Sam Kuhter

Sports Editors Note: Sam Kuhter, starting punter for the UNI Panthers graduated from South Tama County in 2013. Kuhter was the quarterback for the STC Trojans. He is the son of George and Anne Kuhter of Toledo.

CEDAR FALLS | Mark Farley could have passed out several game balls following No. 18 Northern Iowa’s 20-7 victory over South Dakota Saturday at the UNI-Dome.

Quarterback Aaron Bailey passed for a season-best 231 yards and a score. Running back Savon Huggins had a season-high 66 rushing yards, including a 34-yard scamper that kick-started the Panthers’ first scoring drive. Defensively, any number of UNI players could have been awarded game balls after an effort that limited South Dakota to 187 total yards, including just 81 over the final three quarters.

But it was punter Sam Kuhter who won the prize.

With UNI leading 20-7 in the fourth quarter, twice Kuhter pinned the Coyotes deep in their own territory, once on the 3 after a 68-yard punt and then again at the 1 following a 51-yard coffin-corner kick.

It was all part of an effort that saw Kuhter set a UNI single-game record by averaging 52.4 yards on five punts. Former NFL punter Derrick Frost held the Panther record with a 52.0 average set in a game against Western Kentucky in 2002.

“Huge. Absolutely huge,” Farley said. “As I said, I was very pleased with how our running backs ran. I was very pleased with how our defense played, but the player of the game was Sam Kuhter.

“Those two punts really took them out of many plays they could call when you are starting on the 1-yard line. That actually sealed the game through the punting game.”

Since taking over the job late in UNI’s season opener, Kuhter has now downed punts inside the opponents’ 2015 times.

“It just gives a defense a long field to defend,” Kuhter said of the coffin-corner kicks. “If they have to go 99 yards compared to 80 … a long field to defend really helps the team.”

The 68-yard punt was a thing of beauty, arching high in the air before hitting at about the 10, bouncing straight up and gradually rolling to the 3.

“I was telling the guys on the sidelines I’d never felt a punt come off my foot like that,” Kuhter said. “I saw it fly through the air and was like, “Wow, that is going to go for a ways.'”

SPREADING THE WEALTH: UNI rushed for just 163 yards against the Coyotes, but it might have been the most productive day for the Panther running backs, who combined to rush 25 times for 120 yards, led by Savon Huggins’ 66-yard, nine-carry effort.

Farley was especially pleased with how four of UNI’s running backs – Huggins, Tyvis Smith, Darrian Miller and Michael Malloy – all were involved in the game.

“We have done some things to allow all of them to be on the field,” Farley said. “Keeping them fresh makes them better at the end, too. I felt the use of our personnel was more effective now then maybe at the beginning of the season.

“Most important is we have everybody invested,” Farley said. “We have four tailbacks and we play with only one of them. We have to find a way to use them all and I think that is what the offense did a great job of … personnel management.”