FIU looks scary

[Bandwagon King]

they do look solid HOWEVER, you must admit Louisville looks pretty awful combine that with the performance against murray state last week and FIU becomes a tad deceiving.

I don't buy it. This was a major beat down on a BCS school. The score does not nearly reflect the overall dominance of FIU's performance. Their offense made a couple of huge plays with TY Hilton, but their defense was tenacious. This was an extremely impressive performance by Crystal Ball's team.

[douglas]

don't get me wrong it wasn't a gimmie and it was a great sunbelt showing on national tv, but Louisville is pretty bad. When a "Automatic Qualifier" has a scoreless 2nd half against Murray state-at home, they got problems

[Bandwagon King]

don't get me wrong it wasn't a gimmie and it was a great sunbelt showing on national tv, but Louisville is pretty bad. When a "Automatic Qualifier" has a scoreless 2nd half against Murray state-at home, they got problems

True that, but it looked like they were gonna rally with the change at QB & they will likely turn their season around with the 2nd half QB playing the rest of the season. But FIU's defense was still exceptional. That team has some real talent on it.

[Boomer]

Looked at the college rankings and our highest is #83 and lowest#118---Our average is #111----All the pickers have the Belt at #12 the lowest conference!!!!! Not too happy about that but we will see as the year goes on during the season!!!!!

[Cajunsmike]

Weren't they like THE worst school in the country just a few years ago? If so, how the massive turnaround?

Cristobal is a good coach, there is lots of overlooked talent in South Florida, and perhaps most importantly; they collect student fees. Why is that significant? They have a large enrollment, I believe over 30000
which is as many as LSU has. That allows them to collect 14 million per year for their athletic budget
directly from those fees. That is probably more than the whole UL athletic budget. That is why the first statement Coach Hudspeth made in his initial remarks to the QB Club that the teams that win the most are the teams that have the most money.

[Bandwagon King]

Looked at the college rankings and our highest is #83 and lowest#118---Our average is #111----All the pickers have the Belt at #12 the lowest conference!!!!! Not too happy about that but we will see as the year goes on during the season!!!!!

This is the kind of BS the SBC needs to promote itself to overcome. WKU played Kentucky neck & neck, MTSU blew the game against Purdue last week, & FIU kicked Louisville's behind straight up. This conference has come a long way since NTSU used to dominate a 7 team conference not too long ago. The top teams might not deserve to be playing in a BCS game, but they are definitely bowl worthy & can compete with most BCS conference's 2nd tier teams. The middle of the pack teams can compete with the lower tier teams from bigger conferences, & the louzy teams, well they're not any louzier than other conference's Louzy teams.

PS. There's no way there are 83 teams in the country better than what I saw out of FIU tonight. I highly doubt there are 40 teams better than those guys.

[lordguill]

Cristobal is a good coach, there is lots of overlooked talent in South Florida, and perhaps most importantly; they collect student fees. Why is that significant? They have a large enrollment, I believe over 30000
which is as many as LSU has.

FIU's current enrollment is 44,000. According to the commentators, they expect to eclipse 60,000 in the next few years.

Of course

[RedTails]

FIU's current enrollment is 44,000. According to the commentators, they expect to eclipse 60,000 in the next few years.

Of course

60,000 is insane.

[HelmutVII]

At one time FIU had the fifth largest enrollment in the nation, that may have changed if it has increased. Best I can remember, FAU has about 32000 or 35000 students. Both schools are bigger than LSU. With all the conference realignment going on, don't be surprised if one, or both, of those schools move up to CUSA or even the Big East or the ACC real soon because of their athletic budget and south Florida population and TV exposure. I don't think we stand a chance competing against those two big pluses they have.

[zephyr]

I am curious to see what FIU does the next couple of years. We've seen this trend in the SBC from several teams that tend to rise for a few years and then fall. Of course, you had North Texas at the beginning as they dominated the league even though they were not a very good team. However, you've seen teams like FAU, MTSU and now FIU that have had short spurts of good success. FAU is now considered one of the worst teams in America after Rusty Smith left and Schnell is considered a good coach and recruiter and has similar resources to FIU. MTSU has had some decent prolonged success with 3 straight bowl trips but they are no longer considered top tier SBC and FIU hasn't yet made any real waves in the recruiting world the past couple of years. I'm sure they've gotten some decent talent coming in but they haven't had what you'd consider to be top classes. Most of their impact players are seniors who have been playing since they were freshmen like Hilton and Perry when they were terrible. These players have progressed but I'm curious to see what happens when they are all gone. Next year, no Perry, no Carrol, no Hilton and a lot of their other playmakers.

[CajunRed]

Then in walks Hud. It looks to me like our time has arrived.

I am curious to see what FIU does the next couple of years. We've seen this trend in the SBC from several teams that tend to rise for a few years and then fall. Of course, you had North Texas at the beginning as they dominated the league even though they were not a very good team. However, you've seen teams like FAU, MTSU and now FIU that have had short spurts of good success. FAU is now considered one of the worst teams in America after Rusty Smith left and Schnell is considered a good coach and recruiter and has similar resources to FIU. MTSU has had some decent prolonged success with 3 straight bowl trips but they are no longer considered top tier SBC and FIU hasn't yet made any real waves in the recruiting world the past couple of years. I'm sure they've gotten some decent talent coming in but they haven't had what you'd consider to be top classes. Most of their impact players are seniors who have been playing since they were freshmen like Hilton and Perry when they were terrible. These players have progressed but I'm curious to see what happens when they are all gone. Next year, no Perry, no Carrol, no Hilton and a lot of their other playmakers.

[Bandwagon King]

I am curious to see what FIU does the next couple of years. We've seen this trend in the SBC from several teams that tend to rise for a few years and then fall. Of course, you had North Texas at the beginning as they dominated the league even though they were not a very good team. However, you've seen teams like FAU, MTSU and now FIU that have had short spurts of good success. FAU is now considered one of the worst teams in America after Rusty Smith left and Schnell is considered a good coach and recruiter and has similar resources to FIU. MTSU has had some decent prolonged success with 3 straight bowl trips but they are no longer considered top tier SBC and FIU hasn't yet made any real waves in the recruiting world the past couple of years. I'm sure they've gotten some decent talent coming in but they haven't had what you'd consider to be top classes. Most of their impact players are seniors who have been playing since they were freshmen like Hilton and Perry when they were terrible. These players have progressed but I'm curious to see what happens when they are all gone. Next year, no Perry, no Carrol, no Hilton and a lot of their other playmakers.

I think it depends on what Crystal Ball does. Is he going job hopping or staying home & revamping? Has he already revamped & nobody knows it yet? I think the recruiting gurus ranked their recruiting class above ours & we are already seeing how good this class can be. He reminds me of HUD. Could the new trend of the SBC to get the new young gun coaches that stay home for a while & really build a program up because the power conferences have to give such huge long term contracts to their guys when they steal them from other schools?