Head Coach Todd Stepsis

[QCPanther05]

Absolutley, but the reality is outside of some magic turn around almost never before seen the realistic expectation/standard to shoot for by year 3 is 6 to 7 wins. This is a complete and total reboot. Not a rebuild. Not a don't crash the train. This is from the actual ground up rebuild at a school with the smallest budget in the toughest/biggest conference in the country.

I've posted the numbers countless times over the years, but the standard of conference championships, playoff runs, etc. was set when UNI had a football budget of 3.8 million (2008's budget) and everyone else in the league, and most of the country, was between 2.5-3m.

UNI's most recent football budget was roughly 3.6 million. The FCS median was over 4 and the MVFC median was closer to 4.6.

We are spending less now, raw dollar for dollar, than we were in 2008. Add inflation to that and it is insane how much less we are spending, and that's without taking into account our peers.

We are, and this is a reality check many of us need to look at and decide how badly we want to work to fix it, the new WIU down to the colors (we use the exact same yellow, and there is only 1 Pantone shade difference between the purples). The expectation for the next 3-4 years isn't "conference championships". If that's your expectation for where we should be, you will be insanely miserable. Right now we need to learn how even to crawl, let alone walk or run with the current big boys.

We all want conference titles. Stepsis and the program will approach each season with that as their goal. As they should. Our budget isn't going to jump from 3.6 to 5 or 4.5 or probably even 4 overnight. I bet when we get the reporting for this season it is flat with David's last year. When we get next year's reporting in 2 years I'll be shocked if it's over 4. Just like getting back to winning titles, the budget growing isn't going to happen overnight/the first two or three years.

Your post got me thinking: did she hire Stepsis because he can recruit non-scholarship players…in anticipation of going non-scholarship at some point down the road? It’s only going to get more expensive and this state government is only going to choke UNI out more and more each year. Maybe that’s the long-term play?

[BCPanther]

Private schools use non-scholarship football to get 100 extra people to pay tuition.

The model really doesn't work at a public school.

[BCPanther]

Really looking forward to hearing what Coach had to say tonight at the PSC event.

Hate to miss it!

Let us know Panther AC

[Panther'73]

Really looking forward to hearing what Coach had to say tonight at the PSC event.

Hate to miss it!

Let us know Panther AC

He wasn’t there…

[Born-a-Panther]

He wasn’t there…

Was there any mention by anyone as to why or even a mention as to when we would be seeing him...?

[Panther'73]

Was there any mention by anyone as to why or even a mention as to when we would be seeing him...?

No, no mention at all. I heard there is a press conference next week. Megan is in Louisville with VB team…

[pnthr53]

Good thing she is attending events but I would have thought there would be some early public appearances for what I feel is the most important hire for the department probably ever.

[BCPanther]

Good thing she is attending events but I would have thought there would be some early public appearances for what I feel is the most important hire for the department probably ever.

And last night was a room full of people with a demonstrated ability to write checks.

You'd think you'd want to build some buzz. Not only there but with tons of social media stuff to generate some excitement for selling tickets.

This has kind of been the exact opposite of how every other department rolls out a new coach in a major sport.

[Blue42]

MVCBeat beat me to it but his results OOC against scholarship programs

EWU 35 - 32
USD 3 - 42
Tarleton State 29 - 43
UND 7 - 55
SDSU 7 - 70
NDSU 3 - 66
NDSU 14 - 56
Idaho 14 - 42
Montana State 7 - 45
UND 0 - 38
UND 7 - 47
SDSU 10 - 38

Or a combined 136-574...11.3-47.8

He has experience against them, but he doesn't have experience doing well against them. Or even marginally not embarrassed by the end of the first quarter. Yes, PFL program going against higher end FCS full scholarship programs. I get it. I also get we saw very similar results this past season against those programs.

To quote the late, great, Billy Mays - BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE

He has played 4 sub D1 games in his time. He is 1-4 in those games. Losses to NAIA Northwestern, D2 Missouri S&T, and D2 Truman State

Yes, Farley went 0-2 in Cheney. However, there is a fun difference between the team D+ beat and what Farley faced. EWU went 4-8 this year. They were 4-7 in 2023 and 3-8 in 2022.Farley lost to them in the playoffs in 2021. That EWU team was averaging just shy of 50 points, over 400 yards passing, and 160 yards rushing per game. They were ranked #4 in the final regular season STATS poll and 6 in the final regular season coaches poll. Farley took a team that actually couldn't move the ball forward to Cheney and gave up 19 points and out gained EWU 423-412. Going 2-15 killed us that game. Couldn't keep drives going. The other loss in Cheney was 2016 where EWU went 12-2 and lost in the semi-finals to the dumbest luckiest catch in the endzone I've ever seen. We held EWU to their lowest scoring output of the regular season, and 2nd lowest of the season. We were up 24-7 at half. EWU returned a kick to start the 2nd half to get 24-14 and momentum was theirs. They went up 28-24 less than a minute into the 4th. We took the lead with 4:13 left and they scored with 43 seconds left to win 34-30. I could go track it down but there were some awful PI penalties called against our DBs in that game that gave EWU critical 1st downs in the second half.

So yes, Stepsis took D+ to EWU and won. A place Farley lost twice in the last 8 years. Those EWU teams being faced were not the same.

Yes, he had a "close game" in the playoffs last weekend at Tarleton. I don't need to get into how FCS rankings work, and how far the FCS has fallen, but Tarleton is in their first year eligible after moving up from D2 and got an at-large bid out of the UAC. The UAC is hot garbage so the top teams just rack wins up. That conference consists of Utah Tech, 1st year D2 move up West Georgia, D2 move up North Alabama, Austin Peay, SUU, UCA. Sadly the UAC is probably 4th or 5th in the computer rankings because, well, the FCS truly just is the MVFC, top half of the Big Sky and then literally everyone else a few rungs down. It will be interesting to see how they do at USD this weekend and see if USD manages not to **** down their leg in the first game of the playoff for once.

We haven't sniffed a close playoff game in a while? I know for us 3 years feels awful, but it was just 3 years ago that EWU game I mentioned above happened. The full season before that we were in the quarterfinals with a 10 win season. The year before that we were in a 1 score game at the #5 ranked team in the nation in the playoffs. The year before that we had a 40 point win and then a loss at #5 SDSU. Again, these last 3 years have been awful. I get it. I agree. However, let's not lose sight of the larger picture when you're looking at things like that.

I am not trying to be negative about the hire. It's fair to say the resume, where he is coming from, etc. are, to but it bluntly, the ****tiest possible combo to try to win fans/donors over for it being a hire to excited about and give hope moving forward. As I've said, I gave David almost 5 years before I turned on him like I did. Stepsis won't get 5 years with me. 2025 is a nothing year. It's going to be awful no matter who the coach was. Sadly just our reality. First year taking over a program that was 3-9. The only expectation I have, as a fan, is that he shows he knows what he's doing and isn't completely out of his depth. Then put a recruiting class together that isn't awful. It won't be until mid 2026 anyone should really even begin to have a read on him, and probably 2027 before we truly get a sense of where it's going. That's all assuming no obvious catastrophic failures or magic turn arounds in the first year or two.

This is as negative I'm willing to be right now. I'm choosing to believe this hire will work. The same way I did, and still do, with Megan. The same way I did with David.

Close game with Tarleton.....meh.

Hot garbage.

[06panther10]

USD Coach Travis Johanson is leaving after 1 year to take the Rutgers DC job. I believe that we actually offered him the job but could not come to terms.

[06panther10]

And now Drake coach Joe Woodley has been hired by Rutgers as well. Abother guy that many wanted here at UNI, gone after 1 year.

[BCPanther]

Going to be interesting to see what Woodley's actual role is there. I'm guessing linebackers coach but, as we saw from our search, FCS HC jobs sure aren't what they used to be in the pecking order.

[Blue42]

Ex Montana HC Bobby Hauck to Illinois as DC.