Transcript
Home of the Panthers Pre-Game · Sat Oct 1, 2022
Welcome to the Home of the Panthers podcast produced by News Talk 1540 KXCL and presented by I'm On Communications.
Experience the I'm On Difference.
I'm Tim Harwood.
Stay tuned to this week's conversation with UNI Panther Spencer Covalier right after this from I'm On Communications.
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The U.N.I.
Panthers picked up win number one for this 2022 fall schedule on Saturday last weekend against the Leathernecks of Western Illinois, a longtime Missouri Valley Football Conference opponent and another MVFC opponent that the Panthers know pretty well on the schedule.
a Saturday matchup against Indiana State.
To talk about it, we're joined now by UNI Panther senior linebacker Spencer Covalier.
Spencer, before we talk about the Sycamores, congratulations on the big win with the defense playing a tremendous role last Saturday.
Thank you very much Tim.
It was a lot of fun to be a part of.
Really, it was a game that on paper looks like a pretty complete victory.
I know it was a little bit of a slower start.
It was still scoreless after one quarter.
How did it feel?
Did it feel like a real complete win?
Yeah.
Well, we started off the game.
I mean, the defense came out pretty tough.
And actually, on their very first possession, they came down and drove the field a little bit.
And then, Benny Sapp ended up getting an interception right in the end zone there.
There were probably 25, 30 yards to go and quarterback through it.
to make a play on it to kind of get our defense, you know, little motivation going for the rest of the game and kind of, you know, set a standard for the rest of the game of being able to stop those guys.
So yeah, it was good.
We talked about turnovers last week and they really played a big role, especially in the second half, as the Panthers returned a couple of interceptions for touchdowns, three interceptions for the game.
So really, boy, we talk about points off of turnovers, but it's even better when you can get the points right away off the turnovers.
Yeah, it was.
We were able to make Western Illinois a little bit one-dimensional.
We were really stopping the run pretty well.
And they got in a lot of these empty sets.
They had, you know, no one in the back field.
They had five wide outs.
They spread out the field trying to throw a quick game, trying to throw the ball kind of all over the place.
And it really allowed for our D-Line to run some games and they had some sacks, put some pressure on the quarterback and then forced him to make a couple of errors where we were able to take advantage of those errors with a couple of interceptions that, you know, things went our way and it would turn them bad boys for touchdowns.
So no one in the backfield give us your read particularly against Western Illinois What's the role for the linebacker there when you know that there's almost certainly a pass coming your way?
Well, we were This season we've kind of been you know that we've been giving up some a lot of yards on draw plays and in a formation that we had seen from Western Illinois was that they run a lot of quarterback draws out of empty and so you know I was trying to get to my pass drop but also trying to get eyes back to the quarterback assuming or you know
kind of planning for a QB draw if it were to happen.
Happened maybe two or three times, but we actually got it shut down pretty quick when they did run it.
And so after that, I'm just reading the receivers to my side and trying to find any in-breaking route to defend.
At one point, I think it was last week, we talked about some of the big tackle totals that you had.
And you said, you know what, I don't care if I don't have any tackles if we win the game.
Not too far from the truth, but in that situation against statistically,
It doesn't necessarily match up with the reality of playing as part of an 11 man unit.
What's your day like when the tackles aren't there?
What are you doing that people don't see on the stat sheet to be productive and help the defense?
Making calls, making defensive calls and checks, trying to get guys aligned in the right positions and so we'll have a base defense call and then if they get in a certain formation, we have to make a check to that and we always have an empty check.
to try to defend against it because it's a different than a 3x1 or 2x2 formation.
And so just trying to get guys aligned and really just trying to put pressure on them in any way I can.
When you're in the defensive backfield and you know you're going to have to cover, is there a matchup that you particularly like?
Is there a matchup you don't like?
Do you want to not see a big tight end?
Do you want to try to chase a running back?
What's the situation that you like to be in or don't like to be in?
Personally, I do like the big tight ends.
I like being able to guard guys that are more my size.
The guys that are making it a little bit more difficult for myself is the little, you know, five, six to five, nine guys that are blazing fast.
Kind of a Tyreek Hill-esque, you know, NFL-wise.
You know, you kind of see him in the way he makes people miss in the NFL.
When there's the slot receiver, you know, prototypes that play.
when they're really quick.
You know, Western Illinois had one number six.
I'm not sure what his name was, but I mean, he had a couple good plays on us where he was just difficult to tackle.
He's just, you know, he's slipper and he's fast, and he's very low to the ground, low center base, and so he makes a cut.
It's quick.
It's a lot quicker than, you know, what a bigger man could do.
We're talking with UNI Panther senior linebacker Spencer Covalier talking football, the Panthers and the Indiana State Sycamores.
This week we'll get to the upcoming game and some preview details on the way.
First though,
Spencer, let's talk a little bit about one key aspect of your background before you got to UNI.
And that was your time playing junior college football at Iowa Central.
I know that you also dealt with an injury while you were there too.
And so that maybe skewed the junior college experience for you just a little bit.
But why was that an important step to get you from high school at Crestwood to UNI?
Yeah, I think I was central.
was one of the better decisions I've made in my career as a football player and really as a person to be completely honest with you.
I had a high school, I had some recruitment and attention from a couple of division one schools just here in Iowa but nothing ever really came of it and you know come February I really didn't have a place to go play football and that's you know the national signing day and I took a visit to Iowa Central in late January, talked to coach Kevin Tweet there and
But on my way home, I knew I was going to go to Iowa Central.
And it was a decision I'll always be grateful for.
Iowa Central was a great stepping stone, going in there my freshman year.
And I didn't know a single person.
I really didn't know much about the campus or really haven't been to Fort Dodge, Iowa before.
It was all pretty surreal as a brand new experience for myself.
And then it was kind of funny that I met some of my
Best friends I still talk to today.
We're all in a similar situation.
Maybe where we didn't feel that we got the attention that we, I shouldn't say deserved, but just didn't get a whole lot of other school attention coming from a small school in Iowa.
Being able to play at Iowa Central gave us a platform to perform and show our ability of what we can do.
Like you said, my first game there at Iowa Central was starting.
And then in the third quarter, I ended up tearing my ACL on a routine play.
It was kind of non-contact.
I just came up and just hit a guard on a run play.
And all of a sudden, just my knee buckled on me and ended up getting hurt.
And so with that happening, I was actually able to take a step back and actually try to learn the game of football.
I was thrown in there from a high school kid into college football.
It was a little bit of a different scenario than I was used to.
And so being able to kind of take a step back.
listen during meetings, take notes and really just learn from the coaching staff and other players around me and then try to utilize that information that I'd learned and kind of the coaching points and tips that they've made throughout the season and try to utilize those in the spring and then the following fall.
Was there at least a moment though where the injury happens and you think
Oh no, I've just lost half of my window to perform because it's only a two-year commitment that you've got there at the junior college level.
Yeah, I actually went there and was thinking, I only wanted to be there for six months, to be honest with you.
I just wanted to go there, have a school kind of find me, and then head out after that.
And obviously that didn't end up happening, and I'm almost glad it didn't.
The way it worked out, I want to change it for the world.
Very good life learning experience for myself, you know put aside football and aside school and things like that I learned a lot about myself and how to handle a little bit of adversity and You know at that point in my career.
I didn't when I got hurt I didn't really know if I was gonna be able to play football again You know I not that the NACL tears, you know career ending in most cases But I just didn't I just didn't really know what to expect moving forward because my first time really suffering an injury in my football career
Folks who follow UNI football like you did when you were a kid know about all the rivalries and all the history of the UNI program and certainly be the same for people who are Iowa fans, people who grew up watching Iowa football or any of the schools at the division one level to some degree.
What did it take to learn about
Iowa Central's football history and the important rivalries.
Is there the same type of rivalry there that you have with some of the other schools in the state?
Because there is so much turnover and it may be harder to build some of those things up when you don't see those teams three or four or five times in your college career.
Yeah, no there is definitely rivalries and I would say the biggest one was always Iowa Central versus Iowa Western.
You know it's an in-state matchup and the actually RAD.
uh... his son was the eighty at our western and so when we played them it was just it was just kind of uh... i mean a battle of you know right really between them but also just you always want to be known as the best junior college in iowa and so we knew that plain ellsworth is always a big game but always plan our western because they're always tough they're always a good team and we always want to perform our best against them
What sort of insights did the transfer experience give you when it comes to now the bigger transfer portal and watching players move around more than they ever have at the NCAA level?
Do you feel like you have some, maybe some sympathy or at least have some experience that you can share with those new players walking onto the UNI campus who potentially didn't expect to be there at some point earlier in the recruitment process?
Absolutely.
You know, coming into UNI,
I was very fortunate.
I had a high school buddy who actually played here at UNI.
One of my better buddies from school was a great older than me.
And then I also had a buddy from Iowa Central who had transferred to UNI the year before I came.
And so I knew some familiar faces when I got here.
But besides that, I mean, everybody else is, you know, I had not met before in their brand new faces.
And they, I mean, they treated me with respect and it was a very welcoming experience.
So now when we have transfers transferred from the division one school or junior college coming in I always try to be you know I always try to put myself in their shoes and say to myself when I was coming to you and I what was I looking for what was I hoping that players would do and so then I try to you know emulate that and try to help the transferring players any way I can whether it be showing them around campus or
telling them the do's and don'ts, how things are operated here, what may be different from your old school to this school, and just kind of the nuances of you and I that might be different from a previous school.
We're talking with UNI Panther senior linebacker Spencer Covalier, the Panthers and the Indiana State Sycamores this week.
First meeting in a while, it is one of those long time series with two different teams that can go all the way back to the Gateway Conference with games against each other back when that was the naming, the branding for the conference, but it's been since 2019.
How much does a team change over the course of that time even with this long history that you have against the Sycamores?
I
think we're about to find out this week.
I remember we played them in 2019 and they were a tough team.
I think the final of that game was 17-9 or something along those lines.
And I know we had to play a pretty tough defensive game against them at that point in time.
They had Dominic Daphne on that team, which is now a current NFL player for the Packers.
And he was a handful for us as well.
The Sycamores were right around 500 last year.
They're off to a one and two start this season.
Losses against a Division I FBS opponent in Purdue, an in-state rival, and a good Montana team.
Their most recent loss.
And they'll be coming off a bye week when you have a team that's in that position that hasn't played for a little while longer, that's had the extra week of preparation and recovery.
What do you expect?
I expect some fresh legs.
You know, they were able to get two weeks of preparation for us.
And so I'm sure they'll be on their P's and Q's and we'll have a pretty good game plan against us.
And so that just in turn means that this will be a very important week of practice for us as a defense and an offense and prepping against them just like we would any other team.
It's an opportunity for the Panthers to get back to the dome this week with the Sycamores coming into town.
And when you're looking at that opportunity,
What's different than being on the road last week?
What's different about trying to get what will be the first home win of the season?
Yeah,
there's no place like the Dome.
You know, we went to Western Illinois last weekend and it was almost an environment where we felt kind of like we had to create our own energy, you know, and that's in that you'll have that with away games.
But being home, you know, it's the place that I feel a lot of us feel like we're the fastest.
That's where we're playing fast and we have the home home crowd advantage and
It's always fun just to play in front of your friends and family that are, you know, around the air that are able to come watch you here in Cedar Falls.
And so it'll be the start to 104 home games in a row here and hoping to get on the right foot and kind of continue this track of
winning.
odd scheduling for any football team at any level to play that many home games consecutively.
Do you have any of the backstory about how that happened?
Is it a COVID after effect or what's the what's the circumstance that led to that?
Yeah, it's kind of an interesting deal.
I'm not exactly sure how the scheduling went.
And to be honest with you, I'm not I'm not too upset about it.
You know, we're gonna go go four home games in a row here.
and just try to roll as much as we possibly can and try to keep this momentum going.
What would you like fans to think about if they're on their way to maybe head to the parking lot right now?
Maybe they're listening while tailgating.
Just a last thought you can share with us.
Come in and be loud.
There's no better place than the dome when it's rocking.
When we played Sacramento State, it was booming in there.
We had a tough time making some checks on defense and that's the way we like it because if we know
If we're having a tough time making some calls on defense, we know the offense is struggling just as much, if not more.
Spencer, thanks for being back with us.
Absolutely, Tim.
Thank you.
Thanks for listening to the Home of the Panthers podcast with UNI Panther Spencer Covalier presented by Imon Communications.
Experience the Imon difference.
Join us again before next week's UNI football game for the Home of the Panthers podcast and listen to the game live on the Home of the Panthers News Talk 1540 KXEL.
I'm Tim Harwood.
Reliable internet service at the speed you need?
Sounds great!
Now add 24-7 customer service and no data caps?
Is this heaven?
No, it's Imon!
Internet packages as low as $47 per month with speeds up to one gig, so you can stream, game, work from home, or have a full house doing all of the above.
With Imon, your internet is fast, reliable, and backed by the best customer care.
That's the Imon difference!
Visit go.imon.net slash radio and switch to Imon today!
You're residential customers only, not available in all areas.
conditions apply.
