Sorry for the tardiness, I know this is a day late. I will go over the "Keys to the Game" later tonight, and will put up an Open Thread tomorrow. My morning/afternoon will again be very busy, so an Open Thread will have to suffice. Here we go, an in-depth look at the Florida International Golden Panthers.
Never. The Golden Panthers and Jayhawks have never set foot on the same football field. Ever. They have lost 15 consecutive games though, a fun fact despite the irrelevance towards the headline. I'm trying to fill up some space here, and that was the best I could come up with. Honestly.
As I have previously mentioned, they have lost 15 games. In a row. Their D-1 football program started in 2004, a relatively successful 3-9 season with victories over Youngstown State (the first ever game in Division 1-A), Stephen F. Austin and Florida A&M. They did even better in '05, beating FAMU, UL-Monroe, Western Kentucky, Florida Atlantic and Middle Tennessee State. Then came 2006, an 0-12 year which included the all-out brawl between them and Miami (FL). Without a doubt the low-light of their Division 1 history, despite playing a team as traditionally good as Maimi (FL) relatively close (31-0). They followed up last year's atrocious performcance with a scalding-hot start, losing @ Penn State 59-0, vs. Maryland 26-10 and @ Miami (FL) 23-9. So despite their tremendously long losing streak, they might be the best team we've played thus far. Nevermind, scratch that. Look at these stats:
--> 106th in rushing offense (79.3 yards a game)
--> 119th in passing offense (101 yards a game)
--> 118th in scoring offense (6.3 points a game)
Their offense sucks. Especially their passing game, meaning that our secondary should get a day off. Of course, we should jump out to a lead early, meaning they should throw the ball in an attempt to catch up. So, conundrum. In any case, I'm not too worried about a shoot-out, their offense seems incapable of putting up a serious fight of any kind.
They are led by Wayne Younger at QB, he of the 42% completion percentage and 2 TD's compared to 4 INT's. Yuck. Their running back is A'Mod Ned, who has averaged a decent 5 yards a carry thus far this season.
1) Easy, run the football. No, wait, let's get more specific. RUN JAKE SHARP!!! Sharp isn't getting the ball enough, plain and simple, and hopefully that starts to change this week.
2) Shut down A'Mod Ned, and their entire offense becomes sucky. Very sucky. I'm looking for a big game from Mike Rivera and Joe Mortensen, getting double-digit tackles each on plenty of Ned-runs and short passes.
That's all I got right now, I know that was a crappy one but hopefully it isn't too bad...
ROCK CHALK!