Owls face another defensive test

BOCA RATON — Another week, another defensive scheme.

That’s been the reality for FAU this season. The Owls’ schedule has broken in such a way that there’s rarely two consecutive weeks where they see similar offenses.

Saturday’s game against Western Kentucky is no different.

The weekly defensive adjustments have been a blessing and a curse for the team, FAU coach Carl Pelini said. The good part is his young team is maturing by facing a lot of different offenses. The bad part is that the team hasn’t had time towork on the fundamentals of their the base set.

Pelini wanted to set up a base 4- 2- 5 defense to counter the spread offenses of the Sun Belt. But in addition to taking on the traditional Sun Belt spread, the Owls have faced the pounding rushing attack of Alabama, the tripleoption offense of Navy, the trick- play- laden spread of Louisiana- Monroe, aswell as Aaron Murray and Georgia.

“A year from now, it would be easier,” Pelini said. “We needed to work on the basic foundation of our defense. We haven’t had a lot of chances. There’s some carry- over, finally [ this week.]” He added the Hilltoppers will still challenge his team. “I see a lot of Stanford in what they do,” Pelini said. “They got theWest Coast [ offense look], they have all the different shifts and adjustments but when you look through all the smoke and mirrors, they have their set plays that they really like.” Next game: at Western Kentucky, 1p.m. Saturday, CSS

Game- day hashtag: # SSFAU