Riding the wave of a double overtime victory over ULM last week, FIU should fell primed to make a Sun Belt Conference run, starting with Troy this weekend. 

But the thing is, the SBC has been weird this season. Troy, the perennial power, had a slip up of their own when they lost to ULM by two touchdowns a few weeks back. We don’t need to bring up FIU’s debacle against rival FAU. Troy actually struggled to beat North Texas last weekend, edging them by a touchdown. UNT is very, very bad.

The issue here is that the Sun Belt conference isn’t that good. Others inexplicable examples of this conference’s ridiculous results include Louisiana losing big at home to Western Kentucky. Louisiana is a team that put Ohklahoma state on the ropes on Oct. 8, and lost a close one to Troy. Then they collapsed. Any team on any day can play someone close, but the SBC is a haven for it. 

Troy has been the closest thing to consistency, but they are very beatable. 

PREVIEWING TROY

Corey Robinson is having a nice season in replacement of Levi Brown, leading Troy to the 18th best passing offense in the country, and they still run the ball decently with DeJuan Harris. Jerrel Jernigan is a beast, who functions in a similar fashion to T.Y Hilton. 

On paper, FIU is arguably the best team in the conference. FIU is consistently running the football, and credit needs to go to Mario Cristobal and his staff for finally putting that together. FIU also has a better defense than Troy, but its the fluctuation in this conference is unpredictable. 

But Troy has been dominant in homecoming games. 17-1-1 dominant. I can’t possibly be surprised if FIU loses big. 

PREDICTION

Troy 27

FIU 14

Troy has to much going for them at home. 

TID BITS

• Check out FIU Student Media’s men’s basketball preview if you’re in the area and want to stop by and pick up a Beacon Newspaper at any FIU campus. Also, the stories are posted online, and I put the lead story I wrote in a previous post here on ProSportsBlogging. 
• Basketball is on the radio on Radiate FM. That is 95.3 in Southwest Miami-Dade Country, 96.9 in North Miami, and 88.1 inHomestead. Also, ofcourse, it will stream live on fiusm.com. This will work, I promise. Unlike games outdoors for football in which we struggle technically, the U.S Century Bank Arena provides a great connection for us, as you have seen in our recent FIU volleyball broadcasts. They open today vs. Florida Memorial at 8 p.m. 
• Volleyball closes out it’s schedule at home against Troy and South Alabama this weekend. The team has come on strong of late with the addition of a previously ineligible Jovana Bjelica. We will be on the radio for the USA game (Nov. 13). 

The Golden Panthers men’s basketball team, under the guidance of Isiah Thomas, is probably going to be a .500 team this season. You have to read our coverage at fiusm.com to really get the low down. 

Here is our team preview, by yours truly:

By: Jonathan Ramos 

Regardless of what Isiah Thomas accomplishes at FIU, the questions will always be brought up.

So when a member of the press brought up Thomas’ frenzied summer that included flirtations with another NBA job and constant rumors on the team’s media day Nov. 4, Thomas had a simple answer.

“I understood why everyone else has questions but my answer to all those questions was, as long as I’m in the gym I’m fine,” Thomas said. “For me, my lifestyle, I like to ride the bike, I like to swim and I like to go to the gym. I don’t care what city or state that’s in, if I’m allowed to do those three things, I’m good.”

It wasn’t always that simple.

The uncertainty around Thomas’ devotion to FIU are accentuated when he spoke to the Chicago Tribune last spring about how the University of DePaul can succeed and his love for his hometown. It was also fueled when reports surfaced about him being a candidate for a vacancy with the Los Angeles Clippers. Most of all, the flurry around Thomas was as ardent as ever when he accepted a job as a consultant for the New York Knicks this summer, a plan that was foiled by the NBA due to conflict of interest issues between the league and the NCAA.

But as it turned out, Thomas wasn’t ready to leave FIU just yet, at least for a consultant gig.

“With the NBA, I was very clear about what I wanted to do. I wanted to have the opportunity to continue building what we were doing here at FIU, and also if I could be a consultant with the Knicks, I would do that, and I would happily do that,” Thomas said. “When the choice was presented, either be a consultant with the Knicks, or stay at FIU. Now, if you would have told me that at the start of the summer, I probably would have bet you that I wouldn’t have made the choice to come back to FIU. I’m excited about what we’re building. Again, when the choice was presented I chose the kids and I chose FIU and I’m glad I did.”

A lot of people probably would have been losing money on that bet, and just a day after those statements, Thomas reiterated in an interview with ESPNnewyork.com that he thinks about replacing the aging Donnie Walsh as president of the Knicks ‘every single day of the week.’

Thomas, however, is living in the moment.

While the thought of returning to the NBA remains in his mind, there isn’t any hesitation in his excitement when he describes what he is building the Golden panthers into.

RECRUITING TRAIL

Although two of Thomas’ top recruits will not be eligible to play the fall for undisclosed reasons, FIU will have something that they sorely lacked last season: legitimate size.

Center Brandon Moore is eligible to play this season after transferring from Arkansas, and power forward Eric Frederick comes from Highland Community College to immediately bolster the Golden Panthers inside.

“This is a big step up from what we had last year with our big men,” point guard Phil Gary said. “We gained like four of five inches from our big men so it’s going to help. We got Brandon who is a great shot blocker and Erick who is a great post player on the inside and can hurt you outside.”

Last season, FIU was forced to play 6-foot-6 small forward Marlon Bright at center, with 6-foot-7 small forward J.C Otero also spending more time in the post then he ever had. FIU was second to last in the SBC in rebounding differentials and were last in blocked shots, a big part of why they went 7-25 in their 2009-2010 season. Moore, a 6-foot-10 talented shot blocker, and Frederick, listed at 6-foot-8, a 250-pound bruising rebounder, will automatically improve FIU inside.

In addition, Frederick provides a smooth combination of power and skill on offense, where he has shown good range for his position in his face-up game, and the force to get good position in the paint frequently. That should open up the floor for players Thomas is depending on to knock down outside shots like Stephon Weaver, Dejuan Wright, Marvin Roberts, and Alex Legion, a transfer from Illinois who will be eligible in the spring.

SETTING THE BLUEPRINT

“We lost some games last year because we wanted to implement a style in practice playing a certain way,” Thomas said. “We shot the three ball, we pressed and we trapped a lot. We did a lot of things we probably shouldn’t have done. Looking at the long term vision of what we’re trying to build I thought it was more important to establish that foundation as opposed to maybe winning three or four more games.”

With added size, Thomas hopes that his emphasis on defense begins to show results, outside of steals.

“Last year we didn’t have the size to play the way that we were trying to play,” Thomas said. “We should have slowed the ball down, we should have played a lot more zone and we shouldn’t have taken as many threes as we took. That being said, we ended up being the No. 1 team in our conference in terms of steals. We established a certain style of defensive aggressiveness that I like to play with.”

In a tied game late in the fourth quarter of FIU’s double overtime victory over ULM on Nov. 7, Wesley Carroll tossed an intercetion in ULM’s red zone that was broght back by ULM defensive end Ken Dorsey down into Golden Panther territory.

Unlike last week against Florida Atlantic, FIU made up for the mistake by coming back in the overtimes with T.Y Hilton and Darriet Perry scores, and getting a key tackle from Ash Parker on fourth down.

Carroll ended the game with a final line of 17-of-27 with 227 yards, three touchdowns, and two interceptions. The crucial fourth quarter mistake could have very well cost FIU their homecoming game, but to be fair, he also threw a gorgeous fade route to Greg Ellingson in the first quarter. Overall, I would call it an average game for the junior, all things considered.

T.Y Hilton had arguably the best game of his career, scoring four touchdowns in three different ways and being as dynamic as he has ever been since he arrived at FIU.

FIU is still very much alive, and controls their own destiny in the conference and bowl eligibility with four games left.

TID BITS

• FIU’s defense, which came into the contest ranked in the top 40 nationally and tops in the SBC in total defense, didn’t really have an answer for Kolton Browning, who was 27-of-38 for 339 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. He also ran for 93 yards on 19 carries, slowly eating up the defense for small chunks or yardage throughout. Browning was often throwing or running on the move in the pocket, leaving the defense guessing and bringing back memories of past FIU struggles against mobile quarterbacks. FIU did a tremendous job earlier in the season of containing Texas A&M’s Jerrod Johnson, but it will need to get back on track with stopping dual-threat throwers like Ryan Aplin (Arkansas State), Brad McGuire (Louisiana), and Dwight Dasher (MTSU), who are all on tap down the stretch.  The Golden Panthers just need to be disciplined and play their assignments, which they have shown capable of already. The team did ack Browning four times, but he didn’t even appear to be that good. He didn’t seem capable of going to far downfield and he wasn’t alarmlingly fast. Next week’s opponent , Troy, won’t be running their QB too much, so the team will have some time to work on it.
• For the first time since FIU moved into Division I, now Football Bowl Subdivision, they can run the football effectively with consistency. Eight weeks in, I can say that confidently. This week Darriet Perry took his turn and got 115 yards on 20 carries. The team gained 268 yards on the ground overall. It was another rock solid performance by an offensive line that was working with its starting left tackle. Although Wes did get sacked three times (More than average), that unit up front has played well this season and should be commended for it. Congradulations to Offensive Line coach Alex Mirabal.
• Kudos to offensive coordinator Scott Satterfield for sending Hilton deep a few times. Nobody in this conference can cover him on-on-one, and it’s nice to expand his role outside of his usual underneath stuff and screens.
• Basketball coverage will be in play next week, as FIU hosts Florida Memorial on Nov. 12.

-As published at fiusm.com, written by me.

The fourth quarter of Saturday’s loss to Florida Atlantic was not only one to forget for Wesley Carroll, it was one to disregard for the rest of his career.

The junior signal caller had the ball taken out of his hands as the team ran the ball four times before being stopped at the goal line in the team’s first drive of the final period. On the next possession, Carroll completed a few short passes before tossing an interception on fourth down. After an FAU fumble, Carroll was intercepted again. On the team’s last possession, looking to force a play, Carroll was picked off again, making it three for the game, all coming in the fourth period.

As much as Carroll would like to forget about it, onlookers might be unable to do just that if the team misses out on a bowl eligible season once again.

With the stakes high and the team riding the momentum of an easy early conference schedule, the team couldn’t generate enough offense against an FAU team that had lost five consecutive games coming in.

It hasn’t been the first time the team has come up short in the clutch, led by Carroll. There was also the time Carroll tossed a three yard pass to T.Y Hilton four yards away from pay dirt on the team’s last possession as time expired on fourth down with Texas A&M (Sept. 18) up a touchdown in the second game of the year.

Carroll has also shown some promise, mainly in big games at North Texas and Mayland, but seven games into his FIU career, Carroll has left some to be desired.

MISSING MCCALL?

Carroll came to FIU with a hype surrounding him, with credentials such as Southeastern Conference experience he got at Mississippi State, where he won the Autozone Liberty Bowl in 2007.

Paul McCall, the team’s starter over the last two season’s prior to 2010, was an afterthought as a recruit out of Hollywood Hills High. With no pass protection and no run blocking up front, however, McCall was very formidable for the Golden Panthers. He was sacked over 50 times in his two years as a starter from 2008-09, but managed to keep his interception total in single digits both times and average over 2,000 yards a season, his senior year one in which he was banged up for the majority of.

Carroll has been fortunate to enjoy the benefits of an offensive line that has made strides in 2010. FIU has allowed the least amount of sacks in the Sun Belt Conference this year, and for the first time in Mario Cristobal’s tenure, have managed to sustain a decent running game.

Those are a couple of luxuries McCall didn’t have. Taking into account the first three games of McCall’s first season as a starter, the team was 2-1, just like this season, but McCall had to face conference powers in Middle Tennessee and Troy during that stretch. McCall threw seven touchdowns and two interceptions in those games, and averaged nearly 250 yards a game at a serviceable completion rate.

Carroll’s numbers through that span: two touchdowns and four interceptions, as well as less yards in a similar amount of attempts against arguably the SBC’s three worst teams.

Despite improvement’s around the board for the Golden Panthers, they haven’t gotten better quarterback play, and probably have regressed thus far.

MAKING A PUSH

Carroll may not be a prototypical quarterback in the sense of physical tools and admirable size, but it’s not as if he isn’t capable of playing better. Even if Carroll is not better than McCall, there should be better play at the position if not for the fact that pass protection has improved and he has a running game to back him, in addition to the best group of wide receivers in the SBC.

And it’s not that Carroll has been bad either. He just hasn’t been as good as his talent or weaponry would indicate. The offense hasn’t been very explosive through the air either, with the team tied for last in the SBC in yards per completion. Some of that goes into play calling as well.

The defense is very good, but not enough to single handedly win games.

If the team is going to win four of its next five games and to be eligible for the first bowl appearance in team history and compete for the conference crown, Carroll will need to do more.

The man behind the mask with burly locks of blond hair coming out of his helmet, whom the team rarely allows to talk in public, will need to do some talking on the field for the team to reach their season goal.

• Congradulations to Women Soccers Chelsea Leiva, Nicole DiPerna, Mayara De Fonseca Bordin, and Victoria Miliuici on earning All-SBC honors.

The Golden Panthers had everything set up to start conference play 4-0 with putrid teams in front of them before going to Troy and playing Arkansas State and Middle Tennessee at home down the stretch.

Before next weekend’s homecoming match vs. ULM, FIU just needed to beat a 1-5 FAU team across the street at Lockhart stadium. Let me establish how bad FAU really is. The Owls recently lost to a depleted North Texas team that FIU ran over on the road just last week. The Owls are ranked near the bottom of the nation in rushing offense, with starting running back Alfred Morris (All-SBC in 09′) averaging just 2.7 yards per carry. The Owl’s have a terrible offensive line.

And you can chalk up their 21-9 win to the adrenaline that comes with a rivalry game that is always going to be played close, but if that is the case, why didn’t FIU return the adrenaline?

Why did FIU allow Alfred Morris to get 96 yards in 20 carries?

Why did they fail to score a touchdown against a unimpressive defense?

Morris’ 96 yards were a bit misleadinhg since 21 of them came on one carry, but let’s not forget that Willie Floyd also got 93 yards on just nine carries.

I won’t question the team’s decision to go to Wayne Times over T.Y Hilton in the goal line wildcat, because Times has shown he can be effective in it as well and we would be playing the results if he scored.

T.Y won MVP honors on the FIU said, but said he didn't deserve it afterward

The thing here, is that the Golds were able to get a running game going as well, behind Kerick Rhodes. But late in the game, they couldn’t complete a pass, let alone avoid an interception after three of them late.

The performance was a set back for the program, who couldn’t capture a Shula Bowl for the first time and will now face an uphill climb to bowl eligibility.  To put it in perspective, the team will not only have to win next week, they will have to win at Louisiana, and at home to ASU and MTSU to finish at .500, with an expected loss at Troy.

Not the end of the road, but unlikely to happen with this team, which will likely go 5-7 again. I can already hear James and the rest of the fast twitch callers getting on us tommorow on ‘Panther Sports Talk Live’ calling for some changes haha.

TIDBITS

• Basketball season is getting closer, and I will be posting any stories I write on here as well as adding additional commentary. The team actually has a couple of bodies in the post this season, but we will have to see how skilled they are. Remember, Dominque Ferguson is out until Spring at the earliest with NCAA clearance issues. Check out footage of post practice interviews of the season opening session last week: http://fiusm.com/2010/10/20/fiu-mens-basketball-preview/
• Women’s Soccer will be the No.4 seed in the SBC tournament. Maybe that suits them better, because as a No. 1 seed last season, they fell to UALR in the first round.
• Don’t forget you can always get up to date FIU sports news on fiusm.com.
• PSTL is always streaming live on fiusm.com from 10-11 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and can be caught on your radio dial on 95.3 at Modesto Maidique campus and the surrounding area. 88.1 should work around homestead and 96.9 is the signal for North Miami. Call us at 305-348-3575 and be heard as we always bring on insightful guests and talk FIU sports like nobody else can.

The Golden Panthers have a pretty good opportunity here. Coming off their first win of the season against WKU last weekend, the team will look for a second consecutive win. Although that has only happened once since the Cristobal era began in 2007, a game against UNT may be the perfect formula to make it happen.

UNT is not good, and have lost 11 starters due to injury, and are down to fourth string QB Chase Bain. Cristobal is 3-0 against the Mean Green in his time here.

This early conference schedule could potentially put this team in position to take care of business at home in the last two games of the season vs. MTSU and ASU and make a run at the SBC.

Catch FIUSM’s game preview here, with our beat writer, Igor Melo

http://fiusm.com/2010/10/13/panthers-aim-for-a-win-against-depleted-north-texas/

• I also have an update on Dudley Laporte, FIU’s talented tight end who is shaking off years of rust. Cristobal thinks he will be ready to take on a bigger role soon. Read here: http://fiusm.com/2010/10/13/notebook-laporte-rouding-into-form/
• Although this road contest will not on the radio on WRGP, catch updates of the game on fiusm.com, twitter.com/fiusm and our FIU Student Media Sports page on facebook.

FIU almost beat Rutgers. They almost beat Texas A&M. And they also kept it close against Mayland and Oittsburgh as well.

And then, they only beat Western Kentucky by single digits. There are whispers from fans, sometimes shouts, about how FIU “should”, “could” and “would” be in certain positions and have a diferent record. But the bottom line is they struggled to put away a team with 25 straight losses away at home.

FIU ran the ball for over 200 yards, which was good to see but also not very difficult to do against the worst defense in the Sun Belt Conference.

FIU got a grip on the Hilltoppers by taking a 21-0 first half lead, but let WKU back into the game with a few touchdowns to make it 21-14 at the half. After a touchdown by the GoldenPanthers to put them back up by a few scores, Western Kentucky managed to score again and keep it a one pocession game.

The Golden Panthers won, however, and ofcourse that is what matters most. Probably the best aspect of the game for the Golden Panthers was stuffing Bobby Rainey, who was 8th in the nation in rushing, to 94 yards on 28 carries.

For the fourth consecutive week, FIU played an out of conference team well enough to be in the game in the fourth quarter, whether it be with a lead or a short disadvanatage.

And for the fourth consecutive week, the team could not finish out its opponent and get a win. For the third consecutive week, the team allowed big play’s down the stretch that zapped the Golden Panthers of all it’s momentum.

This time, Pittsburgh ran up the score a little bit en route to a 44-17 win over FIU, but that score wasn’t indicative of what happened. The Panthers led, well, the Panthers, 23-17 in the fourth quarter and broke out shortly thereafter.

In the post game, Cristobal pointed out the reality.

“We haven’t had strong fourth quarters,” Cristobal said. “I think there is a depth factor there in us continuing to pound the ball away and playing these out of conference games with some of these opponents that have this kind of depth.”

Is it acceptable to pull the depth card in Cristobal’s fourth season at the helm? Yes, because he did not use it as an excuse, merely mentioned the realistic situation. FIU is close, but not their yet. Many of the team’s primary contributers are underclassmen, and this is the team’s first season without having to deal with scholarship losses.

Justifying these close losses can get tiring to fans, but its the truth. FIU lost to four team’s in its non-conference schedule who were better than them. The question now becomes how much FIU has improved over 2009 in comparison to the Sun Belt Conference. Going .500 over the last eight games of the year is a fair prediction and would fall right in line with my preseason prediction. In SBC games, depth is not an issue as it is against Big East, ACC, and Big 12 opponents.

TID BITS

• Ray Graham and Pitt’s offensive line torched FIU on the ground. Geoff Collins is noted for helping team’s be stout against the run, but his front got dominated this time. This game is most likely an anamoly, however. I expect FIU to be one of the conference’s better defenses going forward.
• Wesley Carroll did not throw an interception vs. Pitt. That was a welcome site for FIU’s offense.
• Darrian Mallary is evolving into a very nice piece in FIU’s backfield. Mallary is only a sophomore, and once led Dade County in rushing at Gulliver Prep. As a third down back or even a quick spark in the slot, Mallary can make play’s in space and is as elusive as any Golden Panther on the team besides T.Y Hilton. He only had five carries against Pitt, but late in the game showed nice burst and ended up with 35 yards.
• If T.Y Hilton’s leg injury is serious, FIU is severely limited, again. Last season the Golds were set back by Hilton’s pesky knee issue. Will have an update on this during the week.

Sure, FIU is 0-3 on the season and technically have been in every game they have played in so far. But there is room, since they have all been tough out of conference road games, for fans to be pleased with the improvement this team has shown compared to it’s putrid 2009 year.

The team has shown a more consistent, improved defense. Let’s not throw out the big plays that have killed the Golden Panthers the last few weeks, but lets give some credit to the opponents, who playing at home, have come through with big plays. Despite last weeks meltdown at Maryland, FIU still ranks first in the SBC on total defense. They are still third in pass and run defense in the SBC.

Barring the predictable playcalling, lack of discipline and an injury bug ala 2009, things will surely look up in conference play. That’s because the team will have an even slate for its final eight games, as in four at home and four on the road. We will talk about this more next week, for now, lets look at Pitt as we close out non conference play.

PREVIEWING PITT

FIU is once again expected to lose this one. Pittsburgh came in 2010 as the favorite to win the Big East and an upstart team. They have fallen to a 1-2 start however, and were dismantled at home by Miami (FL) last week.

You all will read a lot about Pitt’s star running back, Dion Lewis, who is absolutly dynamic for the Panthers.

If we have seen one thing from this FIU team, however, is that they can put together a great defensive game. Given how Pitt has only showed some semblence of an offense in a cake walk win over New Hamphshire, FIU has an opportunity to hold this team under 20 points. And let’s say that the defense holds their end of the bargain…..

OPENING IT UP

FIU threw the football 58 times last week. That was a record. Naturally, the stats filled up after that and the Golden Panthers set records for most colpmetions (35) and completed passes to 12 different receivers. Was it a breakout game for Wes? Probably not. The completion percentage wasn’t there, so the stats were more a result of his amount of attempts. Let’s remember that Maryland has a horrid defense as well. And, FIU is doing a nice job at keeping his jersey clean (10th in FBS in sacks allowed per game).

The team will have to score over 20 points to win this one. Some more efficiency and a stout run game against a vulnerable Pitt defense will do the job and bring FIU back home with the biggest win in program history.

PREDICTION

Pitt- 23

FIU-17

Both sides of the ball will likely come up short in holding their ends of the bargain here. FIU will come home 0-4, with a must win home contest vs. WKU awaiting as conference play begins.

TID BITS

• Given that FIU is playing Pitt here, I will again voice my opinion on FIU’s branding situation. It is ironic that FIU plays another team that wears blue and gold and calls itself the Panthers, because FIU is trying so hard to be just that. Pitt has been around since 1787, and it’s dissapointing that FIU’s has lazily settled on a generic logo and brand. I understand wanting to implement something clean and simple in its design, but copying something else is different.

Look Familiar?

With that being said, this isn’t all to blame on the current people in charge. Former president Modesto Maidique changed the school mascot to a Golden Panther from the cool and unique SunBlazer the team had that even starred in Miami Vice. Overall, athletics has already pretty much pushed a campaign to drop the ‘Golden’ from the name as well. Not a big deal, but just voicing my two cents about the brand/logo/mascot situation.

• Remember, if you need something to listen to in the mournings or as driving through traffic in the mourning, ‘Panther Sports Talk Live’ every Mon-Wed-Fri from 10-11 a.m. streaming live on fiusm.com and on your radio dial on 95.3(MMC) and 96.9(BBC). We recently had a caller call in, in quite colorfull terms, and called for Mario Cristobal’s head. You can call in at 305-348-3575 and share your opinion.

 

On the eve of the team’s second most difficult game of the season against TAMU (Pitt would be the hardest), it’s worth noting a few things after we never caught up post the Golden Panthers season-opening loss to Rutgers.

Check out my column here: http://fiusm.com/2010/09/15/despite-loss-team-excels-where-it-matters-most-in-opener/

I’m basically saying that regardless of what this quarterback shuffle results in, FIU did the two most important things on the football field against Rutgers, which was stop the opponent’s run and establish your own run. I can’t recall the last time FIU pushed someone at the line of scrimmage besides FAU and WKU’s anemic defenses in 2008.

Bringing us to TAMU. This game is simply a contest this FIU team is not ready to compete in for long. The Aggies high powered offense plowed through a couple of inferior opponents to start the season, led by Jerrod Johnson. Johnson, though two games, has the second ranked scoring offense in the Big 12 Conference. Ofcourse, FIU has the nations No. 2 defense after a bout with Rutgers, but TAMU will bring significantly better play on the offensive line and Johnson will not be held on a leash in a vanilla offense like Tom Savage was last week.

But the issue is this. If FIU can consistently play defense like it did against Rutgers, and that offensive line can hold up and open decent holes for Jeremiah Harden and Darrian Mallary, this team will be bowl eligible this season. That’s because after facing tough opponents (besides Maryland), FIU will have a great chance to be in the thick of the conference race THIS season.

Now, not to completely discard this game. It will definetly be interesting to see just how this new FIU defense fares against Johnson, who can run as well as throw. This team struggled against mobile quarterbacks last season, and if this team can somehow hold him down, it will really start making me beleive that Geoff Collins has a legit group.

TAMU held off Stephen F. Austin and Louisiana Tech rather easily, so offensively, if FIU is agoing to avoid a blowout it would start with eliminating, at least by half, the seven turnovers they had vs. Rutgers. FIU may have shown promise in the run game, but this TAMU defensive line is just as good as Rutgers’ solid unit, if not better, and the team will play in front of its fervent fan base at Kyle Field. Besides avoiding costly turnovers, FIU will have to show something in its passing game to keep it close as well.

We’ll have to see how much Wesley Carroll plays. Or maybe the better question is how much Wayne Younger plays. Neither was stellar vs. Rutgers after Caroll started, and FIU coach Mario Cristobal has not commited to one lone QB.

PREDICTION

TAMU- 41

FIU- 14

It’s going to be a tough afternoon for the Golden Panthers, but a chance to see how it fares with a player like Johnson.