The 2017 FIU Panthers football team represented

Florida International University Florida International University (FIU) is a public university, public research university with its main campus in Miami-Dade County. Founded in 1965, the school opened its doors to students in 1972. FIU has grown to become the third-largest uni ...

in the

2017 NCAA Division I FBS football season The 2017 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the highest level of college football competition in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 2017. The regular season began on August 26, 2017, and end ...

. The Panthers played their home games at the

Riccardo Silva Stadium Riccardo Silva Stadium is a college football and soccer stadium on the campus of Florida International University (FIU) in Westchester, Florida. It is home stadium of the FIU Panthers football team and the Miami FC soccer team from the USL Cha ...

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

as members of the East Division of

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are l ...

(C–USA). They were led by first-year head coach

Butch Davis Paul Hilton "Butch" Davis Jr. (born November 17, 1951) is an American football coach. He was most recently the head football coach at Florida International University. After graduating from the University of Arkansas, he became an assistant col ...

. The Panthers finished the season 8–5, 5–3 in C-USA play to finish in second place in the East Division. They received an invitation to the

Gasparilla Bowl The Gasparilla Bowl is an annual NCAA-sanctioned post-season college football bowl game played in the Tampa Bay area. It was first played in 2008 as the St. Petersburg Bowl at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. The game was renamed the G ...

where they lost to

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

Previous season

The

Panther Panther may refer to: Large cats *Pantherinae, the cat subfamily that contains the genera ''Panthera'' and ''Neofelis'' **''Panthera'', the cat genus that contains tigers, lions, jaguars and leopards. ***Jaguar (''Panthera onca''), found in Sout ...

finished the 2016 season 4–8, 4–4 in C-USA play to finish in fourth place in the East Division. The highlight of the season was beating rival

Florida Atlantic Florida Atlantic University (Florida Atlantic or FAU) is a public research university with its main campus in Boca Raton, Florida, and satellite campuses in Dania Beach, Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Jupiter, and Fort Pierce. FAU belongs to the 12-cam ...

in the

Shula Bowl The Shula Bowl is the name given to the Florida Atlantic–Florida International football rivalry. It is an annual college football rivalry game between the only two public universities in the Miami metropolitan area: Florida Atlantic University ...

on October 1. Following the season, the school fired Ron Turner after four years at FIU. On November 15, the school hired Butch Davis as head coach.

Spring Game

The 2017 Spring Game took place in University Park on April 7, at 7:00 PM.

Offseason

Following the conclusion of the 2016 season, several Panthers were invited to participate in postseason all-star games. Invitations include: Trey Hendrickson ( DE) participating in the

East–West Shrine Game East West (or East and West) may refer to: *East–West dichotomy, the contrast between Eastern and Western society or culture Arts and entertainment Books, journals and magazines *'' East, West'', an anthology of short stories written by Salm ...

on January 21, 2017, Imarjaye Albury ( DT) participating in the

NFLPA Collegiate Bowl The NFLPA Collegiate Bowl is a post-season college football all-star game for NFL draft-eligible college players, held annually in January. The event was founded in 2012 by the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA). Players predomi ...

on January 21, 2017 and Michael Montero ( OL) participating in the Tropical Bowl on January 15, 2017.

Departures

Notable departures from the 2016 squad included:

2017 NFL Draft

Panthers who were picked in the 2017 NFL Draft:

Schedule

FIU announced its 2017 football schedule on January 26, 2017. The 2017 schedule consisted of six home and away games in the regular season. :The game between Alcorn State and FIU was relocated to

Legion Field Legion Field is an outdoor stadium in the southeastern United States in Birmingham, Alabama, primarily designed to be used as a venue for American football, but occasionally used for other large outdoor events. Opened in 1927, it is named in ho ...

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

due to

Hurricane Irma Hurricane Irma was an extremely powerful Cape Verde hurricane that caused widespread destruction across its path in September 2017. Irma was the first Category 5 hurricane to strike the Leeward Islands on record, followed by Maria two ...

. : A game with UMass was scheduled after the game between UMass and South Florida was postponed due to Hurricane Irma, and FIU's game with Indiana was canceled. :Schedule Source:

Game summaries

at UCF

Alcorn State

at Rice

Charlotte

at Middle Tennessee

Tulane

at Marshall

UTSA

Old Dominion

at Florida Atlantic

WKU

UMass

Temple–Gasparilla Bowl

References

FIU Florida International University (FIU) is a public research university with its main campus in Miami-Dade County. Founded in 1965, the school opened its doors to students in 1972. FIU has grown to become the third-largest university in Florida ...

FIU Panthers football seasons

FIU Panthers football FIU Panthers football program represents Florida International University (FIU) in the sport of American football. The Panthers compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the East Div ...

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