BOCA RATON, Fla. – Florida Atlantic University’s football team (5-2, 4-1 C-USA) saw the door to a Conference USA title defense open this past Saturday with a loss by the C-USA Eastern Division leader. The Owls will travel to Hattiesburg, Mississippi this Thursday needing a win to keep those hopes alive.
The game at Southern Miss, which is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Eastern, will air on CBS Sports Network and also will be carried on the radio by Fox Sports South Florida 640 AM. This will be the second time FAU has made the trip to Hattiesburg to play the Eagles (2-7, 1-4 C-USA). FAU holds a 2-0 all-time mark versus USM.
The Thursday contest is not the first time FAU has played on a Thursday night. The last time was versus North Texas on Oct. 15, 2018. This Thursday, the Owls will rely upon a stingy defense that is allowing 12.4 points per game and ranked No. 2 nationally. Offensively, FAU will be led by graduate student TJ Chase, who has a team-leading 328 receiving yards, and senior captain James Charles, who has been the Owls’ starting back, with 268 yards on 60 carries.
Taggart’s TakeHead Coach Willie Taggart
On Georgia Southern and what FAU needs to focus on this week:
“Turning the ball over. First and foremost, ball security. In that ballgame, as bad as we played we were still in that game going into the fourth and not taking care of the ball. We moved the ball offensively. We just stubbed our toe every time we started driving down and moving the football. We stubbed our toe by being careless with the football. Those things can’t happen on the road against a good football team, that has won 26 [non-conference] games there in a row. On top of that to have a punt returned back for a touchdown was a momentum killer for us and then a blocked kick [negated by a penalty]. Just everything that we could do bad we did it in that game. It was disappointing because it was the first time that we have played that way all year long. We have taken care of the football…Our guys understand that is the recipe for winning for us. We have to be better at that. It is a must that we be better at that this Thursday.”
On the short week and Southern Miss:
“It all goes back to control the things that we can control. Earlier in the year we had a chance to practice leading up to that game against them [on Oct. 10] so we had some of that going on. But, I think their football team is so different from the time we were going to play them earlier in the year to where they are at now. It being a short week, I think the biggest thing is again, for us to take care of us. We have to be good at what we do. Understand that if we are good at it, our good is good enough, but we have to be sharp in every aspect, not just defense but special teams and offense. We have to do our part in order to win this ballgame. It is going to take all three in order to win it and knowing what is at stake, I think there needs to be a sense of urgency to make sure those things happen.”
Inside the Owls’ Burrow On this week’s Owls’ Burrow, host and producer Frank Forte will talk with head coach Willie Taggart about the final regular-season game at Southern Miss. Also featured are outside linebacker coach and recruiting coordinator Raymond Woodie, plus a “Pads Off” segment featuring linebacker Caliph Brice. This week’s 20th season moment looks back at 2004 and the Owls’ season opener at Hawaii. With FAU scheduled to play on Thursday night, this week’s show will air on Fox Sports South Florida at 6 p.m. on both Wednesday, Dec. 9th and Dec. 10th.
