Unlocking potential: FIU’s Keyone Jenkins heads into Year 2 as starter primed for success

David Yost has been coaching for nearly twice as long as Keyone Jenkins has been alive.

Yost, FIU’s veteran offensive coordinator with the “surfer guy” haircut, and Jenkins, the Panthers’ teen-aged starting quarterback, are perhaps the biggest keys to the team’s 2024 season.

If their alliance is a major success, it is likely FIU will have its first winning season since 2018.

Jenkins, who is from Miami’s inner-city, said he has a good relationship with Yost, an Ohio native who has been coaching since 1988.

“It’s like that father-son, older brother-little brother,” Jenkins said. “He respects me. I respect him.”

When it comes to their football accomplishments, both Jenkins and Yost are worthy of tremendous respect.

Jenkins, who won three state titles in three years at Miami Central High School, is one of the most significant signings in FIU football history.

Yost has coached three quarterbacks who went on to become first-round NFL draft picks: Blaine Gabbert at Missouri, Justin Herbert at Oregon and Jordan Love at Utah State. Yost, while at Missouri, also coached Brad Smith, a fourth-round pick who had a nine-year NFL career; and Chase Daniel, who in 2007 finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy voting.

“I got a free trip to New York because of Chase,” Yost said of attending the nationally televised ceremony that year.

Nobody knows if Jenkins can rise to those heights.

But what we do know is that FIU has changed its offense this year to better fit Jenkins.

After all, FIU started last year with Grayson James as its quarterback. But after James passed for just four yards in a season-opening 22-17 loss at Louisiana Tech, the Panthers made a switch. Jenkins won the next three games, and he never relinquished the job, causing James to transfer to Boston College.

Jenkins cooled off after that hot start as FIU finished its second straight 4-8 season under coach Mike MacIntyre.

After the season ended, Yost went to work. He started watching video of Jenkins playing for Central, looking for the plays that would unlock the quarterback’s prior glory.

Then, in the spring, Yost implemented the new offense, and it got a thumbs up from Jenkins.

“We started clicking more after the season ended,” Jenkins said of the work he put in with Yost. “We got on the same page.

“I would probably say 98 percent (of our offense) has changed. Last year, I came into an offense that was not my strength. I didn’t expect to play, and (Yost) didn’t expect me to play, either. I just came in, put my head down and worked, and I won the starting job.”

Working with an offense now created with his strengths in mind, Jenkins said he completed 18-of-18 passes in FIU’s spring game earlier this year.

“The last time that happened,” Jenkins said, “was in the spring heading into my senior year at Central.

“And you all know what happened that year.”

Indeed, Central that year went 14-0, a win total that usually takes FIU two or three season to match.

For example, Jenkins last year was held to 11 touchdown passes and a 58.4 completion percentage. He was also intercepted 11 times.

Even so, Yost said Jenkins played the most of any true freshman he has ever coached, which, as stated, is an impressive list.

Yost, hired by FIU in January of 2022, first saw Jenkins a couple of months later at a Central High practice.

Jenkins, lacking in great height (6-0) or blazing speed, was being under-recruited at that time.

Jenkins threw about 85 passes that day, and Yost was impressed with more than just his arm.

“What you can’t see on film is how he runs the team,” Yost said. “I left Central that day knowing that if we signed him and if he won the job, he would be a field general.”

Yost said all great quarterbacks – from Tom Brady to Patrick Mahomes – are different. But what they share is that they don’t shrink under pressure.

Jenkins has that quality, Yost said, and others, too.

“His super power,” Yost said, “is his ability to throw the ball accurately at a high level.”

Jenkins is also good at throwing a catchable ball – just ask his receivers.

“He puts the ball right there, and it’s very hard to drop it,” FIU wide receiver Nazeviah Burris said. “He has an eye for it.

“When the ball comes, it’s up to you because he’s going to put it right on you. He’s a great quarterback.”

Jenkins is also good at throwing on the move, and the Panthers have practiced that more in drills this fall.

But it’s the intangibles that will make or break Jenkins, Yost said.

“Guys who play other positions love to pick up a ball and think they can play quarterback,” Yost said. “But it’s about decision-making and leading a team.

“There a lot of guys who can throw a football. But there are only a few who can play quarterback.”

Jenkins believes he’s one of those guys, and Yost is giving him a large voice in what plays are in the mix each week.

In fact, Yost remembers an interception last year in which Jenkins revealed – after the fact – that he didn’t like the play.

Yost wants to know that information much sooner this year, and Jenkins said is obliging.

“I can tell (Yost), ‘I like this play’ or ‘I think we should change this one’,” Jenkins said.

“We communicate. I have to work with him, and he has to work with me. He’s not on the field. He has to help me make plays, and that’s what he trusts me to do.”

Jenkins said he is expecting a big season.

“More wins, better decisions, better play-making and less turnovers and mistakes,” Jenkins said of his expectations.

“I’m not going to make the same mistakes I made last year. I’m going to take a big step forward, and a lot of people will see that improvement.”