UNI loses to South Dakota State, won't make FCS playoffs

CEDAR FALLS — An older gentleman wearing a jacket that had 'Super Fan' embroidered on its back began to walk out of the UNI-Dome postgame Saturday night.

Before he took a set of downward steps toward his exit, he turned to a couple he obviously knew.

'Well, we ain't going to the playoffs now,' he said to them, shaking his head.

Nope, the Northern Iowa Panthers aren't going to the FCS playoffs, pardon the double negative. A 45-24 loss to No. 8 South Dakota State ensured that.

A season that began with a shocking win over FBS Iowa State concluded with a game in which UNI hung with a very good opponent but made too many mistakes to win. Kind of sums this whole thing up perfectly.

'It hurts. Man, it hurts,' said UNI linebacker D'Shawn Dexter. 'The only way I can describe this is just pain. We've been working so hard throughout the year, and coming up short just kills you.'

'Self-inflicted wounds,' said Northern Iowa Coach Mark Farley. 'Not making plays. That's why we're done, and that's why they're still playing. They made those plays.'

South Dakota State (8-3) tied with North Dakota State for the Missouri Valley Conference championship and gets the league's automatic postseason berth because it beat the Bison. Quarterback Taryn Christion threw for 272 yards and two touchdowns to wide receiver Jake Wieneke, also catching a TD pass from Wieneke to help the Jackrabbits to their first MVC title.

UNI QB Eli Dunne had three interceptions, including a late pick six in which SDSU lineman Kellen Soulek jumped up (at least as much as a 320-pounder can jump) along the sideline and stole a ball just out of Dunne's hand. He needed oxygen by the time he huffed and puffed his way 65 yards to the end zone, but that sealed things.

Dunne, who threw for 295 yards, also was picked off twice in the end zone in the first half.

The first time came when he scrambled toward the out of bounds line at the SDSU 6 and inexplicably tossed a ball underhand toward no one. The second came in the final 10 seconds, when he threw a slant pass into double coverage, his intended receiver (Daurice Fountain) appearing to run a dig route instead.

This one doesn't just fall on Dunne, though. Jalen Rima, who had a touchdown catch and 99-yard kickoff return for TD in the first quarter, fumbled a punt in which he asked for a fair catch.

UNI still had South Dakota State stopped, but on 3rd-and-21, a personal-foul facemask penalty after just a 9-yard pass completion gave the Jackrabbits a first down. A few plays later, SDSU scored a touchdown for a 35-24 lead.

'I think we were playing fine the first half,' said Rima, a freshman from Cedar Rapids Prairie who really emerged as a threat late in the season. 'We were battling our butts off. When the second half came, I just think we had too many guys who were beat up.'

So an ignominious conclusion to a season in which Northern Iowa lost five times by six points or less. It had the toughest schedule in FCS, and you could say it got beat by it.

'Too many missed opportunities,' Farley said. 'Close doesn't count. That's the biggest thing I take from the season. We had our opportunity in (non-conference) games against Eastern Washington and Montana. I could go through about every one of these games. We had them, but we did not finish, whether it was self-inflicted wounds or whatever it was.'

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