UNI hoping to avoid ‘trap’ football game Saturday

CEDAR FALLS - After facing four consecutive opponents ranked inside the top-10 and emerging 3-1, the Northern Iowa football team is due for an easy win, right?

Think again.

Missouri State (3-6, 2-4) hosts the playoff-hopeful Panthers (4-3, 4-2) Saturday and the Bears are equipped to add spoiler to their 2017 resume.

'They're doing a great job on special teams and have really progressed as a football team these last two weeks as you watch them on film,” UNI head coach Mark Farley said. 'This is another test.”

Coming off a dramatic and emotional win over then No. 6 South Dakota (7-2, 4-2), UNI is well aware how this game is defined as a 'trap game.” Senior linebacker Keelon Brookins called it that in his postgame news conference last week.

Farley wasn't spreading the 'trap game” message to his players at practice this week.

'The intent is you never get too high on the wins or too low on the losses, and you treat everybody the same,” Farley said. 'We came into camp with that formula. Hopefully we've instilled that in them. But, I don't know if you have to go talk about it all the time because the players mentioned it before (the coaches) did. We're in the position that we have to put in extra time on everybody.”

While the Panthers are putting in overtime each week, the Bears have the right amount of offensive firepower and defensive prowess to dash UNI's playoff hopes. They've scored 30 or more points in their previous four games and ran for 339 yards in their Week 9 win over Indiana State.

'They're putting a lot of points on people,” Farley said. 'They've (redone) their system and you can see they've put some time into it. You can see they visited some other people with what they're doing. This is so multiple and there's so many things that come out of it that it's triple-option football, is what it's become. They've got great speed at one position and great size at another. Their offensive line is playing really well. I've heard that through the league multiple times that they're one of the better offensive lines in the league.”

Missouri State's Cody Isbell, one of FCS's most feared pass-rushers, will challenge a UNI offensive line that's missing three starters from its Week 1 lineup.

Bears Coach Dave Steckel 'was the SEC defensive coordinator of the year. He knows his football,” Farley said. 'We all have the same chore. We play against each other all the time so we've got to find ways, and new ways, to win. Not just keep doing the same thing because we know each other well enough, too, that we can make adjustments.”