FAU Football: Mid-week recap as Owls prepare for critical game against Marshall

The past few days for the FAU Owls, as they prepare for Marshall, have been an intense one as they’re coming off of a win over UTEP. While it was a win, it didn’t feel like it to some on the team as they allowed the Miners to get back in the game in the remaining minutes of the game.

After the game, Hagerty Family Head Coach Willie Taggart and players weren’t jumbled with joy.

Ahead of a crucial conference game against rival Marshall Thundering Herd, they look to fix mistakes and learn from…a victory?

Let’s go through the week for the Owls and catch up on what their mindset is like. We’ll start with Taggart’s weekly press conference. After, a preview of the key conference game and final score predictions will be given.

Every game is a rival. pic.twitter.com/afCI73aFNy

— Florida Atlantic Football (@FAUFootball) November 5, 2021

MONDAY

It started dim as Taggart gave an update on linebacker Caliph Brice who suffered an arm injury against UTEP. He was seen on the sidelines after the injury with a cast or sling. After the game, coach said he would be getting an MRI and that he was “not ok.” 

Brice also took to social media to post a heart-broken emoji. While this could mean anything, even Taggart stating that could possibly be referring to his love-life, it could very well connect to the injury. 

He said Monday that he will be out indefinitely.

Brice was having a breakout season, becoming one of the best defensive players for FAU. Likely to end his season, he’ll finish 54 total tackles, 3.5 for loss, five quarterback hits, half of a sack, and a fumble recovery.

A huge blow to the defense and the linebacker unit, Taggart expects the group to have a “next man mentality” and points at key players to fill in that role.

“One thing I can say about our football team is the guys are taking pride in the next man up mentality and we look forward to doing the same thing this week. I thought Eddie Williams stepped in and played well. I think coming into the year we said that about our linebacker group that we had some depth there, so we feel good about Eddie [Williams] and [Antarrius] Moultrie and Keke [Leroy].

Taggart also talked about the win against UTEP and how he would evaluate the performance after sitting on it for a bit.

“That last two minutes and 10 seconds of the game was bad. Before that I thought our guys played well. It was disappointing but also encouraging because our guys still found a way to win the ballgame,” Taggart said. “It’s a good sign of a good football team when you don’t play as well as you can and still win the game against a really good football team. When you go back and look at the film, I thought our guys for the first three quarters and eight minutes did enough against UTEP.” 

He also spoke on the offense and how it was a mixed bag in aspects that affect the game.

“I thought in the first half against UTEP, we were very efficient on first down. We weren’t efficient on third down,” Taggart said. “We had a lot of third and longs. We want to get back working on third downs.”

While post-game last Saturday was anything but celebratory for the team, Taggart says how the team responded.

“We enjoyed that for 24 hours then we moved on. We didn’t finish the way we wanted but we got the win. We watched the film, looked at corrections and then moved on to Marshall. Got practice today, the guys were excited. They got here early and were excited. They know the importance of this ballgame and what it’s going to take to get the win.”

Taggart scouts the Thundering Herd ahead of their matchup in the weekend:

“Good, physical football team. Really talented football team. A lot of athletes on the team. The quarterback’s a really good football player and the freshman running back is a really good football player. He runs aggressively. Big up front on the offensive side of the ball. Defensively they’re very aggressive. I’m glad we have them at home.”

While Taggart is “glad” they’ll have Marshall at home, but something has to give. They’re undefeated at FAU Stadium and the Owls currently ride a 12-game winning streak at Howard Schnellenberger Field. 

Marshall has been getting the better of the Owls in their history as in the eight times they faced off, the Owls have won once, and that was in Boca Raton. 

Game week grind 🤟#WinningInParadise pic.twitter.com/tOmluQiKVB

— Florida Atlantic Football (@FAUFootball) November 3, 2021

TUESDAY

Offense was the focus of Tuesday’s practice as the media spoke to offensive coordinator Michael Johnson and offensive lineman Chaz Neal. 

The offense had an up and down game against UTEP, where they showed flashes of explosive plays, but also punted the ball nine times. 

When it comes to Marshall’s defense, they’ve been effective in stopping the pass only allowing 171.3 passing yards per game. However, against the run, they’ve allowed 205.8 rushing yards per game, a statistic that FAU should take advantage of.

Johnson talks about the defense of the Thundering Herd and what he’s seen from them.

“They’re a good football team. They have good athletes. They play hard. They have a good scheme and it’s going to be a good, physical football game. We have to prepare like that. They have our respect and we’re going to do our due diligence all week and make sure we’re prepared and ready to go on Saturday.”

When it comes to the aforementioned rushing statistic, it seems to be ever more important against Marshall, an aspect that Johnson stresses as being integral to the offense.

“We want to be physical. We feel that everything we do starts with the run game. We want to try to get that going because it opens up everything else that we do. If we’re effective running the ball, then we’re hard to deal with. Each game, whether we’re playing Marshall or any other opponent, we’re going to try to establish the run some way.”

Johnson gives his overall expectations in what he wants to see against Marshall as the Owls are looking for their sixth win of the season.

“Consistency, detail, fundamentals and execution. We want to play a clean football game. We want to make sure that we’re locked in, not making mental mistakes and give ourselves an opportunity to let our athletes play. If we can do that, I think we’ll have a good chance of winning this game.”

For Neal, he’s made the change from right to left tackle, which for a right-handed quarterback like N’Kosi Perry, is arguably the most important player to protect his blind-side. The redshirt junior talks about the transition:

“The move came from Coach T (Taggart). The move is basically saying he wants me to play left tackle. I talked to him about it. Whatever is best for the team that makes us move forward, I do. It shows that I’m versatile and can play right or left. I’m able to process information fast and get up to speed and continue to and push forward.”

Besides pass protection, opening up holes for the running back is equally as important. Neal talks about if they go by the game plan, they’ll run the ball the way they want to.

Since Neal is a transfer from Florida State, he’s not too accustomed to the rivalry between FAU and Marshall. He speaks on facing Marshall and what the atmosphere will possibly be like on game-day.

“For offensive linemen, we have to finish blocks, get people on the ground, block real hard. Blocking until we hear that whistle. This is my first year here for a Marshall game. This game is worse than an FIU game, I’ve heard. It’s hate week. Every week is a hate week for us but this week it’s personal. Whoever wins this game could end up winning this conference. We’re going to take care of business as it’s going to be very personal up front.”

You heard @ko_live5 and @wtjr_19.

We need you here on Saturday ‼️ pic.twitter.com/UABNvzpoHy

— Florida Atlantic Football (@FAUFootball) November 2, 2021

WEDNESDAY

Defensive coordinator Mike Stoops and safety Teja Young both talked about the defense heading into Marshall. 

Stoops emphasized on focusing on the positives in the win against UTEP as the team played well for the first three quarters.

“When you play a team like that, that team is 6-1. That’s a good football team. I thought we played physical up front, controlled the run game, gave up a couple of balls down the field. That’s going to happen. They have a really good quarterback and some good wide receivers. I like the way our kids competed. We knew it was going to be a tough game. Points were a premium. We set our offense up a couple of different times in very positive field position. Any time you can do that, you’re doing a lot of good things. I thought our players, for the most part, really locked in and played well. I thought Smoke [sophomore cornerback Romain Mungin] did a great job coming in and giving us a lift in the secondary. I thought our guys really played well and made some big plays in key moments.”

When asked about what he could’ve done better against the Miners when it came to the defensive performance.

“Well, I could have made some better calls certainly, put our corners in better situations. I think that’s what you’re thinking, of how I could have helped this guy in that situation?…,” Stoops said. “And that’s a fundamental coaching error on our part. It’s something that we have to look out for and get better because of it.”

Marshall’s offense has been solid in both aspects as they’ve averaged 334.9 passing yards per game and 167.8 rushing yards per game. Stoops talks about the Thundering Herd’s running attack led by Rasheen Ali and Sheldon Evans.

“I’ve worked with Head Coach [Charles] Huff for a couple of years at Alabama. He’s a tremendous running back coach. They take a lot of pride in how they run the football. Just like it was at Alabama, they’re going to have guys that come downhill and try to be physical with you. It’s going to be another very physical football game. That’s how they want to play. We have to make sure we tackle well and be physical at the point of attack.”

Teja Young is a key component in the Owls’ secondary and talks about facing a high-scoring offense (37 points per game) like Marshall.

“My expectation is to just execute our calls. They have a new offensive coordinator, but they still have some of the same tendencies,” Young said. “We just want to go back to what we know about those guys and be able to execute the calls that we put in.”

The redshirt sophomore also speaks on his expectations for the defense:

“We really want to clean up mistakes. The goal is to play a perfect football game, which is not realistic as it is, but if you try to reach that goal, you will always get the outcome you want. For us, defensively, it’s getting off the field on third down, stopping the run early, and getting our hands on balls and taking the ball out of the sky.”

THURSDAY

Coach Taggart had a message for the fans to show up at the game this Saturday, telling people to "show up and show out!"

Hoping @FAUFootball @FAUAthletics can clip that and post it on their socials! #FAU https://t.co/w8QyQ2BcH0

— Zachary Weinberger (@ZachWeinberger) November 4, 2021

A few days before the Owls take on Marshall, Willie Taggart spoke to the media for the last time.

In this week of practice, Taggart says that he’s seen focus and determination from the defense after the fourth quarter breakdown against UTEP.

“We’re seeing guys flying around, running to the ball. They’re doing what the coaches are asking them to do, and trying their best to deal with the coaches. When it comes to last week, I think that’s more on us as coaches to make sure we put our guys in the best position, but then also for our players understand the situation that we’re in, you know, we can’t ever stop coaching situational football, you got to continue to stress the importance of things that could happen in during those times. And I felt we could have done a better job of expressing that as coaches and our players and locked into the situation. We got to learn from it.”

As said before, Marshall and FAU have always had physical matchups and it wouldn’t be surprising if coaches and players have this game circled on the schedules.

For Taggart, he emphasizes saying that every opponent they face is a rival and Marshall shouldn’t be no different:

“Our guys have been focused on how we’ve been trying to teach them throughout the year, that you have to have the same focus each and every week. You know, it’s got to be a passion and a purpose to practice. We’re not just about the practice, the practice is the purpose of what we’re doing, you know, and having that mentality every single day and knowing that if we practice well, you play well, But all of these games are important. We can’t do anything about what happened in the past, all we can do is focus on what’s going down on Saturday and make sure that we do our best to prepare and go out and play the best way that we can.”

Another huge loss on the defense besides Brice is defensive back Diashun Moss. He didn’t play against UTEP and Taggart confirmed he won’t play against Marshall.

Per #FAU HC Willie Taggart, DB Diashun Moss WILL NOT play this Saturday against Marshall. https://t.co/c8MPvd8lLg

— Zachary Weinberger (@ZachWeinberger) November 4, 2021

THREAD: We also spoke to #FAU DB Teja Young. His and Stoops’ quotes will be in a midweek story.

Here are some sights of practice with a focus on the defense! Emphasis on tackling. https://t.co/DREZaqehkO pic.twitter.com/OsSZUcHPZR

— Zachary Weinberger (@ZachWeinberger) November 3, 2021

PREDICTION

FAU fans may not like this prediction.

I’ll just spoil it, I’m picking Marshall to win. Let me explain.

The Owls are a good football team, but there are some growing pains under Taggart that need to be resolved. 

Playing against a team like Marshall, there’s no room for error. I believe that the Owls know this, but as history shows, the Thundering Herd have been a pain in the you know what.

I know the game is at home, and it’s hard to beat a team that has won 12 straight games on that field, but it does seem like they need another wake-up call to get out of these continuing problems.

Could they start fast? Could they limit penalties? Could they limit the self-inflicting wounds?

I’m not confident in replying “yes” to any of those questions.

It’ll definitely be a close one as the 1.5 point spread suggests for Marshall, but my gut tells me that looking back on this game, there will be a couple situations where the Owls could have won this game, but couldn’t capitalize. 

While I am picking Marshall to win here, this will be a statement win for FAU if they come out of this the victor. 

Final Score Predictions: Marshall 34 – FAU 31

Photo courtesy of FAU Athletics.