Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
FAU seeks third straight ‘payback’ win
Florida Atlantic coach Lane Kiffin has noticed the difference during the week of preparation.
It has happened every time the Owls have been involved in a so-called revenge game. The intensity improves at practice. The focus is better. The “angry” factor is ever present.
“I think that we play well when we’re kind of angry,” Kiffin said. “Our guys have kind of come into those games angry. Whatever the motivation was, payback and those things … we do kind of play on that.”
The Owls are taking an “Angry Birds” approach while looking to win their third straight redemption game Saturday at Western Kentucky at Feix Field. In the last month, they have already beaten Middle Tennessee State and Old Dominion. A victory against the Hilltoppers would complete a sweep of avenging last year’s most disappointing Conference USA losses.
“It’s about gaining people’s respect,” Kiffin said. “You want to make a statement that says, ‘Hey, we’re a hard team to play.’ We want people to look at the schedule and say,O`h, man, we’ve got to play [FAU] in Week 6.’ ”
Last year Western Kentucky defeated the Owls 52-3, gaining 661 total yards. The loss secured FAU’s third consecutive losing season and occurred in front of an already dwindling home fan base.
It was the third-worst defeat in school history, trailing only a 51-point loss to Louisville in 2005 and a 56-point loss at Kansas State last season.
“They just beat us,” quarterback Jason Driskel said. “They beat us in all three phases of the game last year. We know that and they know that. We’ve just got to continue on what we’re working on now. I’m not worried about what happened last year. We’ve got a new coaching staff here. They have a new defensive coordinator, a new staff there as well.”
The Owls (4-3, 3-0) are a very different team than they were a year ago. They are riding a three-game winning streak and inching toward becoming bowl-eligible for the first time since 2013. Western Kentucky, which was the preseason conference favorite, could gain ground on the Owls and Marshall in the Eastern Division standings. The Hilltoppers (5-3, 3-1) have won the last two regular season conference titles.
“I’m not really looking at it from last year’s prospective,” safety Jalen Young said. “… We’re just trying to put the pieces in the right place to get this win.”
Junior linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair, the team’s leader with 60 tackles, is taking a different approach. He is well aware of what happened last year. Al-Shaair, who is usually in charge for motivating the team in these situations, also realizes he is taking the field with more firepower.
He compared it to being jumped in a fight only to return a few hours later with backup, because of the new attitude at FAU under Kiffin.
“It’s like going and you get into a fight with a whole bunch of kids,” Al-Shaair said. “You’re by yourself and you get beat up and then you come back later with all your friends and you go back and fight them again and then you start winning. That’s how it feels.”