G5 Football Daily

FIU Football Spring Game: How To Watch, Preview, Time/Date, Storylines

Kevin Barral

FIU offense led by junior quarterback Keyone Jenkins
FIU offense led by junior quarterback Keyone Jenkins / FIU Athletics
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The first spring under new FIU head coach Willie Simmons will come to a close on Saturday, April 5 when FIU host their spring game - with a bit of a twist.

FIU White Team vs. FIU Navy Team

Date: Saturday, April 5

Time: 3:00 p.m. ET

Location: South Dade Kia Field at Pitbull Stadium

How to watch: Claim free tickets with this link

How Will The Spring Game Work?

For the first time, the FIU spring game will be a full four-quarter game. The first two quarters will be ten minutes, with normal stoppages (except media timeouts). The final two quarters will be 15 minutes, with a running clock. The clock will only stop for possession changes and the two-minute timeout.

Kickoffs won't be live, but will have a kicker sent it to the returner. Punts will also not be live, allowing the punter to comfortably send it the other way. Wherever the ball drops or punt returner catches the ball, that is where the drive will start.

Spring Game Draft

On Wednesday, FIU held a spring game draft in the R. Kirk Landon Football Fieldhouse, which was streamed on Instagram live.

Team Navy is managed by Director of Scouting Cam DeFede and Panthers General Manager/Director of Player Personnel Jose Jefferson is managing team White.

The first selection of the draft was announced by Interim FIU President Jeanette Nunez. Team white selected junior quarterback Keyone Jenkins.

Rosters

Names to keep en eye out for

Offense

We know all about Jenkins and what he provides, but redshirt freshman Clayton Dees will be the starting quarterback for Team Navy. The Paltmetto Senior High product didn't see any action last season, but throughout the course of the spring, he's been taking reps with the second team.

This will be the first time we will see the running back trio of Ajay Allen, Kejon Owens and Devonte Lyons take the field on the same team. The expectation is that reps will be split evenly amongst the three.

"If you look at an 80-play game and how we want to run the ball, because we do want to run the ball and put the ball in space," said offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Nick Coleman. "They can be involved in the pass game. I think right now it's going to be just split evenly and then you have your situational things. Once we start getting the game plan week and package weeks, you never know, we may line up more than one back there. So we'll see when it comes."

Defensive Preview

On the defensive side of the ball, FIU will be featuring two new starting safeties come Week One. Seeing who will come out on top is a storyline worth keeping an eye on.

Transfer Websley Etienne may already have one of the spots locked in. He's coming off a season at Arkansas State where he posted 56 total tackles (35 solo/21 assisted), two tackles for loss and two interceptions.

"Websley has been really fun to have back in the area," said defensive coordinator Jovan Dewitt. "He's from down the street, down in Davie, so it's been really fun to have him. He's really cerebral."

The linebacker room lost the Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year, Travion Barnes, who's now off to Baylor. In replacing his production, one name that comes up a lot is redshirt junior Percy Courtney Jr.

In 12 games last season, Courtney posted 25 total tackles (10 solo/15 assisted), one tackle for loss and an interception. He started in a road game against Jacksonville State in place of Barnes, in which he had seven total tackles and one tackle for loss.

"Percy has really stepped up," said Dewitt. "He's played sparingly a little bit over the course the last two years, more of a big time special teams role and I think he's really matured over the offseason and throughout the course of spring ball. Really saw his growth and his leadership start to take ahold of the defense."

Special Teams:

UAB transfer Noah Grant will be kicking for the Panthers this season. Florida A&M transfer Trey Wilhoit will be the punter. The only question is if Grant will do both kick-offs and field goals, or will those two jobs be split between two kickers.

C'Quann Jnopierre will be the Panthers' kick returner this season. Punt returner is yet to be determined, but Samaj Demps will be a name to keep an eye on for that job.

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