Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Next coach will inherit many returning starters
BOCA RATON — Charlie Partridge may be gone from Florida Atlantic, but he’ll still have a tremendous impact on the next few seasons of Owls football, the players he recruited blending the Partridge era with the next coach’s reign.
The Owls return the vast majority of their 2016 roster, losing just 15 seniors to graduation. They started only two seniors on both offense (center Dillon DeBoer and tight end Tyler Cameron) and defense (defensive linemen Trey Hendrickson and Shalom Ogbonda), plus punter Dalton Schomp.
On Sunday evening, FAU Athletic Director Pat Chun said the program had “accumulated the most talented group of student-athletes in FAU history,” setting the stage for the next coach to capitalize on the stocked cupboard.
“We talked about if they truly wanted to honor their coach, we got finish what they came here to do, that’s play at a different caliber of football,” Chun said of his meeting with the team Sunday. “There is a lot of leadership in that room, so at the end of the day, I didn’t have to do all the talking. That’s very different from when I’ve made a coaching change in the past.”
The Owls return both quarterbacks that played this season, and it will be interesting to see how the next coach handles a potential competition between Jason Driskel and Daniel Parr. Driskel started 11 games, passing for 2,415 yards, nine touchdowns and 11 interceptions. Parr earned one start in his nine games played and finished with 106 passing yards and two interceptions.
But next year’s FAU offense will likely not revolve around the passing attack. Instead, it will probably focus on the running game, carries split between Devin “Motor” Singletary and Gregory “Buddy” Howell Jr. In his freshman campaign this year, Singletary rushed for 1,021 yards, just the fourth 1,000-yard season in FAU history.
Howell, meanwhile, broke the program’s singleseason rushing touchdown record by scoring 13 times this season. FAU also has Kerrith Whyte returning to a deep backfield that loses just Jay Warren’s 16 yards to graduation. The receiving corps loses 21 of its 215 receptions this season.
DeBoer’s departure may be the toughest to fill offensively for FAU. He was the only offensive lineman to play in every game this season and anchored an inexperienced line that was seemingly always shifting.
Because of the injuries, though, plenty of Owls gained in-game experience and FAU expects most of the injured players to return to action next year, including all-conference left tackle Reggie Bain.
On defense, Hendrickson’s loss with create a void difficult to fill. He was FAU’s career leader in sacks, tackles for loss, forced fumbles, quarterback hurries, yards from sacks and yards from tackles for loss. The Owls will hope Nick Internicola, Hunter Snyder and Haiden Nagel can combine to make up for the lost production.
FAU will look toward defensive tackles Ray Ellis (returning from injury), Steven Leggett, Josh Kendall, Will Davis and Kevin McCrary to replace Ogbonda. The Owls return every linebacker and defensive backs listed on the season-ending two-deep depth chart.
The 2017 recruiting class has 13 commits, including two quarterback pledges from Jack Walker and Justice McCoy.
Chun admitted that FAU had thought about possible transfers during (or after) the coaching change, but was ultimately optimistic about the returning cast.
“It’d be naïve to say that I’m not worried about it, but I also understand that we have a bunch of young men that are committed to Florida Atlantic University,” Chun said. “It was a very healthy conversation. I’m probably more affirmed by the direction of our program after the team meeting we had.
“I believe in that locker room we have.”