QB carousel continues for UNI

AMES - Coach Mark Farley wasn't sure until late in the week which player would be his starting quarterback for the Northern Iowa football team's season-opener at Iowa State on Saturday night.

Ultimately that guy ended up being Illinois transfer Aaron Bailey, but the choice certainly didn't produce the desired results. The Panthers never found a groove on offense, faced long-yardage situations repeatedly, gave away chances to stay in the game and left the newly renovated Jack Trice Stadium with a 31-7 loss.

'I never felt we were playing that good all night long, even though we were in the game and we were ahead. It still felt like we weren't playing very well,” Farley said. 'It just kind of continued. When we did get some momentum or a break - they gave us the fumble, it was an opportunity to stretch the lead and get some momentum, and we didn't do it. We gave it back to them. That was the (most) disappointing of the whole thing. We had our opportunities.”

Bailey took the snaps to start the game and through the first series of the fourth quarter, but he didn't finish. Senior Sawyer Kollmorgen entered the game for UNI's second series of the fourth quarter, and then red-shirt freshman Eli Dunne came in with 5:16 left in the game.

Bailey lifted the Panthers (0-1) to a 7-0 lead in the second quarter on a 19-yard screen pass to Savon Huggins, but that ended up being the lone highlight of the night for an offense that couldn't sustain drives or find any consistency.

Farley ended up playing all three quarterbacks, he said, because at a certain point - while the Cyclones (1-0) were on their way to 31 unanswered points - he wanted to see his guys in situations that would help make his decision for next Saturday against No. 6 Eastern Washington.

'I played all three quarterbacks because if we can take this game and use it to be a better football team next week, then it was worth going through the process,” Farley said. 'But I need to go back and look at what was called, how they played it and what happened. I'm not going to sit here and judge anybody until I see it. I thought this gave a lot of guys opportunities. So we can put a starting lineup on the field next week and we'll know a lot better than we did at the beginning of this football game.”

Bailey finished 11 of 19 for 114 yards, one touchdown and one interception. He ran 22 times for 85 yards. The issue for Bailey, though, was only 32 of those 199 total yards came in the second half. Enter Kollmorgen, who moved the ball initially with some quick passes, but exited after going 5 of 8 for 24 yards. Dunne finished the game after entering with 5:16 remaining and went 4 of 7 for 38 yards.

Kollmorgen said the offense was behind from the start of most drives for one reason or another. Missed reads, missed keys and missed throws plagued the quarterback group. Bailey was not made available for media after the game.

'It just seemed like we were always behind the sticks. First down, second down, we didn't always have big plays. It was third and long a lot; second and long a lot. But I felt like we couldn't get anything going,” Kollmorgen said. 'Aaron (Bailey) had a bunch of nice runs. At the same time, there were things we did that we beat ourselves. That's the main reason why we couldn't get anything going. We just beat ourselves. Some people had bad technique, missed assignments; some quarterbacks missed some things.

'We'll go back and watch it and see ourselves it wasn't anything Iowa State did special. It was all on us.”

The only quarterback on the roster who escaped any scorn from the game was Dalton Demos, who moved to wide receiver during the week leading up to the game. Demos, a JUCO transfer, saw lots of action in the slot and a few split out wide, and was targeted at least once on a ball batted down by the Iowa State defense.

If nothing else, Farley said he was able to learn which players had the right look about them in a game that set the record for attendance at Jack Trice Stadium at 61,500. Once the team gets through what's assured to be an uncomfortable film session, they can go about answering questions all over again.

'I think when we watch that film, we'll find out who are the ones we can win with,” Farley said. 'When you get in that situation out there like we had tonight, you find out who will win for you and who's along for the ride. We need to sort that out and make sure we get them all (on board).

'They have to see what we see. Trust me, they all felt like they played hard. I told the defense that one time. They felt like they were playing hard because they were tired. Sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees, and you're not responding.”

UNI faces Eastern Washington on Saturday at 1 p.m. in its home opener at the UNI-Dome.

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