FAU Football: Can Owls improve on impressive 2017 season?
By Zach Bigalke
FAU football and Lane Kiffin dominated Conference USA in 2017. Can the Owls repeat as C-USA champs and threaten for a New Year’s Six berth in 2018?
Florida Atlantic made a dramatic turnaround in Lane Kiffin’s first season at the helm in 2017. FAU started the season 1-3, with understandable losses to Navy and Wisconsin and a far more inexplicable defeat to Buffalo in New York. Then the Owls reeled off 10 straight victories to close out an 11-3 season.
Not only did they get to a bowl game, but the team won its first conference title in a decade. The winning streak included a lopsided 41-17 takedown of North Texas in the C-USA championship game, followed by an even bigger blowout of Akron 50-3 in the Boca Raton Bowl.
The question now becomes what Lane Kiffin might do for an encore at FAU. At his only previous stop where Kiffin lasted more than one season, USC improved from eight wins to 10 wins in 2011. Can the Owls have the same leap? If they manage to pull off that level of improvement, it would position FAU as one of the favorites for the Group of Five spot in a New Year’s Six bowl.
Do the Owls have the personnel to pull it off, though? Keep reading to learn more about the 2018 FAU offense and defense before diving into the schedule and seeing our predictions for the upcoming Owls season.