UNI’s Mark Farley encouraged after watching tape of Iowa State game

CEDAR FALLS - When Mark Farley put the tape in and re-watched his team's 42-24 loss to Iowa State from Saturday night he came away with a thought he acknowledged he doesn't care to have.

'I saw more upside than I saw down, and that's why - even for myself that's very hard for me to say - because I don't like to say we played good when we lose,” Farley said. 'We played good enough to lose, we didn't play good enough to win. (Let's) put it that way.”

Outside of Eli Dunne's two interceptions that were returned for touchdowns, Farley said he wasn't able to tell his team it played bad against the Cyclones. Sure, there were technical errors and the execution on offense and defense wasn't always perfect, but in large part the Panthers' loss to Iowa State wasn't one to hang their heads over. Rather, it was something to build from.

Part of what the Panthers will be looking to build on is the running game because the passing game did the heavy lifting in Ames, accounting for 259 of 378 total yards.

With the home opener this Saturday versus Cal Poly, a triple-option, run-first team, Farley is focused on improvement from his own team's rush offense to have a counter to the Mustangs' clock-chewing offense.

'The running game has to be a lot better,” he said. 'Going into the game (against Iowa State) I felt good about our run game. I was wondering what was going to transpire in the passing game, because of the age of the receivers, and the offense, and that type of stuff. I actually felt we'd be strong in the run game but it kind of flipped on me during the game.”

Farley seemed more optimistic about the offense than he anticipated being after one week, in part because gains in the running game can come more rapidly than if the passing game had issues.

He said sophomore Trevor Allen has emerged as the No. 1 running back.

NEW ASSISTANTS HAVE SOLID DEBUT

Much was made heading into the season opener about how the Panthers might struggle with seven new assistant coaches on staff, including new co-offensive coordinators John Bond and Mike Simmonds.

While the Panthers had eight penalties for a total of 71 yards against the Cyclones, they did not have one false start or delay of game, and only once were they forced to call timeout due to an expiring play clock.

'I was on the headset with the offense the whole time,” Farley said. 'I thought they were very calm. They were getting the play off. They were consistent all day long.

'There wasn't any penalties out there that you say ‘there's errors because of communication.' There was a lot going on with all the different personnel changes. Try doing that with a bunch of redshirt freshmen and all them (new) coaches, I think it says that they communicated well.”