Panthers find depth more than just numbers

CEDAR FALLS - It's often looked over, or forgotten, in football that depth is more than just having a lot of players at any given position.

Sure, it's great to have six wide receivers, for instance. But can the sixth receiver play at a high level if called upon?

The Northern Iowa football team learned the hard way in 2013 that depth is about having a lot of players - players who can seamlessly fill the void if those ahead of them on the depth chart miss time or get injured.

'We learned to get everyone involved, not just the ones and twos (on the depth chart), but all the other guys,” said running back David Johnson, who missed time himself due to injury last season. 'Because with all those injuries we needed everyone who could play to play. It didn't help much that guys didn't know what they were doing on the field. Our focus is to get more of everyone involved. ... To make sure everyone knows what they're doing on the field.”

Coach Mark Farley knows well that factor brought the Panthers to their proverbial knees down the stretch of a somewhat bizarre season.

His team started 4-0 with wins against Iowa State and then-No. 9 McNeese State. But a one-point loss to No. 1 North Dakota State in which they lost in the late stages and suffered a few key injuries - including starting inside linebacker Jake Farley - started a five-game losing streak. Along that streak the injuries piled up to the receiving corps and both lines, and saw three straight overtime losses after the road loss to the Bison.

Having prepared players to fill voids in that stretch might have turned one or more of those overtime losses into a win.

'There's probably more depth than in year's past, and when I say that I mean talented depth,” Farley said. 'The player getting ready to come in, the third person, if you will, is a quality athlete. We have to make sure he's ready to move and ready to play.

'I was brought up under the thinking of Earl Bruce. And the saying was, ‘You've got to have a pair and a spare.' If there's two guards, you need three. If there's two inside linebackers, you need three. If there's two corners, you need three. The third one has to be as good as the first two. When you have that, you have a very good football team because you don't lose the level of play.”

FARLEY STILL WORKING ON RETURN

It's been 10 months since a broken leg ended Jake Farley's season against No. 1 North Dakota State last October, but the senior linebacker still isn't 100 percent back.

A leader and difference-maker for the Panther defense, the coach's son is doing everything he can to be ready in time for the Aug. 30 season-opener against Iowa at Kinnick Stadium.

'I think I've definitely made some progress, especially in the last couple of weeks,” Jake Farley said. 'In the off-season you're lifting weights with everybody else, but you go in the training room and you've got to push yourself.

'Being around all these guys, seeing them push, makes you work even harder. It's definitely been a motivation, and I'm getting better every day.”

Even with progress being made, the senior's coach and father doesn't believe he's quite ready yet.

Especially given the younger Farley's future health, everyone involved wants to ensure he's fully healed and ready to go. It doesn't help either, the coach said, that there have been some hurdles to jump.

'Jake is the one that isn't where he needs to be right now, (and) he's had some setbacks along the way,” Mark Farley said. 'He's tried everything you can think of possible to find a way, (but) he's not there yet. Don't know that he will make it there (by Aug. 30). We'll try to find out how this progresses. It's four weeks to the first game and eight weeks to the first conference game, so again that journey is still in process.”

While the coaching and training staff is looking more long term and specifically at the Missouri Valley Conference schedule, Jake has his sights set on Kinnick Stadium.

He's doing his best to focus on each workout, but he wants terribly to run out onto the field against Iowa to start the season with his teammates.

'In my mind, honestly, I'm going day to day,” Jake Farley said. 'I'm going day to day, but I'm looking at that August 30th date and knowing that's where I need to be. I look around and see the guys on the team and know they're the ones I want to be on the field with. So I'm giving it everything I have every day to get back to where I was come August 30th.”

SCHEDULING RISKS

Northern Iowa has consistently ranked among the top in terms of strength of schedule over the years, mostly because Mark Farley wants his team to play the best competition possible to start the season.

In his news conference at UNI football media day, he said other teams across the country might not schedule the way they do - and subsequently might have a better looking record headed into conference play - but believes in how his program does it.

That said, he knows it's a risky choice.

'You come out of the shoot fast, I know that,” Farley said. 'But there's a drawback to that, too. You've got to get this team to a very high level for the first football game. If we don't, it's going to be a long afternoon. So we've got to get to a very high level. Once you get to that level, now you've got to sustain it for 12 more weeks, and that's hard to do.

'We have got to come in at a high level and find a way to better that - that's the trick. Playing well in these first games over the years has helped us. On the back side we haven't been able to sustain it sometimes like you want to. … Trust me, there's been thought put into the back half of the schedule as the front half.”

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