Who was that guy, the lithe but nimble Northern Iowa wide receiver who wore No. 2, who came into Saturday’s home-opening 66-7 rout of South Dakota with eight career catches for 88 yards?

Pat Grace's huge game leads Northern Iowa to rout
By ROB GRAY • robgray@dmreg.com • September 12, 2009

Who was that guy, the lithe but nimble Northern Iowa wide receiver who wore No. 2, who came into Saturday’s home-opening 66-7 rout of South Dakota with eight career catches for 88 yards?


When told the player in question was D.P. Eyman, Coyotes coach Ed Meierkort smiled.

“That’s his name?” said Meierkort, who saw the converted quarterback and punter light up his team for a career-best 197 yards receiving and a 48-yard touchdown catch. “He’s on our radar now. His parents have got to love me.”

Good vibes — and oohs and ahs brought by the home team’s resounding rebound from a season-opening heartbreaker at Iowa — rippled through the “blackout” crowd of 12,688 assembled at the UNI-Dome.

Eyman felt it, craved it, and shared it, as did his quarterback Pat Grace, who also carved out a career day with 445 passing yards and seven total touchdowns — three rushing, four passing.

“It was a blast for me,” said Eyman, who tallied his dizzying numbers in a first half in which the No. 4 Panthers built a 45-7 lead. “I can’t think of any big mistakes that really hindered our opportunities to keep advancing the ball the way we did. It was a lot of fun for us and you can tell, looking at the guys’ faces in the huddle, people were smiling and just having fun playing ball.”

Grace eclipsed his previous career-best single-game passing performance of 270 yards set at Iowa by 100 yards in the first half alone, hitting Eyman for one touchdown and D.J. Hord and Schuylar Oordt for two more.

He ran the ball in three times in the first 30 minutes, too, as he moved into a tie for 10th place all-time in team rushing touchdowns with 17.

“It’s impressive, but this is not an ‘I’ game or a ‘me’ game,” said Grace, who completed 24 of 32 passes. “It’s a team football game. It wasn’t just me out there.”

The Panthers amassed 712 yards of total offense — 24 shy of the school’s record 726 set in a 1980 win over Evansville.

“It’s nice to see smiles on their faces; to make the plays they made today, to enjoy the game, because, quite frankly, it was a tough week to come back from,” said Northern Iowa coach Mark Farley, whose team won its 14th straight regular-season home game.

The Panthers — who endured a far-tenser 24-13 win over the Coyotes last season — had fun while emerging from the what-if shadow cast by the loss in Iowa City.

Case in point: kicker Billy Hallgren, who saw two potential winning field goal tries blocked in the waning seconds against the Hawkeyes.

His Saturday?

Four tackles and two forced fumbles — including a stand-up hit on the opening kickoff.
“There was a little built up aggression from last week,” said Hallgren, who is 4-for-5 on field goals this season. “It felt pretty good.”

As for Eyman, he’ll play anywhere he can help.

“I was hoping to come here and have some fun playing football,” the fifth-year senior said. “Didn’t know how it was going to happen, but you know, you take it and run with it.”