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FIU’s football team, 2-4 at the halfway point of the season55bmw, is going to have to win four of its final six games to be bowl eligible for the first time since 2019.
Getting there won’t be easy because the Panthers have dropped five straight road games – dating to last season – and they have three more contests away from home in 2024.
One of those road games is up next as FIU plays at Conference USA rival Texas-El Paso on Wednesday night. Kickoff is at 9 p.m. (CBS Sports Network).
“Oh yea,” FIU coach Mike MacIntyre said when asked if the Panthers can go 4-2 down the stretch. “It’s definitely doable.”
It certainly helps that FIU, which is off to a 1-1 start in league play, is up against a winless UTEP team (0-6, 0-3).
FIU is a consensus two-point betting favorite over UTEP.
The Miners are in their first year under Scotty Walden, 34, who is in his second stop as a head coach. In four years at FCS school Austin Peay, Walden had four winning seasons, including 9-3 in 2023.
Ten players followed Walden from Austin Peay to UTEP, including starting quarterback Skyler Locklear, top running back Jevon Jackson and leading receiver Kam Thomas.
Locklear, who is completing 63.6 percent of his passes, has three TD passes and four interceptions. He is also UTEP’s third-leading rusher (110 yards, one score).
Jackson leads UTEP with 239 yards, but he has a low average per rush (3.7) and no TDs on the ground.
Thomas leads UTEP in catches (34) and yards (339). But he has just a 10.0 average and one TD.
Another Miners player to watch is Texas Christian transfer Corey Wren, who had a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown this season against Western Kentucky.
Defensively, however, the Miners have allowed three teams to score at least 40 points against them. In fact, it’s happened in UTEP’s two most recent games, against Sam Houston State (41) and WKU (44).
That should create an opportunity for an FIU offense led by three former Miami Central High players: quarterback Keyone Jenkins and running backs Kejon Owens and Lexington Joseph.
Jenkins ranks third in C-USA with 224.8 passing yards per game. Locklear, by the way, ranks sixth (158.4).
Owens ranks 10th in the league with 265 rushing yards. He has four TDs and a 4.4 average. Joseph has 195 yards, a 4.5 average and two TDs.
MacIntyre started the season with a three-player rotation at running back. But the ex-Central guys Owens and Joseph have beaten out Pompano Ely’s Shomari Lawrence, who has zero carries the past two games.
For the season, Lawrence has 68 yards and a 2.8 average. Last season, he led FIU in rushing yards (566), and he had a 4.5 average.
“We really like Shomari,” MacIntyre said. “But (Owens and Joseph) have been hot.”
Wide receivers Dean Patterson and Eric Rivers are FIU’s top threats in the air.
Patterson leads FIU with 27 catches, and he has 349 yards and a 12.9 average.
Rivers has 24 receptions for team highs in yards (448), average (18.7) and TD catches (three).
THIS AND THAT▪ Surprising Indiana, which beat FIU in the season opener, is off to a 6-0 start, and the Hoosiers are ranked No. 23 in the nation. This is Indiana’s best start since 1967.
▪ Former FIU quarterback Grayson James, who is now the backup at Boston College, is 1-0 as a starter this season, leading the Eagles to a recent 21-20 win over Western Kentucky. James, though, is now back on the bench behind Thomas Castellanos.
▪ Former New Mexico State quarterback Diego Pavia split two games with FIU, losing in 2022 and winning in 2023. On Oct. 5, Pavia engineered Vanderbilt’s massive upset of then-No. 1 Alabama.
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