Tuesday, Sept. 2
If you want to read about Florida International in the Miami Herald - and why the heck would you? - forget it. The Herald isn't covering the Golden Panthers' football games this season.
The reason is Florida International wouldn't provide a press credential to David J. Neal, the Herald's Florida International beat writer. The school and their athletic director, Pete Garcia, wouldn't provide any explanation, nor did they even respond to two inquiries from the paper as to why.
From what I heard, Neal was fair and unbiased in his coverage. But there wasn't much positive to report. The Golden Panthers sunk to 1-11 last year. The team draws fewer than 16,000 fans and lost at home to Bethune-Cookman, 14-12, in their opener last week putting up a meager 180 yards of offense.
Florida International's football program was on the rise going to bowl games in 2010 and 2011 under popular head coach Mario Cristobal, who had local ties. But injuries struck hard in 2012 and Garcia surprisingly fired Cristobal with the reasoning "We'd gone backwards."
Well the Golden Panthers really went backwards last year under new coach Ron Turner finishing 1-11. Turner is a retread coach with no South Florida ties who favors a Pro-style offense. I can't think of the last retread coach using that offense who went to a terrible Division-I school and made it successful.
Garcia is the same clueless guy who shocked people by hiring Isiah Thomas to be the school's head basketball coach in 2009. This was shortly after Thomas, who never coached in college, had screwed up the Knicks with his embarrassing run as an executive. Thomas' run with Florida International ended after three seasons and a 26-65 record.
Now Garcia is threatening the No. 1 source of free exposure Florida International has - the Miami Herald. Neal is one the Herald's more experienced sports reporters. Yet Garcia and the school were so petty they canceled their football media day because Neal was going to cover it, which he obviously had to do being the beat writer. If the school wants positive coverage than do positive things.
It's a blow to the prestige of Conference USA to have Florida International and their joke athletic director in their league. Florida International should be booted right back to the Sun Belt Conference. Better yet they shouldn't even be in Division I.
On the handicapping front, I have a pair of baseball plays going today, including my Run Line Game of the Week. I am 6-1 on my last seven paid plays, including cashing a Triple Star last night on Louisville. My 7 and 30-day packages are slashed 20 percent through Thursday and my college football season package still - for a very short period - is at its lowest discounted price. All of this can be found on my home page at: /pregamepros/pro-bettor/bettor.aspx?id=7746#capper.
As always, no bad luck!