Sun Belt Sports Fans

Florida International 42, Louisiana-Monroe 35 (2OT)

This game was not just the tale of one team fighting off a specific Sun Belt Conference opponent on one blessed evening in Miami, Florida. This seven-point double-overtime win, this extended odyssey, against the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks told the story of the Florida International Golden Panthers, a team and a program that are intent on making a name for themselves, at long last.

FIU’s breakthrough moment – which emerged in vivid relief before a small crowd Saturday night at FIU Stadium – transported a small-fry outfit to the big time. Now, a university community can rally behind its gridiron heroes and taste a pinch of championship-level excitement.

First, a few details about the game itself: Florida International, leading 28-20 with 11:36 left in the fourth quarter after a 67-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Wesley Carroll to star playmaker T.Y. Hilton, immediately squandered its advantage. Louisiana-Monroe scored just 54 seconds later on a 42-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Kolton Browning to Brent Leonard. The 2-point try featured another pass from Browning to Leonard. That decision was a smart move by ULM coach Todd Berry, who dared FIU to stop his offense’s bread-and-butter play. The pass was successful, and the Warhawks tied the score at 28-apiece. When the final 10:42 of regulation remained scoreless, overtime beckoned, and when ULM scored a touchdown on its opening possession, FIU found its back plastered to the wall. The Golden Panthers had to score seven points, or they would fall short in their bid to move up the ladder in the Sun Belt.

Fortunately, Hilton answered the bell and carried his teammates on his very broad shoulders. On a night when he scored four touchdowns in all, Hilton saved his best one for last, rambling 25 yards to knot the score at 35-all and send the contest into double overtime. Then, FIU’s Darriet Perry gave the Golden Panthers the lead on the first possession of the second bonus panel. It was ULM’s turn to face the pressure of having to score seven points to stay alive. When the Panthers’ defense stacked up the Warhawks four yards short on fourth down, the celebration began on the FIU sideline, with head coach Mario Cristobal the happiest man in Miami.

Consider how this game – and FIU’s fightback from a place of adversity – mirrored the struggle of the entire Florida International program. Begun in 2002 as an FCS (Division I-AA) team, the Golden Panthers joined the Sun Belt and the FBS in 2005. In their time as an FBS team, the FIU crew won just 14 games combined from 2005 through 2009. The Golden Panthers won just one game in 2006 and 2007 combined, and it was Cristobal who inherited a rag-tag program in 2007, going 1-11 in his first season. FIU has never reached a bowl game and never sniffed a Sun Belt title. Now, however, with this win over a ULM roster that defeated conference standard-bearer Troy on Oct. 30, Florida International is the only Sun Belt team other than Troy with just one loss in the conference.

Guess whom FIU plays this Saturday? Yeah. The big, bad Trojans, the same program that’s won three of the last four Sun Belt titles and owns all the success FIU has lacked.

Florida International doesn’t have much of a history to build on. Thanks to this magical win over the men of Monroe, it can make some history on Nov. 13.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer