South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Defense steps up in final scrimmage
Kiffin pleased with progress after Owls finish spring drills
BOCA RATON — As Florida Atlantic wrapped up its spring on Saturday with a final scrimmage, Owls coach Lane Kiffin said his overall takeaway from the month-plus of drills was how pleased he was with improvements on defense.
“Defense had really good energy [Saturday], kind of fed off where they’ve been ever since the first scrimmage,” said Kiffin, who will go into his third season leading FAU in the fall. “There’s always bad and good to these things. One side’s doing good, that means the other side’s not doing so good. It was good defensively.”
As last year’s starting quarterback, Chris Robison, missed the entire spring due to an undisclosed suspension, while Nick Tronti and Justin Agner took first-team reps. The two will continue to compete as Robison’s future with the team remains unclear.
“I have no idea. That’s out of my control,” Kiffin said. “When I say that, it’s always, to me, in the kid’s control in the decisions that they make and things that they do. I say it’s out of my control just like all of these things are.”
Kiffin gave his overall impression of the quarterback play in the spring without Robison.
“I thought they did really well for guys that haven’t played very much and [have] limited experience,” Kiffin said. “Good command of the offense. Very few management mistakes. That part’s good.
“And we’re really down receivers numbers-wise and backs, but really receivers. Makes it a bit harder on the quarterbacks.”
Defensive lineman Marcel Southall picked up an Agner fumble and ran it back for a touchdown on Saturday. Redshirt freshman safety Armani Adams, who also had a takeaway in last Saturday’s spring game, had a highlight-reel interception, reaching out onehanded in the middle of the field as he started with the first team. Cornerback James Pierre was a standout all spring, locking down one side of the field.
“I thought our defense, especially our first defense, played really well,” Kiffin said. “Good energy, good communication, not giving up big plays. That’s been an emphasis because, obviously, we struggled there last year.”
Former Alabama running back BJ Emmons started Saturday off with a two-yard touchdown up the middle on the opening drive. He set himself up with a 24-yard run to the outside on the play before, and a long Tronti run early in the possession showed his scrambling ability.
Despite bouncing back early from a spring game Emmons was admittedly not pleased with last Saturday, he still found much room for improvement heading into the summer.
“It felt good, but it’s all about details,” Emmons said. “I go back to the sideline, [running backs coach Kevin] Smith [said] my path wasn’t right. It’s always something that you can get better at with him, and it’s the little things that make the things go. Still not satisfied with my performance [Saturday].”
Junior receiver Eiland D’Angelo had long catch and run on a pass to the flat that set up his toe-tapping touchdown in back of the end zone from quarterback Trent Wessel in one of the highlights from reserve units.
Motor back
Former standout FAU running back Devin “Motor” Singletary, who will likely be selected this coming week after leaving school a year early to enroll in the NFL draft, was on the Owls sideline taking in the action on Saturday.
“We’ve had a lot of guys come around and he’s been at practice too,” Kiffin said. “He’s a gym rat, so he just loves being around football.”
It was beneficial for current running backs to see him and receive quick tidbits of advice.
“I dapped Motor up, got to pay homage,” Emmons said. “Him coming back and seeing our improvement and seeing what we need to work on, he’s like that little inside voice.”
Chad Johnson Twitter exchange
Former NFL All-Pro receiver Chad Johnson posted a picture on Twitter of himself using a cold tub at FAU’s facilities on Friday afternoon.
It prompted Kiffin to reply to another tweet jokingly asking if Johnson had any college eligibility left.
“Grad transfer,” Kiffin tweeted. “Gonna tear it up this year!!!”
Johnson wrote back, “I get to re-enter the draft” with a smiley face emoji.
Kiffin wrote back: “With the first pick of the 2019 draft the faU selects @ochocinco.”