Thought I would look into UNI last night and give a statistical breakdown based off their depth chart
QB- They have four listed but by a lot of accounts it is down to Kolmorgen and Illinois four star transfer Bailey. Kollmorgen had a 52% completion last year, 5 int/12tds and 1/3 of his yards were to Johnson out of the backfield. Bailey saw spot duty at Illinois completing less than 50% and averaging 4 YPC running. Demos and Dunne are the other two. Demos is a KS JUCO and was ranked 6th best JUCO dual threat QB. Dunne is a RSFr that was all state three times at Grinnell
RB- Goodbye David Johnson! Hello Darian Miller a Kansas, four star, transfer that was second on the team in rushing last year with 91 carries and 332 yards. While at KU he had 322 yards his soph year, 559 yards his freshman year where he played against iSU and gained 70 yards on 17 carries. Next is Huggins who played at Rutgers for three years and accumulated 842 yards on 261 attempts seeing snaps all three seasons. Was a five star recruit and NJ's #1 rated player out of high school. OR Tyvis Smith who had 20 carries last year.
WR-UNI losses their top four receivers including Johnson. Their listed starters ar Brown,Fountain, and Cunningham who combined for 443 yards last year with Brown contributing 315 of those. Brown averaged over 16YPC so seems like their big play guy and was a CB his first season. Fountain averaged just over 11YPC and Cunningham was non existent his first couple of years catcching a total of six passes.
TE- Braden Lehman is a preseason all MVC player who had 11 catches for 203 yards for a 18.45 YPC.
OL- Relatively young and inexperienced OL . Return one regular starter from last year in Rathje at C. LG SR Rathmacher had five starts last year. RG-RSFr- Appleman redshirted last year. RT- Sweeney played in 13 games last year as a back up and LT-Schleuger was at Iowa Western last year. That is basically four new starters this year. Special note- True Freshman Cal Twait is in the two deep at LT. he is a player that some on the board wanted and apparently wanted to come to iSu. should be interesting to watch his career vs the OL that iSu brought in.
Offense breakdown- Think iSu last year. New OC and offensive staff, new OL coach, 3/4 new starters on the OL and talent at the skill positions. UNI replaces a ton on the offensive side. 3(more like 4) starters on the OL, Their top three WRS, and Johnson who is in the NFL. They have transfer talent at QB and RB as they have four star and five star players at both. However, that OL will need to be put together in a hurry. UNI also has a new OC in Davis who came from Shippensburg University. He runs a uptempo spread and if stats are a guide, looks to throw the ball as his QBs averaged over 300 YPG passing. Fellow Cyclone, Ben Barkema, joined the satff as the OL coach. WR coach comes over from Okiet St and TE/OT coach is a former grad assistant from Utah and Wyoming. Basically a completely new staff that has not worked together and a completely new offensive system.
Defense
DL- Largest starter is 271 so they will be the typical UNI DL smaller but quick. Preseason LE All American, Ales is their top returner and led the team in sacks last year with 9 and 18.5 TFL. He is someone to look out for. Next to him is Schult who had three starts and 31 tackles last year including 8 TFL. Reth had 20 tackles last year in a backup role. Peiffer at RE has played less and less each year and is backed up by McNeil who was starter last year until he blew out his knee. They do have 335# Douglas who was a 3 star Illinois transfer to look out for.
LB- Top returner is second team preseason All American McMakin who bounced back and forth betwee DL and LB last year. He was second leading tackler last year. In the middle is Jennings who was a backup ST player last year and finished with 16 tackles. Younger Farley Jared, will get the start after seeing time last year and starting one game.Backup Dexter had six starts last year and will come in when McMakin slides up front. Barkley Hill made the RB to MLB switch. And Farley's backup is a career backup ST player.
CB- Probably the strongest unit....Dorleant and Hall both received preseason All American honors with Hall being 2nd team and Dorleant receiving Honorable mention. They are solid, experienced players with decent size and speed. Dorleant is a Maryland Transfer.Backup Buchanan is an Arkansas transfer and they also have WV transfer
S- SS Kilfoy may be the best player on the defense. He is a first team All everything and was second on the team in INTs behind hall and tied for fifth in tackles. Seasoned, experienced player. FS- Jennings is a Nebraska transfer.
Defensive breakdown- Should be your typical stout, scrappy UNI defense. A couple new starters in the DL with some solid depth. The LB corp does not have a ton of experience and their best LB bounced back and forth between DL and LB the last couple of seasons.
It is always interesting to look at UNI's roster and see where they come from. They have a 4 and 5 star at RB. A 4 star QB. Three,3 star transfers at CB, a Nebraska transfer at FS, and a three star 335# DT transfer from Illinois. All in all their last class had seven transfers.
QB- They have four listed but by a lot of accounts it is down to Kolmorgen and Illinois four star transfer Bailey. Kollmorgen had a 52% completion last year, 5 int/12tds and 1/3 of his yards were to Johnson out of the backfield. Bailey saw spot duty at Illinois completing less than 50% and averaging 4 YPC running. Demos and Dunne are the other two. Demos is a KS JUCO and was ranked 6th best JUCO dual threat QB. Dunne is a RSFr that was all state three times at Grinnell
RB- Goodbye David Johnson! Hello Darian Miller a Kansas, four star, transfer that was second on the team in rushing last year with 91 carries and 332 yards. While at KU he had 322 yards his soph year, 559 yards his freshman year where he played against iSU and gained 70 yards on 17 carries. Next is Huggins who played at Rutgers for three years and accumulated 842 yards on 261 attempts seeing snaps all three seasons. Was a five star recruit and NJ's #1 rated player out of high school. OR Tyvis Smith who had 20 carries last year.
WR-UNI losses their top four receivers including Johnson. Their listed starters ar Brown,Fountain, and Cunningham who combined for 443 yards last year with Brown contributing 315 of those. Brown averaged over 16YPC so seems like their big play guy and was a CB his first season. Fountain averaged just over 11YPC and Cunningham was non existent his first couple of years catcching a total of six passes.
TE- Braden Lehman is a preseason all MVC player who had 11 catches for 203 yards for a 18.45 YPC.
OL- Relatively young and inexperienced OL . Return one regular starter from last year in Rathje at C. LG SR Rathmacher had five starts last year. RG-RSFr- Appleman redshirted last year. RT- Sweeney played in 13 games last year as a back up and LT-Schleuger was at Iowa Western last year. That is basically four new starters this year. Special note- True Freshman Cal Twait is in the two deep at LT. he is a player that some on the board wanted and apparently wanted to come to iSu. should be interesting to watch his career vs the OL that iSu brought in.
Offense breakdown- Think iSu last year. New OC and offensive staff, new OL coach, 3/4 new starters on the OL and talent at the skill positions. UNI replaces a ton on the offensive side. 3(more like 4) starters on the OL, Their top three WRS, and Johnson who is in the NFL. They have transfer talent at QB and RB as they have four star and five star players at both. However, that OL will need to be put together in a hurry. UNI also has a new OC in Davis who came from Shippensburg University. He runs a uptempo spread and if stats are a guide, looks to throw the ball as his QBs averaged over 300 YPG passing. Fellow Cyclone, Ben Barkema, joined the satff as the OL coach. WR coach comes over from Okiet St and TE/OT coach is a former grad assistant from Utah and Wyoming. Basically a completely new staff that has not worked together and a completely new offensive system.
Defense
DL- Largest starter is 271 so they will be the typical UNI DL smaller but quick. Preseason LE All American, Ales is their top returner and led the team in sacks last year with 9 and 18.5 TFL. He is someone to look out for. Next to him is Schult who had three starts and 31 tackles last year including 8 TFL. Reth had 20 tackles last year in a backup role. Peiffer at RE has played less and less each year and is backed up by McNeil who was starter last year until he blew out his knee. They do have 335# Douglas who was a 3 star Illinois transfer to look out for.
LB- Top returner is second team preseason All American McMakin who bounced back and forth betwee DL and LB last year. He was second leading tackler last year. In the middle is Jennings who was a backup ST player last year and finished with 16 tackles. Younger Farley Jared, will get the start after seeing time last year and starting one game.Backup Dexter had six starts last year and will come in when McMakin slides up front. Barkley Hill made the RB to MLB switch. And Farley's backup is a career backup ST player.
CB- Probably the strongest unit....Dorleant and Hall both received preseason All American honors with Hall being 2nd team and Dorleant receiving Honorable mention. They are solid, experienced players with decent size and speed. Dorleant is a Maryland Transfer.Backup Buchanan is an Arkansas transfer and they also have WV transfer
S- SS Kilfoy may be the best player on the defense. He is a first team All everything and was second on the team in INTs behind hall and tied for fifth in tackles. Seasoned, experienced player. FS- Jennings is a Nebraska transfer.
Defensive breakdown- Should be your typical stout, scrappy UNI defense. A couple new starters in the DL with some solid depth. The LB corp does not have a ton of experience and their best LB bounced back and forth between DL and LB the last couple of seasons.
It is always interesting to look at UNI's roster and see where they come from. They have a 4 and 5 star at RB. A 4 star QB. Three,3 star transfers at CB, a Nebraska transfer at FS, and a three star 335# DT transfer from Illinois. All in all their last class had seven transfers.
