Boca Raton- The Tom Herman era of the Florida Atlantic Owls Football program opened with offensive explosion. The Owls knocked off the visiting Monmouth Hawks, 42 – 20 Saturday at FAU Stadium. Nebraska transfer quarterback Casey Thompson threw five touchdowns amassing 280 yards passing and one interception.
Larry McCammon, who rushed for over a thousand yards last season, began his 2023 campaign with a bang rushing for 125 yards on 13 carries. The Owls leading receiver was Tony Johnson who caught five balls for 91 yards and two touchdowns. McCammon also caught four balls for 59 yards finishing with 184 yards all-purpose. “He’s an all-purpose guy. He can run, he can catch,” his head coach said validating his opening performance.
Herman was complementary of his starting quarterback’s performance also. “I thought the most impressive thing is how he came back from the pick (interception). “He got caught off guard and he knew it and came right back and threw a touchdown. He’s played so much football, he understands how long the game is and that one mistake isn’t unrecoverable.”
Defensively, the Owls were led by Jackson Ambush an FCS transfer (Albany) finishing with seven tackles and five solo stops. On the transition from FCS to FBS Ambush said “it’s actually easier,” given that he felt more prepared to play. FAU struggled at times on the back end giving up chunk plays in the passing game but overall held pretty steady only giving up 361 yards overall.
“The way we started I was really happy with,” said Herman post-game. I felt like the last two drives (first half) were 5-7 drives. “I told the team at halftime that, this isn’t last year. You get up 28-7 at home, you get your hands around the throat…and then we relaxed”
Overall, Herman said he was happy with his team’s performance in the third quarter and is excited to build a better team in between the close of week 1 and the start of week 2 where as cliche as it is, there is the greatest improvement on college teams.
“The old guys were tired of five wins a year…we’ve either converted them or gotten rid of those guys”
BY THE NUMBERS:
FAU PASSING: 280 yards
FAU RUSHING: 210 yards
Next up for the Owls is a home date with Ohio from the Mid-American conference Saturday September 9, 2023.
Recent Comments