UNI football coach Todd Stepsis held his preseason news conference today and says leadership is going to be the key for the Panthers as he enters his second season.
“Taking the schemes and our systems, we’re tweaking it to, okay, who do we have? What do they do? well, let’s make sure that we feature the guys and their skill sets. But, I think at the end of the day, who’s leading that team is going to take you where you want to go,” he says.
Stepsis came to UNI last year from Drake and says he didn’t take as much time learning about the players as he tried to get his system in place. “I spent less time getting to know our team and more time just trying to like, hey, let’s get the football stuff taken care of. Where now it feels like I know the team pretty well,” he says. “I know what they do and their skill sets, but more importantly, who they are, what they’re going through. And then again, who are the true leaders? And a lot of people get that confused with a popularity contest, which I think I did a year ago.”
Stepsis says he will still spend time on the schemes and fundamentals, but will give the players more room to play. “We didn’t let him off the chain maybe like we should have because we got some aggressive guys, we got some confident guys. So again, up to us as coaches now, okay, hey, let’s let them go. Let’s let ’em take chances. Let’s let ’em use their abilities, let’s let them maximize their potential,” Stepsis says.
Stepsis says he’ll continue to stress the fundamentals and details to players, even when they are walking through drills. “Because it’s a walk through doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t have low pads. I shouldn’t have my eyes right. If I can’t do it half speed, I can’t, there’s no way I’m going to do it full speed. So being consistent with our technique. And then I think being smart,” he says.
UNI opens up the season on September 5th at Eastern Washington. They then have two instate games as they host Drake the following weekend and then travel to face Iowa.