FIU’s football team is 4-2 — tied for the best six-game start in program history — and its latest success can be attributed in large part to a pair of reserves and an imaginative coaching staff.
The problem for the Panthers started before this past Saturday’s home game against Tulane, a 13 1/2-point favorite which came to Miami having rushed for 488 yards in its previous game.
In a case of apparent bad timing, FIU was without its top two tacklers because of unspecified injuries: middle linebacker Anthony Wint and outside linebacker Treyvon Williams.
FIU coach Butch Davis and his staff got creative, however, using a 4-2-5 lineup that featured an extra defensive back in safety Shermarke Spence, a fourth-year junior from Miami Northwestern.