FIU Football Dismantled By MTSU, Bowl Eligibility Fading Away

MURFREESBORO, TN – With a shot as a bowl game looming over their heads, the FIU Football team had to lock in and play some of their best football of the season on the road against the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders.

But that didn’t even come close to happening. Continuing their historic struggles in Murfreesboro, FIU started flat and ended flat as MTSU cruised to a 40-6 blowout.

In what was realistically their best shot at securing at least one more win in the final three games of the season, the Panthers’ offense never got in rhythm, despite some solid numbers by Keyone Jenkins on paper.

An Offense As Stagnant As It Gets

Despite 226 yards off of 22 completions and no interceptions, it all ultimately led to no touchdowns. The only scores in the game came from a pair of field goals from kicker Chase Gabriel, and that was it.

The Panthers made it to the red zone four times, and the other trips there besides the two kicks mentioned above were a missed field goal and a turnover on downs.

Aside from that, there were seven punts, a fumble returned for an MTSU touchdown, and a safety.

A very stout Middle Tennessee rushing defense did its job and limited FIU to just 47 yards on the ground, with Shomari Lawrence finding the most success with 31 on the day.

What looked like it could lead the way in the first half was stomped following halftime.

Jenkins looked to some unusual connections through the air, such as Eric Rivers and Rocky Beers who had okay numbers, but players like Kris Mitchell and Josiah Miamen had awfully quiet nights.

The loss of both John Bock and Jacob Peace for the offensive line showed that Jenkins had very little time in the pocket and had to scramble almost every play.

The playcalling suffered in the process with checkdowns and handoffs with plenty of yards to go were the norm.

Raiding The FIU Defense, Now In Blue

Middle Tennessee has had a relatively mediocre offense especially as of late, but they were still able to torch FIU to the tune of 40 points and 427 total yards.

Blue Raiders QB Nick Vattiato had one of his best games of the season with 275 yards, four touchdowns, and no picks.

This is the most amount of points that FIU has given up in a game since last season when they had 73 points dropped on them by Western Kentucky.

For as great and as bad as the Panthers’ defense has looked at times, this was arguably their worst performance of the season.

The Panthers also didn’t record a sack against Vattiato. Along with not getting a sack last game vs Jax State, this is the first time they haven’t done that in back-to-back games since 2022.

Suddenly, An SEC School Appears

It’s…not looking good at all for FIU as far as a bowl game appearance is concerned. As a reminder, an FBS team needs to win at least six games in a season to go bowling.

But now FIU has a 4-6 record and is 1-6 against Conference-USA opponents. They have two games remaining on their schedule.

The first is another road game as they head to Fayetteville to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks, who stand with a 3-7 record but are an SEC school nonetheless. That’ll be on Saturday, November 18th at 7:30pm and can be seen on ESPNU.