FIU Panthers College Football Pregame Quote, 09/06/2022

On being on the road for a month:

The early bye week is always kind of tough. But, I personally like it because, us being a young team, understanding we can play these first two games. We can evaluate where we are and then we can take that bye week and really work at it and really fine-tune some of the things we’re doing. Kind of find out, okay this really is our identity, this is what we do best. This is what our quarterbacks do best. This is what our running backs do best. This is what our D-line and secondary do best. So that kind of gives us that option to be able to do that.

On Shaun Peterson Jr’s switch to LB:

Shaun is still learning how to play the position, but he’s extremely athletic. He has a natural gift of pass rushing. He’s powerful. He has a nose for the football. They’re some little nuances here and there when he’s dropping into coverage or if he’s rushing on a certain guy when the guy hard sets him or soft sets him to understand that a little more. He’s getting better and better and better at that. Coach Brumfield’s doing a good job working with him on that so I think just getting more reps, more practice reps. Practice reps really help him get just more knowledge of the game.

On DB Hezekiah Masses:

Hezekiah, I would say, is a competitor beyond competitors. I mean, he was the guy they caught on him. He’s back there right there on the guy. Throw on me again. I mean, he really was that way. And he made some really good plays and did some really good things and he will progressively get better and better and better. I’ve been very, very pleased with him and what he’s doing. I think he’s going to be an excellent player, I really do.