FIU has its own set of storylines as the Panthers head for Fayetteville. Here’s a look at one of the most interesting.
The city of Miami, Florida, isn’t, despite its state reputation a haven for football.
College football’s Hurricanes have had plenty of success over the last 40 years, but getting fans to the games has been a regular struggle since the team’s most elite days in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Pro football’s Dolphins are always – like, almost literally – in the bottom-half when it comes to attendance. Even anecdotally, do you know many Dolphins fans? Maybe. How about ones that aren’t from that state?
How many FIU fans do you know? The answer is probably zero. But coach Mike MacIntyre is trying to change that.
In his second season at the Miami-based university, MacIntyre sees an opening for his program. He has attempted, and is attempting to make FIU the Miami school and football program, even if the campus is farther from the city’s center than his more famous brethren in the ACC.
MacIntyre, who took the job after being defensive coordinator at Memphis and also formerly running the program at Colorado, hired locals to join his coaching staff. He took some practices into the city center. And he’s also reaching out to area high schools that have sometimes gone overlooked despite the state being one of the tops in the country at producing college talent.
In his first year last year, MacIntyre led FIU to four wins. It doesn’t sound like much, but consider that the Panthers had won just zero and one the two seasons before. And that was with a coach who was already familiar with the area: Butch Davis.
This year, FIU is at four wins, too. MacIntyre’s team isn’t likely to beat Arkansas on Saturday, even if the Razorbacks are downtrodden. But a win over Western Kentucky would result in a positive change in the team’s record year over year.
And a positive change is just what MacIntyre is hoping for.
