UNI’s Carnes couldn’t care less about stats — just winning

CEDAR FALLS - Lost in an otherwise dominant game for the Northern Iowa football team on Saturday night against Stephen F. Austin was the somewhat bizarre performance from quarterback Brion Carnes.

The senior was 5 of 18 passing, but averaged 41 yards per completion, totaling 205 yards with a 70-yard touchdown pass to David Johnson.

Since taking over as the starter for Western Illinois, he's had up and down performances individually, yet the Panthers have won six straight and he's 8-0 as a starter overall at UNI. That, at least from his perspective, is because he's ignored the aforementioned stat lines.

'(It was) terrible. It wasn't my best game. I don't know how to explain it, but a win is a win,” Carnes said. 'I don't really focus on my stats. I just want to play ball and make sure we get a W, and that's what we did (Saturday). I couldn't care less about how my stats were, or how my stats were the week before, or how it's going to be next week. As long as we get the W and we get pushing towards our goal and what we want to accomplish, that's all that matters to me.

'Stats, yeah, it matters. But to me it doesn't. Just winning; being a part of something special like (Saturday), being with my brothers just handling business, playing football and getting the W, that's all that matters to me.”

That conviction stems from what he's asked to do by his coaches.

A common thread in the six-game win streak has been a commitment to the run game and Johnson, while asking Carnes to throw on specific downs to stretch the field and open things up for the rush, as well as make plays on his feet.

He's been responsible for seven total touchdowns during the streak - which may not seem like a lot, but the run game, defense and kicker Michael Schmadeke have done a lot of UNI's scoring. He's had five total turnovers in that stretch, too, with three interceptions and two fumbles - two of those INTs and one fumble in the Illinois State game alone.

But as he said, and as his coach echoed on Monday, stats aren't all that important when the final result is a win - especially with the way Johnson and the defense are playing. His impact hasn't necessarily been in a scoring-touchdowns or piling-up-big-stats kind of way, rather in the huddle and in practice.

It's no coincidence, Coach Mark Farley said, the Panthers haven't lost since he took over as the starter.

'Nothing's a coincidence. He's had an impact,” Farley said. 'Stats don't tell the whole story, and that's another great example about Brion. You have to give Brion credit for what he's doing in the huddle and being on the field. Whatever that is, it's causing an effect. It's not by coincidence.

'The effect is point production is up, David's production is up and right now we have got some momentum by winning, but we've also got momentum from the way we're playing. (He's) brought to life the plan. And by that, we've won a lot of football games. You've got to give Brion credit for being a part of that turn.”

His teammates in that huddle have seen it, too.

Senior guard Alex Nank said the example Carnes has shown in being humble enough to learn from his mistakes has bled into others on the offense. His willingness, too, to take the blame for a mistake on the field bolsters the relationship between offensive line and quarterback - something of vital importance to an offense.

'Brion is a very hard worker, and he never stops trying. He'll make mistakes in practice, like a lot of us do, but he takes it and learns from his mistakes. He really tries,” Nank said. 'He keeps his confidence up and never gets down on us, even though I could mess up or someone else could mess up.

'It makes it a lot easier for us and kind of takes the pressure off us (linemen). We know we mess up too, you know, it's not all on him. To have somebody that will take it for the team, it kind of makes it easier to have his back at the same time.”

Maybe most of all - and it's fairly evident in his postgame comments after the win over the Lumberjacks - Carnes' confidence and maturity are as high as they've ever been.

There were many points in the last few seasons where Carnes could've packed it in mentally while Sawyer Kollmorgen was starting and getting all the snaps. But Farley said that never happened, he 'waited patiently for his turn,” and has been as important as anyone in the run into the playoffs.

'Where he came from when he walked through the door to where he is now is night and day. It's visible improvement from when he took the first start to where he is today,” Farley said. 'You can see we can do many more things now. Week to week, we get more things in, we can do more things because he can handle more things.

'How you defend a quarterback like Brion is much different than a quarterback like Sawyer Kollmorgen. Who is helping the other 10 guys be more productive? Right now because of the scheme and system, Brion tends to be doing that.”

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