Road prowess sits at top of Owls’ agenda

For Florida Atlantic, Saturday night’s game at Middle Tennessee State will be critical for the Owls for two reasons:

They begin Conference USA play, and it’s an opportunity for FAU to show it can play well on the road.

The Owls (2-2), reigning conference champions, have two home victories against unranked opponents and two road losses against top-15 teams. That’s behind them.

Now FAU starts playing the slate of games that will determine whether the Owls will be back in the Conference USA Championship Game at season’s end, beginning with a 7 p.m. kickoff from Murfeesboro, Tenn.

“Not saying that the four games before this didn’t matter, but these ones matter a lot more than those other ones,” quarterback Chris Robison said this week. “There’s a completely different feel, just because our goal is to win the conference, and we start with this game.”

Last year, this same Week 5 game against Middle Tennessee, except at home, marked a turning point and was the one that got the Owls rolling to an undefeated Conference USA record after they had started 1-3 in non-conference play.

“I just made that point at the end of practice. This is where the turn [last year] started,” FAU coach Lane Kiffin said. “They started taking the team over and they started taking care of the ball.”

FAU players don’t feel they have completely clicked yet.

“I don’t think everything is all there yet, our chemistry and stuff,” fifthyear senior defensive end Hunter Snyder said. “We’re going to have to bring that swagger, that juice back, so that we can go on a run.”

While the Owls have struggled away from the friendly confines of FAU Stadium, the opponents and environments on the road have something to do with it. They won’t face anything like they did at Oklahoma or at UCF the rest of the way.

“We just seem to be really comfortable at home and don’t make as many mistakes, and unfortunately that’s kind of the case a lot when you play two packed-house road games,” Kiffin said.

Middle Tennessee enters the game 1-2 coming off a bye. The Blue Raiders lost a pair of contests to SEC opponents, Georgia and Vanderbilt, when they only scored 7 points in each.

The defense will be challenged against a team that airs it out. Blue Raiders quarterback Brent Stockstill, the son of coach Rick Stockstill, is Middle Tennessee’s career record holder for passing yards and touchdowns. FAU dodged him last season as he missed the conference opener for the Owls due to injury.

Brent Stockstill will throw quick passes to get the ball out to the perimeter swiftly and into his receivers’ hands to make plays in space, so FAU will have to tackle efficiently and avoid receivers’ cut blocks.

Kiffin said the secondary was challenged this week in practice. A unit, with its ability to force turnovers, that was thought of to be a strength of the team entering the season has not produced a single interception through the first four games. The Owls’ two picks this season have come from linebacker Rashad Smith.

Robison, a redshirt freshman, may have to make quick decisions against a defense that likes to blitz. He said the offensive line has been picking up blitzes well, and receivers will look forward to one-on-matchups on the outside.

“We’re going to seize those moments,” receiver Jovon Durante said. “It’s disrespectful if a DB goes one-on-one – if they just blitz everybody and go one-on-one with us.”

The Owls know they enter Conference USA play this season with everyone else aiming for them after last year’s conference title.

“It’s hard to stay at the top. People usually spend the offseason, just like we do, studying top teams,” Kiffin said. “In your conference, you usually study the team that beat you, and what did they do. I’m sure people did that, and it makes it harder to sneak up on people.”

There will be no sneaking up on conference foes for FAU this year. The Owls begin their quest to prove they can repeat in the conference on Saturday.