FAU Football capped off the greatest season in school history with a 50-3 victory over the Akron Zips in the Cheribundi Tart Cherry Boca Raton Bowl on Dec. 19. It was the team’s 10th straight victory, a program best in the FBS and their best since also winning 10 straight in 2003 when the team was a part of Division I-AA.

Only two bowl games since 2000 had a bigger margin of victory than FAU’s 47-point margin. That success culminated in FAU receiving votes in the final AP top 25 poll and being named to USA Today’s top 25 teams of 2018.

Head football coach Lane Kiffin led the team to its best overall record as a FBS program and best overall since also finishing 11-3 back in 2004. Its eight-game win improvement is second in the nation behind Fresno State’s nine-win improvement this.

During the last three seasons, the Owls won less games combined than Kiffin did in his first year.

The team ended the season on a 10-game winning streak, which is also second most behind the undefeated 13-0 UCF Knights. It finished undefeated in conference play, which has only happened six other times in C-USA’s 22 seasons.

A program record 19 players were named to the C-USA all conference teams, including seven on the first team.

The Owls offense averaged over 285 rushing yards a game, which is fifth best in the nation. They also averaged a conference high 40.6 points per game overall and 46 points per game in conference play.

The team was led all season by sophomore running back Devin Singletary. He led the nation in rushing touchdowns (32), overall touchdowns (33) and was fourth in rushing yards (1,920).

That is the most rushing and overall touchdowns in a single season in C-USA history. It is also the third most rushing touchdowns in a single season in FBS history behind Barry Sanders (37) and Montee Ball (33).

He was named a third team AP All-American, the first player in FAU history to be voted an All-American.

After not starting the team’s first two games, redshirt junior quarterback Jason Driskel led the team to a 10-1 record overall. He threw for over 2,000 yards and 15 touchdowns.

He also led the conference with a 66.5 completion percentage and a 149.4 quarterback rating.

Junior linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair led the conference with solo tackles (77), total tackles (147) and average tackles per game (11.3).

Junior safety Jalen Young was tied for second in the nation with seven interceptions. The team was also tied for second overall with a single-season program record of 20 interceptions.  

The team kicks the 2018 season off on Sept. 1 at Oklahoma.

Matt Brown is a contributing writer with the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @mattyb407.