Smooth Pancakes' Coaching Carousel Career

In the middle of my bye week, things go from bad to worse for our former #1. TCU, fresh off their upset loss to Texas Tech, that dropped them from #1 to #8, lose in week 4 to #12 Oklahoma State 38-21. TCU is now 1-2, 0-2 in the Big 12. Stanford had the biggest drop from last week, plummeting from #6 all the way to #22. Mississippi State meanwhile, after knocking off #2 Auburn last week, made the jump from unranked to #17 this week. Boise State, after beating #9 UCF in week 3, moved up from #12 to #5.

After our massive shakeup last week with #1 TCU, #2 Auburn and #6 Stanford all losing, this week, Oklahoma is now #1, up from #3, Wisconsin is #2, up from #4, Penn State is #3, up from #5, Alabama is #4, up from #7, and Boise State is #5, up from #11.

Mors, sad to report, West Virginia is still searching for their first win, as they drop to 0-4 on the year after losing to 45-7 at Maryland. Jaymo, it was another rough week for Arizona State as well, as ASU lost to #17 Mississippi State, 42-14.

TCU is 1-2, WVU is 0-4, neither of those seem possible.

Alright, I'm gonna try to knock out Louisville here in a short bit. Done with work for the day until basketball tonight at 6, so I'm gonna try to get through recruiting for week 4 and 5 and then try to fit in Louisville before laying down for a nap later this afternoon.

Game Three

:FIU: :@: :Louisville:



Game Notes

--- After the not unexpected whooping from the 25th ranked Washington Huskies, it was back on the road for us, traveling to Kentucky for our annual game with Louisville. Along with an 0-2 start to the season, losses in each of the past two seasons to Louisville had us looking to try and finally crack that win column against the Cardinals. While not as tough a team as Washington was, it would still be a daunting challenge. We entered the game 0-2 for the year, the Cardinals coming in at 1-3, fresh off a 21-7 win at Kentucky. It turned out to be a wet one in Louisville, with the rain coming down hard. Hopefully that would work to the advantage of our running game. We chose heads, winning the coin toss, and elected to kick.

It quickly began to look like seasons past, as Louisville returned the kickoff 25 yards, then halfback Jeremy Wright reel off 14 yards on three carries, along with a 5 yard pass. However, two incomplete passes from the Louisville 44 yard line, and the Cardinals were forced to punt for the first time of the day, just a minute and a half into the game. Unfortunately, the punt went for 47 yards, giving our offense the ball at our own 9 yard line. Rushes of 6 and 5 yards by Storm Johnson got our first drive off to a very promising start. Two more rushes, for 5 yards by Johnson and 9 yards by Darrian Mallary, and we had a new set of downs on our 34 yard line. Deciding not to mess with a good thing, despite Johnson only gaining 1 yard on first down, he showed he wasn't ready to turn it over to our passing game, as he broke a run for a 16 yard gain, giving us our third first down of the day. Two plays later, and we would have to finally go to the air, after 8 straight rushes, as Johnson and Mallary could only manage a combined 4 yards, setting up third and 6 from Louisville's 45 yard line. Medlock attempted a pass to Glenn Coleman, but threw it behind the receiver, forcing us to punt, though Yusef Hagen did mange to kick a good punt, with the ball being downed at the 6 yard line. Despite a pair of 5 yard scrambles by quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, and a 10 yard run by Wright, a tackle for a 2 yards loss two plays earlier left Louisville with fourth and 2 from their own 24 yard line. A 10 yard punt return by Johnson gave us possession on our own 36 yard line.

This time Louisville was more than ready for our run game, as Johnson could only manage 1 yard before being swarmed by 5 Louisville players. Johnson would, however, still get us a first down, as Medlock connected on a 14 yard pass to Johnson coming out of the backfield, beating the blitz by the Cardinals defense and giving us another first down for the game. After a 6 yard rush by Mallary on first down, Medlock was able to hit Dominique Rhymes over the middle on third down for a 20 yard gain, giving us first down on the Louisville 23 yard line. After an incomplete pass, Medlock found Johnson open across the middle on second down for an 11 yard gain, giving us a new set of downs on the Cardinals 12 yard line. A 12 yard pass to Rhymes on first down gave us first and goal from the 1 yard line. It was there that our offense decided to go on vacation, and four straight rushes from the 1 yard line, failed to do anything, and we turned the ball over on downs at the Louisville 1 yard line with 1 second left in the first quarter. A 4 yard rush by Wright would be the quarter to an end, deadlocked at 0.

Start of the second quarter, Louisville continued moving the ball on the ground, as Wright picked up gains of 3 and 4 yards, giving the Cardinals a first down at the 12 yard line. An offside penalty on second and 10 would prove to spark the Louisville offense, as Bridgewater connected with Chris White on a 14 yard pass the very next play, moving the ball out to the 31 yard line. Our defense again gave Louisville 5 free yards, along with a 3 yard rush by Wright. The next play our defense would finally make up for those penalties, as a sack for a loss of 10 yards pushed Louisville clear back to their 28 yard line, and into a third and 17 situation. A 7 yard rush by Wright would not be enough, and the Cardinals would be forced to punt the ball away. A 10 yard return by Mallary gave us the ball on our 35 yard line. With the defense showing heavy blitz, we abandoned the run on first down, which proved to be a successful call, as Medlock connected with Coleman along the left sideline for a 33 yard gain, giving us first down at the Louisville 32 yard line. It only took Medlock one play to ruin that success, as he proceeded to get sacked for a loss of 11 yards on the very next play, forcing us into second and 22 from the Louisville 44 yard line. Coleman, however, came throw huge for us a second time, hauling in a 40 yard pass on third and 22, giving us first and goal from the Louisville 4 yard line. It was at this point that we received bad news, Johnson had been sidelined for the rest of the game with a concussion, leaving our running game in the hands of Mallary and Kedrick Rhodes. After a first down rush by Mallary only gained 1 yard, we went back to the passing game. A quick pass to Rhymes only netted 1 yard as well, leaving us with third and goal on the 2 yard line. An incomplete pass to Coleman, and we had to settle for only a 19 yard field goal, with 5:19 left in the half.

A 19 yard kickoff return was exactly the boost the Cardinals needed, reeling off runs of 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 7 and 7 yards, along with passes of 7 and 13 yards, to march right down the field on our defense, before a 12 yard pass from Bridgewater to Damian Copeland gave Louisville a 7-3 lead with 2:44 left in the half. Our attempt to regain the momentum that was lost, proved disasterious, as on third and 10, Medlock threw an interception directly into the waiting hands of the Cardinals secondary, and after an 11 yard return, gave the Louisville offense the ball at our own 28 yard line. 5 plays later, Bridgewater found Copeland for a second time today, this time from 18 yards out, to give Louisville a 14-3 lead with 1:36 left in the half. Three straight overthrown passes from Medlock, and we were forced to punt the ball away. Louisville, with only 1:04 left on the clock, wasted little time, as Bridgewater completed passes of 11 and 13 yards, along with a 15 yard pass interference penalty from our defense, before he found Eli Rogers for a 22 yard touchdown pass, giving Louisville a 21-3 lead with 23 seconds left to play. This time we just simply took a knee, and escaped to the locker room with our tails between our legs. At the half, Louisville, with a late flurry of points, leads 21-3.

The start of the second half, we tried to get back to our early success, but a pair of rushes for no gain by Mallary left us facing third and 10. We would keep the drive alive though as Medlock found Mallary for a 16 yard gain, giving us a new set of downs at the 36 yard line. An attempt to switch things up with the running game did net an extra 3 yards, but it still left us facing second and long. Mallary again took care of that, catching a pass, and taking advantage of a heavy blitz by the defense, racing down the field for 29 yards to the Louisville 32 yard line before the Louisville secondary finally closed in on him. A huge 22 yard catch by Rhymes on third and 3 gave us first and goal on the Cardinals 3 yard line. After our massive failures on the ground the previous times we were inside the 10 yard line, we chose to go through the air this time around. A 3 yard pass on first and goal, to Ezekiel Turner along the back edge of the end zone, got us back on the scoreboard, making it 21-10 Louisville with 6:21 left in the quarter.

Louisville though proved more than ready to respond, using rushes of 5, 11, 6, 5, 6 and 5 yards, along with passes of 14, 11, and 7 yards, before Bridgewater scrambled on second and goal, scoring a touchdown from 5 yards out, to make it 28-10 with 3:51 left in the third. Three straight incomplete passes, and we punted right back to Louisville. Wright proved the breadwinner of the drive for the Cardinals, breaking off runs of 2, 4, 7, 5, 8, 5, 7, 7 and 4 yards, with a 9 yard pass by Bridgewater mixed in, before Bridgewater found Michaelee Harris for a 12 yard touchdown pass, making it 35-10 with 34 seconds left to play in the third. Our offense came onto the field with 23 second left in the quarter, and recognizing and there was no hope of a comeback, immediately went into a clock killing gameplan, trying to end the game as soon as possible with as least amount of further damage received as possible. A 13 yard rush by Mallary on first down would bring the third quarter to an end, Louisville leading 35-10.

The start of the fourth quarter, and it was right back to the ground, as we attempted to keep the clock running. Mallary again found some success on the ground, breaking a 14 yard rush to give us another first down. Mallary kept it going on the ground, with rushes of 5, 3, and 2 yards, bringing up fourth and inches. We elected to go for it, being on the Louisville 46 yard line, and Mallary was able to gain another first down behind a 7 yard rush. After a 9 yard rush by Mallary on second and 9 left us facing third and inches, Rhodes was able to get us another first down, diving forward for a 1 yard gain, giving us a new set of downs on the Louisville 27 yard line. Two more rushes, for 8 and 5 yards, by Mallary and we had first and 10 from the Louisville 14 yard line. After 13 straight rushes got us from our own 19 down to the Louisville 15 yard line, facing third and 11 with 2:16 left in the game, we decided to take a shot at the end zone, maybe at least getting a feelgood touchdown out of the drive. Despite it getting knocked down at the goal line, Coach Cristobal told us to go for it on fourth down. Medlock attempted to hit Wright in the deep left corner of the end zone, but it got knocked away, and we turned the ball over on downs with 1:56 left in the game, completing a 15 play drive that lasted 7 minutes and 27 seconds.

Despite having a 25 point lead with just 2 minutes left to play, Louisville appeared to want to continue to tack on more points, as Wright rushed for 5 yards on first down, before the Cardinals got a new set of downs thanks to an offside penalty from our defense. A 4 yard rush by Wright, followed by Wright being tackled for a 3 yard loss, and an incomplete pass from Bridgewater that was flung almost 30 yards downfield, and Louisville punted the ball away with 49 seconds left to play. Taking over on our 32 yard line with 49 seconds left to play, we figured what the hell and decided to take a couple cracks at some deep passes. That turned out to be a good call by our offense, as on the very first play of the drive, Medlock was able to arch a pass over the defense and into the hands of Turner, who had gotten behind the safeties, and was able to outrace the Cardinals defense, taking the pass 68 yards down the field for a touchdown. The extra point by Hagen was no good, making it 35-16 with 40 seconds left in the game. Coach Cristobal decided to try the onside kick, but it was recovered by Louisville at our 43 yard line. An 8 yard rush on first down by Wright, and that was all it took to run out the clock and bring the game to an end, with Louisville coming out on top 35-16.

With the loss, we drop to 0-3 on the season. Louisville improves to 2-3 for the year. Up next, yet another bye week, before we finally return home to our own turf against North Texas. Coming into the game against us, North Texas is 0-4 on the season, losing 42-7 at Georgia, 30-13 to Ball State, 20-0 at Ohio, and 55-21 at #17 Ohio State.

Final Score

:Louisville: 35, :FIU: 16



Stat(s) of the Game:
FIU Offense – Passing was a coin flip. Some drives we were hitting passes left and right, other drives, Medlock couldn't pass to save his life. The running game was practically non-existent, only being of any use in the first and fourth quarters.

FIU Defense – Played like an NFL team in the first quarter. Played like a high school JV team the rest of the game.

FIU Kicking – A sub par day, kicking a 19 yard field goal, but going 1-2 in extra points.



Scoring Summary

Team	1st Quarter	2nd Quarter	3rd Quarter	4th Quarter	Final Score
:FIU:	0	3	7	6	16
:Louisville:	0	21	14	0	35

Time	Team	Result	Play	Score
First Quarter
Second Quarter
5:22	:FIU:	Field Goal	Y. Hagen, 19 yard field goal	:FIU: 3-0
2:44	:Louisville:	Touchdown	D. Copeland, 11 yard pass from T. Bridgewater (P. Washington kick)	:Louisville: 7-3
1:36	:Louisville:	Touchdown	D. Copeland, 18 yard pass from T. Bridgewater (P. Washington kick)	:Louisville: 14-3
0:23	:Louisville:	Touchdown	E. Rogers, 22 yard pass from T. Bridgewater (P. Washington kick)	:Louisville: 21-3
Third Quarter
6:21	:FIU:	Touchdown	E. Turner, 3 yard pass from Medlock (Y. Hagen kick)	:Louisville: 21-10
3:51	:Louisville:	Touchdown	T. Bridgewater, 5 yard run (P. Washington kick)	:Louisville: 28-10
0:34	:Louisville:	Touchdown	M. Harris, 12 yard pass from T. Bridgewater (P. Washington kick)	:Louisville: 35-10
Fourth Quarter
0:40	:FIU:	Touchdown	E. Turner, 68 yard pass from J. Medlock (missed kick)	:Louisville: 35-16

Game Stats

Florida International	Stat	Louisville
16	Score	35
17	First Downs	20
385	Total Offense	395
34 - 109 - 0	Rushes - Yards - TD	43 - 212- 1
13 - 29 - 2	Comp - Att - TD	16 - 25 - 4
276	Passing Yards	183
1	Times Sacked	2
5 - 13 (38%)	3rd Down Conversion	10 - 14 (71%)
1 - 3 (33%)	4th Down Conversion	0 - 0 (0%)
0 - 0 (0%)	2-Point Conv	0 - 0 (0%)
5 - 1 - 1 (40%)	Red Zone - TD - FG	5 - 4 - 0 (80%)
1	Turnovers	0
0	Fumbles Lost	0
1	Intercepted	0
23	Punt Return Yards	-
64	Kick Return Yards	65
472	Total Yards	460
3 – 41.7	Punts - Average	4 - 45.8
5 - 25	Penalties	0 - 0
21:06	Time of Possession	14:54

Florida International Contract Goals Update

Fail Impact	Goal	Progress	Pass Impact
:3redarrow:	500+ rushing yards in each season	251	:3greenarrow:
	Win 8 games in one season	:check:	:3greenarrow:
	2000+ total offensive yards in each season	1102	:3greenarrow:
:3redarrow:	7+ passing TD in one season	:check:	:3greenarrow:
	10+ points per game in each season	17 PPG	:3greenarrow:
:3redarrow:	2400+ total offensive yards in one season	:check:	:3greenarrow:
:2redarrow:	Win 4 games in one season	:check:	:1greenarrow:
:6redarrow:	2000+ total offensive yards in one season	:check:
Penalty
:1redarrow:	Lost to a lower ranked team

Job Security Status

73%

Yep. Still can't figure out Louisville. :fp: Could have been in a good position if those couple times I was down inside the Louisville 5 yard, I had actually managed to score a touchdown, or ANYTHING. But, our offensive woes continue to kill our season. We kept it close for a quarter and a half, then Louisville remembered who they were and actually started whooping us like they have the past two years. Not much else to say about that. I just hope to God the Sun Belt Conference sucks ass again this year so I might actually have a chance to win games.


As for things on the national scene, well, this isn't good for my conferences hopes (whatever might still be there), as Troy knocked off #17 Michigan State, 31-24 (Sparty had to score 21 4th quarter points just to have a chance at the end) to improve to 3-1 for the year. Even worse, Florida Atlantic gave #3 Penn State a scare, with the Nittany Lions only winning 24-18.

Meanwhile, #19 Texas Tech, two weeks after their upset of former #1 TCU, got abused by Michigan 52-10. Mors, still no love for West Virginia, as #8 Oklahoma State has their way with the Mountaineers, 49-13, dropping WVU to 0-5. #6 LSU almost got knocked off, holding on to beat Vanderbilt 37-31 in overtime. And two weeks after losing to Boise State, #13 UCF loses again, this time falling to Rutgers, 38-24.

As for results from our bye week... In a battle of the top 25, #21 Georgia Tech hands #12 Clemson their first loss, 35-14. #3 Penn State holds off Indiana 41-31. After consecutive losses, #25 UCF finally gets another win, knocking off #13 USF 42-7. #10 Virginia Tech holds off Maryland 17-13. In a battle of undefeated teams, Virginia upsets #18 Boston College 31-17. In the game of the week, #1 Oklahoma embarrasses #11 Baylor 41-7. #8 Oklahoma State gets upset at home by Texas, 42-37. In double overtime, Illinois upsets #23 Northwestern, 49-46, handing the Wildcats their first loss. And #19 Arkansas holds off Texas A&M in a shootout, 52-49.

Mors, you might want to start searching for a new team. :( West Virginia drops to 0-6, 0-5 in the Big 12, after a 38-31 loss to 2-1 Kansas. Similarly to Jaymo, Arizona State now stands at 0-5 for the year following a 23-7 loss to 1-4 Washington State.

Alright sports fans, more games coming up today. For the first time since the new year, I don't have HS basketball on a Saturday night, so once I get done with my morning show here in half an hour, and get back to town and get home around 10am EST, I'll be done with work for the entire weekend and I'll have all day to get my dynasty advancing, and as it's snowing right now and is supposed to snow the rest of the morning, and then turn to rain and rain all afternoon, it's a great day to stay inside and play college football.

I'll probably take a break at 4pm to watch the Mid Tennessee State-Denver basketball game, but for the most part, FIU is my focus for the day. As I have to get recruiting for week 4 (my bye week) and week 5 done, I'll probably be starting the North Texas game between 11am and noon EST, with the recap getting posted around 2 or so.

Motherfucker! I've been typing my game summaries up in the forum window on here, making it easier to do the formatting, and as I just tried to change the view in the window, it deleted all my text. :fp: I can still piece it all back together using the View & Create Highlights summaries in the postgame menus, but it's gonna be hours now before the North Texas game gets posted. I already missed over half of the first half of the MTSU-Denver game trying to get the game recap posted, all for nothing now. :bang:

Damn man, that sucks.

That's why I learn the BBC code for the tables and do it all in notepad and then copy it over. It takes a bit longer in the long run, but I don't have issues with losing my work.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by morsdraconis

Damn man, that sucks.

That's why I learn the BBC code for the tables and do it all in notepad and then copy it over. It takes a bit longer in the long run, but I don't have issues with losing my work.

---

That's what I was doing in the past, with the old table code/formatting. I had it learned and would type everything up in a Word document. But I still haven't fully learned the actual coding for these new tables, so I've been just using the Full/Advanced Post Editor to do it, and it's worked great, until it bit me in the ass this time. It was a great recap too. I got hardcore in depth in the game summary on various drives and had the drama of the game all tied together with the layout of the paragraphs. All for naught. :(

And so, what I was hoping would be 2 or 3 games played today, may only end up being one, as this MTSU-Denver game will be going until at least 6pm, probably a little longer, and then having to redo the entire game recap from the beginning, piecing it together from the View & Create Highlights game summary, will take a good while to do. And as I've been up since 3am this morning for work, after not going to bed last night until 11:30 due to work, I'm probably not going to be awake very long beyond 9 or 10pm tonight.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SmoothPancakes

But I still haven't fully learned the actual coding for these new tables, so I've been just using the Full/Advanced Post Editor to do it

---

Take a table you've created in a past post and copy it out of the post, and, as mors said, edit it in Notepad. A lot safer that way.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JeffHCross

Take a table you've created in a past post and copy it out of the post, and, as mors said, edit it in Notepad. A lot safer that way.

---

:+1:

Good to see my Sun Devils are performing well this season... lol. 0-5... wow that is awful! At the pace they are going they may have a perfect (loss) season. I will be interested to see where they end up in the offseason rankings.

I feel for you with the game notes. It happens to the best of us. I'm looking forward to your next update Smooth. Good luck brother!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JeffHCross

Take a table you've created in a past post and copy it out of the post, and, as mors said, edit it in Notepad. A lot safer that way.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by morsdraconis

:+1:

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Yeah, what's what I'm doing now. I'm still going to make all my scoring summary, game stats, etc changes and updates in Advanced Post window on here, just because doing it all in WYSIWYG mode is light years easier. But for the actually game notes, those are all going to be typed up in Word and pasted over onto here.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jaymo76

Good to see my Sun Devils are performing well this season... lol. 0-5... wow that is awful! At the pace they are going they may have a perfect (loss) season. I will be interested to see where they end up in the offseason rankings.

I feel for you with the game notes. It happens to the best of us. I'm looking forward to your next update Smooth. Good luck brother!

---

Yeah, I'm surprised to see the Sun Devils still winless. I figured they would have at least gotten one win by now. Currently, it's a battle to see who gets their first win of the season first, West Virginia for mors, or Arizona State for you. :D

And thanks for the words guys. I got the game notes retyped through the first quarter, but as it was almost 10pm last night, I was dragging and ended up falling asleep not much longer after that. So I just left the 360 on all night, and having just woken up a little bit ago, I'm going to resume retyping the last three quarters and try to have the North Texas game posted a little later on this morning.

Game Four


:North_Texas: :@: :FIU:



Game Notes

--- After three tough non-conference losses to open the season, it was finally time to begin conference play. The big part of today's game, was that someone, somebody was going to walk away with a win. We entered the game sitting at 0-3 for the year, North Texas came in at 0-4, so someone was going to finally get over the hump. The rain was pouring down in buckets today, so the weather could end up having an effect on the outcome. North Texas won the coin toss and elected to kick, getting things underway.

Our first offensive drive of the game got off to a great start, as a penalty on the kickoff team gave us the ball at our own 37 yard line to start the game. Storm Johnson needed little time to get started off on the right foot, picking up 7 yards on first down, along with 1 yard on second down. However, an incomplete pass on third down would bring our drive suddenly to an end, and bring out the punt team. The Mean Green appeared ready to jump on the momentum early, as Brandin Byrd broke a 9 yard run on first down, but losses of 1 and 2 yards on consecutive carries left North Texas in a fourth and 6 hole and brought about their first punt of the game. A short punt by North Texas gave our second offense drive yet more great field position to start from, as we began on our own 42 yard line. Rushes for 2 and 3 yards by Johnson got us started, but on third and 5, Jake Medlock threw an interception directly into the hands of safety Kerry Swarn, who returned the interception and returned it 7 yards out to the North Texas 45 yard line. The Mean Green got some free help from our defense, as they were flagged for an offside penalty on first down. A 4 yard rush by Byrd set up third and 1, until quarterback Derek Thompson got tackled for a loss of 3 yards, forcing North Texas to punt once more.

Unlike our previous two drives, this time North Texas' punt team pinned us deep, as we started from our own 9 yard line. Johnson was only able to manage 1 yard on first down, before a pair of incomplete passes quickly brought our drive to an end. A 40 yard punt returned for 9 yards gave North Texas incredible field position, beginning their drive on our own 39 yard line. Thompson wasted little time, connecting with Charlie Jackson for a 28 yard pass on first down, giving the Mean Green a new set of downs on our 11 yard line. A 3 yard rush by Thompson on first down, followed by an incomplete pass, set up third and 7, where Thompson only needed one play, an 8 yard touchdown pass to Jackson to give the Mean Green a 7-0 lead with 4 minutes left to play in the first quarter.

A 20 yard kickoff return by Johnson set our offense up on our own 22 yard line, with Medlock wasting little time to get us moving, hitting Dominique Rhymes across the middle for an 18 yard gain. After a 1 yard gain by Darrian Mallary, Medlock again went to the air, finding Willis Wright along the right hash marks for a 22 yard gain, giving us first down on the North Texas 40 yard line. After an incomplete pass on first down, Medlock again found Wright in the middle of the field, this time for a gain of 14 yards. After another incomplete pass on first down, Medlock kept it going through the air, connecting with Wayne Times along the right sideline for a 21 yard pass, giving us first and goal at the Mean Green 5 yard line. After a 2 yard rush by Mallary was brought to an end pretty quickly, we went back to the air on second and goal, with Medlock finally Mallary open in the right flats for a 3 yard touchdown pass, making it a 7-7 tie with 1:07 left to play in the first quarter. North Texas tried to find a response, as Thompson and Byrd combined for 5 yards on the ground, but a thrown away pass on third down forced another North Texas punt, giving us back possession on our 22 yard line. Mallary gained 1 yard on the ground on the first play of our drive, which was enough for the final 19 seconds to tick off, bring the first quarter to an end, knotted up at 7 a piece.

Start of the second quarter, Medlock was able to find Mallary along the left sideline for an 8 yard gain, setting up third and 1, when our offense was given a helping hand, thanks to a pass interference penalty by the Mean Green defense, making it first and 10 at the 50 yard line. After a pair of incomplete passes, a sack for a loss of 7 yards would bring our drive quickly screeching to a halt, and bring out our punt team yet again. After a 39 yard punt, North Texas found themselves at their own 22 yard line, and quickly began to move the ball, thanks in part to our defense, giving them 5 free yards from an offside penalty. Byrd then broke off rushes of 6, 3 , and 6 yards to make it first and 10 at the North Texas 42 yard line. They would start going backwards however, as Byrd got tackled for losses of 3 and 2 yards on consecutive carries, followed by an incomplete pass, making it fourth and 15 on the 37 yard line. The North Texas punt team came on, but our defense decided they hadn’t done enough yet, instead getting flagged for roughing the punter, giving the North Texas new life at our 48 yard line. After an incomplete pass on first down, Thompson managed to scramble from the pressure and pick up 6 yards to make it third and 4, but an incomplete pass would force the punt team out a second time. A 39 yard punt, and some help to North Texas from our defense, left our offense to fend for itself on our own 3 yard line.

We were able to get a little breathing room, as Medlock found Johnson for a 10 yard gain on first down, but three straight incomplete passes brought drive quickly to an end. An only 38 yard punt from Hagen, and North Texas was back in business on their 49 yard line. The Mean Green appeared ready to take advantage of the midfield field position, as Byrd rushed for gains of 7 and 5 yards. However, a holding penalty on first down pushed the North Texas offense back 10 yards, forcing Thompson to take a shot downfield, where the ball was intercepted by cornerback Khambrel McGee, who returned it out to our 26 yard line. After an 8 yard pass to Johnson to set up second and 2, Johnson was able to plow through the line for a 2 yard gain, giving us a new set of downs. Medlock threw an incomplete pass on first down, but the North Texas defense broke down on the next play, as the safety failed to cover Rhymes, letting him run right past and get wide open along the left hash marks, for a 26 yard gain, giving us first down at the North Texas 38 yard line. A 9 yard pass to Johnson set up second and 1 at the North Texas 29 yard line, which was all Johnson would need, as he was able to get through the line, break two tackles, and then outrun the defense to the end zone for a 29 yard touchdown, making it 14-7 with 3 minutes left in the first half.

North Texas would come out looking ready to respond as they started their drive at the 20 yard line. Jackson got things started off with a 6 yard rush, followed by rushes of 2, 5, 7 and 4 yards all by Byrd, giving North Texas first and 10 at their 44 yard line. Thompson started to get involved, throwing a 7 yard pass to Jackson and a 2 yard pass to Jason Hopkins, before Byrd picked up 4 yards on the ground for another North Texas first down at our 43 yard line. The Mean Green returned to the ground, with Byrd rushing for 4 yards, a 5 yard gain by Thompson, and a 5 yard gain by Byrd, making it first and 10 at our 29 yard line. Despite an incomplete pass on first down, the Mean Green got help from our defense yet again, with a pass interference penalty, giving North Texas a new set of downs at our 14 yard line. Despite tackling Byrd for a loss of 2 yards on first down, the defense decided they again wanted to help, getting flagged for being offside, erasing the previous play and making it second and 7 at our 11 yard line. A rush attempt by Thompson also ended in a 2 yard loss, before an incomplete pass left North Texas facing fourth and 7. They would attempt the 33 yard field goal, but it ended up being shanked to the right, giving us the ball back at our 20 yard line with 20 seconds left in the half.

Despite being on our 20 yard line with only 20 seconds left, we decided to take a chance and try to extend our lead going into halftime. On first down, Medlock found Wright along the right hash mark for a 36 yard gain to the North Texas 44, followed by a quick timeout with 13 seconds left. An incomplete pass on first down left us with 8 seconds left, before Wright tried to make his case for player of the game, hauling in a 27 yard pass along the right sideline, giving us first and 10 at the North Texas 17 yard line with 2 seconds left to play. Following a quick timeout, Yusef Hagen, as time expired, kicked a 34 yard field goal to give us a 17-7 lead going into the locker room.

Start of the third quarter, North Texas came out looking to get back the momentum, starting on their 17 yard line after a 23 yard kickoff return. Byrd got things underway with a 5 yard rush, before our defense helped out, getting flagged twice for two 5 yard penalties, making it first and 10 at the North Texas 33 yard line. Two rushes for 5 and 6 yards by Thompson kept the drive moving at the North Texas 44 yard line, before a loss of one yard by Brelan Chancellor made it second and 11. Byrd quickly regained that yard, breaking a 7 yard run, before Thompson hit Hopkins for a 5 yard gain, giving North Texas a new set of downs at our 45 yard line. A 9 yard pass to Chancellor on second and 10 was setback with a sack for a loss of 5 yards, but that sack was immediately offset when our defense got called for offside, giving those 5 yards right back, before a 3 yard rush by Byrd gave North Texas another first down. Rushes of 3 and 4 yards by Byrd and an incomplete pass by Thompson left North Texas facing fourth and 3 from our 26 yard line. The Mean Green chose to go for it, with Byrd converting the fourth down attempt with a 7 yard rush to keep the drive alive. A 2 yard rush by Byrd and a pair of incomplete passes, and the Mean Green would finally settle for a field goal attempt, as Edward Bush kicked the 34 yard field goal to make it 17-10 with 5:25 left in the quarter.

A 22 yard kickoff return by Mallary gave our offense a decent starting point, as we began our drive at the 27 yard line. After an incomplete pass on first down, Medlock was able to find Wright through a gap in the coverage, connecting for a 36 yard gain to give us first down at the North Texas 37 yard line. The next play, Medlock found Glenn Coleman breaking free across the middle for a 30 yard gain down to the 7 yard line. On the following play, the Mean Green brought the house, trying to overwhelm our line, but Medlock was able to dump the pass of to Johnson, who caught it at the one yard line before getting stood up by #39, making it second and goal at the North Texas 1 yard line. Johnson would only need one attempt to find the end zone, running it off tackle on second down. While Johnson was met at the goal line by two North Texas defenders, as they taking him to the ground, Johnson was able to roll forward over top one of them and fall into the end zone for the touchdown, giving us a 24-10 lead with 3:54 left in the third quarter.

Starting their next drive on their own 22 yard line, North Texas wasted little time in finding a response. Byrd got the drive kicked off with a 5 yard rush, followed by an 8 yard rush by Thompson to get a first down at their 35 yard line. An 18 yard pass to Chancellor advanced the ball to our 47 yard line. A 4 yard rush by Thompson on first down and a second pass to Chancellor for 12 yards, giving North Texas a new set of downs at our 31 yard line. The Mean Green temporarily went backwards, as Byrd was tackled for a two yard loss on first down, but Thompson immediately rectified that with an 18 yard pass to Marcus Smith, for a first down at our 15 yard line. A 12 yard pass to Luis Wallace would give North Texas first and goal at our 3 yard line. Thompson would use just one play, scrambling in from three yards out, to strike the responding touchdown and make it 24-17 with 1:50 left in the third quarter. Starting our drive on our own 27 yard line, Johnson found some immediate success with a 10 yard gain on the ground. Hoping to keep the ground game going, we tried two more rushing attempts, but Johnson could only tally 3 total yards, leaving us facing third and 7. For the second time of the game, the safety blew his assignment, letting Rhymes go running right past him, and leaving Rhymes completely uncovered along the left hash marks for a 26 yard gain, giving us a first down at the North Texas 33 yard line. The final 14 seconds ticked off the clock and the third quarter came to an end with a 24-17 FIU lead.

The start of the fourth quarter, our offense continued right where we left off as Johnson picked up 11 yards on the ground to get us down to the North Texas 22 yard line. After a 1 yard rush by Johnson and an incomplete pass, on third and 9, Medlock found Coleman on a curl route along the left sideline for a 15 yard gain to give us first and goal at the 6 yard line. On the very next play, Medlock found Wright over the middle in the back of the end zone, dropping the pass in right over the middle linebacker’s head, for a 6 yard touchdown pass. Wright was able to catch and just get a foot down before being pushed out the back of the end zone, to give us a 31-17 lead with 7:48 left in the game. North Texas knew they were in a hole, and tried to respond back. Thompson got them started off with a 9 yard pass to Chancellor. After an incomplete pass, a 5 yard pass to Lane gave them first down at the 34 yard line. A 4 yard rush by Byrd left them with second and 4 at the 38, but a sack for a loss of 10 yards left in a third and 4 hole from the 28. Thompson needed only one pass to erase that, hitting Byrd for a 29 yard completion to get the first down at our 43 yard line. Shelton Gandy gained 5 yards on the ground, getting down to our 38, before rushes for a 2 yard loss by both Thompson and Byrd left North Texas with fourth and 9 from our 42 yard line. Thompson’s fourth down pass attempt fell incomplete and North Texas turned the ball over on downs with 5:40 left to play.

Trying to run down the clock, we took to the ground game, but were only able to go two play before having the air it out again, as Johnson could only manage 3 yards on two carries. Medlock was able to convert the third and 7, with a 17 yard pass to Johnson when the defense bit to a fake on the left side, allowing Johnson to run past all of them and get open over the middle, giving us first and 10 at the North Texas 38 yard line. Going back to the ground game, Johnson picked up 3 yards on first down, before our offense got flagged for delay of game, erasing that gain. On second and 12, Johnson was able to cut the yardage in half with a 6 yard gain, making it third and 6 from the North Texas 34 yard line. Instead of airing it out, we decided to let Johnson try to run the clock down further. Instead, Johnson decided to seal the game right there, as he plow through the line, broke through a tackle, and outran the pursuing defense all the way to the corner of the end zone for a 34 yard touchdown. Hagen would miss extra point, making it 37-17 with 2:03 left to play in the game.

North Texas, facing a 20 point deficit with only 2 minutes left to play, wasted no time to moving down the field from their own 23 yard line. After an incomplete pass on first down, Thompson found Chancellor for a 33 yard gain, advancing the ball to our 44 yard line. The next play, Thompson found Chancellor again on an 8 yard pass, making it second and 2 from our 36. After an incomplete pass, our defense helped out, being called for pass interference, with the damage being 12 yards against our defense. With a new set of downs, Thompson found Chancellor yet again for a 14 yard completion, giving the Mean Green first and goal at our 10 yard line. One play later, Thompson connected with Johnny Lane for a 10 yard touchdown pass, making it 37-24 with 1:02 left to play. The onside kick attempt by North Texas was recovered by our return team, giving us the ball on the North Texas 43 yard line with 58 seconds left.

With a 13 point lead and only 58 seconds left to play, and first down on the North Texas 43 yard line, Medlock only needed to kneel the ball a couple times to end the game. After kneeling the ball on first down, North Texas however was not about to let that happen, choosing to call the first of their still remaining three timeouts, trying to keep the game going. With North Texas using their timeouts, we had no choice but to rush the ball. Johnson picked up 11 yards on the next play, making it third and 1 and another North Texas timeout, stopping the clock with 52 seconds left to play. Johnson tried to pick up that one last yard on third down but got stuffed at the line for no gain. North Texas’ third and final timeout stopped the clock with 48 seconds left to play, our offense facing fourth and 1 at the Mean Green 34 yard line. Deciding to keep our faith in the hands of Johnson, the offensive line came through on their blocks, giving Johnson a huge hole to penetrate and pick up 8 yards, getting the first down and securing us the victory. A kneel by Medlock with 16 seconds left was all that was needed and the game came to an end. While Wright did do his best to be named the player of the game, ending the day with 141 yards receiving on 6 receptions and one touchdown, it was Storm Johnson, instead, who took home the player of the game honors, ending with 135 yards rushing on 21 carries, three rushing touchdowns, 51 yards receiving on 5 receptions, and 26 yards in returns with a single kickoff and single punt return, ending the day with 212 all-purpose yards.

With the win, we improve to 1-3 on the season, 1-0 in the Sun Belt Conference. With the loss, North Texas drops to 0-5, 0-1 in Sun Belt play. Up next, we go back on the road to take on Western Kentucky, who enters the game at 1-5, 1-2 in the Sun Belt. Western Kentucky opened up their year with a 43-10 loss at kentucky, followed by a 51-3 rout at Tennessee. When they finally played their first home game, they found a 28-17 loss from Navy awaiting them. The following week, they broke into the win column with a 31-10 win at Mid Tennessee State, before losing 22-17 at Louisiana-Monroe and 42-25 at home to Florida Atlantic.

Final Score
:FIU: 37, :North_Texas: 24



Stat(s) of the Game:
- FIU Offense – After those first couple drives and that interception, Medlock turned it around nicely, passing fairly well the rest of the game, and throwing two touchdown passes. Hopefully he can carry that into the next game. Storm Johnson finally got a chance to unleash the beast inside him. While North Texas was able to keep our running game grounded for a good portion of the game, Johnson was still able to reel off 135 yards rushing with 6.4 yards per carry average, and be a dual threat with 51 yards receiving with a 10.2 yards per reception average. If Johnson keeps those number productions up, he could be first team All-Sun Belt by season's end.


- FIU Defense – I don't know if our defense was trying to help us win or help North Texas win. Of the 86 yards in penalties we had against us, 81 of those yards were from our defense, including some incredibly stupid penalties that kept drives alive. Then in the fourth quarter, when North Texas had to move the ball, they were like a sieve, just letting the Mean Green get yards left and right. They are going to hurt us the rest of this year.


- FIU Kicker Yusef Hagen – Exactly like I thought, Jack Griffin 2.0. He did go 1 for 1 in field goals, kicking a 34 yarder, but missed his last extra point to go 4 for 5 in PATs. He is good for pretty much all be one or two kicks per game. He's going to miss a field goal or a PAT every game, sometime both. I just hope we don't have to rely on him to win us a game, because my faith in him is weak.





Scoring Summary

Team	1st Quarter	2nd Quarter	3rd Quarter	4th Quarter	Final Score
:North_Texas:	7	0	10	7	24
:FIU:	7	10	7	13	37

Time	Team	Result	Play	Score
First Quarter
4:00	:North_Texas:	Touchdown	C. Jackson, 8 yard pass from D. Thompson (E. Bush kick)	:North_Texas: 7-0
1:07	:FIU:	Touchdown	D. Mallary, 3 yard pass from J. Medlock (Y. Hagen kick)	TIED 7-7
Second Quarter
3:00	:FIU:	Touchdown	S. Johnson, 29 yard run (Y. Hagen kick)	:FIU: 14-7
0:00	:FIU:	Field Goal	Y. Hagen, 34 yard field goal	:FIU: 17-7
Third Quarter
5:25	:North_Texas:	Field Goal	E. Bush, 33 yard field goal	:FIU: 17-10
3:54	:FIU:	Touchdown	S. Johnson, 1 yard run (Y. Hagen kick)	:FIU: 24-10
1:44	:North_Texas:	Touchdown	D. Thompson, 3 yard run (E. Bush kick)	:FIU: 24-17
Fourth Quarter
7:48	:FIU:	Touchdown	W. Wright, 6 yard pass from J. Medlock (Y. Hagen kick)	:FIU: 31-17
2:03	:FIU:	Touchdown	S. Johnson, 34 yard run (missed kick)	:FIU: 37-17
1:02	:North_Texas:	Touchdown	J. Lane, 10 yard pass from D. Thompson (E. Bush kick)	:FIU: 37-24

Game Stats

North Texas	Stat	Florida International
24	Score	37
21	First Downs	20
370	Total Offense	468
45 - 145 - 1	Rushes - Yards - TD	29 - 129- 3
18 - 36 - 2	Comp - Att - TD	19 - 34 - 2
225	Passing Yards	339
2	Times Sacked	1
7 - 18 (38%)	3rd Down Conversion	6 - 12 (50%)
2 - 3 (66%)	4th Down Conversion	1 - 1 (100%)
0 - 0 (0%)	2-Point Conv	0 - 0 (0%)
6 - 3 - 1 (66%)	Red Zone - TD - FG	9 - 3 - 1 (44%)
1	Turnovers	1
0	Fumbles Lost	0
1	Intercepted	1
13	Punt Return Yards	6
92	Kick Return Yards	83
475	Total Yards	557
4 – 40.8	Punts - Average	4 - 39.0
3 - 32	Penalties	11 - 86
16:40	Time of Possession	19:20

Florida International Contract Goals Update

Fail Impact	Goal	Progress	Pass Impact
:3redarrow:	500+ rushing yards in each season	380	:3greenarrow:
	Win 8 games in one season	:check:	:3greenarrow:
	2000+ total offensive yards in each season	1570	:3greenarrow:
:3redarrow:	7+ passing TD in one season	:check:	:3greenarrow:
	10+ points per game in each season	22 PPG	:3greenarrow:
:3redarrow:	2400+ total offensive yards in one season	:check:	:3greenarrow:
:2redarrow:	Win 4 games in one season	:check:	:1greenarrow:
:6redarrow:	2000+ total offensive yards in one season	:check:

Job Security Status


73%

Thoughts on the game, well, it was a tight one there for the first three quarters, before our offense finally started firing on all cylinders in the fourth. Medlock was shaky early on, but much to my surprise, he recovered nicely after that early interception. Johnson was a little sluggish throughout the game, no thanks to North Texas keying to our running game for most of the game, but he still managed to break some big runs and rack up a good amount of yards for the game. As to our defense... :sf: + :dunce: = :fp: & :bang: pretty much sums it up. Kicking game, hello Jack Griffin 2.0, exactly like I predicted after the Texas A&M and Washington games.

As for games on the national scene, in the game of the week, #4 Alabama improves 4-0 with a 56-34 win over #6 Boise State, who drops to 4-1. Elsewhere, #1 Wisconsin improves to 5-0 with a 41-28 win over #24 Nebraska, who drops to 4-1. Another week, another top 10 team falls, as #8 Virginia Tech drops to 4-1 behind a 41-13 loss to 4-1 NC State. #10 Auburn gets whooped by #17 Arkansas 38-17. #15 UConn barely makes it to 4-0, as they had to outscore San Diego State 28-7 in the second half to avoid the upset with a 42-38 win. Miami improves to 5-0 as they knock off #21 USF, 27-10. In double overtime, Michigan State hands #22 Illinois their first loss of the season, with a 48-45 win. #23 UCF survived a scare from Marshall to win 31-28.

For our devoted fans, Jaymo, they almost pulled it off. Arizona State came up a little bit short, losing to #13 Stanford 41-31 to fall to 0-6, 0-3 in the Pac-12, but it was a tight one, so there's hope of at least a couple wins in the second half of the year. For Mors, West Virginia finally breaks into the win column! A 30-7 win over 1-3 Iowa State gets the Mountaineers out of their slump and improves them to 1-6 for the year, 1-5 in the Big 12. With West Virginia finally winning after an 0-6 start, will Arizona State be able to do the same? They play 2-4 USC next week, so we'll see.

USC with a losing record, WVU and ASU almost winless ... what the hell is going on? Lol.

It's apparently bizarro world in my dynasty. First year, Nebraska goes 13-1 (9-0 Big Ten) and wins the Big Ten Conference and the Rose Bowl, Southern Miss and Houston both go 12-1 (including CCG win and loss) and SMU 11-1, and Boise State wins the BCS title. Year two TCU is the BCS champions, UCF goes 13-0 and wins the Sugar Bowl, Penn State goes 12-1 and wins the Big Ten CCG over Michigan, and all but one team from the SEC goes bowling, as Florida gets a bowl bid at 5-7 to give SEC 11 bowl bids. There has been some really weird results in this dynasty.

Hah! I LOVE hearing USC has a losing record. It almost makes ASU being winless worth it. lol