Hlas: UNI torn apart by Indiana refugee Roberson

NORMAL, Ill. - This is how one team's national-title hopes were born six months ago, and how another's died Saturday:

Tre Roberson, a quarterback relegated to No. 2 at Indiana after starting games there in three different seasons, didn't want to be a backup. So he left the Hoosiers and their losing behind, and transferred to an Illinois State team that had a lot coming back from a 5-6 team. A lot, but not a big-time quarterback.

Northern Iowa got the best of Roberson's Redbirds in Cedar Falls on Nov. 1, winning 42-28. It was the only time this season anyone has beaten Illinois State. The loss was paid back and then some Saturday at ISU's Hancock Stadium, 41-21, in the second round of the NCAA's FCS playoffs. Roberson was wonderful.

'I'm just being more comfortable in the offense every week,” he said.

Were Roberson any more comfortable Saturday, he would have been a new mattress or an old shoe. He riddled the Panthers with escapability and spot-on passes to receivers who got open time after time.

He threw for 382 yards and four touchdowns, and had 10 completions for 20 yards or more. After one quarter, ISU had 233 yards to UNI's 3. The Redbirds led at halftime, 24-0.

The Panthers did well to rally to within 34-21 with two touchdowns in a 36-second span of the fourth quarter, but the Redbirds quit fumbling and Roberson fired a 38-yard scoring strike late in the game just to reassert himself.

All those numbers - and you can tack on the Redbirds' 564 yards of total offense - came against what Farley called 'probably the best defense we've ever had here.” Just not on Saturday. Not against All-Missouri Valley Conference quarterback Roberson.

'We couldn't get them out of rhythm,” Farley said about the Redbirds in the first half. Rhythmic, it was. Roberson looked like a Big Ten quarterback. A good Big Ten quarterback.

Illinois State Coach Brock Spack made a big sales pitch to Roberson several months ago when the player made himself a free agent, and the coach wasn't peddling snake oil.

'They sold the fact that they were going to win a national championship,” Roberson said in October. 'They were just missing a quarterback.”

Well, the Redbirds are still three wins from becoming champions, and this week's quarterfinal at FCS heavyweight Eastern Washington will be hard enough. But if this team continues to move the ball the way it did here on Saturday, Spack could be proven a prophet.

The contrast between quarterback play in the first-half represented the contrast on the scoreboard. UNI starter Brion Carnes was ineffective, hitting on just 4 of 12 passes even though the Redbirds' defensive strategy was to load up against the run.

Sawyer Kollmorgen played the second half for the Panthers and did an admirable job of helping his team make the game competitive, but the damage was done.

So UNI's season ended. But a successful season it was. Going from 3-4 to 9-4 - with the entire 6-game win streak established after Carnes replaced Kollmorgen as the starter - was good stuff. Beating Illinois State and North Dakota State at the UNI-Dome, and still being the only team to have defeated either, was very good stuff.

The bad stuff for the Panthers was that transfers in the NCAA don't have to sit out a season if they move to a school in a lower level. The bad stuff was that since Roberson was injured in the second game of the 2012 season, he got a medical red-shirt season. So he'll have one more year of eligibility, and will play against UNI again next season.

Oh, and that's not great news for Iowa, either. Roberson passed for 197 yards and rushed for 84 more against the Hawkeyes as an Indiana freshman in 2011. Iowa's first 2015 opponent? Illinois State.