SAN ANTONIO – (Nov. 23, 2019) – Harrison Bryant caught 10 passes for 182 yards, and Florida Atlantic University football posted the 100th win in program history by defeating UTSA at the Alamodome on Saturday night, 40-26. Coupled with Charlotte’s 24-13 win over Marshall, the Owls have now taken over outright possession of first place in the Conference USA East Division and can clinch the division title on Senior Day next Saturday.
Quotable
“Obviously it didn’t feel great at the end how we played on defense, but you have to look at the overall thing,” said head coach Lane Kiffin. “We went on the road, came here on a day where there was a lot of upsets around the conference (and totaled) 526 yards of offense against, like I said all week, a very talented team.”
Quick Hits
· FAU (8-3, 6-1 C-USA) won the toss but elected to defer. The Owl defense forced a punt on UTSA’s (4-7, 3-4 C-USA) first drive
· On the very first play, a jet sweep to Deangelo Antoine went for 24 yards; two plays later, Chris Robison found a wide-open Bryant for 32 more
· After Robison and John Mitchell connected for 15 yards into the red zone, Malcolm Davidson took a handoff up the middle untouched for a 16-yard touchdown. It took just five plays and 1:51 for the Owls to go 90 yards and open the scoring
· UTSA got on the board on their next possession, on a 41-yard field goal
· Two first down passes moved FAU into UTSA territory, and BJ Emmons toted his first carry since the opening game of the year, a five-yard gain
· The drive moved into the second quarter, where Vladimir Rivas pushed the lead back out to seven, 10-3, with a 26-yard field goal
· Noah Jefferson picked up the Owls’ first sack of the day, on third down, to force a Roadrunner punt
· For their third straight drive, FAU moved into the red zone, and a 48-yard field goal attempt had plenty of leg but hit the left upright
· UTSA saw a 28-yard gain on the ground end with a forced fumble by Ahman Ross, with Rashad Smith pouncing on it for his fourth recovery of the season, a new FAU single-season record
· Three plays later, Robison and Bryant hooked up for 26 yards, with Bryant bouncing off of multiple would-be tacklers for extra yardage
· Davidson got around the left edge for a 16-yard carry, and two plays after, James Charles crossed to goal line from nine yards out
· To go along with his recovery, Smith would post a sack to force another UTSA 4th down late in the second
· Starting the second half, Robison had back-to-back connections of 23 yards to Tavaris Harrison and 28 to Bryant. The latter put the senior tight end over 100 yards (at that point 124) for the first time this season
· Rivas capped the drive with a 28-yard field goal and a 20-3 lead
· The Owl defense came up with another fumble and possession in UTSA territory. Hosea Barnwell V forced it and Jordan Helm recovered it
· It took two plays to extend the lead, as the second of which was a 32-yard rushing score by Emmons, the first of his FAU career
· UTSA notched their first touchdown of the day came late in the third. That and a two-point conversion made it 27-11
· Robison and Bryant’s ninth connection was a two-yard touchdown pass and a 33-11 advantage (the two-point conversion attempt was unsuccessful)
· Meiko Dotson picked off his sixth pass of the year, but after a 40-yard return, he lost it at the edge of the goal line for a touchback to give it back to UTSA
· The Roadrunners drove the length of the field for the score to cut it back down to a two-possession game
· After a 26-yard run by Charles and 35 yards from Robison to Bryant, Emmons punched it in from five yards out for his second score of the night
· UTSA added a late touchdown and two-point conversion for the final margin
Stats and Records
· Bryant’s 182 receiving yards is a new career high. He previously had two games over the century mark, both coming during his junior year: 133 against Old Dominion (Oct. 6, 2018) and 138 yards against North Texas (Nov. 15, 2018)
· The senior also went over 2,000 yards in his career (now 2,023 and counting), and his single-game output is the most ever by a UTSA opponent as well as by any player in the Alamodome
· For Robison, Saturday marked his fifth 300-yard game this season, and seventh of his career. He finished the day 27-for-41 for 336 yards
· The three-headed monster of Charles (nine carries for 63 yards), Emmons (10 for 53) and Davidson (seven for 53) combined for 169 of the team’s 190 rushing yards, and each had at least one score
· The Owls had four plays of 15 yards or more on the opening drive and ended up totaling 12 such plays on the day. All told, the offense posted 23 chunk plays of 10 yards or more and had 526 total yards
· Smith’s fourth fumble recovery of the year broke a six-way tie he held previously alongside the quintet of Taurian Osborne (2001), Johnnie Sloan (2003), Quentin Swain (2003), Frantz Joseph (2007) and Malik Eugene (2009)
· He had six tackles, just behind fellow linebackers Akileis Leroy and Barnwell with a team-high seven apiece
What’s Next
The regular season wraps up with Senior Day at home, next Saturday, with the Owls hosting Southern Miss at 3:30 p.m. at FAU Stadium. The game will also be broadcasted on NFL Network. For tickets, call 1-866-FAU-OWLS or click HERE.
– FAUSports.com –
Florida Atlantic University Athletics:
FAU Athletics is comprised of 21 intercollegiate teams involving 450 student-athletes that compete in baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, indoor and outdoor track, volleyball, beach volleyball, cheer and dance. The Owls are a NCAA Division I-A (FBS) institution and compete in Conference USA and the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (CCSA) (beach volleyball, men’s swimming). The Owls have been playing football since 2001 and are a perfect 3-0 in bowl games, the most recent being a 50-3 victory over Akron in the 2017 Cheribundi Tart Cherry Boca Raton Bowl. The dance team finished its 2014 season No. 8, nationally. FAU cheer won a national championship in 2016.
About Florida Atlantic University:
Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University, with an annual economic impact of $6.3 billion, serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students at sites throughout its six county service region in southeast Florida. FAU’s world-class teaching and research faculty serves students through 10 colleges: the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, the College of Business, the College for Design and Social Inquiry, the College of Education, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the Graduate College, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. FAU is ranked as a High Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The University is placing special focus on the rapid development of critical areas that form the basis of its strategic plan: Healthy aging, biotech, coastal and marine issues, neuroscience, regenerative medicine, informatics, lifespan and the environment. These areas provide opportunities for faculty and students to build upon FAU’s existing strengths in research and scholarship. For more information, visit www.fau.edu.…
