Jennifer Gonzalez | Sports Assistant
After defeating the Liberty Flames 34 – 27 for their Homecoming game on November 15, FIU’s time with the Sunblazers has set and the Panthers have awoken to hunt the Jacksonville State Gamecocks.
The two will play each other on Saturday, November 22 at 3:30 p.m. in the Panthers’ hunting grounds of Pitbull Stadium for what will be their final home game of the season.
FIU football will celebrate its 21 seniors on the roster before the game as it is the team’s annual “Senior Night.”
In a high scoring game, starting quarterback Joe Pesansky could not match his five touchdown performance against Middle Tennessee but he steered the offense to victory with two passing touchdowns and one rushing score.
On the defensive side of the ball, freshman defensive backs Jessiah McGrew and Shamir Sterlin both compiled 10 total tackles, with McGrew snagging an interception off of Liberty quarterback Ethan Vasko.
Both sides of the ball made strong contributions to their win against Liberty.
After this win against the Flames, FIU has jumped them in the standings but still sit a ways away from the top of Conference USA.
With their second win in a row and finally back at .500 for the season, Head Coach Willie Simmons has two games left in his first season as head coach to give FIU its first winning record since 2018, where the Panthers went 8 – 4 and won the Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl.
Simmons has already pushed this program further than it had been in terms of wins in years, with this season being the first season FiU has won at least five games since 2019.
FIU has never won a game against Jacksonville State, compiling a 0 – 3 record against them all time.
Jacksonville State has won five straight games and all five come against CUSA members, which helped catapult them to the top of the rankings after a shaky 2 – 3 start to the season.
What leads the Gamecocks offense is their focus on the run, utilizing the consistency of their star running back Cam Cook.
Cook has already amassed 1300 rushing yards to pair with his 13 rushing touchdowns through ten games this season, doing so while regularly receiving around 20 carries a game.
Jacksonville State has not only the best rushing offense in CUSA, but one of the best in all of the FCS thanks to Cook who is ranked second in the nation.
FIU has had a productive rusher of their own with Kejon Owens (ranked seventh in the nation), who has dramatically upped his production in his senior season.
Owens rushed for a combined 928 yards through his first 29 games over four seasons combined, but through the 2025 season he has already surpassed that mark with 1039 rushing yards through 10 games.
Any chance the Panthers have of winning this game will come from their ability to keep it close throughout and limit Cook’s production with the hope of forcing Gamecocks head coach Charles Kelly to look elsewhere for scoring.
Score Prediction:
FIU: 31
JSU: 29
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