I probably should have written this 11 months ago. The night following the FAU football team’s final game where all the players spoke how they were just happy the season was over.

Happily happy at 4-6.

What’s so interesting with that is the University of Miami players are not happy at the end of the season – that is, unless they win the National Championship again. I’ve played sports all my life up until college and never was I happy when a season ended, unless we won it all.

Nevertheless, every one of the freshman guys on the team were just happy to be done with the season. They must have gotten lost in their bliss of happiness because everything has gone wrong for these guys.

For one thing, someone forgot to remind them that they have to be good students to keep their scholarship and be able to play on the team. Unfortunately, just like last year the team lost some valuable players and went into the season already down.

Now, they’re 0-8 heading into the Homecoming game.

We shouldn’t be surprised since the team lacks any real maturity, their grades speak for that not to mention they’re playing a very, very difficult schedule.

So difficult it’s stupid.

We’re getting murdered week in and week out and as much as I have talked about the wrong doings of the players, they are not the one’s to be blamed.

I talked to a couple coaches following the team’s last summer scrimmage and asked them, “Is there anything we can expect to see differently from this team?”

There answer: “No”.

How can they tell me, with a straight face, that they plan on using the same schemes this year against more developed 1-A and 1-AA teams that got them to a losing record last season against weaker 1-AA opponents?

Right then and there I could have told you how this season was going to go.

Our offensive plays are still the same from a year ago and the defensive plays and formations, more or less, haven’t changed.

The team needed to start from scratch and it was a given that we’d see basic plays. To their credit, it worked more times than not last year.

However, we’re playing bigger boys with bigger toys in 2002. Troy State’s tailback runs a 4.3 40-yard dash, quicker than half the pro’s in the NFL. Compare that to Jacksonville’s running back from last year who ran a 4.51 40-yard dash and you can see the problems are quite clear.

With better competition, games need to be stepped up if there is any chance of pulling out a win.

We have stepped up this year at times. For instance, we played Bethune-Cookman, who still is undefeated by the way, very tough and kept the elusive quarterback Alan Suber at bay.

Injuries have played a significant role to the struggles. But, good team’s find ways to win and going with the basics isn’t working.

It might have worked at Oklahoma or Louisville for Coach Howard Schnellenberger in the ’70s, but players and the game have changed.

Looking down the road and seeing Kentucky on the schedule for next year it’s hard not to be concerned.

Don’t get me wrong. I think having a football team here at Florida Atlantic is the best decision they ever made. However, with all the hype leading up to last year people expect big things.

Big things from a team with an amazing amount of potential to which we haven’t exploited yet.

Now, more than ever that time has come. It’s our time to shine. We just need someone or something to flip the switch.