The second bye week of the season is here for FAU and Coach Tom Herman took to the odium to address a variety of topics, including the teams need to win 4 games across 5 weeks to make a bowl game. The Owls have been involved in many close affairs this season, however they have only been able to win 2 games and it has left the Owls in need of serious adjustments over the final few weeks if they are going to achieve their goal of making a bowl game. Mistakes and players failing to execute have plagued this team and over the final few weeks Herman has made it a point to play the guys over the next few weeks who will execute on game day. Unfortunately, the Owls are also dealing with a variety of injuries on both sides of the ball which may affect them even out of the bye week, however QB Cam Fancher and top target Omari Hayes are on track to return for the teams matchup with USF on Nov 1st. Herman also noted the success of the inbound HS recruiting class, mentioning the need for a strong class that the Owls staff can develop and the success of the Tri-county takeover. Presser Recap Herman on players like Caleb Coombs and Jarrett Jerrels waiting their turn for PT Its a testament, certainly, to their abilities, their work ethic, and also, being ready when your number is called. There’s a lot of people that have had those opportunities, and maybe later in life, figured things out, whatever it is, but at that moment, weren’t ready. And those two guys were ready and will continue, to help us. They were thrown in due to some rough circumstances, but both of those guys, Jarrett especially, have been around here for a long time. And from a guy that, you know, un recruited walk on, school start, guy, or whatever it was, now, kind of the little bit of the face of our toughness, and special forces certainly. And you know, he’s a scholarship player now, I mean, it’s a, great story. Herman on navigating new & old injuries this week Time, we can’t can’t fabricate that. None of those four guys that we haven’t had are coming back, but Omari and Milan hopefully by the USF week. So we’re just trying to figure out a little bit how to practice here these next few days, because you gotta, in order to prepare for South Florida. You have to send part of your unit, over to the defensive field, to work, scout team stuff. And so I don’t know how we’re going to have enough, on the varsity, so to speak, to even field a wide receiver crew on the scout team. So it’s something we have to talk about this week in practice. What do you work on this week? You work on getting through practice. You work on things that you know because I think when a quarterback a quarterback is thrown to a receiver, maybe that he’s thrown to for multiple, years, you can kind of add a different split or a different motion or a different position that you’re putting the guy in to run a certain route, and they, they kind of understand that the timing and connectivity of that where, with some newer faces, Some some less experienced guys, I think it’s important that you kind of do what you do almost like day one install like, Okay, we’re going to run this route from this spot on, out of this formation, and that’s how it’s going to get there. And I think that’s maybe the only difference that you see. I’ve always felt not that wide receiver is easy. Nothing in football is easy. But you know, if they’re playing you in zone coverage, you know it’s about finding those windows and zone and creating space, which doesn’t take a whole lot of talent to do. And if they’re playing man to man coverage with you, it’s about being physical, and then it’s up to a quarterback to put the ball in in a really good spot. Because, you know, having to coach that position one on one coverage is not colored. That timing and ball placement win every time in one on one coverage. And so if you can adjust to balls put where they need to be versus man and man coverage. And you can find windows and create space and zone. Then you can play receiver, you know, until we’ll get those guys as ready as we can. But I think it’s about the system. It’s about space. It’s about rhythm and timing for the quarterback too, Herman said. Herman on players falling off on their keys against rivals I came away from the UTSA game seeing all the mistakes that we made and just questioning my level of coaching and but you look at like on third and 14, we had a DB not playing man to man coverage when everybody else was playing man to man coverage, and the quarterback threw to his wide open receiver for first down. And now we’ve got to play eight more plays, and they wound up scoring anyways. And it’s like they don’t know how to coach a guy to remember man to man you know, like, so there’s at some point, we’ve got to make some changes to at some positions that if, if they can’t, you know, get it done on Saturdays, then, you know, we can’t trust them. And that’s a big part of this game. But we’ve got a bunch of really good dudes in that locker room and, they’re trying, they want to. And when I when you start to sound like a broken record, I think you, at least for me, realize how deep some of these habits and things in some of our players are, and you wish that change and adaptation would come quicker. You wish that learning from touching the hot soap over and over and over again would eventually lead to not touching it. But as I told our coaches, we’re teachers, and somehow, some way, we’ve got to find a way, because this is the frustrating part of coaching. I don’t know. You know, we’ve seen this team at its best in all three phases. And so I think when you taste that, I don’t know that I could have said this last year, it becomes more frustrating when you see the poor play, because you’re just like, Guys, what? What happened? Like, where did that go? What’s the issue here? And that becomes the frustrating part as a coach, that we’ve got a microwave, the development of championship habits, and finding new and unique ways to do that is challenging, but one that we’re up for. And, you know, again, these guys, they want to do well. We have just got to, when things get hard and the competition is stiff, we’ve got to realize that doing things the right way oftentimes requires strain and pain and inconvenience and all of that. And you know, you’ve got to ask yourself, is winning more important than straining? If it is, then the strain doesn’t matter. If it’s not, then the strain matters and you won’t but you won’t win, and there’s only one way to do it. And so we’ve seen us at our best. It’s our job as coaches to get the best out of us at all times, Herman said. Herman on if learning how to win can be coached or if it comes with time I don’t want to discount our job as coaches. I think both can be true. I think that we as coaches earn our stripes by the level of play of our unit. The only people that really know what a young man is, capable of, what his ceiling is, is really the coaches and the, the strength coach, maybe, and the kid. And so when we know that the young man has more in them. There’s a lot on this team that we’re getting the most out of, right? And some of it has been good enough to win. Some of it hasn’t, but it’s still the best they’ve got. So I don’t want it to seem like we’re not reaching these guys, but for some we’ve got to press different buttons, because we have to microwave that time, because there’s nothing that teaches, or should teach human beings more than life experience. And when you have done things now two weeks in a row, a certain way, and it has produced a negative result, you hope that human beings, in just our innate way of logic, realize, hey guys, if we want a different result, we have to have a different input. And I know that sounds very, very simplistic, but you asked, yes, time and experience matter, but as coaches, we have to find different buttons to expedite that process, Herman said. Deeper injury update Cam was limited at practice today, still dealing with the neck sprain, kind of whiplash Daedae was limited, but a minor high ankle sprain, so we’re hoping to have him back for next week’s practice, hopefully for the game, the big one, Jay will. Jayden Williams does have a Lisfranc injury to his foot. Most of those that I’ve been around have been surgical. The MRI was last night. And so there’s talk that this could be non surgical, and maybe, you know, a pain tolerance thing here in a couple weeks, probably not for USF and then Jacob Merrifield, although it looked bad on the field. We think it’s a great two MCL strain, probably, hopefully get him back, maybe for the last couple games, Herman said. How to replicate Fanchers performance out of the first bye (UNT) against USF I think hell play. I think, you know, you saw a unit that was very dialed into the game plan, they had two weeks to process it and kind of grow with it. You know, it’s not like we threw it out on the Monday of the bye week, and we just rehearsed it for two weeks. You know, you kind of build on it as coaches. We continue to study and all that, but when you have two weeks just to study an opponent, you feel pretty comfortable about knowing them and not that we didn’t know UTSA, we certainly did. They weren’t exotic by any stretch. I just think our guys will be fresh, our guys will be motivated, certainly, and we’ll be better. You know that? I think UTSA was tough because it was such a roller coaster. You know, you look at the defense and, I mean, you look at three takeaways, a score, set up a score, you know, 11 tackles for loss. I mean, there’s a lot on that stat sheet that there’s some really good things. They converted 60% third downs. You know, we were on the field. 89 plays. Couldn’t get off the field. And so, unless we turn them all over, going back to, I think, the time, the freshness, the opponent, playing at home, all of those things will lend to, hopefully, a more consistent level of play. And I think we know, you know, when we play consistently, we’re pretty good, we have a chance to be pretty good, Herman said. Herman on the Tri-county takeover and HS recruiting success I’m really excited. I will tell you last year signing class, these freshmen that are here, as well as this year signing class, those that will sign in December and be here in January and or May. I’m thrilled. You know, the more i look at the future of college football and the experience that we’ve had with one and two year transfers, you know, we’ve got to make a living recruiting really good high school football players and then developing them. They’re we’re going to be able to recruit them because they’re not ready made college football players. If they were going to be going to Alabama or Ohio State or wherever, but we’ve got to find the ones that we know are going to be they just need a little this, a little that, a little something that we can give them. The same is true for even a one year transfer, right? They’re transferring to you, because something’s missing where they’re at, and so we’ve got to be then that much more cautious with those guys, because one year, six months, that’s not a very long time to give a guy something that he’s been missing for four years. Maybe, you know, and it’s kind of shifted the success of the Jarvis Johnson’s, the CharQuez Lees, the Mike Wright’s, the CJ Heards, like those guys make me want to recruit more Florida High School recruits more South Florida High School recruits. I think the Tri County takeover is doing phenomenally. I know the buzz that we get across this state, and the reception that we get rivals any school in this state, certainly our opponent next week. And so if we can continue to have that kind of success in these high schools, I think you’re going to continue to see more and more high school signees by us, Herman said. Herman on needing 4 wins in 5 weeks What’s the best way to eat an elephant, one bite at a time? Right when you’ve got a large task? The only way to accomplish it is piece by piece. And so it’s easier said than done. I know that sounds like Coach speak but I addressed it in our first team meeting of the week. I said, Listen, we’ve got five games, a five game stretch here coming off this bye week, that we’re certainly capable of winning, and we’re certainly capable of losing all we’ve proven that so, but we don’t have to do anything magical in these fine games. And so I think you address it in order to make sure that, you know, these last two took, took a lot, I think the North Texas one took a lot of juice out of some guys for whatever reason. I think being that close with four minutes left might have something to do with it, but we have to get that juice back and understand that we’re inches away but those inches are the hardest. You know, we’ve come miles, the last few inches are so hard, and we’ve got to decide if it’s worth it or not, Herman said. Herman on preparing for a rivalry Good rivalries are what make college football, college football, and I don’t want to take anything away from that, we don’t like them. I hope they don’t like us. I hope so. That’s what makes a good rivalry. I hope we’re doing our part to be unlikable by them, but the emotion kind of wears off once the ball’s kicked off. I think it’s, you know, you’re going to see guys hyped up in pregame, and probably not, you know, guys that don’t play hooping and hollering. You know, it’s usually the third string guys that had the loudest voice in pregame for some reason. But once the ball’s kicked off, you know, it’s kind of nameless, faceless at that point, and then when you look up four hours later, you take a deep breath and kind of realize what you did, Herman said. Final thoughts FAU will take on USF next Friday on November 1st in what will be a pivotal matchup for both squads as the Bulls have failed to meet expectations this season, sitting at 3-4, while FAU desperately needs a win to keep their path to a bowl game somewhat manageable. The Owls will need to use the final bye week of the season to get as healthy as possible and figure out which positions need potential changes heading into a week where the Owls have to execute on game day and cant be mistake prone. The Owls winning 4 games over the final weeks is not out of the cards, however as Herman mentioned they can easily lose games over this stretch, that is why it is paramount for the necessary adjustments to be made over the final bye week to give them the best possible shot at a bowl game.
