Keyone Jenkins has bulked up for his sophomore season. (David Butler II-USA Today Sports)

Musician Pitbull (of UglyDolls fame) is about to buy the naming rights to Florida International’s football stadium; Jim Harbaugh, accused as one of the seven members of the 2023 Michigan football program to violate rules, says he didn’t do anything wrong; and despite not being able to threepeat, Georgia will enter the season ranked No. 1 as per the USA Today Coaches Poll.

Golden Panthers Have Favourable Schedule

Even with a musician as huge as Pitbull backing them (the five-year deal is for $1.2 million annually), the Florida International Golden Panthers aren’t expected to do much this season. Having said that, they have a very favourable schedule and return over three-quarters of their 2023 offense (which wasn’t very good… and we’re being kind).

Among those returnees is receiver/return man Dean Patterson, FIU’s second leading receiver last year and someone respected enough to earn honourable mention as the punt returner for the Preseason All-American Specialists team.

The real focus here will be on sophomore QB Keyone Jenkins, who enjoyed a strong rookie season but could really take off if he can improve his TD-to-INT ratio (see video below for one of his touchdown passes). He’s already one of the faces of the program and worked on adding weight this offseason as he prepares to up his game to the next level.

Jenkins is a good athlete (he also played varsity basketball in high school), but will need a major breakout to put himself in contention for a pro career.

Cyclones Hope to Climb Big 12 Rankings

The Iowa State Cyclones bounced back to a winning record last year, doing especially well (6-3) against rival Big 12 programs, but still have work to do to really compete against conference powerhouses like Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State or even K-State and Kansas.

The Cyclones have a slam dunk in Week One against North Dakota, but in Week Two, they’ve got a grudge match against archrival Iowa, which has Game of the Year potential as per FanDuel.

The Iowa St. player we’re watching this year is sophomore running back Abu Sama III. He was a 247Sports True Freshman All-America Team selection last year after putting up the third most rushing yards (614) for a freshman in school history.

It was an impressive enough showing to land Sama — who managed that yardage on just 84 carries — on the 2024 Doak Walker preseason candidate list. Coming out of high school, he had potential to also be a defensive back, but definitely seems to have found his niche in the backfield.

Given the Cyclones’ recent history of developing NFL talent, Samu has a chance to put himself firmly on the draft radar if he can build on his solid freshman season. Consider him a breakout candidate this year.

RotoRob Tune of the Day

It would probably make sense to have a Pitbull tune here, but we’re not fans.

The Doors formed in 1965, and consisted of vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore. Here’s another track from American Prayer with “Latino Chrome” (Part III of “To Come of Age.”)