After win at Idaho State, UNI football enters bye week with positive developments to build on

CEDAR FALLS — Despite a dominant 41-17 win at Idaho State on Saturday, Northern Iowa’s football team enters its bye week with a lot to work on.

The Panthers (1-2) rebounded from lackluster losses against Iowa State (1-2) and No. 8 Weber State (2-1) with a much more familiar effort in their takedown of the Bengals (0-3) at Holt Arena.

Preseason All-America quarterback Theo Day threw for 388 yards and two touchdowns, completing 29 of 39 passes. Perhaps most importantly, though, was Day taking no sacks in the win after suffering 10 in UNI’s first two games.

UNI Coach Mark Farley admitted Monday there was a concerted effort between scheme, play-calling and personnel last week to address protection issues.

“It was a team effort to come out of (that game) with no sacks. They sent the house at us. They brought five, six guys just about the whole second half,” Farley said. “There were little things that do make big differences that were emphasized and I think that was the difference in the (result), whether it was the scheme, the play of the quarterback (and) I thought the running backs protected well.”

Day’s clean jersey after Saturday’s win didn’t come with a solidified starting five along the offensive line.

Redshirt sophomore Keean Kamerling got his first career start at left guard and played right guard in the second half. Josh Volk — who started against Iowa State — eventually came in to play right guard. Arkansas State transfer Kyle Kelly made his first appearance, playing right tackle in the second half when left tackle Jared Penning left with an injury.

Carson Petlon, who started the first two games at left guard, did not play.

With four starting spots available to begin fall camp, Farley acknowledged Monday the distribution of snaps among nine linemen through three games before the bye week was in part by design.

“You want consistency. You hope you’re good enough that you can actually say there’s (our) five best,” Farley said. “There’s no question Keean helped what we did, only because of the unification of the line play, how he brought the unit (to) a more conformed unit.”

Other positives that developed in UNI’s win at Idaho State were four sacks of the Bengals quarterbacks and 69 yards rushing on 11 carries with a first career touchdown from redshirt freshman running back Josh Jenkins.

Three of the Panthers’ four sacks came from senior defensive end Cordarrius Bailey. An Iowa State transfer, Bailey is familiar with the 3-3-5 scheme UNI has played a lot since last season from his time as a Cyclone.

“It changes (the offense’s) protections just because of how you play,” Farley said. “You gotta play to the strength of your team and we’re built probably more so to get better rushes with the angles that (scheme) creates more than a four-man front does.”

While some of Jenkins’ output came against the Bengals second team, his performance was encouraging as he proved himself as the Panthers’ fastest ball carrier.

“Josh has got some quickness to him,” Farley said. “Josh is making some moves in there. The stop and the go, the jump cuts and things like that and then he hit vertical, too. Got to be running downhill and he hit the plays vertical.”

UNI returns to action Sept. 30 at home against Youngstown State (2-1). Kickoff is at 1 p.m. (ESPN+).