When your football team is 0-10, it’s easy to try anything and everything on the football field in the name of a victory.

Surely, the game plan for Howard Schnellenberger didn’t include attempting five fourth-down attempts. Yet the Owls converted all five into first downs in what was their first victory of the season, defeating the University of Alabama Birmingham 38-35 in the second to last game of the season.

FAU is the last Division I team to win a game this season, but that didn’t stop anyone from celebrating.

“All is good tonight,” said head coach Howard Schnellenberger. “I got my biggest and best kiss from Beverly in a long time on the sideline, and I’m expecting more when I get home.”

All is good for FAU (1-10, 0-7) football right now. The team just completed its first victory in its new on-campus stadium and they gave Schnellenberger a win in the stadium he built, with only one more game left to accomplish this.

All season long the Owls have avoided pointing the finger at someone else. They’ve accepted blame game after game for their mistakes and miscues on the field, and have vowed to work on their mistakes in practice.

The fans sighed in disbelief.

Finally, after 11 games this season, the Owls notched a victory and everyone can breathe a strong sigh of relief this time.

Finally, Howard Schnellenberger got to ring the Taylor Victory Bell, which signifies a home win for FAU athletics.

Finally, FAU won a game for the first time since Nov. 13, 2010 when they defeated ULL 24-23, snapping a 13-game losing streak .

Of course, lost in the shuffle is the actual gameplay. The hero was Alfred Morris. Morris continued his storybook career and wrote his name atop even more FAU records.

Morris had 198 rushing yards on 38 carries and four touchdowns. The 198 yards is an all-time FAU football program record and a career high. The four touchdowns matched a FAU all-time record set by Doug Parker.

Morris also became the first player in Howard Schnellenberger’s 27 years of coaching to accumulate two 1,000-yard rushing seasons.

“That guy is my hero,” said senior defensive back Marcus Bartels. “He put the whole team on his back.”

“It seemed like he broke 100 tackles tonight,” said quarterback Graham Wilbert.

“The only time I’ve seen what I saw out there tonight was when I was with the Dolphins and I watched Larry Csonka run roughshod over all the defenders that tried to bring him down,” said Schnellenberger.

Morris’s 38 carries was 20 more than his average of 17.6 carries a game up until today. It was also his fifth consecutive 100-yard game.

As the game went on, Morris grew stronger. He carried defenders, gaining the extra yards, putting the team and 77-year old Howard Schnellenberger on his back, and carrying them to a victory.

“I try not to get complacent and always turn it up a notch,” said Morris. “That’s something we’ve been doing even in games that we did good in the first half, we come out in the second half and kind of just take a dip instead of climbing up.”

FAU will bask in its glory for a night and get back to work to focus on the game against ULM beginning tomorrow.

The capstone in Howard Schnellenberger’s career was tonight. Next week will send him off into retirement, but tonight was about the first win in a stadium he brought to Boca Raton. It was about seeing a legend smile as his team won a game. It was about one of the pioneers of the game of football getting honored by a team that had failed him ten previous times this season.

Even at the brisk age of 77, Schnelly’s still got it.