| 4/9/2025 | Football BOCA RATON, Fla. – The Florida Atlantic football team completed its final spring practice on the Boca Raton campus’ Schmidt Family Complex practice fields on Wednesday morning, all in preparation for Friday night’s 2025 Spring Game, scheduled for April 11 at 6:30 p.m. at the newly minted Flagler Credit Union Stadium.The midweek morning practice was essentially a simulation for a fall “Fast Friday” that will lead into the Saturday game. The Owls met, stretched, ran through approximately 35 plays and concluded with special teams work. FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS DETAILS Full Details QUOTABLE Antonio Fenelus, Cornerbacks Ends Coach On his return to Boca Raton and the development of Florida Atlantic “I’m really excited. My family is really excited. I’m from Boca Raton. I went to Boca High. I was originally committed to Florida Atlantic University. I ended up going to Wisconsin. I’m super excited to be a part of the staff with Coach (Zach) Kittley and excited to turn the program around.” On someone in your unit who has made a big jump between January and now “I’m going to say the whole group. From what we asked them to do in the very beginning in ‘football school’ to where we are now, all the guys have made huge strides. I’m so proud of a guy like ‘Dooda’ (Derrick Rogers), Cam (Cameron Goggins), LJ (Lawrence Johnson) the corners. All of those guys are going to have big roles for us. Zion (Paret) came in early as a true freshman this spring and is doing some of the things he is doing. I’m excited. The biggest thing is trying to get everybody to be on the same page throughout spring ball.” On the pressure of defending a tempo offense “Whenever you have offenses going as fast as our offense goes, it gets us in shape, one. It forces us to communicate and to be a lot faster and to be very detailed in everything we are doing. It is good that we are going through it now so that when we are facing tempo teams in the fall it will not be a shock. We are facing it everyday in practice. It is good for us.” Brandon Lacy, Ends/Rush Coach On how he has built a resume of great pass rushers “The success comes from having good players. You try to establish a culture from the get-go. The four things we try to establish in the edge room is that we want to play with fanatical effort, we want to be physical, we want to be focused on the moment. ‘Play with emotion, but don’t be emotional.’ And the last thing is have fun. When you do those four things at a high level, you are going to be able to compete at a high level. Those are the things that we try to have as a core. I have carried that from my first-year coaching to where I am right now.” On what attracted me to Florida Atlantic “It is ‘Paradise’, number one. You walk outside; it is 80 degrees. The beach is a mile and a half away. Especially for someone, where I came from Western Michigan last year and it is 40 something degrees and snowing up there today. It is a little atmosphere around here. Next thing is that you get to work with somebody like Coach (Brett) Dewhurst. We worked together at Southeast Louisiana and won conference championships there, in the same scheme, that is the easy thing. Then, there is a lot of familiarity within our staff. Then you work with someone like Coach (Zach) Kittley that is an offensive genius what he has done at the last couple of places he has been. To me, it is a match made in heaven in terms of what we do defensively and what they do offensively. It is our job to get our guys in position to execute.” Wilky Denaud, redshirt sophomore defensive lineman On the difficulty and challenges that Florida Atlantic’s offense presents for your unit “Coach (Brandon) Lacy and Coach (Brett) Dewhurst prep us through all the work that we do pre-practice so tempo and walking on cans and getting ready for different looks that we will get in those times is something that we need and need to be put under that pressure because that is something that could happen in a game. It could be that one drive that you need to close them down. Things that need to get handled and then we take that into the team period. Coach Kit [Zach Kittley], as you know, his offense can be fast. You are constantly moving. It constantly keeps you on your feet. Act fast. Move on your feet. Have the adjustments in your head at all times of practice. That is just something that you must be mentally prepared for.” On how the cooler spring has worked to help keep everyone’s body healthier “I talked to Coach Kit when he first got here. He said he would do as best as he could to help take care of our bodies as he knew a lot of us were beat up after last year over the course of the season. Coming into winter, we hit the ground early. I think everybody wanted the same objective and goal of being better than we were last year. No one wants to be remembered as the team we were last year. We all changed our mindset. Came in and worked the first weeks of the winter with coach B. Lee [Brandon Lee] and his staff. Everyone peeked with high numbers throughout the winter workouts. Coming into spring ball after doing all the high PRs in the weightroom, it felt good to go through this whole spring and not having injuries or feeling beat up or banged up.” Cameron Goggins, sophomore cornerback On what is new this spring besides the coaching staff “Of course, the scheme and the players, my first year last year we had a lot of older guys in the room, even before the transfer portal. Being an older guy, it is a little bit different, trying to talk to the young guys. That is the biggest difference.” On the staff’s defensive back focus “I have enjoyed it a lot. We have Coach (Dominique) Bradshaw [defensive graduate assistant], Coach (Antonio) Fenelus [cornerbacks], Coach Korel (Smith) [nickel coach]. We have a lot of guys and they can all coach every position. Hearing different POVs [point of views] from all of them help craft my game a little bit. I have enjoyed it a lot, especially from Coach (Brett) Dewhurst [defensive coordinator], he has a lot of experience and is really smart and helps a lot as well.” On Coach Kittley putting the team in every experience you may see and is there one you hadn’t see before “Our offense runs a lot of the same plays out of different stuff. Sometimes, I will try to guess. I have seen this and I know what is coming and then sometimes the exact opposite happens and I’m like they got me on this one. I go to the sideline and say they got me on this one.” SOUNDS FROM PLAYERS Tyler Solsky, redshirt junior linebacker Alex Atcavage, graduate assistant offensive lineman NIL IN PARADISE REGISTRATION To register click HERE. COMPLETE SCHEDULE Click HERE. SEASON TICKETS To purchase season tickets, click HERE. FOLLOW THE TEAM Stay informed by reading FAUSports.com or through football’s Twitter and Instagram accounts @FAUFootball. |
