Zimmer: UNI’s adjustments to bye week had no chance of slowing South Dakota State – Sioux Falls Live

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – Northern Iowa coach Mark Farley has been in charge of the Panthers since 2001. He has led them to 13 FCS playoff tournaments and seven conference championships during that time and enters Saturday’s game with defending No. 1 champion South Dakota State. One Farley statistic that seemed particularly relevant was this: In In home games following a bye week, Farley’s teams were 10-0. Overall 17-5 after a bye.

Some statistics are more coincidental or coincidental than cause for concern, but there have been times in the SDSU/UNI rivalry when Farley, to his credit, has come up with a schematic wrinkle or two that the Jacks getting flustered contributed to an SDSU loss.

Perhaps the Panther fans also assessed their team’s chances well. There were 12,611 spectators in attendance – the largest UNI Dome crowd since 2017.

However, most of those were gone by the start of the fourth quarter as Farley had no answers for the Rabbits in Saturday’s Missouri Valley Football Conference opener for both teams.

SDSU players said they were prepared for something unexpected — a schematic adjustment here, a personnel change there — but it never actually happened. No, the Panthers chose to simply be the same team that finished 2-2 with two wins over non-scholarship Pioneer League teams and two losses to FBS teams.

As it turns out, maybe they should have tried with a bit of tact.

“We were kind of relieved when we saw that they wanted to be who they were this year,” linebacker Adam Bock said. “They stuck with what they were doing. We’re always prepared for something, but it’s nice to have an idea of ​​what to expect going into a game and then put that into action.”

Marcus Traxler/Mitchell Republic

The Jackrabbits outscored the Panthers 41-3, punishing them both physically and on the scoreboard.

UNI (2-3) managed just 66 rushing yards in the game (averaging 202) and committed four turnovers. They also thought about going for it on a fourth down in the first half, called a timeout to think about it, decided to punt and saw the Jacks block the punt and return it for a game-winning touchdown.

The SDSU offense, meanwhile, trailed quarterback Mark Gronowski’s best game of the season by 390 yards, and they barely broke a sweat, thanks in large part to the defense, which allowed them short fields and never put the Panthers in a position to score. to get something going type of dynamic.

Marcus Traxler/Mitchell Republic

This was a loss by any measure, and that it came on the road against a quality conference opponent only speaks to how good the Jacks are, even if they still appear to be on their way to a third straight national championship.

“When I played in that building, I was kind of expecting a dogfight,” said Gronowski, who went 16 of 22 for 223 yards and three touchdown passes. “We knew we had to start quickly to get the air out of the stadium quickly.”

It didn’t happen immediately. The Jacks (4-1) took a 3-0 lead in their opening series and only led 7-0 after one quarter. It was 10-0 in the second when Farley thought about a fourth down conversion attempt, and the hesitation opened the door for the biggest play of the game.

Marcus Traxler/Mitchell Republic

“We had a game plan all week (for a blocked punt),” said Brandon sophomore safety Noah Thompson, who picked up the blocked kick and ran it 50 yards for his first career touchdown To score 17:0. “We had a ’23’ call with Cullen (McShane) and I coming from both sides. Brody Gormley blew up the shield and Cullen dove in and blocked it and I just picked him up and brought him to the house. When they were there When we second guessed ourselves, we knew we had them. We were already playing well and that killed them straight away.

Just moments later, a Jarod DePriest strip sack gave the Jacks a short field and Chase Mason’s touchdown run made it 24-0. It was all but over at that point, but the SDSU defense persevered, extending its streak of consecutive games without allowing a touchdown to three. Since their 24-3 victory over Division II Augustana, the Jacks have posted victories of 41-0 and 41-3 in their bye week.

“We spent a lot of time together during the bye week, whether it was outside of football, hanging out with each other, but also on the field,” said Gronowski, whose team has won 31 in a row against FCS teams. “We were out there for 30 minutes after every practice, mapping out routes, discussing different things and even holding meetings with the receivers to get everyone on the same page, and it seemed like we were there today.”

Matt Zimmer is a Sioux Falls native and longtime sportswriter. He graduated from Washington High School, where he played football and Legion baseball and developed a lifelong love of the Minnesota Twins and Vikings. After graduating from St. Cloud State University, he returned to Sioux Falls and began a long career in amateur baseball and sports reporting. Email Matt at [email protected].