How the UNI football defense got back to its ‘standard’ — with room still to improve

CEDAR FALLS — It’s been an up-and-down season for Northern Iowa football’s defense.

After allowing an average of 30.5 points in its first four games, UNI has gotten back toward its “standard” in its last three games — all wins — allowing just nine points per game.

“The standard is the standard, and so what it takes to win it takes, and it doesn’t matter who you play if you always play against what the standard is,” UNI defensive coordinator Jeremiah Johnson said. “This isn’t meant to be disrespectful, but it doesn’t matter who we play if we take care of what we have to take care of and we execute at a really high level and continue to play fast, we’re going to give ourselves a chance to win any game.”

Gaining game experience and personnel adjustments have been key to Johnson’s defense playing increasingly faster this season.

Safeties Dalesean Staley and Tate Sander, cornerback Corry Thomas Jr. and linebackers Jahsiah Galvan, Tucker Langenberg and Ben Belken all are first-year starters this season.

“They’re playing at a tempo that we were not playing with early in the season and I think that’s helped us,” Johnson said. “They know that they’ve improved. Success, generally, breeds success.”

A personnel addition of defensive end Caden Houghtelling three games ago also has proven to be a lift for the Panthers as the senior has registered a sack and two fumble recoveries. Asked about the unit’s recent improvement after last Saturday’s 50-6 win against Western Illinois, senior defensive tackle Khristian Boyd brought up Houghtelling.

“Caden’s been huge ever since he got back,” Boyd said. “(But) I feel like we just need to get to the quarterback more and be more consistent. Every game, every quarter. I feel like if we can do that we can really be special.”

Coach Mark Farley has routinely brought up consistency this season, whether it was early on when the defense was struggling, or at this current part of the season where it appears that a corner has been turned.

“They haven’t given up the big play (recently), number one,” Farley said. “Number two, we’re doing a good job within the defensive line. Once we got the (players) in the right spot we’ve had better continuity of play for the length of the field.”

Never satisfied, Farley added the defense still is suffering from “spells” that can be corrected.

Correcting those “spells” could be helped down the stretch by gaining trust in reserves who got increased snap counts in last week’s blowout of the Leathernecks.

“We learned a lot about a lot of different guys,” Johnson said of the WIU game. “For us moving forward, I think probably all of us that sit in that (coaches) room have a little bit more trust in some of those (reserves). So, they will be able to help us a little bit more as we move down the stretch.”

UNI (6-3, 5-1) plays at Missouri State (3-6, 2-4) Saturday. Kickoff at Robert W. Plaster Stadium is at 2 p.m. (ESPN+).