Fundamentals is Bye Week Focus

BOCA RATON, Fla. – The Florida Atlantic University football team continues to focus upon themselves and getting better, especially for the younger players, during this bye week. Preparation for next week’s contest at Charlotte will begin late in the week or early next week.

The Owls are scheduled to travel to North Carolina for a rare Thursday night game, slated for 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 21. FAU holds a 4-2 all-time mark against the Conference USA opponent and was a 21-17 winner in 2020, in a game played at FAU Stadium. The Owls have won each of the three previous contests in Charlotte. History shows the Owls’ largest margin of victory as a 31-12 win there in 2017. FAU’s closest win was last season’s four-point game. Charlotte’s two wins came in 2016, a 28-23 win that needed the Owls’ touchdown to be reviewed and overturned and a three-point win (27-24) in 2019. FAU is 4-5 when playing on a Thursday and 11-15 the week following a bye (excluding the 2020 season)

TAGGART’S TAKE

Hagerty Family Head Coach

Willie Taggart
On the bye week:
“We don’t call it a bye week. It’s a work week for us. We’re going out there and really focusing on fundamentals and techniques. We looked back at our film and [the] things that we didn’t do well, a lot of them come down to our fundamentals. We have to really focus on those things knowing that ultimately it’s going to help us be better when it comes to executing plays.”

On improving on the road:
“A lot of it is just being totally focused and locked in and disciplined in your assignment and what you have to get done. When it comes to executing, it all goes back to that and what you do.”

On the offensive line:
“We have to be consistent in what we’re doing. We have to look from a schematic standpoint, are we doing things that allow our guys to be successful or are we asking them to do things we’re not good at? I think all of that plays a part in it and that’s the beauty of the bye week, figuring out are we doing what we need to be doing for those guys and, also are we being consistent with our execution up front?”

On running the football:
“Running the football is so important. Look at the games that we had success, we ran the ball, and we stopped the run. The games we didn’t, we didn’t do those things. We understand that we have to play better and if you watch the film, it’s obvious, we can get better. We have to focus on doing those things. It’s up to us to get it done. Simple as that.

On the team’s consistency:
“We’re playing yo-yo football, it’s a little up and down. We have to stop playing yo-yo football. We have to be consistent. We’ve shown that we can run the ball. We just have to show that we can consistently run the ball. We’ve shown that we can throw the football. Until the last game, we were pretty good of taking care of the football. That last game was an outlier of what we’ve been able to do from an offensive standpoint. Defensively, we’ve been able to do a good job with the pass game. Football teams need to be consistent. We’ve shown we can stop the run, stop the pass. We’ve shown we can run the football, throw the football. We got to be consistently doing it. That’s what winning football teams do. They do it consistently week in and week out.”

On the defense:
“I was proud of our guys, especially last week, when they were put in tough situations. They came out and played and fought even though our offense wasn’t playing up to par. You see our defensive guys supporting teammates. I thought our guys did a great job playing together and weathering the storm earlier in the game. Coach [Mike] Stoops and the defensive staff have done a great job at second half adjustments. There are things we can get better at.”

COORDINATOR’S CORNER

Offensive Coordinator/QBs

Michael Johnson:
On improving during the bye week:
“I think everybody is engaged. Freshmen all the way up to seniors. I think their mentality, the way they’re approaching the up and down first part of our season, is the right way…We’re going to try to get better fundamentally at a few things. We’re going to do a couple things against Charlotte’s defense. We’re going to take these first couple of days and we’re going to work on fundamentals and some of the things we need to get better at as a group and work on those things.”

On offensive turnovers:
“Up until this [last] game, we’ve done a good job of taking care of the ball. We only had one interception up to that point and one fumble on offense. We come out the first two plays and had turnovers. I think we did a good job of staying together and overcoming that and getting back to that game and then it just got away from us. One thing we have to continue to stress is taking care of the ball. Just making sure that we don’t put ourselves in that type of situation where we have to overcome a 14-point deficit that early in the game.”

On running the football:
“We don’t want to be a team that has to throw the ball as much as we did the other day. We want to be able to run the ball and have that playaction game and our quick touches where we can get the ball out of our hands a little bit quicker than what we did the other day. I thought we did a decent job on third down considering that we had so many third and longs. We did a good job in that area, but it puts you in a tough situation when you’re not efficient on first down. That’s where we have to get better.”

On Nick Tronti:
“Nick does a good job in the roles he has. He’s been around. He understands the offense. He can go in at any point and run our offense and we feel good about that. It’s good to have a guy that has his experience that can go in a game and not lose anything. It’s been great having him.”

On having extra days to prepare against Charlotte:
“We’ve watched film on Charlotte. It gives you a couple of extra days to prepare. The thing we’re going to work on early is making sure that we get back to the fundamentals. It’s not so much about Charlotte but about us, and making sure that we clean up the necessary things that we have to clean up in order to go into the game next week and win. The early part is going to be about us and then as we get going on later in the week we’ll get going on Charlotte.”

PLAYER’S PROSPECTIVE

Redshirt Sophomore Running Back

Larry McCammon III:
On the team’s focus during the bye week:
“After that loss [against UAB], we learned a lot from it. There were a lot of mistakes. It’s going to start at practice so we’re going to get out there this week and just focus on us.”

On offensive improvements:
“I think we just need to limit our mistakes and go through our progressions. Just limit our mistakes, that’s all it comes down to.”

On the running back room:
“We’re playmakers, so whenever we get our opportunity, we’re just going to go out there and compete.”

On his big plays in the passing game:
“I’m just trying to do my part. If they want me to catch the ball, I’m gonna go catch the ball. If they want me to run, I’m going to run. If they want me to block, I’m going to block.”

On advice shared in the running back room:
“Not to be down on ourselves. When you get in, just make a play.”