Felt like kitty barf most of Friday, which is why there was no blog post. Now feeling like cleaned up kitty barf...
Ron Turner went for Josh Conklin, Tennessee safeties coach, as defensive coordinator over former Texas-El Paso defensive coordinator Andre Patterson, who'll be assistant head coach and defensive line coach. Patterson coached NFL defensive lines with New England, Minnesota, Dallas, Cleveland and Denver. He's bounced around, doing two years at UNLV in the same job he'll have at FIU and three years as UTEP's defensive coordinator.
Under Patterson, UTEP's defense ranked 91st, 104th, 92nd, respectively, in the nation. Conklin's defenses at The Citadel -- yes, FCS, 1-AA, but they're also playing against and ranked against 1-AA teams -- ranked 41st in 2010 and 36th in 2011.
SWIMMING & DIVING
Been meaning to do a story on junior diver Sabrina Beaupre for a year and had set up a time to talk for Friday evening, after she finished at FIU's dual meet with Central Connecticut State. So, trying not to breathe on anybody and fist-bumping instead of shaking hands, I got to the meet just in time for the penultimate event, the 200 IM, won by Sonia Perez in 2:06.55.
FIU also won the 200 freestyle (Johanna Gustafsdottir, 1:53.36); the 100 backstroke (Perez 59.06); 100 breaststroke (Jessica Chadwick, 1:06.17); 200 butterfly (Marina Ribi, 2:06.19); 50 free (Courtney VanderSchaaf, 25.12); 200 back (Perez, 2:06.20); 200 breast (Gustafsdottir, 2:21.55); 100 fly (Ribi, 57.52); and the 200 medley relay (Perez, Klara Andersson, Ribi, Valeriia Popova, 1:48.88). Beaupre won the 1-meter and 3-meter diving. FIU won the meet, 198-100.
The story on her will run in the next couple of weeks. Two things of interest, perhaps only to me: she's happy about the move to Conference USA because she'll be able to go back to platform diving, which she prefers to springboard. And, she's a Montreal Canadiens fan.
