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ROSE BOWL GAME: IOWA VS STANFORDDecember 28, 2015Phil ParkerPasadena, California Q. Can you talk about when you first found Desmond, he said he first saw you as a freshman. I can't remember the name of the camp. It was a camp in Michigan. PHIL PARKER: Sound mind, sound body. Q. That's it. And he said he saw you and maybe hoped to come to Iowa someday, and all of a sudden, you were at his school. So you've known him a long time. PHIL PARKER: Yeah. When you go to those camps and you see those guys and you see somebody that might be a younger guy, you kind of have the idea, hey, this guy's a good football player. A lot of these guys in Detroit, they play a lot of these different leagues. Sometimes they're not even in ninth grade. They're not playing in high school, they're playing in these leagues. How that one happened, I was actually not on the road at the time, and I ended up going out in January, like the last week or two of recruiting season. We were looking for a defensive back, and I went into Orchard Lake St. Mary's, which actually played East English Village and thought one of the best players in the state of Michigan was Desmond King. They said, I think he's going to Ball State at the time. So it was very intriguing because George Porritt knows his players. He had a lot of great players go to a lot of different Big Ten schools. So I respect that, and we have a great relationship. So I ended up going down to the city with a couple of my buddies that either I coached with that are coaching at Northwestern High School or Douglas High School, and just asked the guys the same questions without giving up a name. And they kept on throwing this Desmond King name up, and it kind of really intrigued me. So I went over and see Coach Odom, which I knew where the school was, and he gave the same report, that he's probably one of the better football players definitely in the city, and maybe in the state. When I first met him, he had that look. Then when you watch the highlight tape on him, he's doing -- there's some plays exactlyl like what he's made in high school that he's made here at Iowa. Very respectful. I think a guy like that was going to Ball State, all due respect to Ball State, he had an opportunity to play in the Big Ten, and I just know this, you look at his academics, he was good. There was no question about his character. And then the things that I felt were really impressive was just the way he handled himself in school with the other teachers and the way they talked about him, and the other coaches within the school too. Then we asked him to visit, and I didn't find out until later what happened to his brother that actually got killed. It was unfortunate, and for him to handle that situation was unbelievable. I was just happy for him that he came out here and he liked it and how much success he's having. He has a lot more to go and a lot more to prove, I think, but I'm really happy for him. Q. Where are you at with him as far as talking about the league, the NFL? PHIL PARKER: Well, I think it's everybody has their own life. I can give him my opinion if that's what he wants. I've talked to him a couple different times on a couple different occasions like, 'hey, this is what I know.' I think he has to make the right decision for himself, and I'm glad that he hasn't made that a priority right now. The biggest thing that he wants is to play well in the Rose Bowl, and we want to go out there and win it. So I think that's what he's focused on every day of practice, and I think he's really been humble about it. I think that's the biggest thing about a kid at his level is that he can stay humble. Right now I think he has a good head on his shoulders, and I think he'll make the right decision. Q. The way he tracks the ball and can run, turning his body, body control, does that set him apart from a lot of other corners? PHIL PARKER: I think he definitely has a lot of -- he's got great balance, for one thing, and he's got great leverage. Size-wise, he is 5'9", 5'10", 5'9" 1/2. I think he's built for the right position for what we use him for. I think he has great quickness, and he has a vision and anticipation of what's going on and understanding the game that puts him in some good positions to make plays. He does have good hands. He's got really big hands, and he does a good job of tracking balls and seeing it. I think it has to go all the way back to when you're in Pee Wee football or the leagues in Detroit that he kept on playing, and the guys that play longer have the ability. He's a running back. He's a defensive back. He played safety. So you knew he was a tough kid. When he ran the ball, he had good cuts. For his footwork-wise, he's really good at it. So that's what makes him a really good corner. Q. Do you have any sense why the stuff that you saw in him maybe wasn't noticed as much by other schools? PHIL PARKER: I think what happens in this recruiting process is that a lot of kids get stars on them based on who they get offered by. Sometimes I think people don't always do their correct homework on guys. That's what I think happens. Sometimes they're looking for a -- size-wise, he doesn't fit probably somebody size-wise. My biggest thing is looking for football players that can help you on either side. To me, I think you can get lost in a place like Detroit where there's so many good athletes over there. Q. It seems kind of counterproductive. I would think you could get lost in an area where maybe there aren't as many players. It would seem the schools that recruit Detroit, and there's a lot of them, would have noticed him, somebody would have. Obviously, it didn't happen. PHIL PARKER: Yeah. Obviously, somebody at Ball State found him and looked at him. It becomes a numbers game. Everything goes quick. There's so much in recruiting now. These guys are committing before they're done with their junior year, and sometimes guys develop later in their career and become a better player, and that's what happens a lot of times. Q. Did you feel -- I think Coach Ferentz actually mentioned this in the middle of the year when he was talking about how Desmond committed up at Iowa, that you kind of after that January before he signed, really felt you needed to hide him. I don't know what that means. PHIL PARKER: Well, there's a lot of times -- I did that with Micah Hyde, who plays for the Green Bay Packers. He's from Fostoria, Ohio. He's a good player, I thought he was a good player, and I just want to recruit a guy to get to know a guy and learn more about him because I don't think we have enough time to learn about him. The more you learn about him -- I'm not worried about the guys offering the guys early, I'm just worried about finding out about him. At the end of it, if we offer, then we want to do it. The more times we put offers out there, there's a lot of other people jumping in, and then it becomes a distance problem. I've helped some guys get offers at other schools when I sit there. I'll say, I'll get you an offer when you want me to. Q. There was a period of time where you knew you liked Desmond. Your recommendation would be to offer him, but you weren't necessarily touting him to people back in Iowa City? PHIL PARKER: No, I want to make sure we get in there and meet him and go from there. I like to hold my cards close to my chest a lot of times. You've got to get to know kids. Nowadays, it's a tough business, so you've got to get to know who you're getting. Q. How long of a period does that last? It's kind of a fine line to walk. You don't want to hold off on that offer and have the kid think you've got cold feet and he gets an offer from somewhere else when really you're just trying to protect him? PHIL PARKER: I think if you have a good relationship from a kid and you explain to him the process, because the kids don't know me either and I don't know you. So we have to build that relationship before we start saying, 'hey, we want to get engaged.' Q. Had you had any kind of -- had you followed him or knew anything about him at all between that sound mind, sound body camp that you mentioned when he was a freshman? PHIL PARKER: Yeah. Q. Until you saw him his senior year? PHIL PARKER: Well, it kind of happened -- you kind of keep track of all the guys in the league, but how that one actually happened was I wasn't out on the road recruiting. I was taking off from the road for a point in time and then went back out late in January, and I just went back to find out some of the guys that I used to recruit that went to Orchard Lake St. Mary's, and he's recommended there. Q. But over the years, sophomore year, junior year, he was off the radar? PHIL PARKER: I wouldn't say off the radar. Guys, they're so early. Like it goes back to you start recruiting and offering kids as a sophomore or a freshman, I mean, some of us. I don't even buy green bananas. So it's hard to do that. I don't get into that social media, five star, four stars, the more offers you got, the more stars you have. I just want to make sure that we've got good football players. Q. You look back now and say he's a Thorpe award winner, he's the best defensive back in the country arguably. I don't know, how do you feel about the fact that he's where he is, considering what the situation was in the weeks leading up to when he signed Iowa? PHIL PARKER: Well, I thought he was a good player. Obviously, he's done a lot to improve his game as a true freshman starting at Iowa, doing the first game, I mean, that's a long ways to go. I think he just improved. First time he was out there, everything was new to him, and he obviously improves every year, and he's getting better and better. I think he can still even get better than what he is right now. So I'm really excited to see where he goes. Q. [ No microphone ]. PHIL PARKER: That's a good question. Sometimes -- I've been at Toledo. I was there for 11 years, and I've been here for 17 years. That's part of my -- I'm not a big believer in jumping around job to job. A lot of guys take jobs for different reasons. I love coaching. University of Iowa is a beautiful place, and it's been great for my kids that grew up there. So I've been very lucky and fortunate. I see a lot of guys out there that might have so-called better job, but I work for a great, great coach. Coach Ferentz is excellent to work for, and I'm just happy to be part of the program and develop young kids. Q. What does that say that you show up year after year on the field and in recruiting [ No microphone ]? PHIL PARKER: It's interesting because you start out there and you start recruiting. Coaching some of these kids, and all of a sudden, they go off, and they start having kids. All of a sudden, you start recruiting their sons. So you've got to be careful. But it's nice to have guys come back and know that you're still there and have that connection. Bob Sanders is a good example of a guy that you really respect a lot, not only what he did in Iowa but what he did in the NFL. Just to have those relationships, which I don't think are very -- let's say there's not a lot of those unless you stay somewhere for a long time. That's been a good blessing for me. Q. [On Coach Ferentz...] PHIL PARKER: I think Coach Ferentz is -- he's done a great job. His kids were born there right at the hospital. He's been here a long time. He was here eight, nine years before that as an offensive line coach. Leaving and coming back was a great opportunity for him, but it also created an opportunity for me being with a guy that I knew was a good coach, a good person. It's just unbelievable how lucky I got. Q. How much of a sense do you get about the way that you've enjoyed this year? PHIL PARKER: I think, obviously, he's enjoyed it. For him, looking at it, the way the kids develop, it all started back the months of our Bowl prep for the Taxslayer Bowl and what we were shooting for. It was a little bit like that in 2013. There's a lot of things that happen right now that kind of reminds us of the 2002 team, 2004 team, 2008 team, so you go back. So we don't have a lot of time to sit down and enjoy what has happened. We'll have time for that afterwards. I think he's happy, obviously, with what the guys have accomplished. It comes down to the players. They really bought in and really took care of business, and hopefully we can do it one more time. Q. [On coaches leaving after just one subpar season...] PHIL PARKER: That's always going to happen. It's, 'what did you do for me lately?' I've seen Bo Pelini in Nebraska, winning so many games over there. God, if you can't win one at all, then you're not a good coach. We're the same coaches that have been here in 2002, 2004, 2008, 2009, so sometimes it's about things that happen. Football is a tough game. Every play, everybody's different, every team is different. So to me, you've got to block out the noise. I don't go to anybody else's job and sit there and critique anybody else, but that's your right, and I understand that. That's okay with me, but it really doesn't bother me that much. Q. Some of your players yesterday and today, they seem so connected to the next play, the next game, and with so much of the noise around about not respected, should have been a playoff team, yada, yada, yada. How have you installed that and implemented it with athletes that are connected to the outside world as with this generation? PHIL PARKER: Yeah, the social media really gets you going. I think what our guys have done is focused on preparation. It's about playing every game, every day out at practice. I think a lot of things went towards that. I think we switched around practices a little bit. We changed a couple things and special teams things. More coaches got involved. I think the kids understand what we're doing, and they all bought in. I think we made them responsible for what they do. I think the guys, the chemistry of the team, is the thing that works. You always got to have chemistry, whether you're in business or whether you're in athletics. You've got to have the chemistry, and everybody talks about chemistry, you talk it about whether it's basketball, baseball, soccer, whatever it is. The chemistry of the team. Q. Have you found that within your system of giving guys a role and responsibility versus giving them a variety of different assignments and different things to worry about? PHIL PARKER: I always talk about values. I talk about what's your value? You can improve your value to the team every day. And whatever it is, whether you're a scout team player or whether you're a starter, what is your value? What's your value on special teams? What's your value on the defensive side? Where's your value on this team? Are you a scout team player? What's your value? Are you doing what you're supposed to do and giving us the right looks? Your value is important. Are you building on your value? Q. Has that allowed you to play few guys on defense because they're so valuable at what they do? PHIL PARKER: Yeah, and it shows the other guys who maybe might not be playing so much, 'I've got to improve my value.' Who wants to take you? If you're a good car salesman or good at whatever you do, your value goes up. The more you can do for us, your value goes up. If you don't like your value, change it. Q. How valuable is your corner? PHIL PARKER: He's valuable, but just like everybody else, the other ten guys, they're all valuable. Q. As Desmond King approaches his NFL decision, what does he need to do to be ready for the NFL? PHIL PARKER: I think he's got to look at that obviously after this game and look at it, and I'll give him my two cents worth afterwards. I think it's a different -- it's not going to be the same going from a college environment to the NFL. It's a totally different game, and it's a totally different chemistry. It becomes a job instead of an activity that you have a passion for. Q. I wanted to ask about some of the guys. Talked to Cole Fisher about Aaron Mends and he just raved about what he's done this year. We haven't seen him on the field that much. What's your take on them? PHIL PARKER: I think they both have a lot of ability. Aaron Mends has -- putting it as an inside backer, and the way Coach Reid has done a good job of developing him, I think he has a chance of being a really good player. It comes down to being consistent, getting in the routines, understanding what you're doing on every play, and giving the same type of effort every day. Q. What about defensive end, where have you seen Nelson? How much has he progressed? PHIL PARKER: I think he's done a really good job. I know he got banged up early in the season, and he's done a great job of improving. It's interesting because I know that Stanford recruited him, and he's just such a big guy. He has so much growth potential to go yet as a football player, and I'm really looking forward to seeing where he goes. Q. You wanted to get him out there this year because there's a chance he could step in last year? PHIL PARKER: Yeah, we kind of did that with Ben Niemann last year and special teams and getting him on the field, so he doesn't come next year and say, 'boy, I haven't been on the field.' I don't know what it's like. So that was part of our thought process. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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