Shows›Home of the Panthers Pre-Game›KXEL Presents: The Home of the Panthers Pre-Game Podcast - September 16, 2022›Transcript

Transcript

KXEL Presents: The Home of the Panthers Pre-Game Podcast - September 16, 2022

Home of the Panthers Pre-Game · Fri Sep 16, 2022

Who used all the Wi-Fi?

Ah, apartment life.

Bad Wi-Fi, mystery laundry piles, and a roommate who says, I'll Venmo you.

Maybe 2027 deserves an upgrade.

Coming August 2027, Four Lakes Properties introduces the brand new Union Station Apartments.

Furnished, in-unit washer and dryer.

Internet included.

A great central downtown location.

One to five bedroom apartments.

And no double occupancy fees.

That's less adulting and more actually enjoying where you live.

Union Station Apartments.

Now leasing from Four Lakes Properties.

Wait, we have a washer and dryer in the apartment?

Welcome

to the Home of the Panthers podcast produced by News Talk 1540 KXCL and presented by I'm On Communications.

Experience the I'm On Difference.

I'm Tim Harwood.

Stay tuned to this week's conversation with UNI Panther Spencer Covalier right after this from I'm On Communications.

Reliable internet service at the speed you need?

Sounds great!

Now add 24-7 customer service and no data caps?

Is this heaven?

No, it's Imon!

Internet packages as low as $47 per month with speeds up to one gig, so you can stream, game, work from home, or have a full house doing all of the above.

With Imon, your internet is fast, reliable, and backed by the best customer pair.

That's the Imon difference!

Visit go.imon.net slash radio and switch to Imon today.

You're residential customers only, not available in all areas of the world.

conditions apply.

Last September the UNI Panthers picked up their first win of the season against the Sacramento State Hornets and today the Panthers look to do exactly the same thing about a year later.

Football coming up from the unidome for the first time this season.

We'll talk about that and more with UNI Panther linebacker Spencer Cuvillier who joins us ahead of today's game.

Spencer thanks for being with us and first and foremost

What does it mean to get to the dome for the first time this season after a couple of road trips first to Air Force and then last week up to North Dakota?

Yeah, thanks for having me and Tim.

Yeah, it's going to be a nice, nice little change of pace.

Playing back-to-back away games to start the season and finally, you know, coming back home and playing on our own turf, figuratively and literally, you know, in front of the home crowd.

And the dome is a little bit of our advantage, you know?

It's the dome air is a little bit different for...

for opposing teams and you never feel faster than you do feel in the dome.

You feel as fast as you possibly can and play in front of the home crowd it's just a little bit of different feeling when you're playing the ball.

Always great to have the home crowd cheering for you when you're the one coming out onto the field instead of either ignoring you or worse as sometimes might happen depending on the location.

Let's talk about last week's road game up at North Dakota.

It was a close one all throughout.

Let me start by getting your general impressions of that 29-27 result North Dakota coming out on top.

I feel like we did some good things, and I just feel like we just weren't as consistent as we needed to be.

We made errors.

They converted some third downs that were, you know, killer for us.

Just couldn't seem to get them off the field.

I think they possessed the ball for...

38 minutes or something like that.

And I think our offense had it for 21 minutes.

And so just being on the field for as long as we were, we just needed to find a way to get off the field.

We just kept on coming up short, you know, trying to find that play to get us off the field.

And so we're just kind of battling ourselves and made it very difficult throughout the game.

Was there a turning point moment because the game was close at half?

You and I with the lead.

It was a one-point game with North Dakota swinging in front going into the fourth quarter.

Was there really a moment in that game where things took a turn in their favor?

I think there's just the few moments on those third downs.

I mean, we, you know, we get them in a third and long situation.

So anywhere from like six to 10 yards, you get them in a third and long situation.

And then, you know, the quarterback gets out of the pocket and then

makes a throw down field.

And there's, I mean, one place specifically where quarterback threw it, Bryce Flatter got an interception, but we got called for pass interference on the play.

And so it's just, just plays like that that seemed like they just kept on just biting us a little bit and just kept us on the field, kept North Dakota's offense on the field.

And, and get, give them credit where it's, where it's due.

They, they played a good football game.

You called it last week right around this time when we were talking ahead of the matchup.

Tyler Hoosman, the former UNI Panther.

He had a pretty good day, scored a key touchdown in the second half of that game.

What did he look like when he was out in the field?

What was similar or different from what you remember when he was wearing friendly colors last year?

Hoosman's always been a hard worker, and he's always been a truck, if that makes sense.

He runs the ball hard.

He runs north and south.

There's not a lot of east and west movement to him.

He's going to lower his shoulder pads.

try to fall forward and get the extra two, three yards that he can.

And that's what he did.

I mean, he ran runs hard.

You know, we had him bottle up.

I felt pretty good the first three quarters.

And then come the fourth quarter, I think he had a 45 yard run on us that, you know, he got hit either at or, you know, maybe yard past the line of scrimmage and then slipped out of some hands of some guys, myself included and, you know, scored it out 45 yards after that.

And so he's a heck of a running back.

And I think you'll have good things and good success this year.

Well, it was a day where you had 10 tackles, seven of them solos, a big sack in the game.

How are you feeling at this point coming back from that shoulder injury, which slowed you down at the end of last season?

That stat line certainly looks pretty solid.

And it was the top tackle total for the Panthers last week.

I hate to say this, but I feel like it should have been more.

I feel like I missed some opportunities where I should have made them.

But a lot of those tackles are credit to our defensive line and the guys around me.

the defense line of the guys taken on the double teams.

The guys in coverage or the guys in the secondary are in coverage and buying time for the quarterback to have to either run the ball and I come up and make a play two, three yards past the line of scrimmage or something along those lines.

But even though the 10 tackles and whatever have you, I would take zero tackles in a win walking out of the last Saturday.

We're talking with UNI Panther linebacker Spencer Covalier ahead of the Panthers match up today against Sacramento State and we'll get to the Hornets coming up.

Let me ask about something I'm sure you've talked about many times in your time as a UNI Panther and that is that you are playing the same position that head coach Mark Farley played to tremendous effect during his career.

You're in a similar role today that he was.

Getting close to 40 years ago, I'm sure that that comes up.

What do you tell people about having those eyes on you with that experience that is must be different for every other position group?

Yeah, having coach probably haven't played in linebacker before.

You know, he's going to tell you exactly how he feels and he's going to tell you how he feels the position should be played.

And I personally, I wouldn't want it any other way.

He's going to be honest with you.

And what more could I ask for?

He found great success here at UNI playing linebacker and so did his two sons.

And actually, when I play, I'll go up to the office and watch some film of 2016 film and try to watch his son Jared Farley play football.

He plays with great technique.

He uses his hands incredibly well.

He's fast.

He plays at the great pad level.

He's a great guy to try to emulate your game after.

And I'm sure he learned just about everything he could from his old man.

And so, having coach Farley play the position.

It almost puts like another level to that that you want to reach because he's wanted you almost want to impress him You know you want you want him to be you tell you good job because you know what he's saying good job He means it and it actually means something

So there have been many times in the past where I've talked to coaches who've Accomplished whatever notable things that they've done in their careers and I've asked them do you talk about this with your players and

And a lot of the responses, you know what, the players don't want to hear stories about what I did or what happened 20 years ago or longer or whatever amount of time it is.

Let me put that to you as a player.

Do you want to hear those stories?

Are you interested in knowing what you and I football was like in the 1980s when Mark Farley was roaming the defensive backfield?

It is interesting to hear and kind of interesting to hear, you know, some of the things that change, but then, you know, some of the things that haven't changed, whether it be the workouts that we do in the spring.

and things along those lines, but I'm always curious to hear what the pass is like, and especially hearing it from a guy who's lived, breathed, and been with the Panthers for longer than I've ever even been alive.

This is his home, but he absolutely loves, he loves Panther football, he lives and breathes it, and hearing from a guy like that, I'm always interested.

I wish you would talk about it a little bit more, and as much as he may think that we may not want to hear it.

Yeah, I think I would love to hear stories from the past and and coach pop is another example of that I haven't experienced and then a fellow as well and here at you and I Before he ever tells us a story From you know, preferably professional level of college.

He always talks about you know, he's like do you guys mind if I tell you a story and For you know, when we play the dolphins and everyone's like absolutely like let's hear like what do you what are you waiting for type deal?

You know like we love

We love just talking football.

And when the coaches can talk about their prior experiences, it's interesting and it's enjoyable to listen to.

We all have this, I think, picture of a football locker room and that fire and brimstone motivational speech, either at halftime or right before the game starts.

Is that what it's really like?

Or is the atmosphere different?

Do you sometimes, do you find you guys are laughing at some of the things the coaches are saying?

There's definitely a time and place for that.

I wouldn't say every game there's a.

brimstone motivational speech like you'd see in a movie.

But throughout my career, I've certainly seen a few motivational speeches where, you know, guys start hooting hollering and you almost kind of get the goosebumps, you know, living through a moment like that.

So we know that coach Farley at the top of the pyramid is going to be focused on linebackers to some degree just because that's what he did.

But the linebackers coach for the Panthers is Griffin McCarley.

Could you talk about working with him and what he brings maybe in a little bit more behind the scenes way that fans won't necessarily connect with because they don't know his story to the same degree they know Mark Farley's.

Coach McCarley is a guy who absolutely loves football and you can tell it by the way he you know goes about his his own personal well-being.

The way he treats us as players with you know respect but always wanting us to be able to play to our best ability.

He does a lot of great things.

I feel like he's very Educational he's actually I've learned a lot about the game of football just through him and the way he talks and the way he goes about coaching and teaching us linebackers and And it's it's interesting too because he I mean, he's a younger guy.

I mean, I don't think he's quite 30 years old yet He might be younger than that.

So having a guy that's you know, we have Farley on one end of the spectrum I mean who's lived at breathe it and has been around it for 40 years and we have kind of a new and upcoming guy who

you know, graduated playing football a few years back and now has turned around and started coaching right away.

So we kind of get both ends of the spectrum as far as like a couple of different ways of being coached, quite ought to be quite honest with you.

And I've really enjoyed coach McCarley's time here.

And, you know, I think he's going to do great things.

We're talking with UNI Panther senior linebacker Spencer Kouvalier.

And we've talked about the

game against Sacramento State in reference to last year in passing.

Let's come back to today and today's opponent, the Hornets.

Big game for you last year and the Panthers win against Sacramento State.

It was a 34 to 16 final, 15 tackles for you.

Big day out there.

And as I mentioned when we started, like that day, you and I looking for their first win of this season against the Hornets.

But tell me what you remember about last year.

I remember being

It was about six o'clock at night.

I think we played that game.

Maybe a little later.

Maybe it was even seven somewhere in there.

And the sun was just about to start setting, but we're out in California.

It's, you know, week two, week three, whatever, whatever week it was.

And it was, it started, it was hot.

The turf was hot out there.

I remember having a difficult time trying to catch my breath at a few moments because they're an up tempo team.

They go quick and they try to get, you know, 85, 90 snaps on you.

And I know last year, I think they, I think they had 90 snaps or so, but we were able to

last year four six turnovers against them that really helped out and To be quite honest with you last that last year Sacramento State game was probably one of the top two of my most favorite games I've ever played here at UNI just a lot of fun a lot of energy We're getting turnovers getting stops the offense would go down the score.

We'd come back out We get another turnover just seemed like it was just a non-stop parade of just guys hooting and hollering and cheering and it was just It was just incredibly enjoyable to play

First half they score on three different drives, but the Panthers told them to field goals on each of those drives So it's a 9-7 game at halftime and then things just flip in the second half and obviously that was a big day for the Panther offense establishing itself as it was last season What do you remember watching from the sidelines when it comes to the UNI offense?

Yeah,

the second half of that game was Theo Day's debut That's when he came out there in the second half.

He started the second half

And I remember them going four straight possessions, four straight touchdowns, right off the crack.

Right when Thio Dey got in there, I think he threw a deep bomb to Isaiah West and caught it.

And then they ran it in for a touchdown.

And when we saw that, everyone just got life.

Everyone was like, let's go.

It just had seemed like it had been a little while since we've seen that kind of firepower and juice from our offense.

And all of a sudden the defense is like, oh, let's go get a stop for these guys.

It was almost internally motivating for us to go out there.

and go make plays for our offense because we wanted to see more of what they were capable to do.

You mentioned that they're an up tempo team.

They want to possess the ball.

They want to move downfield with a lot of plays.

Who are the key players and do you see anything different as you watch a couple of games worth of film on this year's Sacramento State Hornets versus what you remember from last year?

So they play two different quarterbacks.

One quarterback is he's a little bit of a runner.

He does more running style.

He's a slippery little guy.

than another quarterback as the passer.

And we played against both those quarterbacks last year.

And so trying to eliminate the quarterback who was a 1,000-yard rusher at Memphis prior to transferring to Sac State last year, eliminate big plays and explosive plays from him, I think will be a key part of Saturday's performance.

When you have a team that has some tendencies with their personnel,

Do you have to slow yourself down and say, just because this guy's the one who's on the field doesn't mean that they're going to necessarily do what they tend to do?

Or is this pretty true?

Is the personnel going to be a tell for you and I?

It's definitely something to think about.

But at the end of the day, each play, you're going to read your key and try to play within your technique.

And when you do those things, typically you find yourself winning the down.

So last week, for example, we played North Dakota.

Number 14 would come in the game and we knew that he was there.

He is basically like a Wildcat quarterback.

Yes, he could throw, but I think each time he was in there, he was running the ball.

It was quarterback power or they did a, you know, they tried to do a pot pass, but it wasn't there.

So he took off running.

We knew what to expect when he was in the game.

We, you know, we knew a little bit more what to expect.

So there'll be definitely those tells when the quarterbacks, you know, switch in and out of the air for the duration of the game.

Well, finally, Spencer, if I'm doing the math in my head and the COVID year does throw me off a little bit.

But if I'm doing the math correctly, this will be your fourth dome opener.

When you think back on those others, is there a special moment, a special memory that comes to mind playing in front of the Panther fans for the first time in a given season?

My family and myself would have been Panther fans since as long as I've been, you know, remember being alive, honestly.

My parents got both graduated from UNI.

We used to come tailgate at a bunch of UNI games, came to all the homecomings.

We used to have the jingle keys before kickoff.

I mean, we used to do the whole thing.

And I just, I always remember watching those guys, even when the end zone used to be yellow.

You know, they used to have the old turf out there.

And I remember that clear as day, watching the stands.

And I always wondered what it was going to be like, you know, walking out to hell's bells, the, you know, the pregame song and how cool it was that they had the Panther crowd and things like that.

And then.

You know, fast forward to four years ago, from being a kid to four years ago, I'd stand in that garage, hearing hell's bells go off, all of a sudden the garage opens and the smoke comes out.

It was almost like a surreal moment.

It was just kind of unbelievable that, I remember one day being in those stands, watching and just wondering what it was gonna be like, and all of a sudden I'm living something that I'd dang near dreamt of, being a kid.

Those moments for Panther players and Panther fans coming up.

Spencer, thanks for being with us to talk some Panther football.

Yeah, more than happy to Tim.

Thank you.

Thanks for listening to the Home of the Panthers podcast with UNI Panther Spencer Covalier presented by Imon Communications.

Experience the Imon difference.

Join us again before next week's UNI football game for the Home of the Panthers podcast and listen to the game live on the Home of the Panthers News Talk 1540 KXEL.