KIRK FERENTZ: Minnesota comes in here 9-0, and that's hard to do, really hard to do. They deserve a lot of credit for that certainly, top-10 ranked team and certainly deserving of that, too. They've earned it, playing well in all three areas, and that's where our attention is right now. They're a big, physical football team, especially on the offensive front. They have a huge offensive line. They've got good receivers. They had good receivers a year ago. All those guys were fairly young at that point and they're still a very dangerous group, big-play guys, throw the ball down the field well and all that, and they've got three running backs that really do a good job running the football, and then the quarterback has really played well for them this year. I think his statistics speak to that.

I think probably the biggest impression defensively, they're really comfortable with their system. They've got a system that's tested and true. They believe in it, and they play it extremely well. Play very hard on defense, and they're very fundamentally sound. Certainly make you work, and they're coming off a really big win against a very good football team, and I think the overriding impression is the big thing, they're not going to beat themselves. They play smart football. They're playing really good football, and so if you're going to beat them, you're going to have to really earn it. For us it's going to require us to play well in all three areas, certainly play as well as we have all season long to have a chance to pull this off. That's kind of where our focus is right now.

Q. When you look at Tanner Morgan, a lot of things stand out, the way he runs the RPO, from my novice point of view, maybe a Brock Purdy type. What have you seen from him?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, the first thing is his statistics. I think he's 21 touchdowns, four picks, I believe. That's a really good indicator that not only is he being productive but he's being smart with what he's doing. I think that's probably the biggest thing right now. They don't beat themselves. A big part of that is the quarterback play. He's really done a good job. He's a young player, but he's not playing like a young player, and that's really impressive. They've got good guys to throw it to, too, and that puts a lot of pressure on you. They've got a good run game and good pass game, so they're very balanced that way.

Q. A lot of their plays have been big plays in the receiving game, especially last -- well, all season long. Is that schematic or is that more by yards after contact or the catch?

KIRK FERENTZ: A little bit of each, but we had great respect for the receivers last year. I thought they were one of the better groups in the Big Ten, if not the best a year ago. One guy was a little bit more veteran than the other guys. Those two guys stood out, but the third guy was really good, also. Now it's a year later, year plus. We played them earlier, and they're just continuing to grow. They're really all excellent receivers, so they can take balls and run with them, but they also will throw the ball deep and do it successfully. They do a good job.

Q. The way you and your players are describing Minnesota today, it sounds similar like when you guys are playing really well at the top of your game, the balance and running. Is that kind of what you see, some similarities there?

KIRK FERENTZ: That's what you're shooting for certainly. We're not near as big as those guys, but that's what we want it to be, and throw Wisconsin in there, too, kind of similar that way. You know, that's what you're hoping to do is get a good balance. They've got that statistically the way they run the ball and throw the ball successfully, and they're just playing well. They're playing with a lot of confidence right now. They've earned that, and they've improved with every phase this season, which is a real credit to their players and their staff.

Q. Do you see any similarities to kind of what happened to you guys in '15?

KIRK FERENTZ: I mean, they're 9-0 right now, and that's hard to do. We've only, I think, experienced that twice. So it's really hard to do. We haven't done it a lot. Not many teams have. Take Alabama and Clemson out of the mix, it's really difficult to do that.

It speaks really that they're wired in. They're playing well weekly and finding a way to win. It's a little bit more challenging than just saying it.

Q. I know you didn't come until '81, but Hayden brought 'the swarm' here. Coach Fleck brought 'row the boat.' How do you get guys to buy in to that?

KIRK FERENTZ: I think whatever it is that your mantra may be or whatever it is you decide is important. But mantras and words or concepts are just that, they're words or concepts until players really understand what the concept means, what the meaning behind it is. That's part of the education process and really you have to usually experience ups and downs, but at some point hopefully there's an illustrative moment, if you will, or moments that really help reinforce the things that you're trying to get across to your football team, and they clearly are -- they're all on the same page right now, there's no question about that.

Q. Historically you've been able to circle the wagons after tough losses and rally, and probably the greatest example is three years ago Penn State to Michigan, but other years, too. How have you been able to do that as a program, to just put what happened behind you and focus and move forward and have success?

KIRK FERENTZ: I think probably every coach believes this: The biggest challenge is you've got to turn the page at some point, whether it's the 24-hour rule, whatever catch phrase it is that you use, at some point you have to do that. And it can be really challenging after a great win, too. It's maybe more challenging that way sometimes.

But losses hit you. They hit you because again, our guys work not quite 12 months a year, but it feels like that, and you get 12 games. It's not like you can say, 'hey, we'll just play the next best-of-three series,' one of those shots. They really hurt. And the trick is you have to somehow find a way to put it behind you and really just kind of move on. I think moving to Monday practices maybe has helped us a little bit with that because you have no choice, at least the players walk in here Monday morning and they've got to move on to the next team. Instead of us talking about it, at least we're actually doing it.

There's always a little residue there. But at some point you've got to get your attention, and when you play a team like Minnesota, 9-0 football team, that shows you how important every second is. We can't be looking backwards, we have to be looking out the front window here and doing what we can do to get ready for a really tough opponent.

It's a discipline, I think, that takes mental toughness for people to do that because it's real easy to feel bad about that, and that's natural, but you can't do it, you just don't have that luxury at least in season to do it.

Q. Playing Wisconsin and a tough loss, is it better that you're playing a team like a Minnesota that's going to catch your guys' attention, that's a rivalry game, you have a trophy for it?

KIRK FERENTZ: College football is so unpredictable, but in conference play, you'd better be ready every week. Hopefully that's something our players learn, too, is that no matter who you're playing, you need to get ready starting on Monday morning for us. In this case it's obvious because we're playing a top-10 team that's undefeated. We don't have much time to waste right now.

Q. When you see efficiency stats or read them, how does that translate? When you see Minnesota's pass efficiency is No. 1 in the conference, how does that translate to you on film and what does that look like?

KIRK FERENTZ: That's usually a good indicator. Again, the most important stats are winning and losing and then points given, points allowed, or scored and allowed, and then usually turnover-takeaway. But all those things, teams that are playing well, and these guys have been playing well in all phases. You know, they're in a real good rhythm right now, and yeah, it's better to be at the top than the bottom, that's for sure. There are exceptions to every rule, but it's a credit to them. They're in a good rhythm right now. They're using their players well. The guys that are touching the ball are really very, very talented and very, very good at what they do.

Q. How about their running backs?

KIRK FERENTZ: Theirs or ours? Theirs are good. I think ours are good, too, but they've got three guys that really run the ball hard, and they're all very similar. They're not exactly the same but they're all similar, and they make tough yards. If you don't tackle them, they're going to run through you. A couple of them didn't play last year. They were going through injury rehab, but they were good players a couple years ago when we played them, and they're -- that's kind of like their whole football team. If you let your guard down, they're going to make a play, so you've got to be at your best competing as hard as you can every play, and those three guys I think all illustrate that.

Q. You guys have kind of taken control of this series. I know when you were here in the '80s it was a really back and forth series, seemed it could go any way in any year. Does it feel like it's kind of maybe sliding back? Granted, you guys have won the last four.

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah one of our -- talk about bad losses, we were just talking about that, one of our worst losses in my opinion was '14 up there, right? Wasn't that the -- I've got my years straight on that one? But we were never in the game. We just got nailed right from the start. I can't remember an easy game with Minnesota since that time. We got throttled that day. It was a bad loss. And then everything since then has been tough. I mean, it's just been hard fought, so I expect that's probably going to be what it'll be Saturday, if we're playing right.

Q. I know that it's impossible to measure this and impossible even to think about it when you're in a game, but when you play the same program every year, bad blood may be built up, you guys tore down the goal post -- not you guys but the fans did --

KIRK FERENTZ: We had nothing to do with that, just for the record. No fingerprints, no DNA, no nothing.

Q. But those types of things kind of tend to fester -- I know it probably does with you guys --

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, with old people, but all the guys playing in the game weren't even born then. That's so long ago. I do have a good friend that still thinks that's the greatest thing he ever saw in sports. He saw it on TV, and he also said, your fans aren't very smart, they're not going to get that thing through a revolving door. But he still talks about that.

Q. It didn't matter at the time.

KIRK FERENTZ: I can remember in the '80s where it was not a healthy rivalry. When I got here in '81 it was not a healthy rivalry. There was a lot of real hostility and bad blood and all that. So I think it's just a good, competitive series, and there's a lot of that going on in the conference, which is good for everybody, I think.

Q. Is this whole name thing, like we talked at Big Ten Media Day about Northwestern, how like there's a gap between what they look like and what people perceive? Do you get that with Minnesota?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, and I don't want to get too -- but it seems like the talk, maybe a couple weeks ago, well, they hadn't played anybody yet and all that kind of stuff. All I know is they've improved every week, which is really important if you're going to be a good football team at the end of the year, and then they left no doubt about it Saturday. That wasn't a fluke win. They took the lead, kept the lead, and they really played like a winning football team against a team that we've tried to compete against, and we know how good Penn State is personally. We've got a lot of respect for what they've done, and they've earned it the hard way. They've gone out there and done it week after week. There are some teams maybe that don't require a lot of sweat to beat, but over the -- you play in the Big Ten and you're 9-0, it's not easy to get there. It's just a really tough thing to do. I'd say that's true of any Power Five conference with all due respect to everybody else. But if you're in a Power Five conference and you're 9-0, you're a legitimate football team, that's for sure.