FIU first caught attention on that Tuesday night in October when they traveled to first place Western Kentucky and snapped a 10-game losing streak.
The Panthers played like a team that had finally decided it was done living in its own history.
Something shifted that night. You could see it in the urgency. You could feel it in the way they hit. You could hear it in Willie Simmons’ voice afterward – quiet confidence replacing survival mode.
It was the first sign FIU was done waiting for something good to happen. They were chasing it.
The Panthers finished the chase yesterday. A 27-21 win over Jacksonville State secured win number six and bowl eligibility for the first time since 2019.
Simmons has been passed over for opportunities before. He won at Prairie View. He won at FAMU. And now he’s winning at FIU.
In nine years as a head coach he’s never had a losing season.
He built players. He built culture. He built programs. And still, the industry kept telling him to wait. Not now. Not you.
FIU said yes. In year one, he delivered a bowl game.
The pressure was real from day one. “That was probably the first thing that I heard when I took the job here. We got to get to a bowl game,” Simmons said.
He never said it publicly. He kept it buried. But he heard it. He carried it. And he delivered on it.
“I can’t say enough about this bunch of young men that I get to coach every day. I’m thankful to be their leader. If you would have told us in early October that we’d be sitting here with a three game winning streak and bowl eligible, there are a lot of people that would have told you that you’re crazy.”
Simmons kept coming back to belief and to the players who refused to blink through adversity.
“This team practices hard. This team loves each other. They sacrifice for one another.”
That’s the line that tells the truth of this turnaround. Not luck but love and sacrifice.
He watched a team grow into the fourth quarter mindset he demands. “Finish is one of our seven Fs. Early in the year you didn’t see that fire in their eyes when the fourth quarter came. Now there is no panic.”
He praised the defense for showing “a grit that as a head coach I’m really proud to see.”
He celebrated players whose contributions never reach the box score but win games. When asked what it meant to reach a bowl in his first season, Simmons never made it about himself.
“It’s not about me. It’s about these young men.”
FIU hasn’t made a bowl since the 2019 Camellia Bowl. That drought ends this December.
The Panthers will close out their regular season Saturday on the road against Sam Houston State.
