Panthers TV; Blackout Troy

Will have the recaps from the two scrimmages from Thursday and Friday on the next post, but for now here is where you can catch your Panthers on TV this weekend.

Tommorrow night (Saturday, August 29) T.Y. Hilton and Paul McCall will be guests on CBS 4 Sportszone at 7 p.m. on Channel 4.

FIU announced Friday that for the Oct. 17 home game against Troy it will be "Blackout Night" at FIU Stadium where your Panthers will wear special black uniforms for that game and fans entering the stadium will get black t-shirts.

PANTHER PAWSE

Q&A

FIUfantastic & FIUFPL: Pete, can you see if FIU has any official planned watch party for the first football game? Or whether it will be on TV?

PP: FIU Mayor Nelson Bradford has the Sports Grill at Bird Road (SW 40 Street) and SW 117 Ave. ready for you Panther fans on Sept. 12 for the FIU/Alabama game and all other FIU road games.

FIUFan: By the way, can you give us an update, or at least FIU's spin on this whole thing. Where do we stand now on playing UNC?

PP: Nothing new on the situation as of Friday night. The thought here is that there is more to this than the handling of the last minute schedule switcheroo. It was 24 hours of free pub for FIU on ESPN and all over cyberspace for something that if you think about it no one will remember come Nov. 10 and something that is not really bad publicity -- such as other recent college hoops programs that had to forfeit wins (Memphis) or that another's head coach was having a good time in a restaurant bathroom and tells his wife 6 years later (Louisville).

Other media that do not cover FIU or know nothing about FIU have said well, then FIU won't be invited to future tournaments. So what? If FIU becomes a solid basketball program under IT, the tournaments will come calling. FIU just needs to start winning consistently and everything will take care of itself. Winning solves everything.  

And there are several media outlets that think Ohio State will be better than North Carolina this season. Regardless, FIU does not have the horses to compete with either team this year. In the end, I think you'll see FIU vs. UNC in the season opener.

Doug Lesmerises from the Cleveland Plain Dealer e-mailed this to me....Here is one unhappy camper that might not get to play against an Isiah Thomas coached team. This is Ohio State's Evan Turner who went to the same high school as IT: I want to play FIU  

What do you think of FIU blackout night? **Note that is not the FIU Blackout Jersey in the poll question. That's Saints QB Drew Brees' jersey, but it's the closest photo I could find to a black and gold jersey.

 

Online Surveys & Market Research

Comments

[quijote!!!]

Wow Pete I see you used a black backdrop for your blackout quiz. Very clever, did you come up with that yourself?

[Posterchild]

I have an idea. Instead of doing something generic, like a black out. Why not a Gold out? Something unique to the school.

[FIUSMChris]

I'm not a fan of the black out idea, but I guess now I know why they are selling those terrible black Football replica jerseys in the book store.

[cobracommandr]

I like the idea of a one off game but I would prefer a "Gold Rush" or something like that with gold jerseys ...

But honestly I don't care what we wear as long as we Destroy Troy :)

[Joel]

BLACKOUT! Bring it on, I'm a sucker for black jerseys and I think a blackout in a game this important could do some good. Let's do this!!

[Tri-Panther]

i suggested a "gold rush" a while ago....but i guess a blackout will do. GO FIU!

[FIUFloridaPower&Light]

Hmmmm....Goldout? I like it...

[blkpanther]

NO GOLDMEMBER Outfits PLZ... BlackOut all the way!

[pikedanny]

Blackout sounds pretty cool to me. Nice to see FIU planning things like this for us fans.

[JulesFIU07]

Agree with blkpanther. The Goldmember outfit would look like something out of the USFL, might as well turn the bank into a roller rink for that. I am all for the black out.

[Joel]

I agree... don't like the all good idea... that would just look funky...

[LonePanther]

Gold-out? Are we UCF?

Blackout sounds pretty sweet to me!

[FIUSMChris]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/bobbob1313/mccall.jpg

Artist's (I use the term very loosely) depiction of the black out jersey.

Could be kind of cool, I guess. We have nice uniforms, they'll look good in any color.

But can't we be original for once?

[FIUFan]

Thanks for the heads-up on the t.v., I'm setting my dvr now.

Could you call PG (I'm sure his number is in your speed-dial) and ask for a comment?

As far as a the national pub, great! But I feel that was an unintended consequence of FIU's knee-jerk reaction to being put up against UNC.

What's their plan going forward? Are they fighting this move hard or are they softening their stance. I think by your comments that the later is the case. This is/was a big story, please follow-up for us.

[FIUPIKE]

I don't understand the obsession with OSU/UNC switch on us. I explained to you on the other board already...They could of just said great we get UNC now and it would of never been news.

Instead, the staff capitalized on an opportunity to "sound off" and got our name out there for a few days in the cycle. Let it go already.

We will play anyone, anywhere....anytime.

[FIUFloridaPower&Light]

Black out sounds good too...but my feeling is that the dark blue jerseys already almost look black.

Maybe if the black out included some unique black helmets with a panther head instead of the typical FIU logo.

[FIURage]

BLACK OUT IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!

[Genie013]

My vote is for GOLD RUSH!!!!!

[alt7787]

Ohh lord. Was TY high during his guest appearance? At one point he was staring into the air for quite some time. Plus he made Randy Shannon look like a master orator.

[Wes Kendall]

Every team wears black alternates. Why not do something original like a white out?

[pikedanny]

alt, the kid is 19 years old. Cut him some slack.

[chrisfiu]

Let's beat Troy!!! I don't care if they wear their pajamas on that field!!

Let's beat Troy!!!

[cobracommandr]

Was about to say that pikedanny, from his interviews he looks to be a bit camera shy. Nothing wrong with that.

[Gooch7]

I think they are finally doing some great things to get more fans inside the stadium. We cant complain about a FREE FIU shirt and hopefully a Win over the best team in the Sunbelt.

By the way Season Tickets are finally here! I just received my today...They put some player with the No.4 in front of the Toledo ticket. That guy must be pretty good. Lol..

Go Blackout!

Go FIU!

[FIURage]

I talked to TY at the APP hes a pretty quite guy. You have to mention AK 47 to get him to crack a smile.

[alt7787]

ahhh i was just breaking TY's balls. i could tell he was just a little camera shy. he did a good job.

[FIUPantherFan]

Pete,

What's going on with Yarimar Rosa? Why is she not playing?

[quijote!!!]

SI.com SunBelt preview has FIU finishing 6th in our conference with a conference record of 3-5 and an overall record of 3-9. Essentially they are predicting that we're going to lose ALL of our out of conference games, including at home versus Toledo!

They have Troy running the conference table and beating two of their four out of conference teams, probably UAB and Bowling Green. Regardless at that pace Troy should be breaking the top 25 sometime this season.

EVERYONE is putting Troy in a VERY lofty position, I'm not sure if FIU will be able to catch them. Regardless, FIU has a great chance to take the 'Belt, if we can take Troy and FAU at home we're in great position.

[alt7787]

yea i saw those SI predictions. i never worry about predictions. its very easy to predict who will be good or bad based on last years records, especially when the people at SI probabaly know nothing about FIU or the sunbelt. besides all these rankings mean nothing. seldomly are they correct. Everyone in the world seems to be in love with Ole Miss this season. why? i have no idea. They seem like a good team, but to have them ranked no.7 and say they can make it the BCS championship, no way.

In the sunbelt I see FAU as the team to beat. for the past 2 seasons they have found ways to win and they are dangerous late in the season. on a separate note, since SI was brought up, a survey of college players was conducted that found that opposing teams found FIU's cheerleaders to be distracting. in other words our cheerleaders keep opponents from concentrating on the game. LOL. i think it was SI, or maybe ESPN the mag.

[Jsuarez88]

Pete i LOVE the Blackout Night idea
It's about time we do something to get the fans into it. We should do something similar for the FAU game

[FIUPIKE]

Was it not SI and ESPN that predicted a 1 - 11 season in 2008. Those fools don't know $hit. They have never see a practice, come to a game or interviewed players and coaches. This is all lazy journalistic hyperbole. ***You'll be surprised at some of the Vegas websites, at how muh info they have on teams. A few that I saw about FIU were right on. Many see us at 6 -6 or 7 - 5...

I'm hoping for at least an 8 - 4 season. 13 days left til Tuscaloosa !!!! Panthers on the RISE...

[Fomenter]

FSU has already done the blackout and Penn State has done the white out. You guys should do something blue, since it is your school colors and would look better.

[ridgepanther]

eehh blue out???? no Formenter... BLack is fine...

So if we play UNC either way in Nov. then what exactly is the point in PG posturing? any press is good press?

[FIURage]

The uniform is already blue. WOW what a wasted post.

[Fomenter]

Well if you guys want to be traditional, and involve the fans, then that's what I would suggest, as opposed to stealing another school's idea. In the grand scheme of things it's really a moot point.

[Clawing Cancer]

I agree with Fomenter here, for once. Why not do gold or blue or even white instead? I don't see why it should be black, especially considering Troy's a night game. Gold would stand out a lot more in that kind of scenario, especially considering the gold that FIU uses is a pale kind that's not really jarring on the eyes. It'd probably be more noticeable on TV, too.

Besides, it seems to me to be a pale imitation of what the Heat did with their "black out" not too long ago, but they have black as a team color, so that makes sense.

I do like the idea, though. I just wished it was an actual school color. But I guess that's just me. If I was going to pick a non-school color, though, it would've been black. You can't go wrong with it. And, since they're coming out with black uniforms during that game, I guess it makes sense. I just don't get why you couldn't have done an all-gold uniform instead. I bet that would look pretty sweet.

[Joel]

I would have to see what an all-gold uniform would look like, but just hearing it sounds like it would be just too much... I would like to see a possible design for a "gold-out" before rushing to judgement, but I love the idea of a black-out!!

[FIUSMChris]

They definitely seem to be phasing out gold so a gold out doesn't seem likely.

[FIURage]

Gold...not a football color!
We will not look like Gold members!
Get gold out of your head!

[FIUFan]

I like Gold Rush (maybe for our front 7).

I didn't realize that FSU was Garnett and Black? They don't have a monopoly on the color black in this state as far as I can tell.

[Cog.]

BLACK-OUT, DITTO,GOT ONE PLANNED MYSELF.

[CJ]

man today is a slow day pete we need some new information!!! lol get us through till sept. 12th

[FIURage]

Im surprised no one has suggested panther costumes for Oct 17.

[CJ]

lol better idea would be for everyone to wear a panther costume on halloween lol

[chrisfiu]

Fomenter...not a bad idea. Although it really doesn't matter at this point. Let's just beat Troy!!

On a side not, if you haven't taken Greg Cote's poll, go to his page and vote on which game (NFL and college) you are most excited about. FIU's in third place behind UM and the Dolphins.

[chrisfiu]

side note**

[FIURage]

http://lsufootball.net/tvschedule.htm

Get you games straight!

[Quijote!!!]

anyone have video of our boys on ch. 7 and ch. 4?

[me.yahoo.com/a/GdyD8qIbgPKL_lOc3vXg6tPdtOxJ]

I like the whole blackout idea. It reminds me of the black Miami Northwesten uniforms. FIU on the rise!!! Northwestern Bulls 4 life!!!

[FIU Fanatic]

PANTHERS ON THE RISE!!!

[FIUer]

Be sure to vote FIU on Cote the Cotex's blog.

[FIUFloridaPower&Light]

Pete,

Is FIU doing any official coordination with Sports Grill?

If not, can you pass the info to FIU Athletics and seem if they can support the Sports Grill event by promoting it throughout the school?

I would love to see that place packed...to the point where we can't sit.

[FIUPIKE]

It holds about 75 - 100 people, from what I know, the greeks will be out there !! The dazzlers will be there as well. The owner needs to see PURE Navy Blue and Gold on a regular basis.

[KJHarris02]

Hey Pete, when are we going to get our recaps of the last two scrimmage games???? We need more info! Also, do you have any info on the starting defensive line??