FIU Football: OC David Yost Dives Into The Offense Two Weeks Before Season Opener

The Panthers' third year under offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach David Yost has a chance to be a good one

FIU Athletics

MIAMI, FL - Three weeks into FIU's fall camp, the Panthers' offense is showing improvement.

After a rough start to fall camp, where it felt as if the defense was dominating most practices, the offense finally began to win a couple of the days. In week three, it was all about the offense. Week four also began like that on Monday.

"Through three weeks it's been good," said offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach David Yost. "We got some guys, as always in camp that got nicked up. So, new guys play a new spot, different guys get challenged, so it's been a really good camp and I think we're moving in the right direction."

As Yost essentially confirmed, Keyone Jenkins will be the starting quarterback against the Indiana Hoosiers on August 31, but the bigger battle becomes who will back up Jenkins. Through three weeks, redshirt sophomore Amari Jones has taken a considerable amount of reps and could be well on his way to winning that backup spot. However, in the eyes of Yost, everyone still has a shot.

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"Amari, Haden and Chayden have all been really competing, getting two's and three's reps," said Yost. "Clayton, our freshman is right now at the four spot for us, or behind those guys. They've been competing and each one of them has different skills and we try to lean into that. It's been a good competition, good battle."

Out of the current options aside from Jenkins, Haden Carlson is the only one who has taken the field for FIU, playing in 11 games, with three in 2023.

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Outside the quarterbac room, one name that continues to stand out is tight end Rocky Beers. Last season, Beers played in 11 games, hauling in 18 receptions for 158 yards and one touchdown. Beers isn't the fastest tight end out there, but has been a big presence in the red zone. On Monday, Beers caught three touchdown passes in the red zone, where the offense has won plenty of battles.

"He's a really good football player," said Yost. "He's a legitimate wide tight end. He can do all the things we're going to ask a guy to do in that position. He can do a lot of good things in the run game, pass game and screen game. So he's a high-level football player there.

One of the names that Yost was very high on, calling him a "completely different running back" was redshirt junior Shomari Lawrence. Last season, in his first season with FIU, Lawrence ran for 566 yards, four touchdowns and averaged 4.5 yards per attempt.

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"Shomari is a different back than he was last year," said Yost "He's a better running back now than he was when we ended the season last year. That's tremendous by him and growing as a running back and seeing things and understanding things, from protections to run game to also what he's done with his body. His flexibility or his looseness in the hips has been a remarkable change. There's times when we're watching video and we're like, "Is that Shomari?" because he's a big, strong guy, but he's much quicker and looser hip wise. He will make different cuts that he didn't make before and that's been really good."

Along with Lawrence, Lexington Joseph and Kejon Owens are all fighting for reps and could easily start that opening game for the Panthers.

Although you don't see the biggest names come to FIU through the transfer portal, the wide receiver room made some notable additions this offseason through Nazeviah Burris, Desna Washington and Juju Lewis.

"The guys that we had come in from the portal last year with Juju, Desna and Nana, they all came in and they're legitimate players," said Yost. "They're going to come in and they're going to play this year for us."

Lewis never saw the field for Georgia Tech while both Burris and Washington played a lot for their respective teams in 2023 and earlier.

The Panthers will take on the Indiana Hoosiers on Saturday, August 31 at 3:30 pm ET on the Big Ten Network. This will mark the Panthers' first power conference season opener since 2018 when the FIU also played Indiana.