Bad weather dampens first fall practice

By: Jackson Wolek / Staff Writer

A day after Mario Cristobal signed a five-year extension to stay with FIU, all was still not bright for the first fall practice this year as the team was forced off the field and under the bleachers for most of the practice due to inclement weather.

The weather got in the way of a long wait for practice to start up again since leaving off in spring.

“I could say it’s really frustrating because we’ve been waiting for so long to go out there and go 100 miles per hour, but Cristobal has an awesome way of working around the weather so we could still get a lot of work in,” said returning offensive lineman Ceedrick Davis.

Right now Davis is the backup center to Giancarlo Revilla at the center position on a line that produced the best running game in the Sun Belt Conference last year.

The offensive line lost All-Sun Belt center Brad Serini and Cedrick Mack, but it is expected that Kevin Van Kirk will replace Mack on the line at left guard.  Van Kirk was the starter last year until he got injured, but he was looking as good as new at the start of fall practice.

Caylin Hauptmann and Rupert Bryan return from last year and should be taking up the starting left and right tackle spots.

There will also be a big battle for the right guard spot, but as Davis points out, no position is set in stone yet.

“Everybody is battling and everybody wants to start Sept. 1 and for the rest of the season so we battle. There are no set positions,” Davis said.

At the receiver position, FIU has been looking to replace their second option last year in Greg Ellingson. Wayne Times has looked like a likely candidate to become the new receiver for Wesley Carroll to pass to when T.Y. Hilton is getting double coverage from opposing defenses.

“I’m ready to fulfill the shoes that need to be filled,” Times said on being able to play a bigger role this season. “We love Greg and he’s a great guy and now I’ve got to take up the spot.”

Besides the weather, they were also limited to how much they could accomplish because of not being in full pads as of yet.

“We are in shorts, so you are tempted to do certain things but you can’t,” said Cristobal. “You can’t get in your heavy personnel settings but what you can do is make sure all the procedural stuff is on point and making sure your alignments and assignments are correct.”

Fall practice is the time when the coaches get to see all of their recruits and players from last year at the same time, and Cristobal is already excited from what he has seen coming out of the first practice.

He admits that you won’t really know for sure what freshmen will be able to get any big playing time this season until about the 14 or 15th time out on the practice field, but says that it is fun to watch them run around right now.

There are less than 30 days until FIU takes on North Texas, and they must make every practice count.