My Take

[Newsbreaker]

I'm as disappointed as everyone - this one is going to take a long time, but we've got great kids who represented us with dignity and class today, and who worked their asses off to almost bring a dream to our school. An extra FG or defensive stop would've made for a nicer saturday night, and I don't know what the hell that last play call was either, but I'm not going to spit in anyone's eye tonight.

This was a great team - as good as any in the country. You will never convince me that whomever hoists the trophy on friday is better than we were. These kids represented this program exactly as it should be - as one of the 4 or 5 best in the country, year in, year out. We should all be proud of our school, our fans - and most of all our players.

Reload. Take the next shot. One of the best things about being UNI, as opposed to most of the teams in our league (or even the team that beat us today) is that we know we will be back, and one of these days....just one of these days.

[LuvThePanthers]

Re: My Take

I'm as disappointed as everyone - this one is going to take a long time, but we've got great kids who represented us with dignity and class today, and who worked their asses off to almost bring a dream to our school. An extra FG or defensive stop would've made for a nicer saturday night, and I don't know what the hell that last play call was either, but I'm not going to spit in anyone's eye tonight.

This was a great team - as good as any in the country. You will never convince me that whomever hoists the trophy on friday is better than we were. These kids represented this program exactly as it should be - as one of the 4 or 5 best in the country, year in, year out. We should all be proud of our school, our fans - and most of all our players.

Reload. Take the next shot. One of the best things about being UNI, as opposed to most of the teams in our league (or even the team that beat us today) is that we know we will be back, and one of these days....just one of these days.

Absolutely. Our team represented us with class and dignity and will definitely be back next years. Great offensive line returning, excellent skilled players back, and we will reload our defense to be ready to go again. And on top of their athletic ability they will make us proud with the way they play the game.

[06panther10]

Re: My Take

I'm going to post the link of our football roster. I started looking at it tonight after the football game and it honestly made me feel better about tonight. There are really really good players on our roster that did not even see the field this year.

I agree with News, we WILL be back. Real soon.

take a look:
http://unipanthers.cstv.com/sports/m...ootbl-mtt.html

[Panthers to the Bone]

Re: My Take

I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this team's season. Thank you 2008 Panthers! From sitting in Beck's watching the mostly competitive BYU game, to tonight's tough game against Richmond.

This team lost to a top 20 FBS school, and then by a combined 4 points against two playoff FCS schools on last minute/second plays. This team has alot of growing to do over the next year, but this PROGRAM is at a point where it is reloading. We lose C-Lew and Swift on offense, but return everyone else. On D, the depth built on the D-line should help ease the loss of Huygens, Robertson, Kirk, and Pedescleaux. It will be tough to replace Harris' athleticism, but we have two very solid LB's in Thompson and Mahoney returning. The secondary loses everyone, but you have to think that Quentin Scott, Craig James, and Tre'Darrius Cannady have shown some good things this year to make solid strides to become key members of next year's defensive back group.

There are guys who were sitting on the bench (as stated before) who were POY's in other states. De'Andre Vandeventer was 2A offensive POY, Rayonn Simmons was STL Post Dispatch Missouri Offensive POY, LJ Fort was Class 5A Missouri POY, and Carlos Anderson was Class 6A Missouri Offensive co-POY.

[UNI Prof]

Re: My Take

I'm as disappointed as everyone - this one is going to take a long time, but we've got great kids who represented us with dignity and class today, and who worked their asses off to almost bring a dream to our school. An extra FG or defensive stop would've made for a nicer saturday night, and I don't know what the hell that last play call was either, but I'm not going to spit in anyone's eye tonight.

This was a great team - as good as any in the country. You will never convince me that whomever hoists the trophy on friday is better than we were. These kids represented this program exactly as it should be - as one of the 4 or 5 best in the country, year in, year out. We should all be proud of our school, our fans - and most of all our players.

Reload. Take the next shot. One of the best things about being UNI, as opposed to most of the teams in our league (or even the team that beat us today) is that we know we will be back, and one of these days....just one of these days.

Great post, News. This is how I felt immediately after the game. I was extremely disappointed that we lost one that we could/should have won, but I was also extremely proud of the way our team played this year. We have an outstanding PROGRAM if we make runs in our "down" years.

[dan_beeding]

Re: My Take

I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this team's season. Thank you 2008 Panthers! From sitting in Beck's watching the mostly competitive BYU game, to tonight's tough game against Richmond.

This team lost to a top 20 FBS school, and then by a combined 4 points against two playoff FCS schools on last minute/second plays. This team has alot of growing to do over the next year, but this PROGRAM is at a point where it is reloading. We lose C-Lew and Swift on offense, but return everyone else. On D, the depth built on the D-line should help ease the loss of Huygens, Robertson, Kirk, and Pedescleaux. It will be tough to replace Harris' athleticism, but we have two very solid LB's in Thompson and Mahoney returning. The secondary loses everyone, but you have to think that Quentin Scott, Craig James, and Tre'Darrius Cannady have shown some good things this year to make solid strides to become key members of next year's defensive back group.

There are guys who were sitting on the bench (as stated before) who were POY's in other states. De'Andre Vandeventer was 2A offensive POY, Rayonn Simmons was STL Post Dispatch Missouri Offensive POY, LJ Fort was Class 5A Missouri POY, and Carlos Anderson was Class 6A Missouri Offensive co-POY.

Anybody know if we have any quickness coming in at the running back spot? Would be nice to have a speedy compliment to Law, similar to Freeney/Horne '05.

[Panthers to the Bone]

Re: My Take

I would think that there should be b/t Anderson, Simmons, and Joe Johnson.

Anderson had a 4.4 40 coming out of HS. http://iowapreps.rivals.com/viewpros...p?pr_key=63508
Simmons had a 4.5 40 coming out of HS. http://iowapreps.rivals.com/viewpros...p?pr_key=73331
As for Johnson, I'm not sure.

[Panther93]

Re: My Take

Yes, thanks Newsy. That was well thought out and well written. I know a lot of us feel the same way. A lot of people have been expressing their opinions tonight and many have been done in anger and/or disappointment. We are all still shocked at what happened.

This is probably more crushing than any other defeat because we DON'T lose that way in the dome, it just doesn't happen. It's been what, 20 years since W. Illinois beat us with a 58 yard FG on the last play of the game? How many games close games have we won since that loss? I can think of a dozen games without blinking.

After a two hour drive home to DSM and listening to Gary, Petey, the players and Coach Farley, you could hear in their voices how crushed they all were. I've sat here for the past three hours just reading comments and staring at the TV.

To me this is 10 times worse than 2005. Then we made the play in San Marcos to get our shot to win it all. And even though we came so close, we had our shot. This year, we don't have a shot at the title. But that's sports, and in a few days we all will remember it's only sports. Except for Friday, that will be a bad reminder.

I'm afraid tomorrow might not be any better. Watching a game on TV I see and remember the big picture of the game. In the dome, I become so focused on what is next I lose sight of the big picture. I think I'm going to wake up and realize we were SO CLOSE!

Anyway, coaches and players, thanks for a great season and a great ride! We all know it wasn't the ending anyone wanted but it was nothing short of exciting.

Tomorrow the sun will rise, the world will keep moving and we will all feel a little better. It's just going to take a little longer this time for this Panther fan.

[06panther10]

Re: My Take

Things like this will make the day that the Panthers finally bring home the title THAT much sweeter. It will happen.

[TravelingPanther]

Re: My Take

Anybody know if we have any quickness coming in at the running back spot?

Carlos Anderson is sick. He plays if Lewis wasn't here.

[Purple For Life]

Re: My Take

Things like this will make the day that the Panthers finally bring home the title THAT much sweeter. It will happen.

...won't happen under Farley if he keeps up this level of piss-poor post season play calling.

[Panther'73]

Re: My Take

PFL - don't put this all on Farley - I can think of 6 different situations that the play was muffed on the field and would have resulted in UNI points. What would you have called???

[JCPanthers]

Re: My Take

...won't happen under Farley if he keeps up this level of piss-poor post season play calling.

Listen....Bill Salmon is the offensive coordinator and is the one who calls the plays. So get off Farley.

[Newsbreaker]

Re: My Take

Listen....Bill Salmon is the offensive coordinator and is the one who calls the plays. So get off Farley.

I don't understand the call - on the surface it appears to be complete nonsense, but I don't watch film for hours a week, I haven't spent hundreds or thousands of hours with these players, and I don't know exactly what they are capable of. That's a tough spot, you need to get 25 yards in about 8 seconds and then find your way out of bounds or down with a tick left...still hoping your 1 for 3 kicker can split the uprights. If you don't get it on the first crack, you're calling a hail mary on 2nd. It's not the call any of us would made - but we're in no position to make any calls.

Disappointing, but these guys, coaches and players, are all trying to win and want it even more than we do.

[Pantherpower]

Re: My Take

...won't happen under Farley if he keeps up this level of piss-poor post season play calling.

Take it easy, Frenchy. As JC said, Mark isn't the one sending in the plays. For the vast majority of the game, I thought they called a brilliant game. The coaches can't kick the field goals, catch throw backs or deliver strikes to wide open receivers, or haul in a perfectly thrown pass, etc. etc.