FIU football aims to fight for bowl game eligibility in 2015

Sophomore quarterback Alex McGough enters the 2015 season as the Panthers’ starter after earning Conference USA All-Freshman Team honors last season.

By Joel Delgado ’12 MS ’17 

It hasn’t been an easy road for Head Coach Ron Turner since taking over FIU football in 2013. But now entering his third season, the Panthers have their sights set on becoming bowl eligible for the first time in several years.

The Panthers are coming off a four-win season in 2014, a three-game bump from the previous year, and lost four games by only a field goal or less.

The team is bringing back many of its starters on both offense and defense and Turner has seen a team that has come closer together on and off the field.

“You’re not going to win if you’re not together as a team,” Turner said. “It takes time to build chemistry, but I think we have it now. They’re tired of not winning; they want to win and they understand what it takes to do it.”

The Panthers begin their season tonight, Sept. 3, in Orlando, facing in-state rival UCF. It will be the fourth meeting between the two Florida schools with the Knights holding a 2-1 edge in the series. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. and there will be a watch party on campus at Chili’s Too in the Graham Center. The game will be nationally televised on CBS Sports Network.

FIU will then travel to Indiana on Sept. 12 before hosting their home opener against N.C. Central on Sept. 19 at Ocean Bank Field at FIU Stadium.

MOVING ON UP

The Panthers turned to several freshmen to step in right away last season, and many of them stepped up to emerge as key contributors on offense and defense.

Sophomore quarterback Alex McGough returns under center for FIU after taking over the starting spot early last season, earning Conference USA All-Freshman Team honors after throwing for 1,680 yards and 14 touchdowns as a freshman.

McGough’s favorite target, junior tight end Jonnu Smith, is also back after a breakout sophomore season in which he led FIU with 710 receiving yards and eight touchdowns.

“Last year showed a lot of improvement and you could feel the progress and growth as a team. We’re shooting for the stars this season,” Smith said.

Sophomore Alex Gardner – also a C-USA All-Freshman Team selection – had his freshman season cut short, missing the final four games of the season with a shoulder injury. But before getting hurt Gardner showed that he could be a reliable presence in the backfield, rushing for 582 yards on 137 carries (4.2 yards per carry).

Now a healthy Gardner will rejoin senior running back Anthon Samuel, who helped handle a large chunk of the workload in Gardner’s absence, to help establish a solid run game in 2015.

On the other side of the football, sophomore linebacker Anthony Wint is expected to start alongside junior Treyvon Williams and senior Davison Colimon at the heart of a defense that returns a majority of their starters.

The Panthers also add a talented class of freshman to the roster, some of which might follow in the footsteps of their sophomore predecessors. Wide receiver Anthony Jones, who committed to FIU after a stellar high school career at Miami Central, could emerge as a top target in the FIU offense sooner rather than later.

A LAST HURRAH

Senior cornerback and return specialist Richard Leonard has been through the ups and downs of the program.

He is one of the very few players on the roster who played in FIU’s last bowl game, where he had an interception against Marshall in the 2011 Beef O’ Brady’s St. Petersburg Bowl.

After sitting out in 2013, forced to watch on the sidelines as the Panthers struggled under Ron Turner’s first year as head coach, he returned in 2014 and quickly reasserted himself as a key player. He tied the program record for interceptions (5) and was a constant threat on special teams returning kickoffs and punts.

This year, the last of his collegiate career, he believes the team could surprise many outsiders and perhaps become bowl eligible for the first time since he was a freshman.

“I feel like this team can make it far,” Leonard said. “That’s one of the reasons I decided to come back. We can do some big things.”

For more information on FIU football, go to FIUSports.com.