FAU Football vs North Texas, C-USA Championship Game, Dec 2, 2017, 12pm Kick-Off, C-USA CHAMPIONSHIP - FAU Football (FAU: 41 NT: 17) (10-3, 9-0 in C-USA)
The Owls played nearly flawless for 33 minutes before capturing a 41-17 victory against North Texas in the Conference USA Championship Game. It was their first league title since winning the Sun Belt in 2007. “You’re creating a unique story,” FAU coach Lane Kiffin said he told the players. “You turned the program on to the national stage and these kids did it.” The Owls (10-3) have won nine game in a row and await their bowl-game opponent. Selections will be made Sunday evening. FAU was once again led by running back Devin “Motor” Singletary. He carried the ball 26 times for 164 yards and three touchdowns. Singletary has 29 rushing touchdowns this season, which ties the Conference USA single-season record. He shares the mark with UCF’s Kevin Smith, who now is the FAU running backs coach. “Words can explain it,” Singletary said. “This is one of the best feelings ever. We know that all of our hard work that we put in, it finally paid off.”
With Singletary handling things on the ground, quarterback Jason Driskel and receiver Kalib Woods led the passing game. Driskel completed 15-of-27 passes for 269 yards and a touchdown. Woods finished with six catches for 208 yards and a touchdown. “If you look back at the past nine games, we dominated,” Woods said. “Nobody can say that any win was a fluke. The only way somebody will respect you is if you go out there do what you do and that’s why we’re sitting up here.”
When the Owls opened the game by scoring 34 consecutive points, it appeared they were headed toward a repeat of when the teams met in the regular season in October. FAU gained 804 yards that night on the way to a 69-31 victory. The Owls served up more of the same by scoring the game’s first 34 points on Saturday. After kicker Greg Joseph opened the game with a 24-yard field goal, they broke things open with trickery. Receiver John Franklin III lined up at quarterback and pitched the ball back to receiver Kamrin Solomon. Solomon then hit Franklin for a 22-yard touchdown pass that made it 10-0. A Singletary three-yard scoring run then put the Owls ahead 17-0 with 14 minutes, 55 seconds left in the first half.
The lead was extended to 34-0 when Woods caught a 54-yard pass from Driskel. “They’ve dominated a lot,” North Texas coach Seth Littrell said. “They’ve won a lot of football games. They haven’t been beaten in a long time. I just think they’re a really good team. They’ve got great players.”
The only negative for the Owls was they struggled in the second half for a second consecutive week. A week ago, they closed poorly against Charlotte. North Texas pulled to within 34-17 on Evan Johnson’s one-yard touchdown run with 10:32 remaining.
The Owls were able to put it away on the next possession. Normally a quick-strike team, they went 71 yards in 10 plays and a Singletary’s five-yard touchdown started the celebration. “It was an absolute rush,” safety Jalen Young said. “From where we came and to where we are now. Just the feeling throughout that game. We’re actually doing what people said that we couldn’t do. Most people doubted us. At the end of the game, when the time was running down, I’m like, ‘Whoa, we’re here. We did it. We proved everybody wrong.’ ”
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The FAU Owls are the champions of Conference USA. They beat North Texas in the league title game on Saturday, 41-17, completing a transition from 3-9 in 2016 to 10-3 and atop the C-USA heap in Lane Kiffin’s first season as head coach.
Kiffin’s had an exceptionally winding career for someone who’s still just 42. He’s done good coaching jobs (like during USC and Alabama offensive coordinator stints) and bad ones (like as Raiders and USC head coach) and had uncomfortably dramatic exits from the last four jobs he’s had. What Kiffin did this year is his best coaching feat yet.
Consider how lousy FAU was before Kiffin’s arrival. The Owls were 3-9 in each of the last three years under Charlie Partridge. Their best record in four C-USA seasons was 6-6 in 2013.
The program had made two bowls in its brief history (as an FBS team since 2004, and only as a football program at all since 2001). They’d won six or more games two other times, though they didn’t make bowls for various reasons.
The 2016 team was really, really bad. The offense scored 26 points per game (80th in the country), and the defense gave up 40 (123rd out of 128 teams).
Now consider what’s happened since Kiffin showed up. Kiffin has two structural advantages. One is that almost 2016’s entire team returned, with FAU ranking fourth nationally in returning production. The other is that there’s plenty of talent in South Florida, which should be a playground for a good recruiter. He turned FAU into a destination for junior college transfers, including four who appeared on the Netflix show Last Chance U. The list of transfer acquisitions includes a bunch of former four-stars, and many of them weren’t even eligible this year. The defense shaved 15 points per game off its average, rising to 50th in the country entering the weekend. And the offense was a typically exciting Kiffin outfit.
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FAU Football vs North Texas, C-USA Championship Game, Dec 2, 2017, Noon Kick-Off, Telecast Live by ESPN2 - FAU Football (9-3, 8-0 in C-USA) is the 7th team in C-USA’s 22-year football history to finish the regular season Undefeated and the 4th to post an 8-0 record in league play. The East Division Champion Owls will host the 2017 Dynacraft Conference USA Football Championship Game on Saturday, December 2 against West Division Champion North Texas (9-3, 7-1 in C-USA). Kickoff is Noon ET and the game will be televised by ESPN2 and broadcasted by TuneIn.
CHAMPIONSHIP REMATCHES
This will be the fifth time that teams that played each other in the regular season have re-matched in the C-USA Championship Game. The regular season winner is 2-2 in the four previous title game meetings:
2016: Louisiana Tech vs. WKU: LA Tech won the regular season game, 55-52, in Ruston. WKU then won the Championship Game, 58-44, in Bowling Green.
2012: Tulsa vs. UCF: Tulsa won the regular season game, 23-21, in Tulsa. Tulsa then won the Championship Game, 33-27 in OT, in Tulsa.
2007: Tulsa vs. UCF: UCF won the regular season game, 44-23, in Orlando. UCF then won the Championship Game, 44-25, in Orlando.
2006: Southern Miss vs. Houston: Southern Miss won the regular season game, 31-27, in Hattiesburg. Houston then won the Champ. Game, 34-20, in Houston.
Florida Atlantic won the regular season meeting with North Texas, 69-31, in Boca Raton.
CHAMPIONSHIP TRENDS
*Both schools will be making their first appearance in the C-USA Championship Game. The last time that happened was 2013, when Rice defeated Marshall in the title game.
*This will be the fifth time that the teams playing in the C-USA Championship met during the regular season. The team that won the regular season contest is 2-2 in the rematch.
*This is the third time that both teams come into the Championship Game with win streaks of five or more games (2015 - Southern Miss at WKU and 2007 - Tulsa at UCF).
*Since C-USA began holding a conference championship in 2005, the host school is 9-3 all-time, including a current five-game winning streak.
UNBEATEN OWLS
With its 31-12 victory at Charlotte on Saturday, Florida Atlantic became the seventh team to finish C-USA play undefeated and the fourth to post an 8-0 record in league play in the 22 years of Conference USA Football. The Owls will now attempt to join the 2015 WKU team as the only schools to finish the regular season undefeated and win the C-USA Championship Game.
Read MoreWith Singletary handling things on the ground, quarterback Jason Driskel and receiver Kalib Woods led the passing game. Driskel completed 15-of-27 passes for 269 yards and a touchdown. Woods finished with six catches for 208 yards and a touchdown. “If you look back at the past nine games, we dominated,” Woods said. “Nobody can say that any win was a fluke. The only way somebody will respect you is if you go out there do what you do and that’s why we’re sitting up here.”
When the Owls opened the game by scoring 34 consecutive points, it appeared they were headed toward a repeat of when the teams met in the regular season in October. FAU gained 804 yards that night on the way to a 69-31 victory. The Owls served up more of the same by scoring the game’s first 34 points on Saturday. After kicker Greg Joseph opened the game with a 24-yard field goal, they broke things open with trickery. Receiver John Franklin III lined up at quarterback and pitched the ball back to receiver Kamrin Solomon. Solomon then hit Franklin for a 22-yard touchdown pass that made it 10-0. A Singletary three-yard scoring run then put the Owls ahead 17-0 with 14 minutes, 55 seconds left in the first half.
The lead was extended to 34-0 when Woods caught a 54-yard pass from Driskel. “They’ve dominated a lot,” North Texas coach Seth Littrell said. “They’ve won a lot of football games. They haven’t been beaten in a long time. I just think they’re a really good team. They’ve got great players.”
The only negative for the Owls was they struggled in the second half for a second consecutive week. A week ago, they closed poorly against Charlotte. North Texas pulled to within 34-17 on Evan Johnson’s one-yard touchdown run with 10:32 remaining.
The Owls were able to put it away on the next possession. Normally a quick-strike team, they went 71 yards in 10 plays and a Singletary’s five-yard touchdown started the celebration. “It was an absolute rush,” safety Jalen Young said. “From where we came and to where we are now. Just the feeling throughout that game. We’re actually doing what people said that we couldn’t do. Most people doubted us. At the end of the game, when the time was running down, I’m like, ‘Whoa, we’re here. We did it. We proved everybody wrong.’ ”
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The FAU Owls are the champions of Conference USA. They beat North Texas in the league title game on Saturday, 41-17, completing a transition from 3-9 in 2016 to 10-3 and atop the C-USA heap in Lane Kiffin’s first season as head coach.
Kiffin’s had an exceptionally winding career for someone who’s still just 42. He’s done good coaching jobs (like during USC and Alabama offensive coordinator stints) and bad ones (like as Raiders and USC head coach) and had uncomfortably dramatic exits from the last four jobs he’s had. What Kiffin did this year is his best coaching feat yet.
Consider how lousy FAU was before Kiffin’s arrival. The Owls were 3-9 in each of the last three years under Charlie Partridge. Their best record in four C-USA seasons was 6-6 in 2013.
The program had made two bowls in its brief history (as an FBS team since 2004, and only as a football program at all since 2001). They’d won six or more games two other times, though they didn’t make bowls for various reasons.
The 2016 team was really, really bad. The offense scored 26 points per game (80th in the country), and the defense gave up 40 (123rd out of 128 teams).
Now consider what’s happened since Kiffin showed up. Kiffin has two structural advantages. One is that almost 2016’s entire team returned, with FAU ranking fourth nationally in returning production. The other is that there’s plenty of talent in South Florida, which should be a playground for a good recruiter. He turned FAU into a destination for junior college transfers, including four who appeared on the Netflix show Last Chance U. The list of transfer acquisitions includes a bunch of former four-stars, and many of them weren’t even eligible this year. The defense shaved 15 points per game off its average, rising to 50th in the country entering the weekend. And the offense was a typically exciting Kiffin outfit.
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FAU Football vs North Texas, C-USA Championship Game, Dec 2, 2017, Noon Kick-Off, Telecast Live by ESPN2 - FAU Football (9-3, 8-0 in C-USA) is the 7th team in C-USA’s 22-year football history to finish the regular season Undefeated and the 4th to post an 8-0 record in league play. The East Division Champion Owls will host the 2017 Dynacraft Conference USA Football Championship Game on Saturday, December 2 against West Division Champion North Texas (9-3, 7-1 in C-USA). Kickoff is Noon ET and the game will be televised by ESPN2 and broadcasted by TuneIn.
CHAMPIONSHIP REMATCHES
This will be the fifth time that teams that played each other in the regular season have re-matched in the C-USA Championship Game. The regular season winner is 2-2 in the four previous title game meetings:
2016: Louisiana Tech vs. WKU: LA Tech won the regular season game, 55-52, in Ruston. WKU then won the Championship Game, 58-44, in Bowling Green.
2012: Tulsa vs. UCF: Tulsa won the regular season game, 23-21, in Tulsa. Tulsa then won the Championship Game, 33-27 in OT, in Tulsa.
2007: Tulsa vs. UCF: UCF won the regular season game, 44-23, in Orlando. UCF then won the Championship Game, 44-25, in Orlando.
2006: Southern Miss vs. Houston: Southern Miss won the regular season game, 31-27, in Hattiesburg. Houston then won the Champ. Game, 34-20, in Houston.
Florida Atlantic won the regular season meeting with North Texas, 69-31, in Boca Raton.
CHAMPIONSHIP TRENDS
*Both schools will be making their first appearance in the C-USA Championship Game. The last time that happened was 2013, when Rice defeated Marshall in the title game.
*This will be the fifth time that the teams playing in the C-USA Championship met during the regular season. The team that won the regular season contest is 2-2 in the rematch.
*This is the third time that both teams come into the Championship Game with win streaks of five or more games (2015 - Southern Miss at WKU and 2007 - Tulsa at UCF).
*Since C-USA began holding a conference championship in 2005, the host school is 9-3 all-time, including a current five-game winning streak.
UNBEATEN OWLS
With its 31-12 victory at Charlotte on Saturday, Florida Atlantic became the seventh team to finish C-USA play undefeated and the fourth to post an 8-0 record in league play in the 22 years of Conference USA Football. The Owls will now attempt to join the 2015 WKU team as the only schools to finish the regular season undefeated and win the C-USA Championship Game.
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