Q&A: Nate Frere, 10-26

Here’s the final of our Q&A’s from yesterday’s press conference following Iowa State’s 9-7 win over Nebraska on Saturday. This final piece is with one of the team leaders on Iowa State’s roster, defensive lineman Nate Frere.

Is there a lot of bowl talk going on around campus?

NF: Yeah, we need one more win to be bowl eligible. But our goal isn’t to win just one more. Our goal is to win four more. A bowl game would be involved in that. We can’t really talk about it but we are just trying to play one game at a time at this point.

This is a tough conference to predict isn’t it?

NF: You can’t predict anything in this conference. When you watch film on teams, you’ll watch them one week and maybe they got beat. Then, the next week, they look really really good and they win by a lot. You have to take all of those games into consideration. Teams are going to be up one week. They are going to be down one week. That’s where we have to be consistent. You never know who you are going to get.

We’ve all seen this postgame video that’s floating around. It looked pretty emotional. What are your thoughts on that?

NF: After the game, Coach Rhoads, as well as everyone was really emotional. It was moving to see him that emotional and that happy after the win. That’s the kind of guy that he is. When they showed it, it made it that much more special.

When was the last time that you saw that much emotion out of a coach?

NF: To that degree? That was intense. The last time that I saw that was from McCarney.

Any game in particular?

NF: Missouri…his last one. If Florida or Alabama would have forced eight turnovers in a game, people would have been slobbering about how great their defense was. You guys do it and it’s luck or a fluke. Does that bother you?

NF: To an extent I guess so. It wasn’t a fluke. Those fumbles that I recovered were forced fumbles. It was guys stripping the ball. It’s guys getting their hat on the ball and the interceptions came from pressure and great coverage or a linebacker getting a hand on a ball and a safety picking it off. That’s not luck. That’s good defense.