UNI football taking it one day at a time

CEDAR FALLS — One thing Northern Iowa football is making certain not to do right now is look ahead.

After a 37-21 loss to No. 7 Sacramento State (2-0) Saturday in its home opener, UNI fell to 0-3 and concerned fans everywhere began looking ahead at a tough schedule of eight more games that includes seven Missouri Valley Football Conference opponents — three of them ranked.

“At UNI everybody starts to think (about playoffs) just because of what we expect and where we’ve been so many times,” UNI Coach Mark Farley said. “You can look at that schedule, (but) you start looking at the end result and you never take care of the day-to-day process that we all hear about and talk about.”

Asked what he’d like to see at Western Illinois this Saturday, Farley refused to look past Tuesday.

“I’m looking for a good practice tomorrow,” Farley said. “We just haven’t played the four quarters of football that I want.

“I’ve seen good offense, but I’ve seen some things that we can clean up on offense. I’ve seen good defense and some things we can clean up. And yet I don’t even think we’re close to what we could be as early as tomorrow, or next Saturday, or right now.”

Among what needs to be cleaned up is uncharacteristically poor tackling by the Panthers.

In all three of its losses, UNI has struggled to bring down ball carriers on first contact and struggled to get off blocks on the perimeter.

When it comes to fixing such a fundamental issue, Farley began with one word.

“Attitude,” Farley said. “The plays are just as important as attitude. Attitude — or whatever word you want to use — is that energy that you need to finalize a tackle, to finish a tackle, to hit a tackle. That comes from an instinctive moment to smoke somebody.

“If you don’t play with that attitude, that edge, then you don’t get the results you want.”

Offensively, despite quarterback Theo Day ranking ninth in the FCS in passing yards, the second-year starter lost his second fumble and threw his second interception of the season Saturday against the Hornets.

Farley critiqued Day’s fumble in Week 1 at Air Force, but has largely complimented his quarterback’s play this season. On Monday, he went to his defense.

“There’s a lot of things going on there. On (Saturday’s) interception the route was run incorrect, so the ball is behind (the receiver),” Farley said. “So, (with) respect to Theo it’s not always on the quarterback. Sometimes it’s on protection and sometimes it’s on receivers. But, at quarterback, you take that role on that you (throw) a touchdown they think it’s you and you make an interception they think it’s you.”

UNI travels to Western Illinois (0-3) Saturday for a 3 p.m. kickoff at Hanson Field. (ESPN+)