Four-man race at QB for UNI

CEDAR FALLS - The quarterback battle storyline isn't exactly a new one in college football - or pro football, or high school football for that matter.

But as the Northern Iowa football team starts fall practice Monday afternoon, it's a legitimate four-horse race for the No. 1 QB spot for the Panthers. Senior Sawyer Kollmorgen, junior college transfer Dalton Demos, Illinois transfer Aaron Bailey and red-shirt freshman Eli Dunne will all have a shot to win the job through fall camp.

Coach Mark Farley said he wants to go from four candidates to two by the 12th practice of fall, then from two to one by the end. Between he and offensive coordinator Joe Davis, that makes for a hectic fall practice schedule trying to find the man to lead the Panthers under center.

'To me this is isn't a problem,” Farley said through a wide smile while he finalized plans for fall practice. 'We want competition there so they know every time they go out in practice, they have to go out and battle. And by doing so, they'll have the mindset you need to win with come game time.”

So what's going to set someone apart?

Kollmorgen has led UNI to 12 wins as a starter in his three seasons of hit-and-miss action as QB. He started the first seven games of last season and UNI was 3-4 before Brion Carnes took over, and started the first nine of 2013 before a head injury ended his season.

Demos comes in from Hutchinson Community College by way of Coastal Carolina. He led Hutchinson to an 11-1 record as the starter last season before sustaining a knee injury in his final game there, throwing for 1,120 yards and 15 touchdowns.

Bailey comes in from the Big Ten's Fighting Illini and was a four-star recruit, played in five games last season, completing 11 of 22 passes for 118 yards, a touchdown and an interception. He also rushed for 120 yards and a touchdown on 32 carries. He transferred after falling to third on the depth chart at Illinois in his second season there.

And Dunne is a red-shirt freshman who starred in the UNI Spring Game, throwing for 269 yards and two touchdowns. Ultimately, Dunne will have the hardest time leapfrogging the three with experience and pedigree, but Farley said there's no one skill he's looking for, rather a pretty simple result when the units are running 11-on-11.

'The No. 1 thing I look for with the quarterback position is which one brings the best out of the other 10,” Farley said. 'They have to be individually productive, but the intangible is who can bring out the best of the others.

'If anything has happened, I feel more confident in the equality of these guys. This will be a great competition. It will be hard, but to me that's exciting. They're what I think they are, and by being that, we should come out of this thing with a great quarterback.”

Kollmorgen's response to repeated competition at quarterback has impressed Farley for the kind of person he's become, if not the kind of player. Injuries and losses stacked up, and he gave way and he lost his starting job a couple times. How he's responded to that and kept working endears him both to his coaches and teammates, but to him there's no other way to go about it.

'It's definitely another challenge, but I like to be challenged, I like to be pushed,” Kollmorgen said. 'I don't like to feel comfortable. If you do, you lose your edge.”

As for Bailey, he's in the 'just want to play football” mode after the drama of his time in Champaign-Urbana, Ill. Getting to Cedar Falls in May has him behind the curve just slightly to the others, but he's spent as much time as possible at the UNI-Dome and said he already has shed the 'new guy” feeling he had at first.

And even though he still is the new guy, that doesn't stop him from believing he'll win the job.

'It's been very good. I felt the guys welcome me in with open arms,” Bailey said. 'The way I look at it is we help each other out, but when it's time to go out there and compete, we compete. It's nothing personal, but we have work to do.

'Of course I anticipate being the starter. You go for the gusto. That's why I came here. If I didn't think that, I would've stayed at U of I or played a different sport.”

Demos is finally back to full health after his knee injury, and is chomping at the bit to get into fall camp.

He was limited in the spring while still recovering and was no-contact. Doctors cleared him in May, and he said there's no lingering effects. Having to watch for much of that camp was difficult, but he said he feels like he gained something from that in the drive it gives him not to be holding a clipboard during the season.

'I got rid of the brace and feel back to my old self,” Demos said. 'I do (feel like the same player), but we haven't strapped up yet, so we'll see.

'I don't anticipate any difference. I'm the same player I was mentally, so I'm just going to get back out there and do what I used to do. It was definitely tough - nobody likes to sit back and watch the guys in front of you play - but I tried to learn the offense a different way.”

There's no specific timeline for naming a starter, and Farley said he and offensive coordinator Joe Davis will take all their parameters into consideration before naming a starter.

The biggest difficulty is getting all four the reps necessary to get the best picture of who best fits what the staff is looking for. Both coaches laughed when asked if that was a good problem to have, preferring to use the term 'tough.”

They'd certainly rather have it this way than the reverse. And no matter who they choose, they're confident they can't miss.

'I've been a part of teams where you don't have enough, so we're excited about having four guys in the heat of it,” Davis said. 'Obviously we're hoping a couple of these guys make it easy on us and rise to the top sooner than later. I think it's going to be fun. Coach said it - the players almost decide who that starter will be before we do. They'll feel the leadership and execution rise above. We're excited about it.”

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