10 interesting tidbits ahead of Florida football’s game against FAU
During the college football season, Pat Dooley will offer a special Thursday look at the opponent Florida will be facing. This week, of course, it is Florida Atlantic. Be sure to catch Dooley’s Sunday Hash, a look back at Saturday’s game every Sunday morning posted by 9 a.m. EDT.
Florida Atlantic was 5-4 a year ago, good for second in Conference USA. Here are 10 things you need to know about the Owls football team.
Former Florida State coach Willie Taggart
... who lost his only game to Florida as the Seminoles’ head coach, has a lifetime record of 61-66. To be fair, he has a track record of turning things around, but only lasted a year at Oregon and not quite two years at FSU. He did coach the 2016 USF Bulls to a 10-2 record and a Birmingham Bowl appearance. Last year, the Owls were in the Montgomery Bowl where they lost to Memphis 44-27.
FAU has 21 of 22 starters back. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that neither Athlon nor College Football News had any Florida Atlantic players on their Conference USA first teams. The coaches were required to have five from each school on the conference’s Watch List and they were offensive linemen Nick Weber, receiver Brandon Robinson, defensive lineman Evan Anderson, defensive back Zyon Gilbert and punter Matt Hayball from FAU. So, there is that.
You think Dan Mullen likes the transfer portal? So does Taggart
... who has taken a slew of players including starting quarterback N’Kosi Perry from the portal (and Miami). He also landed former USF running back Johnny Ford and former Penn State receiver John Denmore. On the other hand, nine players from FAU have entered the transfer portal in the last year.
So, if I told you that a team has Peter Warrick Jr., Warren Sapp III, Andrew Boselli and Willie Taggart Jr. on the team, you might be impressed.
No? They are all sons of famous fathers and Boselli, son of Tony and a former FSU player, is slated to start at guard. He had a nasty bout with COVID last year, as did his dad.
Offensively, FAU wasn’t much in 2020
... kind of breaking the pattern of teams we saw during the pandemic who excelled on offense but struggled on defense. The Owls finished 115th in the nation in scoring with 18.9 points a game and were 112th in total offense. They converted only 38.8% on third down.
Which is why they have a new quarterback.
To be honest, Miami was always looking for someone to take Perry’s place, but the kid from Ocala threw 24 touchdown passes in three seasons and almost led a comeback win against Oklahoma State in the Cheez-It Bowl. "They are very involved in the quarterback running game and we’ll have to account for that,” said Florida defensive coordinator Todd Grantham. “But there is a little bit more of the passing element. They have a lot of new pieces in the offense. We’ve done our homework.”
FAU’s defense was pretty salty a year ago
... with defensive end Jaylen Jones accounting for 5.5 sacks and linebacker Chase Lasater having 76 tackles in nine games. FAU finished 24th in the nation on defense – albeit against a mostly C-USA schedule. So, it will be a good test for Florida’s new-look offense.
There’s a Stoops on the staff.
Of course, there is. Mike Stoops spent his two years of penance at the Nick Saban School For Wandering Souls and is now the defensive coordinator for FAU.
The media picked FAU to finish second in the conference’s Eastern Division behind Marshall.
The owls did receive six of the 24 votes cast to win the division. UAB is the Vegas favorite to win the league at even money while FAU and Marshall are both at 6/1.
There were 40 teams who scored only one defensive touchdown last year.
Florida was one of them. Florida Atlantic was another. The good news for the Owls is that Taggart appears to have cleaned up some of the problems that plagued him at FSU. The Owls averaged a mere 4.67 penalties per game (17th in the country) and were even in turnover margin. [vertical-gallery id=47090]
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