UNI football Spring Game serves Farley's purpose

CEDAR FALLS — The Northern Iowa football Spring Game served the exact purpose sought by Coach Mark Farley.

Get some guys game reps who either haven't yet had any, or haven't had a ton, and get out without any more injuries. Mission accomplished. Beyond that? What fans and observers saw Friday night in the UNI-Dome — especially on defense — will have a very different look come fall camp.

With six offensive linemen, four wide receivers, two defensive linemen, one linebacker and one defensive back not playing either for precautionary reasons or with various minor injuries, there was little sense of a depth chart. That's not a concern at this point for Farley, nor any of the other coaches.

'We just wanted to get through tonight,' Farley said. 'After seeing all the casts and crutches, really I just wanted to get home tonight without another set of crutches, and we did that.

'We've seen those guys for 1,500 yards out of Tyvis (Smith) and all the sacks out of Karter (Schult). We weren't going to prove anything today by playing them. We needed them to get ready for (fall) camp.'

Robert Rathje, Cal Twait and Trevor Hansen were all not in pads, recovering from off-season surgery. Lee Carhart, Byron Rich and Jackson Scott-Brown were also out with injury from the offensive line. Daurice Fountain is running in the Drake Relays, Charles Brown has an infected toe, Logan Cunningham has a broken wrist and Brandon Smith has a knee injury for the receivers.

Safety D'Shawn Dexter broke his toe, linebacker Jared Farley is recovering from surgery, lineman Griffin Gaeta hurt his wrist and both Karter Schult and Preston Woods were held out for precautionary reasons.

That may sound like a lot, but Farley insisted everyone included in that list will be back by June 1 and ready to play.

'All these guys are back in the fold by June 1,' Farley said. 'We had three surgeries (Thursday). Jesse Cardenas had surgery, Brandon Smith had surgery and Jackson Scott-Brown had surgery.

'We just had those things that took them out of camp, where we couldn't get them back in time.'

Farley was upbeat after the Spring Game concluded — won by the offense, 45-25, for what that's worth — given where the team started spring ball and where it finished.

He was especially happy with how some of those guys who got more playing time than normal responded. Wide receiver Marcus Weymiller was the standout, collecting eight catches for 129 yards and two touchdowns — one of which a one-handed grab that got everyone excited.

Farley said Weymiller has emerged as a leader in the locker room more from his example than anything else. The former Waukon standout was hard on himself last year, frustrated with some drops, and said he's worked hard on catching the football, as well as to focus forward and improve overall.

'I really enjoyed this spring. It was a little different with guys going down, but circumstances change, standards don't. That was our motto,' Weymiller said. 'I'm harder on myself. In my world, I didn't perform as best as I wanted to (last year). But you've got to start somewhere, and I have a lot of football left here at UNI. Going into this season, it's going to be a mentality (shift).

'The adjustment is going to be easier. It's not going to be about nerves as much, it's going to be more about playing the game. I just want to get back to playing the game and not getting frustrated as much.'

Outside of Weymiller, quarterback Eli Dunne performed well for the second straight Spring Game. Starter Aaron Bailey played the first quarter, then took to the sideline. Farley said getting Dunne so many reps — he played all of the second and third quarters, then most of the fourth before Cedar Rapids Xavier grad Reggie Schulte took over — was in effort to prepare Dunne for an emergency situation.

There's no questioning who's the starter, but Farley would be comfortable putting Dunne out there if need be after what he's seen this spring.

'Eli needed game time because he won't get game time until somebody goes down in the middle of a game,' Farley said. 'Eli needed a ton of reps to try to fatigue him a little bit, and make him go through this situation. The next time he takes a (live) snap, it's going to be in the middle of a football game.

'Eli can win games in this league. I feel great about him. Every time I see him play I get excited. Every time he plays and gets a snap, he's getting better for the day where he's taking snaps for us.'

Ultimately this spring and the Spring Game was about learning who else UNI had and who else was ready to step up.

There's not a lot that can directly be learned from the game itself, but collectively, Farley said the Panthers took some necessary steps forward this spring.

'Once we add the receiver corps that can run, and once we let Tyvis stand beside (Aaron Bailey), I think the things he can do multiply what we can do with our offense,' Farley said. 'We've got work to do in our secondary, and I can still see what our defense did, even though we're limited with what we can do with them.'

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