FARGO — Gate City Bank Field at the Fargodome has rarely been kind to quarterbacks playing in the facility for the first time. That’s the challenge Northern Iowa will face when the Panthers play at North Dakota State on Saturday.

Redshirt freshman Will McElvain won the job in a four-way competition in August. He almost engineered UNI to an upset at Iowa State in the opener, with the Cyclones prevailing in three overtimes.

That came in front of 61,500 fans at Jack Trice Stadium. A sold-out homecoming crowd of around 19,000 at Gate City Bank Field is expected on Saturday, a big difference in capacity from Iowa State but not so much in decibel level.

The dome roof, in fact, can make it more daunting. Not many know that better than UNI head coach Mark Farley, who will be making his seventh appearance in Fargo.

“You can tell somebody about it and try to simulate it,” he said. “But until you’re there, you don’t understand it. He’ll get a quick understanding in the first drive I’m sure.”

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And not just McElvain, either, Farley said.

“The coaches need to prepare,” he said. “You could have some great scheme and a lot of people went into that building with it and failed because of snap counts.”

UNI is no stranger to indoor noise since the Panthers play in one themselves at the UNI-Dome. Playing as an offense away from home, however, adds a different dynamic.

California Davis had three false starts and one delay of game penalty in NDSU’s 27-16 win three weeks ago, NDSU’s last home game.

North Dakota had three illegal formation infractions last month at the dome. Communication with visiting teams has historically been an issue.

McElvain came to UNI as a walkon from Lincoln High School in Des Moines, Iowa. He originally committed to walk on at Iowa State as a defensive back before flipping to UNI to play quarterback.

He beat out sophomore Jacob Keller and true freshmen Nate Martens and Justin Fomby in fall camp. It’s not as if McElvain didn’t have the statistics worthy of a Division I scholarship recruit. He was the first player in Iowa Class 4A history to pass for more than 2,000 yards and rush for more than 1,000 in one season.

His size, 5-foot-11 and 197 pounds, may have kept some programs away.

This year, he’s completed 83 of 142 passes for 1,075 yards, eight touchdowns with just one interception. Plus, he’s had to operate without valuable passing targets. The Panthers lost their top two tight ends to injury including all-Missouri Valley first team selection Briley Moore.

McElvain’s redshirt freshman counterpart on Saturday, NDSU’s Trey Lance, has also taken command of his offense. He’s second in Division I FCS in passing efficiency completing 64 of 87 attempts for 74 percent, just percentage points behind Princeton’s Kevin Davidson.

In contrast, Easton Stick was 57 of 95 for 60 percent in his first five games his redshirt freshman season in 2015 when Stick played for the injured Carson Wentz. And those five were against the lower half of the Missouri Valley in Indiana State, Southern Illinois, Western Illinois, Youngstown State and Missouri State.

Lance has done his thing against three nationally-ranked teams — Delaware, California Davis and Illinois State — in this week’s Division I FCS top 25 coaches poll. Another opponent, North Dakota, is ranked just outside the top 25.

“For a young player, he has the talent to run the ball and throw the ball,” Farley said.