Owls’ problems mount
With Al-Shaair out, other injuries pop up in short week
Florida Atlantic has already lost senior linebacker and leader Azeez Al-Shaair for the season, suffered a crushing 31-7 loss at Marshall that likely squashes any chance of repeating as Conference USA champs and now is trying to get several other players healthy with a short week ahead.
In a Sunday teleconference with the Owls (3-4, 1-2 C-USA) set to host Louisiana Tech (5-2, 3-1) on Friday night, FAU coach Lane Kiffin confirmed that AlShaair is indeed done for the season. He said it was both the ACL and MCL that Al-Shaair tore in one of his knees and that he hasn’t had surgery, but that should come within the next week or two.
Kiffin called Al-Shaair’s injury “a freak deal” that didn’t involve contact as he was running over to a flat covering running back Kerrith Whyte.
“You could tell right away it was severe,” Kiffin said. “He spoke to the team later in the week and stuff. Among the kids, Friday night, there was still a lot of discussion about it. He definitely was that alpha dog, definitely their leader from a whole team standpoint, not just defensively. … He’s a special kid. It was very hard on the kids.”
Kiffin updated the status of several players that made early exits in Saturday’s loss. Wide receiver Dante Cousart stayed behind in West Virginia to have surgery on a broken leg, performed by a Marshall doctor. Cousart could not fly immediately following surgery.
Kiffin said he is hopeful quarterback Chris Robison (ankle), safety Jalen Young (knee), defensive tackle Marcel Southall and receiver Jovon Durante will be able to play against the Bulldogs after injuries didn’t allow them to finish against Marshall.
With how difficult it has been for FAU with the mounting injuries, Kiffin was able to make light of matters slightly, blaming an appearance at practice made by former Owls football coach Charlie Partridge.
“I actually told Charlie he was bad luck. Because he actually came and, within the first five minutes he was here, Azeez blew out his knee,” Kiffin said. “I blame coach Partridge for that.”
While the defeat at the hands of the Thundering Herd makes it very unlikely that FAU will stay in the hunt for another Conference USA title, Kiffin feels there is still meaning to the remainder of the season.
“There is still plenty of stuff to play for, obviously bowl games and that stuff,” Kiffin said. “Obviously, that stuff is still alive, but I don’t think we can think that way. We got to think about getting better each day winning this week.”
With the short week, Kiffin doesn’t want to essentially skip Monday to dive into a tougher Tuesday practice a day early, so he’ll go from a normal Monday and actually make Tuesday’s practice like a Wednesday, forgoing the week’s most arduous practice. and