Bill Salmon an invaluable stalwart for UNI football

CEDAR FALLS — For 30 seasons and 30 spring camps now, Bill Salmon has walked down the tunnel and through the doors leading to Sheriff Field for spring practice as a Northern Iowa football assistant coach.

Throw in his years as a player and graduate assistant, and Salmon has been a part of nearly 40 editions of the grind of preparing a football team for its season. Apart from four seasons from 1997 through 2000 as offensive coordinator at Kansas under then-coach Terry Allen, Salmon has been on the UNI campus for football since his freshman year in 1973.

More than anyone else — even head coach Mark Farley — Salmon is UNI football.

'I love coming out here and doing this,' Salmon said before a practice last week. 'The main thing (that's kept me here) is that name on the sign down there, Sheriff Field. He was my head coach. This place was always very important for me and always will be. It's been very good to me. I owe it a lot. I have a mom that's 85 years old who lives about a mile away, so it's been great to come back and see her for the last 15 years. It's something that I have no regrets about whatsoever.'

Salmon may think he owes something to UNI, but everyone in and around the football program knows UNI owes plenty more to Salmon — none any more than Farley.

The two have been together since 1983, when Farley started as a player and Salmon began his first season as a full-time assistant coach under Darrell Mudra. In all that time, Farley has watched a man who prefers to stay out of the limelight give his heart and soul to football, but most importantly, to the Panthers.

When Farley got the gig as head coach in 2001, bringing Salmon back with him gave him an invaluable piece of the program that Farley said wouldn't be anywhere near the same without him.

'You know he's loyal to the university. You know he wants what's best for the players. You know what you're getting with Bill Salmon,' Farley said. 'The greatest thing I can say, what you'll find out about Bill Salmon — after all the years I've been here, and I've seen a lot of people come and go — he is the greatest team player that has gone through the University of Northern Iowa, and no one ever knows it because of how he does stuff and who he puts first. He always puts the team and player first.'

The latter point is clear in the changes that have taken place on the staff in the last two seasons. After former co-offensive coordinator Mario Verduzco and offensive line coach Rick Nelson both departed following the 2014 season, Salmon was the lone holdover on an offensive staff that had been together for many years.

Structural changes put more decision-making into the hands of Joe Davis last year, and now Ryan Mahaffey — a former player under Salmon — who said a few weeks ago, 'I'm definitely still a pupil and I feel like every single day I learn something new from him. Coach Saly has been instrumental for me in my personal development as a coach.'

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A more egocentric person might not have handled that the same way. Salmon stayed.

'I still have a lot of input on things we're doing and how we're going to do it, and the overall scheme of things, but as far as setting up the practice, it's changed quite a bit,' Salmon said. 'Now, the last couple years, the guys have taken (scheduling and play-calling) over themselves and done it, which I didn't do. But a couple guys have been here one year or just a couple years, and everything is always different, but the final outcome is the same. '

Salmon being around in an era in which coaches float from job to job so casually has had a major effect on the UNI players, too.

A player like running back Tyvis Smith, who's had a few very important people come through for him in his life, counts Salmon as one of those people. Loyalty counts for a great deal, whether you're a coach or a 20-something football player who depends on coaches for more than just football advice. Smith said, 'He stays after me, he jokes around with me, but he stays after me off the field and on the field. He's been a great influence on my life and he's one of the people who keeps me in line. He's helped me be where I am now.'

Salmon has been the stalwart, through every off-season meeting and spring drill. Farley has the reputation for wearing coaches and players ragged with his passion for the game, but both Farley and Salmon said they share that passion — it just manifests differently.

So when the two get after it — and it happens a lot — it's never gotten so bad to make Salmon want to leave. There's a shared goal that supersedes any argument.

And honestly, they both enjoy the back-and-forth anyway.

'The thing you have to remember about Coach, no matter how he goes about his business — during practice or in meeting rooms — he wants one thing. He wants us to be a real good football team. That's why he does it that way,' Salmon said of Farley. 'Do I agree every time he does things? No. But I know what he wants, so I know why he's doing it. I guess, through the years, I've learned that. Even though we have our battles every now and then, he kind of likes it and I kind of like it. We get going and kind of laugh afterwards (now), where maybe before, it might take a few days to overcome it. We know what each other are all about.

'When I start, I'm pretty serious when I'm saying stuff when we get into it. I think he kind of goes in the other room and chuckles about it more than I do. We have fun doing it and go to the next one.'

Smith said the players get a kick out of it when the two start getting after each other and, 'I'll be with the other running backs and I'll be like, 'Look, look, look — look at Coach. They're going after it.' It shows they're human. They argue just like we do. It's just what people do. It's entertaining.'

Salmon's 30th season and spring practice at UNI will likely have many of those moments, because that's the dynamic. Without Salmon there to keep him honest, Farley said he's not sure where he or the program would be.

'He's like family, like my brother. We get after it. But you can do that with guys you know because he challenges me. If I throw up a dumb idea, he'll tell me straight. And vice versa' Farley said. 'But when we challenge each other, we know what we're trying to get in the end. That's why I think we've always been stable and always been good.

'Bill has been a key to every year of success here, and every win here, Bill has been a huge part of those wins. He's not out front because that's not his personality. But trust me, he is a guy you need.'

l Comments: (319) 368-8884; jeremiah.davis@thegazette.com