Athletics officials at Florida International University announced today that Head Football Coach Don Strock has submitted his resignation.

FIU Athletic Director Pete Garcia, said the university is appreciative to Coach Strock for starting the program and transitioning it to Division 1-A.

 “The role of the founding coach of a university football program is extremely challenging and requires very hard work and dedication,” said Garcia. “We are grateful to Coach Strock for laying the foundation for our program.”

Strock will finish this season as head coach. The Golden Panthers’ last game is Dec. 2 against Troy University at the FIU stadium.
 
“The last six years were a great experience for me and I am grateful to FIU for the opportunity,” Strock said. “I am proud of the successes we have had. Now is a good time to move on to other challenges. I wish FIU every success.”

Strock is the university's first and only head coach. He was named FIU's director of football operations in 1999 and led the charge before the Florida Board of Regents to obtain approval for the program in May 2000.

FIU completed its inaugural season in 2002 with a 5-6 mark, which ranked among the best starts for any new Division I-AA program since 1991. Afterwards, the Internet service Dopke.com named FIU as its Independent I-AA team of the Year.

Following that inaugural season, Strock saw six of his Golden Panthers selected to the first-team All-Independent squad, tied for the most of any of the eight schools playing I-AA Independent football.

On December 4, 2003, the university announced that its feldgling football program would begin transition to I-A and play in the Sun Belt Conference--the fastest known transformation in the history of the NCAA. Last December, ESPN.com named Strock its Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year after leading the Golden Panthers to a 5-6 record and a fourth-place league finish in 2005.

This season, FIU became fully bowl eligible and played nationally-recognized programs from Miami, Alabama and Maryland, emerging power South Florida, the MAC's Bowling Green, plus a full slate of Sun Belt opponents.

Strock convinced several top local football players into buying into FIU's football dream. Former defensive backs Kevin Timothee and Nick Turnbull have been parts of NFL rosters and Turnbull became the first Golden Panther ever to compete in a regular season NFL game when he played on special teams for the Atlanta Falcons last Sunday against the Cleveland Browns. Another former defensive back Greg Moss has played in the Canadian Football League.

Strock's offensive lineman Ed Wenger was twice named to the ESPN Academic All-District team, was a semifinalist for the 2005 Draddy Trophy ("Academic"Heisman) and a finalist for the Wuerffel Award, which is based on academic, athletic and community service performance.

This year, linebacker Keyonvis Bouie was named a preseason All-American by Street & Smith's magazine and became the first FIU player ever to be selected to a postseason all-star game at next January's Las Vegas All-American Classic.

Before joining FIU, Strock had a distinguished 17-year career in the NFL as a quarterback, including 14 seasons with the Miami Dolphins. He began his coaching career in 1993 and spent three seasons as quarterback coach with the Baltimore Ravens.