Florida International Preview - USA Today

Harry · May 15, 2013

Florida International's rocky, choppy climb to the upper crust of the Sun Belt Conference hit quite the snag last fall, sending the Golden Panthers down multiple pegs just as the program heads into its debut season as a member of Conference USA.

This coming year has all the makings of a rebuilding season: FIU has a new coach, new players and a new league, three factors that contribute to the general sense of impending doom surrounding this team as it enters offseason conditioning. The new coach is not Butch Davis, by the way, but rather Ron Turner, the ex-Illinois coach who spent the last eight seasons in the NFL before returning to the college game.

The slide happened overnight, it seems. After reaching back-to-back bowl bids from 2010-11, FIU dropped to 3-9 in 2012, its final season under Mario Cristobal. (Cristobal has since landed on his feet as Alabama's offensive line coach.) Only a late-season win against Florida Atlantic saved FIU from tying South Alabama for last place in the Sun Belt and tying for last place in the Sun Belt effectively makes you one of the five or six worst teams in college football, most would say.

Unfortunately, the climb back to relevancy won't occur with the same velocity. FIU is staring at another multiple-year rebuilding project, and that must sting for a fan base that very recently believed such days were a thing of the past.

LAST YEAR'S PREDICTION

When it comes to the Sun Belt, the only thing that can stop Florida International is Florida International. This is what happens when you combine the league's best offensive line, best defensive line, best overall defense and best running game: you get the best team in the Sun Belt. No other team is as complete, even if the Golden Panthers are slanted heavily towards the defensive side of the ball. No other team has such senior leadership especially where it counts, up front on offense and in the front seven on defense. No other team in the SBC can match the program's clear and obvious climb over the last two seasons. Others disagree, it seems; to me, FIU is clearly the Sun Belt's best team in 2012. Expectations are high, and for good reason.

2012 RECAP

In a nutshell: Not every disappointing team needs to play in a major conference, with Florida International as our most recent example. At worst, FIU was viewed as the third-best team in the Sun Belt; in terms of talent and experience, this was an easy bowl team with room for more. What ensued was an utter disappointment that word again with FIU winning only three games, losing nine, and dropping from successive bowl berths to the bottom third of the nation's weakest conference. The slide was inexplicable, and served in large part as the school's rationale for jettisoning Cristobal after his years of hard work building FIU into a program worthy of inclusion into Conference USA. Cristobal's replacement inherits a team with far less talent, far lower expectations and far less of a chance of achieving anything of consequence in 2013.

High point: A 34-24 win over rival Florida Atlantic, the Panthers' second win in a row against the Owls after losing eight of their first nine in the series. The Panthers also lost five games by a touchdown or less, including a 28-21 loss to Louisville during non-conference play.

Low point: Those same close setbacks meant the difference between three wins and a potential bowl berth. FIU lost to Louisville, Middle Tennessee State, Troy, Western Kentucky and Louisiana-Monroe the latter in overtime by a combined 26 points.

Tidbit: The three teams FIU beat in 2012 finished a combined 6-31 on the season: Akron went 1-11, South Alabama 2-11 and FAU 3-9. This was the second-worst defeated opponent's win total of any three-win team in the FBS in 2012, ahead of only UTEP, which had victories over New Mexico State (1-11), Tulane (2-10) and Southern Mississippi (0-12).

read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2013/05/14/florida-international-fiu-college-football-countdown-2013-preview/2158467/

emmitt01 · May 16, 2013

" What ensued was an utter disappointment that word again with FIU winning only three games, losing nine, and dropping from successive bowl berths to the bottom third of the nation's weakest conference. The slide was inexplicable, and served in large part as the school's rationale for jettisoning Cristobal after his years of hard work building FIU into a program worthy of inclusion into Conference USA"

1) A team enters the season with the talent to win their league and with universally high expectations.

2) Said team falls on its face.

3) The coach is held responsible, and this guy HAS proven he can win as a head coach.

They might be onto something out there in Miami.

Edited May 16, 2013 by emmitt01

KRAM1 · May 16, 2013

Ask Dickey and Dodge. See if they think it's anything new for a coach who has had SEVERAL years at the helm and whose program doesn't meet expectations. Yep, pretty common...cannot believe anyone thinks it is news. But, then again one must consider the motivation of the...oh, never mind.

emmitt01 · May 16, 2013

Ask Dickey and Dodge. See if they think it's anything new for a coach who has had SEVERAL years at the helm and whose program doesn't meet expectations. Yep, pretty common...cannot believe anyone thinks it is news. But, then again one must consider the motivation of the...oh, never mind.

Why would I ask Dodge anything? He disproves your feeble passive aggressive attempt at making a point. Yes, he had several years at the helm and proved that only here at North Texas can continued futility buy you another year.

I appreciate that you so readily provide the ammo for my arguments on such a consistent basis.

untjim1995 · May 16, 2013

Ask Dickey and Dodge. See if they think it's anything new for a coach who has had SEVERAL years at the helm and whose program doesn't meet expectations. Yep, pretty common...cannot believe anyone thinks it is news. But, then again one must consider the motivation of the...oh, never mind.

OK--Cristobal didn't deserve to get fired. He single-handedly built that program up from the trash heap. He did what we HOPE McCarney will do here. Having one bad year isn't enough to warrant a firing after you've won a bowl game and became a team that people actually knew about outside of the SBC. In that way, its very similar to Dickey. He finally built up the program to the top of the SBC and then had a 2-9 year. He shouldn't have been fired after that 2005 season, but once the 2006 disaster followed, it became very apparent that our program was in full meltdown. He deserved to be fired after the 2006 season.

Dodge deserved to be fired after Year 2, but I understood the reasoning behind a third year, since he was trying to rebuild here with a totally differnet offense. But, after Year 3, any other school would have fired him. NOt here, which is what Emmit is getting at. We don't have expectations here for on-field performance--we have expectations for cost. Nothing more, nothing less. Just like this year, if McCarney has a bad year (say we only win 3-4 games), I still believe he will get his 4th year because it would cost the university money to buy him and get someone else. I really think he has to worry about losing his job after this season if we lose 10 games or more, which really shouldn't happen. UTSA and Idaho should be absolute wins, no matter how we try to convince ourselves otherwise. If you cannot win at least one more game agains tthe rest of the schedule, you should get fired. And if you don't accomplish that amazingly small hurdle, and still keep your job for a 4th season, no one can argue the point anymore that we care about anything but the $$$ of running a program.

outoftown · May 16, 2013

To put it simple: if Mac goes 1-11 this season and gets fired, I could very well live with a coach Cristobal, .... I am not sure though that we could get him.

edit: this is not at all to say that I expect Mac to have a bad season.

Edited May 16, 2013 by outoftown

Harry · May 16, 2013

OK--Cristobal didn't deserve to get fired. He single-handedly built that program up from the trash heap. He did what we HOPE McCarney will do here. Having one bad year isn't enough to warrant a firing after you've won a bowl game and became a team that people actually knew about outside of the SBC. In that way, its very similar to Dickey. He finally built up the program to the top of the SBC and then had a 2-9 year. He shouldn't have been fired after that 2005 season, but once the 2006 disaster followed, it became very apparent that our program was in full meltdown. He deserved to be fired after the 2006 season.

Dodge deserved to be fired after Year 2, but I understood the reasoning behind a third year, since he was trying to rebuild here with a totally differnet offense. But, after Year 3, any other school would have fired him. NOt here, which is what Emmit is getting at. We don't have expectations here for on-field performance--we have expectations for cost. Nothing more, nothing less. Just like this year, if McCarney has a bad year (say we only win 3-4 games), I still believe he will get his 4th year because it would cost the university money to buy him and get someone else. I really think he has to worry about losing his job after this season if we lose 10 games or more, which really shouldn't happen. UTSA and Idaho should be absolute wins, no matter how we try to convince ourselves otherwise. If you cannot win at least one more game agains tthe rest of the schedule, you should get fired. And if you don't accomplish that amazingly small hurdle, and still keep your job for a 4th season, no one can argue the point anymore that we care about anything but the $$$ of running a program.

I agree Cristobal did a nice job but let's be honest, that place is a potential factory of talent. Having attended a game there, they have an amazing location and are sitting near a ton of high school talent and are in a prime position to get top notch transfers. I think both FIU and FAU will SURPRISE a lot of the naysayers and will in due time start flexing their muscles in the eastern division.

untjim1995 · May 16, 2013

FIU and FAU are in the same positions as the non-AQ and non-AAC teams in Texas, from a talent perspective in the high schools. You have to have the right coach who can identify that talent and recruit it to your campus, then coach it to be better. What often happens in these cases is that the AD of those schools comes in and wants their guy or cannot get along with the football coach. Cristobal and Dickey both got fired because they had losing seasons, but also because their ADs couldn't stand them. What happens after that is that the AD thinks he can hire a better fit, but that is a very dangerous move, as evidenced here in Denton. Cristobal turned down the Pitt job, IIRC, but his loyalty to FIU lasted all of one year. I don't see FIU bouncing back all that quickly from making a poor decision like that. Usually, when schools do that, it blows up in their face.

MeanGreenTexan · May 16, 2013

I agree Cristobal did a nice job but let's be honest, that place is a potential factory of talent. Having attended a game there, they have an amazing location and are sitting near a ton of high school talent and are in a prime position to get top notch transfers. I think both FIU and FAU will SURPRISE a lot of the naysayers and will in due time start flexing their muscles in the eastern division.

This all sounds so very familiar. I hope we can flex our muscles in the Western division.

PlummMeanGreen · May 17, 2013

To put it simple: if Mac goes 1-11 this season and gets fired, I could very well live with a coach Cristobal, .... I am not sure though that we could get him.

edit: this is not at all to say that I expect Mac to have a bad season.

I know where you're coming from, outoftown, but good golly miss molly, we need Coach Mac and his staff to be successful this Fall with 6 or 7 wins. I think 7 wins would get us a bowl game.

I think many of us do worry about his health, though. No job is worth dying for IMO.

GMG!

UNT90 · May 17, 2013

" What ensued was an utter disappointment that word again with FIU winning only three games, losing nine, and dropping from successive bowl berths to the bottom third of the nation's weakest conference. The slide was inexplicable, and served in large part as the school's rationale for jettisoning Cristobal after his years of hard work building FIU into a program worthy of inclusion into Conference USA"
1) A team enters the season with the talent to win their league and with universally high expectations.
2) Said team falls on its face.
3) The coach is held responsible, and this guy HAS proven he can win as a head coach.
They might be onto something out there in Miami.

I know, right? A Sun Belt school holding a head coach accountable!!! What a concept.

If only we were as dedicated as FIU.

Edited May 17, 2013 by UNT90

outoftown · May 20, 2013

" What ensued was an utter disappointment that word again with FIU winning only three games, losing nine, and dropping from successive bowl berths to the bottom third of the nation's weakest conference. The slide was inexplicable, and served in large part as the school's rationale for jettisoning Cristobal after his years of hard work building FIU into a program worthy of inclusion into Conference USA"
1) A team enters the season with the talent to win their league and with universally high expectations.
2) Said team falls on its face.
3) The coach is held responsible, and this guy HAS proven he can win as a head coach.
They might be onto something out there in Miami.

I know, right? A Sun Belt school holding a head coach accountable!!! What a concept.
If only we were as dedicated as FIU.

Good gosh guys. I get that you guys think Coach B is not going to make things better at NT and should get the slip (I actually agree)...And that coach Macs leash should not be endless (it shouldn't) but please: If you're idea of accounatbility is that a guy who has built up a program from the rubbles and has proven he can do it needs to be fired if he has one bad season, then I am glad you guys don't have more sway with NTs AD. Talk about trigger happy

I know where you're coming from, outoftown, but good golly miss molly, we need Coach Mac and his staff to be successful this Fall with 6 or 7 wins. I think 7 wins would get us a bowl game.

I think many of us do worry about his health, though. No job is worth dying for IMO.

GMG!

GMG!

I do agree. We do need wins this season. And I am optistic that they are gonna come. But most independent previews are not as optimistic as I am and I also think it has to be allowed to think aloud about plan Bs, since NT history should have tought us that having those is sometimes necessary.

Edited May 20, 2013 by outoftown