FAU welcomes chance to play on ‘big stage’ at Oklahoma
Owls will get their first chance to live up to hype in season opener.
BOCA RATON — Facing a Power Five Conference team early in FAU at No. 7 Oklahoma, Saturday, noon, Fox
the season is nothing new for Florida Atlantic University’s veteran players.
Still, there’s something about starting the season against a nationally ranked, blue-blood program — the No. 7 Oklahoma Sooners — that has FAU players both excited and grateful.
“We’re honored to go up there and play a team like Oklahoma,” wide receiver Jovon Durante said.
FAU has played at least one Power Five opponent every year since major conference realignment began in 2010. The Owls are 0-16 in those games. FAU faced then-No. 9 Wisconsin last September in Madison and lost 31-14, dropping the Owls to 0-2 under new coach Lane Kiffin.
Those 16 losses ranged from a 20-14 overtime thriller at Florida in 2015 to a 63-7 rout at Kansas State in 2016. FAU’s lone victory against a Power Five program came in 2007, a 42-39 win over Minnesota at Dolphins Stadium. Minnesota finished 1-11 that year, losing its final 10 games.
“You want to be on the big stage,” FAU linebacker Azeez
Owls
Al-Shaair said. “Anybody who comes to college football in general, you want to be the best. Obviously, it’s a really great opponent that we’re about to play. You just want to do the best you can, go in and attack how we would attack any other game.”
Coming off an 11-3 season, its first winning record since 2008, FAU has been the focus of preseason hype about potentially running the table and making a New Year’s Six bowl game. The Owls haven’t trailed in a game since a 42-28 comeback win over Western Kentucky on Oct. 28 — a streak in danger of ending Saturday.
Defensive end Hunter Snyder, a redshirt senior, is confident the Owls are mentally prepared to handle whatever Oklahoma throws their way.
“I think we’re hungrier,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of returners on defense, and we’ve just been playing for a while, playing well together.”
Kiffin has done his best to temper expectations, especially with FAU yet to name a starting quarterback against a team that was a play away from making the national championship game last season.
“(FAU doesn’t) just overnight become a perennial Top 25 program when they hadn’t been to a bowl game in 10 years and won three games every year,” Kiffin said. “Just because you do it once doesn’t mean the whole program is completely changed.”
If the Owls hope to upset Oklahoma, a three-touchdown favorite, Durante will need to provide a major boost in his FAU debut. Durante, a transfer from West Virginia, faced the Sooners in 2015 and 2016. The Mountaineers lost both, but the redshirt junior had seven catches for 83 yards and two touchdowns in the two games.
“We’re going in front of 90,000,” Durante said. “Just make it seem like it’s nobody in the stands. Just go out and play.”