FIU boasts options and experience in return game
Dean Patterson remembers the horror.
It was 2022 — his redshirt sophomore season at FIU — and Patterson went back to field a punt against Middle Tennessee State.
“The kick was short, and I ran up … and muffed it,” Patterson said. “I was in such distress.”
But Patterson didn’t quit on the play. Even though a Middle Tennessee player jumped on the ball, Patterson wrestled it back.
That’s the spirit that embodies Patterson, a former walk-on who has become FIU’s spiritual leader at wide receiver.
But Patterson also topped Conference USA last year with a 10.2-yard punt-return average.
“A punt returner needs to be a great decisionmaker, fearless and able to judge time and distance,” FIU special-teams coordinator Zac Roper said. “You have to make that first guy miss either with a move or by breaking an arm tackle, and Dean can do both of those things.”
With FIU set to open its 2024 season Saturday at the Indiana Hoosiers, the Panthers’ other options at punt returner are Eric Rivers and Nazeviah Burris.
“They’re pushing me,” Patterson said.
He said trust is a key part of performing as a punt returner: “It’s about trusting your instincts and trusting that your guys are going to make the blocks and you will make the right read and do what you do – be special.”
At kickoff returner,
FIU’s most experienced player is Lexington “Flex” Joseph — who missed all of last season due to injury.
Joseph has returned 61
kickoffs in his career for a 23.1 average and one touchdown, but he said he is behind Shaborne Demps and C’Quan Jnopierre this fall camp.
“Woo, I’m not the guy right now because we have some great returners,” Joseph said of Demps and Jnopierre. “I’m working every day, but those guys are electric.”
As a team leader, Joseph said he has been giving his rival kickoff returners tips. But that doesn’t mean he
has passed the torch.
“I’m working my way to getting that No. 1 spot back,” Joseph said. “I’m going to get there.
“It takes time. I have to show the world that I’m still the old ‘Flex.’”
With Patterson returning punts and Joseph or one of his challengers at kick returner, FIU has the makings of a solid specialteams unit. That’s especially true considering that the Panthers have back kicker Chase Gabriel (9 of
12 on field goals last year) and punter Daton Montiel (preseason second-team All-Conference USA).
“We’re going to win a lot of games just because of our special teams,” Joseph said. “We have experience in all four phases.”
Joseph said he is “100 percent” recovered from his 2023 knee injury.
“I wouldn’t be out here if I weren’t 100 percent,” Joseph said. “It’s going to be a surreal feeling on
Saturday [at Indiana]. I can’t wait.”
Roper holds Joseph in high regard. The coach said a good kick returner needs to be fearless. He also needs to judge the ball, catch the ball, have great vision and breakaway speed.
Joseph (5-foot-8 and 214 pounds) has all of that, according to Roper.
“Flex is a playmaker, and he has the [video] to back that up,” Roper said. “He’s a big, strong dude with natural vision, and he has no fear. When he gets out in the open, he’s hard to catch.”
THIS AND THAT
Defensive coordinator Jovan Dewitt is hoping to create chaos for opposing offenses this year. “We are trying to get our little guys to do big-guy things and vice versa,” Dewitt said. In his third year as FIU coordinator, Dewitt said, “our players now understand why we are doing something as opposed to just what we’re doing. How we do what we do matters.”
Joseph on the battle for playing time at running back among him and Shomari Lawrence and Kejon Owens: “We’re a threeheaded monster. We compete with each other. We make each other better. We’re happy for each other’s success. There’s no selfishness.”
FIU’s Josiah Miamen is one of just eight Conference USA players on the Senior Bowl watch list. He is the only tight end on the C-USA list.