Florida Atlantic University’s football team is entering its second year under head coach Tom Herman. Last season was their first year playing in the American Athletic Conference (AAC) after taking the University of Central Florida’s place. 

The Owls ended the season with a record of 4-8 and 3-5 in the AAC. In one week, they’ll kick off their 2024 season in East Lansing to take on Michigan State University, a Big-10 team under their first year of Johnathan Smith’s leadership. After losing star wide receiver LaJohntay Wester, quarterback Michael Johnson Jr., and others to the transfer portal, Herman had to make moves in the recruiting world over the summer.

The University Press sports staff is back to predict FAU’s season. 

JD Delcastillo, Managing Editor

Despite being in only the second season of the Tom Herman era, it feels like a pivotal moment for Herman and the program. 

This may sound like an exaggeration, but when Herman was first hired to be Florida Atlantic Football’s eighth head coach in school history, the expectation was a bowl game. A measly 6-6 record is the minimum requirement to qualify for a bowl game, which hasn’t been done since 2020 when Willie Taggart was the head coach.

The last FAU football head coach to last longer than three seasons was Howard Schnellenberger, who built the program from the ground up. Every other non-interim head coach had a losing record before being fired, except for Lane Kiffin, who left for a higher position as the head coach of Ole Miss. 

If a bowl game is the goal, which it should be for the sake of everyone, a two-game win increase from last season’s 4-8 record is needed. On paper, this shouldn’t be too tall of a task for a team that has the easiest schedule in the AAC in terms of difficulty, according to collegefootballnetwork.com. But this is college football; anything is possible. 

Herman said during a Zoom meeting after early signing day in December that it was important to develop their young players because FAU doesn’t have a big enough budget or roster to get the “quality and or quantity of transfers that are needed to win the American Conference.” Fast forward to today, Herman garnered 21 transfers from the portal to land him the sixth-best transfer class in the AAC, according to 247sports.com. Take what you want from that.

That being said, with this new age of assembling rosters from scratch, there is no telling what this roster’s floor or ceiling is. However, with Herman having his first full off-season in Boca Raton, I have faith in a bowl game appearance (a bowl game win is a different story).

Prediction: 6-6 overall record, 4-4 conference record.

Megan Bruinsma, Sports Editor 

Florida Atlantic is coming off a four-game losing streak at the end of their 2023 season. After starting the season 1-3, they had a small glimmer of hope during mid-year after fighting back to a 4-4 record, but it quickly dissipated. 

The Owls are in for a rude awakening at the beginning of this year. Ending a year on a rocky note and then kicking off the next one playing Michigan State, a Big-10 team, is never an ideal situation. Especially since they still lack a go-to wide receiver after LaJohntay Wester transferred to Colorado, who seemed to be the only player consistently utilized on offense last year. 

One of the most interesting things to see will be how the 41 new players come together under Herman’s leadership, as well as the returning committees from last season. It’s now or never to see how these players have developed and come together over the summer.

The key for the Owls will be capitalizing on their three games leading up to starting conference play. FIU will bring good competition, especially with their decade-old rivalry, but it’s a winnable game. That isn’t to say it will be easy, but having success in these winnable games will be critical to set them up for success in the AAC. 

Herman has a history of bowl games, racking up five in his time as a head coach at the University of Houston and the University of Texas. His last was in 2020. Coincidentally, FAU’s last bowl appearance was the same year. Could this be the year that the dry spell ends? He clearly knows how to reach one, but with many familiar foes in the AAC and the developing roster, the only way a bowl game would happen is by capitalizing on the three games prior to conference play. 

Prediction: 5-7 overall record, 3-5 conference record.

Maddox Greenberg, Staff Writer

Here we are again: an off-season with expectations looking to be answered. Last season was the beginning of the Tom Herman era, and it… did disappoint. The fans. The alumni. The boosters. But, most importantly, it disappointed the team.

However, it’s out with the old and in with the new. The Owls lost a lot of players, most notably star wide receiver and one of the best returners in the country, LaJohntay Wester, to head coach Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes. 

In response, the Owls added some new faces, including confirmed Week 1 starting quarterback transfer Cam Fancher and wide receiver Caleb Coombs from Marshall University. 

Herman noted early in the offseason that what makes this team different from last year’s team was that these new players are invested in what the program is. That’s the important part to understand. There were high expectations last season with the hype surrounding a new head coach who has an impressive record in bowl games, a quarterback who returned to his former coach when they were both at the University of Texas in Casey Thompson and, as stated earlier, one of the best returners in the country. 

Now, in hindsight, you have to look at the facts: Herman didn’t have much of a chance to recruit for the 2023 class. It is difficult, especially at a Group of Five school, to have a new head coach and new coaching staff come into a program and convince all of the players of their vision and game plan for Saturdays.

However, there is optimism in this season. Herman, who took a two-year hiatus from coaching before FAU to become an NFL offensive analyst and a broadcaster at CBS Sports, coached a new program in a new conference against some unfamiliar foes for the first time. But this season isn’t last season. 

With a couple of games against an independent school in the University of Connecticut, an FCS football program in Wagner, and the return of the Shula Bowl (a game FAU hasn’t lost in six years and a bowl game Herman surely won’t lose), the schedule looks to be a bit easier than last year.

Last year, there were unfortunate losses against schools that FAU easily beat on paper (I won’t mention what happened against East Carolina University… or Rice… or Ohio.)

There will be some important questions to be answered early on, especially at the quarterback and wide receiver position, but to me, things are looking up this season for the school 1.8 miles from the beach. 

Prediction: 6-6, 4-4 conference record

Morgan Larkins, Contributing Writer

FAU is now entering the second season of the Herman era after going 4-8 last year. Due to the team’s continued development under coach Herman and this year’s strength of schedule, the Florida Atlantic Owls should vastly improve from last season. 

Based on last season, FAU is facing more sub-.500 teams this year, like the Connecticut Huskies, Florida International Panthers and the Temple Owls. Another bonus is that FAU is not facing any ranked opponents as of the preseason AP Top 25, compared to last year, where they had to face two ranked opponents in the season’s preseason ranking in Clemson and Tulane.  

FAU has the advantage regarding the schedule, but the development under Herman’s system will make or break this season. The returning players now have experience under his system, which should translate into better execution on the field.

The biggest area of concern is the almost entirely new offense. The quarterback, running back and wide receiver rooms are almost completely revamped with new transfers. Without former FAU wide receiver LaJohntay Wester, the position group is left without a reliable and proven wide receiver one. Of course, new transfers could present an opportunity for the offense to improve from last season, as FAU could have performed at a higher level offensively.

Last season, the defense held its own in the AAC, ranking at a respectable sixth in points allowed and eighth in yards allowed. With multiple starters returning, such as linebacker Jackson Ambush and defensive backs Jayden Williams and Daedae Hill, the defense should improve, or at least replicate, their last season performance under Herman and defensive coordinator Roc Bellantoni in year two. 

With the schedule favoring FAU and added experience from last season, I believe the team will obtain their first bowl game in the Herman era. 

Prediction: 7-5, 4-4 conference record 

John Burke, Contributing Writer

After a disappointing end to the 2023 season, it seems the Owls can only improve upon last year’s dismal performance. With a much easier schedule in 2024, the path to a bowl game seems very plausible.

If the Owls want to be successful this year, they will have to rely heavily on their defense. Returning with eight starters, they went out and picked up defensive backs Kahzir Brown from Maine and Phillip Dunham from Indiana. These are two big gets from the transfer portal. Along with Senior CB Daedae Hill and Senior LBs Jackson Ambush and Desmond Tisdol leading the squad, the defense should be steadily improved from last season. The team adopted a sort of bend-don’t-break mantra last year, ranking 94th in the nation in yards per game allowed (397.3) but only 59th in points per game allowed (25.5). The secondary let the team down on multiple occasions, so the additions of Brown and Dunham should help plug some of those holes for the Owls.        

The big question mark of the 2024 season for FAU will be the offense. They need to be better this year. A lot better. The defense allowed 24 points or fewer nine times last year, which should have netted more than four wins on the season. Their average time of possession was a measly 27:20 per game, which was good enough for dead last in the AAC and almost the entire nation (124th), according to teamrankings.com. Putting that kind of pressure on your defense is a recipe for disaster, and it honestly makes what the defense did even more impressive.        

I believe the key to success for the Owls this season will be limiting turnovers and playing the field position game. To put it bluntly, they will need to play a very boring brand of football and grind out victories against lesser opponents. Eight of the teams on FAU’s schedule failed to go bowling last year, so it’s certainly possible. They will need to improve upon their 1-4 record in one-score games from a season ago, as closing out games was a huge problem for the Owls.     

Starting the season off at Michigan State is a tough draw, and FAU has opened as 11.5-point underdogs. However, the next five games are all extremely winnable, and during that stretch, we will learn a lot about this football team. Army, FIU, UConn, Wagner, and North Texas are all subpar teams, and there is no reason the Owls shouldn’t go 4-1 at worst over that span. Week 8 at UTSA and week 9 at USF are two more tough draws, and I expect the Owls to drop both of those games as well. Theoretically, that would put them at 4-4 or 5-3 heading into the final stretch of the season, with some tough but winnable games to end the year. Managing to win two or three of their last four games against ECU, Temple, Charlotte and Tulsa is a very realistic path to a possible berth in a bowl game.

It won’t be pretty, and there will be times when you want to turn the TV off, but I’m predicting anywhere from a 7-5 to a 5-7 season for the Owls this year. They will have to be scrappy and learn how to close out tight games, but Herman has shown there is reason to believe in him as the coach to turn this program around.

Prediction: 6-6 overall record, 4-4 conference record 

For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or DM the staff on Instagram: JD Delcastillo (@jd.delcastillo), Megan Bruinsma (@megan_bruinsma), Maddox Greenberg (@Maddoxblade04), Morgan Larkins (@mj_larkins)