Florida International’s football team has played, and lost to, Penn State, Maryland, Miami (Fla.) and Kansas University during the nonconference portion of the 2007 season.

The Jayhawks compare favorably to the first three heavyweights on the Golden Panthers’ slate, coach Mario Cristobal indicated after Saturday’s lopsided 55-3 loss at KU.

“Absolutely,” Cristobal said, asked if KU could compete with the Nittany Lions (59-0 winners on Sept. 1), Terrapins (26-10 winners on Sept. 8) and Hurricanes, who downed FIU, 23-9, last week, then fared even better against Big 12 power Texas A&M, 34-17, on Thursday.

“Kansas is an excellent football team. The way they execute on offense : they truly are a machine,” Cristobal added.

The Todd Reesing-led Jayhawks gained 615 yards Saturday.

Miami, in comparison, totaled 428 yards, Maryland 270 and Penn State 549 against FIU.

“They have a great offense, a great quarterback,” said FIU safety Ashlyn Parker, who had one of the best hits of the night – a punishing crush of KU receiver Aqib Talib that separated Talib from the ball.

“That’s irrelevant,” a somber Parker said of the blow delivered to the KU player, who hobbled off the field yet came back later to return an interception 100 yards for a score.

Talib’s amazing touchdown came in the fourth quarter, the game well out of reach.

A more crippling score took place just 2:04 into the contest. That’s when Ray Brown blocked Chris Cook’s punt. Dakota Lewis pounced on the ball in the end zone to give KU a 7-0 advantage.

“You never want to hear that double thud come off the foot of the punter,” Cristobal said. “It’s real simple. The entire line heard the fullback’s call. For whatever reason, the center didn’t. It’s not about pointing fingers. When you are a young football team, you’ve got to avoid mistakes like that.

“It was very tough. Without that, a worst-case scenario : the end of the first quarter it’s 3-3 (instead of 10-3). It’s a different outlook, and we had momentum, too. The momentum didn’t last.”

Running back A’mod Ned, who gained a net 24 yards off 15 carries, admitted the blocked punt came as an early shock.

“You have to overcome things like that,” he said. “It’s football. You have to make plays. We didn’t make them, and they made all the right ones.”

FIU gained 255 yards against KU’s aggressive defense.

“It doesn’t mean anything to have a bunch of yards and no points,” Ned said.

“I don’t get into rating teams,” he added, asked how KU would fare compared to the other foes on FIU’s slate. “I know they are a great football team. They handled us in every phase of the game.”

Cristobal, whose team begins Sun Belt play next week at Middle Tennessee State, isn’t sure this was a good way to enter conference action.

“It was a very humbling experience,” he said of the loss, FIU’s 16th straight overall defeat. “Kansas played better. They coached better. They took it to us early. We felt good after the first quarter, then their depth and execution took its toll.

“(From a game like this) you learn if you don’t jump on a team as good as Kansas early and if you turn the ball over early like we did and dig yourself a hole against an offensive machine, it’s tough to get out of. We were getting better every single week until this point. We took a step backward tonight, not because of effort. We played hard until the final whistle.”