Farley, UNI recovering from black eye at Iowa State

CEDAR FALLS - Northern Iowa head coach Mark Farley's physical appearance at his weekly press luncheon on Tuesday was the personification of how his football team left Ames after a 31-7 loss Saturday night.

The 15th-year coach was sporting a shiner under his right eye - sustained in the first quarter on Saturday, when quarterback Aaron Bailey scrambled for a first down, then popped up quickly and hit helmet-to-head with Farley.

His black eye, he said, was the perfect metaphor to share with his team. Sure, they took a good shot by Iowa State. But it won't last.

'I told the football team this: we got a black eye at Iowa State. We really did,” Farley said. 'We all did, but I can show it. It'll go away before this weekend, and it's what you end up doing this week that matters because that one only counted as one game. No matter what happens, that was just one deal. It's what we do coming off that game that matters.”

To that end, he and the team have waded through the uncomfortable film sessions that always follow losses.

Players expected the historically fiery Farley in those sessions, but somewhat surprisingly got a different message. What he brought to those sessions was a measured take given the state of his team and the value of what can be learned from a loss where much of what beat them was in their control.

'A lot of us were going in there expecting Coach Farley not to be very happy with us, but he came in with a little different approach,” said safety Tim Kilfoy. 'We know and he knows we didn't play to our potential, but he said this could be the best thing that could happen to us all season being the first game. We found out who we were. He said we can go one of two ways. The rest of the team is confident we can make a positive step and move on from here.”

Those two ways are success or failure, sure. But the position battles within the team can go more than two ways.

In terms of special teams, which Farley again said 'was probably one of our poorest jobs on special teams that I can ever remember.” Punter Logan Bieghler's punts had good distance, but Farley acknowledged their low trajectory offered the Cyclones' returners ample room to run. In punt coverage, Farley said personnel will be reviewed and likely altered for obvious reasons.

On offense, Farley commended the play of Tyvis Smith and Savon Huggins - who scored the only touchdown on a 19-yard screen pass. He lauded the play of quarterback/wide receiver Dalton Demos, who made the switch last Monday and played several snaps in the slot and was targeted once. Farley said he liked Demos' speed and height at receiver, and there's a good chance we'll see a lot of him there. He also said - 'as of today” - Aaron Bailey still is the starting quarterback for the Panthers (0-1).

With all that said, though, Farley hedged his bets. Demos wasn't ruled out for seeing time at quarterback, and neither was anyone else. Nothing is firm until after their bye week.

'All the cards are still on the table for probably another two weeks. I'll stay open all the way through that open date,” Farley said. 'After we get through the open date we'll lock down and get ready for the league, but right now with the new offense and new coaches - that was all open. There was a lot of things that happened on the sideline (Saturday) that I haven't experienced in a long time.”

That environment owed to the fact much of his staff is new, and when performance isn't up to snuff across the board, tension ratchets up in a hurry.

The black eye he mentioned for the team - not just below his eye - wasn't specific to the players. What happened at Iowa State was put as much on the coaches by the man in charge. They have work to do going forward, too, starting with Eastern Washington on Saturday at 1 p.m. in the UNI-Dome.

'We didn't win, so they didn't do a good job. This is a bottom line business. That's what they'll find out fast around here,” Farley said. 'When you walk into our football offices, there's a lot of expectations. That's not good enough. We did not win, we did not perform and that's as much on the coaches as it is anything else. It's our job to get the players to the level they need to be at. That's what we'll work on this week.

'It's yes or no. And no, we did not do good.”

l Comments: (319) 368-8884; jeremiah.davis@thegazette.com