‘Great to get back to some normalcy’

Owls expecting to field more complete team vs. UTSA after outbreak

The FAU Owls have had a lot of familiar faces return to practice this week, which bodes well for them as they try to play consecutive games for the first time this season.

Florida Atlantic (1-1), which is scheduled to host UTSA (4-3, 2-1 Conference USA) on Saturday at FAU Stadium, has had “several” players rejoin the group throughout theweek after over 40 players didn’t make the trip for the Owls’ 20-9 loss at Marshall on Oct. 24.

“It’s just great to get back to so menor malcy,” FAU coach Willie Taggart said. “Youcan practice like a normal practice and you don’t have to come up with some different ways of doing it. Youcan actually do it and get something out of it.”

The Owls were without 43 players (28 COVID-19 related) who began fall camp with the team against the Thundering Her dafter their novel coronavirus outbreak from three weeks ago, which resulted in FAU’s game against Southern Miss scheduled for Oct. 10 being postponed.

Taggart, who didn’t specify how many players have returned so far, saidhe expects “a lot” of players to return in time for Saturday’s game.

“We feel a hell of a lot better than we did before,” he said. “You’ll see a much [more] completed team.”

Taggart added the players who’ve returned so far are doing well, saying that the program has protocols in place for players to incrementally work their wayback for those who are returning from positive COVID-19 test isolation or contact tracing quarantine.

“We use our GPS system [to monitor] the workload they had throughout practices,” he said. “The strength coach and trainers will come to get a kid if they’re passed his limit and tell them they can’t practice anymore. We try to be smart in which part of practices we need them in and the work we need them to get on certain days. It’ s been good because they’ re here early in the week and getting some much-needed reps.”

FAU’s game against the Roadrunners could mark the first time the Owls have played a game consecutive weekends during the Taggart era.

The team’s first four scheduled games were canceled/postponed because of reasons related to the novel coronavirus.

FAU beat Charlotte 21-17 in its first game on Oct. 3 at FAU Stadium before the FAU-Southern Miss matchup was postponed.

The Owls had a scheduled bye week the following weekend before falling to Marshall to snap an eight-gamewinning streak that extended into last season.

“We need to be able to play,” Taggart said. “We haven’t ... been able to play consistently. It’s kind of hard to judge a team when you don’ t play consistently. It’ ll be great to see our guys playback-to-back games.”

FAU’s hoping to have better execution offensively due to better continuity throughout practices after averaging 4.5 yards per play through their first two games — ranking No. 91 out of 101 FBS teams.

Taggart said he’s been proud of starting quarterback Nick Tronti for holding his team mates accountable this week, adding the red shirt junior hash ada good week of practice after saying earlier in the week that the team may start using other quarterbacks sporadically.

“Nick plays better when everyone else plays better,” Taggart said. “Everybody’ s taken pride in getting better offensively this week. You can’t compare to lastweek’s practices since we didn’t have enough time and not everybody’ s there. We looked like a team that hadn’ t played in threeweeks. Now, having some guys back and getting some good reps, you expect it’ll be different.”

McCammon out vs. UTSA

Taggart said sophomore running back Larry McCammon III won’t play against UTSA after sustaining a sprained ankle against Marshall.

McCammon has the most carries (17) on the team among the running back group, rushing for 79 yards (4.6 yards per carry).

“It’s a really good sprain,” Taggart said. “Larry said he’ll be back soon, so I trust Larry. What soon is, I don’t know. But I got to go with him.”

BJ Emmons’ status for Saturday’s game remains questionable after sustaining a sprained ankle against Charlotte. The senior running back finished with four carries for 13 yards versus the 49ers.

“He’s back out there running on that ankle and taking it one day at a time,” Taggart said about Emmons. “We’ll see on game day what it’s like.”