Cole Bair

The Missouri Valley Football Conference’s annual preseason poll includes the lowest prognostication for Northern Iowa in Coach Mark Farley’s 24-year tenure.

For the first time since its spring season during the COVID pandemic in 2021, Northern Iowa will open its season against a non-FBS opponent.

Understanding the importance of his role as a returning, experienced starter, UNI linebacker Ben Belken has led the defense in summer workouts in a similar fashion that quarterback Aidan Dunne has done with the offense — with more on-field work to go along with strength and conditioning.

Northern Iowa offensive coordinator Luke Falk — who had yet to coach his first season with the Panthers — has departed the program due to a family health matter.

After three seasons of waiting, Northern Iowa quarterback Aidan Dunne is making sure he’s as prepared as possible for the competition that awaits him this August.

After seven departures from last season’s roster via the transfer portal, Ben Jacobson and his assistants worked tirelessly this spring to sign four transfers and a walk-on to add to their duo of 2024 high school signees. That amount of roster turnover has led to summer workouts looking much different from a year ago.

Three busy weeks into her new job as Northern Iowa’s athletics director, Megan Franklin may not have all the detailed answers just yet that the most fervent Panthers fans are looking for.

New UNI AD Megan Franklin’s description of what she’s calling the “legacy era” included typical pillars of athletic department leadership — student-athlete wellness, graduation, positioning coaches to succeed and community engagement and service — but it also included less common priorities such as teaching student-athletes philanthropy and working with administrative staff on their passions and professional development.

After having an unprecedented seven players leave via the transfer portal after this past season, UNI men’s basketball coach Ben Jacobson enters his 19th season recruiting like never before between the months of March and May.

The University of Northern Iowa’s five-month search for its next Director of Athletics ended Monday afternoon when President Mark Nook announced the hiring of Megan Franklin. Franklin arrives at UNI after 12 years at Drake as Senior Associate Athletics Director for Strategic Initiatives and External Operations.

The transfer portal, and the player movement phenomenon created by it, finally made its presence felt in the UNI men’s basketball program this spring. Ben Jacobson’s team had an unprecedented seven players enter the portal since the end of the 2023-24 season.

More function than flash was present from Northern Iowa’s new “air raid” offense at Friday night’s annual spring game.

It sounds like Northern Iowa football fans will be treated to something closely resembling an actual game Friday night at the UNI-Dome. For the first time since the 2018 spring game, the Panthers will have officials overseeing their intrasquad scrimmage.

A former quarterback at Washington State and in the NFL, he said he has ‘really good stuff’ to work with in Cedar Falls in first year as an offensive coordinator

As Northern Iowa football continues spring practices and the installation of an air raid offense with first-year offensive coordinator Luke Falk and wide receivers coach Trey Tinsley, its chances of a productive inaugural season in the scheme are heightened by the return and continued development of a skilled offensive line.