New conference, new coach and new quarterback mark new era at FAU

The Florida Atlantic football team is looking very different than it did a year ago.

FAU’s 2023 season kicks off Sept. 2, but it’s also kicking off a new era with a new conference, a new coach and a new starting quarterback leading the Owls.

FAU made the move from Conference USA to the American Athletic Conference ahead of the 2023-24 academic year, which is viewed as an upgrade in competition. In an eight-game conference schedule, the Owls will host Tulsa, UTSA, East Carolina and Tulane, while going on the road to face USF, Charlotte, UAB and Rice.

Tom Herman was hired as coach in December, replacing Willie Taggart, who was fired after going 15-18 in three seasons, including 5-7 last year. Taggart is now the running backs coach for the Baltimore Ravens.

It’s been two years since Herman was a head coach. He was an analyst for CBS Sports last year and an offensive analyst for the Chicago Bears in 2021. Before that, he was the head coach at Texas from 2017 to 2020 and at Houston in 2015 and 2016. In his six years as a college head coach, Herman, 48, has never had a losing season with a 13-1 peak at Houston in 2015. Four of his six teams have also finished the season inside the AP Top 25.

Even though it’s only been two years since he was Texas head coach, a lot has changed in college football. NIL was not a factor then and neither was the transfer portal madness. Herman said his first priority at FAU was meeting with as many players as possible, to make sure they didn’t immediately hop in the transfer portal.

“It’s made taking over a program a little more challenging,” Herman said at AAC Media Day in July.

Junior defensive tackle Evan Anderson said the biggest change he’s noticed from Taggert to Herman is the extra intensity in practice.

“Everybody wants to work,” Anderson said. “Even somebody who might never think they will be in the game, they working like they starting on Saturday. Everybody from the walk-ons to the redshirts, anybody, freshmen, everybody working hard like they’re a starter.”

Junior wide receiver LaJohntay Wester said Herman’s attention to detail has stood out to him. He specifically mentioned the emphasis on running to the next drill in between periods at practice. He also alluded to Herman’s locker room chains that he puts on the doors to bar players from the locker room. Herman said at media day that he does it to demonstrate that being in the locker room is a privilege, and he’s already used them since arriving at FAU.

“Every little thing matters to him,” Wester said. “I think that’s the biggest difference. He takes every little thing really seriously.”

Graduate transfer Casey Thompson was named the starter at quarterback last week, replacing N’Kosi Perry, who started the past two seasons after transferring from the University of Miami.

Thompson beat out junior transfer Daniel Richardson and graduate transfer Ben Ballard for the job.

Thompson and Ballard both have connections to Herman as former players at Texas, while Richardson joined FAU from Central Michigan.

Thompson is the most decorated of the bunch, playing sparingly in his first three seasons at Texas while Herman was there. He was the full-time starter at Texas in 2021, but Herman was no longer the coach. Thompson then transferred to Nebraska last season and started 10 games before missing all of the spring with a shoulder injury.

Richardson started 23 games for Central Michigan over the past three seasons. In his career, he’s thrown for 5,336 yards, 43 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.

Ballard never threw a pass in a game in his four seasons at Texas.

Regardless, FAU is one of the most experienced teams, which according to veteran college football analyst Phil Steele returns an FBS-best 86.6% of its tackles made from last season.

Inside linebacker Eddie Williams, last season’s leading tackler on a per-game basis, returns for his senior season. FAU’s three other top-tacklers — safeties Armani-Eli Adams and Dwight Toombs II and outside linebacker Jaylen Wester — are all back as well. Redshirt junior defensive lineman Latrell Jean tied Williams last year for the team-lead in sacks (2.5). He returns too, and so does senior cornerback “Smoke” Romain Mungin, who led FAU with eight pass breakups in 2022.

The unit will be led by defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Roc Bellantoni, who was hired in December. He was FAU’s defensive coordinator from 2014 to 2016 and was most recently an assistant coach at Auburn.

On offense, the Owls return their leading rusher, Larry McCammon III, and leading receiver, LaJohntay Wester. The offensive line also holds 113 combined starts under its belt, the fourth-highest in the AAC. FAU added two Power 5 tight end transfers in redshirt freshman Elijah Brown from Alabama —a former four-star recruit — and redshirt sophomore Kahlil Brantley from Miami.

Charlie Frye is the new offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach, and he was the Miami Dolphins quarterbacks coach in 2021.