Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz met with members of the media Dec. 4 to discuss the Big Ten Championship game. Highlights, interesting lines, and all of that fun stuff are below for your reading pleasure.

…

INDIANAPOLIS — Kirk Ferentz is here. Check below for highlights and the like from Kirk Ferentz’s press conference.

• First words: Thank you. We’re off.
• Says Michigan State is good up front on defense, says the linebackers are playing aggressively as they always do.
• On the parallels between Iowa and Michigan State: “We both deem defense important,” saying that’s not the way things are going around the country right now.”
• On this season: Says people try to find out what will happen during the season before the season begins, and that’s hard to do. Says focus has been good, hope it goes one more week.
• Ferentz said he was introduced to grouper sandwiches on the same recruiting trip that Mark Dantonio was on back in the 1980s. Ferentz was going school to school, Dantonio was following. Said that’s the first time they met.
• Ferentz said because of injuries, he thought Iowa was going to have to run its offense out of shotgun the entire month of November.
• Health-wise, Ferentz expects Ben Niemann and Nate Meier are going to play.
• On not going through the walk through at Lucas Oil Stadium: “We haven’t done that in a long time. We’ve tried to handle this like an away game, it’s our 13th game, the only difference is we had a bonus day.”
• Ferentz played on a good Legion baseball team. He thinks they started 12-0 but doesn’t want you to hold him to that. He was 17 or 18.
• Dallas Clark and Bob Sanders — both former Colts — will be here this weekend for the game.
• Ferentz said the biggest thing for his team’s preparation is to not play the game during the day.
• On the Pittsburgh game with former Spartan defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi: “It’s kind of like the NFL.” Talks divisional games, etc. Says Michigan State’s success is rooted in execution.
• In regards to recruiting, Ferentz doesn’t worry about ratings, says it’s about guys when they get there “You just have to have the right individuals.”