FIU Panthers Prowl

Football Staff & Softball Stuff

The special teams coordinator promised the day of Ron Turner's introduction as FIU football coach turns out to be Kevin Wolthausen.

Wolthausen's spent most of his 29-year coaching career on the defensive side, particularly the defensive line, which he coached at Arizona (1986), Oklahoma (1993-94), Arizona State (1996), Louisville (2004-05) and Purdue (2012).

A poster mentioned changes in the support staff reported by footballscoop.com. Ironically, FIU recently officially named Joey Corey director of football operations after he's been acting in that role for a month and Nick Mehlhaff the assistant football operations director. I'm not saying that's how it'll be long after Signing Day on Wednesday, but that's the way it is now.

Look for the next coaching staff hire to be the tight ends coach, replacing Dennis Smith, who is also the recruiting coordinator.

SOFTBALL

FIU, which opens its season Friday, got voted third in the Sun Belt's preseason coaches poll and put three players on the preseason All-Sun Belt team.

 

Senior Jessy Alfonso (outfield), shortstop Kayla Burri (at-large) and second base Brie Rojas (at-large) got the honors. FIU plays Kansas in the Panther Invitational at 4 p.m. Friday, Georgetown at 6:30 and North Carolina State Saturday at 12:30. 

Five-time defending Sun Belt champion Louisiana-Lafayette, ranked No. 11 in the preseason ESPN.com/USA Softball Top 25, was the preseason pick to continue their team dominance.

 

 

Possible stopgap QB visit

Addendum to today's story at http://www.miamiherald.com/sports that I would've read over my Cap'n Crunch (with Crunch Berries) on a more leisurely morning...

Utah State quarterback Adam Kennedy, a senior who got a medical redshirt last year after a shoulder injury, hit FIU this weekend on his Where Will I Transfer? tour.

Kennedy, 6-5, played in eight games for Utah State in 2011 and started the last five after an injury to Utah State's starter. In five and a half games of playing time, Kennedy completed 72 of 105 passes for 926 yards, 11 touchdowns, four interceptions. Before Utah State, Kennedy started 10 games at San Joaquin Delta College.

With a possibly leaky line and a starting quarterback who's had trouble staying healthy, it's not surprising new head coach Turner would want a backup with more post-high school experience than the three and a half games played by sophomore E.J. Hilliard last year (although Hilliard played against four good teams...).

 

Sandley Jean-Felix to Marshall?

Perhaps FIU's most noted fall commit was Lauderdale Lakes Boyd Anderson offensive tackle Sandley Jean-Felix, rated a high three-star recruit.

But Jean-Felix committed to FIU under the former coaching staff. And the offensive line coach from that staff, Alex Mirabal, is now at Marshall and Jean-Felix visited there recently.

Don't be surprised if this is a verbal commitment that doesn't make it to Wednesday.