Next! The Florida Atlantic Owls

This summer my daughter was invited to be a flower girl at a wedding in Key West. Not having any idea what kind of place Key West was and being an avid admirer of it's fine pies we agreed and set out on our vacation. One of the last Keys before Key West is I believe Big Pine Key. When you drive through Big Pine Key, there are signs everywhere indicating the island is a deer refuge and if you hit a deer you will be executed by the Florida Highway Patrol. Being from Michigan this struck me as particularly odd that you would be concerned about making sure you don't hit deer. Here in Michigan, we cancel school on Opening Day to make sure we get as many as possible.



You want a deer, I can get you a deer by three o'clock today.

So when Wilford Brimley Howard Schnellenberger was participating in the discussions to start the Florida Atlantic football program I find myself wondering why he decided to go with Owls. It would be like picking the FAU Bambi Herd instead of something a little more obviously indigenous to Florida like Spiders(they beat Duke), Gators, Hurricanes, Heat. I guess most of the apt descriptions of Florida were taken, Swamp Folk was left, but they got sued by the makers of the Waterboy before they even got under way.

This weekend marks the third and I believe final scheduled meeting between MSU and FAU. The first meeting was a 17-0 monsoon in 2008 where Javon Ringer slogged through about 7 inches of rain. Last season we beat them 30-17 in a closer than expected contest that reminded me a little too much of the Youngstown State game. It was a home game for them in technicality only, played at Ford Field because the construction of the FAU stadium ran behind schedule. This year they're coming up I believe to conclude our 2 for 1 with them.

This is Schnellenberger's final season with FAU and then he'll be retiring to some warmer, sunnier part of the world? His accomplishments with FAU deserve respect, taking FAU from no football program at all in 2000 to a 1-AA school in 2001-2005 and a Sun Belt Conference member(Florida's equivalent of the MAC) from 2006-present. Since joining the Sun Belt, they've been invited to two bowl games and won both.

All of that said, last year on the Mad Dog show I recall him saying something to the effect of: "Well, we're going to come up there, play our best football, get our paycheck and go home." I'm sure he said it more eloquently than that, but I remember the mention of getting a paycheck coming up. He knows his place and because of that he's been able to drive FAU from nothing to something, and after this year he's going to turn that something over to someone else to become a bigger something. That's very cool.

Obligatory Wilford Brimley/Howard Schnellenburger Photo Drop



The Quick and Skinny
2011 Record: 0-1
2010 Record: 4-8
Base Defense: 3-4
Base Offense: Multiple look(Pro Style)

Storyline: Well FAU went into the Swamp and they were swamped by the Gators. They lost 41-3 while Chris Rainey scored 3 different times in running, receiving and returning a blocked punt for a touchdown. FAU managed 137 yards of offense and managed a field goal after getting the ball on Florida's 38 after an interception.

According to Athlon, you know who's a worse 1-A team than FAU. No one. Athlon has them ranked dead last. Schnellenburger had a hospital trip on the way to the Swamp so maybe the team was just taken out of it's game, but the prognostications preseason + abhorrently poor play against Florida lead me to believe this should pretty much be the game I was thinking for YSU.

Position Breakdowns:

Quarterback

Graham Wilbert: I'd think this name was fake it's so silly. Prior to last week his career stats were 1/5 for 41 yards and a pick. After last week's 14/26 yards showing for 107 yards and no picks.

David Kooi is another FAU quarterback and could see the field should Graham Wilbert struggle too mightily.

Running Back

Alfred Morris is the team's starting running back and rushed 14 times for 16 yards. Again, not exactly Emmitt Smith. Damian Fortner played last Saturday and averaged 1.9 per carry. Without watching the game I'm wondering if Florida keyed to stop the run and make the new kid throw a lot.

Wide Receiver/Tight End

Remember the dudes that popped off for 174 of FAU's 215 receiving yards last year. Lester Jean and their TE Housler, they're both gone and pretty much so is everyone else. Honestly they might have Reggie Wayne and Calvin Johnson at Wide Receiver, you still have to have someone to get the ball to them. It does seem like FAU likes to throw to their TEs a lot so hopefully our linebackers will get some practice in pass coverage.

Offensive Line

Their OL averages like 280 lbs and that's less than 3/4ths of our Defensive Line. You cannot play power football against our defense with an offensive line weighing 280 lbs. It just doesn't work. They do have 3 seniors on the line and two juniors, but it seems like the skill position talent isn't there. Even if they have the ability, you can't block for people who can't make the needed moves.



Cause it's getting a bit dry right now

Defensive Line

Well as stated before FAU runs a 3-4. One of their three goes 245 lbs, which is about 50 lbs lighter than you'd like to see a DE in a 3-4. Their nose tackle Jarvis Givens figures to be the strength of this DL. The defense surrendered 197 yards rushing to Florida last week. A three man front should work out nicely for our OL still trying to find it's feet at the Tackle positions.

Linebacker

The LB corps is lead by Yourhighness Morgan. Really. That's his name. Those recruitniks reading might remember he picked FAU over MSU. So despite that amazing name, he has shown himself to choose poorly. Perhaps he is not a fan of winning, in which case he has picked the correct school. Of the four linebackers there are no seniors, two juniors and two sophmores. The decision to go to a 3-4 was so that the linebackers could spend more time in pass coverage, if we're testing the TEs against these guys I'd expect to see us have to work at it a bit. Toney Moore one of their ILBs had a pick last week in garbage time.

Secondary

They're short and light. 5'10 and 170 is the average across the secondary. Nichol and Cunningham outweigh their average secondary player by 50 lbs. If we decide to run the football on these guys it should be a cakewalk. They did get two picks last week against starting QB Brantley though, so we shouldn't write these guys off in the passing game. Still it shouldn't be enough to really make us sweat this one.

Overall Assessment: This team looks like it's built to stop a spread and a Sun Belt Spread at that. While it's a terrific accomplishment to have built this program from scratch, I think it might be better for our Floridian Feathered Friends that Mr. Brimley hand this program off after this year. This team appears to be terrible on offense and keyed on defense to be worst at the thing we do best. Couple that with an improved effort by our team and I expect to see this game be the whuppin' we thought YSU would be. We'll dig into that tomorrow more in 5 Key Things.

Remember to eat your damn oatmeal.