Owls, Mids didn’t discuss early ending
BOCA RATON — Florida Atlantic rang in someone new with something old on Friday night.
During FAU’s 42-19 season-opening loss to Navy in coach Lane Kiffin’s Owls debut, the school suffered through three lightning delays, a familiar sight in Boca Raton in recent years. The delays totaled two hours and 42 minutes and helped Friday’s game become the longest in FAU history.
“Basically you sign that scholarship to Florida Atlantic, you better be ready for a rain delay basically the first half of the season,” FAU linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair said.
FAU cornerback Raekwon Williams added: “I’ve been through it for four years, so it was kind of like we were used to it.”
Last year, the Owls waited out delays in a loss to Ball State. In 2015, lightning thwarted an upset bid against Miami. On Friday, in front of the thirdlargest crowd ever at FAU Stadium, inclement weather returned to overshadow Kiffin’s first game on FAU’s sideline.
Lightning wedged itself between the third and fourth quarters, with Navy leading 35-13. The first delay lasted 59 minutes. When play resumed, only 67 seconds of game time passed, but both teams scored touchdowns. Before FAU attempted a two-point conversion, the game was again halted at 11:38 p.m. with FAU down 42-19 and 13:53 remaining in the fourth quarter.
After a brief warmup at 12:17 a.m., lightning again struck. The game didn’t restart until 1:21 a.m. The game did not end until 1:47 a.m., five hours and 44 minutes after it kicked off.
Through the delays, though, there was not a thought of ending it early, according to FAU athletics director Pat Chun.
“That decision never really came up because both schools never really talked about it,” Chun said.
Kiffin said the Owls were hunkered down and “staying for the long haul” through the weather Friday night, despite a threepossession deficit in the final quarter. Kiffin foresaw a successful twopoint conversion, a recovered onside kick and a renewed chance for victory.
“I don’t know any other way to do it,” Kiffin said. “I thought we were still going to win. … I would never do anything different, and I would never walk in the locker room with the players and tell them anything different.”
After the final delay, FAU gained just 41 total yards and both Daniel Parr and De’Andre Johnson threw interceptions.
Chun (along with director of football operations Heather Henderson and senior associate AD Brian Battle) was involved in discussions during the delays with both Navy’s administration and ESPN producers.
He said no representatives from Navy ever expressed a desire to end the game early. Navy was not restricted by its travel plans. There was no curfew to follow in order to resume the game.
“There was never any type of indication from anyone on the Navy side that they wanted to stop the game,” Chun said.
FAU checked with the Conference USA office to make sure “we were compliant with any NCAA rules that applied to curfew or anything like that.” Nothing applied. So they waited.
Kiffin didn’t blame the weather for his team’s performance. The defense gave up 526 total yards, including 416 on the ground. The offense rushed for only 40 yards and was plagued by poor and untimely snaps from center Antonyo Woods.
“I know the weather, all the warm-ups, all that stuff, had nothing to do with this,” Kiffin said. “This was just we played really poorly in all three phases, especially in one of them.”