| 8/1/2025 | Football BOCA RATON, Fla. – Florida Atlantic Hagerty Family Head Football Coach Zach Kittley began and ended his post-practice review with the players by telling them he was proud of Friday’s effort and work. Day three was similar to days one and two, but with a little more cloud cover and the addition of shoulder pads. It was a day that should end with a more positive film review in all three phases of the game. The Owls will not practice on Saturday, giving them nearly 48 hours to recover and prepare Sunday as well as next week, their first full week of preseason camp. PHOTO GALLERY Gallery: (8-1-2025) Preseason Practice #3 QUOTABLE Defensive Coordinator Brett Dewhurst On being active in the transfer portal “You look around college football now, we have general managers, a whole front office like the NFL. It’s like the NFL draft with both portal windows…We signed five d-linemen in December. I believe in oversigning interior d-linemen that first portal window because in the second portal window, everybody needs d-tackles, edge rushers, corners, quarterbacks, they’re going to get overpaid. We lucked out then and knowing we were going to be pretty thin in the secondary in the spring, kind of went through what we had and then added seven DBs that came in here this summer, four at safety and three at corner. We knew at DB, we needed in-game experience with more physicality…we wanted to bring in some guys that we either had a previous relationship with, in-game experience that we can piece the puzzle together to help us out.” On the defense clicking during the early days of camp “When we first got here, we had six football schools before spring ball, 15 spring practices, 15 OTAs in the summer, so they’re hearing a lot of this for the fifth or sixth time. The meetings don’t stop…You script certain things and then Coach Kittley is going to go out there and play football. We’re at the start of it; a lot of our base installs are in the first three days and then we get a little more situational with third down and red zone that’s coming up.” On effecting the quarterback “For us, it’s four things. We talk about spot the ball, our offense is going to go fast and go for it on fourth down, we know we’re going to play a lot of plays. There’s going to be times when they save our butt and there are going to be times where all of a sudden, they don’t get it at our own 30-yard line. It doesn’t matter, spot the ball, our job is to go play. And then elite edge; it doesn’t matter what you do, it’s playing violent, it’s playing physical, run to the ball…good defenses are guys that play fast, run the ball, and tackle well. And then communicate and anticipate, more games are lost than they are won and if you don’t get lined up right to tempo, to unbalanced, teams find you no matter how hard you play, you’re beat. So, you have to communicate then anticipate the game within the game, situational ball. And then havoc. Havoc for us is sacks, interceptions, forced fumbles, but then it’s tackles for loss, quarterback hurries, tipped balls, all of that to get offenses behind the chains.” Special Teams Coordinator Tyler Schovanec On the progress the special teams has made over the summer “Football now is more year-round than it ever has been, which is a great thing. I think we have taken advantage of it on special teams. The beauty of it is Coach Kittley believes in special teams, so we dedicated time which is allowed nowadays. During the summer, our focus was the fundamentals so that when we get into camp, we can start putting the things that we need to put in that help us win scheme-wise. But you can’t do those things unless you have the foundation…We built the foundation that we needed to have in order for those things to work. I feel like we’re in a good spot.” On how the additions in the defensive back room helps special teams “A lot of those guys, I watched their film: Dillion Williams, Chris Keys Jr., Jayden Sweeney, they all played special teams where they came from. I went and watched the stuff that they did last year just to watch their skillset and I put those guys in basically the same spots that they were doing. We’re going to be smart about how we use them because we expect them to contribute on defense. One thing that’s beautiful about what we have here is Coach Kittley told the team how we win, one of the first things he said was our best players have to play special teams. For him to stand up in front of the team and tell them that so they understand how important that is, those guys know that. For the guys that want to play on Sundays, that’s their ticket. I think we have the buy-in and I appreciate where we are from that standpoint.” On specialists staying involved in practices “I hope the team notices that because I want them to understand the way I treat our specialists, they are football players. They are not the specialists that are over there doing whatever. I work with those guys all practice. Those guys work. We have a routine that we do because when you’re a specialist, it comes down to having a great routine and it’s all in the preparation. When you’re a specialist, you’re defined by the one moment that you get, so in order to be good in that moment, you have to prepare at a high level, there can’t be a situation they’re not ready for. I hope the team notices how hard those guys work. The other thing Coach [Kittley] said about special teams is what’s going to make us good is that he challenges the specialists. Our special teams are going to go as you guys go. They have to be the best player on the unit. They believe the pressure is part of it, but I think they embrace that pressure and I think that’s going to help us.” On emphasizing making the most of special teams opportunities “The truth of it is there are 33 plays on average that you get in a game. It’s basically a third of the game…It’s going to come down to that one critical play, it’s more so you can’t beat yourself on that play. It’s the critical errors, which is why we dedicated all the time we did in the offseason to the fundamentals because those are the things that are going to show up so that we can make sure that we address all of the things that can happen, the situations. There are so many different things that happen on special teams that you don’t see on offense and defense. It’s those things that they have to prepare and understand so that doesn’t happen and so that we can take advantage of that play. We have plenty of players that can capitalize on big returns. We want to block kicks, and we want to be aggressive. That is going to help us capitalize on that critical play.” Graduate Defensive Back Wendol Philord On entering his fifth fall camp and sixth season “Last year, I found out that I’m not as young as I used to be. I can’t do the same things just waking up, not getting treatment, eating whatever I want, because I won’t feel the same. Now I just wake up early at 6 a.m., brush my teeth, come over, roll out, and then I get in the hot tub and stretch, and then go into the cold tub to freeze my muscles back up and then back to the hot tub to release it. After I do that, I go get taped and then get stretched. They do certain movements to unlock my hips.” On his playmaking ability “I love to say I have an eye for the ball. Wherever the ball is, I would like to be at because that’s where the plays are going to be made at.” On the importance of defense this season “As much as the offense scores is as much as we’re going to be on the field. We just can’t have shootouts even if fans like shootouts. Our fans will love if we’re the only ones scoring and the other teams aren’t.” Senior Long Snapper Jackson Lee On settling in at his first fall camp with Florida Atlantic and leadership among the specialists “I’m enjoying settling in those shoes. The leader in my opinion is between Garrison [kicker Garrison Smith] and Lupo [punter Logan Lupo]. Lupo obviously has been here for a while now and has performed on the field and so he’s always helping out Alex (Grace) our young punter but then Lupo can also kick so he’s helping them when they’re kicking. Garrison is really just that glue that brings everyone together. He always has a positive energy and a positive mindset. He also helps them with their kicks and field goals and whatever needs to get tweaked.” On staying engaged in by participating in practice “It is something new. We’re out there for pre-practice and warming up. Then we have our field goal and punts first period. Then after that, we’re on a golf cart going across campus to a turf field, which I have never done before. Then they’re hitting more reps with punt, we’re getting more snaps. Then we come back, and I’ll be the o-line or d-line for Caden [quarterback Caden Veltkamp] and put my hands up in the air on 7-on-7s. Then after that, we’re back into more special teams drills and reps which is always good because it helps not only us but the other players on the team.” On the importance of being perfect at his position “If people know my name, I’m doing something wrong. There’s a reason why they would know my name: bad snaps, missed tackles. Just get your job done, get the snap done, that’s all that needs to be done.” PRACTICE NOTABLES Once again, the defense was praised for play forcing a redzone fumble Redshirt sophomore WR Asaad Waseem turned a short play into long yards and a touchdown Redshirt junior LB Tyler Stolsky had a pass breakup over the middle Redshirt sophomore RB Xavier Terrell broke open a big play, something synonymous to all Terrell touches Redshirt freshman WR Quincy Brown had a leaping over his defender for a big gain VIDEO RECAPWEEK’S NOTABLES Redshirt junior QB Caden Veltkamp saw his name etched on two watch lists the Maxwell Award and the Wuerffel Trophy Redshirt junior WR Easton Messer made the Paul Hornung Award watch list Redshirt senior punter Logan Lupo was named to the Ray Guy watch list on Friday PLAY OF THE DAYCOMPLETE 2025 SCHEDULE Click HERE. SEASON TICKETS To purchase season tickets, click HERE. GROUPS OF ALL AGES To purchase group tickets, click HERE. 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