work done. Coach sets a ton of time after practice to really get down to fundamentals, by teaching you steps, proper hand placements, center IDs, who you work with, who you don't work with. It's definitely very important.

Q. Tell me about the Stanford defense. They run the 3-4. Coach Davis has said it's kind of comparable to Wisconsin. How comparable is it to Wisconsin because Wisconsin does blitz a lot. Do they do a lot of the same things?
JORDAN WALSH: They definitely do blitz a good amount. It's kind of structured kind of like Wisconsin, but they do a lot of different things. They do blitz a lot, though, for sure. They bring everybody twists and turns.

Q. Wisconsin was one of your tougher games this year, held you guys to 10 points. What did you learn from that game that you can apply here?
JORDAN WALSH: Definitely I remember looking at tape after the game, just simple things that we easily could have corrected, and hopefully gone through practice correcting these mistakes from the Wisconsin game, hopefully show up on Stanford.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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