UNI, Illinois State represent part of MVFC record

CEDAR FALLS - You don't have to look far to find the best conference in FCS this season.

An argument could be made it's the best, period, too. But for just the 2014 season, the math adds up to the Missouri Valley Football Conference having the best teams in the country. That will be on display in Normal, Ill. on Saturday at 1 p.m., when No. 10 Northern Iowa travels to No. 7 and fifth-seeded Illinois State.

The MVFC has five teams left of the remaining 16 teams, a first for the conference and only the fourth time in FCS playoff history (the Colonial Athletic Association matched the feat three times).

UNI Coach Mark Farley praised the conference and took pride in so many advancing this far. But Saturday won't just be a conference game in his eyes.

'I don't know if it's about conference anymore,” Farley said. 'To me it's a lot bigger deal right now. It's trying to be No. 1 in the country, not just No. 1 in the league.

'You have to go through this league to get to that, we all know that, so it's a part of it. We do know each other, so there's that part of the game we haven't encountered before in the playoffs. So we'll have to deal with that phase of it, but as far as being a conference team, I don't think that it matters anymore.”

Unlike the first round, the Panthers (9-4, 6-2 MVFC) know what they've got in front of them (come back Saturday morning for more on that) after a 42-28 win at the UNI-Dome against the Redbirds.

Since that time, Illinois State (10-1, 7-1) was showered with postseason awards after finishing in a tie for the MVFC title with North Dakota State.

Running back Marshaun Koprich was named Offensive Player of the Year, quarterback Tre Roberson was Newcomer of the Year, and Coach Brock Spack was Coach of the Year. That's three of the five league awards, if you're scoring at home.

The Redbirds won their 10 games with the double-threat on offense of Koprich and Roberson. Koprich ran for 1,683 yards and 21 touchdowns. Roberson had a 55.6 percent completion rate, throwing for 2,198 and 21 touchdowns through the air and added 674 yards and eight touchdowns on the ground.

Spack said Illinois State's loss to UNI served as a catalyst for the remaining games, and may have actually been a positive thing for his team.

'I think we just got relaxed a little bit after that (loss to UNI),” Spack said in the weekly MVFC conference call on Tuesday. 'There was a lot of - I don't know if our team was quite used to the pressure or expectation of being undefeated. I think we played a little looser, a little more like us the last couple weeks. Maybe in some strange way the loss was good for us. Make no mistake about it, that day the best team one, no doubt about it. Northern Iowa outplayed us. I think it was good for our players, gave them a wake-up call.”

Farley and the players are headed into the week preparing like they expected that mind-set from the Redbirds. They could see the reinvigoration in Illinois State just by looking at the score book. In their last three regular season games, the Redbirds' lowest point total was 35, and outscored opponents by 16 points per game.

So Farley hit the reset button, too.

'I actually went back and treated them like a new football team,” Farley said. 'I went back to the beginning and started over to make sure we don't assume anything. That's how I'm going to handle it. Others will probably get there more quickly because they remember. My memory isn't quite as good that way, so I just want to go back to the beginning and make sure I treat this just like a new football team and a new encounter and look at it that way so I can come up with a clean plan.”

The only downside to these teams playing now, both coaches said, is it means one MVFC team won't be playing beyond this week - same for North Dakota State and South Dakota State.

And while he knows it's something people will be talking about, Farley said he knew they'd have to beat the best to win it all anyway.

Makes sense it'd come against someone from the best conference in the country this season.

'It's too bad we've got play each other now. The regions are the thing that's too bad. I think everybody would tell you to seed the thing, but it doesn't work like that,” Farley said. 'If you're gonna be the best, you've got to get through this bracketing deal. It doesn't matter who you play right now.”

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