Al-Shaair leads FAU’s defense

RUSTON, La. — Linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair was the leader of the Florida Atlantic defense Saturday. He finished with 14 tackles, 10 solo. AlShaair also had a sack, a pass breakup, and one and half tackles for a loss.

“Fourteen tackles in only three quarters,” coach Lane Kiffin said. “He is a tremendous player. The last time we lost — at Buffalo — he didn’t play, so that shows you his impact.”

“I was just trying to step up,” AlShaair said.

“Some guys went down and the coaches were telling me I just need to keep being the leader that I was. La Tech is a great team. They did some good things. We just got the W cause we played a little bit harder.”

Numbers lie

If you look at the stats from FAU’s 48-23 win over Louisiana Tech and didn’t see the final score, you might think that the Bulldogs had won the game.

Going into the fourth quarter, Tech led FAU in passing yards — 270 to 221. Tech finished with 512 yards of offense to FAU’s 415.

However, the yards per play tells the tale. FAU averaged 5.9 per rush and Tech averaged 4.1 per carry.

The same holds true in the passing plays. FAU averaged 13 yards per attempt, while Tech averaged 6.4 yards.

Third down

Al-Shaair and Kiffin both agreed that moving forward the Owls need to improve on third-down defense. Louisiana Tech converted 7 of 19 third downs.

“For the past few games that has been an issue,” Al-Shaair said. “We have been finding ways to win, so that is a positive, but we have to keep reinforcing it, getting guys back to basics, and getting off the field.” Kiffin agrees. “We couldn’t get off the field today,” Kiffin said. “The play counts are way lopsided. I really think it could have been one of those games if we could have gotten off the field on defense it would have been lopsided — in the 60’s. It is what it is. That has been an issue for us all year.”

Cool hand Lane

They say players take on the personality of their coach, and that can be seen with the FAU players.

From the high energy they play with to how they carry themselves off the field. There is not a sense of patting each other or themselves on the back for the run that is taking place, but rather a laser focus on the next game — the next area to improve. “It feels awesome,” quarterback

Jason Driskel said of the win streak record. “But you cannot dwell on it too long. We have to get ready for next week.”

Not enough love

While FAU is garnering love for their play on the field, and their coach’s tweets off the field, the program’s real love is on the inside with strength and conditioning coordinator Wilson Love.

Love the leads the team onto the field with a shrill whistle. He can be seen in the huddle sticking his tongue out at players to get them going.

“We brought him from Alabama where he learned from Scott Cochran,” Kiffin said. “He is like that every day. He is a very unique individual. It was awesome to get him here.”