Penguins look for first win at UNI since 1999

October 21, 2017 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown State is looking for its first win against Northern Iowa in the UNI-Dome since 1999. What the Penguins will find in today’s visit to Cedar Falls is a Panthers team that has lately left observers scratching their heads.

UNI’s 3-3 season had been pretty ho-hum with no winning or losing streaks, no top-25 wins and an unbalanced offense. Then last week’s 38-18 road victory against then-No. 7 South Dakota State, ruining “Hobo Day” — the Jackrabbits’ version of homecoming.

“They had a bunch of takeaways and turnovers against South Dakota State — they could have had a few more, but they dropped a couple interceptions,” Penguins coach Bo Pelini said. “They kind of got out ahead of them and used ball control. It was a wet and kind of sloppy field, but they played well and got a good win for their program.”

UNI intercepted SDSU’s Taryn Christion once and recovered two fumbles in the win. The Panthers followed the blue print the Penguins had for the Jackrabbits a month ago, holding the ball for 40 minutes to YSU’s 45. The surprise was that UNI had a good enough run game to execute such a game plan.

Statistically, the Panthers have the Missouri Valley Football Conference’s worst rushing attack and it’s not even close, with just 581 yards and four touchdowns on the season. Three of those TDs came last week and lowlights this year include a 28-carry, minus 18-yard performance in a 24-21 loss to Southern Utah and before facing the Jackrabbits, the Panthers had 35 rushing yards on 30 carries in a 38-29 loss to Western Illinois.

Enter junior running back Marcus Weymiller. Playing in his first game of the season last week because of an ankle injury, he made up for lost time by becoming the first player on his team with a 100-plus rushing yard performance this season with 170 yards and two touchdowns. He’s previously played wide receiver for the Panthers, who occasionally run the wildcat.

UNI has a high-volume passing attack that’s so-so from an efficiency standpoint. Eli Dunne’s 1,648 yards and 17 passing touchdowns aren’t too far behind South Dakota’s Chris Streveler for leading the conference in those stats, but he’s tied for a league high in picks with eight and has been sacked 16 times — tying YSU’s season total. The South Dakota State game was an outlier for that category as well as Dunne was brought to the turf once. Normally, the Panthers are good for giving up at least two sacks a game.

Defensively, UNI ranks eighth in the MVFC in total and scoring defense, conceding an average of 424.7 yards and 29.5 points per game. Linebacker Jared Farley is second in the league in tackles with 67 and fellow linebacker Duncan Ferch is No. 9 in that category with 42.