Panthers get extra physical during bye week
CEDAR FALLS (MCT) — Northern Iowa’s football team is peering into a cloudy future.
Monday afternoon, Mark Farley seemed clear on two things.
“I think — I know — we’re a better football team than we were at this time last week,” said the Panthers’ head coach.
Farley also said, “We can’t afford another loss. It’s cut and dried. We need to win.”
UNI will not claim the Missouri Valley Football Conference’s automatic bid to postseason play.
The winner of Saturday’s matchup between Southern Illinois and South Dakota State earns that ticket.
No, UNI needs its second straight at-large bid following a two-game losing streak in MVFC play. Farley stepped up the hunt for a Football Championship Subdivision playoff spot during the Panthers’ bye week.
Farley sees no room for failure on Saturdays. On the other hand, he detected a better team on the practice field during the bye week.
“We had to be, number one,” Farley said. “Number two, we did some things last week. We had to get some things cleaned up and we had to go full speed to do that.”
Essentially, Farley did it by turning back the clock. He pitted his first-string offense against the No. 1 defense and second-stringers against second-stringers. By design, a couple of the off-week practices were very physical.
The idea was simple. Before meeting Youngstown State Saturday, UNI had to quickly rediscover the rhythm that carried it to a 5-1 start before successive defeats against Southern Illinois and South Dakota State knocked Farley’s team off-stride.
“We’re actually kind of practicing like it’s two-a-day camp,” Farley said.
As for matching first-teamers against first-teamers, Farley added, “I may have gotten away from that too soon in the season, which gave us a bit of a timing issue when we got to the sixth or seventh game of the season. Hopefully, this will clean it up, but we’re gonna find out together.”
Farley also tried to shore up UNI’s depth during the bye week practices.
The coaching staff took a longer look at several players — offensive linemen Jay Teply and Tim Sauer, defensive lineman Fabian Brown and backup quarterback Zach Davis.
Davis and starter Pat Grace took the same number of snaps during practice last week, according to Farley. Davis’ last appearance was in relief of an injured Grace at North Dakota State.
Grace struggled in the ensuing losses. While stopping well short of announcing a change at quarterback, the UNI coach chose to be vague on the subject of playing time for Davis against Youngstown State.
“There’s a chance for anything, all right?” said Farley. “I’m gonna let this thing unfold.
“Pat’s the quarterback as of today, and it was the same way going into last week. I’m gonna let this thing unfold and see where we’re at. We’re in a position right now where we need to win, and we’re gonna do whatever it takes to win.”
