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BOCA RATON – FAU coach Lane Kiffin thinks his Owls could be ranked in the Top 25 by season’s end.
“If you were to go on a run here and win the next four I’m sure that you would be close,” Kiffin said.
After beginning the season with one win in four tries, FAU reeled off six consecutive victories and enters Saturday’s Shula Bowl with a chance to claim the Conference USA East Division crown.
FAU (7-3, 6-0 C-USA) has two games remaining on their regular season schedule. To get to four more wins, the Owls would also have to win the Conference USA championship game and the bowl game that follows.
Even with their recent success, FAU has yet to receive a vote in either the writer’s or coaches polls.
That doesn’t bother Kiffin, who believes the Owls’ worthiness of inclusion in such a polls depends on the judgment criteria.
“If you rank things on a whole season, I don’t think so,” Kiffin said “If you rank things on, OK, where is a team right now?, then maybe there’s a question there.”
FAU debuted this week at No. 25 in ESPN’s power rankings this week. The Owls have an S & P ranking of 19, a RealTime RPI ranking of 35 and a Sagarin ranking of 59.
The Owls’ highest profile win of the season came two weekends ago, beating Marshall 30-25. The Thundering Herd received Top 25 votes in both polls earlier this season.
In their 17-year program history the Owls have never received a vote in either poll.
Cracking the polls before the season ends isn’t much of a concern to Kiffin.
“I think it’s where you finish,” Kiffin said. “If you finish that’s a big deal. I don’t really put much into it through the course of the the year because that really doesn’t matter. It’s, Where do you finish at the end of the year after your bowl game?”
To win its final four games FAU will have to defeat at least two teams with winning records, FIU this week and North Texas in the Conference USA title game, and third with no worse than a .500 record in a bowl game. FAU completes its regular season at 1-9 Charlotte.
FAU’s 8-5 record in 2007 is the Owls’ best since moving to the FBS level. That record includes a defeat of Memphis in the New Orleans Bowl.
The Owls will play in a bowl game following the season for the first time since 2008.
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