For the UIU Peacocks football program, 2013 was a ground-breaking season. For the first time since showing up in D2 (2005), the Peacocks had a winning season, finishing 6-5. The program brings back much of that team for 2014 and the Peacocks have reason to believe another step might be waiting for them.


MW: Coach, thanks for taking the time. First off congrats on the first winning year for the program since moving to D2. Building on last year, can we expect the Peacocks to be making the playoffs in 2014?
Coach Shea: Well, thanks for the kind words..but we are looking to take things one game at a time and see where that takes us. Making the playoffs in our region is very tough to do, especially with the extremely tough schedule we have in front of us in the South Division.

MW: You certainly have a ton of weapons returning on offense with names like Chris Smith (RB), Lucas Hefty (TE, pictured below), Keaton Hosch (WR), along with your very talented QB Cole Jaeschke, all coming back.
Coach Shea: We have a lot of guys returning on the offensive side of the ball who've got good experience over the past few years. We had a solid year last season offensively and should be able to get better this year. Chris had such a nice season last year, so did the others. Most of those guys are returning as you said.



MW: On the defensive side of the ball you guys started out near the top of the conference, but then in the 2nd half of the year the defense had some rough outings. Is that your main area of concern for 2014?
Coach Shea: Our defense did play well for us a lot last year, yes. I think getting consistent performance really needs to be what we are after this season. Our league is very good offensively, but we need to be able to get the ball back to offense. Another thing we need to target this year is turnovers and special teams. We had some real bad spots during the year with our special teams that cost us some games.

MW: Being a Sioux Falls Cougars follower, I'm pretty familiar with your Defensive Coordinator (Orv Otten) as he was the Head Coach for USF's strong rival Northwestern Iowa for many years. USF folks have a lot of respect for Orv and the job he did at NWC, how did he end up with you at UIU?
Coach Shea: Yes, Orv Otten did a great job at Northwestern and had that team in the post-season often. I've known Orv for more than 20 years as we coached against each other in the NAIA. Orv had been at Iowa State helping out with the quarterbacks for a few years and then came on with us. Orv knows the State of Iowa really well and it's also great to have a guy who's been a longtime head coach on our staff.


(Orv Otten, 2nd from left)

MW: Some people aren't aware of this, but your Peru State team won an NAIA National Title in football back in the year 1990. What do you remember about that game?
Coach Shea: Yes, that was a long time ago. That was a great experience. We played Westminster from Pennsylvania, but we played it in Omaha, Nebraska. We beat them 17-7.

MW: You mentioned Iowa from a recruiting standpoint. I noticed that of your 32 recruits that are incoming, 30 of them are from touching states. What do you consider your recruiting area?
Coach Shea: We draw a 250 mile circle from where we are at, Fayette. So that includes Chicago, into Wisconsin and the Minneapolis area, all through Iowa of course, and west into Nebraska. There's a lot of athletes within that distance and a real good mix of them too.



MW: Do you feel that being in one of the most remote locations in the NSIC, and a small town like Fayette hurts you?
Coach Shea: It could, but we don't see it that way. We are the only D2 program in the State of Iowa and we think that we are pretty good option for student athletes from the area that we mentioned and that we have a good thing going here.

MW: Being one of the outposts in the league, you certainly have some long travels when you have road trips like Minot in week 2.
Coach Shea: Yes, that's a real long trip. Those type of trips can bring the guys together. We need to be better on the road in 2014 as well. Everybody in the conference has some long trips during the year. Keep in mind, sometimes other teams have a long trip to us also.

MW: I would imagine something that surely helps you in recruiting in the fantastic new football stadium you have, yes? People who have been to all the stadiums in the conference say you have the top press box hands down and one of the top stadiums in the bunch.
Coach Shea: Oh yes. It's really a blessing. It's really nice and yes, it's a special place for the athletes for sure. Once guys see how nice it is, I think they can see themselves out there playing for the Peacocks. Steve and Diane Harms were so generous to help us in renovating the stadium in 2012, and it's a real source of pride for our program. You just look around, the field turf, the scoreboard, it's all just fantastic.



MW: Coach, you open up in week 1 with MSU-Moorhead. In the past Moorhead has been a team more towards the bottom half of the conference, but last year they made some real steps towards improvement. How are you looking at your opener?
Coach Shea: You're sure right. In the 2nd half of the year they came on and were pretty hard to slow down. They are a very young team and they're headed in the right direction. As we were talking about before, this is such a tough league. We expect Moorhead to come in here ready for us.

MW: Good luck this year Coach, see you when you visit Sioux Falls near the end of the season.
Coach Shea: Thanks Matt.