College Football: UNI OC departs program, Panthers add coach to staff

First reported by Coloff Media’s and 1650 The Fan Program Director Cole Bair on Tuesday, The Courier has confirmed Falk’s departure with a UNI Athletic department official.

Stemming from a family health matter, no additional details have been made available regarding the nature of Falk’s departure out of respect to the family.

Hired by UNI in January to lead the Panthers’ offense, Falk joined the program after one year as the quarterbacks coach at Wingate University, a Division II program in North Carolina.

Falk replaced previous offensive coordinator Bodie Reeder, who defected for a similar position at Middle Tennessee State.

Falk, a former Washington State quarterback during the tenure of Mike Leach, sought to bring an “air raid-adjacent” offensive structure to UNI.

With Falk’s departure, the Panthers have brought in Joel Filani to fill out their coaching staff.

Filani’s role at UNI is yet to be determined though he most recently served as the wide receivers coach and pass game coordinator at Northern Arizona for the previous two seasons.

Filani attended Texas Tech, playing under Leach as a wide receiver from 2003-2007 before embarking on a four-year professional football career.

The Tempe, Arizona native joined the coaching ranks in 2013 as a graduate assistant at Boise State, where he spent two seasons. After one season as an offensive quality control coach at Washington State under Leach in 2015, Filani spent three seasons as the wide receivers coach at North Texas (2016-18) under Seth Littrell and three seasons as the wide receivers coach at Texas Tech (2019-2021) under Matt Wells before joining Northern Arizona.