For the FIU Panthers to win Saturday, it could come down to Stantley Thomas-Oliver
In the film “Pulp Fiction,” Marsellus Wallace said he was “prepared to scour the earth” for a particular individual.
On Saturday, in the sixth annual Camellia Bowl in the Alabama capital city of Montgomery, FIU Panthers defensive backs won’t have to look nearly that hard for the Arkansas State wide receiver they are prepared to track down.
He is Omar Bayless, a 6-3, 205-pounder who leads the nation with 1,473 receiving yards, which is 16 yards more than the No. 2 player on the list, LSU’s Ja’Marr Chase.
Bayless, the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year, also has 16 touchdown catches, which ranks second in the nation and set a league record.
The only other receiver ever to win Sun Belt Player of the Year honors was FIU legend T.Y. Hilton, who is now in the NFL.
FIU’s top cornerback this season is senior Stantley Thomas-Oliver, a 6-2, 185-pounder who has the height to combat Bayless.
“I’m excited for the challenge,” Thomas-Oliver said. “I know they throw the ball a lot. I can’t wait.”
FIU is allowing just 178.5 passing yards per game, which ranks sixth in the nation and first in Conference USA.
The Panthers will try to contain Bayless as well as senior Kirk Merritt (6-0, 215), who made first-team All-Sun Belt in each of the past two years, catching 147 passes for 1,768 yards and 18 TDs during that span.
In addition, Arkansas State junior Jonathan Adams (6-3, 210) caught 58 passes for 788 yards and four touchdowns this season, and his quarterback, Layne Hatcher, was named the Sun Belt’s Freshman of the Year.
Following a season-ending injury to QB Logan Bonner, Hatcher was named the starter for Arkansas State’s fifth game, and he proceeded to pass for more than 300 yards in five of his eight contests. His 68.3 completion percentage is the second-best mark in program history.
Hatcher will face a talented FIU secondary that includes Thomas-Oliver, who was a wide receiver in high school and through his first three FIU seasons.
It was exactly two years ago, in a December practice that led up to the Gasparilla Bowl, that FIU coach Butch Davis, then in his first season with the Panthers, spotted Thomas-Oliver “playing around” at cornerback.
Short on cornerbacks for a particular drill, an assistant coach asked Thomas-Oliver to step in and defend wide receiver Shemar Thornton.
Davis was watching and immediately saw the potential for a position switch, and the rest is happy history for Thomas-Oliver.
“That was a great decision,” Thomas-Oliver said. “I’m happy I was playing around when [Davis] saw me, and it grew to this.”
Thomas-Oliver’s career-best game came last year against Western Kentucky, when he had seven tackles, five pass-breakups and one interception.
He also had one tackle for loss, and one of his pass-breakups foiled a fake field goal.
Thomas-Oliver said he has watched that game at least five times.
“That tape shows me how I can take over a game,” Thomas-Oliver said. “I want to leave that game as a standard.”
Still, Thomas-Oliver has yet to produce a true encore. In 12 games this year, he has seven pass-breakups, three tackles for losses, one sack, one forced fumble and one interception.
Thomas-Oliver said he has to work on “everything”, pointing out that he’s in just his second year playing defense.
But he has enviable height for cornerback, room on his frame to add weight and strength, and he also has the knowledge gained from years of playing wide receiver.
“You can tell by body language on routes where receivers are going to break,” he said. “Because I’ve been there before [as a receiver], I can predict what they are going to do.”
That skill will come in handy on Saturday against Bayless, Merritt and Adams, Arkansas State’s trio of talented receivers who are all over 200 pounds and at least 6-foot tall.
“When you play a bigger body, especially when you are already big, it’s going to get physical,” Thomas-Oliver said. “Hopefully, the refs will let us play.”
Thomas-Oliver also said he allowed two TD passes this season.
“You get upset [when it happens] because you’re a competitor,” he said. “But there’s no corner who has never been scored on. [Even] Deon [Sanders] has been scored on. You just have to keep your mouth shut and play the next play. I might make the game-winning pick on the next play.”
THIS AND THAT
▪ FIU senior middle linebacker Sage Lewis is seventh in program history in career tackles. He is first in single-season tackles, making 132 stops last year.
▪ FIU senior quarterback James Morgan needs three touchdowns on Saturday to tie Josh Padrick’s school record of 42 career TDs. Padrick set the record from 2003 to 2006.
▪ Morgan has been sacked just 14 times this season, ranking eighth in the nation and also the fewest in Conference USA.
Saturday: FIU vs. Arkansas State
What: Camellia Bowl.
Kickoff: 5:30 p.m.; Cramton Bowl, Montgomery, Ala.
TV/Radio: ESPN; WAXY 790.
Favorite: Arkansas State by <AF>2<TH>1/2.
Records: FIU 6-6 (C-USA) vs. Arkansas State 7-5 (Sun Belt).
Series: Arkansas State leads 6-2.
This story was originally published December 20, 2019 at 1:27 PM.