‘Time will tell’ if Todd Stepsis can turn UNI football around

CEDAR RAPIDS — Todd Stepsis doesn’t claim to have it all figured out. But he thinks he’s on the right path, at the right place.

The first-year Northern Iowa football coach was in Cedar Rapids last week with the Panther Caravan at Big Grove Brewery. He noted the “daunting” task of moving from an FCS non-scholarship program at Drake to one that plays in the rugged Missouri Valley Football Conference.

The MVFC has been home to the FCS national champion the last four years. North Dakota State has won 10 national titles, including last fall. South Dakota State won it all in 2022 and ’23.

Competing week in and week out with the best of the best is more than daunting for a program that ranks near the bottom of the league in budget.

Stepsis, though, is undaunted.

“You can look at that in one of two ways,” he said last week. “You can look at it as a daunting task or you can look at it from a positive light ...

“We need to figure out, hey, who are we at UNI and what do we do well and, more importantly, what aren’t we.”

Stepsis is nothing if not positive. He thinks he has a team that can compete right now even while taking a “wait and see” approach to the league schedule.

“I love where we’re at right now,” he said just weeks after wrapping up his first spring practices. “Are we at the same level as those guys? I think time will tell.

“I do know this — we have a roster right now that does have a ton of belief. We’ve had a really great offseason.”

Stepsis noted his first practice this spring, a day that was suited for a workout inside the comfy UNI-Dome. But the dome was unavailable because of renovations, so the Panthers headed outdoors in the wind, rain and snow.

“I never heard one guy complain,” he said. “They were all smiling and having a good time because they get to play a sport that they love with a team that they are more connected to and maybe more than they have been.

“The joy, the optimism, the gratitude was overwhelming.”

If first impressions mean anything, the same could be said about Stepsis. He used the word “fantastic” multiple times in describing his first few months in Cedar Falls.

His love for the game is apparent, too. He’s football guy. And, apparently, he has a roster of like-minded players.

“The team has really bought into what we’re trying to do,” he said.

As he said, “time will tell” if the program can get back to challenging for MVFC titles and deep runs in the FCS playoffs. But he think he’s in the right place — and the right state — to get it done.

A native of Ohio who has been in this state 11 years as an assistant and head coach at Drake, Stepsis praised the Iowa high school football player, coach and program.

He’d be a great salesman for the state.

“One of the things I’ve learned is that an Iowa high school football player, you can count on,” he said. “Every single kid that we have coached from the state of Iowa has been the hardest worker, ... the most durable, the greatest teammate, the selfless teammate that you would want your whole team to be like.

“They would run through a brick wall for you.”

And, not surprisingly, he wants to build the UNI program with those kinds of players. He’s not opposed to the transfer portal if there is a need and a right fit, but “I want to build this team from the high school ranks.”

He’ll go toe-to-toe with Iowa and Iowa State for recruits, too — “I mean, we’re going to try, but probably not” get them — but he also thinks “there’s enough talent here that I think we can have a really good team with quality teammates.”

Do that, he said, and “we’ll eventually catch those guys” in the conference. Do that and those deep playoff runs will come, too.

It’s been done in the past and, it seems, should be able to get done again. Is Stepsis the guy to do it?

Again, in his own words, “time will tell.”

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