Lane
Kiffin with his signature white visor reminiscent of the1980s and a ten-foot
wave of hype debuted as the new FAU head football Friday night at Howard
Schnellenberger Field in Boca Raton with a dull 42-19 loss to the Navy
Midshipmen. The Navy Midshipmen sailed their triple-option flexbone offensive
rushing attack crashing through the Owls defense 68 times for 416 yards and added
110 yards passing. The question mark coming into the game for the Owls was the
defense with many around the Boca Raton area thinking the unit was improved. With
a methodical approach of running the football down the throat of their
opponents, the Navy Midshipmen amassed five rushing touchdowns many of which were
scampers through the Owls secondary untouched.
Navy
only threw the ball 10 times in the entire game, completed just four passes,
but for a 27.5 yards per pass average. The FAU defense loaded the box with all
of 11 of their defenders and still couldn’t slow down the Midshipmen’s forward
drift.
“Navy
is a very well coached team and difficult to beat. They have very few negative
plays. Very few penalties... As for us that was pretty embarrassing. I felt
like there was so much build-up here with the fans and around the school with a
lot of energy. I feel like we let them down and have a lot of work to do,” said
FAU Owls head coach Kiffin.
His
brother Chris Kiffin is listed as the co-defensive coordinator/linebackers by
FAUSports.com, the official website of FAU football, and his Dad, Monte Kiffin,
the former defensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers National Football
League (NFL), is the Owls defensive analyst and NFL liaison. Monte Kiffin is
also the creator of the famed “Tampa Bay 2 Cover Defense” made popular by the
success it had in helping Tampa Bay win the 2002 Super Bowl and later on as the
“go-to” defense in the Madden NFL Football on the Sony PlayStation, PlayStation
2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and Microsoft X-Box video gaming systems.
Navy’s three-headed touchdown monster shredded the
Owls courtesy of the Midshipmen’s quarterback Zach Abey’s scores on touchdown
runs of 40 and 23 yards respectively. Abey rushed for 251 yards on 31 attempts and
passed for 110 yards on just four completions on ten attempts with one passing
touchdown. Fullback Joshua Walker scored on touchdown scampers of 48 and 4
yards. Even Navy running back Tre Walker got his first ever career touchdown
with a four-yard touchdown run to give the Midshipmen an early 7-0 lead early
in the first quarter. Maybe more impressive was fullback Walker’s eight rushes
for 75 yards, a 9.4 yard rush average.
All the hype of new FAU Owls football coach Lane
Kiffin, word of a packed FAU Stadium at Howard Schnellenberger Field with the
Navy Midshipmen in town fresh off a nine-win season and once again the Owls
offense proved flat again. The Owls offense was dreadful on third down going 5
for 14 on third down conversions. Not even a fumbled Navy snap at midfield recovered
by the FAU defense’s Owls defensive lineman Haiden Nagel, in that first quarter
could spark the offense, who on the next possession lost yards over three plays
and punted back to Navy.
FAU squandered their first possession on offense and
Navy dominated the FAU defensive front early. Several drives later, Owls
redshirt sophomore quarterback Daniel Parr connected with freshman
wide receiver Willie Wright on a 95-yard touchdown to give the Owls a 10-7 lead
over the Navy Midshipmen midway through the second quarter. It was FAU’s only
lead of the game. During the play, which Parr’s throwing pocket backed two
yards deep into FAU end zone, Wright was wide open as Parr winged it right into
his outstretched arms in full stride down FAU’s home sideline at Howard
Schnellenberger Field. The lead was short-lived.
Parr led the Owls with 281 yards passing on 19
completions and 31 attempts with two passing touchdowns but was sacked two
times by the Navy defense. He started the game at quarterback
for the Owls. Two botched snaps over the head of Parr resulted in yardage
losses, including a 22-yard loss for the FAU offense. Owls wide receiver
DeAndre McNeal paced the FAU offense with four catches for 88 yards and a 62-yard
fourth quarter touchdown pass from Parr.
Navy running back Tre Walker scored his first career
rushing touchdown to give the Midshipmen 7-0 lead over the FAU Owls with 9:06
left in the first quarter. On the next defensive stand, the Owls defense piled
up on Navy like a Rugby scrum during their second drive, yet the Midshipmen
still fall forward for first down once and again against the Owls. Even when
the Navy punter shanked a punt just 24 yards out of bounds, the Owls took over
at their 23-yard line and lost nine yards on their first rush and then punted
away just three plays later.
The Midshipmen’s offense line was impressive, mowing
down the Owls defensive line to make way for methodical five and six yard
rushes up the middle, to the side and back inside again.
In
the first quarter Owls wide receiver DeAndre McNeal didn’t even know Parr’s
first pass to him was coming, it whizzed behind his back while McNeal put a
block on a defender. Later on in the drive FAU kicker Greg Joseph narrowed the
Navy lead to 7-3, with a 24-yard field goal right down the middle of the
yellow, gold posts, upright and into the Owls stands. Joseph booted two field goals in the game; his second was a 54-yard field
goal to set the FAU all-time record for longest field goal and also to narrow
Navy’s lead to 28-13 with 7:25 left in the third quarter.
Joseph, an FAU walk-on kicker from American Heritage High
School in Delray Beach is a special team’s leader and a bright spot for the
Owls.
“I just try to go one kick at a time, one for one each
kick and go from there. I try to put our team in a better position to win,”
said Joseph.
Eventually Kiffin gave in and replaced Parr with redshirt
sophomore quarterback De’Andre Johnson who drove the Owls into Navy territory.
Then, it was Parr again. Finally, it was the lightning, and more lightning,
many around the stadium found themselves muttering “are you kidding me? Another lightning delay at FAU
Stadium. Maybe the Owls should have built the dome instead of an open-air
stadium, or should add a retractable roof, as this is the sixth game in three
years with a lengthy lightning delay. After a 59-minute lightning delay,
courtesy of a
few bolts of white lightning over the Atlantic Ocean 10 miles or so away, Navy wasted no time going up 35-13 with a 23-yard touchdown
run by quarterback Zach Abey with 1:17 in the third quarter.
Kiffin, the
offensive guru of the University of Alabama’s 2015 national championship
winning team, saved the best for last as FAU struggled to score or churn up
yardage in their first several possessions. The second lightning delay in the
game resulted in one hour and 43 minute of stagnant air. Heavy rains and
illuminating lightning fell on the field. , When play resumed, the Owls picked
off Abey on a pretty interception by FAU cornerback Chris Tooley. A few plays
later Parr was intercepted by Navy cornerback Elijah Merchant and a series
later by the Midshipmen’s other cornerback Noruwa Obanor. Then, Navy missed a
29-yard field goal with just less than eight minutes left in the game. At 1:39
a.m. in Boca Raton, the game still had seven minutes left in the fourth
quarter. The game had been delayed for a total of two hours and 42 minutes.
In one of the
most bizarre games in college football history, FAU vs. Navy ended with a
5-hour, 57 minute long game and after an 8 p.m. start the game ended at 1:47
a.m. The crowd of 28,481 was the third largest in FAU Stadium’s Howard
Schnellenberger Field history.
