UNI football isn’t bothered by lack of hype in preseason polls

CEDAR FALLS — Tuesday’s UNI football media day had a different feel to it.

There were no star, surefire, soon-to-be NFL players to discuss. No lofty preseason predictions to talk about living up to, and little talk about anything besides simply getting a team ready to play.

So, when asked about the Missouri Valley Football Conference’s eighth-place prognostication for his Panthers in the preseason poll, Coach Mark Farley described how the focus has been on their work.

“I’m not a bulletin board guy, but I might tell them (about the poll),” Farley said. “If you’re winning this league, you’re probably winning the fourth quarter, so I do show (the team) tape of years past (pointing out) ‘here’s the great teams, the ones that are on the wall that people remember and have some legends on it.’ Well, they became legends by winning tight games.”

The players’ sentiments were similar.

Senior running back Tye Edwards made it clear he has plenty of his own motivation without paying attention to outside noise.

“I wasn’t aware of (it),” Edwards said. “I was aware we weren’t ranked, but I love being the underdog. I’ve always been the underdog my whole life, so hearing stuff like that, I wouldn’t say adds fuel to the fire — I’m already fueled up. I’m ready to ride.”

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And potential starting quarterback Aidan Dunne had a stately response one might expect from someone who plays his position.

“We know what we got. We’re in a difficult conference, man,” Dunne said. “It’s whatever. Nobody is listening to it. We’re here for three and a half, four weeks during camp and we’re watching ourselves get way better everyday.

“We like to think we know where we stand and we’re just excited to go out there and put it on display.”

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Personally, Dunne would likely appreciate knowing where he stands in an ongoing quarterback competition that’s headlining UNI’s preseason.

The Dubuque native is competing with former Southeast Polk prep Jaxon Dailey — who transferred in before spring practices from Arkansas State. Redshirt sophomore Matthew Schecklman also is in the mix, but Farley’s comments on Tuesday suggested a tight, but defined ranking of Dunne, Dailey and Schecklman at this point of camp.

“For me personally, just continuing to push my teammates,” Dailey said of how to win the quarterback job. “At the end of the day the main goal is to win games. So, it’s less about me and more about just trying to get the team as ready as we can for Week 1 to be able to go beat Valparaiso.”

Dailey’s selfless remarks about the quarterback competition he finds himself in highlighted comments made Tuesday by Farley about the trio of QBs taking on leadership during summer workouts.

“They really invested themselves and took ownership (of) it,” Farley said. “(They) really changed the characteristics of our offense. The best I’ve seen in summer workouts by any group I’ve ever had — which is a lot of them.”

So, while the shine of UNI football may have worn off some according to the Panthers’ peers, the work continues like it always has inside the UNI-Dome.

Perhaps most encouraging Tuesday was longtime defensive line and assistant head coach Bryce Paup adding to Farley’s details of player leadership with an example of his own.

“I’ve learned over the years that on bad teams, no one leads. On good teams, coaches lead. On great teams, players lead,” Paup said. “So, I always try to push my older guys to mentor and keep the younger guys in line and make them grow. And these guys are starting to do that.”