The game was so much closer than the experts expected...17-9, yet still so far from the goal, but in the postgame press conference, FIU head coach Mario Cristobal put it best: “it puts the taste in your mouth.”

To build a program and mentality, the leader of the group in any endeavor has to be able to inspire his team or group to rally around something.

And in the case of the Golden Panther football team, that rallying point is a taste that has become almost foreign to FIU on the gridiron. Winning.

Close games like this can build a myriad of thing within a program: confidence, camaraderie.

All of this contributes to the foundation of a program like the one Golden Panthers are attempting to build.

Is this a starting point for something big, or just another brick in the campaign?

How often has a close home loss to a major home opponent lead to big things in a season?

Not too much that people remember, but this might be an exception, of course, the ones that lead to big seasons are only remembered by the fan bases and students.

It’s the big road win or home overtime upset that the media often remembers as the moment a program begins its true ascent to the top of the sport…or the conference…or its on personal heights, but it’s games like the one the Golden Panthers played against the South Florida Bulls last Saturday night that can have that carry over effect, at least for this season.

FIU put on the kind of defensive performance that fans will remember for some time to come, but perhaps more important and pertinent to the development of the FIU football program, the players will remember, and carry it into next week, and the remainder of the season.

FIU proved to itself that it could hang with the best in the country on any given night ... when it’s at home … and opening its new stadium…in the first nationally televised home game in school history…hmmm?

Was it that the Golden Panthers played way above their heads, or that the Bulls played to the level of a lower-tier Sun Belt team or couldn’t handle the pressure of a team opening their home stadium, in a ‘biggest-game-ever’ atmosphere?

It was probably somewhere in the middle, like all upsets and close games, a combination of one team taking a step back, and one taking a step forward at the same time.

Either way, there are some assessments to be made, both on and off the field.

First, and I think I may have heard this before, but why isn’t sophomore Wayne Younger getting an opportunity in games that are closer?

Younger has an efficiency rating nearly twice as high as junior Paul McCall and has thrown for more yards (178-174) in nearly half as many attempts, Younger’s 29 to McCall’s 57.

This is an issue has been hashed all season long, so I’m done with it for now.

Second, and this is more important as it relates to the off the field issues at Saturday night’s game, particularly in the stands, and it’s a very important question.

Was it real?

The student enthusiasm, the crowd being into the game, the whole on campus college atmosphere leading up to the game, was it all contrived?

How much of the production of this football game was sincere? Maybe I’m just so starved and jealous of the Hilltoppers and the Blue Raiders; and I want more than 16,000 plus fans and a student section that I fear won’t be filled for the four remaining home games.

How much of the production of this football program has been sincere?

The change from one of the most unique logos, and typefaces in college athletics, to something that might be considered more mainstream, with a varsity font, and even going so far as to eliminate the Golden from Golden Panthers in the FIU end zones.

Maybe I’m overreacting. Maybe its just one game, and the team needs a little more time to develop a rapport with its home fans, and home stadium. Maybe I’m looking for too much to early, but a little home grown tradition would be nice.