The Wisconsin Badgers will welcome the Florida Atlantic to Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday morning for their second game of the season, so to get the inside scoop on Lane Kiffin's new program BadgerBlitz.com checked in with Matthew DeFranks, who covers the Owls for the Sun Sentinel.
Our questions and Matthew's answers are included below, and you can follow him on Twitter here.
It's still early in his tenure, but what's been the biggest change at FAU since Lane Kiffin took over as the head coach?
Matthew DeFranks: It’d have to be in the way FAU has recruited and assembled its roster. When FAU started preseason camp on July 27, I thought the roster looked dramatically different from what I expected it to. But then they just kept adding and adding guys, mostly transfers. Jeremiah Taleni (Pittsburgh), Kain Daub (Florida State), John Franklin III (Auburn and Florida State), Chris Robison (Oklahoma) and Jovon Durante (West Virigina) all joined the Owls after camp broke.
Some of them had discipline issues at their previous schools, but Kiffin said he’s fine with giving second chances to players and was confident that FAU’s culture would help keep them in line. He even jokingly referred to FAU as LSU or Last Strike U. Because Kiffin was so active on the transfer market, the Owls got creative with recruiting numbers, even resorting to blueshirting to stay at the 25-player limit.
What do you think Kiffin needs to do to help make FAU competitive in their conference that their other head coaches weren't able to manage?
Matthew DeFranks: A lot of Kiffin’s strategy revolves around stuffing FAU with talent. In addition to the late transfers above, the Owls have also welcomed three players that signed with Power Five schools out of high school but failed to qualify, plus two players (De’Andre Johnson and Tim Bonner) who stopped at East Mississippi Community College after a Power Five school.
Kiffin said that he’s tried to emulate Western Kentucky’s model of decent high school recruiting but big impact transfers because that’s proven to work in Conference USA. (WKU has won the last two conference titles.) He’s said that the high-school model doesn’t work at smaller schools and he believes the transfer strategy is a sustainable plan at a lower-tier school.
What kind of experience is this team bringing back from last year's team? Or is experience not exactly the most important factor this year with a new coaching staff taking over and bringing their own schemes to the table?
Matthew DeFranks: FAU has a ton of experience back in 2017. It lost one starter along the offensive line, returned both quarterbacks who played last season and has one of the best running back tandems in Conference USA with Devin “Motor” Singletary and Gregory “Buddy” Howell, Jr. (The FAU backfield is heavy with the nicknames.) Leading receiver Kalib Woods is suspended indefinitely after two felony battery charges, but FAU has added to its receiving corps recently to mask his absence.
The biggest hole to fill will probably be on defense, with third-round pick Trey Hendrickson now gone. Hendrickson was FAU’s career leader in sacks, tackles for loss and forced fumbles, and was named Conference USA’s Defensive Player of the Year last season. The secondary is all back and should be improved, as are key linebackers.
As far as experience with a new staff, it still matters. It’s not just that they’ve played college games, but it’s that they’ve adjusted to the speed, learned how to diagnose plays, watched extra film, gained more muscle in the weight room. Those all carry over no matter what system you’re running.
What kind of offense and defense are you expecting the Owls to run during Kiffin's first season?
Matthew DeFranks: The offense will be under offensive coordinator Kendal Briles, and he’s brought the Baylor offense to FAU. It’s one of the more unique spread offenses in college football. Receivers are nearly on the sidelines. The tight end acts as a pseudo h-back. The tempo is typically one of the fastest in the country. And Briles likes to run the ball a ton. With questions at quarterback and Singletary and Howell (1,849 yards and 25 touchdowns last year) in the backfield, this should be a run-heavy approach.
On defense, defensive coordinator Chris Kiffin installed a 4-2-5 defense as the FAU base, though they will likely not be using that much against Wisconsin’s power run game. Against Conference USA’s pass-happy spread offenses, a nickelback makes a ton of sense. But it likely won’t against Navy in the first week or Wisconsin in the second week. They could opt to add a third linebacker or a defensive end/linebacker hybrid.
Finally, what do you think a successful first year for the Owls looks like with Kiffin as the head coach? Is there a particular record benchmark people will be looking for or do people just want to see a more competitive team?
Matthew DeFranks: A successful season at FAU has had the same goal since 2008: get to a bowl game. The Owls haven’t been to one since then and are coming off three straight 3-9 seasons. Fans could be encouraged by a four- or five-win season, but mostly because it’s better than another three-win year. Realistically, with the talent Kiffin has added and the experience FAU brings back, a bowl game is not out of the question.
Eventually, FAU would like Kiffin to deliver Conference USA championships. But in his first year, that may be asking for too much immediately.
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John Veldhuis covers Wisconsin football, basketball and recruiting for BadgerBlitz.com on the Rivals.com network. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnVeldhuis.
