FIU Golden Panthers Prowl

Camp Mitch sources say: Tim Cramsey new football OC; Copeland update

Sources out at the Mitch Madique Campus say Tim Cramsey will be FIU football's new offensive coordinator.

Cramsey, a former University of New Hampshire quarterback, just spent nine seasons as an assistant coach at his alma mater. The last two seasons, he was the offensive coordinator.

Expect FIU to accelerate to an up-tempo style of offense in the Oregon mode, cranking off lots of plays, trying to get some cheap scores and big plays out of defensive fatique or disorganization in the face of speed.

RECRUITING

Speaking of speed, Port St. Lucie Treasure Coast quarterback-to-be-wide receiver Travares Copeland posted on Facebook,

"Daammmmmnnn I'm glad I'm not going2 RUTGERS.......head coach going2 NFL smh well ((fiu)) or ((west virginia)) Morgan town or Miami??????"

Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano is taking the head coaching job with the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Nice timing, doing that a week before National Signing Day. You'd think Rutgers commits' cell phones were made of plastique, the way they'll be blowing up the next few days asking, "You still sure?" 

And, before you ask, yes, you can expect them to come after Mario Cristobal, who did some time as a Rutgers assistant. You can bet that'll be used by other schools in the final days as FIU fights for what looks like a good recruiting class together. I don't see Cristobal making that move, however.

Travares Copeland speaks; commit list omission

http://www.espn760.com/common/more.php?m=49&post_id=2649

Yesterday, there was a photo of FIU on the Travares Copeland hunt from the Port St. Lucie Treasure Coast High quarterback's Facebook page. Today, we have the above video link sent by ESPN 760AM's Ken LaVicka, whom you might've seen me making faces at during halftime of Saturday's FIU-FAU men's hoop game as he did play-by-play for FAU.

While grabbing Colombian cafe from Europa this morning, I got notified that I left a name off the verbal commit list that's in today's paper and online: Gastonia Forestview offensive lineman Jamie Collmar.

 

 

New offensive coordinator soon; recruiting tidbits, Feb. 1 event; new baseball schedule

Expect a new offensive coordinator for the football team to be hired by the end of the week. A new OC won't mean a new offense, however. FIU will stay with the spread option attack, but develop it more and diversify. Yes, they'll even have the quarterback line up under center for some packages. That makes sense, especially in super short yardage situations, when you've got a big quarterback like Jake Medlock, or long ones like freshmen E.J. Hilliard (6-3) or Favian Upshaw (6-2).

RECRUITING

Though Krop High's Johnnie Durante made First-Team All-Dade as a defensive back -- seven interceptions, four returned for touchdowns -- he'll initianlly be tried on offense at FIU. And Upshaw will get his shot at quarterback.

There are no FIU fans at Syracuse among the linebacker coaches. Palatka High linebacker Leroy Owens switched his commitment to FIU from Syracuse and, as noted on last night's post, Haines City linebacker Josh Glanton, an FIU commit, is feeling the weight of deciding between FIU and Syracuse. Also feeling the weight of the wait: FIU and Syracuse coaches.

FIU's going after Port St. Lucie Treasure Coast quarterback Travares Copeland hard as they're in competition with West Virginia and Rutgers. How hard? Copeland put this photo on his Facebook Wall from Wednesday afternoon.

Even if he's not deployed at quarterback, Copeland's got wide receiver speed and athleticism. If the scouting report I got on his personality (posted yesterday) is accurate, team leaders will have to make him realize that FIU spreads the ball around like orange marmalade on toast.

FIU pulled Port Charlotte defensive end commit Marcus Gilchrist's scholarship offer several days ago.  

For next Wednesday's National Signing Day, FIU's throwing a soiree at the FIU Stadium's Stadium Club with free food and beverages at which they'll announce the 2012 recruiting class. Starts at 6 p.m.

BASEBALL

FIU's not in Baseball America's Top 25 to start the season, but that can change while they're still shoveling snow in Chicago according to the full baseball schedule, released Wednesday afternoon.

FIU opens Feb. 17 with a three-game set at Rice, BA's No. 6-ranked team, and a Feb. 24 three-game set at No. 20 Florida State. FIU's home opener is March 2 against Brown (heigh-ho).

Other scheudle highlights: their two three-game series against FAU will be March 16-18 (here) and May 17-19 (up there). Their exhibition against the split squad Marlins at Huh, We Thought Those Retail Spots Would Sell Faster Stadium: March 7. The Sun Belt Conference Tournament is May 23-27 at Western Kentucky. 

JANUARY NIGHT MUSIC...

Play it, Stevie...

Download 05 Higher Ground

 

 

 

 

 

Some football recruiting stuff; Diamond Dinner

For Haines City outside linebacker Josh Glanton, the choice between FIU, where he verbally committed during the fall, and Syracuse is hard enough that he's starting to stress over it. FIU defensive line coach Cedric Calhoun was scheduled to swing by for a visit Tuesday afternoon.

One recruiting service reports speedy Jackson High wide receiver DeAndre Jasper has committed to FIU, but would like to wind up at Marshall, which had a 11 players from Dade and Broward on their roster for the Beef O' Brady's Bowl. A source says Jasper definitely will choose FIU on Signing Day.

 

FIU's still in the hunt for Travares Copeland, who played quarterback at Port St. Lucie Treasure Coast this year after transferring from Fort Pierce Westwood, but might be used at any of the skill positions. He just entertained West Virginia on a home visit. Scouting report I got from up there: great athlete, tremendous arm ("50 or 60 yards off the back foot"), but too Me Centric, will need some grounding from the coaching staff and team leaders.

 

DIAMOND DINNER

 FIU baseball coach Turtle Thomas is hoping for a sellout of all 500 seats to this year's Diamond Dinner, a fundraising event and season first pitch event for the baseball and softball programs. Last year, 435 attended the event at the Graham Center Ballroom.

The human draw for this year's event is special guest speaker Lou Piniella, former Yankee, Kansas City Royal and, at the start of his career, Clevelnad Indian player and manager of the Cubs, Reds, Devil Rays, Mariners and Yankees (during the years when the Yankees changed managers like Starbucks changes baristas). Thomas said the timing worked for getting the recently-retired Piniella and they're working on getting former Cardinals, A's and White Sox manager Tony LaRussa for next year's event.

Along with dinner, alcohol and stories from Piniella (in "The Umpire Strikes Back," the late former umpire Ron Luciano's first book with David Fisher, Luciano recalled the night Piniella ran for the cycle -- got thrown out at every base), there are 21 live auction items and 200 silent auction items. The items range from trips to the Indianapolis 500, U.S. Open, the Ryder Cup (flights, hotels, tickets) to a trio of basketballs each signed by either Larry Bird, Magic Johnson or Michael Jordan.

For ticket information, call 305-348-1919. 

OUR CLOSING ACT

10 - It Keeps You Runnin' [Single Version]

 

Perspective on last call at Club FIU-FAU; Palm Beach OL verbally commits

Something I saw Sunday morning reminded me of this, a commercial selected for the book The 100 Best TV Commercials...and Why They Worked:

 

See, from the video I shot of the final seconds of FIU's 66-64 loss to FAU, it doesn't look like FIU's DeJuan Wright did anything to warrant being called for a foul as FAU's Greg Gantt launched an off-balance three-pointer.

 

But check out this video from FAU Owl Access: http://fauowlaccess.com/articles/121/fau-defeats-fiu-66-64.aspx. The slow motion at the 58-second mark seems to show Wright getting Gantt on the wrist as he goes up. That would be a foul. Not terribly flagrant, literally a slap on the wrist, but it would be a foul on a shooter.

Maybe there's a third angle showing Wright missed his wrist and Gantt went down from a poisoned dart from the man on the grassy knoll behind Beehive Woman. How ever the final call went, FIU lost by two after blowing out to a 14-4 lead, then throwing away several possessions with basketball obtuse plays. They also got outrebounded badly, which often goes to hustle and positioning (see: "FIU women lose 50-49 to FAU."). You lose 16-2 on second chance points, get only four offensive rebounds, there's only so much you can gripe about officiating (which wasn't great either way) before you need to hit the mute and go forward.

FOOTBALL

North Palm Beach Benjamin offensive guard Trenton Saunders, 6-4, 280, has verbally committed to FIU, according to a South Florida source.

With 6-5, 334-pound Edens Sineace, who announced his commitment a couple of weeks ago, that's a lot of buffet damage coming into the program on the offensive front from Palm Beach County. Josh Hess, a big offensive lineman from Virginia who committed last summer, no longer has a scholarship offer on the table from FIU.

 

 

FAU, FIU, Fouls...Panthers loss 66-64

Greg Gantt, usually a Panther killer, had been relatively quiet most of this afternoon. But he got hot in the second half and it was him FAU went to after two Phil Taylor free throws tied the game 64-64 with 11.2 seconds left. FIU's DeJuan Wright fouled Gantt on a three-pointer -- or did he? -- and the two free throws with 0.6 left on the clock gave FAU a 66-64 win.

FIU's Jeremy Allen closed with a game-high 20 points, 15 of them in the second half. For the game, he shot seven of 10 from the field, four of five from three-point range. Wright and Dominique Ferguson each had 14 for FIU. Gantt had 18 points for FAU. Jordan McCoy had 11 rebounds and 18 points for FAU.

 

Halftime: FIU men trail, 33-31

FIU blew out to a 14-4 lead on FAU before trading the rebound for the turnover or forced shot at the offensive end of the court. The Owls closed to 20-17, hung that close for four and a half minutes, pulled even 25-25 on Raymond Taylor's three-pointer from the Turnpike, then took the lead on a pair of Greg Gantt free throws. Gantt usually kills FIU, but this afternoon, it's forward Jordan McCoy. McCoy, off the bench, has four rebounds and a game-high 12 points in 15 minutes.

Dominique Ferguson has 10 points to lead FIU in scoring. Brandon Moore has five rebounds, but also two fouls, the most of anyone in a loosely-called game.

Basketball, the beach and radio, radio on a Saturday morning

Take care of yourselves out there -- there's stomach virus going around, dropping kids and adults like Sonny Liston in a bad mood on a good day.

They might still be hammering, painting and punch-listing stuff inside The Branch as the entrance renovations and suite(s) debut today. And it won't look finished until there's no more oversized Tonka stuff digging up the northeast corner of the arena area or the landscaping is truly finished on the southeast side.

But, hey, this is Miami-Dade County, where basic contracting has recently advanced all the way to 1968 ("Maybe the gate to the garage doesn't work because your windshield is too thick") and waiting for projects to finish could've been the inspiration for the Chinese Restaurant episode of Seinfeld. So, while we have the Acronym Agony Shootout inside today between two men's teams just trying to get themselves together for the Sun Belt Tournament, FIU should count itself lucky the building's Just For Men treatment got done in time.

Speaking of today's men's game, it's on The Sun Belt Network and (my shallow understanding is) blacked out locally on ESPN3.com because it's on The Sun Belt Network. That's mimosas and white sangria if you have Comcast Cable, which has The Sun Belt Network. It's you and the kid with a stomach virus if you don't.

TV's also why the men's game open's for the women's game today. Of course, had the scheduling been done by record, it also would've been a situation in which the women's teams, the two with the over .500 records, could've told the men, "Go warm 'em up for us."

As mentioned, neither FIU or FAU, the men's preseason conference favorite, is having the level of success of even its most reasonable hopes. Some of you have asked about Isiah Thomas' job security. My sense is Thomas, who'll have two years left on his contract after this season, is more likely to fire FIU than FIU is to fire Thomas. Dealing with off court, paper wrangler mistakes such as the eligibility problems of forward Tola Akomolafe, who didn't stumble in any of his classes according to an athletic department source familiar with the situation, are the type of thing that can cause someone who doesn't need the job to say, "To Compton with this crap."

FIU sports long have been hindered on the field/court/pitch is that the school always seems to be playing catch up in the offices and board rooms. They went Division I in basketball without the proper infrastructure. They did the same in football. They've lost tournament bids, favorable rulings on transfers, etc. out of political weakness. Whatever you want to say about Pete Garcia, he brings a political savvy and a knowledge of relationship value to the FIU athletic department that's been arid in that area for years.

On Garcia: he feels there are certain sports FIU just should be winners in just on being in South Florida -- golf, tennis, soccer (I'd debate that one), baseball, football. And he wants to be a power in sand volleyball, which the NCAA has added for spring.

 "I've emphasized it and here's why: I want to win," Garcia said. "It's a new sport. No school has a 100-year head start on us. No school has a winning tradition over us. No school has better facilities than us -- everybody's building the same facilities. And, there's only a couple of regions in this country that can have as good a weather and South Beach for sand volleyball. You add that up and we should be very competitive, very quickly at the highest level because we don't have those things to overcome. We're not trying to catch anybody and we have some advantages they don't have at Nebraska. Michigan." 

I asked him why FIU basketball games aren't on the radio anymore. FAU's on 760AM up in Palm Beach. Even Nova Southeastern has its games on the air, 640AM.

"You've got to be a superfan to listen to FIU radio basketball. And if you're really that superfan, we've got to do everything we can to get you here," Garcia replied. "And remember, radio is expensive -- they're not paying us. We'd have to pay them to be on the radio. You've got to buy the time. It's an expense. How much are you getting out of that expense? Are you better off spending that money on marketing, promotions, the low hanging fruit. What's our low hanging fruit? Our students, right there in the dorms. Let's use that money, buy pizzas, let's do this or that, let's promote it over there right across the street and let's get them to come."

TENNIS

FIU got the doubles point to take a 1-0 lead on No. 14 Clemson in the women's tennis season opener. Then, Clemson went West Virginia-on-Clemson on FIU, taking the six singles matches to win 6-1. Karyn Guttormsen and Giuletta Boha won their doubles match and Lisa Johnson and Christine Seredni won theirs.

RIP

She threw it down on so many tunes for so long. But this is the one that, to me, not only fit romance (wife and I had a second "first dance" to it at our wedding in 1999), but for any athlete who ever won a long pursued championship.

My your heart and head be at rest, Ms. James.

 

FIU men get by South Alabama 65-62.

Accident that FIU's three-game losing streak ends with DeJuan Wright's return Thursday night at South Alabama?

So, now there will be bouncy vibe around the team going into Saturday's acronym showdown with FAU. If FIU didn't expect to be 5-13 (2-4) coming into Saturday, FAU, the preseason conference favorite, certainly didn't expect to be 6-12 (2-3) going into Thursday night's game at Troy.

Both the men's and women's games Saturday, the premiere of the upgraded U.S. Century Bank Arena, will be shown on ESPN3.com.

Wright returns Thursday; another POW sweep for the swimmers & Beupre

While the women's basketball team's best player, Jerica Coley, is putting up All-America consideration numbers, the men's team's been laboring without its best player, senior guard DeJuan Wright. That ends Thursday at South Alabama when Wright returns from a leg injury suffered at Maryland, he said Tuesday afternoon.

The exact nature of the injury remains a minor mystery. Wright said when he went down, he knew instantly he'd be out for a while. Wright's 15.9 points per game and 8.7 rebounds obviously were missed as the Panthers went 1-7 without him. Head coach Isiah Thomas likens Wright to a great special teams player who swings the field and momentum with a couple of great plays.

At 4-13, the Panthers need somebody to open the parachute before there's a full-scale crash.

SWIMMING & DIVING

Sophomore Sonia Perez Arau won the 1000-yard freestyle, 200 backstroke, and the 400 Individual Medley, win Nos. 11-13 this season for Perez Arau, a team best. She won swimmer of the week.

Sabrina Beaupre, of course, won the diver of the week honor, her sixth in eight weeks this season.