2019 Northern Iowa Panthers football team

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.

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)

2019 Missouri Valley Football Conference standings
	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

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]

Offense Briley Moore – TE Jackson Scott-Brown – OL

Defense Xavior Williams – DB

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[lower-alpha 1]/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]

1. Panther Sports Network involves these channels (CFU Ch. 15/HD415; KCRG-TV Ch. 9.2; WHO-DT Ch. 13.2; KGCW Ch. 26, (NBC Sports Chicago or NBC Sports Chicago Plus)

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.
NR = Not ranked. RV = Received votes. т = Tied with team above or below. ( ) = First place votes.

	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

1. "North Dakota State Picked to Win Missouri Valley Football Crown". www.valleynewslive.com. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
2. "MVFC Announces Preseason All-Conference Team". valley-football.org. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
3. "2019 Northern Iowa Football Schedule". FBSchedules.com. Retrieved August 1, 2019.
4. "2019 Football Schedule". UNI Athletics. Retrieved August 1, 2019.
5. "FCS bracket revealed for 2019 Division I football championship". ncaa.com. November 24, 2019. Retrieved November 24, 2019.