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Kiffin: Next challenge can’t come fast enough
As devastating as it is to lose a conference opener in a season filled with expectations, after winning out in Conference USA a year ago, there’s only one thing Florida Atlantic can do.
Move forward and make sure the same thing doesn’t happen when the Owls (2-3, 0-1 C-USA) host Old Dominion (1-4, 0-2) for a 5 p.m. kickoff on Saturday.
“It’s been good to get out there and trying to move forward, last closure on that,” FAU coach Lane Kiffin told reporters on Wednesday. “That’s been a very difficult game to deal with it from a player, from a coach standpoint.
“The game can’t come fast enough. … These are the weeks where you can’t wait to get to the next Saturday.”
Kiffin vented one last time on the frustrations from last Saturday night in Murfreesboro, Tenn., where the Owls blew an 18-point lead to fall, 25-24, to Middle Tennessee State with the Blue Raiders converting a winning 2-point conversion with a wild, floating pass that their receiver came down with in the middle of the end zone.
“There’s a million things, up, 21-3, and then basically everything that could go wrong did go wrong — in [our] control, out of control, crazy referee things, Hail Mary 2-point play,” he said. “That’s been rough to deal with because you can’t get them back.
“All we can do is move forward from that disaster and play better this week against a team that has played really well.”
Old Dominion’s record is not indicative of what the Monarchs are capable of. Their one win came in the shocking upset of Virginia Tech that was a national storyline two weeks ago. Last week, they dropped a 37-35 decision at East Carolina where officiating played a crucial role in the outcome.
For the Owls to come away victorious, they’ll need to continue their strong starts, but then maintain that level of play — something they have not done for a full game.
“We looked at the scoreboard and we took our foot off the gas,” said receiver Jovon Durante about MTSU. “We stooped down to their level, and basically, in this conference, we can’t do that because us being, in the beginning of the season, the top runners of this conference, everybody is [coming] at us. We just have to go every week like we’re playing the No. 1 team.”
The term “wake-up call” has been thrown around this week. For Kiffin, he wishes that alarm was set earlier when FAU was outplayed the final three quarters in Week 3 against Bethune-Cookman but still came away with a win due to a 29-0 first-quarter lead.
“Just unfortunate that we had to lose a game for it to be magnified instead of coming out of there with a win,” Kiffin said. “It is what it is.”
A change in mentality is what junior running back Devin “Motor” Singletary said the team needs when it picks up a lead.
“When you see you’re up, now it’s you got to finish them. That’s really got to be the mindset,” Singletary said. “I feel that we put together a good half last week. Now we’ve got to put together a full game, a full four quarters.”
Said quarterback Chris Robison: “We look at the scoreboard and we start to be like, ‘Okay, we got them,’ and then our playing goes down. We just got to learn how to not do that and play throughout the whole game. We still haven’t even played four quarters yet. I’d say we played maybe two.”
Robison also noted an uptick in sense of urgency in practice this week. Multiple players said the team was lackadaisical following last week’s Tuesday practice. Saturday will determine if the difference shows up on game day.