Owls close in on team records
BOCA RATON — Lane Kiffiffin’s Florida Atlantic team may be on pace for the best season in program history, but its work is far from done.
Entering Saturday’s game at Charlotte (2 p.m., WatchStadium.com) with a Conference USA-best 7-0 record ( 8-3 overall), FAU is only one win away from their most wins at the Division I level; FAU won 11 games in 2003 as a I-AA school and nine in 2004 during its transition to Division I.
Under Kiffiffin and of ff ff ff ff ff fens ive coordinator Kendal Briles, many FAU players — including running back Devin Singletary — are enjoying career years and are in a position to break program records in the coming weeks. Any marks that are broken in the Conference USA title game or FAU’s to-be-determined bowl game will count in the team’s record books.
Here are some of the records FAU players c an potentially tie or break in their fifinal three games, several of which are attainable against the 49ers on Saturday.
Singletary keeps motoring: While Singletary has already set both the single- season (24) and program records for rushing touchdowns (36) in addition to single-season rushing yards (1,524), the true sophomore still has records to break. Single ta ry, an American Heritage graduate, enters Saturday 620 yards behind Charles Pierre (3,065) for second place on the program’s all-time rushing yards list.
With 24 rushing touchdowns this season, Singletary is fifive away from tying former UCF running back and current FAU running backs coach Kevin Smith’s 2007 record of 29.
Driskel climbs up quarterback list: With four more touchdown passes, redshirt junior quarterback Jason Driskel will pass Graham Wilbert (25) for fourth place among FAU quarterbacks. Driskel threw for a careerhigh four touchdowns in last week’s 52-24 win over FIU.
With a career-best 65.2 completion percentage this season, Driskel — now completing 60.1 of his passes for his career — has passed Graham Wilbert (59.1) for the highest mark in team history.
Woods catching up: Wide receiver Kalib Woods, who has starred following an October return from suspension, is 52 receiving yards shy of former teammate William Dukes for fourth place in program history.
Woods, who has 123 career receptions, can also pass Dukes for fifth place in catches with three more and another former teammate, Jenson Stoshak, with an additional six. Woods, who has 12 catches for 327 yards and three touchdowns in his past three games, can even pass Lestar Jean for second place with 146 career catches.
Al-Shaair’s record pace: Junior linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair enters Saturday with a single-season careerhigh in tackles (115) and can break Frantz Joseph’s 2008 single-year record of 154 tackles..
Al-Shaair is also only 26 stops away from surpassing Joseph for the most tackles (346) in program history.
Joseph’ s strong leg: Kicker Greg Joseph, having made 80 percent of his fifield goals, is currently tied with Mark Myers (2003) for the highest single-season mark among FAU kickers. With a strong fifinish, Joseph (71.9 percent of career fifield goals) can pass Myers’ career record of 72.9 percent.