Week 3 - #8 Sac State at Northern Iowa
The 8th ranked Hornets (1-0, 0-0 BSC) have a tough road game coming off a bye week as they head to perennial FCS playoff contender Northern Iowa Panthers (0-2, 0-0 MVFC). UNI hosts their home opener following a big
17-41 loss at Mountain West title contender Air Force followed by a close
27-29 road loss against a tough North Dakota team last week. The Panthers will no doubt be looking to take some frustrations out on the Hornets.
Offensively, UNI looks very balanced and has playmakers at every position. With offensive coordinator Ryan Clanton in his first season orchestrating the offense, this isn’t the 3 yards and a cloud of dust style of play the Hornets saw from a year ago. Quarterback Theo Day (40/59, 620 yds, 3 TD, 2 INT) has a strong accurate arm that can stretch the field with two very talented receivers in Deion McShane (12 rec, 263 yds, 1 TD) and Sam Schnee (11 rec, 131 yds). When UNI needs to get it done on the ground, they hand the ball to running back Dom Williams (19 car, 148 yds, 2 TD) who runs behind a big and very good offensive line.
Defensively, the Panthers aren’t as strong as they were a year ago due to graduation. UNI is still trying to find its footing on this side of the ball and were unable to get a stop in crunch time to give themselves a chance at a win in Grand Forks and gave up 438 yards in the process. The Hornet offense should be able to keep the Panthers on their heels if they come out and execute. Defensive back Korby Sander (18 tak, .05 TFL) and linebacker Spencer Cuvelier (15 tkl, 1 TFL, 1 sac) lead the Panthers in tackling.
UNI has an All-American kicker in Matthew Cook (3/5 FG, 5/5 PAT) and punter Cael Loecher that has dropped 3 of his 5 punts inside the 20 with a long of 51 yards. The Panther kick coverage did give up a big return last week.
I picked UNI to win this in the preseason and I haven’t seen anything over the first couple of weeks to change my mind. This is a winnable game thanks to the explosive Hornet offense, but I’m taking a “I’ll believe it when I see it” approach to the Hornets playing a complete game against a talented MVFC program.
Stingers Up!