By Pete Pelegrin
Twitter: @Petepelegrin

One week from today, December 26th, seven years ago, FIU played in the first bowl game in program history.

In the 2010 season FIU won the Sun Belt Conference championship and was selected to play against Toledo in the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl at Ford Field in Detroit.

The bowl game took place the day after Christmas and was the only football game played in America that day because the Monday Night Football game between the Minnesota Vikings and Philadelphia Eagles was snowed out in the City of Brotherly Love. The Panthers and the Rockets had an ESPN worldwide audience watching them.

FIU rallied in thrilling fashion to defeat Toledo, 34-32, sparked by the "Motor City Miracle".



FIU and Temple will also have an ESPN worldwide audience viewing their game on Thursday night in the Gasparilla Bowl. And as was the case seven years ago, FIU's bowl game this year is the only football game played in America that night because the NFL has no Thursday game this week.

Playing on such a big stage will be another opportunity for FIU football to make some everlasting memories like the 2010 Panthers did in Detroit.  

Over the last few weeks I had a chance to speak to many Panthers from the 2010 FIU football team. Here are their stories and memories from the first FIU bowl championship. . . .

As you might imagine being a team predominantly composed of players from Florida, many of the Panthers saw snow for the first time when they arrived in Detroit prior to the bowl game.

When the FIU airplane descended on the Detroit airport runway it looked as if the Motor City was covered by a huge white blanket. There was snow everywhere you looked.

"It was a different atmosphere for the majority of the guys. We're a bunch of Florida guys who are used to wearing t-shirts and shorts. It was the first time many of us saw snow. I remember from the hotel window you could see the Canadian border because Detroit is right next to Canada." – Defensive lineman Kasey Smith, who is now the defensive line coach at Kentucky Wesleyan College and will be at the game Thursday.

"My dad is from Detroit so I had a lot of family up there. [Backup long snapper] Mitch [MacClugage] and I had our passports so we walked over to Canada since Detroit is right on the border with Canada. There weren't too many outside activities since it was snowing and it was so cold." – Kicker Jack Griffin, who now works at his father's company, Superior Interlocking Paving, in Naples and expects to be at the game Thursday.

"I remember we did a lot of indoor activities leading up to the game because you couldn't do much outside in the snow. We had a bowling competition with Toledo and we ate so much Little Caesars Pizza since that was the game sponsor." – Center Brad Serini, who is now a real estate agent splitting time between South Florida and New York City and will be at the Thursday's game.

Whether it was bowl game jitters or being too excited playing in the postseason for the first time, FIU started very slowly against Toledo. The Panthers fell behind 21-7 at halftime. In the locker room, the veteran-laden FIU team aired out the inauspicious first half.

Defensive lineman Jarvis Wilson and receiver T.Y. Hilton implored their teammates to "start playing FIU football". Serini, a senior center from New York, let out his inner New Yorker.

"At halftime I started yelling in the locker room that we are better than this. The coaches didn't have to say a word. We knew we weren't playing FIU football in the first half. We were better than what we showed. I sure as hell was not going to go out like that in my last college football game." – Serini

"There was a little shock around the team because FIU had never been to a bowl before but we had to settle down and focus on the task at hand. We were more excited to be there than to play the game at first. There was a lot of excitement but we had to remember this was a business trip. Brad sure let everyone know that we weren't playing to our capabilities." – Running back Darriet Perry, who is now an I.T. recruiter in Tampa and married FIU softball great Ashley McClain. Both Darriet and Ashley will be at Thursday's game.



FIU's only touchdown in the first half was a 1-yard run by Perry, who set up the score with a 74-yard run to the Toledo 13. To this day Perry's teammates joke with him about being caught from behind on the long run.

"I ran out of gas from breaking so many tackles. When you got short legs like me 60 yards is all I got. The touchdown was running away from me instead of me running to the touchdown." – Perry joked.

Toledo hit a field goal on the first possession of the second half to go up 24-7 before FIU's epic comeback began.

With the Panthers offense stuck in neutral and the defense not living up to the No. 1 ranking it achieved during the regular season, linebacker and team captain Toronto "Little Canada" Smith and Hilton challenged each other at the start of the third quarter.

"We all needed to make a play. Whether it was offense, defense or special teams, we needed to pick it up in the second half. So Little Canada yells at me 'Make a play' and I said 'Watch me return this kick for a touchdown'." – Hilton, Indianapolis Colts receiver, who led the NFL in receiving yards last season.

The first time T.Y. Hilton touched the ball in the third quarter was on the ensuing kickoff after the Toledo field goal. Hilton kept his promise and returned the kickoff 89 yards for a touchdown to ignite FIU.



"Guys were feeding off each other in the second half saying that we aren't going out this way and I think we also had some help from above. We had a brother who was watching over us in Kendall Berry." – Smith.

Before the 2010 season Kendall Berry, an FIU running back at the time, was murdered outside the school's recreational center. The Panthers honored Berry before every game in 2010 by running out of the tunnel holding up Berry's jersey.

"The 2010 year was such a unique and special season where there multiple times that we needed extra help. Kendall Berry helping us from above. You hate for something like that to happen and that can either destroy or strengthen a team and it made us stronger than ever. We were such a team. We weren't the most talented but we always played as a team." – Quarterback Wesley Carroll, now a consultant in Fort Lauderdale, who will be at Thursday's game.

Defensive back Kreg Brown intercepted two passes in the second half to set up two FIU touchdowns. Brown returned both picks inside the Toledo 40. FIU grabbed a 28-24 lead in large part because of Brown, who was considered for the Defensive MVP award of the game before Jarvis Wilson won the honor for his two sacks and five tackles.

Toledo rallied to take a 32-31 lead with 1:14 left in the game before the "Motor City Miracle" occurred. However, before the most famous play in FIU history happened the Panthers were helped by an unlikely kickoff returner.

There was no way Toledo was going to kick to Hilton so the Rockets squibbed the kickoff and senior receiver Greg Ellingson returned it 27 yards to the FIU 48. It was the only kickoff return of Ellingson's FIU career.

"The belief we had on the sidelines was that we were going to win no matter what Toledo did. We didn't doubt ourselves when they scored that final touchdown to take a 32-31 lead. I'll always remember that last kickoff. It was the first of my career. Coach [Mario Cristobal] just said if they squib kick it, grab it and get as much yardage as you can." – Ellingson, now an Ottawa Redblacks receiver, who led the Canadian Football League in receiving last year. Ellingson, a Tampa native, will be at Thursday's game.

Three plays later after a 5-yard pass to Ellingson, Carroll getting sacked for a loss of 12 yards and an incomplete pass to Hilton, the Panthers were faced with 4^th-and-17 from the FIU 41.

That's when a play that FIU practiced every week in spring ball and during the season came to fruition. The Hook-and-Ladder or as it's known at FIU – "The Motor City Miracle".

Carroll took the shotgun snap, dropped back and was hit as he threw a low pass to Jacob Younger (photo below) for nine yards. Hilton came running by Younger, who flipped the ball to Hilton, who was supposed to flip the ball to Perry who was tailing Hilton on the play.



"On the hook-and-ladder play T.Y. was supposed to flip the ball to me. I was five yards behind T.Y. but we looked at each other and we both knew he was going to do more damage with the ball than me so I ran in front of him and blocked. At that moment you let T.Y. be T.Y." – Perry.

Needing eight more yards to keep FIU's bowl championship dreams alive, Hilton tip-toed the sideline for the necessary yardage. After a long replay review, the referee confirmed that Hilton got the first down.

 

"The hook-and-ladder play itself is still surreal when I look back. I just remember anticipating the play being called because our coaches had us preparing for that type of situation since early on in the season. So now we just had to execute it. I was able to run my dig route fairly easy since the defense was playing so far off because it was 4^th-and-17. I reached down to what felt like less than an inch off the ground and caught the ball. I really had no time to react but I was able to flip the ball to T.Y. as he came across me. Once he got the ball in his hands I was 100 percent sure he was going to do what he did best." – Younger, who resides in Delray Beach and will be at Thursday's game.

"I'll never forget the 4th down play to extend the drive before we kicked the game-winning kick. But what I can still see in my mind was how Toledo was pretty much celebrating as if the game was over when we got into that 4^th-and-17 situation. We had been there before all year fighting back in tough situations especially after losing KB that spring. There was a lot of hard work that went into getting to that moment. We were ready." – Defensive tackle Josh Forney, who now trains and develops athletes at his company, BeastSports, in Chicago.

"That was such a cool thing to happen because you practice it all year and you have fun with it. It worked to perfection. It didn't look pretty because I got hit under pressure and threw it badly. Jacob Younger's catch does not get enough credit and T.Y. took care of the rest." - Carroll

A 20-yard pass from Carroll to Ellingson and a 5-yard run by Perry set up the game-winning 34-yard field goal by Griffin.

Griffin -- who to this day is FIU's all-time leading scorer with 258 points and holds the program record with 48 field goals made – was as automatic as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. Still, some Panthers couldn't watch the nerve-wracking final play of the Pizza Bowl.

"Before the kick I got on both knees and prayed with my eyes closed. I couldn't look at the field goal but when I heard the crowd behind me screaming like crazy I knew we had won." - Perry

Griffin has a laid-back personality and never got too high or too low during his time at FIU. Griffin was ready for the moment.

"In warmups before the game I was hitting field goals between 55 and 60 yards. It was the ideal kicking conditions. You are inside, there is no wind and you are kicking on turf. Having kicked an earlier field goal and extra points I was really comfortable with the operation and kicking on the Ford Field surface. I knew I made it as soon as I hit the ball. One of my favorite photos (below) was of me and [holder] Wes [Carroll] celebrating as the ball is going up in the air to the uprights and the Toledo sideline was trying to wave it no good." - Griffin



Pandemonium ensued as the FIU sideline erupted with joy. The Panthers came from 17 points down to win in their first bowl game appearance. Chants of "Hot and Ready!" (Little Caesars Pizza slogan) were being yelled by the Panthers and continued during the bowl trophy presentation.

"For sure the kick to win the game is one of the most memorable for me, but besides that I'll say the chants our team came up with in the locker room and during bowl practices. We were a team in the real sense of the word. You can still find a lot of our bowl memories on YouTube and the chant too: "FIU Football Hot & Ready!" – Safety Johnathan Cyprien, now a safety with the Tennessee Titans.

"Probably one of the most fun things I've ever done in my life was run toward our fans carrying the bowl championship trophy and celebrate with them in Detroit. This is something that I'll never forget and this was a team that I'll always be proud of being a part of. It was truly a special season." - Serini