By Pete Pelegrin
Twitter: @Petepelegrin

For a program in the midst of the best season in its 16-year history through seven games you wouldn't think FIU needs much motivation from week to week. After all the Panthers have never had a 5-2 record in their existence like they currently enjoy.

Still, FIU coach Butch Davis thought why not try something different when it comes to recognizing outstanding performances by the Panthers both on and off the field during this season.

So Davis introduced three different ways to honor his players: Panther paws stickers for the helmets, an FIU Football coin and a Special Teams Hammer Award.

"We have tried to do a lot of different things here," Davis said. "If we win everybody on the team gets a paw on their helmet, including the scout team players. You earn more paws by individual performance like the grades that you make. Sometimes it's driven by the ratio of plays that you make. Tackles, sacks, assisted tackles, run after catch, a lot of different things. We got about four pages of things that give you a chance to earn something like that. Guys see that in the locker room and other guys are like you know what I'd like to have some of those [paws] too. I'm going to dial up what I'm doing."

Davis, who has a special collection of coins (photo below), had an FIU Football coin made. Davis got the inspiration from Lew Merletti, the former director of the United States Secret Service, who became friends with Davis when he was the Cleveland Browns coach. Merletti was the director of security for the Browns during Davis's tenure.

     

"Lew gave me one of his military coins and whether it's Seal Team Six or the Green Berets they all have a coin that has slogans that are instrumental," Davis said. "One of the things we did was we created an FIU Football coin. It has some logos and it has H.E.A.T. which stands for Heart, Execution, Attitude, Technique. When a player gets to the point that they are all in we award those. It's not necessarily all of the time about production. It's not like a game ball. It's more about how they do everything right like community service, in the classroom, on the field. . . Hopefully, this will be something that they look back five, 10, 15 years from now and appreciate that they were part of the program. Hopefully, they will cherish it."

Davis added that any Panther can earn the coin regardless of whether they are backups or special teams players. The FIU coach said sometimes they award three coins per week, sometimes eight or nine.

Throughout Davis's coaching career he has always been a big proponent of special teams play. The Special Teams Hammer Award is a weekly honor that goes to the most important play on special teams.

"The biggest hit that occurs and really resonates or the best play on special teams gets that award," Davis said. "The award is for something on special teams that really changed the momentum of the game. It is for getting everybody to really appreciate the enormous role that special teams players play in the outcome of the game."

The award is a plaque with a hammer labeled "FIU Panthers". Above the hammer is the motto: "We've Got a Big Play, Big Hit Reputation. . .WE ARE THE HAMMER". To the left and right of the hammer are smaller plaques with the names of the players that have won the award and which game they won the award for.



"These recognitions give the team more motivation to win those awards and it gives great pride and honor for those who win the awards," senior cornerback Brad Muhammad said. "You might see one of your teammates win it and that might motivate the person next to him to want to be a part of that. Everybody wants to get the coins that coach gives out. It makes us practice harder and perform better."

Muhammad is one of the players that has won the two awards and earned Panther paws this season. He earned the Hammer Award in the season opener and earned the coin before the Tulane game.

"I have won them all but when I won the coin it felt great because of the backstory of the coin," Muhammad said. "That's something that I will always remember."