After Tuesday's special teams scrimmage got delayed an hour by rain, freshmen Leroy Owens, Patrick Jean, Davison Colimon and Michael Wakefield and redshirt freshman Akil Dan-Fodio drew recognition for their work.
"All those guys are 6-2, 6-3, 210, 235. Wake's about 245 now," FIU coach Mario Cristobal said. "They're all big bodies who can go. They're on kickoff and kickoff return. They're all over the field and they're responding really well. Again, it's really encouraging how much help we can get from the freshman class."
In addition to Richard Leonard, Wayne Times and Sam Miller returning as returners, freshmen Nick England and Johnnie Durante have impressed enough to possibly get in on the action. Durante had a kickoff return touchdown during the scrimmage. Leonard noted to me last week that he learned from future University of Miami and Miami Dolphins running back Lamar Miller, who could wind up returning kicks for the Dolphins this year, when they were returners at Miami Killian and got to learn from T.Y. Hilton last year.
But as for seeing anyone who could zap an opponent the way T.Y. Hilton did for four years, Cristobal laughed, "In the NFL exhibition games or practice yesterday? I wouldn't say we're at that level. I say we have some ones who can do the distance. T.Y. could go the distance even when everyone has an angle. I think we have guys with similar speed but not the exact same explosion."
WOMEN'S SOCCER
Women's soccer season preview story coming tomorrow. Hey, how many FIU teams won the Sun Belt and went to their NCAA tournament last year?
