Transcript
Home of the Panthers Pre-Game · Wed Oct 12, 2022
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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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Today, the UNI Panthers take a break from their Missouri Valley Football Conference schedule.
A non-conference game against Utah Tech.
We'll learn a little bit more about the team from St.
George, Utah as the day goes on.
But right now, we're going to connect with UNI Panther senior linebacker Spencer Kuvalier.
Spencer, the Panthers coming off a loss last week, homecoming weekend against Illinois State.
It was another close one.
Give us some general thoughts on the 23-
three 21 results.
Obviously not the result that we were hoping for or looking for.
We had a difficult time getting off the field on third down defensively.
You know, I think they were converted 13 of 20 third down conversions and one or two fourth down conversions.
So it just that that alone says a lot about the game.
You know, we just get ourselves in a position where it's, you know, a third and medium, third and long, you know, third and six to third and 10 somewhere in there and they just find a way to convert.
And so.
Defensively speaking, we just got to find a better way and try to be more productive on third downs and get our defense off the field.
It seems like fourth down conversions in some ways are underrated because not only do you get to keep the series going, you keep that drive going, but it really is tough on a defense to see the other team convert a fourth down.
It really is, yeah.
Factors of making a defense tired in ways, you know and we kind of experienced that a little bit two weeks ago against Indiana State You know they they had those long sustained drives in the first and second half where they were convert third downs and then they converted a couple fourth downs too and it really just keeps drives alive and in turn can put points on a board and you know that's kind of what we saw last Saturday against Illinois State where They just would convert, you know a long third down or it was fourth and short and they converted fourth down and turned into a couple points and so those are just the ones that you
Those are the plays you wish you could get back.
You know, we talked about time of possession in a previous installment of this feature.
And I remember you saying that in that game.
It didn't feel like the time of possession was as tilted as much as it was.
It was about 10 minutes different.
And it's very similar when we look at the Illinois State time of possession this most recent week.
Did it feel any different?
Did it feel like it was a heavier load to carry that extra 10 minutes of game action on the defensive shoulders?
It was fairly similar to Indiana State.
I felt we did some good things defensively, to be completely honest with you.
I felt like we
made some big plays.
Obviously, we gave up one or two explosive plays, but I didn't feel like they were throwing 30-yard bombs on us or busting 25-yard runs.
I feel like it was just nickel and dominoes for four yards here, five yards here, and just kind of having that consistent drive where it turns into, you know, 12, 13, 14 plays where it's a lot of opportunities for a defense to come up and make something happen, make a play.
But unfortunately, we weren't able to do that.
And another game against the Missouri Valley Conference opponent, the Panthers already have played four games.
By comparison, after last week, Illinois State, only two conference games.
Do you look at the standings and say, wow, we've played a lot more conference games than some of the other teams in the MVFC?
And I know that there are so many different circumstances that could play out.
And there's a lot of unknowns about how the season will go.
And everyone is going to catch up sooner or later.
But does it feel strange to have played all these conference games already?
It's different from years past.
Typically we'd go, we'd have our first game, then a bye week, and then two more non-conference, then we'd kind of get into the conference schedule, as you can kind of see Illinois State sitting their conference schedule stride, whereas we played ours our first one week two, and then followed up by week four, week five, and week six.
So, yeah, we've played a lot of conference games.
I don't get too caught up in the standings, because I know the Missouri value.
Football conferences is the best conference in the FCS football arguably every see in the big sky.
So Moving forward, you know, we know what is possible.
I mean the playoff playoffs are still still our goal.
That's obviously a very attainable task We're just gonna really have to battle and in our backs are against the wall a little bit But we're gonna we're gonna give it everything we got
the timings a little bit different but last year the lost Illinois State was one of those losses that
put the Panthers in a similar position to where the team is this year.
Is that something that you or the other players in the locker room can go back and draw upon and say, hey, we've been in this situation before.
We've lost this game before.
We can bounce back from this loss like we did last year.
Yeah.
And even talking to some of the alumni guys who came to the game last weekend, sharing similar experiences where they had maybe four or five losses a little earlier in the season than they would have hoped.
And, you know, they also did the same thing, like your backs against the wall, but I mean the playoffs are still, you know, you still have a great chance of doing it.
You just have to go out there and perform each week and continue to get better, I think is the main objective.
The offense has been playing really well and I feel like it's up to us leaders on defense to kind of get things honed in and start making a bigger impact.
We're talking with UNI Panther senior linebacker Spencer Kuvalier.
Last week was homecoming week as you alluded to there were some players who were back who were familiar faces and that had to be a lot of fun.
We talked a little bit about that last week but some news this week that came out the big plan to renovate the dome.
$50 million over three phases probably several years.
What do you know about that plan?
What are the players talking about when it comes to some of the buzz that came with that announcement from athletics director David Harris on Monday?
Anytime you hear anything new is always kind of exciting, especially related to the dome.
And you know, we got last spring, we were able to start playing on the new turf practice field, which has been absolutely unbelievable.
On top of this last fall, they had the newly constructed team room.
that we've been taken full advantage of.
You know, we're in there every single day for meetings and things like that.
And it's awesome.
I think what they're going to do to the dome, I've seen some of the pictures that they auto-generated or however they did that.
And it looks awesome.
It looks modern.
It looks like it's going to attract people, and not only people, but recruits and their families.
And hopefully bring Panther Nation back to looking forward to coming to more games.
with updated features.
You mentioned the team room, which is wrapped in, even though that's already basically ready to go, completed.
They've done the ribbon cutting on it.
It is part of phase one of this dome improvement plan.
Give us a before and after.
What did the Panthers do before this team room was available when that space didn't really exist for meetings for other functions?
And how does it compare now?
It's actually kind of funny that you asked.
I really hadn't thought back to
you know, prior to the team room being built, but we used to meet in the, they called the media room, which is underneath the connector between the McLeod and the dome there.
And it's just a bunch of single chairs that are typically stacked up and you grab a chair and unstack it.
And, you know, we sat in rows.
There was no fold over desk to take notes on.
There was three different boards with projectors on them.
Looking back at it, it's almost old school, you know, even though, you know, as a year ago, we were utilizing that.
But with the new team room, they have, I mean, everybody has a chair and they're comfortable and they have the fold over desk so you can take notes on them.
There's two big projector screens within TVs in the corner that also show the film or whatever we're watching at the time.
And so there's this, it's a lot different experience, you know?
It feels a lot like a big program in college football.
And so sitting there in the new team meeting room is really special, especially being able to experience.
the before, you know, the team room and now after it's being built.
I know the roof announcement had also been made previously that they're going to put the cloth part of the roof up with new material and that's going to be done.
Are there some other things that you've noticed that seem like they're, they're things that feel like the building's almost 50 years old that you look around and say, you know,
I remember this when I was watching games in the stands.
I'd love it if it looked like this instead.
Yeah, kind of funny, actually.
When I was a kid, I used to go to the bathrooms, actually, and they have the urinal troughs.
And to be completely honest with you, they still have them now.
And so I would assume that would be one of the new renovations that they may make with the hopes in the next few years or years to come with the newly renovation talks.
I do know that bathrooms are part of, I think, phase two of this project, so that's going to be a happening thing at some point, but it wasn't completely clear if they worked out a timeline for particular dates yet.
Have you heard anything about, you know, they want to be done with phase one by this point, they want to be into phase two, or is there some overlap or anything like that that has gotten into the locker room?
I haven't heard any specific details, but I know I think I'm sure the number one objective is to try to start to raise the money and continue to raise the money to make the dome renovations possible.
And that is one of the other things about this project is that they do hope to get all 50 million dollars for it in donations.
They don't anticipate it coming from other sources.
So good luck to the folks who will be doing the fundraising.
They've got a lot of work in front of them, but a lot of loyal Panther fans to draw from too.
And you mentioned the practice field too.
Just a moment ago you talked about that being a new opportunity that wasn't available before.
I don't know if it's gotten lost among...
the public's consciousness, but that's come and gone a little bit.
Still something that you're using on an almost everyday basis.
And let's do the before and after thing again.
What's it like today compared to what was there before for the Panther football team?
Yeah, absolutely.
And you know, it's similar to the team room.
You know, what we had before was just two grass fields that were, I would say, roughly 100 yards long, side by side next to each other.
And there's a couple holes here and there, and there's obviously no lights out there.
So any practice at night or anything like that wasn't possible.
And it wasn't, I don't know if I want to talk poorly on it, but it wasn't that great.
But you got to make do with what you had.
It's the same field that coach probably practiced on back when he played football here, too.
And so now with the new turf field, it's
It's actually unbelievable.
The way you feel on it, it's an outdoor turf.
And so that we get to experience the indoor turf and outdoor turf, depending on what we're doing that week and where we're playing.
And so we can kind of get used to the surface that we'll be playing on.
And so the practice field that was donated and built has been nothing short of awesome.
I don't know if it was intentional or not, but the the idea that the fields were roughly a hundred yards It just it suggests that things were a little more casual than what they are with this this new practice facility and let me ask about what it means to
incoming football players, recruits, potential recruits.
Have you heard from them when they've looked around and seen some of these new amenities, the team room, the practice field, and what kind of feedback are they giving that might or might not be getting to the coaching staff if they get the chance to talk with players who are taking them around campus?
I feel like they're very excited for it.
Obviously the upcoming recruiting class and the newcomers to UNI football won't
Fully appreciate it because they they don't know what the before is but they're certainly gonna appreciate it knowing how awesome the team room and and the new practice feel this and You know there's gonna be guys Throughout this program for the next three four years.
They're gonna be able to tell the younger guys like hey listen We we didn't always have this you know like this is this is new I mean this is something you have to respect and upkeep and and it's something that we take pride in as a unit
Well, we're talking with UNI Panther senior linebacker Spencer Kuvalier, and usually we leave a little more time to talk about the game of the day.
But with Utah Tech, there aren't too many questions I can ask.
It's the first meeting between the two programs.
The Trail Blazers are just transitioning to Division I football.
What can you tell us?
Is it as many unknowns for the team as it is for the fans?
I know they like to spread the field a little bit and they like to get their ball in the receiver's hands.
And a common opponent in Sacramento State, so you may have seen some Utah Tech game film when you were getting ready for that Sacramento State game.
I have to think if you had anything from this year to look at for Sacramento State, it would have been that Utah Tech film from September 3rd.
Yeah, absolutely.
We watched their film against Sac State, but obviously when we were preparing for Sac State, we were watching Sac State's offense.
Compared to where this week we watched Utah Tech's offense and then in turn watch Tech State's defense and so you know not watching the full game and when preparing for for teams We're just watching the offense as a defense here at UNI and so you know preparing the best we possibly can putting together a
a great game plan that people can feel confident in and try to execute it on Saturday.
And that's a great point too, because when I'm thinking about watching film, I'm going back to high school football when you had the offense and defense all in the same room.
You just watched the whole game in sequence because you had so many players crossed over that played both offense and defense, much different world in college football.
So thank you for pointing that out, Spencer.
And let me just ask, too, about looking
at the western part of the country.
Are there things that they do similarly?
Because it seems like when we talked about Sacramento State and what you said already about Utah Tech, that they both want to open things up, that they both want to throw the ball around the field, spread the offense.
Is that something in your experience that's just one of those things that western teams want to do?
I feel like it's a thing that fair weather teams want to do.
Being in the western part of the country and probably the southern part too, I feel like since you're playing in
fair weather games for the majority of the year that you typically pass the ball a lot more and distribute the ball that way.
Whereas when you're in the Midwest, you know, if you're playing with snow on the ground and things like that, you have to establish a run game.
And so you're going to be predominantly more run than pass in certain situations.
And so there's more of a balance, I feel like, for teams in the Missouri Valley, whereas like the Big Sky, or some teams in the Big Sky, but you know, the WAC conference and the teams that play in the Southern and Western part of the...
United States where they are able to, you know, spread out the field and throw a lot more passes.
Well, give us a last thought about what is top of mind for you going into this game.
Again, a non-conference game wedged in the middle of the schedule against an opponent that you've not ever seen before.
A lot of really interesting variables for week number seven of the season.
What are you thinking about?
Just trying to execute the game plan.
It's all we can do, you know, to go out there.
Play with confidence.
Pin your ears back and have your eyes up and go find the ball.
That's how it is every week.
And just because you haven't played in before, it doesn't change anything.
We're going to go out there and try to go play to the best of our ability because that's what we owe each other as teammates.
Thanks for listening to the Home of the Panthers podcast with UNI Panthers 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 KXCL.
I'm Tim Harwood.
With the Emmet's gold card.
You can earn four times points at U.S.
supermarkets because the best nights in start with the grocery run that makes it happen.
And when meals come with four times points, moments around the table add up to even more.
Apply today and find out your welcome offer, which could be as high as 100,000 points.
Learn more at americanexpress.com slash explore-gold terms and points cap apply.
