The headline tells you the time of Thursday's Women's NIT game at The Branch. Now on to Tuesday morning at La Cage.
Attendance: On the first spring football roster, but not present were quarterbacks Loranzo Hammonds Jr. and Favian Upshaw, wide receiver Nick England, wide receiver Johnnie Durante, linebacker Leroy Owens and offensive tackle Prince Matt. Hammonds and Matt were going into their redshirt sophomore seasons. The others were part of the 2012 recruiting class. Head coach Ron Turner said the status of some absentees is undecided.
Defensive tackle Isame Faciane's still rehabilitating the shoulder on which he had offseason surgery, so he didn't participate.
Alignments: Quarterbacks lined up under center for the most part in two-back and one-back, double-tight-end sets. Occasionally, they lined up in three-wide receiver spread sets.
Defensively, they went with a 4-3.
Position changes: Without a true fullback on the roster, FIU coaches decided defensive tackle Jericco Lee seemed to have a fullback's body and gave him a shot. In the absence of Hammonds and Upshaw, Akil Dan-Fodio's back at quarterback for at least the spring.
First team offense: Quarterback redshirt junior Jake Medlock; running back senior Kedrick Rhodes; fullback sophomore Lemarq Caldwell (when a fullback is used); wide receivers Willis Wright and Glenn Coleman; left tackle redshirt sophomore Aaron Nielsen; left guard redshirt junior David Delsoin; center redshirt junior Donald Senat; redshirt freshman Trenson Saunders at right guard; redshirt sophomore Yousif Khoury at right tackle; and tight end redshirt sophomore Ya'keem Griner.
First team defense: defensive tackles sophomore Darrian Dyson and senior Greg Hickman; defensive ends junior Giovani Francois and senior Paul Crawford; linebackers redshirt sophomore Luis Rosado, sophomore Patrick Jean and sophomore Davison Colimon; cornerbacks junior Richard Leonard and senior Sam Miller; safeties redshirt junior Justin Halley and redshirt junior Mitch Wozniak.
Personnel: Turner said FIU has a lot of wide receivers and not enough offensive linemen and he'd like to correct that imbalance.
As for how they looked...it's the first day of practice, folks. Precision's a rare commodity. Redshirt senior Derrick Jones and redshirt freshman Deonte Wilson made interceptions in drills. Aside from Dan-Fodio's three-snap run of two fumbles and a bobble, the snaps went well from under center.
