Davis: Garcia absent from teams in recent months
Pete Garcia, who had been FIU’s athletic director since 2006 before abruptly resigning on Wednesday, had become a bit of a ghost, according to Panthers football coach Butch Davis.
“I don’t think I’ve seen Pete more than two times in the past 10 or 11 months,” Davis told The Miami Herald over the phone Wednesday night in his first public comments since Garcia’s resignation.
“Over the past nine or 10 months, Pete had somewhat separated himself from all the sports and had spent almost all of his time raising money because the athletic department was somewhat in debt.”
Davis, who is in the last season of his five-year contract, acknowledged that his career is in limbo while FIU searches for a new athletic director.
The struggles of FIU’s football team — they have lost 15 straight games to FBS schools and 15 of 16 overall — don’t help the case of Davis, who turns 70 on Nov. 17.
“I don’t know when they’ll hire [an AD] or when they will start doing the interviews,” Davis said. “It was a little bit of a surprise that Pete left [Wednesday]. You thought maybe it might be at the end of the season or in the spring.
“But I know this: I love the kids. I love coaching. I love having an opportunity to coach. Someone will just have to say … do they want me to stay and be a part of this program? Who knows?”
Davis declined to talk about where his relationship with FIU president Mark B. Rosenberg stands, but the coach did
say: “When Conference USA blew up [with eight defections to other leagues], nobody told me it was coming. Nobody’s put me in the loop. I have no clue what’s going on.”
Davis was asked if he would like to coach elsewhere.
“I do get calls from
NFL teams who are interested in me being an analyst,” he said. “I get calls from colleges.
“Even over the past two or three weeks, I have gotten text messages from people who have said: ‘Are you going to be [at FIU]?’
“But this goes all the way back to when I was a high school coach. You focus exclusively on the season you are having right now.”
FIU (1-8 overall, 0-5 C-USA) will try to break its eight-game losing streak on Saturday afternoon at Middle Tennessee.
Middle Tennessee is 3-0 at home this season, and the Blue Raiders are favored by 10 points against
FIU.
One of FIU’s biggest problems this season is that its defense has forced just six turnovers while its offense has given the ball away 13 times. The Raiders have forced 25 turnovers while giving the ball away 18 times.
In conference games, Middle Tennessee’s offense ranks fifth in scoring (28.4 points) and FIU is 13th in the 14-team league, averaging 19.4.
Defensively, FIU is last in the league, allowing 44.4 points. Middle Tennessee is 11th, averaging 31.0 points.
FIU quarterback Max Bortenschlager ranks third in the league in passing yards per conference game (272.8).
FIU wide receivers
Bryce Singleton (93.5) and Tyrese Chambers (87.0) rank second and fourth, respectively, in reception yards per conference game.