UNI seniors ‘left our impact, our footprint’

FARGO, N.D. — The passion and exuberance the group of Northern Iowa football seniors showed this season has left a permanent mark on the program, the school and everyone who has followed the Panthers.

Deiondre Hall, Makinton Dorleant, Tim Kilfoy and Isaac Ales — among others — on defense, and Jacob Rathmacher and Braden Lehman — among others — on offense provided moments during their time at UNI that they and their teammates won't soon forget.

That obviously makes a 23-13 loss in the FCS quarterfinals to North Dakota State harder to take. But they know they've left that mark and are certainly proud to have left it.

'It still hasn't hit me yet. It'll probably hit me soon coming up here,' Kilfoy said. 'But you go through four years and Coach (Mark) Farley talks about what UNI football means to you. You kind of sit there as a freshman and say, OK, that's the head coach saying some stuff. But as the years go on and now into my senior year, you really understand what the program means to you.

'It'll mean something to me, Deiondre and the rest of the seniors for the rest of our lives. We'll come back and watch these games, and like Coach Farley has said, you'll always know the kid who wears your number. It's always going to mean something to you. It's something we're really going to miss.'

The pain of their journey ending was fresh in the moments after the Panther players trickled out of the locker room.

Seniors hugged waiting families tight, unable to hold back emotions that obviously weighed heavy. But there was no bitterness or anger outside that UNI locker room. Sadness, sure, but to a man, each player expressed gratitude for the ride they'd been on.

'It's tough because everything you've worked for, you're always working for that national championship. When it doesn't happen, it's really tough,' Ales said. 'For me, putting away my pads, it kind of felt really weird doing that for the last time. Probably tomorrow when we won't have to come back in for meetings or whatever — just that routine we have established, having to get out of that and go back to being a regular person now.

'I'll just miss the brotherhood and family atmosphere we had, and being able to travel with my best friends. Being able to go out there and play the sport I love, with other guys who love it too.'

The most hope for next season and the many pieces returning from this 9-5 Panther squad can be found in the impact this senior group had on those remaining.

Defensive lineman Karter Schult called it 'unexplainable, really.' He now will take one of the primary leadership roles, and hopes to use those lessons well.

'The seniors we have — for me personally — I've learned so much from Isaac Ales, Ron McNeil, Wyatt (Pfeiffer) and the secondary as well. It's going to be tough to replace them,' Schult said. 'From a personnel standpoint, but also from a leadership standpoint, it's going to be big shoes to fill.'

As much as on the field, this group helped the UNI football locker room feel like family. That was how every player described it after Saturday's game.

It was especially true for a guy like Aaron Bailey, who came in as a transfer from Illinois and felt it in a big way.

'Those are lifetime brothers. I'm not just saying that. It felt like, from the time I came here in May, with the seniors, I felt a personal relationship with all of them. It sucks how it ended, and I wish we could've gotten it for all of them,' Bailey said. 'Personally, they've had a huge impact on me. They welcomed me in with open arms. Being a transfer student, you've got to start all over, meet new people and everything. They all took me in — beyond the football field.

'I really appreciate that, because they didn't have to do that. They could've put up a front in front of the coaches, but they really took me in as brothers. That's why it hurts so much, because I really wanted it for them.'

No, these Panthers didn't accomplish everything they wanted to.

But they did accomplish something — many things, in fact.

'We just left our impact, our footprint, and that's what we wanted to do from the jump,' Hall said. 'Coming in, as the secondary we had this year and the defense we had, just leaving that footprint and letting our names be here through history; getting that '2015' up on the wall was the most important thing to our senior group.'

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