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Kirk Ferentz's weekly press conferences don't usually feature an emotional angle, but it's been a tragic day for those involved with Iowa athletics. 

The Daily Iowan released a report on Tuesday morning revealing that Derek Phillips, a third-year student at the University of Iowa and a member of the Hawkeye Marching Band, collapsed as a result of cardiac arrest just before the band was preparing to take the fields for its halftime show during Iowa football's season opener against Northern Illinois on Saturday.

Phillips' family made the difficult decision to take him off life support on Monday, and he passed away surrounded by family on Tuesday. Tributes have poured in for Phillips, and Ferentz made sure to acknowledge his tragic death before previewing Saturday's rivalry clash against Iowa State. 

"On behalf of everybody associated with our program, just want to offer our thoughts, our condolences to his family, his friends, and all the people that he impacted in his life," Ferentz said. "It's just a really, really, very, very sad thing."

Though football is certainly the last thing on anyone's mind right now, Ferentz did continue on and discuss the Cy-Hawk game. Here are some of the top notes from the press conference. 

Quarterback Plan 

Every Iowa fan is probably eager to see the ongoing quarterback battle between Hank Brown and Jeremy Hecklinski come to a close at this point, but don't expect anything to change this weekend. 

Ferentz hasn't had many discussions about the position up to this point, but he did say the Hawkeyes will "probably" play both Brown and Hecklinski this week. He's encouraged by what he's seen so far, but didn't elaborate further when asked if he would ride the hot hand should that be the case on Saturday. 

"We'll just kind of let this whole thing work itself out. I wish I had a blueprint or a formula, but I'm not sure there is one. We're just going to play it as we go," Ferentz said. "But the good news is, again, I think we all walked away from Saturday feeling like, 'hey, that was a positive day.'"

Impressed with Jimmy Rogers 

New Iowa State head coach Jimmy Rogers is entering his fourth season as a collegiate head coach, but this is his first Power Four coaching venture. His stints at South Dakota State and Washington State were successful, though, as he won an FCS championship at SDSU and took a directionless Washington State program to a respectable 6-6 mark in his lone season there last year. 

Ferentz praised Rogers' coaching ability, with particular focus on his work on the defensive side of the ball. Rogers was previously South Dakota State's defensive coordinator before becoming head coach in 2023 and held Iowa without a touchdown during their 2022 matchup in Iowa City. 

"There's a lot of similarities between what they're doing now defensively and what they were doing when we played South Dakota State out here," Ferentz said. 

No further clock discussions with Big Ten 

The controversial ending of Saturday's Western Michigan-Michigan game continues to stir up college football fans across the nation.

Ferentz didn't directly comment on the situation when asked about it, but he did say the Big Ten hasn't communicated any more clock explanations to its coaches. The only comments Ferentz has heard about the game have been from the radio on his drives to Iowa's facility. 

"I don't know what to think about it other than — I can't imagine how heartbroken the team is that lost. Yeah, it's one of those crazy things," Ferentz said. 

Injury Updates 

Safety Tyler Brown and running back L.J. Phillips will be OUT for Saturday's game. Brown has been battling what Ferentz called a "soft tissue injury" for the last few months, while Phillips was injured in the first half of the Northern Illinois game and will be week-to-week. 

Those were the only names Ferentz mentioned, which means James Madison transfer offensive lineman Trent Wilson should be active. 

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HawkeyeRoundtable publisher Brad Schultz has covered the Iowa Hawkeyes since 2023. To send him story ideas, scoops, or criticize his writing, reach him at bradschultz@roundtable.io

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