After week off, UNI football readies for challenging MVFC schedule

CEDAR FALLS - A daunting Missouri Valley Football Conference schedule awaits Northern Iowa (1-2) as the Panthers continue to grapple with a host of issues.

Now back in 'game week” mode after their bye, Southern Illinois (2-1) is first up on the Panthers' MVFC slate.

The Salukis' win totals have been down in recent years - winning seven games combined the past two seasons - and they're currently unranked (received 6 votes in last week's FCS STATS poll). So they're not the daunting part of the schedule. However, they are in year two of head coach Nick Hill's program rebuild.

Year one of the rebuild landed the Saluki passing game in the top 10 of several categories nationally. Year two is off to a promising start with wins over Mississippi Valley State and Southeast Missouri. In their loss on Saturday, they led FBS Memphis on the road, 21-17 at halftime, before going on to lose, 44-31.

Two weeks from this Saturday, Western Illinois (3-0) represents the true beginning to the Panthers' daunting schedule.

It's more than safe to say the Leathernecks are not your typical homecoming cupcake. Currently ranked 19th - and set to rise considerably after a 52-10 win over FBS Coastal Carolina - WIU has defeated its three opponents by more than 28 points per contest.

The rest of UNI's October features matchups against the fourth, sixth, and second ranked teams in the country. Road trips to South Dakota State (3-0) and North Dakota State (3-0) in weeks 5 and 7 come with a home date versus Youngstown State (2-1) sandwiched between.

Simply put, another season of playoff expectations hangs in the balance for Northern Iowa over the next five weeks. Even with a productive running and kicking game. finishing over .500 in this upcoming stretch of five games would be a positive outcome.

Everyone is waiting to see what the product will look like come Saturday night in Carbondale, Ill. Historically good things have happened for Farley's Panthers after the bye week. He's 14-4 all-time post-bye, but only 2-3 the past five seasons.

A trend that's developed over Farley's 16 seasons coming off the bye, to varying degrees, are personnel and scheme changes. Given the amount of players that have gotten opportunities to play through three gamesm chances are as good as ever for similar changes.

How big of changes are we talking?

Addressing their struggling running game, Farley spoke about the disadvantage of having a running game with a pocket-passing quarterback opposed to a runner at the position.

'In this style of defenses that you're playing against now - this game has changed. Without a running quarterback taking up a defender, then you're minus one out there on offense,” Farley said. 'If your quarterback is running you're plus one. And that makes all the differences in the world out there.”

There's nothing to indicate going away from Eli Dunne at quarterback. Farley has yet to waver about Dunne as his starter.

As for positions besides quarterback?

Look no further than Farley's comments after the 24-21 loss to Southern Utah.

'I'm going to go back to the guys that left it out there and we'll build it around them,” Farley said.