Jacob Spiwak/ Asst. Sports Director
The atmosphere was electric at FIU Stadium on Saturday night, as the Panthers (2-1) dominated the North Carolina Central University Eagles (1-2) by a final score of 39-14. It was the first home game of the year for FIU and the 16,567 fans who were in attendance were the most at an FIU home game since 2013.
I predicted FIU to control the game on both sides of the field and I couldn’t have been more correct. FIU played like the superior team right off the bat, jumping out to an early 12-0 lead after two Austin Taylor field goals and a 64-yard touchdown pass from Alex McGough to Dennis Turner.
McGough, who missed a wide open Turner on a deep route just a few plays before the TD, discussed his thoughts after the game on the shot downfield that gave FIU even more momentum.
“The first one I got a little too excited on,” McGough said, “and threw it about a thousand yards. But on the second one I calmed down and gave [Dennis Turner] a chance and obviously he took care of the rest.”
Turner was visibly excited about the play post-game and shared how he prepared in practice to catch deep passes such as that.
“We’ve been practicing that all week and we’ve been hitting it all week,” Turner said. “It was a big shot and there will be more to come.”
FIU suffered a minor setback on their next offensive drive when Jaquell Taylor intercepted an Alex McGough pass and returned it 26 yards for a touchdown. McGough described the pick six, which cut FIU’s lead to 12-7, simply as a misread.
As the rest of the game went on, FIU moved past McGough’s interception and continued to impress on both sides of the ball. The Panthers outscored NC Central 27-7 after the pick six, and there was really never any doubt as to who was going to get the win.
This was the first time all season where the Panthers’ offense was able to move down the field almost at will and with that came a few things we hadn’t seen from McGough and his weapons. Most notably, McGough ran the ball a lot (eight rushes for 77 yards) and Anthony Jones scored the first touchdown of his collegiate career.
I was wondering exactly how the FIU coaching staff would work Jones into this game and how much playing time he’d get and he ended up lining up in the backfield quite a bit. There’s no doubt in my mind that he’ll be a star at FIU because of how multi-talented he is and he put that talent on display on his 26-yard touchdown run.
“I saw the cutback [on the touchdown run],” Jones explained, “and the offensive line did a great job kicking the guys outside; once I read that, I was gone. All of the credit goes to the offensive line.”
The FIU defense was lights out, allowing only seven points to NC Central (the other 7 points the Eagles scored were on Taylor’s interception return) and intercepting three passes. This is nothing new, as we’ve seen what Matt House’s defense is capable of before; but if FIU can consistently force turnovers and give the offense good field position, I think FIU can be a legitimate contender to win Conference USA.
This game was the first victory in a home opener for FIU since Ron Turner took over as head coach and he was very pleased with his team’s performance and how many fans were there supporting the Panthers.
“The fans were outstanding,” Turner said. “The bus pulled up early and they were tailgating out there, it was a very good atmosphere and I think that helped. It was great to get a win for the fans. Next time we come home [on October 10th] hopefully we’ll get as much of a turnout. Like I said before, we’ve got a good football team and I’d love for the people of South Florida to come out and see us – I think they’ll like what they see.”
While FIU certainly could’ve played better, overall it was a fantastic home opener for an improving football program that desperately needed one. The team played very well in just about every aspect of the game, the incredible new blue and gold uniforms were a hit and most importantly, as I mentioned before, they actually got some fans in the seats. There have been rumors of FIU needing to average at least 15,000 fans per home game if they want to avoid demotion to the FCS. Also having their most attended home opener in years will certainly help their cause.
FIU opens Conference USA play next week, as they travel to face Louisiana Tech University on Saturday, Sept. 26.
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