UNI working to develop talented athletes into complete receivers

Editor's note: First in a four-part series looking at the 2017 UNI football team.

CEDAR FALLS — When Mark Farley made the call this past spring to Pat McCann about coming to Cedar Falls to coach wide receivers, he had a candid description of a young group that's full of potential.

Farley told McCann on that phone call that their receivers, 'don't know what they don't know yet.'

A candid observation for sure, but a truthful one, of the Northern Iowa receivers. Behind senior Daurice Fountain there's a group of sophomores that will be counted on to produce.

'When Coach Farley first hired me, he told me that you've got a very talented group that you're coming in to coach. So that jumps out at you,' McCann said. 'The other thing I would say is, everyone talks about how young they are, but the thing is a lot of those guys played as freshmen last year. There's still some experience there, but there was still a lot of maturing to do, both physically and with the mental part of it.'

One of those maturing sophomores is Jalen Rima. He made the most of his opportunities a year ago as a true freshman, totaling 764 all-purpose yards with two receiving touchdowns and a kick and punt return touchdown.

The Cedar Rapids Prairie alum proved to be a dynamic athlete that can take any opportunity to touch to ball and turn it into six points. Rima has acknowledged after his first season of college football that he has work to do to become a complete receiver. McCann, Farley, and the rest of the UNI offensive staff have echoed that in saying they feel like they've only scratched the surface with their sophomore standout.

'One of the things I pride myself on as a receivers coach is we're going to do our best to be complete receivers. And that's one of those things to Jalen Rima's credit — he's the first one to say it — I need to become a better receiver and not just purely be a speed guy that can only do one or two things.'

Senior Daurice Fountain has led the Panthers in receiving the past two seasons and, according to McCann, has been nothing short of great in becoming the leader of the receivers group. Fountain isn't afraid to be a vocal leader and is consistently keeping the young receivers after practices for additional work. Entering 2017 with Eli Dunne as the starting quarterback, Fountain says the sky is the limit for the Panthers offense.

'Eli is a great quarterback. We're going to be riding him all the way,' Fountain said. 'When he came in last year it was kind of rocky at first. Especially for me personally because I wasn't really healthy the second half of the season. But I could tell with all the other guys (Eli) was definitely giving us the jump-start we need to be an explosive receiver group.

'Eli and I, our chemistry is great. Even before he was the starter during practice we always clicked somehow. We came in the same class and he was one of the first quarterbacks I was working with. We worked a lot together over the summer so we definitely built our chemistry to the max.'

Between Fountain and Dunne's chemistry, Rima's potential, and the potential of underclassmen Jaylin James, Christian Jegen, Aaron Graham, Isaiah Weston and others, the Panthers appear to have the tools in place for Dunne and the offense to thrive.

'It's a really talented, athletic group,' said McCann. 'I would say from the time I got here at the end of March, early April, to right now, I've been really encouraged by the growth that's taken place.'