Sun Belt Sports Fans

The Florida International Golden Panthers are authoring a very special story in the Sun Belt Conference. An unheralded team can take a huge step toward a league title with a win this weekend.

In 2001, the FIU program didn’t even exist. Now, coach Mario Cristobal’s program is two wins away from a conference championship. Moreover, that’s just half of the story. What’s 100 times more remarkable than FIU’s rise over the past several years is the way in which the Golden Panthers have now arrived on the brink of a remarkable and highly improbable crown in the Sun Belt. This program hasn’t just covered a lot of terrain in an existence that’s not even a decade old; it is nearing the winner’s circle in its own corner of the country because it beat the big dog of the neighborhood on its own front porch.

The Troy Trojans ruled the Sun Belt with distinction over the past four years. Coach Larry Blakeney’s bunch won the league three times and tied Florida Atlantic in 2007. This past Saturday, Troy stood on its home field against an FIU crew that was 3-5 overall before kickoff. The odds were very much on Troy’s side as Nov. 13 arrived.

So much for percentages, though. Florida International moved to first place in the Sun Belt (4-1) with surprising ease. FIU hung 31 points on the board in the second quarter to take a 38-21 halftime lead. The Golden Panthers rolled up – get this – 668 yards on the shellshocked Trojans’ incapacitated defense. Troy coughed up four turnovers to just one for FIU in a 52-35 win for the Golden Panthers. You never would have thought that FIU was the newbie on the block, looking to prove itself on the road. Similarly, you never would have thought that Troy was the veteran team (minus the quarterback spot) defending its two straight Sun Belt titles. Florida International is for real. This team is confident and playing well at the right time.

Let’s then talk about the team standing in the way of the Sun Belt leaders. Yes, FIU is leading the Sun Belt, but the Ragin’ Cajuns can put up a good fight.

One of the main problems this year for Lafayette and coach Rickey Bustle has been a combination of inconsistency and injuries at the quarterback spot. ULL has used three signal callers, and that’s been a main source of the team’s recent difficulties. A six-game losing streak will indeed unfold when a full complement of skill-position players isn’t able to develop a strong rapport with one field general. The hope in this game for Louisiana-Lafayette is that Blaine Gauthier, the No. 3 quarterback on the team but the starter last week against Florida Atlantic, will be fully settled into the offense. Gauthier actually was pretty solid against FAU, completing just over 56 percent of his passes for 254 yards and two touchdowns with only one interception. After absorbing a couple of blowout losses, ULL dropped a 24-23 decision to Florida Atlantic. In a parity-filled Sun Belt – a conference in which no team has fewer than four losses overall – a strong game from Gauthier could very possibly lift ULL to victory.

Florida International is overflowing with confidence right now. The Golden Panthers can smell a league title, and the fact that they won by 17 at Troy – the two-time defending league champion – should make this road game a less-than-frightening experience. It will be up to Louisiana-Lafayette to show some backbone and tell its fan base that it hasn’t given up on this 2010 season, a season that could get even better for the folks from Florida International University.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer