Farley: No new pressure on UNI football

CEDAR FALLS — There's no more or less tension in the football offices in the UNI-Dome these days than there has been for a month.

Northern Iowa football coach Mark Farley dismissed the idea that the final regular season game had any more meaning for his team than each of the Panthers' last four wins have had. The 'one game at a time' mantra is an old favorite of coaches everywhere, but the reality for UNI has been each game from Oct. 24 on has been an elimination game.

Hosting Southern Illinois for Senior Day on Saturday is no different.

'I don't know if there's any more urgency (now) than there was at the South Dakota State game. When you go back and look at it, each game has presented the same situation,' Farley said. 'It's a win or else situation, so I don't know that there's an urgency this week that there hasn't been the past four weeks.

'Fortunately we get to play at home. We've had a good run of games at home now, which helps in really getting back on your feet and gaining, I don't know if it's a comfort zone, but a confidence; a little more stable environment.'

All that to say the Panthers are avoiding the peaks and valleys Farley has long referenced as something that can cripple a team.

Because a win Saturday would likely mean a second straight at-large FCS Playoff berth hasn't changed a thing. What cost the Panthers in the early part of the season — inconsistency, mainly — has faded away, for the most part. Other than the passing game, UNI is easily playing its best football of the season.

It's for that reason Farley and Co. also aren't worried about whether or not they're on the bubble.

'I don't see anything right now, with the schedule we've had and the way our league is (that would keep us out) — we just have to do our job,' Farley said. 'I'm sure we'll be in good shape because if you look at our schedule, we've beaten some very good football teams. We probably have one that got away from us that we wish we had back and then we had a chance to win the other two against (Illinois State) and (North Dakota State). We just need to take care of Southern Illinois.'

The No. 15 Panthers (6-4, 4-3 Missouri Valley Football Conference) have gone 4-2 against (at the time or currently) ranked teams: No. 7 Eastern Washington, No. 17 Cal Poly, No. 6 South Dakota State and No. 23 Indiana State. The losses to the Redbirds and Bison were one-possession losses in which they could (or should) have won.

It's the strength of their league, though, that has a four-loss team in postseason contention.

The MVFC is widely considered the best FCS conference in the country, and with good reason. MVFC teams went 18-12 in non-conference play — nine of those losses to FBS teams — and were 17-3 in that span against fellow FCS teams. Two of those three FCS losses included a season-opening wild back-and-forth between North Dakota State and Montana, and Western Illinois taking then-No. 1 Coastal Carolina to overtime.

All that strength makes the MVFC most likely a four-bid league, should UNI take care of business Saturday.

'The league is so strong right now. I think we've sat every league with five teams in the top 20, for the most part,' Farley said. 'Sometimes we've had seven, and then once we got in league play and started playing each other it started spreading itself out a little bit. I think you've got to go back to what the league did outside of conference play and we (all) only lost two or three games outside the league. We played every conference there is.

'There's other teams that have gone into other leagues and beat their top contenders. Our league is so strong against FCS. You can find it on paper that in non-conference games, our league is successful.'

PANTHERS FAIRLY HEALTHY, WAITING ON AVAILABILITY

At this point of the season, every college football team is dealing with some level of injury, and the Panthers are no exception.

Of the more notable, though, is defensive back Makinton Dorleant. The senior corner went out against Missouri State and didn't play in the second half. Additionally, among others, Logan Cunningham and Ronelle McNeil suffered injuries against the Bears.

Farley said Monday he doesn't know for certain all their availability, but is hopeful for Senior Day on Saturday against Southern Illinois.

'I think everyone is, I would guess, everyone is probable, but I can't say for sure right now until I get later on in the week,' Farley said. 'Right now I don't foresee anything (bad). I saw them all (Sunday) and they're all hurt in some capacity, but this time of year that's normal. I think we'll get them all back. I hope to.

'(Not playing Dorleant) was precautionary. I don't know that we could've played him after that, but at the same time I don't know that we needed to (either). There wasn't any question. Just shut it down. And it gave a couple other guys an opportunity.'

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