Owls picked as repeat champs
2017 team won Conference USA East title
BOCARATON— Florida Atlantic coach Lane Kiffin did everything possible during the spring to keep his team grounded in spite of the high expectations entering this season.
Kiffin vowed overconfidence would never poison the locker room, so don’t expect anything to change after the Owls on Tuesday were chosen as the favorite to win the Conference USA East Division. They received 22 of a possible 26 first-place votes in a poll by a panel of league media. North Texas, which lost to the Owls in last year’s championship game, was picked to win the West Division.
After finishing 11-3 and winning its first bowl game since 2008, Kiffin has spent much of the offseason trying to keep the team levelheaded.
“That team is over with,” Kiffin said during the spring. “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 pres ea son rankings mean nothing.”
The Owls have racked up a collection of preseason accolades, including having a league-high six players on the All-Conference USA first-team. They were also No .17 in the early pres ea son rankings by USA Today.
“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.”
The hype is well deserved. The Owls return several key players from last year, including Singletary, senior linebacker Azeez Al- Shaair, safety Jalen Young, tight end Harrison Bryant and tackle Reggie Bain.
Last year Singletary rushed for a school-record 1,920 yards and led the nation with 32 touchdowns, earning third-team AllAmerican honors by the Associated Press. Al-Shaair had 147 tackles and is attempting to lead the team in the category for a fourth straight season. Young ranked No. 2 nationally with seven interceptions while Bryant led the team in receiving before missing the final three games due to an ankle injury. Bain was one of the Owls’ three first-team All-Conference lineman froma year ago.
Still, the Owls have a few question marks entering the season. They will open the season with a quarterback who has yet to start a game at the Division I-A level.
Junior De’Andre Johnson and redshirt freshman Chris Robison are in an ongoing competition that is expected to last throughout fall camp. Johnson missed all of last season after blood clots were found in his arm. Robison, who transferred from Oklahoma, was forced to sit out because of NCAA rules.
Whoever wins the job will be under the guidance of first-year offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. At 25, he is the nation’s youngest at his position and will have a chance to prove himself early. The Owls open the season Sept. 1 at Oklahoma in a nationally-televised game.
It also provides the Owls an opportunity to show how much they have moved past last year.
“You walk out on the field and you don’t see the same faces,” Young said recently. “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.”