Kiffin’s streaking Owls overwhelm Akron, 50-3
BOCA RATON, Fla. — Lane Kiffin ended his first Florida Atlantic season with a flourish, with Devin Singletary running for 124 yards and three touchdowns as the Owls rolled past Akron 50-3 in the Boca Raton Bowl on Tuesday night.
Singletary finished with 32 touchdowns this season for the Owls (11-3), who ended the year on a 10-game winning streak and matched the school record for wins in a season — set during the team’s run to the Division I-AA semifinals in 2003.
Jeff Driskel threw for 270 yards and two touchdowns and ran for two other scores for FAU.
The Owls had a massive turnaround in Kiffin’s first year and may have an even brighter future. Earlier Tuesday, a person with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press that FAU and Kiffin have agreed to extend his contract six more years through 2027.
Kato Nelson threw for 80 yards for Akron (7-7).
The game was a perfect microcosm of FAU’s season: Once the Owls got rolling, they never stopped.
And Kiffin held nothing back. FAU got three touchdowns on fourth-down tries, unsuccessfully tried an onside kick in the first quarter, went for a 2-point conversion in the third quarter to make it 36-3 and even tried a halfback pass in the fourth quarter with a 47-point lead. The Owls didn’t punt on their first nine possessions, getting
seven touchdowns and two missed field goals out of those.
Even on the last play of the game, FAU threw a pass — a 10-yard gain, one that gave the Owls a 582-146 edge in total yards. The Owls left no doubt: Only two bowl games since 2000 had a bigger margin of victory than FAU’s 47-point romp in this one.
Both teams missed field goals on their opening drives, and after that it was all FAU. Willie Wright’s 4-yard scoring grab got the Owls on the board late in the first quarter, and Driskel went in from 3 yards out midway through the second quarter to make it 14-3. Both of those scores ended long drives — one 13 plays for 79 yards, the other 14 plays for 75 yards.
The backbreaker might have come late in the half. Getting the ball 87 yards from the end zone with 1:35 left, FAU went to the big play and took total command. Driskel and Kamrin
Solomon connected for a 63-yard gain, Singletary ended up going in from 6 yards away and the Owls took a 21-3 lead into the break.
The only players with more rushing touchdowns than Singletary in the last 50 years of major college football were Barry Sanders (37 in 1988) and Montee Ball (33 in 2011). He has 43 TDs in his first two seasons and had only two in his first three games this year — but 30 in the final 11 games.
The Zips finished the season 7-0 in games they led at halftime and 0-7 when they trailed at the break. Akron is 1-2 in bowl games since moving up to the FBS level, winning the 2015 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl and falling in the 2005 Motor City Bowl.
Kiffin and Akron coach Terry Bowden are the sons of football coaching legends. Monte Kiffin and Bobby Bowden were both at the game and took part in the pregame coin toss.