The Panthers are coming off of an impressive 8-5 season, one in which they defeated Louisville on the road.  Coach Mario Cristobal was a hot commodity in the offseason, but turned down numerous offers to stay in Miami.

Offense: FIU will be going into the season without some of their top offensive weapons from last season, including quarterback Wes Carroll and do-everything, dynamic wide receiver T.Y. Hilton.  However, unlike Hilton’s replacements, no quarterbacks have meaningful minutes coming into the year.  Jake Medlock, who played in mop-up duty last year, is the only one with game experience.

Lucking for the Panthers, their leading rusher, Kedrick Rhodes returns.  The junior ran for 1,149 yards and eight scores last season.  But it will be up to a bunch of unproven players to back the 5-11 running back.

For the last four years, Hilton did everything that was asked of him and did it well.  It will be up to a group of experienced players to fill that void.  Wayne Times was last years second-leading receiver with 54 catches, 540 receiving yards and two scores.  Rhodes had 27 grabs for 252 yards and Jacob Younger 21 for 286.

Defense: The defense should be pretty stout for the Panthers in 2012, as they return an experienced linebacker and secondary corp.  Players from each of those positions were the top five tacklers last season and each returns.  Last year’s top two tacklers, Winston Fraser and Jordan Hunt, both linebackers, are back for their senior seasons.  Fraser had a team-high 108 tackles, while Hunt had 85.  Both players had four sacks each.

Jonathan Cyprien, Sam Miller and Jose Cheeseborough all return to the secondary.  The three made up for the third, fourth and fifth leading tacklers.  It’ll be a positive for the Panthers to have this type of experience in the defensive backfield.  Cyprien had 81 tackles, Miller 63 and Cheeseborough 59.  Miller also had two interceptions.

Tourek Williams, Isame Faciane and Paul Crawford return to lead the defensive line.  Williams had 32 tackles and five sacks last season.  Faciane had 32 tackles as well, while Crawford had 19.

Recruiting: Cristobal brings in 29 recruits in this year’s signing class.  They bring in two quarterbacks, who will hopefully be the quarterback of the future.  11 of the players come in on the offensive side of the ball, while the defense looks to be stocked for the future as well.

Schedule: FIU has the tough task of playing 10 games in a row before they get an off week.  Their week off doesn’t come until the week of November 10.  Nonconference games include Duke, Akron, UCF and Louisville.  After that Louisville game, Arkansas State comes calling for a Thursday night game, in what could be for the conference title.