SIU ends 2015 season with 49-28 loss at UNI

Saturday, November 21

Cedar Falls, Iowa

4:00 PM

Southern Illinois University

3-8 , 2-6

Northern Iowa

7-4 , 5-3

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Southern Illinois

UNI

11/21/2015 | 12:00:00 | Football

Box Score Stats

Nov. 21, 2015

By John Lock
SIUSalukis.com

Final Stats

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa - The Southern Illinois football team's season ended on Saturday afternoon with a 49-28 loss at No. 15 Northern Iowa. SIU's season ends at 3-8, 2-6 MVFC, while Northern Iowa (7-4, 5-3 MVFC) assured itself a playoff berth by winning its fifth-straight game to close the year.

UNI had everything to play for, while the Salukis were looking to play spoiler. The Panthers jumped out to a 28-7 lead, but SIU stormed back with touchdowns on both sides of halftime to get within 28-21.

Daquan Isom was at the heart of SIU's comeback. The true freshman returned from a two-game suspension and scored on back-to-back carries in the third quarter from 61 and 72 yards out. He nearly reached 300 all-purpose yards in the game, something that hasn't been done at SIU since All-American Deji Karim did it in 2009.

"Daquan is a big-play type of player for us," Lennon said. "Those plays that he made, we've been missing that the last couple weeks. The exciting thing is he has a big future in front of him, and it's going to be exciting to see what he can do with his career."

After trailing by 21, SIU had the ball back with a chance to tie the game late in the third quarter; but eventually UNI's rushing attack wore down a thin Saluki defense. Thirty-two of Northern Iowa's 40 second-half plays were rush attempts, and they went for 204 yards. The Panthers held the ball for more than 20 minutes in the second half.

SIU struggled to defend the run down the stretch of the 2015 season when injuries took out Cody Crider, Nate Sylvester, Leonard Garron, Kenny James, Deondre Barnett, Tareq Abulebbeh, Blake Mattson, and TJ Beelen for one game or more. Lennon indicated several players who played in all 11 games were playing hurt late in the year, too.

"Any time you're not at 100 percent, things can get a little sloppy. You're not going to be as sharp as what you normally are," Lennon said. "Especially in the fourth quarter, that last drive they had, we just couldn't find a way to stop them and get the ball back."

Mark Iannotti's decorated career came to an end. He broke co-offensive coordinator Nick Hill's record for passing yards in a season during the game. Hill took 14 games to reach the 3,100-yard mark in 2007; Iannotti broke that in his 11th game this afternoon. Iannotti 324 yards total offense gave him 3,911 this season, a regular-season Missouri Valley Football Conference record.

"The thing that's most impressive about Mark Iannotti is the type of person he is," Lennon said. "He's a treat to coach. He never complained a day he was at SIU. He had adversity; he overcame adversity, great leader. His legacy in the program is a symbol of what real toughness is. I don't know that I've seen a quarterback that tough before that was able to do what he's been able to do. He never backed down from anybody."

The 2015 team was led by a senior in Iannotti, but most of the players around him were inexperienced. Seven of 2015's top nine rushers are set to return in 2016, along with six of the top eight receivers and 10 of the top 14 tacklers.

"Our youth was probably our biggest obstacle," Lennon said. "You talk about that fine line between success and failure; we just weren't quite mature enough at times to cross that line."