FIU upholds the state of Florida’s college football honor — and gets votes in poll

The day after FIU football became bowl eligible while saving the state of Florida from being a big bunch of FBS zeroes for the weekend, the Panthers got some national respect: votes in the Amway Top 25 Coaches poll.

A 38-17 and-not-that-close whipping of Western Kentucky gave FIU a 6-2 record (4-0 in Conference USA) and six votes in the coaches’ poll. That puts them second among CUSA teams, behind UAB’s 24 votes, and second among Miami-Dade teams, behind the 38 votes for the Hurricanes, 27-13 losers to Boston College Friday night.

FIU’s Butch Davis is among the voters in the coaches poll. Also voting among previous FIU opponents or Conference USA coaches (who might’ve seen a lot of FIU on film) are Middle Tennessee State’s Rick Stockstill; Rice’s Mike Bloomgren; UAB’s Bill Clark; UTEP’s Dana Dimel; Charlotte’s Brad Lambert; and North Texas’ Seth Littrell.

FIU appeared among teams “also receiving votes” for the first time in-season since 2011, when a 3-0 record with upsets of Louisville and Central Florida garnered eight votes. The following August, coming off an 8-5 season with every starter from a highly-rated defense returning, FIU got three votes in the 2012 preseason Top 25 coaches poll.

Both times, FIU lost their next game. In 2011, with an injured TY Hilton present only as a decoy and quarterback Wesley Carroll injured in the first quarter, they lost to Louisiana-Lafayette 36-31. The 2012 team opened the season by getting scorched 46-26 at Duke.

Next up for FIU: the Shula Bowl at Florida Atlantic. The Owls came into the season as everybody’s CUSA crush and, yes, getting votes in the coaches poll. But, they’ve stumbled to 3-5, 1-3 in CUSA, in their second season under coach Lane Kiffin.

The team from the school whose teams were formerly known as the Sunblazers opened a three-point favorite, according to VegasInsider.com’s composite of sportsbooks.

This story was originally published October 28, 2018 at 2:33 PM.