Owls moves past last year’s successful year
BOCA RATON — It was erased from their memories the moment they arrived for spring football practices.
Last Tuesday at 7:45 a.m., Florida Atlantic coach Lane Kiffin addressed the team about moving past what transpired a year ago. Gone were thoughts about the 11 wins. So were recollections of the Conference USA championship and victory in the Boca Raton Bowl.
Even with a looming quarterback battle and two new coordinators, the Owls’ biggest issue is avoiding the trap of living off last season’s success.
“That team is over with,” Kiffin said. “We made sure to understand this is a different team. We’re 0-0. It has nothing to do with what that team did. That’s in the history books, a very special season. Just like the preseason rankings mean nothing.”
The Owls are coming off the best season in school history. They ended the year on a 10-game winning streak and won their bowl game by 47 points. Preseason accolades are likely to follow, but the Owls are focused on making new history instead of dwelling in the past.
“It was good and everything we did, of course,” running back Devin “Motor” Singletary said. “That’s going to be remembered forever. But it’s 2018, we’ve got to make a new name for ourselves.”
That has been the mantra through the first week of spring drills, which continue Tuesday. The Owls have no intention of being a one-hit wonder. They will get a good indicator of that early when they open the season at Oklahoma. They also play at Central Florida, which finished undefeated last season.
“Even though we know now that we’re the hunted, the standard never changes,” receiver DeAndre McNeal said. “Everything we’ve preached Day One from last year is the same thing we’re preaching this year. The only thing different is we’ve got new faces. We’ve just got to baptize Lane Kiffin, FAU coach
them to the whole process that we’ve got going on here.”
Kiffin spoke with the players of his experiences with failure at USC and Alabama. At both places, he dealt with teams that were ranked No. 1 in the preseason only to have it end with disappointment.
“We probably sat around too much and listened to all the ‘rat poison’ of how great we were instead of going back to square one,” Kiffin said.
The Owls appear to have the same hunger from a year ago. Still, a repeat won’t come easy. They will enter the season with a quarterback who has never started a college game. Oklahoma transfer Chris Robison and junior De’Andre Johnson are locked in a competition that should last until the fall training camp.
They also have to adjust to offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr., and defensive coordinator Tony Pecoraro, who are both in their first seasons. In all, the Owls have four new members on the coaching staff.
“You don’t like it,” Kiffin said of having so much turnover on the staff. “It’s a pain. It takes away [practice] time. You’re on the phone figuring out all these things out. It is what it is. You’ve just got to spend the extra time like you would with your players.”
Despite the adversity, the Owls are up for the challenge. It gives them yet another opportunity to quiet the doubters and showcase the program.
“You walk out on the field and you don’t see the same faces,” safety Jalen Young said. “It’s a whole new team, a whole new staff … Last year was last year. Our coaches, they let us know that what we did last year was special, it was great, but this is a whole new team. We’ve got to write our own history.”
srichardson@ sunsentinel.com