Farley sees second-team QB emerge in spring tilt

By Mike Stout, Correspondent

CEDAR FALLS - Northern Iowa's annual spring football game may have ended in 14-14 Friday night at the UNI-Dome, but Coach Mark Farley said he took several victories with him heading into the team's summer break.

“There were lots of positives about tonight,” he said. “There was some stuff we have to clean up, but the game got fun at the end.”

The game was four-quarters, but coaches opted for a continuous clock in the second half. Farley said the value of the game to his quarterbacks was something he'd never seen.

“You know, this is the first time I've ever seen the game pay off so much for a quarterback,” he said. “I think you saw Jared Lanpher grow up in that second half.”

The sophomore shook off a rocky start to guide his purple squad to both touchdown drives. One of the purple team's touchdowns came on a 45-yard strike to his go-to wide receiver Ben LeMaster. The red-shirt freshman was Lanpher's main target all game and got nearly all deep pass attempts.

“I saw everything you guys saw, and that's that Lanpher is our second-string quarterback,” he said. “(Lanpher) really matured in front of your eyes.”

Farley was excited, but not surprised, with LeMaster's performance.

“(LeMaster) is going to be a great football player for Northern Iowa,” he said. “You have to be careful saying that before he sees game action, but I've seen enough to know that.”

Northern Iowa also saw a breakout performance from sophomore running back Zach Cutkomp, who scored both white squad touchdowns. Cutkomp will compliment junior Carlos Anderson, the Panthers' top running back from last season whose action was limited this spring because he's a sprinter on the track team.

“We're going to have a very, very deep backfield this year,” Farley said. “It's nice to have that problem.”

The weakness of the evening?

Six turnovers.

“We definitely have some stuff to clean up,” Farley said.