FIU Football's Bobby Salla Jr. Awarded Scholarship in Heartwarming Moment

Bobby Salla Jr. went through a position change and much more to make it to the point where he is today.

FIU Athletics

Bobby Salla Jr. has gone through a lot of change during his time playing college ball. Beginning his career at Temple University where he walked on, earning scout team player of the week multiple times. He made the transition from defensive back to wide receiver and after transferring to FIU, he made the change back to the defensive side of the ball. All of that hard work ended up with him being awarded a full scholarship by Mike MacIntyre's team this week.

"I had zero clue that was happening," said Salla after day three of fall camp. "Just treating it like any normal day. It's first day of fall camp, so you are not expecting any fireworks that day. Just happy to be back out here and to hear that, it brought tears to my eyes. Definitely something I've been busting my butt for for a long time. It was a sweet moment."

GON’ HEAD AN TELL EM @bobbysalla21 🗣️

YOU’RE ON SCHOLARSHIP! pic.twitter.com/EVpHnoF6iO

— FIU Football (@FIUFootball) July 31, 2024

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In his first season with the blue and gold, Salla posted 21 total tackles and ten solo tackles. He posted three straight games with four total tackles, which is a season-best for the Panthers junior. Going into 2024, Salla is expected to be a key contributor as a potential starter.

A few days after receiving the news that he would be on full scholarship, it gave Salla time to sit back and think about everything he had gone through.

"I remember when I got my position change to receiver at Temple, I remember watching Cooper Kupp and just seeing his journey and Hunter Renfroe, a walk-on at Clemson, just to see guys like that who I was just trying to model my game after. I am watching YouTube upstairs sitting in my chair back in Philadelphia and then last night I am thinking about how long ago that felt and now to have that moment come a reality was a full circle moment."

Now that Salla has a full ride, the work doesn't stop there. He's one of the leaders in the safety room and knows that it's time for him to step up.

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"Just trying to have a complete game," said Salla. "You want to be good at everything. Just becasue I am aiming more to be on defense more this year doesn't mean I am going to hold anything back on special teams. I am out here, I am going to give my 110% no matter where I am, if I am on scholarship or not. Luckily I am now, so it makes it that much easier to push myself...I wanna be an All-American, that's everybody's goal here."

One thing that has stood out through the first three days of practice is how the defense seems to have taken over and for Salla and the rest of the unit, it gives them motivation every morning. Salla has noted that a big reason for that is how fast they are clicking together early on. This was a pain point for FIU last season allowing 21 points in the first half of six games in 2023.

"It always gives us juice," said Salla. "It's not a crack on our offense, but we have a damn good defense. We're competing everyday. You always hear the saying 'iron sharpens iron.' Our motto when we are in those defensive meetings always is come out fast and you can see last year there were some games where the defense started off slow. That's not gonna be the same case this year."

Salla and the Panthers' defensive goal is to continue executing the plays like they have been early on in camp and making sure that they get off to the start that they did early in 2023 where they held opponent to 20 points or less in their first two games of the season.