Florida Atlantic University's first student-run news source.

UNIVERSITY PRESS

Florida Atlantic University's first student-run news source.

UNIVERSITY PRESS

Florida Atlantic University's first student-run news source.

UNIVERSITY PRESS

FAU Football

Are the fighting owls ready for division I-A Football?

The Owls are finally home at Lockhart stadium. After going 5-0 to start the season on the road the owls want to share the feel of winning with the home crowd. The owls got off to a good start by winning the coin toss against their soon to be Sun Belt conference opponent Louisiana Monroe. 10 minutes later into the first quarter LMU strikes first blood and put 7 on the board. Nothing to worry about since having their backs against the wall is something the owls have grown accustomed to on their road victories.

The difference between owls behind on the road and at home is that on the road, they win! With countless penalties adding extra yards to offensive drives, the owls were shooting themselves in the foot time and time again. It seemed at times as if the offensive line which is where most of the crucial penalties occurred was full of rookies which lacked much needed discipline in tight situations.

Coach Schnellenberger also had a couple of bad judgment calls. With 28 seconds left till the end of the 1st half, the owls were at the LMU 36 yard line facing a 4 and 19, thanks to some FAU penalties, coach Schnellenberger decided to go for the touchdown as opposed to kicking a field goal and taking some momentum into the locker room. The other bad call came with just over four minutes into the third quarter. The owls had the ball on the LMU 31 yard line facing a 4 and 9, and again instead of bringing in Myers to put up 3 on the board and chip away at the lead by LMU. Schnellenberger decides to go for it. This was 6 points that came back to haunt the owls by the end of the game as they lost by 4.

A game where the owls were favored to win by 14 points at home, Doug Parker displayed probably his best game of the season so far, rushing for 121 yards. Crissinger-Hill had over 100 yards receiving, and Jared Allen although he threw 3 interceptions showed great poise in the pocket and threw for 260 yards. The owls kept making mistakes and beat themselves by not giving themselves a chance to dominate the game against a mediocre LMU team. In order for FAU to be competitive against division I-A teams they must cut down on the penalties (11 for 86 yards against LMU).

The other challenge for the FAU football program in transition to division I-A is the attendance; FAU must average at least 15,000 fans per game. Only 12,557 showed up to see the owls first home game coming in with a record of 5 – 0. The good news for the owls is that they will be on the road next Saturday against Florida A&M. The owls currently have a 10 game win streak on the road; this is also the best record of consecutive wins for a road team in the NCAA.

Jose [email protected]

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