The only thing that showed change from week two to week three were the numbers of four FIU Panthers.
After an opening play of 42 yards with a reception by T.J. Lowder from Quarterback Jake Medlock, Head Coach Ron Turner decided to punt instead of going for a 47 yard field goal attempt. That punt gave the ball to the Wildcats of Bethune-Cookman on the 9-yard line. That was no problem for Quarterback Quentin Williams, who led his team on a 1:28 drive for 91 yards and a touchdown to put the Wildcats up 7-0 early.
Most of the punts on the day belonged to Medlock, who was receiving the long snap from younger brother Sam, who was making his first start at the collegiate level.
“We knew that the Wildcats would bring pressure up the middle and Jake (Medlock) is better at the rugby style punt than Chris [Ayers] is right now and we thought it would give us an advantage,” Turner said.
Turner also made the decision to go for a fourth and one attempt early in the second quarter which did not end well for the Panthers by giving the Wildcats the ball at their 29 yard line.
Lowder came up big in the second as well with a 49 yard reception to get the Panther’s into the redzone with a fresh set of downs starting on the 13 yard line. The Panthers, took advantage of the opportunity to put a touchdown on the board with just under seven minutes left in the first half. Place-Kicker Austin Taylor made the extra point to tie the game before the half. This was Taylor’s first start at the collegiate level over Sergio Sroka.
“He (Taylor) competed in practice and came out on top this week,” Turner added.
Runningback Cary White ran in for a two yard touchdown run with just under two minutes left in the first half to help his team go up 14-7.
The Wildcats fhen took the field to start the second half, and put another score up with a 15 yard run by Williams with just over seven minutes left in the third. That score was followed by another score from White just three minutes later on a 43 yard touchdown run. The score after that was 28-7.
The defense started to gain momentum at the end of the third quarter with a Sam Miller interception. However,
Miller’s interception was followed by a 92 yards interception return for a touchdown by Tim Burke of the Wildcats to make the score 34-7. The Wildcats missed the point-after-touchdown attempt after the play.
The kickoff return by wide receiver Clinton Taylor went down to the Wildcats 24 yard line before moving it back 15 yards due to an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Akil Dan-Fodio.
The Panthers then took the ball to the two yard line with Silas Spearman III fumbling to give the Wildcats the ball.
A 41 yard return by Miller gave the Panthers offense their second start in the redzone on the seven yard line.
The Panthers came away with a touchdown thrown by E.J. Hilliard on that trip to the redzone to make the score 34-16 after the missed extra point by Taylor. Hilliard went in after Medlock’s helmet was knocked off on the play before. Jonnu Smith, a tight end for the team made the reception.
“You have to have faith before you can have evidence. That is what Coach Turner always tells us and harps on,” Senior Markeith Russell said about the defense. “I think we need to go back to our fundamentals, there were missed tackles and bad eyes, but I do believe that we got better this week.”
Russel had 14 of the team’s 67 total tackles in the loss to the Wildcats.
Lowder, who had 6 receptions for 125 yards and a touchdown on the day, spoke on the state of FIU football after the loss.
“We as a team need to step up and put some more points up,” Lowder said. “I would do anything for my team to win. Things can happen when you execute.”
“We have guys thinking about things that aren’t related to the team. Until 100 percent of the guys buy in were not going to be the team that we can be,” Turner added. “We have a lot of guys who have bought in and a lot of guys who are doing what we ask them to do but, all it takes are a couple who aren’t. We have a couple that need to get with it. We had a defensive senior, a captain from the first game in Isame Faciane who due to disciplinary reasons did not play in the first quarter.”
The panthers travel to Louisville to take on the Cardinals next week. The Cardinals, behind QB Teddy Bridgewater, beat the Wildcats of the University of Kentucky by a score of 27-13.
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