James Louis makes first appearance at FIU fall practice

By: Jackson Wolek / Staff Writer

Former Ohio State wide receiver James Louis made his first appearance at FIU football practice on Aug. 26 at 5:45 p.m.  Louis is a four-star recruit from Atlantic Bay High school who had a slew of other schools that he had the opportunity to go to after Ohio State, even next door neighbor University of Miami.

In the end, he decided to come to FIU, and even though it was hard for him to make an impact in his first practice in shorts with no pads, it was evident the amount of excitement that both players and coaches had of his appearance.

“We feel like we’ve gotten ourselves a very explosive football player, and we applied for a waiver for him so that he could play this year,” said head coach Mario Cristobal.

They have also applied a waiver for transfer Daquan Hargrett from West Virginia to play this year as well but Cristobal explained that it takes time, and although they would like it to go a little quicker, he is sure the NCAA is going as fast as they can.

Wide receiver Wayne Times got a chance to talk to Louis today during practice as well as see what he has to offer.

“He looked very good, and looks like he’s working hard,” said Times. “He told me he’s trying to make a difference in the team, help me out, help the guys out and go win a bowl game.”

As transfers keep piling in to FIU, the team is also focused on their upcoming game against North Texas on Sept. 1 at FIU stadium. It will be the first time that they will get to open up against a conference opponent since 2006, when they lost to Middle Tennessee 7-6 at home.

Coincidently, that was also the last year they lost to North Texas. The Mean Green had huge success in their football program in the early 2000s when they won four consecutive Sun Belt championships in a row from 2001 to 2004. Since then, things have started go a little downhill, but the hire of Dan McCarney  might solve all that.

McCarney did a majority of his coaching at Iowa State, where he took his team to a total of five bowl games and winning two of them. He also coached once against Cristobal in 2009 when he was the Florida Gators defensive line coach.

“That defensive line was ready to roll… I know he’s put a lot of players into the NFL and I know he’s really going to put a lot of enthusiasm into the program and toughness,” said Cristobal. “It’s just one of the main traits he’s known for.”

The biggest weapon North Texas has is on the offensive side of the ball with running back Lance Dunbar. If the Golden Panthers can contain Dunbar on the ground game, even though there are many other choices for North Texas to go to, it will make life easier for FIU. Safety Jonathan Cyprien knows his role on the defense is just the same as anybody else’s when trying to stop him.

“My role is just part of the rest of the ten players that we got on defense,” said Cyprien. “We got to work together, swarm to the ball and bring him down because he’s a great running back.”