As both Florida International and Louisville make preparations for their gridiron battle on national television, it would be an interesting delight to the fans to know that their success is commonly tied to a certain football coach.

Howard Schnellenberger was the head coach of both the Louisville Cardinals and the University of Miami and had tremendous success in both programs.

In Louisville, Schnellenberger coached his hometown Cardinals from 1985 to 1994. Schnellenberger inherited a program that was so down in the dumps that they were on the verge of becoming an FCS team.

Schnellenberger started his rebuilding process by going 8–24–1 in his first three years. Then he was able to turn Louisville around and went 24–9–1 the next three seasons. In his 10 years as coach, Howard Schnellenberger led the Cardinals to their fourth and fifth bowl games in school history, winning them both. His best season was in 1990, when Louisville went 10-1-1 and on New Years Day Fiesta Bowl game of 1991 in Sun Devil Stadium, they completely destroyed Alabama 34-7.

Schnellenberger finished his tenure in Louisville as their second winningest coach in history. For his work, Louisville had the new football complex named after him.

Before Louisville, he was the head coach in the University of Miami. His recruiting philosophy of mainly tapping talent from South Florida made the Hurricanes a national powerhouse.

How does this concern FIU? Well for one, they are based in the greater Miami area. Their head coach, Mario Cristobal, played for the Hurricanes and was a graduate assistant there. He took that same recruiting philosophy instilled by Schnellenberger and brought it to FIU. Now, their football team is coming off their first conference championship and bowl win and has the makings for another run.