Mark Farley ‘exhibit 1-A’ in UNI coaching legacy

CEDAR FALLS — Northern Iowa athletics director Megan Franklin said she’s been thinking about football coach Mark Farley’s impending retirement.

“... as you can imagine for me, I’ve been thinking about legacy, too,” Franklin said Monday as Farley officially announced he is retiring at the end of the season. “He is exhibit 1-A (of) that on our coaching staff.”

After 24 seasons as UNI football coach, Farley formally announced his retirement Monday in a room full of current UNI coaches, administrators and friends.

Farley — with one year remaining on his contract — retires as the Missouri Valley Football Conference’s wins leader and the program’s wins leader with 182 victories. His teams won seven MVFC championships and made 13 playoff appearances, including two trips to the FCS semifinals and a national runner-up finish in 2005.

During his tenure, UNI players received All-American honors 83 times and 40 players reached the NFL.

“It’s bittersweet,” Farley said. “It affects you when you start talking about the players and I’m cautious about that. And it affects you when you start talking about your family. And those are the two things that will tear you up when you get to this point, but those are the things that matter the most, too.”

Asked Monday why now was the time to retire rather than continuing as head coach throughout the remainder of his contract, Farley said he began considering it as far back as 2020 and pointed toward all the change that’s happened recently in college football with name, image and likeness and the transfer portal.

“Since about 2020 it’s just been more difficult with all the things that go on in college athletics,” Farley said. “There’s just been so many dynamics that have happened in the last three to four years. There’s a wear and tear outside of football that goes on, more so than the wear and tear of football.”

Known fondly as the “walk-on from Waukon,” Farley’s story is in-part an embodiment of UNI football’s uniqueness. He asked his way on to then coach Daryl Mudra’s 1982 team while driving a truck — his first job after graduating high school.

He red-shirted his first season, then went on to become a starting linebacker, ultimately leading the team in tackles three straight seasons, earning two All-American honorable mentions and winning an MVFC co-defensive player of the year award. UNI was 27-7-1 in his three years as a starter, including an appearance in the 1985 FCS semifinals.

“I rolled in here 40 years ago. I came in a truck in (1982). I came in a limo in (2001) with (Greg McDermott),” Farley said with a laugh. “Now I’m standing here in (2024) in front of y'all at this stage. So, it’s been a heck of a run.”

Farley described walking up to the then linebackers coach Dennis Remmert in a flannel shirt, blue jeans, steel-toed boots and “oily” baseball cap to ask about walking on.

“He did not judge me that day,” Farley said. “He told me how to do it. He encouraged me to do it and I did it.”

Former coach Terry Allen was among the many Farley thanked by name on Monday. Allen gave him his first opportunity as a coach after being an assistant under Mudra.

More than a decade after getting his shot from Allen, then UNI athletics director Rick Hartzell offered Farley the job, and he made his return from Kansas where he followed Allen to coach the Jayhawks’ linebackers.

Asked what he would tell himself now as he arrived back at UNI in 2001 as the football program's new head coach, his answer nearly brought tears to his own face.

“It’s crazy, because I had no intention, good or bad, to stay 24 years. Who’d have thought? But, what I’d tell him?” Farley asked aloud followed by a pause. “I’d do it again.”

SEARCH BEGINS

A search for Farley’s successor began Monday, according to Franklin, who revealed the university has hired executive search and consulting firm Collegiate Sports Associates based out of Raleigh, N.C.

Collegiate Sports Associates is led by chairman and founder Todd Turner, who previously served as director of athletics at UConn, Vanderbilt and the University of Washington.

Franklin touted the ongoing UNI-Dome renovations and possibility of attaining reciprocity as additives to the attractiveness of the position. She also answered to UNI football having the lowest annual operating budget among all MVFC program’s after Western Illinois departed following the 2023 season.

“Resources are a piece of what I work on everyday and that’s my responsibility to do that,” she said. “So, being able to, one, make sure we’re articulate about (the) current state and desired state and how we get there. So, the (new) coach will help us with that, along with the support of the university to drive after that.

“It’s not just a me problem — it’s a my job, your job, our job and so we’ll all work together. Not only as administration, coaching staff, (but also) our fan base to wrap our arms around the program and continue to support growth and opportunity.”