FIU Panthers Prowl

A good day for Cyprien, Hobbs & Albrecht

The same day senior safety Johnathan Cyprien will turn his tassel at graduation (Hospitality Management), he was announced as FIU's second ever Senior Bowl invitee.

"I'm really excited. I can't wait," said Cyprien, who has signed with agent Drew Rosenhaus.

NFL scouts hung around FIU practices late in the season, usually checking out Cyprien, defensive end Tourek Williams and left tackle Caylin Hauptmann. Cyprien should be able to attend the Senior Bowl, unlike T.Y. Hilton, who had to miss it last year with a quad injury. He said he'll try to get in touch with NFL cornerback and fellow North Miami Beach High alumnus Louis Delmas to get the skinny on the Senior Bowl.

As for last week's firing of Mario Cristobal, Cyprien said, "It was a shock. He was my coach for four years. But I have no say-so in the athletic department. Whatever happens, I've got Coach Cristobal's back."

Cyprien is one of Cristobal's favorite people, both on and off the field. If Cristobal had a daughter, he'd have wanted her to marry Cyprien.

FUTBOL HONORS

In more on and off the field (or pitch) news...

Senior defender Anthony Hobbs was named a Senior CLASS Award First-Team All-American. Brown defender Ryan McDuff won the Senior CLASS Award, which takes into account performance on the field, citizenship and academic achievement. Hobbs was one of 10 finalists.

The 10 goals and 23 points this year by sophomore forward Quentin Albrecht not only were the most by an FIU player in a decade, but got him selected Third Team All-South Region.

SEMI-TOUGH

Don't go looking up Shoat Cooper's college coaching record. Shoat was the New York Giants coach in Dan Jenkins' 1973 satirical classic, Semi-Tough, which was made into a Burt Reynolds-Kris Kristofferson-Jill Clayburgh movie in 1977 and followed by a few novel sequels.

Doing The Limbo; Extra JoGus stuff

There's not much going on over at the fooball offices. Assistant coaches have been told to skedaddle, take paid vacation while the hunt continues for the next coach, whether it's Butch Davis, Houston Nutt, Randy Shannon, James Coley or Shoat Cooper.

Usually a staff waiting for their official axe does the professional courtesy of prepping things for the next staff. Not so in this case. Everything's on stop. Including, of course, recruiting.

A slew of junior college recruits were set to visit last weekend. Bzzzt. That's where FIU wanted to perhaps garner some help along the lines, particularly the offensive line, next year. Iowa Western Community College Inside linebacker Steven Funderburk, wavering between Indiana and FIU, committed to Bloomington. FIU could've been reeling Northwest Mississippi Community College defensive tackle Jerome McClain. Now, no Zebco.

Miramar wide receiver Sean Avant, rated at two stars by Scout.com and three stars by Rivals.com, had committed to FIU shortly before the firing, so it'll be interesting to see what happens with him between now and signing day.

SWIMMING & DIVING

A quote from FIU swim coach Randy Horner on how out of shape Johanna Gustafsdottir was at the start of the 2011-12 season, her freshman year at FIU though she was 21, and how it affected the way Horner handled her got cut from the story for length. But, I really liked it so here it is.

“She was not obesely overweight. Probably a good 30 pounds overweight, very soft, not where she needed to be. Her specialty is 200 IM, 200 back, 200 free, up to 400 IM which we haven’t done with her here. We put her in the sprint grounp because we didn’t feel like, the condition she was in, she could handle the middle distance group on our team. We didn’t want to blow her away with too much yardage. She’s not a sprinter at all. It took the entire academic year last year just to get her into condition to go that fast.”

"That fast" being last year's Sun Belt Conference meet, when Gustafsdottir blew up the FIU record book. Though she failed to make Iceland's 2012 Olympic team, she wants to train here for a shot at the 2016 team she already sounded quite determined to make.