FAU Football: Head coach Willie Taggart talks scrimmage and vaccinations 

Boca Raton, FL – Florida Atlantic University Football Head Coach Willie Taggart talked to the media Monday via Cisco WebEx about Saturday’s scrimmage, vaccinations, and players who were awarded single-digit jersey numbers. 

With the first scrimmage behind the team and another one this upcoming Saturday, the Owls are still trying to figure out who are starters and the 11 players that will be on the field at a certain time. 

“We have two weeks before game week, and this week, we will continue to figure out who we’re gonna go with,” Taggart said. “We’re still evaluating some guys, but really try to hone in on some things and really figure out which guys we’re going to go with, especially within the two-deep, and hopefully have a clear understanding of that by the end of this week.”

One thing stood out about Saturday’s scrimmage: the final score was 69-54 where the offense beat the defense. 

Confused?

According to an FAU press release about the scrimmage, it was “laid out in a competitive format and scoring system.” Taggart elaborated on some of the scoring rules and overall what the goal of the scrimmage was. 

“It was a situational scrimmage,” Taggart said. “We put our guys starting at the 35-yard line in an offensive drive and see what they get, the defense gets points for stops as well. We moved to the red zone for those types of situations. At the end of the game, where the offense was down six points with a minute and 20 seconds left, so we put our guys in different situations and see who can execute in those scenarios.”

The offense was scored normally with touchdowns and field goals, but the defense also earned points for stopping on downs, turnovers, and also traditional methods if they were to return an interception or fumble for a touchdown. 

In the scrimmage, each quarterback got the chance to be under center in different situations, and under the “selected sideline celebrations” section in the press release, each signal-caller made some good plays. However, Taggart is still undecided on who will be the starting quarterback on Sept, 4 against the Florida Gators. 

“Once we know we feel like we have our guy, we’re gonna name him,” Taggart said.

“We won’t name anybody until we figure out who that is, and hopefully that’s way before the Florida game.”

Uniform Numbers

FAU has also recently awarded single-digit jersey numbers to players as part of Taggart’s “Single-Digit Strong” effort. Taggart talks about how to earn these numbers.

“Guys that can go out and execute every single day the way we want to with the kind of passion and physicality that we want them to play with,” Taggart said. “Also guys we can count on, day in and day out.”

The players that have single-digit numbers are:

Introducing 𝐒𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞-𝐃𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠.

These guys came to work every day & 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐭.

— Florida Atlantic Football (@FAUFootball) August 23, 2021

Another symbolic treatment that Taggart did for the Owls was supply every player with a light-blue button-down shirt with their name on a patch above the breast pocket. They were given this prior to training camp and are meant to be a “working man’s” shirt and to show that the team was going to work.

Getting ready for Florida

With the Owls’ first game against the University of Florida, Taggart is treating the Gators as anybody else. 

“We look at Florida just like any other opponent, if any other way, we’re selling ourselves short,” Taggart said.

“We’re going into that ballgame like we play any other game and going to try to win that game. Every game on our schedule is a challenge and we understand it, we appreciate the opportunity and we’re looking forward to it.”

Coronavirus Vaccines and Scrimages

On the topic of vaccinations against the coronavirus, Taggart stressed how important it is for his team to take the pandemic seriously. 

“Our guys have done a great job,” Taggart said. “We have a lot of guys on our football team that want to play this year, so if that will tell you anything, that will tell you how many guys are vaccinated. Hopefully, we get to 100% here soon.”

As we’re heading into the homestretch at the start of the season, Taggart talks about what he’s looking for in his team in the coming days and weeks.

“Well, just being very detailed on the little things,” Taggart said. “This past scrimmage was a good barometer for all of us and to see where we’re at and see how much we need to improve before the first game. I thought there were a lot of little mistakes in that last scrimmage that we got to correct both players and coaches. But that was to be expected, this being the first time in the stadium, practicing in there, so I want to get in there again and see if our guys respond differently.”

The Owls had a scrimmage-like practice Tuesday where the press release stated who shined:

“Each of the quarterbacks worked through their paces, as did all of the Owls, in an attempt to showcase themselves as the season opener at Florida on Saturday, Sept. 4, inches closer. The quarterbacks connected with 15 receivers, while Je’Quan Burton, TJ Chase, and Kelvin Dean, Jr. recorded multiple catches. One Chase catch was highlight-worthy. There were 11 ball carriers, with freshman running back Zuberi Mobley leading the charge. Mobley averaged 4.1 yards per carry and recorded one touchdown.

Just a couple more Saturdays…💭 pic.twitter.com/z027dcPAVj

— Florida Atlantic Football (@FAUFootball) August 22, 2021

Defensively, the action was spread among 29 tacklers. Akileis Leroy led the way with 4.5 tackles. But the player turning in the performance of the day may have been freshman linebacker Courtney McBride, who had four total tackles, including three for a loss, all of which were sacks, and he added one pass breakup.”

There will be media availability Wednesday where the offensive and defensive coordinators will speak. Practice will also be viewed by the media. 

Photo courtesy of FAU Athletics.