FAU Coach Tom Herman took to the podium on Tuesday afternoon to kickoff Shula Bowl week and give his thoughts on a variety of things, to the Owls recent struggles, to the impact of the FAU vs FIU Rivalry and more.
Herman was dejected on Saturday afternoon following the Owls drubbing at the hands of the Army and on Tuesday Herman was rejuvenated, ready to attack the offensive inconsistencies that have been plaguing the team and keep the tough performances in the past. Herman also believes this is a chance for his defense to get back to what they’re capable of doing against an FIU team who is much more balanced than what they faced against Army.
Despite the rough start to the season, Herman knows there is still time to right the ship, but that will start this week against FIU a game which has many impacts on and off the field, something Herman noted in his opening statement.
Quotes:
Herman opening statement on the Shula Bowl:
“Yeah, I think I’m pretty up to speed on the rivalry. I think I was when I showed up, and not just because of the on field stuff, but rivalries occur for a lot of different reasons, and proximity is usually one of them. And I’ve literally never had a rival that close that I would imagine they’re probably staying in their own team hotel and driving up the day of the game. That’s a luxury I haven’t had. I’m looking forward to it next year, for sure. But no, we see these guys in recruiting. We see them in everything that we do and so and they’re they’re right down the road. A lot of our players played against their players in high school. Probably a lot of our players were recruited by them as well, and vice versa. So it has all of the makings of a great rivalry. So it doesn’t surprise me that it’s as intensive as it is,” Herman said.
Statement on the impact of the Fans:
“Well, we have to do a good job of keeping them in the stands.14-7 at halftime, I think we were in the game. So that’s one, and then two, I want to thank them, obviously, for doing that. That was an uncomfortable day to sit and watch, certainly in the second half, what they watched, that was a bit of a struggle. So thank you to our students for going out there and weathering that. But I think probably the biggest thing is just spread the word, let your friends know, bring somebody with you, we get a lot of energy from our students, a lot and that walk into the stadium, through the student tailgate, as well as being out for pregame warmups and seeing the student section fill up, it is really, really motivating and then certainly the noise and pressure that they can provide on our opponent, hopefully, will be at an all time high,” Herman said.
Herman on positive takeaways from the Army loss:
“Ton of positives, and I think that’s probably what had me so down, maybe a little bit perplexed, Matt and myself for not seeing this coming somehow, some way. As you look back that is the frustrating thing is there’s so much good that happened, and even offensively, believe it or not, we have shown at our best that we’re pretty good. And it’s my job, our job, as coaches and leaders on the team, to make sure that we translate the good week of practice into performance on game day. This is the new college football, 50% of our roster is brand new, we’ve got nine out of 11 starters on offense that are brand new, and we draw a big 10 team on the road in front of 70,000 people, and an Army team that’s been together for years and years and years playing a bunch of juniors and seniors in the same system. That’s not an excuse, that’s why I was mad at myself, it’s my job to have us more prepared for the Army game, but having played that level of opponent in back to back weeks to start the season can do nothing but help us. We’re going to be better because of it, because we did do a lot of good things. There were a lot of bright spots in those two games, they just weren’t consistent enough and I think moving forward we’ve realized, we got smacked in the face with it, unfortunately, but hopefully, that side of the ball realizes the level of consistency that’s necessary, play after play after play,” Herman said.
Thoughts on CJ Heard’s performance:
“Yeah, he’s really good, I’ve been bragging on him since training camp, he came in like a grown man. I mean, he’s 18, going on 32 and he carries himself like a grown man. You would think he’s a fifth year senior, by the way he handles his business in terms of getting his body right on his own, getting the film work on his own, getting the individual work on his own. The guy eats, sleeps and breathes this game, and he’s really talented, and so you put those things together, and you got a true freshman out there that’s doing all the right things. There’s been 2 games so I don’t want to give him too much praise just yet, but I’m glad he’s here for sure,” Herman said.
Thoughts on what has led to the deep WR rotation:
“Heat, fatigue, at this stage in the season, the guys run as hard as they can oftentimes, you know, 30 40, 50 yards, when they’re in a dead sprint and then we go no huddle, and then they have to jump back to the line and go do it again, so that becomes tiring. La’Johntay Wester didn’t even play every snap, and so I hope we have six guys that we trust and we can rotate through there, because we’ll be better because of it. In the fourth quarter, those guys are running we’re talking 7000 yards a game, that’s a lot,” Herman said.
Injury update on EJ Horton:
“You know, full disclosure, he’s had surgery on his Turf Toe. We’re going to see if that’s going to keep him out for the rest of the season, or if there is a chance to come back, but it won’t be anytime soon,” Herman said.
How much Horton and Alexander’s injuries have impacted the offense’s ability to stretch the field:
“Enough for it to matter, you know, I think it’s a right way to say that. And you know, I don’t, I don’t know that there’s any game rep sleuths here, but we also didn’t play with two of our four scholarship tight ends for the first two games, Kalil Brantley coming back from being diagnosed with lupus, and Elijah Brown is now coming, finally, coming off of concussion. So, that’ll be nice coming back this week, to have those two guys, but to not have those two wide outs we felt it, but we’re adjusting. This is not an excuse, it’s reality, that East Lansing, Michigan, was the first time I’ve seen Cam Fancher get tackled, I wish I would have been able to teach him not to slide before that game, and so there’s, there’s so many things that we’re learning, and then the pieces change, BJ and EJ going down, now we have learn some different parts too, we’re not excusing the lack of pace that we’re getting to know, this crew certainly needs to speed up but it is a reality too,” Herman said.
Preparation against FIU:
“Well, we get to play normal fronts and coverages and not be bound by the uniqueness that the triple option presents, but so a little bit more like Michigan State, but probably more like our offense in terms of the tempo is going to be something that we have to be prepared for. The RPOs and the perimeter screens are something that we’re going to have to be prepared for, and then the quarterback legs, you know, it’s something we’re going to have to be prepared for, these weeks coming off a triple option, you better flip that switch pretty quickly in the week and get back to normalcy,” Herman said.
Thoughts on what has led to the struggles in the run game and how they plan to address it:
“Oh, boy, which play seriously it, it has been something, one I think as coaches, we can help with maybe some more gap schemes, some more pullers, so that maybe on days when the backs aren’t seeing it real well, that we could just pick somebody up and tell them to go run behind that guy, you know. And so there were times where we had them set up beautifully, and the running back misread it and kind of ran himself into a tackle, or everything looked great, and an o-lineman, missed or lost a block, or they had an extra hat, and the QB didn’t see it to throw the RPO, so to give you one answer, is not doing it justice. It just goes back to, it’s kind of who we are, a little bit, certainly on offense, we’re just inconsistent and it’s coach speak, it’s said over and over, but that is such a interdependent side of the ball, like there are probably, literally, I can’t count the number of plays where 10 guys migrate out as a plus and one guy misses assignment, misses a block, does a poor job, whatever it is, and the play is a negative play 0 yards, whatever it is, and it’s like, okay, so now you fix that guy, and it’s like, you run out of fingers to plug the dam. And so everybody up front has it in them, and we’ve seen it at its best. And so it’s just a level of consistency right now, doing it over and over and over again,” Herman said.
What Herman is looking at to improve the passing game:
“I don’t think it’s interwoven with the run game, but it is interwoven with four new starters on your offensive line. We’ve got to be smart with what we asked them to do, we’re not going to line up empty on first down and start throwing the ball all around and five man protections and say, Hey, go block that defensive end Daughtry for 70 snaps by yourself, that that’s not good coaching, but it makes the play action game that much more necessary, and by extension, the run game than needing to improve, because we’ve got to be able to take those shots on first and second down, or maybe we can keep a tight end or a second back in protection and suck everybody up and really just pop forward over their heads, so to speak. And because we can’t just stand back there and drop back and launch a go ball, we’re not going to have enough time, a lot of the time. So we’re getting better Upfront, you asked about the pass game, we’re making strides guys are improving every week, which is really, really cool to see. And then schematically, we’ve got to do a better job running the football so that those six and seven man protections that you get in play action pass can be more active features for us,” Herman said.
Herman on Fancher navigating the struggles as a leader:
“He’s got a hard job, because he’d be the first to tell you he hadn’t played to his level of expectation, either. So there’s a saying about glass houses, and people in them shouldn’t throw stones, and so Cam is focused, and rightfully so, on himself and the things that he needs to do to improve. But at the same time that you know there’s, there’s no doubt or any kind of disbelief or anything like that on anybody’s part. He’s doing a really good job of taking every step he can to make sure that his play improves on Saturdays, and I think that’s the best he can do right now in terms of leading, to continue to put that work in and continue to improve the game.”
Final Thoughts
Tom Herman trusts Cam Fancher to navigate through the tough start to the season and week 3 will be an opportunity for FAU to put everything together offensively, but as Herman mentioned execution will need to be 100% because even one mistake can ruin a whole play.
The defense will have a chance to return to normalcy following a heavy dose of rushes in week 2 and the Owls will be looking to return to the type of performance they had in the season opener, which is something they are more than capable of. This will be a crucial game early in year 2 of the Tom Herman era and look for the Owls to fine-tune their game plan over the next week to try to execute at the highest level possible