Cant wait to see the improvement this years FIU football team will display. This will be their third year and we should see significant improvent specifically along the offensive and defensive line, and shut those that state the FAU is that much ahead of us. They've recruited well and players line Antwan Barnes , Keyonvis Bouie and Bostic should have outstading seasons. Also I have heard from several people I know that the 2 of this years recruits , Sabas Whittaker and Tavares Kendrick, were outstanding last year playing inthe always tough Miami-Dade county.

I agree with you and I am very excited for this football season. I think this year we will finally see the players come together and win some big games. If our defensive line can improve, our defense will be nasty, with Bostic and Barnes at LB and Haritan, Turnbull and Moss on the coverage, it will be very exciting to watch.


BTW, welcome to the boards.

I agree. I expect an overall improvement in all aspects of the game. The Offensive line should be bigger, faster, more experienced, and deeper than in years past. The most compelling question is whether our Defensive line will improve as needed to offer competitiveness against the type of teams we will be playing. If our D-Line suddenly improves to a respectable level, our secondary will be really tested for the first time in 3 years. It appears, so far, that the secondary is our forte up to now.

Another Defensive Lineman supposed to be very good is Tad McConahie from Merrit Island, an All Stater as well. Many other recruits will challenge either for playing time or sharing starting roles, but, can you believe it?...we will be able to actually redshirt some up and coming recruits as well with the added depth we will have.

The switch to a 4-3 defence sholuld help out the run defense. If they can keep to other teams from rushing 300 yds a game to less than 200, it will be a great improvement. Also does anyone know what games are going to be televised?

It seems that at least the first two games: Jacksonvile (Thursday night), and Youngstown St., will be televised by Sunshine Network. I wonder if local NBC6 will continue its experiment of televising one game as they did last year's homecoming game. Another game that should be a natural for statewide TV could be the FAU game. However, just two games so far in TV.....

Also I've been reading aroung other messageboards regarding the inclusion of FIU football in the Sun Belt. They seem to be under the impression that FAU will join football in 2005 and FIU in 2006, when I thought both of them will join in 2005. I'm i wrong about this?

Both institutions will go through a "transitional period" of two years, 2004 and 2005 seasons, with their first season as a IA SBC member in 2006. We are both (FIU and FAU) joined at the hips, it seems, at this time.