2019 Northern Iowa Panthers football team

2019 Northern Iowa Panthers football
FCS Playoffs Quarterfinals, L 0–17 vs. James Madison
Conference	Missouri Valley Football Conference
Ranking
STATS	No. 5
FCS Coaches	No. 5
2019 record	10–5 (6–2 MVFC)
Head coach	Mark Farley (19th as HC, 30 overall season)
Home stadium	UNI-Dome (Capacity: 16,324)
Seasons ← 2018 2020 →

2019 Missouri Valley Football Conference standings
v t	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
No. 1 North Dakota State $^		8	–	0					16	–	0
No. 5 Northern Iowa ^		6	–	2					10	–	5
No. 7 Illinois State ^		5	–	3					10	–	5
No. 10 South Dakota State ^		5	–	3					8	–	5
Southern Illinois		5	–	3					7	–	5
South Dakota		4	–	4					5	–	7
Indiana State		3	–	5					5	–	7
Youngstown State		2	–	6					6	–	6
Missouri State		1	–	7					1	–	10
Western Illinois		1	–	7					1	–	11
$ – Conference champion ^ – FCS playoff participant Rankings from STATS Poll

The 2019 Northern Iowa Panthers football team represented the University of Northern Iowa in the 2019 NCAA Division I FCS football season. The team was led by Mark Farley in his 19th season and played their home games in the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls, Iowa as a member of the Missouri Valley Football Conference. They finished the season 10–5, 6–2 in MVFC play to finish in second place. They received an at-large bid to the FCS Playoffs where they defeated San Diego and South Dakota State to advance to the quarterfinals where they lost to James Madison.

Previous season[]

They finished the 2018 season 7–6, 5–3 in MVFC play to finish in a tie for third place. They received an at-large bid to the FCS Playoffs, where they defeated Lamar in the first round before losing to UC Davis in the second round.

Preseason[]

MVFC poll[]

In the MVFC preseason poll released on July 29, 2019, the Panthers were predicted to finish in fifth place.^[1]

Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	North Dakota State	392 (32)
2	South Dakota State	348 (4)
3	Illinois State	289 (3)
4	Indiana State	279 (1)
5	Northern Iowa	266
6	South Dakota	176
7	Youngstown State	153
8	Western Illinois	128
9	Southern Illinois	89
10	Missouri State	80

Preseason All–MVFC team[]

The Panthers had three players selected to the preseason all-MVFC team.^[2]

Schedule[]

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
August 31	11:00 a.m.	at No. 21 FBS Iowa State*	No. 18	Jack Trice Stadium Ames, IA	FS1	L 26–29 3OT	61,500
September 7	4:00 p.m.	Southern Utah*	No. 11	UNI-Dome Cedar Falls, IA	PSN[a]/ESPN3	W 34–14	9,241
September 21	4:00 p.m.	Idaho State*	No. 9	UNI-Dome Cedar Falls, IA	PSN/ESPN+	W 13–6	8,339
September 28	7:00 p.m.	at No. 5 Weber State*	No. 9	Stewart Stadium Ogden, UT	Pluto TV	L 17–29	6,582
October 5	4:00 p.m.	No. 18 Youngstown State	No. 13	UNI-Dome Cedar Falls, IA	PSN/ESPN3	W 21–14	10,137
October 12	1:00 p.m.	at No. 1 North Dakota State	No. 10	Fargodome Fargo, ND	ESPN+	L 14–46	18,178
October 19	4:00 p.m.	South Dakota	No. 14	UNI-Dome Cedar Falls, IA	PSN/ESPN+	W 42–27	10,201
October 26	2:00 p.m.	at Missouri State	No. 11	Robert W. Plaster Stadium Springfield, MO	ESPN+	W 29–6	6,583
November 2	12:00 p.m.	at No. 7 Illinois State	No. 9	Hancock Stadium Normal, IL	NBCCH/ESPN+	W 27–10	6,705
November 9	4:00 p.m.	Indiana State	No. 5	UNI-Dome Cedar Falls, IA	PSN/ESPN+	W 17–9	8,442
November 16	2:00 p.m.	at No. 8 South Dakota State	No. 4	Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium Brookings, SD	ESPN3	L 7–38	7,317
November 23	1:00 p.m.	Western Illinois	No. 9	UNI-Dome Cedar Falls, IA	ESPN3	W 38–7	8,920
November 30	1:00 p.m.	San Diego*	No. 6	UNI-Dome Cedar Falls, IA (FCS Playoffs First Round)	ESPN3	W 17–3	3,743
December 7	1:00 p.m.	at No. 10 South Dakota State*	No. 6	Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium Brookings, SD (FCS Playoffs Second Round)	ESPN3	W 13–10	4,102
December 13	6:00 p.m.	at No. 2 James Madison*	No. 6	Bridgeforth Stadium Harrisonburg, VA (FCS Playoffs Quarterfinals)	ESPN2	L 0–17	8,741
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from STATS Poll released prior to the game All times are in Central time

^[3][4]

Game summaries[]

at Iowa State[]

	1	2	3	4	OT	2OT	3OT	Total
No. 18 Panthers	0	0	13	0	3	7	3	26
No. 21 (FBS) Cyclones	3	0	7	3	3	7	6	29

Southern Utah[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
Thunderbirds	0	0	7	7	14
No. 11 Panthers	7	17	10	0	34

Idaho State[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bengals	3	3	0	0	6
No. 9 Panthers	0	3	0	10	13

at Weber State[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 9 Panthers	3	7	0	7	17
No. 5 Wildcats	20	7	2	0	29

Youngstown State[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 18 Penguins	0	7	7	0	14
No. 13 Panthers	7	14	0	0	21

at North Dakota State[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 10 Panthers	0	14	0	0	14
No. 1 Bison	15	3	7	21	46

South Dakota[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
Coyotes	21	3	3	0	27
No. 14 Panthers	14	7	14	7	42

at Missouri State[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 11 Panthers	0	19	10	0	29
Bears	0	0	0	6	6

at Illinois State[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 9 Panthers	7	7	0	13	27
No. 7 Redbirds	0	7	3	0	10

Indiana State[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
Sycamores	3	3	3	0	9
No. 5 Panthers	7	10	0	0	17

at South Dakota State[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 4 Panthers	0	0	7	0	7
No. 8 Jackrabbits	0	7	10	21	38

Western Illinois[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
Leathernecks	7	0	0	0	7
No. 9 Panthers	7	10	14	7	38

FCS Playoffs[]

The Panthers were selected for the postseason tournament, with a first-round pairing against San Diego.^[5]

San Diego–First Round[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
Toreros	0	3	0	0	3
No. 6 Panthers	7	0	0	10	17

at South Dakota State–Second Round[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 6 Panthers	0	3	7	3	13
No. 10 Jackrabbits	10	0	0	0	10

at James Madison–Quarterfinals[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 6 Panthers	0	0	0	0	0
No. 2 Dukes	7	3	0	7	17

Ranking movements[]

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking.

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Final
STATS FCS	18	11	11	9	9	13	10	14	11	9	5	4	9	6	5
Coaches	20	12	10	8	7	13	10	15	12	10	7	5	10	6	5

References[]