Panthers searching for next quarterback

The Northern Iowa football team spent the spring trying to figure out who will play quarterback once the 2012 season kicks off Sept. 1 at Wisconsin.

Picking a starter, however, was not a priority.

The Panthers tweaked their offense around the running and gunning Tirrell Rennie the past two years. Now they will build around either Jared Lanpher or Sawyer Kollmorgen.

“The purpose, for me, was to develop the quarterbacks and bring them along equally,” UNI Coach Mark Farley said Thursday. “The offense was honed in on developing around our quarterbacks.”

Farley said Lanpher and Kollmorgen fit the more standard UNI quarterback mold, “much like Eric Sanders,” UNI's running back coach who directed the Panthers to a 35-9 record from 2004 through 2007. Lanpher is a 6-foot-1, 206-pound red-shirt freshman from Blue Springs, Mo., Kollmorgen a 6-2, 215-pound freshman from Jenks, Okla.

“I'm pleased with the development of the quarterbacks, the development of our offense,” Farley said. “It's been a steady progression.”

He wants to see how the two react to “operational football” in tonight's spring game, which kicks off Friday night at 6:30 inside the UNI-Dome. But the two will go into fall drills on equal ground.

“We won't be a two quarterback team,” he said. “(But) we'll need them both next year.”

One former quarterback not the mix is Will Roth, who prepped a Linn-Mar. Roth was moved to tight end at the beginning of spring drills, but suffered a knee injury. He's back and will participate in tonight's game.

“There's a spot there, but a lot of people are contending there,” Farley said of Roth's chances of making the lineup.