# 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.

## Preseason
### MVFC poll

In the MVFC preseason poll released on July 29, 2019, the Panthers were predicted to finish in fifth place.
| 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.

## 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 StadiumAmes, IA | FS1 | L 26–29 $^{3OT}$ | 61,500 |
| September 7 | 4:00 p.m. | Southern Utah* | No. 11 | UNI-DomeCedar Falls, IA | PSN/ESPN3 | W 34–14 | 9,241 |
| September 21 | 4:00 p.m. | Idaho State* | No. 9 | UNI-DomeCedar Falls, IA | PSN/ESPN+ | W 13–6 | 8,339 |
| September 28 | 7:00 p.m. | at No. 5 Weber State* | No. 9 | Stewart StadiumOgden, UT | Pluto TV | L 17–29 | 6,582 |
| October 5 | 4:00 p.m. | No. 18 Youngstown State | No. 13 | UNI-DomeCedar Falls, IA | PSN/ESPN3 | W 21–14 | 10,137 |
| October 12 | 1:00 p.m. | at No. 1 North Dakota State | No. 10 | FargodomeFargo, ND | ESPN+ | L 14–46 | 18,178 |
| October 19 | 4:00 p.m. | South Dakota | No. 14 | UNI-DomeCedar Falls, IA | PSN/ESPN+ | W 42–27 | 10,201 |
| October 26 | 2:00 p.m. | at Missouri State | No. 11 | Robert W. Plaster StadiumSpringfield, MO | ESPN+ | W 29–6 | 6,583 |
| November 2 | 12:00 p.m. | at No. 7 Illinois State | No. 9 | Hancock StadiumNormal, IL | NBCCH/ESPN+ | W 27–10 | 6,705 |
| November 9 | 4:00 p.m. | Indiana State | No. 5 | UNI-DomeCedar 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 StadiumBrookings, SD | ESPN3 | L 7–38 | 7,317 |
| November 23 | 1:00 p.m. | Western Illinois | No. 9 | UNI-DomeCedar Falls, IA | ESPN3 | W 38–7 | 8,920 |
| November 30 | 1:00 p.m. | San Diego* | No. 6 | UNI-DomeCedar 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 StadiumBrookings, 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 StadiumHarrisonburg, VA (FCS Playoffs Quarterfinals) | ESPN2 | L 0–17 | 8,741 |
| *Non-conference gameHomecomingRankings from STATS Poll released prior to the gameAll times are in Central time ||||||||
* ↑ 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.

### 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 :
| | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | 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 |