Posts from February 2012

No FAU players were named to the All-Sun Belt Conference men' s basketball teams which were announced today by the conference office.

There’s a pretty good reason for that and the Sun Belt Conference office or the voters (the coach and one media member from each school) are hardly to blame.

As one of the voters, when I was filling out my ballot, I noticed something interesting – there were no FAU players nominated. And this was no oversight or snub by the league office. I confirmed that it was a decision by the Owls' coaching staff not to submit any players.

If you have been paying attention to the lineups or listening to coach Mike Jarvis lately it’s not a shock. The two players who had a chance to be named to one of the three All-Sun Belt teams, Ray Taylor and Greg Gantt, aren’t exactly earning praise from the staff right now.

Taylor and Gantt were named pre-season All-Sun Belt team and had the stats that would likely have put them on second or third team, but without being nominated, that was impossible.
 

Every four years we get an extra day. Happy Feb. 29. Let's put our extra 24 hours to good use by talking a little football.

Actually, too be more specific, we'll talk football coaches.

One month ago today, we told FAU fans that Chuck Lobe would likely become the new Owls strength coach. The photo to the right shows Lobe, right, and assistant strength coach Carson Randall taking in the women's basketball game on Saturday.

Lobe is already receiving a paycheck, and I'm told he is making significant changes to the weight room. That's good enough for us. So we give you Chuck Lobe, FAU's new strength coach.

Lobe spent the past year at Denver University – a fellow Sun Belt school that doesn't have a football program. The three years prior to that he was the strength and conditioning coach for the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning.

From 2004-08 Lobe ran the strength and conditioning program at Minnesota St. Current FAU wide receivers coach/recruiting coordinator Jeff Sims was also a coach at Minnesota St. for two of those years.

Lobe also spent a couple years as an assistant strength coach at the University of Minnesota, his alma mater.

FAU football coach Carl Pelini recently told me that the strength and conditioning coach is so important to him that he considers Lobe to be a member of his on-field staff.

And while we're talking about Pelini's staff, here's an update on the defensive coordinator position. Avid readers will recall that last week OwlAccess.com first reported that former Miami of Ohio defensive coordinator Pete Rekstis had accepted the same position at FAU.

I'm told Rekstis is already on campus getting busy with the Owls' defense and could be officially announced later this week. He replaces Marvin Sanders, who left FAU less than two months after being hired to become the defensive backs coach at Southern Cal.

Today's Links...

• Owl Access: We caught up with Alfred Morris about his performance at the NFL Combine
• Owl Access: Our FAU at Miami Preview
• Sun-Sentinel: Owls hope to continue success over No. 12 Miami
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Author of FBS study likes Georgia State’s position

It’s not time to turn the page on the basketball season just yet, but there is some good news concerning next year’s team.