UNI football takeaways: Running back rotation is an initial success

CEDAR FALLS — A look at the film confirmed all the good feelings Northern Iowa football coach Mark Farley had after the Panthers’ 35-7 season-opening win against Valparaiso at the UNI-Dome on Saturday.

The win was headlined by UNI’s 365 rushing yards, marking the first time since 2016 the Panthers have run for more than 300 yards.

A big part of the success on the ground came from a regular rotation of running backs Tye Edwards and Amauri Pesek-Hickson that kept the duo fresh en route to 174 and 100 yards, respectively.

“That (rotation) was all talked about (and) thought through,” Farley said Tuesday during his weekly news conference. “You can see when there’s starting to be wear on the defense (with) tackling. When you have two guys that were running like that, there’s no question that would wear on any defense.”

UNI QB Aidan Dunne’s debut

Saturday’s season-opener also included an encouraging debut for first-year starting quarterback Aidan Dunne.

The former walk-on threw three touchdowns and completed 12 of 17 pass attempts. Perhaps most important for his and his teammates’ success was his presnap communication that prevented any procedural penalties.

“The first thing you’d look at that is probably unnoticed is we’re snapping the ball (on time). We didn’t get false starts. He was in command,” Farley said. “He had control and he had the confidence to go with that kind of evolved into other players to keep them on point so we weren’t jumping offsides and getting lined up wrong.

“His play, I thought, was good as well.”

UNI defense answers some questions

Some of the many questions surrounding UNI’s defense were answered on Saturday, too. Specifically the defensive line and defensive backfield, which helped limit Valparaiso to just 137 total yards and only 29 on the ground.

Redshirt junior defensive lineman Carter Hewitt stood out, totaling 1 1/2 sacks and a quarterback hit.

“Carter is just coming into his own. It takes time to grow into being a defensive tackle,” Farley said. “It’s his time. He’s big enough now. He’s strong enough. He has enough game experience that he can start to show up and he showed up the other night and we need him to show up.”

UNI (1-0) travels to St. Thomas (0-1) at 1 p.m. Saturday.