FIU Panthers (4-5; 4-1 SBC)
vs. Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns (2-8; 2-3 SBC)
Saturday, November 20, 2010 • 7:00 p.m. (ET)
Cajun Field (31,000) • Lafayette, La.
Gameday Central
Series vs. Louisiana: UL leads, 6-1
Last: 10/31/09 – UL 17, at FIU 20 (OT)
Radio: 790 The Ticket (Jeremy Marks-Peltz, pbp/Jorge Sedano, color)
THE GAME - The Panthers are coming off the biggest win in program history, having defeated the Troy Trojans 52-35 to take sole possession of first place in the Sun Belt Conference standings. Up next for FIU is another tough test in yet another hostile environment when FIU takes on the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns at Cajun Field.
Last year the Panthers defeated the Cajuns in Miami on the strength of a blocked field goal in overtime. FIU's 20-17 victory over Louisiana was the Panthers' first-ever over the Cajuns. FIU will look to make it two-in-a-row against the Cajuns as the Panthers look to continue their push for a Sun Belt Conference championship.
RUNNING WILD - FIU set a program-record against Troy (11/13/10), amassing 668 yards on offense on its way to a 52-35 victory over the Trojans. The Panthers did the bulk of their damage on the ground, gashing the Trojans for an FIU-record 448 rushing yards.
O-LINE HELMET STICKER - Never has FIU's offensive line been as good as it has this season as they've allowed just 1.66 sacks per game, which is good for 28th in the country. FIU's o-line has also never been as good as they were against Troy (11/13/10) when they opened holes for the running game to the tune of 448 rushing yards. For that dominating performance, the entire FIU offensive line was awarded a Helmet Sticker by ESPN.com.
TRIPLE-THREAT - Against Troy (11/13/10), FIU had three runners go over 100 yards for the first time in program-history. Darriet Perry (186), T.Y. Hilton (158) and Darian Mallary (118) all set career-highs in rushing. Perry's 182 yards were also the sixth-best single-game rushing performance in FIU history.
TOUCHDOWN KING - T.Y. Hilton had another outstanding game against Troy (11/13/10), racking up 261 all-purpose yards. Hilton also scored two rushing touchdowns, giving him 25 touchdowns for his career, which is the most in FIU history, surpassing Rashod Smith's 24.
BEWARE OF GAITOR - FIU's game against Troy was billed by many as a matchup of the two best all-purpose runners in the conference, T.Y. Hilton and Jerrel Jernigan. While Hilton certainly delivered, Hilton's teammate Anthony Gaitor personally made sure Jernigan did not. Matched up man-to-man with Jernigan, Gaitor finished the game with eight tackles, one for loss, but more importantly limited Jernigan to just 32 receiving yards. The dominant performance earned Gaitor Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Week.
RUN LIKE THE WIND - The 448 rushing yard performance against Troy (11/13/10) put FIU's season total at 1,758, which is already FIU's highest single-season total, surpassing the previous mark of 1,429 set in 2007. With that performance, FIU has now rushed for over 150 yards six in games this year, including the last five.
The Panthers' 195.33 rushing yards-per-game are far and away the most ever for FIU. The Panthers previous high is 132.7 set in 2004. FIU is also currently ranked 26th in the country in rushing.
TOO FAST, TOO FURIOUS - FIU's relentless attack against Troy (11/13/10) began early in the second quarter when the Panthers furiously went after the Trojan defense to the tune of 31 second-quarter points, which is the most FIU has ever scored in a quarter. FIU used its fast-paced offense to get the job done as evidenced by the fact that FIU's seven touchdown drives took up just 24 plays and 9:49 of game clock.
SUN BELT SUCCESS - FIU's win over Troy (11/13/10) was the Panthers' fourth conference win of the year, setting an FIU record for conference wins in a season. The victory also put FIU in sole possession of first place in the Sun Belt for the first time ever.
DP IS GRAND - Darriet Perry's 186 rushing yard performance against Troy (11/13/10) put Perry over 1,000 rushing yards for his career, making him just the fourth Panther to reach that plateau. Perry joins Rashod Smith, A'mod Ned and Julian Reams in that category. However, Perry's 4.2 yards per carry are second only to Smith's 5.2 among the four 1,000-yard runners.
PAYDIRT FOR DP - Darriet Perry's touchdown against Troy (11/13/10) was his seventh of the season, after scoring five during his first two seasons. Perry now has 12-career rushing touchdowns, which is tied for the second-best total in FIU history. Rashod Smith holds the record with 24.
T.Y. 2K - With 124 receiving yards against Florida Atlantic (10/30/10), junior wide receiver T.Y. Hilton became the third Panther ever to go over 2,000 receiving yards for his career. Hilton followed that up with a 96-yard performance against ULM (11/6/10) and 75 against Troy (11/13/10), giving him 2,240 for his career.
FOUR FOR 4 - T.Y. Hilton has had many big games in his FIU career, but none as big as his performance against ULM (11/6/10). Hilton amassed 291 all-purpose yards, scoring four touchdowns to lead FIU to a 42-35 win in double overtime. The junior from Miami became the first panther to score a TD in three different ways in the same game, as he caught two touchdowns, ran for one and returned a kick for a score. Hilton's first score gave FIU a 7-0 lead in the first quarter. After ULM tied the score on the next possession, Hilton responded with a 95-yard kickoff return for touchdown. In the fourth quarter, with FIU clinging to a 21-20 lead, Hilton beat a ULM defender on a jump ball and then broke a tackle to score on a 67-yard catch. Then on FIU's first play in overtime, Hilton took a reverse into the end zone for a 25-yard rushing touchdown.
RETURN TO FORM - In 2008 and '09, Hilton scored a touchdown on each of his first returns of the season. Up until the game against ULM, Hilton hadn't broken through for a TD return. After ULM tied the score at seven, Hilton responded with a 95-yard kickoff return for touchdown, and finished the game with 168 kick return yards. The return was Hilton's fourth-career return for touchdown (3 KR, 1 PR), tying him for first all-time at FIU (Nick Turnbull - 1 PR, 2 INT, 1 FUM; Lionel Singleton - 1 PR, 2 KR, 1 INT). Hilton has now returned a kickoff for a touchdown in each of his three seasons at FIU.
THE HONORABLE MR.HILTON - For his performance against ULM (11/6/10), Hilton was named the Sun Belt Conference Offensive Player of the Week as well as the Special Teams Player of the Week. In addition, Rivals.com named Hilton their Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week, collegefootballperformance.com named Hilton one of their Kickoff Return Performers of the Week, and he was one of four players to be selected "Paul Hornung's Most Versatile Performances of the Week". The honors kept rolling in for Hilton as he was awarded an ESPN Helmet Sticker on ESPN.com. This marked the second time Hilton has won each weekly Sun Belt Award as he was named SBC Special Teams Player of the Week for the week of September 29, 2008, and Offensive Player of the Week for the week of November 8, 2008. It's also the second time Hilton is honored as Kick Return Performer of the Week by collegefootballperformance.com.
Hilton followed that up with another dominating performance against Troy (11/13/10) where he ran for 261 all-purpose yards. For his efforts, Hilton was again named Rivals.com Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week and he was named an Honorable Mention Wide Receiver Performer by collegefootballperformance.com.
GAITOR BAIT - Known as one of the best pass defenders in the conference, Anthony Gaitor's biggest contributions in FIU's victory over WKU (10/9/10) came behind the line of scrimmage. With WKU driving towards a potential game-tying touchdown, Gaitor made a stop behind the line of scrimmage on an end-around that put WKU in a 4th-and-8 situation after a loss of four yards. Two drives earlier, Gaitor forced WKU to punt after sacking Kawaun Jakes on third down. Gaitor was back at it against North Texas, picking up another sack. On the season, Gaitor has career-highs of 9.5 tackles for loss and three sacks.
