The Owls are inching closer to Game Day for the 2025 Season. The roster is retooled, and the staff is for all intents and purposes new. And Florida Atlantic’s Head Coach Zach Kittley will be making his official debut in game action when FAU takes the field versus the Maryland Terrapins at high noon inside SECU Stadium before what will be their 12th contest against BIG 10 opponents.
Coach Kittley will also usher in what will be the fastest overall offensive pace ever employed by a Florida Atlantic team. Looking ahead to Saturday’s action, Coach Kittley sat down this afternoon for his first official game week presser at Flagler Credit Union Stadium’s media room. Below is our compilation of the topics and questions he addressed.
On Finally Getting The Season Started
“Yeah, definitely ton of excitement. I mean, you’re right. I’m always going to say I want that (to get better) until that last walk through pregame, I’m going to keep wanting to get better so but no, our guys are excited. We’re ready to go. You know, clearly glad we’ve got a few days here still, but I think our eyes are set on the mission ahead.”
On What He Would Consider a Clean Game Besides a Win
“Protecting the football and offense, protecting the quarterback on offense, being able to establish the run enough to where we’re not one dimensional offensively, defensively, just getting the ball down, tackling really, really well, hopefully being able to cause some turnovers and put some pressure on their quarterback. And that doesn’t mean necessarily 10 sacks, but just putting pressure on him. On special teams, clearly making all of our kicks, clean on the punts, no blocks anything like that, and then just covering.”
On His Emotions Entering the First Game as a Head Coach
“I’m almost kind of getting emotional just talking about it…been waiting for this for a long time. Knew I wanted to do this at a young age. And, you know, it’s kind of funny, one of my mentors, who’s our chief of staff at Texas Tech with me the first time, Kenny Bell, he actually went to office one day and I was putting something on the hard drive for him, and he looked at my hard drive just said ‘future head coach’. I always think back to that moment…I’ve been working for this for a long time, but just extremely grateful for the opportunity.”
On What He Has Seen Scouting Maryland
“They’re going to have a lot of talent, you know, I definitely think in the defensive front, it’s going to be a real strength for them as far as schematics goes. But this is kind of, honestly in my career doing this, probably like the first week where I really have no clue what they’re going to run defensively…Coach Monachino their new defensive coordinator, hasn’t called plays since 2017 and that was in the NFL, and the NFL schematics are just so much different.”
“So as far as schematics goes, we’re planning for a little bit of everything, every front you can think – every coverage, every blitz package, we’re preparing for everything, but they’re going to be talented. They got some really good transfers in from some other schools that that we think could play, especially in the secondary.”
On the Importance of Establishing the Running Game Early
“That’s huge, we’re going to have to execute at an extremely high level. I have no doubt that one thing they probably went back and looked at from last year was ‘who did Texas Tech struggle with on offense’ they are going to pop on that Colorado game when they were giving us that five man box and we couldn’t run the football…and now you feel like you’ve been around the block…and you find some answers for stuff like that. I love our three headed monster we have at running back, and I think all three of those guys are going to have some touches, and then we’re going to ride the hot hand.”
On Who has Made the Biggest Jump from the Time He Got Here Until Now
“Mauricio Hines, young offensive tackle for us, he’s done a really, really good job. I think he’s got an extremely bright future here. I actually was just kind of bragging on him with some other people the last couple days, so really excited with him. He’s just going to be a redshirt freshman, and so you can see a big jump at the offensive line position, in particular, as a redshirt freshman into being a two-deep you’ve done something right.”