FIU Panthers Prowl

Two more things from Media Day

A couple of things I forgot from earlier...

1. Some programs shoo NFL scouts away for fear the temptation of league money will shorten the careers of their best players by one or two years.

FIU, on the other hand, embraces the NFL hawks.

"Not every school allows them in for preseason camp," Cristobal said. "We do because that's the next phase of our program."

He said three NFL scouts would be at Monday night's practice and NFL scouts would be around the team throughout the season.

"When a guy like Anthony Gaiter and T.Y. (Hilton) catches their attention, now there's that much more focus that there are legitimate, really, really good football players down at FIU," Cristobal said. "So we open up the doors to them. We actually provide weekly e-mails and footage and information.

"We want guys to graduate and they will. Again, that's the most important thing. But we make no reservations about it -- we want guys to come here who want to play in the NFL. We want to coach guys and want to play with guys who want to play in the NFL, who want to make this a way of life. That do not want to make this a hobby."

2. The players present were logical ones: quarterback Jake Medlock; kicker Jack Griffin; and the preseason All-Sun Belt players -- running back Kedrick Rhodes, right tackle Rupert Bryan, Jr, left tackle Caylin Hauptmann, defensive end Tourek Williams, linebacker Winston Fraser, safety Johnathan Cyprien.

The only preseason All-Sun Belt player not there? Junior defensive tackle Isame Faciane, not having the best camp so far. I'm hearing it was a coincidence, however.

Quick hits from Media Day; T.Y. pics from Sunday

Not much new at Tuesday's Media Day. But here are a few tidbits, some of which appear also in a story that'll appear in tomorrow's print Herald and online later this evening:

Mario Cristobal said there's a significant gap from Jake Medlock to Lorenzo Hammonds, Jr., and E.J. Hilliard, but that in less than two weeks, he expects the latter two to be up to where they can help FIU win and not just get FIU through the night. As far as their classmates, he expects 23 to 26 freshmen or redshirt freshmen to play on the first or second string or play serious special teams time.

Cristobal called Jeremiah Harden "1A" at running back behind Kedrick Rhodes and said Darian Mallary looked as good Monday evening as he has in two years.

Senior left tackle Caylin Hauptmann, when I asked about the senior leadership this year and the way they've done so much teaching with the younger guys, he said, "When we went to our bowl game two years ago, we had great leadership from people like Brad Serini and Cedric Mack. Whereas last year, we didn't have a core leadership -- what to do, wehwer to go, what steps to take. I remember that, our seniors remember that. We just took from that. To be able to see that two years ago, we're just implementing it to them."

T.Y. HILTON

T.Y. Hilton, Sr. sent me some photos from Sunday's Indianapolis Colts preseason game. Here's one of T.Y., who had a total of five touches (three catches, one run, one punt return)...

...and one of T.Y. Hilton, Sr. and Cora Hilton

 

 

Another day at Le Cage; why is the Graham Center BK closed today?

Though posts on volleyball and soccer don't "move the needle" on this blog, readers from the last 12 months know I actually like to post on both. Those three teams started practice last week and I'll be blogging on them soon. Men's soccer has a preseason game at Barry Thursday. The women's soccer team took a 4-0 spanking from North Florida in a preseason game.

As for the American football team, today's a two-practice day. They got out of Saturday's scrimmage with only a minor toe injury to freshman linebacker Josh Glanton (and anybody who thinks there can't be a "major" toe injury has never had one or lived with someone who had one -- trust me, you'd rather they broke an arm). Glanton should be OK soon.

Upon further film review from Saturday, some guys earned practice time with the next unit up. Sophomore defensive end Giovani Francois earned some first team reps. Redshirt sophomore center Donald Senat got put with the first team offensive line for part of practice. Last week, coach Mario Cristobal said at each position, he'd put the best player on the field, but on the offensive line, he'd put the best five who worked in unison.

Redshirt sophomore Mitch Wozniak moved from wide receiver to outside linebacker/safety.

"He's been, arguably, our best special teams player over the last couple of years," Cristobal said. "And we're pretty thick at wide receiver. So we moved him over and his first play there today, he made a tackle for a 1-yard gain and caused a fumble. At 205 pounds, running the way he does. He's had two ACLs since he's been here. Now, closing in on the latter part of his career, we've got to find a way to get him on the field."

Also on the defensive line, fifth-year senior Andre Pound took many of the defensive tackle reps usually taken by Isame Faciane. It was exactly this time last year that Tourek Williams got put with the second team in favor of Paul Crawford because the coaching staff felt Williams wasn't putting out enough on the practice field and Crawford was showing well. Williams got the message, got to work and was back with the first team in a few days. Let's see what happens with Faciane.

Tuesday afternoon will be a special teams scrimmage.

To close, let me say...unless it's holiday break, spring break or major plumbing or fire problems, whether or not classes are in, there's no reason for the Burger King in the GC to be closed. Not like the GC was empty around lunchtime, either...

A few thoughts from Saturday night; Hilton's debut and football cards

Usually, as readers of this blog know from last year, my usual long-winded postgame blog analysis is done after the game and posted sometime in the wee am hours (exceptions for excessive sleepiness preceding multi-hour morning drives). Last night, I planned to do the same. I didn't plan to get home late, sleepy and still needing to hit Lincoln Road for dinner with the wife.

So, it's Sunday morning.

Head Coach's view (or, part of it):

"Kedrick Rhodes ran really, really well. Tourek Williams played really really well. Richard Leonard, Junior Mertile, big plays. Jeremiah McKinnon played some good fotoball...a lot of big plays both sides of hte ball. Back and forth in a good way. That's what you want to see. A really good first scrimmage."

While there were big plays by both offense and defense, it seemed most of the offensive explosiveness came from the 3s facing each other. My first thought after the scrimmage was, "Well, that's probably the best defense they'll face all season..."

Fireman's Fund full coverage in the secondary. A pass rush that usually got to or around the quarterback. Solid tackling. That was the first team defense all night. They had maybe two real failures in a series of downs. The first I describe in the next paragraph. The other was a third and 10 with the offense backed up on its own 1 on which quarterback Jake Medlock completed a pass to Zach Schaubhut for about 19 yards.

Medlock was upbeat afterwards, but that's him.  He's the kind of guy in the action movies who says, "So I lost an arm -- I still had one to shoot with and there was less of me for them to shoot at!" He said he wanted to show composure after bad plays and he did that. He also showed a good voice at the line, turning a third and 6 into a third and 1 by drawing defensive tackle Isame Faciane offside. He nearly did it again on the third and 1, the entire defensive line jumping forward and back like a quartet of Kappas or Q-Dogs in a step show. Rhodes plowed for a first down. Mario Cristobal was happy about that.

Othewise, it was pretty much a shutdown. The second teamers didn't have quite the same amount of success with the second team offense, but they allowed only one score, an incredible one-handed catch sky sweep by Jairus Williams with Mertile in his jersey. They had some outside containment problems. Shane Coleman got outside for a 48-yard run and Hammonds broke out for a 22-yard run. They had freshman linebackers Leroy Owens and Patrick Jean working the middle much of the night. That's going to happen with young guys. Owens, who also had a sack, made the interception that killed the second team's two-minute drill drive.

Among the third-teamers, quarterback E.J. Hilliard, aside from telegraphing a throw that allowed Mertile to jump the route for a pick six with the second team, showed his legs and a pretty good arm for distance and accuracy. He escaped the pocket and hit redshirt sophomore Michael Curry deep for a 70-yard touchdown.They hooked up for a 42-yard play earlier in the scrimmage. Both were behind freshman safety Davison Colimon, who bounced back after the first one with a fumble recovery.

The touchdown to Curry came with Hilliard being chased by freshman defensive tackle Darrian Dyson. A helmetless Darrian Dyson, who drew a flag for it. According to Mario Cristobal, this year, once you lose your helmet, you can't re-engage a block and can't rejoin pursuit of a player. Three helmets came off during plays Saturday night, which Cristobal mentioned as a concern.

Freshman quarterbcak Favian Upshaw hit redshirt freshman T.J. Lowder for a 44-yard touchdown late in the scrimmage. That kind of made up for the handoff between Upshaw and freshman fullback Lemarq Caldwell that freshman defensive lineman Diegot Joseph snatched up.

I would've been shocked if I had seen anything else Saturday night. FIU's a top notch defensive team -- and big, really looking big -- with a strong running game and a quarterback still getting it all together. That's only slightly less the case with the second team units.

There's still three weeks practice time left before Duke. And as I wrote in a story from Sun Belt media days, given the choice, every Sun Belt coach said they'd rather have the best defense than the best offense.

T.Y. HILTON

 Hilton made his preseason debut with Indianapolis today -- three catches for 25 yards, one rush for 9 yards around the right side as the Colts lined up in the shotgun, one punt return for 6 yards.

A few days ago, his father texted me pictures of three autographed Hilton rookie cards.

 

Saturday (not so) early...

The title refers to the blog post, made after lunch The Saturday morning practice definitely was early. Like if this were the old Saturday morning cartoon days, FIU would've been on the field before the first In The News.

(Digression: Between Schoolhouse Rock, In the News and ABC's Time for Timer, the segments that ran between classic Saturday morning cartoon days of the 1970s acted as if viewers actually had young, fertile minds that could handle two minutes of relevant information between half-hours animated fun of wildly variant quality cut by commercials for toys and breakfast food)

 

This morning was special teams work time with the scrimmage tonight. Jack Griffin's kickoffs landed perfectly, either in the end zone or pushing the returner to the sideline inside the 10. Griffin's kickoff length got some help from new rules pushing the kickoffs up to the 35 from the 30 to cut down on the dueling kamikazes collisions that are kickoff returns.

Several returned kickoffs -- last year's non-T.Y. Hilton regulars, Wayne Times and Richard Leonard; Kedrick Rhodes; Sam Miller; and freshman Nick England. Without Hilton, who plays his first preseason game for Indianapolis Sunday, FIU needs someone to burst forth as a guy who can create field position on returns if not quick touchdowns.

Whatever you thought of Dolphins coach Tony Sparano, he nailed it when he'd talk about "hidden yardage" -- the other guy's penalty that gives you an extra 10 yards to prolong a drive where you don't score, but you suck time and swing the field; your own penalty that wipes out a great punt or a great return; this block, that missed tackle, etc. Saturday, Mario Cristobal said FIU's equation is 80 yards of hidden yardage=7 points. There's a lot of hidden yardage in special teams.

Freshman Johnnie Durante, a two-way player who made First Team All-Dade last year at defensive back, has been working with the wide receivers this week.

I'll be blogging again very late tonight or early tomorrow after the scrimmage (and, possibly, after late dinner with the wife). 



Friday Football Fun at FIU

Alliteration abounds!

Saturday's scrimmage will be 120 plays, divided evenly among 1s vs. 1s, 2s vs. 2s, 3s vs. 3s. They'll roll out most of the offense.

Safety Jordan Davis, a freshman out of Tampa Alonso, will have knee surgery in the next few days to determine the extent of his ligament damage.

One of the most interesting drills Friday, especially on a team with some big receivers with hops, was the fade pattern drill. It took the quarterbacks a few rounds of throws but eventually, both Jake Medlock and Lorenzo Hammonds got the touch (suddenly thinking of Dirk Diggler singing).

Kicker Jack Griffin got one through from 53 yards out, missed and hit from 48. Last year, Griffin's long was 46 yards.

Mario Cristobal likes the way freshman wide receiver Raymond Jackson looks so far. He said Jackson was brought to his attention by New Orleans O. Perry Walker High coach Emmanuel Powell when Cristobal went to look at defensive lineman Marques Cheeks. Upon being told Jackson was playing quarterback, wide receiver, linebacker and safety and was drawing attention, but would like to go to FIU, Cristobal asked where he was. Powell replied, "He's right behind you," prompting Cristobal to turn around and try to look beyond a big guy wearing a beard and jacket who he assumed was a coach..and turned out to be Jackson.

Another Louisiana native, defensive tackle Isame Faciane, got kept after practice for a one-on-one with Cristobal at the middle of the field. Both have looked happier.

"I want to see more out of Ice," Cristobal said. "That's a big talented guy. I know what he can be. He knows what he can be. I know there's a lot on his plate with school and everything else. We demands the most out of these guys. We don't compromise academnics and we don't compromise what they have to do out there in practice. I just think when you have the opportunity to coach a talent like that. You just can't settle for what they do well and OK and average days. You have to push that young man to be elite and that's what we're going to do."

Reminds of something defensive coordinator Todd Orlando said about defensive end Tourek Williams Thursday. The difference between Williams this year and Williams of past years, Orlando said, "His mindset is to be That Guy with it. Maybe in the past, it would be, 'I can do this, but I can do it 65-70 percent of the time.' Now, he's saying, 'I can do this every play.'"

That's indicative of the tone around camp this year. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

  

Thursday at La Cage Aux Pantheres

Thursday's practice included the Board Drill, the most physical of the one-on-one drills, third down and red zone situations.

The head coach said: "Today, we brought about as much pressure as you can bring. Both in the run and the pass. So many people get caught up in running pressure ong passing downs, passing plays that a lot of times people forget when you're running pressure and people run the football, you've got to be able to tackle on the run like that. That's a different animal, too. We worked a bunch of that today. We made it very difficult for the offense to create numbers that were positive (as far as players in "the box"). Especially the defensive backs, as much as we put them on the island today, those guys looked pretty good. Then, we missed a couple of big plays, a couple of plays we should make. We rebounded later. But, early on, it was definitely better (for the defense)."

To Channel 7, Cristobal lauded Jake Medlock with, "He's had a heck of a camp against a defense that we expect to be one of the better ones in the country."

Freshman wide receiver DeAndre Jaspher wore a cast after surgery on a broken left hand that'll sideline him until about a third of the way into the season.

Saturday's scrimmage won't be open to the public. They're trying to keep the new offensive scheme under wraps.

Day 5: Pads

Sorry about the lateness of this blog post. Ever had one of those days when you couldn't hit the ground with your hat? Repairs, parking, snail-driving gray hairs creeping along 107th Avenue in their Toyota sedans in the Turn Only lane have continued a trend that had me quoting 1930s boxing manager Joe Jacobs ("I shoulda stood in bed") back around the first time a running back got devoured on the handoff today.

Head coach's view: "After four hard days of practice and with the academic obligations we currently have, we cam eout iwth agreat attitude, an incredible amount of enthusiasm and they fought through a lot of plays. We even went extended plays today. We've been going anywhere from four, five, six-play series. Today, we took them on some occasions up to 10, 11, 12 plays. They responded well."

Freshman linebacker Patrick Jean took some first team reps today in team drills as Winston Fraser sat out some time so coaches could get a look at Jean. Jean and Leroy Owens, who seemed to be in on the tackle or around it on 70 percent of the team drill snaps that were 2s vs. 2s, not only have emerged early on the field, but Mario Cristobal sees them being accredited leader status by the other freshmen.

"Again, credit to the older guys like Winston Fraser and Jordan Hunt for tutoring those guys," Cristobal said. "They naturally love the physical part of the game. They showed it today. They threw some bodies around and made some plays."

During one 7-on-7 period, Quarterback Jake Medlock went with the first group, then stood on the side as Lorenzo Hammonds was with the first team receivers and backs through the rest of the drill. The carrot of playing time, perhaps even starting, is being left out there for Hammonds and freshman E.J. Hilliard. But Hilliard's a freshman and Hammonds, a redshirt freshman, is still getting the complete offense down. Hammonds made a lovely throw deep up the right sideline that Jairus Williams outjumped Richard Leonard to get during individual drills.

When the 1s faced each other in team drills, the defense again could claim overall victory. Justin Halley looked better in run support than he had last year. But the offense didn't get squashed. The line sprung Kedrick Rhodes on some good inside runs of 7 and 10 yards and Medlock made some nice throws, including one on the run to Glenn Coleman at the right sideline. Medlock also showed some maturity in one throwaway and another check down completion to Ya'keem Griner.

When the 2s faced each other, the interior defensive line detonated plays before they could happen.

By the way, as a courtesy to your fellow fans, shower and Old Spice (or Secret) before you come to La Cage Aux Panthere this season. Not like it was Soldier Field windy before, but with the enclosure of the north end, there will be even less wind. Same chewy humidity. More sweat. More funk.

Not this kind of funk...

 

 

Day 4: Early Up, Early Out

Threatening weather reports prompted an early start to Monday morning's practice. I wonder if anybody was still trapped in online registration limbo when the team took the field. More red zone and third down work Monday, important areas of focus for any team and quarterback, but Alabama-high on the To Do list for a team that had red zone trouble the previous year and has an inexperienced quarterback.

Full pads go on Tuesday before a day off Wednesday. They'll have a full scrimmage Saturday night that might or might not be open to the public (my money's on not). 

"These next few days, we'll do a lot of crossover training," FIU coach Mario Cristobal said. "Tomorrow, we're going to teach all our offensive kids to tackle. We don't want interceptions or fumbles, but they're bound to happen. When they do, let's not have them go 80, but get them on the ground right there."

Also, they'll find out who can pass, who can punt, who can long snap in addition to the players they already know have those additional qualities. The conversation swung that way when I asked about long snappers. Few fans ever think about long snappers until a series of bad snaps aborts field goal attempts or punts in a close game. Coaches, on the other hand, want to think about long snappers just long enough to make sure they're more dependable than the living room TV. John Denney's in his eighth year with the Dolphins, his fourth Dolphins head coach, because he's had maybe two bad snaps in his career. Mitch McCluggage is back as FIU's long snapper. Jonathan Cyprien and Shae Smith are backup long snappers. They also have Matthew Cowart out of Hollywood South Broward as a freshman long snapper.

Another freshman making a good early impression is wide receiver Nick England out of Suwanee Collins Hill. England made some nice catches over the middle in 7-on-7 and team drills Sunday. With FIU using so many three-wide sets, it's entirely possible he could scale the depth chart to playing time level.

See today's story on Justin Halley at http://www.miamiherald.com/sports.

 

Day 3: Sunday in shoulder pads

The first full pads practice will be Tuesday. Today, the team worked shoulder pads, as they will Monday. 

Today saw some red zone work, an area that FIU did well in last year as far as getting points (86.7 percent of the time, 2nd in the Sun Belt) but not necessarily touchdowns (48.8 percent, 8th in the Belt). Those who read this blog during last season know that one of my pet peeves with FIU most of last season was the thin usage of tight ends Jonathan Faucher and Colt Anderson, two of their best athletes, in the red zone. It wasn't a coincidence that, late in the season, they got to the end zone on almost every red zone visit they threw to the tight end. Just based on that and having a 6-3 quarterback who consistently can see over defensive linemen on a short drop, I'd bet on Ya'keem Griner, Zach Schaubhut and Junior Delpe to get some play from 5 to 10 yards out.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was some extra work put in on center snaps the next few days.

Freshmen linebacker Patrick Jean, linebacker Leroy Owens and defensive lineman Fadol Brown are making strong bids for second-string playing time. Freshman defensive back Jeremiah McKinnon picked off two passes Sunday, one in team drills against the third team, another in individual drills. Again, caveat: it's not real until somebody gets hit in the mouth.

FIU coach Mario Cristobal will be on Channel 7 Sunday Sports Xtra tonight at 11:30.

Check out today's story on Kedrick Rhodes at http://www.miamiherald.com/sports.

 

Fall Football Practice, Day 1 (officially) -- 2 hours in FIU Underroos

Coming to you live from the GC at Camp Mitch via colada, it's the report from Day 1 of FIU fall football practice!

That exclamation point ends the hype part of this report.

(Quick aside: just ran into running back Kedrick Rhodes in the GC. His increase in muscular thickness is even more visible out of uniform.) 

There's only so much you can tell from the first day of practice of any sport. A football practice involving helmets, jerseys, shorts but no pads or real contact -- "running around in the underwear" as some football coaches say colloquially -- buries itself under Inconclusive.

As far as accuracy, I thought the quarterbacks looked fine for the first day. I thought the receivers could've helped them out more, but, again, it's Day 1. You see some of the same passes slip through fingers in three weeks, then you reach for the Pepto-Bismol.

First team receivers: Wayne Times, Glenn Coleman, Jacob Younger. Second team: Willis Wright, Jairus Williams, Dominique Rhymes. James Louis, who transferred from Ohio State last year, wasn't at practice. Word is he's got some schoolwork to do. Tight ends: redshirt freshman Ya'keem Griner and Zach Schaubhut, who made some nice catches. 

The best throw and catch of the day came on the same play. Freshman E.J. Hilliard arched a 15-yard out to the far sideline almost over cornerback Richard Leonard. Leonard skimmed the ball a second before Wright adjusted to make the grab and tap down. Lorenzo Hammonds made some nice throws, too. But there's no quarterback competition or controversy. This is Jake Medlock's job to lose and he certainly did nothing to do that today.

"We were more efficient with the ball in the passing game than typical on Day 1," Mario Cristobal said. "That's good to see. And I saw it from at least the first three quarerbacks. They took teh bulk of the reps -- Jake taking the first set, Lorenzo the second one, E.J. the third."

Freshman Favian Upshaw also took reps at quarterback. Cristobal said they structured practice so that the younger players got as many reps as the veterans to get them up to speed. Clearly, there's a feeling that, despite the plethora of returning talent, this freshman class will refuse to be shelved.

"We are forced to create extra periods for three and some of the fours because those guys are talented enough to contribute," Cristobal said. "We just have to see if they can get all the mental stuff."

Look especially at the freshmen linebackers to get into the mix.

Not into the mix will be tight end Bryan Attaway from Kingsland (Ga.) Camden County High; defensive back Denzel Conyers from Gulfport Boca Ciega; and Pembroke Pines Flanagan wide receiver Jeremy Smith. Academic issues eliminated these 2012 recruits.

 

Details on Cristobal extension

Some highlights from FIU football coach Mario Cristobal's contract extension (sorry we didn't get these things last night, but, hey...):

Cristobal's base salary stays the same in the added year, 453,183. He got another $50,000 bonus, to be paid in two installments, from a $100,000 annual program operating cost bump. The other $50,000 of that money will go to assistant coaches base salaries. So in the last two Cristobal extensions, the assistants have gotten an increase of approximately $160,000 from program operating cost increases.

While this keeps Cristobal in the middle of the pack as far as Sun Belt coaches base salary, almost all of whom live in places with cheap costs of living, sources say he didn't think it would be right to ask for much more money with the state education system so economically troubled.

Cristobal did get performance bonus raises: bowl game bonus to $20,000 from $10,000; 940 APR bonus from $10,000 to $15,000; 2.5 team GPA average up from $10,000 to $15,000; new bonuses for finishing in final USA Today Coaches Poll Top 25 of $15,000; and $20,000 for an unshared conference championship.

The buyout clauses remain the same.

Not in the contract, but apparently a leading concern at the negotiating table when this all was first being discussed last winter was the completion of the north side enclosure. Both for stature among other schools -- remember, when all this started, it wasn't a lock FIU would be wanted by Conference USA -- and recruits, it was felt FIU Stadium needed to look like an actual stadium.

 

Cristobal signs another extension; men's soccer schedule out

I'll have more details this evening -- I'm officially on vacation and planning to observe working silence for a few hours this afternoon -- but FIU has added a year to football coach Mario Cristobal's contract to 2017 and given him another raise a year after bumping him up to over $453,000 on base salary.

Realistic about FIU's limits, I don't think Cristobal was looking for the big payday for himself, but did want the football equivalent of occasionally sending flowers and candy when it's not a birthday, anniversary or Valentine's Day -- more money for assistants, some upgrades on facilities befitting a program trying to work its way up.

I'll break this down when I get a peek at the contract or at least the highlights, hopefully later today.

FUTBOL

The men's soccer schedule came out Wednesday.

Kenny Arena's first season as FIU men's soccer coach opens with a for-fun exhibition at Barry Aug. 16, then a home game that counts against Bryant University (is the prime major there building and servicing air conditioners and heaters?) on Aug. 24. They have one home game in September, Sept. 16 against Missouri-Kansas City. Their next three home games are Oct. 6 against Alabama-Birmingham, Howard and defending Conference USA champion SMU.

Memphis comes in on Oct. 27 and a home game against Tulsa ends the regular season on Nov. 3. Between those games is a short ride up to FAU Oct. 30.

Early in the season, the Panthers play five consecutive road games: Aug. 31 at North Florida, Sept. 2 at Jacksonville, Sept. 7 at Wisconsin, Sept. 9 against Illinois-Chicago and Sept. 14 against Furman. Their first Conference USA match of the season will be at South Carolina Sept. 29.

Sun Belt coaches pick FIU No. 1 (again); coaches & media pick Williams as Defensive POY

COMMIT: Chandler Burkett, defensive end from Panama City Bozeman, committed to FIU Monday afternoon.

Back to Sun Belt Media Day...

The Sun Belt preseason football poll of coaches picked FIU to win the conference title by a narrow margin over defending Sun Belt champion Arkansas State. Half the 10 coaches gave FIU first place votes with No. 1 votes also going to Arkansas State (two), Louisiana-Lafayette (two) and Western Kentucky. FIU was the preseason co-pick last year along with Troy.

Asked about keeping his players minds right when so much points to them rolling through The Belt, FIU coach Mario Cristobal said, "I think you said it best right there -- "again." Human nature is what it is, but in this case, human nature might serve us well. We kind of have seen this picture before. Had a great start, stumbled a little bit, then got back on track. I think that's going to serve as a great example and great experience as well."

The vote for Western came from Western coach Willie Taggart, who drew snickers last year when he voted his team No. 1 as they came off a two-win season. He looked like an Old Testament prophet when they came in 7-1 in the Sun Belt.

"I can't pick anybody else but us," Taggart said Monday. "I don't know those other teams. I'm not around those teams. I don't know what they did in the offseason."

The All-Sun Belt team, selected by the coaches and some media folks (including me), included seven FIU players.

FIU got three on one side of the ball (junior running back Kedrick Rhodes, senior offensive linemen Rupert Bryan and Caylin Hauptmann) and four on the other (defensive tackle Isame Faciane, defensive end Tourek Williams, linebacker Winston Fraser and safety Jonathan Cyprien). Williams pick as preseason Defensive Player of the Year signifies how dominant FIU's defense is expected to be this season, especially in Sun Belt play. That's FIU's anticipated edge over Arkansas State (great offense, young defense), Lafayette (great offense, young and iffy defense), Western (questionable no-Bobby-Rainey offense, good defense). So far, just asking general questions about defenses and defensive players in the shoot-'em-up Sun Belt, the players and coaches have brought up FIU instantly.

Surprisingly, kicker Jack Griffin got outvoted by Lafayette's Brett Baer, whose punting and kicking was responsible for Lafayette upsetting FIU last year at The Cage. I voted for Baer as a punter, a position that went to North Texas' Will Atterberry.

Akansas State quarterback Ryan Aplin, last year's Sun Belt Player of the Year, was the preseason Offensive Player of the Year. The rest of the offense: running backs Rhodes and Lou-La's Alonzo Harris; wide receivers Ark State's Josh Jarboe, Troy's Eric Thomas and Lou-La's Javone Lawson; tight end Western's Jack Doyle; offensive line Bryan, Hauptmann, Ark State's Zack McKnight, Lou-La's Leonardo Bates, North Texas' Cyril Lemon.

The defense aside from the aforementioned FIU players: defensive linemen Troy's Tony Davis, Western Quanterus Smith; linebackers Troy's Kanorris Davis and Western's Andrew Jackson; defensive backs Ark State's Don Jones, Lou-La's Melvin White and Troy's Brynden Trawick. Western's John Evans was the return specialist.

We're at Sun Belt Media Day and will have more from it throughout the day (we hope).

The answer was D)

A few quick things from this afternoon's official announcement that FIU would be joining Conference USA:

*The FIU-FAU football game is up in the air after 2012 because FIU doesn't know how many conference games it'll play and has other committments to honor.

*Mario Cristobal looked terribly happy. As he said, recruits like exposure for themselves and to know their families can see them on TV if they can't make the game. C-USA's TV deals are much better than the Sun Belt's.

*Pete Garcia pointed out that despite the closest school being Alabama-Birmingham or Southern Mississippi, travel costs actually could wind up better for FIU because teams can fly into major airports instead of flying in and going for a bus ride.

 *The Sun Belt issued a statement from commissioner Karl Benson that both FIU and North Texas "were cooperative and kept and open line of communication throughout the process."

Hilton runs 4.36 at Friday's Pro Day

T.Y. Hilton began FIU's Pro Day this morning, attended by scouts or personnel men from all 32 NFL teams, by running an unofficial 4.4 (media timed) and a second 40 that FIU folks got at 4.36. Hilton didn't run at the NFL Scouting Combine because of a quad injury. More than the speed in shorts -- NFL teams have his football speed on tape -- he needed to show recovery from another minor injury.

Of the spring practice scrimmage that preceded the Pro Day, head coach Mario Cristobal said, ""The offense, at least the No. 2 offense, came out strong. The first team defense played especially well. They put a lot of pressure on the offense to perform and perform on third down. Not too many friendly third down sitatuions.

"The offseason as it should, has paid off a bunch. It's the smallest injury report we've ever had and we played hard. We played 100 plus plays today, not including special teams. I believe we had four penalties, which is still four too many, but in terms of a game, it's a little bit of an improvement."

"(Quarterback) Jake (Medlock) came out and did some good things. I thought (freshman quarterback E.J. Hilliard) really flashed today, made some big throws. Both (wide receivers) Glenn Coleman and Wayne Times took a couple of routine plays, made a guy miss and made the defense pay for it. That was against the (No. 2 defense). We had success against the ones as an offense as well, but not the same amount of success. We didn't bust that big play against that No. 1 defense. A little bit of that, too, is when you have guys like Richard Leonard and Jonathan Cyprien who can hunt down a guy after a tackle is missed. It makes a difference."

Late Night with another David from Indianapolis' north side

 Barely awake after arising 20 hours ago with a coughy kid for the second day in a row. Hopefully, I'm still more coherent and grammatically better than, say, Twitter.

For no other reason than it's winter, this is on my Winter Dance Party playlist and I couldn't find a proper video of "Stay Up Late."

 

BALL

The men, FIU's Thomas Wolfe Bunch -- they get deep with the whole You Can't Go Home Again concept -- hosts North Texas Thursday at 7 p.m. on the Sun Belt Sports Network. A bench full of NBA scouts should be in The Branch to check out the Mean Green's 6-8 Tony Mitchell. Mitchell's trying to Eric Heiden the Sun Belt conference game statistics, leading in scoring, rebounding, field goal percentage and three-point shooting percentage. He's sixth in free throw percentage, but nowhere to be found among the steals leaders, a group headed by FIU's Jeremy Allen (2.3 per conference game).

In the women's game, you've got the Sun Belt scoring leader, FIU sophomore guard Jerica Coley, who's still second in the nation in scoring (24.3 per game, 24.6 per conference game). Coley leads FIU in almost every major individual category except steals, the category now topped by forward Fanni Hutlassa's 50 takeaways.

FOOTBALL

Though FIU's still listing the offensive coordinator job publicly as open, Tim Cramsey's still getting the job.

But FIU does need a new director of football operations after Andrew Green left to head the athletic department at Riviera Prep, a middle school and high school that opened its Coral Gables-area high school this year. Job? Handle everything. Travel logistics, recruit visits, whatever.  

SOFTBALL

Softball opens its season Friday night at home against Michigan State, the night before the now-sold out Diamond Dinner. If senior Ashley McClain puts up another year in range of last year's numbers -- .409 average, .696 slugging percentage and 12 home runs -- where would that rank among this year's FIU individual athletes? Ahead of or behind Coley, kicker Jack Griffin, T.Y. Hilton? Equal to, surpassing or far behind ridiculously dominant diver Sabrina Beaupre?

Odd thoughts while fighting off a face plant on my keyboard....nite nite.

Pete Garcia says...

Here are some things from a Monday night conversation I had with FIU AD Pete Garcia.

His reaction to the day's events: "Rutgers handled everything in a professional manner. I'm very happy Mario decided to stay. I agree with him that he's building something special here."

"Obviously, money isn't everything, especially when you're like Mario, who's from down here, who has worked down here to build something over the last five years."

When I asked about the still-ongoing talks for another deal, he said, "We've talked about things, but this wasn't a leverage thing. It was never about that."

Nobody knows completely what's going on in Cristobal's head. But I find myself thinking of my Herald colleague Dan LeBatard, a 43-year-old Cuban-American born, raised, educated, working for 22 years of post-college life in South Florida where he has family. Dan has said often -- and I know it to be true -- that he's had a number of opportunities to leave South Florida for much more lucrative, higher profile jobs in sports media, but he stays because he's happy in this area.

Cristobal is a 41-year-old Cuban-American born, raised, educated and working for most of the last 20 years in South Florida, where he has family. He works for an AD that he's known for 20 years and has a program he rebuilt and of which he's emperor. He and I have talked about that moment on the drive home to Miami Beach when you're coming over one of the causeway crests and you take in the beautiful breadth of the bay, boats, buildings. You can't help but smile and think how lucky you are to be driving toward that scene every day because it's home.

Never underrate comfort and happiness.

 

Source: Cristobal's staying

A source close to Mario Cristobal texted me about 10 minutes ago to say Cristobal is staying at FIU.

Smart move to make the choice and get it out today before recruits started to answer those phone calls and texts that come in every time a head coach gets linked to another school. This is the second time in two months Cristobal's chosen FIU and his hometown over what would've been a signifcant raise and a job with a higher profile program in a higher profile conference. And make no mistake Rutgers had chosen Cristobal as their No. 1 choice.

Silence Speaking Volumes

Since Friday, FIU athletic director Pete Garcia and FIU football coach Mario Cristobal have observed a sort of media silence on the reports that Rutgers was interested in Cristobal. This comes with Cristobal, who just last week hired a new offensive coordinator at FIU, trying to corral a potentially strong recruiting class with some precarious elements.

So, there's no surprise that there's a Newark Star-Ledger report out today saying an announcement of Cristobal as Rutgers head coach is imminent. Silence speaks volumes. Especially in some parts of New Jersey.

Cristobal denied the Star-Ledger report this afternoon.

Oh, and Blacsheep, I delete all your comments because I got tired of the racism in some. So, I decided to delete all of them in a de facto banning from comments.