BOCA RATON, Fla. –Midway through the football season and midway through the bye week, the Florida Atlantic University football team is not yet focused on their next opponent, Tulsa scheduled for 6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 7. The Owls are focused on reviewing the first eight weeks, counting four weeks of preseason work, in an effort to get better for the final eight weeks of the 2023 regular-season schedule.
An early season highlight comes from work on the field, but more so work off the field as a nice blend of newcomers have meshed with the returners to create a defense that has gotten better each and every week.
The defensive duo of Jarron Morris and Darius McClendon accounted for 22 of the Owls 81 tackles versus Illinois, two of the eight TFLs, and one of the two forced fumbles. Marlon Bradley also had a big day with two of the team’s four sacks and two of the team’s eight TFLs. The defensive unity’s growth may be explained by their overall production versus Illinois. Since 2005, FAU has played 41 games versus Power 5 teams. Last Saturday marked just the fourth time the Owls have held a P5 team to 23 or less points and it was the third fewest total (17 Michigan State ’08, UF 20 ’15 and both Oklahoma State ’05 and Illinois ’23 at 23. Two of the four low scores were achieved by a Roc Bellantoni defense. The six-point scoring differential tied the UF (20-14) difference. Only the 2007 win over Minnesota had a better outcome.
QUOTABLE
Defensive Coordinator/LBs Roc Bellantoni
On the team’s effort and focus during the bye week
“Our effort for all four games has been pretty darn good. I’m very happy with how hard the guys have been playing. We played pretty well against Illinois, but the good news is we can play a lot better. We have a lot of things we have to clean up, gave up too many explosive plays and four of them led to all 23 of their points. The negative is you gave up those 23 points and lost the game, the positive is if we just clean up some of those issues, we can be really good. The message this week is about improvement on the little things that have caused us some issues in the first four games. We are trying to get there.”
On the team’s pass rush
“That is a focus that we have every week to pressure the quarterback. We were getting the guy off his spot, making him throw the ball way early, but we weren’t getting home with sacks as much as we would like. It was nice to see it happen the other day and if we just continue to show up and continue to get a little bit better at our pass rush plan and the moves that we are good at, I think we have a chance to do that.”
On the bye week before entering AAC play
“The bye has come at a perfect time. You go four weeks of camp, four games and then you have eight games, so you are really at the halfway point of the season if you look at that way. It is at a perfect time in that respect, but also being banged up coming out of three really physical hard-fought games gives us a chance to heal up. But like I am telling the defense, this is not a week off, this is a week to get better. We have to get better at our little things that we have been messing up on. If we take strides forward this week, the preparation for next week will be even better to set you up for success on Saturday. It’s a very important week for us and we have one more day of it tomorrow.”
TAILGATING EXPERIENCESee all the details here.
INSIDE THE OWLS’ BURROW TRAILER
- GAME DETAILS
Saturday Oct. 7 – Tulsa at Florida Atlantic
- Time – 6 p.m.
- Television – ESPN+
- Radio – Ken LaVicka and Kris Bartels will have the game’s call on FoxSports South Florida
COACH’S RADIO SHOW
Frank Forte and Hagerty Family Head Football Coach Tom Herman will appear together weekly on the FAU Coaches’ Show. This year’s show will be recorded live at Duffy’s Sports Grill, located at 401 N. Federal Highway, Deerfield Beach, FL 33441 each Thursday at noon. The show is scheduled to air each Friday night on Fox Sports 640 AM South Florida, beginning at 6 p.m.
TICKETS
Fans can purchase tickets for the 2023 season, the first in the American Conference, by calling 1-866-FAU-OWLS or by going online HERE. For more ticket information click HERE. To purchase away game tickets, click on the above Buy Now link. Single-game tickets may also be purchased by visiting HERE.
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