KIFFIN, OWLS SHOWING OFFENSIVE PROWESS,
BOCA RATON — Wherever Lane Kiffin goes, the offensive guru has seemingly always found ways to send messages with his words.
In his latest head coaching stop, one that has seen him turn the Florida Atlantic Owls from a Conference USA doormat into the league’s most surprising team, Kiffin is instead letting his team’s actions speak for its coach by breaking records and, wait for it, winning.
“I think what we talked about — and the players will tell you that — (is) you got to earn respect,” Kiffin said after FAU (4-3) won its third straight game to enter C-USA play, a 69-31 romp over North Texas (4-3, 3-1) Saturday night in a battle of C-USA unbeatens. “We got to do that every week. We try to send a message to each opponent in the conference because ... we know we gotta play those guys.”
Leading the turnaround of a program that had won nine total games in the past three seasons was why Florida Atlantic signed Kiffin to a five-year contract this past December, but the sudden success seems to have surprised even him. After putting up a program record 69 points and 804 yards on Saturday night — the second straight game the Owls have broken their record for scoring — FAU now has the 17th-best scoring offense in the country with 39.1 points per game.
Sophomore running back Devin Singletary (American Heritage) has already broken the single-season rushing touchdown record with 14 and is one shy of tying program legend Alfred Morris for the most in a career. Tight end Harrison Bryant has revitalized a position that has been mostly unproductive in recent seasons, leading the team in catches (23) and receiving touchdowns (3).
FAU had 13 possessions Saturday night, scoring on their first 11 drives.
“It was kind of like playing Madden when you have the codes,” Kiffin joked of his team’s offense.
Quarterback Jason Driskel, who threw for 357 yards and moved to 3-1 as a starter this year, added, “I didn’t know it was 11 times in a row, but I know we didn’t punt. We had a pretty good night. We executed well and it showed.”
Facing the C-USA West Division-leading Mean Green and their dangerous offense, FAU forced three first-half turnovers and two fourthdown stops. Sophomore cornerback Chris Tooley had his fourth interception, helping set the tone for a defense that may be without senior Raekwon Williams in upcoming weeks.
After returning from their bye week last season to suffer a 52-3 loss to Western Kentucky, the Owls’ worst home loss in program history, linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair took pride in the team’s response Saturday after a week off.
“Obviously, you hear about it all week; coaches are gonna tell you how good the other team is and stuff like that, but we’re good too,” Al-Shaair said. “24-0 at the end of the first quarter ... I was looking at it — I probably shouldn’t have been, coach would probably get mad at me — but I was looking up at the board and it was like 55 rushing yards (for North Texas) towards halftime.”
Next on the schedule will be those same Western Kentucky Hilltoppers (5-2, 3-1), a team FAU has lost three of their past five games against.
After being called out for his messages that range from promising then-Florida coach Urban Meyer that the Tennessee Volunteers would “sing Rocky Top all night long in the swamp” to joking about criticism from Alabama coach Nick Saban, Kiffin turned the tables on North Texas and coach Seth Littrell.
“(Our players) got some actual motivation when (Littrell) said earlier in the week, ‘shame on (FAU) to schedule (North Texas) for our homecoming game,’” Kiffin said. “We posted that around, our players kind of took that personal, and they played angry tonight.”