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BOCA RATON – The first quarterback to lead FAU to a bowl game says he would enjoy playing in the current Owls’ offense, one which returned Florida Atlantic to a bowl game after an eight-year absence.
“What I love about (offensive Coordinator Kendal) Briles is, you can run this offense with a running quarterback or without a running quarterback,” Rusty Smith said.
Robert Griffin won the Heisman trophy in 2011 while playing for Kendal’s father Art at Baylor. Driskel didn’t begin the season as the Owls’ starting quarterback, but the Baylor offense run by Kendal really kicked into gear once Driskel became the starter in the season’s fourth game.
The Owls enter bowl season ranked No. 9 nationally in scoring at 39.8 points per game and No. 14 nationally in total offense at 491.9 yards per game.
Driskel’s thrown for 1,977 passing yards, which is actually significantly less than the 2,415 he totaled last year, though he has thrown 13 touchdown passes, four more than last season, against only four interceptions.
And it’s not as through Driskel can’t run. He’s averaging 5.1 yards per carry and his six rushing touchdowns on the season are second only to Devin Singletary among Owls.
“You look at (Robert Griffin), he was obviously a running quarterback, but [Jason] Driskel’s not,” Smith said. “Driskel is definitely doing a great job of giving it when he’s supposed to be giving it and throwing when he’s supposed to be throwing it. It’s awesome.”
FAU’s career passing leader, Smith threw for 10,112 yards as the Owls signal caller from 2005 to 2009 and led the Owls to their only two previous bowl appearances.
He became the first Owl ever selected in the NFL draft when Tennessee chose him in the sixth round of the 2010 draft. After a four-year playing career, Smith remained in Tennessee and now coaches high school football there.
Smith says he still follows FAU football closely and attended the Owls’ road victory at Western Kentucky earlier this season. He couldn’t pass up the chance to return to Boca Raton to watch the Owls claim their first conference title since his playing days with Saturday’s 41-17 victory over North Texas.
“I have not stopped supporting at all, not one bit,” Smith said prior to the C-USA title game. “But to be able to watch them this year and to be 9-3, hopefully 10-3 after today, that’s awesome.”
Arguably the biggest reason the Owls are Conference USA champions and headed to the Dec. 19 Boca Raton Bowl against Akron is the offseason hiring of coach Lane Kiffin.
It took Kiffin only one season in Boca Raton to before the Owls’ second-winningest coach in program history.
Smith experienced Kiffin’s hiring with a different perspective than most FAU fans. After leaving Tennessee in 2009 following his only season as the Volunteers’ coach, Vol fans vilified Kiffin. While some wouldn’t mind seeing Kiffin fill Tennessee’s current vacancy, there’ still a large never-Kiffin faction in the Volunteer State.
“When we first hired coach Kiffin a lot of UT fans started giving me a hard time,” Smith said. “I said look guys, we’re going to win football games. The man can coach football. Now, I don’t know how long he’s going to be here. He may get a bigger opportunity after one year, but we’re going to win. I hope he stays. He’s a great coach. I’d love to see him stay and maybe coach here for a few years and build us into something special. But you know what? If he doesn’t we appreciate what he was doing while he was here.”
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