By Pete Pelegrin

If one needed a glimpse of why FIU enters its 14^th football season with some buzz and confidence, one needn't look any further than the first two plays of team drills in the opening of fall camp Wednesday morning.

On the first play quarterback Alex McGough hit Jonnu Smith with a short pass that Smith turned into a long gain. On the very next play preseason All-Conference USA defensive end Michael Wakefield shot through the right side to bat down a pass. The first two plays of camp showed that this FIU team is a squad with several strengths and fewer questions than the last two years.

"Everybody is excited," Wakefield said. "There is a lot of confidence and a lot more than we had last year. We have more experience and we feel it in the atmosphere."

For one thing FIU returns just about its entire stout defense from a year ago. FIU will have to find two new starting safeties for its nationally-ranked defense from last season. The Panthers finished 35^th in the nation in total defense in 2014. It was FIU's highest defensive ranking since 2011 when FIU had the 30^th best defense in the NCAA and seven spots from FIU's best defensive ranking when the 2006 Panthers were 28^th in the nation in total defense.

The offense is looking to move into the upper echelon of the national rankings after being a work in progress last season. As FIU coach Ron Turner enters his third season at the helm, he believes the Panthers can move forward on offense this season.

"We'll be able to run our offense," Turner said. "I don't think we'll have to hold anything back. Each year we've gotten a little bit more. I think we'll finally be able to do what we want to do."

The offense starts with McGough, who threw 14 touchdowns in his freshman season last year. McGough and the FIU receivers made it a habit to get in extra work this summer. The players practiced 7-on-7's on their own and also got together for some work with the defense.

McGough at times took a little too long to get rid of the ball last season. The sophomore pored over game film in the offseason to improve his decision-making.

"I worked on the mental part in the offseason, the reads and being able to go through my reads smoothly," McGough said. "From the film last year I was indecisive and I wouldn't throw the ball. Even in the spring I did it a little bit so I really tried to look through each play 100 times."

The film work paid off Wednesday as McGough appeared to make quicker decisions and completed several passes during team drills. Turner has noticed a difference in McGough from last season.

"Work," said Turner when asked how McGough has gotten better. "Study the mental part of it. Work physically and I think he came into the offseason feeling "It's my team so I'm going to take charge." And he has. He's been a very good leader all spring and all summer. Holding meetings with the guys, seven on sevens and all that stuff."

The Panthers are eager to find out if they have the right stuff to take the next step in Conference USA. Day One of fall camp provided the optimism that they're headed in the right direction.