Waiting Works

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BOCA RATON – Unsure as to how the new early signing period would affect the talent level available to the Owls, Lane Kiffin adopted a wait-and-see approach.

Kiffin knew he was rolling the dice, but he achieved the desired results

“A lot of (teams) signed a lot of guys early just to kind of lock guys down and we thought, let’s wait and see if we can kind of go bigger and so, fortunately, we kind of gambled and it worked.”

FAU formally announced the signing of 16 players on Wednesday. A day later, Lakeland offensive lineman Dacoda Weaver joined the fold – his administrative hurdle cleared.



While some teams within Conference USA elected to sign more than half their class in December during the first-ever football early signing period, FAU only signed five players.

Fourteen more signed on Wednesday’s National Signing Day, though two of them – former Alabama running back BJ Emmons and Longwood-Lyman defensive end Deon Woods – found themselves in a similar situation to Weaver.

Emmons and Woods are expected to officially be added to the Owls’ 2018 Signing Class in short order.

“This is an ongoing process,” Kiffin said. “Everybody talks about Signing Day, but Signing Day is just the first day of signing. Kids can sign all the way up until they come.”



Emmons and Weaver are two examples of players the Owls likely couldn’t have signed in December. Weaver committed to Liberty before flipping to FAU earlier this week. Emmons had interest from South Carolina and Louisville.

Cornerback Armani Adams was an Arizona commit. Offensive lineman Marquice Robinson drew early interest from the likes of Auburn and Mississippi St., but those schools backed off when it appeared he wouldn’t qualify academically.

Robinson’s most recent report card, finalized after the Dec. 20 early signing date, showed all A’s and B’s, putting him on track to qualify.

“Our thought was, let’s make sure that we keep ourselves available and spots open to be able to sign the best players that we can,” Kiffin said. “I think that motto worked.”



Quarterback Cordel Littlejohn spent much of his 2017 season thinking he was headed to Illinois. On Wednesday he signed with FAU.

“We battled a lot of Power 5 schools on a lot of these kids,” Kiffin said.