UNI football back on track after bye week

CEDAR FALLS — Northern Iowa’s bye week coincided with the opening of its new outdoor artificial turf practice facility.

That new facility, along with picturesque weather, made for a lot of happy Panthers despite the week’s worth of hard work to fine-tune themselves after a 2-1 mark in non-conference play.

“It was so nice to practice outside and I kept hearing that comment, because we always want to practice outside, and we couldn’t until this year,” UNI Coach Mark Farley said Monday during his weekly news conference. “We actually practice inside because of safety, not because of weather. The players enjoyed it because, again, you couldn’t help but have good footing and good breaks on balls and things like that. It just enhances and elevates your practice when you have a great practice field.”

Farley reiterated what he described a week ago ahead of the bye week. The Panthers worked on honing their offensive and defensive schemes, in particular after learning a lot about new personnel at quarterback, running back and in their secondary.

“Ultimately (bye week practices) were designed to take a step back, really go back to your core offense, your core defense and make sure the players are in the right positions so they can be successful with their talent,” Farley said.

Part of UNI’s success on offense this season has been heavy usage of two-back personnel.

The Panthers’ depth at running back — Dom Williams, Vance McShane, Bradrick Shaw and Tyler Hoosman — has allowed the two-back personnel grouping to be used frequently.

“It’s opened up our offense and it’s balanced us up where we’re harder to defend with that group of players on the field,” Farley said. “(Defenses) have to figure out is it a throwing set? A running set?”

UNI opens Missouri Valley Football Conference play Saturday at home against Youngstown State (1-2, 0-1). The Penguins, picked ninth in the MVFC preseason poll, have the league’s ninth-ranked defense, allowing 40.3 yards per game. Saturday’s game also is homecoming and Farley expects a bigger crowd than the Sept. 18 home-opening win against St. Thomas and a number of former players to be in attendance.

“We get a lot of alumni coming back so I just know I’ve got to get my work done by Thursday, because once these guys start coming back they want to be around, and they deserve to be around. It’s their program, they’re the ones that built the thing,” Farley said.

Farley said Monday that receiver Logan Wolf (hamstring) was set to participate in practice, but made it clear he would not play against the Penguins unless he’s 100 percent. Meanwhile, offensive linemen Matthew Vanderslice (lower body) and Justin Peine (undisclosed) are expected to play Saturday while receiver Tysen Kershaw (undisclosed) remains questionable.