Traveling to see your fav sports team is cool. But traveling with AMEX Platinum for the big game is even better. Right this way. With access to dedicated card member entrances at select events, you can skip the line. There's one. And with access to the Centurion launch, it shoots a three. You can catch the next game on the way home. [Crowd cheers] That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms apply. Learn more at americanexpress.com/with AMEX. Card member entrance access, not limited to AMEX Platinum card. [MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to the UNI Panther football show. Your weekly dose of Panther football on demand with yours truly in voice of the Panthers, JW Cox. This week, defensive back, Moa Loa joins the show, sidelined by an injury to start his fourth season in the program. A Loa talks about the trip to Hawaii, the personality of the defense of secondary, and how impressed he is by the amount of talents surrounding Panther athletics across all sports. Also this week, we hear from head coach Mark Farley headed out of the bye week into the matchup with South Dakota State. But first, listen in to some of the top moments from the past game with the Panther Claw calls of the week. UNI gets a shot to gather up an upset on the island of Oahu against the rainbow warrior. And where's his the tail back? Drop back for Dunne, wants to throw. Escaping backwards, throws it over. Sergio warns he has the catch into Hawaii territory. Turn to the corner of the 40 down to the 35, and he's pushed out of bounds in front of the Panther bench close to the 30-yard line. He was knocked out of bounds by Jamaya Otis, set to Las Vegas, Nevada. Hey, good play call by the Panther offensive staff. They got band coverage that they were looking for. Steps to the right in the pocket, throws down the field, finds Roquet again. This time, he's at the 35-yard line when he's taken down, and he falls ahead to the 36. Quick tackle. Ocean Sims to his left, Shaker looks that way. Pressure coming in. Noreen Button, good to see him back in the game. Didn't call he get their. Ashlock has the catch, and then he is absolutely lit up. Jonathan Cabral, more-- Pass it kicks in, bouncing to the left side, gets to the edge. Pass it kicks into the 45, makes a man miss it. The 50 and dives ahead into Hawaii territory. First down in 10, Panthers at the 49-yard line. And he wants to throw, has time, fires it out. It is complete to Desmond Hudson for a first down. He carries some tacklers with him. Couple more steps down the field, close to the 40-yard line, down to the 38. He's still out there as the second tied in. They'll play fake at this time, done throws. Wide open Anderson at the 30, inside the 25, and he's taken down by the safety manuma. Great play call by the Panthers. And they're inside the red zone, trying to knock on the door, his hand in the ground. They'll turn fake to Edwards. Now, Aiden Dunn walks into the in zone. Touchdown, Panthers behind the lead, blocking of Edwards in a big time hole. Open on that left side of the offensive line by pinning an Anderson. The Panthers are on the board. It's 22 to six. Eight, Panthers two to fan. They bring pressure with four. As Shagger will step up and throw towards the in zone. Two Panthers, there is intercepted. Robbie, Patterson's got it. He's coming back in the 20, cuts back 25, 30. And he's wrestled down there. The Panthers get one back on a Shagger bomb. Prayer that time that comes back and explodes in the face of the rainbow warriors. courtesy of Robbie Peterson. Survey stands to the pocket. Pressure comes in. He throws, it's intercepted. Tucker Langenberg's got it at the 25 yard line, and he's taken down. No, not yet. Continues to rumble close to the 35 yard line, where they'll put him down. And the Panthers, consecutive drives, they pick off Shagger, dump it off. Desmond Hudson looking for a block. He's got it from Derek Anderson. And Lane prior, and he turns up the lane prior, just sent somebody to a different island on that sideline. As Hudson's able to take it past the 45, close to the 48 yard line. Panthers bringing the house throw into the in zone and nearly intercepted. It was broken up by Jonathan Cabral Martin, as he tumbled to the turf. He had a chance to bring it down to the belly, and just couldn't do it. Pressure from Tucker Langenberg. Fakes it to Pesty kicks and keeps it himself, lines his way ahead, and pushes through the pile, still going, dragging tacklers inside the 30, down to the 27 yard line. What a push. Here, every Panther game live on the Panther Radio Network with me, JW Cox and longtime Panthers, Scott Peterson. Find us on your local radio affiliate by going to unipanthers.com and searching keyword network. Take us anywhere you go via the Varsity Network app. Something out of here from the coach. Unique open day, obviously, because it's a long day, a night of travel, getting back from Hawaii. When did you kind of feel last week that you finally had your feedback under you in Iowa, and we're ready to go again with the body clock and everything? Probably not until Friday or Saturday. It was over the weekend because we didn't get back home until Monday, and then just the wear and tear of the run from Nebraska through, from the Nebraska trip home, getting home at 5 AM to leaving at midnight on Tuesday, or getting home on noon on Monday, and just trying to get back in the groove. I mean, it takes time. I mean, you don't think it does, and you don't want it to. You talk tough, but at the end of the day, you go through a transition, but yeah, we're through it and it's moving forward. As you put that distance behind you and you have to look back a little bit to learn from and move forward, what strikes you now, and what are your thoughts on that entire Hawaii experience as it was now that you are past it and on the other side? Great culture trip, great trip for the team, great trip for camaraderie, a lot of great things. Kind of like a bowl trip is really what it was. It was time that we never get in football, that everything has worked us, except for the off season, and that was a time that there was actually, could spend a day, two days together, without it always being, you know, practicing at 230, that type of stuff. So you got to spend some time together, just in a personal way, and that was the best thing about the trip. - And so you have the open date, as you went into that, what was the biggest goal last week before you really turned towards the game week again, this week, what was the biggest goal with what you wanted to accomplish last week with the time that you had during that open date for your guys? - Last week was really just to get our feedback underneath us, get back to a base, get some other guys, though we're gonna get some guys back to get them on the field that had been injured, that we'd get them back and start getting them in the rotation, and also get some guys ready to roll, that maybe didn't get the, weren't prepared in week one, that, you know, four weeks later, would have a chance to start showing up and help us for the rest of the season. - You mentioned hoping to get a couple of guys back, you've been missing Guy Moolo out at the end of camp, Zach Meemort missed a couple of games. What's the impact that guys like that can make when you all of a sudden start to have more depth like you were expecting that has been missing the last few games? - Well, that's what's hard, 'cause you only got so many guys, and then the wear and tear hit you a little bit too. So, yeah, when you're fresh, you're always good. It's when you start to get nicked up, lose a guy here, lose a guy there, and we'll get, we'll get Fraser back. There's really, whether we get some of these other guys back, I don't know, I thought we would, but we're still in question on some of them. - You look at the FCS matchups that South Dakota State has had so far on their offense. It's been very run heavy. Granowski has shown the ability to throw the ball too. What do you expect to see as their approach, and what do you have to do to make it tough for them to run the ball, to make them do maybe what they don't want to do? - Well, you got to stop the run, but it's their play action pass that becomes difficult with it. So again, it comes down to Granowski, even if you stop the run, there's things out in that field that dictate outcomes and he's one of them. So yeah, he can do things even though the play action, when you're good in running, the play action passing, move the chains, you get three extra downs, three more runs, it adds up over time. So they're consistent, they're good, and they don't beat themselves. - Talking about him, I know obviously like you said, he makes for a long day to scheme against and try to defend against, but you go away from the football field, and by all accounts, he had a lot of chances to go somewhere else and chase something else that other guys have done. He decided to stay at South Dakota State, even as his opponent, when you see a story like that, with all that goes on in college football and transfers and from this level, two different levels, what goes through your head or what you do think about when you see a young man make that decision to stay at the place that gave him the opportunity and where he has found success so far. - Yeah, I don't think much about what they do, but we a guy in Spencer Brown, Trevor Penning, I mean, you have those guys that will do that, and I think it takes, there's a lot of things that go into every individual choice, and it's part of the game right now, so it's nothing you spend energy on, it's, you're wasting time, so you wanna make sure that when they get that age and you've developed them, you'd hope that they would continue through, 'cause they probably have a better opportunity through your school than maybe what they would at another school, quite honestly, but yet that's their choice, and then the portal goes both ways, so it's nothing I deal with much anymore, it's just part of the landscape that we deal with every day. - You finally get to come back home, didn't play a home game in September, now you get to get back here, where it is already more tickets out than there were people in the building for that home opener, when you hear things like that, what kind of enthusiasm for a game like this, what kind of impact can that kind of enthusiasm have on the atmosphere and on your team once they're back home? - I told our team that we can fill the dome, but you gotta win, and you gotta, you gotta, you gotta, you gotta really play hard, this is a good enough league, and I've been at you and I long enough now that, you know, as you go through a season, you play good enough opponents, and you start playing with that intensity and those kinds of games, people will show up, so it's not on the fans as much as it's on us, to really get after it out in the football field, because I think our fans are awesome always have, it's our responsibility to put a team out there that can battle at a top 10 level, 'cause this is a championship league, everybody in this league has stopped 20 for great, I love it. - Thanks to head coach Mark Farley for his time this week. - The Panther point of view is your spot for all things, Panther athletics from the UNI Panther football show in the fall to the Hoops and Family podcast in the winter, and everything in between. Like and subscribe to the Panther point of view to never miss any of the great content from UNI athletics. My special guest this week on the UNI Panther football show, Junior defensive back, Mo Aloe. - What was your favorite non-football thing about that trip to Hawaii? - I think my favorite non-football thing is probably the Lua, it was just a great environment, getting to see how our alumni just so loved to us, and you saw this a great time, food, entertainment, everything, the fire show, so I think that was a really fun time for the team. - And what went into the fire show? - Fire shows, crazy, it was like three dudes just, got fire on the sticks, torling them around, putting them on their tongue, feet, it was a crazy thing to watch. - Has you ever been to Hawaii before? - Never been to Hawaii. - Do you think you want to go back? - I definitely go back, but I don't think Honolulu would be the spot. - That's the same feeling I got. - Yeah, where do you think you'd want to go? - I think Maui. - Yeah, all right, very cool. What about Maui, did you talk to anybody? 'Cause I talked, there were probably three people that I randomly talked to that were like, yeah, this is good, and I understand you're here for the football, but if you went to Maui, you can do XYZ, was there anything that you heard about that you really want to do, will you affect the Maui? - I haven't heard anything, but I just heard Maui's more just like the nature aspect, this is better, there's less buildings and all the designer stores and tourism factors, so. - All right, so you've had a tough start to the season with the injury, and you're hoping to get your way back sooner rather than later. What's been the toughest part for you about kind of going through that and rehabbing and watching the team and not getting to be able to kind of impact what's been going on? - I think the toughest part is just not playing football. It's everything to me and just walking out to practice or in a pre-game meeting is just all hit you and you're like, dang, I'm really not playing. It just hit you at the end of the week when you see all the work they put in and you're like, I can't be out there with my guys. - And individually for you, you're at a spot in your career where you red shirt and then you play a little bit, and in 2022, you played a little bit more last year, but this was really a year where you've put in the work and now you could play, how were you feeling before the injury about what this season could be? And now, once you get healthy again, can't be for you. - I was feeling great. I put in a lot of work with Jed in the summer and he commended me for how much determination I had in being that guy that's here for the defense. So I just feel like I'm staying course with God's plan and everything's gonna work out for itself. - Take us into that weight room for a defensive back like yourself specifically is, I'm sure each position has different needs, whether you're bulking up on the line or doing what you were doing. What was the plan that you guys were after in the off season to get you in the best spot? What did that focus on mainly for you? - I think the plan was just overall strength and conditioning just to be very like never come off the field and just help my muscle endurance get up so I could just play more and play more freely not worrying about injuries, just trying to target spots like hamstring, things like that that come up in the season, get that strong so then you don't have to worry about it. - Was that always the kind of guy you wanted to be when you were growing up playing the game just no matter the position you were gonna be on the field if you could? - Yes sir, I mean, I played offensive defense in high school so I felt like anywhere I go I tried to make a play and do the best for my team. - When was it that it kind of became clear that defense would be what you would focus on at this level, obviously things getting different here? What was that conversation like and when did that happen for you? - I think it was clear when I first got here. I knew I wanted to play corner, I liked the corner coach and I looked up to a lot of the good corners and see how well they played so I feel like that factored into like you see those older guys they play corner and you're like, I'm a fresh corner but you're like so I want to be like him when I grow up. - Who are those guys for you here at UNI that were those first guys that you really looked up to when you got here? - Probably the first guy is probably Omar Brown in Austin Evans, those were the first two closest to me and they probably taught me everything. I knew that first one here. I was the only first one that came in in the DB group so it kind of just all took me under their wing. Show me how it was done and I followed along. - Obviously Omar's journey was a little bit different from here to different places but you see the success that he was built starting here. What kind of confidence did that give you in what you can do from right here at UNI to do whatever you want in your career? - I think that just solidified in how great UNI is. It molds people to be very great players and I just knew if I stuck with it, everything will work out for me. - Now as you look at your road now and what the rest of the season will be, when you do, whenever you do, get back from this injury and get to play again, what do you hope is the biggest impact that you can make on this defense and impact all this season for the team? - I feel like the biggest impact I want to make is just the camaraderie and bring the whole defense together. So we're just all trusting each other. Communication is at the highest and we're just all playing for each other. We know someone's got someone else's back and I just want to bring that to the team. I know what I can do on the field but I feel it's more just like the mental, like what I bring when I'm on the field with my guys. - Off the field, you've brought a couple of new coaches in the secondary and in Coach Black and then in Coach Jones as well. What's it been like working with those guys? What do you like about what they have brought to your position group as a whole as defensive backs? - I feel like Coach Jones brings a swagger. He doesn't let you really underestimate your abilities and he knows what we can do. So he's always going to tell you to bring that out, be yourself, don't try and hide it, suppress it, just go out there and play fast. And Coach Black, I feel like he brought that real, tough attitude where he's like, just handle your business. Everyone handle their business. Everyone do their one 11th job and we're all going to be great. And we just all trust in that as an old group, what Coach Black and Coach Jones tells us every day. - Let's pause on the football side of things. What's your major right now and what are you working on and what are you working towards that you want to do with that whenever football ends for you? - I'm right here right now in sports administration. And what I'm looking right now, as a starting goal, I don't want to be like an athletic director for either a high school or a small little college just to get that sense of just bringing all the sports in one school, just trying to develop and improve and anything I could do. I just see how that can affect schools. And like, if you bring other activities or just bringing other sports with a little more money or just interest to like people to come watch, I feel like that just helps the school overall. - As far as student athletes supporting student athletes across sports, do you feel that that happens here and has a positive impact across all the different sports at you and I? - Yeah, I feel like it happens here. I just think that sometimes we pick and choose, sometimes I feel like maybe it might be more favored like football, basketball, wrestling. And maybe we need to bring along more like soccer, track, like pack out of track anytime, maybe if it's close or just like woman's basketball, pack those out more. So I feel like we're doing a good job. It just depends on what everyone is doing during the seasons. - And obviously there's sports that like you're saying, I mean, there's sports that get more coverage from the outside and things like that. But your perspective as a student athlete, what would you tell people about no matter the sport, why they should support what these other student athletes are doing? Thinking about everything that, whether it's football or cross country or soccer or basketball, you all have so many things on your plate and put in so much work. What's your pitch to people to tell them that? Yeah, I mean, we're working hard and we get to go out there on Saturdays in the dome, but everybody else that's playing a sport is doing the same thing. - I think I would say that you and I as a whole, everyone worked so hard and you would find some hidden gems if you came to the sport that you didn't know about and you'd be surprised to be like, "Oh, wow." Like you'd go to a softball game and be like, "Oh, wow." Like you wouldn't know about it unless you went. So it's something people got to find out for themselves and they'd be surprised about how many teams we have around here that they got really great players. - Love that. When you look back on coming out of high school and coming here from Minnesota, what was it about you and I? When did you and I kind of hit your radar as a spot to be? - I feel like having it three and a half hours away from home, that was great for me. I don't want to be too far from home. And then just you and I's history, just defense is great. It's a defensive school. And I just loved that about Farley when I had that conversation with him. He was like, "You can make plays here. "You can do anything. "Safety, corner, doesn't matter what you do. "I can put you in position to make plays." And I felt like I was ready to go for him. - Maybe some of that conversation, but do you remember whether it was on a visit or talking with a coach that and what the moment was that you decided, "Yeah, this is going to be the place for me?" - So I was actually a COVID in high school, so I didn't get to come visit here. But I had a very great relationship with Farley and a former coach Jeremiah Johnson. And we always zoomed called, talked on the phone all the time. So I felt like them keeping close with me and actually involved in me, like watching film with me, telling me what the defense is before I got there. That was really like some that sparked to me in my head. Like, "Wow, these guys actually can see me in their system." - You talked about Coach Black and then Coach Jones and obviously the relationship with Coach Farley to bring you here before they were here. If I was talking to your coaches about you, what would be your hope as far as how they would describe you and the player and the young man that you've become so far in this program? - I think they would just say, "I'm tough. "I'm a fast learner and I have a really big personality." And sometimes I can get mad and sometimes get out of my body a little bit. But for the most part, they know that I'm tough and I'm always go everywhere fast. - The football adage is that like receivers sometimes have the biggest personalities. Is that, are you guys as a defensive backroom? I mean, sometimes that's, that you guys are right there running a close second. What about for the Panthers? Where are the biggest personalities on this team? - I wanna say the biggest personalities is a DB group 'cause we're also different. We're all from different places. And we just, I think we all gelled together so well and like when we do something as a group, I think it kind of like gets the offense to try and do something. So like we have a thing where we'd be like, turn over number one in practice and we started doing it all camp and now we got the offense. They yelling on the other side, touchdown number one. So I just feel like the defense kind of, you know, such a standard for personalities around here. - All right, within that, whether it's a DB or not, who's the teammate you're closest to at this point? - I think Jeremiah Durville, JJ Durville, number three. That's my guy ever since he got here from the spring. I think we connected really well. And when we both played safety in the spring, I feel like we really gelled really well and just moved really well in the field. And that's my guy. He lives across the street from me. So, you know, that's my guy. - Obviously you gotta have chemistry with whoever you're out on the field with. But when you are that close off the field with somebody who you might play in that same position with as the two safeties, how much better can that make you guys when you're on the field, when you've got that kind of basis of knowledge even off the field? - It makes it perfect because all we talk about at home is what we've seen watching film together. And then when we're on the field, we have that connection where we can just look at each other and be like, "Oh, I know I got you on this, I know I got you on this." And our football minds are both very great. So I feel like that comes with it. And we both have a lot of experience. So we both know what we're talking about when we'd be like, "Oh, hey, I've seen this." And then the other guy's like, "Oh, yeah, yeah, I get what you're trying to say." - Obviously his journey's different being a transfer and coming in this year for this season. What's impressed you about the way he's kind of got up to speed since he enrolled midway through last year and was a part of the spring and getting a part of this Panther culture. - Just how hard he works. He doesn't care about the outcome of the play all the time. He's just gonna work hard. And I feel like he's a real playmaker when the ball is in the area. You better be scared 'cause JJ can make a play on it. - This defense, obviously the first two games, you guys showed some really good things and you played really tough opponents in the last two against FBS schools and on the road and all of that. But how good do you think this defensive unit can be as you guys roll into conference play and through the Tough Missouri Valley football conference? - I think this defense can be great. I know that we have things that we needed to fix out and just change a little bit. But I feel like when we're focused on what we're good at, we go at a fast pace, get our cleats in the ground and we're always gonna be ready to stop any offense. - Just a couple of random ones before we start to wrap it up here. What, is there any one thing, whether it's a superstition or just an activity, any one thing you have to do on game day? - I feel like I'm just like really cool just on game day. I'm chill. I don't really have any superstition. I kind of just do what I feel like. And I don't think that really affects my play. I'm just not one of those guys. I mean, I pray and read the Bible. And I don't think that's superstition. That's just something daily. - Yeah, not at all. What, if you look at someone who wasn't a coach in football for you, who is the person that comes to mind that has maybe still had the biggest impact on your career, but that wasn't a coach? - Well, I would say my performance changed her back home. Eric Harrison, he got me started in this football thing when I started getting recruited software year at high school. And I feel like he just gave me the weight, gave me the tools in my toolbox to know how to play football at a high level. And I feel like all that from a young age has stuck with me. And I feel like that's probably why when I got to college, I didn't have to catch up as much in the technique sense. Like I kind of already had it in my toolbox. So I think that helped me a lot. - I think that's always a big difference between guys who might just be good at football in high school and then they never go past that because at some point you have to realize what the difference becomes, was that the time that that switch kind of flipped for you? And how did that realization come about that, yeah, I'm good at this and I can have a future, but there's still different kind of work that I now have to put in if I want to get there. - Yeah, it was really the COVID. When we had COVID 2020, I had a long period of time where I didn't have to do anything. So it was everyday training the actual specifics of how to be elite at football. And I feel like when I started that base, that helped me get better at football. - When you look at this year's team, what do you think is the biggest motivating factor for the team as a whole that keeps you guys going and putting in the work every day? - I think the biggest motivating factor is probably just our old line in how they block every game. I feel like when you look out there and you want to see, man, who's gonna motivate me to really just put it all out there? You can look at our old line 'cause I feel like they're putting it on the line every game, helping these running backs get these yards. Yeah, the running backs have great ability too, but I feel like it's the own line that really sets the standards for how to come and punch someone in the mouth every game. - When you're talking to guys who you know are gonna go out and play as we start conference play, what do you tell those guys that maybe haven't seen a Missouri Valley game or a Missouri Valley opponent? What do you tell them about how tough this conference can be? - I tell them that every play matters. It's always gonna come down to the wire and these games are like the Super Bowl, every single game. Everyone in the Missouri Valley conference is fighting good to the National Championship. And I feel like this is the strongest conference in the FCS. And if you go through here, rankings don't matter, you're gonna be at the top. - And the last one I've got for you is you think about it right now with what you've done and been around in your career here at UNI. What is Panther, how do you define what Panther football is if someone was, you were gonna tell somebody that whenever you walk out the door here? - I think Panther football is tough, it's fast, and we even hear from coaches like from Nebraska at halftime when he's talking about, we play them, we're gonna always play tough and we're not gonna give up anything. Not gonna give up anything easy, we're gonna make you work for it. - That's all I got for him though, any shout outs you gotta give to anybody or you wanna give? - Sue, shout out to my coach, coach, black man. He did a lot for me ever since he got here, man. That's my guy and I feel like he's really helped me mold into a great player and I can't wait to show him everything he's taught me when I get on that field. - Thanks to Mo for taking the time to join me this week. You've been listening to the UNI Panther football show each week, get a dose of the Panthers on the gridiron as you hear from head coach Mark Farley and special guests. Don't forget to tune into the Panther radio network pre-game with me JW Cox and Scott Peterson starting this week at three. From back inside the dome, finally. The Panther football show is a production of Panther sports properties from Learfield. Thanks for listening, go Panthers. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [MUSIC PLAYING]
