The Legg Talks Part 1

Taking a little break from FIU baseball to hear the Legg talk. That would be new FIU offensive coordinator Bill Legg, who came over from Purdue after being the OC over there. With the Boilermakers, BL had the Big Ten's top passing offense in 2006 and the top offense and scoring offense last season.

BL is originally from West Virginia, but has been a regular visitor to Florida over the years: his brother-in-law lives in the Keys and BL's in-laws live near Fort Myers.

In the first of our two-part Q & A, the FIU OC talks about one difference in his version of the spread offense and assesses the FIU quarterbacks....

So what intrigued you about the FIU football program when the OC position opened up?

BL: I think FIU has unlimited potential. Anytime I've ever made a move I've always looked for a couple of things. No. 1 was the type of people that were there. No. 2 is the commitment to be successful and I was convinced after coming down here for my interview and I remain convinced from the President on down that this place is committed to putting out a big-time college football program. They are doing the things that are necessary. Now we got a lot of things to do from a structural standpoint, a recruiting standpoint and a performance standpoint. The building blocks are in place and are moving forward constantly so that commitment convinced me that it can be done, especially with the location FIU is in. Let's face it, there may not be any place in this country that has better football than Florida as a whole, but definitely South Florida.

What did you see in the FIU offense last year?

BL: A young football team that was trying to find itself. Whether I would have come to FIU or not, the bottom line is this team is going to be a better football team this year with or without Bill Legg. This football team is going to grow in leaps and bounds over this next period of time just like all young individual players. There's an uncertainty in that first year, overwhelming at times, but then the players get to know campus and they find their way around it so the stress level drops. They get to understand the offense and they know how to play faster so the stress level drops. I think that's what we saw in spring. This team has a better understanding of itself. It is improving on a daily basis, because they are playing faster and faster and they are getting the benefits of a good off-season program.

                                                                                                                                                       

Watching former FIU OC James Coley's offense last season and watching your version of the spread offense this spring, it seems that you have the quarterback being more mobile in your offense?

                                                                                                                                                       

BL: You can't be a statue and play football. If you're a statue back there as a quarterback then you better have 10 great players around you. Right now, we're a young football team and we're growing and we're getting better on a daily basis, but we don't have 10 great players out there around that quarterback yet. So consequently, the quarterback has to be able to make plays with his mind first, his arm second and his feet third and that's the approach we're taking. Does it mean the quarterback has to be a 4.4, 4.5 (40-yard dash) guy, no it does not, but it means he better have quick feet. He better have an understanding of how to sit within the pocket and he better have an understanding that in our run game he's going to be making reads no different than in the pass game as to whether he's going to give the ball here, there or throw it out there. The quarterback has to be able to function as the coach on the field. I think our quarterbacks are getting a good grasp of having that ability to be that coach on the field.

                                                                                                                                                   

What do you think of each quarterback?

                                                                                                                                                      

BL: Wayne Younger (left) I got to see film on him and he's slowly, but surely coming back. Obviously, he's a very talented young man. He's very bright football smart, but he hasn't gotten to do much this spring and we've already talked. He knows what he needs to do. He needs to manufacture some repetitions by staying in the playbook all summer. By coming in on his own and watching the cut-ups from spring football and by gathering some kids up out here every chance he possibly gets and throwing, because he lost a lot of reps during the course of spring.

   Paul McCall (right) has really come strong. He picked things up quickly. He's got good feet. He's got a good release. He's an accurate passer and again, intelligence, the ability to throw, the ability to move your feet and he has all those attributes. Those two guys both have experience, both have their strengths and it will be an interesting battle come fall.

   The 2 young guys (Colt Anderson and Darold Hughes) were on a little bit of a roller coaster ride. They just learned the new language of college football and then somebody came in and changed that language on them. They struggled early to grasp, but they both have the raw ability to be good quarterbacks. They don't have the experience the other two have so it's going to take them more time, but they're not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination. They probably are going to have to really hump it this summer to put themselves in position to have a legitimate shot at competing this fall. Now the last week of spring ball, things started clicking for both of them. It will be interesting. It will be wide-open during 2-a-days. Everybody will be given a fair shake. Everybody will be given an opportunity to compete for the job, but when we get through 2-a-days we're going to have to settle on who it is is our quarterback.

                                                                                                                                                       

We'll have the last part of the Q &A with BL on here soon.

                                                                                                                                                       

GOLDEN PANTHER PAWSE

                                                                                                                                    

On the next GPP post before Thursday's 3-game series begins with Florida Atlantic, we'll check in with the FIU witches to see how FIU baseball can get into the Sun Belt Tournament. The girls have hinted that it won't take any kind of hocus pocus for the Golden Panthers to book a plane ticket to Lafayette.

                                                                                                                                 

outofthecage88 & DCpanther: Got both of you down as our 13th and 14th states on the GPP, also including our nation's capital. Thanks.

                                                                                                                                                    

UltimateFIUFan: Yes, the infrastructure is in place at FIU to avoid any further NCAA issues.

Back to the Diamond

Let's put the NCAA mumbo-jumbo aside and get back to the diamond.

With 6 games left in the season, FIU has its back to the wall when it comes to the team's baseball postseason hopes.

The Golden Panthers, currently 9th in the Sun Belt, trail Middle Tennessee by 1 for 8th place and Louisiana-Lafayette and Western Kentucky by 3 for 6th. The top 8 teams make the conference tournament.

Oddly enough, FIU's best chance to reach the postseason is by catching the Ragin' Cajuns, who sit in 6th, because ULL could slip against two tough teams in the final 6 games and FIU owns the season series (tiebreaker) with ULL. MT and WK both won their season series with FIU. ULL finishes with 3 against WK and 3 against New Orleans, who with a .340 team batting average leads the Sun Belt in hitting.

Not that the final 6 games will be cake for FIU, hardly anything has this season. The Golden Panthers last two opponents: South Alabama and Florida Atlantic -- 2 of the best power hitting teams in the conference -- come to town starting with the Jaguars tonight for a 3-game series.

The thought here is FIU must win at least 5 of its final 6 games to book a plane ticket to Lafayette for the Sun Belt tourney. So a sweep is needed against either SA or FAU.

We could summon Joaquin Andujar here, but don't know if it will help because FIU is in a tough spot.

GOLDEN PANTHER PAWSE

Noticed the blog comments have turned a little bit into a Springer show. Let's try to keep the racial comments, slurs, etc. out or the Golden Paw will come out. You want to insult each other's school and who has the better cafeteria food or hotter girls go right ahead, but let's clean up the act.

FIUrulez: The penalties are the loss of scholarships. The probation is just the NCAA's way  of saying we're watching you closely for the next 4 years to make sure you don't do all of this again. There was the possibility the NCAA was going to ban FIU from all postseason eligibility, but that did NOT happen. As far as PG, he knew before he took the FIU AD job what he was getting into with the NCAA mess.

UltimateFIUFan: The ineligible players occurred on all 12 FIU teams that were cited by the NCAA. In the document the NCAA sent me, the names of the players are blacked out. The NCAA told me that is because of student-athlete privacy rights.

FI-UM Fan: No, the GPP has not hit all 50 states yet with readers. At last count, these are the 12 states the GPP is read in: Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Colorado, California, New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, Tennessee, Vermont, Pennsylvannia and North Carolina. Plus, outside the U.S. we hit Puerto Rico and Spain.

TNGoldenPanther: Spoke with MC the other day and asked him about doing another Q & A with the fans like last year. MC said he would take the fans' questions on the GPP later this summer. I'll work on getting some Q & A with players on here. I'll post on the GPP when you guys can start sending in questions for MC.

LoveFIU-butiwonder: Welcome to the GPP. One reason the soccer programs were hit the hardest was that they overawarded scholarships from 2004-06 and to answer your question....PG was not working at FIU during this period.

U24/7: The sanctions for the football and baseball teams were the loss of scholarships for both (3 for football and 1.5 for baseball) and the four-hour reduction in practice time for baseball starting in 2009. The probation lasts until 2012, but the scholarship losses were already taken by FIU football and baseball in this past signing period.

And That's the Last of It

The final punishment handed down by the NCAA on FIU was announced on Wednesday.

For the compliance infractions committed by FIU from the 2002 to 2006 seasons, the NCAA added one year of probation for FIU and took away 20.32 scholarships -- most of which FIU already absorbed in the past signing period for recruits. This is different from the APR news from Tuesday, which has to do with the academic progress of student-athletes.

Last fall, FIU self-imposed a three-year probation period for past compliance violations that included using ineligible players from 2002 to 2006, misapplied enrollment and financial aid rules, and transfer requirements. The NCAA added a fourth year of probation that puts FIU on probation beginning May 15, 2008 and ending May 19, 2012.

When FIU made the jump from Division I-AA to Division I, the university's compliance department was not adequately staffed or prepared to take that step. I know FIU likes to do everything on a fast track, but when it moved to Division I it was not ready for its compliance department to become Division I.

Since self-imposing its penalties, FIU has strengthened its compliance department with the necessary resources to make sure this doesn't happen again.

Taking some positives out of all of this: most FIU teams have their full allotment of scholarships for next year, with the exception of men's and women's soccer which still have to give up one scholie each. Also, there were no postseason bans handed down by the NCAA.

GOLDEN PANTHER PAWSE

FI-UM Fan: We'll have a blog updating the new stadium soon.

UltimateFIUFan: Next time I run into Mike Lowell, I'll ask him about his new book. As far Brad Eldred (right), he's playing for the Chicago White Sox's Triple A team, Charlotte Knights. Eldred leads the Knights with 8 home runs and 29 RBI.

paradox: The 16 hours practice time the FIU baseball team is being restricted to next season has nothing to do with TT. The four hours the NCAA took away were for the baseball team's low APR for the past four years before TT. And that is something that CANNOT be pinned on former coach Danny Price either, because FIU did not have the proper resources (advisors, tutors, technical support) for the student-athletes.

MaXx: The GPP is talking FIU sports. Yes, all teams with the exception of the soccer teams and the one scholarship the men's basketball team has to surrender for the APR for 2008-09, every other FIU team is fully-loaded with scholies for next season.

jimmy: Welcome to the GPP. Yes, the APR is different from the NCAA probation. FIU football gave up 3 scholarships for APR, that's why MC can only sign 22 players this year, instead of 25. The probation scholies come off the maximum roster size this year. So instead of having the max roster size of 85 players this upcoming season, FIU football can only have 82 players.

APR Bottom Line

The NCAA released its Academic Progress Report on Tuesday and while FIU took some hits this year, it was not as bad as in years past.

Here's who lost what:

FIU football gave up 3 scholarships in this past February's signing class, but will have a full allotment of 25 scholarships next season.

Baseball won an NCAA appeal to regain a full allotment of scholarships for next season, but lost four hours of practice time per week in 2009. So TT is fully stocked with scholies, but next season FIU can only practice 16 hours per week instead of the regular 20 hours. A couple of reasons the baseball team got all their scholies back were they posted the highest GPA in program history last semester with a 3.04 and the baseball team's yearly APR rate jumped from 725 to 925.

Men's basketball will give up one scholarship in 2008-09 and have 12 scholies instead of the full 13, but get all 13 back the following season.

Swimming and Diving lost 0.49 of a scholie and Men's Outdoor Track and Field lost 1.26 scholies.

As far as the yearly APR rates for the rest of FIU's sports teams, each team saw their rate get better with the exception of men's hoops. Women's hoops (1000 to 982), women's golf (972 to 938), and swimming & diving (917 to 915) also had their APRs dip, but remained above 900.

Men's cross country and women's tennis scored a perfect 1000. Despite the dip, women's hoops still had the third highest score of FIU teams.

Among the FIU teams that saw dramatic improvements in their APRs were: football (822 to 881), men's soccer (844 to 972), Women's cross country (833 to 964), Softball (870 to 966), Women's soccer (864 to 924), Women's tennis (969 to the max 1000) and Women's Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field (846 to 935).

FIU is not out of the woods yet on the APR. FIU must continue showing improvement. Starting next year, chronic violators of the APR face a ban from postseason competition and possible scholarship restrictions.

GOLDEN PANTHER PAWSE

INS PUB ADJ: FIU assistant hoops coach Bill Wuczynski was hired at Texas Christian.

Miri: Post your Siskel & Ebert on Bull Durham.

Clawing Cancer: During the summer downtime, we may just have to break out a GPP Blogger Awards. Stay tuned.

FIUBlue82: We'll get the Cowgirls on here soon enough.

FIUESTUDIANTE & DaU4Life: Welcome to the GPP. Were you guys in the movie, "Malibu's Most Wanted"?

NYCFIUFan: Even June Cleaver from "Airplane" may not even be able to help here.

The 2nd Annual Marios

Spring football ended two weeks ago and fall practice won't begin for another three months, but we'd be remissed here at the GPP if we didn't get to the 2nd Annual MARIOS Spring Football Awards.

For those that did not attend last year's inaugural Marios awards, here's our disclaimer: The Marios do NOT include opinions expressed by the FIU head football coach and all results are tabulated by the accounting firm of: Soley, Maya, Opinion and Dats-It.

Each Marios award winner will receive a 1-foot high MARIO statue (picture, right) depicting an Italian plumber, because like the plumber all Marios award winners have shown that they are not afraid to get their hands dirty to get the job done on the gridiron this spring.

Let's welcome our Marios awards presenter to the stage, Miss Jennifer Aniston, who is currently in Miami filming a movie with Dupree at the Marlins game last Friday. BTW, JA is holding the prototype Marios award in the photo on the left. Now, on to our first Mario....

The Visine Award....And the Mario goes to....Jeremiah Weatherspoon and Marshall McDuffie. Both players were a sight for sore eyes with their returns to the team, especially for an FIU secondary in need of some safety help. JW had an excellent spring, not only in the defensive backfield, but returning kicks as well. At 6-1, 221 and with a burst of speed, JW could be a weapon returning kicks. He returned one for a TD in a scrimmage. MM is a great story coming back after the whole brawl fiasco. Besides making things better off the field, MM also showed he wasn't too rusty on the field.

The Missouri Award....This award is named after the "Show Me State", because the recipient, you guessed it, showed what he could do in the spring and now looks to bring that same effort to the regular season. And the Mario goes to....It's a three-way tie. FIU running backs A'mod Ned, Julian Reams and Daunte Owens all receive a Mario for showing flashes this spring of what they can do. AN had a long touchdown run in one scrimmage. JR broke free for 37 yards at the Blue & Gold Game and had a 40-yard kickoff return in another scrimmage. DO ran for nearly 120 yards in the first spring scrimmage. Now it's time for one or more of these backs to consistently show us again starting at Kansas, Aug. 30.

The Robin Hood Award....And the Mario goes to....Colt Anderson. It may have been the quietest, strong performance of the spring. Like the denizen of Sherwood Forest did with a bow and arrow, CA showed he can be pretty accurate throwing the football. In the last two scrimmages, including the spring game, CA was 15 of 18 throwing the pigskin.

The Matrix Award....And the Mario goes to....The new option play. Unveiled this spring, the play gives the FIU offense another dimension. New offensive coordinator Bill Legg brought a revamped spread offense and with it the option. Not saying FIU is turning into the old Big 8 Conference teams of Oklahoma and Nebraska, but the option is a nifty little play to have in your arsenal. Reams broke a long TD run off the toss from Paul McCall in a scrimmage this spring.

The Surround Sound Award....And the Mario goes to....Bill Legg. Without some throat drops or some hot tea, the new FIU OC won't have a voice by the third game of the season. Remember, Turtle with the  mike at FIU baseball, no microphone needed for BL, who could be heard loud and clear this spring while he taught the new O to the Golden Panthers. Would like to hear a contest between BL and FIU D-coordinator Phil Galiano (who won the Mario for Best Pipes last year) to determine whose voice would last the longest.

The Food Network Award....And the Mario goes to....The H-Back/Tight End position. Something special could be cooking with this position in 2008. Four players (Travis Felder, John Ellis, Eric Kirchenberg and James Wiggins) manned the position this spring and some intriguing possibilities resulted, especially with JE going long on several passes. TF, with his basketball skills, may have the most athleticism to become a big part of the FIU O here. (NOT comparing here, but remember San Diego Chargers TE Antonio Gates and Kansas City Chiefs TE Tony Gonzalez were former hoopsters).

El Monstruo Award....And the Mario goes to....Another three-way tie or we could just rename this the Munsters Award. Defensive linemen Reggie Jones, Quentin Newman and Jonathan Betancourt all brought to mind former FIU and current Baltimore Ravens LB Antwan Barnes, with their tenacious work in the offensive backfield this spring. Although not with the same quickness as AB, these three excelled. In two scrimmages, RJ had 6 sacks, QN had 5 1/2 and JB had numerous tackles for loss, along with 3 sacks.

The Anti-Saturday Night Live Award....And the Mario goes to....Marquis Rolle. Unlike, the SNL performers, MR is ready to be a prime time player. The receiver has size, is physical and showed a penchant for making catches in traffic and beating defensive backs for balls downfield. Twice MR and Colt Anderson connected for long TD passes down the sideline.

The Sleeping Giant Award....And the Mario goes to....The FIU Athletic Deparment. For the second consecutive year, the Blue & Gold Spring Game was a hit drawing more than 3,000 fans after having more than 2,400 people show up last year. Like it's been mentioned on here before, if there is this kind of interest for a 6-year-old program that hasn't had that breakthrough win yet, imagine the response when winning becomes a habit at FIU.

The Cindy Crawford Award....And the Mario goes to....The 63-yard touchdown pass from Paul McCall to Jeremy Dickens down the middle of the field that split the defense at the start of the spring game. Like our inaugural Marios Awards Show presenter, Miss Crawford, the pass play was the prettiest of the spring and got the loudest reaction from the spring game crowd. When PM dropped back you heard the crowd buzz and when Dickens got open and caught the ball, a big roar came from the stands.

That's going to do it for the 2nd Annual Marios Spring Football Awards. Thanks for reading and thanks to Jen for presenting the Marios. New football season starts in 117 days.

GOLDEN PANTHER PAWSE

OutoftheCage88: Welcome to the GPP. Still a little too early for making any predictions on the coming football season considering the whole team has yet to practice (the freshmen arrive in August). Your 9-3, 8-4 and even 7-5 records may be a bit out of reach this season. Still those ambitious records would probably result in a Sun Belt title and Coach of the Year honors for MC. But you may be getting ahead of yourself there. Without having brushed up on FIU's opponents or having seen the entire Golden Panthers team, I would think if FIU wins 4 or 5 games it would be an accomplishment since the team is so young -- more than 70 percent of the team is freshmen or sophomores.

gpantera: The hiring of Tim Harris across town should not affect FIU's pipeline with Booker T. First of all, until FIU starts winning on a consistent basis, the canes are going to have first choice in recruits. But the canes can't get them all. All college teams are allotted 25 scholarships each season. Plus, when you factor in the work ethic in recruiting of MC and his staff, FIU is going to get its share of quality players. Remember, MC and co. have contacts all over the U.S. Last year, while TH's kid, Brandon, signed across town, FIU still got Florida's sacks leader in Kambriel Willis and defensive end Jonathan Jackson, plus Tarvis Pullins and Winston Fraser.

FIUBlueandGold: I really don't have an answer for TH taking an admin. role instead of a coaching role in Coral Gables. Maybe there are no coaching positions available now and after this season Randy Shannon will fire someone and then TH becomes a coach over there. I'm sure TH will be involved with recruiting over there. You don't hire the coach of the #4 high school team in the country to push papers around and serve coffee to the coaching staff.

FIU in NFC South

Three former Golden Panthers are headed to the NFL's NFC South Division.

Defensive back Nick Turnbull (left) and receiver Chandler Williams (right) signed with the Atlanta Falcons yesterday and defensive back Lionell Singleton (below) has been invited to the New Orleans Saints mini-camp May 8-10.

  Good to see these guys getting their shots in the NFL. NT and CW were waived by the Cincinnati Bengals and Miami Dolphins, respectively, during the last week.

NT finished his FIU career as the program's all-time interceptions leader. CW is the Golden Panthers all-time receptions leader.

LS, who holds FIU's all-time kickoff return yardage and touchdowns records, will try to make the Saints in front of some of his family members who reside in New Orleans.

GOLDEN PANTHER PAWSE

FIU Fanatic: The new on-campus stadium will definitely be a big part of it.

SouthPaw: Don't know if FIUDad is the same person as any of the Coral Gables crowd that regularly visits the GPP. No one that has posted before on the GPP uses the same e-mail address for two different screen names.

Miri: Bull Durham is definitely worth the $4.50 at the video store. If you think of the movie as highly as I do, then you can get it for $9.99.

UltimateFIUFan: We'll keep you in mind for future writings.

Down Goes Another No. 1

The FIU baseball turnaround tunnel is still some distance away, but the Golden Panthers saw some light this past week by taking down two No. 1 teams.

The Golden Panthers played inspired baseball to defeat the No. 1 canes and properly close out the 35-year-old crosstown series with a win last Wednesday in Coral Gables. And yesterday, FIU won the three-game series against the Sun Belt's No. 1 team, Louisiana-Monroe, by belting out a season-high 20 hits, including Ryan Mollica (right) going 5 for 6 with a grand slam.

There are 9 Sun Belt Conference games left and FIU is in 9th place, 1 game behind Middle Tennessee for  the last conference spot in the tournament.

With the way the season started, it would have been hard to fathom that FIU would be in contention at this point. But the Golden Panthers hitting has not stopped. There seems to be some meshing with the pitching staff, in particular, Corey Polizzano, Eric Horstmann (left), James Lajiness and Jorge Marban, and the defense has gotten better with their recent run of errorless games.

The Golden Panthers success of late has been a simple baseball formula that has worked since the game was invented in the late 1800's. You may have heard it in the greatest baseball movie of all-time Bull Durham (below,  right): "You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball." FIU has been doing it all of late.

Now there are 9 conference games left and to show you how competitive the Sun Belt is in baseball. The 5th place team, Western Kentucky, and 9th place,  FIU are separated by just 3 games. The catch is that FIU has lost the season series/tiebreaker to two of those four teams: Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee. South Alabama, which is in 6th comes to FIU for a 3-game series starting May 9 and FIU already took the series against Louisiana-Lafayette.

While all the pieces (notably, pitching) are not in place yet for FIU to possibly make a serious run in the NCAA postseason this year, it has been encouraging of late to see the Golden Panthers make a push for the postseason.

FIU has 9 big games left starting this coming Friday at Arkansas State. If they keep throwing the ball, catching the ball and hitting the ball, then who knows, stranger things have happened.

GOLDEN PANTHER PAWSE

Need to make a correction from the last post after checking FIU records. The Golden Panthers baseball team's win last week against a No. 1 team was not the first time an FIU sports team has knocked off the top team in the country. FIU men's soccer team beat No. 1 UCLA in 1999. It was, however, the first time FIU baseball beat No. 1.

Mr. Forklift: Welcome to the GPP. Great first post.

FIU Fanatic, Clawing Cancer & FIUJM: Thanks for the props on the Marshall McDuffie (right) story. He's good kid, who decided to make the right choices in the aftermath of the brawl. MM got his degree today and is headed to grad school while he plays his last year at safety for FIU this fall.

CJ: You are a master at understanding T.D.A.O.S. I got a friend who has expressed interest in printing those t-shirts.

FIUDad: Stop hanging out with Cheech and Chong. No FIU will not move down. The Golden Panthers will be just fine in Division I.

Crazy Cane: Actually, it's a pleasure covering FIU. When I get to writing a book about FIU, it will be a much more interesting read to learn how the Golden Panthers program rose from the bottom to the top.

Oh, That Wacky Joaquin Andujar

Maybe the former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher had the right idea cooking after all.

Apparently Joaquin Andujar (right) was not as wacky as people thought when in the early 1980's he said about baseball: "You can describe baseball in one word: you never know".

Pretty appropriate considering the result of the final game in the 35-year series between FIU and the canes.

Arriving in Coral Gables on Wednesday night was a struggling Golden Panthers team that hadn't done much right this season. Awaiting them were the mighty canes, their no. 1 ranking and fresh with the memory of a 13-2 trashing at FIU three weeks ago.

Not a chance for FIU. No way. Tu estas loco?

A 13-29 team can't possibly beat a 33-4 team. . ."You never know".

By the way, great catch by Raimy Fuentes (left).

While I appreciate the kind words Miri and FIU Fanatic, the idea for the last post "You Stay Classy, FIU" came from Mr. Andujar and Ron Burgundy.

Like FIUandME pointed out, FIU is making a habit of closing out some traditional things the right way --Let's see:

Turning out the lights at the Orange Bowl....FIU 38, North Texas 19

  Turning out the lights on the FIU/canes baseball series....FIU 6, canes 3

Turning out the lights on the FIU/canes hoops series in 2008-09....Priceless??

No pressure on SR and the FIU hoopsters when they play the final game of the Golden Panthers/canes hoops series next season in Coral Gables.

While the baseball series with the canes was entertaining throughout the years, don't bank on that continuing unless someone from the canes (new AD?) orders JM to continue the series. Don't see it happening.

When I asked JM at FIU three weeks ago about it, a frown came across his face and he began to mumble his responses....which he basically said -- no more games with FIU. Not to keep bringing Willie Nelson into the GPP, but you can read JM's answers in the April 4 GPP post. Last night, George Richards, who covered the game for me, says JM avoided the discussion of continuing the series. Sure it will be a shame for the local high school kids who won't play each other at the two schools, but continuing this series shouldn't really be a concern for FIU. Water off a duck's back.

The Golden Panthers need to focus on winning the Sun Belt year in, year out and becoming a college baseball power -- something that should have happened a long time ago for a university with a Miami address, but that's another story. Now that the right head coach (TT) is in place that will happen at FIU.

Entering its series with Sun Belt leader Louisiana-Monroe on Friday night, FIU sits in 9th place in the conference. The top 8 teams make the SBC tourney. The Golden Panthers trail 7th place Louisiana-Lafayette and Middle Tennessee by one game and are just 4 games from fourth place Western Kentucky. FIU has 12 Sun Belt games left. Considering how poorly, the Golden Panthers have played this season, maybe Wednesday night was the spark they needed.

Hey, it's baseball: you never know.

GOLDEN PANTHER PAWSE

MaXx: Checking the FIU media guides, this was the first time the Golden Panthers have beaten any No. 1 team at least in Division I. The Division II records are not clear.

The FIU Fan: Glad to hear you are still hanging around the GPP. You shouldn't wait around for JM to come out and fully explain his reasons for not continuing to play FIU. Here's the most obvious one: JM could start losing annually to TT and that would not be good for his blood pressure.

hankgoldberg: Sorry to hear about the name change. You would think with DLB's one-year vacation coming up, you would still be able to use the name.

Yes, you are correct it was Turtle's decisions in the top of the 9th that led to FIU getting those two insurance runs. Great moves by TT with the squeeze bunt and then the hit-and-run. Way to keep putting pressure on the defense.

UltimateFIUFan & Clawing Cancer (formerly MB): We shall agree to disagree on the FIU coaching.

FIUandME: There will be more clutch games from FIU in the future like the OB closing and the canes series closing. With the risk of (those-who-do-not-understand-the-meaning-of) pounding their keyboards upon reading this, I say never forget the start of T.D.A.O.S. Many on the GPP know what I'm talking about.

Gold, CA Cane & AlexFAU06: Welcome all to the GPP.

We're trying to get Cindy Crawford in town and on time for the FIU spring football awards on the next GPP blog.

You Stay Classy, FIU

It's no secret the FIU baseball season has not gone as many on this blog envisioned and everyone's got their own ideas why and you're more than welcome to vent those thoughts on the GPP. . .Hey that's what blogs are for, right?

Since we've been dallying in the whole two cents theme of late on the GPP, my two pennies regarding FIU baseball revolve around poor pitching and poor defense. If you don't have either at any level of baseball, you're not going to win too many games. Just imagine where this team would be without the hitting of Jorge Castillo (left) and Ryan Mollica this season?

FIU does not have enough quality pitchers that can consistently locate more than two pitches for strikes. And on defense, many of the fielders don't have the necessary speed or range to get to balls that they should be getting to. The most striking examples of that were in the USC series and against Middle Tennessee as well.

So while TT does his best to fix those two areas, we'll get to the purpose of this post and that would be the final game of the 35-year baseball series between FIU and the canes. Tonight in Coral Gables, the Golden Panthers and the canes meet for the final time.

No need to re-hash the somewhat comical, unclassy events of the first meeting of 2008. If you do need a refresher, then look for Willie Nelson on the post entitled "You Are Always On My Mind". That GPP post was written April 4.

Not sure if Vegas lays odds for college baseball, but if they did FIU would be a huge underdog in tonight's game. But here's the thing and it's another beauty of baseball (might as well get a beauty photo on here since tonight's game could get ugly).

One of the many beauties of baseball is if one player, just one, pitches the game of his life, or one guy gets a timely hit or if the ball bounces a different way at a critical juncture of the game, then you never know who may win the game. You baseball purists, who read the GPP, know what I'm talking about.

I know there are a lot of ifs and buts here and if ifs and buts were candies and nuts we'd all have a party.

Former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Joaquin "the dog" Andujar (left) said it best about baseball when he was asked to describe the game, JA said: "You can describe baseball in one word: you never know".

Of course, JA threw a better curveball than he solved a math problem, but that's besides the point.

So if one Golden Panther pitches the game of his life, or another FIUer gets a clutch hit or makes a game-saving play then this crosstown series could end with a win by the visiting team.

Now I know all the cynics and amateur psychiatrists will want me to take a session on the couch for writing this post after FIU has stumbled to a 13-29 record. Having seen FIU play for most of this season, I'm not counting on an FIU win -- so there, I'm clinically sane. I'm just offering here one scenario, stranger things have happened.

Although I won't be able to be in Coral Gables tonight to cover the game (Herald hockey writer and half French-Canadian, Gui Reeshards or as he's known in the U.S. - George Richards will fill-in and will have a live game blog going on his Herald On Frozen Pond blog) here are some things I would count on if for some hell-freezes-over-reason FIU wins: 1) There would NOT be any chants that include a word that rhymes with "puck" followed by the opposing coach's name coming from the FIU dugout. 2) TT will shake JM's hand (like TT did in the first game) and not give the alligator handshake that JM gave. 3) The Golden Panthers would NOT trash the visiting dugout. To quote the esteemed and "I'm kind of a big deal" anchorman Ron Burgundy: "You stay classy, FIU".

Ooohs and Aaahs

Pretty lively crowd at the Blue & Gold Spring Game on Friday night and from the reactions of the more than 3,000 spring game-record crowd your Golden Panthers didn't disappoint. As MC said "it's good to see when there are ooohs and aaahs and there's all kinds of cheers."

BTW, for the second consecutive year, the FIU athletic department and marketing dept. did a bang-up job with the spring game atmosphere. Plenty of ooohs and aaahs there. From the free caja china pork sandwiches, t-shirts, to the games and music. Once again the spring game was not just a game, but a well-organized event. Also, it was great to see some former FIU football players in attendance: safety John Haritan, DB Greg Moss, DB Lionell Singleton and LB James Knapp (a.k.a. the Mayor of FIU) were among the former Golden Panthers I ran into. I think it means a lot to the program when those FIU pioneers come back to campus.

The Golden Panthers offense got the ooohing and aaahing going early on. On the third play of the game, FIU showed the quick strike offense many FIU fans would like to see more often in 2008. Quarterback Paul McCall (right) delivered a laser through the middle of the defense that receiver Jeremy Dickens (left) snared and  sprinted past the secondary for a 63-yard touchdown. When PM released the deep pass you got the ooohs from the crowd, when JD caught it and scored you heard the aaahs. PM finished 13 of 22 for 170 yards, 1 TD and 2 INTs.

On the second series, Julian Reams ripped off a 37-yard run and PM connected with John Ellis and Travis Felder for 12 and 13-yard passes, respectively. Safety Jeremiah Weatherspoon ended the offensive party on the drive with a deep interception.

Don't be surprised if Ellis and Felder become integral parts of the offense this season. JE has been working at h-back in the spring. With his pass-catching abilities and muscle he added in the off-season he could be a chore for opponents to bring down. TF also had a good spring. The former basketball player has excellent athletic ability and good hands.

The third series pretty much showed all the offense was going to do for the rest of the game. Quarterback Colt Anderson (left), who has improved this spring, led the offense to the second touchdown with a 32-yard touchdown up the sideline to Marquis Rolle. CA finished 5 of 6 for 60 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT. In the last two scrimmages, CA combined to go 15 of 18 for 197 yards.

With a few exceptions, the rest of the game belonged to the FIU defense as they would win 29-18. It was encouraging to see the defense -- which has had trouble with the new FIU spread offense -- makes adjustments after the first quarter.

Linebacker Jarvis Wilson forced a fumble that led to a touchdown. Jonathan Betancourt was a menace in the offensive backfield tackling Daunte Owens for a 3-yard loss on one play and two plays later sacking Darold Hughes. In between, Devin Parrish broke up a pass intended for Rolle.

Marcelus Manear, who joined the team last season from Milford Academy in New York, picked off CA.

The only other time the offense moved the ball was when Hughes led a 4th quarter drive that ended in a missed field goal. On the drive DH connected with Jason Frierson for 23 yards after the pass went through two defenders hands. DH also hit James Rucker for 14 yards.

The final drive provided the last ooohs and aaahs of the night.

Quentin Newman got his second sack and JW sealed the game with his second interception. But the loudest crowd reaction came on PM's block of Marshall McDuffie. The FIU QB stuffed MM so well that the high school players standing on the sideline were left in awe as they yelled: "Was that the quarterback with the hit? Was that the quarterback with the hit? Wooo! Man! The quarterback made that hit."

PM said afterward he felt bad about the block, talked with MM and the two shook hands.