Head coach Butch Davis is back to the drawing board with the Florida International University Panthers football team.
Panthers’ Anthony Jones rushed for 88 yards on 15 carries and scored on touchdown runs of 36 and two yards.
Throughout fall practice, coach Davis rotated transfer graduate student James Morgan and red-shirt juniors Christian Alexander at quarterback. Morgan started Saturday, but Alexander also played in multiple series against the Hoosiers.
The opening 38-28 loss to the Indiana Hoosiers showed the there is life in their running game plus expect Morgan and Alexander to play season long.
“Nobody likes losing it rips everybody guts,” Davis said. “Those kids are disappointed, the one thing about football just like in life, they’ll bounce back from adversity, if you are going to be a good football team you are going to learn from your mistakes.”
Morgan’s pass was intercepted by Jonathan Crawford who had a 33-yard interception return for a touchdown with 4:01 remaining in the first quarter. It ended a 7-7 tie; the Hoosiers never looked back.
“I was sick and tired last year about telling guys stories that had nothing to do with them,” Davis said. “I can talk about Cowboy games, Hurricane games, Carolina games and Brown games; it does not mean anything to them instead to talk to our kids about plays that helped them win games.”
In addition to Crawford’s interception return, the Panthers fumbled on its first drive. Hoosiers won the turnover total against the Panthers 3-1 Hoosiers finished with 465 yards of total offense, Panthers 327 yards of total offense.
The beat goes on; the Panthers open Conference USA play at Old Dominion Sept. 8th.
Photo/RomanGaray/WORLDWIDEWEST
