Panthers to face “best quarterback [they’ve] seen…”

Mario Busto/ Contributing Writer

After suffering their second straight road loss last weekend, the Panthers will be at home against the Louisville Cardinals (3-0) this weekend. Both these teams met for the first time last year and the Panthers (1-2) left Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium with a victory, 24-17.

This season, the team has dealt with filling the offensive hole that T.Y. Hilton, former Panther star receiver, left behind after graduating last year. So far the offense has done a good job in making up for the loss of the program’s biggest offensive threat in its tenure. As a team, the Panthers have averaged 420 yards a game along with 29 points.

The issue remains to be this season on the defensive side of the ball.

On average, teams are scoring 39 points a game against FIU as well as 420.7 total yards. This lack of execution three games in, questions whether the offense should feel the pressure to score early and often against a Louisville offense that scored in its first six possessions against UNC this past weekend.

“Absolutely not, it’s a football game, it’s an opponent, and we go out and play against an opponent every Saturday,” said senior left tackle Caylin Hauptmann. “It’s the same as every other game, no matter how they perform. On a normal day basis we’re going to go out there and try to perform better than they are.”

Unfortunately for the Panthers, scoring early has been an issue this season. Slow starts have plagued FIU this season and have left them with too much of a deficit to recover, as seen in the games against UCF and Duke.

According to Cristobal, the team has not started quick enough this season.

“We are generating enough yardage and moving the ball,” Cristobal said. “We just need to get more points than we have in the first half in the past couple games. It’s important to maintain and finish.”

If FIU is going to have any chance against No. 20 Louisville, it will need to keep up with an offense led by Heisman-watch quarterback and Florida native Teddy Bridgewater.

According to ESPN, Bridgewater has been on watch as a potential Heisman trophy candidate resulting from the success he found early on this season. He has a completion rating of 82 percent on 72-88 passing for 855 yards and five touchdowns. So far this season, FIU’s defense has allowed 875 passing yards and 11 passing touchdowns.

“He is the best quarterback we’ve seen on tape in a long, long time and that’s saying something because we’ve seen some highly ranked ones,” said Cristobal. “He just does everything right. He’s been very well coached and he’s performing at a high level.”

This game at FIU marks a homecoming of sorts for Bridgewater and a good number of the Louisville Cardinals roster. Thirty-three of the players on Louisville are from Florida and 20 of those are from the Miami area. Those 33 players will be seeking revenge after FIU embarrassed them at their house to a national audience.

“I remember seeing a team that came here and sucked the breath out of us,” said Bridgewater in a press conference. “They defeated us on our home turf and it’s something that we want revenge on, but they are a team that plays with a lot of energy.”

Little mental mistakes doomed the Panthers in their two losses so far this season and its something that Hauptmann knows needs to be corrected moving forward in the season.

“It’s pretty obvious we had some mistakes, we had some mistakes all around, on our entire offense, our defense. We have to go back and fix them,” said Hauptmann. “You know, there is only so many times you can say you’re going to fix something, so now it’s actually time to fix it.”

Last year, the team relied heavily on Hilton who provided 201 of the 298 yards of total offense as well as two highlight-reel touchdowns. This week, Cristobal expects more of a team effort against the Cardinals.

“These guys always step up, this is not a soap opera,” said Cristobal. “This is a group that’s always going to work hard, they’ve worked hard for a long time. They’ve been together for a long time and they’re [continuing] to work. Have we played exactly how we want to play? Absolutely not, this is a long season with a lot of football games and that’s what we’re looking to get better at every day.”

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