Jacob Spiwak
Asst. Sports Director
FIU is no stranger to blowout losses. Throughout the football program’s 13-year history, FIU has been on the losing end of quite a few lopsided games. However, the Panthers had avoided being blown out in 2015, as they at least had a fighting chance in just about every one of their losses this season. That all ended Saturday, Nov. 14.
The Panthers (5-6, 3-4) travelled to Marshall University (9-2, 6-1) over the weekend with hopes to win their sixth game of the season and become bowl eligible for the first time since 2011. Instead, a motivated Thundering Herd team dominated in their final home game of the season, shutting out the Panthers 52-0.
Before I discuss everything that went wrong for FIU, you have to give credit where credit is due. Marshall is a fantastic football team who is one victory away from winning the Conference USA East Division and it would’ve been very difficult for the Panthers to win this one even if they brought their A-game. Plus, the Herd were playing with the extra motivation to honor the players, coaches, boosters, etc. who were killed exactly 45 years before Saturday’s game in the crash of Southern Airways Flight 932, the largest sports-related tragedy in American history.
With all of that being said, I literally do not think FIU could’ve possibly played any worse than they did. After being praised by head coach Ron Turner just one week ago for outplaying the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in every phase of the game, Marshall did the exact same thing to the Panthers. FIU was outmatched on offense, defense and even special teams, as they allowed Marshall’s DeAndre Reaves to return a punt for a touchdown and continually lost the field position battle with the Herd.
It’s bad enough that FIU didn’t score any points, but that doesn’t even tell the whole story of just how inefficient the offense was. Sophomore Alex McGough has been having a historically great season for an FIU quarterback and he actually passed Wesley Carroll for the FIU single-season record in passing yards on Saturday.
Unfortunately for McGough, that’s just about the only good thing that can be said about his performance against Marshall. He was missing two of his top weapons once again in Jonnu Smith and Ya’Keem Griner, but there’s no excuse for a player as talented as McGough to only complete 11 of 25 passes for 98 yards with zero touchdowns and an interception. Hopefully the Panthers’ coaching staff allows McGough to throw the ball deep more in the regular season finale, because clearly running a bubble screen every other play isn’t fooling anybody.
Another key player for FIU who looked like he didn’t make the trip up to Huntington, W.Va. this weekend was sophomore running back Alex Gardner. A big part of his struggles against Marshall were due to the offensive line not being able to block Marshall’s defenders and create running lanes, but Gardner had just 14 rushing yards on nine carries and only caught one pass for one yard.
Gardner is by far the best option FIU has in their backfield and he’s played very well all season long. In the future, however, he’s going to need to learn how to make something out of nothing and run effectively against good defenses. Gardner certainly has the potential to be a great running back, but great backs are able to shine even when their offensive line lets them down.
There’s not much I can say about the FIU defense that I haven’t said before. This group just doesn’t look even close to their dominating form of 2014 despite returning most of their key starters. Injuries happen and missing Michael Wakefield in the first half of the Marshall game certainly didn’t help FIU’s cause. But losing 52-0? Allowing a true freshman quarterback to pick apart your defense like a savvy veteran? That just did not happen all that often when Josh Conklin was in charge of this defense, so it’s hard not to think that a lot of the blame has to fall on new defensive coordinator Matt House.
After getting demolished by the Thundering Herd, time is running out for FIU and their chances at becoming bowl eligible. This loss to Marshall leaves them with only one more chance to reach six wins.
The Panthers will return home for their final game of the season in what’s sure to be a very difficult contest against the Western Kentucky University Hilltoppers. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 21.
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