Head coach Willie Taggart announced during his Monday presser that redshirt junior quarterback Nick Tronti will be the starter on Saturday against Georgia Southern. 

“When it came down to it, we thought Nick with his experience would be the best way for us to start the season,” Taggart said. 

Tronti beat out fellow quarterbacks Javion Posey, Justin Agner, and Willie Taggart Jr. for the starting job. 

“He has the most experience out of the guys, and has been the most consistent throughout training camp,” Taggart said. “It has been a battle and I will say we got four guys I think we can go out and win with.” 

Tronti will take over the quarterback duties after it was announced that last year’s starter Chris Robison would no longer be with the team. 

While this will be the first start of Tronti’s FAU career, it will not be his first time under center for the Owls. 

In 2019 Tronti played in 11 games for the Owls. He completed 17 of 22 passes for 180 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. He rushed 51 times for 239 yards and two touchdowns and caught one pass for 41 yards. 

Coming out of high school, Tronti was a three star quarterback and signed with Indiana University in 2017. He transferred to FAU for the 2018 season after spending one year with the Hoosiers. 

During his senior season at Ponte Vedra High School in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL, Tronti led his team to the state runner-up in Class 5A and was named Florida Mr. Football in 2016. He threw for 3,328 yards, 34 touchdowns and four interceptions. He had 115 carries for 650 yards and 19 touchdowns. 

Tronti will have no shortage of weapons to work with this season. The running back room is loaded, with Malcolm Davidson, Larry McCammon III and BJ Emmons all returning. 

There will be new faces in the passing game with all five of the leading receivers from last season either gone or injured. Harrison Bryant is in the NFL, Deangelo Antoine and Tavaris Harrison graduated, John Raine transferred to Northwestern and John Mitchell injured his knee. 

FAU does bring in some new weapons in the receiving game. Aaron Young (Duke University) and TJ Chase (Clemson University) add valuable depth to the wide receiver position. Michael Irvin II (University of Miami) should start at tight end. 

Senior wide receiver Willie Wright is the leading returning receiver from last year’s team. Wright caught 20 passes for 186 yards and two touchdowns in 2019. For his career, Wright has 122 catches for 1,317 yards and 10 touchdowns. 

FAU fans won’t have to wait long to see Tronti’s first start as the Owls kickoff their season Sept. 19 in Statesboro against Georgia Southern. The game is at 3:30 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN. 

Jensen Jennings is the sports editor for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @Jensen_Jennings.