Florida Atlantic motivated to rebound from disappointing 2009 seasonby Tom D'Angelo
“Everybody is hungry. We all want to eat. 5-7 ain’t going to get us no food. We need to win. We need to get the conference championship and higher. We got big expectations on this team. Since the summer we all made up our minds we’re going to hop on this boat and we’re going to sail. That’s how it’s going to be.” – CB Tavious Polo.
Tavious Polo was the biggest hit at the Owls’ football media day today, expressing the same optimism that comes with every media day, but just in a more colorful way.
The theme was much the same – Last season was not acceptable and do not expect to see the same mistakes in 2010.
“In the last four years we have been a team that when we have made the big plays both on the offensive side and the defensive side, when we have taken the ball away, when we’ve stopped drives, we’ve had better than average seasons,” coach Howard Schnellenberger said.
“I look to last year as a year we didn’t make near the big plays that we made in years past so we came up a little short of being bowl eligible. If we are sound in our overall play and able to make big plays when big plays present themselves then we can move on and get back to that bowl contention and conference contention.”
In a nutshell: Schnellenberger expects the offense to overcome an inexperienced line with QB Jeff Van Camp and RB Alfred Morris leading the way and everybody believes the defense will be much improved from the unit that allowed more than 453 yards a game last season.
“My expectations are very high,” Polo said. “All of us grew up together since puppies. We all have the same goals.”
Let’s face it, this program has declined from the glory year of 2007, when the Owls finished 8-5 and won their lone conference championship and their first bowl game. Since, FAU is 12-13 and has finished fourth in the Sun Belt Conference the last two seasons. The highlight is a victory over Central Michigan in the 2008 Motor City Bowl.
Still, the progress of a program entering its 10th season cannot be overlooked and the next big hurdle is close to being cleared – an on-campus stadium.
“I’m the guy who has to think high and project high but in my heart of hearts this program has developed very quickly,” Schnellenberger said. “I think this team has reached a lot of intermediate goals and surpassed what we legitimately should have been able to think what we could do.”
The next step is to get back into contention in the Sun Belt, which will be tough with Troy and Middle Tennessee seemingly heads above the rest of the conference.
“It’s going to be a developing year,” Schnellenberger said. “It’s going to be a year we think we’re going to get better as time goes on. We have to be good early and for that reason we have to have an outstanding training camp.”
Camp starts Saturday with all practices open to the public, most starting at 3:30 p.m. with the exception of three-a-days, which start at 8 a.m. The first practice in half pads is Monday and the first practice in full pads two days later. Three three-a-days are scheduled: Aug. 15, 17 and 19.