First day of (football) spring; Gators at FIU, women's hoop, 7 p.m. Thursday

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.

 

Comments

[chiapanther]

Wow...thats alot of info to digest...

Thanks DJN..
100% agree Akil is acting spring qb...till Travis and PaoPoa cime in and cimpete.

Hicckman at DL is surprised as he was rumored as a possible DE/LB in a 4-3 or 3-4 packages...

That means we are under size.

Things I'm happy to see this early. Rosado getting good look. And Dyson getting first unit.

Worries...Fadol BROWN...him and DD would be good together.

Surprised no Edens on first team OL...but there you go...time to work and see the depth chart move along the way.

As alwas Go Panthers. Btw, Also great on Colimon...Great athlete...

[Modesto Maidique]

2 weeks until Pedro Pan Garcia is fired and Rosenberg resigns in disgrace. Finally they can chase hookers around with Maury and not have to sneak around any longer.

[Outcome Agent]

When I read this....I was really "laughing out loud" and then I "rolled on the floor" while "laughing out loud"

That douche Pete needs to be gone asap for that University to take the next step in Athletics.

[REALLY??]

I am not a Pete Garcia fan AT ALL and have become very disappointed in Rosenberg BUT this post is about the start of Spring Football. Turner is the new head coach and it is time to see how good or bad the hire was. Pete needs to stop borrowing jeans from his girlfriends' closets yes... but let's try to focus on the start of practice and start judging from there. Good luck to the players both on the field and in the classroom.