FAU Football vs New Mexico State, November 23, 2013, 3:05 PM, FAU Stadium, Boca Raton, FL (View over 550 Images and HDTV Video Clips, click onto the Triangle to start Video, coming later MONDAY)

When Brian Wright took over as FAU’s interim head coach on Oct. 30, he inherited a 2-6 team whose season looked lost amid scandal. Three games later, FAU is one win away from bowl eligibility. The Owls’ turnaround has been dramatic, and its wins have been decisive. None was more decisive than Saturday afternoon’s all-encompassing 55-10 beat down of New Mexico State at FAU Stadium. “You find out the character of men if they can rally and be resilient in adversity,” Wright said after the contest. “They keep coming out and battling, and keep trying to really one-up themselves this week.” FAU (5-6,3-4) have outscored its competition 103-34 in Wright’s three games as head coach, and that’s given the Owls their first three-game winning streak since 2010. Because of that streak, FAU’s bowl hopes are still alive, and will ultimately hinge on a nationally-televised, Black Friday Shula Bowl matchup with South Florida rival FIU. The Owls could have started game planning for the Panthers at halftime — the outcome of Saturday’s game at FAU Stadium was determined early in the contest. The Owls jumped out to a 28-0 second-quarter lead on the Aggies (1-10), and coasted to the win. FAU’s 55 points tied for the most scored in regulation in program history, while the 45-point margin of victory was the largest in the program’s 13-year history. FAU amassed a season-high 585 yards of total offense Saturday, its best offensive output since Oct. 24, 2009, when the Owls ran up 624 yards of total offense and 51 points on Louisiana-Lafayette. FAU was paced, again, by quarterback Jaquez Johnson, who tied a career-high in passing yards while also leading FAU in rushing for the fourth-straight game. “He’s getting better every week,” Wright said. “I’m very proud of him in how he plays and how he leads this football team. I told him a while ago ‘we will go as you go.’”

Johnson completed 15-of-22 passes for 321 yards and three touchdowns, while adding 79 rushing yards on 11 carries. “He's not overdoing anything,” senior tight end Nexon Dorvilus, who had his first-ever two touchdown game Saturday, said. “He's playing his spots and taking his shots…He’s just being a smart football player, he's not putting us in any negative positions and not turning the ball over really.” Wright named wide receiver Lucky Whitehead the team’s offensive MVP Saturday. Whitehead put FAU on the board first with a 26-yard first-quarter run on an end-around, and then caught a 64-yard touchdown pass to extend the Owls’ lead to 21-0. Senior running back Damian Fortner scored two touchdowns as well. He recovered a blocked punt in the end zone to put FAU up 14-0 in the first quarter, and then ran in his fifth score in three games in the fourth quarter.

All of Fortner’s touchdowns have come since Wright took over as the team’s head coach. “Even when it didn’t go his way earlier in the season, he just kept battling,” Wright said of Fortner. “That’s what happens. You find yourself in a situation when you have to perform and you’re number is called, and when his number has been called he’s performed. That’s what good players and good people do.” Defensively, the Owls held its third-straight opponent under 300 total yards of offense. “Just an overall great unit effort defensively,” Wright said. “Those guys are having a lot of fun playing defense. they were up to the challenge — that was a good offense, an offense that had scored over 34 points per game the last three games, and our guys just went after them from the get-go. When you hold a team like that to under 300 yards, that’s a pretty impressive day.” FAU will likely be double-digit favorites to beat FIU on Friday, but the Owls’ have lost two-straight to their rivals. “This is personal,” Dorvilus said. “Real personal.”