FIU Panthers Prowl

GAMEDAY UPDATES: Western Kentucky 10, FIU 9 FINAL

Hey there, FIU fans.

Andre Fernandez here live at Houchens Industries - L.T. Smith Stadium at Western Kentucky Univrsity. I'll be filling in for David J. Neal for today's pivotal game between FIU and the Hilltoppers.

I'll be posting some scoring updates and key plays here. Feel free to comment if you wish. But I will mainly be tweeting so if you wanna follow me @AndreMHSports, that's where I'll be posting most of my updates.

FIU (5-3, 2-2 SBC) needs this one to stay near the top of the Sun Belt Standings and in realistic contention for a bowl berth. Western Kentucky (4-4, 4-1) comes in riding a 4-game winning streak.

Louisiana-Lafayette and Arkansas State, the other two Sun Belt teams FIU is chasing are also in action this afternoon. I'll keep you posted on those games.

Enjoy!

FIRST QUARTER

FIU drives into WKU territory, but settles for a Jack Griffin 40-yard FG. 3-0 FIU 11:36 left. Drive: 9 plays, 72 yards, 3:12.

FIU's Sam Miller recovers a fumble, but Panthers turn it back when Wesley Carecroll throws an INT. His fourth consecutive game with an INT.

WKU Kadeem Jones 2 yard run for TD. WKU 7-3. 5:08 left.

 FIU Jack Griffin 34 yard FG. 7-6 WKU 0:38 left.

Teams have gone scoreless through second and third quarters.

WKU missed a field goal and FIU saw a promising drive come up short.

FIU driving as third quarter ends.

FOURTH QUARTER

Jack Griffin 43 yard FG. 9-7 FIU 14:56 left.

Casey Tinius wins it for WKU with a 34-yard Field goal 10-9 WKU

DeJuan Wright Tweets that he suffered a knee injury

Just as I filed the below football portion of this blog and cut off my computer to plunge into REM sleep, FIU's leading scorer and rebounder last season, DeJuan Wright, tweeted this on his Twitter account, @JustWright14, just after midnight:

"Partial tear in my MCL..." followed by a three-letter acronym usually written in disbelief or anger that translates, loosely, as "what the heck?"

Wright, a 6-3 senior guard from Detroit, averaged a team-high 30.3 minutes per game; 14.5 points; 6.7 rebounds; and 1.7 steals per game last season for the 11-19 Golden Panthers. He also shot a team-high .534 from the field and his .469 shooting percentage from three-point range was the best on the team among those who attempted more than one three-pointer a game.

Now back to the less newsy, more football portion of this blog (not often you'll read that sentence in mid-August)...

This blog should've been done hours ago, while I was awaiting my Bacon Burger at the campus Chili's after somehow failing to find the Subway (which I passed as I left -- I felt like such a freshman). Instead, I surfed the 'net and combed my notes for inspiration and energy. I also wondered how a Media Day with Spanish language media, a Cuban-American head coach who works for a Cuban-American athletic director who just got Captain Cuban-American to be his radio color analyst didn't have cafe cubano.

My failure to caffeine up -- real world sucked up the time I would've used to stop at my favorite place on South Beach -- can be blamed for my lousy questions that didn't often get the players to break from their well-coached repetition of the gospel. But a few nuggets did emerge, aside from the couple I used in the choppy story on leadership already up on http://www.miamiherald.com/sports.

(If you want to read the story, that's your business. But, remember, I just told you it was there. I did not recommend it.)

Women's soccer season starts Friday in DeLand against Stetson.

Cristobal claims as far as camp injuries, "nothing really significant" that should make anyone "miss a game or two." That means either safety Jack Halley's testing came back OK and he doesn't have a concussion or Halley's testing came back saying concussion and Cristobal forgot. Because, on concussions, nobody knows anything about timetables.

T.Y. Hilton said he texted former teammate Anthony Gaitor before the latter's first preseason game, Friday night for Tampa Bay against Kansas City. "Just do you. just like college, but now it's the next level," Hilton said his text read. "You are on a different team with a different jersey. Be the Anthony Gaitor I know you can be."

Gaitor had a sack, a tackle for loss, a quarterback hurry and a pass knocked down. Hilton also was in the text tube with wide receiver Greg Ellingson. Playing for Jacksonville, Ellingson had two passes thrown his way. Neither were completed.

Before talking to us, Hilton spent a fair amount of time with Rick Sanchez, who was present with his two sons.

Asking a few pass catchers what they noticed different about Wesley Carroll this year, tight end Colt Anderson said, "Definitely see more confidence in him than last year. More leadership." Wide receiver Willis Wright added quietly, "A lot more pride." Interesting addendum...

Cristobal on Tourek Williams: "When he's on, when he's in shape, he's as good as any defensive player in the conference."

Cristobal said he wanted the offense to be a 50 percent split between run and pass. Coaches love to say that, but it always comes down to "what don't you defend well?" and "How well do we do what we do?" If you run and pass well, then it's up to the defense what you do. If the last run a school stopped was a moonshine run, pound the rock. If the defensive backs look like Urkel and Woody Allen, spend the day in the air. 

Fading to black. I'm out. We'll try to be better tomorrow.