CEDAR FALLS – University of Northern Iowa football coach Mark Farley is not unlike any of his college football coaching brethren.
Farley would like nothing better than to be inside the UNI-Dome this week watching passes being thrown and hearing the sounds of pads popping and helmets colliding.
The Panthers, coming off a 10-5 season and a trip to the Football Championship Subdivision quarterfinals, would’ve had their first of 15 spring practices Wednesday, and Farley would’ve been in the middle of it, yelling instructions and teaching football in its most pure form.
But the footballs, helmets and pads are locked up in storage as the country fights to control the COVID-19 virus from spreading with social-distancing measures.