KXEL Presents: The Home of the Panthers Pre-Game Podcast - September 23, 2022

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.

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It was a second quarter that made the difference last Saturday.

The Sacramento State Hornets scored 17 points and the UNI Panthers spent much of the second half trying to make up the deficit.

They got within one possession in the fourth quarter before Sacramento State closed out the game for a 37-21 final.

This week the Panthers are on the road at Western Illinois and we talk Panther football now with senior linebacker Spencer Covalier.

Thanks for being back.

with us.

Thanks, Tim.

General thoughts about last week.

The Doma opener, I know that the first half put the Panthers behind and it was a scramble after that, but generally what else would you say about last week's game?

That's just not the team that I feel like that we are.

We came out there and we kind of lacked in our fundamentals in a large way, defensively specifically.

You know, we came out there and we didn't tackle very well at all that first half.

And it showed.

I mean, we gave up 24 points in the first half and, you know, I don't know if we did that one time at all last season.

And so just maybe just overthinking some things and maybe just some poor communication as well, but just got to be productive with the opportunities that were given.

When I look at that first half in summary form, there was the 12 play drive that Sacramento scored on.

But that was only four minutes of game time.

And then the other drives, the other scoring drives after that, a minute, three, two and a half minutes, scoring drive.

The field goal took just about a minute and nine seconds.

So really, they weren't on the field long.

This was not a game where they won because they dominated time of possession.

Yeah.

Well, and they're an up-tempo team that, you know, they come up to the line and they're a go-go-go team.

Like you said, they had a 12-play drive that lasted four minutes.

Like, that's not.

very typical.

I mean, 12 play drives are typically longer time of possession than that.

But when you have a team like Sacramento State, they're kind of a no huddle with the sideline, get up and try to have the defense play on their heels and have them, you know, get tired and things like that throughout the course of the game and drives itself and it, you know, kind of worked out in their favor this last Saturday, unfortunately.

Each time they got in the red zone they came away with points when you're in that situation Especially against a good offensive team like like the Hornets were is the mindset try to get the the takeaway is the mindset try to Just hope that something good happens.

What what is?

Going to be an effective way for a defense in that red zone heels on the goal line situation to stop the other team

the mindset is to bow up Strap it up tight and try to keep them out of the end zone objective number one try to minimize

the points that they would have the possibility of getting on top of trying to strip balls, trying to get a take away if you can get a cheap take away when they're in the red zone is awesome because whenever you stop an offensive team, especially a team like Sac State who can score pretty quickly like you mentioned, being able to stop them from getting any points when they get into the red zone is always a positive and that goes for anything that we play.

Trying to keep points to a minimum when they're in a scoring position is obviously always the goal.

You did force a fumble last Saturday Ultimately the Panthers didn't recover that and that was the other thing that really jumped out at me from the box scores Turnovers were one-sided in their favor.

They had three takeaways the Panthers did did not get a turnover Successfully pulled away from the Hornets.

Yeah, we had a couple opportunities, too We had a couple looks at some interceptions that could have been made that just and like I was saying it just we're be we're in some positions to make some plays, but we're just not productive

when, you know, trying to make those plays.

And that's just going to come back to, I think, some fundamentals and really just kind of slowing things down and really, you know, kind of concentrating and just living it play by play instead of trying to, you know, map out the whole game and, you know, whether it's trying to save yourself or next quarter, whatever the case is, just trying to go 100% play by play, reading your key on that exact play and just trying to make a play.

And so, yeah, unfortunately we didn't...

end up getting a takeaway that game.

And you know, last year when we played them, we actually had a season high of six turnovers when we played against them last year, which obviously helped us beat them last year.

Well, if we rewind to week one against Air Force, that was a unique opponent, unique circumstances, nothing like that the rest of the way.

Week two, North Dakota conference game, conference opener early in the season.

Let's

put that aside for the moment, but is there something about Sacramento State and their offense that you feel like is really going to translate well at some point further down the schedule, whether that's a similar style that someone else is going to be playing that you've seen now or anything else that you feel like you can take from last week and apply going forward?

I think it's going to, you know, be able to be applied this following week, actually.

I'm going out to question Illinois.

They don't have the hurry up offense style that Sacramento State does but they have a lot of sweeps They have a lot of you know trickery in some ways There are a lot of formations into the boundary and they just try to give you different looks They try to do and again Sacramento State they came in they had us with a bunch of quick passes They had a bunch of quick game that swing passes out and just had guys go on stock block and then have the running back find a hole and try to get six seven eight yards down the field

And I think Washington, Illinois has a very similar offense, at least in years past they have.

I understand that they have a new coaching staff, but I would assume that the offense will be in a somewhat similar fashion.

We're talking with UNI Panther senior linebacker Spencer Kuvalier ahead of the Panthers and the Leathernecks of Western Illinois, and we'll go into more detail about the matchup against Western coming up.

Wanted to ask those Spencer about watching football away from...

the video room away from the dome.

When you have a Sunday and it's an NFL day, there's a full slate of games like we've had these last few weeks.

What kinds of things are you watching?

What is top of mind when you get the chance to flip the remote from channel to channel?

Yeah, there's a couple of different things that go through my mind.

First thing is I always try to see if I can't find Spencer Brown on TV.

Coming to UNI, I actually live with him throughout, you know, for two, three years that he was here in school.

and I mean we worked out together and we ate together and we did a lot of things like that he's one of my really good buddies and you know I'm always always looking to see if the bills are on TV and then you know if I watch that game I'm watching him specifically just seeing how he does and how he how he plays because he plays with a great motor great energy and he loves to get after it but watching other NFL games so when I was growing up in high school and things like that I always watch games

just watching the ball.

I'd watch the ball get snapped, watch the quarterback run around, throw the ball to the water seeker, just follow the ball like any casual fan.

But now that I play linebacker, I feel like I watch the guards, or I watch the offensive line and how they move, and I watch the linebackers and how they react, and try to pick up on little things, whether it's how they cover and man coverage or zone coverage or how they're filling gaps and hitting linemen, striking and getting off blocks, and there's a lot more, you know, I have

played football for the last five years here in college.

I've tried to pick up on some things that may be able to take away and actually help my game in that way.

I want to come back to that in a second.

Let me ask you about the first thing you mentioned with Spencer Brown.

I'm sure that it'll catch your attention if there are other Panthers that are out on the field, if there are opponents that you've run into.

It's interesting to me that sports and watching sports has kind of gone from being

interested in the results that a particular team has to more and more interest in individual players.

Do you find that if there's a team playing, whether it's the Packers or the Vikings or the Bears or whoever it might be, you want to watch that game?

Or are you more interested in particular individual players, your position or others?

Yeah, it's kind of shifted.

I mean, I grew up actually, and even when growing up, I feel like I was kind of an individual player guy.

Growing up, I used to love Ray Lewis.

He was my all-time favorite.

That favorite player, him and Ed Reid, and Terrell Suggs all in that Baltimore Ravens defense, and I grew up being a Baltimore Ravens fan.

And so if the Ravens are on, sure, I'll try to watch them.

I like watching them are Jackson play football.

He's electrifying, and he makes me almost feel bad for the opposing team linebackers, because I can only imagine what it's like trying to tackle him.

But yeah, we'll turn on NFL Red Zone on a Sunday, and I feel like I'm always just watching.

Just watching.

players that you know that are excel at what they do at the highest position, you know, they're at the highest for the best level of football and watching them succeed at such a high level is always it's kind of mesmerizing in a way.

So you mentioned Ray Lewis, is there a linebacker right now who you find particularly fun to watch knowing what you know about the position at the high level that you're playing at?

This means so from being from Cresco, Iowa, 20 minutes away is Decora, Iowa, which is Josie Jewell.

and Josie Jewel, obviously the outlaw went to Iowa out of high school and then now he plays for the Denver Broncos and so, although he sat out last season, unfortunately, due to an injury, whenever I see the Broncos on TV, I'm always trying to look for him.

It's just interesting to see, you know, just a guy from northeast Iowa, a smaller town, smaller town school, I remember watching him play in high school.

My brother was a year younger than he was, so I remember watching those guys play.

against each other on Friday night lights and just being able to kind of follow him throughout his career and his route for him just being from the same area.

I'm always on the lookout for him on NFL Sunday.

So let me circle back to what you talked about watching the ball, which is what I think most people watching a football game do to watching other parts of what's happening with 21 other guys on the field that don't have the ball.

Any other suggestions that you would make for people to try to get themselves into that mindset?

Maybe there's a game on that they don't have a particular rooting interest in and want to try to apply some of those game-watching strategies to learn a little bit more about the game.

Yeah, anybody that's younger, I would just suggest to watch your position or if you're a coach or anything like that.

I would just try to watch your position and try to pick up on maybe some things that they do throughout the course of the game.

Some things that worked for them, maybe some things that didn't work for them.

And I didn't always watch football games like that, obviously.

Coach Farley is the one that kind of talks about, he's like, I don't watch football games.

He's like, I watch the linebackers play.

I watch the offensive line play.

He's like, I can't sit back and just relax and watch a football game.

Wouldn't just watch the ball.

He's like, I'm watching the linebackers.

And that's just kind of.

something that I've learned from him throughout just the way he talks and things like that.

And as for as good as a linebacker, he was and as good as a coach as he is, I just try to learn as much as I possibly can from him.

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

And today it's the Western Illinois Leathernecks last year when UNI met Western Illinois.

It was a must win game.

Panthers had to get the win in order to secure the playoff bid.

A little bit of a nail biter in the early going until you and I pulled away one comfortably 41 to three.

You watched most of that game from the sidelines.

At that point you were off the field with an injury.

Tell us about what you remember from last year's game against the Leathernecks from that vantage point.

I remember that week of practice, preparing for Western Illinois, and it's always something...

They just throw a little bit something a little bit different at you.

They have throwbacks to the quarterback.

They have some trickery.

Last year, I know they had some skill guys that they just liked getting the ball to.

So there's a lot of speed sweeps that they had going on.

They run some screens.

They just run a little bit of a different offense.

And I know throughout the game, I remember the guys handling that pretty well defensively.

And then I remember after the first half, the offense really came out the second half, guns blazing, and really started pulling away.

Well, last week Western Illinois played in a game where it was a wild finish.

They got back and tied up the game at 10 apiece against Southern Utah in the final minute.

And then they coughed up the lead and Southern Utah won the game with about 30 seconds left to go.

When you're taking on an opponent that's had that sort of week, what kinds of things do you expect?

I would expect them to come back the following week hungry.

And I'm sure they felt that maybe they deserved to win that game.

And maybe they feel like they got

I shouldn't say cheated, but, you know, felt like they shouldn't have made the mistakes that they may have made in order to lose that game.

And they're going to, I'm sure they're going to be harping on those all week of practice.

I'm sure all we can practice are going to be trying to minimize mistakes and, and, you know, maximize their, their potential and results that they could possibly have.

I mentioned when we started that with the Panthers in the situation that they're in, oh, and three was unfamiliar territory.

But more so to try to achieve the goals that you and I set out to accomplish this season, it gets much more difficult with each loss, one loss already in conference.

What is the mindset?

I wouldn't call this a must win game.

You I'm sure wouldn't coach Farley.

I'm sure wouldn't because whatever happens has to have some follow through in the games that come beyond it.

How do you think about this matchup under these circumstances?

It's a long season, you know, but it's going to be.

In every game, it feels like a must-win game.

Whether it is a must-win game or not, it always feels like one.

You're not going into a game saying, eh, if we lose this one, everything will be okay.

I mean, you're never going to mindset like that.

You're always trying to win as many games as you possibly can.

But after starting off on three, like you'd mentioned, I think some guys went home this last weekend after the game and just kind of looked themselves in the mirror and realized and trying to understand that...

I mean, we have to come together as a team.

Maybe have a little humility, drop any individualness that we have and really come together as one and really try to turn the ship around.

It's not too late.

It's a long season.

There's a lot of opportunities out there and none better than this next week heading over to McComb.

Are there some metrics on defense that we could look for that would show the kind of progress that you're talking about, whether it's turnovers, like we talked about against Sacramento State that didn't materialize, whether it's time of possession or third down conversions, red zone efficiency or preventing the other team from being efficient in the red zone, what kind of measures should we watch for that are going to be an indication that things are headed a good direction?

I would say third down stops.

Stops on third down are going to be very important.

I know as a very apparent in North Dakota game, I felt like we were in a lot of third down situations and they just seemed to just get away and convert.

And I feel like last week was a little bit of the same thing as far as that goes.

But I think the turnover margin and getting the stops on third down will be a good indicator with how the defense performs.

Well, Spencer, there's not a lot of things to do in McComb.

But make it a fun trip, and it's all the more fun if you bring back a win.

So that's what we'll leave you with as we wrap up today.

That

sounds great.

I appreciate it, Tim.

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 KXCL.

I'm Tim Harwood.

Reliable

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