Stillwater, Oklahoma– FAU’s offense continued to struggle against a tough Oklahoma State defense and lost 48-8 in front of almost 50,000 fans at Boone Pickens Stadium Saturday night.
One bright spot is that the Owls scored their first touchdown of the season, a rushing touchdown by running back Willie Rose, a freshman. Rose felt the offensive line blocked well, and it was great to score the Owls first touchdown of 2006.
“I want to thank the linemen because they did a really good job getting us all the way down the field and finishing it off with a score,” said Rose.
Early on, the Owls defense looked tough. On third down with ten yards to go, defensive tackle Randy Hunter sacked the OSU quarterback for a huge loss. The Cowboys punted and the Owls offense fizzled after three plays. The Cowboys took advantage of costly Owls mistakes, and penalties. OSU running back Mike Hamilton scored on a six yard touchdown run to make the score 7-0 in favor of the Cowboys.
Head Coach Howard Schnellenberger commented on the quarterback situation, “By design we were going to start Clayton, put Rusty in the second quarter and then allow Sean to finish out the game,” said Schnellenberger.
The offense received the ball again, and punted, for the fourth time. This time the defense forced a punt, by OSU, and Frantz Simeon returned it 27 yards, the longest return of the season for FAU. Unfortunately, the offense could not get a first down in the first half and punted a fifth time.
OSU took two plays to score on a 64 yard pass right through a winded defense to make it 21-0 with 6:54 left in the second quarter.
FAU is making out financially for the tough non-conference schedule. The Owls will reportedly make over $2 million dollars for the first four away games. FAU Head Coach Schnellenberger says this is the right way to build a football program.
“It is great for us financially, but even if that reward was not there it would still be very important. With tongue in cheek I have said time and time again that we would pay them for the opportunity to play them. From a coaches standpoint that is exactly what we need to do,” said Schnellenberger.
Money was a hot topic at the game. Boone Pickens, who the stadium is named after, was in attendance. Pickens has given over $165 million to OSU and some critics say he owns the college. He says he wants to help the college and its football program.
“We could be 6-0 going into homecoming, some would say I’m smoking dope, but with this support the team could go 8-3,” said Pickens as he was mobbed by reporters.
