MIAMI (AP) -The scene has essentially been the same after hundreds of Florida International football practices. The workout ends, the team kneels for a brief prayer, and the players huddle near midfield.
Then comes the yell, in unison: “Sun Belt Champs.”
Typically, that notion has been nothing more than wishful thinking for the Panthers, who have struggled mightily since making the jump to college football’s highest level. But these days, the team in football-crazed South Florida in the best position for a championship season isn’t the Miami Hurricanes or Dolphins.
Against all odds, it’s FIU – which needs to win only two of its remaining three games for a Sun Belt title and bowl bid.
“It’s intense,” FIU coach Mario Cristobal said. “It’s always been intense. It’s getting more intense. The hard knocks that we’ve had and seen others have helps us be better.”
With three games left on its schedule, FIU (4-5, 4-1) has a half-game lead over Troy (5-4, 4-2), but beating the Trojans 52-35 last weekend also gave the Panthers the edge against the conference’s perennial favorites – and holders of the Sun Belt’s last two outright titles – should tiebreakers come into play. Every other Sun Belt team has at least three league losses.
FIU visits Louisiana-Lafayette (2-8, 2-4) on Saturday, with a chance to cut its magic number to one for that Sun Belt championship.
“Without a doubt,” FIU center Brad Serini said, “Saturday will be the biggest game we have played.”
Until now, FIU has been a program that typically makes headlines for all the wrong reasons – the on-field melee against Miami in 2006, having a 23-game losing streak that ended in 2007, forfeiting scholarships and vacating wins when the NCAA placed the university on probation in 2008, and the on-campus slaying of a standout running back this past spring.
This time, the Panthers can actually enjoy getting attention.
“The good teams can deal with adversity,” FIU quarterback Wesley Carroll said. “The best teams can deal with success.”
That’s something FIU hasn’t had to deal with much before.
Here’s the Panthers’ records over the previous four seasons: 0-12, 1-11, 5-7 and 3-9. Since August 2006, FIU has won 13 games – while Alabama and Boise State won 14 last season alone.
No, they’re not a juggernaut.
But they’re no longer a doormat, either.
T.Y. Hilton, the Panthers’ top receiver and returner, has six touchdowns in his last two games. FIU has scored 94 points in its last two outings, tied for ninth-most in the nation this month. And a team that started 0-4 after falling to Rutgers, Texas A&M, Maryland and Pittsburgh – in all four games, FIU either led or was within a touchdown during the fourth quarter – is finally hitting its stride.
Unlikely as it seemed a few weeks ago, the road to the Sun Belt title and probable bid to the New Orleans Bowl goes through FIU, whether the Panthers want to acknowledge that or not.
“It’s hard not to think about it, especially with a lot of kids wanting to talk about it around campus,” Serini said. “I tell them, ‘Don’t talk about it. Be quiet. Don’t talk to me about it.’ I don’t like talking about it. I’m game-by-game. That’s what I always taught and that’s what we have getting put in our heads.”
Carroll has been part of something like this before.
He was a freshman quarterback at Mississippi State in 2007, helping the Bulldogs enjoy what was their first winning season and bowl trip since 2000. When he decided to transfer, he saw similarities between what Mississippi State was going through then and what FIU is enduring now.
“I was a part of a program-changing season,” Carroll said. “Being a part of something like that is special. And there’s no question, I want every guy on this team to feel that and have that feeling. I want every coach, every person on this staff, this whole FIU family, all the fans … the experience would be phenomenal. But none of that will be possible unless we do take care of our business.”
Much like his quarterback, Cristobal isn’t taking any victory laps yet.
He said he and his staff will critique the Panthers more sharply this week in practice than ever before. Discussion of what might be looming as far as bowls and conference titles has been strictly forbidden. The last thing he wants his team to even realize is that it can lose one more game and still remain in control of the Sun Belt race.
There’s too much at stake, Cristobal said, to let this chance slip away now.
“You coach harder when you win,” Cristobal said. “You coach against human nature.”
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