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DALLAS\u00a0 \u2014 Conference USA (CUSA) has announced that the 2026 CUSA Football Kickoff and Media Days are slated for July 20-21, at the Texas Live! Arena and the Loews Arlington Hotel & Convention Center in Arlington, Texas.<\/p>\n
FIU will be represented by Head Coach Willie Simmons<\/a>, Quarterback JJ Kohl<\/a> and 2025 CUSA All-Freshman Team Defensive Back Shamir Sterlin<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n This trio of Panthers will participate in a packed two days that will consist of a live ESPN+ show (July 20), hosted by ESPN’s Mike Corey at the Texas Live! Arena, along with traditional press conferences and media availability (July 21).\u00a0<\/p>\n Simmons led FIU to a historic campaign in his first season in the ‘305’, taking the Panthers to a bowl game for the first time since 2019. Simmons’ bunch ended the regular season on a four-game winning streak and looks to parlay that momentum into a title charge in 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kohl, a highly-regarded transfer quarterback, can be expected to be the starting signal-caller for FIU in 2026, bringing experience and size with his 6-7 frame. In 2025, Kohl passed for 1,465 yards and 12 touchdowns, completing 61.6 percent of his attempts as a member of App State.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sterlin continues to improve as a standout player in the secondary, earning both All-Freshman and Honorable Mention All-CUSA status following a breakout 2025 campaign. The Port St. Lucie, Fla.-native had 65.0 tackles, fourth-most for FIU, along with two interceptions and four pass breakups while starting in 12 games.\u00a0<\/p>\n Specific times for the live ESPN+ show will be announced at a later date. A full list of participants for all CUSA institutions is below.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Team<\/p>\n
Head Coach<\/p>\n
Offensive Player<\/p>\n
Defensive Player<\/p>\n
Delaware<\/p>\n
Ryan Carty<\/p>\n
QB Nick Minicucci<\/p>\n
DE Noah Matthews<\/p>\n
FIU<\/p>\n
Willie Simmons<\/a><\/p>\n
QB JJ Kohl<\/a><\/p>\n
S Shamir Sterlin<\/a><\/p>\n
Jax State<\/p>\n
Charles Kelly<\/p>\n
QB Caden Creel<\/p>\n
S Caleb Nix<\/p>\n
Kennesaw State<\/p>\n
Jerry Mack<\/p>\n
OL Nikola Milovac<\/p>\n
LB Baron Hopson<\/p>\n
Liberty<\/p>\n
Jamey Chadwell<\/p>\n
TE Caleb Ryan<\/p>\n
LB Derrell Farrar<\/p>\n
Missouri State<\/p>\n
Casey Woods<\/p>\n
TE Jeron Askren<\/p>\n
LB Jared Lloyd<\/p>\n
MTSU<\/p>\n
Derek Mason<\/p>\n
QB Roman Gagliano<\/p>\n
P Ashton Logan<\/p>\n
NM State<\/p>\n
Tony Sanchez<\/p>\n
WR TK King<\/p>\n
DL Henry Davis<\/p>\n
Sam Houston<\/p>\n
Phil Longo<\/p>\n
QB Landyn Locke<\/p>\n
LB Dean Ford<\/p>\n
WKU<\/p>\n
Tyson Helton<\/p>\n
OL Karsten Upchurch<\/p>\n
S Jaylen Lewis<\/p>\n
SOCIAL MEDIA ABOUT TEXAS LIVE!
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\nGet all the latest information on the team by following\u00a0@FIU.Football<\/a>\u00a0on Instagram and\u00a0@FIUFootball<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter and\u00a0Facebook<\/a>. General athletic news can also be found at\u00a0@FIUSports<\/a>\u00a0on Facebook and\u00a0@FIUAthletics<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter and Instagram.<\/p>\n
\nTexas Live! is a premier $250 million entertainment, dining, and hospitality destination located in the heart of Arlington, Texas. Developed in partnership between the Texas Rangers and The Cordish Companies, the 200,000-square-foot complex serves as a central hub for sports fans and visitors, situated directly between\u00a0AT&T Stadium<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Globe Life Field<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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DALLAS\u00a0 \u2014 Conference USA (CUSA) has announced that the 2026 CUSA Football Kickoff and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":["post-309309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}